Through the Bible – Day 304

₁₅The LORD God of Israel showed me a vision in which he said, “Jeremiah, here is a cup filled with the wine of my anger. Take it and make every nation drink some. ₁₆They will vomit and act mad, because of the war this cup of anger will bring to them.”

₁₇I took the cup from the LORD's hand, and I went to the kings of the nations and made each of them drink some. ₁₈I started with Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and the king and his officials were removed from power in disgrace. Everyone still makes insulting jokes about them and uses their names as curse words. ₁₉The second place I went was Egypt, where everyone had to drink from the cup, including the king and his officials, the other government workers, the rest of the Egyptians, ₂₀and all the foreigners who lived in the country.

Next I went to the king of Uz, and then to the four kings of Philistia, who ruled from Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what was left of Ashdod. ₂₁Then I went to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, ₂₂and to the kings of Tyre, Sidon, and their colonies across the sea. _23-24After this, I went to the kings of Dedan, Tema, Buz, the tribes of the Arabian Desert, ₂₅Zimri, Elam, Media, ₂₆and the countries in the north, both near and far.

I went to all the countries on earth, one after another, and finally to Babylonia.

₂₇The LORD had said I must tell each king, “The LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, commands you to drink from this cup that is full of the wine of his anger. It will make you so drunk that you will vomit. And when the LORD sends war against the nations, you will be completely defeated.”

₂₈The LORD told me that if any of them refused to drink from the cup, I must tell them that he had said, “I, the LORD All-Powerful, command you to drink. ₂₉Starting with my own city of Jerusalem, everyone on earth will suffer from war. So there is no way I will let you escape unharmed.”

₃₀The LORD told me to say:

₃₂The LORD All-Powerful says:

₃₃When it strikes, I will kill so many people that their bodies will cover the ground like manure. No one will be left to bury them or to mourn.

₁Soon after Jehoiakim became king of Judah, the LORD said:

₂Jeremiah, I have a message for everyone who comes from the towns of Judah to worship in my temple. Go to the temple courtyard and speak every word that I tell you. ₃Perhaps the people will listen this time. And if they stop doing wrong, I will change my mind and not punish them for their sins. ₄Tell them that I have said:

₇The prophets, the priests, and everyone else in the temple heard what I said, _8-9and as soon as I finished, they all crowded around me and started shouting, “Why did you preach that the LORD will destroy this temple, just as he destroyed Shiloh? Why did you say that Jerusalem will be empty and lie in ruins? You ought to be put to death for saying such things in the LORD's name!” Then they had me arrested.

₁₀The royal officers heard what had happened, and they came from the palace to the new gate of the temple to be the judges at my trial. ₁₁While they listened, the priests and the prophets said to the crowd, “All of you have heard Jeremiah prophesy that Jerusalem will be destroyed. He deserves the death penalty.”

_12-13Then I told the judges and everyone else:

₁₆The judges and the other people told the priests and prophets, “Since Jeremiah only told us what the LORD our God had said, we don't think he deserves to die.”

₁₇Then some of the leaders from other towns stepped forward. They told the crowd that ₁₈years ago when Hezekiah was king of Judah, a prophet named Micah from the town of Moresheth had said:

₁₉Then the leaders continued:

_20-24After these leaders finished speaking, an important man named Ahikam son of Shaphan spoke up for me as well. And so, I wasn't handed over to the crowd to be killed.

While Jehoiakim was still king of Judah, a man named Uriah son of Shemaiah left his home town of Kiriath-Jearim and came to Jerusalem. Uriah was one of the LORD's prophets, and he was saying the same things about Judah and Jerusalem that I had been saying. And when Jehoiakim and his officials and military officers heard what Uriah said, they tried to arrest him, but he escaped to Egypt. So Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Achbor and some other men after Uriah, and they brought him back. Then Jehoiakim had Uriah killed and his body dumped in a common burial pit.

₁We must give our full attention to what we were told, so that we won't drift away. ₂The message spoken by angels proved to be true, and all who disobeyed or rejected it were punished as they deserved. ₃So if we refuse this great way of being saved, how can we hope to escape? The Lord himself was the first to tell about it, and people who heard the message proved to us that it was true. ₄God himself showed that his message was true by performing all kinds of powerful miracles and wonders. He also gave his Holy Spirit to anyone he chose to.

₅We know that God did not put the future world under the power of angels. ₆Somewhere in the Scriptures someone says to God,

God has put everything under our power and has not left anything out of our power. But we still don't see it all under our power. ₉What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels. Because of God's wonderful kindness, Jesus died for everyone. And now that Jesus has suffered and died, he is crowned with glory and honour!

₁₀Everything belongs to God, and all things were created by his power. So God did the right thing when he made Jesus perfect by suffering, as Jesus led many of God's children to be saved and to share in his glory. ₁₁Jesus and the people he makes holy all belong to the same family. That is why he isn't ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. ₁₂He even said to God,

₁₃He also said,

Then he said,

₁₄We are people of flesh and blood. That is why Jesus became one of us. He died to destroy the devil, who had power over death. ₁₅But he also died to rescue all of us who live each day in fear of dying. ₁₆Jesus clearly did not come to help angels, but he did come to help Abraham's descendants. ₁₇He had to be one of us, so that he could serve God as our merciful and faithful high priest and sacrifice himself for the forgiveness of our sins. ₁₈And now that Jesus has suffered and was tempted, he can help anyone else who is tempted.