The prophet speaks of the corrupt power structure in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. There the wicked people in the government have no real fear of being stopped and so spend their time devising schemes to use their positions for personal enrichment.

In Mark, Y'shua is preparing His disciples to operate in a new spiritual regime. After His resurrection, they will have the Holy Spirit and His power available to them. Boats are a significant part of this preparation. In Mark 6 and 8, the disciples do not understand what's going on as they crossed the sea because they had hard hearts. What was it that they were unable to understand? How does that correlate with what Moses was doing in Deuteronomy?

During the Council of Jerusalem, the other apostles told Paul that he should remember the poor in Israel - a thing that he wanted to do. In this section of the letter, Paul urges the Corinthian church to dig deep and follow the example of the Macedonian church.

If God expects us to understand what is true and to follow that truth, it must be possible for us to figure that out using the minds He has given to us. This short study has explored Jeremiah's answer to that problem.

In Deuteronomy 6, the Shema is followed by v'ahavta saying that God is one and we should love Him. This is a radical departure from the prevailing polytheism in the rest of the world. Other 'gods' are transactional. If you need rain make a sacrifice to the rain god; otherwise you don't care about it and it does not care about you. Our God, on the other hand, desires to have an ongoing relationship. That relationship is based on mutual love and affection.

Continuing to defend his apostleship, Paul writes of the ministry of reconciliation that was entrusted to him by God. In this his goal is to reconcile the world, Jew and gentile, to God and His kingdom.

Jeremiah asks the classic question, "Why do the wicked prosper?"

On Tisha B'Av we remember the calamities that have befallen the Hebrew people over the past three millennia. Most prominent of these was the destruction of the first Temple by the Babylonians and the second by the Romans. In both cases the reason was the same. Judah was treating the Temple as a sanctuary to shelter them from their evil deeds. They had no intention of repenting, they just wanted God's protection. Y'shua uses the same words - a den of robbers - when He drives the merchants out of the Temple. Israel did not repent then either and God had that Temple destroyed as well.

The time and afflictions of this Earth are a prelude to the glory of the world to come. So, while this life is important to the realization of God's purposes, it is not permanent. Trials and afflictions should be viewed in that context.

Society in Israel was coming apart. The nation knew the Word of God and had access to the remedy for their plight; yet they refused to apply that knowledge and heal their society. The elites believed that they were secure and exempt from the consequences of their wickedness, and so were surprised when death entered their city like a thief. This should sound eerily familiar to us.