Readings:
Jeremiah 36-37
Hebrews 6

Jeremiah 36-37

God directs Jeremiah to write all the words he’s spoken to him on a scroll, and to read it to the people so that they get the whole picture. Even though he’s been a prophet for years, and has declared all these prophecies in public, people may have only heard bits of it, or if they’re not from Jerusalem they mightn’t heard any of it.

His scribe sits down with a scroll and writes all what’s dictated to him by Jeremiah and goes up to the temple during a feast day and reads it all there. The aristocracy hears of this and calls for the scribe to come to them and read them the scroll. He does and they are scared at the implications of this call to repentance that they probably knew the king would completely ignore. They hide the scroll and Jeremiah and Baruch the scribe.

But the king demands it be brought to him and he has it read in his palace, and then he tossed it into the fire without even a second thought. So God instructs Jeremiah and Baruch to make another scroll and add to it a prophecy against the king himself.

It’s amazing to think of the lack of respect these elevated officials have for God by this point. They’ve been numbed by sin and just like pharaoh they won’t listen to reason.

In chapter 37 Jeremiah is put into prison based on false charges and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but when the king discovers he’s in prison he calls for him and secretly inquires if God has given him any insight to what is happening. Jeremiah says that he has, and goes on to tell him that he will fall into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

So from this we see that Zedekiah might not believe in the power of God, but he has some curiosity. He wants what God can provide him in the here and now (intel about his fate) but he doesn’t want to serve God or care at all for what he has in store in the future. We can fall into this same trap sometimes, and trade current comfort for future happiness, but it’s usually a bad trade.

Hebrews 6

The author here says he wants to move away from the foundational concepts and move on to some more specific topics of the faith. The ones mentioned; baptism, laying on of hands, and resurrection of the dead, all have contemporary Jewish equivalents, and basic catechesis in the faith would’ve included how the Christian versions differ from their Jewish counterparts.

He then goes on to teach what is fundamentally the hardest hurdle for those who believe in eternal security (aka once saved always saved) to overcome. One way they try to get around this chapter is by saying the author is speaking of people who only appear to be Christians but never actually were. This is just their opinion and has no basis in the text itself.

He speaks of people who’ve been “enlightened” which is a reference to baptism, who partake of the heavenly gifts (possibly a reference to the Eucharist) and those who’ve received the Holy Spirit. This isn’t people pretending to be believers, it’s actual believers.

We are enlightened when we are baptized. The rite is called enlightenment since by it we behold the holy light of salvation, that is, we come to see God clearly.

Saint Clement of Alexandria

If these believers turn away and reject the gift of salvation, then they will not be saved. You don’t have to do anything to “earn” salvation, but once you’ve been given justifying and sanctifying grace, then you must remain in him and cooperate with those graces to be saved in the end. Or as he says in verse 12 that we should imitate those who “through faith and patience inherent the promises.”

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Jeremiah 38-39
Hebrews 7