Jerusalem's Doom Is Sealed

Jeremiah 21:1-14 

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, 2 "Please inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us."

3 Then Jeremiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, 4 'Thus says the LORD God of Israel: "Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and I will assemble them in the midst of this city. 5 I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. 6 I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence. 7 And afterward," says the LORD, "I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them, or have pity or mercy."'

8 "Now you shall say to this people, 'Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him. 10 For I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for good," says the LORD. "It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire."'

11 "And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, 12 O house of David! Thus says the LORD:

"Execute judgment in the morning;
And deliver him who is plundered
Out of the hand of the oppressor,
Lest My fury go forth like fire
And burn so that no one can quench it,
Because of the evil of your doings.

13 "Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,
And rock of the plain," says the LORD,
"Who say, 'Who shall come down against us?
Or who shall enter our dwellings?'

14 But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings," says the LORD;
"I will kindle a fire in its forest,
And it shall devour all things around it."'"

The doom of Jerusalem was sealed due to the continuous sin of the people in rejecting their LORD and pursuing sins of idolatry and immortality.  Jeremiah proclaimed this hard message as he both wept and desired to see God’s vengeance hold them accountable for their sin and rejection of Him.  Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon was coming to overrun them and King Zedekiah asked for the prophet for God to show wonderful works in turning the Babylonians back.  They assumed that their offenses against God meant nothing and they were entitled to be delivered.  How wrong they were in that hubris of assumption apart from accountability according to His word which had been warning them for so long to repent for their only chance of salvation!  Instead, God would turn back their own weapons and give the victory to the invader in His justice of wrath and promise according to their breaking His covenant of works with them which held them accountable to obedience or to face the consequences of annulling it by their sin and idolatry.  God then set before them the way of life and the way of death; they could choose to be defeated and still obey on His terms or fight against their sentence and be destroyed.  The city was to be handed over in defeat to a heathen king and burned for their rebellion against their true King.  The message then was to hear and heed God’s word of warning and judgment of deliverance to their enemies instead of from their hands because of their evil they continued in as a way of life while turning a deaf ear to the LORD and making token sacrifices while not serving Him with a loyal heart (2 Chronicles 16:9).  Yes, God set His face against them who assumed He was still on their side for deliverance apart from accountability and their due punishment according to justice and truth.  Their rotten fruit earned them destruction (Romans 6:23).  This is a warning for all who reject God’s Son instead of entering the new covenant of grace by faith to be well pleasing to God and escape the judgment we all are born under as children of Adam.  Only being born again under and into the new Adam is sufficient (Romans 5:14-15, 1 Corinthians 15:21, 45, 56-57) for deliverance from our just due (Romans 3:23).  Apart from Christ, our doom is sealed like Jerusalem’s was, but forevermore. 

Fear on Every Side

Jeremiah 20:1-18 

1 Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2 Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

3 And it happened on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, "The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib. 4 For thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword. 5 Moreover I will deliver all the wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its precious things; all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them, and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. You shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and be buried there, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.'"

7 O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded;
You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.
I am in derision daily;
Everyone mocks me.
8 For when I spoke, I cried out;
I shouted, "Violence and plunder!"
Because the word of the LORD was made to me
A reproach and a derision daily.

9 Then I said, "I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name."
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.

10 For I heard many mocking:
"Fear on every side!"
"Report," they say, "and we will report it!"
All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,
"Perhaps he can be induced;
Then we will prevail against him,
And we will take our revenge on him."

11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One.
Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail.
They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.
Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten.

12 But, O LORD of hosts,
You who test the righteous,
And see the mind and heart,
Let me see Your vengeance on them;
For I have pleaded my cause before You.

13 Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD!
For He has delivered the life of the poor
From the hand of evildoers.

14 Cursed be the day in which I was born!
Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!
15 Let the man be cursed
Who brought news to my father, saying,
"A male child has been born to you!"
Making him very glad.

16 And let that man be like the cities
Which the LORD overthrew, and did not relent;
Let him hear the cry in the morning
And the shouting at noon,

17 Because he did not kill me from the womb,
That my mother might have been my grave,
And her womb always enlarged with me.
18 Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow,
That my days should be consumed with shame?

Fear on every side and an unpopular message.  The son of a priest and governor’s son attacked Jeremiah and had him locked in the stocks for his unpopular prophecy, but God would make that man fear on every side as would those following him against God’s word.  He and the rest were then to be taken into captivity to Babylon for rebuke and correction to renewal and eventually returned to Jerusalem after many years.  Jeremiah was overwhelmed by the attacks and persecution for being a faithful messenger of God’s word, but then let the mocking and hatred get to his confidence in the calling and responsibility.  He tried for awhile to hold back and stop speaking the words of God or even mentioning Him, but the word burned within him until it came rushing out as he wearied of holding it in (Job 32:18-19, Jeremiah 23:29, Acts 4:20).  Likewise, we cannot hold the good news of God’s grace in Christ to ourselves or we will burst in being moved to speak God’s words of life to those around us under His judgment of condemnation in accountability for sin.  Just like Jeremiah, we also are assaulted with mocking and attempts to make us stop speaking the good and bad news because of fear or slander (1 Peter 4:12-13, 14-15).  Jeremiah knew that the all powerful and awesome God was with him working good and confounding his enemies with shame and confusion.  He had assurance that the LORD would hear his plea for help and take vengeance on the enemies of God’s word and His servants.  God tests the minds and hearts to know we who follow as His, and He works all for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28).  Of this we can be assured no matter the situation we find ourselves in.  This is cause for singing praise for our deliverance from evil (Matthew 6:13, Galatians 1:4, 2 Timothy 4:18) for us just as it was for Jeremiah.  His word assures and comforts us as well.  May we not be long like that prophet, however, in self-pity as we see in Job 3:1-3 also because of the suffering and persecution, but rather rejoice for suffering for his name’s sake!   When there is fear on every side, we can rest in our Almighty God’s hand in His Son because we have a confident hope of deliverance.  We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us as we suffer for the gospel and are in need (Philippians 4:13)!  

