reviewing our history

Good morning friends,
This morning I would ask your prayers for the Western New York NEXT conference. The conference will be held at Third Presbyterian today and will focus on empowering the church for effective and faithful ministry today.

In our reading for this morning Joshua gathers Israel together to give a farewell speech. He reminds them of where they have been and how God has led them. His goal is to prepare them for life without him, since he is coming to the end of his life. He also wants to encourage them to be faithful to God. It's a good review for us of the Old Testament story. The context is always changing, but our calling is still to follow where God leads us.

God bless,
Sam

Joshua 24:1-7

Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. ²And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. ³Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac; ⁴and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

⁵Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in its midst; and afterwards I brought you out. ⁶When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. ⁷When they cried out to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did to Egypt. Afterwards you lived in the wilderness a long time.

an example

Good morning friends,
Today's reading continues God's criticism of Judah's worship. God tells Jeremiah, or maybe the people, to take a field trip to learn about worship and faithfulness. God sends them to Shiloh, which at one point was one of the most important worship sites in Israel. If we remember back to the story of Samuel, who anointed Saul and David as Kings of Israel, that story began at the temple in Shiloh. God's point is that once the people who worshipped at Shiloh turned away from God, it didn't matter any more that that had been a house of God. At this point in Judah's history the Northern Kingdom of Israel has already been conquered by Assyria. Judah can see the fate of part of God's people who turned away from God and from justice. There is still time to choose the better way, the path of love and faithfulness. What will Judah choose? What will we choose?

God bless,
Sam

Jeremiah 7:12-20
12Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors, just what I did to Shiloh. 15And I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your kinsfolk, all the offspring of Ephraim.

16As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry or prayer on their behalf, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. 17Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 19Is it I whom they provoke? says the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own hurt? 20Therefore thus says the Lord God: My anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on human beings and animals, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.