Jeremiah

Explained & Applied

The Exalted God

Ger de Koning

Dutch version:

Jeremia (en Klaagliederen) Toegelicht en toegepast 24 (en 25)

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© 2021 by Ger de Koning. All rights preserved.

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New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.

Contents

Abbreviations of the Names of the Books of the Bible 15

Old Testament 15

New Testament 16

Explanation of general format 17

The Book of Jeremiah 18

Introduction 18

Jeremiah 1 20

Jer 1:1-3 | Jeremiah and His Time 20

Jer 1:4-10 | Calling of Jeremiah 21

Jer 1:11-12 | Vision of a Rod of an Almond Tree 24

Jer 1:13-16 | Vision of the Boiling Pot 24

Jer 1:17-19 | Commission of the LORD 26

Jeremiah 2 28

Introduction 28

Jer 2:1-3 | Remembrance of the LORD 28

Jer 2:4-8 | Israel’s Ingratitude 30

Jer 2:9-19 | Israel’s Idolatry 32

Jer 2:20-25 | Israel’s Immorality 34

Jer 2:26-28 | Let Israel’s Idols Redeem Them 37

Jer 2:29-37 | Israel’s Folly 38

Jeremiah 3 41

Jer 3:1-5 | Judah, the Faithless Wife 41

Jer 3:6-11 | Judah Is Worse Than Israel 42

Jer 3:12-13 | Call to Repentance 44

Jer 3:14-18 | Future Blessing 44

Jer 3:19-20 | Israel’s Disobedience 46

Jer 3:21-25 | Exhortation to Repent 47

Jeremiah 4 49

Jer 4:1-4 | Call for True Repentance 49

Jer 4:5-18 | The Enemy Is on His Way 50

Jer 4:19-22 | The Soul Struggle of Jeremiah 54

Jer 4:23-26 | The Cosmic Disaster 55

Jer 4:27-31 | The Desolation of the Land 56

Jeremiah 5 58

Jer 5:1-9 | There Is No One Who Does Justice 58

Jer 5:10-13 | Denial of the Work of the LORD 60

Jer 5:14-19 | Description of Judgment 61

Jer 5:20-31 | Deliberate Rebellion of Israel 63

Jeremiah 6 67

Jer 6:1-5 | The Approaching Invasion 67

Jer 6:6-8 | The Siege of Jerusalem 68

Jer 6:9-15 | The Fall of the City 69

Jer 6:16-21 | The Cause of Judgment 71

Jer 6:22-30 | The Horror of the Enemy 73

Jeremiah 7 76

Introduction 76

Jer 7:1-7 | Misplaced Trust 76

Jer 7:8-11 | Indifferent to Live God-Fearing Lives 78

Jer 7:12-15 | The Example of Shiloh 79

Jer 7:16-20 | Worship of the Queen of Heaven 80

Jer 7:21-26 | To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice 81

Jer 7:27-28 | The Message of Jeremiah rejected 82

Jer 7:29-34 | Lamentation About the Desolation of Judah 83

Jeremiah 8 85

Jer 8:1-3 | Desecration of the Graves 85

Jer 8:4-7 | Hardening of Israel in Idolatry 86

Jer 8:8-13 | Punishment for Judah’s Deceit 87

Jer 8:14-17 | The Invading Army 89

Jer 8:18-22 | The Sorrow of Jeremiah 90

Jeremiah 9 92

Jer 9:1-2 | The Complaint of the Prophet 92

Jer 9:3-9 | The Deceitfulness of the Tongue 93

Jer 9:10-16 | The Impending Judgment 94

Jer 9:17-22 | The General Dirge 96

Jer 9:23-24 | Boasting of Evil or of Good 97

Jer 9:25-26 | Israel Is Uncircumcised of Heart 98

Jeremiah 10 99

Jer 10:1-5 | The Folly of Idolatry 99

Jer 10:6-16 | The Majesty of God 100

Jer 10:17-22 | Exile for Sinful Israel 103

Jer 10:23-25 | Prayer for the People 104

Jeremiah 11 106

Jer 11:1-14 | The Breaking of the Covenant 106

Jer 11:15-17 | Their Sacrifices Are Reprehensible 108

Jer 11:18-23 | Conspiracy Against Jeremiah 110

Jeremiah 12 112

Jer 12:1-6 | The Prosperity of the Wicked 112

Jer 12:7-13 | Punishment of the Wicked 114

Jer 12:14-17 | Promises for Penitent Nations 116

Jeremiah 13 118

Jer 13:1-11 | The Ruined Linen Waistband 118

Jer 13:12-14 | The Wine of God’s Anger 120

Jer 13:15-17 | Warning Against Pride 121

Jer 13:18-19 | Disaster in the Royal House 122

Jer 13:20-27 | Captivity and Shame of Judah 123

Jeremiah 14 126

Jer 14:1-6 | The Drought 126

Jer 14:7-9 | The Confession of the People 127

Jer 14:10-12 | The LORD’s Response Is Judgment 128

Jer 14:13-16 | Judgment on the False Prophets 129

Jer 14:17-18 | The Grief of Jeremiah 130

Jer 14:19-22 | Confession and Prayer for Help 131

Jeremiah 15 133

Jer 15:1 | No Prayer for Judah 133

Jer 15:2-9 | The Punishment Determined 133

Jer 15:10-11 | The Complaint of Jeremiah 135

Jer 15:12-14 | The Inevitable Judgment 136

Jer 15:15-18 | Jeremiah Doubts the LORD 136

Jer 15:19-21 | Rebuke of God and Encouragement 138

Jeremiah 16 140

Introduction 140

Jer 16:1-9 | The Solitude of Jeremiah 140

Jer 16:10-13 | The Cause of Judgment 142

Jer 16:14-15 | Restored to the Land 143

Jer 16:16-18 | Full Repay 144

Jer 16:19-21 | The Nations Blessed 144

Jeremiah 17 146

Jer 17:1-4 | Israel’s Indelible Sin 146

Jer 17:5-8 | The Way of Curse and Blessing 147

Jer 17:9-13 | The Deceitfulness of the Human Heart 148

Jer 17:14-18 | Jeremiah’s Plea for Justification 150

Jer 17:19-27 | Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy 151

Jeremiah 18 154

Introduction 154

Jer 18:1-12 | The Message of the Potter 154

Jer 18:13-17 | The Fickleness of Judah 156

Jer 18:18 | The Conspiracy Against Jeremiah 158

Jer 18:19-23 | The Plea of Jeremiah 158

Jeremiah 19 161

Introduction 161

Jer 19:1-5 | The Earthenware Jar 161

Jer 19:6-9 | The Inevitable Disaster 162

Jer 19:10-13 | The Destruction of Judah 163

Jer 19:14-15 | The Message of Topheth Also in the Court 163

Jeremiah 20 165

Jer 20:1-6 | Opposition of Pashhur 165

Jer 20:7-10 | Jeremiah’s Inescapable Calling 166

Jer 20:11-13 | Jeremiah Clings to the LORD 168

Jer 20:14-18 | Jeremiah Curses His Day of Birth 169

Jeremiah 21 171

Introduction 171

Jer 21:1-7 | The Envoy of Zedekiah 171

Jer 21:8-10 | The Choice 172

Jer 21:11-14 | Exhortation to the House of David 173

Jeremiah 22 175

Introduction 175

Jer 22:1-9 | Admonition to Righteousness 175

Jer 22:10-12 | The Fate of Shallum (Jehoahaz) 176

Jer 22:13-23 | The Condemnation of Jehoiakim 177

Jer 22:24-30 | The Rejection of Coniah (Jehoiachin) 180

Jeremiah 23 184

Jer 23:1-4 | The False Shepherds 184

Jer 23:5-8 | The Righteous Branch 185

Jer 23:9-12 | Calamity Will Be Upon the False Prophets 186

Jer 23:13-15 | False Prophecy in Samaria and Jerusalem 187

Jer 23:16-22 | The Words of the Lying Prophets 188

Jer 23:23-32 | God’s Judgment on the Lying Prophets 190

Jer 23:33-40 | The Oracle [or: Burden] of the LORD 193

Jeremiah 24 195

Introduction 195

Jer 24:1-3 | The Vision of the Two Baskets of Figs 195

Jer 24:4-7 | Explanation of the Good Figs 195

Jer 24:8-10 | Meaning of the Bad Figs 196

Jeremiah 25 198

Jer 25:1-7 | Israel Rejects Prophetic Service 198

Jer 25:8-11 | Prediction of Exile 199

Jer 25:12-14 | Judgment on Babylon 200

Jer 25:15-29 | The Cup of God’s Wrath 200

Jer 25:30-38 | The Whole World Is Judged 202

Jeremiah 26 204

Introduction 204

Jer 26:1-6 | The Temple Speech 204

Jer 26:7-11 | Arrest and Condemnation of Jeremiah 205

Jer 26:12-15 | Defense of Jeremiah 206

Jer 26:16-19 | Release of Jeremiah 206

Jer 26:20-24 | The Murder of Uriah 207

Jeremiah 27 209

Jer 27:1-11 | The Message for the Envoys 209

Jer 27:12-15 | Speech to Zedekiah 210

Jer 27:16-22 | Warning for Priests and People 211

Jeremiah 28 213

Jer 28:1-4 | Hananiah Contradicts Jeremiah 213

Jer 28:5-9 | Jeremiah’s Appeal to the Past 213

Jer 28:10-11 | The Answer of Hananiah 214

Jer 28:12-14 | Jeremiah’s More Powerful Statement 215

Jer 28:15-17 | Death of Hananiah the Prophet 216

Jeremiah 29 217

Introduction 217

Jer 29:1-3 | The Letter of Jeremiah 217

Jer 29:4-9 | Prescriptions for Living in Babylon 217

Jer 29:10-14 | Seventy Years Exile 218

Jer 29:15-19 | Those Who Remained in Jerusalem 219

Jer 29:20-23 | Indictment of Two False Prophets 220

Jer 29:24-32 | Judgment on Shemaiah 221

Jeremiah 30 223

Introduction 223

Jer 30:1-3 | Return From Exile 223

Jer 30:4-7 | The Time of Jacob’s Distress 224

Jer 30:8-11 | Saved From Tribulation 225

Jer 30:12-17 | Wounds of Israel Healed 226

Jer 30:18-22 | Rebuilding Jerusalem 227

Jer 30:23-24 | Judgment and Then Blessing 228

Jeremiah 31 230

Jer 31:1-6 | God’s Lovingkindness for Ephraim 230

Jer 31:7-14 | Joy Is Back in Israel 231

Jer 31:15-22 | Israel’s Lamentable Present 233

Jer 31:23-26 | Judah’s Bright Future 236

Jer 31:27-30 | Abundance Under the Messiah 237

Jer 31:31-34 | A New Covenant 237

Jer 31:35-40 | Israel Remains Forever 239

Jeremiah 32 241

Introduction 241

Jer 32:1-5 | Circumstances of Jeremiah 241

Jer 32:6-8 | Offer to Buy a Field 241

Jer 32:9-15 | Jeremiah Buys a Field 242

Jer 32:16-25 | Jeremiah’s Doubts and Prayer 243

Jer 32:26-35 | The Answer of the LORD 245

Jer 32:36-44 | Promises of Restoration 246

Jeremiah 33 248

Jer 33:1-3 | Call to the LORD 248

Jer 33:4-5 | Certainty of the Fall of Jerusalem 248

Jer 33:6-13 | Days of Return and Joy 249

Jer 33:14-22 | Restoration of Kingship and Priesthood 250

Jer 33:23-26 | Confirmation of the Promises 252

Jeremiah 34 253

Jer 34:1-7 | Announcement of the End of Zedekiah 253

Jer 34:8-11 | The Servants Deceived 254

Jer 34:12-16 | The Sin of the Nation 255

Jer 34:17-22 | The Retribution of Betrayal 255

Jeremiah 35 257

Jer 35:1-5 | The Rechabites Tested 257

Jer 35:6-11 | Loyalty of the Rechabites to Jonadab 258

Jer 35:12-17 | The Reproach to Judah 259

Jer 35:18-19 | Reward for the Rechabites 260

Jeremiah 36 261

Jer 36:1-4 | The Writing of the Scroll 261

Jer 36:5-8 | Command to Read the Scroll Aloud 262

Jer 36:9-10 | The Public Reading 263

Jer 36:11-19 |Reading to the Officials 263

Jer 36:20-26 | Jehoiakim Hears the Scroll and Burns It 264

Jer 36:27-28 | The Command to Write Again 267

Jer 36:29-31 | The Condemnation of Jehoiakim 267

Jer 36:32 | The Words Written Anew 268

Jeremiah 37 269

Jer 37:1-5 | Request From Zedekiah 269

Jer 37:6-10 | Answer of Jeremiah 269

Jer 37:11-15 | Jeremiah Charged With Treason 270

Jer 37:16-21 | Jeremiah in Prison 271

Jeremiah 38 273

Jer 38:1-4 | Jeremiah Accused 273

Jer 38:5-6 | Jeremiah in the Cistern 273

Jer 38:7-13 | Deliverance of Jeremiah 274

Jer 38:14-23 | Zedekiah’s Conversation with Jeremiah 276

Jer 38:24-28 | Questions of the Officials 277

Jeremiah 39 279

Introduction 279

Jer 39:1-3 | Jerusalem Is Captured 279

Jer 39:4-10 | The Fate of Zedekiah and Jerusalem 279

Jer 39:11-14 | The Deliverance of Jeremiah 280

Jer 39:15-18 | Promise for Ebed-melech 281

Jeremiah 40 282

Introduction 282

Jer 40:1-6 | The Release of Jeremiah 282

Jer 40:7-10 | The Assurance of Gedaliah 283

Jer 40:11-12 | The Return of the Refugees 283

Jer 40:13-16 | Gedaliah Is Warned About Ishmael 284

Jeremiah 41 285

Jer 41:1-3 | The Murder of Gedaliah 285

Jer 41:4-10 | The Massacre of the Pilgrims 285

Jer 41:11-15 | The Escape of Ishmael 286

Jer 41:16-18 | The Run Into Egypt 287

Jeremiah 42 288

Jer 42:1-6 | The Remnant Seeks Counsel 288

Jer 42:7-17 | The Answer of the LORD 289

Jer 42:18-22 | Punishments for Staying in Egypt 290

Jeremiah 43 292

Jer 43:1-7 | The Warning Despised 292

Jer 43:8-13 | Prophecy of Jeremiah in Egypt 293

Jeremiah 44 295

Jer 44:1-10 | Exhortation to Learn From the Past 295

Jer 44:11-14 | Warning of Punishment 297

Jer 44:15-19 | Stubborn Persistence in Idolatry 297

Jer 44:20-30 | Judgment on Stubbornness 299

Jeremiah 45 302

Jer 45:1-3 | The Complaint of Baruch 302

Jer 45:4-5 | The Answer of the LORD 302

Jeremiah 46 304

Jer 46:1 | Prophecy Concerning the Nations 304

Jer 46:2-6 | The Army of Egypt Defeated 304

Jer 46:7-12 | The Pride of Egypt Humbled 306

Jer 46:13-19 | The Coming of Nebuchadnezzar 307

Jer 46:20-26 | The Fall of Egypt 308

Jer 46:27-28 | Blessing on Jacob 310

Jeremiah 47 311

Jer 47:1-7 | Prophecy Concerning the Philistines 311

Jeremiah 48 314

Jer 48:1-6 | Desolation of the Cities of Moab 314

Jer 48:7-10 | Self-Confidence and Trust in the Idol 315

Jer 48:11-19 | The Proud Contentment of Moab 316

Jer 48:20-28 | The Fall of Moab 318

Jer 48:29-39 | The Pride of Moab 319

Jer 48:40-47 | The Fear of the Intruder 321

Jeremiah 49 323

Jer 49:1-6 | Prophecy Concerning Ammon 323

Jer 49:7-22 | Prophecy Concerning Edom 324

Jer 49:23-27 | Prophecy Concerning Damascus 327

Jer 49:28-33 | Prophecy Concerning Kedar and Hazor 328

Jer 49:34-39 | Prophecy Concerning Elam 329

Jeremiah 50 331

Introduction 331

Jer 50:1-3 | The Word Concerning Babylon 331

Jer 50:4-8 | Return of Israel 332

Jer 50:9-16 | Sin of and Judgment on Babylon 333

Jer 50:17-20 | Comfort for Israel 334

Jer 50:21-28 | God’s Vengeance for His Temple 335

Jer 50:29-32 | Arrogance of Babylon 336

Jer 50:33-34 | The Redeemer of Israel 337

Jer 50:35-46 | The Enduring Fate of Babylon 338

Jeremiah 51 341

Jer 51:1-14 | The Vengeance of the LORD on Babylon 341

Jer 51:15-26 | The Almighty LORD and the Impotent Idols 343

Jer 51:27-33 | The Nations Commanded 345

Jer 51:34-44 | Pointless Defense of Babylon 347

Jer 51:45-48 | Israel Must Come Forth From Babylon 349

Jer 51:49-53 | Certainty of the Fall of Babylon 349

Jer 51:54-58 | The Destruction of Babylon Is Total 350

Jer 51:59-64 | The Command to Seraiah 351

Jeremiah 52 353

Introduction 353

Jer 52:1-11 | The Fall of Jerusalem 353

Jer 52:12-30 | Consequences of the Fall of Jerusalem 354

Jer 52:31-34 | Jehoiachin Is Treated Kindly 356

Other Publications 358

Abbreviations of the Names of the Books of the Bible

Old Testament

Gen – Genesis

Exo – Exodus

Lev – Leviticus

Num – Numbers

Deu – Deuteronomy

Jos – Joshua

Jdg – Judges

Rth – Ruth

1Sam – First Samuel

2Sam – Second Samuel

1Kgs – First Kings

2Kgs – Second Kings

1Chr – First Chronicles

2Chr – Second Chronicles

Ezra – Ezra

Neh – Nehemiah

Est – Esther

Job – Job

Psa – Psalms

Pro – Proverbs

Ecc – Ecclesiastes

Song – Song of Songs

Isa – Isaiah

Jer – Jeremiah

Lam – Lamentations

Eze – Ezekiel

Dan – Daniel

Hos – Hosea

Joel – Joel

Amos – Amos

Oba – Obadiah

Jona – Jonah

Mic – Micah

Nah – Nahum

Hab – Habakkuk

Zep – Zephaniah

Hag – Haggai

Zec – Zechariah

Mal – Malachi

New Testament

Mt – Gospel of Matthew

Mk – Gospel of Mark

Lk – Gospel of Luke

Jn – Gospel of John

Acts – Acts of the Apostles

Rom – Letter to the Romans

1Cor – First Letter to the Corinthians

2Cor – Second Letter to the Corinthians

Gal – Letter to the Galatians

Eph – Letter to the Ephesians

Phil – Letter to the Philippians

Col – Letter to the Colossians

1Thes – First Letter to the Thessalonians

2Thes – Second Letter to the Thessalonians

1Tim – First Letter to Timothy

2Tim – Second Letter to Timothy

Tit – Letter to Titus

Phlm – Letter to Philemon

Heb – Letter to the Hebrews

Jam – Letter of James

1Pet – First Letter of Peter

2Pet – Second Letter of Peter

1Jn – First Letter of John

2Jn – Second Letter of John

3Jn – Third Letter of John

Jude – Letter of Jude

Rev – Revelation

Explanation of general format

PERSONAL PRONOUNS are capitalized when pertaining to Deity.

BRACKETS [ ] are used in this commentary in the Bible text to indicate words which are not found in the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek but implied by it.

SHARP BRACKETS < > are used in this commentary in the Bible text to indicate words possibly not in the original writings.

When ASTERISKS * are used in New Testament quotations, it is to mark verbs that are historical presents in the Greek which have been translated with an English past tense in order to conform to modern usage. The translators recognized that in some contexts the present tense seems more unexpected and unjustified to the English reader than a past tense would have been. But Greek authors frequently used the present tense for the sake of heightened vividness, thereby transporting their readers in imagination to the actual scene at the time of occurrence. However, the translators felt that it would be wise to change these historical presents to English past tenses.

ALL CAPS in the New Testament quotations are used in the text to indicate Old Testament quotations or obvious references to Old Testament texts.

The Book of Jeremiah

Introduction

The book of Jeremiah is a prophetic book addressed primarily to the conscience of the people of Israel and especially to those of Jerusalem and Judah. This is necessary because the people have turned away from God causing the threat of judgment. The revival experienced under King Josiah during the same time will prove to be only temporary and superficial. Jeremiah knows that the people have not changed inwardly.

The period in which Jeremiah prophesies is long. He begins prophesying after the year in which Josiah cleanses Jerusalem and the land of idols and ends with prophesying after the city of Jerusalem is destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The entire period covers a time of over 40 years. Jeremiah was born around 646 BC, is called a prophet around 626 BC, and probably dies not long after 586 BC, the year of the fall of Jerusalem. That entire period is a time of misery and distress for Jeremiah. His life can be characterized as a long martyrdom.