Broken and Forsaken Vessels

Jeremiah 19:1-15 

1 Thus says the LORD: "Go and get a potter's earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2 And go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, 3 and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle.

4 "Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents 5 (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind), 6 therefore behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. 8 I will make this city desolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. 9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair."'

10 "Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury. 12 Thus I will do to this place," says the LORD, "and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods."'"

14 Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord's house and said to all the people, 15 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.'"

Forsaken.  Broken.  Hardened hearts and stiffened necks refused to hear God’s word and they were judged accordingly as their rejection found its reflection in themselves.  They made God’s place a profane one by incense offered to lifeless idols instead of worship to the only LORD and God who called them.  They were given a message through Jeremiah as he carried a flask of earthen pottery out the gate of the city called pottery shard as if to show the destruction ahead on the way to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom on the southern slope of Jerusalem, a deep ravine whose name fittingly means “lamentation.”  There he loudly preached God’s word given him that the leaders of Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem could hear concerning the righteous catastrophic judgment looming before them for rejecting and dishonoring Him.  The message was so strongly convicting that their ears would tingle, quivering with fear and reddened with shame when they heard it!  The charges of their judgment were clearly presented concerning their idolatry and treating the holy place as profane, much more so than the profane fire offered by Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron in Leviticus 10:1-3.  They also did not regard the LORD as holy or glorified His name, but much worse in replacing Him with lifeless bits and bobs of stone and wood to bow down to.  They even sacrificed innocent people made in God’s image as burnt offerings to Baal instead of the prescribed animals given Adam and needing to be given back to God whom he had sinned against.  Because of these egregious sins, the place he went to to give this judgment would be called the Valley of Slaughter as they would be defeated by their enemies there due to their continuing and blatantly rebellious sin.  Desolation would be the end state of that place, clearly seen by all who would pass by and recall what happened there to those rejecting their LORD God who alone is worthy of praise for His glory (1 Timothy 1:17, Romans 11:36).  The pottery flask was then broken as a visual picture of the fate of the these who had done all these things, showing them to be broken in sin and forsaken vessels of dishonor which should have been for God’s honor and glory (2 Timothy 2:20-21) as living temples of His habitation.  The potter’s vessel was broken beyond repair into many useless shards before their eyes to demonstrate the finality of God’s final judgment of their rejecting and forsaking Him for the works of their own hands according to the imaginations of their corrupt hearts.  This was pronounced because they stiffened their necks and refused in that pride to hear and heed God’s word.  The same fate awaits those who reject His work and worship in Jesus Christ, but life is forever promised to all who accept and receive Him and His words.  There are multitudes in the valley of decision (Joel 1:15, 3:14).  May all who read and hear this example from scripture consider who they worship and the consequences of rejecting the Son of God that they might receive Him by faith and be vessels made whole again against all reasoning and expectations in light of what we are all due (Romans 6:23). 

Following our Evil Desires or the Merciful God

Jeremiah 18:12-23 

12 And they said, "That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart."

13 Therefore thus says the LORD:
"Ask now among the Gentiles,
Who has heard such things?
The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
14 Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon,
Which comes from the rock of the field?
Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?

15 "Because My people have forgotten Me,
They have burned incense to worthless idols.
And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways,
From the ancient paths,
To walk in pathways and not on a highway,
16 To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And shake his head.

17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy;
I will show them the back and not the face
In the day of their calamity."

18 Then they said, "Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words."

19 Give heed to me, O LORD,
And listen to the voice of those who contend with me!

20 Shall evil be repaid for good?
For they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember that I stood before You
To speak good for them,
To turn away Your wrath from them.

21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine,
And pour out their blood
By the force of the sword;
Let their wives become widows
And bereaved of their children.
Let their men be put to death,
Their young men be slain
By the sword in battle.

22 Let a cry be heard from their houses,
When You bring a troop suddenly upon them;
For they have dug a pit to take me,
And hidden snares for my feet.

23 Yet, LORD, You know all their counsel
Which is against me, to slay me.
Provide no atonement for their iniquity,
Nor blot out their sin from Your sight;
But let them be overthrown before You.
Deal thus with them
In the time of Your anger.

The evil turn from God and attack the messengers of God’s judgment and grace.  Israel had rejected God’s warnings and chosen to live as refugees from God’s goodness and blessings.  They then chose their own ways on the barren and narrow footpaths instead of the highway He gave them to lead them beside still waters.  Their own plans were driven by the stubborn evil imaginations of their hearts and not according to His word.  Because they put God out of their minds they replaced Him with lifeless and powerless carved images to worship because they could not be held accountable to such creations of their own hands and imaginations.  Then the nations around them would only shake their heads because of the dishonor of God’s name caused by their sin.  They were to be driven from the blessings of the promised land and scattered until they repented, but when God sent them the prophets like Jeremiah with messages of forgiveness and reconciliation through repentance, they repaid his good with the evil of targeting him for destruction instead.  Jeremiah labored for them to hear that the people of God would have His wrath on their idolatrous sin be turned away.  Their continuing forceful rejection of the LORD and His word would result in starvation and defeat by their en in war.  The prophet further turned their attacks on him to divine justice without atonement or forgiveness, but marking their unrepentant sins with the warpaint of His just wrath targeting and overthrowing them for their rejection of His word and sole worship of Him.  We see then how those who refuse repentance and reject His work which is fulfilled in His Son will be held accountable to the wrath of justice in the final judgment.  The only hope is walking in His narrow path by faith to follow His grace obediently and willingly, for there is one way (Acts 4:12) and one gate (John 10:9) to enter into God’s presence through the reconciliation of the blood of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to take our just punishment.  Those who do not accept and receive Him will reap the fruit of their rejection without their sin being blotted out by grace and mercy (Psalm 51:1, 9, Revelation 3:5).  Those who do accept and receive Him (John 1:12) find reconciling peace with God by grace through faith.  We either follow our own evil desires or the merciful God and worship Him alone. 

