Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Wednesday after the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: Jeremiah 25:1-18 (NKJV)

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: 3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the LORD has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. 4 And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. 5 They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. 6 Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ 7 Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the LORD, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

8 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the LORD, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

12 ‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation. 13 So I will bring on that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied concerning all the nations. 14 (For many nations and great kings shall be served by them also; and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the works of their own hands.)'”

15 For thus says the LORD God of Israel to me: “Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. 16 And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.” 17 Then I took the cup from the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations drink, to whom the LORD had sent me: 18 Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day.

Devotion

“For thus says the LORD God of Israel to me: ‘Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.'”

How many people think of God as the wise, gentle grandfather in the sky, there to offer you counsel or comfort when you ask for it, but quietly leaving you alone if you don’t really want Him intruding into your life at the moment? The Scriptures reveal that God is not like that. He is a perfect God, and in the perfection of His justice every sin must be perfectly punished. He does not ignore a single one. He never responds to sin by letting it slide.

So the nations of the Earth will be made to drink the cup of the fury of the Lord God of Israel. The sword of God’s wrath is unleashed, and it is “maddening,” as we see all over the world today. We are numbered among those nations. Is there any hope for us? Indeed, there is. Imagine that the Lord God of Israel drank the cup for us! Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane? “If possible, let this cup pass from me?” It was not possible. He did the will of the Father, drank the cup of His wrath on the cross, and spared us. Thanks be to God that the cup of God’s fury against us was drunk for us by Jesus Christ our Savior!

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