Jeremiah’s Complaint

7O Lord, You have deceived me and I was deceived;

You have overcome me and prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all day long;

Everyone mocks me.

8For each time I speak, I cry aloud;

I proclaim violence and destruction,

Because for me the word of the Lord has resulted

In reproach and derision all day long.

9But if I say, “I will not remember Him

Or speak anymore in His name,”

Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire

Shut up in my bones;

And I am weary of holding it in,

And I cannot endure it.

9And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

1) How does Jeremiah describe the struggle of speaking for יהוה?

2) How does Paul explain the paradox of strength in weakness?

3) Where is יהוה asking you to step out despite weakness?

Bathsheba, David’s Great Sin

1Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.

2Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. 3So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. 5The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am pregnant.”

6Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. 7When Uriah came to him, David asked concerning the welfare of Joab and the people and the state of the war. 8Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and a present from the king was sent out after him. 9But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10Now when they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing.” 12Then David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you go.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13Now David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his lord’s servants, but he did not go down to his house.

14Now in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15He had written in the letter, saying, “Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die.” 16So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17The men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among David’s servants fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died. 18Then Joab sent and reported to David all the events of the war. 19He charged the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king, 20and if it happens that the king’s wrath rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’ ”

22So the messenger departed and came and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field, but we pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate. 24Moreover, the archers shot at your servants from the wall; so some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.” 25Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another; make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it’; and so encourage him.”

26Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27When the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.

5Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,

“Blow the trumpet in the land;

Cry aloud and say,

‘Assemble yourselves, and let us go

Into the fortified cities.’

6Lift up a standard toward Zion!

Seek refuge, do not stand still,

For I am bringing evil from the north,

And great destruction.

7A lion has gone up from his thicket,

And a destroyer of nations has set out;

He has gone out from his place

To make your land a waste.

Your cities will be ruins

Without inhabitant.

8For this, put on sackcloth,

Lament and wail;

For the fierce anger of the Lord

Has not turned back from us.”

9“It shall come about in that day,” declares the Lord, “that the heart of the king and the heart of the princes will fail; and the priests will be appalled and the prophets will be astounded.”

10Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’; whereas a sword touches the throat.”

11In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness in the direction of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse, 12a wind too strong for this—will come at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them.

13Behold, he goes up like clouds,

And his chariots like the whirlwind;

His horses are swifter than eagles.

Woe to us, for we are ruined!”

14Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem,

That you may be saved.

How long will your wicked thoughts

Lodge within you?

15For a voice declares from Dan,

And proclaims wickedness from Mount Ephraim.

16“Report it to the nations, now!

Proclaim over Jerusalem,

‘Besiegers come from a far country,

And lift their voices against the cities of Judah.

17Like watchmen of a field they are against her round about,

Because she has rebelled against Me,’ declares the Lord.

18Your ways and your deeds

Have brought these things to you.

This is your evil. How bitter!

How it has touched your heart!”

Lament over Judah’s Devastation

19My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart!

My heart is pounding in me;

I cannot be silent,

Because you have heard, O my soul,

The sound of the trumpet,

The alarm of war.

20Disaster on disaster is proclaimed,

For the whole land is devastated;

Suddenly my tents are devastated,

My curtains in an instant.

21How long must I see the standard

And hear the sound of the trumpet?

22“For My people are foolish,

They know Me not;

They are stupid children

And have no understanding.

They are shrewd to do evil,

But to do good they do not know.”

23I looked on the earth, and behold, it was formless and void;

And to the heavens, and they had no light.

24I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,

And all the hills moved to and fro.

25I looked, and behold, there was no man,

And all the birds of the heavens had fled.

26I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness,

And all its cities were pulled down

Before the Lord, before His fierce anger.

27For thus says the Lord,

“The whole land shall be a desolation,

Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.

28For this the earth shall mourn

And the heavens above be dark,

Because I have spoken, I have purposed,

And I will not change My mind, nor will I turn from it.”

29At the sound of the horseman and bowman every city flees;

They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks;

Every city is forsaken,

And no man dwells in them.

30And you, O desolate one, what will you do?

Although you dress in scarlet,

Although you decorate yourself with ornaments of gold,

Although you enlarge your eyes with paint,

In vain you make yourself beautiful.

Your lovers despise you;

They seek your life.

31For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor,

The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,

The cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,

Stretching out her hands, saying,

“Ah, woe is me, for I faint before murderers.”

9I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 10I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. 11But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.