"But you did not listen to me," declares the LORD, "and you have aroused my anger with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves." – Jeremiah 25:7

Today's Scripture Reading (August 22, 2026): Jeremiah 25

What was it that made your parents get angry when you were a kid? I think, as kids, we always thought our parents were tyrants who always had to get their own way—but growing up a little changes that. At some point, we recognize that Mom and Dad only wanted what was best for us. What angered them most were those moments when we seemed to want to either waste our lives or put ourselves in danger. At the time, we just didn't see what our parents saw. But they did see it; then they warned us, and when we didn't listen, it often made them angry.

So, what is it that makes God angry? Jesus taught his followers that it was okay to call God Father. In fact, Jesus really taught us to call him Dad. That is the relationship that the creator of this world wants to have with his creation. He invites us into that relationship, and he loves us like a parent. Which means that his anger, like any good parent, is most likely caused by our waste of the gift of life that he has given to us.

That is the message that Jeremiah had for Israel. He needed to communicate to Israel that the only reason Dad was angry was that Israel insisted on bringing harm onto themselves. So, God, who had sent Jeremiah as his Prophet to help Israel, decides to change his game plan.

Just like a parent, God wants what is best for us. His instructions are intended to lead us to success in our lives. And just like a parent, he sees things that we don't see. God's desire is not a jealous rage of a God who doesn't understand. It is the loving instructions of a dad who wants the very best for those he has created.

I know we get that with our heads, but we sometimes miss it with our hearts. In the midst of trials, we need to understand with the core of our beings a God who loves us and is intent on bringing us through the trials of life.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 26

 

 

 

 

My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. – Jeremiah 24:6

Today's Scripture Reading (August 21, 2026): Jeremiah 24

A Japanese proverb says that "we learn little from victory, much from defeat." If it were not for the defeats in life, we would not grow in any of the areas of our lives. Our growth, to a great degree, depends on the challenges that we face, and our challenges often stem from the losses we suffer in life. Challenges and defeats help us to fine-tune our behavior, and they help us to identify bad behavioral strategies. All of this happens, that is, as long as we admit that we have been defeated.

Our various defeats are part of a plan that God uses to strengthen his people. As Jeremiah watches the first two groups of the people be carried into exile, God stresses that the purpose of the Babylonian Captivity was not to destroy Israel; it was to protect them. In the end, they would come back stronger. It wasn't the first time that God had used the strategy. Back at the very beginning of the nation, Israel was faced with the challenge of being absorbed by the much larger and stronger Canaanite nations. God's plan then involved sending this family into a self-imposed exile in Egypt. There the nation would grow and mature, and at the same time be isolated in a group with an opportunity to bond together into a national unit. The result was that 400 years later, Israel had become a nation that was capable of holding their own in Canaan, even if they doubted that fact themselves. It is into this situation that Moses steps to lead Israel into their future.

In Jeremiah's day, the nation was under threat once more. This time, they were about to be swallowed up by a wave of idolatry. As a result of the idolatry, God decided to repeat the strategy one more time. He took the best and brightest and allowed them to be taken into Babylon. There, God promised to protect them. Meanwhile, Jerusalem and the surrounding area would be cleansed. The seed that was the future of Israel would be protected until the time came for the nation to be planted once again in the Promised Land.

The problem, from the point of view of Israel, was that it felt like the biggest failure the nation had ever suffered, not a moment in which God was in control, or a moment that was to become the stepping-off point into the nation's future. Just as when Israel was in Egypt and the time came to raise up Moses and Aaron, God had plans, at the appropriate time, to raise up leaders like Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel among other leaders who were capable of leading the nation back home one more time.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 25

"Am I only a God nearby," declares the LORD, "and not a God far away?" – Jeremiah 23:23

Today's Scripture Reading (August 20, 2026): Jeremiah 23

We seem to think that for God to care, he has to be close. So, exactly how close is God to the pinnacle of his creation? Our response to that question is often that he is closer than your next breath. However, the question that plagues me is: Is closeness a necessary trait of God? Does he have to be close in order for him to care? Is closeness an attribute of God's providence? Or is it possible for God to care and provide and not be closer than our next breath? Don't get me wrong, I believe that God is closer than our next breath, but he is also a God who can be, or at least seem to be, far away.

As Christians, we often have an adverse reaction to the concept of a Watchmaker God. A Watchmaker God is essentially seen as a God who has designed this world we share, but when creation was completed, God walked away. The concept of a Watchmaker God is built around the idea that I don't need the creator of the watch to stay with me for the watch to work. In the same way, a watchmaker creator would not be needed after the initial creation of the world. In fact, adopters of this theology often argue that a world that continually needs his presence to work is poorly created. If God created the world right, couldn't he just walk away from his creation and still have everything he created continue to function according to his specifications? However, we interpret these words, arguing that a God who would walk away from his creation would also be a God who doesn't care.

