Daily Bible CEV November 15 Scroll

The Tongue

James 3 My friends, we should not all try to become teachers. In fact, teachers will be judged more strictly than others. ²All of us do many wrong things. But if you can control your tongue, you are mature and able to control your whole body.

³By putting a bit into the mouth of a horse, we can turn the horse in different directions. ⁴It takes strong winds to move a large sailing ship, but the captain uses only a small rudder to make it go in any direction. ⁵Our tongues are small too, and yet they brag about big things.

It takes only a spark to start a forest fire! ⁶The tongue is like a spark. It is an evil power that dirties the rest of the body and sets a person's entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself. ⁷All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures can be tamed and have been tamed. ⁸But our tongues get out of control. They are restless and evil, and always spreading deadly poison.

^9-10My dear friends, with our tongues we speak both praises and curses. We praise our Lord and Father, and we curse people who were created to be like God, and this isn't right. ¹¹Can clean water and dirty water both flow from the same spring? ¹²Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? Does fresh water come from a well full of salt water?

Wisdom from Above

¹³Are any of you wise or sensible? Then show it by living right and by being humble and wise in everything you do. ¹⁴But if your heart is full of bitter jealousy and selfishness, don't brag or lie to cover up the truth. ¹⁵That kind of wisdom doesn't come from above. It is earthly and selfish and comes from the devil himself. ¹⁶Whenever people are jealous or selfish, they cause trouble and do all sorts of cruel things. ¹⁷But the wisdom that comes from above leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine, and sincere. ¹⁸When peacemakers plant seeds of peace, they will harvest justice.

Seventy Years of Exile

Jeremiah 25 ^1-2In the fourth year that Jehoiakim was king of Judah, which was the first year that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylonia, the LORD told me to speak to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. So I told them:

³For twenty-three years now, ever since the thirteenth year that Josiah was king, I have been telling you what the LORD has told me. But you have not listened.

⁴The LORD has sent prophets to you time after time, but you refused to listen. ⁵They told you that the LORD had said:

Change your ways! If you stop doing evil, I will let you stay forever in this land that I gave your ancestors. ⁶I don't want to harm you. So don't make me angry by worshiping idols and other gods.

⁷But you refused to listen to my prophets. So I, the LORD, say that you have made me angry by worshiping idols, and you are the ones who were hurt by what you did. ⁸You refused to listen to me, ⁹and now I will let you be attacked by nations from the north, and especially by my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. You and other nearby nations will be destroyed and left in ruins forever. Everyone who sees what has happened will be shocked, but they will still make fun of you. ¹⁰I will put an end to your parties and wedding celebrations; no one will grind grain or be here to light the lamps at night. ¹¹This country will be as empty as a desert, because I will make all of you the slaves of the king of Babylonia for seventy years.

¹²When that time is up, I will punish the king of Babylonia and his people for everything they have done wrong, and I will turn that country into a wasteland forever. ¹³My servant Jeremiah has told you what I said I will do to Babylonia and to the other nations, and he wrote it all down in this book. I will do everything I threatened. ¹⁴I will pay back the Babylonians for every wrong they have done. Great kings from many other nations will conquer the Babylonians and force them to be slaves.

The Cup Full of God's Anger

¹⁵The LORD God of Israel showed me a vision in which he said, "Jeremiah, here is a cup filled with the wine of my anger. Take it and make every nation drink some. ¹⁶They will vomit and act crazy, because of the war this cup of anger will bring to them."

¹⁷I took the cup from the LORD's hand, and I went to the kings of the nations and made each of them drink some. ¹⁸I started with Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and the king and his officials were removed from power in disgrace. Everyone still makes insulting jokes about them and uses their names as curse words. ¹⁹The second place I went was Egypt, where everyone had to drink from the cup, including the king and his officials, the other government workers, the rest of the Egyptians, ²⁰and all the foreigners who lived in the country.

Next I went to the king of Uz, and then to the four kings of Philistia, who ruled from Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what was left of Ashdod. ²¹Then I went to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, ²²and to the kings of Tyre, Sidon, and their colonies across the sea. ^23-24After this, I went to the kings of Dedan, Tema, Buz, the tribes of the Arabian Desert, ²⁵Zimri, Elam, Media, ²⁶and the countries in the north, both near and far.

I went to all the countries on earth, one after another, and finally to Babylonia.

²⁷The LORD had said to tell each king, "The LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, commands you to drink from this cup that is full of the wine of his anger. It will make you so drunk that you will vomit. And when the LORD sends war against the nations, you will be completely defeated."

²⁸The LORD told me that if any of them refused to drink from the cup, I must tell them that he had said, "I, the LORD All-Powerful, command you to drink. ²⁹Starting with my own city of Jerusalem, everyone on earth will suffer from war. So there is no way I will let you escape unharmed."

