Tag: Jeremiah 27

Links for today’s readings:

Sep 2  Read: Jeremiah 27 Listen: (3:52) Read: 1 Corinthians 4 Listen: (3:15)

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 27:16-17

16 Then I said to the priests and all these people, “This is what the Lord says: Do not listen to the prophets who say, ‘Very soon now the articles from the Lord’s house will be brought back from Babylon.’ They are prophesying lies to you. 17 Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon, and you will live. Why should this city become a ruin?

Reflection: It’s a Trap!

By Erin Newton

In the Star Wars movies, one character is known for the line “It’s a trap!” The phrase is actually repeated by multiple characters. Clearly the plot relies on the element of ruses and tricks. Situations the characters first think are good, often erupt into action-packed scenes of near disaster.

False prophets also deal in tricks and traps. 

Jeremiah warns the people about their judgment by the hand of God through the Babylonians. While their experience was painful, it was tempting to trust those who promised ease and a reversal. I don’t think I blame them. 

In fact, the prophets often began their messages with warnings of judgment and destruction and then followed those statements with promises of restoration. We rely on the conclusion of hope when we read the Bible. Why is Jeremiah warning against those prophecies now? 

If these false prophets had been able to sway the people, they would likely have attempted to act on the promises by rebelling against Babylon. Jeremiah warns that this would be futile.

Disclaimer: A glimmer of hope appears when Jeremiah indicates that restoration will happen when God decides. But the key factor is that God is the determiner of when that happens. Reacting to a false promise of restoration would likely have ruined it all. 

Pain has a way of leading us into temptation. We are tempted to listen to false prophets. We are tempted to listen to people who claim the name of God but speak a different message. 

You often see movies with these types of characters. They are the characters that cannot possibly grasp the danger that lies before them and so they convince themselves that everything is going to be just fine and that restoration is coming “very soon.” The character jumps up and flees the small net of safety and then the monster pounces. 

It is certainly tempting to believe a message that we can control. Blessing is coming very soon? Well let’s just hurry things along! That sounds rather nice. But in the end, it is foolish for us to force things to happen—force blessings, force ease and comfort. 

It’s sometimes hard to distinguish between promises of hardship or promises of coming restoration. I think we are called to be patient in God’s timing, even in pain. We must hold this life of ours loosely, never trying to turn things to our own commands.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, and your faithfulness to the clouds. — Psalm 36.5

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

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Read more: Comfortable Prophecies

It is difficult to judge Jerusalem for falling for these false prophets. Don’t we also feel the pull to grasp onto any far-fetched hope of a return to normalcy?

Comfortable Prophecies

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 13.22-27
22 And if you ask yourself, 
“Why has this happened to me?”— 
it is because of your many sins 
that your skirts have been torn off 
and your body mistreated. 
23 Can an Ethiopian change his skin 
or a leopard its spots? 
Neither can you do good 
who are accustomed to doing evil. 
24 “I will scatter you like chaff 
driven by the desert wind. 
25 This is your lot, 
the portion I have decreed for you,” 
declares the Lord, 
“because you have forgotten me 
and trusted in false gods. 
26 I will pull up your skirts over your face 
that your shame may be seen— 
27 your adulteries and lustful neighings, 
your shameless prostitution! 
I have seen your detestable acts 
on the hills and in the fields. 
Woe to you, Jerusalem! 
How long will you be unclean?” 

Reflection: The Purpose of Godly Shame
By John Tillman

Wails pierce the air. “Why is this happening to me?” asks the child with the broken toy.

“Because you broke it,” answers the parent.

The empty-handed child screams. Does the parent love her child? Of course.

God is Jerusalem’s parent. He patiently gave her everything she needed and called her to a high purpose. Instead, they became accustomed to evils and abuses common in other nations and abandoned the ways of the Lord. They had not just broken something inconsequential, like the toy in the example above. They had broken actual human lives and destroyed and corrupted the holiness of God’s Temple and their covenant with him.

God anticipated that when consequences of their actions arrived, the people of Jerusalem would cry like the careless child, “Why has this happened to me?”

Like the Jewish nation God established, we are intended to “image God” to the world. We show the world God’s face and are called “the body of Christ.” Too often our “body of Christ” is weak, ineffective, and corrupted. Too often the face of God we show is wrathful and unforgiving. God will set out, just as he did with Jerusalem, to expose hypocrisy and abuse. When this happens we might cry in shame, “Why is this happening to us?” 

Godly shame recognizes the gulf between our identity and our actions. However, God does not intend to leave us shamed. God is not an abusive parent. When we cry, even from self-inflicted wounds, he cares. The answer to “Why is this happening to us?,” is only partially, “because of your many sins.” (Jeremiah 13.22) The deeper answer is, “So I can restore you and fill you with good things.”

God promises to wipe out Jerusalem like a dish, leaving it upside down and empty. (2 Kings 21.13) The purpose of emptying something of filth is to fill it with something of worth. The purpose of cleansing something is to reuse it.

No matter how corrupt our hearts become, on the other side of confession is restoration and freedom from shame. If we allow him to empty us of pride, he will fill us with honor. If we allow him to empty us of sin, he will fill us with righteousness. If we allow him to empty us of cultural poisons, he will fill us with living water. We can then pour these offerings out to bless all those around us.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is put away!
Happy are they to whom the Lord imputes no guilt, and in whose spirit there is no guile! — Psalm 32.1-2

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 13(Listen -4:11)
Galatians 4(Listen – 4:13)

This Weekend’s Readings
Jeremiah 14(Listen -3:51), Galatians 5(Listen – 4:39)
Jeremiah 15(Listen -3:22), Galatians 6(Listen – 2:18)

Read more about From Shameless to Blameless
Are we shamelessly sinful, defending our sins? Or are we humbly repentant, called blameless ONLY in Christ?

From Shameless to Blameless

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