Readings:
Jeremiah 11
Sirach 41
2 Peter 3

God calls on Jeremiah to preach a message of condemnation on the land because of their idolatry. They’re reminded that they’ve broken the covenant, and that this was the consequences that were clearly stated beforehand. He tells them to go call on their other gods to save them, but don’t be surprised when they receive no answer.

Jeremiah’s preaching didn’t win him any friends, as is usually the case when you tell people truths that they really don’t want to hear. It seems that a conspiracy was brewing in a northern town against him and he caught wind of it, so God tells them their treachery will not go unpunished.

2 Peter 3

Peter finishes his second letter with a warning for those who no longer believe in the second coming of Christ. One of their arguments was that the world has continued on the same way since the beginning of time, and so by their observations it will be that way forever. This is something like what we now call “normalcy bias,” that is the tendency to disbelieve something extraordinary is happening because it hasn’t before, or at least hasn’t happened to you. This is why you’ll see people denying the danger of an approaching flood because this area has never flooded in their 40 years of living there.

Because the world has seeming gone on existing, these people that Peter is addressing just figured that there would be no end, even though Jesus specifically talked about the end of the age. He even uses Noah as an example of things not always going on as expected, and a cataclysmic event upending everyone’s world. Any perceived delay in the Lord’s return shouldn’t be seen as anything less than forbearance so that more people will come to faith and repent.

Readings:
Jeremiah 12-13
Sirach 42-43
Obadiah 1