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 28-30.

    Jeremiah tells us an important thing about prophecy in today’s passage. He tells us that God sends prophets to warn us about dangers to come, not to reassure us that all will be well. As a result we should always be skeptical of those who claim that God has told them that the future will not be as bad as it looks. God sends prophets to call us to repent, not to tell us that all is well.

    In a different, but related, message, Jeremiah wrote a letter to those already exiled to Babylon. He told them to settle into the place where they found themselves and live their lives. He warned them not to listen to or trust those prophets who were telling them that they would not be there for long. The prophets that Jeremiah warned against remind me of the preachers who tell us not to spend any time working for the future because Christ will return soon. My thoughts on this are based on something my father said on numerous occasions. My father said that we should live our lives as if Christ will return tomorrow, but plan for the future as if we will live for another 100 years. I believe that the message from Jeremiah is that we should not listen to anyone who tells us that we do not need to plan for the future.

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 26-27.

    Jeremiah prophesied that the Temple and all of Jerusalem would be destroyed if the people did not turn from their sins. Rather than support him the priests and prophets, the religious leaders, accused him of treason and demanded that he be put to death. I will be perfectly honest, as I read this I was a little confused as to who wanted to have Jeremiah killed and who defended him. However, it seems to me that those who wanted to be perceived as religious (the prophets, priests, and the people who were in the Temple at the time) were outraged that Jeremiah suggested that God had withdrawn His protection from Jerusalem. Some of the secular authorities intervened and saved Jeremiah from the mob. However, at the end of this portion of the passage, we are told that another prophet speaking the same message as Jeremiah (or, at least a very similar one) was killed on the orders of the king. The most important part of this passage, in my opinion, is the reminder that calling sinners to repentance can be dangerous, especially when those sinners perceive themselves to be righteous.

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 19-22.

    The passage begins by Jeremiah prophesying against Judah and Jerusalem to the religious and secular leaders of the people. He condemned them for sacrificing their children to their idols, just as the people of the United States sacrifice their children on the altar of abortion. This condemnation is for those who defend the practice as much or more as for those who actually practice it. Throughout history, if there has been a more vile sin than sacrificing one’s own children it is encouraging others to sacrifice theirs. No people who practice child sacrifice, and abortion in the U.S. is child sacrifice, will escape punishment (unless they repent of this evil practice).

    Jeremiah complains that he is mocked for speaking the words God gives him, that even his closest friends are seeking to use the words he speaks against him. However, when he vows to keep silent, God’s words burn in his heart. He is exhausted by the effort to not speak. Despite the fact that he is mocked, belittled, and attacked for speaking God’s word, Jeremiah is not afraid. He committed his life to God and knows that God will protect him. If we follow Jeremiah’s example, we can be sure of the same protection. God will stand at our side like a mighty warrior and cause our enemies to stumble.
    I am hesitant to say my next point because I am not Jeremiah. Nevertheless, I understand what he is talking about when he says that the words burn inside him when he tries to keep silent. From time to time, I say something which causes people to turn on me (often times because I have said something I should not have said, but not always). Then I promise myself that I will watch my tongue and avoid saying anything I know will offend someone. But before long I find myself unable to keep my silence any longer, and once more I start confronting those whose words seem foolish to me. Lately, when I have been tempted to keep silent I have read passages such as today’s which encourage me to speak up when I feel the need. I have, also, read passages which remind me to watch my tongue and only speak the words which God gives me to speak.

    Today’s passage ends with Jeremiah warning the leaders, and the people who supported them, that if they did not change their ways they would be conquered by the Babylonian army. He condemns them for their corruption, for oppressing the poor, and for killing the innocent. These same charges can be leveled against our political leaders today. If we want to avoid the fate which befell those to whom Jeremiah spoke we must follow the advice he gave them. That advice is that we should be fair-minded and just, help those who have been robbed, rescue the oppressed from their oppressor, do not mistreat foreigners, widows, or orphans. And stop murdering the innocent. Jeremiah emphasized that last and we must do the same. There are many among us who emphasize, at least by their words, the importance of the former while at the same time promoting abortion, which is the murder of the innocent.

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.

