Jeremiah

19:2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you... Do you recognize this valley? Gehenna (also referred to as "hell" by most NT translations)! Check out some more info...

19:4-6 (selected) For they have forsaken me and made this a place (Gehenna) of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods ...they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal-something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

19:8-9 I will devastate this city and make it an object of scorn (Classic NLT says "I will wipe Jerusalem from the face of the earth" which did not happen in AD 70 nor will it ever happen); all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh during the stress of the siege imposed on them by the enemies who seek their lives.'

20:1-2 When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the chief officer in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the LORD's temple. Do you see how those who are supposedly on your team can be your worst opponents?

20:9 But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. Have you ever experimented and tried this? Try not to talk about God for a day and see if it's possible. It can't happen around our home!

20:14, 18 Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame? Jeremiah sounds like Job here. I think of all those verses in the NT about living in joy but some days you realize the magnitude of carrying the CROSS.

21:9 Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; he will escape with his life. I read a fascinating article online about how those who submitted to God's judgment (Babylonian captivity) could live, while those who fought their due punishment from God, died. The article is really amazing in understanding more about who is a Jew and many of the questions we've voiced on the blog as to our missing pieces about where they fit in within history and current times. If you have time, check it out !

Psalm

82:3-4 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. What a surprise. Here is that theme again!