Clay in the hands of the Potter

Jeremiah 18:1-11 

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: 2 "Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My words." 3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?" says the LORD. "Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! 7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, 8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.

11 "Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good."'"

The LORD God showed a visual picture of clay formed by a potter as an analogy of Him as the Creator Potter fashioning the clay out of the dust of the earth into Adam as His creation (Genesis 2:7).  God called the prophet to go and observe the potter spinning a pot on the wheel and having to remake it when it was flawed according to His desire and good sovereign purpose of making it as it should be.  Likewise our God can do with us all as He did with Israel when what He created marred itself constantly with sin and rebellion.  He also does this with all the nations of His creation, giving time for repentance and righteousness to turn from evil or face disastrous dissolution for their sinful culture opposed to His desires and design.  He who planted each nation calls for change when they are flawed and bent on the spinning wheel and has the authority and right to stop and flatten the misformed back into a mere lump of dust and water to start over with them.  It is His choice which makes this fair because He owns the created ones of His divine patent and blueprint according to His word.  This also translates to us individually as Romans 9:20-21 tells us, but takes the analogy further to explain how even the choice of what vessels He makes are for Him and which are not destined for His use and glory.  It is clear that some are spun on the Potter’s wheel for destruction and some for glory.  Yes, out of the same lump of man He makes one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use according to His predetermined will and plan for us.  Yet some will say this is unfair, the same ones who fight against following His word and go after worship of other gods.  Who are we to question our Maker as if He were another flawed man among us?  He told Jeremiah that a nation which turns from its evil of disobedience could be spared harsh consequences, and among those purposed by Him for Himself we have the same opportunity for repentance by God given faith to repurpose our flawed vessels to honor Him (2 Timothy 2:20-21).  This is not the same for those like Pharaoh who are made as vessels for destruction (Romans 9:17-18) to display His righteousness and glory through demonstration of the consequences of disobedience of disbelief and rejection of their Creator to warn the good vessels of sin’s consequences.  The call of God through Jeremiah was to repent, to turn away from doing evil and follow the word of the LORD.  It is the same call of the gospel with the rest of the story of grace made clear for forgiveness and reconciliation to eternal life.  The difference we now know is that not all vessels of dust and water spun on the Master Potter’s wheel are able to be remade because some have been purposed for destruction and some for Him from before the world and man was ever made (Ephesians 1:4, Romans 8:28-29).  God’s purpose determines whether repentance leads to life.  Our choice and change depend on His design and our God given response; we are accountable but also accounted as His by His choice and His will, not our own (John 1:13).  May we who are chosen and being sanctified on the Potter’s wheel then allow ourselves to be formed according to His word and will by putting off sin and putting on holiness and righteousness according to His design and image instead of continuing in sin.  Even prepared vessels can face loss of rewards when we fail to glorify God by unclean use as 2 Timothy 2:21 and 1 Corinthians 3:14-15 have told us.  The examples of Israel and the nations throughout time should therefore spur us on to follow accordingly with love and good works as purposed vessels put to good use for His glory.  We are after all clay in the hands of our good Potter, but clay remade of redeemed dust mixed with the blood of Christ into holy mud on the wheel of His predetermined eternal purpose.  Yes, God can do with us as He pleases, even remaking us when we mar His image in us.  Yet He first waits for us to choose His paths that were given from the beginning so that we stop giving up to our own evil heart desires.  Then he remakes us, from salvation in a new life to daily turning back when we stray afterwards.  It is never hopeless in the Potter's hands.  When others speak evil of me after I speak truth to them in love for their good and with compassion (not condemning), then I need to hand them over to God.  Unlike Jeremiah the prophet who prayed for God's harsh judgment on those against him, I must follow Jesus and the examples of the apostles to pray for them that God would give them a chance, and not simply smite them.  Nonetheless, it is God who judges and deals with those who oppose Him in His way.  I must forgive, beware, and follow my Lord and my God. 

God is our Praise and Sabbath Rest

Jeremiah 17:14-27 

14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For You are my praise.

15 Indeed they say to me,
"Where is the word of the LORD?
Let it come now!"
16 As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You,
Nor have I desired the woeful day;
You know what came out of my lips;
It was right there before You.

17 Do not be a terror to me;
You are my hope in the day of doom.

18 Let them be ashamed who persecute me,
But do not let me be put to shame;
Let them be dismayed,
But do not let me be dismayed.
Bring on them the day of doom,
And destroy them with double destruction! 

19 Thus the LORD said to me: "Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 and say to them, 'Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the LORD: "Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 22 nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. 23 But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

24 "And it shall be, if you heed Me carefully," says the LORD, "to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, 25 then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. 26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the lowland, from the mountains and from the South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing sacrifices of praise to the house of the LORD.

27 "But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched."'"

