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.

One of the things which is revealed in today’s passage is that there was a faction of government officials who were seeking to get the government of Jerusalem to rule more justly and righteously.  When Jeremiah had Baruch write all of his prophecies on a scroll and read them at the Temple, they attempted to use this to convince King Jehoiakim to make changes.  The passage does not say so explicitly, but the King and his attendants appear to have taken pleasure out of the making that faction uncomfortable by destroying the scroll (reading between the lines I see them also getting pleasure out of rubbing the righteous officials faces in the sins they committed).  We see similar things today where some people take pleasure in blatantly sinning in front of those calling them to repentance.  Later, we see the same divide when Zedekiah was king.  I believe that King Zedekiah wanted to act righteously, but was more afraid of men than of God.  He was too afraid of the corrupt officials in his government to do as God commanded.  Let us not fall into that trap.  We must be willing to stand up for what God says, no matter what opposition we will face.

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 33-35.

During much of the time when Jeremiah prophesied, the land of Judah (and the rest of Israel) was a war ravaged land; It was desolate and barren.  Even the Recabites, a clan of the Israelites which had maintained a nomadic lifestyle, had moved into the city of Jerusalem.  Yet, Jeremiah prophesies that God will restore Jerusalem and the entire land of Israel.  The day will come when the people of Israel in the land of Israel will bring glory to God’s name.  When I look at the world of today, with the new agreement which Israel has reached with the United Arab Emirates, I wonder if perhaps God is about to fulfill this prophecy.  Certainly, there are still ways in which the people of the modern nation of Israel anger God, but that does not mean that God’s Spirit is not working to bring this prophecy to fulfillment. (Of course, there is a part of me which suspects that this prophecy figuratively applies to the Christian Church).

I intended to write about Jeremiah’s interaction with the Recabites and their faithfulness, but the more I thought, trying to put together my thoughts in order to write, the more I thought the account of the elites of Jerusalem freeing, then re-enslaving, their slaves seemed to speak to today.  The elites of  Jerusalem acknowledged that the way that they treated their Hebrew slaves was sinful and entered into a binding covenant to free them.  However, as soon as the public attention had turned to other things, they re-enslaved their recently freed slaves.  This reminds me of the ways in which many of the elites of today act.  They publicly acknowledge that the way in which they treat the poor and powerless is wrong and vow to make changes (although, they rarely admit that they themselves have done this wrong), yet as soon as the public attention is turned to other things, they change the rules in ways that allow them to resume their former practices.  God is not fooled, and eventually even the most gullible person catches on as well.

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 31-32.

Jeremiah tells us that God will make a new covenant with Israel because the people of Israel had demonstrated that humans were not capable of following God’s original covenant.  So, God promised through Jeremiah to create a new covenant, one which I believe was created by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Under the new covenant, God put His Spirit within us to give us God’s instructions and write them upon our hearts.  I believe that under this new covenant we do not need teachers in order to learn what God wants us to do.  Nevertheless, God has provided us with teachers to help us master His will.  A key part of what Jeremiah says here about not needing teachers is that there are no secrets which only the “select” can know: all of God’s truth is freely available to all who wish to know.

On another lesson of importance for us, despite prophesying the fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah also prophesied its restoration.  But Jeremiah did not just say that these future good things would happen, he acted upon them.  When given the opportunity, Jeremiah bought land outside of the city.  However, he made it clear that he did not expect to make any gain from it in the short-term by putting the deed in a clay jar to preserve it for a long time.  Jeremiah had faith that the deed would someday be worth something and acted on that faith.

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 once again warns against prophets who lie in God’s name, prophets who claim to be speaking words from God but have not received any words from God.  Jeremiah points out that most prophets have a message of warning concerning war, disaster, and/or disease.  Any prophet who predicts peace and good fortune must be viewed skeptically until their prophecies come true.  God will punish those who prophecy lies in His name.  Those who use God’s name to serve their own interests will not escape God’s judgment.

Jeremiah’s message to the Exiles in Babylon carries meaning to me as a Christian in the world but not of the world.  The Exiles were in Babylon, but they were not of Babylon.  Nevertheless, Jeremiah told them to pray for the welfare of the city where they lived in exile, because their welfare was tied to the welfare of that city.  In the same manner, we should pray for the welfare of the city and country where we dwell, because our welfare is tied to the welfare of where we live.  Further, God has plans for us, just as He did for the Exiles.  Those plans are for good and not for disaster.

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.

