The Cup of God’s Wrath
Against the Gentile Nations
25: 15-38

The cup of God’s wrath against the Gentile nations DIG: Why is God’s wrath likened to a cup of wine (see Isaiah 51:17-23; Revelation 14:8 and 18:6)? What effect will it have on those who drink it? Is this what they would suspect? Who drinks from the cup first and why (25:18)? Who next (25:19)? Who last (25:26)? Try to locate the other nations on a map of ancient Palestine. Why will God punish Gentiles with the sword and mighty storm of the invasion by Babylon? What “charges” will God bring (2:5-9 and 23:35)? What will happen to the world leaders (25:34-38)? How is their fate like that of Judah’s leaders (21:1 to 23:7)?

REFLECT: If you were compiling a list of nations to punish, which ones would top the list? Why? Who would not have to drink the cup? Is God’s treatment of Judah and the Gentile nations fair? How does Yeshua Messiah judge them (Isaiah 11:10)? Does the fact that YHVH will someday avenge every evil deed and punish all evildoers (Revelation 20:11-12) comfort you, or scare you? Why?

605/604 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

The picture of the cup of wrath is a common figure used in the Scriptures and is a symbol of God’s wrath (Job 21:20; Psalm 60:3; Isaiah 51:17 and 22; Jeremiah 25:15-16; 49:12, 51:7; Lamentations 4:21; Ezeki’el 23:31-35; Revelation 14:8 and 10, 16:19, 17:4, 18:3 and 6; and it is also possible that this is the cup referred to in Mark 10:39, 14:36 and John 18:11). This cup has been consistently presented to Judah since Chapter 2 until now. But here, the cup will turn to a different direction other than Judah herself. Now it is the Gentile nations turn to drink of it. Now Jeremiah begins to fulfil part of his other call that he received in 1:10. The prophet was not only to be a prophet to the Jews, but he was also to be a prophet to the Gentile nations. If God presides over Judah’s future, then He must also govern the nations. They are not autonomous. They must finally answer to the LORD. They must answer to YHVH’s good news for Judah, whom ADONAI loves.

This is what the LORD, the God of Isra’el, said to me, “Take from My hand this cup filled with the wine of My wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it (to see link click Dg – Prophecies Concerning the Gentile Nations). When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them” (25:15-16). The effect of drinking this cup is that those nations will drink of God’s wrath, causing them to stagger and go mad. More to the point, it means death.

The list of nations: These verses constitute a roll call of the Gentile nations of the ancient Near East. All these nations were under judgment. So I took the cup from ADONAI’s hand and made all the Gentile nations to whom He sent me drink it:

First, consistent with what we have seen in Jeremiah, the list begins with Jerusalem and Judah. Judgment begins with God’s people: For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God (First Peter 4:17). Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a ruin and an object of horror and scorn and cursing, as they are today (25:17-18). Judgment does not stop with God’s household, however, it moves out in every direction. The first nation mentioned after Judah is Egypt.

Pharaoh king of Egypt, his attendants, his officials and all his people, and all the foreign people there (see Dh – A Message Concerning Egypt). Jeremiah is particularly hostile toward Egypt and regards her as a formidable foil to YHVH’s purpose.

All the kings of Uz, an Aramean tribe, probably east or northeast of Edom not far from Egypt (Job 1:1; Lamentations 4:21);

All the kings of the Philistines (see Di – A Message Concerning the Philistines), those of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the people left at Ashdod. Another of the Philistine cities, thirty-five miles north of Gaza. At the time this prophecy was given, Ashdod had undergone a siege by the Egyptian Pharaoh Psammetichus for 39 years.

Then Jeremiah turns to the East Bank and the Transjordan region; Edom (see Dn – A Message Concerning Edom), Moab (see Dj – A Message Concerning Mo’ab) and Ammon (see Dm – A Message Concerning Ammon);

All the Phoenician kings, of which Tyre and Sidon were the two key cities; the kings of the coastlands across the sea like Tarsus;

All the kings of Arabia, Dedan, Tema, Buz and all those desert tribes who are in distant places all that have the corner of their hair cut off, who used the hair in the worship of the stars and planets. They also trimmed their beards round, which was forbidden to the Jews. It was also an ancient superstitious custom to cut off the hair at the death of friends and throw it into the sepulcher on the corpse. It was sometimes laid on the face and breast of the deceased as an offering to the pagan gods.²⁰³ And all the kings of the foreign people who live in the desert (see Dp – A Message Concerning Kedar and Hazor: the Arab Tribes). They were all different races that attached themselves to Isra’el (Ex 12:28), but God wanted Isra’el to live separate from other peoples (Neh 13:3).

Now the prophet turns further east and northeast to all the kings of Zimri, Elam (see Eh – A Message Concerning Elam) and Media; and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other. No one knows where Zimri is, but it is only found here in the Bible. It has been connected with Zimra (Genesis 25:2), a son of Abraham and Keturah.

And Jeremiah summarizes here . . . all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

Last on the list is Babylon. It is almost as if the list deliberately holds off this name for dramatic effect. No nation would be immune, not even mighty Babylon. For the Jews in exile, the inclusion of Babylon in the list for judgment is decisive. This nation that seemed beyond all accountability is judged. And in that judgment, Y’hudah would have a basis for a future and hope. After all of them, the king of Sheshach (an atbash cryptogram for Babylon) will drink the cup of wrath too (25:19-26, also see 51:41). An atbash was a code in which the letters of a name counted from the end of the alphabet are substituted for the corresponding letters from the beginning of the alphabet. For example, in English the letter “z” would replace the letter “a,” the letter “y” would replace the letter “b,” and so on. The name “Abby” as an atbash would become “zyyb.” Since Sheshach is a Hebrew atbash the consonants become “bbl,” which is the spelling for Babylon (25:1). God would judge Babylon after judging the other nations. Because he had already mentioned Babylon’s judgment (25:12-14).²⁰⁴ It is employed because either at the time this verse was written it was dangerous to speak of the fall of Babylon in plain language. To the Hebrew ear the name would suggest “humiliation.”

The command to drink: You are to say to them, “Here is what ADONAI-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: Drink until you’re so drunk that you throw up, fall down, and never get up again, because of the sword I am sending among you!” If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, then say to them, “Here is what ADONAI-Tzva’ot says: You must drink! No choices are given. For look – if I am bringing disaster on the city that bears My own name, do you expect to go unblemished? Yes, I will summon a sword for all the inhabitants of the earth,” says ADONAI (25:27-29 CJB). Jeremiah’s Jewish audience could be assured because if God punished the Israelites, He would certainly punish the Gentiles. If He would punish Tziyon, which was called by God’s name, He would certainly punish other cities that were not called by God’s name.²⁰⁵

The interpretation: As for you, Yirmeyahu, prophesy all these words against them; say to them, “ADONAI is raising His voice from His heavenly dwelling place, roaring with His might, a picture of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah roaring (Hosea 11:10; Joel 3:16; Amos 1:2 and 3:8) against His own Land, shouting out loud, as He treads the winepress of His wrath (see the commentary on Revelation Dw – They Were Trampled in the Winepress and Blood Flowed as High as the Horses Bridles), against everyone living on earth (25:30 CJB). The sound of indignation resounds to the ends of the earth (the sounds of war see Amos 2:2), for ADONAI is indicting the nations, about to pass judgment. We have gone from a roar, to a shout, to indignation. YHVH had a lawsuit (rub) against the nations (Jeremiah 25:31).

A description of the near historical judgment against the nations: Thus says the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies, “Disaster is spreading from nation to nation, a mighty tempest is being unleashed from the farthest ends of the earth” (25:32). On that day, those killed by ADONAI will be strewn from one end of the earth to the other; they will not be mourned or gathered or buried, but will lie on the ground like dung (25:33 CJB). Earlier Jeremiah said this would be true of the Jews in the judgment of Judah, but later it would also be true of the Gentiles.

“Wail, false shepherds (or the leaders of these nations)! Cry! Wallow in the dust, you lords of the flock! For the days for your slaughter have come. I will break you into pieces, and like a prized vase you will fall” (25:34 CJB).

The false shepherds have no way to flee, [leaders] of the flock no way to escape. Disaster would be inescapable. Hear the cry of the shepherds, the wails of [leaders] of the flock! Why do they cry, their whole land is desolate; like God did with Judah. For ADONAI is destroying their pasture, the peaceful grazing grounds are silenced, because of the LORD’s fierce anger. The chapter ends with the picture of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Like a lion, He has abandoned His lair; for their Land has become desolate because of the oppressor’s fierce sword and because of ADONAI’s fierce anger (25:35-38 CJB).

In the face of massive imperial power and cynical disregard of the moral dimension of human reality, God’s sovereign rule is the only ground for God’s people. Without the rule of YHVH, Judah is at the disposal of the Gentile nations. This is no less true today than it was then! Because of ADONAI’s rule, however, Judah has a possibility to exist. The Bible pictures that the cynical, ruthless power of the Gentile nations is very real in the world. But such a power is not the final reality. The final reality is in the One who uproots and tears down, who builds and plants (1:10). God is at work on both of these tasks. There is a massive cup of wrath proportionate with massive human sin. Jeremiah shows Ha’Shem taking this sin with utmost seriousness.

But there is, however, another cup (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Kk – The Third Cup of Redemption) which is a cup of healing. It is then promised that the healing of ADONAI will overcome the wrath caused by Ha’Shem. In Jeremiah the cup of healing is held in abeyance. The people of God live in the midst of both cups . . . one of the wrath of ADONAI and the other of the healing of ADONAI.²⁰⁶ We wait for the blessed hope (Titus 2:13) who will come again (see the commentary on Revelation Et – The Second Coming of Jesus Christ).

Isra’el Will Serve the King of Babylon Seventy Years
25: 1-14

Isra’el will serve the king of Babylon seventy years DIG: The dovetailing of the two events in verse one dates this prophesy in 605 BC. How long has God been speaking through Jeremiah? Through other prophets (see 7:25)? How must Yirmeyahu and God be feeling at this point? Why does God call a pagan king His servant? What purpose will he serve? Is it fair to punish Babylon for performing God’s will? What principle is at work here? What do you suppose was their crime? In retrospect, which of Jeremiah’s predictions have come true? Why does God reveal the length of the coming exile?

REFLECT: Why did God warn the people for so long before taking action? Why did God’s patience finally run out? How long would you persist in a task without seeing any success? Do you ever wonder about a direction you once took but abandoned? Is God warning you about anything? Are you paying more attention than Judah did? How so?

605 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

“Experienced mountaineers have a quiet, regular, short step . . . on the level it looks unimportant; but then this step they keep up, on and on as they ascend, while the inexperienced amateur hurries along, and soon has to stop, dead tired with the climb. Such an expert mountaineer, when the thick mists come, halts and camps out under some slight cover brought along for that purpose. Only moving along when the mist is cleared away. You want to grow in virtue, to serve God, to love Jesus? Well, you will grow in, and attain these things if you will make them a slow and sure mountain step plod. Willing to have to camp for weeks or months in spiritual isolation, darkness and emptiness at different stages in your walk and growth. All demand for constant light, forever the best – the best to your own feeling, all attempt at eliminating or minimizing the cross and trial, is so much soft foolishness and childish playing.”
By Baron Friedrich von Hugel ¹⁹⁹

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is, said Mark Twain, the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. A single word, if it is the right word, can illuminate and strike fire all at once. In Jeremiah 25, spoken midway through his prophetic ministry, there is one of these right words: persistently.

The word came to Yirmeyahu concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year (March/April 605 BC to March/April 604 BC) of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign as king of Babylon (to see link click Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). This is the first exact date we are given in Jeremiah and he will do more of this from this point on in the scroll (36:1, 28:1, 32:1, 39:1). It was also a critical year because in this year Jehoiakim would burn the first scroll that Jeremiah dictated his prophecies to Baruch. That year also marked the turning point for Judah because many of the initial prophecies of Jeremiah were on the verge of fulfillment. The completion of his prophecies would not be realized for another twenty years. We also learn in these verses that Jeremiah was faithful in spite of the opposition to him. Where earlier the prophet expressed degrees of doubt, it will not happen from now on. He will be a fortified city. His opposition will be false prophets, evil priests and wicked kings.

So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah and to all those living in Jerusalem: For twenty-three years – from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day – the word of ADONAI has come to me and I have spoken to you persistently (25:1-3a). This summarized his ministry up to this point. Jeremiah had been faithful to his calling, but the people had not listened to him.

Jeremiah points out that he began prophesying in the thirteenth year of Josiah when Jeremiah was appointed as a prophet to the nations (627 BC), to the fourth year of Jehoiakim (605 BC) is only twenty-two years. Then why did Yirmeyahu say he had prophesied for twenty-three years?

The ancient Israelites employed an inclusive system of counting, which assigns each and every unit a number. The first unit counted is called both “one” and “first.” Today we occasionally do this too: for example, when I say, “I was sick for three days,” I am probably counting inclusively (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). However, we moderns do not always assign the number one to the first unit in a sequence. When it comes to measuring a distance between two points in time, for example, we count the units exclusively.

In an exclusive count, the first unit is assigned no number (the ancient Israelites had no zero). Thus, in measuring the time between today and a day in the future we do not count today at all but start with tomorrow. Tomorrow is one day from now, the day after that is two days from now, and so on. This is NOT how the Israelites counted. They counted inclusively even when measuring two points in time. According to their view, exactly one week from today would be eight days, while for us it would be only seven days. Consequently, another way of saying this would be that Jeremiah inclusively included the year in which he was speaking (March/April 605 BC to March/April 604 BC) as the twenty-third year.²⁰⁰

As Eugene Peterson describes in his book Run with the Horses, the word persistently has a picture behind it. The Hebrew word shechem means shoulder. At the center of Palestine there are two massive shoulder mountains – Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. The village nestled between these two massive shoulders is named Shechem. When the Israelites first came into the Land after their forty years of wilderness wandering, Joshua led them to Shechem, lined them up on the slopes of the two shoulder mountains, half on one slope and half on the other, and reviewed the word of God that had directed them there. From one shoulder the blessings that would come from a life of worshipful trust were called out; from the other shoulder the curses that would come from a life of rebellious self-centeredness were called out. Shechem was the center where the word of God was spoken and listened to.

Then, as words do, shechem developed another meaning. When you went on a trip in those days you loaded supplies for the journey on your donkey’s shoulders, or put them on your own shoulders, and set out. So the noun, shoulder, became a verb that meant load the shoulder of beasts for a day’s journey. In a hot country like Isra’el it was important to get in as many miles as possible before the sun came up and wore you out, so such journeys usually began long before dawn. Eventually the word persistently (Hebrew: hashkem) came to describe people who got up early before the sun in order to have as many hours as possible to travel.

Jeremiah used the word persistently throughout his lifetime (7:13, 7:25-26, 11:7-8, 25:3, 25:4, 26:5, 29:19, 32:33, 35:14-14 and 44:4). For twenty-three years – from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day – the word of ADONAI has come to me and I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened (25:3). For twenty-three years Yirmeyahu got up morning after morning and listened to the LORD’s word. For twenty-three years the prophet got up morning after morning and spoke YHVH’s word to the people. However, for twenty-three years the people slept in, sluggish, lazy and heard nothing. We know that Jeremiah suffered a great amount of abuse through those years. He faced mockery and rejection and imprisonment. He wrestled discouragement and despair and probably thought of quitting. What difference did it make anyway? Why not give them what they want to hear?

The word persistently has a sunrise in it. The priest from Anathoth was up before sunrise to do his work. Every day he anticipated listening to Elohim’s word and then speaking Elohim’s word. He undoubtedly knew Psalm 108, probably using it as a morning prayer. My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready! I will sing, I will sing praises! Awake, my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake at dawn (Psalm 108:1-2 RSV). It wasn’t that Yirmeyahu clinched his teeth and resolved to stick it out for twenty-three years, no matter what. The prophet simply got up every morning with the sun. The day was God’s day, not the people’s. He didn’t get up to face rejection . . . he got up to meet with the Creator. He didn’t rise to put up with another round of mockery, he rose to be with his LORD. That was the secret of his persevering pilgrimage – not thinking with dread about the long road ahead but greeting the present moment, each present moment, with obedient delight, with expectant hope: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready!

