October 21: Jeremiah 2–3; Psalm 104; Acts 28

Jeremiah 2–3 (Listen)

Israel Forsakes the Lord

2 The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD,

  “I remember the devotion of your youth,
    your love as a bride,
  how you followed me in the wilderness,
    in a land not sown.
3   Israel was holy to the LORD,
    the firstfruits of his harvest.
  All who ate of it incurred guilt;
    disaster came upon them,
      declares the LORD.”

4 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the LORD:

  “What wrong did your fathers find in me
    that they went far from me,
  and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?
6   They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD
    who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
  who led us in the wilderness,
    in a land of deserts and pits,
  in a land of drought and deep darkness,
    in a land that none passes through,
    where no man dwells?’
7   And I brought you into a plentiful land
    to enjoy its fruits and its good things.
  But when you came in, you defiled my land
    and made my heritage an abomination.
8   The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’
    Those who handle the law did not know me;
  the shepherds¹ transgressed against me;
    the prophets prophesied by Baal
    and went after things that do not profit.
9   “Therefore I still contend with you,
      declares the LORD,
    and with your children's children I will contend.
10   For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see,
    or send to Kedar and examine with care;
    see if there has been such a thing.
11   Has a nation changed its gods,
    even though they are no gods?
  But my people have changed their glory
    for that which does not profit.
12   Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
    be shocked, be utterly desolate,
      declares the LORD,
13   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.
14   “Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant?
    Why then has he become a prey?
15   The lions have roared against him;
    they have roared loudly.
  They have made his land a waste;
    his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant.
16   Moreover, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes
    have shaved² the crown of your head.
17   Have you not brought this upon yourself
    by forsaking the LORD your God,
    when he led you in the way?
18   And now what do you gain by going to Egypt
    to drink the waters of the Nile?
  Or what do you gain by going to Assyria
    to drink the waters of the Euphrates?³
19   Your evil will chastise you,
    and your apostasy will reprove you.
  Know and see that it is evil and bitter
    for you to forsake the LORD your God;
    the fear of me is not in you,
      declares the Lord GOD of hosts.
20   “For long ago I broke your yoke
    and burst your bonds;
    but you said, ‘I will not serve.’
  Yes, on every high hill
    and under every green tree
    you bowed down like a whore.
21   Yet I planted you a choice vine,
    wholly of pure seed.
  How then have you turned degenerate
    and become a wild vine?
22   Though you wash yourself with lye
    and use much soap,
    the stain of your guilt is still before me,
      declares the Lord GOD.
23   How can you say, ‘I am not unclean,
    I have not gone after the Baals’?
  Look at your way in the valley;
    know what you have done—
  a restless young camel running here and there,
24     a wild donkey used to the wilderness,
  in her heat sniffing the wind!
    Who can restrain her lust?
  None who seek her need weary themselves;
    in her month they will find her.
25   Keep your feet from going unshod
    and your throat from thirst.
  But you said, ‘It is hopeless,
    for I have loved foreigners,
    and after them I will go.’
26   “As a thief is shamed when caught,
    so the house of Israel shall be shamed:
  they, their kings, their officials,
    their priests, and their prophets,
27   who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’
    and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’
  For they have turned their back to me,
    and not their face.
  But in the time of their trouble they say,
    ‘Arise and save us!’
28   But where are your gods
    that you made for yourself?
  Let them arise, if they can save you,
    in your time of trouble;
  for as many as your cities
    are your gods, O Judah.
29   “Why do you contend with me?
    You have all transgressed against me,
      declares the LORD.
30   In vain have I struck your children;
    they took no correction;
  your own sword devoured your prophets
    like a ravening lion.
31   And you, O generation, behold the word of the LORD.
  Have I been a wilderness to Israel,
    or a land of thick darkness?
  Why then do my people say, ‘We are free,
    we will come no more to you’?
32   Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
    or a bride her attire?
  Yet my people have forgotten me
    days without number.
33   “How well you direct your course
    to seek love!
  So that even to wicked women
    you have taught your ways.
34   Also on your skirts is found
    the lifeblood of the guiltless poor;
  you did not find them breaking in.
    Yet in spite of all these things
35   you say, ‘I am innocent;
    surely his anger has turned from me.’
  Behold, I will bring you to judgment
    for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
36   How much you go about,
    changing your way!
  You shall be put to shame by Egypt
    as you were put to shame by Assyria.
37   From it too you will come away
    with your hands on your head,
  for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust,
    and you will not prosper by them.
3   “If⁴ a man divorces his wife
    and she goes from him
  and becomes another man's wife,
    will he return to her?
  Would not that land be greatly polluted?
  You have played the whore with many lovers;
    and would you return to me?
      declares the LORD.
2   Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see!
    Where have you not been ravished?
  By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers
    like an Arab in the wilderness.
  You have polluted the land
    with your vile whoredom.
3   Therefore the showers have been withheld,
    and the spring rain has not come;
  yet you have the forehead of a whore;
    you refuse to be ashamed.
4   Have you not just now called to me,
    ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth—
5   will he be angry forever,
    will he be indignant to the end?’
  Behold, you have spoken,
    but you have done all the evil that you could.”

