Daily Lesson for August 12, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 30 verses 10 and 11a:

But as for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob, says the Lord,

    and do not be dismayed, O Israel;

for I am going to save you from far away,

    and your offspring from the land of their captivity.

Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,

    and no one shall make him afraid.

11

For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you

Jeremiah is known as the Prophet of Hope, which is ironic if you've been reading along in the book because Jeremiah is so full of sobering and even devastating prophecies about the future of the nation.

Yet even as he foretells the fall of the nation, its captivity in Babylon, and its generation's-long stay and struggle there, he nonetheless does also begin to speak of a new hope, and a return to the promised land.  Jeremiah's words -- to borrow a phrase from St. Paul -- "hope against hope", and shine the light of peace and restoration, even as the sudden realization of the darkness of war and calamity descend upon the people, seemingly all at once.

Calamity is seemingly to befall us all at once as a nation and world. A hundred thousand American lives are lost. Millions of jobs evaporate.  The economy reels.  The dismaying truth about where we may be headed and how long we will be there begins to set in.

But even then, in the very midst of the devastation, there is the talk of return.  Even as Rachel weeps for her children and their future; the Prophet speaks:

"Thus says the LORD:

Keep your voice from weeping,

and your eyes from tears;

for there is reward for your work,

says the LORD:

they shall come back from the land of the enemy;

there is hope for your future

says the LORD:

your children shall come back

to their own country."

And the city that is called desolate shall be the city at peace.

Believe it friends; believe it even as the days ahead grow darker and much, much more difficult.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible together this year.  Tomorrow we continue with the Prophet of Hope, reading Jeremiah chapters 32-34.