Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray:
Everlasting Father,
All time belongs to you, and all the ages. In signs, in songs, in words of promise, you reassured your chosen ones, “I am with you; fear not.” You taught them through the prophets to trust that your saving deeds were not limited to the past.
When Jesus came, he fulfilled “all that was written in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
The Church has found him everywhere in these same holy books.
Help me to find Jesus in my reading today, to listen to him, and to follow him with all my heart.
Amen.
Today's chapters are Jeremiah 5-7.
Jeremiah will get into trouble with the local authorities for his honesty, but (unlike the false prophets) he is not preaching to gain approval from his hearers: He is trying to steer them away from their habitual injustice and compromise! Not even God can prevent judgment from falling down upon the entire nation; it is practically imploding: "There is nothing but oppression within her...violence and destruction resound in her." And still the false prophets preach soothingly, "'Peace, Peace,' though there is no peace" (6:14).
All of this leads up to the famous "Temple Sermon" of Chapter 7. Sent to the holiest place on earth, Jeremiah is told to speak in the very name of God: Do not deceive, cheat, betray, oppress the helpless, or adore false gods and think that a few ritual acts will make it all good. Do not count on this holy place to wipe out all the injustice. When Jesus "cleansed the Temple" (Matthew 21:12-17) he cited Jeremiah 7:11: "you have made [this house of prayer] a den of robbers." Of course, Jesus was giving us the new and definitive Temple: his own Body, the true dwelling place of God among people.
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