    I am not sure where I am going with this today. My thoughts are all a jumble. There are several places where I thought of starting to write, but there was no transition from there to the next thought. Then I came to Jeremiah warning us against trusting in people. It struck me that in this election season this summed up what has gone wrong: too many people put their trust in this or that politician. As a nation, we vote for someone and expect them to fix what is wrong. It does not work that way. Jeremiah tells us that trusting in humans, whether that is a politician, a preacher, a spouse, or ourselves will result in a stunted life with no real future. No, if we want things to change, if we want things to get better we need to trust in God. When God heals us we are truly healed, when He saves us we are truly saved.

    God is like a potter, molding us to His purpose. There are multiple layers to that metaphor in this passage. The first is that God will mold us to whatever purpose He desires. However, as the potter, God is free to change His mind about what type of vessel He is shaping us into. If He has decided to make us into a vessel intended to be used and destroyed because of our wickedness and we renounce our evil ways and begin to do good, He will freely change His mind and instead form us into a vessel of beauty to be admired and displayed. On the other hand if He had decided to make us into a vessel designed to be admired and displayed and we turn from doing good to doing evil, He will change His mind and shape us into a vessel to be used and destroyed. This is true of us as individuals and as nations (and every type of group in between).

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 13-15.

    Today’s passage starts with a metaphor which compares the people of God to a loincloth. Our purpose is to cling to God, to take pride in Him, not ourselves. If we allow our pride to lead us to think that we are the important ones, that pride separates us from God and acts like rot to destroy our usefulness. If we do not listen to God and allow ourselves to become like that rotted loincloth God will destroy us just as we would destroy such a rotted piece of clothing.

    I am struggling with how to word another thought (possibly two thoughts) which this passage generates in my mind. There will come a time when God will tell us to stop praying for those around us. Yet, in the middle of the passage where God is telling this to Jeremiah He also tells Him that He will protect those who return to Him. If we speak God’s words, those who rebel against Him will fight against us. But God will be our fortress and they will fail to conquer us. God calls us to influence those around us, but not be influenced by them. **I want to note that this assumes that those around us are in rebellion from God. It does not mean that we should not allow our fellow believers to influence us.** God will protect us and rescue us from the hands of the wicked.

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 points out the futility of relying on gods made by our fellow man (or by ourselves). We need not fear such gods, they can neither harm us nor help us. God is the only god we should fear, because only He has the power to bring us help or pass judgment upon us. Unlike all other gods, God was not made up in the mind of man. He created all that exists. Everything else that we might worship, idols, sports teams, material goods, nations, etc. are lies. They will not help us in times of trouble, nor will they bring us happiness.

    How have things gotten so bad? The leaders of the people no longer seek God’s wisdom, instead they believe that they can lead the people according to their own desires. Whether we are leaders or just common folk our lives are not our own. God has planned our lives out to serve His purposes. I know that I will not always act according to His plans and He will need to correct me. And I seek His correction, I just pray that He does so gently. However, if we do not respond to His gentle corrections He will use more strenuous means to compel us to His plan.

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 was reading the first thing that I saw which I wanted to comment on was chapter 7 verse 19:

“Am I the one they are hurting?” asks the Lord. “Most of all, they hurt themselves, to their own shame.”

We need to really pay attention to this. If we truly love someone we cannot look the other way when they sin, because they are hurting themselves by their sinning. As I was composing my thoughts, Facebook put up as a “memory” from 2013 my blog for that day, which I had titled “Sin Is Self Destructive Behavior”. I was using a different read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year schedule then, so that blog was on a completely different passage. We need to recognize that those who are sinning are unlikely to listen to our warnings, but we must warn them anyway.

    There are many people who think because they go to church, or do good things, they will avoid the harm that their sin produces. Such is not the case. No matter what else we do, our sin will have negative consequences for us. If we do not listen when God calls us to give up our sin, He will apply ever greater discipline to us. However, our sin does not just bring harm to ourselves. Our sins cause harm to others, either because we directly harm others, or because others are influenced by our bad behavior to sin themselves. Therefore, if we do not turn from our sin, from our self-destructive behavior, eventually God will destroy us.