Bible Reading Challenge Blog

Jeremiah asks God what he should tell the people when they ask: where shall we go?  The reason this question comes up is because  God has told them earlier in vs.1: “Send them out of my sight.”  But where shall we go?  Go to ….those who are to die from pestilence, to pestilence, those who are to die from the sword, to the sword, those who are destined to famine, to famine, captivity, captivity.  Basically, God says I want nothing more to do with you…for now.

There is a pretty serious change in theology and approach from the Old Testament where we see God turn God’s back on His people to the New Testament where we see God reach out with open arms to us even while we were yet sinners.  Even while we sinned against God, and against God alone, Jesus still looks to us and says: “Today you will be with me in paradise.”  

This conditional relationship in the Old Testament is highlighted in vs.19 where we read: “If you turn back then I will take you back.”  It isn’t a bad idea to read these Scriptures with an understanding that we know what is required of us, so why not do it?

If you were to pick up at vs.11 you would see where God asks Jeremiah, again, to not pray for the people because they have wandering feet.  But Jeremiah responds and says: My colleagues are telling the people that everything is fine, there is no problem.  There never will be a famine, nor will the sword strike them down.  My colleagues, my fellow priests, are telling the people that everything is just fine.

Not everything is fine.  God tells Jeremiah that his colleagues are wrong, they are preaching a message  that was not given to them by Him.  They will be consumed just as the people will be consumed because they are telling a message that they have made up and is not a message given by God.

How can we tell if a message is from God or if it is our own desires that are directing the message?  There are parameters that allow us to understand what is God’s message and what is our message.  The parameters are laid out by the greatest commandment which is to love God and to love neighbor.  When we try to give a message that is just to reinforce our own preconceived ideas of how things should be, well then we will easily fall prey to our own message.  

If we are stuck upon one issue that we deem as most important and then forget other incredibly important issues which Jesus actually spoke about (poverty, justice, love of stranger) then we will more than likely become  like those colleagues of Jeremiah who preach just to please the people and have wandering feet.

We find God using an object lesson to describe how the people of Israel have treated him.  The loincloth would basically be our underwear and it would in one sense describe an intimacy with God that was unmatched.  Israel was described as clinging to God.  You see that example in vs.11 where God was hoping the people of Israel would be for God “a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.”  But because the loincloth was placed in an environment where it was ruined, so the people of Israel were ruined because they chose to run with the wrong nations.  They chose to run with the wrong gods.  They chose to turn their back on the God of Israel, who had chosen them, and they chose the gods that were in their midst from the other nations.

We see the author letting Israel know that how they are now they are not going to be able to change.  Look at vs.22 and following where God says that they are not able to do good because they are so accustomed to doing evil.  The end of this chapter gives us this phrase: “Woe to you, O Jerusalem!  How long will it be before you are made clean?”   

We begin this chapter with the question that has provided uncertain answers for millennia.  Why do good things happen to bad people?  Normally we would follow suit and ask the question with the same title of the book, why do bad things happen to good people, but here it is reversed.  The author asks: “Why do all who are treacherous thrive?”  As Billy Joel would say:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMdOsk3fVAE

We then hear God,  and Jeremiah, ask the people of Israel and Judah that if they think they can do it on their own, then they should try.  But they need to look at their previous attempts.  They tried to run with people and were exhausted, how are they going to run with horses?  They were given a safe land and still fell down, how will they do in the treacherous land of their neighbors who are looking to kill them?  

We are not able to live outside of the protection of God.  God is our maker, God is our potter, and we are the clay.  How can the clay say to the potter, why did you make me in this way or shape?  I would rather be a bowl, but you have made me a vase.  Why do the wicked prosper?  I would rather they suffer.  But we have not created the wicked, we do not control what God does.  How does that sit with us?

We read about the covenant that God made with the people of Israel when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.  We see that mentioned in vs.2-3.  The covenant that God made with the people of Israel was that if they followed his commandments then he would provide for them a land flowing with milk and honey.  He goes on to state that he fulfilled his end of the bargain.  He provided the people of God the land which was Israel and it was the promised land, the land that had been set aside for the people of God, by God.  So God did his part, but the people did not obey God’s commands.  

You read in vs.10 the final verdict: “the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant that I made with their ancestors.”  God did his part, but the people did not do their part.  As result of the people breaking the covenant God says: “assuredly I am going to bring disaster upon them that they cannot escape.”  He even tells Jeremiah to not even pray for the people.  

Can you imagine that?  Can you imagine that you are a pastor at a church and you are teaching them the way that God has placed upon your heart to teach them, but they don’t follow it and God tells you that they are going to be destroyed and you aren’t able to pray for your flock.  Consider  the pain of Jeremiah in this passage.  What it would mean that he  could not even pray for his family, his church family, as they were being set up to be destroyed because of their unfaithfulness.  Just consider this chapter and how Jeremiah was feeling.  Do you see now why he was called the weeping prophet?

