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Jeremiah warns the king and other government officials that Jerusalem is about to be destroyed and gets thrown into a muddy cistern for his efforts. His prophecy is fulfilled and the Babylonians take the city completely eliminating the leadership of Judah and giving the cities and fields to the poor. The Babylonians have been given instructions to treat Jeremiah well in all of this. (Note that my reading of the Chaldean names at the beginning of chapter 39 was more confused than my editrix could repair. Please refer to the biblical text there.)

According to Revelation, Y'shua will return on Yom Teruah, which is the feast where no one knows the day or the hour. At that time, the King will inspect His subjects and His Kingdom. He expects that He will find us doing the things He has set out for us to do. In preparation for that day, we should use the time for introspection and repentance where necessary. We should also develop a plan for what we hope to accomplish in the coming year.

Jeremiah gave a very dire prophecy about Jehoiakim and had it written down on a scroll. When the king's ministers heard it, they had it read before the king. As each page was read, the king cut it from the scroll and threw it into the fire. This attempt to 'destroy the prophecy' did not work.

The entire message of the Bible is summed up in the advice to "choose life." Further, the path to life is simple even though it is not easy. It boils down to, 'Love God and do not engage in spiritual adultery with any other gods." and "Do your best to live and organize your society according to the principles laid out in the Torah."

In another bit of 'performance prophecy' Jeremiah is instructed to purchase a field in Anathoth because he is the redeemer. Since Judah and Jerusalem are about to be destroyed, Jeremiah himself will not possess the field. The act then is a statement by God that He will restore Israel and Judah and that the original property rights will also be restored. In this continuation of His description of the New Covenant, God assures Jeremiah that He will neither forget His people nor the land he promised to them.

Ki Tavo starts with a farmer bringing first fruits and reciting a brief history of Israel and finishes with a list of terrible curses. How does a nation get from the blessings described at first to the curses at the end. The key is the historical recitation.

As Jerusalem is about to be destroyed by Babylon, God sends a message of hope to the people who are about to go into exile. He promises a future restoration and a new covenant with a reunited Israel. The only difference between the New Covenant and the old one is the medium upon which it is written. Moses wrote on tablets of stone symbolizing Israel's hard heart. God will write the same words but upon hearts of flesh. The terms of the covenant will be internal rather than imposed from the outside.

The month of Elul is best used in preparation for the Holy Days in Tishre. In the natural, one would prepare for an important business meeting. How much more then should we prepare for an encounter with God?

False prophets were saying that the Babylonian captivity was going to end quickly and that everything would be restored to normal. Jeremiah put on a yoke symbolizing the Babylonian occupation. He spoke both locally and by letter to the exiles in Babylon saying that they should settle down and prepare for a seventy year stay. In being good citizens and seeking to benefit Babylon they would find peace and prosperity for themselves.

In the Luke 12 parable of the rich man whose barns were too small to hold his crops, Y'shua accuses him of covetousness. Why? The man is harvesting his own fields, the crop is his and he owns the barns. On the surface he is not lusting after anyone else's property. He just wants to keep what is his own. What's going on here?

Among the people who matter in Judah, Jeremiah has been marginalized as a kook. People don't change their ways he gets considerable abuse. In chapter 24 his prophecy from chapter 21 is realized. Those who surrendered to the Babylonians were carried away but they were to live and prosper in exile. Those who listened to the false prophets and remained in Judah died.

In Parsha Re'eh Moses emphasizes over and over that for sacrifice and feasts Israel is to come before God and rejoice because of all the blessings that He has bestowed. This rejoicing is demonstrate a healthy, loving relationship between God and His people. The love of God is unconditional - His blessings are not. Like any good father, God will correct bad behavior. One way He does that is by withdrawing blessings.

After Jeremiah was let out of the stocks, the king sent to him asking if the Lord would deliver the city from Nebuchadnezzar. God said that He would not and proceeded to lay the blame for the evil that was to befall the city on the dereliction of Israel's shepherds. They had enriched themselves through injustice and had not taught the people to follow the word of the Lord.

All of the words in the Torah translated as 'obey' are variations on 'shema', 'listen'. God explicitly forbids making any sort of image to be used in worship - even worship of Him. Seeing and listening provide two very different levels of understanding. Seeing is superficial and detached from the one being observed. It tells nothing of what's going on inside. Listening, on the other hand, can provide an entirely different level of understanding, since it goes past the superficial and and allows the speaker to expose what's inside.

The corruption of Jerusalem has become so great that even God expressed His surprise. They were burning their children for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. Therefore God was going to turn the entire city into a place for burying the bodies of the people of Judah. In doing this He would defile the place entirely.

When evil is in the minority, it tries to be attractive and seductive. When it is in the majority, it becomes ugly and coercive. It is thus possible to gauge the moral state of a society by the prevalence of coercion in service of things that God clearly says are wrong.

