The Lord said that the people He treasures most are the humble - they depend only on Him and tremble at His word. God had seen the hypocrisy of the people who misunderstood the point of atonement. They saw it as payment for their sins only, that they could go out and do anything they wanted and it would be ok as long as they made an offering to God to make up for it. Then they could go out and do it again. Some of the people rejected the humble among them. They made fun of the people who took God's word seriously. They wouldn't be laughing for long. God would bring Jerusalem to life with abundance of people, wealth and comfort. Then everyone would know that the Lord is present with His servants and angry with His enemies. Some of the people would prepare themselves to sin deliberately, the Lord promised to destroy them for it. He knows everything we do and think.
The time has come to bring together all the people of the distant lands so they would know about God. People from all over the earth would come to Jerusalem to bring offerings to the temple. God promised that the Israelites would never be forgotten and that they would always have descendants.
Jeremiah
God told Jeremiah who He was and that He had chosen him before he was born to speak for Him to the nations. When Jeremiah heard this he voiced his concerns to God that he wasn't a good speaker and he was too young. The Lord told him that when he was told where to go and what to say, he'd better do it. God promised Jeremiah that He would be right there with him to guide him and keep him safe, and not to be afraid. The Lord reached out His hand and touched Jeremiah's mouth and gave him words to say and the authority to say them. The Lord told Jeremiah he would speak of doom and destruction and rising and rebuilding again to the people. God told Jeremiah to stand up to the wicked people and to not be afraid of them because He wouldn't let them harm him.
The Lord told Jeremiah to go to Jerusalem and tell the people what He had said. God recalled to them how their ancestors had loved God alone. After a while, even though God didn't deserve to be rejected, the people forgot about Him and made their own gods. God had resuced them from Egypt and kept them alive in the barren desert, and given them a land of abundance, which they made filthy. They turned their backs on God. No other nation had ever abandoned its gods. They rejected Him; the only source of life. Then they found out the consequences of their betrayal, slavery. Jeremiah told the people they were stained with guilt and no soap or bleach would wash it away. They couldn't see that the things they did were sins. They were too busy worshiping their idols to notice anything else.
Tomorrow read Jeremiah 2:26-5:19
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