Jeremiah, the prophet

Jeremiah tells more about himself than any other prophet. We hear many expressions of his emotions. The prophet’s heart is full of pain and sorrow because he loves the people and at the same time has a deep sense of the relationship in which the people stand before the LORD, Yahweh. This causes a constant inner struggle. On the one hand he sees the value the people have to the LORD and on the other hand he is compelled by a holy jealousy for the glory and rights of God.

The circumstances in which Jeremiah finds himself and the experiences he had in them demonstrate more clearly than anywhere else what it is to be a ‘prophet’. He has served as a loner, without a family – he was not married (Jer 16:2) –, almost without friends and rejected by his people. His service, humanly speaking, was also without result.

In much of his service, he reminds us of the Lord Jesus more than any other prophet. Jeremiah resembles Him in many ways. He is rejected, just like the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus wept over Jerusalem, so did Jeremiah. Jeremiah is the lone prophet, as is the Lord Jesus. He is imprisoned without cause and condemned without guilt, as is the Lord Jesus.

However, the similarities are also partial, for the Lord Jesus is perfect in everything and Jeremiah is not. Above all, the Lord Jesus gave His life as a ransom for many, which cannot possibly be said of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah has pleaded with God for the people, but sees that it has no effect on the people. The people reject God and the testimony He sends. The result is that the LORD will no longer listen to the prayers for Israel and not even to the prayers of Jeremiah. All this makes the prophet a true man of sorrows.

Two things sustain him. Firstly, the power of the Spirit of God Who leads him and through Whom he announces judgment, despite the opposition and persecution that are his portion. Secondly, the revelation of the final blessing with which the people will be blessed according to the immutable counsels of God.

Division of the book

1. Jeremiah 1 recounts the calling of Jeremiah by the LORD to be His prophet.

2. Jeremiah 2-20 are not dated. It seems that most of the prophecies in those chapters originated during the reign of Josiah. Their subjects are powerful testimonies against the people about their unfaithfulness, laced with expressions of the prophet’s soul’s grief. We also hear severe warnings of the invasion of an enemy that will come from the north.

3. Jeremiah 21-45 do not follow a chronological order throughout. They consist of prophecies that were probably made in different time periods. They contain the judgment that will come successively on the different generations of the house of David, as well as on the false prophets who mislead the people. We also find events that concern Jeremiah himself.

4. Jeremiah 46-51 contain prophecies about ten heathen nations.

5. The prophecies end in Jeremiah 52 with the announcements of the different fates of those who were taken away as captives to Babylon and of those who remained with Zedekiah in Jerusalem.

A suggestion for a historical sequence in connection with the kings who reigned during Jeremiah’s prophecy is as follows:
The reign of Josiah (639-609 BC) (Jeremiah 1-6)
The reign of Shallum, i.e. Jehoahaz (609 BC, three months) – no reference (Jeremiah 22)
The reign of Jehoiakim (609-597 BC) (Jeremiah 7-20; 25-26; 35-36; 45-47; 49)
The reign of Jehoiachin (597 BC, three months) (Jeremiah 13; 22-23?)
The reign of Zedekiah (597-586 BC) (Jeremiah 21; 24; 27-34; 37-44; 46; 50-52)

Jeremiah 1

Jer 1:1-3 | Jeremiah and His Time

1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2 to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

What we read in this book are “the words of Jeremiah”. There are words that he speaks in the Name of the LORD, words that come from the LORD that he must speak to the people. There are also words that reflect his personal feelings. In all his words we hear a man living in close fellowship with the LORD.

The name Jeremiah (verse 1) means, among other things, “the LORD is exalted”. He certainly shows this in the two books we have of him in the Bible. The Holy Spirit leads him to use the names ‘LORD’, Yahweh, and ‘Lord’, Adonai, over 700 times in his prophecy and over 30 more times in Lamentations.

Jeremiah is “the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth”. He is most likely a descendant of Eli and then of Abiathar, who also lived in Anathoth, but was excluded from the priesthood (1Kgs 1:7; 2:26). Anathoth is one of the cities of the priests (Jos 21:18-19).

He is speaking in the days of Josiah (verse 2), who became king in 639 BC. Josiah was then only eight years old. He is a God-fearing king. In the twelfth year of his reign (627 BC), when he is twenty, he begins his clearing work in Israel (2Chr 34:3). A year later, in 626 BC, when Josiah is twenty-one, Jeremiah begins his ministry. He is then a young man of about twenty years of age and will prophesy until the eleventh year of Zedekiah, which is over 40 years.

In the year Jeremiah begins prophesying, Assyria is still the reigning world power, but it is already beginning to decline. Babylon, the enemy from the north, is the rising world power. Jeremiah prophesies of Babylon as an enemy of God’s people, while a great revival under Josiah is going on in the people of God. We read about the revival under Josiah at the end of the second book of Kings and at the end of the second book of Chronicles. Jeremiah’s prophecy makes it clear that for the majority of God’s people, revival is only an outward thing. The hearts remain far from God.

Jeremiah prophesies not only during the reign of the God-fearing Josiah, on whose sympathy and protection he can count. He prophesies “also” during the reign of the wicked kings Jehoiakim, Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah (verse 3). Zedekiah is the last king of Israel. In the eleventh year of his reign, in 586 BC, he is captured by the king of Babylon and Jerusalem is burned with fire.

Jeremiah prophesies “until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month”, that is, until the great event takes place that he had so often announced. He also prophesied after that (Jer 40:1), but the main subject of his prophecy is to warn of the exile. When that has taken place, his prophetic ministry toward the people is over.

From the thirteenth year of Josiah (626 BC), when he begins to prophesy, to the eleventh year of Zedekiah (586 BC), when Jerusalem goes into exile, are exactly 40 years. It has been pointed out that Moses was with the people in the wilderness as a teacher for the same length of time to bring the people into the land, as Jeremiah is with the people as a prophet to warn them, before they are forced to go out of the land to go into the wilderness of the nations.

Jer 1:4-10 | Calling of Jeremiah

4 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated you;
I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
6 Then I said, “Alas, Lord GOD!
Behold, I do not know how to speak,
Because I am a youth.”
7 But the LORD said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’
Because everywhere I send you, you shall go,
And all that I command you, you shall speak.
8 “Do not be afraid of them,
For I am with you to deliver you”, declares the LORD.
9 Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me,
“Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
10 “See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms,
To pluck up and to break down,
To destroy and to overthrow,
To build and to plant.”

Although verse 4 is a short verse, what it says is the heart of the prophetic experience. Jeremiah’s calling did not come in a vision, but by hearing the Divine word. It is instructive to compare his calling with that of Amos (Amos 7:10-17), Isaiah (Isa 6:1-10) and Ezekiel (Eze 1:1-3; 2:1-8).

We can notice in verse 5 four actions of God toward His prophet. God has
1. known him,
2. formed him,
3. consecrated him, and
4. appointed him.

It is indeed encouraging for Jeremiah to know that God has specifically equipped him to carry out his mission. The awareness of this is not mere knowledge, but the experience of a relationship (cf. Amos 3:2a). God’s claim on his life takes precedence over all other relationships, as we see with the perfect Servant of the LORD, the Lord Jesus (Isa 49:1-5).

Jeremiah’s consecration is that he is set apart for a specific spiritual purpose. That is consecration. Here we see a biblical linkage of God’s foreknowledge and His consecration of the servant. It is important to see the order as well:
1. He is known by God.
2. Then he is formed by Him in the mother’s womb (cf. Psa 139:13-16). The LORD is therefore his rightful Owner Who can use him as it pleases Him.
3. Next, He consecrates Jeremiah, that is, He sets him apart from all other Israelites.
4. Finally, we hear the goal of God’s purpose and action and that is to appoint him a prophet.

The emphasis is on the initiative of God and the sovereignty of His choice (cf. Rom 9:21). To what God has destined someone, He also calls him to do it. We see the same thing with John the baptist as with Jeremiah. John too was consecrated before his birth (Lk 1:13-17).

Jeremiah is appointed “a prophet to the nations”. He is appointed a prophet with a worldwide ministry, just as Paul later will be the apostle to the nations (Gal 1:15-16a). It also implies that Israel is in a sense counted among the nations. This is because it has turned away from the LORD so much that it has begun to behave like the nations. If they had separated themselves from them according to God’s purpose, they would not be counted among them (Num 23:9b).

What God says here of Jeremiah applies basically to every believer. Every child of God is known by Him (Gal 4:9a) and is formed, consecrated and also appointed by Him to a specific ministry. Children of God do not blend into the crowd, but every child of God may realize that the attention of God is also directed to him or her personally.

Jeremiah looks at himself and judges himself as not qualified for that task (verse 6). We see a similar reaction in Moses (Exo 4:10) and Gideon (Jdg 6:15) when they are called by the LORD (cf. 1Sam 3:15b). Moses also says he cannot speak, but the background with him is unbelief. The LORD also tells Moses that He will put His words in his mouth. Jeremiah says he is too young. The word Jeremiah uses when he says he is “a youth” is the same word said of Zechariah (Zec 2:4).

The similarity between Moses, Gideon and Jeremiah is that they do not consider themselves capable of fulfilling the commission. The reason is that they look at themselves and not at Him Who gives them the commission. It is not about him who is sent, but about Him Who sends.

Jeremiah, with his great sensitivity, was the right person to be a prophet. No one could share in God’s feelings better than him. He has a heart that can sympathize with the condemned. Little could the young prophet at this time suspect how difficult, hopeless and heartbreaking his task would be.

The LORD’s answer basically means that Jeremiah should not think about himself at all (verses 7-8). What he can or cannot do is of no importance. What is important is only what God can and does do (cf. 1Cor 3:7). The servant must only obey.

God never errs in choosing His servants (verse 7). He provides all whom He calls with the strength, courage, and help they need. Moreover, God’s promise of His presence will drive away his fear (cf. Hag 1:13). It is not the custom of earthly princes to go with their envoys. But God goes with those He sends and is with them (Acts 18:9-10a).

Jeremiah’s fear is another cause of his hesitation (verse 8; cf. Eze 3:9). He will be mercilessly opposed and persecuted. But the LORD will protect him from the attacks of his enemies and give him the spiritual courage that he will need so badly. God provides for all the needs of those He calls into His service (Phil 4:19).

As a tangible proof that the LORD gives Jeremiah the authority for his service, He touches his mouth (verse 9; cf. Isa 6:7). The question is not whether a person can speak well or not, but whether he has lips touched by God, that is, consecrated lips. These Jeremiah now has. In this way he is inspired to speak God’s truth and the Divine message is made known to him. From this moment on, Jeremiah’s words will truly be God’s words and he will actually be the spokesman of God (cf. Isa 51:16; Eze 2:8; 3:4; Exo 4:12; Mt 10:19; Lk 21:15).

Later, God makes His words fire in the mouth of Jeremiah (Jer 5:14). That God will put His words in his mouth is something Moses says of the Prophet Whom God will send in the future (Deu 18:18), Who is the Lord Jesus. This is another proof that Jeremiah is a picture of the Lord Jesus as the great Prophet (cf. Jn 12:49).

The plucking up and breaking down is not done by an act, with a sword, but by His word (verse 10). His word, however, is a word that works, that does something, works something. His word, His speaking, is powerful. Jeremiah thinks of himself as just a youth, but God places him here above the kings of the nations. He will announce the rise and fall of empires and other kingdoms, not by any authority of his own, but as one who speaks for God.

The content of Jeremiah’s message is one of the most important passages in the book. He must speak of judgment and desolation, of overthrow and destruction. But as great and terrible as God’s judgments are, they are not judgments without mercy, for their purpose is restoration, blessing, and renewal. Therefore, Jeremiah must also speak of that.

God’s purposes in Jeremiah’s ministry are therefore twofold: destructive and constructive. God’s word is accompanied by power so that the prophet will accomplish these purposes (Isa 55:10-11). In Jeremiah’s ministry, the emphasis is undoubtedly on the destructive element. Four verbs are used to express this:
1. “To pluck up and
2. to break down,
3. to destroy and
4. to overthrow”.

Two verbs indicate the constructive and restorative element:
1. “To build and
2. to plant”.

In these activities we see the prophet engaged as a builder and a farmer (cf. 1Cor 3:6-10).

Jer 1:11-12 | Vision of a Rod of an Almond Tree

11 The word of the LORD came to me saying, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “I see a rod of an almond tree.” 12 Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.”

Then in two pictures the LORD gives two confirmations of his calling (verses 11-16). These are the first two pictures of the many pictures we have in this book. These two were probably shown to him shortly after his calling. Both visions are uncomplicated and explained, both involve judgment. In order to speak, a prophet, in addition to being able to listen, must also be able to see. A prophet must also be a ‘seer’.

The first picture is that of a rod of an almond tree (verse 11). Jeremiah sees in a vision the picture of a rod of an almond tree. Someone like Jeremiah, who knows Hebrew, immediately understands the meaning. It is a play on words with the word “watchful”, for in Hebrew the word “almond” is almost the same as “watchful”. A rod of an almond tree is also a watchful one. While it is still winter, the rod of an almond tree already begins to bloom, giving the message, as it were, that spring will soon come. The tree is also called shekedh in Hebrew, a word that means ‘the hasty tree’.

Just as a rod of an almond tree holds the message of the coming spring, God’s Word holds the message of the coming judgment. The LORD watches over His word to bring judgment on Israel’s sins. He also watches over His word to bless them after the judgment (Jer 31:28).

What the past prophets have said will come to pass, it is about to happen. Judgment is at the door. God is ready to act because He knows the state of the world. The “rod”, maqqel, here symbolizes judgment that will soon come on Israel (cf. Hab 2:3). This judgment will come through the Lord Jesus (cf. Heb 10:37).

The LORD praises Jeremiah for looking closely and giving a correct answer. He has seen a ‘hasty tree’. God then declares that He is watching to fulfill His word soon and is going to work immediately to do so (verse 12). Jeremiah will prophesy and experience the fulfillment himself.

Jer 1:13-16 | Vision of the Boiling Pot

13 The word of the LORD came to me a second time saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.” 14 Then the LORD said to me, “Out of the north the evil will break forth on all the inhabitants of the land. 15 For, behold, I am calling all the families of the kingdoms of the north”, declares the LORD; “and they will come and they will set each one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls round about and against all the cities of Judah. 16 I will pronounce My judgments on them concerning all their wickedness, whereby they have forsaken Me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.

The word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah “a second time” (verse 13). That there is mention of a “second time” shows that the first and second visions are closely related. The first deals with the time of judgment, the second with the direction and nature of the coming disaster. Again the LORD asks what Jeremiah sees. His answer is: “I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.”

That can only mean disaster (cf. Eze 11:3; Mic 3:3). Here it is about Babylon, the great enemy from the north. Although Babylon lies east of Judah, her armies – like all the armies from Asia – will invade Israel from the north because of the impassable Arabian wilderness. This great enemy from the north is mentioned here for the first time.

Into the boiling pot will be thrown the disobedient of God’s people. The pot is comparable to the fiery furnace of Egypt (Gen 15:17), where Israel was oppressed so violently and for so long. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, will be the new oppressor. It also refers to the distant future, when the nations will go to war against Jerusalem (Zec 14:1-2).

The LORD explains the vision (verse 14). The boiling pot, appearing with its open side from the north, represents the calamity that will be poured out on the whole land of Judah. In boiling anger the armies of the king of Babylon will come upon the land. That invasion will culminate in victory for the enemy. Jeremiah sees it happening here in a vision.

In reality, nothing is yet seen of the power of Babylon and it will be another 40 years before the fulfillment of this vision will take place. But it will happen, for the LORD Himself will call Babylon from the north to go up against His people (verse 15). Nebuchadnezzar’s armies will come and overwhelm Jerusalem. His princes will set their thrones at the entrance of the gates of the city (Jer 39:3). The gate is the place of public affairs, where justice is spoken (Rth 4:1-10). If the enemy rules there, it means the complete subjugation of the city. The walls will offer no protection whatsoever. What is true of Jerusalem is true of all the cities of Judah.

From the beginning of his ministry, Jeremiah is a preacher of judgment. As Isaiah speaks of the LORD’s redemption, Ezekiel of the LORD’s glory, and Daniel of the LORD’s kingdom, so Jeremiah incessantly proclaims the LORD’s judgment (verse 16). The cause of the judgments, “all their wickedness”, which the LORD pronounces on Judah – and Jeremiah is to communicate them to all the land – has three parts, namely,
1. “that they have forsaken Me and
2. have offered sacrifices to other gods and
3. worshiped the works of their own hands”.

Forsaking the LORD opens the door to every form of idolatry, which is worshiping something or someone other than Him. Offering sacrifices to other gods is essentially paying homage to demons (1Cor 10:20). The idols themselves are nothing but works of their hands, pieces of gold or silver or wood or stone. The folly of kneeling down before a piece of material will still be sarcastically brought to the attention of the people by Jeremiah (Jer 10:1-16).

Jer 1:17-19 | Commission of the LORD

17 Now, gird up your loins and arise, and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, or I will dismay you before them. 18 Now behold, I have made you today as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole land, to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests and to the people of the land. 19 They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you”, declares the LORD.

In these last verses of the chapter, Jeremiah is greatly encouraged for his arduous task. He needs this because his message will be neither welcome nor popular with his people. To fulfill his duties, nothing less will suffice than absolute dedication to God and utter reliance on His power (verse 17). He must gird up his loins. This means that he must be willing to serve and nothing must hinder him in doing so.

Next, he must arise, that is take the position of service. Thus he must speak to the people. In doing so, he must not withhold anything, but he must say “all” (cf. Acts 20:27). Every word of God is important. He must also not change anything about it, not use words of his own, words that may sound more pleasant, but must speak what the LORD will “command” him.

Nor should he have any fear of those to whom he is to speak. That would mean that he would allow fear of man to prevent him from fulfilling God’s command. If that were the case, he would have to deal with God Himself, Who would then turn against him. That would be an embarrassment for him with respect to the people to whom he was sent. The fear of the LORD is the best remedy against fear of man.

The LORD then encourages him with the promise that “today”, that is, with immediate effect, He will make him a threefold strength:
1. “as a fortified city and
2. as a pillar of iron and
3. as walls of bronze” (verse 18).
He will need this to bring his message to “the whole land”. The LORD points him to the four groups of people of “the whole land”: “the kings of Judah”, “its princes”, “its priests” and “the people of the land”.

Just as he must not withhold a word of what the LORD commands him to speak, so he must not forget or spare a group of people that the LORD lists here. His message will not win him any friends. They will all be against him at one time or another. Who likes a preacher of judgment (cf. 2Tim 4:3-4)?

Yet this one man is stronger than all his enemies combined. The secret of spiritual victory is given in verse 19. He may trust that the LORD is with him and that with Him he will be invincible. In his darkest hours, these words will sustain him emotionally and spiritually. The words “to deliver you” imply that Jeremiah will have a tough ministry. The Lord Jesus also says to us to encourage us in the service we have, “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).

Jeremiah must learn from the beginning to trust in the LORD. He may be assured of invincibility on condition of faith in the LORD, Who is greater and stronger than any power. He will ultimately prevail over all his enemies. The prophecies Jeremiah will all come true. Then he will also be “delivered” in another sense, namely from false accusations. It will turn out that he is a true prophet of the LORD.

Jeremiah 2

Introduction

In this chapter we see Jeremiah in his public ministry. He has been dealing with God in secret in the previous chapter. Now he is ready to face the people openly. His first – recorded – speech to his people is certainly a very remarkable one for someone who has said: “I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth” (Jer 1:6). It is difficult to find a portion of Scripture that surpasses this speech in sincere fervor and at the same time delicacy and eloquence.

His first message to the people is that breaking the covenant is adultery. In this we hear the earnest plea of the offended and forgotten LORD. We hear His mercy and compassion for a guilty nation, mixed with serious warnings of the terrible day that will come if they do not return to Him wholeheartedly. All together it is a speech that would even set stones in motion. But alas, we read of no response on the part of a hardened, unwilling Judah.

Jer 2:1-3 | Remembrance of the LORD

1 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2 “Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD,
“I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth,
The love of your betrothals,
Your following after Me in the wilderness,
Through a land not sown.
3 “Israel was holy to the LORD,
The first of His harvest.
All who ate of it became guilty;
Evil came upon them”, declares the LORD.’”

The word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah (verse 1). He is instructed to go to Jerusalem and proclaim in the ears of its inhabitants (verse 2). What he is to say is to be spoken clearly and not in a muffled voice, so that everyone will hear his message. He is to begin with the penetrating words “thus says the LORD”. The words he proclaims come from Him; they are not his own words. It is not only important to know to be sent, but also to know what is to be said. God determines both the mission and the content of the message.

