Hello, this is Father Paul, and I'm glad we're
taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year. Today's reading is from the book of
Jeremiah, chapters 14, 16, and 17. Chapter 14.
The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning
the droughts. Judah mourns, and her gates languish.
They mourn for the land, and the cry of Jerusalem
has gone up. Their nobles have sent their lads
for water. They went to the cisterns and found
no water. They returned with their vessels empty.
They were ashamed and confounded and covered
their heads. Because the ground is parched, for
there was no rain in the land, the plowmen were
ashamed. They covered their heads. Yes, the deer
also gave birth in a field, but left because
there was no grass. And the wild donkeys stood
in the desolate heights. They sniffed at the
wind like jackals. Their eyes failed because
there was no grass. O Lord, though our iniquities
testify against us, do it for your name's sake,
for our backslidings are many, we have sinned
against you. O the hope of Israel, his savior
in time of trouble, why should you be like a
stranger in the land, and like a traveler who
turns aside to tarry for a night? Why should
you be like a man astonished, like a mighty one
who cannot save? Yet you, O Lord, are in our
midst, and we are called by your name, do not
leave us. Thus says the Lord to this people,
Thus they have loved to wander. They have not
restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does
not accept them. He will remember their iniquity
now and punish their sins. Then the Lord said
to me, Do not pray for this people, for their
good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry.
And when they offer burnt offering and grain
offering, I will not accept them. But I will
consume them by the sword, by the famine, and
by the pestilence. Then I said, Ah, Lord God,
behold the prophets, say to them, You shall not
see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but
I will give you assured peace in this place.
And the Lord said to me, The prophets prophesy
lies in my name. I have not sent them, commanded
them, nor spoken to them. They prophesy to you
a false vision, divination, a worthless thing,
and a deceit of their heart. Therefore thus says
the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy
in my name whom I did not send and who say sword
and famine shall not be in this land. By sword
and famine those prophets shall be consumed.
And the people to whom they prophesy shall be
cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because
of the famine and the sword. They will have no
one to bury them, them nor their wives, their
sons nor their daughters, for I will pour their
wickedness on them. Therefore you shall say this
word to them. Let my eyes flow with tears night
and day, and let them not cease. For the virgin
daughter of my people has been broken with a
mighty stroke, with a very severe blow. If I
go out to the field, then behold those slain
with the sword. And if I enter the city, then
behold those sick from famine. Yes, both prophet
and priest go about in a land they do not know.
Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul
loathed Zion? Why have you stricken us so that
there is no healing for us? We looked for peace,
but there was no good. And for the time of healing,
and there was trouble. We acknowledge, O Lord,
our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers,
for we have sinned against you. Do not abhor
us for your name's sake. Do not disgrace the
throne of your glory. Remember, do not break
your covenant with us. Are there any among the
idols of the nations that can cause rain? Or
can the heavens give showers? are you not he
o lord our god therefore we will wait for you
since you have made all these chapter sixteen
the word of the lord also came to me saying you
shall not take a wife nor shall you have sons
or daughters in this place for thus says the
lord concerning the sons and daughters who are
born in this place and concerning their mothers
who bore them and their fathers who begot them
in this land they shall die gruesome death They
shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried,
but they shall be like refuse on the face of
the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword
and by famine, and their corpses shall be made
for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of
the earth. For thus says the Lord, Do not enter
the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan
them. For I have taken away my peace from this
people, says the Lord, loving kindness and mercies.
Both the great and the small shall die in this
land. They shall not be buried, neither shall
men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make
themselves bald for them. Nor shall men break
bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for
the dead. Nor shall men give them the cup of
consolation to drink for their father or their
mother. Also you shall not go into the house
of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
Behold, I will cause to cease from this place
before your eyes and in your days the voice of
mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of
the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. And
it shall be when you show this people all these
words, and they say to you, Why has the Lord
pronounced all this great disaster against us?
Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that
we have committed against the Lord our God? Then
you shall say to them, Because your fathers have
forsaken me, says the Lord, they have walked
after other gods and have served them and worshipped
them, and have forsaken me and not kept my law.
And you have done worse than your fathers, for
behold, each one follows the dictates of his
own evil heart, so that no one listens to me.
