Jeremiah 20-22
1 Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest who was also appointed governor in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these words. 2 He struck him and cast him into the stockade by the gate of the house set apart near the house of the Lord. 3 Later Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stockade, and Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call your name Pashhur, but Emigrant.
4 “For thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will give you and all your friends as an emigrant in a foreign land. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will give you and all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon. They shall deport them as immigrants and cut them with their swords. 5 For I shall give all the strength of this city, all its labors and its treasures of the kings of Judah, into the hands of its enemies. They will carry them to Babylon. 6 You, and all who dwell in your house, shall go in captivity to Babylon. There you shall die and be buried—you and all your friends to whom you prophesied lies.’ ”
Jeremiah Is Despised
7 O Lord, you deceived me, and I was deceived. You seized me and prevailed. I am a laughingstock, for every day I am mocked continually. 8 Since I laugh with my bitter word, I will call upon faithlessness and misery, for the word of the Lord has become a disgrace to me and a joke each of my days. 9 Then I said, “I will not name the name of the Lord, nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was like a burning fire in my bones. I am weakened on all sides and no longer able to bear it. 10 For I heard the censure of many who gathered round, saying, “Let us and all the men who are his friends confront and conspire against him. Let us observe his intention and see if he can be deceived, for we will prevail against him and be avenged on him.”
11 But the Lord was with me as a mighty warrior. Therefore they persecuted me, but were unable to discern anything they could use against me. They were greatly ashamed, for they did not understand their dishonor, which will never be forgotten. 12 O Lord, You who approve righteous acts, who understand the minds and hearts, may I see Your vengeance upon them, for I revealed my defense before You.
13 Sing to the Lord, sing praises to Him, for He delivers the soul of the poor from the hand of those who are evil.
14 Cursed be the day I was born, the day my mother bore me. Let it not be longed for. 15 Cursed be the man who brought the good news to my father, saying, “A boy has been born to you.” 16 Let that man be as these cities the Lord destroyed in anger, and did not regret it. Let them hear crying in early morning and lamentation at noon, 17 because He did not kill me in the womb of my mother, and because my mother did not become my tomb, and her womb an unending conception. 18 Why is it I came forth from her womb, to look upon hardships and sufferings and to remain in shame all my days?
God Spurns Jerusalem
1 The word came from the Lord to Jeremiah, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Melchiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest. 2 They said to him, “Inquire of the Lord for us—for the king of Babylon besieges us—if the Lord will act according to all His wonderful works, and the king will depart from us.”
3 Jeremiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, king of Judah, 4 ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I turn back your weapons of war to gather them in the midst of this city, weapons with which you wage war against the Chaldeans, who shut you in from outside the wall. 5 For I will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a powerful arm, with anger and wrath and with great provocation. 6 I will strike all the inhabitants of this city, men and cattle, with a great death. Indeed they shall die. 7 After this,” says the Lord, “I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants, and the people left in this city from death and from famine and sword, into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives. They shall cut them down with the edge of the sword. I shall not spare them nor have compassion upon them.’ ”
8 “Now you shall say to this people, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 He who remains in this city shall die by sword and famine, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans who shut you in, he shall live. His life shall be as booty to him, and he shall live. 10 For I have set My face against this city for calamities and not for good things. It shall be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.’ ”
A Word to the House of David
11 “O house of the king of Judah, hear the word of the Lord: 12 ‘O house of David, thus says the Lord: “Bring about judgment early in the morning, and act uprightly, and deliver him who is plundered from the hand of the one who wrongs him, lest My wrath be kindled like fire that shall burn with no one to quench it. 13 Behold, I am against you who dwell in the valley of Sor, in the plain, who say, ‘Who will terrify us?’ Or, ‘Who shall enter our dwelling?’ 14 For I will kindle a fire in its woods and it shall devour all things round about it.” ’ ”
1 Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there you shall speak this word, 2 and you shall say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David, you and your house and your people, and those who enter these gates! 3 Thus says the Lord: “Bring about judgment and righteousness, and rescue the plundered from the hand of the one who wrongs him. Do not oppress and act ungodly toward the resident alien, the orphan, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you will indeed perform this word, there shall enter through the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David. They shall ride on horses and in chariots—they, their servants, and their people. 5 But if you do not perform these words I Myself have sworn,” says the Lord, “this house shall become a desolation.” ’ ”
6 For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah: “You are Gilead to Me, the head of Lebanon. Yet I will surely make you as a wilderness, and your cities shall not be inhabited. 7 I will bring against you a man who destroys with his two-edged ax; and they shall cut down your choice cedars and cast them into the fire. 8 Then nations will pass through this city, and each will say to his neighbor, ‘Why has the Lord done so to this great city?’ 9 They will answer, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped foreign gods and served them.’ ”
10 Weep not for the dead, neither lament. Weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land.
A Word to the Sons of Josiah
11 For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, who reigned in the place of Josiah his father, who left this place: “He shall not return here anymore, 12 but he shall die in the place where I have exiled him. He shall see this land no more.
