Read To Me Daily Semester 3ናሙና

JEREMIAH 13-14:
In yesterday’s reading, Jeremiah complained to the Lord,

12:1 GNT “Lord, if I argued my case with you,
you would [be shown//prove] to be right.
Yet I must question you about matters of justice.
Why are the wicked so prosperous?
Why do dishonest people succeed?

And the Lord replied in an answer that bears reading in context and needs some thinking about,

5 “Jeremiah, if you get tired racing against people,
how can you race against horses?
If you can't even stand up in open country,
how will you manage in the jungle by the Jordan?

PSALM 144:
Today’s poem, Psalm 144, is quite a contrast with what we will read today in Jeremiah. This is the joyful prayer of a king who is leading his people according to the will of God.

1Corinthians 1:
In Paul’s day, Corinth was a metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea with a population of between 150,000 and 300,000 Roman citizens and about 460,000 slaves. There was evidently a healthy criminal population, and the city was a center of banking, so there were incredibly wealthy people there. The city was full of idol shrines of deities from Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and there was cult prostitution. 

Some commentators claim that 1 Corinthians contains parts of two letters from Paul, so that 2nd Corinthians might actually be a third or fourth letter. I don’t buy that. 

Key topics of this letter include the divisions in the church, the obstacles to sharing the Gospel, God’s wisdom as it appears to Greeks and Jews, partnership among apostles of Christ, vice in the church, various instructions about marriage, the Lord’s supper, food sacrificed to idols, Paul not cashing in on his rights as an apostle, spiritual gifts and the spiritual fruit of love, and the resurrection of Christ.

Let’s pray.
Dear Lord Jesus, working in our own strength, even if we work all night, it will be useless. With You present, and casting our net as you tell us, we will succeed and bring in an abundant catch. Help us to be fishers of men! We come to You, Lord. Give us excitement like that of Peter on the morning after fishing all night. In prayer, we have the wonderful privilege to be able to meet with You, to talk with you. Give us supernatural strength to pull in the net. Then we hear You asking us, “Do you love me.” We will each respond, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” And we listen now for what You tell us to do.