Day 56: Jeremiah 23:9-33

So this is not the Bible in 90 days, but I'm continuing through.  Maybe my next go round will be 90 days.  I'm going to read through the Message next as I'm sticking to my wee NIV right now.

I don't know how anyone can say that the God in the Old Testament is a God of wrath.  They haven't read Jeremiah.  Don't get me wrong, he is wrathful here, but there is so much compassion, so much aching and longing, so much mercy.

I love God.  I do.  He is just, no doubt, but he is also soooooo good.

He rages against the false prophets, but doesn't he have a right?  Hello, they've helped contribute to His people's failings and lostness.  He rages against Israel and Judah and the nations (aka the world), but again, these are a people who have turned against him and sought their own measure of justice and right.  They have killed and murdered in their own names and caused needless sufferings.  My goodness, life is so much better if you seek God first - something I have to learn over and over and over.  Yes, God foretells and brings about wrath and judgment and justice, BUT he is full of love and mercy.  Why?

He does not abandon His people, the Israelites.  Throughout these chapters, God says again and again, "I will be there God and they will be my people."  If that is not a loving, caring, longing father/parent, I don't know what is.  He gives them truth - this punishment will come, but he also gives them hope - lives, marry, learn, grow because I'm bringing you back!

Not only will Israel be his people, but all nations will be blessed because of them.  God will fulfill his promise to David and to the Levites (God is so COOL!), check out Jeremiah 33:17-18.

I leave you with these words from Jeremiah 29:10-14.  Take them to heart dear ones.

This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

Day 55: Jeremiah 11-23

Jeremiah has a rough deal.  I like Jeremiah, always have because I feel his pain.  I understand his humiliation and struggle and - dare I say it - even doubt.  God pushes and pushes and pushes Jeremiah.  "Jeremiah, buy a linen belt...."  "Jeremiah, go down to the potter's house..."  "Jeremiah, ..."

"O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; 

you overpowered me and prevailed.  

I am ridiculed all day long; 

everyone mocks me.  

Whenever I speak, I cry out

proclaiming violence and destruction.

So the word of the LORD has brought me 

insult and reproach all day long.

But if I say, 'I will not mention him

or speak 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."

Jeremiah 20:7-9

I like Jeremiah, because he tells it how it is.  I have been reluctant, even resentful as Jeremiah is at times.  You may find me too harsh, but READ Jeremiah.  He is clear.  This, this calling God has given him, it is by no means easy.  It is indeed a struggle.  He curses the day he was born, wishing that he had never been born!  If that's not struggling, I don't know what is.  Jeremiah is honest, and what is more, this is all in God's word.  Life is not all puppy dogs and roses.  God knows that.  He gives us hope.  God is just and merciful.  God knows this is and would be a struggle for Jeremiah, but it was still a calling that had to be carried out.  Jeremiah puts things in perspective.  If this was that hard for Jeremiah, how do you think God felt?  Sure he was angry and right to be so, but don't you think that God, who is loving and just, would also be aching for his people.  He has been the whole time.

Jeremiah's heart was breaking and he was tired and anxious and done.  So was God.

You may feel that is too much personification for the Almighty, but I think that makes Him all the more approachable.  What He asked Jeremiah to do - it was no easy thing.  What He was doing Himself - it was no easy thing.  He had to do this thing because of His character, but there is hope.

"So then, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when people will no longer say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' but they will say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' Then they will live in their own land."

Jeremiah 23:7-8

So then, in the meantime, to quote one of my favorite singer/songwriters of all time, Sara Groves, "Jeremiah, tell me about the fire.  I wanna know, I wanna know more now..."  I want to know what it is like to have God's spirit and presence so press you, that you must speak it out.  I have known that before.  I want to know it again - with all the blessings and all the pain.

Day 54: Jeremiah 1-10

Well friends, I must say that I really don't think I've read the Bible before at all.  I have read it, but I don't know where my mind was.  I'm definitely reading it now, comprehending it and marveling at it - at God's Word.

Jeremiah - again I feel lucky to have the background that I do having read about the kings not too long ago.  Even if I didn't, the book gives some background, but the context carries more meaning when you actually understand the history to which it refers.

