October 29: Jeremiah 21-22; Psalm 109; Romans 11

Jeremiah 21-22

Jerusalem Will Fall to Nebuchadnezzar

21 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, “Inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar¹ king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.”

Then Jeremiah said to them: “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath. And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence. Afterward, declares the LORD, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.’

“And to this people you shall say: ‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war. For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.’

Message to the House of David

“And to the house of the king of Judah say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O house of David! Thus says the LORD:

  “‘Execute justice in the morning,
    and deliver from the hand of the oppressor
    him who has been robbed,
  lest my wrath go forth like fire,
    and burn with none to quench it,
    because of your evil deeds.’”
  “Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,
    O rock of the plain,
      declares the LORD;
  you who say, ‘Who shall come down against us,
    or who shall enter our habitations?’
  I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds,
      declares the LORD;
    I will kindle a fire in her forest,
    and it shall devour all that is around her.”

22 Thus says the LORD: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation. For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah:

  “‘You are like Gilead to me,
    like the summit of Lebanon,
  yet surely I will make you a desert,
    an uninhabited city.²
  I will prepare destroyers against you,
    each with his weapons,
  and they shall cut down your choicest cedars
    and cast them into the fire.

“‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, “Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?” And they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”’”

  Weep not for him who is dead,
    nor grieve for him,
  but weep bitterly for him who goes away,
    for he shall return no more
    to see his native land.

Message to the Sons of Josiah

For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went away from this place: “He shall return here no more, but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again.”

  “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,
    and his upper rooms by injustice,
  who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing
    and does not give him his wages,
  who says, ‘I will build myself a great house
    with spacious upper rooms,’
  who cuts out windows for it,
    paneling it with cedar
    and painting it with vermilion.
  Do you think you are a king
    because you compete in cedar?
  Did not your father eat and drink
    and do justice and righteousness?
    Then it was well with him.
  He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
    then it was well.
  Is not this to know me?
    declares the LORD.
  But you have eyes and heart
    only for your dishonest gain,
  for shedding innocent blood,
    and for practicing oppression and violence.”

Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

  “They shall not lament for him, saying,
    ‘Ah, my brother!’ or ‘Ah, sister!’
  They shall not lament for him, saying,
    ‘Ah, lord!’ or ‘Ah, his majesty!’
  With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried,
    dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”
  “Go up to Lebanon, and cry out,
    and lift up your voice in Bashan;
  cry out from Abarim,
    for all your lovers are destroyed.
  I spoke to you in your prosperity,
    but you said, ‘I will not listen.’
  This has been your way from your youth,
    that you have not obeyed my voice.
  The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,
    and your lovers shall go into captivity;
  then you will be ashamed and confounded
    because of all your evil.
  O inhabitant of Lebanon,
    nested among the cedars,
  how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you,
    pain as of a woman in labor!”

“As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.”

  Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot,
    a vessel no one cares for?
  Why are he and his children hurled and cast
    into a land that they do not know?
  O land, land, land,
    hear the word of the LORD!
  Thus says the LORD:
  “Write this man down as childless,
    a man who shall not succeed in his days,
  for none of his offspring shall succeed
    in sitting on the throne of David
    and ruling again in Judah.”

(ESV)

Psalm 109

Help Me, O Lord My God

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

109   Be not silent, O God of my praise!
  For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,
    speaking against me with lying tongues.
  They encircle me with words of hate,
    and attack me without cause.
  In return for my love they accuse me,
    but I give myself to prayer.¹
  So they reward me evil for good,
    and hatred for my love.
  Appoint a wicked man against him;
    let an accuser stand at his right hand.
  When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;
    let his prayer be counted as sin!
  May his days be few;
    may another take his office!
  May his children be fatherless
    and his wife a widow!
  May his children wander about and beg,
    seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
  May the creditor seize all that he has;
    may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
  Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
    nor any to pity his fatherless children!
  May his posterity be cut off;
    may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
  May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD,
    and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!
  Let them be before the LORD continually,
    that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!
  For he did not remember to show kindness,
    but pursued the poor and needy
    and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.
  He loved to curse; let curses come² upon him!
    He did not delight in blessing; may it be far³ from him!
  He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;
    may it soak⁴ into his body like water,
    like oil into his bones!
  May it be like a garment that he wraps around him,
    like a belt that he puts on every day!
  May this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD,
    of those who speak evil against my life!
  But you, O GOD my Lord,
    deal on my behalf for your name's sake;
    because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!
  For I am poor and needy,
    and my heart is stricken within me.
  I am gone like a shadow at evening;
    I am shaken off like a locust.
  My knees are weak through fasting;
    my body has become gaunt, with no fat.
  I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
    when they see me, they wag their heads.
  Help me, O LORD my God!
    Save me according to your steadfast love!
  Let them know that this is your hand;
    you, O LORD, have done it!
  Let them curse, but you will bless!
    They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!
  May my accusers be clothed with dishonor;
    may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak!
  With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD;
    I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
  For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,
    to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.

(ESV)

Romans 11

The Remnant of Israel

11 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham,¹ a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written,

  “God gave them a spirit of stupor,
    eyes that would not see
    and ears that would not hear,
  down to this very day.”

And David says,

  “Let their table become a snare and a trap,
    a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
  let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
    and bend their backs forever.”

Gentiles Grafted In

So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion² mean!

Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root³ of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

The Mystery of Israel's Salvation

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers:⁴ a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

  “The Deliverer will come from Zion,
    he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
  “and this will be my covenant with them
    when I take away their sins.”

As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now⁵ receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

  “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
    or who has been his counselor?”
  “Or who has given a gift to him
    that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

(ESV)