Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“When he reached the Benjamin Gate, a sentinel there named Irijah son of Shelemiah son of Hananiah arrested the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ‘You are deserting to the Chaldeans.’ And Jeremiah said, ‘That is a lie; I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.’ But Irijah would not listen to him, and arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. The officials were enraged at Jeremiah, and they beat him and imprisoned him in the house of the secretary Jonathan, for it had been made a prison.”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, July 23, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
This feels particularly scary right now. Jeremiah was a pariah for speaking the truth to God’s people. They didn’t like what he had to say. So they arrested him, beat him, and threw him in prison. Recently in our own time, ICE agents and personal security details have assaulted elected officials, have detained and charged them with crimes they absolutely have not committed, and have created false media narratives to justify their actions. The current administration does not want anyone standing up to them in any way. Does not want dissenting speech. Does not want to hear the truth about the ways in which their policies are harmful, hateful, oppressive, and un-democratic.
Jeremiah refused to be squelched. He kept right on speaking the truth to power in spite of their discomfort with him. There are people out there right now who continue to do the same despite what is becoming a very real risk to their lives and livelihoods. We cannot be intimidated. There is too much at stake. It is my hope beyond hope—my belief—that God is right there in the midst of all of it, supporting, sustaining, exhorting, and speaking through all those who are working for justice, just as God was with Jeremiah, no matter what he was put through.
What is my response to the current attempt to intimidate those who are calling for love, compassion, and justice?
