Always rejoice. 1 Thessalonians 5:16

Jeremiah 19-20

Jeremiah 19

The Broken Jar

¹ This is what the LORD said, “Go and buy a potter’s earthen container and take some of the elders of the people and of the elders of the priests, ² and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith and proclaim there the words that I will tell you.

³ Say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel says: I will bring disaster on this place so that whoever hears about it will be shocked. ⁴ Because they have forsaken me and have defiled this place and have burned incense in it to other gods that neither they, nor their fathers, nor the kings of Judah knew; and they have filled this place with the blood of innocents ⁵ and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their children in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command, nor speak, which did not even enter into my mind.

⁶ Therefore, the day is coming, says the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth, nor The Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but it will be called The Valley of Slaughter.  ⁷ In this place I will nullify the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies as food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.

⁸ I will make this city a desolation and scorn. Everyone who passes by it will be appalled and scoff because of all of the destruction. ⁹ I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters. They will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress, which their enemies and those who seek their life will bring on them.’

¹⁰ Then you shall break the container in the sight of the men who go with you, ¹¹ and you shall tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel that cannot be made whole again. They will bury their dead in Topheth until there is no place to bury.

¹² This is what I will do to this place and to its inhabitants, declares the LORD, making this city Topheth. ¹³ The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, will be like the place of Topheth, all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to the hosts of heaven and have poured out drink offerings to other gods.”

¹⁴ Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courts of the house of the LORD and said to all the people: ¹⁵ “This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel says, ‘I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it because they have rebelled, so that they may not hear my words.’ ”

Jeremiah 20

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah

¹ Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. ² Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of the LORD.

³ It happened on the next day, that Pashhur brought Jeremiah forth, out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Magormissabib. ⁴ For this is what the LORD says, ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies. Your eyes will see it, and I will give all of Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them captive to Babylon and will kill them with the sword.

⁵ Moreover I will give all the riches of this city and all its gains and all the precious things within it, yes, all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, and they shall make them a prey and take them and carry them to Babylon.

⁶ You, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house will go into captivity, and you will come to Babylon, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.'”

Jeremiah’s Complaint

⁷ O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived.
You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.
I have become a laughing-stock all day.
Everyone mocks me.

⁸ For as often as I speak, I cry out. I cry out:
Violence and destruction!
For the word of the LORD has brought to me
reproach and disgrace, all day.

⁹ If I say, “I will not make mention of him,
nor speak his name any more,”
then a fire burns in my heart and my bones.
I am weary trying to withhold it,
and I cannot keep it in.

¹⁰ For I have heard many of them defaming me,
terror on every side.
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!
All of my friends are watching for my fall.
Perhaps he will be persuaded,
and we shall prevail against him,
and we shall take our revenge on him.

¹¹ But the LORD is with me as an awesome mighty one.
Therefore my persecutors will stumble,
and they will not prevail.
They will be utterly disappointed,
because they have not dealt wisely,
with an everlasting dishonor
which will never be forgotten.

¹² But, LORD of Hosts, who tests the righteous,
who sees the heart and the mind,
let me see your vengeance on them.
For to you I have presented my case.

¹³ Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD.
For he has delivered the needy
from the hand of evildoers.

¹⁴ Cursed is the day in which I was born.
Do not let the day on which my mother bore me be blessed.

¹⁵ Cursed is the man who brought news to my father, saying,
A boy is born to you, making him very glad.

¹⁶ Let that man be like the cities
which the LORD overthrew,
and did not relent.
And let him hear a cry in the morning,
and shouting at noontime,
¹⁷ because he did not kill me in the womb,
and thus my mother’s womb would have been my grave.

¹⁸ Why did I come forth out of the womb
to see labor and sorrow,
that my days should be consumed with shame?

1 Thessalonians 5

The Day of the Lord

¹ But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you. ² For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape.

⁴ But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. ⁵ You are all children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night, nor to darkness, ⁶ so then let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us watch and be sober. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunk are drunk in the night. ⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

⁹ For the Lord did not appoint us to wrath, but to salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. ¹¹ Therefore exhort one another and build each other up, just as you are doing.

Christian Living

¹² But we beg you, brothers, to know those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, ¹³ to respect and honor them in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.

¹⁴ We exhort you, brothers: Admonish the disorderly, encourage the faint-hearted, support the weak, be patient toward all.

¹⁵ See that no one returns evil for evil to anyone, but always follow after that which is good for one another and for all.

¹⁶ Always rejoice. ¹⁷ Pray without ceasing. ¹⁸ In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.

¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise prophecies. ²¹ Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil.

Final Blessings

²³ May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ He who calls you is faithful, and he will accomplish it.

²⁵ Brothers, pray for us.

²⁶ Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

²⁷ I solemnly command you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the holy brothers.

²⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

Psalm 82

God Presides in the Great Assembly

A Psalm by Asaph.

¹ God presides in the great assembly.
He judges among the gods.
² “How long will you judge unjustly,
and show partiality to the wicked?”

Selah.

³ “Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless.
Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
⁴ Rescue the weak and needy.
Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
⁵ They do not have knowledge, nor do they understand.
They walk back and forth in darkness.
All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
⁶ I said, “You are gods,
all of you are sons of the Most High.
⁷ Nevertheless you shall die like men
and fall like one of the rulers.”
⁸ Arise, God, and judge the earth,
for you inherit all of the nations.

Proverbs 25:9-10

⁹ Debate your case with your neighbor,
and do not betray the confidence of another,
¹⁰ lest one who hears it put you to shame,
and you never recover from a bad reputation.

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