Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Thus says the Lord: If any of you could break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night would not come at their appointed time, only then could my covenant with my servant David be broken, so that he would not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with my ministers the Levites.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, July 19, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Now that’s a promise! The only way God’s not going to follow through on this is if somehow we can make it so that day and night don’t come when they’re supposed to. Of course, one could snarkily point out that, in fact, David’s line was wiped out and no one from that dynasty sits on Israel’s throne. The gospel writers tell us that Jesus was from David’s line, showing him to be a fulfillment of that promise, but we’re not actually sure of his lineage. And he died, too! (They put his brother, James, in charge for a while—also killed).
But, of course, that’s looking at this in purely human terms, in regard to events of a specific people in a specific context. It’s a reflection of what Jeremiah believed, what his people’s religious tradition believed. It’s concrete. Measurable. And as for me, I don’t believe God is concrete or measurable, nor God’s actions reducible to how they effect us in a particular community at a particular time.
The fact is that (at least for now, on a cosmic timeframe) the day and night do follow in a particular course. And if you could somehow change that, then maybe you could also understand the nature of God. I’m not holding my breath. I trust that God’s ultimate promise is to live with us in real, vital ways—in us, through us, around us, in all of creation—and that nothing can shake that promise. Not ever.
How have I experienced God’s promise in my life?
