DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR SATURDAY AUGUST 25:
DAILY BIBLE READING
Jeremiah 43-45 The Message (MSG)
Death! Exile! Slaughter!
43 1-3 When Jeremiah finished telling all the people the whole Message that
their God had sent him to give them-all these words-Azariah son of Hoshaiah
and Johanan son of Kareah, backed by all the self-important men, said to
Jeremiah, "Liar! Our God never sent you with this message telling us not to
go to Egypt and live there. Baruch son of Neriah is behind this. He has
turned you against us. He's playing into the hands of the Babylonians so
we'll either end up being killed or taken off to exile in Babylon."
4 Johanan son of Kareah and the army officers, and the people along with
them, wouldn't listen to God's Message that they stay in the land of Judah
and live there.
5-7 Johanan son of Kareah and the army officers gathered up everyone who was
left from Judah, who had come back after being scattered all over the
place-the men, women, and children, the king's daughters, all the people
that Nebuzaradan captain of the bodyguard had left in the care of Gedaliah
son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and last but not least, Jeremiah the
prophet and Baruch son of Neriah. They entered the land of Egypt in total
disobedience of God's Message and arrived at the city of Tahpanhes.
8-9 While in Tahpanhes, God's Word came to Jeremiah: "Pick up some large
stones and cover them with mortar in the vicinity of the pavement that leads
up to the building set aside for Pharaoh's use in Tahpanhes. Make sure some
of the men of Judah are watching.
10-13 "Then address them: 'This is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies says: Be on
the lookout! I'm sending for and bringing Nebuchadnezzar the king of
Babylon-my servant, mind you!-and he'll set up his throne on these very
stones that I've had buried here and he'll spread out his canopy over them.
He'll come and absolutely smash Egypt, sending each to his assigned fate:
death, exile, slaughter. He'll burn down the temples of Egypt's gods. He'll
either burn up the gods or haul them off as booty. Like a shepherd who picks
lice from his robes, he'll pick Egypt clean. And then he'll walk away
without a hand being laid on him. He'll shatter the sacred obelisks at
Egypt's House of the Sun and make a huge bonfire of the temples of Egypt's
gods.'"
The Same Fate Will Fall upon All
44 1-6 The Message that Jeremiah received for all the Judeans who lived in
the land of Egypt, who had their homes in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph, and the
land of Pathros: "This is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel,
says: 'You saw with your own eyes the terrible doom that I brought down on
Jerusalem and the Judean cities. Look at what's left: ghost towns of rubble
and smoking ruins, and all because they took up with evil ways, making me
angry by going off to offer sacrifices and worship the latest in
gods-no-gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors knew the first
thing about. Morning after morning and long into the night I kept after you,
sending you all those prophets, my servants, begging you, "Please,
please-don't do this, don't fool around in this loathsome gutter of gods
that I hate with a passion." But do you think anyone paid the least bit of
attention or repented of evil or quit offering sacrifices to the no-gods?
Not one. So I let loose with my anger, a firestorm of wrath in the cities of
Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, and left them in ruins and wasted. And
they're still in ruins and wasted.'
7-8 "This is the Message of God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel:
'So why are you ruining your lives by amputating yourselves-man, woman,
child, and baby-from the life of Judah, leaving yourselves isolated,
unconnected? And why do you deliberately make me angry by what you do,
offering sacrifices to these no-gods in the land of Egypt where you've come
to live? You'll only destroy yourselves and make yourselves an example used
in curses and an object of ridicule among all the nations of the earth.
9-11 "'Have you so soon forgotten the evil lives of your ancestors, the evil
lives of the kings of Judah and their wives, to say nothing of your own evil
lives, you and your wives, the evil you flaunted in the land of Judah and
the streets of Jerusalem? And to this day, there's not a trace of remorse,
not a sign of reverence, nobody caring about living by what I tell them or
following my instructions that I've set out so plainly before you and your
parents! So this is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies decrees:
11-14 "'Watch out! I've decided to bring doom on you and get rid of everyone
connected with Judah. I'm going to take what's left of Judah, those who have
decided to go to Egypt and live there, and finish them off. In Egypt they
will either be killed or starve to death. The same fate will fall upon both
the obscure and the important. Regardless of their status, they will either
be killed or starve. You'll end up cursed, reviled, ridiculed, and mocked.