We all know people who spend a lifetime at the same job, or the same marriage, who are slowly, relentlessly devalued in the process. They are persistent in the sense that they keep doing the same thing for years and years. But we don’t especially admire them for it. In fact, we feel sorry for them for having gotten stuck in such a boring rut with neither the energy nor imagination to get out.²⁰¹

But we don’t feel sorry for Jeremiah. He was not stuck in a rut; he was committed to a purpose. The one thing that the prophet showed, was no evidence of bored drudgery. Everything we know about him shows that after twenty-three years his imagination was even more alive and his spirit even more resilient than it was in his youth. He wasn’t putting in his time. Every day was a new episode in the adventure of living the life of a prophet of God. The days added up to a life of incredible tenacity . . . of amazing stamina.

Where did Jeremiah learn his persistence? How did he get the word into his head? Certainly not by observing the people around him. He learned it from ADONAI. Yirmeyahu learned to live persistently toward God because God lived persistently toward him. The five poems-prayers in Lamentations (written in the tradition of Jeremiah) express the suffering Ha’Shem’s people endured during and after the fall of Yerushalayim. At the very center of this dark time, and placed at almost the exact center of these five poems that lament the sin and suffering, there is this verse: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23 NKJV).

There it is – new every morning . . . great is Your faithfulness. God’s persistence is not a dogged repetition of duty. It has all the surprise and creativity, yet all the certainty and regularity, of a new day. Sunrise – when the spontaneous and the certain arrive at the same time. This was the source of Jeremiah’s persistence, his creative constancy. He was up before dawn, listening to God’s word, Rising early, he was quiet and attentive before his LORD. Long before the yelling started, the mocking, the complaining, there was this centering, discovering, exploring time with ADONAI.

But (then speaking to the people) you have not listened (25:3b). In effect, the prophet was saying, “You never listened or paid the slightest attention.” Here, then is the clue to our erratic life patterns, our inconsistency, our unfaithfulness, our stupid inability to distinguish between fashion and faith. We don’t rise up early and listen to God. We don’t daily find a time apart from the crowd, a time of silence and solitude, for preparing for the day’s journey wherever it takes us. We must carve out a time to reflect and study and pray. Jeremiah did that and it was not because there were no other options open to him. It was that he had chosen what Yeshua would later call the good part, which shall not be taken away, sitting at the feet of the Master . . . listening attentively and believing in Him.²⁰²

Furthermore, the people had received messages from the prophets who preceded Jeremiah’s ministry and they didn’t listen to them either. And though Ha’Shem has sent all His servants the prophets to you persistently, you have not listened or paid any attention. They said: Turn now (shuwb), each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and the key benefit was that you can stay in the Land the LORD gave to you and your fathers for ever and ever. As a result of the Abrahamic Covenant, Isra’el’s possession of the Land is eternal. But according to God’s Covenant with Moshe, enjoyment of the Land is based on obedience. Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not provoke Me to anger with what your hands have made. They were not only to turn (shuwb) away from sin, but also turn (shuwb) to ADONAI. Following other gods only provokes YHVH to anger. If they would keep this part of the command, again, ADONAI says: Then I will not harm you (25:4-6).

But you did not listen to Me, declares ADONAI, and you have provoked Me with [the idols] your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves (25:7). Again (surprise! surprise!), the reason for the LORD’s anger was spiritual adultery. They had not heeded the words of the prophets. The means of YHVH’s discipline would be Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. To go against God’s will is to court disaster.

Therefore, here is what ADONAI-Tzva’ot says: Because you haven’t paid attention to what I’ve been saying, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, declares ADONAI. He was God’s servant in the fact that Ha’Shem was using the pagan king to accomplish His purposes. Ha’Shem will use him to fulfill the prophecies of Yerushalayim’s destruction and Judean captivity. God will call Nebuchadnezzar, My servant two more times in this scroll (27:6 and 25:9). Another place where we find the LORD calling a pagan, unbelieving king His servant is Cyrus in Isaiah (see the commentary on Isaiah Ib – Cyrus is My Shepherd and Will Accomplish All That I Please). But in contrast to Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus would be used to release the children of Abraham from the Babylonian Captivity.

As God’s servant, in this sense, Nebuchadnezzar’s task would be to come against Jerusalem and Judah; but he would also come against the nations surrounding Judah as well. And I will bring them against this Land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. They would also become an object of horror, something to whistle at, a spectacle, and scorn, and an everlasting ruin (25:8-9).

The results of the Babylonian invasion are given. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and groom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp lit for special occasions. “This whole country will become cherem, or devoted to destruction, a desolate wasteland, and Isra’el will serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (25:10-11). Jeremiah prophesies that Judah and the surrounding nations would serve Babylon for seventy years. But, Jeremiah doesn’t say that the forced deportation of Jews from Judah would last seventy years. The captivity is something that grew out of Babylon’s domination of Judah. The domination was supposed to span seventy years, but Jeremiah never said that the captivity itself would span seventy years (see Gu – Seventy Years of Babylonian Rule).

Ha’Shem uses Gentile nations to punish the northern kingdom of Isra’el and the southern kingdom of Judah (Isaiah 28:11-12; Jeremiah 5:15; First Corinthians 14:21). But in carrying out the principle of Genesis 12:3a: I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, eventually that Gentile nation will receive divine judgment. So in verses 12 to 14, Jeremiah, inspired by the Ruach Ha’Kodesh Himself, turns to the divine judgment of Babylon.

The prediction of Babylon’s downfall interrupts the continuity of the passage. Nevertheless, its insertion here is natural; it tells how Judah’s exile will come to an end through Babylon’s collapse. But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the LORD, “and will make it desolate forever (see Ez – A Message Against Babylon). In 539 BC Cyrus the Great, king of the Medo-Persian Empire would conquer Babylon. But God does not limit His divine discipline to Babylon, saying: I will bring upon that land all the things I have spoken against it, all which is written in this book and prophesied by Yirmeyahu against the nations (see Dg – Prophecies Concerning the Gentile Nations). They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them a curse for a curse, according to their deeds and the work of their hands” (25:12-14).

This sets the stage for God to pour out His cup of wrath against the Gentile nations.

Babylonian Dominance Foretold
25: 1-28

605 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

This is an odd and unexpected unit in the book of Jeremiah. We have encountered nothing like it before here. It is a sustained and relentless announcement of YHVH’s judgment upon all the nations on the earth – even upon Babylon, who was regarded in most of the book to be ADONAI’s agent. Now the one who has been God’s agent stands under God’s judgment.¹⁹⁸ After seventy years of dominance (to see link click Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule), Ha’Shem would punish the Babylonians and the Gentile nations because of the guilt they had incurred. Judgment of Babylon, moreover, would be hopeful news of rescue for Judah.

You Deceived Me, LORD,
and I Have Been Deceived
Jeremiah’s Seventh Complaint
20: 7-18

You deceived me, LORD, and I have been deceived DIG: What happens to Jeremiah the day he is confined to prison? What happened when the prophet decides he will no longer prophesy? What blame does Yirmeyahu dare shift to YHVH? What internal tension does that create? Which seems more dominant at this point, his personal bitterness or divine compulsion? Why? What totally opposing emotions take turns gripping him? Which feeling do you think is winning at this point? Why is he so despairing of the day of his birth (1:5 and see Job 3)? Why doesn’t ADONAI answer the outburst? Has God been very consoling to His prophet in the past?

REFLECT: How would you feel if you had to do the same thing as Jeremiah? What does it mean to live above your moods? Have you ever been a laughing-stock for the LORD? Is your way of handling anger and depression anything like Yirmeyahu’s? Have you ever wished you had never been born? Do you keep your anger inside or do you let it out? How often do you ride an “emotional roller coaster” – up one moment and down the next? Do you enjoy the ride or throw up? Have you ever alternated back and forth between hope and despair? Where? When?

605 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

Jeremiah was unflinching in his speech against the Temple, Jerusalem and Judah (to see link click Cw – At the Potter’s House). But after this defiant proclamation, we are permitted access to his conversation with ADONAI, which had a much different tone. Now he grumbles and complains to God over the very real cost of his public ministry.

Yirmeyahu turns in bitterness against YHVH. You deceived me, ADONAI, and I was deceived (20:7a). The Hebrew verb pittah not only means to be deceived but also to be seduced (NJB). It is used of a man seducing a virgin in Exodus 22:16. The NRSV covers both meanings by using enticed. This was extremely difficult. The task to which Jeremiah was called to do was probably the most difficult of any prophet. Judah was about to go under judgment. Nevertheless, his statement here is pretty close to blasphemy. When you call to mind the sensitive nature of this man, you aren’t surprised that he vacillated between optimism and pessimism, between hope and despair. Yirmeyahu, however, lived above his moods and did the will of ADONAI regardless of how he felt.

There are seven passages in the book of Jeremiah labeled complaints or confessions (1) Ax – Oh, Adonai ELOHIM, Surely You Have Deceived This People; (2) Bj – The Plot Against Jeremiah; (3) Bk – Why Does the Way of the Wicked Prosper? Why Do All the Faithless Live at Ease?; (4) Cm – Woe to Me, Mother, That You Gave Me Birth; (5) Cs – Heal Me ADONAI, and I Will Be Healed, Save Me and I Will Be Saved; (6) Cx – Jeremiah’s Response to a Threat Against His Life; and (7) Db – You Deceived Me, LORD, and I Have Been Deceived. In each of these Yirmeyahu speaks in the first person. He opens his heart. He reveals what is going on inside while the fireworks are going off outside. Jeremiah’s inner life is revealed in these confessions/complaints/prayers. When the prophet was out of the public’s eye he was passionate with God. He confessed/complained like we all do. This was his private life. This was a man of prayer.¹⁹²

God did not deceive Jeremiah, although the prophet boldly accuses Him of it. Because of his prophetic office he had become a laughing stock. You overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of ADONAI has brought me insult and reproach all day long (20:7b-8). Jeremiah had the difficult job of proclaiming God’s message to a society that had turned their backs on YHVH. This required him to endure physical abuse, verbal attacks, imprisonment, and isolation. But when Jeremiah was under attack, so was the word of the LORD.

But if I say: I will not mention His word or speak anymore in His name, Jeremiah gets spiritual heartburn. His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot (20:9). It was in this context that he accuses YHVH of deceiving him. Jeremiah seems to be saying that he had no idea of what was in store for him when he entered the prophetic office. Although God had alluded to the troubles coming his way, he had not imagined that his ministry would be so difficult.¹⁹³

However, the very name the prophet gave Pash’chur (see Da – Jeremiah and Pash’chur) was applied to Jeremiah by the people. He was maligned by those who could not bear to hear his word and dismissed him as an irresponsible traitor. I hear many false prophets whispering, “Terror on every side,” denounce him! Let’s denounce him! When he would start to prophesy the people would say, “Here comes Mr. Magor-Missabib . . . Mr. Negative.” All my so-called friends are waiting for me to slip, saying: Perhaps Jeremiah will be deceived. Then we will prevail over this “phony prophet” and take our revenge on him (20:10). The prophet from Anathoth must have felt deeply isolated.

But Yirmeyahu had a Helper through all his trouble. ADONAI is with me like a mighty warrior. God had promised: I am with you . . . to deliver you (1:19). All Jeremiah can do in the face of this withering opposition is to resort to his rock-solid faith in YHVH. The prophet knows that in the long run His persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly be disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten (20:11b). The prophet knows that God will protect him and ultimately his prophecies will come to pass. This statement of trust seems contradictory to the complaint. Whereas earlier YHVH had been accused of deception (20:7), now the LORD’s steadfastness is celebrated. Jeremiah’s confidence in ADONAI served two purposes. First, it is a statement of genuine trust. He had come to know that Ha’Shem’s power is reliable and can be counted on. Second, it is a motivation addressed to God, reminding Him of His character and what must be done.¹⁹⁴

Ha’Shem did not desert Jeremiah, and He will not desert us. We have His continual aid through the power of the Ruach HaKodesh who lives inside every believer (John 14:16-17). The Helper gives us hope (Romans 15:13), steers us toward spiritual truth (John 16:13), and pours out God’s love in our hearts (Romans 5:5). We can trust that YHVH faithfully helps us as we endure hardship. We can say with the prophet from Anathoth: ADONAI is with me like a mighty warrior (20:11a).¹⁹⁵

LORD of heaven’s angelic armies, You who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You I have committed my cause (20:12). Jeremiah does not ask for free grace, but only for an equitable settlement. He asks to be rewarded for his relentless obedience. This is a prayer of weakness and power. Jeremiah is aware that he is weak and helpless. He cannot prevail, but he is confident that Ha’Shem will prevail. Everything depended on YHVH. That is why the prayer is so urgent and passionate. Yirmeyahu must have ADONAI on his side.¹⁹⁶

Having committed his cause to God, the prophet, in a sudden upsurge of faith, breaks into praise. Then Jeremiah sings a song of praise. Sing to ADONAI! Give praise to the LORD! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked, as his own experience testified (20:13). The prophet is so confident of God’s intervention and his own innocence that he anticipates a resolution as though it had already been accomplished.

After the bold, confident conclusion expressed as praise in 20:11-13, we are shocked and taken aback by the next five verses. This does not make such trust and praise false, but this trust is not the whole truth. The full truth of Jeremiah includes a harsh equivalent. This bold and obedient prophet found himself in a moment of candid humanity, feeling alone, abandoned, hopeless and full of despair against a hostile abyss. We can all relate.

In any case, these verses are a cry from the depth of his soul (Psalm 130:1). It is a wish hardly formed, not yet ready to be cast as a prayer. Cursed be the day I was born! Like Job (Job 3:2-12), Jeremiah cursed the day of his birth. May the day my mother bore me not be blessed (20:14)!

He imagines the day of his birth. His father waited while the midwives worked. Then the news. Then the rejoicing. Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad – a son! The language was ironic: the birth of a son was an occasion for rejoicing, but now was a tragedy! May that man be like the tower ADONAI overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon. For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever (20:15-17). If only the news had not been brought. God could have suppressed the news and killed the baby. Jeremiah felt as if he would have been better off. I wish I had never left the womb to enter the world.

Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame (20:18)? Jeremiah was well known as “the weeping prophet.” In Matthew 16 some thought Jesus might have been Jeremiah resurrected! Isaiah said Yeshua was a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). The prophet’s question went unanswered, as we might expect. We do not know why, as Yirmeyahu did not know why because the reasons are hidden in the purposes of God.

Yirmeyahu has been called the most human and tragic prophet in all the TaNaKh. He continued to meet persecution, and continued to see God’s word rejected to the end of his life. He experienced very few moments of rest and relaxation and security after being called to be a prophet. His life was one round of persecution and imprisonment and beating and anguish after another. He confessed many times to being harassed and tormented. But his persistence in his calling even after the fall of Jerusalem bears his own deep conviction about God’s promise.

In the confessions/complaints/prayers of Jeremiah we encounter the entire spectrum of human, emotional distress: fear of shame, fear of failure, loss of strength, doubting of faith, loneliness, pity, disappointment turn to hostility towards YHVH. But the complaints were not the words of a quitter. Yirmeyahu’s entire life seems to have been lived in the tension of his calling. The only way in which he could have put an end to that tension would have been to quit the prophetic office . . . and that he never did. He may have wanted to on more than one occasion – but he never did. Jeremiah’s qualities of character remain a standing rebuke to believers who excuse themselves from serving God because of personal reluctance or weakness. It was precisely this man who, for all his weakness, was the LORD’s chosen instrument to speak His word, His judging and saving word, to His people.

