Mike Blogs

God spoke the last line of Chapter 5: "An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule as the prophets direct; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?”   If God speaks to us through Scripture, and we believe that God does this, what is God saying to us today through the prophet Jeremiah? First comes a warning we should heed. “Prophets and priests” are religious personnel; so are today's p

God, through the prophet Jeremiah, is making his last call to the only remaining Jewish state in the ancient world: Judah.   The northern kingdom, which was called Israel, disappeared from the annals of history in 721 BC, one of many conquests of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-609 BC). The people living in Israel were deported in order to prevent them from organizing a rebellion against Assyria. They are sometimes referred to as ‘the ten lost tribes,” but they were not all lost

Hope for the nation of Judah? No. God has made that clear. Unless there is mass repentance, that is, the leaders publicly confess their sins and bow only to YHWH and people abandon their idols, ideals, and the ideology of military domination over other nations (power), of the legitimacy of fleecing the lower classes (greed), and the practice of abusing others for their own pleasure (lust). Unless there is widespread repentance and prayers for forgiveness, there is no hope for

Perhaps you have heard about the Greek philosopher Diogenes the Cynic. He lit a lantern during daylight hours and walked around town. When people asked him what he was doing, he said: “I am looking for an honest man.” Actually, according to the reports of other philosophers, he said he was tired of brutes and animals, so he was looking for a human. Of course, the ‘brutes and animals’ were human beings of little worth, and he could not find a human of any worth. Diogenes lived

Remember that Baruch the scribe recorded various prophetic sermons that Jeremiah preached. We cannot tell for sure where one ends and another begins, but this looks like the beginning of a new sermon. Let’s see.  Jeremiah 4: 5-8.  Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: Blow the trumpet through the land;    shout aloud (take your weapons), and say, “Gather together, and let us go    into the fortified cities!” Raise a standard toward Zion;    flee for safet

Jeremiah 4: 1-2. If you return, O Israel, says the Lord, if you return to me, if you remove your abominations from my presence    and do not waver, and if you swear, "As the LORD lives!”    in truth, in justice, and in uprightness, then nations shall be blessed by you,    and by you they shall boast.   Notice the repeated phrases. When we talk to our children, we often phrase it like this, ‘If…, if…, if….’  In this case, God clarifies as he speaks (sounding a bit like Rob

It may seem odd that God is pleading with Judah rather than commanding them. However, our God is a God of love, and his commands, his judgments, and even his punishments serve that purpose. In our study, God is still talking with Jeremiah the prophet, and Jeremiah is still preaching God’s word while Baruch, the scribe, is recording it all on scrolls. Jeremiah’s ministry is to a public that is deluded about where their political and religious leaders are leading them. They do

I asked last week whether or not God’s condemnation of Israel and Judah was his last word? Yes, in the short run, for some of the people, it was. Yet, no, not in the long run, for some people survived and became refugees, exiles in Babylon. Those refugees become the second audience for Jeremiah’s prophecies, and Oh, how the times have changed the message.      These are the days of Jeremiah, and we are reading summaries of his early prophecies that his scribe Baruch has writt

Where are we in the story? The scribe Baruch wrote down on a scroll the prophecies of Jeremiah for the king and people of Judah in the...

The cross-examination of the defendant, Israel and Judah, continues. God asks questions that make Judah think about why they are doing...

We are in a courtroom, and God is conducting a cross-examination. His questions are more rhetorical than real. God does not expect an...

In God’s view, Israel had been like God’s bride, well taken care of. Israel was at first appreciative of God’s steadfast love and...

This lament by God over the unfaithfulness of Israel goes on for several chapters. God uses several different metaphors to express his...

In our text, God is in the middle of a sustained charge against Israel, that is, the refugees from the now defunct Kingdom of Israel as...

Chapter 1 is an introduction to the prophet Jeremiah and the beginning of his long conversation with God about the times that Jeremiah...

There is abundant evidence in the Book of Jeremiah that he had a lifetime secretary, a scribe who wrote down the words that Jeremiah...

Notice the contrasting phrases in the first paragraph of the first chapter, verses 1-3, and the second paragraph below, verses 4-5. This...

Jeremiah, the prophet not the bullfrog, was called by God to preach, to criticize, and to warn people who imagined that they were...

Well, we come to the end of the Gospel according to Matthew, and I am glad that you are still with me in our quest to dig deeper into...

Jesus’ words are comforting, but why should his disciples remember this? Are they supposed to recall it because Jesus has already told...