The LORD does not begin with reproach. He begins by reminding His people that they loved Him at the beginning of their existence as a people. They demonstrated this by following Him in the wilderness after their deliverance from Egypt. The LORD recalls that period of time when they follow Him as “the love of your betrothals”. They were days when everything was still so new and fresh (cf. Hos 11:1; Eze 16:8a). They followed Him on the way to the promised land. It is also reminiscent of Rebekah, who followed Abraham’s servant through the wilderness on the way to Isaac, her bridegroom (Gen 24:61).

The LORD here ignores the unfaithfulness they also showed during their journey through the wilderness. It is like as with the words of the Lord Jesus to His disciples, when He says to them: “You are those who have stood by Me in My trials” (Lk 22:28). He says this, despite the fact that they also showed their failure and He had to rebuke them several times.

It is “a land not sown”. It shows the barrenness of the land, which yields nothing to live on. In the spiritual application, we see that for one who has come to repentance, the world has become like a wilderness where there is no spiritual food for faith. For the people, it means that they are completely dependent on the LORD and are sustained by Him. They do not have to sow nor wait for the seed to come up. He provides their food every day, for He rains manna from heaven into the camp every day (Exo 16:13-21).

This is how the LORD first thinks back and puts it before them. He can see His people in this way because He has made them a “holy” people, that is, He has set them apart from the other nations, to be to Him His own people (verse 3). This was particularly expressed through the service in the tabernacle in the midst of their camp. Jeremiah reminds the people here, as it were, that they began in the Spirit, while they are in the process of being perfected by the flesh (Gal 3:3).

This people is “the first of His harvest”, meaning that they are His special property above the other nations who are also all His property. They are the first people to worship the true God (cf. Exo 19:5-6a). They are “the distinguished men of the foremost of nations” (Amos 6:1b). In the realm of peace, He will also be in connection with all the nations – indeed through Israel – who will also all worship Him.

God has a special relationship with Israel. When other nations want to feast on His people, He stands up for His people and brings calamity upon those who would hurt them. We see this, for example, when Joshua defeats Amalek, while Moses makes intercession on the mountain (Exo 17:8-16). The first fruits are the special portion for the LORD; others may not eat of them. Those who do so violate their soul. Mischief will befall them.

We, believers of the church, are called “a kind of first fruits among His creatures” (Jam 1:18). This is because we already partake of the new life, which all who partake of the re-creation of heaven and earth will possess (Isa 65:17a), which is the realm of peace.

The starting point is the remembrance of their past, where they are in that early love relationship with the LORD and He cares for them in an impressive way. That should make Jerusalem’s heart soft and receptive to the coming admonitions and threats (cf. Jude 1:5). The Lord also repeatedly has to remind us of our first love, because our love for Him regularly fades or even disappears (2Cor 11:2-3; Rev 2:4-5).

Jer 2:4-8 | Israel’s Ingratitude

4 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.
5 Thus says the LORD,
“What injustice did your fathers find in Me,
That they went far from Me
And walked after emptiness and became empty?
6 “They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD
Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt,
Who led us through the wilderness,
Through a land of deserts and of pits,
Through a land of drought and of deep darkness,
Through a land that no one crossed
And where no man dwelt?’
7 “I brought you into the fruitful land
To eat its fruit and its good things.
But you came and defiled My land,
And My inheritance you made an abomination.
8 “The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’
And those who handle the law did not know Me;
The rulers also transgressed against Me,
And the prophets prophesied by Baal
And walked after things that did not profit.

Jeremiah speaks the word of the LORD to the “house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel” (verse 4). This addresses the entire people. Also, we see in this form of address that families are also addressed. Families are the basis of the entire existence of the nation and determine the spiritual condition of the people as a whole.

The indictment begins by asking questions that should awaken the conscience. The remembrance of history, of what their fathers did, should speak to them (verse 5). They are not better than their fathers, but just like them. There needs to be recognition. It is poignant to have to read that the LORD puts before them the question of what injustice their fathers found in Him. The surprised response might be that this is not the case at all.

But then the LORD makes it clear that their whole attitude shows that they are accusing Him of unfaithfulness. Otherwise they would not have kept Him far from them, would they? Surely this shows that they distrust Him, doesn’t it? Otherwise, instead of following Him, they have gone after idols, which also made them equal to those idols. What they worship does not exist for the LORD (cf. 1Cor 8:4b). How foolish it is to turn to and expect something from something that is nothing.

In verse 5 it says what the people did do. In verse 6 it says what they did not do. They have not considered what the LORD has done in their deliverance from slavery in Egypt and their safe keeping during the wilderness journey. He led them out of Egypt “by an outstretched arm and by great terrors” (Deu 4:34) and led them through the wilderness with a gentle hand. That they forgot all this shows the utmost ingratitude. It is a culpable forgetting.

The horrors of the wilderness are widely reported. The wilderness through which they have passed is a land of deserts and pits, of drought and of deep darkness, an extremely lonely, uninhabitable place. There is no passable road and no place of rest. The only thing for which the wilderness can serve is as a burial ground.

This representation is done to make it clear to the people that they would never have come through on their own. It is only due to the faithful care and guidance of the LORD that they reached the promised land, in which they now live. We too must be aware of the inhospitality of the world and that death reigns there. This will help us to entrust ourselves completely to the care and guidance of the Lord to get through it safely.

After the wilderness journey, He brought them, as He promised, into His land. Jeremiah speaks of “a fruitful land”, full of fruit and “the good things” to eat (verse 7; Deu 8:7-9). The contrast with the area he describes in the previous verse is enormous. But instead of being thankful to Him for the extraordinary fruitfulness after so much barrenness, they have defiled His land and made His property an abomination, something abominable. They have done this by introducing idolatry.

The four classes mentioned in verse 8 – priests, those who handle the law, rulers [literally shepherds] and prophets – should have been like pillars among the people, teaching them God’s commandments and teaching them how to keep them. However, they led the people away from the LORD:
1. “The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD’?” Those who are called to be in His presence with sacrifices on behalf of the people do not ask about Him at all. The reproach to the priests is that they do not ask this question. Asking it would have led the people down the road to the place the LORD has chosen for His Name to dwell.
2. “Those who handled the law [the Levites] did not know Me.“ Those who are to explain the law to the people (Deu 33:10a; Mal 2:7), lack the knowledge of Him Who is central to the law.
3. “The rulers”, literally shepherds, who are to care for the flock on behalf of the LORD, appropriate that flock and “transgressed” against the LORD (cf. Eze 34:1-6).
4. “The prophets”, who are to call God’s people to return to Him on behalf of the LORD, “prophesied by Baal”.

The concluding comment of verse 8 expresses the result. They did not go after the LORD, but “walked after things that did not profit”. The leaders, who are deceivers, led the people down the path of idolatry. Idols do not give any blessing, not temporary and even less spiritually. What a shocking and disconcerting situation among the leaders of God’s people and what an appalling departure from the LORD they have wrought among the people!

Jer 2:9-19 | Israel’s Idolatry

9 “Therefore I will yet contend with you”, declares the LORD,
“And with your sons’ sons I will contend.
10 “For cross to the coastlands of Kittim and see,
And send to Kedar and observe closely
And see if there has been such [a thing] as this!
11 “Has a nation changed gods
When they were not gods?
But My people have changed their glory
For that which does not profit.
12 “Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
And shudder, be very desolate”, declares the LORD.
13 “For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me,
The fountain of living waters,
To hew for themselves cisterns,
Broken cisterns
That can hold no water.
14 “Is Israel a slave? Or is he a homeborn servant?
Why has he become a prey?
15 “The young lions have roared at him,
They have roared loudly.
And they have made his land a waste;
His cities have been destroyed, without inhabitant.
16 “Also the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes
Have shaved the crown of your head.
17 “Have you not done this to yourself
By your forsaking the LORD your God
When He led you in the way?
18 “But now what are you doing on the road to Egypt,
To drink the waters of the Nile?
Or what are you doing on the road to Assyria,
To drink the waters of the Euphrates?
19 “Your own wickedness will correct you,
And your apostasies will reprove you;
Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter
For you to forsake the LORD your God,
And the dread of Me is not in you”, declares the Lord GOD of hosts.

The LORD will contend with them and call them to account for their behavior of unparalleled apostasy (verse 9). This applies not only to the generation to whom Jeremiah addresses the word, but even to their grandchildren. God’s standards do not change but remain the same for every generation. In His assessment of evil, He is absolutely just.

As for their idolatry, they can learn from the heathen nations (verse 10). Let them take the trouble to go and see the coastlands of Kittim, that is Cyprus, on the west; and let them go and observe closely Kedar, an Arabian wilderness tribe, on the east. The people are obliged, as it were, to look from west to east, that is, everywhere.

Then they should pay close attention to how those nations treat their idols. They will notice that those nations do not exchange their gods for other gods, but remain faithful to them, though of course they are no more than wooden and stone gods (verse 11). Idolaters are often more devoted to what is useless than God’s people are to the truth. God’s people give up the truth, idolaters hold on to the lie. This is also true of our time.

It is against this background that they must now consider their own behavior. How is it then that they not only become unfaithful to their “Glory” but change Him for what are not gods (Psa 106:20). They replace the glory of the imperishable God with images from creation (Rom 1:23). It is terrible when a woman commits adultery, but she does so, in general, with one man. But Israel commits adultery with many, many idols. That the people committed adultery is bad enough, but she also does so with so many and such horrible idols.

They changed the living God for terrible idols. Changing or replacing gods is something that does not happen even in the heathen world. When God’s people sin, it is usually to a worse degree than when people of the world do (cf. 1Cor 5:1). God’s people change their Glory, which is the LORD Himself, for what is of no use, which are idols.

How foolish God’s people can be! Jeremiah, on behalf of the LORD, calls upon the heavens – where we can think of the angels – to be appalled, to shudder, and to be very desolate over this (verse 12). On earth the LORD is not taken into account by His people. Heaven sees the unfaithfulness and cannot regard it unmoved (Deu 32:1; Isa 1:2).

The LORD holds up to Judah their two-fold sin, “two evils” (verse 13). They have
1. forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters, that is, they have rejected the truth and
2. hewed for themselves cisterns, “broken cisterns that can hold no water” that is, they have accepted the lie.

The LORD calls Himself “the fountain of living waters”, the fountain of life (cf. Psa 36:9a). Whoever forsakes the fountain of living waters, the Lord Jesus Himself (Jn 4:10-14; 7:37-39), starts tapping his own sources. Those who tap sources of their own to learn the true meaning of life will perish of thirst. Only the LORD can quench the thirst of His people. “Broken cisterns”, cisterns that do not hold water, resources that do not quench thirst, are Egypt and Assyria (verse 18). As an application for us, we can think, for example, of science, philosophy, and the pursuit of possession and power. Everything that is expected from these ‘cisterns’ leaks away.

Sin inevitably brings its own punishment. Through two powerful questions, the LORD emphasizes the consequences of their disobedience (verse 14). Israel was originally neither slave nor prey (verse 3), but has become slave and prey through their unfaithfulness. The LORD calls Israel “My Son, My firstborn” (Exo 4:22). They are not destined to serve in slavery, but to rule in freedom. Israel, however, has turned away from the LORD and denied his relationship to Him as a son. He became an idolater and a slave to his lusts. “Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin“ (Jn 8:34). Because of sin, enemies have come to rule over them and they have become slaves (Neh 9:36).

Israel has become a prey of young lions (verse 15). The fruits of the land have become the prey of other nations because of their idolatry. By the young lions are meant Assyria and Egypt, the instruments of God’s judgment, and this while Israel has taken refuge in them. Egypt has robbed the people of their honor (verse 16). They have themselves to blame for this, because they have forsaken the LORD Who wants to lead them in the right way (verse 17).

With great courage, Jeremiah points out the cause of the impending judgment. The responsibility for this lies entirely with the people. They will have to live with the fruit of their evil ways. Evil is not only something that is directed against God, but also against man himself.

In the days of Jeremiah, there are two main political movements. There is an Egyptian-minded party and an Assyrian-minded party. But what help can wicked nations offer Judah? Jeremiah points out their fickle behavior. The people seek support from Assyria at one time and from Egypt at another, according to how the situation requires it in their estimation (verse 18; cf. Hos 7:11; Isa 30:1-2; 31:1; Eze 23:3,5). These are the cisterns they hewed for themselves, the broken cisterns, which hold no water (verse 13). These cisterns have provided them with nothing even remotely reminiscent of refreshment. Have they then learned nothing of their futility and deception?

Forsaking the LORD is an evil that punishes itself (verse 19) because sin finally makes one miserable and does not give one the joy it initially seemed to give. We see this with the prodigal son (Lk 15:11-19). Repentance comes when it starts to sink in “that it is evil and bitter” to forsake the LORD God and that the cause of it is that there is no fear of the LORD, of Him Who is the Lord, the LORD of hosts. Sin is evil in itself and bitter in its effects. What folly and great sin it is to forsake Him and turn against Him.

Jer 2:20-25 | Israel’s Immorality

20 “For long ago I broke your yoke
[And] tore off your bonds;
But you said, ‘I will not serve!’
For on every high hill
And under every green tree
You have lain down as a harlot.
21 “Yet I planted you a choice vine,
A completely faithful seed.
How then have you turned yourself before Me
Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?
22 “Although you wash yourself with lye
And use much soap,
The stain of your iniquity is before Me”, declares the Lord GOD.
23 “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled,
I have not gone after the Baals’?
Look at your way in the valley!
Know what you have done!
You are a swift young camel entangling her ways,
24 A wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness,
That sniffs the wind in her passion.
In [the time of] her heat who can turn her away?
All who seek her will not become weary;
In her month they will find her.
25 “Keep your feet from being unshod
And your throat from thirst;
But you said, ‘It is hopeless!
No! For I have loved strangers,
And after them I will walk.’

The LORD reminds His people that He has broken the yoke of slavery under which they have groaned in Egypt (verse 20). He has also broken their bonds by which they have been held captive. In this way He has delivered them. However, this is not to let them go their own way now, but in order to have them serve Him as His people. The people, however, do not want to serve the LORD. They also say that. They choose to go after idols and play the harlot.

They have not only come to adultery, but to harlotry; they have come to behave like a harlot. They have broken the yoke of marriage to the LORD, because it is too heavy for them; they have come to see it as slavery. This is also how many people today see marriage. They want to be free and engage with whomever they want. With that freedom, there is no question of submitting to God's statutes. They refuse to do so, just as Israel refuses to do so here.

The LORD has planted them as a choice vine (verse 21). He has been confident that they are “a completely faithful seed”, that is, a seed that would produce fruit abundantly, that is, they would rejoice His heart. This expectation is justified, for He has cared for them very well (cf. Isa 5:1-7).

But things have been quite different. They have been transformed into the opposite. They have become “degenerate shoots of a foreign vine” (cf. Deu 32:32). That is, they are now out to please others instead of the LORD. He expresses it as an astonished question, how that is even possible. How is that with us? Do we want to be a joy to the heart of God or are we also out to please ourselves or others?

They have corrupted themselves so deeply that it is impossible to undo their iniquity themselves (verse 22). No matter what they try to do to be pleasing to God, it is in vain. All the possible cleaning supplies they would use to wash off their iniquities do not cleanse them before Him. They serve only to purify the outside, while the inside, where sin dwells, remains dirty.

He seeks truth in the innermost being and not cleanliness on the outside. Being concerned only with the outside does not remove the “stain” of their “iniquity” from before Him. Only through repentance and conversion can God wash away and forgive their sins so that He sees them no more (1Jn 1:9). If they do not repent, He will have to cleanse away the “stain” of their “iniquity” from before Him by judgment.

We can compare “lye” and “soap” to all kinds of re-education programs and teaching social skills to change people. But nothing that man devises to bring him to a “socially responsible” behavior can change man inside. Only the blood of Christ and the Word of God cleanse from sins.

The people insist that they have not defiled themselves (verse 23; cf. Pro 30:20). The brutal, glaring denial is mind-boggling! What love and patience we see in the LORD that He still wants to have something to do with such people. He points out to them their ways, “look at your way in the valley”, which show undeniably that they have most certainly defiled themselves. For example, they sacrificed their children to Molech in the valley of Hinnom (Jer 7:31). Their own ways condemn them. Then the LORD’s call sounds: “Know what you have done!” With acknowledging begins the path to blessing.

The LORD compares them unflatteringly, but aptly, to a restless running to and fro, “swift young camel”. They are like the untamed “wild donkey” (verse 24) living in wild freedom (cf. Gen 16:12). In following her urge to mate, she cannot be stopped when she is near a donkey. “In her month” relates to the fertile period of this female donkey. We can think here of the word “when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin” resulting in death (Jam 1:15).

Thus they are unstoppable in their desire for harlotry. One who seeks a harlot need not make any effort to do so, for he will easily find in God’s people what he seeks (cf. Pro 7:6-23). The issue here is the urge of the people to seek their salvation and protection from the nations around them and the gods of those nations. Those nations are eager to enlist them and pick this people bare. It cannot but result in the death of God’s people.

The people are fast to commit harlotry, just as a man can walk faster when he takes off his shoes (verse 25). They have taken the shoes off their feet in their thirst for harlotry. Every attempt to put a brake, an obstacle, on the conduct of the people, every warning, is in vain. The people want to go that way. There is a deep longing for the strangers. It is completely addicted to harlotry.

Jer 2:26-28 | Let Israel’s Idols Redeem Them

26 “As the thief is shamed when he is discovered,
So the house of Israel is shamed;
They, their kings, their princes
And their priests and their prophets,
27 Who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’
And to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’
For they have turned [their] back to Me,
And not [their] face;
But in the time of their trouble they will say,
‘Arise and save us.’
28 “But where are your gods
Which you made for yourself?
Let them arise, if they can save you
In the time of your trouble;
For [according to] the number of your cities
Are your gods, O Judah.

The time will come when the people will be ashamed because of the conduct of their political and spiritual leaders (verse 26). They are compared to a thief who is caught. Someone who breaks in somewhere and is then caught is deeply ashamed. In the same way, the house of Israel will be shamed when they will be confronted with their repulsive behavior. It is not shame for their shameless behavior, but because they have been discovered.

They rely on wood and stone as their conceivers and caretakers (verse 27). Attributing life-giving and life-sustaining properties to inanimate matter goes one step further than idolatry itself. The latter is setting a creature above the Creator. On top of that to ascribe their very existence to those dead idols is an unprecedented contempt of the LORD. They thereby turn their backs on Him as a symbol of the proud stubbornness with which they put Him aside and serve the idols.

However, when times of trouble come, they cry out to the LORD, if only He will arise and deliver them. But then He will refer them to their own gods (verse 28; cf. Jdg 10:14). They will have to deliver them. They have such a good relationship with them, they take such good care of them, don’t they? And they are not a few either. They can be found throughout the land. The land is full of them, so to speak. Surely these countless gods must be able to help them.

Jer 2:29-37 | Israel’s Folly

29 “Why do you contend with Me?
You have all transgressed against Me”, declares the LORD.
30 “In vain I have struck your sons;
They accepted no chastening.
Your sword has devoured your prophets
Like a destroying lion.
31 “O generation, heed the word of the LORD.
Have I been a wilderness to Israel,
Or a land of thick darkness?
Why do My people say, ‘We [are free to] roam;
We will no longer come to You’?
32 “Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
Or a bride her attire?
Yet My people have forgotten Me
Days without number.
33 “How well you prepare your way
To seek love!
Therefore even the wicked women
You have taught your ways.
34 “Also on your skirts is found
The lifeblood of the innocent poor;
You did not find them breaking in.
But in spite of all these things,
35 Yet you said, ‘I am innocent;
Surely His anger is turned away from me.’
Behold, I will enter into judgment with you
Because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
36 “Why do you go around so much
Changing your way?
Also, you will be put to shame by Egypt
As you were put to shame by Assyria.
37 “From this [place] also you will go out
With your hands on your head;
For the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust,
And you will not prosper with them.”

The people turn things around by contending with God, by calling Him to account (verse 29). As if He had not done something right! After all, it is they who have rebelled against Him. Therefore He has disciplined them (verse 30). But it is in vain. They even killed the prophets He sent to them with the sword (1Kgs 19:10; cf. Mt 23:37a; Acts 7:52). They have raged against them like a lion. Thus they have brought destruction upon themselves. The prophets, who are such a great blessing of God to the people, have been treated by them as if they were a great plague.

The LORD asks His people to listen to Him again (verse 31), for He has something to say to them that is irrefutable. He is speaking to the generation living at that time. He asks if He has sometimes been a wilderness to them, or perhaps a land of thick darkness. Is there no refreshment with Him, and provision for their needs? Is there no light with Him on the way they must go? They cannot deny this. But the attitude of the people does not show that they acknowledge it at all.

