In yesterday's reading, we heard how the very priest who earlier put Jeremiah in stocks and beat him was sent by the king to him, along with others. They were to ask Jeremiah's help to pray for a miracle. And God made it ever so clear that no miracle of deliverance would be given. Jeremiah repeatedly tells the king what he needs to do, but Zedekiah just couldn’t manage to do it. The area of giving justice was especially prominent in yesterday's reading.
Translation notes:
There is a play on words here that is really hard to translate, and NLT doesn’t show that in a way that makes sense to me. So I am basing the reading more on the NLT
33The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, when one of these people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, ‘What [burden/burdensome message] do you have from the Lord?’ [(meaning a message from me,)] Tell them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you away. I, the Lord, affirm it! 34I will punish any prophet, priest, or other person who [refers to a message from me as a burden//says “The Lord’s message is burdensome].” I will punish both that person and his whole family.’”
35So I, Jeremiah, tell you, “Each of you people should say to his friend or his relative, ‘How did the Lord answer? Or what did the Lord say?’ 36You must no longer [refer to a message from the Lord as a “burden”.//say that the Lord’s message is burdensome.] [NLT: For people are using it to give authority to their own ideas, turning upside down the words of our God, the living God, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.//For what is ‘burdensome’ really pertains to what a person himself says. You are misrepresenting the words of our God, the living God, the Lord who rules over all.] 37Each of you should merely ask the prophet, ‘What answer did the Lord give you? Or what did the Lord say?’ 38But just suppose you continue to [call the Lord’s message “a burden”.//say, ‘The message of the Lord is burdensome.’] Here is what the Lord says will happen: ‘I sent word to you that you must not [call my message a ‘burden’.//say, “The Lord’s message is burdensome.”] But you [continued to say that anyway.//used the words “The Lord’s message is burdensome” anyway.] 39So I will carry you far off and throw you away. I will send both you and the city I gave to you and to your ancestors out of my sight.40I will bring on you lasting shame and lasting disgrace which will never be forgotten!’”
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/jer.23.nlt
We old saints should not despise all of the new songs of the young saints. Yet I totally understand the desire to avoid change. Here we see that Scripture commands that we sing new songs. And this whole psalm can be taken as a prelude to what we will see in the book of Revelation.
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/psa.149
Here we have a chapter break at the right place. Paul starts a new topic here.
Translation notes:
11Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on [0//the name of] the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
This is a figure of speech called metonymy. ‘The name’ stands for the whole person. First of all, even though it sounds natural to us who have been around Bibles all our lives, it really is not natural English. One never would say, “Call on the name of Obama.” We would simply call Obama, or call to Obama. Secondly, calling on a name sounds as if we are given magic words. It would be idolatry to worship a thing (even a name) rather than the Person himself.
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/1co.6
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