Good Morning, Everyone! :hibye: Daily Scriptural Text for Sunday, February 4, 2007:
8 Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of [YHWH] has brought me insult and reproach all day long.
--Jeremiah 20:8, Today's New International Version.
Complementary Scriptures:
9 But if I say, "I will not mention His word or speak anymore in His name,"
His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.
...
11 But [YHWH] is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten.--Jeremiah 20:9, 11, ibid.
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16 When Your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight,
for I bear Your Name, [YHWH] God Almighty.--Jeremiah 15:16, ibid.
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10 "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."--Luke 15:10, ibid.
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My comment: Jeremiah, the prophet, had a specific commission from YHWH. It involved delivering a specific message to a specific people, who were in a particularly unique relationship with God; and, who had brought themselves into a particularly odious condion, such that they had made themselves a stench in YHWH's nostrils. God did bring about the foretold destruction upon the Israelites, their land (which had been given to them as a special property), and their temple, which they, themselves (as "a people"), had desecrated by turning their backs on true worship.
For a time, as revealed in our Scriptural text for today, Jeremiah felt "imposed upon," -- put upon, -- to be singled out as the one to deliver YHWH's adversarial and condemnatory messages to Israel. ... And, then, he gave his head a shake; once again, he saw clearly the "Big Picture." With the Almighty Sovereign Creator of all things backing him, how could he ever cower in fear or dread, as far as what mere men thought about him or his work? Or, for that matter, what mere men might do to him? Jeremiah knew that his life, -- his everlasting life, -- was secure in the hands of his heavenly Father.
So, what about us, today? Have we been commissioned to deliver a "doom and gloom" condemnatory message of adverse judgment from God? Actually, I don't see it that way, at all. I think we have been blessed and invited to become sharers of "GOOD News" from God; "good news about the glorious Christ," who has come to open the way for all mankind, Israelite and non-Israelite alike, -- to "draw close to God." (James 4:8.) Having that opportunity extended to us, -- if we choose to accept it, -- we are assured that the God who IS love, will draw close to us.
Any need for proclamation of "violence and destruction" will soon pass away, along with the evil one who foisted violence and destruction upon God's peaceful, righteous creation in the first place.
Have A "Super" ;) Sunday Of Sacred Service, Everybody! :thumbup:
Praise YHWH! :clap: AND The Lamb! :clap:
Much LOVE to ALL! :love: isomam
02-04-2007, 12:49 PM