The heart, being preoccupied with the things of the world loses focus on the things of God. This loss of focus cascades until Judah is so deep in sin that she must be sent into exile. Even then, God offers hope that if they just kept Shabbat things might turn around.

Over the past three millenia calamities have happened to the Hebrew people on the ninth day of the month of Av. Remembrance of those events have shaped the Israelite character and community. So too with everyone; community history and personal experience shape our character and perspective. The past cannot be changed, but the future is not yet written. If circumstances have brought you to an unsatisfactory place, with a decision and the help of God that can be changed.

Judah has made one of her formulaic expressions of regret and repentance, but God does not believe their sincerity. He says that He is weary of relenting from exercising the negative side of His covenant. The nation is to be conquered and sent into exile.

Numbers ends with a list of the places where Israel camped in the wilderness. The message here is that between liberation and the Promised land there is a long period of testing and travel and that this process takes more than a single generation. Indeed, between the Exodus and present day, Israel has spent the majority of the time sojourning away from the land. This says something important about God's plans for the world.

Faced with calamity on all sides caused by their turning away from the ways of God, Judah cried out for God to remember His covenant and send them relief. God does not believe their sincerity and tells Jeremiah that there will be no relief and that the nation is going into exile.

The Declaration of Independence and the formation of the United States were a watershed in human history. Only two times have nations been established based on the word of God and the Bible - Israel and the United States. In both cases God's project has been to show the rest of the nations the superiority of His ways.

The clergymen of Anathoth, a Levite city, are speaking religious bromides which give evil Judah false comfort. Jeremiah, by speaking the truth, has brought embarrassment to the men in his home town. Thus they plot to silence and perhaps kill him.

On His way to Jerusalem a number of people offer to become disciples. He turns them down, perhaps because He sees that they do not understand what will be required of them. Looking at the various figures in the Bible, it becomes clear that the dividing line between those who are approved and those who are rejected is their willingness to accept responsibility. So too with discipleship. Those who shun responsibility are cast out.

In explaining how Judah has fallen so far, God says that they followed the way of the nations which lead them to fear other gods - which are no gods at all. He mocks the stupidity of those who make idols from wood and stone and then fall down to worship the work of their own hands.

According to an article by Rabbi Dunner, romantic love is unique to humans and defies explanation. His conclusion is that it helps us understand and relate to God. Consider a human family, the man typically works to sustain and support those he loves. He also does things like bring flowers to his wife on special occasions. Looking at all of the opportunities to give to God in the Torah, we can see how each of them can become an expression of our love for Him.

Judah had fallen into idolatry and wickedness but still maintained some of the form of the worship of God. Their prophets and priests were encouraging the people with religious platitudes. Whereas those platitudes had been true when the nation walked with God, the same words were now false and misleading because God was not in them. This trust in what had become false kept the nation from seeing its need to repent.

In Numbers 13 Moses sent twelve men to look at the Promised Land and report back. Two of those men brought a good report and urged the nation to rise up and begin the invasion. Ten, however, did not believe it was possible for Israel to prevail and they spread panic among the people. Why did they bring a bad report? Why did God punish the entire nation for their failure?.

God sends Jeremiah to Jerusalem looking for even one who does justice and seeks truth. None is to be found either among the poor or the great. As Y'shua says, the only way to the Father is through Himself who is the Way the Truth and the Life. Since Jerusalem has abandoned the truth and gone after worthless idols, God's words will be to them a consuming fire.

Numbers 11 is a watershed for Israel. When they complained about the manna and said it was better for them in Egypt, they began the slide that would result in a whole generation perishing in the Wilderness. Bread, first mentioned in Genesis 3 is a metaphor for the thing that people eat who are going to die eventually. Bread from heaven then is a metaphor that something better is coming. Y'shua explains this in John 6.

Here God talks of the spiritual adultery of Israel and declares that her sister Judah is worse. At the time of the prophecy Israel had been in exile for over a century and Judah had not yet been exiled to Babylon. Even though God declares all of the reasons for His sorrow, He also promises a return and a reunification of the two houses.

In Luke 8 Y'shua casts a legion of demons into a heard of pigs. Why did He not cast them into the abyss? What does that mean for us as we navigate a world where there are still demon about? What is it about our current culture that is so demon friendly? Clearly, dealing with demons was a big part of Y'shua's ministry and when He sent his disciples out, he gave them authority over demons.

The calling of Jeremiah. The first of his visions depicts God being faithful to His own word and the second, a northward facing boiling pot, prefigures the Babylonian invasion that would sweep Judah and Jerusalem away into exile.

When God met with Israel at Mt Sinai. He established a relationship of a type that had never existed before. He asked for their consent to the relationship - other 'gods' and rulers had simply taken power. He spoke to everyone, not just the elite - before only the adept were initiated into the mysteries of their gods. He told them all what He expected, not just a small occult group. This relationship became the model for the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Writing to Hebrews, James does not present a balanced approach to wealth. Rather he simply condemns its unjust accumulation and use. Since God uses wealth to motivate us, Proverbs presents both sides of wealth. James' advice on healing mirrors that of the Great Commission.

In the world as we know it, there are great spiritual forces contending for human worship and dominance. In this, the world is a battleground. On side is YHVH, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. On the other side is everything else. While the forces on the other side may offer many temptations, their goal is ultimately our destruction. God, on the other hand, loves us and wants us to live and flourish. Further, the census in the wilderness, is taken by name. He cares for each of us as individuals known to Him by name.

During the time before His crucifixion, Y'shua spent considerable effort contending with the Pharisees about their interpretation of God's law as given by Moses. In these encounters, there are several key phrases: "You have heard it said..." and "It is written..." What to these phrases signify and what does that mean to us today?

Every six years God promises a bumper crop so Israel will let the land have a sabbath in the seventh year. Obeying this command requires no faith - the farmer can see the sixth year bounty. If he plants on the seventh year, he is taking more than God is offering. Such ill-gotten wealth creates all sorts of societal problems.

James talks about pride in the context of wealth, slander and boasting. Those who live for their wealth will find no peace and that wealth finally desserts them. Those who slander others will find themselves shunned. Those who boast of their plans may find that God has other plans for them.

In Scripture there are three distinct voices: the king, the priest and the prophet. The king speaks of the wisdom people have learned over the centuries of human existence. The priest speaks of the things that have been revealed to man by God. The prophet speaks for God when a society has drifted away from God's plan. Y'shua embodies all three roles and speaks with each of the three voices at different times. It is important to determine which voice He is using in each situation. Without that understanding one may misinterpret what He is saying.

The tongue is both hidden and visible. It serves as the gateway for the things of the heart to be revealed. When governed by wisdom, it promotes societal well being. When the heart is wicked or foolish, it can cause great harm.

Leviticus is the center of the Torah and, since it describes how God is to be approached and worshiped, it is the most important of the books in the TANAK. In Leviticus 19 and 20 God defines how Israel is to behave as a holy people in the presence of a holy God. This behavior is to the benefit of the nation. They will be blessed if they follow God's instructions. More important, however, is that Israel's holiness is important to God's purposes. When they follow His laws, they become ambassadors of His goodness.

David's reign comes to an end. Bathsheba short circuits Adonijah's attempt to succeed his father and David anoints Solomon. David also alerts his son to a list of people to either watch or execute because they will be a threat to his reign.

James writes of unrighteous partiality based on perceived wealth. In God's eyes, a faithful poor person is preferred over an unrighteous wealthy one. He then goes on to speak of the proper attitude toward works., basically saying that a profession of faith that does not translate into good works is in vain.

In the sermon on the plain, Y'shua is speaking to His disciples and explaining what He expects of them. He describes His own character as the Lamb and tells them to emulate that. He also tells them that whatever standard they use with others will be applied to them and that, if they are successful, they will have a great reward.

Toward the end of his life David decided to number the men in his kingdom. Joab thought that was a bad idea but was overruled. God was displeased with David's hubris and sent a plague upon Israel. This incident lead to the purchase of a threshing floor that would become the site of the Temple.

Attributed to the brother of Y'shua, James focuses on practical application of the Word of God to a believer's life. In chapter 1, he starts with a paraphrase of Proverbs 2 - how to seek God's wisdom - and finishes with an admonition that the believer should put God's Word into practice or risk becoming futile in his religion.

During the dedication of the Tabernacle, Nadab and Abihu died when they brought unauthorized fire before the Lord. Despite an abundance of speculation as to their motivation, that is not what is important here. Rather, the problem is that they tried to introduce something common into holy space. That was not permitted.

After putting down the rebellion of his son, David had the task of restoring and reuniting the kingdom. In this process he acted with his usual political skill. He refrained from acting in anger and taking vengeance upon those who sided with Absalom.

Peter closes out his letter with an exhortation not to be led astray by scoffers who mock the belief that Christ will return and establish His reign of righteousness. He assures his readers that, just as God destroyed the previous creation with a flood, He will destroy the present one by fire and create a new heaven and earth.

At Passover we remember and celebrate the birth of God's firstborn; when the Hebrews went out through the bloody door, Israel was born. Today there are powerful forces seeking to eradicate Judaism and Christianity from the world and replace it with Islam or some secular form of collectivism. Instead of uniting to resist, Christians are fragmented and arguing. One of the wedge issues splitting us is the question of who are the Jews and what is Israel.