Project Ezra - Jeremiah 7

Folks this weeks Project Ezra is Jeremiah 7, please take the time to read it and find someplace public to read it, either read it on Xbox Live, PS Home, or better yet find someplace where you can take your Bible and go read it aloud to the public.  That is the purpose of Project Ezra, do not be afraid of what others think of you, go proclaim!

Jeremiah 7

False Religion Worthless

 ¹ This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : ² "Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and there proclaim this message:
      " 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. ³ This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!"⁵ If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, ⁶ if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. ⁸ But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. ⁹ " 'Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"-safe to do all these detestable things? ¹¹ Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.
 ¹² " 'Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³ While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. ¹⁴ Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers. ¹⁵ I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.'
 ¹⁶ "So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. ¹⁷ Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. ¹⁹ But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?
 ²⁰ " 'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched.
 ²¹ " 'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! ²² For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, ²³ but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. ²⁴ But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. ²⁵ From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. ²⁶ But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their forefathers.'
 ²⁷ "When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. ²⁸Therefore say to them, 'This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips. ²⁹ Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath.

The Valley of Slaughter

 ³⁰ " 'The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the LORD. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. ³¹ They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. ³² So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. ³³ Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. ³⁴ I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate.

Psalm 50

Some of you may know or have heard about Project Ezra, others not... Project Ezra is a weekly reading dedicated to the public reading of the Bible.  While I continue to search for that fishing hole where I will read publicly, I will get on my keyboard box and my controller & headset box and read through my keys and through my microphone the weekly readings that Tony and others so faithfully post. The new readings will be posted on the weekend and read throughout the week publicly.

This past weeks reading is Psalm 50, please follow along.  I encourage you to be bold and read or share with someone and help proclaim His Word everywhere you go.

PSALM 50

1 The Mighty One, God, the LORD, 

       speaks and summons the earth 

       from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets.

 2 From Zion, perfect in beauty, 

       God shines forth.

 3 Our God comes and will not be silent; 

       a fire devours before him, 

       and around him a tempest rages.

 4 He summons the heavens above, 

       and the earth, that he may judge his people:

 5 "Gather to me my consecrated ones, 

       who made a covenant with me by sacrifice."

 6 And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, 

       for God himself is judge. 

       Selah

 7 "Hear, O my people, and I will speak, 

       O Israel, and I will testify against you: 

       I am God, your God.

 8 I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices 

       or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.

 9 I have no need of a bull from your stall 

       or of goats from your pens,

 10 for every animal of the forest is mine, 

       and the cattle on a thousand hills.

 11 I know every bird in the mountains, 

       and the creatures of the field are mine.

 12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, 

       for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

 13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls 

       or drink the blood of goats?

 14 Sacrifice thank offerings to God, 

       fulfill your vows to the Most High,

 15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; 

       I will deliver you, and you will honor me."

 16 But to the wicked, God says: 

       "What right have you to recite my laws 

       or take my covenant on your lips?

 17 You hate my instruction 

       and cast my words behind you.

 18 When you see a thief, you join with him; 

       you throw in your lot with adulterers.

 19 You use your mouth for evil 

       and harness your tongue to deceit.

 20 You speak continually against your brother 

       and slander your own mother's son.

 21 These things you have done and I kept silent; 

       you thought I was altogether like you. 

       But I will rebuke you 

       and accuse you to your face.

 22 "Consider this, you who forget God, 

       or I will tear you to pieces, with none to rescue:

 23 He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, 

       and he prepares the way 

       so that I may show him the salvation of God."