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 two, 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 three, 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 David, 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 in its capital, Samaria.

Why is that? Because Samaria Israel was prophesying by Baal, but the people of Jerusalem were pretending to prophesy by Yahweh and were lying, all the while worshipping false

gods and oppressing the poor.

The people of Judah had access to the temple and to the Levites and to the scrolls, and

they still disobeyed.

They have a higher level of accountability and responsibility because of what they know

and have access to.

...