I'll give those who are in Egypt the same medicine I gave those in
Jerusalem: massacre, starvation, and disease. None of those who managed to
get out of Judah alive and get away to Egypt are going to make it back to
the Judah for which they're so homesick. None will make it back, except
maybe a few fugitives.'"
Making Goddess Cookies
15-18 The men who knew that their wives had been burning sacrifices to the
no-gods, joined by a large crowd of women, along with virtually everyone
living in Pathros of Egypt, answered Jeremiah: "We're having nothing to do
with what you tell us is God's Message. We're going to go right on offering
sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her,
keeping up the traditions set by our ancestors, our kings and government
leaders in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem in the good old
days. We had a good life then-lots of food, rising standard of living, and
no bad luck. But the moment we quit sacrificing to the Queen of Heaven and
pouring out offerings to her, everything fell apart. We've had nothing but
massacres and starvation ever since."
19 And then the women chimed in: "Yes! Absolutely! We're going to keep at
it, offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out offerings to
her. Aren't our husbands behind us? They like it that we make goddess
cookies and pour out our offerings to her."
20-23 Then Jeremiah spoke up, confronting the men and the women, all the
people who had answered so insolently. He said, "The sacrifices that you and
your parents, your kings, your government officials, and the common people
of the land offered up in the cities of Judah and the streets of
Jerusalem-don't you think God noticed? He noticed, all right. And he got fed
up. Finally, he couldn't take your evil behavior and your disgusting acts
any longer. Your land became a wasteland, a death valley, a horror story, a
ghost town. And it continues to be just that. This doom has come upon you
because you kept offering all those sacrifices, and you sinned against God!
You refused to listen to him, wouldn't live the way he directed, ignored the
covenant conditions."
24-25 Jeremiah kept going, but now zeroed in on the women: "Listen, all you
who are from Judah and living in Egypt-please, listen to God's Word.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says: 'You women! You said it
and then you did it. You said, "We're going to keep the vows we made to
sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven and pour out offerings to her, and nobody's
going to stop us!"'
25-27 "Well, go ahead. Keep your vows. Do it up big. But also listen to what
God has to say about it, all you who are from Judah but live in Egypt: 'I
swear by my great name, backed by everything I am-this is God speaking!-that
never again shall my name be used in vows, such as "As sure as the Master,
God, lives!" by anyone in the whole country of Egypt. I've targeted each one
of you for doom. The good is gone for good.
27-28 "'All the Judeans in Egypt will die off by massacre or starvation
until they're wiped out. The few who get out of Egypt alive and back to
Judah will be very few, hardly worth counting. Then that ragtag bunch that
left Judah to live in Egypt will know who had the last word.
29-30 "'And this will be the evidence: I will bring punishment right here,
and by this you'll know that the decrees of doom against you are the real
thing. Watch for this sign of doom: I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt
over to his enemies, those who are out to kill him, exactly as I gave
Zedekiah king of Judah to his enemy Nebuchadnezzar, who was after him.'"
God's Piling On the Pain
45 This is what Jeremiah told Baruch one day in the fourth year of
Jehoiakim's reign as he was taking dictation from the prophet:
2-3 "These are the words of God, the God of Israel, to you, Baruch. You say,
'These are bad times for me! It's one thing after another. God is piling on
the pain. I'm worn out and there's no end in sight.'
4-5 "But God says, 'Look around. What I've built I'm about to wreck, and
what I've planted I'm about to rip up. And I'm doing it everywhere-all over
the whole earth! So forget about making any big plans for yourself. Things
are going to get worse before they get better. But don't worry. I'll keep
you alive through the whole business.'"
The Message (MSG)
Copyright C 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
