Rather, I commanded them: “Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Live your lives according to what I command you that all may go well with you.”
Whether we like it or not, we will obey Yahweh our God to whom we have asked you to pray. We know that all will go well with us if we obey the voice of Yahweh our God.”
that I made with your ancestors when I freed them from the fiery, iron furnace of their suffering in Egypt. Now, listen to my voice and do all that I commanded you, and you will be a beloved people to me, and I, I will be your God,
We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.
This mystery is understood through the prophecies of the Scripture and by the decree of the eternal God. And it is now heard openly by all the nations, igniting within them a deep commitment of faith.
“No, this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel when the time has come,” declares Yahweh. “I will embed my law into the core of their being and write it on their hearts and minds. Then I will truly be their God, and they will truly be my people.
It’s not sacrifices that really move your heart. Burnt offerings, sin offerings—those aren’t what bring you joy. But when you open my ears and speak to me, I become your willing servant, your prisoner of love for life.
For as the loincloth clings snugly to the loins of a man, so I brought close to me all the people of Israel and Judah, says Yahweh. I wanted them to cling to me as my people and bring honor to me and proclaim my glory. But they would not obey.”
Yahweh says to you: Be concerned for justice and righteousness. Rescue the one who is robbed from his oppressor. Do not exploit or mistreat the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. Stop the violence and do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place.
I will give them a willing heart to know that I am Yahweh. They will be my beloved people, and I will be their loving God, for they will return to me with every passion of their heart.
I warned you in your prosperous times, but you said, ‘I don’t want to hear it.’ You have treated me like that ever since your youth, refusing to listen to me.
But when they entered and took possession of it, they would neither listen to your voice nor follow your law. They would do nothing you commanded them to do, so you brought this disaster on them.