Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Child-Like Trust in the Lord

131 O Lord, my heart is not proud. My eyes are not filled with pride. And I do not trouble myself with important things or in things too great for me. ² For sure I have made my soul quiet like a child who no longer nurses while he is with his mother. My soul within me is like a child who no longer nurses. ³ O Israel, hope in the Lord, now and forever.

Judah Will Serve Nebuchadnezzar

27 In the beginning of the rule of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord. ² The Lord said to me, “Make ropes and a cross-bar for carrying a load, and put them on your neck. ³ Then send word to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the sons of Ammon, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon. Send them with the men who bring news to Jerusalem to King Zedekiah of Judah. ⁴ Tell them to go to their leaders, saying, ‘This is what the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, and this is what you should say to your leaders: ⁵ “I have made the earth, and the men and the animals that are on it by My great power and by My long arm. And I will give it to the one who is right in My eyes. ⁶ Now I have given all these lands to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant. And I have given him the wild animals of the field to serve him. ⁷ All the nations will serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time for his land comes. Then many nations and great kings will make him their servant. ⁸ But if any nation will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and will not put its neck under the load of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, hunger, and disease,” says the Lord, “until I have destroyed it by his hand. ⁹ So do not listen to your men who tell of their special dreams, your men who tell what is going to happen in the future, or your wonder workers who use their secret ways. They say to you, ‘You must not serve the king of Babylon.’ ¹⁰ But they are lying to you, and will cause you to be taken far from your land. I will drive you out, and you will die. ¹¹ But the nation that brings its neck under the cross-bar of the king of Babylon and serves him, I will let stay on its own land,” says the Lord. “And its people will take care of the fields and live there.”’”

¹⁶ Then I said to the religious leaders and to all these people, “The Lord says: Do not listen to the men who speak in God’s name saying, ‘See, the objects of the Lord’s house will soon be returned from Babylon,’ for they are telling you a lie. ¹⁷ Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live! Why should this city be destroyed? ¹⁸ But if they are true men of God, and if the Word of the Lord is with them, let them now pray to the Lord of All. Let them ask that the objects which are left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon. ¹⁹ For this is what the Lord of All says about the pillars, the brass pool, the stands, and the rest of the objects that are left in this city. ²⁰ Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take these things from Jerusalem to Babylon when he took Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. ²¹ So this is what the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says about the objects that are left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem. He says, ²² ‘They will be carried to Babylon, and they will be there until the day I visit them,’ says the Lord. ‘Then I will bring them back to this place.’”

¹⁸ We see the anger of God coming down from heaven against all the sins of men. These sinful men keep the truth from being known. ¹⁹ Men know about God. He has made it plain to them. ²⁰ Men cannot say they do not know about God. From the beginning of the world, men could see what God is like through the things He has made. This shows His power that lasts forever. It shows that He is God. ²¹ They did know God, but they did not honor Him as God. They were not thankful to Him and thought only of foolish things. Their foolish minds became dark. ²² They said that they were wise, but they showed how foolish they were. ²³ They gave honor to false gods that looked like people who can die and to birds and animals and snakes. This honor belongs to God Who can never die.

²⁴ So God let them follow the desires of their sinful hearts. They did sinful things among themselves with their bodies. ²⁵ They traded the truth of God for a lie. They worshiped and cared for what God made instead of worshiping the God Who made it. He is the One Who is to receive honor and thanks forever. Let it be so.