Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 45-48.

Today’s passage begins with Jeremiah prophesying to his assistant Baruch that he should not seek great things.  I think there is an important lesson for us there. We should limit our ambition to that which God sets before us.  Rather than seek great things for ourselves we should seek to serve God.  Then come the prophecies against Egypt, Philistia, and Moab.  In each case, at least part of the prophecy condemns them for the idols they worshiped.  The people of those lands put their trust in idols and now God was going to show them that those idols had no power to protect them.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 42-44.

I mentioned yesterday a couple of points which I would go into more detail on today.  At the end of yesterday’s passage, the people were already on their way to Egypt when they consulted Jeremiah.  Clearly, they had already decided that they were going to flee to Egypt.  Yet, they asked Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord what they should do and where they should go.  Despite having already made up their minds as to what they would do, they vowed to do whatever the Lord told them to do through Jeremiah.  They should have consulted God before they made up their minds.  Even so, when they consulted God, they should have accepted His direction instead of doing what they had already decided on.  We should seek God’s guidance before we make up our mind, and, if we receive guidance from God after deciding on a course of action, we should follow God’s guidance rather than continue with our plan.  Which brings me to the second point from yesterday.  The people sought Jeremiah’s guidance despite the things which might suggest that he was an agent of the Babylonians.  More importantly, when Jeremiah did not give them the answer they sought, they accused him of being incited by Baruch to lie to them.  They did not accuse Jeremiah of being an agent of Babylon, rather they suggested that Baruch, Jeremiah’s assistant, was.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 39-41.

I have some scattered thoughts about today’s passage.  Earlier in the Book of Jeremiah it recounted an incident where some officials arrested Jeremiah because they thought he was an agent of the Babylonians.  Today, when it recounts how the Babylonians treated Jeremiah, it almost seems as if they were rewarding him for the prophecies which he spoke before the fall of Jerusalem.   I may come back to this thought again tomorrow.  Another thing of interest is that when the Jews who had fled into the surrounding countries during the war returned, they had a bountiful harvest.  I was struck by the fact that Jeremiah had earlier prophesied that some of the Jews would flee to Egypt and suffer a terrible fate there.  This prophecy was apparently fulfilled as a result of the assassination of Gedaliah, the man whom the Babylonians had appointed as governor.  I will note that immediately after overtaking Ishmael and freeing those he had taken prisoner, they began to flee to Egypt.  This also becomes relevant to tomorrow’s passage.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 36-38.

When God had Jeremiah write down all of the prophecies which He had given him, He repeated something He had said to Jeremiah previously, “Perhaps… they will each turn from their wicked ways; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin.”  Jeremiah had previously prophesied God making the same call, for each person to turn from their sin and back to serving Him.  This is something we need to recognize, God does not call societies to change.  He calls for individuals to change.    The problem in Judah, and Israel before it, was those that heard the prophets thought that they needed better rulers who would change the laws, or, perhaps, better enforce the existing laws.  But what they needed, what we need, is for each person to turn from their wicked ways.  If you look around at our society and see God’s judgement coming for your nation (for our nation, if you live in the U.S. as I do), examine your life and turn from your wicked ways.  Then, turn to your friends and neighbors and call them to turn to God.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 33-35.

There are two stories told in today’s passage.  The first is the account of how the wealthy of Jerusalem, at the command of King Zedekiah, agreed to free their Hebrew slaves and to not enslave any of the Hebrew people going forward, only to go back on that agreement after a short time.  They re-enslaved those they had freed as soon as the public attention went on to something else.  The other story is the story of the Rekabites.  The Rekabites had been ordered by their ancestor, Jehonadab, to never drink wine and to remain nomadic.  Jehonadab had allied with Jehu, the king of Israel who overthrew the House of Ahab, in eliminating Baal worship in the Northern Kingdom.  The Rekabites remained faithful to their ancestors command for generations, but the elites of Jerusalem were not able to remain faithful to their own oath to God for more than a short time.  The context implies that in addition to being faithful to the commands of Jehonadab, the Rekabites were faithful to God.  So, whose example will we follow?  That of the Rekabites, or the wealthy rulers of Jerusalem?

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 31-32.

I’m going to write about today’s passage in no particular order relative to where the thought fits into the passage because what I am thinking as I read today feels that way.  God tells Jeremiah that He is going to make a new covenant with the people.  This covenant will not require someone to intercede between us and God because God will make Himself known to us and write His commands on our hearts and in our minds.  If we desire to do God’s will, He will make it known to us.  God will make so that the blind, the lame, women in labor, and expectant mothers will be able to follow the path which leads to Him.  I want to note that this is not written because these people are in some deficient in obeying God.  Rather, Jeremiah is using a metaphor of a path (for us today we can imagine it as a hiking path in a park), something which those mentioned would struggle to to follow unless someone made it easy for them.  God has made it so that whatever our “disability” is we can follow the path He has laid out for us.  I want to note that each and every one of us has a “disability” of one sort or another when it comes to doing God’s will, but if we truly desire to do God’s will He will make it so that we do not stumble.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 28-30.