The prophet learned the meaning of obedience, felt the discomforts of anguish, and endured the trials of loneliness; but through it all ADONAI was steadfast and Jeremiah was satisfied. In a greater or lesser degree, we who love Jesus Christ with all our hearts and want to serve Him to the very core of our being, must learn the same lessons.¹⁹⁷

Jeremiah and Pash’chur
20: 1-6

Jeremiah and Pash’char DIG: Jeremiah’s broken pot lands him in what kind of trouble? How does he react to the disciplinary action of Pash’chur, his superior? To whom will the renamed Pash’chur be a terror and why? What was Yirmeyahu’s state of mind in the midst of this horrible circumstance? What gave him the confidence to speak out? What was he risking to do this? Where was YHVH in the middle of all this?

REFLECT: Have you ever done the right thing and suffered for it? How did it make you feel? What did you say to God? Where in your life are you facing a “no-win” situation? Do you think the Lord knows about it? Do you think He cares? Why or why not? Can Yeshua help get you through it?

605 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

Contrary to what might be expected, I look back with particular satisfaction on experiences that at the time, seemed especially depressing and painful. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained. In other words, if it ever were to be possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo jumbo . . . the result would not be to make life enjoyable, but to make it too dull and trivial to be endurable. This, of course, is what the cross signifies. And it is the cross, more than anything else that has called me relentlessly to Christ.
Malcolm Muggeridge, A Twentieth Century Testimony ¹⁸⁶

Word traveled fast (to see link click Cz – Judah is Like a Broken Jar). By the time Yirmeyahu got back to the Temple area Yerushalayim was buzzing. The elders of the people and of the priests who had been witnesses to Jeremiah’s smashing the jar were doubtless those who passed the word to Pash’chur, from the well-known priestly division (son of Immer, First Chronicles 24:14), and the chief overseer and security officer of the Temple. Jeremiah himself was appointed an overseer of the nations at his call (1:10). Therefore, it’s beyond ironic that the overseer of God’s Temple was about to take action against God’s overseer of the nations. The confrontation between Jeremiah and Pash’chur was not unlike that of Amos and Amaziah (Amos 7:10-17). Pash’chur embodied the leadership that was threatened by Yirmeyahu. Two views of reality clashed and there was no compromise.

When the priest Pash’chur heard Jeremiah prophesying, “Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place [meaning the Temple and Tziyon] that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it ring” (19:3), the chief overseer sought to intimidate, but more importantly to silence him. Pash’chur was responsible for keeping shalom in the Temple compound. When he heard what Yirmeyahu had said, as far as he was concerned, Jeremiah was guilty of disturbing shalom – his shalom (20:1).

First he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten, flogged with 40 lashes, and then put in the stocks (20:2a). There is some difficulty with the word stocks. The root word (Hebrew: haphak) means to cause distortion, restraint, confinement, or turn over. The possibility was that the prophet was kept in a crooked or confined position that would produce cramped muscles (Jeremiah 29:26; Second Chronicles 16:10, this latter verse adds in prison) for the whole night.

Pash’chur was from a part of the population who prove to be some of Jeremiah’s most persistent persecutors. The humiliation of being placed in the stocks and beaten by a priest was surely galling for the prophet since he too was from a priestly family. With the Temple looming in the background, from a human perspective, Yirmeyahu’s treatment seemed to be YHVH’s judgment on him, carried out by the priests who care for God’s House.¹⁸⁷ In reality, however, the prophet of ADONAI was being unjustly persecuted for speaking God’s truth.

Jeremiah was put in prison at the Upper Benjamin Gate at ADONAI’s Temple (20:2b). The Upper Benjamin Gate, which was evidently a gate to the Temple compound, was different from the Benjamin Gate in the city walls (37:13; 38:7). The Upper Benjamin Gate was located between the old courtyard and the new courtyard referred to in Second Kings 15:35 and Second Chronicles 20:5. The name suggests that it was on the north side of the Temple facing the territory of Benjamin. At any rate, because Pash’chur controlled the Levites who controlled the gates and this particular gate would have a lot of foot traffic in and out of the Temple compound so that everyone could see the prisoner in stocks.¹⁸⁸

But Jeremiah was not sorry or apologetic. He was humiliated, but not intimidated and immediately went back on the attack against the enemies of God’s word. Jeremiah’s scathing response, rather than his punishment, is the point here. The next day Pash’chur released him from the stocks, but during the night the prophet had a chance to think about what Pash’chur had done to him. And so, in the morning Yirmeyahu greeted Pash’chur with a word from ADONAI, a word that involved a change in Pash’chur’s name. The prophet yelled at Pash’chur, “ADONAI’s name for you is not Pash’chur, but magor-missabib, or terror on every side” (20:3). This wasn’t the only time that Jeremiah had used the term (6:25; 20:10, 46:5, 49:29; Psalm 31:13; Lamentations 2:22).

The Temple could not keep its promises. The system was under judgment . . . and had failed. It may have mouthed shalom, but it embodied terror. Therefore, it was subject to the terror of YHVH. The name is symbolic of the terror that the Babylonians would arouse among the people of Y’hudah as they attacked. It seems that the Ruach ha-Kodesh inspired Jeremiah to change Pash’chur’s name into the Aramaic Pash’shor, which means fertile on every side. And then stated that YHVH had a new name for him, the opposite, terror on every side.

As a priest, Pash’chur almost certainly took the opportunity to speak a word of judgment in public about Jeremiah and his words: I will smash this nation and this City just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topeth until there is no more room (19:10-11). It would take the form of repudiating Yirmeyahu’s words and actions and claiming divine judgment on him. In response, however, the prophet offers his own scenario of disasters that the new name foreshadows for the priest.¹⁸⁹

For this is what the LORD says: I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will give all Judah into their hands of the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. At last the specific nation was mentioned. The foe from the north is no longer a mystery. It is specifically the king of Babylon and his armies. I will deliver all the wealth of this City and the royal house into the hands of their enemies – all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away as plunder and carry it off to Babylon (20:4-5). These effects on Jerusalem and its populace are sketched in the curses of Deuteronomy 28 in no little detail. There could be no mistaking the severity of the disaster.

The oracle returned to Pash’chur at its close. And you, Pash’chur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. Those at the center of the Temple, the focus of well-being and security, were the very ones displaced and exposed to death. The very place that was supposed to guarantee life had become the very seat of death. The symbolic world of Jerusalem was being effectively dismantled. There you will die and be buried outside the Land (this would be especially degrading for a Jew), you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies (20:6). It was in this sense that he would be a terror to himself and his friends. They would die either by the sword (30:4) or in Babylon. Pash’chur was not merely a priest but a false prophet, one among those who had declared that no harm would come to the nation (14:13). This was a lie worthy of death.¹⁹⁰ This prophecy was fulfilled in the second deportation to Babylon in 597 BC (see Dz – Zedekiah Ruled For 11 Years from 597 to 586 BC).

Unafraid of confinement. Uninitiated by taunts. Undeterred by humiliation, or embarrassment, or insecurity, or pain, or failure, or doubt, the prophet remained faithful to his calling as God’s mouthpiece. But he paid a heavy price. Jeremiah didn’t like it. He yelled at Pash’chur, and after he yelled at Pash’chur he yelled at God (see Db – You Deceived Me, LORD, and I Have Been Deceived), frightened, lonely, hurt and angry that all this was happening to him. He didn’t like any of it, but he wasn’t afraid of it because the most important thing in his life was God – not comfort, not applause, not security, but the living God. What he did fear was worship without astonishment, religion without commitment. He feared getting what he wanted and missing what God wanted.

Like Jeremiah, we don’t have to like it. But it is still the only thing worthy of our fear. What a waste it would be to take these short, precious, eternity-charged years that we are given and squander them in worldly pursuits when we can be, like Jeremiah, intensely human and passionate with God.¹⁹¹

Judah is Like a Broken Jar
Jeremiah’s Third Symbolic Action
19: 1-15

Judah is like a broken jar DIG: What is Judah’s decision regarding God’s warning? Why do all the people constantly ignore ADONAI and His warning? What sense does Jeremiah try to make of their stubbornness? How was the curse of Topheth fulfilled in two stages? Who is supposed to see the lesson of the jar first? Why do you suppose he goes to the Valley of Hinnom near the Potsherd Gate? What would be happening there? What does Jeremiah’s action symbolize? What does Yirmeyahu have in common with Topheth, that their fate will be similar (Second Kings 23:10)? Why does Jeremiah repeat the warning in the court of the LORD’s Temple?

REFLECT: The prophets often dramatized their messages. What message do you want the world to see? How could you make the point through a symbolic action or dramatized parable? If you could have it seen on national news what you say, what would you act out?

605 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

The one main point to the third symbolic action (what might be called a parable in action)
is that Judah was broken and decreed to suffer the curse of Topheth.

Yirmeyahu had a pottery clay jar under his arm. He would speak of his concern to the elders of the people and the priests. He would tell them of ADONAI’s great love and holy purpose for them. He would say what he had said so many times before, that Josiah’s reform was useless if it did not change people’s lives. It was no good polishing up the brass in the Temple if the quality of people’s lives was left unattended in their poverty. It was no good obeying the letter of the commands written in Deuteronomy if the spirit of love that permeates that scroll was ignored. It was no good being enthusiastic over the great religious traditions if the people we don’t like are treated like scum. It was no good adorning religious ceremony and ritual that make us feel holy if the feelings never get connected with holy actions. Truth is inward: we must experience within ourselves that which we profess. Statistics are a farce. Popularity is a smoke screen. All that matters is God.¹⁸³

This is what ADONAI says: Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. This “flask” was a water-jar with handles, a wide belly, and a narrow neck. It’s name in Hebrew, baqbuq, imitates the gurgling sound water makes as it is poured.

Take along some of the elders of the people (civil leaders) and of the priests (religious leaders) and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. It was perhaps given the name because fragments of pottery were cast there as refuse. It may be identical with the Dung Gate (Nehemiah 2:13). There proclaim the words I tell you and say: Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem (19:1-2). The problem was human sacrifice and the curse that would be applied to it. The task of the prophet was not to smooth things over, but to make things right. The function of religion is not to make people feel righteous, but to make them righteous. Love? Yes, ADONAI loves us. But His love is passionate and seeks faithful, committed love in return. YHVH does not want tame pets to coddle and feed; He wants mature, free people who will respond to Him in a genuine way. For that to happen there must be honesty and truth. The self must be toppled from its pedestal. There must be pure hearts and clear minds, confession of sin and commitment of faith.

And shalom? Yes, the LORD gives shalom. But it is not a peace that gets along with everyone by avoiding the hint of anything unpleasant. It is not a peace achieved by refusing to talk about painful subjects or touch sore spots. It is a peace that is hard won by learning to pray. There is evil to combat, apathy to defeat, dullness to challenge, ambition to confront. There are persons all around us, children and parents, adolescents and adults, who are being trampled and violated, who are being hurt and despised. Any preaching of shalom that turns its back on these is a cruel farce.

There is nothing wrong with success, and there is nothing wrong with applause. It is not evidence of a sellout when a messianic rabbi or pastor has a crowd of people before him, and it is not proof of superficiality when a messianic synagogue or church is sparsely attended. Conversely, nor is it a sign of integrity that a man is persecuted and run out of town for what he says. He may, in fact, be a dangerous fraud. Nor can poverty be claimed as proof of courageous truth . . . the person may be simply incompetent. What is wrong is to evaluate the worth of words and deeds by their popularity. What is scandalous is to approve only what is applauded. What is disastrous is to assume that only the celebrated is genuine.

There are times when the truth will receive a wide hearing and times when it will not. Jesus had a congregation of five thousand one day and four women and two bored soldiers another. His message was the same both days. We must learn to live by the truth, not by our feelings, not by the world’s opinion, not by what the latest statistical survey tells us is the most gratifying lifestyle. We are trained in the biblical faith to take lightly what the experts say, the scholars say, the pollsters say, the politicians say. We are trained to listen to the Word of God, to test everything (Acts 17:11) against what God reveals to us in Christ, to discover all meaning and worth by examining life in relation to God’s will.¹⁸⁴

This is what ADONAI of heaven’s angelic armies, the God of Isra’el, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it ring. Why is this curse coming? It was a judgment on the City for covenant violations – forsaking YHVH, going after strange gods, burning incense to them, and shedding innocent blood, which here includes the loathsome practice of child sacrifice at Topheth.

During the reigns of the wicked kings Ahaz and Manasseh, human sacrifices to the Ammonite god Molech were offered in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, or the Valley of Slaughter, or Topheth. Good king Josiah stopped the practice, but after his untimely death the Jews reverted back to this evil practice, prompting ADONAI to use the prophet Jeremiah to issue his decree of doom – the curse of Topheth. For they have forsaken Me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah (meaning the House of David) ever knew and they have filled this place, Topheth, with the blood of the innocent (19:3-4).

The curse of Topheth was fulfilled in two stages. We know this because in speaking of Topheth, Matthew 27:9 declares: Then what was spoken of by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Lm – Judah Hangs Himself).

The first stage was the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, Jerusalem and Judah (see Gb – The Destruction of Solomon’s Temple on Tisha B’Av in 586 BC) and the subsequent Babylonian Captivity (see Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule), and the second stage was the destruction of Herod’s Temple, Yerushalayim and Judah by the Romans (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Mt – The Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple on Tisha B’Av in 70 AD) and the subsequent diaspora.

The first destruction of Tziyon by the Babylonians was the result of spiritual adultery (see At – Unfaithful Isra’el) and a refusal to listen to the message of God’s prophets concerning repentance, and the second destruction by the Romans was a result of the rejection of Yeshua Messiah, on His rejection of the Oral Law (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ei – The Oral Law) and the decision of the Great Sanhedrin.

In the first stage: Then more judgment is described; first on Topheth, then on Jerusalem and its inhabitants. They have built the high places of Ba’al to burn their children in the fire (2 Kings 6:28-29; Lam 2:20, 4:10; Ezk 5:10) as offerings to Ba’al – something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter My mind. The judgment of the valley around Jerusalem will be so severe that it will necessitate a new name. So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter (19:5-6). When Jeremiah (under the direction of the Ruach ha-Kodesh) uses the phrase in the days to come; the days are coming; in those days; in those days, at that time; or for the time will surely come, the context points either to the near historical future or the far eschatological future and which one should be used. This is the seventh of twenty-five times that Jeremiah uses one of these phrases. In this case, this points to the near historical future of the destruction of Zion and Y’hudah by King Nebuchadnezzar.

I will devastate this City and make it an object of horror and scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. Their desperate straits will reduce them to cannibalism. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them (19:8-9). Leviticus 6:29 and Deuteronomy 28:53 were the prediction, and Lamentations 2:10 and 4:10 were the fulfillment.

In the second stage: God declares: And in this place I will make void the plans of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim. The key word is make void (Hebrew: baqqoti, a pun on the flask, baqbuq). And I will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who want to kill them. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and the wild animals of the earth (19:7 ESV). From the time the religious leaders in Jerusalem attributed Yeshua’s miracles to Satan (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ek – It is only Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons, That This Fellow Drives Out Demons), they began planning to kill Him (see the curse of Topheth below). They discussed their plans (Matthew 26:3-5; Mark 14:1-2; Luke 22:1-6), when Jesus said, “The Father and I are One,” they picked up stones to stone Him (John 10:25-30), and they called a meeting of the Sanhedrin to plan for His death (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ib – The Plot to Kill Jesus).

Therefore, in the B’rit Chadashah, the Great Sanhedrin (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Lg – The Great Sanhedrin), comprising the leadership of Isra’el, was planning to have Yeshua executed. Part of that planning included the payment of 30 pieces of silver to Judas. Those same 30 pieces of silver were used to buy a field, the potter’s field in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. When they thought they had gotten rid of Christ and all the problems He was causing them, they bought the curse of Topheth that went with it. Forty years later the Romans came and destroyed Yerushalayim and the Temple until there was no more room to bury the dead.

In the first stage: The smashed jar in front of their eyes drove home the point that both Jerusalem and its people were broken. Neither can be mended, at least for now. Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, and say to them: I will smash this nation and this City just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room (19:10-11), which would make the entire City unclean (Leviticus 21:1ff). The dead will be so numerous that even the unclean site of Topheth will have to be used for their burial. So overwhelmed were the elders and the priests by the words and act of Jeremiah that no one dared interrupt him . . . no one raised their hand against him.

