The Saturday after Sexagesima Sunday
Posted on February 14, 2026 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
Jeremiah was constantly devising different modes of expressing Israel’s need to repent and not destroy itself. In this chapter the prophet tries to rouse his hearers from their fatal complacency by labeling their apostasy a revolt against God. This is similar to the weekly activity of pastoral preaching and teaching.
Obstinate unfaithfulness is not the sin of a weak moment, but a deliberate conspiracy to defy God’s claim to their loyalty. Nor can any profess ignorance of wrongdoing. At Mount Sinai God had made a solemn pact with His people. According to the words of this covenant He would be their God and they His people if, in response to this undeserved gift of grace, they would obey His voice and keep His commandments. But in the stubbornness of evil hearts and in the face of persistent warnings, Judah repudiated the sacred pledge of obedience. Hence, the curse pronounced on disobedience in the covenant would go into effect.
Chosen to be God’s beloved, the covenant nation faced imminent destruction. Jeremiah’s prayer on its behalf and its hypocritical ceremonial observances in God’s house cannot avert its doom. Our modern situation also reflects this pending judgment on hypocrisy and unbelief, because it is virtually impossible for anyone today to claim no access to the clear Words of God’s promises and warnings recorded in the New and Old Testaments.
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.
