Jeremiah 7-9
1 Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah. 2 Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your practices, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 3 Do not entrust yourselves to lying words, for they will not profit you when you say, ‘It is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ 4 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your practices, if you thoroughly bring about judgment between a man and his neighbor, 5 and do not oppress the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place or walk after foreign gods to your hurt, 6 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land I gave to your fathers of old and forever.
7 “But if you trust in lying words from which you cannot profit, 8 and you murder, commit adultery, steal, swear to do wrong, burn incense to Baal, and walk after foreign gods you do not know so as to do evil, 9 and come and stand before Me in the house wherein My name is called and say, ‘We have not abstained from doing all these abominations,’ 10 then is this house, called by My name, a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I have seen it.
11 “But go to My place in Shiloh, where I caused My name to dwell before, and see what I did to it because of the vices of My people Israel,” says the Lord. 12 “Now then, because you did all these works, and I spoke to you but you did not hear Me, and I called you but you did not answer, 13 therefore, I will also do to this house, called by My name in which you trust, and the place I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 14 I will cast you out of My sight as I cast out your brethren—all the seed of Ephraim.
15 “Therefore, do not pray for this people, nor consider them worthy to be shown mercy. Do not pray nor come to Me about them. I will not hear you. 16 Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 17 Their sons gather wood, and their fathers kindle the fire, while their women knead cake dough for the host of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to foreign gods to provoke Me to anger. 18 Do they provoke Me to wrath?” says the Lord. “Do they not provoke themselves to the shame of their own faces?” 19 Therefore, thus says the Lord: “Behold, My wrath and anger is poured out on this place, on men and cattle, on every tree of their field, and on all the fruits of the land. It will burn and not be quenched. 20 Gather your whole burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat meat.”
21 Thus says the Lord: “For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them concerning whole burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt. 22 But I commanded them this word, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and I will be to you as God, and you shall be to Me as a people. Walk in all My ways I commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ 23 Yet they did not hear Me and did not attend their ear. Instead, they walked in the devices of their heart and went backward, not forward. 24 From the day their fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I sent you all My servants, the prophets. I sent them by day and early in the morning. Yes, I sent them. 25 But they did not hear Me, nor did their ear attend. Instead, they stiffened their neck even more than their fathers.
False Worship Will Be Judged
26 “Therefore, you shall speak this word to them: 27 ‘This is the nation that heard not the voice of the Lord, nor received correction. Faith has perished from their mouth. 28 Cut off your hair and cast it away. Take up a lamentation on your lips, for the Lord has rejected and repudiated the generation that does these things.’ 29 For the sons of Judah did the evil thing in My sight,” says the Lord. “They set their abominations in the house called by My name, to defile it. 30 They also built the altar of Tophet in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command them, nor consider in My heart. 31 Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when they will no longer say, ‘the Altar of Tophet,’ or, ‘the Valley of the Son of Hinnom,’ but instead, ‘the Valley of the Slain’; and they will be buried in Tophet, for there is no other place. 32 The dead of this people will also be food for the birds of heaven and the wild beasts of the land. No one will scare them away. 33 I shall cause to cease the glad and joyful voice, the voice of the bridegroom and the bride, from the cities of Judah and the thoroughfares of Jerusalem. For the whole land shall be desolate.
The Relics Are an Example
1 “At that time,” says the Lord, “they shall bring out of their graves the bones of the kings of Judah and its rulers, the bones of the priests and the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 2 They shall dry them before the sun and the moon, and before all the stars and the hosts of heaven, which they loved and served, and after which they walked, devoted themselves, and worshiped. They are not to be mourned nor buried; but they are to be an example on the face of the earth, 3 because they chose death rather than life. They are also to be an example to all the remnant left from that generation, in every place wherever I banish them.”
False Teaching Will Be Judged
4 For thus says the Lord: “Will not he who falls arise? Or he who turns away, will he not return? 5 Why therefore has this My people turned away from Me in a shameful way, strengthened themselves in their choice, and were not willing to return? 6 Indeed, give ear and listen. Will they not speak thus: ‘There is no man who repents of his vices, saying, “What have I done?’ ” The runner ceases to run his race, as a sweating horse ceases to run when he is tired. 7 Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed time, as do the turtledove and the swallow of the field. The sparrows watch for the times of their coming. But My people do not know the judgments of the Lord.
8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us’? The lying pen becomes vanity for the scribes. 9 Wise men are put to shame and convicted, for they rejected the word of the Lord. What wisdom is in them? 10 I will give their wives and fields to others as an inheritance. 11 They will gather together their fruits. There are no grapes on the vines, nor figs on the fig trees, and the leaves have fallen off. 12 They will say, ‘Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter the strong cities. Let us be rejected, for God has cast us out and given us gall to drink, because we sinned against Him. 13 Let us come together for peace, but there was nothing good, and for a time of healing, but behold, trouble. 14 We will hear the swift sound of His horses coming from Dan. The whole land quakes from the neighing of His horse-drawn chariots. He will come and devour the land and its fullness, the city and those who dwell in it.’ 15 For behold, I send forth lethal serpents among you, for which there are no charms. 16 They shall bite you mortally with the pain of your disturbed heart.”
