Through the Bible – Day 308

_1-2I was still being held prisoner in the courtyard of the palace guards when the LORD told me:

I am the LORD, and I created the whole world. ₃Ask me, and I will tell you things that you don't know and can't find out.

_4-5Many of the houses in Jerusalem and some of the buildings at the royal palace have been torn down to be used in repairing the walls to keep out the Babylonian attackers. Now there are empty spaces where the buildings once stood. But I am furious, and these spaces will be filled with the bodies of the people I kill. The people of Jerusalem will cry out to me for help, but they are evil, and I will ignore their prayers.

₆Then some day, I will heal this place and my people as well, and let them enjoy unending peace. ₇I will give this land to Israel and Judah once again, and I will make them as strong as they were before. ₈They sinned and rebelled against me, but I will forgive them and take away their guilt. ₉When that happens, all nations on earth will see the good things I have done for Jerusalem, and how I have given it complete peace. The nations will celebrate and praise and honour me, but they will also tremble with fear.

₁₀Jeremiah, you say that this land is a desert without people or animals, and for now, you are right. The towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem are deserted, and people and animals are nowhere to be seen. But some day you will hear ₁₁happy voices and the sounds of parties and wedding celebrations. And when people come to my temple to offer sacrifices to thank me, you will hear them say:

The land will once again be productive. _12-13Now it is empty, without people or animals. But when that time comes, shepherds will take care of their flocks in pastures near every town in the hill country, in the foothills to the west, in the Southern Desert, in the land of the Benjamin tribe, and around Jerusalem and the towns of Judah.

I, the LORD, have spoken.

₁₄The LORD said:

I made a wonderful promise to Israel and Judah, and the days are coming when I will keep it.

₁₇The king of Israel will be one of David's descendants, ₁₈and there will always be priests from the Levi tribe serving at my altar and offering sacrifices to please me and to give thanks.

₁₉Then the LORD told me:

₂₀I, the LORD, have an agreement with day and night, so they always come at the right time. You can't break the agreement I made with them, ₂₁and you can't break the agreements I have made with David's family and with the priests from the Levi tribe who serve at my altar. A descendant of David will always rule as king of Israel, ₂₂and there will be more descendants of David and of the priests from the Levi tribe than stars in the sky or grains of sand on the beach.

₂₃The LORD also said:

₂₄You've heard foreigners insult my people by saying, “The LORD chose Israel and Judah, but now he has rejected them, and they are no longer a nation.”

₂₅Jeremiah, I will never break my agreement with the day and the night or let the sky and the earth stop obeying my commands. ₂₆In the same way, I will never reject the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or break my promise that they will always have a descendant of David as their king. I will be kind to my people Israel, and they will be successful again.

₁King Nebuchadnezzar had a large army made up of people from every kingdom in his empire. He and his army were attacking Jerusalem and all the nearby towns, when the LORD told me ₂to say to King Zedekiah:

₆I went to Zedekiah and told him what the LORD had said. ₇Meanwhile, the king of Babylonia was trying to break through the walls of Lachish, Azekah, and Jerusalem, the only three towns of Judah that had not been captured.

_8-10King Zedekiah, his officials, and everyone else in Jerusalem made an agreement to free all Hebrew men and women who were slaves. No Jew would keep another as a slave. And so, all the Jewish slaves were given their freedom.

₁₁But those slave owners changed their minds and forced their former slaves back into slavery. ₁₂That's when the LORD told me to say to the people:

₁₃I am the LORD God of Israel, and I made an agreement with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, where they had been slaves. ₁₄As part of this agreement, you must let a Hebrew slave go free after six years of service.

Your ancestors did not obey me, _15-16but you decided to obey me and do the right thing by setting your Hebrew slaves completely free. You even went to my temple, and in my name you made an agreement to set them free. But you have abused my name, because you broke your agreement and forced your former slaves back into slavery.

₁₇You have disobeyed me by not giving your slaves their freedom. So I will give you freedom—the freedom to die in battle or from disease or hunger. I will make you disgusting to all other nations on earth.

₁₈You asked me to be a witness when you made the agreement to set your slaves free. And as part of the ceremony you cut a calf into two parts, then walked between the parts. But you people of Jerusalem have broken that agreement as well as my agreement with Israel. So I will do to you what you did to that calf. _19-20I will let your enemies take all of you prisoner, including the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the royal officials, the priests, and everyone else who walked between the two parts of the calf. These enemies will kill you and leave your bodies lying on the ground as food for birds and wild animals.

_21-22These enemies are King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army. They have stopped attacking Jerusalem, but they want to kill King Zedekiah and his high officials. So I will command them to return and attack again. This time they will conquer the city and burn it down, and they will capture Zedekiah and his officials. I will also let them destroy the towns of Judah, so that no one can live there any longer.

₁When Jehoiakim was king of Judah, the LORD told me, ₂“Go to the Rechabite clan and invite them to meet you in one of the side rooms of the temple. When they arrive, offer them a drink of wine.”

₃So I went to Jaazaniah, the leader of the clan, and I invited him and all the men of his clan. ₄I brought them into the temple courtyard and took them upstairs to a room belonging to the prophets who were followers of Hanan son of Igdaliah. It was next to a room belonging to some of the officials, and that room was over the one belonging to Maaseiah, a priest who was one of the high officials in the temple.

₅I set out some large bowls full of wine together with some cups, and then I said to the Rechabites, “Have some wine!”

₆But they answered:

_12-13Then the LORD told me to say to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:

₁₈Then the LORD told me to say to the Rechabite clan:

I am the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel. You have obeyed your ancestor Jonadab, ₁₉so I promise that your clan will be my servants and will never die out.

₁We must try to become mature and start thinking about more than just the basic things we were taught about Christ. We shouldn't need to keep talking about why we ought to turn from deeds that bring death and why we ought to have faith in God. ₂And we shouldn't need to keep teaching about baptisms or about the laying on of hands or about people being raised from death and the future judgment. ₃Let's grow up, if God is willing.

_4-6But what about people who turn away after they have already seen the light and have received the gift from heaven and have shared in the Holy Spirit? What about those who turn away after they have received the good message of God and the powers of the future world? There is no way to bring them back. What they are doing is the same as nailing the Son of God to a cross and insulting him in public!

₇A field is useful to farmers, if there is enough rain to make good crops grow. In fact, God will bless that field. ₈But land that produces only thorn bushes is worthless. It is likely to fall under God's curse, and in the end it will be set on fire.

₉My friends, we are talking this way. But we are sure that you are doing those really good things that people do when they are being saved. ₁₀God is always fair. He will remember how you helped his people in the past and how you are still helping them. You belong to God, and he won't forget the love you have shown his people. ₁₁We wish that each of you would always be eager to show how strong and lasting your hope really is. ₁₂Then you would never be lazy. You would be following the example of those who had faith and were patient until God kept his promise to them.

₁₃No one is greater than God. So he made a promise in his own name when he said to Abraham, ₁₄“I, the Lord, will bless you with many descendants!” ₁₅Then after Abraham had been very patient, he was given what God had promised. ₁₆When anyone wants to settle an argument, they make a vow by using the name of someone or something greater than themselves. ₁₇So when God wanted to prove for certain that his promise to his people could not be broken, he made a vow. ₁₈God cannot tell lies! And so his promises and vows are two things that can never be changed.

We have run to God for safety. Now his promises should greatly encourage us to take hold of the hope that is right in front of us. ₁₉This hope is like a firm and steady anchor for our souls. In fact, hope reaches behind the curtain and into the most holy place. ₂₀Jesus has gone there ahead of us, and he is our high priest for ever, just like Melchizedek.