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 23-25.

Jeremiah’s prophecy against the prophets and other religious leaders of Judah is one which we should think about closely.  Are we following religious leaders who teach God’s words, or their own?  Jeremiah condemns the religious leaders as ungodly, wicked people.  All too many of the religious leaders today fit into the mold of those Jeremiah condemns: they commit adultery and love dishonesty.  All too many of them are willing to tell those who hate God’s words that God loves them and will not judge their actions.  The first part is true, but the second part is a lie.  Jeremiah warns us to be careful about listening to the prophets and other religious leaders who claim to speak for Him, but who have never listened to His voice.  Read the Bible for yourself and you will soon know who those are.  But discipline yourself to read the entire Bible, not just the parts that say the things you like to hear.  As I write this I want to say, don’t just read my commentary on what I have read, read it for yourself.  Look for the things I have missed, or gotten wrong.

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 16-18.

When people asked Jeremiah why God would do the things which Jeremiah prophesied against them, his answer was “because their ancestors had been unfaithful to God.”  However, that was not the whole of Jeremiah’s answer.  The rest of his answer was that they were even worse than their ancestors.  From time to time throughout the Old Testament we have examples of where people are asked to repent of sins committed by their ancestors, but in every such case, they must also repent of their own sins.  God only holds us to account for the sins of our ancestors when we continue those sins ourselves.  This reminds us that the biggest value in examining our ancestors sins is to determine if we are continuing in those sins.

My thoughts on this next bit are kind of muddled, so bear with me.  If we put our trust in our fellow man, we will be disappointed and will have no hope for the future.  But, if we instead put out trust in God, we will be like trees planted along a river bank, constantly renewed even in times of drought.  In either case, whether we put our trust in man or in God, we may get crushed.  However, if we have put our trust in God, He will have crushed us in order to build us back up better than we were.  Whereas when people crush us, they have no idea how we should truly be built back up and the results will be no better than what we were before.

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 10-12.

Jeremiah reminds us that the entire human race is foolish and has less knowledge than any of us believe about ourselves.  We worship things which we have made with our own hands, rather than worship the One how made everything.  We look to the stars to predict the future, despite knowing that what we see of the stars comes from long ago.  Our lives are not our own, so let us strive to follow the path which God has laid out for us.  Let us cry out to the Lord now for mercy, for Him to transform us, because He is bring His judgement and when that day arrives it will be too late.   Let us not be like the wicked to whom Jeremiah refers, who had God’s name on their lips, but whose hearts were far from Him.

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 7-9.

As I get older, I see more and more parallels between what the Old Testament prophets said to the people of their day and what is going on today.  Jeremiah told the people of Jerusalem that they must stop their evil thoughts and deeds, they must treat each other with justice, they must stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows, they must stop murdering, and they must stop harming themselves.  In each of these I see parallels today.  On the issue of justice, all too often I see people hear a story and demand punishment for the “perpetrator” before they hear all of the facts.  By the time the facts come out indicating that perhaps the “perpetrator” had done nothing wrong after all, they have moved on and are no longer paying attention.  On the issue of exploiting foreigners, all too often those who speak out against it end up as political allies of those who do the most exploiting.  Rather than demand that the laws be changed, they demand that they not be enforced.  And on the last one, when people call for individuals to stop harming themselves, they are shouted down as intolerant because those people should be allowed the freedom to do as they choose without being condemned.

Jeremiah goes on to tell how the people refuse to stand up for the truth.  Again what he writes reminds me of today, where you have to carefully evaluate every piece of information which you come across, not matter what the source.  People are more concerned with whether something supports their argument than with whether or not it is true.  You cannot trust your neighbor, not even your own brother.  We see it time and again, friends slander friends when it becomes advantageous to do so.  Let us separate ourselves from these sorts of actions and be sorry for the wrong we have done.  Let us humbly turn to the Lord and beg Him for forgiveness.  Let us not boast of our wisdom, riches, or power.  Instead, let us boast of God’s mercy to us.

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 4-6.

Years ago I heard a sermon preached around verse three of chapter four, “Plow up the hard ground of your hearts.”  I do not really remember what the preacher had to say, but I remember he emphasized, as Jeremiah does here, that we must give up our pride and power.  We must come before the Lord in humility.  His lesson applies even more today.  Look around at what is going on.  Our own actions have brought this on, we have failed to serve the Lord as we ought.  But even so, everyone is blaming someone else:
“They encouraged the rioters.” “They won’t wear masks.”  It is not someone else’s fault.  It is our fault.

We are standing with many roads ahead of us.  Jeremiah tells us that we should ask for the old, godly way and follow that path.  But how many people want to do that?  No, that way is “boring”, or, perhaps some of those who followed that path previously were flawed human beings.  We want to go a different way, a new way.  We can hear the sound of alarm from up ahead on those roads, but we do not turn back.  I like to believe that I am one of those sounding the alarms and heading for the old, godly path, but I fear I have allowed myself to be carried along with the crowd done the path to destruction.  I will pray to God that He shows me how I should go.

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.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 51-52.

Babylon was chosen by God to punish His people by conquering Jerusalem and destroying the Temple there.  Yet, here Jeremiah prophesied that God would punish Babylon and the Babylonians for what they had done to the people of Jerusalem.    So, let’s recap.  Jerusalem and the Temple was destroyed because of the sins of the Jewish people.  Babylon was God’s chosen tool for this task.  Nevertheless, God chose to punish Babylon for what they did to the people of Israel.  

As I read this I thought about the modern state of Israel.  There are many who condemn the modern state of Israel for what they perceive as the sins of its politicians and people.  I am not going to address the merits of those accusations today because it is not relevant to the point.  If the people of the modern state of Israel are guilty of the sins which their opponents accuse them of, God will punish them and the state of Israel will fall.  However, those who work to bring that about will pay a price, even if they are doing so because of the sins of the people of Israel.

However, as I started typing the last paragraph I realized there is a more general lesson.  One which all of us should heed.  Those who repeatedly sin will suffer God’s punishment for their sins (especially the sins of oppressing the weak and powerless).  However, when that punishment is delivered by their fellow human, the one delivering the punishment may be sinning by doing so.  We are all sinners and avoid God’s terrible punishment only by His grace.  It is not our place to decide who should receive God’s punishment and who should receive His grace.  Let us leave that to God.  Our place is to demonstrate God’s love.  That we should not leave to God.

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 49-50.

Today’s passage contains some of Jeremiah’s prophecies against the nations surrounding Judah.  These prophecies condemn them for their idolatry.  My first thought as I read Jeremiah’s prophecy against Ammon was of the Muslim Arabs living in lands which Jeremiah would have considered part of Israel’s land.  God promised the destruction of Ammon for its idolatry, but also promised to restore its people after a time.  I am really hesitant to apply Old Testament prophecies to the modern world because I have seen so many people read their own understanding of the world back into these prophecies and then use them to support their own bias.  We should instead seek to discover God’s message for us in these passages.  Which leads me to the following point: these prophecies have one common thread.  All of the nations Jeremiah prophecies against held enmity towards God’s chosen people.

When Jeremiah speaks of the fall of Edom, he tells us that in the midst of the death and destruction God will protect the orphans and the widows.  This reflects a theme which comes up again and again in the Old Testament.  God comes to the defense of the powerless when the powerful abuse them.  We should take two things away from this.  If we use whatever power we have to take advantage of the powerless we make ourselves God’s enemies.  When we help those in need, we act on God’s behalf.