Therefore I will cast you out of this land into
a land that you do not know, neither you nor
your fathers. And there you shall serve other
gods day and night, where I will not show you
favor. Therefore, behold, the days are coming,
says the Lord, that it shall no more be said,
The Lord lives who brought up the children of
Israel from the land of Egypt. But the Lord lives
who brought up the children of Israel from the
land of the north and from all the lands where
he had driven them. For I will bring them back
into their own land, which I gave to their fathers.
behold i will send for many fishermen says the
lord and they shall fish them and afterward i
will send for many hunters and they shall hunt
them from every mountain and every hill and out
of the holes of the rocks for my eyes are on
all their ways they are not hidden from my face
nor is their iniquity hidden from my eyes. And
first I will repay double for their iniquity
and their sin, because they have defiled my land.
They have filled my inheritance with the carcasses
of their detestable and abominable idols. O Lord,
my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the
day of affliction. The Gentiles shall come to
you from the ends of the earth and say, Surely
our fathers have inherited lies, worthlessness,
and unprofitable things. Will a man make gods
for himself? which are not gods? Therefore, behold,
I will this once cause them to know. I will cause
them to know my hand and my might, and they shall
know that my name is the Lord. Chapter 17 The
sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with
the point of a diamond it is engraved, on the
tablet of their heart and on the horns of your
altars, while their children remember their altars
and their wooden images by the green trees on
the high hills. O my mountain in the field, I
will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures,
and your high places of sin within all your borders.
And you, even yourself, shall let go of your
heritage which I gave you, and I will cause you
to serve your enemies in the land which you do
not know. For you have kindled a fire in my anger
which shall burn forever. Thus says the Lord,
Cursed is the man who trusts in man. and makes
flesh his strength whose heart departs from the
lord for he shall be like a shrub in the desert
and shall not see when good comes but shall inhabit
the parched places in the wilderness in a salt
land which is not inhabited blessed is the man
who trusts in the lord and whose hope is the
lord for he shall be like a tree planted by the
waters which spreads out its roots by the river
and will not fear when heat comes but its leaf
will be green and will not be anxious in the
year of drought, nor will cease from yielding
fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the
Lord, search the heart. I test the mind, even
to give every man according to his ways, according
to the fruit of his doings. As a partridge that
broods but does not hatch, so is he who gets
riches, but not by right. It will leave him in
the midst of his days. and at his end he will
be a fool. A glorious high throne from the beginning
is the place of our sanctuary, O Lord, the hope
of Israel. All who forsake you shall be ashamed.
Those who depart from me shall be written in
the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord,
the fountain of living waters. Heal me, O Lord,
and I shall be healed. Save me, and I shall be
saved. For you are my praise. Indeed, they say
to me, Where is the word of the Lord? Let it
come now. As for me, I have not hurried away
from being a shepherd who follows you, nor have
I desired the woeful day. You know what came
out of my lips. It was right there before you.
Do not be a terror to me. You are my hope in
the day of doom. Let them be ashamed who persecute
me, but do not let me be put to shame. Let them
be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed. Bring
on them the day of doom, and destroy them with
double destruction. Thus the Lord said to me,
Go and stand in the gate of the children of the
people, by which the kings of Judah come in,
and by which they go out, and in all the gates
of Jerusalem. And say to them, Hear the word
of the Lord, you kings of Judah and all Judah,
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter
by these gates. Thus says the Lord, Take heed
to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath
day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.
nor carry a burden out of your houses on the
Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the
Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But
they did not obey nor incline their ear, but
made their neck stiff, that they might not hear
nor receive instruction. And it shall be, if
you heed me carefully, says the Lord, to bring
no burden through the gates of this city on the
Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day to do
no work in it. Then shall enter the gates of
this city kings and princes, sitting on the throne
of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they
and their princes, accompanied by the men of
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this
city shall remain forever, and they shall come.
from the cities of Judah, and from the places
around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin,
and from the low land, from the mountains, and
from the south, bringing burnt offerings and
sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing
sacrifices of praise to the house of the Lord.
But if you will not heed me to hallow the Sabbath
day, such as not carrying a burden when entering
the gates of Jerusalem on a Sabbath day, Then
I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall
devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall
not be quenched. I hope you enjoyed today's reading
as much as I did, and I look forward to seeing
you again tomorrow to continue on our journey.
God bless you and have a great day.