Friday after the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 14, 2022 by under
Scripture: Jeremiah 13:15-25 (NKJV)
13:15 Hear and give ear:
Do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken.
16 Give glory to the Lord your God before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it dense darkness.
17 But if you will not hear it, My soul will weep in secret for your pride; My eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.
18 Say to the king and to the queen mother, “Humble yourselves; Sit down, for your rule shall collapse, the crown of your glory.”
19 The cities of the South shall be shut up, and no one shall open them; Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it; It shall be wholly carried away captive.
20 Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful sheep?
21 What will you say when He punishes you? For you have taught them to be chieftains, to be head over you. Will not pangs seize you, like a woman in labor?
22 And if you say in your heart, “Why have these things come upon me?” For the greatness of your iniquity your skirts have been uncovered, your heels made bare.
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.
24 “Therefore I will scatter them like stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness.
25 This is your lot, the portion of your measures from Me,” says the Lord, “Because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood.
Devotion
“Hear and give ear: do not be proud, for the LORD has spoken. Give glory to the LORD your God before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it dense darkness.”
Human pride so often gets in the way of hearing the rebukes of God’s Word and repenting of the sins and evils in our lives. Rather than hearing what God says, we imagine that we are right, that we are righteous, and that those who rebuke us with God’s Word are wrong. God, however, urges us to give Him glory and hear the warnings of His Word before it is too late, before we stumble in darkness and He turns the light we have into “the shadow of death and makes it dense darkness.”
If we refuse to hear and heed the warnings of God’s Word and repent of our sinful and erring ways, we will soon be hardened in our sins and unbelief, and God will “weep in secret for [our] pride.” He truly desires that we look to Him for mercy and forgiveness in Christ Jesus and His cross, and by His Spirit and help we are able to do so.
Prayer: Lord, we beseech Thee, grant Thy people grace, to withstand the temptations of the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow Thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
