Jeremiah 21:2,5,12

The Babylonians are upon the Israelites. They are attacking near the walls, and some Israelites are going outside the walls to attack them even. So King Zedekiah sends two priests (one of them being the priest who ordered Jeremiah to be put in stocks!) to Jeremiah to ask him to inquire of the LORD about the attackers.

‘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.’ (Jeremiah 21:2)

So now this king, after reigning over and supporting a rebellious, idolatrous people, comes to ‘acknowledge’ God’s greatness and His wonderful works – just as they are about to be decimated! Now, will God relent finally and fight for the Israelites against the incoming foes?

‘I myself will fight against you with a strong arm, even in anger and fire and great wrath.’ (Jeremiah 21:5)

It seems not. What is the problem? Can’t we call on God at anytime and be forgiven? Indeed, doesn’t it say ‘He who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’? You see, the problem here is that there is no true repentance. Zedekiah hesitantly refers to the past great acts of God and merely wonders if God may do so again. He has no solid foundation for this belief because he has not repented – he is not walking with the Lord. Thus he says ‘Perhaps…’. As people of the LORD, the Israelites were walking in the completely wrong direction, offering themselves up to idols and all other kinds of rebellious behaviour. Now, to recognize in word that the God could do awesome things was never going to save them from the chastisement of that awesome God! They needed to repent, to turn away, in deed, not only in word. Thus we find:

‘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.’ (Jeremiah 21:12)

For us as Christians, we can often live a double-life, as it were. We go to church on Sundays and proclaim the goodness and majesty of God. When trouble arises we also think of all the good God can do. But our lives don’t reflect that awesome majesty of God. If we want to turn around, if we want to be heading the same direction as God, it is not enough to recognize in word the goodness of God. We must make changes in our lives, in our actions, by His mercy and grace. That is the only path forward. We cannot neglect and ignore those parts of our lives we know we constantly fail in. We can’t sort of restrict those sites and then praise God outside of those areas. Eventually, they will take over, unless we honestly ask God to help clean those things up for us – and take positive action against it! He will be faithful to help you, if you have an honest heart.

Jeremiah 20:7,9,11a

‘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’ (Jeremiah 20:7)

Jeremiah suffered greatly for his message. God had persuaded him, and being stronger, had ‘won’. Indeed, his message led him to the stocks to be lashed. And this wasn’t his message, it was God’s. This shows us that God’s message is not easily accepted. Although we have Good News, our message is a message of repentance, which includes a recognition of being wrong. In no way is this popular. Jeremiah had to put up with daily derision. He wasn’t taken seriously. Not in the slightest. He was mocked and laughed at. Thus he says

‘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.’ (Jeremiah 20:9)

The mocking and derision brought Jeremiah to the point of giving up, it was so great. Is our message this weighty? Is the Gospel such a weighty matter for us? For we can be assured, wherever we preach it faithfully, there will be opposition. Are we mocked? Or do we avoid such clashes and compromise the truth? Unless we have opposition, then we should reevaluate the message we say, because it is probably compromised. And yet never be weighed down by the message too much:

‘But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One.
Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail.’ (Jeremiah 20:11a)

Though we be persecuted, we are comforted much more by the infinitely powerful and infinitely good God who is on our side.

Two things:

1) Is the message we bring truthful and faithful?

2) If we are receiving determined opposition for it, be of good cheer, for God works with us!

Jeremiah 19:3b,11

Let’s be serious. God wanted Israel to be serious. God wanted Israel to know the consequences of their idolatry. Indeed, He tells Jeremiah to take the elders of the people to the valley of Hinnom, also called Tophet, which was a valley that ran E-W near the South gate of Jerusalem. There he declared to them:

‘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.”’. (Jeremiah 19:3b)

For the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to Baal there. Indeed, they were sacrificing their own sons, burning them alive on altars to Baal (vs. 5). The name ‘Tophet’ comes from the Hebrew word for drum. Drums were beaten to drown out the screams of the children being burnt. The rubbish from Jerusalem was dumped in this valley and continually burnt as well, making the place a symbol for the burning fires of hell.