Jeremiah prayed for the deliverance of God’s people as he under sin and the divine justice of punishment for accountability of their disobedience and worship of dead creations of their own hands as if gods.  He prayed for healing and salvation for himself because the living God was his praise, his reasons for life and impetus for worship.  While others mocked God and him as a spokesman by asking where is God’s word since they did not see immediate results, Jeremiah kept faithfully following the LORD and shepherding the unruly as well as the few obedient ones, all whom he was tasked with caring for.  He did not want to hasten the day of God’s judgment but kept calling and warning the people of God to repentance and faith in Him according to His word.  Yes, God was his hope and joy and deliverer from his own sin.  He reminded God of his words as a testimony to his faithfulness.  He prayed also not to be shamed or broken or terrified, bit that his persecutors would suffer those things instead for attacking God’s messenger and therefore God Himself.  They would suffer in the day of eternal judgment and torment.  It was enough.  Then he was reminded and reminds us to enter God’s sabbath rest which then was by ritual and rote, but which now is resting in the person and work of Christ Jesus in whose grace we stand.  Hebrews 4:3-5 describes this sabbath rest in His work for us as opposed to earning grace and salvation as Hebrews 4:9-10 explain further for our understanding.  The Israelites constantly sought their own knowledge from the forbidden tree and also refused to enter the rest from their own ineffectual works to rest by faith in God’s work for their salvation and missed the mark of faith’s object as the basis of their deliverance from His wrath according to His word.  May we not only enter into that rest, but after entering into Christ and His righteousness may we be God-pleasers who worship rightly and righteously in response of thankful and obedient hearts.  Yes, May we be holy as He is holy and faithful no matter what others do as we speak the truth in love and seasoned with grace.  God is our praise and sabbath rest. 

Sin and Punishment

Jeremiah 17:1-13 

1 "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron;
With the point of a diamond it is engraved
On the tablet of their heart,
And on the horns of your altars,
2 While their children remember
Their altars and their wooden images
By the green trees on the high hills.

3 O My mountain in the field,
I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures,
And your high places of sin within all your borders.
4 And you, even yourself,
Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;
And I will cause you to serve your enemies
In the land which you do not know;
For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever."

5 Thus says the LORD:
"Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the LORD.
6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited.

7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
And whose hope is the LORD.
8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

9 "The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
10 I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.

11 "As a partridge that broods but does not hatch,
So is he who gets riches, but not by right;
It will leave him in the midst of his days,
And at his end he will be a fool."

12 A glorious high throne from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary.

13 O LORD, the hope of Israel,
All who forsake You shall be ashamed.
"Those who depart from Me
Shall be written in the earth,
Because they have forsaken the LORD,
The fountain of living waters."

The sin of man is engraved on his heart since his fall in the Garden of Eden from the very beginning.  Our hearts are born corrupt (Romans 3:20-23) because of our rebellion of disobedience to God’s simple commandment to trust Him (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:5-6) to teach us good and evil (Hebrews 5:14) instead of seeking to understand it apart from Him, thus making ourselves as God in knowledge from our own efforts as the created desiring to be the Creator.  Israel had been given this reminder through Jeremiah of their sin engraved on their corrupt hearts and on the altar’s horns of atoning sacrifices which never were enough to change their hearts, just their accountability through that temporary forgiveness.  Their continuing sin earned them the wage of death (Romans 6:23) and bondage under their enemies due to angering the LORD with their willful and ongoing disregard for His word.  They did not understand or strive to be holy as He is (Leviticus 11:44, 1 Peter 1:15-16) because they were not in Him as we are in Christ with a new heart and indwelling Spirit to enable a growing righteousness and holiness.  This scripture and others throughout the Old Testament show us these truths of our need for redemption because we are utter unable to do righteously on our own.  Punishment is all we earn in our best endeavors because the source of all we are is still corrupt apart from a radical change by God’s hand.  He emphasized this by calling down a curse on all who trust in man’s ability for strength and knowledge for the wisdom needed to follow Him rightly righteously.  He also promised blessings on us if we trust and hope in Him alone, for then we gain fruitfulness without the fear of failure to death.  The bottom line is that our hearts are not to be trusted because they are desperately evil and deceptive.  Only God know our every thought and motive and He tests us to bring these things out.  God reigns on high and that is where our true sanctuary lies.  In Him alone is hope for Israel and all His called out and chosen people.  Those who forsake His call and trust themselves instead suffer eternal consequences because they refuse the fountain of living water (Jeremiah 2:13, John 7:38) who is God in us.  Sin and punishment can only be atoned by God Himself and not by our efforts to earn enough favor to esc judgment.  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift (2 Corinthians 9:15, Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 6:23)!  Yes, God knows what we think and feel, who we really are.  We deceive ourselves in our understanding, and must rely on God alone, not trusting our own feelings or reason.  His ways are so infinite that we only catch a glimpse of them, and His power to work in our hearts and the world go far beyond what we can grasp.  This should lead to awe, wonder, and worship from within (Job 26:14).  Sanctification results as God works through our obedience.  He tests us so we rely on Him and, in so pleasing, become more as Jesus, conformed to His image.  Our ways in obedience do not earn salvation nor earn grace - but God still wants our hearts in it.  We still reap what we sow, and what is not honoring to Him will burn up in the end.  What glorifies God will bring reward, pleasing as a good and faithful servant toward eternity.  Remember 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.

Message of Judgment to Restoration of All

 Jeremiah 16:1-21 

1 The word of the LORD also came to me, saying, 2 "You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place." 3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land: 4 "They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth."

5 For thus says the LORD: "Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people," says the LORD, "lovingkindness and mercies. 6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. 7 Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother. 8 Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink."

9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10 "And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, 'Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?' 11 then you shall say to them, Because your fathers have forsaken Me,' says the LORD; 'they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. 12 And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. 13 Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.'
14 "Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "that it shall no more be said, 'The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,' 15 but, 'The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.' For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.

16 "Behold, I will send for many fishermen," says the LORD, "and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 17 For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes. 18 And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols."

19 O LORD, my strength and my fortress,
My refuge in the day of affliction,
The Gentiles shall come to You
From the ends of the earth and say,
"Surely our fathers have inherited lies,
Worthlessness and unprofitable things."

20 Will a man make gods for himself,
Which are not gods?

21 "Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know,
I will cause them to know
My hand and My might;
And they shall know that My name is the LORD.

