Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 16-18.

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Today’s passage begins with God giving Jeremiah a prophecy which essentially says that it is too late for the people of Jerusalem to turn back to God.  It is similar to  the prophecy given to King Josiah after the Book of the Law was read to him (which would likely have been not very long before this passage was revealed to Jeremiah).  Throughout Jeremiah’s prophecies God repeatedly tells the people of Jerusalem and Judah that the disaster is coming and it is too late for them to avert it, or at least, that is what He seems to be saying with a surface reading.  Yet, while telling Jeremiah that disaster will not be averted, God also tells Jeremiah to preach to the people that, if they change their ways and do as God commands, He will withhold His wrath and bless them.  Jeremiah illustrates God’s message by going to the potter’s house and pointing out how the potter may stop while shaping a vessel and completely rework the clay into something different than he originally intended.  In the same way, if God sends prophecies of destruction to a group of people who have been doing evil and those people turn from their evil, God will change His plans and withhold the destruction of which He had warned.  On the other hand, if God sent prophecies of blessing to a group of people and they turn from their good ways to do evil, He will withdraw those blessings and send destruction.  God sent the prophecies of unavoidable destruction to Jeremiah because He knew the people would not change their ways, but He was still offering them the opportunity to do so.

I look around the world and see many nations and many peoples on the road to destruction.  At the same time, I see glimmers of hope for some of them.  I count my nation among those to which I am referring.  There is still time for us to change the road we are on.  Will we?  Will you? Will I?  Turn to God and do His will.

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