Bluntly, they say they will no longer come to Him. They want to be unbound, free. To them, submission to Him is a reprehensible thought. They refuse to submit to Him. That is what the LORD presents to them, whom He calls “My people” here. He may expect so much else from them precisely because they are His people.

Instead of being a wilderness without life and a land without light, He has been their ornament and they have been to Him a virgin and a bride (verse 32). However, they have acted in complete opposition and have forgotten Him, and have done so for so long. He does not see that time as a specific period, but counts in days. Every day that they forget Him counts for Him. He can no longer count the days, so hard it is for Him that His people just ignore Him day after day. This goes even further than the refusal to come to Him as of the previous verse. We hear the great sorrow of God Who is rejected by the people He loves so much and for whom He has done so much.

That they have forgotten God is not because they don’t know the way to get to Him. It is because they do not want to go that way, and that in turn is because they are going another way, a way of fornication. They want to go that way, and how well they know it (verse 33)! They know this evil way so well, that they also teach it with the greatest ease to other people who live in sin.

At the nadir of their deviance, they have also become murderers. In their path of fornication, they stop at nothing. On their hands is the blood of poor innocent souls (verse 34) whom they have murdered because they stood in their way. There is no reason for it, as, for example, the killing of a burglar (Exo 22:2). What they do, beats all.

Whoever commits adultery shows a total lack of respect for life. Harlotry and murder belong together. David was first a fornicator and then also became a murderer (2Sam 11:2-5,14-17). This is also true today. In the wake of a completely derailed sexual morality, abortion and euthanasia follow.

The people to whom Jeremiah addresses the word are playing innocent. They act as if they have done nothing wrong (verse 35). They believe that the LORD has no reason to become angry toward them. Even today in professing Christianity, sin is being condoned. There is no longer any sense of what is right before God. God’s Word is twisted to such an extent that the most heinous sins can be committed with an appeal to God’s Word. But the LORD cannot and will not accept this. He will try them and convince them of their guilt precisely because they say they are innocent. This self-justification is abominable in God’s eyes.

Time and again they go out to seek salvation somewhere else (verse 36). First it is Assyria (2Kgs 15:19), now it is Egypt again. But they will be put to shame by Egypt as they did before by Assyria (2Chr 28:20). This going back and forth, this constantly changing their path, this constantly choosing a new tactic to hedge against evil or to secure benefits separately from the LORD, is useless. They will be taken away as captives and have no prosperity, for the LORD breaks everything on which they rely (verse 37). With their hands on their heads, which means in great disgrace, they will go out (cf. 2Sam 13:19).

Jeremiah 3

Jer 3:1-5 | Judah, the Faithless Wife

1 [God] says, “If a husband divorces his wife
And she goes from him
And belongs to another man,
Will he still return to her?
Will not that land be completely polluted?
But you are a harlot [with] many lovers;
Yet you turn to Me”, declares the LORD.
2 “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see;
Where have you not been violated?
By the roads you have sat for them
Like an Arab in the desert,
And you have polluted a land
With your harlotry and with your wickedness.
3 “Therefore the showers have been withheld,
And there has been no spring rain.
Yet you had a harlot’s forehead;
You refused to be ashamed.
4 “Have you not just now called to Me,
‘My Father, You are the friend of my youth?
5 ‘Will He be angry forever?
Will He be indignant to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken
And have done evil things,
And you have had your way.”

In verse 1, the LORD compares the relationship between Him and Jerusalem to that of an earthly marriage in which a husband divorces his wife. Will that husband return to her? The answer is “no” if she has become the wife of another man (Deu 24:1-4). The LORD did not divorce Jerusalem, but she herself left. However, she is seen as a wife sent away and her husband is not allowed to return to her, for the land would be completely polluted as a result. Indeed, she has made the return impossible by her harlotry with many lovers.

The LORD presents her behavior to Jerusalem (verse 2). Let her look around. Is there any place to be found where she has not indulged in harlotry? She has shamelessly sat down along the roads to offer herself as a harlot to every passerby (cf. Gen 38:14-15; Eze 16:25; Pro 7:12-15). She sits there, like an Arab in the desert offering his merchandise to passersby. An Arab lives in total disregard of boundaries. If there is no trade, there is always something to loot. This is how Jerusalem lives. She is only out for harlotry. By her harlotry and all additional evil, she has polluted the whole land. Her sins lie like a covering over the land.

The LORD withheld the showers to discipline her and make her return to Him, confessing her unfaithfulness (verse 3; Lev 26:9; Deu 28:23-24; 1Kgs 17:1). He wants her to feel how empty a life is that takes place outside of fellowship with Him. However, she no longer has a sense of what is good. She has the forehead of a harlot, who is shamelessly engaged and uncorrectable for her repugnant behavior. In pride, she carries on and takes no notice of the LORD. She refuses to acknowledge and break with sin.

The LORD reminds them that they called to Him as “my Father” (verse 4). He says this so that in Him they will acknowledge their origin, in the consciousness that by serving idols they have separated themselves from Him, their origin. He adds that they will acknowledge Him as “the friend” of their youth. This means that they will acknowledge that they have rejected Him as Friend and have begun to serve idols.

But the LORD knows how they think about Him in their heart. Even if they would come to Him and call Him “my Father” and confess Him as “the friend” of their youth, they do that without any confession of their sins. They appeal to His goodness, as the good God Who will accept His people again anyway (verse 5), but they do it in hypocrisy.

They believe that the good God will leave His anger someday. Surely He will not always remain indignant toward them, will He? Their language is flattering, so they speak, but their actions are evil. They manage to speak piously and act sinfully. The LORD sees through that and tells them so clearly. In saying, “you have had your way”, we hear the LORD’s amazement at their appalling and incorrigibly insolent attitude. We would say: ‘Do you need to say another word about that?’ But where we stop, God continues in patience and grace. That is an attitude that should amaze us.

This is what Jeremiah as a young man has to say to God’s people. Here his first message ends with the main topics summarized:
1. Israel is guilty of terrible sins.
2. The LORD is punishing His people.
3. In times of need, they want the LORD to help them.
4. However, they have no true repentance.

Jer 3:6-11 | Judah Is Worse Than Israel

6 Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. 7 I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. 9 Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. 10 Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception”, declares the LORD. 11 And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

Here begins a new prophecy that continues through to Jeremiah 6:30. This one is more comprehensive than the previous one, Jeremiah 2:1-3:5. It is spoken “in the days of Josiah the king” (verse 6). By then the ten tribes had been scattered for many decades, carried away by the Assyrians. In what period of King Josiah’s reign we are, is not told here. We are told in more detail about forsaking the LORD by both the northern ten tribe realm and the southern two tribe realm. Yet in between we find wonderful promises of restoration and blessing after their repentance and that the goodness of the LORD will still lead them, even if through the deepest tribulation.

The LORD asks Jeremiah if he has seen “what faithless Israel did”. A prophet must be a keen observer and see what the LORD sees. The LORD tells him that He has seen what faithless Israel, the ten tribes, have done, how they have committed harlotry everywhere. He also tells Jeremiah what He said to her after all her faithlessness (verse 7). He called her to return to Him. And did she? No, she didn’t.

What Israel has done and what the LORD has therefore done to faithless Israel has been observed by Judah, whom the LORD here calls “her treacherous sister Judah”. Has Israel’s behavior and what the LORD has done to her been a warning to Judah (verse 8)? No, Judah has not been warned by Israel’s example. The LORD has had to conclude that His sending Israel away has made no impression on Judah. Judah was not frightened by it, but on the contrary went and was a harlot also.

They are two sisters. The LORD has been in a marriage relationship with both of them. The older sister, Israel, He divorced and gave her a writ of divorce. Judah should have learned a lesson from that. Judah should have seen and taken to heart what happened to Israel, in the judgment God had to bring upon them.

It is important that we be warned by what we see in the lives of other believers (cf. 1Cor 10:6,11). If we do not learn from the follies of others, we are even greater fools than they are. We are no better and should not imagine that we are not as bad as those others. Let us not think that we know our limits.

We can say in pride that we know how much we can drink without getting drunk or how fast we can drive without becoming reckless. With this attitude, we have made our self-control an idol. It is better to be convinced that we are weak and take to heart the warning: “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1Cor 10:12).

Because of Judah’s behavior, the holy land, the land of God, has been polluted. For Judah commits “adultery with stones and trees” (verse 9). Judah worships matter and puts his trust in it, the making of human hands. What he confesses with his mouth is pretense (verse 10). His heart is not right before God. That is what the LORD sees. He knows the heart. Nothing is hidden from Him, not even the deepest motives. “All things are open and laid bare” to His eyes (Heb 4:13).

Judah pretends to worship God, but God judges Judah to be even worse than Israel (verse 11; Eze 23:11). Compared to Judah, Israel even seems more righteous than Judah. Israel is called “faithless Israel” and Judah is called “treacherous Judah”. To become faithless is bad. It is giving up a privileged position. Treacherousness is even worse. It is despising a privileged relationship. When Israel became faithless, they did not yet know what the judgment would be. They had no example of it. Judah does. They have seen with Israel what judgment means, but they nevertheless have not repented. To all the sins of Israel, Judah adds that of hypocrisy.

How is the church doing? Has she remained faithful? Paul speaks to the Corinthians about being concerned that the church has been “led astray from the simplicity and purity [of devotion] to Christ” (2Cor 11:3). We see in professing Christianity how much idolatry has entered. Christ has long ceased to be the sole object of faith. Decay and apostasy are taking on ever more gross forms. With an appeal to the Bible, the most horrible sins are justified. Judgment is set far off, if one believes in it at all.

Jer 3:12-13 | Call to Repentance

12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say,
‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD;
‘I will not look upon you in anger.
For I am gracious,’ declares the LORD;
‘I will not be angry forever.
13 ‘Only acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against the LORD your God
And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the LORD.

Following the observation that Israel seems more righteous than Judah, the LORD instructs Jeremiah to proclaim His words toward the north (verse 12). There is a remnant of the ten tribes there. Several years ago, King Hezekiah invited them to the Passover. Many laughed at him, but some came anyway (2Chr 30:1,10-11). Now the LORD offers them to return to Him. He makes it attractive to them by presenting Himself to them as “gracious”. They may also count on Him not maintaining His anger forever when they come. What an impressive invitation from a God full of grace!

It is as if the LORD is giving them another chance to return to Him and be blessed. They only have to acknowledge their iniquity (verse 13). For they have transgressed against Him, the LORD their God. God cannot tolerate that. In their rebellion, they have gone in all directions to commit their abominable idolatry, wherever they go. They do this while not listening to His voice. Their behavior is in direct opposition to His will.

Jer 3:14-18 | Future Blessing

14 ‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the LORD;
‘For I am a master to you,
And I will take you one from a city and two from a family,
And I will bring you to Zion.’
15 “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding. 16 It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land”, declares the LORD, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss [it], nor will it be made again. 17 At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the LORD,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the LORD; nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

He would like them to return to Him. After all, He is “a master” to them, or: He married them (Dutch Translation [Darby Translation: ‘for I am a husband unto you’]). In these words, the passionate desire for their return to Him, a loving God, is evident. He calls them “faithless” and yet at the same time “sons”. Besides being in a relationship of a Father to His sons, He is also in a marriage relationship, that is, a covenant relationship, with them. They have given up both relationships, but He, for His part, does not want to give up those relationships. Therefore, He calls them to return to Him.

Because He has married them, He will not completely cast them out. He will take “one from a city and two from a family”, that is, He will take a remnant to Himself and enter into the marriage bond with it. Here and in the following verses something shines through of the situation in the realm of peace. Once back in the land, the LORD will give them God-fearing leaders, shepherds after His heart. These are shepherds who resemble the true Shepherd, the great Son of David. David is “a man after His own heart” (1Sam 13:14b; Acts 13:22), the Lord Jesus is that in a perfect sense. These shepherds, as under-shepherds, will represent the Lord Jesus as the Shepherd of His people (verse 15). They will feed the people “on knowledge and understanding” (cf. Psa 78:70-72).

The people will then have entered into the blessing of the realm of peace. The expression “in those days” indicates this. That expression often looks ahead to the time of the realm of peace and the time immediately preceding it. They will multiply and increase in the land (cf. Gen 1:28). The ark will no longer be needed because He of Whom the ark speaks, Christ, the Messiah, will be in their midst (verse 16).

That the ark will no longer be needed is a bold assumption for an Old Testament prophet. The ark is the center of the religious life of God’s people and the place where the high priest sacrifices the blood on the day of atonement. But the ark will no longer be needed as a symbol of God’s presence in the midst of the people, because the glory of the LORD Himself will dwell in the midst of His people. We see the same thing in Ezekiel’s temple which will be in Jerusalem in the realm of peace (Ezekiel 40-43). In that temple there is also no ark, because the glory of the LORD dwells in the temple. With that temple He also connects His throne (Eze 43:7a).

The first time the ark is mentioned in the Bible is in the design of the tabernacle shown to Moses (Exo 25:10-22). We see that the ark is also given its place in Solomon’s temple (1Kgs 8:6). The last historical mention we have, is during the reign of King Josiah (2Chr 35:3). Probably the ark was taken to Babylon along with all the other objects of the temple. Remarkably, it is not mentioned in a list of all that is carried away to Babylon (Jer 52:17-23). It was lost in 586 BC and never found or replaced.

The ark is the throne of the LORD (1Sam 4:4a; 2Kgs 19:15). In the future, “at that time” (verse 17; verse 16), all of “Jerusalem” will be the new “Throne of the LORD” and not just the ark (Eze 48:35b). The city will bear the marks of His government. Therefore, all nations will go there and gather together (Isa 2:2-3; 56:6-8; 60:11-14; Mic 4:1-2). They will come to the Name of the LORD, which is most strongly associated with Jerusalem. His throne and His Name, His government and His Person are the center and foundation of the realm of peace. The nations will acknowledge that. In the past, their lives have consisted of walking after their hardened, wicked hearts. That will be over. They have in Him a totally new goal in their lives.

Judah will return to the land “in those days” along with the remnant of Israel (verse 18; Mic 2:12). Here Jeremiah speaks of a return of Judah, meaning that Judah will also be taken out of the land. They are coming from the north, from the direction from which their enemies came, both Assyria and Babylon, and carried them away. In the realm of peace, the two realms will be reunited and they will be one people (Eze 37:16-17). They will dwell in the land, according to the promises the LORD made to the fathers, that they would possess as an inheritance.

Jer 3:19-20 | Israel’s Disobedience

19 “Then I said,
‘How I would set you among My sons
And give you a pleasant land,
The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’
And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My Father,
And not turn away from following Me.’
20 “Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover,
So you have dealt treacherously with Me,
O house of Israel”, declares the LORD.

In these verses, the intention and desire of God and the treacherousness of the people are contrasted. God desired to make His people His sons and to have them dwell in “a pleasant land”, “the most beautiful inheritance of the nations” (verse 19). He wanted to hear from them a response that He could expect, a response of gratitude, love and faithfulness. He wanted them to cry out to Him “my Father” (cf. Isa 64:8a) and not to turn away from following Him.

But instead, the people dealt treacherously with Him (verse 20). It does not even say that the people began to serve other gods. The emphasis is on the fact that despite so much love from the LORD, they became unfaithful to Him and did not stay with Him. That is a great sorrow for the LORD.

Jer 3:21-25 | Exhortation to Repent

21 A voice is heard on the bare heights,
The weeping [and] the supplications of the sons of Israel;
Because they have perverted their way,
They have forgotten the LORD their God.
22 “Return, O faithless sons,
I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to You;
For You are the LORD our God.
23 “Surely, the hills are a deception,
A tumult [on] the mountains.
Surely in the LORD our God
Is the salvation of Israel.
24 “But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

The voice of supplications “is heard on the bare heights”, which are the places where the people practice idolatry (verse 21; verse 2). Because their departing from the LORD has not produced the expected results, they now weep and supplicate. God’s response to this is one of wonderful grace. He calls on His “faithless sons” to return (verse 22a). If they do, He can heal their faithlessness. Those who return to the LORD with genuine repentance for their sins will have no desire to return to the mire of sin.

Jeremiah confesses the condition of the people, with whom he makes himself one. Through Jeremiah’s mouth the people say they are coming to Him and acknowledge that He is the LORD their God (verse 22b). They also acknowledge that they have sought their salvation in vain from the idols on the hills and the multitudes of the mountains (verse 23). Their salvation, the salvation of Israel, is only in the LORD their God.

The people see that from their youth they have brought shame upon themselves by sinning against the LORD (verses 24-25). They confess the sin of their fathers and also their own, “we and our fathers”. There is no longer any excuse, no attempt to hide or justify their sins. They acknowledge that the cause is in not listening to the voice of the LORD their God.

When we look back, we never regret what we did right. We only regret when we look back at the wrong things we did (cf. Rom 6:21). These are things that, when they were before us, when we looked at them, seemed attractive to do.

Jeremiah 4

Jer 4:1-4 | Call for True Repentance

1 “If you will return, O Israel”, declares the LORD,
“[Then] you should return to Me.
And if you will put away your detested things from My presence,
And will not waver,
2 And you will swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’
In truth, in justice and in righteousness;
Then the nations will bless themselves in Him,
And in Him they will glory.”
3 For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem,
“Break up your fallow ground,
And do not sow among thorns.
4 “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD
And remove the foreskins of your heart,
Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Or else My wrath will go forth like fire
And burn with none to quench it,
Because of the evil of your deeds.”

The LORD desires His people to return and to do so to Him (verse 1). Someone can repent of certain sins because he sees that they are harmful for his (spiritual) life or that certain sins do not bring the expected benefit. Then those sins are given up, but there is no real repentance. There is only true conversion when those sins are confessed to God and there is a return to Him.

The LORD holds up to His people what He expects of them when they return to Him. He can only accept their conversion as genuine if they put away the abominable idols from before Him and stop wandering restlessly from one idol to another. This means a thorough cleansing of the city and the land, so that not one idol and not one idolatrous place of sacrifice will be found anymore. It is not possible to walk with God and at the same time continue to sin or even allow a reason to sin to exist.

‘Waver’ means not finding rest anywhere. Cain, after the murder of his brother, went to “be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth” (Gen 4:14). In this he is a picture of the Jewish people, who are “a wanderer on the earth” after the murder of the Lord Jesus. There is no stability, but they are, as it were, “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph 4:14). Idolatry, which finds its culmination in the worship of the beast, to which they are brought by the demonic temptation of the antichrist, is therefore an extremely debilitating service.

If it turns out that their conversion is sincere, a matter of their heart, and they keep the oath they have sworn by His Name, it will be a testimony to the nations around them (verse 2). To swear by the name LORD means that they acknowledge Him as LORD, the God with Whom they are in a covenant relationship. That alone brings them to do truth, justice and righteousness. They will then be sincere, honest and trustworthy. As a result, the nations will also long to be connected to the LORD. From this they will experience the blessing and give Him the glory. They will then no longer glory in themselves, but in Him.

Jeremiah demonstrates the need for spiritual renewal of the people. The men of Judah and especially those of Jerusalem are held accountable (verse 3). He exhorts them to work their fallow ground or unplowed hearts. The plow of repentance and obedience must go through the conscience to receive the seed of the Word. No farmer sows in unplowed land. Thus God does not sow the seed of His blessing in unconverted hearts.

Unplowed land is fallow ground. It is land where nothing is happening. The land lies dormant, but nothing grows there either. That land must be worked, effort must be made to make it fruitful land (cf. Hos 10:12). So it is also with gifts that every believer has received from the Lord. They must not remain unused, but must be used so that there may be fruit (cf. Col 4:17).

“Thorns”, or anything that prevents fruit from developing, must be removed. If a fruitful plant ends up among the thorns, it does not bring forth fruit (Mt 13:7,22). Thorns are closely tied to sin, they are the result of it (Gen 3:18a). Sin in the life of a believer prevents him from bearing fruit for God.

Once plowed and the land is no longer fallow, it is suitable for sowing. But then the thorns can also start to grow. They usually grow faster than the good seed. Therefore, “do not sow among thorns”, but out of reach of them. This is what the people are called to do. It holds the lesson for us that we must stay away from the cares of the world and the temptations of wealth (Mt 13:22).

To achieve the result of verse 3, the condition of verse 4 must be met. Now Jeremiah uses the picture of circumcision. Before we can work in a way that fruit comes out of our lives, something must happen in our hearts. Outward appearances must be replaced by inward reality (cf. Deu 10:16; Rom 2:28-29). This means self-judgment, of which circumcision is a picture. If that is not there, God will have to judge, because if there is no self-judgment, there will only be “the evil of your deeds” on which God’s judgment will come.

