Session 7 • Justice & peace • Devotional
Spend some time reading and meditating on these words from the prophet Jeremiah. Here the prophet rebukes a wicked King who is not living a righteous life, as his father did. You may want to do Lectio Divina or spend time journalling about whatever God brings to mind as you engage with this passage.
13“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness,
his upper rooms by injustice,
making his own people work for nothing,
not paying them for their labor.
14 He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace
with spacious upper rooms.’
So he makes large windows in it,
panels it with cedar
and decorates it in red.
15 “Does it make you a king
to have more and more cedar?
Did not your father have food and drink?
He did what was right and just,
so all went well with him.
16 He defended the cause of the poor and needy,
and so all went well.
Is that not what it means to know me?”
declares the Lord.
17 “But your eyes and your heart
are set only on dishonest gain,
on shedding innocent blood
and on oppression and extortion.”