In today's reading we move from more poetic content to the story of Jeremiah being opposed by priests, other prophets, and royal officials. Remember that God has promised that he will protect Jeremiah in the face of opposition, and this certainly was put to the test. At the end of today's reading, we hear how Jeremiah prophesied that more valuable articles would be taken away from the Temple, and that they would be brought back— a prophecy which we have already heard was fulfilled.
In our poetry readings this year, we started with Job, then Psalms, and now we enter the wisdom literature with Proverbs. Solomon wrote and compiled these proverbs around the year 950 BC, in the height of Israel’s golden age. We will hear the theme statement of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes today in verse 7, “Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true knowledge.” There is a clear division in the organization of this book. The first 9 chapters are highly thematic and are especially directed to giving wisdom to Solomon’s sons. Then there are proverbs giving every-day advice to everyone, followed by advice to rulers. The very last chapter is the one that extolls the blessedness of having a wise wife.
Today's reading in Proverbs contains the first speech of Lady Wisdom, the personification of God's wisdom. Because personification is shown by 'she' and 'her' in English, these portions come out poorly in Indonesian, which doesn't keep track of masculine/feminine gender. An added problem is that the Indonesian seems to never use personification.
In 1 Corinthians 8 Paul begins his explanation about whether Christians can eat food left over from sacrifices to idols. To me it is another sign of inspiration and God-given wisdom that Paul does not just give a rule to answer this question.
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