He continued: The shattering of Yerushalayim will make the entire city like Topheth, like an unclean dump. This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the LORD. I will make this City like Topheth. The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah (the House of David) will be defiled like this place, Topheth – all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs like on the high places to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods (19:12-13).

Then Jeremiah was commanded by YHVH to go out from Topheth back to Temple Mount. Boldly, courageously he returned from the Valley of Ben Hinnom, the place of idolatry, to the Temple, the House of God, and there repeated his message to the throng of people assembled there. Jeremiah stood in the court of the LORD’s Temple where God had sent him to prophesy. In the Valley of Slaughter the prophet had spoken only to the leadership of Judah, but now in the Temple Court he spoke to all the people. “This is what the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies, the God of Isra’el, says: Listen! I AM going to bring on this City and all the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to My words” (19:14-15).

Confidence in the Potter comes in knowing the Potter, not in observing Him spin the wheel and shape the clay from the vantage point of a supposed neutrality. Rabbi Sha’ul reflects on the Potter (Romans 9:18-24) develops this point profoundly and in a manner consistent with the book of Jeremiah. The clay does not have the right to question the Potter; but much more significant is the claim that the Potter has intentions of preparing jars for His glory and fit for His mercy. In the process of fulfilling these purposes, human jars can be shaped and reshaped and used in ways not understood by the human jars themselves. Their “essence” is not violated, but taken up and used by the God of grace.¹⁸⁵

The Broken Jar
19:1 to 20:18

605 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

At the command of the Lord, Jeremiah made a second trip to the potter’s house, this time as a customer and not a spectator, and he took with him some of the Jewish elders. Knowing their evil plots against him, it’s evidence of his faith that he was willing to walk with them and then, do so daring a thing as, declare in their very presence that disaster was coming to the Land because of their sins. Obviously his prayer to the Lord had brought him peace and courage. In this place I will ruin the plans of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim (19:7). To demonstrate this, Jeremiah broke a clay jar and said: ADONAI-Tzva’ot says that this is how I will break this people and this City, just as one smashes a potter’s vessel beyond the possibility of repair (19:11a). The nation was beyond discipline (2:23), beyond prayer (7:16), and now, beyond repair! They had so hardened themselves against the LORD that all hope was gone.

What before had been threats now became a reality. Pash’chur, son of Immer, the chief overseer and security officer for the Temple, didn’t like what Yirmeyahu was saying. Therefore, he had Jeremiah arrested, beaten, and put into the stocks until the next day. The stocks were located at a prominent place in the Temple area, in order to add shame to pain. Spending all night with your body bent and twisted wouldn’t be at all comfortable, and when you add the pain of the beating, you can imagine how Jeremiah felt.¹⁸²

Jeremiah’s Response to a Plot Against His Life
Jeremiah’s Sixth Complaint
18: 18-23

Jeremiah’s response to a plot against his life DIG: What do the people want to do with Jeremiah and why? What past deeds did Yirmeyahu remind God of? In Jeremiah’s fifth complaint, how does he come to terms with what is happening to him? Can you fault Jeremiah for wanting to dish out punishment equal to what he has had to take from his accusers?

REFLECT: Why did the people of these ancient cultures kill their children? For what reasons are children killed today? Do you suppose God saved the mold when He first created you, so that He could create more people like you? Why or why not? What have you learned to appreciate about the (chip, crack or bulge) in your life’s jar?

605 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

The opposition: The symbolic act of going to the potter’s house (to see link click Cw – At the Potter’s House) and its interpretation did not lead to repentance on the part of the people, but to another plot against Jeremiah’s life. The Levites continued to teach to itching ears (Second Timothy 4:3) and false prophets continued to prophesy what the people wanted to hear. They said: Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the Torah by the priest will not cease, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let’s attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says (18:18).

There can be no doubt that the harsh tenor of the prophet’s message evoked hostility. Here we see how pervasive and massive the opposition was. The opposition to his fearsome word was not simply an irrational, emotional response, but it was formidable and intentional that had developed a strategy for silencing that “treasonable” voice. Later the Pharisees would do the same thing to Jesus (Mark 3:6). As Judah formulated their own plans (18:12), now we see those “plans” aimed at both YHVH (18:13) and Jeremiah (18:18). The triad of priest, wise and prophet represents the established religious system of Judah. That triad is matched by the three modes of authority that ordered the community: Torah, counsel, and word. Yirmeyahu was perceived to be the enemy of all of these modes of authority. All of these authority figures unite against this “voice of disorder.” Those public leaders were adamant to maintain the status quo, immune to the notion that it is the very arrangement they defended that would result in their exile or death.¹⁷⁹

There are seven passages in the book of Jeremiah labeled complaints or confessions: (1) to see link click Ax – Oh, Adonai ELOHIM, Surely You Have Deceived This People; (2) Bj – The Plot Against Jeremiah; (3) Bk – Why Does the Way of the Wicked Prosper? Why Do All the Faithless Live at Ease?; (4) Cm – Woe to Me, Mother, That You Gave Me Birth; (5) Cs – Heal Me ADONAI, and I Will Be Healed, Save Me and I Will Be Saved; (6) Cx – Jeremiah’s Response to a Threat Against His Life; and (7) Db – You Deceived Me, LORD, and I Have Been Deceived. In each of these Yirmeyahu speaks in the first person. He opens his heart. He reveals what is going on inside while the fireworks are going off outside. Jeremiah’s inner life is revealed in these confessions/complaints/prayers. When Jeremiah was out of the public’s eye he was passionate with God. He confessed/complained/prayed like we all do. This was his secret life. This was a man of prayer.¹⁸⁰

The prayer: Then Jeremiah subtly complained: Listen to me ADONAI; hear what my accusers are saying. The prophet’s dilemma was agonizing. Should good be rapid with evil? Yirmeyahu had pleaded with YHVH for the good of his own people (4:19-21), yet their only response was to dig a pit to kill him. Remember that I stood before You and spoke on their behalf to turn Your wrath away from them (18:19-20). In contrast to the time when Jeremiah expressed to YHVH his horror that the punishment of Yisra’el was coming, now he prays that it come, so his standing as a true prophet might be validated.

Jeremiah’s prayer is for God to implement covenant curses against his enemies, including the standard triad of famine, sword and childlessness. So give their children over to famine; hand them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their men be put to death, their young men slain by the sword in battle (see Ae – The Problem of Holy War in the TaNaKh). Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring invaders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for My feet (18:21-22).

But You, LORD, know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from Your sight. Let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger (18:23). Finally, the issue is not the well-being of the prophet, but the validity of the judgment against Jerusalem. The evil “plans” made against Jeremiah match the evil “plans” made in resistance to the LORD. When God’s “plan” is rejected, death will come. No amount of hostility against the messenger will change the message. The clay finally will have to submit to the Potter or be remolded into something different. Jeremiah made it clear that Judah had that option, and equally clear that Y’hudah had chosen infidelity.¹⁸¹

At the Potter’s House
Jeremiah’s Second Symbolic Action
18: 1-17

At the potter’s house DIG: What does Jeremiah see in the potter’s house? How does the nature of the clay determine the quality of the pot and what it’s used for? Are God’s plans set in “concrete” or “wet clay?” How much does the LORD mold people, and how much do people mold themselves (Romans 9:19-23)? What point is YHVH trying to make about the conditional nature of His decrees (oaths) and announcements? How does the nature of the clay determine if the potter can use it? Why do the people continually ignore Jeremiah? What sense does the prophet try to make of their stubbornness?

REFLECT: What universal pattern in the way ADONAI deals with people is seen in these verses? In what ways is this application of the message of the potter and the clay directed at you? Have the promises to Isra’el been transferred to the Church? If Isra’el could sin and lose her salvation, can you lose your salvation by sinning?

605 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

The one main point to Jeremiah’s second symbolic action
(what might be called a parable in action) is that ADONAI is sovereign in all things.
He will do to Isra’el, just as the potter does to the clay.

“It is indeed by analogy that I believe the mind makes its riches movements, and it is by analogy that I believe the mind makes its deepest use of what it has understood; or at any rate I believe this to be an appropriate way of looking at the labor of the mind in a society, like ours, without a fixed character, and operating under a revelation which turns out to have been imperfectly understood. It is through analogy, if at all, that the falcon can again hear the falconer, that things can come together again, and that again the center can hold.”
R. P. Blackmur, The Lion and the Honeycomb ¹⁷⁴

The indictment: Yirmeyahu was always attentive and sensitive to God’s direction and he tells us: This is the word that came to Jeremiah from ADONAI (18:1). God’s task, through Jeremiah, was this: How can I get these people to take Me seriously, right where they are? How can I get them to see that I am working, right now, silently and invisibly, but surely and eternally, in their lives and in their history? How can I get them to see the connections between what they are doing now and who they will be in ten years – in twenty years? How can I get them to see the continuities between what I did in Abraham and Moses and David and what they are now? How can I get them out of their tedious egos into my glorious will here and now?

Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you My message (18:2). The metaphor of the potter and the clay leads us to expect an unmistakable claim of YHVH’s sovereignty. He said: Go down to the grocery store, go down to the computer store, go down to the car dealership. Go where the necessary, everyday work is taking place. Today, God would have probably sent His prophet to a gas station. In seventh-century Isra’el the potter’s house was a fixture in every community. The potter was a craftsman and everyone knew where he lived. His craft was familiar to everyone, whose work was necessary for the maintenance of everyday life. Pottery made it possible for communities to develop.

So I went down to the potter’s house and I saw him working at the wheel, literally the two stones (18:3). The apparatus consisted of two circular stones; the lower was worked by the feet and connected with the upper stone, which supported the clay, by a vertical axis. The upper stone rotated when pressure was applied to the pedal. Jeremiah was obedient. The prophet watched the potter at work, sitting at the wheel with a formless lump of clay on it. He turned the wheel and with skilled fingers shaped the clay. A little pressure here, more there, and a pot began to rise out of the shapeless lump. It is rather common in the Scriptures to use the example of the potter and the clay to teach spiritual truths (Job 10:9 and 33:6, Psalm 2:9; Isaiah 19:16, 45:9, 64:8; Romans 9:20-23; Revelation 2:27). The primary point, the main spiritual truth that God teaches with this symbolic action is His sovereignty. But the secondary point is the longsuffering of ADONAI.

But, in the heart of the parable, the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands. An experienced potter makes few mistakes, and in this case we are talking about the divine Potter, who makes no mistakes. But if the clay is imperfect, the potter’s “hands are tied.” That point was well illustrated in Chapter 17. He knew about the marred vessels – men and women with impurities and blemishes that resist the shaping hand of the Potter. The prophet rubbed shoulders daily with people who were not useful: imperfections made their lives leak, holding neither wine nor water; a failure of proportion made their lives wobble or tip, unstable and undependable. But Yirmeyahu had other words for it . . . sin, rebellion, self-will, wandering. But he never had such a striking image for it.

Jeremiah continued to observe. What would the potter do now? Kick the wheel and go off and sulk? Throw the clay at the wall and go to the market and buy another pot? Neither. Subsequently, the potter shattered his pot and once again (shuwb) formed the marred clay into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him (18:4). The potter kneads and presses, pushes and pulls. As long as the clay was soft he could mold it into anything he wanted. If it didn’t come out as he wanted it to, remolding it was possible. The creative work starts all over again, patiently and skillfully. YHVH doesn’t give up. God doesn’t throw away soft hearts. Storms are the triumph of His art. But if the clay became hard (as Y’hudah had become) it couldn’t be useful any longer, the thing the potter could do was shatter it. Ultimately, the final verdict rested with the potter.

The symbolism is now spelled out. YHVH is the Potter. Then the word of the LORD came to me. Hope and warning joined hand with His message, saying: Can I not do with you, Isra’el, as this potter does? declares ADONAI. Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand, Yisra’el (18:5-6). Therefore, the interpretation of the potter and the clay was national.

In order to clarify and emphasize the point that the character of the clay determines what the potter can do with it, two illustrations are given . . . the first positive and the second negative. On the one hand, if at any time (Hebrew: rega, meaning suddenly) I suddenly announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and, on the other hand, if that nation I warned turns (shuwb) from their evil, then I will relent (Hebrew: nacham) and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned (see the commentary on Jonah Ax – The Ninevites Believed God). These are perhaps the best passages in all the TaNaKh concerning the problem often raised about the nature of God. That is to say, how is it possible for a changeless God, to change His mind? Isn’t God someone who never changes? Has God’s nature changed? No! God’s nature never changes. He is always holy, loving, kind, merciful, just . . . God’s attitude changes when the attitude of the people changes. God mercifully responds to the people’s change of heart so that He no longer needs to send the promised discipline, because they have already changed. YHVH is sovereign and His plans change according to the people’s heart changes. (18:7-8).

Unfortunately, various English versions of the Bible translate the Hebrew verb nacham as “repent,” and this, quite naturally, creates difficulties for many readers. Is it possible for ADONAI to repent? They say to themselves, “I thought only sinners need to repent.” However, the term repent conveys the idea of a change of behavior from worse to better, the Hebrew verb niham refers rather to a decision to act otherwise, and does not necessarily imply that the first action is inferior to the second.¹⁷⁵ The English verb relent conveys a better meaning of the Hebrew. Furthermore, as Jeremiah 18:8 makes clear, prophetic pronouncements of judgment were not absolute, but conditional.

But the opposite is also true. And if at another time (Hebrew: rega) I suddenly announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in My sight and does not obey Me, then I will reconsider that good I had intended to do for it (18:9-10). No ominous prediction is set in concrete dooming us. No rosy promise is license to lazy indifference. The LORD has the same kind of control over us as the potter has over the clay. The clay can frustrate the potter’s intension and cause him to change it: as the quality of the clay determines what the potter can do with it, so the quality of a people determines what God can do with them.¹⁷⁶ In other words, His nature does not change, but the people to whom He had made an announcement have changed.

In Numbers 23:19 Moshe said that YHVH is not man that He should repent, in the sense of changing His mind. But the LORD’s response to a changed condition in the conduct of mankind has always followed certain eternal principles. ADONAI does act differently toward mankind when they turn from disobedience to obedience. And because Ha’Shem has always been consistent with those principles, in reality, there has been no actual change of mind on God’s part. It only appears that way from our point of view.

So under what conditions does ADONAI retract a statement or deviate from a course of action? Under what conditions does He refuse to do so? In the TaNaKh not all statements of intention are the same. Some are decrees or oaths that are unconditional and bind the LORD to His stated course of action. In each case God’s refusal to retract a statement refers or applies directly to a specific decree identified in the context – His blessing of Isra’el in accordance with the Abrahamic Covenant (Numbers 23:19), His rejection of disobedient Sha’ul (First Samuel 15:29), His oath to make the Davidic king a royal-priesthood (Psalm 110:4), and His decision to judge Judah (Jeremiah 4:28; Ezeki’el 24:14; Zechariah 8:14). Each passage has clear contextual indicators that the decree is unconditional. The statement that Ha’Shem will not change His mind, made in tandem with a synonymous expression, formally marks the divine proclamation as a decree or oath.

Others, which may be labeled announcements, retain a conditional element and do not necessarily bind YHVH to a stated course of action (Exodus 32-12-14; Amos 7:3-6; Jeremiah 15:6, 18:8 and 10, 26:3, 13 and 19; Jonah 3:4b). These verses clearly show that YHVH can and often does relent and retract His announcements as the result of human repentance and change of heart. So does God change His mind? It all depends on us.¹⁷⁷

Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, this is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn (shuwb) from your evil ways of spiritual adultery, each one of you, and reform [turn around, or repent (shuwb)] your ways and your actions. But what was Israel’s decision regarding God’s warning? They all replied, “It’s no use (or it’s too late). They had already told Jeremiah that in 2:25. It was like they were saying: We have chosen our own path. Each one will continue to follow our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts (18:11-12 also see Judges 21:25). The clay now can take no action free of the potter.

