Today's Readings and Stuff -- Saturday, 13 October 2018

Happy Saturday to all.  Earlier in the week, we saw temps in the low 80's.  Now, lows in the 30's and "highs" cooling "highs'.  Wednesday's "high" is predicted to be 47°.  No snow (yet) and no sub-freezing temps (yet) but it's coming.  Had SNOW predicted for the weekend in Amarillo, Texas, which is far south of here.  So it's coming.  The "global warming" screams are, once again, revealed to be lies.  Promulgated by liars.
But our former home is to see 80° today, with the next 10 days seeing 80's and 70's.  Sounds much better to me.

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Have you ever had to deliver a message or an analysis that you really didn't want to, because it would be painful for the hearer, but just had to?  I've done it, several times, and it's rough.  Rough for hearer or hearers, and rough to have to be the one delivering the Bad News.  Jeremiah had to do that, several times.  This was one of the roughest.  I sometimes come across notices of some of these off-the-wall church groups, with one (or more) persons whose "official" title is Prophet (or Prophetess) such-and-such.  From what the Bible records, the office / assignment as a prophet, is rarely an indicator of an easy life or one attended by honor and ease.  Not one to be sought as a mark of high status. 
Here's an example.  Would you want to be the one that the Lord had assigned to carry this message?  Yet, once the command was given, you'd have to be obedient.  For what would be the result if you stamped your foot and refused?  Unimaginable.  And the coming events would affect the prophet as well:  he'd not be untouched by it all.

Jeremiah 21

1The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,

2Enquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.

3Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah:

4Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.

5And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.

6And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.

7And afterward, saith the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

8And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.

9He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.

10For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

11And touching the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear ye the word of the Lord;

12O house of David, thus saith the Lord; Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

13Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the Lord; which say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?

14But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the Lord: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it.

Jeremiah 22

1Thus saith the Lord; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,

2And say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

3Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

4For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

5But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.

6For thus saith the Lord unto the king's house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.

7And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

8And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city?

9Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

10Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

11For thus saith the Lord touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:

12But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.

13Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;

14That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

15Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?

16He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord.

17But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

18Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!

19He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

20Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.

21I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.

22The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.

23O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!

24As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;

25And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

26And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.

27But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.

28Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?

29O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.

30Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.