I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. – Jeremiah 3:7

Today's Scripture Reading (June 24, 2026): Jeremiah 3

Sir John Whitmore (1937-2017), English Racing Driver and pioneering executive coach, argued that "The carrot and the stick are pervasive and persuasive motivators. But if you treat people like donkeys, they will perform like donkeys (John Whitmore). I like the quote, even if I think it misses the point. There is truth in the idea that if we treat people like animals, they will act like animals. If we treat them like children, they will act like children. There is a married couple in my circle of influence whom I have known since early in my teenage years. They were adults and church leaders during my adolescence, and I was a stereotypical teenage rebel with long hair and a bad attitude. For the first few years of our relationship, that is who I was. But I grew up, got married to a wonderful girl, and became an adult (Yeah, I know, some out there wonder about the adult part). Amazingly, my wife knew this couple as well. I still run into these people once in a while. But every time I do, I feel like that rebellious teenager again. It is like five decades later, they still see me as that sixteen-year-old they once knew. As a result, the temptation to become that kid again is almost overwhelming.

Carrot and stick sum up two modes of motivation. The carrot represents any positive reinforcement that supports desired behavior. The stick is the pain or negative reinforcement we attach to behaviors we should avoid. For a donkey, the carrot and the stick are quite literal. We often envision the donkey chasing after the carrot while being hit from behind with a stick. However, all of us humans are also motivated by both positives and negatives, albeit different ones.

Judah had a front row seat for both the rebellion of Israel and the aftermath that Israel suffered as a direct result of that rebellion. As a motivator, the destruction of Samaria was the stick. The message was that if Judah persisted in its rebellion, this was what could happen to them.

However, Josiah was on the throne of Judah, and Josiah was a good king. "[Josiah] did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left" (2 Kings 22:2). Josiah did what was right, and in doing so, he set a good example for Judah. This example was the carrot. The message was, "You too can be successful if you follow the ways of King Josiah." It is a carrot that we still use. We send messages, especially to our teens, about the benefits of getting outside and spending time with friends or playing sports by having professionals from various local sports clubs share the message, thinking that more importance would be attached to the desired behavior if it is what Connor McDavid (National Hockey League) or George Springer (Major League Baseball) believes is right.

God admits that he thought that Judah would return to him if they saw these two things in action, but instead, they decided to act like donkeys.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 4

Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,'" declares the LORD. – Jeremiah 2:3

Today's Scripture Reading (June 23, 2026): Jeremiah 2

Growing up, I loved playing pick-up sports on any field that presented itself; however, I always hated the process of picking teams. It can be embarrassing. The best players, of course, were always picked first. And the worst players got picked last. When it came down to the end of the process, it was the smallest, slowest, and the kids with the least talent that were left. Often, when we came down to the last kids on the list, someone would say, "You take them." I mean, how bad does that make you feel? Your talents are so unwanted that in the process of picking teams, you are given away to the opposing team.

Sometimes, those giveaways came back to haunt the giver. I remember one such game. We were preparing to play a pick-up game of football [American], something that I liked to do as often as possible during the summer. We picked the teams, and the last kid was this scrawny girl. It was my pick, and I refused to give her away. She apparently wanted to play football, but she didn't do anything. The other kids would run routes and try to get open so that I could throw them the ball, but she just stood there watching, never leaving the line of scrimmage. We had played for a while, and the person assigned to guard her ended up helping cover other people, because this girl wasn't doing anything.

I decided that I needed to get her the ball. I called her over and nonchalantly told her I wanted her to stand beside me. When I said "ball", I wanted her to take two steps forward and turn around. I would throw her the ball, and all I wanted her to do was catch the soft toss and run toward the opposing endzone until someone touched her. I remember stressing, "Don't throw the ball" (inexperienced players often get so excited when they are about to be "Tackled" or "Touched" in touch football that they throw the ball away).

The play started. My new friend took two steps in front of me and turned around. I softly tossed the ball underhand to her, and she caught it. Then she ran. And could she run. No one could catch her. She ran, dodged, and left the players who were picked first in her dust. She left me wondering why she had just stood there throughout the first portion of the game.

