JEREMIAH 6:16-8:7
COLOSSIANS 2:8-23
PSALM 78:1-31
PROVERBS 24:26
JEREMIAH 6:16-8:7
So now the LORD pleads, " Stop right where you are! Look for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, ` No, that's not the road we want!' 17 I set watchmen over you who said, ` Listen for the sound of the trumpet!' But you replied, ` No! We won't pay attention!' 18 " Therefore, listen to this, all you nations. Take note of my people's condition. 19 Listen, all the earth! I will bring disaster upon my people. It is the fruit of their own sin because they refuse to listen to me. They have rejected all my instructions. 20 There is no use now in offering me sweet incense from Sheba. Keep your expensive perfumes! I cannot accept your burnt offerings. Your sacrifices have no sweet fragrance for me." 21 Therefore, this is what the LORD says: " I will put obstacles in my people's path. Fathers and sons will both fall over them. Neighbors and friends will collapse together."22 This is what the LORD says: " See a great army marching from the north! A great nation is rising against you from far-off lands. 23 They are fully armed for slaughter. They are cruel and show no mercy. As they ride forward, the noise of their army is like a roaring sea. They are marching in battle formation to destroy you, Jerusalem." 24 We have heard reports about the enemy, and we are weak with fright. Fear and pain have gripped us, like that of a woman about to give birth. 25 Don't go out to the fields! Don't travel the roads! The enemy is everywhere, and they are ready to kill. We are terrorized at every turn! 26 Now my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth, and sit among the ashes. Mourn and weep bitterly, as for the loss of an only son. For suddenly, the destroying armies will be upon you! 27 " Jeremiah, I have made you a tester of metals, that you may determine the quality of my people. 28 Are they not the worst of rebels, full of slander? They are as insolent as bronze, as hard and cruel as iron. All of them lead others into corruption. 29 The bellows blow fiercely. The refining fire grows hotter. But it will never purify and cleanse them because there is no purity in them to refine. 30 I will label them ` Rejected Silver' because I, the LORD, am discarding them."7:1 THE LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 " Go to the entrance of the LORD's Temple, and give this message to the people: ` O Judah, listen to this message from the LORD! Listen to it, all of you who worship here! 3 The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Even now, if you quit your evil ways, I will let you stay in your own land. 4 But do not be fooled by those who repeatedly promise your safety because the Temple of the LORD is here. 5 I will be merciful only if you stop your wicked thoughts and deeds and are fair to others; 6 and if you stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows; and if you stop your murdering; and if you stop worshiping idols as you now do to your own harm. 7 Then I will let you stay in this land that I gave to your ancestors to keep forever. 8 " ` Do you think that because the Temple is here you will never suffer? Don't fool yourselves! 9 Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and worship Baal and all those other new gods of yours, 10 and then come here and stand before me in my Temple and chant, " We are safe!"--only to go right back to all those evils again? 11 Do you think this Temple, which honors my name, is a den of thieves? I see all the evil going on there, says the LORD. 12 " ` Go to the place at Shiloh where I once put the Tabernacle to honor my name. See what I did there because of all the wickedness of my people, the Israelites. 13 While you were doing these wicked things, says the LORD, I spoke to you about it repeatedly, but you would not listen. I called out to you, but you refused to answer. 14 So just as I destroyed Shiloh, I will now destroy this Temple that was built to honor my name, this Temple that you trust for help, this place that I gave to you and your ancestors. 15 And I will send you into exile, just as I did your relatives, the people of Israel.' 16 " Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Do not weep or pray for them, and don't beg me to help them, for I will not listen to you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing throughout the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 No wonder I am so angry! Watch how the children gather wood and the fathers build sacrificial fires. See how the women knead dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. And they give drink offerings to their other idol gods! 19 Am I the one they are hurting?" asks the LORD. " Most of all, they hurt themselves, to their own shame." 20 So the Sovereign LORD says: " I will pour out my terrible fury on this place. Its people, animals, trees, and crops will be consumed by the unquenchable fire of my anger." 21 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: " Away with your burnt offerings and sacrifices! Eat them yourselves! 22 When I led your ancestors out of Egypt, it was not burnt offerings and sacrifices I wanted from them. 23 This is what I told them: ` Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Only do as I say, and all will be well!' 24 " But my people would not listen to me. They kept on doing whatever they wanted, following the stubborn desires of their evil hearts. They went backward instead of forward. 25 From the day your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send my prophets--day in and day out. 26 But my people have not listened to me or even tried to hear. They have been stubborn and sinful--even worse than their ancestors. 27 " Tell them all this, but do not expect them to listen. Shout out your warnings, but do not expect them to respond. 28 Say to them, ` This is the nation whose people will not obey the LORD their God and who refuse to be taught. Truth has vanished from among them; it is no longer heard on their lips. 29 O Jerusalem, shave your head in mourning, and weep alone on the mountains. For the LORD has rejected and forsaken this generation that has provoked his fury.' 30 " The people of Judah have sinned before my very eyes," says the LORD. " They have set up their abominable idols right in my own Temple, defiling it. 31 They have built the pagan shrines of Topheth in the valley of the son of Hinnom, where they sacrifice their little sons and daughters in the fire. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing! 32 So beware, for the time is coming," says the LORD, " when that place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. They will bury so many bodies in Topheth that there won't be room for all the graves. 33 The corpses of my people will be food for the vultures and wild animals, and no one will be left to scare them away. 34 I will put an end to the happy singing and laughter in the streets of Jerusalem. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard in the towns of Judah. The land will lie in complete desolation.8:1 " IN that day," says the LORD, " the enemy will break open the graves of the kings and officials of Judah, and the graves of the priests, prophets, and common people. 2 They will dig out their bones and spread them out on the ground before the sun, moon, and stars--the gods my people have loved, served, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered up again or buried but will be scattered on the ground like dung. 3 And the people of this evil nation who survive will wish to die rather than live where I will send them. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken! 4 " Jeremiah, say to the people, ` This is what the LORD says: When people fall down, don't they get up again? When they start down the wrong road and discover their mistake, don't they turn back? 5 Then why do these people keep going along their self-destructive path, refusing to turn back, even though I have warned them? 6 I listen to their conversations, and what do I hear? Is anyone sorry for sin? Does anyone say, " What a terrible thing I have done"? No! All are running down the path of sin as swiftly as a horse rushing into battle! 7 The stork knows the time of her migration, as do the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane. They all return at the proper time each year. But not my people! They do not know what the LORD requires of them.' "
COLOSSIANS 2:8-23
Don't let anyone lead you [Colossians] astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ. 9 For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body, 10 and you are complete through your union with Christ. He is the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe. 11 When you came to Christ, you were " circumcised," but not by a physical procedure. It was a spiritual procedure--the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to a new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ's cross. 15 In this way, God disarmed the evil rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross of Christ. 16 So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new-moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. 17 For these rules were only shadows of the real thing, Christ himself. 18 Don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on self-denial. And don't let anyone say you must worship angels, even though they say they have had visions about this. These people claim to be so humble, but their sinful minds have made them proud. 19 But they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For we are joined together in his body by his strong sinews, and we grow only as we get our nourishment and strength from God. 20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the evil powers of this world. So why do you keep on following rules of the world, such as, 21 " Don't handle, don't eat, don't touch." 22 Such rules are mere human teaching about things that are gone as soon as we use them. 23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, humility, and severe bodily discipline. But they have no effect when it comes to conquering a person's evil thoughts and desires.
PSALM 78:1-31
A psalm of Asaph.
1 O my people, listen to my teaching.
Open your ears to what I am saying,
2 for I will speak to you in a parable.
I will teach you hidden lessons from our past--
3 stories we have heard and know,
stories our ancestors handed down to us.
4 We will not hide these truths from our children
but will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD.
We will tell of his power and the mighty miracles he did.
5 For he issued his decree to Jacob;
he gave his law to Israel.
He commanded our ancestors
to teach them to their children,
6 so the next generation might know them--
even the children not yet born--
that they in turn might teach their children.
7 So each generation can set its hope anew on God,
remembering his glorious miracles
and obeying his commands.
8 Then they will not be like their ancestors--
stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful,
refusing to give their hearts to God.
9 The warriors of Ephraim, though fully armed,
turned their backs and fled when the day of battle came.
10 They did not keep God's covenant,
and they refused to live by his law.
11 They forgot what he had done--
the wonderful miracles he had shown them,
12 the miracles he did for their ancestors in Egypt, on the plain of Zoan.
13 For he divided the sea before them and led them through!
The water stood up like walls beside them!
14 In the daytime he led them by a cloud,
and at night by a pillar of fire.
15 He split open the rocks in the wilderness
to give them plenty of water, as from a gushing spring.
16 He made streams pour from the rock,
making the waters flow down like a river!
17 Yet they kept on with their sin,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 They willfully tested God in their hearts,
demanding the foods they craved.
19 They even spoke against God himself, saying,
" God can't give us food in the desert.
20 Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out,
but he can't give his people bread and meat."
21 When the LORD heard them, he was angry.
The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob.
Yes, his anger rose against Israel,
22 for they did not believe God
or trust him to care for them.
23 But he commanded the skies to open--
he opened the doors of heaven--
24 and rained down manna for them to eat.
He gave them bread from heaven.
25 They ate the food of angels!
God gave them all they could hold.
26 He released the east wind in the heavens
and guided the south wind by his mighty power.
27 He rained down meat as thick as dust--
birds as plentiful as the sands along the seashore!
28 He caused the birds to fall within their camp
and all around their tents.
29 The people ate their fill.
He gave them what they wanted.
30 But before they finished eating this food they had craved,
while the meat was yet in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them,
and he killed their strongest men;
he struck down the finest of Israel's young men.
PROVERBS 24:26
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