Monday of Week 18 – Jer 28:1-17; Ps 118:29,43,79-80,95,102; Matthew 14:13-21

Traces in the sand
They will disappear quickly. Don’t delude yourself

This poignant scene with the false prophet Hananiah and God’s messenger Jeremiah is moving, and especially moving when addressed under the earlier words of God:

The Lord says this: You can break wooden yokes? Right, I will make them iron yokes instead!

These are the times immediately preceding the fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple and the Babylonian captivity. Dark clouds had been gathering over the Chosen People for a long time. There was already the first signal that God was losing patience with them: the Babylonians imposed on them a ruler of their choice and the abduction of some of the country’s more powerful citizens. But they did not want to hear about conversion. They preferred to feed on the illusory hopes that even without repentance God would help them. . .

This is a reminder that it is not worth feeding on illusions. It is worth basing your life on the one who can actually do anything; on God. But this also means taking seriously what He taught and what He demands from us.