God told Jeremiah to break a pot in front of the elders of Israel and declared:

‘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.”’ (Jeremiah 19:11)

Such a catastrophe! So many people would be slain that the valley could not hold the dead. Indeed, the place became a place of massacre, where people ate their own family and friends during a long siege. God is not kidding around. Idolatry is evil. And these Israelites should have known better, since the true God had explicitly revealed Himself to them and saved them time and time again!

It reminds me of a story that I heard on camp which the study leader (Bryson Thomas) told, about his friend in India. In India, the Hindu religion is prominent, and they have many gods, in fact every object basically has the potential to be a god, so there are hundreds of thousands of them. One of their gods is the river Ganges. His friend was walking around in the river, telling people about Jesus and the true God, while hundreds of people stood in the river worshipping their false god. He saw a lady crying uncontrollably and went up to her and asked her why she was crying. She said ‘I cannot do anything to appease Ganges. Nothing I do is enough, he is never happy with me.’ He went on to tell her about Jesus and His love for us and the true God, and how we cannot appease Him, but we can only let Him wash us clean. She was amazed and said ‘why didn’t you tell me five minutes ago?!’. He was a bit confused, and said ‘well I only just got here’. She told him that just before he came she had thrown her one year old son into the river in an attempt to please her false god.

It’s a heartwrenching story. The sickness of idolatry. But she didn’t really know any better! These Israelites had ample experience of God, and yet they committed the same ugly sin. And don’t read this lightly. For as Christians, we know infinitely better, for God has revealed Himself in our very hearts. And yet so often we turn to the world for pleasure, for fulfillment. How can we do this?!! We may not be burning our children on pagan altars, but by loving the world we burn our children’s consciences. We might not kill our children, but by worshipping our own ego we kill others’ faith. We must be serious. We must put God first at all times. He is the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2).

Jeremiah 18: 3-4,6-8

Jeremiah 18 contains two parts really. The first is the story and dialogue of another sign or symbol that God gives Jeremiah of His coming judgment on the people of Israel. Remember the first was the sign of the linen sash (which Jeremiah wore then buried in dirt, causing it to be worthless). On this occasion, God asks him to go down to the potter’s house, where he would hear the words of God:

‘Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. 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.’ (Jeremiah 18:3-4)

We can already see what God is going to say. God is the potter, and Israel are the clay. He may do with the clay as He pleases, and if that clay does not work into the right shape, the potter will push it all back into a ball and start again. Before you start thinking ‘but God isn’t like that! He loves us and won’t break us down if we do something wrong’, just remember who God is. Remember who you are. We are nothing. Truly, we are like clay in the hands of God, hands that can cover the universe and still wobble the smallest atom at His precise will. He does love us, but not because we are loveable. His love for us is like the potter’s love for the clay itself, which will form and reform it until it is perfect in the image that he wants it to be. That is God’s love for us. That is God’s love for Israel at this time.

‘ “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! The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, 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.’ (Jeremiah 18:6-8)

The LORD has complete power. Let us not bring Him down to our realm. He has absolute and complete power, and will use it. The mightiest nation is plucked up instantly at His word. And yet He rewards our repentance. For if the clay is deforming and the potter is about to scrap it, but then it stops deforming, yielding to the potter’s hands, the potter need not destroy it, but can work with it to bring it to perfection.

This may make you feel small and insignificant and basically useless, this potter and clay analogy. But that is only because you are small and insignificant. The only strength you and I have is what God does with us. The only use we have is that which God appoints for us. So let’s not think too big of ourselves. Let us humble ourselves before God and let Him do as He wills with us.

