Daily Devotions with Rosa

Jeremiah 5

 ¹ “Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem,
   look around and consider,
   search through her squares.

If you can find but one person
                                who deals honestly and seeks the truth,
   I will forgive this city.
² Although they say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’
   still they are swearing falsely.”

 ³ LORD, do not your eyes look for truth?
   You struck them, but they felt no pain;
   you crushed them, but they refused correction.
They made their faces harder than stone
   and refused to repent.
⁴ I thought, “These are only the poor;
   they are foolish,
for they do not know the way of the LORD,
   the requirements of their God.
⁵ So I will go to the leaders
   and speak to them;
surely they know the way of the LORD,
   the requirements of their God.”
But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke
   and torn off the bonds.
⁶ Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them,
   a wolf from the desert will ravage them,
a leopard will lie in wait near their towns
   to tear to pieces any who venture out,
for their rebellion is great
   and their backslidings many.

 ⁷ “Why should I forgive you?
   Your children have forsaken me
   and sworn by gods that are not gods.
I supplied all their needs,
   yet they committed adultery
   and thronged to the houses of prostitutes.
⁸ They are well-fed, lusty stallions,
   each neighing for another man’s wife.
⁹ Should I not punish them for this?”
   declares the LORD.
“Should I not avenge myself
   on such a nation as this?

 ¹⁰ “Go through her vineyards and ravage them,
   but do not destroy them completely.
Strip off her branches,
   for these people do not belong to the LORD.
¹¹ The people of Israel and the people of Judah
   have been utterly unfaithful to me,”
            declares the LORD.

 ¹² They have lied about the LORD;
   they said, “He will do nothing!
No harm will come to us;
   we will never see sword or famine.
¹³ The prophets are but wind
   and the word is not in them;
   so let what they say be done to them.”

 ¹⁴ Therefore this is what the LORD God Almighty says:

   “Because the people have spoken these words,
   I will make my words in your mouth a fire
   and these people the wood it consumes.
¹⁵ People of Israel,” declares the LORD,
   “I am bringing a distant nation against you—
an ancient and enduring nation,
   a people whose language you do not know,
   whose speech you do not understand.
¹⁶ Their quivers are like an open grave;
   all of them are mighty warriors.
¹⁷ They will devour your harvests and food,
   devour your sons and daughters;
they will devour your flocks and herds,
   devour your vines and fig trees.
With the sword they will destroy
   the fortified cities in which you trust.

 ¹⁸ “Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not destroy you completely. ¹⁹ And when the people ask, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.’

 ²⁰ “Announce this to the descendants of Jacob
   and proclaim it in Judah:
²¹ Hear this, you foolish and senseless people,
   who have eyes but do not see,
   who have ears but do not hear:
²² Should you not fear me?” declares the LORD.
   “Should you not tremble in my presence?
I made the sand a boundary for the sea,
   an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.
The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail;
   they may roar, but they cannot cross it.
²³ But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts;
   they have turned aside and gone away.
²⁴ They do not say to themselves,
   ‘Let us fear the LORD our God,
who gives autumn and spring rains in season,
   who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.’
²⁵ Your wrongdoings have kept these away;
   your sins have deprived you of good.

 ²⁶ “Among my people are the wicked
   who lie in wait like men who snare birds
   and like those who set traps to catch people.
²⁷ Like cages full of birds,
   their houses are full of deceit;
they have become rich and powerful
 ²⁸ and have grown fat and sleek.
Their evil deeds have no limit;
   they do not seek justice.
They do not promote the case of the fatherless;
   they do not defend the just cause of the poor.
²⁹ Should I not punish them for this?”
   declares the LORD.
“Should I not avenge myself
   on such a nation as this?

 ³⁰ “A horrible and shocking thing
   has happened in the land:
³¹ The prophets prophesy lies,
   the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it this way.
   But what will you do in the end?

Reflection:

1.  Who seek the truth these days? Even God's prophets prophesy LIES. And priests do not rule by God's authority but their own. Yet people love it this way?