As we continue along with the author predicting the doom that will come, we do find an interest appeal in vs.23ff.  We find the author asking to be corrected.  That doesn’t normally happen, that we ask God to correct us.  But notice that the request is that we be corrected, “In just measure.”  Basically asking as we see in the New Testament the request that we be tested but not “beyond our strength.” I Corinthians 10:13.  This request in Jeremiah is a request that we be corrected but only in just measure.  Basically the request is: Be nice God, please.

But the author continues and asks, also, just in case you were thinking about it, please don’t correct me when you are angry.  Walk away, count to ten, and then come back if you don’t mind.  When I am counseling young couples as they get married and we get to the place where we discuss children and the discipline of children, because if couples re not unified on this then it can cause problems, I always remind them that they should never ever punish a child when they are angry.  It always leads to bad things.  The same request is made of God.  Please don’t punish us when you are angry.  It can lead to bad things.

We find another chapter where Jeremiah prophecies what is to come for the people of Israel.  The beginning is interesting because the speaker states that he wishes that his head were a spring of water.  This would allow him to weep day and night.  How nice it would be to have provided for us the means by which we could express our emotions in a very public way.  What we find described can be a public mourning for events that were cataclysmic to the nation.

It seems as if in vs.4 we have a Soviet era warning which is: “Beware of your neighbors.”  During the time of the Soviet Union people were not able to trust anyone, not their neighbors nor their kin because it would not take much for them to report each other if they suddenly became unhappy with each other for any reason.  Here we find the author saying that society is so corrupt that no one is willing to follow God.  No one.  As a result we find in vs.7: “I will refine and test them.”  

Throughout this entire chapter there is a warning for all those who put trust in their own wisdom, in their own might, in their own wealth, that if they boast, they should boast in the Lord.  God will always act with steadfast love, justice and righteousness.  Those are not the standards that we use to define our actions.

I want you to look at vs.11 where it states: “They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, “peace, peace,” when there is no peace.”  The leaders of the day of Jeremiah promoted false optimism in a time of national crisis.  They pretended that everything around them was fine while people were dying and taken off into captivity.  The more things change in history, the more they stay the same.  This same concept is brought up in chapter 6:14 where we see the leaders of the land pretending that everything is fine while society was crumbling around them.  God does not look with favor upon the leaders when that happens.

The people do not see a solution, in fact in vs.15 this is what they say: “We look for peace, but find no good, for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.”  We then hear the words of the famous hymn: “Is there no balm in Gilead?”  That is a rhetorical question which is answered, no, and the Lord has abandoned His people because of their sin.

There are a number of points that I need to bring up in this chapter which are fairly significant. 

1.  In the first verses we see that the temple is still standing and the temple was always considered not only the house of God but also the place where God resided.  So if God is dwelling there, and it would have been in Jerusalem, then we are safe if we go there, no matter what we do and no matter what we think.  Jeremiah says…, well, no, not really.  Look at vs.5-7 and we see the conditions that he sets: if you amend your ways and your doings, and if you truly act justly with one another…then I will dwell with you in this place.  But we see later on, vs.27ff, that the Israelites will not do this so they were destined to be brought low before God. 

2.  We see a verse that should be familiar to us.  Look at vs.11 and it should sound a lot like Matthew 21:13, go ahead and look it up and see if you agree.  We find the words of Jesus as he drives out the money lenders from the temple using eerily similar words that Jeremiah uses to describe the debauchery that was taking place in Jerusalem and in the temple during  his time.

3.  This is probably the most disturbing part of this entire chapter.  It is very clear that there were kings within the reign of God’s people who encouraged and participated in human sacrifices.  Look at vs.30ff and you see that they “go on building the high places (sacrificial altars)…to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire…”  Yeah, that’s pretty disturbing and understandably God was pretty angry about it because, “I did not command, nor did it come into mind.”  While all the other gods in the region were involved in human sacrifice, it had not even entered into the mind of the God of Israel to be involved in such a heinous act.  

It is clear that God is not happy with the people at this time.

We find ourselves in the midst of another long and difficult chapter.  We find the completeness of the destruction that is to come to Zion described consistently by the words: “parents and children together, neighbor and friend shall perish.” vs.21.  The description of what is to come according to  Jeremiah is not piecemeal and does not differentiate between the just and the unjust.  All will fall to the sword that is to come.  Jeremiah tells the people to flee for safety, leave Jerusalem and find refuge in places where your ancestors found refuge: caves, wilderness, forests.

So what can we learn from this?  How are we able to glean anything from these words which obviously are directed at a people who are meeting certain doom?  We do find words  which describe the why this is happening.  Look at vs.13 and following.  We find that everyone is greedy for unjust gain and everyone deals falsely.   They acted shamefully and they committed abomination.

The advice that we are given is seen in vs.16 where we read: “Thus says the Lord, stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.  But they said: “We will not walk in it.”  If we are not going to walk in the way that the Lord lays out for us then we should not be surprised if we find ourselves in the midst of violence, upheaval, division and discord.  These are all fruits of our actions.  For the people of Israel in Jeremiah it was too late.  I hope and I pray that we find ourselves before the point of no return.