October 9

John 3:16-21

[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. [19] And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. [20] For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. [21] But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

James 4:11-17

[11] Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. [12] There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

[13] Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—[14] yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. [15] Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” [16] As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. [17] So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Ecclesiastes 7:1-14

    [1] A good name is better than precious ointment,

        and the day of death than the day of birth. 

    [2] It is better to go to the house of mourning

        than to go to the house of feasting,

    for this is the end of all mankind,

        and the living will lay it to heart. 

    [3] Sorrow is better than laughter,

        for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. 

    [4] The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,

        but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. 

    [5] It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise

        than to hear the song of fools. 

    [6] For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,

        so is the laughter of the fools;

        this also is vanity. 

    [7] Surely oppression drives the wise into madness,

        and a bribe corrupts the heart. 

    [8] Better is the end of a thing than its beginning,

        and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. 

    [9] Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,

        for anger lodges in the heart of fools. 

    [10] Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”

        For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. 

    [11] Wisdom is good with an inheritance,

        an advantage to those who see the sun. 

    [12] For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,

        and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. 

    [13] Consider the work of God:

        who can make straight what he has made crooked?

    [14] In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

Jeremiah 19

[1] Thus says the LORD, “Go, buy a potter’s earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, [2] and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. [3] You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. [4] Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, [5] and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind—[6] therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. [7] And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. [8] And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. [9] And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’

[10] “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, [11] and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. [12] Thus will I do to this place, declares the LORD, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. [13] The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—all the houses on whose roofs offerings have been offered to all the host of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled like the place of Topheth.’”

[14] Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the LORD’s house and said to all the people: [15] “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words.”

Jeremiah 20

[1] Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. [2] Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD. [3] The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. [4] For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. [5] Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. [6] And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.”

    [7] O LORD, you have deceived me,

        and I was deceived;

    you are stronger than I,

        and you have prevailed.

    I have become a laughingstock all the day;

        everyone mocks me. 

    [8] For whenever I speak, I cry out,

        I shout, “Violence and destruction!”

    For the word of the LORD has become for me

        a reproach and derision all day long. 

    [9] If I say, “I will not mention him,

        or speak any more in his name,”

    there is in my heart as it were a burning fire

        shut up in my bones,

    and I am weary with holding it in,

        and I cannot. 

    [10] For I hear many whispering.

        Terror is on every side!

    “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”

        say all my close friends,

        watching for my fall.

    “Perhaps he will be deceived;

        then we can overcome him

        and take our revenge on him.” 

    [11] But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior;

        therefore my persecutors will stumble;

        they will not overcome me.

    They will be greatly shamed,

        for they will not succeed.

    Their eternal dishonor

        will never be forgotten. 

    [12] O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous,

        who sees the heart and the mind,

    let me see your vengeance upon them,

        for to you have I committed my cause.

    [13] Sing to the LORD;

        praise the LORD!

    For he has delivered the life of the needy

        from the hand of evildoers.

    [14] Cursed be the day

        on which I was born!

    The day when my mother bore me,

        let it not be blessed! 

    [15] Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,

    “A son is born to you,”

        making him very glad. 

    [16] Let that man be like the cities

        that the LORD overthrew without pity;

    let him hear a cry in the morning

        and an alarm at noon, 

    [17] because he did not kill me in the womb;

        so my mother would have been my grave,

        and her womb forever great. 

    [18] Why did I come out from the womb

        to see toil and sorrow,

        and spend my days in shame?

Jeremiah 21

[1] This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, [2] “Inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.”

[3] Then Jeremiah said to them: “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, [4] ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. [5] I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath. [6] And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence. [7] Afterward, declares the LORD, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.’

[8] “And to this people you shall say: ‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. [9] He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war. [10] For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.’

[11] “And to the house of the king of Judah say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, [12] O house of David! Thus says the LORD: 

    “‘Execute justice in the morning,

        and deliver from the hand of the oppressor

        him who has been robbed,

    lest my wrath go forth like fire,

        and burn with none to quench it,

        because of your evil deeds.’”

    [13] “Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,

        O rock of the plain,

    declares the LORD;

    you who say, ‘Who shall come down against us,

        or who shall enter our habitations?’ 

    [14] I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds,

    declares the LORD;

        I will kindle a fire in her forest,

        and it shall devour all that is around her.”

Jeremiah 22

[1] Thus says the LORD: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, [2] and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. [3] Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. [4] For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. [5] But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation. [6] For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah: 

    “‘You are like Gilead to me,

        like the summit of Lebanon,

    yet surely I will make you a desert,

        an uninhabited city. 

    [7] I will prepare destroyers against you,

        each with his weapons,

    and they shall cut down your choicest cedars

        and cast them into the fire.

    [8] “‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, “Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?” [9] And they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”’”

    [10] Weep not for him who is dead,

        nor grieve for him,

    but weep bitterly for him who goes away,

        for he shall return no more

        to see his native land.

    [11] For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went away from this place: “He shall return here no more, [12] but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again.”