2. The  Question that faces each one:  But what will you do in the end? 

Jeremiah 4

 ¹ “If you, Israel, will return, then return to me,”
            declares the LORD.
“If you put your detestable idols out of my sight
   and no longer go astray,
² and if in a truthful, just and righteous way
   you swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’
then the nations will invoke blessings by him
   and in him they will boast.”

 ³ This is what the LORD says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:

   “Break up your unplowed ground
   and do not sow among thorns.
⁴ Circumcise yourselves to the LORD,
   circumcise your hearts,
   you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire
   because of the evil you have done—
   burn with no one to quench it.

Disaster From the North

 ⁵ “Announce in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say:
   ‘Sound the trumpet throughout the land!’
Cry aloud and say:
   ‘Gather together!
   Let us flee to the fortified cities!’
⁶ Raise the signal to go to Zion!
   Flee for safety without delay!
For I am bringing disaster from the north,
   even terrible destruction.”

 ⁷ A lion has come out of his lair;
   a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has left his place
   to lay waste your land.
Your towns will lie in ruins
   without inhabitant.
⁸ So put on sackcloth,
   lament and wail,
for the fierce anger of the LORD
   has not turned away from us.

 ⁹ “In that day,” declares the LORD,
   “the king and the officials will lose heart,
the priests will be horrified,
   and the prophets will be appalled.”

 ¹⁰ Then I said, “Alas, Sovereign LORD! How completely you have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, ‘You will have peace,’ when the sword is at our throats!”

 ¹¹ At that time this people and Jerusalem will be told, “A scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward my people, but not to winnow or cleanse; ¹² a wind too strong for that comes from me. Now I pronounce my judgments against them.”

 ¹³ Look! He advances like the clouds,
   his chariots come like a whirlwind,
his horses are swifter than eagles.
   Woe to us! We are ruined!

¹⁴ Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved.
   How long will you harbor wicked thoughts?
¹⁵ A voice is announcing from Dan,
   proclaiming disaster from the hills of Ephraim.
¹⁶ “Tell this to the nations,
   proclaim concerning Jerusalem:
‘A besieging army is coming from a distant land,
   raising a war cry against the cities of Judah.
¹⁷ They surround her like men guarding a field,
   because she has rebelled against me,’”
            declares the LORD.
¹⁸ “Your own conduct and actions
   have brought this on you.
This is your punishment.
   How bitter it is!
   How it pierces to the heart!”

 ¹⁹ Oh, my anguish, my anguish!
   I writhe in pain.
Oh, the agony of my heart!
   My heart pounds within me,
   I cannot keep silent.
For I have heard the sound of the trumpet;
   I have heard the battle cry.
²⁰ Disaster follows disaster;
   the whole land lies in ruins.
In an instant my tents are destroyed,
   my shelter in a moment.
²¹ How long must I see the battle standard
   and hear the sound of the trumpet?

 ²² “My people are fools;
   they do not know me.
They are senseless children;
   they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil;
   they know not how to do good.”

 ²³ I looked at the earth,
   and it was formless and empty;
and at the heavens,
   and their light was gone.
²⁴ I looked at the mountains,
   and they were quaking;
   all the hills were swaying.
²⁵ I looked, and there were no people;
   every bird in the sky had flown away.
²⁶ I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert;
   all its towns lay in ruins
   before the LORD, before his fierce anger.

 ²⁷ This is what the LORD says:

   “The whole land will be ruined,
   though I will not destroy it completely.
²⁸ Therefore the earth will mourn
   and the heavens above grow dark,
because I have spoken and will not relent,
   I have decided and will not turn back.”

 ²⁹ At the sound of horsemen and archers
   every town takes to flight.
Some go into the thickets;
   some climb up among the rocks.
All the towns are deserted;
   no one lives in them.

 ³⁰ What are you doing, you devastated one?
   Why dress yourself in scarlet
   and put on jewels of gold?
Why highlight your eyes with makeup?
   You adorn yourself in vain.
Your lovers despise you;
   they want to kill you.

 ³¹ I hear a cry as of a woman in labor,
   a groan as of one bearing her first child—
the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath,
   stretching out her hands and saying,
“Alas! I am fainting;
   my life is given over to murderers.”

