Friday after the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 6, 2023 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
As we heard yesterday of the iniquity of the people after their return from captivity, today’s reading from Jeremiah presents us with a portion of the word of the Lord which warned them of that which would befall them. “‘Therefore I will scatter them like stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness. This is your lot, the portion of your measures from Me,’ says the Lord, ‘Because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood.’”
In our generation, we see that there are many who are abandoning the faith. Some do so because they are caught up in obvious vice and are given over to the perversions so common in our culture. But others seem to drift away, almost as if they are bored of the truth. Such people seem to simply take it for granted that the Lord will not judge them, and they take the grace of God for granted. They have drifted so far from the truth that they imagine that they “aren’t that bad.” The plight of such souls is possibly worse than those who are caught up in gross sins, because they imagine that they have no sin at all.
The Law condemns those who outwardly or inwardly depart from the Lord; it speaks judgment, that there might be repentance and faith restored before the Day of Judgment.
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.
