June 9
Jeremiah 19-20 & Acts 17
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Jeremiah 19-20

Chapter 19

19:1This is what the Lord says: "Go, buy a potter's clay jar. Take some of the elders of the people and some of the leading priests 2and go out to the Valley of Hinnom near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there the words I speak to you. 3Say: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will shudder 4because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in it to other gods that they, their fathers, and the kings of Judah have never known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. 5They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought.
6"Therefore, take note! The days are coming"-this is the Lord's declaration-"when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7I will spoil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those who want to take their life. I will provide their corpses as food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land. 8I will make this city desolate, an object of scorn. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and scoff because of all its wounds. 9I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and they will eat each other's flesh in the siege and distress that their enemies, those who want to take their life, inflict on them.
10"Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the people traveling with you, 11and you are to proclaim to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: I will shatter these people and this city, like one shatters a potter's jar that can never again be mended. They will bury the dead in Topheth because there is no other place for burials. 12I will do so to this place"-this is the declaration of the Lord-"and to its residents, making this city like Topheth. 13The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will become impure like that place Topheth-all the houses on whose rooftops they have burned incense to the whole heavenly host and poured out drink offerings to other gods."
14Jeremiah came back from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, stood in the courtyard of the Lord's temple, and proclaimed to all the people, 15"This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: 'I am about to bring on this city-and on all its dependent villages-all the disaster that I spoke against it, for they have become obstinate, not obeying My words.'"

Chapter 20

20:1Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and chief official in the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2So Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate in the Lord's temple. 3The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib, 4for this is what the Lord says, 'I am about to make you a terror to both yourself and those you love. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will deport them to Babylon and put them to the sword. 5I will give away all the wealth of this city, all its products and valuables. Indeed, I will hand all the treasures of the kings of Judah over to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon. 6As for you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, you will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon. There you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends that you prophesied falsely to.'"
7You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.
You seized me and prevailed.
I am a laughingstock all the time;
everyone ridicules me.
8For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I proclaim, "Violence and destruction!"
because the word of the Lord has become for me
constant disgrace and derision.
9If I say, "I won't mention Him
or speak any longer in His name,"
His message becomes a fire burning in my heart,
shut up in my bones.
I become tired of holding it in,
and I cannot prevail.
10For I have heard the gossip of many people,
"Terror is on every side!
Report him; let's report him!"
Everyone I trusted watches for my fall.
"Perhaps he will be deceived
so that we might prevail against him
and take our vengeance on him."
11But the Lord is with me like a violent warrior.
Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly shamed,
an everlasting humiliation that will never be forgotten.
12Lord of Hosts, testing the righteous
and seeing the heart and mind,
let me see Your vengeance on them,
for I have presented my case to You.
13Sing to the Lord!
Praise the Lord,
for He rescues the life of the needy
from the hand of evil people.
14May the day I was born
be cursed.
May the day my mother bore me
never be blessed.
15May the man be cursed
who brought the news to my father, saying,
"A male child is born to you,"
bringing him great joy.
16Let that man be like the cities
the Lord demolished without compassion.
Let him hear an outcry in the morning
and a war cry at noontime
17because he didn't kill me in the womb
so that my mother might have been my grave,
her womb eternally pregnant.
18Why did I come out of the womb
to see only struggle and sorrow,
to end my life in shame?

Acts 17

Chapter 17

17:1Then they traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2As usual, Paul went to the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3explaining and showing that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead: "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah." 4Then some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, including a great number of God-fearing Greeks, as well as a number of the leading women.
5But the Jews became jealous, and they brought together some scoundrels from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. Attacking Jason's house, they searched for them to bring them out to the public assembly. 6When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too, 7and Jason has received them as guests! They are all acting contrary to Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king-Jesus!" 8The Jews stirred up the crowd and the city officials who heard these things. 9So taking a security bond from Jason and the others, they released them.
10As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea. On arrival, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11The people here were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, since they welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12Consequently, many of them believed, including a number of the prominent Greek women as well as men. 13But when the Jews from Thessalonica found out that God's message had been proclaimed by Paul at Berea, they came there too, agitating and disturbing the crowds. 14Then the brothers immediately sent Paul away to go to the sea, but Silas and Timothy stayed on there. 15Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as quickly as possible, they departed.
16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was troubled within him when he saw that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18Then also, some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers argued with him. Some said, "What is this pseudo-intellectual trying to say?"
Others replied, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities"-because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the Resurrection.
19They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, and said, "May we learn about this new teaching you're speaking of? 20For what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these ideas mean." 21Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.
22Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. 23For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed:

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it-He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in shrines made by hands. 25Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. 26From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27He did this so they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. 28For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.' 29Being God's offspring then, we shouldn't think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.
30"Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because He has set a day when He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead."
32When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him. But others said, "We'd like to hear from you again about this." 33Then Paul left their presence. 34However, some men joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

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