Read with me day 5 -Priest & Prophets

Jeremiah 5
(go read, I'll wait)

So Israel has sinned and been called to repent.  They have been promised that they will be received if they return.  They have been warned that remaining in sin will be dangerous.  They are not returning.  The prophet searches all of Jerusalem for a single solitary righteous man.  He doesn't find one.  But the prophet is quick to point out that he was only looking at the common people.  So he looks to the rulers, the ones who were educated and should know better.  His disappointment deepens.  Finally he looks to the prophets and priests and discovers :

An astonishing and horrible thing
Has been committed in the land:
The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule by their own power;
And My people love to have it so.
But what will you do in the end?

Jeremiah 5:30&31 NKJV

The prophets, the people who should be speaking the truth of God, are making it up!  Saying what the people want to hear.  The priests aren't looking to the law of God for direction, but instead look to themselves for authority.  And the people eat it up.  Why?  People don't want to hear about their own sins.  Tell them about someone else's sin, and they love it.  They cheer for justice and fairness.  Until the spotlight turns on them.  It is better for prophets and priests not to speak of such things.  Many today don't want to either.  They'd rather speak of God's love and mercy.  Forgetting that if God has shown you mercy, than he MUST have turned away wrath.

Read with me Day 4 - Or Else

Jeremiah 4
(read away)

So in the last two chapters God has laid out the crimes of the people of Israel.  They turned from him looking for life from other things.  Then God begs His people to turn from their sins and return to Him.  The request is simple, acknowledge the sin and return to God.  It sounds so loving, so comfy.

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
    remove the foreskin of your hearts,
    O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
    and burn with none to quench it,
     because of the evil of your deeds.

Jeremiah 4:4 ESV

I'm sorry, what was that about wrath?  I thought God was about love, forgiveness, and salvation.  That's the rub right there:  salvation.  Salvation is only salvation if it is saving you from something.  God was trying to save Israel from the consequences of their sins.  Israel's turning from God has brought devastation down upon them. (See verse 18.)  God would save them from this doom, but they must return to Him.

Are you fleeing from God?  There are consequences to those choices.  Some are for a short time, some are eternal.  Some God would deliver you from, some He would deliver you through, and some He would use to make you grow.  Would you turn to Him?

Reading Day 3 - Jeremiah 3

Jeremiah 3
(Read it here.)

God escalates his charge against Israel & Judah*.  He compares the behavior of His people to a wife who leaves her husband to become a prostitute. Then comes the shocking stuff.  God doesn't dump out wrath on His people.  Instead he calls his people to return to Him.


Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,

“‘Return, faithless Israel,
declares the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
    for I am merciful,
declares the Lord;
I will not be angry forever.
Only acknowledge your guilt,
    that you rebelled against the Lord your God
and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree,
    and that you have not obeyed my voice,
declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 3:12-13 ESV

God is calling His wandering lover to come back home to Him.  There is no wrath, no punishment, no earning it.  There is only the open invitation to return. But you don't just walk back in the door and say, "Yo! What's up?"  God does ask one thing, "Only acknowledge your guilt."  Acknowledge the wrong you've done.  Admit that you strayed from God.  Admit that you've sought from other places that which you should have sought from God.  Then ask God to provide for you once more.

Have you strayed from the Lord?  Are you straying now?  Return and admit what you have done.  He will receive you with open arms.

There is such a deep picture painted of what straying from God looks like.  What part struck you?  Have you found another one that fits?



*For those who don't know: these were the two nations of the Jewish people. By this point, Israel had been destroyed by Assyria and its people had been carried off into captivity.

Read with me - Day 2

RIIIGHT! so I did say every day or two... this was more like three, but we can get some momentum going. On to:

Jeremiah 2
(read it here)

This is where God starts explaining to His people Israel what His complaint against them is.  I thought verse 13 summarized it well:

for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
    the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
    broken cisterns that can hold no water

Jeremiah 2:13 ESV

This charge I find to be true of those I know who reject God, and even myself in my own sins.  Sin at its core is the rejection of God as the source of life.  When you reject God as the source of life, you must try to find life from something else.  So we chase after these other things, trying to squeeze a little life from them. The things we choose vary.  Some follow money. Some chase thrills. Many enslave themselves to food. Some gorge themselves on sex. Others shroud themselves in fantasies. Inevitably, they all fail to give life. We discover that the life we sought flows out of them, much like water from a cracked bucket. These things never could give life at all.
This is every sin:  you reject the river to look for broken buckets.

So there is the warning:  Are you looking to the river for life or are you chasing after empty buckets?

That is what I saw.  How about you?

Read with me-Day 1 Jeremiah

Would you read the bible with me?  I would enjoy it if you would.

Every day (or two) we'll both read a chapter from the book of Jeremiah.  I'll post my thoughts, and maybe you'll share yours.

So let's begin

Jeremiah 1
So I started reading chapter 1 and the first thing that jumped out at me was a complaint from Jeremiah.  "I'm to young to talk to these people!" he whines.  Then we get an answer from God:


Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me,

“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see an almond branch.” Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”

Jeremiah 1:9-12 ESV

God puts His words into Jeremiah's mouth.  There is no power given, no promise of spectacular oratory, just the words of the message.  These words would do the work, and God would make sure of that.  His only job was to speak them.

Do you worry about what to say?  What people will think?  Will it do any good anyway?
Stop!  Those aren't you're worries.  God will watch over those things.  He will give you the words to speak. He will make them work.


That is what I saw.  What did you see?