Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Jeremiah opens today with God's Rebuke of the leaders of Judah, and in his Rebuke, he

seems to contradict himself.

In verse 2, he says, you have scattered my flock and have driven them away.

Then as he talks about how he's going to respond to the evil actions of these leaders,

he says in verse 3, I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where

I have driven them.

So who did the scattering and driving away, the leaders of Judah or God?

Yes.

The leaders were the active agent, but as we know, God is using their wicked actions within

his good and righteous overarching plan.

I'm so glad I serve a God who redeems the wicked things done to his kids.

God promises to bring his sheep back to the land and says, they shall fear no more nor be

dismayed, neither shall any be missing.

Fearlessness is a trait of God's sheep, because he has proven himself to be our good shepherd.

God promises a day when he'll raise up a righteous king from among the line of dated, and of

course this is a prophecy of Christ.

And God says when that new king reigns on earth, his people will have new things to praise

him for that will wildly surpass what they used to praise him for.

In the meantime though, God is judging Judah, and he says the sins of Judah and its capital

Jerusalem are worse than the sins of Israel and its capital, Samaria.

Why is that?

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