The Daily Audio Bible
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11 (to Jeremiah) Do not pray for this people’s well being. 12 They will try to impress Me again, but when they fast, I will not hear their cry; when they bring Me their burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept any of them. Instead, I will offer to them their own destruction by war, by famine, and by disease.
Jeremiah: 13 But Eternal Lord, there are prophets in the land who keep telling the people none of this will happen. They claim to speak for You, saying, “No war or famine will come to you. Instead, I will give you peace and security in this place.”
Eternal One: 14 But these so-called prophets are “prophesying” lies. And they do so in My name! I have said no such thing. I have not sent them and directed them to speak in My name. Their prophecies are based on false visions, faulty revelation, and dark delusions of their own making.
15 This is what the Eternal says regarding the false prophets who attempt to speak in His name.
Eternal One: I simply did not send them. Those who are proclaiming to the people, “No war or famine will touch this land,” will themselves die in war and famine. 16 And those foolish enough to listen to their prophecies will be tossed into the streets of Jerusalem, weakened by famine, victims of war. They will die, and there will be no one to bury them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters because I will pour out their own evil upon them.
17 God told me to speak these words to them:
Jeremiah: May my eyes fill with tears day and night.
Let me not stop crying for what I see:
for my tender virgin daughter—my people—
Has suffered a crushing blow.
I see her now with a serious, gaping wound.
18 If I go to the countryside, I see the bodies of those cut down in war;
if I walk into the city, I see the misery brought on by famine.
And yet the prophets and priests go about their business in blissful ignorance,
unaware of what they are doing.
19 (to God) Have You abandoned Judah completely?
Do You now hate Zion?
Why have You wounded us beyond healing?
We longed for peace, but nothing good ever came.
We hoped for healing, but only terror came our way.
20 We admit our wickedness, O Eternal One.
We confess the sins of our ancestors.
We know we, too, have sinned against You.
21 For the sake of Your good name, do not disown us;
do not dishonor the throne of Your glory.
O God, remember Your people!
Do not break Your covenant with us.
22 Do any of the foreign idols bring the rain?
Do the showers fall from heaven by themselves?
No. They come from You, Eternal One our God.
That is why our hope is in You, for You alone do all this.
15 Eternal One (to Jeremiah): Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me to defend this rebellious nation, I would not turn back to this people right now. Send them away from Me, Jeremiah; make them go! 2 And when they look to you and ask, “Where should we go?” tell them I, the Eternal, said,
For some, their destiny is deadly disease,
for others it is war,
And still others, their destiny is starvation,
and lastly, some are doomed to be captives of an enemy state.
3 I am sending four destroyers: the sword to slaughter, the dogs to drag away the carnage, the birds of the sky, and the wild beasts of the earth to devour and destroy what is left. 4 What I do to this evil nation will horrify the watching world for generations. What Manasseh (son of Hezekiah), king of Judah, did in Jerusalem will not be overlooked.
5 Who will have compassion on you, O Jerusalem?
Who will mourn for your losses?
Who will stop and ask how you are?
6 You have rejected Me time and again.
You keep backing away from Me, so I will reach out and destroy you.
I am weary of feeling sorry for you;
I will not relent this time.
7 Like a farmer, I will use my winnowing fork to remove the chaff at the city gates.
I will deprive them of their children.
I will destroy My own because they refuse to turn away
from their wicked and hurtful ways.
8 The widows in this land will outnumber the grains of sand by the sea.
As for the mothers of young men,
I will send the destroyer against them at midday, when no one is expecting.
In the blink of an eye, I will rain down terror and anguish on them.
9 The mother of seven suffers in her sadness;
gasping for breath, she realizes the sun has set even while it is day.
Alone and childless again, she is disgraced and ashamed.
As for those who survive the first wave of violence,
I will put them to the sword before their enemies.
So says the Eternal.
10 Jeremiah: Oh, the anguish that is mine!
If only you had not given birth to me, mother;
I feel like a man who fights and struggles with the whole land.
I have not lent money or borrowed from others.
So why am I treated this way?
Everyone is ready to curse me.
11 Eternal One (to Jeremiah): Hear me, Jeremiah:
I will make you strong in these trying times to accomplish My good.
I will make it so your enemies ask you to pray for them in times of disaster and suffering.
12 Can a man break iron that is forged in the north?
What about bronze?[a]
13 Because you have committed so many sins throughout the land,
I will freely hand over your wealth and treasures to this enemy as plunder.
14 I will incite your enemies to capture you and take you[b] off to a distant land you do not know.
I am doing this because My anger burns like a roaring fire that lasts forever.
The calling of God has left Jeremiah with a loneliness he can hardly bear. The words he must deliver, the sins he continually confronts, and the future God has revealed to him—they all lead to an unbearable isolation. God has heard the lonely cry of His prophet, and He has offered encouragement and a promise to strengthen Jeremiah. At this point, Jeremiah is enduring the pain with his assignment. In fact, in this agony, he openly questions and accuses God Himself.
15 Jeremiah: O Eternal One—You know what I am facing;
Remember me, and pay attention to my plight.
