November 2: Jeremiah 30-31; Psalm 113; 1 Corinthians 2-3

Jeremiah 30-31

Restoration for Israel and Judah

30 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. For behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.”

These are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah:

  “Thus says the LORD:
  We have heard a cry of panic,
    of terror, and no peace.
  Ask now, and see,
    can a man bear a child?
  Why then do I see every man
    with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor?
    Why has every face turned pale?
  Alas! That day is so great
    there is none like it;
  it is a time of distress for Jacob;
    yet he shall be saved out of it.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, declares the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and foreigners shall no more make a servant of him.¹But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.

  “Then fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the LORD,
    nor be dismayed, O Israel;
  for behold, I will save you from far away,
    and your offspring from the land of their captivity.
  Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,
    and none shall make him afraid.
  For I am with you to save you,
      declares the LORD;
  I will make a full end of all the nations
    among whom I scattered you,
    but of you I will not make a full end.
  I will discipline you in just measure,
    and I will by no means leave you unpunished.
  “For thus says the LORD:
  Your hurt is incurable,
    and your wound is grievous.
  There is none to uphold your cause,
    no medicine for your wound,
    no healing for you.
  All your lovers have forgotten you;
    they care nothing for you;
  for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy,
    the punishment of a merciless foe,
  because your guilt is great,
    because your sins are flagrant.
  Why do you cry out over your hurt?
    Your pain is incurable.
  Because your guilt is great,
    because your sins are flagrant,
    I have done these things to you.
  Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured,
    and all your foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity;
  those who plunder you shall be plundered,
    and all who prey on you I will make a prey.
  For I will restore health to you,
    and your wounds I will heal,
      declares the LORD,
  because they have called you an outcast:
    ‘It is Zion, for whom no one cares!’
  “Thus says the LORD:
  Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob
    and have compassion on his dwellings;
  the city shall be rebuilt on its mound,
    and the palace shall stand where it used to be.
  Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving,
    and the voices of those who celebrate.
  I will multiply them, and they shall not be few;
    I will make them honored, and they shall not be small.
  Their children shall be as they were of old,
    and their congregation shall be established before me,
    and I will punish all who oppress them.
  Their prince shall be one of themselves;
    their ruler shall come out from their midst;
  I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me,
    for who would dare of himself to approach me?
      declares the LORD.
  And you shall be my people,
    and I will be your God.”
  Behold the storm of the LORD!
    Wrath has gone forth,
  a whirling tempest;
    it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
  The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back
    until he has executed and accomplished
    the intentions of his mind.
  In the latter days you will understand this.

The Lord Will Turn Mourning to Joy

31 “At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.”

  Thus says the LORD:
  “The people who survived the sword
    found grace in the wilderness;
  when Israel sought for rest,
    the LORD appeared to him² from far away.
  I have loved you with an everlasting love;
    therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
  Again I will build you, and you shall be built,
    O virgin Israel!
  Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines
    and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
  Again you shall plant vineyards
    on the mountains of Samaria;
  the planters shall plant
    and shall enjoy the fruit.
  For there shall be a day when watchmen will call
    in the hill country of Ephraim:
  ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,
    to the LORD our God.’”
  For thus says the LORD:
  “Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
    and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
  proclaim, give praise, and say,
    ‘O LORD, save your people,
    the remnant of Israel.’
  Behold, I will bring them from the north country
    and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
  among them the blind and the lame,
    the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;
    a great company, they shall return here.
  With weeping they shall come,
    and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,
  I will make them walk by brooks of water,
    in a straight path in which they shall not stumble,
  for I am a father to Israel,
    and Ephraim is my firstborn.
  “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
    and declare it in the coastlands far away;
  say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
    and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
  For the LORD has ransomed Jacob
    and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
  They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
    and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,
  over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
    and over the young of the flock and the herd;
  their life shall be like a watered garden,
    and they shall languish no more.
  Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
    and the young men and the old shall be merry.
  I will turn their mourning into joy;
    I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
  I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
    and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
      declares the LORD.”
  Thus says the LORD:
  “A voice is heard in Ramah,
    lamentation and bitter weeping.
  Rachel is weeping for her children;
    she refuses to be comforted for her children,
    because they are no more.”
  Thus says the LORD:
  “Keep your voice from weeping,
    and your eyes from tears,
  for there is a reward for your work,
      declares the LORD,
    and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
  There is hope for your future,
      declares the LORD,
    and your children shall come back to their own country.
  I have heard Ephraim grieving,
  ‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,
    like an untrained calf;
  bring me back that I may be restored,
    for you are the LORD my God.
  For after I had turned away, I relented,
    and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh;
  I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
    because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
  Is Ephraim my dear son?
    Is he my darling child?
  For as often as I speak against him,
    I do remember him still.
  Therefore my heart³ yearns for him;
    I will surely have mercy on him,
      declares the LORD.
  “Set up road markers for yourself;
    make yourself guideposts;
  consider well the highway,
    the road by which you went.
  Return, O virgin Israel,
    return to these your cities.
  How long will you waver,
    O faithless daughter?
  For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth:
    a woman encircles a man.”

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes:

  “‘The LORD bless you, O habitation of righteousness,
    O holy hill!’

And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks. For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the LORD. In those days they shall no longer say:

  “‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
    and the children's teeth are set on edge.’

But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

The New Covenant

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

  Thus says the LORD,
  who gives the sun for light by day
    and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
  who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the LORD of hosts is his name:
  “If this fixed order departs
    from before me, declares the LORD,
  then shall the offspring of Israel cease
    from being a nation before me forever.”
  Thus says the LORD:
  “If the heavens above can be measured,
    and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
  then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
    for all that they have done,
      declares the LORD.”

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the LORD. It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”

(ESV)

Psalm 113

Who Is like the Lord Our God?

113   Praise the LORD!
  Praise, O servants of the LORD,
    praise the name of the LORD!
  Blessed be the name of the LORD
    from this time forth and forevermore!
  From the rising of the sun to its setting,
    the name of the LORD is to be praised!
  The LORD is high above all nations,
    and his glory above the heavens!
  Who is like the LORD our God,
    who is seated on high,
  who looks far down
    on the heavens and the earth?
  He raises the poor from the dust
    and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
  to make them sit with princes,
    with the princes of his people.
  He gives the barren woman a home,
    making her the joyous mother of children.
  Praise the LORD!

(ESV)

1 Corinthians 2-3

Proclaiming Christ Crucified

2 And I, when I came to you, brothers,¹ did not come proclaiming to you the testimony² of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men³ but in the power of God.

Wisdom from the Spirit

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,

  “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
    nor the heart of man imagined,
  what God has prepared for those who love him”—

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.⁴

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Divisions in the Church

3 But I, brothers,⁵ could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled⁶ master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Do you not know that you⁷ are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

(ESV)