Jer 4:5-18 | The Enemy Is on His Way

5 Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,
“Blow the trumpet in the land;
Cry aloud and say,
‘Assemble yourselves, and let us go
Into the fortified cities.’
6 “Lift up a standard toward Zion!
Seek refuge, do not stand [still],
For I am bringing evil from the north,
And great destruction.
7 “A lion has gone up from his thicket,
And a destroyer of nations has set out;
He has gone out from his place
To make your land a waste.
Your cities will be ruins
Without inhabitant.
8 “For this, put on sackcloth,
Lament and wail;
For the fierce anger of the LORD
Has not turned back from us.”
9 “It shall come about in that day”, declares the LORD, “that the heart of the king and the heart of the princes will fail; and the priests will be appalled and the prophets will be astounded.” 10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’; whereas a sword touches the throat.” 11 In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness in the direction of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse, 12 a wind too strong for this—will come at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them.
13 “Behold, he goes up like clouds,
And his chariots like the whirlwind;
His horses are swifter than eagles.
Woe to us, for we are ruined!”
14 Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem,
That you may be saved.
How long will your wicked thoughts
Lodge within you?
15 For a voice declares from Dan,
And proclaims wickedness from Mount Ephraim.
16 “Report [it] to the nations, now!
Proclaim over Jerusalem,
‘Besiegers come from a far country,
And lift their voices against the cities of Judah.
17 ‘Like watchmen of a field they are against her round about,
Because she has rebelled against Me,’ declares the LORD.
18 “Your ways and your deeds
Have brought these things to you.
This is your evil. How bitter!
How it has touched your heart!”

The LORD has to bring judgment, it is imminent. It will come from the north, from where the Babylonians come. The people have corrupted so much that God cannot delay judgment any longer. In His mercy, He has His people warned that calamity is coming. To that end, He calls for the blowing of the trumpet (verse 5; Hos 5:8; Joel 2:1; Amos 3:6). There is also to be a loud cry, indicating that there is a need for haste. Then the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem can gather and go together to the fortified cities.

A standard to be lifted up toward Zion (verse 6) seems to be intended primarily for the inhabitants of the countryside. The standard serves to show them in what direction they must go to get to Zion. There they will be able to get to safety. They must quickly seek a safe haven there, without letting anything hold them up (cf. Gen 19:16-17; Mt 24:15-18). The evil is coming “from the north.” This indicates that the enemy will invade Israel from the north. But it is the LORD Himself Who brings this evil from the north. He is bringing this great destruction upon His people.

Haste is called for, for the enemy, that is Nebuchadnezzar, who is here compared to a lion, has already departed from “his place”, that is Babylon, against God’s people (verse 7; Jer 50:17). That he “has gone up from his thicket” indicates that he unexpectedly throws himself upon his prey with great force. The land, “your land”, will be made a waste by him, and the cities, “your cities”, will be in ruins, no one will dwell in them. It does show how total the devastation and destruction will be.

The LORD also holds out to His people what He expects as the appropriate response from them when they learn that judgment is inevitable (verse 8). They are to put on sackcloth and to lament and wail. Jeremiah again makes himself one with the people when he says that the fierce anger of the LORD “has not turned back from us”. The cause of this is that the people do not turn away from idolatry. Jeremiah is well aware of this as well. He has announced the anger of the LORD, but cannot rejoice when it actually comes. He suffers together with the people.

When the anger of the LORD comes, it will deeply affect all the leaders of the people (verse 9). King Zedekiah and the princes, the political leaders, will lose all courage. The priests will be appalled and the prophets will be astounded. They have caused the people to believe in lies and to believe in them themselves. Now that they are confronted with reality, there is nothing left of their speaking of lies. They cannot offer the people any support.

The only reaction we hear is that of Jeremiah (verse 10). He interrupts his preaching to express his feelings. He is deeply affected by the message he has to deliver. His great love for his people, God’s people, even leads him to accuse God of lying by speaking of peace. It seems that Jeremiah blames the LORD for allowing the false prophets to speak of peace and security and for allowing the people to believe in them (cf. Jer 23:17). The opposite happens, for “a sword touches the throat”. This means that they are completely in the power of the enemy and have nowhere to go.

The LORD has heard Jeremiah’s accusation and had it written down. He appreciates his commitment and compassion, but does not respond to it. Jeremiah is similar to Moses and Paul who also made statements out of love for God’s people, but to which God did not respond (Exo 32:32; Rom 9:1-3). It tells us not to follow our emotions, but to follow God’s thoughts and feelings according to His Word and His Spirit.

The LORD continues His announcement of judgment on the people and especially on Jerusalem (verse 11). The enemy will come as “a scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness” that withers all vegetation. That wind is headed for God’s people, whom the LORD calls “the daughter of My people” to indicate His intimate relationship with them. The judgment He must send is also a grievous matter to Him.

His discipline is “not to winnow and not to cleanse”. Winnowing and cleansing are done to rid the good that is present of the wrong elements. However, there is nothing present among God’s people that is good, so there is nothing to be winnowed and cleansed. The entire nation falls under the judgment.

The wind of judgment is sent by the LORD Himself (verse 12). He sends a whirlwind (verse 13) that takes everything it encounters. He is the Judge Who pronounces the judgment and executes the sentence. This happens because sin has been demonstrated with every conceivable evidence. There is no rebuttal to be made. There are no mitigating circumstances.

Therefore, the enemy comes up like clouds that darken the sky (verse 13; cf. Eze 38:16a). The enemy comes with chariots having the speed of a whirlwind. The horses that pull them are even faster than eagles. This describes the arrival of the armies of Babylon, with chariots and war horses. The arrival of the enemy happens so quickly that the overthrow is complete and the people can only cry out: “Woe to us, for we are ruined!”

The threat of the coming of the enemy should cause the people to wash the evil from their hearts (verse 14). It is in the heart that the plotting of evil takes place. From it come the “evil thoughts” (Mt 15:19). This evil can only be washed off by confession and repentance. If they do, they will be saved. That is the LORD’s desire. But He knows their heart. He knows that sinful thoughts dwell in their innermost being, that they spend the night there and have a resting place there, and that they will not be removed from it.

Therefore, the announcement of judgment continues and the LORD does not call a halt to the enemy (verse 15). Word comes that the enemy has already invaded the land and is in Dan. The tribe of Dan is in the far north of Israel. The prophet presents it as if it is already happening. The tribe of Dan first has to deal with the invading armies of Babylon and spreads the news of it in Jerusalem. That message is underscored by a subsequent tiding of calamity that comes from Ephraim. Ephraim is already much closer to Judah and Jerusalem. It shows the rapid advance of the armies of Babylon to Jerusalem.

The approach of the enemy is to be reported to “the nations” (verse 16). By this may be meant the tribes of Israel (Deu 33:3). It may also mean the surrounding nations, who will also have to deal with the advancing king of Babylon. The “besiegers … from a far country” are the Babylonians (Isa 39:3). Jeremiah suggests that they are already so close that the voice of the enemy is heard in the cities of Judah.

Once again, the occasion of this attack from the north is clearly stated (verse 17). The besiegers have surrounded the city – Jeremiah presents it as if it were already happening – just as watchmen surround fields to prevent the wild beasts from coming upon them to eat the fields bare. Watchmen completely seal off a field. That’s what the besiegers are doing to Jerusalem. The tactic of the enemy is to first occupy the land and the villages and towns around Jerusalem so that the supply to the city is cut off and the siege can be laid for it.

This situation resulted from their disobedience to the LORD. Had there been faith, a single man could have stopped the enemy (2Sam 23:11-12). But sin makes weak. The people have been disobedient to the LORD in their ways and actions (verse 18). These have not been superficial deviations, but are deep in the heart. Therefore, the judgments must strike the heart.

Jer 4:19-22 | The Soul Struggle of Jeremiah

19 My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart!
My heart is pounding in me;
I cannot be silent,
Because you have heard, O my soul,
The sound of the trumpet,
The alarm of war.
20 Disaster on disaster is proclaimed,
For the whole land is devastated;
Suddenly my tents are devastated,
My curtains in an instant.
21 How long must I see the standard
And hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 “For My people are foolish,
They know Me not;
They are stupid children
And have no understanding.
They are shrewd to do evil,
But to do good they do not know.”

Jeremiah is fully involved in his message (verse 19). He experiences what he preaches. He experiences the weight of it and is weighed down by it. It touches him deep inside. His intestines get upset and his heart is restless at the sight of the misery that is coming. It is impossible for him to remain silent about it. He must pass it on to warn. He hears the trumpet call and the shouts of the enemy armies. In this way he makes himself one with the people, the remnant in which the Spirit of Christ is. He is weighed down by the wicked condition of the people and experiences God’s anger over it. He represents the voice of the faithful remnant. It is the language of the book of Psalms.

In the spirit, he sees how disaster on disaster occurs (verse 20). There are reports of one calamity after another, just like the messengers who come to Job. One hasn’t finished telling him about the calamity before the next one is already arriving with a new message of doom (Job 1:13-19). The whole land is destroyed by the enemy. In an instant, any family life in tents has become impossible because the tents have been destroyed. Jeremiah speaks of “my tents”, so very concerned is he with the people. He is in agony, apprehending the approaching horrors.

He asks the LORD how long he has to watch the enemy has their say (verse 21). The question “how long” is also common in the book of Psalms. His suffering shows a deep patriotism that no one feels as he does. Fellowship with God and obedience to His service always deepen the servant’s sensitivity. How can this man, so deeply concerned with the fate of his people, later be accused of treason?

The LORD answers him that the cause of all this misery is with “My people” (verse 22). Here we also hear the pain in the heart of the LORD. Although they are His people, they do not know Him. ‘Knowing’ here implies living in fellowship with Him and interacting with Him in love and trust. He must say of them that they are “stupid children”, living without understanding Who He is and who they themselves are (cf. Pro 1:7). They know well how to do evil, they are even “shrewd” in that, but they are ignorant of doing good, of that they “do not know”.

The Lord expects us to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil (Rom 16:19b). We must not interchange good and evil in our hearts and lives, nor mix them together (Isa 5:20).

Jer 4:23-26 | The Cosmic Disaster

23 I looked on the earth, and behold, [it was] formless and void;
And to the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,
And all the hills moved to and fro.
25 I looked, and behold, there was no man,
And all the birds of the heavens had fled.
26 I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness,
And all its cities were pulled down
Before the LORD, before His fierce anger.

Jeremiah sees in the spirit the consequences of the enemy’s coming. He sees God’s judgment as a cosmic catastrophe that will make the land “formless and void” (verse 23), as the earth was before God began to form and fill it (Gen 1:2). The heavens lack light. What stands for firmness and stability, “mountains” and “all the hills”, is moved to and fro (verse 24). There is no longer a living creature to be seen (verse 25). Nor is there any life to be seen further, for the fertile land has become a wilderness, and the gathering places of people, the cities, have been pulled down (verse 26).

The description is vivid, simple, direct, wide in references, and earnest in content. These are unique verses. The prophet is led by the Spirit to witness this cosmic disaster. Four times it says “I looked”. It applies to the coming day of the LORD. All of nature will be upended and no element of it will be left untouched.

And if then we expect this to be because of the work of the enemy, we suddenly hear that it happened “before the LORD, before His fierce anger”. Behind the work of the enemy is the hand of the LORD. He is the Causer of the devastation.

Jer 4:27-31 | The Desolation of the Land

27 For thus says the LORD,
“The whole land shall be a desolation,
Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.
28 “For this the earth shall mourn
And the heavens above be dark,
Because I have spoken, I have purposed,
And I will not change My mind, nor will I turn from it.”
29 At the sound of the horseman and bowman every city flees;
They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks;
Every city is forsaken,
And no man dwells in them.
30 And you, O desolate one, what will you do?
Although you dress in scarlet,
Although you decorate [yourself with] ornaments of gold,
Although you enlarge your eyes with paint,
In vain you make yourself beautiful.
[Your] lovers despise you;
They seek your life.
31 For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor,
The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,
The cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
Stretching out her hands, [saying],
“Ah, woe is me, for I faint before murderers.”

Because the LORD Himself executes this judgment, it is at the same time guaranteed that He will determine its limit, which will not be crossed (verse 27). This offers the prospect of some hope, the hope of a remnant. The enemy will not want to leave anything of God’s people, but the LORD will make sure that there is no complete destruction of the land.

However, the earth will grieve because of the disasters that will come upon it (verse 28). And it will come. The LORD confirms this in the strongest terms with the swearing of a fourfold oath:
1. “I have spoken,
2. I have purposed,
3. and I will not change My mind,
4. nor will I turn from it.”

When the cries of the oncoming horsemen and bowman are heard, every city will flee (verse 29). They all seek refuge outside the city, into the thickets or on the rocks. In this way they want to try to hide from the anger of God (cf. Rev 6:15-16). When the enemy comes to Jerusalem, all the other cities of Judah are already a wilderness, no one lives in them anymore.

Then the LORD turns to the ruined city and, with irony in His voice, asks what she now intends to do (verse 30). He can tell her that anything she does to make herself beautiful to be attractive to the enemies of His people will have no effect. She wants to look like a harlot and thinks she can avert judgment that way. Her provocative clothing, her attractive jewelry, and her ogling eyes – therefore she enlarges her eyes with paint – will work the opposite (cf. 2Kgs 9:30; Eze 16:26-29; 23:40-41).

Her lovers will reject her and make her life impossible. She has lost all attractiveness and is cast aside as worthless. So it is with everyone who is full of self-importance and thinks to be attractive to others, but does not ask how God sees him or her.

Jeremiah hears the sound of a woman in labor giving birth to her first child (verse 31). The distress this causes is a picture of what judgment brings. Labor pains at the same time hold the promise of new life. Jeremiah hears here how Zion gasps for breath and stretches out her hands to receive help. The faithless woman, the harlot, must become a woman in labor. The murderers who come upon her must drive her out to the LORD with repentance for her sins in order to receive new life. The exclamation “woe is me!” is the beginning of this.

Jeremiah 5

Jer 5:1-9 | There Is No One Who Does Justice

1 “Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
And look now and take note.
And seek in her open squares,
If you can find a man,
If there is one who does justice, who seeks truth,
Then I will pardon her.
2 “And although they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’
Surely they swear falsely.”
3 O LORD, do not Your eyes [look] for truth?
You have smitten them,
[But] they did not weaken;
You have consumed them,
But they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
They have refused to repent.
4 Then I said, “They are only the poor,
They are foolish;
For they do not know the way of the LORD
[Or] the ordinance of their God.
5 “I will go to the great
And will speak to them,
For they know the way of the LORD
[And] the ordinance of their God.”
But they too, with one accord, have broken the yoke
[And] burst the bonds.
6 Therefore a lion from the forest will slay them,
A wolf of the deserts will destroy them,
A leopard is watching their cities.
Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces,
Because their transgressions are many,
Their apostasies are numerous.
7 “Why should I pardon you?
Your sons have forsaken Me
And sworn by those who are not gods.
When I had fed them to the full,
They committed adultery
And trooped to the harlot’s house.
8 “They were well-fed lusty horses,
Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
9 “Shall I not punish these [people]”, declares the LORD,
“And on a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?

The LORD tells Jeremiah to roam through the whole city to look if anyone who is honest and trustworthy is found or seeking the truth (verse 1). He is to keep his eyes peeled. This is to make a thorough search. He must “look”, “take note”, “seek” to see if he could find just “one who does justice, who seeks truth”. Doing justice means acknowledging and upholding the LORD’s law in intercourse and in the judiciary. To seek truth means to be sincere and true.

If there was even just one, He would not execute judgment on the rest and Jerusalem would be spared (cf. Eze 22:30). He would then “pardon”. This word occurs here for the first time in this book. It is an act of God that He does on the condition of man’s repentance or for the sake of someone to spare others.

We clearly see the grace of God here. He is, as it were, looking for a way to be able to forgive. What we read here is reminiscent of His promise to Abraham that He will spare Sodom if He finds only ten who are righteous (Gen 18:23-32). He does not find them (cf. Mic 7:1-2; Psa 12:1b).

In Jerusalem it is even worse: there is not one to be found. This should convince Jeremiah that the LORD is just in His decision to judge His people. It also confirms him in the commission that the LORD has given him to announce that judgment.

They dare to pronounce the Name of the LORD and swear a false oath in that Name (verse 2; cf. Mt 5:33-37). This is done to deceive others. They brazenly break promises they have made in the Name of the LORD. Both Elisha and Gehazi use the phrase, “As the LORD lives” (2Kgs 5:16,20), one in truth, the other in falsehood. This untruthful use of the LORD’s Name is a vain use of His Name and forbidden by the law (Exo 20:7).

Jeremiah knows that the LORD is looking out for someone who is trustworthy (verse 3). In verse 1 the LORD speaks of such a person, here Jeremiah does. He knows what the LORD is looking for. He knows how the LORD has done everything possible to make His people a trustworthy people again. He has disciplined them in every way possible, but no one has taken it to heart. Instead of bowing under the chastisement they harden their faces and show their absolute refusal to repent.

Then Jeremiah again goes among the people, to see if there really is no one who fears the Lord to be found. In doing so, he testifies of a great love for his people. Earlier he had been with the poor people, the simple people, but who behave like fools (verse 4). Their behavior stems from their ignorance of the way of the LORD. They do not know the law of their God. Therefore, he does not find anyone trustworthy.

Now let him go to the great ones, people of standing (verse 5). Surely he will be more successful there. They must know the way of the LORD and His law. But there is no one there either who seeks to be faithful, because these people have thrown off the yoke of the LORD. They do not want to submit to Him in any way.

The conclusion is that there is no one who does good, not among the poor and the needy and not among the people of standing and the rich, not among the common people and not among the leaders. There is no one who seeks God, there is not even one (cf. Rom 3:10-12). We now know that there is One after all, One Who is absolutely trustworthy, the Lord Jesus.

Because they are so persistent in their deviation from the LORD, and their transgressions have become “many” and their apostasies are “numerous” He will punish them (verse 6). His instruments are the wild beasts, who kill and tear in pieces without any compassion. Apart from thinking of literal wild animals, we can see in the “lion”, the “wolf”, and the “leopard” successively the power, the rapacity, and the speed of the Babylonians. They are the disciplinary rod of God for His people because of their many transgressions and numerous apostacies.

How can the LORD pardon them when they sin like that (verse 7)? He cannot pardon if they do not confess their guilt and there is no repentance. They have forsaken Him and have also taught their children to forsake Him. Now those children swear by what are not gods, to expect their salvation from them.

Even the favors He has abundantly given them, they misuse. They interpret them as an acknowledgment of their sinful way. They have answered Him with the utmost unfaithfulness, with abominable and frequent adultery. The house of Israel has become a house of harlots, a house of idols, where adultery is committed en masse, that is, where idols are served en masse.

Israel has also degenerated to a harlot’s house in a literal sense. Idolatry always opens the door to immoral behavior. Idolatry always involves sexual evil (1Cor 10:7-8; Rev 2:20). Idolatry and harlotry form a wicked partnership. The people are like horses in the satisfaction of their lusts, following their urge to mate without restraint (verse 8). Thus every man whinnies and craves the wife of his neighbor without restraint. The sin of adultery is common; everyone seems to participate in it.

Can the LORD do anything but punish them and avenge Himself on such a people whom He has so blessed (verse 9; cf. 1Thes 4:3-6)? In this His indignation and justice resounds.

Jer 5:10-13 | Denial of the Work of the LORD

10 “Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
But do not execute a complete destruction;
Strip away her branches,
For they are not the LORD’s.
11 “For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
Have dealt very treacherously with Me”, declares the LORD.
12 They have lied about the LORD
And said, “Not He;
Misfortune will not come on us,
And we will not see sword or famine.
13 “The prophets are [as] wind,
And the word is not in them.
Thus it will be done to them!”

Judgment must come, but the LORD will not destroy the whole land (verse 10). He calls upon the enemies to go up to Israel’s vineyards and destroy them, but sets a limit to that destructive work (cf. Job 1:12; 2:6). A remnant must be left. The destruction concerns the branches that bear no fruit, which is the ungodly multitude. They are branches that have no connection to the true vine (Jn 15:1-6). Instead of good fruit they have produced bad fruit (Isa 5:1-7).

They “have dealt very treacherously” with the LORD (verse 11). They are not only faithless just once or in one aspect, but continuously and in all aspects of their lives. It is also not just a few who do so, but all people, both “the house of Israel and the house of Judah”.

The people are blind to it. They are blind to the warnings of discipline from the LORD. They do not expect Him to discipline them and deny the calamity that is being spoken to them (verse 12; cf. Zep 1:12). They judge that Jeremiah’s words are words of himself and not of the LORD. To them Jeremiah is one who claims to speak by the Spirit, but whose words are nothing more than wind (verse 13). [In Hebrew, the word ruah means both “spirit” and “wind”.]

