I read primarily non fiction, and my favorite movie genre are documentaries. I am not the person movie marketers tend to target. I like to know the truth, even if it's uncomfortable.
While Scripture doesn't usually sugar coat the message, today's readings bring a particular level of truth to the forefront.
I have to admit that I am a bit of a Jeremiah fan. He's a rather overlooked prophet; what he has to say makes you squirm and feel uncomfortable. He's not a prophet that is telling you happy days are here again. He's all about the weeping and gnashing of teeth. He brings a gritty truth to his message.
He often is referred to as the weeping prophet, for good reason. He was reluctant. He was persecuted.
But he also spoke the truth.
In today's reading, again Jeremiah is reminding the Israelites that unless they change their ways...well, things aren't going to work out in their favor.
29In those days they shall no longer say: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” 30But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge
There is still hope. If they (and us, because we still read his words all these years later) change, there is hope for all that G-d would forgive and restore:
27The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. 28And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. 29In those days they shall no longer say: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” 30But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge. 31The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
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