Devotions: Ps 87, 88, 90-92, 136; Jer 11:1-8. 14-20; 13:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Jn 8:33-59
God loves Jerusalem, surrounding Mt. Zion, the wellspring of song and dance. Lord, let my cry come before You. Release me from Your wrath and judgment; I will not try to escape—indeed, I have no place to go if I don't have You! You are my Life, so bless me, Lord! You have been the Dwelling Place of Your people for ever. We mortals come and go like shades on the wall, but You are eternal. Make me glad for as long as I have struggled; let Your works be manifest to me and in me. Establish the work of Your hands, my God. We who dwell in Your shadow have safety from every plague and affliction. You give Your angels charge concerning Your people, and they bear us up in times of trouble. God will rescue me and honor me; He will satisfy me with long life and will show me His salvation. So it is good and right to thank the Lord and praise the name of the Most High. I sing for joy, Lord, at the work of Your hands. God's enemies perish; God's people flourish in His courts. We will be fruitful in old age, full of sap and green. YHWH is our Rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him! So we give thanks to YHWH, for He is good; His steadfast love endures for ever: God of gods, Lord of lords, Worker of wonders, Creator of the universe. He made all that is, and chose a people to bring His Messiah into the world. He delivered His people from bondage in Egypt; He broke down kingdoms before His people and put them in the land He had promised. Let us thank the God of heaven and live for Him here on the earth.
YHWH directed Jeremiah: 'Speak to the men of Judah and of Jerusalem: cursed are they who do not heed My covenant. You agreed to be My people, and I to be your God; I gave you this land, filled with milk and honey. I warned your ancestors to obey Me, yet they and you have never been faithful or obedient. There is revolt among the mortals in Judah and Jerusalem. They have imitated their ancestors and worshiped false gods; both Israel and Judah have broken My covenant. Therefore I Am bringing evil upon them.' YHWH commanded Jeremiah not to intecede for this people or cry out in their behalf; God's spouse had no rights when she had been unfaithful to Him. A roaring fire would consume what had been His green olive tree with goodly fruit. The people also schemed against Jeremiah. So he begged YHWH for God's vengeance against those who offended God and His prophet. God told Jeremiah to act out this parable: 'Go and buy a linen waistcloth and put it around your loins. Then arise and go to the Euphrates and hide the loincloth there. Jeremiah did all that God had directed. Later, God told Jeremiah to go back the Euphrates and dig up the buried cloth. He did so, and it was spoiled, good for nothing. And YHWH remarked, 'Even so I will spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear My words and stubbornly follow their own hearts and seek other gods to serve and worship—they will become like this waistcloth, good for nothing. I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me, that they might be for Me a people, a name, a praise and a glory—but they would not listen.'
Paul wrote to the Roman Christians: Should we sin so that grace may abound? Of course not! We died to sin, so how can we still live in it? All of us who have been baptized into the Messiah Jesus were baptized into His death, buried with Him into death, sot hat as the Messiah was raised from the dead by the glory of the Fahter, we too might walk in newness of life. If we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall surely also be united with Him in resurrecton. Our old self was crucified with Him so that the sinful flesh might be destroyed and we might no longer be slaves to sin. One who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Messiah, we believe we shall also live with Him. Having been raised from death, the Messiah will never die again; death has no dominion over Him. The death He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in the Messiah Jesus. Don't let sin reign in your mortal bodies; don't yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness. Rather, yield yourselves to God as instruments of His righteousness. Sin cannot rule you, since you are not under law but under grace. We will not sin more simply because we are under grace. You are slaves to whatever masters you—sin and death, or godly obedience, righteousness and eternal life. Thanks to God, you were once slaves to sin, but have become obedient from the heart to the right teaching you have received. Freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. Yield to this, and become sanctified. Being mastered by sin, you got no value from your futile actions. Now you have been freed from sin and have become God's slaves. The return you get is sanctification and its fulfillment: eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in the Messiah Jesus our Lord.
Jesus was talking with the Jews who had put faith in Him. They argued, 'We are Abraham's descendants; we have not been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, then, that we will be set free?' But Jesus answered, 'Truly I tell you, everyone who sins is sin's slave; and slaves don't get to stay in the family house forever—only the sons and daughters of the family do that. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham's offspring; yet you seek to kill Me because My word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with My Fahter, and you do what you have heard from your faither.' Again they asserted that Abraham is their father. But Jesus demurred: 'If you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did—not try to kill me. You do what your real father did.' They said, 'We were not born from fornication; God is our Father.' But Jesus said, 'If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God. He sent Me—I didn't come on My own. Why do you not understand what I say? Because you cannot bear to hear and understand My message. You are of your father the devil, and you will to do his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning; he has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. He speaks his native language when he lies; he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you don't believe Me—why? Whoever is of God hears God's words; the reason why you don't hear them is that you are not of God!' They tried to turn on Jesus: 'Isn't it so that you are a demon-possessed Samaritan?' Jesus answered, 'I have no demon; I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. I don't seek My own glory; there is One Who seeks it and He will be the Judge. I tell you most solemnly, if anyone keeps My word, He will never see death.' The Jews said to him, 'Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets; yet you say that those who keep your word will never see death. Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets all died. Who do you claim to be?' Jesus answered, 'If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father Who glorifies Me—the One you call your God. But you have not known Him; I know Him. If I denied knowing Him, I would be a liar like y ou. But I do know Him and I keep His word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he was to see My day; he saw it, and was glad.' They said to Jesus, 'You are not yet fifty years old—but you say you've seen Abraham?' Jesus said to them, 'I tell you truly, before Abraham was, I Am.' The Jews took up stones to kill Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
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