Today’s passage makes two separate points, but they are tied to each other.  First, Jeremiah condemns those who soft-pedal God’s judgement.  There are consequences to violating God’s commands.  Sometimes we have committed certain sins for so long that we cannot avoid the consequences of those sins, even if we repent, turn away from those sins and begin obeying God.  In this passage, the people of God had sinned so long that they were going to subject to being ruled by the Babylonians.  However, some of those who claimed to be prophets were telling them that they could throw off the yoke of the Babylonians and be independent.  In fact, they were telling the people that God was calling them to resist the Babylonians, even those who had already been carried off into captivity in Babylon.  Jeremiah says that those who prophesy good things, such as peace and prosperity, in the name of God have a higher “burden of proof” than those who prophesy disaster because God more often sends prophets to warn us of the coming consequences if we continue to sin.  Then we come to the other point which Jeremiah makes.  This point is one which we today often find easier to comprehend.  Jeremiah told those already exiled to Babylon to live their lives there, not to live as if they would be returning to Jerusalem or Judah momentarily.  This applies to us today.  We should not live our lives as if we need to take no thought to the future because Jesus will return presently.  Even though we live our lives as citizens of the Kingdom of God, we should seek the peace and prosperity of the society in which we live.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 26-27.

The prophecy recorded here in chapter 26 is an interesting one.  Jeremiah prophesied in the temple to those who came to the temple to worship the Lord and to the priests and prophets who led that worship.  He told them that if they did not turn from their evil ways and begin following God’s commands, God would destroy Jerusalem and the temple.  The response of these religious people, who thought they were worshiping God, was to try and have Jeremiah killed.  Jeremiah was not prophesying to the political elites or the general populace, rather he was prophesying to the equivalent of the people in Church every Sunday, and every other day there is a service.  Additionally, it was the people who were “too busy to go to Church” who prevented Jeremiah from being killed.  Additionally, when God sent Jeremiah to make this prophecy, He told Jeremiah that perhaps each of them would listen to Jeremiah’s message and change their ways.  Jeremiah’s message about turning from evil was not directed to “the Church”, not even to “the people”, let along to “Society”.  Jeremiah’s message was directed to individuals.  So, if you read the Book of Jeremiah and see our society going in the same direction as led to God passing judgement on Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s day, as I do, Jeremiah’s message is not directed to our society, it is directed to you, it is directed to me.  Let us examine our lives for where we are failing to live as God desires us to live.  Then, let us change ourselves to conform to His will.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 23-25.

The passage begins with Jeremiah prophesying God’s anger at the leaders of His people for dividing and scattering them, rather than uniting them and bringing them together as God appointed them to do.  He goes on to specifically call out the religious leaders for being godless.  Then God gets even more particular, accusing the prophets of prophesying in the name of Baal, and committing adultery while living a lie.  Rather than call out the sins of evildoers, they encourage them to continue in their wickedness.  As I read this, I thought about many who claim to speak on behalf of God, while rejecting Scripture.  There are even “pastors” today who call themselves “Christian” yet admit to not believing in God.  There are also those who argue that Scripture does not say what it clearly does say.  God warns us against listening to what such false prophets have to say.  Jeremiah warns us to be skeptical of those who say, “This is a message from the Lord.”  Jeremiah tells us we should not make such claims because for too many, when they say, “This is a message from the Lord,” they are speaking a message from themselves, a message which furthers their own ends rather than brings people back to God.  Let us not boldly proclaim that God has spoken to us.  Instead, let us humbly ask others to seek God’s guidance as to whether the message we think we have heard is from Him.  Let us humbly search Scripture to see what God says to us through it.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 19-22.

Today’s passage begins with Jeremiah prophesying that God would destroy Jerusalem because they sacrificed their children to Baal, something which did not even mention, let alone command.  As I read that I realize that those listening to Jeremiah would have heard Baal as similar to the way we hear the word Allah.  Allah can be used by Arab speakers to refer to God, but most who use that term are referring to a different god (although they claim they are worshiping the God of Abraham).  In the same way, Baal worshipers seem to have claimed to be worshiping the God of Israel by other practices.  Jeremiah points out the lie in their claim, because the God of Israel rejected the sacrifice of children.  I want to return to God’s absolute condemnation of a society which sacrifices its children.  There are many in this country who refer to abortion as a sacrament.  God’s anger is building against them.  Jeremiah continues his prophecy against Jerusalem by saying that God will defile the houses in Jerusalem where they burned incense on the roofs to the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.  So, God’s anger was not just against those who sacrificed their children, not even just those who took part in those practices.  As we read the rest of this passage we can see more of what led to God’s anger against Jerusalem.  Jeremiah told the rulers of Jerusalem and Judah to do what was right and just, to rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who had been robbed, and to do no wrong against the foreigner, the widow, or the orphan.  Do we support our government when it commits injustices?  I want to note that we often read “oppressor” and think of powerful people, but in the context here it seems that oppressor also refers to thugs who make people afraid to go out at night.  Oppressor here refers to both the powerful who use their wealth and power to impose their will on those less powerful and on the criminals who take advantage of the failure of government to prey on those weaker than themselves.  If we want to avoid the judgement of God upon our nation we must seek to do what is just and right, we must be content with enough and not seek ever greater wealth (mentioned by Jeremiah during his prophecy against the kings of Judah).

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