Living in the Spirit

October 18, 2021

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 31:7-9

For thus says the Lord:
Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
   and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
proclaim, give praise, and say,
   ‘Save, O Lord, your people,
   the remnant of Israel.’
See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north,
   and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame,
   those with child and those in labor, together;
   a great company, they shall return here.
With weeping they shall come,
   and with consolations I will lead them back,
I will let them walk by brooks of water,
   in a straight path in which they shall not stumble;
for I have become a father to Israel,
   and Ephraim is my firstborn.

After the death of King Solomon (sometime around 930 B.C.), the Kingdom of Israel split into a northern kingdom, which retained the name Israel and a southern domain called Judah, so named after the tribe of Judah that dominated the Kingdom. Assyria overthrew the Kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C. The people, representing ten of the 12 tribes of Israel, were taken into captivity and eventually were dispersed. Babylon seized Judah in 567 B.C. Jeremiah was born in 650 B.C. and died in 570 B.C. In 538 B.C. King Cyrus, who had overthrown Babylon, made a public declaration granting the Jews the right to return to Judah and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

History is only essential if we learn from it. For example, Joseph taught the Egyptians to save up grain for the possibility of a famine. Seven years later, they reaped the benefits of that action. Unfortunately, Israel did not ever seem to learn from its mistakes until it was too late. When the rulers and upper class reached the point of self-sufficiency, they basked in it, grew their wealth, and lost their connectivity to God. Jeremiah reminds his people that their cousins were scattered across the earth. The same thing could happen to the people of Judah if they did not consider what happened to those relatives and return to God. He was right.

We, too, can learn from their history and our own.

Prayer: Lord, help us examine ourselves to see where we are straying from your path and correct our life plans. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.