Jeremiah 23 - Jeremiah’s harangue against the people’s shepherds very similar to the words of Ezekiel. “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the Lord” (23:1).

Early Friends took passages such as these for prophesies that God would never trust his people to human shepherds under the new covenant, but that Christ Himself would be their shepherd.  “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have driven them and bring them back to their meadow”  (23:3). However, it does also say that he “will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble” (23:4). I do think that while Christ is ultimately the shepherd whose voice we must listen for, we must also allow ourselves to be cared for by the human shepherds He brings forth to lead His church.

Then comes one of the major messianic prophesies: “The time is coming when I will choose as king a righteous descendant of David. That king will rule wisely and do what is right and just throughout the land. When he is king, the people of Judah will be safe, and the people of Israel will live in peace. He will be called ‘The Lord Our Salvation’” (23:5). Other translations of this last phrase are “Lord of righteousness/of integrity/of justice.” One reason Jeremiah says this is, I think, to cast a shadow of irony on Zedekiah, whose name meant Lord our Righteousness/or Integrity/or Justice – interesting the inter-changeability of those terms here.

He speaks also against the false prophets who “retail their own visions” and bring a false sense of security to people.  The false prophets side with the wicked (23:14) and “help people to do wrong so that no one stops doing what is evil” (23:14).  “Listen not to the words of your prophets, who fill you with emptiness; visions of their own fancy they speak, not from the mouth of the Lord, ‘Peace shall be yours’; and to everyone who walks in hardness of heart, ‘No evil shall overtake you’” (23:16-18).

Jeremiah 24 – Jeremiah says the Lord “showed” him two baskets of figs before the Temple of the Lord after the exile of Jehoiachin along with all the princes of Judah, the artisans and skilled workers to Babylon.  And the Lord opened to Jeremiah that the good basket of figs represented these exiles.  They are the favored ones: “I will look after them for their good, and bring them back to this land, to build them up, not to tear them down; to plant them, not to pluck them out.  I will give them a heart with which to understand that I am the Lord.  They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart” (24:5-6). The exile here is seen as a purifying experience. 

But those left behind and those who went to Egypt are represented by the bad figs: “I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. . .” (24:9). 

2 Corinthians 6 - Do not neglect the grace God gives to you.  This present moment, this time between Christ’s coming into the world and his return “is the day of salvation” (6:2). The marks of His presence in our lives and in our communities are the following:

• Fortitude (endurance) - capacity to suffer afflictions and constraints
• Purity
• Knowledge
• Patience and kindness
• A spirit of holiness
• Genuine love
• Truthful speech
• An ability to demonstrate God’s power
• Being armed with the “weapons of righteousness”
• Rejoicing

He warns about harnessing ourselves to unbelievers.  “[W]hat fellowship does light have with darkness?” (6:14) What does Paul mean by this: It cannot mean a lack of love or concern for those who are less ardent in their faith, or an unwillingness to reach out to those who seem “lost” spiritually. This would run again all that Christ did himself and all that he encouraged his followers to do. Mennonites used the passage and the words of verse 17 to justify removing themselves from all who did not appear to be among the “saved,” “the elect”: “You must leave them and separate yourselves from them. Have nothing to do with what is unclean, and I will accept you” (6:17 referencing Isaiah 52:11, which is a warning for the Jews to leave Babylon and touch nothing unclean). This clearly is an over-reading.

I wonder if this last part of chapter 6 is not a little self-contradictory. Paul is so articulate about Christ’s joining himself to us in our sinful state, though he himself had no personal sin. But now, as he is encouraging us to join ourselves to Christ, he seems to be telling us to stay away from those who have not done so. I think we must do as Christ did and live our lives among those who need his love and his salvation. We must not be like them but if we separate ourselves completely, we are not following his example.

2 Corinthians 7 – Paul expresses his belief that together they can put off all that keeps us from being perfect in holiness: “[L]et us wash off all that can soil either body or spirit, to reach perfection of holiness in the hear of God” (7:1). Still, this hope of personal and communal perfection does not blind him to the fact that the wider community of churches is full of “trouble on all sides: quarrels outside, [and] misgivings inside” (7:5). He commends the “suffering” that the Corinthians have gone through that led to some repentance or change in them. “To suffer in God’s way means changing for the better and leaves no regrets, but to suffer as the world knows suffering brings death” (7:10).