The Saturday after Sexagesima Sunday
Posted on March 1, 2025 by under
Scripture: Jeremiah 11:1-7 (NKJV)
11:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 3 and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant 4 which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God,’ 5 that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as it is this day.”’”
And I answered and said, “So be it, Lord.”
6 Then the Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: ‘Hear the words of this covenant and do them. 7 For I earnestly exhorted your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, until this day, rising early and exhorting, saying, “Obey My voice.”
Devotion
“Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God.”
Jeremiah confronted Israel with their faithlessness and their idolatries. He called on them to come back to the Lord and obey His voice. It is easy for us to hear that “obey” word strictly as Law. It actually comes to us from ob audire, to “listen up.” By all means we are to “listen up” to the Law, and strive with all our might to keep it. But we misunderstand Jeremiah if we imagine (as many Jews did) that the only problem here was that they were breaking too many rules.
That rampant breaking of rules was just the symptom. The real problem was that they did not love the Lord, that they had forsaken the faith. Jeremiah reminds them of the love of God, that He had brought their forebears out of bondage in Egypt, and so He calls them to return.
We have been delivered from a far greater bondage, from enslavement to sin, death, and the devil. So “listen up” also to the Gospel: Jesus truly has atoned for the sin of the world, including all of yours. From your heart, by the power that comes only from His Holy Spirit, love Him, trust Him, have faith in Him. Then, out of the gratitude of that faith, strive to please Him in all that you say and do.
Collect: O Lord God, Who seest that we put not our trust in anything that we do: Mercifully grant that by Thy power we may be defended against all adversity; 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.