In doing so, the people deny that Jeremiah is speaking God’s words. Also, it shows that they cannot distinguish between wind and the true spirit of prophecy. They are even so audacious as to say that the word, which is the word of the LORD, is not with prophets like Jeremiah. They add that the judgments that prophets like Jeremiah proclaim will fall on those prophets themselves. Their wish is that doomsday preachers will perish as they preach, which means that calamity, sword and famine, will strike the prophet of the LORD.

Jer 5:14-19 | Description of Judgment

14 Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of hosts,
“Because you have spoken this word,
Behold, I am making My words in your mouth fire
And this people wood, and it will consume them.
15 “Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel”, declares the LORD.
“It is an enduring nation,
It is an ancient nation,
A nation whose language you do not know,
Nor can you understand what they say.
16 “Their quiver is like an open grave,
All of them are mighty men.
17 “They will devour your harvest and your food;
They will devour your sons and your daughters;
They will devour your flocks and your herds;
They will devour your vines and your fig trees;
They will demolish with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust.
18 “Yet even in those days”, declares the LORD, “I will not make you a complete destruction. 19 It shall come about when they say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

The LORD stands up for His servant. The words of Jeremiah, which they deny as words of the LORD and which they say is only wind (verse 13), will become a fire in Jeremiah’s mouth (verse 14). Also, He will make the people wood and they will be consumed by the fire from Jeremiah’s mouth. What they consider nothing more than wind will be given the power of fire by God. The LORD will fulfill His words spoken by His prophets. He speaks this as “the God of hosts”. Here we see Him in His exaltedness at the head of all the hosts of heaven and earth.

He will bring “against you”, that is the whole people, an enemy (verse 15). That enemy is a “nation … from afar” (Deu 28:49a), it is “an enduring nation”, “an ancient nation” that existed from ancient times. The four times recurring word “nation” indicates its irresistibility. This refers to the Babylonian people, who were founded by Nimrod (Gen 10:10; 11:31). That people speak a language they do not understand. They cannot communicate with that people (Deu 28:49b; Isa 28:11).

That people will bring death and destruction upon them (verse 16; Deu 28:50). Nothing will stand against their arrows. Every arrow that leaves the quiver will hit and return to the quiver as a corpse. Each quiver will be filled with corpses like an open grave. “All of them” who shoot the arrows are “mighty men”, thoroughly trained soldiers and not recruited civilians.

After this description of the enemy’s power, Jeremiah paints the devastation it will wreak in the land (verse 17). Four times he uses the word “devour”. It emphasizes the inevitable, terrible fate that awaits Judah. Successively, their “harvest” and their “food”, their children, “sons” and “daughters”, their “flocks” and “herds”, and their fruit, “vines” and “fig trees”, are taken from them (cf. Jer 3:24). Their “fortified cities” on which they rely, will be demolished with the sword. The judgment is total; it comes upon everything and everyone.

Yet the destruction will not be complete (verse 18; verse 10; Jer 4:27). The LORD will leave a remnant. That remnant will wonder why the LORD has done this (verse 19). They will also receive an answer to that question through Jeremiah. They will be told that all this has been brought upon them by the LORD because they have forsaken Him and have gone to serve foreign gods in their land, which He has given them. By doing this they have desecrated the land and dispossessed it, that is, taken it from the LORD.

It is a double sin. The punishment is also double. The LORD will see to it that they are also dispossessed and that they will serve strangers. The word “serve” implies utter submission. They will be taken out of their land into exile. In the land of their exile they will have to obey strangers as slaves.

Jer 5:20-31 | Deliberate Rebellion of Israel

20 “Declare this in the house of Jacob
And proclaim it in Judah, saying,
21 ‘Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
Who have eyes but do not see;
Who have ears but do not hear.
22 ‘Do you not fear Me?’ declares the LORD.
‘Do you not tremble in My presence?
For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
An eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it.
Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail;
Though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.
23 ‘But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
They have turned aside and departed.
24 ‘They do not say in their heart,
“Let us now fear the LORD our God,
Who gives rain in its season,
Both the autumn rain and the spring rain,
Who keeps for us
The appointed weeks of the harvest.”
25 ‘Your iniquities have turned these away,
And your sins have withheld good from you.
26 ‘For wicked men are found among My people,
They watch like fowlers lying in wait;
They set a trap,
They catch men.
27 ‘Like a cage full of birds,
So their houses are full of deceit;
Therefore they have become great and rich.
28 ‘They are fat, they are sleek,
They also excel in deeds of wickedness;
They do not plead the cause,
The cause of the orphan, that they may prosper;
And they do not defend the rights of the poor.
29 ‘Shall I not punish these [people]?’ declares the LORD,
‘On a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?’
30 “An appalling and horrible thing
Has happened in the land:
31 The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule on their [own] authority;
And My people love it so!
But what will you do at the end of it?

Jeremiah is to make known “in the house of Jacob” and “in Judah” how the LORD sees them (verse 20). The LORD calls them, whom He calls “foolish and senseless people”, to hear (verse 21). They are “a foolish people” because they do not reckon with Him. As a result, they are also “senseless”. They have lost all sense of reason and cannot align themselves correctly to discover what is right.

The LORD has given them “in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth” (Rom 2:20b). But they act contrary to the law in every way (Rom 2:17-23). They do not bother with what the LORD requires of them. This is not because of Him. He has given eyes and ears to them. Because they have not used them to look at Him and listen to Him, they have become blind and deaf (cf. Eze 12:2). He does call them to return to Him, but they do not listen (cf. Isa 6:9-10; Mt 13:13-15). In doing so, they have become like their idols which they serve instead of Him, idols which give no sign of life (Psa 115:5-8).

The LORD wonders in amazement if they are not then afraid of Him, if they would not tremble in His presence (verse 22). Where is the reverence for Him (cf. Mal 1:6a)? After all, He is that awesomely great God, isn’t He? In contrast to Him they are utterly helpless.

However, the people have lost all sense of the greatness of the LORD. He restrains the sea and it obeys Him (Mk 4:37-41; Job 38:8-11; Psa 104:9). He sets a boundary for the sea. No matter how the sea churns and roars, His mighty hand keeps it in check, so that it can do nothing and will not cross any boundary set by Him. The people, however, will not be restrained and will not care about the boundaries that the LORD has set in His covenant with them.

The cause is “a stubborn and rebellious heart” (verse 23). As a result, they blatantly transgress God’s moral boundaries. They have departed from the right way and gone their own depraved way of idolatry. The faithful remnant will confess this as their sin in the future, and at the same time may note that the Lord Jesus bore the punishment of God for them (Isa 53:6).

It does not enter into their heart to fear the LORD their God (verse 24). The heart is the center of inner life and includes feeling, will, and reason. Therefore, we must protect our heart by giving it to Him (Pro 4:23; 23:26a). The LORD resents them for not remembering to fear Him, although, in addition to the aforementioned proofs of His omnipotence, there are so many proofs of His goodness.

Every time they celebrate the harvest festivals, they see that goodness. He has given the rain, “both the autumn rain and the spring rain”, so that the harvest can be there. In fact, He has kept “the appointed weeks of the harvest” (cf. Exo 34:22; Lev 23:10,15) for them. Thus He has been constantly working for them (cf. Acts 14:17). However, they do not acknowledge Him as the source of blessing, but attribute it to the idols. What a blatant insult to Him!

Therefore, He cannot continue to bless them. Their iniquities and sins block Him from giving them all these good things any longer (verse 25). It is because of them and not because of Him. Always man’s iniquities and sins are blocking God from blessing them. Iniquity is leaving the way God wants man to go, and sin is missing the purpose God has for man.

He therefore does everything in His power to remove that blockage so that He can bless. In Christ, God offers man the opportunity to be delivered from his iniquities and sins and receive the blessing He wants to give. The condition is that they repent of their sins and turn to Him.

All of the LORD’s efforts to get His people back on the path of blessing have been met with even greater faithlessness by the people. Among His people, He sees how wicked people are out to rob others (verse 26). Then, if they do not receive a blessing from God, they will provide themselves with food and income. For this they lie in wait and set destructive traps. Their purpose is to catch men in order to rob from them everything they own.

With the spoils they filled their houses, as a bird catcher fills his cage with birds (verse 27). But with what they have filled their houses, the LORD calls “deceit” because they have obtained their possessions in an unlawful, mendacious manner. They seem to have succeeded in their evil intent to enrich themselves at the expense of others. Through their vicious dealings they have “become great and rich”. The injustice has also made them “fat” and “sleek” (verse 28). They revel in their stolen goods and indulge in them without restraint. They have no self-control.

They are making it worse than the biggest criminals and live their own luxurious lives without caring in the least about others. They are overflowing with evil practices. They are blind to the socially weak, unless it is to rob them as well. They care nothing for justice. The fact that they are prosperous in spite of all this is an observation that is astonishing. Does sin pay after all?

To that question comes the immediate answer (verse 29). The LORD says He will punish them. He says this as a question. This makes it all the more clear that He has no choice but to avenge Himself “on a nation such as this”. We hear here His great abhorrence of their sins. It is a people who profess with their mouths to be His people, while at the same time committing so many reprehensible acts.

It is appalling and horrible what is happening in the land (verse 30; cf. Hos 6:10). The LORD is horrified. Prophets, priests and all the people have turned their back on Him (verse 31). Those who are supposed to provide for the spiritual well-being of the people think only of themselves. The prophets prophesy lies to stay in favor with the people and to pocket money for their fancy talk. The priests join in and also pocket their share of the money.

The people are no less guilty, for they are only too happy to have such leaders who only present them with pretty talk, while their conscience remains out of harm's way (cf. 2Tim 4:3-4). They do not like prophets who appeal to their conscience. They love their false security. All stand guilty before God. The question is what they will do when the end comes. Then it will be seen what the talk of the false leaders was worth and what the false assurance of the people has brought.

Jeremiah 6

Jer 6:1-5 | The Approaching Invasion

1 “Flee for safety, O sons of Benjamin,
From the midst of Jerusalem!
Now blow a trumpet in Tekoa
And raise a signal over Beth-haccerem;
For evil looks down from the north,
And a great destruction.
2 “The comely and dainty one, the daughter of Zion, I will cut off.
3 “Shepherds and their flocks will come to her,
They will pitch [their] tents around her,
They will pasture each in his place.
4 “Prepare war against her;
Arise, and let us attack at noon.
Woe to us, for the day declines,
For the shadows of the evening lengthen!
5 “Arise, and let us attack by night
And destroy her palaces!”

Here Jeremiah prophetically describes the coming siege of Jerusalem by the armies of the king of Babylon (verse 1). The prophet empathizes so much the horror to come, that he describes it as if it had already happened. He sees them advancing in spirit toward Jerusalem, ready to take the city. The “sons of Benjamin” – Jeremiah is living in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin – who are in Jerusalem are called upon to get to safety and not to rely on their own strength. Safety is of utmost importance, especially when calamity threatens.

They are to blow the trumpet in Tekoa to warn the inhabitants there. Tekoa is the birthplace of Amos (Amos 1:1). It is a Judaean city about eighteen kilometers south of Jerusalem. In addition to an audible warning signal, a visible signal must be raised, i.e. in the form of a fire signal. This visible signal is to be raised over Beth-haccerem, which is about five kilometers south of Jerusalem, so that all who see it may flee the calamity. The calamity “looks down from the north”, that is, the armies of Babylon are preparing there to advance toward Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is a “comely” and “dainty” woman (verse 2). The LORD’s care has made her charming, but she has abused her beauty by acting like a harlot (Eze 16:1-16). This caused her to receive a lot of attention from the surrounding peoples at first and as a result she became spoiled. The result is that she has begun to behave unruly toward the LORD. Therefore He will exterminate her.

The city will lose everything because of shepherds who graze everything with their flocks (verse 3). They are a picture of the enemy who will move against her and leave nothing of her beauty. The enemy army captains, the “shepherds”, with their soldiers, “their flocks”, will pitch their tents around Jerusalem. In doing so, each captain will pitch his tents on a piece of land. This will thereby be completely covered with tents and meticulously set out, making it unusable for God’s people.

The enemy comes and declares war. The declaration of war is preceded by preparations and followed by the beginning of war. Their language demonstrates haste and impatience and the thirst for destruction. They want to attack in broad daylight (verse 4). Then it turns out that the day will pass faster than expected after all. That is a setback. Then they have to march in the night (verse 5).

Thus, for Jerusalem, the day passes when the attack is imminent and there is fear of the night because the city will be attacked. The soldiers are full of war rage and unstoppable. They see the spoils before them. In the night, the palaces, which are the mansions, are destroyed. The comfortable homes of those who have feasted on life are being destroyed.

Jer 6:6-8 | The Siege of Jerusalem

6 For thus says the LORD of hosts,
“Cut down her trees
And cast up a siege against Jerusalem.
This is the city to be punished,
In whose midst there is only oppression.
7 “As a well keeps its waters fresh,
So she keeps fresh her wickedness.
Violence and destruction are heard in her;
Sickness and wounds are ever before Me.
8 “Be warned, O Jerusalem,
Or I shall be alienated from you,
And make you a desolation,
A land not inhabited.”

Jerusalem is besieged because the LORD of the enemy’s armies has commanded it (verse 6). The armies of the enemy are in fact His armies. The command to cut down trees and thereby cast up a siege against Jerusalem comes from Him. It is emphasized to the enemy that this is the city that must be punished. That city is the one he must attack.

The reason follows. For in her “midst there is only oppression”. By this is meant the behavior of leaders who oppress the people for their own benefit. We see this great evil today when believers in a local church are oppressed by leaders, when laws are imposed, or when absolute obedience to the leaders is demanded.

The wickedness of the city is not merely seen here and there in someone doing evil. It is a wickedness that is produced as an everyday habit by the whole city (verse 7). Just as a spring gushes forth water incessantly and unstoppably, so from the city an unstoppable stream of “wickedness” rises incessantly. Wherever you listen in the city, you hear nothing but “violence and destruction” everywhere. The depraved source of all this is the heart, which is far from the LORD. The LORD sees the consequences of this. There is continual “sickness and wounds” in the city as a result of the violence and destruction being committed there.

In His great patience, the LORD expresses once again that He wants to forgive Jerusalem if her inhabitants allow themselves to be punished, meaning that they accept His discipline (verse 8). He calls out to them, as it were, that they will allow themselves to be punished after all, that they will see that by punishing them He wants to correct them. If they do not listen, His soul – as it literally says – shall be alienated from them. The word “alienated” does indicate how unwilling the LORD is to give up the connection with His people. This speaks of His intimate connection with the city. But if they do not bow under His discipline and return to Him, He must make them a desolation and a land not inhabited.

Jer 6:9-15 | The Fall of the City

9 Thus says the LORD of hosts,
“They will thoroughly glean as the vine the remnant of Israel;
Pass your hand again like a grape gatherer
Over the branches.”
10 To whom shall I speak and give warning
That they may hear?
Behold, their ears are closed
And they cannot listen.
Behold, the word of the LORD has become a reproach to them;
They have no delight in it.
11 But I am full of the wrath of the LORD;
I am weary with holding [it] in.
“Pour [it] out on the children in the street
And on the gathering of young men together;
For both husband and wife shall be taken,
The aged and the very old.
12 “Their houses shall be turned over to others,
Their fields and their wives together;
For I will stretch out My hand
Against the inhabitants of the land”, declares the LORD.
13 “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them,
Everyone is greedy for gain,
And from the prophet even to the priest
Everyone deals falsely.
14 “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace.
15 “Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done?
They were not even ashamed at all;
They did not even know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
At the time that I punish them,
They shall be cast down”, says the LORD.

The LORD compares “the remnant of Israel”, that is Judah and Benjamin, to a vineyard (verse 9; Isa 5:1-7). He says as “the LORD of hosts” that the enemy will go through the land one more time after the judgment, just like a grape gatherer goes through the vineyard one more time to see whether there are still grapes left somewhere. It is pictorially represented how the hand of the grape gatherer goes along the vines. He searches branch after branch to see if there is still a forgotten grape somewhere. In this way the enemy will comb through Jerusalem in a gleaning that will lead to those who have escaped still being taken into exile or killed.

Jeremiah wonders to whom he will speak (verse 10). Is there anyone left who will listen to the word of the LORD that he speaks? His words seem to have no effect whatsoever. The reason is that the ear of the people is uncircumcised, as is their heart (Jer 4:4; Acts 7:51). They do not want to listen, because they do not want to judge themselves. Their ears are closed by the filth of sin. Then they also put their fingers in their ears. They cannot hear the Word and they do not want to hear the Word.

The word of the LORD is scorned by them, that is, it is ridiculed and despised. Such a reaction hurts both the LORD and the prophet. The people find no joy in the word of the LORD, it has nothing attractive for them, they have no taste for it. The reason is that they have never felt its power in their heart and conscience. How quite different this is with Jeremiah and with those who are born again (Jer 15:16; Psa 1:2; 1Pet 2:2-3).

The utterly indifferent and even defamatory attitude of the people toward the word of the LORD produces great indignation in Jeremiah (verse 11). He is filled with the wrath that is also present with the LORD over such an attitude of His people. Jeremiah has wanted to hold back that wrath, but he no longer succeeds. He preaches doom not because he loves to do so, but because if they are so apostate, judgment must come.

Jeremiah is then instructed by the LORD to pour out His wrath on the entire population. Wrath must be poured out on
1. the “children” playing in the street,
2. “the young men” standing together in a circle and entertaining each other,
3. “husband” and “wife” and
4. “the aged and the very old”.
All people groups, in every age group and in all compositions, from young to old, fall under the judgment of being taken away into exile because corruption is present in everyone.

Judgment also comes on their houses and their fields and their wives (verse 12). Fields and wives are mentioned in the same breath, as if wives were also “property”. Everything passes into the hands of others, that is, of the enemy, the Babylonians. They will become the new owners. This will happen because the LORD stretches out His hand in wrath against His people. To stretch out His hand means that He actually intervenes and reveals His power. This is what Moses warned about (Deu 28:30).

The wrath of God is aroused by the conduct of the whole nation. From the least of them even to the greatest of them, they are only out for profit (verse 13). The desire for more dominates them. The prophet and the priest participate in this just as hard. Instead of telling the people what the LORD wants, each one of them cheats to get hold of as much money as possible.

They deceive the people by not demonstrating the true cause – sin – of the brokenness that has occurred with the LORD. Instead, they encourage the wicked to continue sinning by proclaiming them peace (verse 14; cf. Mic 3:5; 1Thes 5:3). This is quite a superficial cure for the breach. It is something like covering a cancerous tumor with a band-aid. Therefore, it is not real healing. It is the false optimism of sin. There is no peace at all. On the contrary, there is the threat of the coming of a cruel enemy.

Does it also make any impression on them when they are confronted with their actions (verse 15)? No. There is no sense of shame in them for what they have done. They commit the gravest evil without the slightest blush of shame on their faces (Jer 8:12). Total insensitivity regarding their sins characterizes them. As a result, they are not open to the message of truth. Therefore, at God’s time His judgment comes on them.

Jer 6:16-21 | The Cause of Judgment

16 Thus says the LORD,
“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths,
Where the good way is, and walk in it;
And you will find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk [in it].’
17 “And I set watchmen over you, [saying],
‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’
But they said, ‘We will not listen.’
18 “Therefore hear, O nations,
And know, O congregation, what is among them.
19 “Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people,
The fruit of their plans,
Because they have not listened to My words,
And as for My law, they have rejected it also.
20 “For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba
And the sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable
And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”
21 Therefore, thus says the LORD,
“Behold, I am laying stumbling blocks before this people.
And they will stumble against them,
Fathers and sons together;
Neighbor and friend will perish.”

There is a way to escape all the disaster announced. That is by going to “stand by the ways” and see and ask “for the ancient paths” (verse 16). The call is first to stand by the ways they are now taking, to see if those are ways by which the LORD is leading them, or if they are their own ways (cf. Lam 3:40). If they are honest, they will say they are their own ways. Then the call follows, to ask “for the ancient path” (cf. Job 8:8; 22:15; Deu 32:7). These are the paths along which the LORD led the fathers, the paths indicated by the good directions and ancient laws the LORD gave them for their blessing (cf. 2Chr 17:3-4).

It is about asking the LORD with the heart, to make His will known to them. The sincerity of asking for those paths will lead them to start listening to the Holy Scriptures. In it they will discover the will of the LORD concerning the way He wants them to go. Then what remains to be done is to walk the discovered way. The result will be that they will find rest for their souls. Going the way of the Lord gives inner rest and joy. This also includes peace, prosperity, security, an ordered life.

