Jeremiah 19 (click)

The Valley of Ben-Hinnom, or Topeth, is the subject of a prophetic act in this chapter. After going to the potter's house, Jeremiah is commanded to take an earthen vessel and shatter it, at the Valley of ben-hinnom, near the entrance to the "Potsherd Gate".

You can bet that this was a place where old pottery was taken for disposal. I'll bet it was a place of piles of old broken stuff...

This Valley: Ben-Hinnom, Topeth, is later referred to as "Gehenna" and finally as Har-Megiddon. This is the "Valley of Slaughter" where the Judaites will bury their dead in despair, until there's no more room.

Buried dead create an unclean place. Remember that in the Law of Moses you are made unclean for worship or fellowship if you walk over the burial of a dead body, even if youdidn't know.

What do you think of that when you consider the site of a mass grave, with bodies buried three and four deep for lack of room and time, under the conditions of plague and seige?

This place was a trash heap, perpetually burning, inthe days of the Roman occupation. That's what Jesus kept pointing at when he talked about the fiery condemnation of the wicked.

So this chapter is a key to understanding some of that teaching of Jesus...

Why is God going to shatter them like that?
Because they have burned incense to other gods, and poured out drink offerings...

Jeremiah 18 (click here for chapter)

The story of Jeremiah's trip to the Potter--the moral is simple:
God is the Potter. We are the clay. If we're bad, he'll start us over. That means a bit of crushing.

v.11 is interesting: after all this threatening and doom, God calls them to turn from their evil, again. I think of Nineveh in the time of Jonah. They repented (and they were much more wicked) and God spared them.

I am convinced that, at this point in the ministry of Jeremiah, tha if the people had rent their hearts, God would have turned back the Babylonian armies. No kidding. God would have scrapped the whole deportation plan.
But they didn't.
And He didn't.

This morning I woke up very early, unable to sleep,adn listened on my iPod to some new music from a dude who writes songs. There's a link on sam's blog, from our main blog. Anyway, there's this one about "seek the ancient paths..."

Then today, this study says that Judah had forgotten God, burned incense to idols, and "...caused themselves to stumble in their ways,
from the ancient paths,
to walk in pathways
and not on a highway."

this is me.
This is us.
I see myself in this apostate nation, and I cry, "O God, please save! Please forgive! Please rescue from ME, and turn my heart to love you!" And God has always answered with a resounding "YES!!!!!"

Ever since the first day he found me kicking in my blood, Jesus has never failed me. Even when troubles and trials have made me face my worst fears, trusting in him has seen me into his courts to plead my case, and He has seen me through.

This is what God is calling them to in Jeremiah. To admit and repent.

but in v.18
they plot against Jeremiah.
and Jeremiah calls down a curse on them.
a bitter prayer
from a broken heart...

you think Jeremiah was mad and disappointed? How was God's heart in all this?

and Just really quick, how wicked do you think those nations were, that israel displaced inthe exodus and entry?

Jeremiah 17 (click here for chapter)

On their heart...
and on your altars...
while children remember their pagan practises.

So you'll get exiled...

This is the material of the first section of this chapter. Then it shifts into a cursing and a blessing of two different categories of people.

1. those who trust in man and make flesh their strength (v.5)
2. those who trust in the LORD and whose hope is the LORD (v.7)

v.9
Deceitful heart:
YHVH is weighing the heart and minds to repay and reward us.

v.11
on riches unjustly gained.

v.12-13
shame on those who forsake YHVH

At this point, remember that this is a distinctly RELIGIOUS people. This is a confrontation of believers who have gone after the ways of the god of this world.

v.14
...a cry for healing and rescue. This could be that of any honest-hearted person who reads the preceding verses.
Like Isaiah 6 when Isaiah sees the Lord.
Like the woman in John 8, caught in idolatry, confronted ultimately by Mercy, Himself. We lie in the dust, dragged there by the truth about ourselves...

v.15
a return to the present situation of Jeremiah. He has been calling for deliverance from the people who are mocking and threatening him.

v.17
"...do not be a terror to me..." Jeremiah says to God.
v.18
calls for vindication on those who persecute him.
calls for destruction and doom on them. "...double destruction..."(NKJV)

v.19-27
a call to holiness on the Sabbath.
Interesting that in a city soaked in innocent blood, teeming with idols, that the call is simply to honor the Sabbath. Very interesting. This seems like a litmus test to the people's belief and obedience.

Jeremiah pronounces this in the Kings Gate of Jerusalem. This is a big deal. He was a major personality in Judah. They're gonna try to kill him for this kind of thing.

