October 27: Jeremiah 15-17; Psalm 107:23-43; Romans 8

Jeremiah 15-17

The Lord Will Not Relent

15 Then the LORD said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD:

  “‘Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence,
    and those who are for the sword, to the sword;
  those who are for famine, to famine,
    and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’

I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

  “Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
    or who will grieve for you?
  Who will turn aside
    to ask about your welfare?
  You have rejected me, declares the LORD;
    you keep going backward,
  so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—
    I am weary of relenting.
  I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork
    in the gates of the land;
  I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people;
    they did not turn from their ways.
  I have made their widows more in number
    than the sand of the seas;
  I have brought against the mothers of young men
    a destroyer at noonday;
  I have made anguish and terror
    fall upon them suddenly.
  She who bore seven has grown feeble;
    she has fainted away;
  her sun went down while it was yet day;
    she has been shamed and disgraced.
  And the rest of them I will give to the sword
    before their enemies,
      declares the LORD.”

Jeremiah's Complaint

Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me. The LORD said, “Have I not¹ set you free for their good? Have I not pleaded for you before the enemy in the time of trouble and in the time of distress? Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze?

“Your wealth and your treasures I will give as spoil, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory. I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

  O LORD, you know;
    remember me and visit me,
    and take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
  In your forbearance take me not away;
    know that for your sake I bear reproach.
  Your words were found, and I ate them,
    and your words became to me a joy
    and the delight of my heart,
  for I am called by your name,
    O LORD, God of hosts.
  I did not sit in the company of revelers,
    nor did I rejoice;
  I sat alone, because your hand was upon me,
    for you had filled me with indignation.
  Why is my pain unceasing,
    my wound incurable,
    refusing to be healed?
  Will you be to me like a deceitful brook,
    like waters that fail?
  Therefore thus says the LORD:
  “If you return, I will restore you,
    and you shall stand before me.
  If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless,
    you shall be as my mouth.
  They shall turn to you,
    but you shall not turn to them.
  And I will make you to this people
    a fortified wall of bronze;
  they will fight against you,
    but they shall not prevail over you,
  for I am with you
    to save you and deliver you,
      declares the LORD.
  I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,
    and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”

Famine, Sword, and Death

16 The word of the LORD came to me: “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

“For thus says the LORD: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the LORD. Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them. No one shall break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

“And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’ then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

The Lord Will Restore Israel

“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

“Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

  O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,
    my refuge in the day of trouble,
  to you shall the nations come
    from the ends of the earth and say:
  “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
    worthless things in which there is no profit.
  Can man make for himself gods?
    Such are not gods!”

“Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD.”

The Sin of Judah

17 “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

  Thus says the LORD:
  “Cursed is the man who trusts in man
    and makes flesh his strength,²
    whose heart turns away from the LORD.
  He is like a shrub in the desert,
    and shall not see any good come.
  He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
    in an uninhabited salt land.
  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
    whose trust is the LORD.
  He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
  and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
  and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
  The heart is deceitful above all things,
    and desperately sick;
    who can understand it?
  “I the LORD search the heart
    and test the mind,³
  to give every man according to his ways,
    according to the fruit of his deeds.”
  Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,
    so is he who gets riches but not by justice;
  in the midst of his days they will leave him,
    and at his end he will be a fool.
  A glorious throne set on high from the beginning
    is the place of our sanctuary.
  O LORD, the hope of Israel,
    all who forsake you shall be put to shame;
  those who turn away from you⁴ shall be written in the earth,
    for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.

Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance

  Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;
    save me, and I shall be saved,
    for you are my praise.
  Behold, they say to me,
    “Where is the word of the LORD?
    Let it come!”
  I have not run away from being your shepherd,
    nor have I desired the day of sickness.
  You know what came out of my lips;
    it was before your face.
  Be not a terror to me;
    you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
  Let those be put to shame who persecute me,
    but let me not be put to shame;
  let them be dismayed,
    but let me not be dismayed;
  bring upon them the day of disaster;
    destroy them with double destruction!

Keep the Sabbath Holy

Thus said the LORD to me: “Go and stand in the People's Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, and say: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction.

“‘But if you listen to me, declares the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD. But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.’”

(ESV)

Psalm 107:23-43

  Some went down to the sea in ships,
    doing business on the great waters;
  they saw the deeds of the LORD,
    his wondrous works in the deep.
  For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
    which lifted up the waves of the sea.
  They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
    their courage melted away in their evil plight;
  they reeled and staggered like drunken men
    and were at their wits' end.¹
  Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
    and he delivered them from their distress.
  He made the storm be still,
    and the waves of the sea were hushed.
  Then they were glad that the waters² were quiet,
    and he brought them to their desired haven.
  Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
    for his wondrous works to the children of man!
  Let them extol him in the congregation of the people,
    and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
  He turns rivers into a desert,
    springs of water into thirsty ground,
  a fruitful land into a salty waste,
    because of the evil of its inhabitants.
  He turns a desert into pools of water,
    a parched land into springs of water.
  And there he lets the hungry dwell,
    and they establish a city to live in;
  they sow fields and plant vineyards
    and get a fruitful yield.
  By his blessing they multiply greatly,
    and he does not let their livestock diminish.
  When they are diminished and brought low
    through oppression, evil, and sorrow,
  he pours contempt on princes
    and makes them wander in trackless wastes;
  but he raises up the needy out of affliction
    and makes their families like flocks.
  The upright see it and are glad,
    and all wickedness shuts its mouth.
  Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;
    let them consider the steadfast love of the LORD.

(ESV)

Romans 8

Life in the Spirit

8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.¹For the law of the Spirit of life has set you² free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,³ he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus⁴ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Heirs with Christ

So then, brothers,⁵ we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons⁶ of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Future Glory

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because⁷ the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,⁸ for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

God's Everlasting Love

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be⁹ against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.¹⁰Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

  “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(ESV)