Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 1-3.

Today I begin reading the Book of Jeremiah for this year.  I love some of what we learn about God and His call for us from His call to Jeremiah.  First God tells Jeremiah:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew^[a] you,
    before you were born I set you apart;”
From this we learn that God formed Jeremiah in the womb, and that He formed each and every one of us the same way.  But there is more to it than that.  Even before He formed our bodies God knew us.  However, I want you to take note of that little superscript “a” there by the word “knew”.  That indicates that there was a translators’ note associated with it.  The translators’ note says that the word “knew” could also be translated as “chose”.  So, even before we began to be formed in our mother’s womb, God knew us and chose us for His purpose in this world.  We have been set apart to serve God.  God goes on to tell Jeremiah that He has put His words in Jeremiah’s mouth.  If we allow Him, He will do the same with us.  As a final part of God’s calling of Jeremiah, He tells him get himself ready to stand up and tell the people what God will command him to say.  God made Jeremiah an iron pillar to stand up against the movers and shakers of his time, and against the people themselves.  Jeremiah did not need to be afraid even though both the powerful people and the mob of common people would fight against him, because God would be with him.  In the same way God is calling on us today to stand up and say the words which He puts in our mouths.  We need not be afraid because God will be with us and He will rescue us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 1-3.

When God called Jeremiah to be a prophet, Jeremiah felt that he did not know how to express himself well enough because of his youth.  He was afraid that he would say the wrong thing at the wrong time.  God told him not to be afraid, that He would put His words in his mouth.  You are neither too young, nor too old, to carry out the ministry to which God has called you.  He will give you the strength and knowledge to do as He commands.  Just like He did with Jeremiah, God chose you for His ministry before you were even conceived.

Which brings me to Jeremiah’s message.  Ultimately, all of our sins can be broken down to two sins.  First, we turn from God and refuse to follow commands which He has given us: commands which He gave in order for us to get what was best for us.  Second, we have made up our own rules for living; rules which we think will bring us happiness, but which will only drain happiness from us.  We actively look to anything but God to find inspiration for our rules.

As a note that is not really part of my Bible Study, Jeremiah 3:16 says that people will no longer talk about the ark of the covenant of the Lord.  They will not even think about it most of the time and another one will not be made.  That little note is worth noting because many people who try to track down the ark of the covenant theorize that it was hidden during Jeremiah’s lifetime.  However, this verse suggests that it was already gone at the beginning of his ministry.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 1-3.

When we read Jeremiah we tend to think of him prophesying to the people of Judah under the last few, wicked kings of Judah.  We overlook the fact that he began prophesying under King Josiah, who is recorded as having led a major revival in worship of God.  In fact,  Jeremiah begins to prophesy the year after King Josiah began his major reforms.  So, while King Josiah was busy having the altars to Baal and the Asherah poles throughout the land of Israel (including all of Israel, not just the portion which was the Kingdom of Judah), Jeremiah was prophesying against the people of Israel for worshiping idols and failing to worship God.  I believe that today’s passage is directed at those who embraced Josiah’s reforms without acknowledging their own sins; those who had happily worshiped Baal and other idols, in particular the gods of Assyria and Egypt, right up until King Josiah began his campaign to wipe out such worship, at which point they enthusiastically joined his campaign and became avid promoters of worshiping God.

Which brings me to another thing I noticed here: Jeremiah prophesied against relying on Assyria and Egypt.  I want to note the King Josiah died when he went out to prevent Pharaoh Necho from marching to support the Assyrian Empire in its battle against the Babylonians, who subsequently defeated the Assyrians.  It seems to me that perhaps Jeremiah was speaking out about the Assyrians and the Egyptians because there was a faction, a strong faction, in the court in Jerusalem which favored appeasing Assyria and Egypt, while King Josiah favored seeking to join the Babylonian alliance in its war against Assyria.  Jeremiah seems to be suggesting here that the faction which had previously backed being willing vassals of Assyria had now turned to being willing vassals of Egypt.  And that part of that vassalage was offering sacrifices to the gods of Egypt.

Finally, I want to point out that Jeremiah called the people of Judah, and all of Israel, to return to God and renounce their sins in genuine repentance.  His prophecy in today’s passage would have served to reinforce the revival which King Josiah was attempting to foster while rejecting those who embraced the revival for purely political reasons by taking up worship of God without truly rejecting idol worship.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 1-3.

Since I am going to be on vacation from July 31-August 9 I have already written my blog posts for these days and scheduled them to be posted.  However, I may not be able to post a link to them on FaceBook, Gab.com, or MeWe.com during every day (or any day) during this time period.  So, please continue to visit my site to read my daily devotional.