Jeremiah says that God picked Israel first. Israel wasn't his only choice, and despite being chosen first, they weren't even the best. But God had set the expectations for his nation. "I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy" (Leviticus 11:45).

For a while, they had done just that. They had avoided the trap of worshiping Egyptian gods. But they just couldn't seem to keep it up. Like young football players, they often became excited or worried and chose other gods and idols for worship. They threw the ball away. They could follow the God of the Patriarchs for a while, but not for the long run, even though God had promised to honor and defend her.

They were God's first choice, but often struggled to live up to that honor.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 3

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. – Jeremiah 1:5

Today's Scripture Reading (June 22, 2026): Jeremiah 1

I remember my grandfather, DeVerne Mullen, singing a song called "He Chose Me." I know Jimmy Swaggart made the song popular, but for me, the voice I remember is my grandfather's. The song was a bit of a theme song for Grandpa; it summed up how he felt about his faith. The song was written by Mosie Lister (1921-2015), who, I have to admit, is one of my favorite composers from this era. Other great songs written by Lister include "' Til the Storm Passes By" and "How Long has it Been." But "He Chose Me" has a special connection for me because of its relationship to my grandfather.

There were so many others

That He might have chosen to follow Him

Others with learning and greater distinction to follow Him

Men with authority and forceful ability

Who knows how to speak and be heard

I don′t know exactly why I'm here at all

But today, I follow my Lord (Mosie Lister).

The song's central concept, which still amazes me, is that God chooses us. I have to admit that I don't read this as "I am chosen, and you are not." He chose all of us. Our paths might be different, and the impact we make may be in different areas, but we have all been chosen. The question is not whether we are chosen, but whether we will choose to respond by following Him.

The passage we have here is translated as "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you," but I think a better translation might be "Before I formed you in the womb I chose you." God knew, before you began this life, that he was going to choose you for this journey, that he would gift you in a way that would help you fulfill the task that he was placing in front of you. You would be given everything you need to accomplish the task, should you choose to accept the mission I have chosen for you. Too often, our failure comes because we are unwilling to follow where God is leading us, and that is on us, not Him.

Grandpa was amazed that God had chosen him, and I am amazed that he chose me. But he also chose you. So, where is He leading you?

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 2

Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled! – Zephaniah 3:1

Today's Scripture Reading (June 21, 2026): Zephaniah 3

His name was Norman Sheffield (1939-2014), not that I would expect many to remember him. Norman Sheffield had a song written about him in 1975, and even though his name was not mentioned in the song, he sued the band and the label that released it. The band was "Queen," and the labels were "EMI" and "Elektra." If you do recognize Sheffield's name, it is probably more because of the lawsuit than because of the song. The lawsuit actually brought more scrutiny to the song than it would have likely received had Sheffield remained quiet. Queen eventually settled the lawsuit out of court and, in the process, admitted that, yes, the song "Death on Two Legs," the opening track on the band's album "A Night at the Opera," was in fact written about Norman Sheffield.

Queen, especially Freddie Mercury, believed that Sheffield had deliberately mismanaged the band, a situation that came to a head when Sheffield refused to advance Queen bassist John Deacon £40,000 as a down payment on a house. Freddie Mercury was incensed by the refusal and immediately began writing what amounts to a "Diss Track" about Sheffield. Not naming the now former manager, the singer had a few choice words about the manager's work on behalf of Queen over the preceding three years.

You suck my blood like a leech

You break the law and you breach

Screw my brain 'til it hurts

You've taken all my money, and you want more

 

Misguided old mule

With your pigheaded rules

With your narrow-minded cronies

Who are fools of the first division

 

Death on two legs

You're tearing me apart

Death on two legs

You never had a heart

Of your own.

