Day 54: Isaiah 66:19-Jeremiah 10:13 - 90 Day Challenge

A New Prophet


There's a new man in town, folks. One who's come to tell the Israelites what's actually up. 

Jeremiah was called by God at a young age to deliver a message to Israel. At first, he says he's too young, that no one will take him seriously, and that he doesn't know how to speak to the people. But the Lord reminds him that he was formed by God's hands, and that the Lord's words have filled Jeremiah's heart, and that he should not be afraid. 

So, Jeremiah does it. He becomes God's servant, His mouthpiece, and delivers His word to Israel. A lot of the words he speaks in today's reading are thoughts we've all had throughout all of the readings. Israel has forsaken God and lived in sin. That they need to circumcise their hearts. Jeremiah 4:14 gets even more specific with "O Jerusalem, wash the evil from your hearts and be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts?" Because Israel had been unfaithful! They were worshiping false gods and idols, then wondering why the Lord had abandoned them! (Hint: it's because they had abandoned Him.) 

The reading goes on to speak about how not one person in Israel walks upright, not one person walks without the weight of sin. In Jeremiah 9:23-24 we hear this from the Lord: 

This is what the Lord says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the Lord. 

We have no earthly thing to be boastful about, because all we have is a gift from God Himself. This power is echoed later in Jeremiah 10:12-13: 

"But God made the earth by His own power; He founded the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding. When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightening with the rain and brings out the wind from His storehouses." 


Our God is an awesome and powerful God, who is for us. The Creator of all the heavens and earth is also the Creator of each one of us, it even says that we were knit together in our mothers' womb (Jeremiah 1:5). Even in this big, bad world, we have a place with God. 

Tomorrow's reading: Jeremiah 10:14-Jeremiah 23:8
Have a wonderful day! 
Jill Jafarace
Director of Student Ministries
New Leaf UMC


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