Israel as God’s chosen covenant people had been judged and rejected in part so that the people called out of the nations might join them as one in the Messiah to come.  Through the continuing unrepentant sin of Israel and their accountability addressed by the LORD it seemed that they would be utterly destroyed.  The harsh words of abandonment ring out to Jeremiah in the first half of this chapter who was told not to be sorrowful because God had taken His peace from them for their grievous sins.  Celebrations and marriage celebrations would cease (Revelation 18:23-24) along with their fruitfulness and joy once experienced in following Him alone instead of dead gods and idols without any life or help or hope.  When they asked why the LORD pronounced these woes of judgment, as if they were unaware of thought themselves innocent, He answered with the charges against them of breaking the first commandment to worship Him only and their forsaking Him for the works of their own hands and imaginations of their hearts in denying and defying Him.  They followed the ways of their own hearts (Judges 17:6) instead of by God’s standards (1 Kings 15:5, 2 Chronicles 34:2), choosing to do what was made right by human reasoning to justify their sin.  The LORD then promised to bring back a remnant from where they would be scattered that they might again find a dwelling place in their promised land.  He would also hunt them down who continued in sin to hold them accountable for their idolatry of rejecting Him.  The hope then is that because of this cleansing of His people and restoration of a remnant that the people He chose out of all the other nations who would be of the promise of faith of Abraham (Galatians 3:9), that they would be added (Ephesians 2:16-18, Romans 9:8, 24, 27, 11:11) as they realize their own idolatry which the chosen nation had followed instead of the LORD.  This demonstrated to all Israel that God would open their understanding of His unlimited power and strength to make them see who are is and know His name as His people.  This message of judgment and restoration is to all He calls as His people made one in Christ.  He opens deaf ears and blind eyes of stony hearts to be regenerated and reborn to see Him and hear His voice and pulls us from dead gods of our own imagination’s creation to know the only Creator and Sustainer of us all.  

Dejection and Reassurance in God’s Word

Jeremiah 15:10-21 

10 Woe is me, my mother,
That you have borne me,
A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth!
I have neither lent for interest,
Nor have men lent to me for interest.
Every one of them curses me.

11 The LORD said:
"Surely it will be well with your remnant;
Surely I will cause the enemy to intercede with you
In the time of adversity and in the time of affliction.

12 Can anyone break iron,
The northern iron and the bronze?
13 Your wealth and your treasures
I will give as plunder without price,
Because of all your sins,
Throughout your territories.

14 And I will make you cross over with your enemies
Into a land which you do not know;
For a fire is kindled in My anger,
Which shall burn upon you."

15 O LORD, You know;
Remember me and visit me,
And take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
In Your enduring patience, do not take me away.
Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.

16 Your words were found, and I ate them,
And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name,
O LORD God of hosts.

17 I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers,
Nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone because of Your hand,
For You have filled me with indignation.

18 Why is my pain perpetual
And my wound incurable,
Which refuses to be healed?
Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream,
As waters that fail?

19 Therefore thus says the LORD:
"If you return,
Then I will bring you back;
You shall stand before Me;
If you take out the precious from the vile,
You shall be as My mouth.
Let them return to you,
But you must not return to them.

20 And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall;
And they will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you," says the LORD.

21 "I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible."

When we are overwhelmed and woe sets in as self pity washes over us as it did to Jeremiah under attack for doing what was right, we also can find solace for dejection in God’s words of grace and comfort to encourage and strengthen us.  He did what was right according to His word and still suffered strife and contention with those of his own and God’s people through no fault of his own.  This is a pattern to follow later in this passage for us and a shadow of the treatment all God’s people in Christ suffer for doing good as well (1 Peter 2:20-22).  God encouraged Jeremiah that he would find a remnant with him and after him because of his faithfulness in that adversity and affliction.  The sins of the people brought the fiery wrath of God upon them and the prophet called out to the LORD to spare him for faithfully following Him as best he could.  He asked for patience for himself and God’s retribution on his enemies who pursued him.  What was his joy and consolation of rejoicing in the overwhelming flood of opposition and oppression?  It was God’s word, the scriptures which he consumed daily and hungrily, as well as knowing God had called and chosen him (Ephesians 1:4) as He has all His people in Christ from the beginning.  His faith was in God’s work and acceptance and not his earning that favor as His according to His word.  That is why we also must be people of His word, valiant for the truth and reveling in knowing all the scriptures that we may follow Him in confidence (Hebrews 10:35, 11:1) in our confession to the end.  Jeremiah did not mock his enemies nor rejoice in God’s acceptance of him to taunt them, but held his peace in the suffering.  He must have been thinking how the LORD’s retribution was punishment enough for them, something we would be wise to understand and live accordingly in spite of the hurt.  God’s call and answer was repentance for the prophet and the people.  For Jeremiah to turn back from woe and dejection to speak God’s word and for the people to respond and repent.  He was to let them turn back to the LORD through Jeremiah but he was not to go back to fit into what they were doing (1 Peter 3:16-17).  By holding firm to God’s word which he devoured and which nourished and strengthened him, Jeremiah would be able to prevail.  God would save and deliver him from evil (Matthew 6:13, Galatians 1:4, 2 Timothy 4:18) and redeem us as He does all in Christ who love and follow Him according to His word.  There is dejection at times, but remember that there is unending reassurance in God’s word!  Good company aligns with those following God's word, not those who mock Him or live against how He tells us to do.  Our hunger for His word must consume us to joy for the calling out and so work out our salvation in fearful trembling.  His word must roll through both tongue and mind all through the day (Psalm 1:1-2).

A Certain Judgment

Jeremiah 15:1-9 

1 Then the LORD said to me, "Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. 2 And it shall be, if they say to you, 'Where should we go?' then you shall tell them, 'Thus says the LORD:

"Such as are for death, to death;
And such as are for the sword, to the sword;
And such as are for the famine, to the famine;
And such as are for the captivity, to the captivity."'

3 "And I will appoint over them four forms of destruction," says the LORD: "the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

5 "For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem?
Or who will bemoan you?
Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing?

