Nancy: Welcome to immerse: the daily bible reading experience.
Day 200 and 63
the Lord gave another message to Jeremiah.
He said, remind the people of Judah and Jerusalem about the
terms of my covenant with them.
Say to them, this is what the Lord the God of Israel says.
Cursed is anyone who does not obey the terms of my covenant.
For I said to your ancestors when I brought them out of the iron smelting
furnace of Egypt, if you obey me.
Do whatever I command you, then you will be my people and I will be your God.
I said this so I could keep my promise to your ancestors to give
you a land flowing with milk and honey, the land you live in today.
Then I replied, amen Lord, may it be so Then the Lord said.
Broadcast this message in the streets of Jerusalem.
Go from town to town throughout the land and say, remember the ancient covenant
and do everything it requires for.
I solemnly warned your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, obey me.
I have repeated this warning over and over to this day, but your ancestors
did not listen or even pay attention.
Instead, they stubbornly followed their own evil desires, and because they
refused to obey, I brought upon them all the curses described in this covenant.
Again, the Lord spoke to me and said, I have discovered a conspiracy against me
among the people of Judah and Jerusalem.
They have returned to the sins of their ancestors.
They have refused to listen to me and are worshiping other gods.
Israel and Judah have both broken the covenant I made with their ancestors.
Therefore, this is what the Lord says.
I'm going to bring calamity upon them and they will not escape.
Though they beg for mercy, I will not listen to their cries.
Then the people of Judah and Jerusalem will pray to their idols and burn
incense before them, but the idols will not save them when disastrous strikes.
Look now people of Judah, you have as many gods as you have towns.
You have as many altars of shame altars for burning incense to your God.
Baal as there are streets in Jerusalem.
Pray no more for these people.
Jeremiah do not weep or pray for them for, I will not listen to them
when they cry out to me in distress.
What right do my beloved people have to come to my temple?
When they have done so many immoral things, can their vows and
sacrifices prevent their destruction?
They actually rejoice in doing evil.
I the Lord once called them a thriving olive tree, beautiful
to see, and full of good fruit.
But now I have sent the fury of their enemies to burn them with fire,
leaving them charred and broken.
I, the Lord of Heaven's armies who planted this olive tree, have ordered
it destroyed for the people of Israel, and Judah have done evil, arousing
my anger by burning incense to Baal.
Then the Lord told me about the plots my enemies were making against me.
I was like a lamb being led to the slaughter.
I had no idea that they were planning to kill me.
Let's destroy this man and all his words, they said, let's cut him down
so his name will be forgotten forever.
Oh Lord of heaven's armies, you make righteous judgements and you examine
the deepest thoughts and secrets.
Let me see your vengeance against them for I have committed my cause to you.
This is what the Lord says about the man of Anth who wanted me dead.
They had said, we will kill you if you do not stop prophesying in the Lord's name.
So this is what the Lord of Heaven's armies says about them.
I will punish them.
Their young men will die in battle and their boys and girls will starve to death.
Not one of these plotters from AU will survive for I will bring disaster upon
them when their time of punishment comes.
Lord, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you.
So let me bring you this complaint.
Why are the wicked so prosperous?
Why are evil people so happy?
You have planted them and they have taken root and prospered.
Your name is on their lips, but you are far from their hearts.
But as for me, Lord, you know my heart, you see me and test my thoughts.
Drag these people away like sheep to be butchered.
Set them aside to be slaughtered.
How long must this land mourn?
Even the grass in the fields has withered.
The wild animals and birds have disappeared because
of the evil in the land.
For the people have said, the Lord doesn't see what's ahead for us.
If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses?
If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in the thickets near
the Jordan, even your brothers members of your own family have turned against you.
They plot and raise complaints against you.
Do not trust them no matter how pleasantly they speak.
I have abandoned my people, my special possession.
I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies.
My chosen people have roared at me like a lion of the forest, so
I have treated them with contempt.