I recently started copying and pasting phrases from the passage into my drafts of these blogs as I came across things which struck me (sometimes I include them in the blog, sometimes I delete them after writing the thoughts they inspire).  Today I realized how much this helps me write this blog.  Jeremiah began his writings by discussing how he felt when God first called him, and God’s answers to his reservations.  There are lessons here for us today.  Jeremiah felt that he was too young and not a skilled enough speaker.  God’s answer to that applies to any who share that (and also to any who think they are too old).  You cannot be too young, nor too old to deliver the message God has given you. And you need not fear that you lack the skills to deliver God’s message: He will put the words in your mouth, or inspire you to the acts, that will communicate His message.  Do that which God calls you to do.

Which brings us to the message which God asked Jeremiah to deliver.  God had led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, through the wilderness, and into a prosperous land, but they did not seek to follow His commands.  Instead they went after the idols of the people whom God displaced to settle them there.  Worse, not even the priests, the religious leaders sought after God.  Rather than call the people back to obedience to God they encouraged them in their idolatry.  I want to be careful here, because the parallel I am about to draw is imperfect.  God has delivered the peoples of Western Civilization into prosperity, a prosperity which rose from their following His will to a limited degree.  For many centuries, the peoples of Western Civilization would from time to time compare their actions to God’s ideals and see places where they fell short, then seek to correct their failings.  However, in recent times they have rejected God and sought after other “gods’.  All too often, even those who claim to speak on behalf of God encourage people to reject His word and seek salvation from other quarters. People have forsaken the spring of living water which is Christ and built cisterns which cannot hold water.  They have rejected God as the basis for morality and sought to impose a morality based on their own desires.  One needs only to look at our cities to see where this leads.

Jeremiah goes on further to diagnose the sinfulness of people and their unfaithfulness to God, but he also includes a word of hope.  God promises that when the people cry out to Him and turn back to Him, He will welcome them back and cure them of their backsliding.  Let us pray for the day when people will cry out:

Yes, we will come to you,
    for you are the Lord our God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 1-3.

God chose Jeremiah for his ministry before he was born.  God has done the same for each and everyone of us.  For those who are young, the first message of this book is that you are not too young to speak the words which God gives you.  For all of us, God warns us not to let the fear of people stop us from speaking His word, not even of those today who will call you a homophobe, or a transphobe, perhaps even a racist, for speaking God’s word.   If you speak the message which God has given you, He will stand with you and those who seek to tear you down will fail.

The people of the United States are not the target of this prophecy, yet there are parts of it which apply.  However, elements of it apply to them.  A revival swept through the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s where many people came to know the Lord.  A second revival swept through the country in the 1790s.  One could easily see that the people of the fledgling United States were eager to serve God.  As a result of the people eagerly serving God, the people of the United States were blessed.  But rather than continuing to seek how to serve God, we, as a people, have chosen to pursue pleasure by putting our trust in things other than God.  And just as Jeremiah said to the people of Jerusalem, there are those who claim to be faithful to God while seeking to set up the government, or wealth, or something else, in God’s place.  As a result, God is angry with people and will continue to bring punishment upon them.  However, just as Jeremiah told the people of his day, all God asks of us is that we acknowledge our guilt, not the guilt of “institutions”, not the guilt of those who went before us. No, we must acknowledge our guilt.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.  I am going to be on vacation through August 10th.  I have prepared my daily Bible Studies for each day throughout that time in advance since I will have limited access to the Internet during this time.  The timing on when I publish these blogs may be erratic during this time.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 1-3.

Jeremiah’s prophecy today reminds me of the history of the United States.  I want to be clear that I do not view the United States as God’s new “Chosen People”.  I think that similar comparisons can be made of other people and nations.  Jeremiah begins by speaking about how the Israelites loved and worshiped God as He led them through the wilderness.  Yet soon began to stray to the worship of other gods.  In the United States, before there was a United States, there was a great revival.  However, it is not entirely accurate to call it a revival because few of the early settlers were particularly religious (there were some notable exceptions: the Puritans in Massachusetts, the Quakers and others in Pennsylvania, and a few other similar groups elsewhere, but before the “Great Awakening” most of those who lived in the Colonies had no use for God).  That all changed with the Great Awakening.  The Holy Spirit swept over the thirteen Colonies like a wild fire.  Then came the conflict between the British and French colonists and the war which followed.  Than, just as Jeremiah said of the Israelites, the settles did not ask, “Where is God?”, they asked, “Where is the government?” (in this case the British government)..  There were similar revivals where the people of the United States turned to God in large numbers, only to a few years later look elsewhere for solutions to their problems.

I want to point out that Jeremiah began to prophecy while Josiah was king.  Josiah was one of the kings of Judah who “did what was pleasing in God’s sight.”  So, just because you attend Church regularly and worship God, does not mean that you are not one of those whom Jeremiah would accuse of idolatry.  Where do YOU turn for solutions to the problems you see around you?  Are you lobbying the government? Or, are you seeking to do God’s will?