AUGUST 5 READINGS...Jeremiah 25:15-38 & 36:1-32 & 45:1-5 & 46:1-28
Once again, the Lord has called Jeremiah to do a very hard thing. The Lord has shown him a cup filled with the Lord’s wrath, and He instructed Jeremiah to take this cup and have the nations drink from it. The Lord makes it clear that they have no choice but to drink of the cup of the Lord’s wrath. They each have pushed the Lord to the point where all He has for them is His wrath…there is no possibility of either redemption now, or to avoid what is coming. As I consider the how awful this cup of the Lord’s wrath is, I cannot help but be reminded about how wonderful another cup from the Lord is. I think of the “cup of the new covenant in the Lord’s blood” …it is the cup we share when we take the Lord’s Supper. The cup spoken of in the book of Jeremiah gives no hope, only judgment. The cup of the new covenant is a cup of great hope, for it speaks and shows the redemption we have in Christ Jesus. You will notice that both cups have as a component the wrath of God. In Jeremiah the cup of God’s wrath is poured out on the unrepentant countries. The cup of the new covenant represents that God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus, and because He faced the wrath of His Father, that wrath would never be poured out on us. It is the wonderful message of the Gospel…that Jesus took our place, He experienced God’s full wrath, so that we would never have the cup of the wrath of the Lord poured out on us.
Jeremiah is given instruction from the Lord to write on a scroll the Lord’s message to His people going all the way back to King Josiah. This is a portion of the book of Jeremiah that we have today. The purpose for this was so that the king and the religious leaders might read and hear the word of the Lord, and would possibly turned from the wicked ways back to the Lord. Jeremiah dictated all the words and prophecies of the Lord to Baruch, who inscribed them on a scroll. Baruch then went to the Temple and began to read this scroll to the religious leaders. Ultimately, the king commands that the scroll be brought to him to be read. As it was being read he had them cut off the portions read and he burned them. I am guessing he thought if he just burned the scroll the words of God would lose their power and validity. What he and others down through history, who have tried to destroy the word of God, fail to understand is that the power in the word of God does not come from being written on a page or a scroll, but upon the fact that they are the word of God. The word of God is eternal and no force on earth, or from hell, can destroy God’s eternal word. Jeremiah had Baruch once again pen the words of God as he dictated them.
Please share your thoughts from today’s readings. We have been given the message of the Gospel so that people would not have to face the cup of God’s wrath…share it with those the Holy Spirit puts in your path. Also, know that you can stand upon the word of God…for it is eternal, powerful, and indestructible!
TOMORROW’S READINGS…Jeremiah 19:1-20:18 & Daniel 1:1-21
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