My chosen people act like speckled vultures, but they themselves are
surrounded by vultures, bring on the wild animals to pick their corpses clean.
Many rulers have ravaged my vineyard, trampling down the vines, and turning
all its beauty into a barren wilderness.
They have made it an empty wasteland.
I hear it's mournful cry.
The whole land is desolate and no one even caress on all the bare hilltops
destroying armies can be seen.
The sword of the Lord devours people from one end of the nation to the other.
No one will escape.
My people have planted wheat but are harvesting thorns.
They have worn themselves out, but it has done them no good.
They will harvest a crop of shame because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
Now, this is what the Lord says.
I will uproot from their land, all the evil nations reaching out for the
possession I gave my people Israel, and I will uproot Judah from among them.
But afterward, I will return and have compassion on all of them.
I will bring them home to their own lands, again, each nation, to its own possession.
I.
And if these nations truly learn the ways of my people, and if they learn to swear
by my name saying, as surely as the Lord lives, just as they taught my people
to swear by the name of Baal, then they will be given a place among my people.
But any nation who refuses to obey me will be uprooted and destroyed.
I the Lord have spoken.
This is what the Lord said to me.
Go and buy a linen loin cloth and put it on, but do not wash it.
So I bought the loin cloth as the Lord directed me and I put it on.
Then the Lord gave me another message.
Take the linen loin cloth you are wearing and go to the Euphrates River.
Hide it there in a hole in the rocks.
So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the Lord had instructed me.
A long time afterward, the Lord said to me, go back to the
Euphrates and get the loin cloth.
I told you to hide there.
So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it,
but now it was rotting and falling apart.
The loin cloth was good for nothing.
Then I received this message from the Lord.
This is what the Lord says.
This shows how I will rot away the pride of Judah and Jerusalem.
These wicked people refuse to listen to me.
They stubbornly follow their own desires and worship other gods.
Therefore, they will become like this.
Loincloth good for nothing as a loin cloth clings to a man's waist.
So I created Judah and Israel to clinging to me, says the Lord.
They were to be my people, my pride, my glory, and honor to my name,
but they would not listen to me.
So tell them.
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says.
May all your jars be filled with wine and they will reply.
Of course, jars are made to be filled with wine.
Then tell them, no, this is what the Lord means.
I will fill everyone in this land with drunkenness from the king
sitting on David's throne to the priests and the prophets right down
to the common people of Jerusalem.
I will smash them against each other.
Even parents against children says the Lord.
I will not let my pity, or mercy or compassion keep me from destroying them.
Listen and pay attention.
Do not be arrogant.
For the Lord has spoken, give glory to the Lord your God before it is too late.
Acknowledge him before He brings darkness upon you, causing you to stumble
and fall on the darkening mountains.
For then when you look for light, you will find only terrible darkness and gloom.
And if you still refuse to listen, I will weep alone.
Because of your pride, my eyes will overflow with tears because the Lord's
flock will be led away into exile.
Say to the king and his mother, come down from your thrones and sit in the
dust for your glorious crowns will soon be snatched from your heads.
The towns of the Negev will close their gates and no one
will be able to open them.
The people of Judah will be taken away as captives.
All will be carried into exile.
Open up your eyes and see the armies marching down from the north.
Where is your flock?
Your beautiful flock that he gave you to care for?
What will you say when the Lord takes the allies, you have cultivated
and appoints them as your rulers?
Pangs of anguish will grip you like those of a woman in labor.
You may ask yourself, why is all this happening to me?
It is because of your many sins.
That is why you have been stripped and raped by invading armies.
Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin?
Can a leopard take away spots?
Neither can you start doing good for you.
Have always done evil.
I will scatter you like chaff that is blown away by the desert winds.
This is your allotment.
The portion I have assigned to you says the Lord, for you have forgotten me.
Putting your trust in false gods, I myself will strip you and expose you to shame.
I have seen your adultery and lust and your disgusting idol worship
out in the fields and on the hills.
What sorrow awaits you?
Jerusalem.