Take my side; pay back those who persecute me.
I know You are patient, but don’t let them take me away.
Think of the suffering I’ve endured for Your sake.
16 When I discovered Your words, I ate them up:
they were my great joy and my heart’s delight.
I am Yours, and I bear the name of the Eternal God,
Commander of heavenly armies.
17 I never sat in the circle of jokesters,
nor did I celebrate with them.
No. I stayed to myself, sat alone because Your hand was heavy on me;
You filled me with indignation over their sins.
18 So why does my pain never end?
Why does this wound never heal?
Will you be to me as deceptive and unreliable as a dry stream to a thirsty man?
19 Eternal One (to Jeremiah): If you will turn back to Me,
I will restore you—
and you will stand before Me.
If you will speak worthy words instead of worthless complaints,
You will be My spokesman.
Let the people come to you, but don’t go to them!
20 They will come at you, but I will make you like a wall of bronze against them.
They will not beat you, because I am with you to save and rescue you.
This will be so, for I have declared it.
21 I will rescue you from the hands of the wicked
and redeem you from the grasp of the violent.
16 The word of the Eternal came to me.
The loneliness Jeremiah has already endured is indeed painful. Surely he wants just one companion in whom he can confide; even that would be something. If only he could find solace in a loving spouse! Certainly society is composed of husbands and wives; even the worst people have families, while Jeremiah is alone. It now becomes clear that this isolation is his life’s calling. He is banned not only from starting his own family, but from being with others. He cannot enter into the sorrow of his people’s grief or enjoy any celebration in the community. To abstain from both the sorrow and joy of those around him ensures Jeremiah’s isolation. But it also raises important questions with painful answers. As always, God anticipates these questions.
Eternal One: 2 Jeremiah, you must not get married and have children in this place, 3 because this is what I, the Eternal One, say about the sons and daughters of this land and about their mothers and fathers: 4 They will die of deadly diseases. There will be so many dead that no one will bury them or grieve for them; they will be like dung scattered on the ground. Others will perish from war and famine, and their corpses will feed the vultures and wild beasts of the earth.
5 This is what I declare to you, My prophet: Do not go inside a house that is mourning. Do not grieve with these friends and families. Do not comfort them because I, the Eternal One, have taken My peace, even My loyal love and mercy, from them. 6 Death will come to the great and small of this land, but they will not be buried or mourned. There will be no one left to cut themselves or shave their heads in ritual displays of mourning. 7 No one will bring food to comfort those in mourning or offer a drink to console even one who has lost a parent. 8 You are not to enter a house where they are feasting and celebrating. Refuse to eat and drink with them. 9 For this is what the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies and God of Israel, now declares: Before your eyes and during your lifetime, I will silence the sounds of laughter and joy in this place; the joy of a wedding will no longer be heard.
10 When you tell these people all of this, they will ask you, “Why has the Eternal decided to bring this horrendous evil on us? What have we done wrong? What sin have we committed against the Eternal our God?” 11 I want you to answer them with My words: All this is because your ancestors deserted Me and followed after other gods. They served and worshiped them, but Me they have deserted. My instruction they have ignored. 12 As for you, you are even worse than your ancestors because every one of your hearts is evil and stubborn, and you continue to ignore Me as you follow your own wicked ways. 13 For this reason, I will throw you out of this land into a land you and your ancestors have never known. There you will be able to serve these other gods all you want—day and night—for I will show you no compassion.
This horrible vision of judgment is tempered with words of God’s gracious restoration. Though the sentence against faithless Judah is harsh, it will not be the end of her.
(to the people) 14 Look, days are coming when people will remember how I restored you. They will no longer say, “As the Eternal lives who brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.” 15 Instead, they will say, “As the Eternal lives, who brought the people of Israel out of the lands of the north and the countries where He had exiled them.” For I will bring them back to their promised land, the land I gave to your ancestors.
9 Don’t you remember, my brothers and sisters, how hard we worked and struggled? We worked day and night so that we wouldn’t be a burden to any of you and so that we could continue to proclaim to you the good news of God. 10 Both you and God can confirm how well we treated the believers: we were always holy, just, and blameless. 11-12 As you know, we comforted and consoled each of you as a father soothes his own children, encouraging you to live lives worthy of God—of the One calling you into His own kingdom and into His glory.
Unlike the Corinthians who struggled to break their old religious and cultural ties when they came to faith, the Thessalonians followed Jesus wholeheartedly and thus faced persecution for their devotion.
13 So we have good reason to give thanks to God without pausing. For you have taken into yourselves the word of God we brought to you and received it as a message from God—not just something whipped up by someone like you or us—and that word is at work in you who believe. 14 And, brothers and sisters, you even became imitators of the churches of God in Jesus the Anointed that gather in Judea because you were willing to suffer at the hands of your own countrymen as they suffered from the unbelieving Judeans. 15 These are the same people who killed the Lord Jesus, as well as the prophets, and continued attacking until they drove all of us out. They don’t just offend God; they are clearly hostile to the rest of the people 16 because they are trying to silence our life-saving message to the nations; and as a result, their sins are always filling up and overflowing. But in the end, they will face God’s wrath.
