August 2, 2022: Day 163 – Jeremiah 18-22 and Psalm 52

We find mentioned for the first time the name of the northern country that is going to come down and take over Jerusalem and all of Judah and lead its people into captivity.  The name of that nation is Babylon and the name of the ruler, who is also mentioned, is Nebuhadnezzar.  

At the beginning of this chapter we have the classic metaphor of the potter and the clay and the ability for God to use the clay as he sees fit because He is, after all, the potter and we are the clay.  It is well within God’s ability and right to use the clay in any way shape or form that God wants to use the clay.  

We find the scene of Jeremiah arrested and beaten by the officer of the gate.  When Jeremiah is finally released he tells the officer that one day he and all of his family will go into exile in Babylon and they will experience the same thing that Jeremiah had just undergone.  

Twice we read Jeremiah tell the rulers of Judah what God wants them to do.  So it is not focused so much on obeying God and God alone, which is the primary command of God, but also, and this is important and mentioned twice in these 5 chapters: “Do what is just and right, rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed.  Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood.”  This list of moral imperatives seem to follow the people of God both in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.