    [13] “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,

        and his upper rooms by injustice,

    who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing

        and does not give him his wages, 

    [14] who says, ‘I will build myself a great house

        with spacious upper rooms,’

    who cuts out windows for it,

        paneling it with cedar

        and painting it with vermilion. 

    [15] Do you think you are a king

        because you compete in cedar?

    Did not your father eat and drink

        and do justice and righteousness?

        Then it was well with him. 

    [16] He judged the cause of the poor and needy;

        then it was well.

    Is not this to know me?

        declares the LORD. 

    [17] But you have eyes and heart

        only for your dishonest gain,

    for shedding innocent blood,

        and for practicing oppression and violence.”

    [18] Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: 

    “They shall not lament for him, saying,

        ‘Ah, my brother!’ or ‘Ah, sister!’

    They shall not lament for him, saying,

        ‘Ah, lord!’ or ‘Ah, his majesty!’ 

    [19] With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried,

        dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”

    [20] “Go up to Lebanon, and cry out,

        and lift up your voice in Bashan;

    cry out from Abarim,

        for all your lovers are destroyed. 

    [21] I spoke to you in your prosperity,

        but you said, ‘I will not listen.’

    This has been your way from your youth,

        that you have not obeyed my voice. 

    [22] The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,

        and your lovers shall go into captivity;

    then you will be ashamed and confounded

        because of all your evil. 

    [23] O inhabitant of Lebanon,

        nested among the cedars,

    how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you,

        pain as of a woman in labor!”

    [24] “As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off [25] and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. [26] I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. [27] But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.”

    [28] Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot,

        a vessel no one cares for?

    Why are he and his children hurled and cast

        into a land that they do not know? 

    [29] O land, land, land,

        hear the word of the LORD! 

    [30] Thus says the LORD:

    “Write this man down as childless,

        a man who shall not succeed in his days,

    for none of his offspring shall succeed

        in sitting on the throne of David

        and ruling again in Judah.”

God’s Wise Mercy

We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:23–24)

Over against the terrifying news that we have fallen under the condemnation of our Creator and that he is bound by his own righteous character to preserve the worth of his glory by pouring out eternal wrath on our sin, there is the wonderful news of the gospel.

This is a truth no one can ever learn from nature. The truth of the gospel has to be told to neighbors and preached in churches and carried by missionaries.

The good news is that God himself has decreed a way to satisfy the demands of his justice without condemning the whole human race.

Hell is one way to settle accounts with sinners and uphold his justice. But there is another way. God provided another way. This is the gospel.

The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God. There it is. The gospel. Let me say it again slowly: The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God.

And what is this wisdom? The death of the Son of God for sinners! “We preach Christ crucified . . . the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23–24).

The death of Christ is the wisdom of God by which the love of God saves sinners from the wrath of God, all the while upholding and demonstrating the righteousness of God in Christ.

John Piper 

Nothing Left Unfinished

 “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.” DANIEL 9:24

 

PONDER THIS

Sin cannot be dealt with until the Messiah is recognized. There is no way of forgiveness for Israel or anyone else apart from the Lamb of God. When you recognize Jesus as Messiah, then sins are forgiven! And when sins are forgiven, God and Man are reconciled! Jesus’ death has always been sufficient, but it will never be efficient as long as He is rejected.

Not only does God forgive our sins when we receive Him, and not only are we reconciled, but God also makes us perfectly righteous in His sight. The righteousness of God is fulfilled in those who trust him. Verse 24 says, “…to seal up vision and prophecy…” This is what God has been up to! One of these days, God is going to put the last period upon the last sentence, upon the last paragraph, upon the last page, upon the last chapter, upon the last book of history, and God will say, “It’s done.” Not one jot nor tittle shall fail from the law till all be fulfilled. You can rest in it. You can bank on it. It’s been said, "God said it, I believe it, and that settles it." God said it, that settles it, and whether you believe it or not, God is going to do it!

What are the greatest problems you see in the world? How can you look to Christ for hope to restore all that is broken?

How does knowing God’s ultimate victory change how you see hardship on Earth in the meantime?

PRACTICE THIS

Praise God for the ultimate victory He has and worship Him as your hope in the hard things of life.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

October 8

John 3:1-15

[1] Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. [2] This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” [3] Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [4] Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” [5] Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. [6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [7] Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ [8] The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

[9] Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” [10] Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? [11] Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. [12] If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? [13] No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. [14] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, [15] that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

James 4:1-10

[1] What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? [2] You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. [3] You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. [4] You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. [5] Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? [6] But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” [7] Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. [8] Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. [9] Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. [10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Ecclesiastes 6

[1] There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: [2] a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. [3] If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. [4] For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. [5] Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. [6] Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place?

[7] All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. [8] For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? [9] Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

[10] Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. [11] The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? [12] For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?

Jeremiah 16

[1] The word of the LORD came to me: [2] “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. [3] For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: [4] They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

[5] “For thus says the LORD: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the LORD. [6] Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them. [7] No one shall break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. [8] You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. [9] For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

[10] “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’ [11] then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, [12] and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. [13] Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

[14] “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ [15] but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

[16] “Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. [17] For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. [18] But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

    [19] O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,

        my refuge in the day of trouble,

    to you shall the nations come

        from the ends of the earth and say:

    “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,

        worthless things in which there is no profit. 