17 Brothers and sisters, we are like orphans, separated from you for a short time (in presence, yes, but not in heart); and we desperately desire to see your faces again. 18 However, as much as we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, assure you we tried again and again—Satan thwarted our plans. 19 For what is our true hope, our true joy, our victor’s crown in all this? It is nothing if it isn’t you standing before our Lord Jesus the Anointed at His arrival. 20 You are our glory! You are our joy!
3 But after all our attempts to come to you were frustrated, we decided it was best for Silvanus[a] and me to stay behind in Athens by ourselves 2 and to send Timothy (our dear brother [and servant of God],[b] our partner in the good news of the Anointed One) to strengthen, comfort, and encourage you in your faith 3 so that you won’t be shaken by the sufferings and wither under this stress that we know lies ahead. 4 Certainly you remember that when we were with you, we warned you of the suffering we would have to endure; now, as you well know, it has happened. 5 This is why I couldn’t stand it anymore and sent Timothy to report on the state of your faith: because I was worried the tempter had tested you and, if so, all of our hard work would have come to nothing.
6 You can imagine my relief and joy when Timothy returned to us with such good news about you, about your faith and love for us, about how you have such good memories of us and long to see us as much as we long to see you. 7 Hearing this about your faith, brothers and sisters, brought comfort to us in our stress-filled days of trouble and suffering. 8 For if you are set firmly in the Lord, then we can truly live. 9 What thanks would ever be enough to offer God about you for all the jubilant celebration we’ll feel before our God because of you? 10 We remain vigilant in our prayers, night and day praying to once again see your faces and to help complete whatever may be lacking in your faith.
It is obvious Paul loves Jesus, and His Spirit reinforces Paul in every way. How else is he able to walk away from beating after beating or endure trials of the heart and mind? He must constantly be praying for those he can and can’t reach, for those he is with and for those he has to leave behind. Paul loves Jesus, and so he cannot help but embrace the world as passionately as he does.
11 May God Himself, our Father, along with our Lord Jesus, [the Anointed One,][c] navigate our way to you. 12 May the Lord flood you with an unending, undying love for one another and for all humanity, like our love for you, 13 so that your hearts will be reinforced with His strength, held blameless and holy before God, our Father, when our Lord Jesus, [the Anointed, the Liberating King,][d] appears along with all His holy ones. [Amen.][e]
Psalm 80
For the worship leader. A song of Asaph to the tune “The Lilies.”[a]
Psalm 80 is a communal lament composed in Judah (the Southern Kingdom) after the fall of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) in 722 b.c.
1 Turn Your ear toward us, Shepherd of Israel,
You who lead the children of Joseph like a flock.
You who sit enthroned above heaven’s winged creatures,[b]
radiate Your light!
2 In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,
arouse Your strength and power,
and save us!
3 Bring us back to You, God.
Turn the light of Your face upon us so that we will be rescued from this sea of darkness.
4 O Eternal God, Commander of heaven’s armies,
how long will You remain angry at the prayers of Your sons and daughters?
5 You have given them tears for food;
You have given them an abundance of tears to drink.
6 You have made us a source of trouble for our neighbors—
our enemies laugh to each other behind our backs.
7 O God, Commander of heaven’s armies, bring us back to You.
Turn the light of Your face upon us so that we will be rescued from this sea of darkness.
8 You took us like a grapevine dug from the soil of Egypt;
You forced out the nations and transplanted it in Your land.
9 You groomed the ground around it,
planted it so it would root deep into the earth, and it covered all the land.
10 As it grew, the mountains were blanketed by its shadow;
the mighty cedars were covered by its branches.
11 The plant extended its branches to the Mediterranean Sea,
and spread its shoots all the way to the Euphrates River.
12 God, why have You pulled down the wall that protected it
so that everyone who wanders by can pick its sweet grapes?
13 The wild boar of the forest eats it all,
and the creatures of the field feast upon it.
14 O God, Commander of heaven’s armies, come back to us.
Gaze down from heaven and see what has happened.
Keep watch over this vine, and nourish it.
15 Look after the saplings which You planted with Your own right hand,
the child whom You have raised and nurtured for Yourself.
16 Your enemies have chopped it down and burned it with fire;
may they be destroyed by the sight of Your rebuke.
17 Let Your protective hand rest on the one who is at Your right hand,
the child of man whom You have raised and nurtured for Yourself.
18 Then we will not turn away from You.
Bring us back to life! And we will call out for You!
19 O Eternal God, Commander of heaven’s armies, bring us back to You.
Turn the light of Your face upon us so that we will be rescued from this sea of darkness.
25 These words, too, are proverbs of King Solomon, words which Hezekiah, king of Judah, later told his scribes to record for posterity:
2 God’s glory is shown when He conceals things;
a king’s glory is shown in his ability to explore the facts of the matter.
3 As the heights of heaven and the depths of earth are beyond comprehension,
so are the hearts of kings.
4 Take away the impurities from the silver,
and a good smith can create something of value;
5 Take away the wicked from among the king’s advisors,
and his reign will be established with integrity.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.