If God would destroy Shiloh, where His Tabernacle had been, and later destroy Jerusalem, where His Temple was built, because they would not listen to Him and the prophets He sent, then He will destroy this country if people continue to refuse to listen to Him and the messengers He sends.  It is kind of scary to feel compelled to carry God’s message to people when I read this passage, because Jeremiah faced serious threat, and other godly prophets were killed, for relaying God’s message which people did not want to hear.  However, I find it much scarier to refuse to speak God’s message.  God protected Jeremiah and kept him from the suffering that many of his contemporaries experienced.  And we know that those prophets who were killed for speaking God’s word have entered into God’s presence and live there with Him.  Pray for the people of this world that they may turn to God before their sin brings destruction down upon them.

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 23-25.

Jeremiah’s prophecy against the prophets and other religious leaders of Judah is one which we should think about closely.  Are we following religious leaders who teach God’s words, or their own?  Jeremiah condemns the religious leaders as ungodly, wicked people.  All too many of the religious leaders today fit into the mold of those Jeremiah condemns: they commit adultery and love dishonesty.  All too many of them are willing to tell those who hate God’s words that God loves them and will not judge their actions.  The first part is true, but the second part is a lie.  Jeremiah warns us to be careful about listening to the prophets and other religious leaders who claim to speak for Him, but who have never listened to His voice.  Read the Bible for yourself and you will soon know who those are.  But discipline yourself to read the entire Bible, not just the parts that say the things you like to hear.  As I write this I want to say, don’t just read my commentary on what I have read, read it for yourself.  Look for the things I have missed, or gotten wrong.

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.

When people asked Jeremiah why God would do the things which Jeremiah prophesied against them, his answer was “because their ancestors had been unfaithful to God.”  However, that was not the whole of Jeremiah’s answer.  The rest of his answer was that they were even worse than their ancestors.  From time to time throughout the Old Testament we have examples of where people are asked to repent of sins committed by their ancestors, but in every such case, they must also repent of their own sins.  God only holds us to account for the sins of our ancestors when we continue those sins ourselves.  This reminds us that the biggest value in examining our ancestors sins is to determine if we are continuing in those sins.

My thoughts on this next bit are kind of muddled, so bear with me.  If we put our trust in our fellow man, we will be disappointed and will have no hope for the future.  But, if we instead put out trust in God, we will be like trees planted along a river bank, constantly renewed even in times of drought.  In either case, whether we put our trust in man or in God, we may get crushed.  However, if we have put our trust in God, He will have crushed us in order to build us back up better than we were.  Whereas when people crush us, they have no idea how we should truly be built back up and the results will be no better than what we were before.

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 reminds us that the entire human race is foolish and has less knowledge than any of us believe about ourselves.  We worship things which we have made with our own hands, rather than worship the One how made everything.  We look to the stars to predict the future, despite knowing that what we see of the stars comes from long ago.  Our lives are not our own, so let us strive to follow the path which God has laid out for us.  Let us cry out to the Lord now for mercy, for Him to transform us, because He is bring His judgement and when that day arrives it will be too late.   Let us not be like the wicked to whom Jeremiah refers, who had God’s name on their lips, but whose hearts were far from Him.

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 get older, I see more and more parallels between what the Old Testament prophets said to the people of their day and what is going on today.  Jeremiah told the people of Jerusalem that they must stop their evil thoughts and deeds, they must treat each other with justice, they must stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows, they must stop murdering, and they must stop harming themselves.  In each of these I see parallels today.  On the issue of justice, all too often I see people hear a story and demand punishment for the “perpetrator” before they hear all of the facts.  By the time the facts come out indicating that perhaps the “perpetrator” had done nothing wrong after all, they have moved on and are no longer paying attention.  On the issue of exploiting foreigners, all too often those who speak out against it end up as political allies of those who do the most exploiting.  Rather than demand that the laws be changed, they demand that they not be enforced.  And on the last one, when people call for individuals to stop harming themselves, they are shouted down as intolerant because those people should be allowed the freedom to do as they choose without being condemned.

Jeremiah goes on to tell how the people refuse to stand up for the truth.  Again what he writes reminds me of today, where you have to carefully evaluate every piece of information which you come across, not matter what the source.  People are more concerned with whether something supports their argument than with whether or not it is true.  You cannot trust your neighbor, not even your own brother.  We see it time and again, friends slander friends when it becomes advantageous to do so.  Let us separate ourselves from these sorts of actions and be sorry for the wrong we have done.  Let us humbly turn to the Lord and beg Him for forgiveness.  Let us not boast of our wisdom, riches, or power.  Instead, let us boast of God’s mercy to us.