The second part of the chapter tells us of a plot to destroy Jeremiah, because the people didn’t like what he said. Jeremiah prays for deliverance for Himself, and judgment on those who would kill him (in quite harsh words – read for yourself!). When God’s truth is spoken, there will be opposition. But remember, this same God who we abase ourselves before, and become like clay to the potter for, this same God holds us against this opposition, and holds us up. It is scary, the realization of our utter incompetence and insignificance. And yet it brings us the highest level of comfort and security because we know God is for us, and so who can be against us?

Jeremiah 17:5-8

'Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the LORD.
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.' (Jeremiah 17:5-6)

When we think ourselves the most important, when we trust ourselves, all that can come of it is ruin. If our strength lies in our own flesh, then what hope do we have? Additionally, these verses make clear that trusting in your own strength causes you to miss the times when good comes. In other words, you are too busy thinking that you're doing okay by yourself that you miss when God does something truly good for you. Such thinking is like inhabiting a parched, dry land where nobody lives. For if God is the fountain of living waters (2:13, 17:13), then to forsake Him in favour of yourself is to live in a dry and thirsty land. Do we feel this? I'm guessing that all of us have had times where we have trusted our own strength for a period of time, rather than resting in God's. And for a while you feel good, until you realize that all you do isn't achieving anything, everything is hollow and worthless, and when trouble comes, your own strength fails anyway.

'Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
And whose hope is the LORD.
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.' (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

Conversely, when we put our trust completely in God, everything we do achieves something, everything has meaning, and when trouble comes we pass through it stronger than what we went into it. We aren't anxious and wanting when not much is happening, but we have patience in the LORD.
Let us all learn to patiently trust the LORD in everything we do, and rely on His strength to get us through day by day, rather than our own skill or ingenuity or any other ability we have (by God's grace).

As a postscript, note that this passage states the negative first - 'Cursed is the man who...', then after this negative, brings in the positive, 'Blessed is the man who...'. Do not be fooled into thinking that we must always be positive and never say anything negative (for it will only scare people away!). God uses this method frequently, and effectively, and so should we. But remember, the positive is so much greater than the negative!

Jeremiah 16:14-15,21

Jeremiah 16 contains more words of judgment from God upon Jerusalem, this time directed more personally towards Jeremiah, as He tells Jeremiah not to take a wife, or have children in Israel, because they will merely be destroyed (vs. 1). The judgment described is some of the worst yet – those killed are not mourned at all, because God has taken His peace, lovingkindness and mercies away from His people (vs. 5). And yet from verse 14 we read something remarkable:

‘ “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,’ 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.”’ (Jeremiah 16:14-15)

God will restore Israel to their land! And it will be a better restoration than the Exodus from Egypt! Why does God do it? He has just finished saying how Israel has been wicked and rejected Him, and how they won’t repent but rather chase after idols and follow all their dictates of their own hearts (vs. 12). WHY?? How can God then go and say that He will definitely restore them? Because He loves them. He chose them. He chose them in His sovereignty and made a covenant with them, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Hence, we read:

‘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.’ (Jeremiah 16:21)

The LORD chose Israel all those years ago for His glory. He loves them for His glory. And He will not break that promise, that covenant, to the detriment of His glory.

There is always a similarity between Israel and us. For God has made a covenant, a new covenant, written with His blood that cannot be undone. And though we fail, and in our flesh desire wickedness, yet when we repent He will restore us. For His glory. That we might know that His name is the LORD. That He is king. King of love, King of Mercy, King of Righteousness , King of our hearts, King of the Universe.

Do not get into the habit of thinking that the judgment on Israel was that bad only because they were much much worse than you are, and that their restoration was much greater than yours. For we were as evil as they were, and our flesh is still as evil as they were, and our restoration much more glorious than their physical restoration. For we have not been physically moved from one nation into another, against all odds. We have been fully recreated, reborn as it were. This is not against all odds, it is impossible. And so we should see much more of the glory of God than Israel ever could. Surely, we know that His name is LORD!