Book of Jeremiah 16-18

Jeremiah 16-18

God starts off with a friendly warning to Jeremiah;

6:2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.

Why?  Because he's going to cause the deaths of every man, woman and child in the neighborhood.

16:4 They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth:and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

Once again this loving god is going to kill innocent women and children and let their bodies be eaten by wild animals because their fathers have forsaken him.
I can understand when God ignores the people that stop worshiping him, but to actively seek out and kill them (especially the women and children) is unacceptable.
His stated reason is a show of power and ego.

16:21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD. Great writing here! 17:1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars; The last part of chapter 17 seems to indicate that God will revitalize Jerusalem if his people will just observe the sabbath and take the day off!  Sounds like an easy enough task! Jeremiah gets really paranoid in chapter 18, like most of the previous prophets.  His dementia can't be total if he suspects that others will think he's making all this stuff up.  After all God himself said that prophets are liars!

Book of Isaiah 63-66 Where for art thou?

Isaiah 63-66

This book has dragged on forever.  The folks that compiled the KJV left out a lot of stuff.  Why didn't they cut Isaiah down to 20-30 chapters?

We do get some really good writing  from Isaiah at the end and he asks a really good question;
'Hey God!  Where did you go? Why don't you hang out with us like you did with Abraham and Moses?'

He asks these questions but he already knows the reason.  Israel is a collective bunch of screw-ups who can't/won't follow God's rules.  Pretty simple.

God has a good answer for him;
'I watch you continually disappointing me and I know you'll always be this way but I won't destroy you completely.  Some of you will obey and I'll be nice to you.'

He seems to indicate that he'll start again from scratch;

65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. And 66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. Chapter 66 is how ALL the books of the bible should end!!!  Fire! Death! Redemption!  Every word is gold.  We get a concise explanation of what God plans to do. Isaiah may be long-winded but he knew how to finish with a bang.

Book of Isaiah 21-23 I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place

Isaiah 21-23

I think the style here is much different from the previous Isaiah writings.  Sorry Edward, multiple authors is once again a real possibility!  ;-)

These chapters reads as a great poem.  Some of the best writing we've read so far.  I love the text!

21:4 My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.
21:5 Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
21:6 For thus hath the LORD said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.

22:13 is a timeless line, co-opted by countless future writers.

And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.

What the hell does this mean?

23:17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.