Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 13-15.

God gives Jeremiah a prophecy that the people of Jerusalem and Judah have become worthless to Him because they have not listened to Him and have instead chosen to serve and worship gods who call them to practices contrary to His.  Rather than acting to bring honor and renown to God, they have brought contempt to His name.  A little further on, God tells Jeremiah not to pray for this people because they will not listen to His voice.  Jeremiah responds that the problem is that the prophets keep telling them that God will give them lasting peace, despite the sins they keep committing.  God tells Jeremiah that He will bring a special level of destruction upon those prophets, but the people who listen to them will still pay the price of their sin.  In all of this, the essence of the prophecy seems to be that it is too late for the people to avoid the death and destruction which God was bringing upon them.  I feel there is an element of this prophecy which applies today.  When I look at society around us I sometimes wonder if we are in a time more similar to that of Isaiah, where God says that time is running out for society to turn from its despicable sins, or a time more similar to that of Jeremiah, where God says that time has run out and He is going to bring death and destruction to society.

Having said that, the prophecy from Jeremiah in today’s passage contains an interesting follow up.  After telling Jeremiah that he was not to pray for the people because God had determined to bring death and destruction upon them no matter what they did going forward, God tells Jeremiah “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me.”  Now the easy explanation is that the first prophecy in today’s passage applies to the people around Jeremiah and this second prophecy applies to Jeremiah.  However, I think the first prophecy applies to the society around Jeremiah, not specifically to any of the people.  While the second prophecy here applies individually to any of the people around Jeremiah.  The society is doomed.  The majority of the people are going to experience death and destruction, but those who repent and utter God’s worthy words, will be restored to serve God.  In part, this second prophecy did apply to Jeremiah, but it applies to each of us.  We must repent and speak God’s worthy words, not the worthless words of the prophets to whom the people around us listen.  We must seek to get the people to turn to us, but not allow ourselves to be turned to them.  If we speak God’s worthy words, when the people turn to us, they will be turning to God.  However, if we turn to them, we will be turning away from God.  If we follow these instructions, God will save us from the hands of the wicked.

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