Scripture Nugget 4.14.2017
Scripture Read Jeremiah 6 – 16 (6 -11 were last Friday’s reading)
Nugget Jeremiah 15:19-21 …. 16:16-18, 21
“Therefore thus says the LORD: If you turn back, I will take you back, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall serve as my mouth. It is they who will turn to you, not you who will turn to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and delver you, says the LORD. I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless. … I am now sending for many fishermen, says the LORD, and they shall catch them; and afterward I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my presence, nor is their iniquity concealed from my sight. And I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations. … ‘Therefore I am surely going to teach them, this time I am going to teach them my power and my might, and the shall know that my name is the LORD.’”
Devotional Thought: What a body of scripture to read on Good Friday!? Jeremiah, a prophet sent by God to call the people to repentance, finds himself in two struggles. One with the people who refuse to listen, to their peril and the other with God who seemingly allows sinful disobedient people to live lives of abundance and plenty, while the remnant of faithful followers suffers. How meaningful to this pastor of two congregations, being at the end of another season of Lent, on Good Friday, the day the world went dark because of our sin, just days before Easter and the Resurrection, the day the lights came back on because of God’s love! Yes God will receive me/you when we turn back to Him! He sends fishermen to fish us our of our deep, deep holes and hunters to find us in our places of hiding, where we worship idols – gods with no power. Yet, if we will, when we turn back, God will take us back. That is when we learn the enormity of his power and might – when his grace and mercy overcome our sin. It is Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified because of my/your sin; don’t get stuck in the darkness of this historical event. Turn back to God fully, Easter is coming, the Light of the world overcomes all darkness. Give thanks and praise to the one and only glorious God who made it happen then and makes it happen now! Thus says the LORD, “If you turn back, I will take you back, for I am with you to save you and deliver you.” Amen and Amen, give all glory and honor to God!