If you ever feel ill equipped for ministry, read Jeremiah 1.  If God calls you, he calls you and he gives you what you need to do his will.  So don't worry.  It is a scary thing, but as trite as it may sound, God is bigger than our fears and he will carry us through.

I love the voice of God in Jeremiah, or the voice Jeremiah lends to God.  The Scriptures were written by human authors and God used their own unique styles and voices for his good work.  So either way, I love the language and the content.  Like Isaiah, there is a great deal of metaphor and description and darn good poetry.  The main imagery here in these chapters, God calling to his bride, his unfaithful bride.  The theme is pretty clear and it repeats throughout these chapters.  There is a clear yearning here, God is calling his people to come back to him.  He pleads with them, "Just repent.  Show me with your heart that you desire to truly follow me and not prostitute yourselves to the desires and gods of these other nations." 

"Oh, my anguish, my anguish!  I writhe in pain.  Oh, the agony of my heart!  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."  Jeremiah 4:19,22.

What has been true and clear up until this point (and will continue on) God desires a transformed and faithful heart.  He does not desire lip service or routine.  He wants the real deal and doesn't He deserve it?  Without it and because of there great unfaithfulness, prostitution really, God exacts judgment.  In His judgment He is just.  You can see that so clearly here in Jeremiah.  There is judgment for all nations, but there is also hope.  Just as it is clear that if Israel/Judah were to repent they would be saved, so to would it be for those of other nations.  God is just and merciful.

May I remember that and may this be my prayer:

"'but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,' declares the LORD."

Jeremiah 9:24

Day 52-53: What I've learned from Isaiah

So it's taken me about a month to get back into things.  I must admit I've been plagued by a bit of passivity lately, thank you Joyce Meyer.  On the other hand, I've faced a lot of stress lately, getting sick consistently, starting a new job and trying to ignore God.  All three of these things will keep you very busy, if you let them.  The new job is going well.  I'm an investigator for CPS now, but I still have other things to look into, like Linguistics...  I'm trying to figure out this health thing, thankfully my insurance contracts with Mayo Clinic, Woo hoo!  Ignoring God, well that's just stupid and stubborn.  I get that way sometimes, but according to Isaiah, I'm not the only one with that problem.

Isaiah is a beautiful book and reading the Bible as I am, from start to finish, I find it is easier to engage.  I understand what's happening in Israel and Judah because I read that background in Kings and Chronicles, etc.  So reading what Isaiah has to say makes more sense in light of that.

God is understandable in this book and maybe it's because of the poetry and voice that comes out here in Isaiah, that indeed Isaiah uses, inspired by God himself.  I would like to make a brief comment on the theory/ies posited that Isaiah is written by multiple authors and that there is more than one Isaiah.  I think this really is a compilation of one man's prophesies/writings.  Why?  If one were to gather all my writings together, over my lifetime, they would be much like Isaiah's.  They wouldn't all be in order, they'd be different genres and voices and rather eclectic.  That's the way I am and I think we all are.  I say why not?  Why couldn't it be one man?  It makes sense to me.

Back to what God is saying.  I love God.  He is God, holy and wonderful and terrifying, but he is also loving and good and all of these things saturate Isaiah.  God has a heart, not only for Israel and Judah, but for all the nations.  Really there is no difference between Israel and the other nations, except that God chose them to be his people and bring his salvation to the world through them.  I mean look at their track record, they really were no better than any other nation (they should have known better, being God's people, but that is another matter).  If you don't think the God in the Old Testament is merciful, read Isaiah.  If you don't think is merciful AND just, read Isaiah.  If you don't think God is feminine as well as masculine, read Isaiah.

I never really cared much for Isaiah, before, but reading it now and reading it in light of all that has gone before, well it makes so much more sense.  It makes more sense and I am still amazed.  I am still amazed by God.  Isn't that how it should be?  In spite of everything God calls to his people, he pours his mercy and judgment on them and at the same time says, I am bringing hope, not just for you, but for all peoples now and peoples to come.  Thank you God!  Thank you my LORD and my life!  Thank you and forgive me for taking you for granted.

Tomorrow: Jeremiah.  Now: sleep.