Today's reading: The prophet boldly proclaims the Lord's warnings to a people who refuse to listen; he pleads in vain for repentance, but no one heeds.
Memory gem: "Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Jeremiah 6:16).
Thought for today:
God's Word is a fire which makes sinners uncomfortable, but warms the heart of the believer. Notice the statement in Jeremiah 5:14: "Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them."
A true minister of God feels this fire in his heart--this "woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:16). As Jeremiah said: "His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay" (Jeremiah 20:9).
Oh, that words of burning truth might be proclaimed from every pulpit and in the life of every Christian! What a cleansing it would work in the church, and what a mighty testimony it would be to the world!
For hard hearts God's Word is also a hammer. We read in Jeremiah 23:29: "Is not my word like a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in places?"
No heart is too hard for the hammer and the fire--it will either break in conviction and sorrow for the wrong deeds of life and seek God's mercy in Christ, or it will break at last.
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Difficult or obscure words:
Jeremiah 4:30. "Rentest thy face"--literally, enlargest thine eyes. Ancient Oriental women used a glittering black mineral power on the edges of their eyelids to make their eyes appear larger and more brilliant.
Jeremiah 5:6. "Of the evenings"--better: of the deserts.
NOTE: Jeremiah's ministry covered more than forty years--from the "thirteenth year" of Josiah (about 626 B.C.) to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah (586 B.C.) plus an indefinite period beyond that date (see chapter 44:1).