Faithless Israel Called to Repentance

6 The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. 9 Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. 10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD.”

11 And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 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.
13   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.
14   Return, O faithless children,
      declares the LORD;
    for I am your master;
  I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
    and I will bring you to Zion.

15 “‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the LORD, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. 17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

19   “‘I said,
    How I would set you among my sons,
  and give you a pleasant land,
    a heritage most beautiful of all nations.
  And I thought you would call me, My Father,
    and would not turn from following me.
20   Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,
    so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,
      declares the LORD.’”
21   A voice on the bare heights is heard,
    the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons
  because they have perverted their way;
    they have forgotten the LORD their God.
22   “Return, O faithless sons;
    I will heal your faithlessness.”
  “Behold, we come to you,
    for you are the LORD our God.
23   Truly the hills are a delusion,
    the orgies⁵ on the mountains.
  Truly in the LORD our God
    is the salvation of Israel.

24 “But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

(ESV)

Psalm 104 (Listen)

O Lord My God, You Are Very Great

104   Bless the LORD, O my soul!
    O LORD my God, you are very great!
  You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
2     covering yourself with light as with a garment,
    stretching out the heavens like a tent.
3   He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;
  he makes the clouds his chariot;
    he rides on the wings of the wind;
4   he makes his messengers winds,
    his ministers a flaming fire.
5   He set the earth on its foundations,
    so that it should never be moved.
6   You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
    the waters stood above the mountains.
7   At your rebuke they fled;
    at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
8   The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
    to the place that you appointed for them.
9   You set a boundary that they may not pass,
    so that they might not again cover the earth.
10   You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
    they flow between the hills;
11   they give drink to every beast of the field;
    the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12   Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
    they sing among the branches.
13   From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
    the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
14   You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
    and plants for man to cultivate,
  that he may bring forth food from the earth
15     and wine to gladden the heart of man,
  oil to make his face shine
    and bread to strengthen man's heart.
16   The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly,
    the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17   In them the birds build their nests;
    the stork has her home in the fir trees.
18   The high mountains are for the wild goats;
    the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
19   He made the moon to mark the seasons;¹
    the sun knows its time for setting.
20   You make darkness, and it is night,
    when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21   The young lions roar for their prey,
    seeking their food from God.
22   When the sun rises, they steal away
    and lie down in their dens.
23   Man goes out to his work
    and to his labor until the evening.
24   O LORD, how manifold are your works!
    In wisdom have you made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures.
25   Here is the sea, great and wide,
    which teems with creatures innumerable,
    living things both small and great.
26   There go the ships,
    and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.²
27   These all look to you,
    to give them their food in due season.
28   When you give it to them, they gather it up;
    when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29   When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
    when you take away their breath, they die
    and return to their dust.
30   When you send forth your Spirit,³ they are created,
    and you renew the face of the ground.
31   May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
    may the LORD rejoice in his works,
32   who looks on the earth and it trembles,
    who touches the mountains and they smoke!
33   I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
    I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34   May my meditation be pleasing to him,
    for I rejoice in the LORD.
35   Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
    and let the wicked be no more!
  Bless the LORD, O my soul!
  Praise the LORD!

(ESV)

Acts 28 (Listen)

Paul on Malta

28 After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta. 2 The native people¹ showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold. 3 When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. 4 When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice² has not allowed him to live.” 5 He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. 6 They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

7 Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days. 8 It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him, healed him. 9 And when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured. 10 They also honored us greatly,³ and when we were about to sail, they put on board whatever we needed.

Paul Arrives at Rome

11 After three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island, a ship of Alexandria, with the twin gods⁴ as a figurehead. 12 Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days. 13 And from there we made a circuit and arrived at Rhegium. And after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli. 14 There we found brothers⁵ and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to Rome. 15 And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. 16 And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him.

Paul in Rome

17 After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. 18 When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. 19 But because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar—though I had no charge to bring against my nation. 20 For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.” 21 And they said to him, “We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you. 22 But we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against.”

23 When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. 24 And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. 25 And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:

26   “‘Go to this people, and say,
  “You will indeed hear but never understand,
    and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
27   For this people's heart has grown dull,
    and with their ears they can barely hear,
    and their eyes they have closed;
  lest they should see with their eyes
    and hear with their ears
  and understand with their heart
    and turn, and I would heal them.’

28 Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”⁶

30 He lived there two whole years at his own expense,⁷ and welcomed all who came to him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

(ESV)