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.

    Jeremiah predicted the fall of Babylon before that nation had even reached its peak. I read this passage as saying that Babylon’s fall was built into her rise. While God used Babylon to punish the people of Israel, the people of Babylon sinned in the abuse they heaped upon them. Babylon rose to power because of the corruption of the nations surrounding her. But Babylon was no less corrupt and evil than these other nations. In the middle of Jeremiah’s prophecy of the fall of Babylon he compares the futility of idol worship to worshiping God. The fall of Babylon resulted from the fact that the people of Babylon worshiped what they had created instead of the One who had created them. Any society which puts greater importance on what its people have created than on God will suffer the same fate. I see people who do this all around me. It seems to be a human tendency.
    I had mentioned in a previous blog that Jeremiah’s prophecies against Jerusalem could be taken as treasonous. Today we see that he made similar prophecies against the nation which he said would bring about Jerusalem’s fall.

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 lands other than Judah. Reading these prophecies leads me to conclude that to a large degree Jeremiah saw the way things were going in the world. He recognized that the peoples of the surrounding lands would, just as the people of Judah did, think that they could stand up to Babylon when, in fact, they could not. He recognized that the various peoples would resist the Babylonian domination until Babylon exercised its power and destroyed them. However, he also recognized that Babylon would be so tyrannical in its rule that when another power rose Babylon would be utterly destroyed. While it seems to me that Jeremiah was an unusually astute interpreter of the times in which he lived, he also received insight about what was to come from 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 45-48.

    The passage starts with the message which God gave Jeremiah for his scribe, Baruch. Baruch faced many troubles because of the assistance which he gave Jeremiah. Baruch apparently had ambitions of rising to great prominence. Jeremiah warned him that such was not to be for him. Baruch apparently hoped that the troubles he experienced, and the persecution he faced, as Jeremiah’s assistant would lead to opportunities for himself. Jeremiah told Baruch that considering the terrible times in which he lived he should be content to not die a premature death due to war, famine, or disease. In fact, through Jeremiah, God promised such to Baruch. Not everyone who suffers in service to the Lord attains great things in this world. And yet, while Baruch never gained the prominence in his life which he desired, his name is known today. Many of his contemporaries who were considered of greater merit have been forgotten.

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 42-44.

    Today’s passage gives us a warning about seeking God’s guidance as a rubber stamp of what we want to do anyway. After the murder of the governor appointed by Nebuchadnezzar the people were afraid of what the Babylonians would do to them. They had decided to take refuge in Egypt, but they were having cold feet. So, they asked Jeremiah to pray to God to show them what to do. Their decision was already built into their question, “Pray that the Lord your God will show us what to do and where to go.” They had already decided that they needed to flee. Their only question was whether they should flee to Egypt, or somewhere else. Of course, since Nebuchadnezzar already controlled all of the lands between them and anywhere other than Egypt, Egypt was their only choice if they fled. We need to turn to God for guidance BEFORE we have made up our minds about what to do.

    Once the people got to Egypt, they took up making offerings and worshiping idols. In particular, they offered sacrifices to the “Queen of Heaven”. The people responded by claiming that the troubles which came upon them in Jerusalem was a result of them giving up idol worship, not of the idol worship itself. All too often we do this sort of thing. Something convicts us of our sin causing us to attempt to give it up and live righteously. However, we fail to truly give up the sin. Then when we begin to suffer the consequences, we blame giving up the sin rather than the sin itself for our suffering.
    I want to touch a little more on the fact that the women were worshiping the Queen of Heaven. I think it is telling that they did not refer to this goddess by a name. Earlier in Jewish history they often worshiped Asherah, and sometimes Ashtoreth. Asherah and Ashtoreth were different goddesses. However, I think it likely that the “Queen of Heaven” referenced here is an amalgamation of the two. We see a similar amalgamation of various female gods in modern paganism. Actually, we see a similar amalgamation of various gods in modern paganism. I am not quite sure to make of the fact that we see this happen again and again, but one thing to note is that the writer of Ecclesiastes was wright in saying that there is nothing new under the sun.

