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

It is worth noting that Jeremiah prophesied the fall of Babylon before Babylon had reached the peak of its power.  At the time, everyone thought that Babylon was a power which could not be challenged and would be never be held accountable.  Here Jeremiah tells us that God will hold them accountable for their sins, despite the fact that he had also prophesied that God was using them to punish other nations. In particular, God would hold them accountable for their mistreatment of the people of Israel.  Again, this was despite the fact that God had used them to punish the people of Israel for their sins.  One lesson of this passage is playing out on the world stage today.  In Afghanistan some people have learned that putting your trust in an earthly power will lead to heartbreak and suffering.  While the United States is not, at least, not yet, suffering the fate prophesied here for Babylon, those who put their trust in her, rather than in God, are paying the price for that.  There are other lessons in this passage which the current masters of Afghanistan should heed: those who inflict suffering on God’s people, even if God has mandated that suffering for His people, will themselves experience suffering in God’s time.  And one lesson for all those who think their power will last: God will bring down all earthly powers at the time of His choosing.

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.

Baruch acted as a scribe and assistant for Jeremiah and we learn here that he desired to accomplish great things.  It appears that around the time that he wrote down Jeremiah’s prophecies to read on the Temple he realized that he would never accomplish the great things of which he dreamed.  Jeremiah tells him that he should not be upset by this because God was about to destroy all of the accomplishments of great men.  Instead Jeremiah told Baruch that God would reward him for his service by allowing him to escape with his life when destruction arrived at each of the places to which he would go.  This prophecy to Baruch always seems slightly out of place to me.  While there is the message for us to be satisfied with the level of accomplishment to which God calls us, there always seems to be a little more to it than that.  It occurred to me today that its presence here may be related to another passage concerning Baruch which always seemed strange: in yesterday’s passage, the leaders of the Israelites after the death of Gedaliah accused Jeremiah of lying at the behest of Baruch when Jeremiah told them God had said for them not to go to Egypt.    I have never read anything that adequately explains why they thought Baruch would benefit from the people staying in Judah, nor why they would think that Jeremiah was influenced by Baruch.

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.

After the assassination of the governor appointed over Judah by the Babylonians, the people remaining in Judah were afraid that the Babylonian army would return to punish them for it. So, they decided to flee to Egypt.  However, first they went to Jeremiah to ask him to pray to God for guidance as to what they should do.  They phrased their request to Jeremiah as if they had not already decided what to do. The passage does not make clear why they requested God’s guidance, but the response which God gave through Jeremiah makes clear that neither God nor Jeremiah expected them to follow it.  In fact, the reply Jeremiah gave them from God seems to suggest that if they had gone to Egypt without asking for God’s guidance things would have gone better for them there.  I see two lessons for us here.  The more important one being: Ask God for guidance before you decide what to do, and then wait for His answer before deciding.  The second one being: do not ask God for guidance after you have already made up your mind as to what you are going to do.

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.

First, I want to point out that in this passage we have a confirmation of what I mentioned yesterday: God sends word through Jeremiah to Ebed-Melek, the man who rescued Jeremiah from the attempt to kill him, that he (Ebed-Melek) would be saved during the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem.  Then we see that Jeremiah’s prophecy to Zedekiah was also fulfilled.  Zedekiah was afraid to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar, despite Jeremiah’s assurances that God had promised no harm would come to him if he did so.  Instead, King Zedekiah held out until the end and was captured.  The Babylonians killed his sons in front of him, then put out his eyes.  There is an important lesson in the fate of Zedekiah.  He was too afraid to do as God instructed him, and as a result suffered an outcome at least as bad as the one he feared.  Let us not make the same mistake of refusing to do God’s will out of fear.

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