Reading from Thursday, October 14

Hey dudes. I'm behind, I know. But I try to make vacation mean vacation. As much as I like doing this, its a fair amount of work so I took a couple nights off. So here I am trying to catch up again.

Reading for October 14
Jeremiah 23:21-25:38
OK. This is one of the strangest couple of verses in the Bible.

 ²⁷ "Then tell them, 'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Drink, get drunk and vomit, and fall to rise no more because of the sword I will send among you.' ²⁸ But if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, tell them, 'This is what the LORD Almighty says: You must drink it! ²⁹ See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears my Name, and will you indeed go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all who live on the earth, declares the LORD Almighty.'

Now, this "cup" to which God is referring is the cup of his wrath, which he had Jeremiah literally fill with wine and bring it around to the kings and people of all the nations and forced them to drink it. This supposedly symbolized the people accepting God's wrath against them? And what had they done to deserve his wrath? Well, maybe nothing. But God's phrasing here is that since he is bringing destruction to the city of his chosen people, then surely the other nations musn't go unpunished - slaughter for all!

But the connection to Jesus is fairly obvious here. In the same way that Jeremiah brought the cup of God's wrath to every nation on Earth, Jesus brought the cup of love and redemption to the very same people. Everyone on earth suffered under God, and everyone on earth was redeemed by him. I know - it sounds kinda ridiculous - why not just redeem everyone from the beginning? Well, I think this goes back to my question from a few nights ago - which was 'why do we even have earthly lives at all if God wishes for all of us to get to heaven?' Obviously there is a reason, or we wouldn't be here. Maybe it's to prove ourselves. Maybe it's to make a small, but lasting change on this world and its people, but its certainly not nothing. So similarly, the question is "why have this period of time where you relentlessly punished people, only to redeem them later on?"

I don't think I have an answer, but I think both of those questions should be bracketed by the same frame...

The end of chapter 25 though is remarkably frightening. It almost reads like a demonic chant...

³³ At that time those slain by the LORD will be everywhere—from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned or gathered up or buried, but will be like refuse lying on the ground.
 ³⁴ Weep and wail, you shepherds;
       roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock.
       For your time to be slaughtered has come;
       you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery.
 ³⁵ The shepherds will have nowhere to flee,
       the leaders of the flock no place to escape.
 ³⁶ Hear the cry of the shepherds,
       the wailing of the leaders of the flock,
       for the LORD is destroying their pasture.
 ³⁷ The peaceful meadows will be laid waste
       because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
 ³⁸ Like a lion he will leave his lair,
       and their land will become desolate
       because of the sword ^[i] of the oppressor
       and because of the LORD's fierce anger.

Ugh...I get the evil chills just reading that...


2 Thessalonians 2:1-17
We see the OT God making an appearance here in this chapter:

⁹The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, ¹⁰and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. ¹¹For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie ¹²and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

This is a trick of the God of Exodus. When God hardened the heart of Pharaoh so he would not free Israel. In that seemingly futile act of selfishness, God found enough value to want to do it again in the "end times". I want to avoid using Christainese here so let me just clarify what I mean by "end times" cuz we haven't really talked much about it.

As far as I understand it, there will be an event called the Rapture. This is when Jesus returns to earth to rescue all those who believe in him and bring them up to heaven. The rest I'm not sure is Biblical or from the Left Behind series, but I think the deal is that once the Rapture occurs, there is seven years of purgatory - for lack of a better word - where people can still be saved but will see and experience awful things. I think the time period Paul is referring to here in 2 Thess is that post-Rapture time. And the belief is that God will test and trick the people so only the truly wise will be saved. Kind of a jerk move...

Psalm 84:1-12
A-ha. I hate the phrase "this is a bit of a gotcha" but it is...

¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
       the LORD bestows favor and honor;
       no good thing does he withhold
       from those whose walk is blameless.

The first three lines are great! Wow God is a sun and a shield! He does bestow favor and honor! He doesn't withhold anything! But look whom that's for - for those whose walk is blameless. No one's walk is blameless. Is this intentional on the part of the psalmist to make a point? Or is he really that arrogant to think the he is blameless in the sight of God? Surely he was well versed in Old Testament history - it's clear that no one is blameless. No, not even one. I don't get it...

Proverbs 25:15
 ¹⁵ Through patience a ruler can be persuaded,
       and a gentle tongue can break a bone.


I love this. It totally reinforces my non-combative, passive aggressive lifestyle.

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