… but it will be said, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors. – Jeremiah 16:15

Today's Scripture Reading (July 13, 2026): Jeremiah 16

In science fiction, cloning is a bad idea, not because of any moral considerations, but because of a buildup of errors in the cloning process. The idea is that no clone is truly identical; errors exist in the DNA code that can eventually threaten the cloned organism. Therefore, given the science-fiction understanding of cloning, the best we can accomplish in the cloning process is an imperfect copy of the original. A clone of a clone increases the genetic mistakes. Every mistake might be small, but over several generations, the clone would no longer be viable, or, at least, the clone wouldn't be healthy.

But that is only in science fiction. Except that it isn't. The way science fiction depicts the cloning process is a pretty accurate description of the normal reproductive process. Our kids may get what is right about us, but invariably they seem also to take what is wrong about us. Over time (and generations), families seem to begin to mirror what is wrong more than they get what is right. We wish that it were the reverse and that they would pick up our good characteristics, but it doesn't seem to work that way.

And I think that is precisely God's message to Jeremiah. The way things are going is only going to get worse. Your fathers rebelled, you rebelled more, and the next generation will only rebel more. Your only hope is that someone will break the cycle.

So, God gives this message to Jeremiah: I will be the one who will break the cycle. I will restore them to the place where I intended them to be. No longer will they only speak of the God that brought them out of Egypt; I will be the God who brought them out of the land in the North – I will bring them out of Babylon, as well.

We sometimes think that we have everything together in our lives. But the truth is that we are still just children in need of restoration. This need for recovery is the reason why family religion doesn't work. We need one who will come in, break the cycle, and restore us. And God is still the one who restores.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 17