1Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, 2 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3 Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. 5 But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. 6 For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah:
“‘You are like Gilead to me,
like the summit of Lebanon,
yet surely I will make you a desert,
an uninhabited city. 7 I will prepare destroyers against you,
each with his weapons,
and they shall cut down your choicest cedars
and cast them into the fire.
8 “‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, “Why has the Lord dealt thus with this great city?” 9 And they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”’”
REFLECTION:
God told the king of Judah through the mouth of Jeremiah that the foundation of making the country strong is to stay away from sin and practice fairness and justice. To uphold justice is not only to believe in the correct doctrine of God, but also to show it in practical actions. Although good deeds cannot save us, they can express our faith concretely. As the Book of James said, faith without works is like body without spirit, it is faith of death (see James 2:17-26). Such faith will not make us stand before God’s judgment. Reflect if our faith is expressed in practical actions? If our faith cannot bring out our good deeds, and if “justification by faith” has become an excuse for our inaction, we should be vigilant whether we have deviated from the new covenant that God established with us through the blood of Christ, and turned to serve all kinds of tangible and intangible idols?
PRAYER:
Come to God humbly and ask God to examine your heart to see if it contains pollution from the world? Pray for God to cleanse you, make you more holy, and be willing to fully dedicate yourself to God to please Him. Pray for God to give you the strength to actively participate in the church’s various ministries, and follow the Lord Jesus’ Great Commandment “love your neighbour as yourself” with practical actions to commensurate with your faith.
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, 2 “Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.”
3 Then Jeremiah said to them: “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, 4 ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. 5 I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath. 6 And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence. 7 Afterward, declares the Lord, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.’
8 “And to this people you shall say: ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war. 10 For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.’
REFLECTION:
From the beginning of this chapter to chapter 28, Jeremiah predicted that King Nebuchadnezzar would besiege Jerusalem from 588 to 586 BC. The central message that Jeremiah preached was: Those kings and false prophets who lead the people astray will be judged by God. Jeremiah had predicted that Jerusalem would be destroyed, but he was denied and ridiculed by the leaders of the city. Zedekiah, King of Judah, decided to fight against Nebuchadnezzar. The politicians of the country urged King Zedekiah to ally with Egypt. It was not until the last resort that Zedekiah asked God for help, but he still ignored God’s warnings and did not confess his sins. King Zedekiah quoted historical events during the reign of Hezekiah, thinking that Jehovah miraculously saved them and saved Jerusalem from the destruction by Sennacherib, King of Assyria, and this time history will repeat itself. Jeremiah’s answer broke the illusion of Zedekiah. When Judah was taken into captivity in 586 BC, Zedekiah finally became the last king of Judah. Today, many people of God often forget God in good times, ignore God’s warnings, and ask God for help only until they are desperate. However, God wants to establish a long-term relationship with us. Think about whether you are trying to establish an intimate relationship with God in your daily life, or do you only find Him to relieve your problems when you are in trouble?
PRAYER:
Pray for God to enlighten you and give you a vigilant heart so that you do not leave God in a stable and prosperous life; resolve to God, whether it is smooth or difficult, you are willing to get close to God and experience God’s presence in your daily life, and establish an intimate relationship with Him.
1 Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. 3 The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4 For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. 5 Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.”
REFLECTION:
Pashhur was the official responsible for maintaining order in the temple, and he was also a priest and pretending to be a prophet. After listening to Jeremiah’s words, instead of thinking about it seriously and repenting by action, he beat Jeremiah and put him in the stocks. Although the truth sometimes irritates people, how to treat the truth reflects a person’s character. We can deny the accusations of the truth, eliminate the evidence of mistakes, or accept the facts humbly and honestly, and let the truth transform us. Pashhur thinks he is a mighty leader, but in fact he is just a coward. The name “Pashhur” originally meant “Prosperity All Around”, but it became “Magor-missabib”, which means “Terror on Every Side”. Jeremiah’s prophecy that he said to Pashhur about the subjugation of the kingdom was finally fulfilled when Babylon invaded Judah three times in 586 BC, and Pashhur was also taken into captivity with King Jehoiakim. God’s words will never fail. We should use Pashhur as a negative example, and receive all God’s words to us with awe, including the words that we are not willing to hear. If you despise or disobey the word of God, you will have serious consequences.
PRAYER:
Come to God quietly and ask God to examine your heart. Ask God to give you greater faith and more wisdom, so that you can understand all God’s guidance in your life, including those that hurt you. Trust that God’s words and arrangements that you are unwilling to listen to are all for your benefit. Ask God to give you deeper humility so that you can obey all God’s guidance in your life.
