Day 235: Lying Prophets

Jeremiah 14:1-22 The destruction and deportations of 597 BC were followed by a severe drought. The people had rejected the Lord’s message transmitted by Jeremiah and had listened to false prophets instead. They claimed that no harm would befall them and they had nothing to fear. Jeremiah was akin to Abraham and Moses, who petitioned for mercy for a sinful people. 


Ch 15:1-21 The Lord’s words regarding Jerusalem led to Jeremiah’s second confession (verses 10-21), which revealed the thankless and futile task of his mission and the challenge to answer God’s calling. The Lord replied by encouraging Jeremiah to deepen his hope in God’s wisdom and love and to pursue his mission with even more conviction. (CCC 2584)


Ezekiel 43:1-27 As this vision of the restoration concludes, the Lord promised that the Temple would never again be defiled by pagan idols and that he will always be present among his people. Historically, even though the Romans destroyed this restored Temple in AD 70, by then the Temple of the Old Covenant had been replaced by the New Temple of Christ’s Body. God made himself fully present in the Church through Christ and the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit by means of the grace of Baptism. (CCC 797, 809, 1279, 1695, 2355)


Ch 44:1-31 Stricter regulations were set in place for the restored Temple. Pagans could not enter the sanctuary or make offerings, a rule that helped eliminate the possibility of defilement; the priestly functions are now limited to the descendants of Zadok, the lone priest who had remained loyal to David toward the end of his life, unlike the rest of the Levites who turned to idolatry. 


Proverbs 15:16 Profit may be a motive for both the worker and the employer, but respect and justice for the individual supersedes the objective of material gain.

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)



Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you praise and thank you so much. God, please receive our praise today. Please receive our voice. Receive our heart. Receive, just God, our gift of thanksgiving. Because this day, none of us did anything to deserve it. It’s just your gift to us. And so we give it back to you. We give it back to you in praise. We give it back to you in thanksgiving. And we give it back to you with humble hearts. Because, Lord God, we did nothing to deserve it. So may you be praised this day and every day in Jesus’ name. Amen.”