PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

Jeremiah moves his setting from the king’s palace, or at least from addressing the king and the people in the last chapter, to the temple gate.  He spoke in public to all the people who were entering the temple and told them to repent or else God would strike them all down.  He sounds a lot like John the Baptist who came preaching a Gospel of repentance.  As a result of his speaking publicly in the temple all of the priests, the people, and the prophets of the king said that he should die.  They all gathered around him in the temple looking to kill him.  

As a result of this hub bub the king comes to hear what is going on.  So now we move from the religious leaders condemning him to death to the political leader looking to see what the problem is.  In front of the political leaders he tells them all the same story as before, but this time emphasizing that all that he is saying has been given to him by the Lord.  Look at the change in heart that the people have in this chapter: vs.8 “all the people laid hold of him saying – ‘You shall die!'” and then in vs. 16 “all the people said… ‘This man does not deserve the sentence of death.'”

So what changed?  A couple things.  First of all he invoked the name of the Lord.  Secondly, and for the first and only time in Scripture, we see another prophet invoked as someone who prophesied destruction and as a result turned the people and their hearts around back to the Lord.  Look at Micah 3:12 and you see that this Scripture is quoted by the people as what changed the course of history and changed the relationship of God with God’s people, at least in that day.  But then we hear of another prophet who did exactly what Jeremiah did, preach against the city and the temple because of their unfaithfulness, who then fled from Egypt, was tracked down by the secret service and poisoned to death and died in Germany.  Wait, no, that’s Russia taking out their enemies of the state.  But this prophet was tracked down, brought back from Egypt, and then killed by the current king Jehoiakim.  

We see that Jeremiah is saved by a guy named Ahikam who had his  back so he was saved.  

We get a bit of biographical data in regards to when Jeremiah was ministering.  We read, which we already knew from the beginning of this book of the Bible, that Jeremiah began in the 13th year of King Josiah and has served for 23 years since then all the way to the fourth year of King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son.  So he had 19 years with Josiah and 4 years with Jehoiakim, which is when things started to go poorly.   Josiah was an awesome king.  Jehoiakim, not so much.

Today, this is the 4th year that he was with Jehoiakim, and he is giving a bit of a recap of why we find ourselves in this situation of deportation and exile.  God said that if you would repent and turn away from the other gods then he would save you.  Just like he saved Nineveh, do you not think that he would save you?  (I added the whole Nineveh thing in there.  But there is a stark parallel where we can see that God’s word is true.  If he says that He will save you if you repent, we have proof that he will save you even to a people who were so far removed from being “His” people in the Ninevites.

But since the people of God refused to turn away from their foreign gods then God was going to rain down destruction on them.  “I will utterly destroy them.”  God always follows through.  The object lesson that he uses is that of a cup of the wine of wrath.  Jeremiah makes God’s people drink from that cup because they were not faithful to God.  As a result, what they thought would bring mirth actually brought destruction.  Not a great image and not a great vision for us as we recognize that we also fall very short of the glory of God.  But the difference for us is that we have one who even while we were yet sinners, died for us so that we would be saved in spite of our sin.  Glory be to God for Jesus!

The book of Jeremiah is full of metaphors that God gives to Jeremiah in order to interpret what is coming next for the nation of Israel.  Today we have a basket or two of figs.  One basket is filled with very good figs and the other basket is filled with really bad figs.  As an aside, I do not like figs.  Stacy loves figs, Bethany loves figs, I do not like figs.  We lived in Italy and right outside of our door we had these beautiful fig trees which gave out beautiful, supposedly, delicious figs.  I do not like figs.  

But back to the metaphor.  God says that the good figs represent the exiles from Israel who went exiled first to the land of the Chaldeans, which was just north of Israel.  Keep in mind Jeremiah is writing while there is an exile in progress.  Most of the people of Israel have been deported and kicked out of the region with only a small remnant and a puppet king, Zedekiah of Judah, who has remained.  God says the good figs are those who were exiled first.  They are probably the same people who said in Psalm 137: How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?  God loved this people, they still loved God.  So they are good figs because God will protect them and keep them and one day they will inherit the land once again.

The bad figs were those who remained in Judah and Israel and were just doing the will of those who had conquered, which included worshiping false gods.  They would be utterly destroyed.  The bad figs were not even edible.  The people who were currently living in the land were not even able to be called children of God they were so corrupt.  