How long before you are pure?
This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord explaining why
he was holding back the reign.
Judah Wilts commerce at the city gates grinds to a halt.
All the people sit on the ground in mourning and a great
cry rises from Jerusalem.
The nobles send servants to get water, but all the wells are dry.
The servants return with empty pitchers confused and desperate.
Covering their heads in grief, the ground is parched and cracked for lack of rain.
The farmers are deeply troubled.
They too cover their heads.
Even the dough abandons her newborn fawn because there is no grass in the field.
The wild donkeys stand on the bare hills panting like thirsty jackals.
They strain their eyes looking for grass, but there is none to be found.
The people say, our wickedness has caught up with us Lord, but help us
for the sake of your own reputation, we have turned away from you and
sinned against you again and again.
Oh, hope of Israel our Savior in times of trouble.
Why are you like a stranger to us?
Why are you like a traveler passing through the land,
stopping only for the night?
Are you also confused?
Is our champion helpless to save us?
You are right here among us.
Lord, we are known as your people.
Please don't abandon us now.
So this is what the Lord says to his people.
You love to wander far from me and do not restrain yourselves.
Therefore, I will no longer accept you as my people now.
I will remember all your wickedness and will punish you for your sins.
Then the Lord said to me, do not pray for these people anymore.
When they fast, I will pay no attention.
When they present their burnt offerings and grain offerings
to me, I will not accept them.
Instead, I will devour them with war, famine, and disease.
Then I said, oh, sovereign Lord, their prophets are telling them all is well.
No war or famine will come.
The Lord will surely send you peace.
Then the Lord said, These prophets are telling lies in my name.
I did not send them or tell them to speak.
I did not give them any messages.
They prophesy of visions and revelations.
They have never seen or heard.
They speak foolishness, made up in their own lying hearts.
Therefore, this is what the Lord says.
I will punish these lying prophets for they have spoken in my name
even though I never sent them.
They say that no war or famine will come, but they themselves
will die by war and famine.
As for the people to whom they prophesy, their bodies will be thrown
out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and war, there
will be no one left to bury them.
Husbands, wives, sons and daughters, all will be gone for.
I will pour out their wickedness on them.
Now, Jeremiah.
Say this to them, night and day, my eyes overflow with tears.
I cannot stop weeping for my virgin daughter.
My precious people has been struck down and lies mortally wounded.
If I go out into the fields, I see the bodies of people slaughtered by the enemy.
If I walk the city streets, I see people who have died of starvation.
The prophets and priests continue with their work, but they
don't know what they're doing.
Lord, have you completely rejected Judah?
Do you really hate Jerusalem?
Why have you wounded us past all hope of healing?
We hoped for peace, but no peace came.
We hoped for a time of healing, but found only terror.
Lord, we confess our wickedness and that of our ancestors too.
We all have sinned against you for the sake of your reputation.
Lord, do not abandon us.
Do not disgrace your own glorious throne.
Please remember us and do not break your covenant with us.
Can any of the worthless foreign gods send us rain?
Does it fall from the sky by itself?
No.
You are the one.
Oh Lord our God.
Only you can do such things.
So we will wait for you to help us.
Then the Lord said to me, even if Moses and Samuel stood before
me pleading for these people, I wouldn't help them away with them.
Get them out of my sight.
And if they say to you, but where can we go?
Tell them this is what the Lord says.
Those who are destined for death to death, those who are destined for war to war.
Those who are destined for famine to famine, those who are destined
for captivity to captivity, I will send four kinds of destroyers
against them, says the Lord.
I will send the sword to kill the dogs, to drag away the vultures to devour
and the wild animals to finish up what is left because of the wicked things.
Manasses son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.
I will make my people an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
Who will feel sorry for you?
Jerusalem, who will weep for you?
Who will even bother to ask how you are?
You have abandoned me and turned your back on me, says the Lord.
Therefore, I will raise my fist to destroy you.
I'm tired of always giving you another chance.
