Monthly Archives: March 2010

 Jeremiah 19:1     This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests ² and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, ³ and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. ⁴ For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. ⁵ They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. ⁶ So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. ⁷ “ ‘In this place I will ruin^b the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. ⁸ I will devastate this city and make it an object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. ⁹ I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh during the stress of the siege imposed on them by the enemies who seek their lives.’ ¹⁰ “Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, ¹¹ and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. ¹² This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. ¹³ The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’ ” ¹⁴ Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the Lord’s temple and said to all the people, ¹⁵ “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.’ ” Jeremiah and Pashhur Jeremiah 20:1    When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the chief officer in the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, ² he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the Lord’s temple. ³ The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord’s name for you is not Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib.^a ⁴ For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. ⁵ I will hand over to their enemies all the wealth of this city—all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away as plunder and carry it off to Babylon. ⁶ And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’ ” Jeremiah’s Complaint ⁷     O Lord, you deceived^a me, and I was deceived^b; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. ⁸     Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. ⁹     But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. ¹⁰     I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side! Report him! Let’s report him!” All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him.” ¹¹     But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten. ¹²     O Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. ¹³     Sing to the Lord! Give praise to the Lord! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked. ¹⁴     Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! ¹⁵     Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, “A child is born to you—a son!” ¹⁶     May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon. ¹⁷     For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. ¹⁸     Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame? God Rejects Zedekiah’s Request Jeremiah 21:1     The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. They said: ² “Inquire now of the Lord for us because Nebuchadnezzar^a king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the Lord will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us.” ³ But Jeremiah answered them, “Tell Zedekiah, ⁴ ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in your hands, which you are using to fight the king of Babylon and the Babylonians^b who are outside the wall besieging you. And I will gather them inside this city. ⁵ I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in anger and fury and great wrath. ⁶ I will strike down those who live in this city—both men and animals—and they will die of a terrible plague. ⁷ After that, declares the Lord, I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the people in this city who survive the plague, sword and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who seek their lives. He will put them to the sword; he will show them no mercy or pity or compassion.’ ⁸ “Furthermore, tell the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. ⁹ Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; he will escape with his life. ¹⁰ I have determined to do this city harm and not good, declares the Lord. It will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will destroy it with fire.’ ¹¹ “Moreover, say to the royal house of Judah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord; ¹² O house of David, this is what the Lord says: “ ‘Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done— burn with no one to quench it. ¹³     I am against you, Jerusalem, you who live above this valley on the rocky plateau, declares the Lord— you who say, “Who can come against us? Who can enter our refuge?” ¹⁴     I will punish you as your deeds deserve, declares the Lord. I will kindle a fire in your forests that will consume everything around you.’ ”

  Sayings of Agur. Proverbs 30:1     The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh—an oracle^a: This man declared to Ithiel, to Ithiel and to Ucal:^b ²     “I am the most ignorant of men; I do not have a man’s understanding. ³     I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. ⁴     Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know! ⁵     “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. ⁶     Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar. ⁷     “Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die: ⁸     Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. ⁹     Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. ¹⁰     “Do not slander a servant to his master, or he will curse you, and you will pay for it. ¹¹     “There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers; ¹²     those who are pure in their own eyes and yet are not cleansed of their filth; ¹³     those whose eyes are ever so haughty, whose glances are so disdainful; ¹⁴     those whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are set with knives to devour the poor from the earth, the needy from among mankind. ¹⁵     “The leech has two daughters. ‘Give! Give!’ they cry. “There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’: ¹⁶     the grave,^c the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says, ‘Enough!’ ¹⁷     “The eye that mocks a father, that scorns obedience to a mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures. ¹⁸     “There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: ¹⁹     the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden. ²⁰     “This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’ ²¹     “Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: ²²     a servant who becomes king, a fool who is full of food, ²³     an unloved woman who is married, and a maidservant who displaces her mistress. ²⁴     “Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise: ²⁵     Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer; ²⁶     coneys^d are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags; ²⁷     locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks; ²⁸     a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces. ²⁹     “There are three things that are stately in their stride, four that move with stately bearing: ³⁰     a lion, mighty among beasts, who retreats before nothing; ³¹     a strutting rooster, a he-goat, and a king with his army around him.^e ³²     “If you have played the fool and exalted yourself, or if you have planned evil, clap your hand over your mouth! ³³     For as churning the milk produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.”

  Rules for Holy Living Colossians 3:1    Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your^a life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. ⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.^b ⁷ You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹ Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. ¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. ¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Rules for Christian Households ¹⁸ Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. ¹⁹ Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. ²⁰ Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. ²¹ Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. ²² Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. ²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, ²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. ²⁵ Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

Psalm 119  ⁵⁵     In the night I remember your name, O Lord, and I will keep your law. ⁵⁶     This has been my practice: I obey your precepts. ח Heth ⁵⁷     You are my portion, O Lord; I have promised to obey your words. ⁵⁸     I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise. ⁵⁹     I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes. ⁶⁰     I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.