Aug 1, 2022
JEREMIAH 23:
In
yesterday's reading, we heard how king Zedekiah sent two men to
Jeremiah to ask him for help to pray for a miracle. And God made it
ever so clear that no miracle of deliverance would be given.
Jeremiah repeatedly tells the king what he needs to do, but
Zedekiah just couldn’t bring himself to do it. The area of giving
justice was especially prominent in yesterday's
readings.
PSALM 149:
We
old saints should not despise all of the new songs of the young
saints. Yet I totally understand the desire to avoid change.
Here we see that Scripture commands that we sing new songs.
And this whole psalm can be taken as a prelude to what we will see
in the book of Revelation.
1CORINTHIANS 6:
A
few days ago I challenged you to find out what was special about
the quote in John 19 about none of Jesus’ bones being broken. In
yesterday’s reading in 1Corinthians 5, we heard several metaphors
relating to that based on Jesus being our Passover Lamb. And now as
we start chapter 6, we have a chapter break at the right place, as
Paul starts a new topic.
NLT Translation
notes:
Jer.
23:33 The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, when one of these people, or
a prophet, or a priest asks you, ‘What [burden/burdensome message]
do you have from the Lord?’ [(meaning a message from me,)] Tell
them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you away. I, the Lord,
affirm it!
[There is a play on words here that
is really hard to translate, and NLT doesn’t show that in a way
that makes sense to me. So I am basing the reading more on the
NET.]
34 I will punish any prophet, priest, or other
person who [refers to a message from me as a burden//says “The
Lord’s message is burdensome].” I will punish both that person and
his whole family.’”
35
So I, Jeremiah, tell you, “Each of you people should say to his
friend or his relative, ‘How did the Lord answer? Or what did the
Lord say?’
36 You must no longer [refer to a
message from the Lord as a “burden”.//say that the Lord’s message
is burdensome.] [NLT 1996 version: For people are using it to give
authority to their own ideas, turning upside down the words of our
God, the living God, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.//For what is
‘burdensome’ really pertains to what a person himself says. You are
misrepresenting the words of our God, the living God, the Lord who
rules over all.]
37 Each of you should merely ask
the prophet, ‘What answer did the Lord give you? Or what did the
Lord say?’
38 But just suppose you continue to
[call the Lord’s message “a burden”.//say, ‘The message of the Lord
is burdensome.’] Here is what the Lord says will happen: ‘I sent
word to you that you must not [call my message a ‘burden’.//say,
“The Lord’s message is burdensome.”] But you [continued to say that
anyway.//used the words “The Lord’s message is burdensome”
anyway.]
39 So I will carry you far
off and throw you away. I will send both you and the city I gave to
you and to your ancestors out of my sight.
40 I
will bring on you lasting shame and lasting disgrace which will
never be forgotten!’”
====
1Cor. 6:11 Some of you were once like that. But
you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God
by calling on [0//the name of] the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God.
[This is a figure of speech called metonymy.
‘The name’ stands for the whole person. First of all, even though
it sounds natural to us who have been around Bibles all our lives,
it really is not natural English. One never would say, “Call on the
name of Obama.” We would simply call Obama, or call to Obama.
Secondly, calling on a name sounds as if we are given magic words.
It would be idolatry to worship a thing (even a name) rather than
the Person himself.]
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.