August 17, 2017

Insights on Today's Reading

Jeremiah 35 - God had Jeremiah have members of the family of the Rechabites join him in one of the side rooms of the house of God.  There he was to offer them wine to drink.  They immediately refused because their father had commanded them never to do so.  God later told Jeremiah to go to the men of Judah and use the Rechabites as an illustration of people who obeyed their father and sought to honor him.  God wanted the Judeans to realize the Rechabites gave more honor to their father than the Jews were giving to God.  God promised the Rechabites would always have descendants because of their faithful obedience.

Jeremiah 36 - God told Jeremiah to have a scroll written of all the things God had spoken.  Jeremiah had his assistant, Baruch, write down everything.  That scroll was eventually read to the king, and he cut it up and burned in his fireplace.  God had Jeremiah write another scroll which would add even more judgments against Judah.  And God told the king that the king of Babylon would personally punish him.

Jeremiah 37 - Another Judean king, Zedekiah, sent servants to Jeremiah to ask for prayer.  God told the king that he would definitely be punished by Babylon.  Later, Jeremiah attempted to leave to see the land he had purchased back in chapter 32.  However, he was falsely arrested for supposedly defecting to the Babylonians.  He was imprisoned but appealed to King Zedekiah who allowed Jeremiah some leniency and given enough food to live on.