Reflections:

1.  The theme of "RETURN" carries on in this chapter.

2.  The wrath of the Lord had shown – punishment on evil doers – How long?  How long must you continue in your evil deeds?

Jeremiah 3

 ¹ “If a man divorces his wife
                                     and she leaves him and marries another man,
    should he return to her again?
   

   Would not the land be completely defiled?
  

   But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers—
   would you now return to me?”    declares the LORD.

² “Look up to the barren heights and see.
    Is there any place where you have not been ravished?
    By the roadside you sat waiting for lovers,
                                         sat like a nomad in the desert. 
   You have defiled the land  with your prostitution and wickedness.

³ Therefore the showers have been withheld,
                     and no spring rains have fallen.
    Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute;
           you refuse to blush with shame.

⁴ Have you not just called to me:
   ‘My Father, my friend from my youth,
⁵ will you always be angry?
   Will your wrath continue forever?’
   This is how you talk,
   but you do all the evil you can.”

Unfaithful Israel

 ⁶ During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me,

“Have you seen what faithless Israel has done?
She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there.
⁷ I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.
⁸ I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries.
Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery.

⁹ Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. ¹⁰
In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.

 ¹¹ The LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.
¹² Go, proclaim this message toward the north:

   “‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD,
   ‘I will frown on you no longer,
    for I am faithful,’ declares the LORD,
   ‘I will not be angry forever.
¹³ Only acknowledge your guilt—
    you have rebelled against the LORD your God,
    you have scattered your favors to foreign gods
   under every spreading tree,
   and have not obeyed me,’”
            declares the LORD.

 ¹⁴ “Return, faithless people,” declares the LORD, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion.

¹⁵ Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.

¹⁶ In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,” declares the LORD,
    “people will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’

It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made.

¹⁷ At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

¹⁸ In those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance.

 ¹⁹ “I myself said,

   “‘How gladly would I treat you like my children
   and give you a pleasant land,
   the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’
  I thought you would call me ‘Father’
   and not turn away from following me.

²⁰ But like a woman unfaithful to her husband,
    so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,”
            declares the LORD.

 ²¹ A cry is heard on the barren heights,
   the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel,
  because they have perverted their ways
   and have forgotten the LORD their God.

 ²² “Return, faithless people;
   I will cure you of backsliding.”

   “Yes, we will come to you,
   for you are the LORD our God.

²³ Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills
   and mountains is a deception;
   surely in the LORD our God  is the salvation of Israel.
²⁴ From our youth shameful gods have consumed
   the fruits of our ancestors’ labor—
   their flocks and herds,
   their sons and daughters.

²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame,  and let our disgrace cover us.
   We have sinned against the LORD our God,
   both we and our ancestors;
   from our youth till this day
   we have not obeyed the LORD our God.”

Reflections:

1.  Key word:  Return

2.  God is faithful but people are faithless.

3.  People need true shepherds that can lead people to knowledge and understanding.  These days, we have neither knowledge nor understanding.  How pitiful is our condition, yet we don't see.  We think we know it all and we understand everything.  The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God and to be teachable to receive instructions.

Jeremiah 2

 ¹ The word of the LORD came to me:

² “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:

   “This is what the LORD says:

   “‘I remember the devotion of your youth,
                            how as a bride you loved me
                                                       and followed me through the wilderness,
                                                                                      through a land not sown.

³ Israel was holy to the LORD,
   the firstfruits of his harvest;

   all who devoured her were held guilty,
   and disaster overtook them,’”
            declares the LORD.

 ⁴ Hear the word of the LORD, you descendants of Jacob,
                                                                all you clans of Israel.

 ⁵ This is what the LORD says:

   “What fault did your ancestors find in me,
                                       that they strayed so far from me?
                                              They followed worthless idols
                                                and became worthless themselves.

⁶ They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD,
                                                            who brought us up out of Egypt
                                                            and led us through the barren wilderness,
                                                                                through a land of deserts and ravines,
                                                                                               a land of drought and utter darkness,
                                                                                               a land where no one travels and no one lives?’