³⁰The LORD told me to say:

From my sacred temple I will roar like thunder,

while I trample my people and everyone else

as though they were grapes.

³¹My voice will be heard everywhere on earth,

accusing nations of their crimes

and sentencing the guilty to death.

Disaster Is Coming

³²The LORD All-Powerful says:

You can see disaster spreading from far across the earth,

from nation to nation like a horrible storm.

³³When it strikes, I will kill so many people that their bodies will cover the ground like manure. No one will be left to bury them or to mourn.

The Leaders of Judah Will Be Punished

³⁴The LORD's people are his flock,

and you leaders were the shepherds.

But now it's your turn to be butchered like sheep.

You'll shatter like fine pottery dropped on the floor.

So roll on the ground, crying and mourning.

³⁵

You have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

^*36Listen to the cries of the shepherds,

³⁷as the LORD's burning anger turns peaceful meadows

into barren deserts.

³⁸The LORD has abandoned his people

like a lion leaving its den.

Jeremiah's Message in the Temple
(Jeremiah 7.1-15)

Jeremiah 26 Soon after Jehoiakim became king of Judah, the LORD said:

²Jeremiah, I have a message for everyone who comes from the towns of Judah to worship in my temple. Go to the temple courtyard and speak every word that I tell you. ³Maybe the people will listen this time. And if they stop doing wrong, I will change my mind and not punish them for their sins. ⁴Tell them that I have said:

You have refused to listen to me and to obey my laws and teachings. ⁵Again and again I have sent my servants the prophets to preach to you, but you ignored them as well. Now I am warning you that if you don't start obeying me right away, ⁶I will destroy this temple, just as I destroyed the town of Shiloh. Then everyone on earth will use the name "Jerusalem" as a curse word.

Jeremiah on Trial

⁷The prophets, the priests, and everyone else in the temple heard what I said, ^8-9and as soon as I finished, they all crowded around me and started shouting, "Why did you preach that the LORD will destroy this temple, just as he destroyed Shiloh? Why did you say that Jerusalem will be empty and lie in ruins? You ought to be put to death for saying such things in the LORD's name!" Then they had me arrested.

¹⁰The royal officers heard what had happened, and they came from the palace to the new gate of the temple to be the judges at my trial. ¹¹While they listened, the priests and the prophets said to the crowd, "All of you have heard Jeremiah prophesy that Jerusalem will be destroyed. He deserves the death penalty."

^12-13Then I told the judges and everyone else:

The LORD himself sent me to tell you about the terrible things he will do to you, to Jerusalem, and to the temple. But if you change your ways and start obeying the LORD, he will change his mind.

¹⁴You must decide what to do with me. Just do whatever you think is right. ¹⁵But if you put me to death, you and everyone else in Jerusalem will be guilty of murdering an innocent man, because everything I preached came from the LORD.

¹⁶The judges and the other people told the priests and prophets, "Since Jeremiah only told us what the LORD our God had said, we don't think he deserves to die."

¹⁷Then some of the leaders from other towns stepped forward. They told the crowd that ¹⁸years ago when Hezekiah was king of Judah, a prophet named Micah from the town of Moresheth had said:

"I, the LORD All-Powerful, say

Jerusalem will be plowed under and left in ruins.

Thorns will cover the mountain

where the temple now stands."

¹⁹Then the leaders continued:

No one put Micah to death for saying that. Instead, King Hezekiah prayed to the LORD with fear and trembling and asked him to have mercy. Then the LORD decided not to destroy Jerusalem, even though he had already said he would.

People of Judah, if Jeremiah is killed, we will bring a terrible disaster on ourselves.

^20-24After these leaders finished speaking, an important man named Ahikam son of Shaphan spoke up for me as well. And so, I wasn't handed over to the crowd to be killed.

Uriah the Prophet

While Jehoiakim was still king of Judah, a man named Uriah son of Shemaiah left his hometown of Kiriath-Jearim and came to Jerusalem. Uriah was one of the LORD's prophets, and he was saying the same things about Judah and Jerusalem that I had been saying. And when Jehoiakim and his officials and military officers heard what Uriah said, they tried to arrest him, but he escaped to Egypt. So Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Achbor and some other men after Uriah, and they brought him back. Then Jehoiakim had Uriah killed and his body dumped in a common burial pit.

Psalm 131
[A song by David for worship.]
Trust the LORD!

¹I am not conceited, LORD,

and I don't waste my time on impossible schemes.

²But I have learned to feel safe and satisfied,

just like a young child on its mother's lap.

³People of Israel,

you must trust the LORD now and forever.

These daily Bible readings from the Contemporary English Version (CEV) are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. BibleCard® images copyright iCreative. All rights reserved.