    [20] Can man make for himself gods?

        Such are not gods!”

    [21] “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD.”

Jeremiah 17

[1] “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, [2] while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, [3] on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. [4] You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

    [5] Thus says the LORD:

    “Cursed is the man who trusts in man

        and makes flesh his strength,

        whose heart turns away from the LORD. 

    [6] He is like a shrub in the desert,

        and shall not see any good come.

    He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,

        in an uninhabited salt land.

    [7] “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,

        whose trust is the LORD. 

    [8] He is like a tree planted by water,

        that sends out its roots by the stream,

    and does not fear when heat comes,

        for its leaves remain green,

    and is not anxious in the year of drought,

        for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

    [9] The heart is deceitful above all things,

        and desperately sick;

        who can understand it? 

    [10] “I the LORD search the heart

        and test the mind,

    to give every man according to his ways,

        according to the fruit of his deeds.”

    [11] Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,

        so is he who gets riches but not by justice;

    in the midst of his days they will leave him,

        and at his end he will be a fool.

    [12] A glorious throne set on high from the beginning

        is the place of our sanctuary. 

    [13] O LORD, the hope of Israel,

        all who forsake you shall be put to shame;

    those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth,

        for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.

    [14] Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;

        save me, and I shall be saved,

        for you are my praise. 

    [15] Behold, they say to me,

        “Where is the word of the LORD?

        Let it come!” 

    [16] I have not run away from being your shepherd,

        nor have I desired the day of sickness.

    You know what came out of my lips;

        it was before your face. 

    [17] Be not a terror to me;

        you are my refuge in the day of disaster. 

    [18] Let those be put to shame who persecute me,

        but let me not be put to shame;

    let them be dismayed,

        but let me not be dismayed;

    bring upon them the day of disaster;

        destroy them with double destruction!

    [19] Thus said the LORD to me: “Go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, [20] and say: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. [21] Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. [22] And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. [23] Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction.

[24] “‘But if you listen to me, declares the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, [25] then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. [26] And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD. [27] But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.’”

Jeremiah 18

[1] The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: [2] “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” [3] So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. [4] And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

[5] Then the word of the LORD came to me: [6] “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. [7] If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, [8] and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. [9] And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, [10] and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. [11] Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’

[12] “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

    [13] “Therefore thus says the LORD:

    Ask among the nations,

        Who has heard the like of this?

    The virgin Israel

        has done a very horrible thing. 

    [14] Does the snow of Lebanon leave

        the crags of Sirion?

    Do the mountain waters run dry,

        the cold flowing streams? 

    [15] But my people have forgotten me;

        they make offerings to false gods;

    they made them stumble in their ways,

        in the ancient roads,

    and to walk into side roads,

        not the highway, 

    [16] making their land a horror,

        a thing to be hissed at forever.

    Everyone who passes by it is horrified

        and shakes his head. 

    [17] Like the east wind I will scatter them

        before the enemy.

    I will show them my back, not my face,

        in the day of their calamity.”

    [18] Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

    [19] Hear me, O LORD,

        and listen to the voice of my adversaries. 

    [20] Should good be repaid with evil?

        Yet they have dug a pit for my life.

    Remember how I stood before you

        to speak good for them,

        to turn away your wrath from them. 

    [21] Therefore deliver up their children to famine;

        give them over to the power of the sword;

    let their wives become childless and widowed.

        May their men meet death by pestilence,

        their youths be struck down by the sword in battle. 

    [22] May a cry be heard from their houses,

        when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!

    For they have dug a pit to take me

        and laid snares for my feet. 

    [23] Yet you, O LORD, know

        all their plotting to kill me.

    Forgive not their iniquity,

        nor blot out their sin from your sight.

    Let them be overthrown before you;

        deal with them in the time of your anger.

Our Good Is God’s Delight

“I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.” (Jeremiah 32:40–41)

God’s pursuit of praise from us and our pursuit of pleasure in him are one and the same pursuit. God’s quest to be glorified and our quest to be satisfied reach their goal in this one experience: our delight in God, which overflows in praise.

For God, praise is the sweet echo of his own excellence in the hearts of his people.

For us, praise is the summit of satisfaction that comes from living in fellowship with God.

The stunning implication of this discovery is that all the omnipotent energy that drives the heart of God to pursue his own glory also drives him to satisfy the hearts of those who seek their joy in him.

The good news of the Bible is that God is not at all disinclined to satisfy the hearts of those who hope in him. Just the opposite: The very thing that can make us happiest is what God delights in with all his heart and with all his soul. These are amazing words: “I will rejoice in doing them good . . . with all my heart and all my soul” (Jeremiah 32:41).

With all his heart and with all his soul, God joins us in the pursuit of our everlasting joy because the consummation of that joy in him redounds to the glory of his own infinite worth.

John Piper