I will winnow you like grain at the gates of your cities and take
away the children you hold Dear.
I will destroy my own people because they refuse to change their evil ways.
There will be more widows than the grains of sand on the seashore.
At noontime, I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of young men.
I will cause anguish and terror to come upon them suddenly.
The mother of seven grows faint and gasps for breath.
Her son has gone down while it is still.
Day.
She sits childless now, disgraced and humiliated, and I will hand over those
who are left to be killed by the enemy.
I, the Lord have spoken.
Then I said, what sorrow is mine?
My mother, oh, that I had died at birth.
I am hated everywhere I go.
I am neither a lender who threatens to foreclose, nor a
borrower who refuses to pay.
Yet they all curse me.
The Lord replied, I will take care of you.
Jeremiah, your enemies will ask you to plead on their behalf in
times of trouble and distress.
Can a man break a bar of iron from the north or a bar of
bronze at no cost to them?
I will hand over your wealth and treasures as plunder to your enemies.
For sin runs rampant in your land.
I will tell your enemies to take you as captive to a foreign land.
For my anger, blazes like a fire that will burn forever.
Then I said, Lord, you know what's happening to me.
Please step in and help me punish my persecutor.
Please give me time.
Don't let me die young.
It's for your sake that I'm suffering.
When I discovered your words, I devoured them.
They are my joy and my heart's delight for I bear your name,
oh Lord God of heaven's armies.
I never joined the people in their merry feasts.
I sat alone because your hand was on me.
I was filled with indignation at their sins.
Why then does my suffering continue?
Why is my wound so incurable?
Your help seems as uncertain as a seasonal brook, like a spring that has gone dry.
This is how the Lord responds.
If you return to me, I will restore you so you can continue to serve me.
If you speak good words rather than worthless ones, you will be my spokesman.
You must influence them.
Do not let them influence you.
They will fight against you like an attacking army, but I will make you as
secure as a fortified wall of bronze.
They will not conquer you.
For I am with you to protect and rescue you.
I the Lord have spoken.
Yes.
I will certainly keep you safe from these wicked men.
I will rescue you from their cruel hands.
The Lord gave me another message he said.
Do not get married or have children in this place.
For this is what the Lord says about the children born here in this city
and about their mothers and fathers.
They will die from terrible diseases.
No one will mourn for them or bury them, and they will lie
scattered on the ground like manure.
They will die from war and famine, and their bodies will be food for
the vultures and wild animals.
This is what the Lord says.
Do not go to funerals, to mourn and show sympathy for these people.
For I have removed my protection and peace from them.
I have taken away my unfailing love and my mercy.
Both the great and the lowly will die in this land.
No one will bury them or mourn for them.
Their friends will not cut themselves in sorrow or shave their heads in sadness.
No one will offer a meal to comfort those who mourn for the dead.
Not even at the death of a mother or father.
No one will send a cup of wine to console them and do not go to
their feasts and parties do not eat and drink with them at all.
For this is what the Lord of Heaven's armies, the God of Israel says, in
your own lifetime, before your very eyes, I will put an end to the happy
singing and laughter in this land.
The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard.
When you tell the people all these things, they will ask, why has the Lord
decreed such terrible things against us?
What have we done to deserve such treatment?
What is our sin against the Lord our God?
Then you will give them the Lord's reply.
It is because your ancestors were unfaithful to me.
They worshiped other gods and served them.
They abandoned me and did not obey my word, and you are even
worse than your ancestors.
You stubbornly follow your own evil desires and refuse to listen to me.
So I will throw you out of this land and send you into a foreign land where you
and your ancestors have never been there.
You can worship idols day and night, and I will grant you no favors, but
the time is coming says the Lord.
When people who are taking an oath will no longer say as surely as the Lord lives.
Who rescued the people of Israel from the land of Egypt.
Instead, they will say, as surely as the Lord lives, who brought the people
of Israel back to their own land, from the land of the North and from all
the countries to which he had exiled them for, I will bring them back to
this land that I gave their ancestors.
