Jeremiah 8:18-9:1, I Timothy 2:1-7 Jeremiah has a sick heart and is weeping for Israel for the brokenness of the daughter of my people. He cries out asking if there is a balm in Gilead, a physician to save the spiritual health of Israel. You see Gilead was known for its balm, a substance grown there that could cure one from physical diseases. It had this power to soothe and heal. Unfortunately, Jeremiah doesn’t know of the great physician Jesus who will come to bring salvation. I Timothy tells of this great physician who has brought salvation. It is the one mediator between God and humans – Christ Jesus. The healing balm being his blood for the atonement for our sins. He gave himself a ransom for all. In this passage the writer tells how the aim of all worship should be salvation for all. Included in our prayers should be the kings and all who are in high positions. Why? So, we can live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. In these Pastoral letters in ...

Jeremiah 18:1-11, Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18 These both can be difficult passages. The Jeremiah account talks about God changing God’s mind on whether the Lord who has shaped them for a good purpose will change God’s mind to destroy them if they continue to do evil. Then we have the Psalm 139 passage used controversially to decry abortion. The potter and the clay metaphor we have been brought up with tends to tell how God shapes our lives and if we combine this with Psalm 139, God has shaped us from the womb. The Psalmist says, “It was you who formed my inner parts and in your book are written all the days.” From this view one can feel that God has shaped them from the womb for a purpose. I’ve always struggled with the “wonderfully made” since I wish the Lord would have made me better looking. Now Jeremiah hears the voice of the Lord who has taken him to the potter’s house. God talks about shaping nations and breaking down, destroying them if they are evil. Yet God will change God’s m...

Jeremiah 2: 4-13, Psalm 81:10-16 The Lord is angry with the families of Israel. Their ancestors went far from the Lord going after worthless things and due to this became worthless themselves. They forget how God brought them safely to a bountiful land full of good things – yet they defiled it. Not only did the rulers transgress against God – the prophets even turned to Baal – the foreign god and went after things that did not profit. The Lord tells how the people have exchanged their glory for something that does not profit. God says they have committed two evils. One is forsaking the Lord – the fountain of living water. Two is digging our cisterns (tanks for holding water) for themselves – going their own way but the cisterns they make can hold no water – they leak. Only the living water God gives can satisfy, is worthwhile, and profitable, and doesn’t run out like the false things they make and go after – false gods and worthless things that hold no water. In Psalm 81God tells...