Judah’s plan is a plan of stubbornness that refuses the reality of ADONAI’s sovereignty. Such a refusal ends in death. Eventually the potter will have to remold it. As the potter shapes the clay, so YHVH shapes a death sentence for Judah.

The sentence: Isra’el was found in a shocking situation. God was asking: Inquire among the Gentile nations, who has ever heard the things Isra’el was guilty of? Building on His legal case already made in 2:9-13, He declares that even though the Gentile nations had continually practiced idolatry, none of them had exchanged their gods for another. Assyria always followed their own gods; Egypt was always loyal to her own gods . . . and they were not even gods to begin with! But Isra’el, who at one time had worshiped the one true God had exchanged the LORD for meaningless idols. He concludes that a most horrible thing has been done by Virgin Isra’el (18:13).

As a result, Isra’el had shown herself to be inconsistent, compared to the consistency of nature. Does the cold water of the mountains fail to make its way down into the valley below? No. Do its cool waters (because it comes from the snow of the Lebanon Mountains and Mount Hermon) ever dry up from their rocky slopes like many other waters in Isra’el (18:14)? No! The point is that nature always finds its own way and can be depended upon. Isra’el, however, goes her own unnatural way and cannot be depended upon. So Israel’s unnatural ways are pointed out. The poem moves from nature to human behavior.

As a result, the application was personal. Forgetting YHVH reduces the Land to vulnerability and the people to deep humiliation. Yet My people have forgotten Me (in a passive way); they burn incense to worthless idols (in an active way), which made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths. They made them walk in byways, on roads not built up (18:15).

Future generations will shake their heads that any people could ever have done such a thing to themselves. Their Land will be an object of horror and of lasting scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads. This is the inevitable result of abandoning the paths ordained by God. The judgment itself is eventual dispersion. Like a wind from the east, I will scatter them before their enemies; I will show them My back and not My face in the day of their disaster (18:16-17). These verses are talking about near historical discipline, not far eschatological abandonment. The promises to Yisra’el have not been transferred to the Church. Replacement theology is a false system. Our salvation cannot be lost (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer), and Isra’el’s national salvation cannot be lost because we know that all the righteous of the TaNaKh at the end of the Great Tribulation will be saved (see the commentary on Revelation Ev – The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ).

This is one of Jeremiah’s most powerful sermons. The image captured the attention of people of faith everywhere. Not the least of the reasons for its effectiveness is that Yirmeyahu experienced it before he preached it. For no act of imagination, prophetic or artistic, is powerful if it does not come from within. And this one had been bothering the prophet for a long time.

The first word that Jeremiah heard from Ha’Shem was: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you (1:5). The verb formed is yatzar. Then, as Yirmeyahu was preparing to set an image before the people by which they could understand themselves in their relation to their God, he stood in the house of the yotzer, the potter. The word by which the priest from Anathoth first learned to understand his own life, yatzar, was the word that was then being used to let the people understand their lives. God shaped Jeremiah; God is shaping the people. God is the Potter (a yotzer) working at His wheel of Yirmeyahu the lump of clay; He forms (yatzar) them. The prophet preached to the people what he had actually lived himself. He had been on that potter’s wheel from before his birth.

No word would mean more to Yirmeyahu than this one. Formed by ADONAI. Jeremiah experienced his life as the created work of God. He was not a random accumulation of cells; loving, skilled hands formed him. He wasn’t a potentiality of material just waiting for the lucky time when he could, by asserting his will make something of his life; he was already made something by YHVH, formed for His purposes. It is the same for you and I. For us it means being thrown on the potter’s wheel and shaped, every area of our lives, into something useful and beautiful. And when we are not useful or beautiful we are reshaped. Painful . . . but worth it.¹⁷⁸

The Potter’s Clay
18: 1-23

605 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

Over thirty words in the Hebrew vocabulary relate directly to pottery, because the manufacture of pottery was a major industry in the Near East in that day. No doubt Jeremiah had passed the potter’s house many times, but this time ADONAI had a special message for him that, after he preached it, would put him in jail. When you follow the Lord, you never know what will happen next. The potter sat before two parallel stone wheels that were joined by a shaft. He turned the bottom wheel with his feet and worked the clay on the top wheel as the wheel turned. As Jeremiah watched, he saw that the clay resisted the potter’s hand so that the jar was ruined, but the potter patiently kneaded the clay and made another jar.

The interpretation of the image was national, relating to the house of Yisra’el (18:6-10), but the application was individual (18:11-17), calling for a response from the people of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim. It also calls for a personal response today.¹⁷³

After the indictment (18:1-12) and the sentence (18:13-17), we have an expression of the opposition the prophet evoked (18:18) and the prayer he prayed for help, in the face of that opposition (18:19-23).

The Potter’s Clay and the Broken Jar
18:1 to 20:18

605 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

The familiar sight of the potter at work with his clay suggests to Jeremiah’s mind a parallel to the working of God and His people. Chapter 18 describes the process of remaking a misshapen vessel and applies it to the fate of the nation, and Yirmeyahu responds to a plot against his life with his sixth complaint. This is followed by a parable of the broken jar in Chapter 19, with special reference to the persecution of the prophet by the chief overseer of the Temple named Pash’chur in Chapter 20. This section ends with Jeremiah’s seventh and last complaint. He plummets to the lowest depth of despair, yet the prophet did not remain downhearted, but returned to the battlefield in the confidence that ADONAI is with me like a mighty warrior (20:11a).

The Sabbath and National Survival
17: 19-27

The Sabbath and national survival survival DIG: Why doesn’t Jeremiah make this announcement at the gates of the Temple? Where does the Sabbath rank in the Torah (Exodus 20:3-8)? Why is it important (Exodus 31:12-17)? Why is “work” forbidden (Numbers 15:32-36; Nehemiah 13:15)? Why is God now demanding obedience to the Torah? How did YHVH intend to act toward Y’hudah if she disobeyed as her ancestors had done?

REFLECT: Do you need to put more worship, more leisure or more spiritual growth into your life right now? What can you do this week? Since obedience leads to life, what is your greatest area of disobedience right now? What needs to change? Are Gentile Christians obligated to keep the Sabbath today?

606 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

God is always ready to forgive a repentant sinner (26:2-3). And it was the prophet’s duty to indicate the remedy for the current evils of the people. It was therefore natural that Yirmeyahu should stress the importance of Shabbat, a basic institution of Judaism. Making the Sabbath holy, with its intensive spiritual influence, would tend to wean the people from other abuses and effect a reformation.

This is what ADONAI said to me: Go and stand at the Gate of the People, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem so everyone, high and low, will know God’s message. This gate would be the most frequently entered, so Jeremiah was to proclaim his message there first and then repeat it at all the other gates. Say to them, “Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone living in Yerushalayim who come through these gates” (17:19-20).

Admonition for Sabbath Observance: Obedience leads to life. If the people guard the Day, then the Land will be blessed; if they violate it, then Tziyon will be destroyed This is what YHVH says: If you value your lives, don’t carry anything on Shabbat or bring it in through these gates of Yerushalayim. Don’t carry anything out of your houses on Shabbat and don’t do any work (Exodus 20:8-11; Numbers 15:32-36; Deuteronomy 5:12-15). The prophet was saying, “The Torah is still in effect!” Instead being disobedient, make Shabbat a holy day. I ordered your ancestors to do this, but they neither listened nor paid attention; rather, they stiffened their necks, so that they wouldn’t have to hear or receive instruction (17:21-23 CJB). Observance of Shabbat gets our eyes off of ourselves and onto God. It makes us more reliant on Him and less reliant upon ourselves. Self-reliance was, of course, Judah’s predominant temptation.

So Jeremiah then told his generation; If you will pay careful heed to Me, says ADONAI, and carry nothing through the gates of this City on Shabbat, but instead make Shabbat a day which is holy and not for doing work (17:24 CJB), then there will be blessings (Nehemiah 13:15-22):

1. The continuous existence of David’s throne. Kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this City with their officials. Harking back to Second Samuel 7, Jeremiah both here and in other passages (23:5-6, 30:9, 33:15) affirms the ancient belief that David’s throne would persist. If it was temporarily suspended it would be restored, even though some of the kings were unworthy of that honor (22:30).

2. The rulers and common people will continually use the gates of Jerusalem. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses (signs of prosperity), accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem.

3. Jerusalem will be inhabited forever. And this City will be inhabited forever (17:25). Likewise, the Holy City was the place where ADONAI had chosen to place His royal throne, and even if it were destroyed it will be restored and inhabited forever (Zechariah 2:2-12, 8:3 and 15, 14:11). The security of the state would be guaranteed to the people if they kept the covenant.

4. The Temple will be the center of worship. People will come from the towns of Y’hudah and the villages around Yerushalayim, from the territory of Benjamin in the north, and the western foothills, from the mountainous area between Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea on the eastern hill country and from the Negev in the south. They will bring burnt offerings (see the commentary on Exodus, to see link click Fe – The Burnt Offering), and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense (see the commentary on Exodus Ff – The Grain Offering), and bringing peace offerings (see the commentary on Exodus Fg – The Peace Offering) to the house of the LORD (17:26). These three elements – the throne of David, the Temple, and the city of Jerusalem – comprised the basic aspects of the national and religious life of the people and the covenant. Loyalty to the LORD of the covenant and obedience to the covenant demands were fundamental to the enjoyment of the blessings of the covenant.¹⁷⁰

The other side of the picture is now given. Disobedience and breach of the covenant could only lead to the operation of the curses of the covenant. But if you do not obey Me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then there will be cursings: I will kindle an unquenchable fire, the symbol of destruction, in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortress (17:27). The key aspect will be the destruction of Zion.

Sabbath keeping and legalism: It is remarkable that the future of the nation hangs on keeping of Shabbat for the Israelites, particularly given all the emphasis on idolatry (and other sins) in the prior chapters. How can one sin result in such a disastrous future? This perspective has led to the charge of legalism, or the dependence of moral law rather than on personal faith. Yet the large context of Jeremiah suggests that Sabbath-keeping has here taken on a symbolic value; it is a sign of whether the relationship with God is in good order. Sabbath-breaking is seen here, not as an isolated matter, but as one more indication of the people’s stubbornness (17:23). Keeping Shabbat would then be an indicator that Y’hudah was no longer in rebellion and resisting the will of God for her life.¹⁷¹

Should Christians keep the Sabbath day? Obviously messianic believers keep Shabbat because they attend worship services on Saturday anyway. But what about Gentile Christians who are used to going to church on Sundays, should they keep the Sabbath?

The almost universal observance of a seven-day “week” is one of those habits so ingrained in man that most of us don’t stop to realize how remarkable it is. The month and the year have an obvious basis, in astronomy, but this is not true of the week. The seven-day week was not simply adopted in the Western world because of the Bible, as is obvious from the fact that the days of the week all have pagan names.

Although not all nations have observed a seven-day week, the practice existed long before the Jewish nation was formed and the Ten Commandments were given. The only real satisfactory explanation for this very ancient and almost worldwide custom is found in Genesis 2:1-3, God Himself established the Sabbath as a rest day commemorating creation! Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing: so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.

So God ordained in the beginning that one day out of seven should be observed as a day of rest and worship. When God established Isra’el as the covenant nation, and gave the Ten Commandments, the fourth was: Remember (see the commentary on Exodus Dn – Remember the Sabbath by Keeping It Holy). As a result, from the very beginning the seventh day was set aside by God as a day of commemorating the completed creation, and of fellowship with its Creator. If mankind needed such a day in the Garden of Eden, we certainly need it much more today in our fallen condition. As Jesus said: The Sabbath was made for mankind, not mankind for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).

Although the Sabbath is a day of rest, it is not intended to be a day of lethargy, but rather of worship and study of the Scriptures. A time of such spiritual refreshment is really the most satisfying and fruitful way to rest from one’s daily labor. Believers are no different today in this respect. In fact, our nature is such that we need a day of rest. It was made for us. We must spend at least one day in seven in rest from our work and in spiritual renewal, or we will inevitably break down spiritually and physically, sooner or later.¹⁷²

The Church has misunderstood Shabbat in two ways: First, some believe that Sunday is the new Sabbath. Sunday is never called the Sabbath anywhere in the Bible. The Sabbath was, and always will be, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Gentile believers who go to church are no longer obligated to keep Shabbat under the framework of the Torah as upheld by the Messiah (First Corinthians 9:21 CJB). The day of the Sabbath has never changed. In addition, Sunday is never called “the Lord’s Day,” but the first day of the week (Mattityahu 28:1; Mark 16:2 and 9; Luke 24:1; Yochanan 20:1 and 19; Acts 20:7; First Corinthians 16:2), both before and after the cross.

The second problem is applying rules and regulations to Sunday. For some churches, Sunday, not any other day, is an obligated day of rest and worship. Yes, we are supposed to meet together on a regular basis: Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:25), but either day may be used as a special day of rest/worship to God. Paul wrote to the church at Rome: One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord (Romans 14:5-6a; also see Colossians 2:16-17 and Galatians 4:8-10).

But for the Jews of Jeremiah’s day, keeping the Sabbath was the means of national survival. Sadly, they were disobedient and, as a result, would go into exile.

Heal Me, ADONAI, and I Will Be Healed,
Save Me and I Will Be Saved
Jeremiah’s Fifth Complaint
17: 12-18

Heal me, ADONAI, and I will be healed, same me and I will be saved DIG: What are Jeremiah’s countrymen saying about his ability to prophesy? What was the test of a prophet (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)? How did Yirmeyahu ask God to prove him right? How will the coming disaster bring both hope and terror to Jeremiah? Of what does Yirmeyahu need healing? How might he be confused with a false prophet?

REFLECT: Are there prophets today? Or is the canon of Scripture closed (Revelation 22:18-19)? What prompts people to become false teachers today? Do you think they believe what they’re preaching (Jude 10 and Second Peter 2:12)? How honest are you with yourself? Could your heart be deceiving you about the motives of some of your actions at work? At home? In relationships?

606 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

Yirmeyahu continues to be poised between faith and doubt. There are seven passages in the book of Jeremiah labeled complaints or confessions: (1) to see link click Ax – Oh, Adonai ELOHIM, Surely You Have Deceived This People; (2) Bj – The Plot Against Jeremiah; (3) Bk – Why Does the Way of the Wicked Prosper? Why Do All the Faithless Live at Ease?; (4) Cm – Woe to Me, Mother, That You Gave Me Birth; (5) Cs – Heal Me ADONAI, and I Will Be Healed, Save Me and I Will Be Saved; (6) Cx – Jeremiah’s Response to a Threat Against His Life; and (7) Db – You Deceived Me, LORD, and I Have Been Deceived. In each of these Yirmeyahu speaks in the first person. He opens his heart. He reveals what is going on inside while the fireworks are going off outside. Jeremiah’s inner life is revealed in these confessions/complaints/prayers. When the priest from Anathoth was out of the public’s eye he was passionate with God. He confessed/complained/prayed like we all do. This was his secret life. This was a man of prayer.¹⁶⁶

Isra’el’s forsaken her hope: For the righteous of the TaNaKh, the glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, was the place of their Sanctuary (17:12). YHVH was enthroned above the ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy Place. God wanted them to come to the Temple with the right heart attitude, a reverent attitude, as if entering holy ground. But the attitude of the vast majority of people in Jeremiah’s day bordered on blasphemy, which led the citizens of Y’hudah and Tziyon to believe that mere association with the Temple and its rituals was the only demand that Ha’Shem made upon them. Clearly they had lost their way. Because of their hearts of stone, their sacrifices meant nothing.¹⁶⁷

Jeremiah cried out: ADONAI, You are the hope of the united kingdom of Isra’el; but now she has forsaken the Sh’khinah glory (see the commentary on Isaiah Ju – The Glory of the LORD Rises Upon You). All who forsake You will be put to shame. Those who depart from You will be written in the dust (17:13a). Words written in the dust are contrasted to words engraved in the rock. The former are easily obliterated and forgotten, so will be the fate of those who depart from ADONAI.¹⁶⁸

Their names would be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water (17:13b; also see my commentary on The Life of Christ Gp – On the Last and Greatest Day of the Feast). There is, however, an inherent danger in forsaking the blessed hope (Titus 2:13). It means, in essence, that Y’hudah had forsaken her only hope. She had forsaken the very source of salvation itself! What she needed to do was to turn to ADONAI in faith. Then she would live. The logic of the argument is the same as the shuwb summons of Amos: Seek Me and live (Amos 5:4), or the instruction in Deuteronomy 30:19 to choose life.