The argument is really a false one. God is close by. He is as close as the next breath. His providential care is not in question. However, God declares that while he is close, he is also far away. He is the ultimate watchmaker who builds his creation to get along without him. He is a God who could walk away. The reality that our God could walk away makes the fact that he is close even more amazing. He is close because he cares for us: you, me, and everyone that we come in contact with.

This is who we joyfully gather to worship.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 24

This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. – Jeremiah 22:3

Today's Scripture Reading (August 19, 2026): Jeremiah 22

In November 1937, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka took control of the Japanese forces in China. He was placed in temporary command because of the illness of General Iwane Matsui. Because of the change in leadership, Asaka commanded the Japanese forces as they entered the Capital of the Republic of China, Nanking (now Nanjing), in early December 1937. The Chinese had decided not to defend Nanking after the fall of Shanghai because they felt defending the capital didn't make any logical sense. Regardless of what the Chinese Army did, the city would eventually fall to the advancing Japanese forces, so why waste soldiers on a city that could not be successfully defended? However, what the Japanese did in Nanking in late 1937 and early 1938 was something that the Chinese could never have imagined.

The event has been called the "Massacre of Nanking" or the "Rape of Nanking." The reason for the massacre was complex. The Japanese had been moving too fast. The supply line behind them had not been secured, and there were no reserve forces to be brought up to the front of the battle. And in the midst of all of this, Prince Asaka allegedly issued the order to "kill the captives." Whether it was really Asaka who issued the order, we will probably never know. But the whole world watched as events unfolded over the six weeks that followed the order. Estimates vary, but more than 200,000 civilians were killed, and 20,000 women ranging in age from children to the elderly were raped. Any military personnel left in the city were summarily executed. Altogether, the death toll in Nanking was over 300,000 people. There were no words or excuses that could be uttered to justify the events that took place in Nanking.

Jeremiah brings his people the word coming from God. Do what is just and right. Avoid the killing of the innocent, rescue the oppressed, and be concerned for the vulnerable. Even the foreigner was to be given God's protection. We are closest to exhibiting God's character when we engage in these things. In a massacre like the one that happened in Nanking, the will of God is never accomplished.

Because he was a member of the royal family, Prince Asaka could not be charged or punished. Later in life, he would convert to Roman Catholicism, becoming the first member of the imperial family to do so. General Iwane Matsui was not so lucky. In reviewing the aftermath of the Battle for Nanking, Matsui made this comment to an aide.

"I now realize that we have unknowingly wrought a most grievous effect on this city. When I think of the feelings and sentiments of many of my Chinese friends who have fled from Nanking and of the future of the two countries, I cannot but feel depressed. I am very lonely and can never get in a mood to rejoice about this victory" (General Iwane Matsui). 

General Matsui was found guilty of war crimes. His trial concluded with the judgment that Matsui knew what was happening in Nanking and failed to stop it. He was executed on December 23, 1948, at the age of 70, for his failure to protect the innocent.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 23

Inquire now of the LORD for us because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the LORD will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us. – Jeremiah 21:2

Today's Scripture Reading (August 18, 2026): Jeremiah 21

In Canada, we have, over the past couple of decades, been involved in the fiasco of Native Residential Schools. The last federally funded Residential School was not closed until 1996. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the Christian Church meant well, that we even believed that we were following the will of God. But instead of helping the Native Canadians, the church helped to spread the disease of cultural assimilation, which aimed to beat the Aboriginal out of the First Nations children. Residential schools created an unacceptably high death rate in the schools. We weakened Native Canadian families and hindered their connection to their own culture. The church caused irreparable damage, and we continue to suffer the effects of the damage we created. And all of this because we moved ahead of God, and we tried to dress our own selfish will up as if it were the will of God.

We saw the same reaction during the Crusades, one of the darkest blots on Christianity's record. We ran ahead of God in declaring war against all who disbelieved in the Christian God. We were determined that we would tear from the hands of the infidels the city of Jerusalem. The cry of the Crusaders was simple: God wills it. But it doesn't appear that anyone actually asked if that was true. Instead, the Crusaders routinely killed people, and some of the victims were even Christians who just happened to be in the way of the Crusaders. 

We seem to have established a pattern: we act as we want to, and then ask God to perform a wonder to get us out of the trouble our actions have gotten us into. It is an old pattern. Jeremiah speaks to the pattern almost six centuries before Christ. Israel had set itself on a path that would ultimately carry it away from God. But when trouble came, then they went running to Jeremiah (they didn't have to go far; they had imprisoned him in the courtyard) and asked him to inquire of God. Maybe if Jeremiah asked, then God would move.

And so, we pray, "God move in this situation, even though we haven't listened to you, haven't asked the questions of you that we should have asked." And sometimes, God moves. But at other times, his response to us is much the same as it was to Jeremiah: "Now I am moving in a different direction. It didn't have to be this way, but this is the path that you have chosen, and I am willing to walk it in my way." Whenever we move ahead of God, destruction is always the result. History has shown it over and over again. And God wants us, needs us to understand that we need to hear his will before we embark on an action because we think "God wills it."

Maybe the church needs to join with Archbishop Michael Peers in his apology from the Anglican Church to the survivors of the Residential Schools.

