Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“For this I will lament and wail; I will go barefoot and naked;I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches. For her wound is incurable. It has come to Judah;it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem. ”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, November 12, 2018
by Daniel D. Maurer, Clergy Stuff
DOOM AND GLOOM
Recently I got off Facebook. I mean really got off. I deleted my account.
It’s kind of amazing. For the longest time I’ve been always known to be “that" guy, the one who knows ALL there is to know about online life. And that included social media.
As a published and award-winning author, I had my own website. For a while it was extremely popular. What’s more is that I was online nearly every day for hours chatting with people and “liking” others’ posts and photos of their cats.
Then, November of 2016 happened.
All of the sudden, Facebook (and to a lesser extent Twitter and Instagram) became hollow echo chambers for political gloom and doom. I found myself constantly feeling angry and never optimistic like I had always been.
It truly was doom and gloom. For me, anyway…
So I decided to change the way I read the news and correspond with people. Today, I’m still online lots (it’s my job, after all), but I focus more on conversations with people I know already. I try to reach out when I’m at worship to get to know new people there, face-to-face, rather than the 1000s and 1000s of “friends” I had online.
We need as believers to be informed about the world. I still am. But it’s different now. I found out how easy it was for me to fall into the trap of paying so much attention to the doom and gloom that I forgot all of the good things I can do to make the world a better place.
So . . . moderation. Temper me, O God.
MICAH 1
The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
Judgement Pronounced against Samaria
Hear, you peoples, all of you;
listen, O earth, and all that is in it;
and let the Lord God be a witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.
For lo, the Lord is coming out of his place,
and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
Then the mountains will melt under him
and the valleys will burst open,
like wax near the fire,
like waters poured down a steep place.
All this is for the transgression of Jacob
and for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards.
I will pour down her stones into the valley,
and uncover her foundations.
All her images shall be beaten to pieces,
all her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste;
for as the wages of a prostitute she gathered them,
and as the wages of a prostitute they shall again be used.
The Doom of the Cities of Judah
For this I will lament and wail;
I will go barefoot and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals,
and mourning like the ostriches.
For her wound is incurable.
It has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.
Tell it not in Gath,
weep not at all;
in Beth-leaphrah
roll yourselves in the dust.
Pass on your way,
inhabitants of Shaphir,
in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
do not come forth;
Beth-ezel is wailing
and shall remove its support from you.
For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
yet disaster has come down from the Lord
to the gate of Jerusalem.
Harness the steeds to the chariots,
inhabitants of Lachish;
it was the beginning of sin
to daughter Zion,
for in you were found
the transgressions of Israel.
Therefore you shall give parting gifts
to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib shall be a deception
to the kings of Israel.
I will again bring a conqueror upon you,
inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
shall come to Adullam.
Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair
for your pampered children;
make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
for they have gone from you into exile.
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