Heal me, ADONAI, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for You are the One I praise (17:14; R’Fayanu, from the Amidah). Today, the fact that you are reading this probably means that you are saved . . . and that is a miracle. There are people who have had their life changed. There are alcoholics and drug addicts who have been redeemed. There are people who were living an immoral life that have turned around and are walking in a different direction. There are people whose home was breaking up that have been given a new love and a new relationship. Did that happen because deeds or because of His grace?

For most in this world, it seems too simple to be saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Messiah alone. So in Galatians, Paul declares his gospel of grace over and over and over again. It is not what we do . . . it is what He does. Some people think to themselves, “Surely there must be SOMETHING I have to do to have a right standing before ADONAI!” The Philippian jailer said: What must I do to be saved? And Paul’s answer was: Put your trust in the Lord Yeshua and you will be saved (Acts 16:30-31).

What does putting your faith/trust/belief (Greek: pisteuo from pistis) in Messiah mean? If someone gave you a check for a million dollars as a gift and you go to the bank and speak to the teller and say, “Wow! Can you believe someone gave me this check for a million dollars!” She would say, “I’ve never seen anything like that. How wonderful for you.” Then the teller would say, “But you have to endorse it.” And after you endorse that check, you leave the bank and start telling people that you had earned that money just because you signed your name to it. Would anyone believe you? No! There is no way that anyone would believe that endorsing a check would mean that you worked for the million dollars.

Over two thousand years ago, God wrote a check and made it out to you for eternal life. And He wrote it in the name of Yeshua Messiah. And the way we endorse that check, the way we receive that gift is our faith/trust/belief in Yeshua Messiah, His crucifixion on Calvary and resurrection. It is believing that Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (First Corinthians 15:3b-4). It is nothing we do; but merely receiving the free gift of salvation that He has offered, in the same way that someone endorses a check.

Have you endorsed your check?

The reason Yirmeyahu asks God to save him, to rescue him, to vindicate him, from any situation is because God has been Jeremiah’s praise. The prophet is now being attacked and accused of being a false prophet. He has spent years prophesying, but his prophecies have not yet been fulfilled. It had been about twenty years since he had been appointed as a prophet (see Ai – Josiah Ruled For 31 Years from 640 to 609 BC), and it would be another twenty years until Judah would fall (see Gb – The Destruction of Solomon’s Temple on Tisha B’Av in 586 BC).

They keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the LORD?” And as if mocking me, they say: Let it now be fulfilled if true (17:15)! Moshe had defined how a false prophet could be identified: If what a prophet proclaims in the name of ADONAI does not take place or come true, that is a message ADONAI has not spoken (Deuteronomy 18:22a). There were both near historical and far eschatological prophecies. The problem with the near historical prophecies is that sometimes what was prophesied would take a few years, or in the best scenario, a few months to happen. Then the true prophet of God would be vindicated. The problem Yirmeyahu faced was that the LORD’s judgment had mercifully been delayed and, as a result, the people doubted his message. YHVH knew His judgment was coming . . . Jeremiah knew it was coming . . . but the people doubted.

The people of Jerusalem began to cast doubt and poke fun at Jeremiah’s prophetic office. Yirmeyahu vindicated his ministry to God in three ways. First, I have not run away from being your shepherd. In other words, I had no intention of hastily abandoning my ministry because of the suffering it has entailed. The prophet has not refused to follow God’s direction or to be God’s servant. Second, You know I have not vindictively desired the day of despair (that he had been prophesying). And third, what passes my lips is open before you so that this coming disaster could be averted. The LORD had known all of his prophecies because they originated from Him (17:16).

The prophet believes that YHVH’s judgment is sure, but he wants it sooner rather than later, and he does not doubt who deserves it. Protect me! Do not be a source of terror to me; You are my refuge in the day of disaster. Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction (17:17-18). Yirmeyahu asks that he might be brought through it all without being terrorized, shamed or destroyed. He entrusts his vengeance to God and will not take matters into his own hands.

God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything (First John 3:20). Because of this, the Lord knows exactly how to help us. Lasting heart-level change and real progress with our problems originate with ADONAI. Trusting Him and living to please Him means we can flourish and be truly free.

Here we find Yirmeyahu praying, addressing ADONAI, and listening to God. When we pray we approach YHVH as a living person, not merely “getting in touch with our spiritual side.” Prayer is the attention that we give to the one who attends to us. It is the decision to approach the Almighty as the center of our life, as our Lord and Savior. Prayer is personal language raised to the highest degree. The six confessions/complaints/prayers show the prophet in his unguarded and most personal times with Ha’Shem.

Nearly everyone believes in God and throws casual offhand remarks in His general direction from time to time. But prayer is something quite different. Imagine yourself at dinner with a person whom you very much want to be with. The dinner is in a fine restaurant where everything is arranged to give you a sense of privacy. There is adequate lighting at your table with everything else in the shadows. You are aware of the other people and activity in the room, but they do not intrude on your intimacy. There is talking and listening. There are moments of silence, full of meaning. From time to time a waiter comes to your table. You ask questions of him; you place your order with him; you ask to have your glass filled; you send the broccoli back because it arrived cold; you thank him for his attentive service and leave a tip. You depart, still in companionship with the person with whom you dined, but out on the street conversation is less personal, more casual.

This is a picture of prayer. The person with whom we set aside time for intimacy, for this deepest and most personal conversation, is ADONAI. At such times the world is not banished, but it is in the shadows, on the periphery. Prayer is never complete and unrelieved solitude; it is, though, carefully protected and skillfully supported intimacy. Prayer is the desire to listen to YHVH firsthand, to speak to Him firsthand, and then setting aside the time and making the arrangements to make it happen. Prayer originates from the belief that the living God is extremely important and that what goes on between us demands my full attention.

But there is a parody of prayer that we engage in all too often. The details are the same but with two differences, the person across the table is Self and the waiter is God. This waiter-God is essential but peripheral. You can’t have the dinner without Him, but He’s not an intimate participant in it. He’s someone to whom you give orders and maybe at the end, give thanks. The person you are absorbed in is Self – your moods, your ideas, your interests, your needs, and your satisfactions or lack of them. When you leave the restaurant you forget about the Waiter until the next time. And if it’s a place to which you go regularly . . . you might even remember His name.¹⁶⁹

Blessed is the One Who Trusts in the LORD,
Whose Confidence is in Him
17: 1-11

Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him DIG: Upon what is Jeremiah relying? In what was Judah trusting? What was the evidence of this? How does this contrast with the gods of other nations, their altars and Asherah poles (see Exodus 34:12-14)? In contrast to the cursed drought conditions that prevail, what blessed hope does Jeremiah cling to and hold out to others? Why does Jeremiah call the human heart deceitful above all things? What is the one main point of the parable in verse 11?

REFLECT: What times of spiritual “drought” have you experienced? What keeps you going during those dry times? Where are your roots? Are you rooted in Christ? Are you the bridge that leads others to Him? At present, are you feeling more like a bush in the wastelands or a tree planted by the water? Why? What is the relationship between the mind and our actions? Are you eternally secure in Messiah? Why? Why not?

606 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

Judah’s indelible sin: Y’hudah’s wickedness is indelibly engraved with an iron tool or an engraver’s chisel, inscribed with a diamond point (external). The surface on which such an iron tool operated was normally stone, but here we see a picture of Judah’s sin being engraved on the tablets of their hardened hearts (internal). Their guilt had penetrated deep into their hearts, their innermost being. But, at the same time, their disgrace was openly flaunted as though they had written it on the horns of their altars (17:1).

The very place that was meant to atone for sin became sin . . . the sin of idolatry. The horns of the altar were set on top of the bronze altar at each of the four corners to hold the wood for the fire and the sacrifice. The blood of the animal was smeared onto the horns of the altar to atone for sin. After being slaughtered, the blood of the bull was then put on the four horns of the bronze altar with the finger of Moshe, and the rest was poured out at the base of the altar. That act purified the bronze altar, because the blood purified that on which it was smeared. It was then ready for sacrificial use (see the commentary on Exodus, to see link click Gh – Bring a Bull to the Front of the Tabernacle and Slaughter It There). Jeremiah’s intent here is to demonstrate that the offerings that were made in his day had no atoning value; they were merely external, for show, with no internal substance.

Idolatry was so pervasive that even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles erected in honor of the Queen of Heaven (see Cd – They Knead dough and Make Cakes for the Queen of Heaven). They put those forbidden Asherah poles everywhere, beside the spreading trees and on the high hills (17:2). While the people offered sacrifices to YHVH they continued to be involved in the worship of the Canaanite deities, a clear rejection of the sole sovereignty of ADONAI and their covenant with Him (see the commentary on Exodus Dk – You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me). Little wonder that Yirmeyahu saw Y’hudah’s guilt as something deeply engraved on their hearts.

The LORD declared: My mountain in the Land (Mount Zion), the location of the Temple in Jerusalem (Psalm 24:3; Isaiah 2:3; Zechariah 8:3) and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of your habitual sinfulness throughout your country. Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance (the Land, the City, the Temple) I gave you (17:3-4a). This is precisely what happened in 586 BC (see Ga – The Fall of Jerusalem).

Here Jeremiah is connecting the word inheritance with the Sabbatical Year (let the Land lie unplowed and unused in Exodus 23:11 and Deuteronomy 15:1-2), with the disinheritance from the Land itself. One of the reasons given for the captivity is that Y’hudah failed to observe the Sabbatical Year. Throughout the period that Judah lived in the Land there should have been a total of seventy Sabbatical Years that should have been observed but were not. On that basis, YHVH decided that Babylon’s dominance over Judah would last seventy years (see Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). One year for each Sabbatical Year not observed in the Land. Because Judah refused to obey God’s Word, she would receive this judgment: I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled My anger, and it will burn until (Hebrew: ad) My wrath has been satisfied (17:4b).

Contrast between trust in man and trust in God: This is what ADONAI says: Cursed is the mighty one (Hebrew: geber) who trusts in lowly mankind (Hebrew: adam), who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD. People like that will be like bushes in the wastelands that never become full-grown trees because their growth is stunted. They will not see prosperity when it comes because they will never be capable of producing any fruit. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt (Deuteronomy 29:23) land where no one lives (17:5-6).

But, by contrast, blessed is the one who trusts in ADONAI, whose confidence is in Him (17:7). Just prior to His crucifixion, Yeshua told His talmidim that He would be leaving them. Where I am going you cannot follow now, but you will follow later. Such a statement was bound to stir some questions. Peter spoke for the others and asked: Lord, why can’t I follow You now (Yochanan 13:36-37). Jesus’ reply reflected the tenderness of a parent to a child: Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in Me. There are many rooms in My Father’s house; I would not tell you this if it were not true. I am going there to prepare a place for you . . . I will come back and take you to be with Me so that you may be wherever I am going (John 14:1-3). Reduce the paragraph to a sentence and it might read, “You do the trusting and I’ll do the taking.”

The people who live in Cherrapunji, India, have developed a unique way to get across the many rivers and streams in their land. They grow bridges from the roots of rubber trees. These “living bridges” take between 10 to 15 years to mature, but once they are established, they are extremely stable and last for hundreds of years. The Bible compares a person who trusts in God to be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. Because this tree is well nourished it does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit (17:7-8). Like a firmly rooted tree, people who rely on ADONAI have a sense of stability and vitality despite the worst of circumstances. In contrast, people who place their trust in others often live with a sense of instability. The Bible compares them to living in a salt land where no one lives (17:6). So it is with the spiritual lives of people who forsake YHVH.¹⁶³

The spiritual condition of the human heart: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. The Hebrew uses the medical term for incurably sick (15:18, 30:12). Who can understand it? The answer is in the next verse: I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct (see the commentary on Revelation Cc – We Must All Appear Before the Judgment Seat of Christ), according to what their deeds deserve (17:9-10).

The world teaches that we are born “good.” Actually Judaism teaches the same thing. This is one area where Christianity and Judaism differ greatly. But the Bible teaches that we are born with a sin nature/totally depraved (Genesis 6:5; Ephesians 4:18-19; Romans 1:18-32; Titus 1:15). This does not mean that the unregenerate person is totally insensitive in matters of conscience, of right and wrong (Romans 2:15). Further, total depravity does not mean that the sinful people are as sinful as they can be. There are lost people who are genuinely humane, who show kindness, generosity and love to others, who are good, devoted spouses and parents. But their actions do not aide in their salvation in any way. Finally, the doctrine of total depravity does not mean that the sinner engages in every possible form of sin.

Then what do we mean, positively, by the idea of total depravity? First, sin is a matter of the entire person, such as the body or the mind. Certainly several passages make clear that the body is affected (Romans 6:6 and 12, 7:24, 8:10 and 13). Other verses tell us that the mind or the reason is involved (Romans 1:21-2; Second Corinthians 3:14-15, 4:4). That the emotions are also involved is amply attested (Romans 1:26-27; Galatians 5:24 and Second Timothy 3:2-4, where the ungodly are described as being lovers of self and pleasure rather than lovers of God). Finally, it is evident that the will is also affected. The unregenerate person does not have a truly free will because he or she is a slave to sin. Rabbi Sha’ul starkly describes the Romans as having once been slaves to sin (6:17).

Sometimes sinfulness is covered with a genteel layer of charm and graciousness. Yet, as the doctrine of total depravity indicates, under that veneer is a wicked heart not truly inclined to God. Then we have the puzzling problem of “Mr. or Mrs. Nice,” the very pleasant, thoughtful, helpful, generous unbeliever. It is at times hard to think of this type of person as sinful and in need of regeneration. How can such a person be a desperately wicked, selfish, rebellious sinner? But it’s not a matter of what we think of as unpleasant. It is, rather, a matter of failure to love, honor, and serve ADONAI. Consequently, even the likeable and kindly person is in need of the gospel of new life in Jesus Christ, just as much as any obnoxious, crude, and thoughtless person.¹⁶⁴

The fate of the unscrupulous: Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means (17:11a). It is likely that Jeremiah directed his ire specifically at King Jehoiakim. This verse sounds like a proverb, something like, “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched,” and in a way it is. When the eggs hatch and the chicks realize the partridge was not the mother, they leave the partridge. The poor foolish partridge looks all over the place for another bird’s eggs, but is never sure of hatching them at all. It is humiliating to be compared to a poor bird that cannot keep the eggs it hatches, the more so if one happens to be king.¹⁶⁵

When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools (17:11b). The prosperity of the wicked is merely a passing delusion. Like this bird, the person who amasses riches unjustly, gets nothing in the end. It is soon gone and the one who worshiped the accumulation of wealth is shown to be a fool. The Hebrew word for fools, nabal, does not necessarily imply weakness of intellect, but can also mean a lack of moral understanding, or the inability to distinguish between right and wrong. The one main point of this parable is blessed is the one who trusts in ADONAI (instead of riches), whose confidence is in Him.

Judah’s Sin and the LORD’s Sovereignty
17: 1-27

606 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

ADONAI’s sovereignty constitutes an offer of life. In these images the LORD does not so much intervene in judgment. Rather, life works out its own destiny, but where there is no water (here meaning God) – death is certain. Y’hudah was running out of choices. Her best choice would be to return (shuwb) to the LORD in faith. Then she would most assuredly live. It had been said in different ways beforehand: Moshe had said: choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19); and Amos had said: Seek Me and live (Amos 5:4). The poetry of Jeremiah, however, is much more subtle, requiring us to delve deeper into the Scriptures.

