First Advent Reading

"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”

Jeremiah 33:14-16

The prophet Jeremiah did not have an easy time of it, and I have felt some affinity with him over the past fifteen months. According to Wikipedia*, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that Jeremiah's book is written as if he not only heard as words, but personally felt in his body and emotions, the experience of what he prophesied; that the verse, "Are not all my words as fire, sayeth the LORD, and a hammer that shatters rock" was a clue as to how difficult the overwhelming, personality-shattering experience of being a vehicle for Divine revelation was; and how difficult it was to be able to see, in advance, one's own failure.

And yet here he is, that crusty, anguished, irritable prophet who never seems to cease arguing with God, speaking words of hope and promise.




*Which contains no citation but ~ I like what it says and this is just a blog so ~ I'll go with it.