Year 2, Week 11, Day 3 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 11, Day 3

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Jeremiah 6-7.

Today’s reading continues the first segment of the Book of Jeremiah. As Jeremiah’s ministry to Judah unfolds, Jeremiah 6 sounds an alarm of impending destruction: “Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem, for disaster looms out of the north, and great destruction” (Jeremiah 6:1-2). Jeremiah’s urgent alarm comes to Judah as they were being assured by false prophets that they had nothing to worry about: “For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:13-14). Jeremiah 7 continues along the same lines of urgent danger but he particularly addresses the false confidence that Judah possesses: “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 7:8-11).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is the attention given to the message that the people of Judah listened to. They listened but not to the LORD: “To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it” (Jeremiah 6:10). Jeremiah laments the fact that even though he spoke words of warning to Judah: “Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I turn from you in disgust, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land” (Jeremiah 6:8); they would not listen for they have never listened to the LORD. The prophets, also called watchman, have been sounding the alarm, but Judah was clear about whether or not they would listen: “I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, We will not pay attention” (Jeremiah 6:17). And as a result refusing to listen to the LORD and His warnings, they would hear from the LORD in a different manner than words—they were hear the sounds of disaster: “Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it” (Jeremiah 6:19).

But while Judah did not listen to the LORD as He spoke through His true prophets, Judah was listening to other messengers. No matter how much Jeremiah pleaded, Judah would not listen to the old message established in God’s covenant with them: "Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it” (Jeremiah 6:16). Judah had found the new message more appealing to listen to, for the new messengers promised they would experience peace. These new messengers did not prick their consciences so they could remain as they are and no trouble will befall them. Jeremiah warns otherwise: “Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,” says the LORD” (Jeremiah 6:15).

The new message was by false messengers who were unlearned in the true ways of the LORD. Jeremiah confronts the deceit of the messengers as he warned those who listened to them: “Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD” (Jeremiah 7:4). While the new messengers proclaimed that as those who possessed the Temple, no evil would come upon them, regardless of how they lived. But Jeremiah’s message was that possessing the Temple required their repentance: “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever” (Jeremiah 7:5-7).  in harmony with Moses: “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you…The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand” (Deuteronomy 28:15,49).

Seeking to smash their false confidence concerning their safety, the LORD speaks firmly to Judah: “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you” (Jeremiah 7:27). Since they are not listening to Him, neither will he listen to them: “As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you” (Jeremiah 7:16).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe