May 21
Jeremiah 5 & Acts 4
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Jeremiah 5

Chapter 5

5:1Roam through the streets of Jerusalem.
Look and take note;
search in her squares.
If you find one person,
any who acts justly,
who seeks to be faithful,
then I will forgive her.
2When they say, "As the Lord lives,"
they are swearing falsely.
3Lord, don't Your eyes look for faithfulness?
You have struck them, but they felt no pain.
You finished them off,
but they refused to accept discipline.
They made their faces harder than rock,
and they refused to return.
4Then I thought:
They are just the poor;
they have played the fool.
For they don't understand the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.
5I will go to the powerful
and speak to them.
Surely they know the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.
However, these also had broken the yoke
and torn off the chains.
6Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down.
A wolf from an arid plain will ravage them.
A leopard keeps watch over their cities.
Anyone who leaves them will be torn to pieces
because their rebellious acts are many,
their unfaithful deeds numerous.
7Why should I forgive you?
Your children have abandoned Me
and sworn by those who are not gods.
I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery;
they gashed themselves at the prostitute's house.
8They are well-fed, eager stallions,
each neighing after someone else's wife.
9Should I not punish them for these things?

This is the Lord's declaration.
Should I not avenge Myself
on such a nation as this?
10Go up among her vineyard terraces and destroy them,
but do not finish them off.
Prune away her shoots,
for they do not belong to the Lord.
11They, the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
have dealt very treacherously with Me.

This is the Lord's declaration.
12They have contradicted the Lord
and insisted, "It won't happen.
Harm won't come to us;
we won't see sword or famine."
13The prophets become only wind,
for the Lord's word is not in them.
This will in fact happen to them.
14Therefore, this is what the Lord God of Hosts says:
Because you have spoken this word,
I am going to make My words
become fire in your mouth.
These people are the wood,
and the fire will consume them.
15I am about to bring a nation
from far away against you,
house of Israel.

This is the Lord's declaration.
It is an established nation,
an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know
and whose speech you do not understand.
16Their quiver is like an open grave;
they are all mighty warriors.
17They will consume your harvest and your food.
They will consume your sons and your daughters.
They will consume your flocks and your herds.
They will consume your vines and your fig trees.
They will destroy with the sword
your fortified cities in which you trust.
18"But even in those days"-this is the Lord's declaration-"I will not finish you off. 19When people ask, 'For what offense has the Lord our God done all these things to us?' You will respond to them: Just as you abandoned Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
20"Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah, saying:
21Hear this,
you foolish and senseless people.
They have eyes, but they don't see.
They have ears, but they don't hear.
22Do you not fear Me?

This is the Lord's declaration.
Do you not tremble before Me,
the One who set the sand as the boundary of the sea,
an enduring barrier that it cannot cross?
The waves surge, but they cannot prevail.
They roar but cannot pass over it.
23But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts.
They have turned aside and have gone away.
24They have not said to themselves,
'Let's fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain, both early and late, in its season,
who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the harvest.'
25Your guilty acts have diverted these things from you.
Your sins have withheld My bounty from you,
26for wicked men live among My people.
They watch like fowlers lying in wait.
They set a trap;
they catch men.
27Like a cage full of birds,
so their houses are full of deceit.
Therefore they have grown powerful and rich.
28They have become fat and sleek.
They have also excelled in evil matters.
They have not taken up cases,
such as the case of the fatherless, so they might prosper,
and they have not defended the rights of the needy.
29Should I not punish them for these things?

This is the Lord's declaration.
Should I not avenge Myself
on such a nation as this?
30A horrible, terrible thing
has taken place in the land.
31The prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests rule by their own authority.
My people love it like this.
But what will you do at the end of it?

Acts 4

Chapter 4

4:1Now as they were speaking to the people, the priests, the commander of the temple police, and the Sadducees confronted them, 2because they were provoked that they were teaching the people and proclaiming the resurrection from the dead, using Jesus as the example. 3So they seized them and put them in custody until the next day, since it was already evening. 4But many of those who heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to about 5,000.
5The next day, their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem 6with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John and Alexander, and all the members of the high-priestly family. 7After they had Peter and John stand before them, they asked the question: "By what power or in what name have you done this?"
8Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders: 9If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man-by what means he was healed- 10let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene-whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead-by Him this man is standing here before you healthy. 11This Jesus is
the stone rejected by you builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
12There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people, and we must be saved by it."
13When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus. 14And since they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in response. 15After they had ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin, they conferred among themselves, 16saying, "What should we do with these men? For an obvious sign, evident to all who live in Jerusalem, has been done through them, and we cannot deny it! 17However, so this does not spread any further among the people, let's threaten them against speaking to anyone in this name again." 18So they called for them and ordered them not to preach or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
19But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it's right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; 20for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard."
21After threatening them further, they released them. They found no way to punish them, because the people were all giving glory to God over what had been done; 22for this sign of healing had been performed on a man over 40 years old.
23After they were released, they went to their own people and reported everything the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24When they heard this, they all raised their voices to God and said, "Master, You are the One who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them. 25You said through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David Your servant:
Why did the Gentiles rage
and the peoples plot futile things?
26The kings of the earth took their stand
and the rulers assembled together
against the Lord and against His Messiah.
27"For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, 28to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place. 29And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that Your slaves may speak Your message with complete boldness, 30while You stretch out Your hand for healing, signs, and wonders to be performed through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus." 31When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak God's message with boldness.
32Now the large group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common. 33And the apostles were giving testimony with great power to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them. 34For there was not a needy person among them, because all those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, 35and laid them at the apostles' feet. This was then distributed for each person's basic needs.
36Joseph, a Levite and a Cypriot by birth, the one the apostles called Barnabas, which is translated Son of Encouragement, 37sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

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