Reading for July 21st

 Read Jeremiah 16.10-15: In verses 10-13: God quotes the people, who ask questions at the very heart of the book. Why has this happened? Exile has happened because of their sin and infidelity. In verses 14-15: Divine promises of a hopeful future addressed to the survivors of the nation's fall interrupt announcements of exile. Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 20th

 Read Jeremiah 16.1-9. In 16.1-21: Jeremiah's celibacy. Several voices debate the meaning of exile. In verses 1-9: The first voice of God, who commands Jeremiah not to take a wife and not to beget children. Jeremiah's isolation from the community becomes even stronger. Yet his life becomes a symbolic act, a sign of what will happen to the people in exile. Normal life will be over. There will be no marriages, and that means there will be no children. Domestic life is over and the people have no future. Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 19th

 Read Jeremiah 15.10- 21. In Jeremiah 15.10-21: Jeremiah's second confession. In verse 10; Jeremiah laments his calling to announce the coming tragedy to the community. In verse 15: He addresses God directly to complain that he has been faithful, taking the divine words into himself like food. In verse 17: He stayed away from community life. In verse 18: Like people, Jeremiah's wound is incurable, for God is unreliable. In verses 19-21: God replies that Jeremiah must turn to God, just as Jeremiah has asked the people to do (4.2). Then God will be with him and rescue him. Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 18th

 Read Jeremiah 15.1-9. In 15.1-16.21: No future, yet a future. In 15.1: Jeremiah cannot intercede with God for this sinful people because their infidelity places them beyond hope. Even the great mediators of the past, Moses and Samuel, could not get God to change the divine mind. These refusals by God to hear the prophet also indicate to the exilic audience that Jeremiah did not fail to prevent the nation's fall. Rather, they had sinned and God had no choice but to punish them. In verses 2-3: Poetry moves from the mythic description of the foe of the north to a more natural description of invasion and destruction. The culprit in this verse is King Manasseh, (2 Kings 21.10-15), who was famous for his idolatry. In verses 5-9: God laments over female Jerusalem, describes the disasters ahead, and accepts full responsibility for bringing calamity upon her. But the poem indicates that God has punished her only after becoming weary of relenting (v. 6). The poem defends God from charges of cruelty. Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 17th

 Read Jeremiah 17.17-22. In verse 17: Jeremiah weeps at the woundedness of the people, portrayed as the virgin daughter, grievously wounded by a crushing blow. In verses 19-22: The people use language of worship to protest God's neglect of them and to ask why there is no healing and no rain. The people's voice probably represents the voice of the exiles, expressing repentance and hope in the same style as the children in 3.22-25. Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 16th

 Read Jeremiah 14.11-16. In this prose comment we again hear God commanding Jeremiah not to intercede on behalf of the people because their case is beyond hope. Jeremiah stands in contrast to false prophets who preach lies to the people. This conflict suggests that the audience of the book is offered competing interpretations from its religious leaders. Jeremiah is only the prophet sent by God. Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 15th

 Read Jeremiah 14.1-10. In 14.1-22: Drought and wound. This chapter contains two poems, one concerning a drought (vv. 1-10) and one concerning the wounds of war (vv. 17-22), with a prose comment (vv. 11-16) between them. Though the actual drought may be behind the first poem, it stands here as an image of the destruction of the creation caused by the nations sinfulness. In verse 3: The earth and the animals are affected by the people's idolatry as they return to empty cisterns, instead of to the "fountain of living water" (2.13). In verses 8-9: The people speak in the language of worship, asking why God has forsaken them. In verse 10: God describes again their wandering, as they turn to other gods. Comments or Questions..