6 You have forsaken Me," says the LORD,
"You have gone backward.
Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
I am weary of relenting!

7 And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land;
I will bereave them of children;
I will destroy My people,
Since they do not return from their ways.

8 Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them,
Against the mother of the young men,
A plunderer at noonday;
I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly.

9 "She languishes who has borne seven;
She has breathed her last;
Her sun has gone down
While it was yet day;
She has been ashamed and confounded.
And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword
Before their enemies," says the LORD.

The LORD would not relent from His pending and overdue judgment on those of His people who continually rejected Him and disobeyed His word by their idolatry and disregard of His holiness.  Because these refused to repent and turn from their sin to Him, not even Moses who spoke face to face with Him or faithful Samuel could dissuade Him from this.  They were handed over to reap what they had sown from the sword, famine, and captivity, death for death as payment earned.  There was no more mercy because they abused and disregarded it so many times before, revealing their hardened hearts set on disobedience and rebellion against their Maker and Sustainer.  God even set forth four specific ways they would be taken care of: the sword of their enemies killing them, dogs to drag them off like Jezebel, birds to pick them to death, and carnivorous animals to kill and devour them.  This is a picture of God’s wrath on unrepentant sin which will be magnified even more in the last days before the final judgment for those refusing to repent and trust into Jesus Christ for mercy and deliverance from the fair and due sentence.  Because they had forsaken the LORD by consistently going back away from heeding His word and learning from His correction, they would be likewise forsaken.  His winnowing fan would blow the sinful chaff to be burned (Psalm 1:3-5, Matthew 3:12) and leave only a small remnant of the faithful seed to find grace in mercy because they still trusted Him and had not forsaken their God and had turned from their sinful ways to be holy as He is.  Those who continued in unrepentant sin found only plundering of all they had with anguish and a rush of terror as they left many widows behind for their hardened hearts and deaf ears.  Even the remnant of those so judged and sentenced would be hard pressed to escape judgment through the hand of their enemies.  Likewise in the final day of judgment those who refused to believe His work (John 6:29) and turn from sin to Him will be delivered to the final enemy of everlasting death instead of the everlasting life promised to those who humble themselves and find grace unto deliverance from that judgment.  May we then help others to be reconciled to God in Christ before that day comes upon them as a thief (1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10).  There is a certain judgment, but there is also a certain and eternal hope (Titus 1:2-3) of peace with God in Christ (Romans 5:1) for the remnant of all who hear the gospel and turn to Him instead of hardening their hearts. 

The Wages of Sin and Repentance

Jeremiah 14:1-22 

1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts.

2 "Judah mourns,
And her gates languish;
They mourn for the land,
And the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.

3 Their nobles have sent their lads for water;
They went to the cisterns and found no water.
They returned with their vessels empty;
They were ashamed and confounded
And covered their heads.

4 Because the ground is parched,
For there was no rain in the land,
The plowmen were ashamed;
They covered their heads.

5 Yes, the deer also gave birth in the field,
But left because there was no grass.
6 And the wild donkeys stood in the desolate heights;
They sniffed at the wind like jackals;
Their eyes failed because there was no grass."

7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us,
Do it for Your name's sake;
For our backslidings are many,
We have sinned against You.

8 O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble,
Why should You be like a stranger in the land,
And like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?
9 Why should You be like a man astonished,
Like a mighty one who cannot save?
Yet You, O LORD, are in our midst,
And we are called by Your name;
Do not leave us!

10 Thus says the LORD to this people:
"Thus they have loved to wander;
They have not restrained their feet.
Therefore the LORD does not accept them;
He will remember their iniquity now,
And punish their sins."

11 Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for this people, for their good. 12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence."

13 Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets say to them, 'You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.'"

14 And the LORD said to me, "The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart. 15 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, and who say, 'Sword and famine shall not be in this land'—'By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed! 16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; they will have no one to bury them—them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters—for I will pour their wickedness on them.'

17 "Therefore you shall say this word to them:
Let my eyes flow with tears night and day,
And let them not cease;
For the virgin daughter of my people
Has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow.

18 If I go out to the field,
Then behold, those slain with the sword!
And if I enter the city,
Then behold, those sick from famine!
Yes, both prophet and priest go about in a land they do not know.'"

19 Have You utterly rejected Judah?
Has Your soul loathed Zion?
Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us?
We looked for peace, but there was no good;
And for the time of healing, and there was trouble.

20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness
And the iniquity of our fathers,
For we have sinned against You.

21 Do not abhor us, for Your name's sake;
Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory.
Remember, do not break Your covenant with us.

22 Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Are You not He, O LORD our God?
Therefore we will wait for You,
Since You have made all these.

