1 August 2020

The officials and all the people then said to the priests and prophets, ‘This man does not deserve to die: he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.’
From Jeremiah 26; 11-16, 24

The full reading is an account of a confrontation between the priests and prophets on the one hand with the officials and the people on the other and with Jeremiah in the middle. The priests and prophets are complaining about Jeremiah’s condemnation of the way they conduct their business in the Temple and city. It is reasonable to suppose that, as the religious ‘experts’, they would be able to discern that it is God speaking through Jeremiah but his words are just too challenging.

It is, by contrast, the officials and, even more interestingly, the ordinary people who recognise that Jeremiah’s message – although uncomfortable to hear – comes from God. This sense of the rightness and wrongness of the ordinary people is a good example of the repository of wisdom that God places in the hearts of all people of faith. And with that comes a responsibility to listen and to act upon it.

• • When have you seen “ordinary people” understanding something about faith even before the “experts”?
  • Why does God give this wisdom to everyone and not just to a chosen few?

Reflect today on your own gift of wisdom – or listening and trusting your instincts about something. What helps you to come to an assurance that you are right?