Jeremiah 16 (click link for chapter)

QUICK CHAPTER SYNOPSIS:

No Wife for Jeremiah.
No mourning for Jeremiah.
No feasting for Jeremiah.

The people will all die gruesome deaths, and all celebration will cease.
...and Jeremiah has to tell them so.

"Why?" they will ask.

Because their fathers forsook YHVH, the law, and followed and worshipped idols. And because they themselves have surpassed that wickedness, each one following their own heart and not LISTENING TO YHVH.

Therefore:
Cast out as exiles.
Forced to serve other gods.
...YHVH will not show them favor.

But he will bring them back from that land of the North. "Many fishermen" will bring them back to their land. Many hunters will follow many fishermen.

First:
God will repay double punishment on their sin. Because they have defiled his land and filed his inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.

v.19
Jeremiah says the darndest thing:
"O LORD...My refuge...the gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the earth..." They will renounce their fathers and their fathers' ways, and become subjects of YHVH.

v. 21
He will "...cause them to know [His] hand and [His] might...and...that [His] name is YHVH. a

In this chapter one thing I meditated on was how ultimately, the result of their sin and idolatry was that "...no one listens to Me (YHVH)." This is the result of our unfaithfulness and doing what's in our heart instead of LISTENING to YHVH.

I'm a guy who's going to tell you to listen to God. I've seen even good works/social justice mentality folks go off the straight way of the Lord by doing what was right in their own eyes. I've seen people who listen to God receive gentleness, wisdom, guidance, and a deeper love. I've seen people who are oriented around their own mind's eye, their own heart's wisdom--not people who live in LISTENING to God--get frustrated with the "listening/waiting" people...

But having a heart for God means paying attention to HIM, not just doing good stuff. This chapter is as much written to those who would work for God as for those who work overtly against Him.
In fact, the Judah that Jeremiah is writing to is an inherently religious institution. I am reminded of the rampant prostitution to idols that we find in our mega-churches of today. Mammon, greed, impurity, false doctrine, lukewarmness, pragmatism, humanism: these are the idols of today. Pride and unbelief are at the heart of them all...

Let's admit it. the people of Jeremiah's Judah were devout and spiritual, and engaged in some serious departures from YHVH. So is this generation. So let's also admit that we have some serious corporate repenting to do. let's pray for the church in america, as we speak truth about the real state of affairs...

But look at the verse ab out th egentiles: the punishment of Judah brings the gospel to the gentiles, who believe and are incorporated into the People of God. Salvation is coming. Rescue is on the way for the Gentiles, whether throught the blessing or punishment of God's people. He is faithful and always saving!

comments?

Jeremiah 15 (click link for chapter)

This Chapter has a wholesale condemnation of the residents of Jeremiah's Judah:
1. To Death
2. To the Sword
3. To Famine
4. To captivity
(look at Revelation 22:11)

Four forms of destruction:
1. Sword
2. dogs
3. birds
4. beasts

v.6
God is weary of relenting and his patience is at an end. He is going to destroy them, leaving a remnant...

v.10
Jeremiah laments his birth to his mother. He is a man of strife an contention to the whole earth. (look at jude v.2-4) Everyone curses him.

Then God promises good to the Remnant. It seems like a promise to Jeremiah, himself, in light of his suffering in being the bringer of such bad news. The adversaries will "intercede" for him and his remnant will be blessed. I wonder if any alive today are distant relatives of this man.

Troubling passages, indeed.

Jeremiah prays for God to take vengeance on his persecutors (among the leaders of the peole of Judah).

v. 17
Jeremiah was removed because he loved the Word of God. He was filled with indignation and removed himself! This is that bitterness that the righteous feel in the "days of noah", as destruction looms over the stubbornness of sin in the land and the church.

v. 19
God warns Jeremiah not to return to his people (to let up on the prophetic message) and promises to bless and strengthen him.
"...I will redeem you from th egrip of the terrible."

jeremiah really is going to experience that grip.

This is for us, people. The churches in America are flying headlong into prostitution with wealth and power, just like Jeremiah's Judah. There is stubbornness in compromise and heresy all around us. Justice perishes, and the ways of the Lord are subverted to fulfill men's hunger for power and mammnon.

Don't mess around with this stuff. Join with Jeremiah in faithfulness, and remove your selves, gathering around Jesus. Jeremiah found the word adn ate it (v.16). Will you? Please consider that it is entirely possible...probable...actual...that the churches around us are compromising to an astounding depth with stubbornness...

And God's Judgment on our "nation" has to do with that unfaithfulness. God will strike the church with the very power she has lusted after. It won't be long until the state persecutes every form of church that denies the world and operates in the power of the Spirit...