Reaping what they sowed, Israel cried out for mercy because of their sin and wickedness which they confessed to save themselves from the oppressive consequences.  Once prosperous Israel in the land flowing with the abundance of milk and honey, these who had constantly rebelled against God and sought lifeless gods of wood and stone now found lifelessness all around them.  The rains from heaven stopped and the land dried up to bear nothing more, as dry and unfruitful as the people who left their God.  They corrupted the creation around them (Romans 8:21) so that the deer and donkeys left due to lack of grass which dried up without the blessings of rain from above.  Jeremiah spoke for the people by confessing their iniquities that condemned them as guilty as their wanderings of backsliding.  The hope and Savior of God’s people was able to save them, so he cried out for Him not to forsake them, but deliver them even though they were unworthy.  God answered by saying how the people just loved to wander without restraint when they knew better and could have chosen otherwise, and therefore rejected delivering them from the circumstances they found themselves in.  God even commanded the prophet not to pray for them or their feigned attempts at worship by going through the motions of sacrifices.  Jeremiah responded with how their prophets had assured them peace and not starvation or war, but the LORD God reminded him that those were false messengers of empty prosperity who He had not sent with His words of peace when they faced judgment instead.  They gave false hope in their worthless made up visions which were the imaginations of their own creation in order to be popular and listened to, even though the results for the people were disastrous.  This still happens now with prosperity messages which ignore accountability and sin, promising health and wealth from an imaginary and unholy God as an idol to replace the Holy and righteous One who holds us accountable in the midst of grace and forgiveness.  The false prophets then were given their own lies back as their due; how much more should we be aware of unbiblical messages now since we have the examples of scripture like these?  The prophets and priests of Israel wandered about without direction because they did not hold to the whole counsel of God.  May we not travel that road again.  Though they seemed to have lost all peace and healing of body and soul, they did acknowledge their sin and begged forgiveness for themselves and those before them who brought them to that condition.  They therefore cried out to be loved again instead of hated, to honor Him instead of disgracing His glory, and reminded God to keep His covenant which He promised them for good (though that agreement made by God was contingent on their following His word).  They acknowledged that only He was God above, that no idols could bring rain and other kinds of common grace to them.  Therefore, they waited on Him to answer as their Creator and Sustainer.  The hope we have now is that the new covenant in Christ’s blood keeps Him from counting our unrighteousness against us for eternal judgment because we are seen in the righteousness of Christ instead.  We are still accountable for our sin, however, and our loss of the rewards to give glory to our Savior are great in spite of our secure hope in the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 3:11-13, 14-15, 16-17).  These are the wages of sin atoned for and repentance unto promised eternal life.  We face a refining fire which will test our works and how we worship in holiness from the temples of our bodies, yet we will not be cast aside and abandoned.  Yes, this is a reminder of the wages of sin and repentance seen in sinful Israel as our example of warning and learning and our hope eternal.  May we then be holy as He is and live in light of eternity by glorifying Him. 

Will You Still not be Made Clean?

Jeremiah 13:15-27 

15 Hear and give ear:
Do not be proud,
For the LORD has spoken.

16 Give glory to the LORD your God
Before He causes darkness,
And before your feet stumble
On the dark mountains,
And while you are looking for light,
He turns it into the shadow of death
And makes it dense darkness.

17 But if you will not hear it,
My soul will weep in secret for your pride;
My eyes will weep bitterly
And run down with tears,
Because the LORD's flock has been taken captive.

18 Say to the king and to the queen mother,
"Humble yourselves;
Sit down,
For your rule shall collapse, the crown of your glory."

19 The cities of the South shall be shut up,
And no one shall open them;
Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it;
It shall be wholly carried away captive.

20 Lift up your eyes and see
Those who come from the north.
Where is the flock that was given to you,
Your beautiful sheep?

21 What will you say when He punishes you?
For you have taught them
To be chieftains, to be head over you.
Will not pangs seize you,
Like a woman in labor?

22 And if you say in your heart,
"Why have these things come upon me?"
For the greatness of your iniquity
Your skirts have been uncovered,
Your heels made bare.

23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?
Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.
24 "Therefore I will scatter them like stubble
That passes away by the wind of the wilderness.

25 This is your lot,
The portion of your measures from Me," says the LORD,
"Because you have forgotten Me
And trusted in falsehood.
26 Therefore I will uncover your skirts over your face,
That your shame may appear.

27 I have seen your adulteries
And your lustful neighings,
The lewdness of your harlotry,
Your abominations on the hills in the fields.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
Will you still not be made clean?"

Woes were proclaimed on Israel for their continued rejection of the LORD and rampant disregard to His call out of sin to follow Him.  Their pride was leading them back into captivity as if yearning for the bondage of Egypt all over again.  The call from God was to abandon their pride and give glory to God alone, a call which He still makes to all who are His true people in Christ (Romans 2:28-29, 9:6-8).  The warning of not giving God the glory was to find darkness of death instead of light, even when they were looking for light because they did not follow Him and glorify God over their own sinful pursuits.  The weeping prophet talked of his sorrow when they were warned and still refused to hear and turn.  He wept profusely for their pride and for their being taken captive by sin.  God cried out through him to them that the beautiful sheep of His pasture would instead humble themselves or face the consequences of being taken captive (Romans 7:23) by sin.  The question was put to them about what they would say to their LORD when they were then punished.  Would they be in great pain as a woman in labor or even dare to ask why those things were happening to them as they ignored the fact that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)?  God promised to expose their sin by exposing their hearts of evil desires, trusting in lies while disobeying His word and living in sexually immoral ad spiritually immoral ways before God and man.  The lingering question after these warnings and revealing of their iniquity was, “Will you still not be made clean?”  Did they have their deceit and sin revealed (Hebrews 3:13) to resulting repentance or would they harden their hearts further and fail to enter into His rest from sin and judgment (Hebrews 3:15, 18)?  That is the gospel question still for all to come to repentance though faith to Him in Christ.  And for those in Christ to put sin and its enslavement to death daily (Romans 8:13-15) that we may be transformed into the image of Christ (Romans 12:2, Ephesians 4:22-24) and give glory to God for His work in us to make this sanctifying change possible (Philippians 1:6, 2:12-13).  Do you still want to be made clean to be holy as He is in order to glorify God, or continue to compromise by willfully continuing to sin as if to garner more grace (Romans 6:1) in harmful self-deception?  May we all learn from these examples to be uncompromising and persistent God-pleasers (1 Corinthians 10:6-7, 11-13). 

Ruined Sash of Pride and sin’s Consequences

Jeremiah 13:1-14 

1 Thus the LORD said to me: "Go and get yourself a linen sash, and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water." 2 So I got a sash according to the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist.

3 And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, 4 "Take the sash that you acquired, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole in the rock." 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.

6 Now it came to pass after many days that the LORD said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the sash which I commanded you to hide there." 7 Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the sash from the place where I had hidden it; and there was the sash, ruined. It was profitable for nothing.