⁷ I brought you into a fertile land
                                                            to eat its fruit and rich produce.  
   But you came and defiled my land
                             and made my inheritance detestable.

⁸ The priests did not ask,
                                               ‘Where is the LORD?’
  Those who deal with the law did not know me;
  the leaders rebelled against me.
  The prophets prophesied by Baal,
                                                       following worthless idols.

 ⁹ “Therefore I bring charges against you again,”
            declares the LORD.
   “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.

¹⁰ Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
     send to Kedar^[a] and observe closely;
     see if there has ever been anything like this:

Has a nation ever changed its gods?
   (Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
   for worthless idols.

¹² Be appalled at this, you heavens,
     and shudder with great horror,”
            declares the LORD.

“My people have committed two sins:
                                                                       They have forsaken me,  the spring of living water,
                                                                                 and have dug their own cisterns,
                                                                                                                            broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

¹⁴ Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth?
    Why then has he become plunder?

Lions have roared;  they have growled at him.
                                    They have laid waste his land;
                                     his towns are burned and deserted.

¹⁶ Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have cracked your skull.

¹⁷ Have you not brought this on yourselves  by forsaking the LORD your God
                                                                                                       when he led you in the way?

¹⁸ Now why go to Egypt  to drink water from the Nile^[b]?
     And why go to Assyria  to drink water from the Euphrates?

¹⁹ Your wickedness will punish you;
     your backsliding will rebuke you.

    Consider then and realize
    how evil and bitter it is for you
    when you forsake the LORD your God
   and have no awe of me,”
            declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

 ²⁰ “Long ago you broke off your yoke
                           and tore off your bonds;
  

     you said, ‘I will not serve you!’
                       Indeed, on every high hill
                      and under every spreading tree
                      you lay down as a prostitute.

²¹ I had planted you like a choice vine
                                            of sound and reliable stock.

     How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?

²² Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder,
     the stain of your guilt is still before me,”
            declares the Sovereign LORD.

“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled;
                                   I have not run after the Baals’?

   See how you behaved in the valley;
   consider what you have done.

   You are a swift she-camel
   running here and there,
²⁴ a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,
     sniffing the wind in her craving—
     in her heat who can restrain her?
     Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves;
   at mating time they will find her.

Do not run until your feet are bare  and your throat is dry.
But you said, ‘It’s no use!    I love foreign gods,
   and I must go after them.’

 ²⁶ “As a thief is disgraced when he is caught,  so the people of Israel are disgraced—
      they, their kings and their officials,
      their priests and their prophets.

They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’
          and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’
They have turned their backs to me
                    and not their faces;
yet when they are in trouble, they say,
   ‘Come and save us!’

²⁸ Where then are the gods you made for yourselves?
    Let them come if they can save you
   when you are in trouble!

For you, Judah, have as many gods  as you have towns.

 ²⁹ “Why do you bring charges against me?
        You have all rebelled against me,”
            declares the LORD.
³⁰ “In vain I punished your people;  they did not respond to correction.
Your sword has devoured your prophets   like a ravenous lion.

 ³¹ “You of this generation, consider the word of the LORD:

   “Have I been a desert to Israel
   or a land of great darkness?

   Why do my people say, ‘We are free to roam;
   we will come to you no more’?

³² Does a young woman forget her jewelry,
                a bride her wedding ornaments?
      Yet my people have forgotten me,  days without number.

³³ How skilled you are at pursuing love!
     Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.

³⁴ On your clothes is found  the lifeblood of the innocent poor,
   though you did not catch them breaking in.

  Yet in spite of all this  you say, ‘I am innocent;
   he is not angry with me.’

   But I will pass judgment on you
   because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

³⁶ Why do you go about so much, changing your ways?
 

You will be disappointed by Egypt
                        as you were by Assyria.

³⁷ You will also leave that place
   with your hands on your head,
for the LORD has rejected those you trust;
   you will not be helped by them.

Reflections:

1.  To see our wrongs, we need to start 'asking' questions; not only asking questions but asking the 'right' questions.  Or else we just keep doing the wrong things.

2.   When a series of wrong choices are made one after another, the result is that of turning from something worthy to worthlessness!