13 “Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness and his rooms upstairs without judgment, who employs his neighbor for nothing and will not give him his pay! 14 You built for yourself a well-proportioned house with breezy rooms upstairs, lined with windows, cedar panels, and painted with vermilion. 15 Shall you reign, for you provoked Me as did your father Ahaz? They shall not eat and drink. It is better for you to bring about good judgment and righteousness. 16 They did not understand and judge the cause of a lowly or poor man. Is this your not knowing Me?” says the Lord. 17 “Behold, neither your eyes nor your heart are good for anything except for covetousness and the shedding of innocent blood, and for committing wrongdoing and murder.”
18 Therefore thus says the Lord to Jehoiakim the king of Judah, the son of Josiah: “Woe to this man. They shall not mourn for him, saying, ‘Oh brother!’ Neither shall they weep for him, saying, ‘Alas, master!’ 19 But he shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, and they will drag him out to be discarded beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 “Go up to Lebanon and cry out, and lift up your voice in Bashan. Shout to the faraway places of the sea that all your lovers are crushed. 21 For I spoke to you concerning your transgression, but you said, ‘I will not hear.’ This has been your way from your youth. You do not hear My voice. 22 The wind shall tend all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity, for then you will be shamed and treated with dishonor because of all your lovers. 23 Those who dwell in Lebanon and who make their nest in the cedar trees, you shall groan when pangs come upon you, as those of a woman giving birth.
A Word to Jeconiah
24 “As I live,” says the Lord, “though Jeconiah king of Judah, the son of Jehoiakim, were the signet on My right hand, still I would drag off all of you. 25 I will give you into the hands of those who seek your life, into the hands of the Chaldeans, before whose face you are afraid. 26 So I will cast all of you, and your mother who bore you, into a country where you were not born. There you shall die. 27 But they shall not return to the land they long for in their souls. 28 Jeconiah is dishonored like a worthless vessel, for he is cast forth and driven out into a land he did not know.
29 “O land, land, hear the word of the Lord: 30 ‘Write this man as a banished man, for none at all from his seed shall be raised to sit on the throne of David, or still as a ruler in Judah.’ ”
Psalm 113:12–26
12 The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
The work of men’s hands;
13 They have a mouth, but they shall not speak;
They have eyes, but they shall not see;
14 They have ears, but they shall not hear;
They have noses, but they shall not smell;
15 They have hands, but they shall not feel;
They have feet, but they shall not walk;
They shall make no sound with their throats.
16 May those who make them become like them,
And all who trust in them.
17 The house of Israel hoped in the Lord;
He is their help and their protector.
18 The house of Aaron hoped in the Lord;
He is their help and their protector.
19 Those who feared the Lord hoped in the Lord;
He is their help and their protector.
20 The Lord remembered us and blessed us;
He blessed the house of Israel;
He blessed the house of Aaron;
21 He blessed those who feared the Lord,
The least with the greatest.
22 May the Lord increase you,
Both you and your children;
23 You are blessed by the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
24 The heaven of heaven belongs to the Lord,
But He gave the earth to the sons of men.
25 The dead shall not praise You, O Lord,
Neither do all who descend into Hades;
26 But we who live shall bless the Lord,
From this present time and unto the ages.
Proverbs 24:29–34
29 He who says about an ungodly man, “He is righteous,”
Shall be accursed to people and despicable to nations;
30 But those who reprove him shall appear more excellent,
And a good blessing shall come upon them;
And they will kiss the lips that answer good words.
31 Prepare your works for your going forth,
And prepare yourself for the field;
32 And walk behind me,
And you shall build up your house.
33 Do not be a false witness against your countryman,
Neither open wide your lips;
34 Do not say, “I will treat him as he treated me,
And I shall avenge myself on him wherein he wronged me.”
Hebrews 12:1–27
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The Discipline of God
(Prov. 3:11, 12)
3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Renew Your Spiritual Vitality
(Gen. 25:29–34; 27:30–40)
12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,
13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:
15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.
17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
The Glorious Company
18 For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest,
19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.
20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.”
21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Hear the Heavenly Voice
25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,
26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”
27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.