Tuesday 1st September
Read Jeremiah 6:6-8
“This is what the Lord Almighty says:
‘Cut down the trees
and build siege ramps against Jerusalem.
This city must be punished;
it is filled with oppression.
7 As a well pours out its water,
so she pours out her wickedness.
Violence and destruction resound in her;
her sickness and wounds are ever before me.
8 Take warning, Jerusalem,
or I will turn away from you
and make your land desolate
so that no one can live in it.’” (NIVUK)
Jeremiah’s words make clear that the people of Jerusalem are rotten within. Like a well overflowing, or a gong echoing, there is a sickness that expresses itself in evil and oppression against others.
Jesus walked in Jeremiah’s footsteps (or is it the other way around?) and faced a Jerusalem leadership not unlike that presiding at the time of Jerusalem’s first fall. He made much the same point as Jeremiah.
“…‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.’ 15 Peter said, ‘Explain the parable to us.’ 16 ‘Are you still so dull?’ Jesus asked them. 17 ‘Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.’” (Matthew 15:13-20) (NIVUK)
A renewed heart is the desperate need of everyone!
