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World Changing Words Devotional-Day 21

by David Joynt on August 22, 2020


JEREMIAH 31:34 | 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

 A final beautiful aspect of Jeremiah’s dream of a new covenant is democratization. Too often the religious life is like the rest of modern life, a realm for specialists. In ancient Israel, there were people officially responsible for the cultic practice, the priests. There were seers and prophets for guidance and later legal experts for interpretation. Today some might see clergy or professors as the necessary experts to whom responsibility for religious life and thought can be passed.

 But the new covenant insists “all shall know me.” The experience of devotion can be universal and individual, and so can the knowledge of God.

 What is the value of “religious leaders?”

 

 

Tags: devotion, forgive

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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