Worthy words
Day 365, Monday, Aug. 11
Jeremiah Chapters 14 and 15
Most of today’s reading is pretty grim, but hang in there—it ends on a more positive note.
The grim part is a reminder that God is serious about sin. Those who fail to be obedient (and that includes us), can expect to pay the penalty. And, he has harsh words for prophets who provide soothing words when they are not justified.
In the end, though, God is at least conditionally encouraging to Jeremiah. In 15:19, “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman.
And, in 15:21, “I will save you from the hands of the wicked and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel.”
Notice too in today’s meditation that, in the midst of extreme suffering, Job offers the profound observation, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.”

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Monday meditation

Job 19:23-29
“Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!
I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
“If you say, ‘How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,’ you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment.”

Prayer focus
God, we know that our redeemer lives, even when the world around us seems dark and cruel. Make us obedient and save us from evil.