8 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9 "Thus says the LORD: 'In this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who follow the dictates of their hearts, and walk after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be just like this sash which is profitable for nothing. 11 For as the sash clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me,' says the LORD, 'that they may become My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.'

12 "Therefore you shall speak to them this word: 'Thus says the LORD God of Israel: "Every bottle shall be filled with wine."'

"And they will say to you, 'Do we not certainly know that every bottle will be filled with wine?'

13 "Then you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land—even the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness! 14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together," says the LORD. "I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy, but will destroy them."'"

These parables given through Jeremiah to God’s wandering people seem harsh but really demonstrate just how seriously He takes our sin and pride.  The first was visual; the prophet was told to tie a sash around his waist, walk to the river, and bury the sash in a hole.  When he returned days later, it had been stained and ruined beyond cleaning or repair.  This is how Israel’s sins had sullied their souls beyond their own power to cleanse (Isaiah 64:6).  This is how we all are if left in our fallen state from birth as Israel proved in attempting to form their own righteousness until they gave up and gave in to their sin nature.  The LORD told the messenger and we who still read and hear His words that this was the pride of self-righteousness and the iniquity of their sins in their hearts which would ruin them as the sash hidden in the dark until it was ruined by lack of the light of righteousness in heart and actions.  Such lives are then profitable for nothing in God’s eyes or for our lives.  He had called His people to hold tight to Him in following with holiness because He is holy, yet they refused to hear and missed out on being renowned for His praise and glorify Him.  He then gave them the second parable of judgment by bringing on them a spirit of drunkenness that they could not do anything but destroy each other and be destroyed by Him.  God’s wrath on these who rejected Him speaks loudly to those now who would reject His Son (John 12:48) and face eternal consequences of the wrath of justice in judgment.  There is hope only in believing into Jesus the Christ, by trusting who He is and what He has done and receiving Him.  This is believing into Christ and not just intellectually or emotionally about Him.  Knowing who He is is not enough without entering into His body and blood by the action of faith.  May we therefore believe and move into Christ to be reborn and changed forever and live in and through Him by confessing our sinful nature and receiving the reconciliation of forgiveness in His great grace which we cannot attain in our own efforts of trying to do enough good. 

Jeremiah's Question and God’s Answer

Jeremiah 12:1-17 

1 Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead with You;
Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?

2 You have planted them, yes, they have taken root;
They grow, yes, they bear fruit.
You are near in their mouth
But far from their mind.

3 But You, O LORD, know me;
You have seen me,
And You have tested my heart toward You.
Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
And prepare them for the day of slaughter.

4 How long will the land mourn,
And the herbs of every field wither?
The beasts and birds are consumed,
For the wickedness of those who dwell there,
Because they said, "He will not see our final end."

5 "If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,
Then how can you contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace,
In which you trusted, they wearied you,
Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?

6 For even your brothers, the house of your father,
Even they have dealt treacherously with you;
Yes, they have called a multitude after you.
Do not believe them,
Even though they speak smooth words to you.

7 "I have forsaken My house, I have left My heritage;
I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies.
8 My heritage is to Me like a lion in the forest;
It cries out against Me;
Therefore I have hated it.

9 My heritage is to Me like a speckled vulture;
The vultures all around are against her.
Come, assemble all the beasts of the field,
Bring them to devour!

10 "Many rulers have destroyed My vineyard,
They have trodden My portion underfoot;
They have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
11 They have made it desolate;
Desolate, it mourns to Me;
The whole land is made desolate,
Because no one takes it to heart.

12 The plunderers have come
On all the desolate heights in the wilderness,
For the sword of the LORD shall devour
From one end of the land to the other end of the land;
No flesh shall have peace.

13 They have sown wheat but reaped thorns;
They have put themselves to pain but do not profit.
But be ashamed of your harvest
Because of the fierce anger of the LORD."

14 Thus says the LORD: "Against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit—behold, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. 15 Then it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and everyone to his land. 16 And it shall be, if they will learn carefully the ways of My people, to swear by My name, 'As the LORD lives,' as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst of My people. 17 But if they do not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation," says the LORD.

The question and answer concerning God’s people was asked by the prophet and answered by God.  The question was, why do the wicked prosper and seem to be so happy ?  The answer is also seen in Psalm 73:3 when the Psalmist understood God’s revealed will in His providence.  Here Jeremiah observed how they were God’s creation yet they did not even allow a single thought of Him enter their minds.  Jeremiah knew the LORD and thought often of Him and so knew he was being tested and refined while the wicked were being gathered for the slaughter of judgment (Psalm 73:17-19) while imagining that nobody would see their end.  God answered him by first putting the issue into perspective using the comparison of running with former versus dealing with faster and more powerful horses.  This pointed out how his own countrymen treacherously talked nice with him to his face before sending others after him behind his back.  God’s answer was to leave them to their own devices outside of His protection as they continued to make a desolation of their inheritance.  They had not taken God’s words to heart and had stopped hearing what He was saying to them, so they were left with the consequences, plundered and without peace.  They reaped what they had sown (Haggai 1:6, Galatians 6:7-9) and ended up ashamed of their harvest.  God would answer also by taking vengeance on those who led ahis people astray (Zechariah 2:8) because they were His inheritance.  He would also pull His people out of the land but then show them compassion in loving grace for His glory.  They were given the condition, however, that they should not return to idol worship like the nations around them but should learn to hear His words and live in willing obedience.  The nations who disobeyed would be destroyed along with all who worshiped what are not gods but imaginations and works of men who rejected Him and His word.  How much more severe the judgment of those rejecting Him by rejecting Christ!  And what will our accountability bring for we who have not rejected but received Him yet still continue to live contrary instead of in righteousness and holiness (Romans 6:19, 22, Ephesians 4:23-24, 1 Peter 1:15)?  As we ask the questions, let us remember God’s answers of mercy and grace when we daily admit and turn from sin (1 John 1:9).