Today's Readings and Stuff -- Friday, 28 October 2016

Happy Friday!  For our Jewish friends, this day has particular meaning as Shabbas begins at sundown.  And for our still-gainfully-employed friends, some of you at least, this is the last "get-up" of the week.  The weekend is almost upon us.  Some of our fellows will, of course, mark the moment with prayer and praise and study of the Word.  Others will mark it with various sorts of bad behavior, alcohol, "recreational pharmaceuticals", and "meaningful overnight relationships" with persons whose legal names they may not know.  I've been around all of those, though not in Temple I'll admit.  The bad behavior I don't miss, and am frankly ashamed of.  The sense of release at the end of the "normal" work week I do miss, terribly, and the paycheck too.  Oh, well.

Wife is doing a teeny bit better, perhaps the high-potency antibiotics are starting to have some effect.  She did get some decent sleep last night (so I did also) which was very welcome.  And the cats let me sleep in until 05:45, which is quite late for them.  Wife's in recliner, pillows elevating her feet even more, having had an egg (evil things they are!) and coffee and the morning's dose of antibiotic.  Littlest cat at my feet, with some sort of noise-producing toy going, the two boy cats snoozing on our bed, resting up from yesterday's naps and their breakfast. 

I am hoping to do some pre-winter-freeze work around the house today and during the weekend, in a brief  "warm" period before snow hits.  Three years ago, right after our move from the Deep South, we'd already had SNOW on the ground.  None of that yet, but it's coming and the coming winter season is predicted to be unusually cold, bitter, and snowy, even by local standards.  I hate winter, always have.  Cousin of mine posted something on social media the other day expressing the same beliefs (and she has never lived  out of the area), referring to it as "seasonal affective disorder".  I'd not heard the term before, I guess it means "hates snow and cold", which sounds like good sense, not a disorder of any kind.

And, as you will see, the readings for the day, notably meaning the Old Testament passage from Jeremiah, only add to that.  I see the world around me and nearly despair.  Then I look at the time around Jeremiah's ministry, and note what was going on and happening even then, and see the similarities, and realize that the same sort of disaster and judgment then, fully deserved, can happen again.  I fear that it will.

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The Old Testament passage today is chapters 23 and 24 of Jeremiah.  Note well the asides in 24:  judgment and disaster were already going on.  As foretold.  As he, and those before him, had warned.  And were ignored at best, and often persecuted for it.  Some things have not changed, have they?

Jeremiah 23

1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. 2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD. 3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD. 5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 8 But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land. 9 Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness. 10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. 11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD. 12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD. 13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. 14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness; they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. 15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. 16 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. 17 They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. 18 For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it? 19 Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. 20 The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. 21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. 23 Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? 24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD. 25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; 27 Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. 28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD. 29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. 32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD. 33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the LORD. 34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house. 35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken? 36 And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God. 37 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken? 38 But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD; 39 Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence: 40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

Jeremiah 24

1 The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.  

2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 

3 Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. 

4 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,  

5 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.  

6 For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 

7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. 

8 And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:  

9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. 

10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.

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The New Testament reading is chapter 2 of 2nd Timothy

II Timothy 2

 

1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.  

2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.  

3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.  

4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.  

5 And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.  

6 The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.  

7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.  

8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel: 

9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.  

10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.  

11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:  

12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:  

13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.  

14 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.  

15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 

16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.  

17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;  

18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.  

19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. 

20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. 

21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. 

22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.  

23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.  

24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,  

25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;  

26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.