This is a song from Don McClain.

Whenever you see the word “shepherd” it is a direct reference to the pastors who are overseeing the sheep in their  midst.  We find in Ezekiel and other books of the Bible where the shepherds are depicted as just being interested in their own well being and so are not focused on ensuring that the pastoral care that should be taking place was not taking place.  There is a warning against those who are in this “business” of taking care of the religious and spiritual needs of people and yet they choose to take care of their own needs.

There is a direct transition as we go from vs.23 where God asks a rhetorical question: “Am I a God near by?”  God is able to see all that we do and all that we say and know all that we think.  God is angry because the prophets, the shepherds, are trying to say that God is speaking to them through dreams, and they are saying: The word of the Lord, but in fact it is not God’s word.  God’s Word is not to be misrepresented.  We find this in vs.31: “See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their own tongues and say, “Says the Lord.”  We need to be careful to not invest in our own desires and place them at the feet of God as if it is God who desires these things and not us.

There does seem to be a bit of an emphasis in looking out for those who have been robbed.  We see a hint of this in chapter 21:12 and now it is raised again in vs.3 that God will act with justice and righteousness for those who have been robbed.  Then the verses continue in speaking up for the orphan and the widow and the alien.  This does seem like a bit of a disjointed blast to the past where God says if you obey my commands then you will be able to live out your life in prosperity and peace just like King David did.  Now, we already know that this is a bit like water passed under the bridge.  The people have not been faithful, they have turned their back, they are not acting with justice and righteousness to either the victims of robberies, or the widows, or the orphans, or the aliens.

There is then a historical drop with Shallum who was serving as king but was carried away into captivity into Babylon.  He was the son of Josiah who was a great reformer and brought the people closer to the Lord by the rediscovery of the law.  But his son was not like his father.  He did lead the people away from the Lord like so many other of the kings of that time.  

We then get into a castigation of those who are in construction and are cheating their way into prosperity.   Look at vs.13 where we read: “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages.”  Now, I am assuming that this is not a literal dig at construction workers but rather at any who build their wealth in a way that they bury those under them.

There is a mournful cry as we read: “O land, land, land…”  There is a mourning that the land was literally lost and taken over by another population.  You can palpably sense the loss that is being expressed through those words.  There is a sense that at this time in the history of our nation I want to call out and say the same words: “O land, land, land…”  Not because we are being overtaken by another nation or another people, but because we are seeing the land rent asunder by our own actions and our own turning our back on the Lord.

All of a sudden things have changed.  The king of Israel sends a message to  Jeremiah because what was foretold about the enemy presence of Babylon was beginning to take place.  He sends to Jeremiah Pashhur and Zephaniah, both of whom were really high up in the church hierarchy.  Remember Pashhur, “terror all around”, the boss of Jeremiah who beats him up and throws him in prison?  Well, the king sends him to ask Jeremiah to appeal to the Lord for safety and salvation as Babylon is breathing down their necks.  

I am sure that Jeremiah is not only surprised but also probably saddened by the state in which his country and his church finds itself.  He probably wants to reach out in concern and care and start all over with the clay, but the jar has already been broken.  He has to say the words that the Lord has put on his lips.  The words are not at all what the King would want to hear.  

God promises that He will be on the side of those who are attacking Israel and Judah.  Did you get that.  He will not be on the side of Israel and Judah, but against them.  He will be on the side of Babylon.  He is going to make sure that Israel and Judah do not win.  Oh, and just in case you think you can escape from God’s judgment, verses 11 to the end remind us  that even if you are hiding in the cleft of the rock, if you do not obey the Lord, then you too will  find yourself punished “according to the fruit of your doings.”  We need to be reminded of how we fall in that same boat, that we will not escape judgment thinking that we may somehow be missed, or thinking that our cultural Christianity might protect us.

We find in this chapter another example of why Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet.  We begin the chapter by finding that Jeremiah’s boss  physically abuses him and then throws him into prison.  We read about Pashhur who was the chief officer in the temple, which is the house of the Lord.  As the chief officer he was responsible for all the prophets of the Lord which included Jeremiah.  He heard Jeremiah say that God  was bringing disaster upon Jerusalem  and all of the towns in which the people of Israel lived.  This is what he said the chapter before.  The boss didn’t like that because destruction was being preached against his church and against his people.   He had to put this employee in line.