In the New Testament, we are also constantly called to return to the word of the apostles (2Pet 3:2; Jude 1:17). It is not going back to tradition or the fathers, but to the Word of God. It is about the paths of the fathers insofar as they are in accordance with God’s Word. Whoever follows the Lord in obedience to God’s Word finds rest for his soul (Mt 11:29-30). This is what the Lord Jesus says. Those who do so are looked upon with pity by those around them, especially the professing Christians, and called old-fashioned, even narrow-minded. But whoever goes this way finds rest for his soul that all modern ways cannot give.

Unfortunately, the reaction of the people is that they are not going down that way. It is a conscious choice. They refuse to go that way. Even when the LORD urgently warns them through His watchmen, which are His prophets, they say they will not listen (verse 17). They turn a deaf ear to the call of the LORD, Who wants to lead them on the good way to bless them.

Then, when the people are so unwilling to listen to the LORD, He speaks to the nations and all the earth that He will punish His people for their rejection of Him (verses 18-19). What He brings upon them, they have brought upon themselves, that is, “the fruit of their plans”. Here we see once again that the crimes and sins of the people are not whims, but the effects of deliberate inner deliberation. A man is as he thinks. In their thoughts there is no place for God. Therefore, they did not heed God’s words and rejected His law.

The LORD wonders if there is any reason to accept from them the frankincense they bring Him (verse 20). The ingredients for their frankincense as a symbol of their worship, are precious because they come from a distant land. But to the LORD it is worthless. If they are so opposed to Him, if their heart is so far from Him, He can do nothing with it. He doesn’t want it at all. A purely outward service is disgusting to Him (cf. Isa 1:11-13; Jer 7:21-23; Hos 6:6; Amos 5:21-27; Mic 6:6-8). Nor are their burnt offerings and sacrifices pleasing and pleasant to Him. Their worship is not accepted by Him if there is no obedience to Him (1Sam 15:22).

Depraved worship will lead to stumbling blocks that the LORD puts in the way of those who come to Him and through which they will perish (verse 21). In light of the following verses, we can think of an enemy invading the land and depriving them of all freedom. The evil of hypocritical worship is found in families, “fathers and sons together”, and in society, “neighbor and friend”. The LORD does not cause their fall, they do that themselves.

Jer 6:22-30 | The Horror of the Enemy

22 Thus says the LORD,
“Behold, a people is coming from the north land,
And a great nation will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth.
23 “They seize bow and spear;
They are cruel and have no mercy;
Their voice roars like the sea,
And they ride on horses,
Arrayed as a man for the battle
Against you, O daughter of Zion!”
24 We have heard the report of it;
Our hands are limp.
Anguish has seized us,
Pain as of a woman in childbirth.
25 Do not go out into the field
And do not walk on the road,
For the enemy has a sword,
Terror is on every side.
26 O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth
And roll in ashes;
Mourn as for an only son,
A lamentation most bitter.
For suddenly the destroyer
Will come upon us.
27 “I have made you an assayer [and] a tester among My people,
That you may know and assay their way.”
28 All of them are stubbornly rebellious,
Going about as a talebearer.
[They are] bronze and iron;
They, all of them, are corrupt.
29 The bellows blow fiercely,
The lead is consumed by the fire;
In vain the refining goes on,
But the wicked are not separated.
30 They call them rejected silver,
Because the LORD has rejected them.

The LORD foretells that the apostate people will be overrun by a ruthless people from the north, which is Babylon (verses 22-23). Without any mercy they will cause death and destruction around them. The impetuosity with which they come crashing in is like the roaring of the sea, from which one wave follows another. Thus it goes on incessantly. This succession of waves cannot be stopped by any human power. They ride on horses, underlining the speed of their arrival. The men are lined up for battle, indicating their determination. It is all directed against “the daughter of Zion”, indicating that Jerusalem is a desirable target for the oncoming enemy.

The mere rumor of the arrival of this enemy causes panic and paralysis, there is total dismay (verse 24). All courage fails. Their throats are constricted by fear. They feel like a woman in childbirth. There is much sorrow that cannot be stopped or undone. There is no point in fleeing, for the sword of the enemy is everywhere (verse 25). Wherever one looks, there are enemies everywhere. There is literally “terror … on every side”.

In verse 26, the LORD speaks to His people. He calls for mourning and a lamentation in view of the coming of the destroyer (cf. Jona 3:8). Their mourning should be as profound as if it were the death of an only child. The grief over the death of a child is great, the grief over an only son is extremely great because with it all hope of continuation of the lineage is lost. Therefore it must also be a “most bitter” lamentation. In this deep mourning Jeremiah identifies himself with his people. We see this in the word “us”.

The LORD connects with this (verse 27). He has appointed Jeremiah as one who is completely identified with the people to assay them. His fellowship with the LORD enables him to know and test the way of the people, as the LORD knows it. This presupposes careful and sometimes lengthy examination. Judgment is not pronounced suddenly, in a fit of anger. Also, He has made Jeremiah a fortress [as the word for “tester” can also be translated] for them (cf. Jer 1:18-19). That is, whoever listens to him will be safe.

The conclusion of the assayer Jeremiah is that of all the apostates, his fellow citizens are the worst (verse 28). This concerns their attitude toward the LORD. This has implications for their relationship to their fellow citizens. They blaspheme the Name of the LORD with unprecedented harshness, “bronze and iron”, and corrupt what is good. Whatever the LORD has tried to do by His judgments to turn His people from their evil ways, it has all been in vain (verse 29).

We can see the bellows as a picture of the means the LORD used to bring His people to repentance. Here we can think of the speaking of the prophets and of the enemies He has sent. The bellows have been burned, they no longer work. The lead did go into the fire and the smelter did his best to melt it and thus purify it, but all effort is in vain: “The wicked are not separated.”

On the contrary, it has been shown that the whole nation is made up of bad people, that there is no one who is an exception (cf. Jer 5:1). There are no bad ones to be separated out at all, because there are no good ones. The people as a whole are a base metal. Jeremiah concludes that the LORD must reject them all as unrefined silver, as worthless metal (verse 30). The LORD cannot do otherwise; their incorrigibility compels Him to do so.

Jeremiah 7

Introduction

In Jeremiah 2-4 Jeremiah spoke of family life and in Jeremiah 5-6 of political life. In this chapter he speaks of religious life.

The speeches in Jeremiah 7-10 are known as the “temple speeches”, which, incidentally, need not all have been spoken on the same occasion. They are a frontal attack on the trust the people place in the temple, as the sure protection of Jerusalem against all enemies. These speeches have earned Jeremiah lasting enemies.

Jeremiah 1-6 form a unity. They contain prophecies in the days of Josiah. In Jeremiah 7 we are in a later time. The temple speech in Jeremiah 26, which many commentators believe is the same as here, is given at the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim (Jer 26:1). There, the reaction to the preaching is especially highlighted. Jeremiah’s preaching has lasted about eighteen years by then, so that he is around forty years old here.

Jehoiakim is a wicked man. He undoes all the reforms of his father Josiah. He serves idols and leads a life of luxury. This man becomes one of Jeremiah’s greatest enemies. In the midst of his life, filled with the satisfaction of his own pleasures, Jeremiah suddenly appears. So far we have read about Jeremiah’s preaching, but not yet of opposition, of reactions. That is going to happen here.

Jeremiah preaches against the temple itself. This is the greatest insult to the Jew. He who attacks the temple attacks the deepest being of the Jew. In this speech, then, lies the seed of the hatred that takes root ever deeper and reveals itself ever more fiercely. The deadly hatred of the Jews about this is also experienced by the Lord Jesus when He speaks of the destruction of the temple (Mt 26:59-68).

Jer 7:1-7 | Misplaced Trust

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house and proclaim there this word and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the LORD!’” 3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’ 5 For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, 6 [if] you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

The word of the LORD has come to Jeremiah (verse 1), meaning that Jeremiah has been given a commission by the LORD. He is to stand in the gate of the temple – thus ensuring a large audience – and proclaim the word to all who go to the temple to bow down before the LORD (verse 2).

Jeremiah is to proclaim the word to them on behalf of “the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel” (verse 3). It is as if God is addressing these people in all His greatness, to make clear the contrast between what they are doing and Who He is. He knows them through and through. He sees what these people are doing. It appears good, but He knows their motives, and these are not good, nor are their actions. They can be recognized today in people who, when they go to church, believe that they are not all that bad. But God knows their ways and their deeds.

He calls them to repentance. The call is simple, direct and unmistakable. The point is not to keep up appearances that they are going in good ways and doing good deeds, but to really amend their ways and deeds. If they do that, He will let them “dwell in this place”, in Jerusalem. That is not to be taken for granted. The Jews presumptuously do take that for granted. The utterance of a triple “the temple of the LORD” does show how convinced they are of the presence of the LORD in their midst in the temple (verse 4). They believe that because they are God’s people, they have a right to the temple, while they are totally oblivious to the God of the temple.

Jeremiah’s voice thunders against it – surely these words must have sounded like that in their ears – that a temple without Godliness is deception. He tells them that these are lying words of false prophets. They are “deceptive words”, words that sound like a mantra. A mantra is the repetition of words over and over again, giving a person the feeling that the words spoken represent reality. They believe if you repeat something often enough, it is so.

They feel themselves God’s chosen people. They think they have nothing to fear. Time and again God has delivered His people from the power of hostile nations. Thereby they cling to the promise of the eternal kingship to David (2Sam 7:11-17) and the LORD’s choice of Zion as His earthly dwelling place (Psa 132:13-16). Therefore, in their opinion, nothing can happen to the temple.

Surely under Hezekiah God also worked a great deliverance, didn’t He (2Kgs 19:32-37)? This is, of course, because of the temple that stands there, they reason. How could it ever be surrendered by God? In their superstition, they see the temple as a mascot. It is the same superstition that Hophni and Phinehas have when they take the ark as a mascot into battle against the Philistines (1Sam 4:3-11). They also believe that ‘of course’ God will not let the ark fall into the hands of the Philistines. How wrong they are and how wrong the people of Jerusalem are. Hypocritically they pronounce it three times that this is the temple of the LORD. That is how blinded these people are.

We see this throughout the history of professing Christianity and also in our hearts. The roman catholic church has also thought that nothing can happen to it. Then God gives the work of reformation. The Reformation has thought the same thing. We hear it also in the further reformation, when it is said by some in the so-called ‘brethren movement’: ‘The testimony of the Lord, that is us, isn’t it? The Table of the Lord is with us!’ This is repeated over and over again and people believe it absolutely. When the heart no longer abides with God’s Word and it becomes only an outward religion, God must pronounce His judgment on it. Professing Christianity teaches us that what began faithfully, may continue in name, but God can no longer connect with it because it is only outward appearance.

Jeremiah shakes them up from their false security. The LORD does not accept a mere keeping of outward statutes, but true piety. He seeks and “desires truth in the innermost being” (Psa 51:6). Jeremiah holds out to them the ways in which they can truly amend their ways and deeds (verse 5). For this he refers to the words of Moses, to the ancient paths, to the words of the beginning. From these he quotes three precepts. If they act on them, they can show that they are sincere before the LORD.

1. Two precepts deal with the attitude toward one’s neighbor. The first is to truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, without regard to personal interest.

2. The second is that they do not oppress the vulnerable and defenseless, with the worst outgrowth being the shedding of innocent blood, murder, “in this place”, which is the temple (verse 6). These are people who are easy prey for exploiters, for people who know no compassion. The LORD specifically wants His mind toward the weak in His own to be shown (Deu 14:29; 16:11; 24:19; Psa 94:6; Deu 19:10-13; 21:1-9). What they are doing now is diametrically opposed to this.

3. The third precept concerns their attitude toward the LORD. At the moment they still taunt Him by pursuing other gods, which brings ruin on them. When they no longer walk after other gods, they will thereby show that they are serious about serving the LORD (cf. 1Sam 7:3).

The LORD, when He sees these good things in them, will respond (verse 7). He will not then drive them out of Jerusalem and the land, but let them live there. After all, it is the land He gave their fathers. They will continue to live there, “forever and ever”, that is, always. That means that He too will dwell there.

Jer 7:8-11 | Indifferent to Live God-Fearing Lives

8 “Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, 10 then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—that you may do all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen [it]”, declares the LORD.

The sharpness of Jeremiah’s words increases. With a powerful “behold” to emphatically draw their attention to it, the LORD’s rebuke is heard once again that the words the people rely on in view of their position, are deceitful and therefore it is useless to rely on them (verse 8; verse 4). They are of no use, they have no basis and do not in any way justify their actions or protect them from God’s judgment.

Their actions reveal the true condition of their heart (verse 9). Nothing is present in them of the conditions the LORD had set for them, to live in the land forever. They are guilty of violating several of the ten commandments and yet, while living this way, they also dare to express their trust in the temple.

They are even so audacious that they dare to come into God’s house, in the presence of God, and say there that they are delivered (verse 10). The LORD emphatically points out to them that they are in fact saying that they are using their deliverance as an occasion to commit all kinds of abominations. They are misusing what they have received from the LORD by grace, as an opportunity to satisfy their carnal lusts (Gal 5:13; Jude 1:4). But grace is not a license to sin.

By their conduct they make the house of the LORD a den of robbers, where they carry on their criminal business. They think that there they are safe from other robbers who want to take the spoils from them (verse 11a). They have made God’s house a den of robbers, as the Lord Jesus also reproaches them (Mt 21:12-13; Jn 2:13-17; cf. Isa 56:7). They rob the LORD of what is His due and they do the same to their neighbors. The LORD has seen all the abominations His people commit, He says emphatically (verse 11b). Nothing escapes Him.

Jer 7:12-15 | The Example of Shiloh

12 “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things”, declares the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you did not answer, 14 therefore, I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim.

The LORD reminds His people of Shiloh (verse 12). Do they think they can claim His presence because they have the temple? Then they should go to Shiloh. They will see a warning example from which we too must learn. In Shiloh, Joshua established the tabernacle (Jos 18:1; Jdg 18:31). There he divided the land by lot. There Samuel began to prophesy (1Sam 1:24b).

Shiloh was the religious center for 300 years, until the days of Eli and Samuel. Then God gave up His dwelling because of the wickedness of His people, although He had made His Name dwell there (Psa 78:60-61; 1Sam 4:11). He will do the same with the temple also, because of their wickedness and disobedience (verses 13-14).

He has tried again and again to bring them to repentance by sending His messengers, His prophets to them. It has all been in vain. He has always been early in sending His prophets to them and speaking to them (verse 25). He has spoken again and again and He has sent again and again (Jer 25:3-4). He did everything He could to bring them back to the right path, the path of blessing. However, they did not want to listen. As zealous and persistent as the LORD has been in sending and speaking, the people have been stubborn in their refusal to obey. The cause of this is their reliance on the temple of God rather than the God of the temple.

He will do to them, the two tribes, the same as He did to the ten tribes, whom He calls “all your brothers” (verse 15). “All the offspring of Ephraim” has been carried away by the Assyrians. The two tribes will fall into the hands of the Babylonians and be taken into exile by them. In the past Shiloh was rejected and the LORD will now reject Zion; in the past the ten tribes were taken away and the LORD will now have the two tribes taken away. That God punished deviation from Him and His Word in the past, shows that God will punish deviation from Him and His Word in the present. We must learn from the past (cf. 1Cor 10:6).

Jer 7:16-20 | Worship of the Queen of Heaven

16 “As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and [they] pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to spite Me. 19 Do they spite Me?” declares the LORD. “Is it not themselves [they spite], to their own shame?” 20 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”

After the clear depiction of the people’s total disobedience, the LORD has a personal word for Jeremiah that He introduces with the words “as for you”. Jeremiah is told by the LORD not to lift up cry or prayer to Him on behalf of this people or intercede with Him for them (verse 16; cf. Jer 11:14; 14:11-12). They are so stubborn that prayer is useless. God’s purpose is certain. Any approach to God to pray for this people is pointless.

For the true prophet, the point is not the downfall of the people, but their salvation. The true prophet, therefore, in addition to preaching judgment to the people, will at the same time also seek God’s presence in intercession on behalf of that same people (Exo 32:10-11; Amos 7:2-3,5-6). The fact that the LORD tells him not to intercede with Him does show strongly how earnestly and persistently the prophet prayed. The true prophet is first and foremost an intercessor. How do we look at professing Christianity on which God’s judgment is also coming? Does it make us intercessors, so that many will still return to God?

The LORD tells Jeremiah to just look at what is happening in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, that is, in all of Judah and all of Jerusalem (verse 17). Is Jeremiah blind to it? Certainly not, but the LORD lets him know by this that what is happening there is too bad, too terrible to pray for anymore. It shows us the LORD’s relationship to Jeremiah. He involves him in His reasons for forbidding further intercession, so that Jeremiah will agree with Him in this.

The LORD tells Jeremiah what He sees. The whole family – children, fathers, and mothers – are committed to offering sacrifices to idols, one of which is named, “the queen of heaven” (verse 18). We find this title in the abominable idolatry of the roman catholic church, which calls Mary “the queen of heaven” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Heaven – website visited 24-03-2022].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_HeavenThe children are called first. They are old enough to gather wood and carry it. It is a great evil of parents to employ their children in the worship of their idols. How far then have parents departed from the command to speak to their children always and everywhere about the Word of God (Deu 6:6-7).

When the children come home, the fathers are ready to set fire to the gathered wood. At the same time, the women are busy kneading dough to make sacrificial cakes. They also pour out drink offerings for other gods. A drink offering indicates joy. They rejoice in their demon-driven worship.

How awful that must be for the LORD! How this puts Him to the side and defies Him. How could it be otherwise, than that what they are doing, brings Him to anger. Not only that, but they do it to their own shame (verse 19). People who sin, always put themselves to shame. Sin may give a temporary pleasure, but it always ends in bitter, endless suffering if sin is not broken with prematurely through repentance and conversion.

Sin affects everything, the whole area where it happens (verse 20; cf. Rom 8:20-22). Therefore, God’s inescapable, purifying judgment must come on it all. God will pour out His “anger” and His “wrath” in full force over all, with no end in sight: they “will burn and not be quenched”. God’s wrath against sin has come to an end for all who believe in the sacrifice of His Son. However, whoever dies in his sin, on him the wrath of God abides forever (Jn 3:36).

Jer 7:21-26 | To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice

21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh. 22 For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’ 24 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in [their own] counsels [and] in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending [them]. 26 Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers.

After the flaming condemnation of their idolatry, a word about offering sacrifices follows (verse 21). In light of the above, this is an ironic word. The people are told that it is good to continue bringing their sacrifices and letting them eat of them. Let them even add their burnt offerings to it. It will caress their religious feelings and also give them a nice feeling in the stomach. They will have fulfilled their religious duties nicely and will not have become worse off themselves.

But let them also remember that the LORD said nothing about such a sacrificial service to their fathers or commanded anything about it when He led them out of Egypt (verse 22). He did not speak of sacrifices at Sinai, when He gave them His law, but only of obedience. Only after that did He speak of sacrifices. It must be in that order.

Sacrifices only have value if they go hand in hand with a walk in obedience to God’s commandments. That is what the LORD is all about. He has not prescribed sacrifices for the sake of sacrifices as such, but always in connection with an obedient heart. If a wayward life is led, He hates those sacrifices. He is pleased with obedience more than sacrifices (Hos 6:6; Psa 51:16-17; 1Sam 15:22).

He has spoken of obedience and the blessing that comes with it, that He will be their God and they will be His people (verse 23). If they would go the way He has commanded them, they would prosper. However, they did not listen, but walked according to the promptings of their hard, depraved heart (verse 24). Instead of going forward they have gone backward. The LORD has done everything possible to make His people walk in the right way and in the right direction.

From the very beginning, He has sent His prophets every day to point out to His people that obedience to Him is the way of blessing (verse 25). He left nothing undone to point them to that path. But the people did not listen and even aggrieved God more than their fathers (verse 26).

Jer 7:27-28 | The Message of Jeremiah rejected

27 “You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God or accept correction; truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.

The LORD instructs Jeremiah to speak everything He says to him to the people, with the staggering announcement that the people will not listen (verse 27; cf. Isa 6:9-10). What perseverance and comfort Jeremiah needed to not throw in the towel! Imagine a service with the principal telling you that it is useless. What use is it then? Only love and appreciation for the Principal Himself and a clear view of His interests can then provide the necessary motivation.

Jeremiah must not only speak, but he must also call to them. However, there will be no answer. This apathy is terrible for someone who brings God’s Word to a people he loves and wants so badly to bring back to God’s heart.

Jeremiah, therefore, must present to the people the conclusion that they do not listen to the LORD and do not accept correction (verse 28). The book of Proverbs frequently points out the folly of rejecting correction (Pro 1:7; 5:12; 13:18; 15:5,10,32). Discipline has had no effect. It is a terrible observation: the “truth has perished” and no longer comes from their mouth. They only display hypocrisy and insincerity. They are caught in a lie, without the desire to be freed from it.

