GN-Day207 Jeremiah 11-12; Psalm 143; John 21

07/26/22 • 20 min

JEREMIAH 11-12:Yesterday we heard important verses in chapter 9:23-24, verses that Paul quotes more than once:

9:23 NLT “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom,or the powerful boast in their power,or the rich boast in their riches.24 But those who wish to boastshould boast in this alone:that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD ...

PSALM 143:It seems that prayer is very neglected these days. Oh yes, we might hear something vague about praying for victims right after some tragedy strikes. But it seems that every church has trouble keeping a prayer meeting going. I myself have trouble keeping my prayer life going. David shows in this psalm that he has learned secrets of effective prayer. Note how his prayer is very like how Jeremiah felt in the two chapters we just read.

JOHN 21:This is one of my favorite chapters. John again tells us important information not given in the other gospels. Note that there is a famous exegetical fallacy here. John does use two different words for ‘love’ in the dialog between Jesus and Peter. But this should NOT be taken— as has been so frequently taught, as showing a play on words, or that John was intending different shades of meaning. Instead, the use of synonyms is just a feature of John’s style in writing. John does this for poetic variation, like the parallelism in Hebrew poetry. Another example of this in this same passage is the variation of ‘little lambs’ and ‘sheep’.

GNT Translation notes:Jer. 12:1 “Lord, if I argued my case with you, you would [be shown//prove to] be right. Yet I must question you about matters of justice. Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why do dishonest people succeed?====Ps. 143:9 I [come//go] to you for protection, Lord; rescue me from my enemies.

JEREMIAH 11-12:Yesterday we heard important verses in chapter 9:23-24, verses that Paul quotes more than once:

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GN-Day206 Jeremiah 9-10; Psalm 142; John 20

JEREMIAH 9-10:Being a prophet is not exactly an easy job. In 7:27 God told him,

7:27 NLT “Tell them all this, but do not expect them to listen. Shout out your warnings, but do not expect them to respond.”

We’ll find that God told the same thing to more than one prophet around this same time.

PSALM 142:When you are discouraged, here is a psalm to pray!

JOHN 20:There are so many fulfillments of Scripture that happen in the crucifixion chapters in the Gospels that many times the authors didn’t take the time to highlight each one of them. The Jewish readers would have picked up on them without the need for an explanation. In verse 36, John highlighted one fulfillment, saying, “This was done to make the scripture come true: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken.’” I hope you remember what that was about! See Ps. 34:20, Ex. 12:46, Num. 9:12. If you don’t know, I hope this teaser will encourage you, because this is a golden gem. And Jesus’ death did not mean that he stopped fulfilling Scriptures.

GNT Translation note:Jer. 9:22 Dead bodies are scattered everywhere, like piles of manure on the fields, like grain cut and left behind by the reapers, grain that no one gathers. [And] This is what the Lord has told me to say.”====John 20:1 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary [— the one from the village of] Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken away from the entrance.2 She went running to [Peter— who was also called Simon//Simon Peter] and the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!” [In the podcast recording, I reduced the other double-name instances later in the chapter to just Mary/Peter. The context makes it clear who is being referred to, and doing so is more natural in English.]13 [One of them asked her,//0] “[0//Woman,] why are you crying?” [0//they asked her.] She answered, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!” 15 “[0//Woman,] why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who is it that you are looking for?” She thought he was the gardener, so she said to him, “If you took him away, sir, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”31 But these have been written in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through your [believing//faith] in him you may have life.

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GN-Day208 Jeremiah 13-14; Psalm 144; 1 Corinthians 1

JEREMIAH 13-14:In yesterday’s reading, Jeremiah complained to the Lord,

12:1 GNT “Lord, if I argued my case with you,you would [be shown//prove] to be right.Yet I must question you about matters of justice.Why are the wicked so prosperous?Why do dishonest people succeed?

And the Lord replied in an answer that bears reading in context and needs some thinking about,

5 “Jeremiah, if you get tired racing against people,how can you race against horses?If you can't even stand up in open country,how will you manage in the jungle by the Jordan?

PSALM 144:This poem is quite a contrast with what we have just heard in Jeremiah. This is the joyful prayer of a king who is leading his people according to the will of God.

1Corinthians 1:In Paul’s day, Corinth was a metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea with a population of between one hundred and fifty thousand and three hundred thousand Roman citizens and about 460,000 slaves. There was evidently a healthy criminal population, and the city was a center of banking, so there were incredibly wealthy people there. The city was full of idol shrines of deities from Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and there was cult prostitution.

Some commentators claim that 1 Corinthians contains parts of two letters from Paul so that 2nd Corinthians might actually be a third or fourth letter. I don’t buy that.

Key topics of the letter include the divisions in the church, the obstacles to sharing the Gospel, God’s wisdom as it appears to Greeks and Jews, partnership among apostles of Christ, vice in the church, various instructions about marriage, the Lord’s supper, food sacrificed to idols, Paul not cashing in on his rights as an apostle, spiritual gifts and the spiritual fruit of love, and the resurrection of Christ.

GNT Translation note:Ps. 144:15 [O Lord our God,//0] Happy is the nation of whom this is true; happy are the people [who worship You!//whose God is the Lord!][As in other Psalms, I read verses 1-2 and 15 as a prayer made directly to God, rather than using the third person in talking to the Lord.]