Once he gets out of prison as a result of his boss striking him and putting him in prison, he doesn’t slink away with his tail between his legs and stay quiet.  He right away gets in Pashhur’s face and calls him out and says that he now has a different name, and it is not a really nice name.  He calls him “terror all around.”  Basically anyone who comes into contact with him will be terrorized.  This includes his family to his friends to he himself.  He then says in vs.6 “You, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, shall go into captivity.”  He doesn’t shy away from creating for him a future that is not at all appealing.

Look at the whiplash that we find in this chapter.  Look at vs. 13 and then vs.14.  “Praise the Lord…cursed be the day on which I was born.”  Wow, Jeremiah really goes on an emotional roller coaster here as he gives thanks to God and yet recognizes that his current state is one where he is being beat up by his boss and thrown into prison.  The question he leaves us with is: “Why did I come forth from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?”  This is the life of a prophet who sees the people and the church turn their back on him.

We find ourselves once again with another image that is pretty powerful.  Jeremiah is told to take the religious leaders with him and go out into a valley that had been used to worship other gods through human sacrifices.  He was told to bring a jar with him and use that jar as an object lesson.  Now, keep in mind that the people that he brought with him to that valley were the very same people who in the previous chapter had said: “Let us not heed any of his words.”  So he basically was bringing with him those who were looking to discredit him and were looking to bring him down.  But he did it.

The object lesson that he was to take part in was to break that jar and to give the message that once that jar is broken it can not be replaced and put back together again.  There is a difference between the clay not taking the shape that the potter wants it to take so he uses the same clay and reshapes it to his purposes.  This is very different from taking a jar that is already shaped, already fired in the oven, and then breaking it.  It then has absolutely no use.  You can’t take those pieces to create anything of use.

That broken jar was Israel and Judah.  Once that jar is broken, and God saw that it was already broken, as nations had come and conquered His people, He realizes it is time now to raise up a new branch.  This image will come a little later, but the jar serves as almost the final indication that God has turned His back on his people because His people have been so unfaithful.  It is a good understanding for us to recognize that our unfaithfulness has eternal and earthly consequences.

Wow, I have a lot of catching up to do!  This is a great chapter.  We begin with God giving Jeremiah an example of a potter and clay. He had messed up with the clay and it wasn’t taking the shape that he was hoping so he reworked it, and reshaped it, and when he was done he  looked at it and it “seemed good to him.”  As a result the example given is that God gives the people of Israel a chance and says, I  am willing to reshape you and mold you and give you another chance. In vs.11 we read that it was conditional to “turn now, all of you from your evil ways, and amend your ways and your doings.”  

But the people of Israel said: “It’s no use, we will follow our own plans.”  As a result of their failure to be willing to follow along with God’s plan, God once again turned His back on the people.  We then read that the people verbally choose to gang up against Jeremiah and to find ways in which to discredit his words and his ministry.  We read in vs.18: “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah.”  “Come, let us not heed any of his words.”

As a result not only did God turn His back on the people of Israel, but here Jeremiah encourages God not to defend his detractors.  In fact, he asks that their wives would become childless and widowed.  Wow, not really something to emulate, but absolutely something to pay attention to as we look to follow God even in times when we are told to do things that we do not want.

So when you travel to Israel you have to be aware that on Saturday things are going to be stripped down.  You will be walking the steps at your hotel, or at least the elevator will stop at every floor. You will be eating left-overs, or at least pretty minimalist food.  If you are able to consider it as part of the experience then you can take it in stride, if you see it as something that is a bother, then you will miss the point that Jeremiah makes here in this chapter.  

Starting at vs. 19 and following Jeremiah is commanded to go and stand by the gates and yell  at the people that they need to follow the Sabbath.  He tells them that they are not to carry any burden on the Sabbath, because that is considered work and you are not to do work on the Sabbath.  

How do we obey the Sabbath?  I know, some of you say that we go to church and that pretty much checks the box for Sabbath keeping.  What if we agreed not to go to any stores and make purchases on Sunday?  What if  we agreed not to cook on Sunday?  What if we agreed not to carry any heavy burdens?  What if we agreed not to do any work with machinery, which might even include driving?  Uh oh, what about church?  Maybe you can be allowed to drive to church.

Our lives would be very different if we followed the commandment, which is one of the 10 Commandments, and really followed the Sabbath.  Life would be very different.