Judah’s turning away (shuwb) indicated that she had rejected her only means of life – and so death would be the natural consequence. She needed to come to terms with her Maker, the only source of her existence. He is the source of her well being (17:8), hope (17:13a), and source of life (17:13c). If, on the other hand, the LORD is rejected by the one who trusts in man (17:5), like the deceitful heart (17:19), the greedy and the ones who leave the living well (17:13), then death is inevitable. The wisdom statements seen in this section are placed in the middle of some very harsh prophetic judgments over Jerusalem. Clearly wisdom would be needed to change her destiny. If not, she had as much of a chance of living as a shrub in the desert, a wanderer without water, a partridge taking a baby bird, or a greedy one keeping wealth. When Judah turned her back on God, it was her way of rejecting ADONAI’s gift of spiritual life.

Judgment Before Final Restoration to the Land
16: 14-21

Judgment before final restoration to the Land DIG: What rays of hope do you see in this otherwise dismal picture? What great event in Y’hudah’s past did YHVH say would be exceeded by His eventual deliverance? What is so doubly detestable to God about idol worship that fishermen and hunters would be sent after them? Judgment will come before the final restoration of Judah back to the Land.

REFLECT: While you are going through difficult times in your life, what promises do you have from Yeshua Messiah? Everything will turn out ok? Is that true? Is there a new restoration in your lifetime? How so? Beyond the grave? How so? Are you sure?

607 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

The new restoration: However, the days are coming, declares ADONAI, when it will no longer be said, “As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt.” When Jeremiah (under the direction of the Holy Spirit) uses the phrase in the days to come; the days are coming; in those days; in that day, at that time; or for the time will surely come, the context points either to the near historical future or the far eschatological future and which one should be used. This is the sixth of twenty-five times that Yirmeyahu uses one of these phrases.

Before Jeremiah’s day the exodus was the high point of Jewish history. But two higher points of Jewish history have yet to come when it will be said: As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north (in the near historical future of the return of the Babylonian exiles) . . . and . . . out of all the countries (plural) where I had banished them (in the far eschatological future at the end of the Great Tribulation), I will restore them to the Land I gave their ancestors (16:14-15). So even though the immediate future looked extremely bleak, there was a bright future ahead.

There is a heretical movement today called the Hebrew Roots movement that perverts these scriptures (see the commentary on Galatians, to see link click Ak – The Hebrew Roots Movement: A Different Gospel). They do not believe in the Trinity or that the Holy Spirit is a Person. Founded in 1994, they are basically Gentiles teaching a return to the slavery of the 613 commandments of Moses. Like the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ they mistakenly believe that the Ruach Ha’Kodesh is merely energy, like electricity. They use Jeremiah 16:14-15 to teach, what they call, the Greater, or Second Exodus. Meaning that before Yeshua’s Second Coming, God’s people will return to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To that end, they teach desert survival techniques. But here, Yirmeyahu isn’t referring to a regathering now, but at the end of the Dispensation of the Great Tribulation.

Judgment before final restoration: The rounding up of the population is graphically described under the imagery of fishing and hunting. But now I will send for many fishermen to fish for Jewish idolaters, declares God, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters to hunt for the Israelites, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. Why? Because of the sins of the nation. My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from Me, nor is their sin concealed from My eyes (16:16-17).

I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled My Land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled My inheritance with their detestable idols (16:18). The reason the Jews will suffer more than anyone else, especially during the Great Tribulation, is because of the principle found here of double punishment (Isaiah 40:1-2). What Jeremiah has said in these verses he will elaborate on more fully in Chapters 31-33.

The conversion of the Gentiles: Then Jeremiah replied: LORD, my strength and my refuge in time of distress, to You the [Gentile] nations will come from the ends of the earth and say: Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good. Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they, in reality, are not gods at all. But merely images made of wood and stone (16:19-20)! They will say, “How could we ever have believed the work of our hands to be a god?”

They had done this in the past but they will do it no more. The context here is the far eschatological future (16:15). Untold millions of Gentiles will be saved from all over the world during the Great Tribulation (see the commentary on Revelation Fk – Gentiles in the Messianic Kingdom). In Zechariah 14:16-19 we learn that the survivors of the Great Tribulation will go up year after year to Jerusalem to worship the LORD and to celebrate the festival of Sukkot. If, however, a particular nation does not go up, they will be stricken with drought. Then ADONAI answered His prophet, saying: Therefore, I will teach them – this time I will teach them My power and might. Then they will know that My name is the LORD (16:21). They will then be convinced that I AM indeed King and Ruler, able to fulfill My promises and enforce My decrees.

You Must Not Marry and
Have Sons and Daughters in This Place
Jeremiah’s First Symbolic Action
16: 1-13

You must no marry and have sons and daughters in this place DIG: What three activities of normal human life does God forbid Jeremiah? Why? What is his abstinence from these things supposed to convey to the people? How do you suppose Jeremiah coped with the loneliness that came with his particular calling? How does Jeremiah 16:6-7 make you feel about the desolation in store for Judah? In what way will the exiled Judeans serve other gods?

REFLECT: When have you had to make sacrifices to serve the LORD? When? How? Are there activities you have given up in order to be more effective in God’s service? Why? What happens when you keep turning your back on God (15:6 NASB)? Why doesn’t Ha’Shem have pity on the wicked dead? What would it mean for God to withdraw His blessing or consolation from you? Has that ever happened to you? How did you know it was happening at the time? How did you get it back? What did you do?

607 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

The one main point to the first symbolic action (what might be called a parable in action)
is that Jeremiah’s hardship would be symbolic of that which awaited the nation.

Jeremiah (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) uses Hosea a lot even though they had different messages. God told Hosea that he would marry a woman, but he would not be happily married. This would be a symbolic action to the northern kingdom of Isra’el. On the other hand, Jeremiah was not to marry. And his not marrying would serve as a symbolic action to the southern kingdom of Judah.

Then the word of ADONAI came to me:
The first hardship: You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place (16:1-2). This is a sign that the covenant relationship was null and void. The LORD gave Yirmeyahu a good reason why he was not to marry. Hard and difficult times were coming, and his family might be killed in the siege of Jerusalem. For this is what the LORD says about the sons and daughters born in this Land and about the women who are their mothers and the men who are their fathers: they will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like dung lying on the ground. To be denied burial was considered by the Jews to be one of the greatest dishonors that could be inflicted upon a human being. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds and wild animals (16:3-4). We can also assume that God did not want to subject a wife and children to the suffering that His prophet would have to undergo.

But all of that must have been of little comfort to Yirmeyahu, because if by nature and temperament anyone ever needed a wife and family it was he. In spite of everything, however, he was forced to go through life alone. His neighbors and relatives turned against him, just at the times when he needed them the most. His true friends could be counted on the fingers of one hand: Ahikam, Ebed-Melek, Baruch. And even from these he was separated for long periods of time by being placed in various prisons and dungeons, although his only crime was that he continually issued warnings about the coming judgment of God. Each successive king after Josiah considered Jeremiah an enemy of the court, although if they had only known the truth, they would have realized that Yirmeyahu was by far the best friend they ever had. But nobody likes a prophet of doom.¹⁵⁹

The second hardship: YHVH tells Jeremiah that he wasn’t to take part of the normal joys and sorrows of life, because his life was totally devoted to God. For this is what God says: Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or have sympathy, because I have withdrawn My peace (Hebrew: shalom), My steadfast love (Hebrew: chesed) and My mercy (Hebrew: racham) from this people, declares the LORD. Both high and low will die in this Land. They will not be buried or mourned. The magnitude of the slaughter will prohibit individual mourning (16:5-6a). This will be shown in three ways.

First, no one will cut themselves (16:6b). This was common among the pagans (First Kings 18:28), but the Torah forbid it (Leviticus 19:28, 21:5; Deuteronomy 14:1), although (surprise, surprise) some Jews did practice it! They were very fond of tattooing. Or, secondly, shave their head for the dead (16:6c) which was common in their culture (Ezra 9:3; Job 1:20; Isaiah 22:12; Amos 8:10; Micah 1:16; Ezekiel 7:18). Thirdly, no one will offer food to comfort those who mourn (Second Samuel 3:35, 12:16-17; Hosea 9:4) for the dead – not even for a father or mother – nor will anyone give them a drink of wine to console them (16:7). It was customary for the friends of mourners to provide them with their first meal after the funeral (Second Samuel 3:35; Ezeki’el 24:17; Hosea 9:4). In addition, the mourner drank a special cup of wine, which included a prayer for comfort.

The third hardship: And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink (16:8). Why? God was removing the sounds of joy and gladness. For this is what ADONAI of heaven’s angelic armies, the God of Isra’el, says: Before your eyes and in your days, in your lifetime, I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and groom in this place (16:9). Marriages in the Near East are celebrated by processions of friends, who throng the streets and give noisy demonstrations of their joy.¹⁶⁰ Imagine the scandal this abstention would have caused.

The abstention from marriage, however, was an even greater scandal. There is no parallel for such a call in the rest of the TaNaKh; no one else undertook such a gesture. We in our time are accustomed to the existence of celibate priests and to lay men and women who abstain from marriage, but there was no such notion in Isra’el.¹⁶¹

Having dealt with the three areas of hardship in Jeremiah’s life, God now applies this to the nation. In the course of time people will begin to recognize Jeremiah’s three areas of hardship and they will begin to ask questions because those hardships would so strongly go against the Jewish culture of the day. When you tell these people all this and they ask you, “Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against ADONAI our God? At that point, Yirmeyahu was to give them an answer. Then say to them, “It is because your ancestors forsook Me,” declares the LORD, “and followed other gods and served and worshiped them.” They forsook the One True God and did not keep His Torah. But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying Me (16:10-12). What seemed perfectly obvious to God and His prophet escaped the obvious conclusion that the Israelites had brought this on themselves. They had not listened and relied on themselves. Now judgment was at the door.

So I will throw you out of this Land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known (although Babylon is not mentioned yet), and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor (16:13). How ironic! Banished from the Holy Land to a country where idolatry was the norm, they would have greater opportunity to indulge in their partiality for pagan worship.

In the initial decades of the Babylonian Captivity Dani’el and his three Hebrew friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were pointed out as the exception for not worshiping other idols. The fact that they were brought up as the exception demonstrates that idol worship was the rule, rather than the exception. Therefore, God would show the Israelites no favor during that time.

Nevertheless, everyone must have companionship. Without a friend, any of us would dry up inside. At best we would become eccentric, at worst insane. Yirmeyahu knew this, and so he built up extensive spiritual reserves that served him well when he was isolated. He knew ADONAI was a friend who would never fail him, because at the very beginning of his ministry YHVH had said to him, “I am with you and will rescue you” (1:8 and 19).

In his NIV Application commentary on Jeremiah, Andrew Dearman recounts the costs of discipleship. In certain circles of believers the family has taken on nearly idolatrous status. The good news is that believers are rightfully concerned about the breakup of the primary social unit in society . . . the family, but marriage and family are not the ultimate destination in the life of faith. ADONAI uses those who are widowed or never married, or even those who are married and without children, in special ministries. God’s Kingdom is full of servants, whose celibacy and/or childlessness have become more than a social stigma, they have become the means of God’s Kingdom to grow.

One of the most distinguished evangelical spokesmen in the twentieth century, John Stott, never married. His personal view on the goodness of marriage and family are well known. The fruit of his rich ministry, including valuable publications and a long series of public travels for preaching and lectures, is a testimony to the use of the time he had as a single person. There are many others to numerous to count.

John Calvin’s prayer at the end of Jeremiah 16 is worth quoting and pondering: All-powerful God, You are not content to give only one small corner of the earth to Your servants, You are pleased to extend Your Kingdom to the ends of the earth and make Your home with us through Your only Son in whatever place we are. Give us the grace that we may offer ourselves to You in sacrifice. Give us the grace to arrange our life in obedience to Your Word, that Your name be glorified in us and by us, finally we are made participants in the eternal glory acquired through Your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.¹⁶²

Jeremiah’s Self-Denial
as a Message to the Nation
16: 1-21

607 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

The life of a man or woman of God is hard, let alone a prophet of God. In order to get the attention of the people, ADONAI sometimes told the prophets to do unusual things. Isaiah gave two of his son’s odd names, which he used to convey a message to the nation (see the commentary on Isaiah, to see link click Cf – The Sign of Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz). Isaiah also dressed like a prisoner of war to call attention to a coming conflict (see the commentary on Isaiah Eh – The Oracle Concerning Egypt and Ethiopia).

The whole section is in an autobiographical style. Given the importance of children in that culture, this prohibition would have been startling to both the prophet and the people. The deprivations pictured here made Jeremiah’s life a picture of the terrible fate that awaited the nation (Co – You Must Not Marry and Have Sons and Daughters). Yeshua said it a different way: Take up your cross and follow Me (Matthew 16:24). The next file shows that the word of judgment is not God’s last word with respect to this people. The days are coming when YHVH will once again show favor and return (shuwb) Isra’el from exile (Cp – Judgment Before Final Restoration to the Land).

Woe to Me, Mother, That You Gave Me Birth
Jeremiah’s Fourth Complaint
15: 10-21

Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth DIG: Why does Jeremiah think God is being unfair? Would you agree? Why does Jeremiah wish he’d never been born? What other reward for his dedication to God was he expecting? Does God console him or punish him here? Of what does Jeremiah need to repent? How does YHVH use both the “carrot” and the “stick” with His prophet?

REFLECT: If you would go back and change anything in your life, what would you change? What would you wish could have happened instead? Do you think serving the Lord was a pleasant task for Jeremiah? Would you have liked his ministry? Do you ever feel unrewarded for your dedication? Unappreciated by God? By others? How does God equip you for your ministry? Where do you receive encouragement and support? How honest are you with God in prayer? Who is in first place in your life? How can you tell?

608 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

“Talking to God, I felt, is always better than talking about God; those pious conversations – there’s always a touch of self-approval about them.”
Therese of Lisieux, Autobiography of a Saint

There are seven passages in the book of Jeremiah labeled complaints or confessions: (1) to see link click Ax – Oh, Adonai ELOHIM, Surely You Have Deceived This People; (2) Bj – The Plot Against Jeremiah; (3) Bk – Why Does the Way of the Wicked Prosper? Why Do All the Faithless Live at Ease?; (4) Cm – Woe to Me, Mother, That You Gave Me Birth; (5) Cs – Heal Me ADONAI, and I Will Be Healed, Save Me and I Will Be Saved; (6) Cx – Jeremiah’s Response to a Threat Against His Life; and (7) Db – You Deceived Me, LORD, and I Have Been Deceived. In each of these Yirmeyahu speaks in the first person. He opens his heart. He reveals what is going on inside while the fireworks are going off outside. Jeremiah’s inner life is revealed in these confessions/complaints/prayers. When Jeremiah was out of the public’s eye he was passionate with God. He confessed/complained/prayed like we all do. This was his secret life. This was a man of prayer.¹⁵³

These confessions/complaints/prayers of Jeremiah are no satire, but the real thing – exclusive focus on God: intense, undivided preoccupation with ADONAI. This accounts for much that is powerful and appealing in Yirmeyahu. Here is the source of the personal intensity and incorruptible integrity that is so impressive in his character.

What goes on in these intimate exchanges between the prophet and YHVH? We know who he’s with in private. But what does he say in private? Jeremiah’s complaint here is a fair sample. He’s frightened . . . lonely . . . hurt . . . and angry.

Jeremiah’s superficial complaint: Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth, a man who is the object of strife and controversy throughout the Land! I neither lend nor borrow, yet all of them curse me (15:10 CJB). The prophet’s fearless denunciations of the people’s sins and his dark warnings about their future had brought about no reform. Their only response was intense bitterness towards him personally. In a mood of depression, he laments his plight and wishes that he had never been born.