Jeremiah Weeps for His People
17 Behold, the voice of the daughter of my people cries out from a far land, “Is not the Lord in Zion? Is her King not there?” “No, because they provoked Me to anger with their carved images and foreign vanities.” 18 They will say, “The summer is gone, the harvest is past, and we are not saved.”
19 I am saddened because of the ruin of the daughter of my people. Pains have seized me as one who gives birth. 20 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician? Why is no healing taking place for the daughter of my people? 21 Who will give water to my head and a fountain of tears to my eyes, that I might weep day and night for this people of mine, for the wounded of the daughter of my people?
1 Who will give me lodging in a deserted place, that I might leave my people and depart from them? For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
2 “They bent their tongues like a bow. Falsehood, not faith, prevails in the land. For they went from evil to evil, and have not known Me. 3 Let each take heed to his neighbor, and not trust their brothers, for every brother will utterly deceive, and every friend will walk treacherously. 4 Each will mock at his friend and not speak the truth. Their tongue learns to speak lies, and they do wrong. They do not pause to turn back. 5 There is usury upon usury, deceit upon deceit. They are unwilling to know Me.”
6 Therefore thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will set them on fire and test them; I shall do so because of the evil of the daughter of My people. 7 Their tongue is a wounding arrow, and the words of their mouth are deceitful. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor, but has hatred in his heart. 8 Shall I not visit them for these things?” says the Lord. “Shall not My soul take vengeance on such a people as this? 9 Take up a wailing on the mountains and a lamentation on the paths of the desert; for they cease from being a people. They do not hear the sound of existence from the birds of the sky, nor even from cattle. They were astonished; they were gone. 10 I will put Jerusalem into captivity, and it will become a dwelling place of serpents. I will make the cities of Judah desolate, beyond habitation.”
11 Who is a wise man? Let him understand this. Let him declare to you by the word of the Lord to him why the land was ravaged by fire, and became like a desert no one could pass through. 12 The Lord answered me, “Because they forsook My law which I set before their face, and they did not hear My voice. 13 Instead, they walked after what pleased their evil heart, and after the idols their fathers taught them.” 14 Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Behold, I will feed them as a matter of necessity, and give them the water of bitterness to drink. 15 I will also scatter them among the Gentiles, amongst whom neither they nor their fathers are known. I shall send a sword after them until I consume them with it.”
The People Weep in Shame
16 Thus says the Lord: “Call for the mourning women and let them come. Send for the wise women and let them give utterance. 17 Let them take up a lamentation over you. Let your eyes run with tears, and your eyelids flow with water. 18 For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion, ‘How we have been afflicted and greatly ashamed, because we forsook the land and were cast out of our dwellings.’ ” 19 Indeed, O women, hear the word of God, and let your ear receive the words of His mouth. Teach your daughters wailing, and a woman a lamentation to all her neighbors. 20 For death will come through your windows and enter your land, to destroy the children from outside and the youth from the streets. 21 The dead men shall be as an example in the open country of your land, like grass after it is mowed, when there shall be none to gather it.
22 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast in his might, nor let the rich man boast in his riches.” 23 Instead, let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows that I am the Lord, who shows mercy, judgment, and righteousness on earth, for in these is My will,” says the Lord. 24 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, “that I will visit upon all the circumcised their uncircumcision. 25 I will visit Egypt, Judea, Edom, the sons of Ammon and the sons of Moab, and all who dwell in the desert—all who shave their face. For all these nations are uncircumcised in the flesh, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in their heart.”
Psalm 108:21–31
21 But You, O Lord, O Lord, deal mercifully with me for Your name’s sake,
For Your mercy is good.
22 Save me, for I am poor and needy,
And my heart is troubled within me.
23 I was removed like a shadow when it declines;
I was shaken off like the locusts.
24 My knees were weak from fasting,
And my flesh was changed because of the oil.
25 And I became an object of reproach to them;
They saw me; they shook their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God;
Save me according to Your mercy;
27 Then let them know this is Your hand,
And You, O Lord, did this.
28 They themselves shall curse, but You shall bless;
Let those who rise up against me be put to shame,
But let Your servant be glad.
29 Let those who falsely accuse me be clothed with shame,
And let them be covered with their dishonor like a double cloak.
30 I will give thanks to the Lord abundantly with my mouth,
And in the midst of many I will praise Him,
31 Because He stood at the right hand of a poor man,
To save me from those who persecute my soul.
Proverbs 24:7–12
7 Wisdom and good thinking are in the gates of the wise;
The wise do not turn away from the mouth of the Lord,
But they deliberate with councils;
8 Death happens to the uninstructed,
And a man without discernment shall die in his sins;
9 And uncleanness will pollute a pestilent man
In an evil day and a day of tribulation, until he dies.
10 Rescue those being led into death,
And saw off the bonds of those being cast out; do not spare them help;
11 If you say, “I do not know this man,”
Know that the Lord knows the hearts of all;
12 And He who formed every breath knows all things,
Who will render to each man according to his works.
Hebrews 10:1–18
1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
Christ’s Death Fulfills God’s Will
(cf. Ps. 40:6–8)
5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’ ”
8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law),
9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second.
10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Christ’s Death Perfects the Sanctified
11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,
13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.
14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”
17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.