Daily Reading:
Jeremiah 5
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
The Depravity of Jerusalem
1 Roam through the streets of Jerusalem.
Look and take note;
search in her squares.
If you find one person,
any who acts justly,
who seeks to be faithful,
then I will forgive her.
2 When they say, “As the Lord lives,”
they are swearing falsely.
3 Lord, don’t Your eyes look for
faithfulness?
You have struck them, but they felt no
pain.
You finished them off,
but they refused to accept discipline.
They made their faces harder than rock,
and they refused to return.
4
Then I thought:
They are just the poor;
they have played the fool.
For they don’t understand the way of the
Lord,
the justice of their God.
5 I will go to the powerful
and speak to them.
Surely they know the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.
However, these also had broken the yoke
and torn off the chains.
6 Therefore, a lion from the forest will
strike them down.
A wolf from an arid plain will ravage them.
A leopard keeps watch over their cities.
Anyone who leaves them will be torn to
pieces
because their rebellious acts are many,
their unfaithful deeds numerous.
7 Why should I forgive you?
Your children have abandoned Me
and sworn by those who are not gods.
I satisfied their needs, yet they committed
adultery;
they gashed themselves at the prostitute’s
house.
8 They are well-fed, eager stallions,
each neighing after someone else’s wife.
9 Should I not punish them for these
things?
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Should I not avenge Myself
on such a nation as this?
10 Go up among her vineyard terraces and
destroy them,
but do not finish them off.
Prune away her shoots,
for they do not belong to the Lord.
11 They, the house of Israel and the house
of Judah,
have dealt very treacherously with Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
12 They have contradicted the Lord
and insisted, “It won’t happen.
Harm won’t come to us;
we won’t see sword or famine.”
13 The prophets become only wind,
for the Lord’s word is not in them.
This will in fact happen to them.
Coming Judgment
14
Therefore, this is what the Lord God of Hosts says:
Because you have spoken this word,
I am going to make My words
become fire in your mouth.
These people are the wood,
and the fire will consume them.
15 I am about to bring a nation
from far away against you,
house of Israel.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
It is an established nation,
an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know
and whose speech you do not understand.
16 Their quiver is like an open grave;
they are all mighty warriors.
17 They will consume your harvest and your
food.
They will consume your sons and your
daughters.
They will consume your flocks and your
herds.
They will consume your vines and your fig
trees.
They will destroy with the sword
your fortified cities in which you trust.
18
“But even in those days”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“I will not finish you
off. 19 When people ask, ‘For what offense has the Lord our God done all these
things to us?’ You will respond to them: Just as you abandoned Me and served
foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not
yours.
20
“Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah, saying:
21 Hear this,
you foolish and senseless people.
They have eyes, but they don’t see.
They have ears, but they don’t hear.
22 Do you not fear Me?
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Do you not tremble before Me,
the One who set the sand as the boundary of
the sea,
an enduring barrier that it cannot cross?
The waves surge, but they cannot prevail.
They roar but cannot pass over it.
23 But these people have stubborn and
rebellious hearts.
They have turned aside and have gone away.
24 They have not said to themselves,
‘Let’s fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain, both early and late, in
its season,
who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the
harvest.’
25 Your guilty acts have diverted these
things from you.
Your sins have withheld My bounty from you,
26 for wicked men live among My people.
They watch like fowlers lying in wait.
They set a trap;
they catch men.
27 Like a cage full of birds,
so their houses are full of deceit.
Therefore they have grown powerful and
rich.
28 They have become fat and sleek.
They have also excelled in evil matters.
They have not taken up cases,
such as the case of the fatherless, so they
might prosper,
and they have not defended the rights of
the needy.
29 Should I not punish them for these
things?
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Should
I not avenge Myself
on
such a nation as this?
30
A horrible, terrible thing
has
taken place in the land.
31
The prophets prophesy falsely,
and
the priests rule by their own authority.
My
people love it like this.
But
what will you do at the end of it?
Key: Bold - Verse of the Day
Reflection: The Lord speaks, and used Jeremiah to speak his message of impending judgement, and fortold destruction. The Lords message didn't sit well with the people of Israel when Jeremiah prophesied it. He was ostersized from the community, and ridiculed by his peers. Think about this, did the way Jeremiah was treated, change the message of God? Where the questions and statements God made true of humanity?
Discussion Topic: I would like to talk about a history that repeats itself, and discuss the implications of this prophesy.. v28 talks about obsesity, evil deeds, rampant injustice, and the rights of the fatherless, or disregaurd for the needy. Are we just as guilty now as Israel was then.
Prayer: Father, I am without words. My heart is broken, I too represent a broken people, a broken government, a broken land. My only hope is in You. Your loving patience endures, Your abundent mercy overshadows our sins. Please forgive us Lord, and lead us back to you. Point us to a place of repentance, in our own lives, the lives of our families and within our own communities. Break us Lord, with Your loving correction.
Acknowledgements: Text - BibleGateway.com, Artwork - http://jerusalem.com/files/articles/mainpics/374511886Jerus.jpg
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