Still Stuck...

At least a couple of more thoughts on Jeremiah 6:10 – 21 – well one today anyway…  Look at 13; spend some time thinking through the implications of that verse.

The indictment is general; covers the entire nation of Judah.  All the people, the prophets, the priests, all of them became focused on the gain, the riches that flowed from following God.  Note well what follows from that – false teaching.  A good cross reference to what Jeremiah is saying here is the book of 2 Peter – it is only 61 verses about the length of a chapter in Luke.  It deals with false teachers and their handling of the Word of God.

This is hard.  I have personally seen many in Christian work torpedoed by an improper focus on finances.  On the other hand in order to continue to minister, most of them, us, need monies.  The line is crossed when the money becomes the driver.  It apparently is an easy line to cross.

I am going to stick with being stuck here for at least a couple of more days…

Stuck

Oh – Happy Texas Independence Day!

My time with the Lord went rather long this morning, I got stuck on Jeremiah 6:10 – 21 – that ever happen to you?  You dive into a passage and find yourself unable to shake what it is saying?  Many times I push through that to keep my schedule – which is obviously more important…  Today, I slowed down and paid attention…

To suggest I was challenged by what I was reading this morning would be like saying Everest is a bump.  Take a look.

Focus for a moment on verse 10.  God wants to warn the people.  He cannot.  They cannot hear Him.  Why?  They reject His Word.  They do not delight in it.  Those are the statements of fact.

When I read those my response typically is to think through whether I see anything like those attitudes, those realities first in my own life.  Then I expand that to see if those attitudes exist in the communities with which I am engaged.

The term that leaped off of the page this morning was “delight.”  Chase that word through the poetry section of the Old Testament.  The reason that the people could not hear the warning of God is that they did not approach the Scripture, the Word of God with delight.  Not only had it become familiar, normal, but it had become something that they dreaded, a reproach.

That scares me.  It drives me to take close stock of my approach to God’s Word.  Is it a chore to meet with Him each day in His book?  Am I resenting the time?  Filling out my checklist?  Or am I coming to that time with delight as if I am meeting my love, my life?  The reality for me is that “delight” is not the word that would describe my every encounter with Him in His Word.  To whatever extent that delight is diminished to that extent I suffer hearing loss in the presence of God.  Not so good.

Looking for... 5

Going to try something different.  I told you last time that I would show you how to quickly check the Greek in a passage you are studying.  We looked at 2 Peter 1:1 – 10 and I asked you to notice how many times that Peter used the term “knowledge” and to note any other words that he used to describe that knowledge.

One way to do this is to use the Interlinear Bible.  Rather than write out how to do that I recorded this video to show you how to do this quickly - watch it...

So now we know that Peter used two different words for “knowledge.”  We also observe that the word “true” that is used in some of the translations in verse 2 and 3 to modify “knowledge” is not a separate word in the Greek but is called for by the use of epignosis (ἐπίγνωσις).  That is data we can use to begin to ask some questions about the definitions of these words and what, if anything, the use of the two different words adds to what Peter is telling us.

Other posts in this series:

1. Looking for…What?
2. Looking for… 2
3. Looking for... 3
4. Looking for... 4