JEREMIAH 20-21

« Jeremiah 19 | Jeremiah 20-21 | Jeremiah 22 »

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah  20:1 When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, 2 Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of the LORD. 3 On the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “Pashhur is not the name the LORD has called you, but rather Magor-missabib. 4 For thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and while your eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I will give over all Judah to the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away as exiles to Babylon and will slay them with the sword. 5 I will also give over all the wealth of this city, all its produce and all its costly things; even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give over to the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away and bring them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; and you will enter Babylon, and there you will die and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have falsely prophesied.’”
Jeremiah’s Complaint7 O LORD, You have deceived me and I was deceived;

You have overcome me and prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all day long;

Everyone mocks me.

8 For each time I speak, I cry aloud;

I proclaim violence and destruction,

Because for me the word of the LORD has resulted

In reproach and derision all day long.

9 But if I say, “I will not remember Him

Or speak anymore in His name,”

Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire

Shut up in my bones;

And I am weary of holding it in,

And I cannot endure it.

10 For I have heard the whispering of many,

“Terror on every side!

Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him!”

All my trusted friends,

Watching for my fall, say:

“Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him

And take our revenge on him.”

11 But the LORD is with me like a dread champion;

Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.

They will be utterly ashamed, because they have failed,

With an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.

12 Yet, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous,

Who see the mind and the heart;

Let me see Your vengeance on them;

For to You I have set forth my cause.

13 Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD!

For He has delivered the soul of the needy one

From the hand of evildoers.

14 Cursed be the day when I was born;

Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!

15 Cursed be the man who brought the news

To my father, saying,

“A baby boy has been born to you!”

And made him very happy.

16 But let that man be like the cities

Which the LORD overthrew without relenting,

And let him hear an outcry in the morning

And a shout of alarm at noon;

17 Because he did not kill me before birth,

So that my mother would have been my grave,

And her womb ever pregnant.

18 Why did I ever come forth from the womb

To look on trouble and sorrow,

So that my days have been spent in shame?

Jeremiah’s Message for Zedekiah  21:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, 2 “Please inquire of the LORD on our behalf, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is warring against us; perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all His wonderful acts, so that the enemy will withdraw from us.”
    3 Then Jeremiah said to them, “You shall say to Zedekiah as follows: 4 ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to turn back the weapons of war which are in your hands, with which you are warring against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the wall; and I will gather them into the center of this city. 5 I Myself will war against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, even in anger and wrath and great indignation. 6 I will also strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great pestilence. 7 Then afterwards,” declares the LORD, “I will give over Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people, even those who survive in this city from the pestilence, the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their foes and into the hand of those who seek their lives; and he will strike them down with the edge of the sword. He will not spare them nor have pity nor compassion.”’
    8 “You shall also say to this people, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 He who dwells in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence; but he who goes out and falls away to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live, and he will have his own life as booty. 10 For I have set My face against this city for harm and not for good,” declares the LORD. “It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire.”’
    11 “Then say to the household of the king of Judah, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, 12 O house of David, thus says the LORD:

“Administer justice every morning;

And deliver the person who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor,

That My wrath may not go forth like fire

And burn with none to extinguish it,

Because of the evil of their deeds.

13 “Behold, I am against you, O valley dweller,

O rocky plain,” declares the LORD,

“You men who say, ‘Who will come down against us?

Or who will enter into our habitations?’

14 “But I will punish you according to the results of your deeds,” declares the LORD,

“And I will kindle a fire in its forest

That it may devour all its environs.”’”

ROMANS 6

« Romans 5 | Romans 6 | Romans 7 »

Believers Are Dead to Sin, Alive to God  6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
    8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
    12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
    15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
    20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.