I accept, and I confess before God and you, our failures in the residential schools. We failed you. We failed ourselves. We failed God.

I am sorry, more than I can say, that we were part of a system that took you and your children from home and family.

I am sorry, more than I can say, that we tried to remake you in our image, taking from you your language and the signs of your identity.

I am sorry, more than I can say, that in our schools so many were abused physically, sexually, culturally and emotionally.

On behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada, I present our apology.

We are all sorry for the destruction that results whenever we move ahead of God. We are sorry for proclaiming that "God wills it" when God has done no such thing. And we are sorry for asking God to bail us out when all we needed to do was to listen to God in the first place. To the world, we ask for your forgiveness for our misrepresentation of God.

And we promise to listen better in the future.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 22

There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land. – 2 Kings 25:21

Today's Scripture Reading (August 17, 2026): 2 Kings 25

The story is told of the early days of Abraham Lincoln's first term as President. In an unusual picture of humility, a common sight in Springfield was of the President-elect making his daily trip to the local post office to pick up his mail. Finally, Lincoln concluded that he needed help, and, with that determination in mind, early in 1861, he hired a young immigrant named John Nicolay as his private secretary. Nicolay would hold the office until Lincoln's assassination in 1865.

Nicolay was alarmed as he began reading the letters the President was receiving; many were threats against the newly elected President. Lincoln seemed to be unperturbed. Lincoln was unable to imagine how it could be that political hatred could ever be transformed into an attack that would cause physical harm. Yet, on the evening of his first inauguration, the president-elect found himself sneaking into Washington. At the same time, citizens who had planned the first assassination attempt on President Lincoln's life waited for him in Baltimore.

The strategy of killing the leaders is an ancient one. And as the saga of the Kingdom of Judah ends, that is exactly what happens. In all fairness to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had tried other avenues, but the nation had repeatedly rebelled against his rule. And so, as he closes this chapter, he expels the people and kills the leaders, both political and religious, of the nation.

There is an almost eerie lack of emotion as the writer of 2 Kings announces the demise of the nation. A nation that began with acts of dependence on God and the faith of the people, first with the crossing of the Jordan at its flood stage when the water of the Jordan was the deepest and the swiftest, and then with the miraculous fall of the walled city of Jericho, over eight hundred years later ends with consecutive acts of idolatry, a dependence on other gods, and rebellion. It is with these acts of rebellion that the story of the nation ends. It had started as the story of a people given the honor of reaching the world and making it a better place. It ends as the people are scattered and driven from the land that God had promised to them, all because of their failure to fulfill that very responsibility that had been given to them by the God who had brought them out of Egypt in the first place.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 21

They became prostitutes in Egypt, engaging in prostitution from their youth. In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed. – Ezekiel 23:3

Today's Scripture Reading (August 16, 2026): Ezekiel 23

On December 7, 1941, at 7:48 in the morning, the first wave of Japanese fighters reached their target: Pearl Harbor. The U.S. Military base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes launched from six Japanese aircraft carriers. The attack was intended to knock the United States out of World War II before it could formally enter the war. The overwhelming fight at Pearl Harbor was really a Japanese attempt to put into practice a military agenda that the United States, a few decades later, would master and label as "shock and awe." The intention was to demoralize the United States and convince them that they needed to stay out of the war. If they had succeeded in their mission, Japan would have been left unchallenged in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto hatched the Pearl Harbor plan. But the Admiral quickly realized his error. Pride had led Japan into a fatal blunder. Yamamoto warned his colleagues just after the Pearl Harbor attack that "I fear all we have done is awaken the sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve." No words could have been truer. With the help of her allies (England, Australia, Canada, and the Soviet Union), American vengeance would be swift and complete. In the end, Japanese pride would cost them two of their largest cities as well as cause an embarrassing surrender of Japan to the United States.

As Ezekiel begins to describe the reason for the defeat of Judah, he describes the situation with a story of two adulterous sisters. The story itself has been called lewd and vulgar, and some have refused to read the story in public. But the words used in the story accurately describe the situation and the history of Judah. Ezekiel begins his story in Egypt. And the event he attempts to describe is Aaron's building of the golden calf, an act buried deep in the nation's past. In a moment when Israel was deeply indebted to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because of the marvelous acts that he had performed in the presence of the Pharaoh, which included the parting of the Red Sea as Israel made their miraculous escape from the Egyptian army, the building of the golden calf was an incredibly vulgar and adulterous act which revealed the pride of a people who seemed to believe that they could serve whatever God they wanted. It was a pride that insisted that the people of Israel were indebted to no one.

The act would set the nation up for a series of vulgar adulterous acts throughout her history, all led by her pride that insisted that she could do whatever it was that she wanted. And she had decided that her future lay with gods other than Yahweh. That pride had been Israel's blunder, and the result was a reality through which Ezekiel and his friends in exile were now being forced to live. Their adulterous pride contained the seeds of their eventual defeat, and that day had finally arrived.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 25