The song only gets worse from there. Freddie admits he wanted the lyrics to be as "coarse as possible." The rest of the band was actually shocked by the lyrics. EMI wasn't sure the song should be included on "A Night at the Opera," let alone be the opening track. It was an opinion shared by Queen guitarist Brian May. But in the end, Mercury got his way. "Death on Two Legs" was not released as a single, but it became a fan favorite anyway, marking the moment when many of us graduated from buying singles to purchasing albums.

Zephaniah doesn't identify the city of oppressors, but we don't have to guess. We might hope, from the way Zephaniah 2 ends, that the prophet's ire would be directed at Nineveh, but later references to the prophets and priests, as well as the mention of the sanctuary and the law, reveal the truth. Zephaniah's "Diss Track" in this section of his writing is Jerusalem, and her own disbelief defiled the rebellious city.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 1

Gaza will be abandoned and Ashkelon left in ruins. At midday Ashdod will be emptied and Ekron uprooted. – Zephaniah 2:4

Today's Scripture Reading (June 20, 2026): Zephaniah 2

It is often hard to read what the Bible says about Gaza without thinking about the current situation of this tiny strip of land on the east side of the Mediterranean Sea. From our place in time, we look at the Gaza Strip and see an area in ruins, although it has definitely not been abandoned. But if we go back to the original Hebrew, we discover something important. Few translators have tried to keep the poetic structure of this passage. There is a bit of a rhyme that Zephaniah is working toward, which is not reflected in "Gaza will be abandoned and Ashkelon left in ruins." John Robert Dummelow (1860-1909) attempted to reflect this poetry into English with "Gaza shall be a ghastly ruin; and Ashkelon a deserted ash-heap" (John Robert Dummelow). The poetic connection is between "Gaza and ghastly" and "Ashkelon and ash-heap." (It is the kind of poetry that President Trump likes to use against his enemies, changing a name into an insult.) As a result, the concepts of desolation and damage are at the forefront of Zephaniah's mind.

Experts continue to debate the era to which this prophecy is addressed. Traditionally, it has been thought that Zephaniah was speaking of a Scythian invasion in the 3^rd or 4^th Century B.C.E. We know that, late in the Scythian Empire, they attempted to pass through Palestine on their way to Egypt. But reports from that time suggest that the Egyptians sent their army north into Palestine and convinced the Scythians to turn around and head home.

The second portion of the verse argues that the defeat of the Philistine cities on this tiny strip of land came quickly. The Mesha Stele, dating from the 9^th Century B.C.E., details King Mesha of Moab's victories over Israel and employs similar language to suggest a swift victory. "I fought against it from the break of day till noon, and I took it" (Mesha Stele). All of this leaves us with either a fight of the Philistine cities against Assyria, or maybe Babylon. Both empires swept through the area before laying siege to Jerusalem.

However, especially given the events in that area of the world today, the importance may not lie in when these cities fell in fulfillment of Zephaniah's words, but in what happens next. Zephaniah foretells of the fall of Gaza and her Philistine sisters, but also reminds his readers of a remnant who would rise to care for the area. "The land by the sea will become pastures having wells for shepherds and pens for flocks" (Zephaniah 2:6). It is long past time for there to be peace in the Middle East, and for the Gaza Strip to become the oasis it once was. Maybe who is less important than what. Maybe we can dream of a time when Palestinians and Israeli's combine to care for the land that God has given to them, in memory of the ghosts who still roam the land of Gaza and the cities of the Philistia.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Zephaniah 3

"I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth," declares the LORD. – Zephaniah 1:2

Today's Scripture Reading (June 19, 2026): Zephaniah 1

Space is a crowded place. I recently looked at a list of objects set to make near-Earth approaches over the next few years, and it's extremely long. Almost every day, an asteroid or rogue piece of debris makes a near-earth approach. Although only a few have any real possibility of making contact with our planet, it would only take one to change life as we know it drastically. Most of us are aware that a collision with an asteroid ended the dinosaurs' reign and set the stage for the rise of the human race. What is maybe a little less known is that we know the asteroid that did it. Sixty-six million years ago, the Chicxulub asteroid, a 10-15 km wide piece of space rock from beyond Jupiter, struck an area in the Yucatan Peninsula in the Southern part of the Gulf of Mexico. The collision triggered an "impact winter" and a mass extinction event, which affected every corner of the Earth. Many animal species died, including the non-avian dinosaurs. It is worth noting that most Earth-impacting asteroids originate in the inner Solar System. But the Chicxulub asteroid came from beyond Jupiter.

