How to tell true prophets from false ones? (Jer 23:9-22)
Jer 23:9-22 At one point as an Old Testament lecturer, I taught in a charismatic Bible college where chapel services included open times of sharing words from God. Strikingly, neither there nor in other contexts have I heard a prophecy…
God’s faithfulness is new every morning (Jer 22:20-23:8)
Jer 22:20-30; 23:1-8 In the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), whenever the over-enthusiastic hotel owner receives complaints he repeats the same mantra, ‘Everything will be alright in the end. And if it is not alright, it is not…
What it means to know God (Jer 22:1-19)
Jer 22:1-19 Before I came to faith, I saw the reality of God in the lives of Christians I knew. Seeing their answers to prayer for guidance, for a job and so on I realised the absence of God in…
God’s remedy for complacency (Jeremiah 21)
Jer 21:1-14 When I listen to sermons that give a fluffy, comforting message about how God loves us, that He is for us and there is nothing that can separate us from His love and so on, I sometimes ask…
The struggle to live for God (Jer 20:7-18)
Jer 20:7-18 This final glimpse into Jeremiah’s personal thoughts (the last of what commentators call Jeremiah’s ‘confessions’ in the book) reads like some of the psalms of lament, anguished and painful as it fluctuates between faith in God and despair.…
Radical surgery: the necessity to die (Jer 19:1-20:6)
Jer 19:1-15; 20:1-6 I must admit that this chapter is grim, unrelieved by any hope. Judgment is inevitable, the people are hardened, the disaster prophesied for so long can no longer be avoided. We would like to see a happy…
Does God ever change His mind? (Jeremiah 18)
Jer 18:1-23 The old TV series, Open All Hours, is about a local shopkeeper’s comic machinations to sell rubbish to customers like the indecisive Mavis. When asked if she wants a tin of beans or a tin of lentils, she…
Diagnosing our heart condition (Jeremiah 17)
Jer 17:1-27 Abraham Lincoln refused to include a person in his cabinet because he didn’t like the man’s face. ‘But the poor man is not responsible for his face’, objected the person recommending him. ‘After forty, everyone is responsible for…
The cost of making God known (Jer 16:1-21)
Jer 16:1-21 The passage today ends on the nations coming and knowing God (Jer 16:19, 21), but what does this mean? How can God be known when He is invisible? His actions in the world, of course, demonstrate His power,…
How God responds to our despair (Jer 15:10-21)
Jer 15:10-21 Some years ago, I heard a pastor talk about the cost of ministry and to illustrate this, he read out his journal entries of a typical week. His description was a litany of woes about church meetings that…