| Week 2 |
| Day 1 |  | (Originally posted Sunday, January 5, 2014)
Overview Jeremiah 2:1-37. "Fair Warning". It has been said that The Lord works in mysterious ways, and this is often true. Sometimes, however, there is no mystery because He tells us clearly what He has done, is doing, and will do, and He tells us why, sometimes in uncomfortably great detail. This week we enter into a difficult but necessary warning section of Scripture, which spans Jeremiah chapters 2 through 6. In contemporary terms, it's like watching an entirely preventable car wreck. We want to save who we can. Brace yourself with prayer before, during and after. |
| Day 2 |  | (Originally posted Monday, January 6, 2014)
(1/3) Jeremiah 2:1-3, 4-8: "The Piņata". When I was a child, part of our birthday celebrations in my family was to have a piņata, and how fun for us kids to take turns swatting it blindfolded, and then the frenzy when it broke open and all the candies came out. |  | (2/3) I had a REM-sleep dream this morning that was a wild, weird rhapsody worthy of the silver screen in which my dad and I were in a hurry to get somewhere. It started with two people we didn't know wrecking their old truck, think Mater from "Cars", but they were okay, then as the camera is following a terrier(?) through a twisting turning maze of backyards and pools and walkthru D.J. booths, my dad's voice in voiceover recalling a new lyric for the happy birthday song, tearfully, the last two lines: "...happy birthday, (in audible), and a Band-Aid for me." ...I don't know, don't ask me, I don't make them up, I just have them. |  | (3/3) Anyway, the point is in today's reading, our God Yahweh starts out His warning messaging to our siblings Israel by recalling their younger years, when they were just a nation in infancy, days of innocence. Then He asks rhetorically in verse 5 "What did I do wrong that you now do wrong Me?" It's like "We used to have fun playing with piņatas, but now you have taken off your blindfold and are making yourself into an empty piņata without Me..." And for them the stick is coming. And the stick is Babylon. No fun. |
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| Day 3 | (Originally posted Tuesday, January 7, 2014)
(1/3) Jeremiah 2:9-13, 14-19 - "Trading the Real for the Stylish" or "Keeping up with the Joneses". In today's reading, we get more details as to why our God Yahweh is upset with His people Israel in Jeremiah's time. It amounts to abandoning Him for the fake gods of surrounding neighbors, whichever ones are in vogue. We are guilty of this today, but the gods we bow to are not so obvious, like style or taste or tact. The biggest god of our time is actually Science. Beware of Science, take it with a grain of salt, because worshipers of Science used to think an ad like this was okay: |  |  | (2/3) See also Romans 1:20-25 about trading down to false gods. Back to Jeremiah 2, in verse 13 Yahweh compares what they (and we, nowadays) have been doing with trading out a spring for a broken cistern, it's like trading a perfectly functional water fountain for a dribble glass, and just try drinking out of that! |  | (3/3) And, as if He is signing a letter of advisement, Yahweh ends this portion with the strongest known version of His name: "Adonai (Lord) Yahweh (He Who Will Be, He Who Has Been) Tsevaot ([of] Hosts, that is, the Boss of the Angels)." He reiterates who He is. The counterfeits are obvious in the light of the real thing. |
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Day 4
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(Originally posted Wednesday, January 8, 2014)
(1/3) Jeremiah 2:20-25 - "Idol Minds". We don't really get idolatry. Of all the sins, it is the one whose impact when committed is felt the least by us. Today's reading is to us harsh and abrasive, and that's intentional, because our God Yahweh is getting across to us the hurt and pain we cause Him when we worship anything or anyone other than Him.
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(2/3) We do get sexual sins, however. We can understand, if we have been married, or at least imagine, if we had been betrothed, the pain and suffering that goes with that current, former or intended spouse carrying on with someone else. We shouldn't stand for it, and Yahweh DEFINITELY will not allow it. That's partly why He's getting so mad with His churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. The idolatry has been seeping into the church. Not good! Not good!
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(3/3) If you think you're immune because you "don't believe anything" as you read this, THINK again. We're all HARD-WIRED for worship; it's what we were made to do in the first place. If you don't worship Yahweh, you're worshiping something or someone; it is inevitable. We've lost much since we have been worshiping Romance, for instance. As a Christ-follower, I try to find out who or what others worship, then I can speak to them in terms that they not only understand, but are passionate about. I learned this from my brother Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. Then I have more chance to tell them about Jesus, my passion. "We will not bow to the world". Come with me, won't you?
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Day 5
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(Originally posted Thursday, January 9, 2014)
(1/3) Jeremiah 2:26-28 - "Warranted Shame". In today's portion, Yahweh through Jeremiah continues His scathing indictment of His people Israel in clinging to other "gods", which were really just statues.
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(2/3) This actually reminds me of my short-lived career as a shoplifter. I was 5 or 6 maybe, and there were these wonderful little cartoon cars, like the ones in the picture, that I wanted so badly. Well, my mother had already told me "no", because we needed food, not toys, and she loved me. I just had to have them, so I took them out of the packaging and put them in my pockets. I got away with it... UNTIL... she saw me playing with "my" new cars as we pulled out of the store parking lot. She took the cars out of my hands and said, "You just wait 'til we get home, buddy!" I can still hear her.
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(3/3) To my surprise, I didn't get a spanking; I got a shaming. The cars I lusted after were placed on top of the highest shelf in our house, out of my reach, for all in the house to see. It worked; I never did it again. Yahweh will do the same with us who belong to Him. If we persist in turning away from Him to whatever worshipthings to which we cling, He will say "no" because He loves us, rip our idols from our clutches, sometimes forcibly--depending on how it comes down--and place them on display to watch them not perform when we need help most. Yahweh is THE God, and we do well to live out that truth. May we pray.
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Day 6
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(Originally posted Friday, January 10, 2014)
(1/3) Jeremiah 2:29-37 - "It's REALLY not Me... It's YOU". These days, from some, God gets a really bad rap from some well-meaning yet harsh critics. From others, they take the motto "God is my Judge" and use it as a license to basically do whatever they want to do, instead of what He's telling them to do. So, our God Yahweh graciously spells out for His people again what it is they have done to Him. This passage is basically a court date, and the Judge is reading the charges.
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(2/3) Yahweh is very gracious with His people when He shares words like these, because He is the Pantokrator, the Almighty, and He could just pull a Great Flood or Sodom-and-Gomorrah deal and let His people alone to their own destruction. Instead, He uses His words to try and bring them back from the brink, because, as He says, they are behaving like a wife who has left her wedding ring in a drawer.
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(3/3) And not only is Yahweh omnipotent, He is also omniscient, He knows everything. This is why it is truly said that He never learns: He doesn't have to, because He already knows it ALL. Which is why alarm bells should go off when we see all these questions He is asking. He already knows the answers, so why does He ask? As you read through the Scriptures, as you pray through your prayer life, when you read or hear a question from the Almighty, brace yourself: you're about to get a revelation or a rebuke.
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| Day 7 |  | (Originally posted Saturday, January 11, 2014)
Review Jeremiah 2:1-37 and REST today in the reassuring knowledge that our God Yahweh doesn't just wipe us out utterly when we wrong Him, but He calls us out and speaks boldly and bluntly to wake us up and bring us back to Him. |