But now I'm sending for many fishermen who will catch them, says the Lord.
I am sending for hunters who will hunt them down in the
mountains, hills, and caves.
I am watching them closely and I see every sin.
They cannot hope to hide from me.
I will double their punishment for all their sins because they have defiled
my land with lifeless images of their detestable gods, and have filled
my territory with their evil deeds.
Lord, you are my strength and fortress.
My refuge.
In the day of trouble, nations from around the world will come to you and say, our
ancestors left us a foolish heritage for they worshiped worthless idols.
Can people make their own gods?
These are not real gods at all.
The Lord says, now I will show them my power.
Now I will show them my might at last.
They will know and understand that I am the Lord.
The sin of Judah is inscribed with an iron chisel engraved with a
diamond point on their stony hearts and on the corners of their altars.
Even their children go to worship at their pagan altars and a sheer poles beneath
every green tree and on every high hill.
So I will hand over my Holy Mountain.
Along with all your wealth and treasures and your pagan shrines as plunder to your
enemies for sin runs rampant in your land.
The wonderful possession I have reserved for you will slip from your hands.
I will tell your enemies to take you as captives to a foreign land for my anger,
blazes like a fire that will burn forever.
This is what the Lord says.
Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans who rely on human strength
and turn their hearts away from the Lord.
They're like stunted shrubs in the desert with no hope for the future.
They will live in the barren wilderness in an uninhabited salty land.
But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the
Lord their hope and confidence.
They're like trees planted along a riverbank with roots
that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.
The human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked
who really knows how bad it is.
But I, the Lord, search all hearts.
And examine secret motives.
I give all people their due rewards according to what their actions deserve.
Like a partridge that hatches eggs she has not laid.
So are those who get their wealth.
By unjust means at midlife, they will lose their riches.
In the end, they will become poor, old fools.
But we worship at your throne, eternal, high and glorious.
Oh Lord, the hope of Israel, all who turn away from you will be disgraced.
They will be buried in the dust of the earth for they have abandoned the Lord.
The fountain of living water.
Oh Lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed.
If you save me, I will be truly saved.
My praises are for you alone.
People scoff at me and say, what is this message from the Lord?
You talk about why don't your predictions come true?
Lord, I have not abandoned my job as a shepherd for your people.
I have not urged you to send disaster.
You have heard everything I've said.
Lord, don't terrorize me.
You alone are my hope in the day of disaster.
Bring shame and dismay on all who persecute me, but don't let
me experience shame and dismay.
Bring a day of terror on them.
Yes, bring double destruction upon them.
This is what the Lord said to me.
Go and stand in the gates of Jerusalem first in the gate where
the king goes in and out, and then in each of the other gates.
Say to all the people, listen to this message from the Lord you, kings of
Judah and all you people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem.
This is what the Lord says.
Listen to my warning.
Stop carrying on your trade at Jerusalem's Gates on the Sabbath day.
Do not do your work on the Sabbath, but make it a holy day.
I gave this command to your ancestors, but they did not listen or obey.
They stubbornly refuse to pay attention or accept my discipline, but if you obey
me, says the Lord, and do not carry on your trade at the gates or work on the
Sabbath day, and if you keep it holy, then kings and their officials will
go in and out of these gates forever.
There will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem.
Kings and their officials will always ride in and out among the people of
Judah, in chariots and on horses, and this city will remain forever
and from all around Jerusalem.
From the towns of Judah and Benjamin from the Western foothills and the Hill country
and the Negev, the people will come with their burnt offerings and sacrifices.
They will bring their grain offerings, frankincense and Thanksgiving
offerings to the Lord's temple.
But if you do not listen to me and refuse to keep the Sabbath holy, and
if on the Sabbath day you bring loads of merchandise through the gates of
Jerusalem, just as on other days, then I will set fire to these gates.
The fire will spread to the palaces and no one will be able
to put out the roaring flames.
This concludes today's immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.