Today’s passage: Jeremiah 19:1-15
Helpful thoughts:
- For a contrast…to help our own ears “tingle,” it would be helpful to read Deuteronomy 13:6-18.
- Topheth is the Hebrew word for drums. When the Jews were worshiping false gods in the Valley of Hinnom, the beating of drums would cover the sounds of their crying as they sacrificed their own children.
- God was promising to make Jerusalem and the towns of Judah just like the Valley of Hinnom.
Questions to consider:
- What was the reason why Judah and Jerusalem had brought this judgment on themselves? What did they do? What does it mean to have a “stiff neck” if having one results in not hearing God’s words?
- In what ways might we still have “stiff necks” in regard to God’s commands? It might be easy to compare our actions to child sacrifice and feel pretty good about ourselves, but what might God be calling us to do where our own “stiffness” is on display?
- How does the “tingling” of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of our own hearts call us to worship? What did Christ do on the cross for us? In the reality of our sin, who does God reveal Himself to be through His initiation of our redemption?