Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 51-52.

The first thing I want to write about is the end of chapter 51.  There it tells us that Jeremiah had written his prophecies against Babylon on a scroll which he sent to Babylon with Seriah, who went to Babylon with Zedekiah after the fall of Jerusalem.  There Seriah was to read the scroll aloud then tie a stone around it and throw it into the Euphrates River.  This makes this seem as a follow-on prophecy to the one which Jeremiah had sent to those who had been taken into exile earlier.  In that prophecy he told them to make themselves at home and seek the prosperity of the land in which they found themselves because they would be there for a long time.  Now, he tells them that they should not allow themselves to be completely assimilated, they should remain God’s people because in due time God was going to destroy Babylon.  We should keep this in mind today.  We should seek the prosperity of the society in which we live, which means seeking to draw them to the Lord.  However, we should not allow ourselves to lose our identity as the people of God, separate from the world around us.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 49-50.

When I think of the area ruled by the ancient Israelites, I think of the area of modern Israel plus Gaza and the West Bank territories.  Yet this passage makes clear that even in the time of Jeremiah, when the Kingdom of Judah was at its weakest, they still considered the land settled by Gad. Reuben, and half of the tribe of Manasseh to be part of the land of Israel.  That is basically the land east of the Jordan River which makes up the Jordan River valley and is now part of the nation of Jordan.  I’m not sure that has any significance today, but it reminds me that the land of Israel in the Old Testament was larger than I tend to think of it.  The last couple of days I have written about Jeremiah looking like an agent of Babylon because of the way he prophesied the downfall of Jerusalem.  However, today we see that Jeremiah also prophesied the downfall of other nations, including Babylon itself.  The reason that most of his prophesies were directed at Judah was because the people of Judah thought of themselves as the people of God.  In the same way, a prophet today will have more to say to those who consider themselves the people of God than to the society around us, but that does not mean that he will not have a message for society as well.

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

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.