Preparing for Worship - July 2, 2023

The Scripture readings this week are challenging ones to understand and apply. The Old Testament lesson is from Jeremiah 28:5-9. You almost have to read all of Chapters 27 and 28 to get the full meaning. In Chapter 27, God told Jeremiah to put a yoke on his neck, symbolic of the fact that God’s people were soon to be servants of the Babylonian king, who had already taken some people and many valuable vessels from the temple in Jerusalem. A period of about 70 years of captivity was coming because of their sins. Hananiah, a false prophet, then said that the Lord told him that in two years the people would be set free and all the vessels taken from the temple would be returned. He said what the people wanted to hear. In the OT reading, then, Jeremiah confronts Hananiah and the people. He wishes that what Hananiah had predicted was true, that a time of “peace” was coming soon. He would like to say “Amen” to that. However, Jeremiah then said that earlier prophets had predicted “war, famine, and pestilence,” as the Lord had also told him - not “peace.” Only time would tell which prophet was speaking the truth. (After our reading, Hananiah broke the yoke off of Jeremiah’s neck, saying that Jeremiah was the false prophet; and Hananiah predicted “peace” again. The Lord then sent Jeremiah to Hananiah to tell him that he would die for deceiving God’s people, and within a year, Hananiah was dead, and the long Babylonian captivity did happen.)

In the Gospel Lesson, Matthew 10:34-42, we also hear Jesus saying something hard to His disciples, as He prepares them to go out and share His message, “I have come not to bring peace, but a sword, to the earth.” Not everyone would believe what the disciples were telling. There would be rejection and division, “a sword,” among people, even families, at times. Some would prefer to follow their own ways and desires instead of Christ as Savior. They think they are finding what they want, “the good life,” where it is really the opposite. Receiving and believing the Word of God, by the grace of God, actually brings Christ Himself and His saving work to people, and the blessings of God the Father, who sent Jesus and wants to bring His Good News of love and hope to all, even the littlest of people. We are still blessed and a blessing, as we seek to bring that Good News to others, also, whoever they are.

In the Epistle lesson, Romans 7:1-13, Paul reminds us that the Law of God is righteous and good, but we can never be saved by following it well enough. The Law is like a line on the ground that we are not to go over. It is a challenge to us, and sin and our sinful nature keep urging us to step over that line, and we step over the line all too often, bearing “fruit for death.” Comparing ourselves with the Law shows us our sins and our need to be set free from the Law of sin and death. Paul uses a human example of how we are “free” from “certain laws and commitments” only by the death of someone. We will be freed from the condemnation of the law of God, which we have failed to keep, only “through the body of Christ” and His death for us, to pay for our sins. Our hope is now “in the new way of the (Holy) Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” The Holy Spirit brings us to faith in Jesus and seeks to keep us in that faith, as “we belong to one another” and seek “to bear fruit for God,” as the Spirit leads and guides us through the Word of God.

The psalm is Psalm 119:153-160. The psalmist knows that “God’s Word is truth” and seeks “not to swerve from the Lord’s testimonies.” God’s “law” and “commands” are a guide for his life, and he seeks to follow God’s will. At the same time, he has to admit in the last verse of this psalm, verse 176, beyond this reading, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.” He doesn’t forget them, but he doesn’t always follow them, either. The psalmist knows that his ultimate hope is not in himself, as hard as he tries to do the right things, but is in the Lord and His “great mercy.” He says, “Plead my cause and redeem me; give me life according to Your promise!… Give me life according to Your steadfast love.” There is our hope, too, especially in Christ our Savior and what He has already done to rescue us, in His redeeming love.