Tag: Foolishness

Digging in Deeper: Jeremiah 43:2

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“Azariah the son of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah and all the insolent men said to Jeremiah, ‘You are telling a lie.  The Lord our God did not send you to say, “Do not go to Egypt to live there…”‘”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

The people of Israel who hadn’t been taken off to Babylon as captives or killed in the process were scared.  The options before them didn’t seem good at all.  Some of their leaders had murdered the governor the Babylonians had put in place to rule over them.  They feared retribution was coming and would be painful when it arrived.  The various nations around them not only didn’t want to help, but were actively antagonistic toward them.  The only option that seemed to make sense was to head to Egypt in hopes that by coming as refugees from their mutual enemies in Babylon, they would be received graciously and not as a hostile force. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Isaiah 44:18-20

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“They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.  No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, ‘Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten.  And shall I make the rest of it an abomination?  Shall I fall down before a block of wood?’  He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This and the few verses on either side of it is one of my favorite passages in the whole Old Testament.  It ranks up there for me as one of the best in the Bible.  That may not be a very spiritual answer to the question of what this preacher’s favorite verse is, but read it again for yourself.  It’s hilarious.  No other passage in the Bible captures the sheer idiocy of idolatry quite so well as this one does.  And it does it with a sarcastic sense of humor that resonates really well with my own. Read the rest…