Friday after the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on September 27, 2024 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
This is a brutal pericope, filled with righteous judgment meted out on a rebellious flock and shepherds. Judah’s willful rebellion, fed and led forward by her rulers, has made exile from the Promised Land inevitable. We know our Lord as long suffering and abundantly merciful, but it is not wise for His people to forget that God does at times speak of judgment that is so righteous and sinners so deserving of it that He will not relent. We never want to hear this type of proclamation from our Lord. Wrath comes due to our foolish testing of His patience, ignoring and resisting His divine inspired Word as Judah and her leaders do in today’s appointed meditation text.
Verses twenty two and twenty three echo the prophet proclaiming the sad reality that one who lingers in sin will suffer because of it. Verses twenty four and twenty five change to the voice of God proclaiming His judgment upon the unrepentant. These two verses present a destiny that will come to pass and the sufferer has no choice but to reap the whirlwind they have spun up with their callous disregard and disrespect of God and His will.
Collect: 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.