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 39-41.

    After the fall of Jerusalem, King Nebuchadnezzar gave specific instructions to find and look after Jeremiah. We do not know how King Nebuchadnezzar became aware of Jeremiah, but his actions instructions regarding Jeremiah lent support to those who had thought that Jeremiah was a traitor. Of course, based on what we know, it seems unlikely that Jeremiah had any impact on the outcome of Babylon’s war against Jerusalem. I do not believe that Jeremiah was a Babylonian agent, but I can understand why some would argue that he was. When people today accuse others of being traitors to our country, we need to bear in mind those who did the same about Jeremiah. Of course, as Christians we also need to remember that our first loyalty is in the Kingdom of God, not whatever earthly nation we live in. Which means that we may need to take actions which will get us accused of treason.

    After destroying Jerusalem, King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah governor over the province. The various leaders of guerilla war bands which had been harassing the Babylonian army met with him to see how they would be treated. Gedeliah assured them that the Babylonians would allow them to live in peace as long as they served the king of Babylon going forward. Many of the Jewish refugees who had fled the war returned and began settling back into the land. The key thing we learn in this lesson is that Gedeliah was naive. When he was warned that one of the former guerilla leaders was planning to kill him, he refused to believe it. The man who killed Gedaliah was a member of the royal family of Judah (I assume this means that he was a descendant of David). While I will not fault Gedaliah for not forbidding Johanan from killing Ishmael, he should have taken precautions against the information he was given being true.

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 36-38.

    The account of the scroll which Jeremiah dictated of all of his prophecies and the reactions of various officials gives us an insight into the politics of Jerusalem in the final years before the Babylonian Captivity. When Baruch read the scroll at the Temple, some of the officials heard about it and had him brought to them to hear what was written on it. It seems to me that these officials were horrified both by what the messages said and by the fact that the common people had heard them. They appear to have felt that the king should take heed of these prophecies. They clearly were sympathetic and supportive of Jeremiah because they told Baruch that he and Jeremiah should hide before they told the king. Unlike the officials who first heard Jeremiah’s words, the king and his courtiers were unmoved by Jeremiah’s prophecies. The king in question here is Jehoiakim. It is interesting to contrast his attitude towards Jeremiah with that of his brother, Zedekiah.

    King Zedekiah had an interesting relationship with Jeremiah, one which tells us that he was a weak king. Certain of King Zedekiah’s officials wanted Jeremiah executed ofr his prophecies about the fall and destruction of Jerusalem. They went to King Zedekiah and demanded Jeremiah’s death. What I find interesting is that King Zedekiah did not order Jeremiah’s execution, nor did he order the officials to leave Jeremiah alone. King Zedekiah granted them permission to do as they pleased with Jeremiah, but only in so far as he did not order them not to do it, “I can’t stop you.” The interesting thing is that rather than outright kill Jeremiah, those officials put him in a dry cistern to starve to death. A short time later, another official came to King Zedekiah and told him that what they had done was evil. This time, King Zedekiah gave that official 30 of his men and sent him to rescue Jeremiah.
    Some time after this, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and asked him what he should do. Jeremiah told the king that he should surrender to King Nebuchadnezzar. King Zedekiah replied that he was afraid the King Nebuchadnezzar would turn him over to the Jews who had already gone over to Nebuchadnezzar if he did that. This really tells us a lot about King Zedekiah’s failure as king. He wanted to be godly as his father King Josiah had been, but he was not willing to take any risks to serve God. As a result, he ended up suffering as much or more than what he feared would happen if he had done what was right. We need to learn not to follow his example. King Zedekiah did not do God’s will because he was afraid of what would happen to him if he did. as a result he experienced suffering at least as great as that which he attempted to avoid.