There are many ways life on our planet might end. Some are totally within our control. Global climate change is one. I know there are doubters out there, so maybe I should just say that whatever is making our planet warmer year after year and increasing the number of severe summer storms felt across the planet might end our planet. Of course, Nuclear war is an ever-present threat to our continued existence on the Earth. But these are things we can change, or at least try to change. Currently, the presence of another Chicxulub asteroid would destroy the planet as we know it, and there's nothing we could do to stop it.

Zephaniah gets right to the point. He introduces himself, and the prophet is unique in that he is a descendant of the good King Hezekiah. Hezekiah was King Josiah's great-grandfather, and Zephaniah's great-great-grandfather. But the message that he has come to share was that a time was coming when God was going to wipe away life on the Earth because of sin. We have no idea how this moment might happen. God may allow another Chicxulub-type asteroid to strike Earth. Maybe our experience with the changing climate and an increase in severe storms is God's way of reminding us that he can wipe away life on the Earth. Or maybe it will be something totally unexpected.

Zephaniah's message is that God has the power to wipe away life on the Earth. And he wants to warn his readers that their behavior does matter. They can change the future of the planet by following God's will and caring for everything God has created.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Zephaniah 2

Hilkiah and those the king had sent with him went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the New Quarter. – 2 Chronicles 34:22

Today's Scripture Reading (June 18, 2026): 2 Chronicles 34

English Theologian, N.T. Wright argues that everything in the Bible is expressed in terms of cooperative opposites. The idea is that from the very creation of the universe, we see essential pairings of opposites. Day makes necessary night. Water and dry land are mutually defining. In the mind of Wright, this is one principle that argues against the idea of gay marriage. God's design from the very beginning is that cooperative opposites are what is critical in any endeavor. In the concept of marriage, those cooperative opposites must be "one man and one woman," or what we have come to call traditional marriage.

I am not convinced that Wright is correct in his argument about marriage. Even in same-sex marriages, the participants are usually quite different. However, that does not mean he is wrong about the importance of both men and women in the world in which we live. Maybe one problem within contemporary feminism lies in the concept of gender equality, which often argues that we can do the same things. I believe strongly in a radical equality between the sexes, but that does not mean that men and women are the same. We aren't. Men and women, even outside the concept of marriage, present a necessary, complementary opposite in life. Both men and women are required to accomplish societal goals that extend beyond marriage and reproduction. Men and women approach problems differently. One is not better than the other; they are just different. And the best solution usually results when both are involved in the process.

The Book of Kings offers us another example of cooperative opposites in the story of the prophetess Huldah. Huldah is remembered as one of the seven prophetesses of Judaism, alongside Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, and Esther. But Huldah had a more famous male relative. His name was Jeremiah. According to tradition, Huldah and Jeremiah were two sides of the same coin, or, as Wright might put it, cooperative opposites. Jeremiah and Huldah performed very similar functions in the religious life of the day. We know that Jeremiah, often nicknamed "The Weeping Prophet," taught a message of repentance to Judah during the last days of the nation. Jeremiah begged Judah to return to God. But it seems that his ministry was mostly to the men of the city. Huldah set herself to the same task with the women of the city, pleading that they would return to God before it was too late.

Huldah is also thought to have been an important public educator of her day. It might be that the King's delegation went to Huldah, rather than to Jeremiah, because they believed she might be more inclined to respond with compassion and intercede before God for them, rather than with the condemnation they expected from Jeremiah. And their decision to take this new document, likely the Book of Deuteronomy, to Huldah made her the first person to declare a document scripture, as she treated the newly found text as the authoritative word of God.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Zephaniah 1

See Also 2 Kings 22:14