God’s answer: First a word of encouragement. Depression doesn’t need to overcome him. ADONAI said: Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will make your enemies plead with you in times of disaster and times of distress (15:11). Jeremiah will be able to accomplish the ministry that God has given him. The LORD promises him that there will come a day when the very enemies who speak against him and curse him will come to Yirmeyahu asking for his help (21:1-2, 37:3, 38:14-26, 42:1-3). Can a man break iron – iron from the north (the best and hardest iron came from the Black Sea) – or bronze (15:12)? As hard as it is for a man to break iron, that’s how hard it will be for Y’hudah to stand against Jeremiah. Then YHVH gave a message to those who threaten His prophet: Your wealth you’re your treasures I will give as plunder, without charge, you will receive nothing from the enemy for what he takes of your possessions because of all your sins throughout your country. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for My anger will kindle a fire that will burn against you (15:13-14). Later we will be told that land will be named Babylon.

Jeremiah’s real complaint: Jeremiah starts out by describing his own standing before God. LORD, you understand how I have suffered in carrying out the commission entrusted to me; remember me and care for me. Jeremiah starts out by acknowledging that ADONAI is always in a position to understand (literally “know”) him and what he was going through. Nevertheless, he pleaded: Avenge me on my persecutors (15:15a). Yirmeyahu was frightened. Cursed and hunted down, there was no safe place for him. The plots against his life, the physical beatings and cruel confinements that he suffered all come out in this prayer. The prophet was speaking what he was experiencing. It’s clear that he neither accepted nor liked it. It was as if he was saying, “God, you got me into this mess, now get me out of it!” The priest from Anathoth continues by contrasting his own sense of urgency with ADONAI’s deliberate patience.

Knowing from experience how patient ADONAI often is with evildoers, he acknowledges: You are longsuffering. The words of Moshe come to mind when he said to YHVH, “You are slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6). Therefore, Jeremiah pleaded with the LORD: Do not take me away (15:15b). This is an expression often referring to termination of life on this earth and the translation to the afterlife (Genesis 5:23; Psalm 49:15 and 73:24). His persecutors were seeking his life, and he pleaded that God would intervene. Think of how I suffer reproach for Your sake (15:15c). He struggled to resolve his awareness of God’s unhurried, measured pace with the panicky feeling that time was running out on him. It was as if he was saying, “Don’t be so lenient with my persecutors that they have time to kill me. Remember, it’s for your sake that I have suffered all this.” There is desperation in that sentence. The mills of God turn slowly while the engines of persecution run exceedingly swift. Our compulsive timetables collide with God’s leisurely providence. We sometimes like to think that we can tell the LORD not only what to do but when to do it.

Jeremiah next prayed about his loneliness. When Your words were found (NKJ), I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear Your name, ADONAI of heaven’s angelic armies (Jeremiah 15:16 and compare the imagery here with Ezekiel 2:7-3:3). Yirmeyahu had received God’s Word enthusiastically and was called to his prophetic ministry one year after the scroll of Deuteronomy had been found during Josiah’s reform movement (see Ai – Josiah Ruled For 31 Years from 640 to 609 BC). It was holy work, but a lonely business. It meant years of solitude. The laughing, merrymaking majority went its way, and the prophet went his. In lonely reflection, listening to God’s still small voice (First Kings 19:11-13), he preached the truth that he lived out. He took God’s Word more seriously than any human word. But he found out that no one was with him . . . he was all by himself. What would he do? Go back to the party until others decided to come along? He couldn’t do that. He was committed. I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because Your hand was on me and You had filled me with indignation (15:17). Having acquired a taste for God’s truth, he couldn’t return to the bland diet of gossip and rumor. Nevertheless, it was a lonely business.¹⁵⁴

Finally, Jeremiah got down to what was really bothering him (like many of us, this takes time). Then the prophet prayed his hurt. Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable (15:18a)? Yirmeyahu was deeply wounded by the sin of the masses, the cruelty of the wicked, and the frivolous indifference of the everyday crowd. He hurt because he cared so much. He was ADONAI’s mouthpiece to a fickle people. The prophet personally felt the sting of unreturned love; having identified so thoroughly with YHVH’s message, he also felt the rejection in every bone in his body. Their irreverence cut him; their open rebellion bruised him; their thoughtless rituals were like salt in an open wound to him. And there was no cure in sight. The only thing the people could do was to repent and have faith in the LORD. The priest from Anathoth looked in vain for it.

Then the prayer intensifies. Turning from his hurt, now, in a bold burst, he prayed about his anger. You are to me like a deceptive spring, like a [wadi] that fails (15:18b). During the rainy season there is so much water running through it that you would think you were looking at a continual running stream. But as suddenly as the waters appear, they fail. So here Yirmeyahu accused God of failing to keep His promise of protecting him against his enemies (1:18-19). Once he had preached that Ha’Shem was the fountain of living water (2:13), now he calls Him a deceptive brook – one of those steam beds in the desert that looks as if water should be flowing in it but when you arrive the banks are dry. It’s as if Jeremiah were saying, “God You tricked me. You promised but You didn’t deliver.” But what he said to ADONAI teetered perilously on the edge of blasphemy.

This was Yirmeyahu’s prayer: frightened . . . lonely . . . hurt . . . and angry. Surprised? A prophet of God praying that way? All of us can relate. Can’t we? But do we pray them? Jeremiah prayed them! Everything he experienced and thought, he set in relationship to the living God. And when these things were put in their proper perspective, something remarkable happened. Jeremiah stopped speaking but the prayer continued, for prayer does not end when we end. In prayer, ADONAI is not merely the audience . . . He is a partner. The prophet had spoken honestly. Now he was ready to listen.¹⁵⁵

God’s answer began by reminding Yirmeyahu that he had gone beyond complaint to sin and a change of heart and attitude was called for. God honors doubts and complaints that are honest. He wants us to ask the hard questions. But there are lines we should not cross and this is one of them for Jeremiah. Consequently, YHVH spoke to His prophet in the same language used in Chapter 1. Therefore, this is what the LORD said: If you repent (shuwb), I will restore (shuwb) you that you may serve Me (15:19a). The message of repentance that Jeremiah had been delivering to the nation was delivered to him! Could it be that his pouring out of pain was tinged with self-pity? It was as if Elohim was saying, “Yirmeyahu, the fright, the loneliness, the hurt and the anger – I understand. But I won’t indulge you in it. Don’t wallow in it. Turn away from it. Repent. If you will turn away (shuwb) from such talk, then I will restore (shuwb) you to the position of prophet.”

Sometimes our perception of a call is mediated by our life experiences after our initial call that need to be refocused on what we were called to do in the first place. Abraham had two calls (Genesis 12:1-2 and Genesis 15:1-21); King Saul had two coronations (First Samuel 10: 1 and 15); David had two coronations (First Samuel 16:13 and Second Samuel 2:4); and Jeremiah had two calls (see Aj – The Call of Jeremiah) and here.

Jeremiah’s part in the prayer was to be honest and personal. The first requirement in a personal relationship is to be ourselves. We need to be real and take off our masks. Yirmeyahu’s prayer was not pious, not nice, not proper – he spoke what he felt, and he felt scared, lonely, hurt and angry. Well enough. God’s part in the prayer was to restore and save. Prayer changes us. The fear, loneliness and pain are there, but they don’t stay there. Jeremiah was feeling sorry for himself on his knees. Like a good parent the LORD feels our pain, but doesn’t indulge our self-pity. YHVH was as blunt with Yirmeyahu as Yirmeyahu was blunt with the masses. It was as if God was saying, “Repent. Turn away from this kind of thinking because it’s destructive. Then I will restore you, and you will stand upright, ready to serve again in My presence.¹⁵⁶

But Jeremiah was discouraged because the people were not listening. His words had accomplished nothing. His preaching was futile. All he got for his pains was persecution and criticism. Should he change his tune and acquiesce to the itching ears (Second Timothy 4:3) of the people? Should he just give them what they wanted to hear? God stiffened His resolve: If you utter worthy, not worthless words, you will be My spokesman. Let this people turn (shuwb) to you, but you must not turn (shuwb) to them (15:19b). If was as if God were saying to him, “You must not resort to their way of thinking.” The priest from Anathoth needed to be less concerned with what the people were saying and more concerned about what the Almighty was saying. Shouldn’t we all?

Prayer reestablishes our priorities. It makes all the difference in the world whether God is in first place or second place in our lives. Do you have your hands on the steering wheel of your life or does God? If Elohim is in first place the world will not be a safe place for you. We all need to ask ourselves, “What do I really want to do with my life, to please the world or please the LORD?” Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God (James 4:4)?

Then there is a reaffirmation of YHVH’s original promise in 1:18-19: I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you (for more on Immanuel there see the commentary on Isaiah Cb – The LORD Himself Will Give You a Sign) to rescue you, declares ADONAI. I will save you from the hands of the wicked and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel (15:20-21). Yirmeyahu was not promised freedom from suffering; he was promised that he would not be killed. Later, Jeremiah would come close to being executed more than once, but God always intervened. The prophet had heard these words when he was still a young man (1:17-19). Everything Ha’Shem had said then had not changed. It was as if God were saying to Jeremiah, “Let Me remind you of what I said to you so many years ago. It is still true, but first you need to repent.” This rebuke did its job because after this Jeremiah’s opposition grew in intensity, but the prophet from Anathoth would never again regress to using words of this nature. He would weep . . . but he would never doubt again!

It is the same with us today. The Word of God does not change and our call (Jude 1-2). Our relationship, however, is under constant attack by the Adversary. Even though our salvation is secure in Christ (see The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer), our calling needs to be nurtured and reaffirmed through prayer. Resolve is essential but not enough. God provides renewal through prayer. We may or may not learn something new in prayer, but the Eternal One reaffirms our calling and the faith to which we are committed.¹⁵⁷

As Eugene Peterson relates in his book Run With The Horses, the marathon is one of the most grueling athletic events in sport. The Boston Marathon attracts the best runners in the world. The winner is automatically placed among the great athletes of our time. In the spring of 1980, Rosie Ruiz was the first woman to cross the finish line. She had the laurel wreath placed on her head in the flash of lights and cheering.

She was completely unknown in the world of running. An incredible feat! Her first race a victory in the prestigious Boston Marathon! Then someone noticed her legs – loose flesh, cellulite. Questions were asked. No one had seen her along the 26.2 mile course. Then the truth came out that she had jumped into the race during the last mile.

There was immediate and widespread interest in Rosie. Why would she do that when it was certain that she would be found out? Athletic performance cannot be faked. But she never admitted to the fraud. She repeatedly said that she would run another race to validate her ability. But somehow she never did. She lied convincingly and naturally with no sense of conscience, no sense of reality in terms of right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable behavior. She appeared normal and intelligent. But she had no moral compass.

Rosie is a lot like people who want to get to the finish line but who cleverly never run the race. They appear in shul or church on the Shabbat or Sunday wreathed in smiles, entering into the celebration, but there is no personal life that leads up to it or out from it. Occasionally they engage in spectacular acts of love and compassion in public. We are impressed, but surprised, for they were never known to do that before. Yet, you never know. Better give them the benefit of the doubt. Then it turns out to be a stunt: no personal involvement either before or after the act. They seem plausible and convincing. In the end, however, they do not run the race . . . believing through the tough times, praying through the lonely, angry, hurting hours. They have no sense for what is real in a relationship with Christ.

No one becomes faithful the way Jeremiah was faithful by faking it. It was his prayers, hidden but persistent, that molded his faith and brought him to the spiritual sensitivity that we also want. What we do in private determines who we are in public. Prayer is the secret that develops a life that is completely authentic and human.¹⁵⁸

You Have Rejected Me,
and I am Tired of Relenting
15: 5-9

You have rejected Me, and I am tired of relenting DIG: What attitude had set God firmly against the people of Y’hudah here? What is the focus of the verses? Why should Jeremiah’s prophecy about death and captivity gotten their attention? Are you shocked at the severity of the LORD’s judgment? Why?

REFLECT: When have you reacted with scorn or persecution against someone who rocked your boat? How do you react when you are rejected by someone you love? Can you feel ADONAI’s pain here? Can you identify with the One True God as a jilted lover with an adulterous wife? How sad is that!

608 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

Before the Jews even entered the Promised Land, Moshe had rehearsed with them the terms of the covenant, warning them that Ha’Shem would remove them from the Land if they refused to obey His voice (Deuteronomy 28:63-68). No sooner did Joshua and that generation of spiritual leaders pass from the scene (Judges 2:7-15) than the nation turned (shuwb) to idolatry and YHVH had to chasten them. First, He punished them in the Land by allowing other nations to invade and take control. Then, when the people cried out for help, He raised up deliverers (Judges 2:16-23). By the time of Yirmeyahu, however, the wickedness of the people was so great that God had to remove them from the Land and sentence them to exile in Babylon.

Now God elaborates on Jerusalem’s destruction and speaks in the first person. Who will have pity on you, Yerushalayim? Who will mourn for you? Who will stop to ask how you are (Hosea 11:8-9)? Why? You have rejected Me, declares ADONAI. Repentance involves more than confession, it involves turning away (shuwb) from sin. Going in a different direction. But Y’hudah had not done this and her flimsy repentance was hypocritical. As a result, the LORD said to Judah, “You keep turning your back on Me. So I will stretch out My hand and destroy you; I am tired of relenting” (15:5-6 NASB). YHVH had promised that if Y’hudah would return (shuwb) to Him, He would forgive her. But she refused, choosing other gods. Many times God had relented and did not severely punish Judah for her spiritual adultery. But He could relent no more. His patience had come to an end.

The series of judgments Ha’Shem now reiterates are very similar to Amos 4:6-11. In the Amos passage the LORD implements curses in the hope that there would be a change on the northern kingdom of Israel’s part. Yet God was greatly disappointed. Despite His efforts to save: Yet, you have not returned (shuwb) to Me.

Two metaphors are then used to speak of the destruction of Tziyon. Like a farmer at the city gates, YHVH says: I will winnow them with a winnowing fork at the city gates of the Land. This figure would be well understood by the people of Y’hudah, who annually gather their harvest on the threshing floor. In winnowing, the grain, chaff and straw are all tossed in the air when the wind is blowing. The implication here is that there is much chaff and little grain. The people are pictured as standing at the city gates of Zion as they are winnowed (Ezeki’el 12:15) and dispersed out into exile. But this is also a faint glimmer of hope. The punishment is designed to turn (shuwb) the people from their ways, to God. I will bring bereavement and destruction on My people, for they have not repented (shuwb) of their ways (15:7). Many have said that they turned to God, not in gratitude for prosperity, but in desperation from the deepest tragedy; their souls, being winnowed by adversity.¹⁵¹

Another metaphor relates to family life and death (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). ADONAI has bereaved Judah, that is, He has so destroyed her that she will have lost her capacity to assure her own future. God had told Abraham that his descendents would be as numerous as the sand on the seashore (Genesis 22:17). But now He says: I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. At midday I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of the young men (to see link click Ae – The Problem of Holy War in the TaNaKh). Wives will be deprived of their husbands; mothers of their sons, warriors, and young, strong men. So many men, both fathers and their male children, have been killed in battle, that every house seemed to have a widow and a mourning mother living there. These women will be filled with anguish and terror over what happened to their families, and even more because it had happened so suddenly (6:26).¹⁵²

The mother of seven sons was to enjoy a great blessing (Ruth 4:15; First Samuel 2:5). She should be overjoyed, but now she will grow faint and breathe her last. Her sun will set while it is still day, in the prime of her life. In the height of her glory, the glory of her many children, suddenly every one of them is gone from her. She will be disgraced and humiliated. The woman who had seven sons – you would think that one or two would survive. But no, they are all dead. I will put the survivors to the sword before their enemies, declares the LORD (15:8-9). The judgment did come, but the genre of prophetic fulfillment does not demand every detail of its language. There obviously was a remnant in exile that were reading these words, so the words are highly exaggerated here.

The God of Jerusalem is a God of enormous patience. But now that patience is spent. Ha’Shem is exhausted and will try no more if the situation does not change. A stubborn people like Y’hudah surely must die at His hand. The covenant with ADONAI needed to be taken very seriously, and Judah did not respond. Consequently, the end must come.