Jer 7:29-34 | Lamentation About the Desolation of Judah

29 ‘Cut off your hair and cast [it] away,
And take up a lamentation on the bare heights;
For the LORD has rejected and forsaken
The generation of His wrath.’
30 For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight”, declares the LORD, “they have set their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. 31 They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind. 32 “Therefore, behold, days are coming”, declares the LORD, “when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no [other] place. 33 The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten [them away]. 34 Then I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a ruin.

The people are called to shave themselves bare (verse 29). The woman’s long hair – this is about “the daughter of Zion” – is her honor, her ornament, and indicates her dedication to the man, here to the LORD (1Cor 11:15). If she cuts it off, it is a disgrace to her (1Cor 11:6b). That disgrace must be borne by the people. The people must cut off the hair and thereby remove and reject the outward sign of dedication to the LORD. Outward dedication has value only if it is the representation of the mind, of the heart. It has become clear that the people are no longer dedicated to the LORD in anything, but on the contrary, have totally removed themselves from the LORD.

In Israel, a person can consecrate himself to the LORD as a Nazirite for a certain period of time. As an outward sign, he must then let his hair grow (Num 6:5). The LORD wants all His people to consecrate themselves to Him. But Jerusalem must be shaved bald because she has defiled herself. She must not pretend to be dedicated to the LORD. The city is not dedicated to God and is no longer an ornament to Him.

Jeremiah is instructed to complain that the LORD has rejected and forsaken Jerusalem, because the city has aroused His wrath because of her behavior. There are several reasons for this wrath. First, there is the evil of the abominable idols that the Judeans have set up in the temple, “in the house which is called by My name” (verse 30). God has been tarnished in His honor. The people have defied Him by placing abominations in His house and defiling His house in the grossest way (2Kgs 21:5; 23:4-7). It is truly rude and deeply offensive to cast Him aside in this way, to dishonor Him in this way. They do with His house what they want.

Even beyond that, they commit the grossest sins (verse 31). It is truly awful to note that they did not dedicate their sons and daughters to God, but to idols. This happened during the reigns of Ahaz and Manasseh (2Kgs 16:3; 21:6). None of this has any connection whatsoever with the LORD and what is in His heart. It is totally foreign to Him and to what He asks of His people.

The judgment on the abominable practices is poignantly told by the LORD to Jeremiah. The sacrificial valley will be called “the valley of the Slaughter”, where all will be buried who have been affected by God’s judgment (verse 32). The place where they sacrifice their children will become an open mass grave where their own dead bodies will be thrown away. There they will be food for predators (verse 33). This is an unprecedented defamation for a Jew. There will be no one left to frighten those beasts away when they feast on the bodies (Deu 28:26).

Then no sound of joy will be heard from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem (verse 34), which are now full of expressions of joy for “the queen of heaven” (verses 17-18). The LORD also causes to cease the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. The joy of a wedding includes the happy prospect of the birth of children. But a people who sacrifice their children to idols have lost any right to such a joyful prospect.

There is no hope that Judah and Jerusalem will be repopulated. Any joy has vanished; there is a deadly, terrifying silence, with no prospect of change. By repeating the words “the voice of” over and over again, the prophet makes the message especially poignant.

Jeremiah 8

Jer 8:1-3 | Desecration of the Graves

1 “At that time”, declares the LORD, “they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves. 2 They will spread them out to the sun, the moon and to all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served, and which they have gone after and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered or buried; they will be as dung on the face of the ground. 3 And death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, that remains in all the places to which I have driven them”, declares the LORD of hosts.

These three verses still belong to the previous chapter, which ends with a picture of dead bodies not being buried. Thereby the nadir of humiliation is not yet reached. Something even more terrifying follows, if possible, and that is the digging up of already buried bodies, that is, their bones, in order to desecrate them (verse 1). Again, the constant repetition of words, in this case “the bones of”, makes the message all the more poignant (cf. Jer 7:34).

“At that time” means the time of the national disasters that will come upon them because of their unfaithfulness and unrighteousness described above. The enemy, the army of the Babylonians, will come and desecrate the graves. The reason they may have for this is to see if, especially in the graves of the kings and princes, there are any valuables to be found. But the LORD is allowing this to happen in order to add to the deep reproach that the whole people, from the highest to the lowest among them, including the religious class, have brought upon themselves.

The enemy will spread the bones “out to the sun, the moon and to all the host of heaven” (verse 2). These heavenly bodies have been objects of worship to all of those to whom these bones belong when they lived (2Kgs 21:3,5; 23:4,11). Their worship of them is detailed. They have
1. loved,
2. served,
3. gone after,
4. sought and
5. worshiped
these idols.

It shows their great zeal and commitment to their idols. The worthlessness of the idols and the uselessness of their worship are also evident from this, that the idols do not prevent the great disgrace that now comes upon their bones. The disgrace finds its nadir when the exhumed bones are not reburied, but will be as dung on the face of the ground (cf. Jer 25:33). An expression of even deeper contempt for these idolaters is not possible.

The LORD will know how to find those who belong to this wicked generation and who are still alive after the invasion of the enemy, wherever they are driven out by Him (verse 3). In the places where they are, they will be so unhappy that they will wish they had perished like the others (Lev 26:36-39; Deu 28:65-67). The bitter fate will deprive the exiles of all vitality.

Jer 8:4-7 | Hardening of Israel in Idolatry

4 “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD,
“Do [men] fall and not get up again?
Does one turn away and not repent?
5 “Why then has this people, Jerusalem,
Turned away in continual apostasy?
They hold fast to deceit,
They refuse to return.
6 “I have listened and heard,
They have spoken what is not right;
No man repented of his wickedness,
Saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his course,
Like a horse charging into the battle.
7 “Even the stork in the sky
Knows her seasons;
And the turtledove and the swift and the thrush
Observe the time of their migration;
But My people do not know
The ordinance of the LORD.

Jeremiah is to present to the people two examples from everyday life (verse 4). These are two situations that the people must recognize, because that is how it works. These examples are presented to the people as questions. The answer is also given directly, because it is too obvious to make anyone think about it. The first example is that of someone who falls. What does he do? Of course he does not stay down, but gets up again. The second example is about someone who has turned away, who has lost his way. Will he continue on that road when he becomes aware of his mistake? Of course not, he will want to return to the right path.

Why then – and now a question follows that should make the people think – has Jerusalem turned away from the LORD, but does not return to Him (verse 5)? This is an unnatural behavior. They have apostatized from the LORD and fallen into idolatry, but will not get up and return to Him; they persist in turning away from the LORD and will not return. They persist in deception because they believe in themselves, trust in themselves and not in God. They refuse to return because they believe that the way they are going is the right way and that the way the LORD is presenting to them is not the right way.

The LORD has seen it and listened to them (verse 6). He has heard that their speaking is not virtuous. There is no noticeable repentance in them, nothing indicating a return. There is no one questioning what they have done, an attitude characteristic of an unrepentant person. God asks that question of people to make them reflect on their actions, so that they may repent (Gen 4:10; 1Sam 13:11). Every one of His people turns away from Him and runs in the wrong direction, heading for destruction. Like runaway horses, they run on (Job 39:19-25), with total disregard for the danger they are in, because they are blind to it.

When the connection with God is given up, man loses all sense of what is right. The animals are an example to him, but he himself does not realize it (verse 7; cf. Isa 1:3). The migratory birds, of which Jeremiah mentions a few, know where they are headed. When they have arrived there, they also know when to depart from there again. They respond to the natural laws established by God, they know the way they must go to survive and they go that way. Man proves that he is dumber than the animals by not taking God’s laws for him into account. Similarly, the Lord Jesus reproaches the Pharisees and Sadducees for not knowing the signs of the times (Mt 16:1-3).

Jeremiah has many parables from nature. Nature is full of the laws of God. Not only is man subject to the law of God, but so are the animals. Man has, what animals do not have, reason and a will and the ability to consciously resist. The animals instinctively obey God’s natural laws. Man has been set by God as the head of creation. All other creatures are lower than him, but he sinks to a behavior below that of the animals when disobeying God.

Jer 8:8-13 | Punishment for Judah’s Deceit

8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
And the law of the LORD is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
Has made [it] into a lie.
9 “The wise men are put to shame,
They are dismayed and caught;
Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD,
And what kind of wisdom do they have?
10 “Therefore I will give their wives to others,
Their fields to new owners;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is greedy for gain;
From the prophet even to the priest
Everyone practices deceit.
11 “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace.
12 “Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done?
They certainly were not ashamed,
And they did not know how to blush;
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
At the time of their punishment they shall be brought down”,
Says the LORD.
13 “I will surely snatch them away”, declares the LORD;
“There will be no grapes on the vine
And no figs on the fig tree,
And the leaf will wither;
And what I have given them will pass away.”‘“

After all the sins mentioned, which make it clear how much they have departed from the LORD, the question is asked with amazement, how do they get the idea to boast of their wisdom (verse 8). They boast of their wisdom because they have the law of the LORD with them (cf. Rom 2:17-20). It is as with the boasting in the temple at the beginning of the previous chapter (Jer 7:4). But what presumption that is. They indeed have His law, but they do not listen to it.

This is because of the scribes’ false presentation of the law. They have written about the law with a lying pen. They have given their own interpretation of it, as best suits them. By doing so, they have “invalidated the word of God” (Mt 15:6).

The scribes are often encountered in the Gospels, where they are the opponents of the Lord Jesus. There are certainly good scribes, for example Ezra (Ezra 7:6), but that is an exception. As a category, they distorted and falsified God’s Word “to their own destruction” and that of their hearers (2Pet 3:16; 2Cor 2:17).

In our day we recognize the boasting of being the temple of the LORD and having His law in those groups that claim to be the only ones to possess the truth. Statements like “we have” and “with us” prove a boasting in pride (cf. 2Chr 13:10-12). This is what we hear – or perhaps very secretly think ourselves in our hearts – when it is said: ‘We have knowledge and understanding, for we alone have commentaries in which the truth is explained.‘

Such boasting is great folly. To claim to possess wisdom and to do so while despising the law, the word of the LORD (verse 9), is supreme folly. How can anyone have wisdom if they reject or bend the source of wisdom, the Word of God to their will? These were the theologians of Jeremiah’s day. However, these have their kindred spirits in our day. Modern theologians also use a liar’s pen, and the hair-splitters, the sectarians, also use it. It shows a total lack of wisdom. True wisdom is “the wisdom that is from above” (Jam 3:17).

They will experience the consequences of their foolishness when they are robbed of their wives and when their fields are taken possession of by others (verse 10; Deu 28:30). Then they will be shamed with all their wisdom. That is the result of their greed for gain, which the whole people, from the least even to the greatest, are after (cf. Mic 3:11). The religious leaders, the priest and the prophet, are no better. They practice deceit by telling the people lies about peace coming (verse 11; cf. 1Thes 5:3). “Peace, peace” means perfect peace. Instead of pointing out the rupture of the relationship with the LORD and preaching the way of repentance and conversion, they speak what the people like to hear. The LORD adds succinctly: “But there is no peace.”

The people are hardened (verse 12). There is no sense of guilt whatsoever. Without blushing, they commit the most heinous crimes. Their consciences have been cauterized. They have lost all sense of dignity and honor. If they were confronted with their grossest sins, they would still justify themselves and laugh at those who condemn their actions. This makes them ripe for destruction.

The words of verses 10-12 are a repetition of what has been said before in Jeremiah 6 (Jer 6:12-15). Jeremiah must repeat the truth in order to imprint it indelibly in the minds of the people. But the people, refusing to listen to God’s Word, have been deceived by the false prophets and deceitful priests. Therefore, there is no salvation for them. The punishment is coming. Then they will fall and not be able to stand. They will stumble, for their strength is gone.

The extermination will be complete (verse 13). The LORD Himself will bring that destruction upon them. He will wipe them out. The harvest He has been expecting is not there. His people have borne no fruit for Him. The vine and the fig tree are empty. The leaves have also withered. They have passed by all the blessing the LORD has given them. Instead of thanking Him for His blessing, they have misused it and even served idols with it. Therefore, the former blessings are taken away from them and nothing remains but the total dreariness and desolation mentioned here. Nothing more can be expected from this people (cf. Mt 21:19).

Jer 8:14-17 | The Invading Army

14 Why are we sitting still?
Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities
And let us perish there,
Because the LORD our God has doomed us
And given us poisoned water to drink,
For we have sinned against the LORD.
15 [We] waited for peace, but no good [came];
For a time of healing, but behold, terror!
16 From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses;
At the sound of the neighing of his stallions
The whole land quakes;
For they come and devour the land and its fullness,
The city and its inhabitants.
17 “For behold, I am sending serpents against you,
Adders, for which there is no charm,
And they will bite you”, declares the LORD.

It seems that the people see the enemy armies and want to seek refuge (verse 14). It causes a panicked fear. They call out to each other to go together to the fortified cities. There they will be able to await events, knowing that this calamity is coming from the LORD their God. They acknowledge that the LORD has given them the bitter “poisoned water” to drink as punishment for their defiance. However, this acknowledgment is neither a matter of the heart nor of the conscience. No repentance follows.

Certainly, they look forward to peace and healing, as every man, even the most wicked, looks forward to it (verse 15). However, that peace does not come; on the contrary, nothing good comes at all. Peace was foretold to them by the false prophets and they expected it, but it does not appear to be there. Everyone wishes for peace, but it can only be found with God and His Christ. Those who ignore this believe in a different peace, which, however, will never come. Our expectations only have foundation if we derive them from God’s Word.

They also long for healing of their wounds. Because they do not go to the LORD as their Healer for this (Exo 15:26b), they are not healed, but on the contrary, a time of terrors breaks out. Instead of peace, they hear the advancing enemy who has entered the land in the north, near Dan (verse 16). The sound of the snorting of the horses of the enemy armies fills the air and already has reached Judah. The ground trembles from the sound of wildly charging, neighing stallions. The enemy armies come and devour the whole land and also the city of Jerusalem – all the people and all the produce.

The enemy is suddenly represented as serpents, yes, poisonous adders (verse 17). They will not be able to protect themselves from them (Ecc 10:11; Psa 58:4-5). These serpents will bite them, so that deadly poison will come into them. The false prophets’ incantation against the venom of these serpents will prove to be fruitless. This is because the LORD sends those serpents.

Jer 8:18-22 | The Sorrow of Jeremiah

18 My sorrow is beyond healing,
My heart is faint [within me]!
19 Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land:
“Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not within her?”
“Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, with foreign idols?”
20 “Harvest is past, summer is ended,
And we are not saved.”
21 For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken;
I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?

Jeremiah has now been a prophet for many years, but his prophesying has been without results. Instead of being heartened by seeing that the people are listening, he only sees more apostasy (verse 18). The prospect of the very imminent destruction breaks his heart. He loves his people deeply, but his love is met with rejection. He knows the way of blessing for his people, but the people will not go that way.

That’s how it can be with us when we see what people need and present it to them, but they flatly refuse the offer of grace. That hurts, not for ourselves, but for them. Jeremiah and Paul and Moses loved God’s people wholeheartedly and suffered their rejection of grace. More than all of them, the Lord Jesus suffered from His rejection and of His grace.

Jeremiah hears the distant cries for help from his people (verse 19). His prophetic ear hears the people crying out for help even from the exile. The answer to the questions is that the LORD is most certainly in Zion and that her King is with her. But, the answer continues, why do the people who will soon ask if the LORD is in Zion, now hold so fast to the idols from foreign lands? That is the reason for His wrath. That is why He has had to surrender His people into the hands of enemies.

The people reply that the harvest time is over (verse 20). The summer, the prosperous time, when the full yield of the land may be harvested, has ended, without anything to harvest. The promise of harvest is connected to obedience to the LORD. They have given up that obedience. They have also spiritually allowed to pass by the acceptable time, the time when the LORD called for repentance and conversion (cf. Lk 19:43-44; 2Cor 6:2). Salvation is no longer within reach.

This realization brings Jeremiah into great distress of soul (verse 21). The break is final. This breaks his heart and brings him to mourn. He pains himself asking for medicine and a physician (verse 22). Balm is used as medicine and also as a beauty aid (Gen 37:25; Jer 46:11; 51:8; Eze 27:17). It is a restorative, nice-smelling ointment. Its use does a person good. But it is only available from the “physician” that is the LORD. They are both – the LORD as the Physician (Exo 15:16) and His Word as the balm – available. So why didn’t the people make use of it?

Jeremiah 9

Jer 9:1-2 | The Complaint of the Prophet

1 Oh that my head were waters
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!
2 Oh that I had in the desert
A wayfarers’ lodging place;
That I might leave my people
And go from them!
For all of them are adulterers,
An assembly of treacherous men.

Jeremiah’s soul’s struggle continues here. He is deeply concerned with the condition of his people and the disasters that are coming upon them. He suffers greatly that they have not listened (verse 1). He has an intense love for God’s people to whom he belongs with heart and soul. He wishes he had more tears to express his sorrow for all those who have perished and will perish as a result of God’s discipline (Jer 13:17; 14:17).

What is written here has earned him the nickname “the weeping prophet’. He resembles the Lord Jesus here, Who also wept over the city (Lk 19:41). It is also reminiscent of Paul’s sorrow for his brothers after the flesh (Rom 9:1-5; 10:1). Do we also weep for the condition of God’s people, both generally and in the local church where we are? Or do we avoid these feelings and prefer to indulge in the ‘fun’ aspects of being a Christian? Do we prefer to be entertained rather than exhorted?

Jeremiah would prefer not to have anything more to do with this people at all by now (verse 2; cf. Psa 55:6-8). They are all, each and every one, “adulterers”. The whole is “an assembly of treacherous men”. There will have been exceptions, but this is the characteristic of the whole that is observed by all who see it. Jeremiah does not only observe it. What he sees torments his soul and he expresses it.

In this he also aligns his feelings with those of God, Whose eyes also “are too pure to approve evil” (Hab 1:13a). This is the opposite of verse 1, but does not contradict it. There he carries the people on his heart. Here he sees their sins. He loves the people, but he hates their sins. He wants to get away from such an adulterous and treacherous troop, that he may not have to see their sins any longer. The fact that his preaching does not seem to have any effect may also play a role in this desire. What is the point of continuing to preach? Such a wish can arise in anyone who does a work for the Lord, where the result only seems to be even more unfaithfulness.

Going to live in “a wayfarers’ lodging place”, by the way, will not give the coveted peace. We can compare it to retiring to a monastery. It is not an option anyway for a believer, one of whose tasks is to witness to his Savior in his daily life. We must also remember that in a monastery we take ourselves with us. Learning how to live to the glory of the Lord in accordance with the truth in a wicked world and apostate Christianity, we can only do in the practice of daily life in dealing with Him.

Jer 9:3-9 | The Deceitfulness of the Tongue

3 “They bend their tongue [like] their bow;
Lies and not truth prevail in the land;
For they proceed from evil to evil,
And they do not know Me”, declares the LORD.
4 “Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor,
And do not trust any brother;
Because every brother deals craftily,
And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
5 “Everyone deceives his neighbor
And does not speak the truth,
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They weary themselves committing iniquity.
6 “Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit;
Through deceit they refuse to know Me”, declares the LORD.
7 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts,
“Behold, I will refine them and assay them;
For what [else] can I do, because of the daughter of My people?
8 “Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
It speaks deceit;
With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor,
But inwardly he sets an ambush for him.
9 “Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD.
“On a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?

The people believe that they have become strong through their tongue, through the use of falsehood (verse 3). The tongue here is the bow and the lie is the arrow (Psa 64:3-4). The sin of the tongue is a great and widespread evil (Psa 12:2-4; Jam 3:1-12). The LORD contrasts the power of their lie with “trustworthiness”. The contrast is great.

They go their way of wickedness because they do not know the LORD. Their way is so full of wickedness that He says of them: “They proceed from evil to evil.” That is diametrically opposed to those who seek their strength from the LORD. Of them He says: “They go from strength to strength, [every one of them] appears before God in Zion” (Psa 84:7).

Sin not only brings separation between God and man, but also between people (verse 4). Here we hear the warning not to trust the neighbor and not even the friend (Mic 7:5-6). When society is dominated by distrust, cohesion is gone. It destroys the unity of the people from within. If friendship and blood relations, both of which are such sacred things in the East, are no longer a guarantee of loyalty, then all cohesion is gone from society.

Lying is the sin that caused the fall into sin. The tongue that is supposed to confess God lies about God. The tongue is used to spread lies and not the truth (verse 5). In fact, the teaching is designed to teach the tongue to speak lies, so that lying has become their second nature, so to speak. They can no longer do anything but lie. Subsequently, they tire themselves out with doing injustice, with putting into practice the wrong that has been taught. With the new man it is different (Eph 4:25,28).

Jeremiah is told that he dwells in the midst of deceit (verse 6). The same is true of us (cf. Rev 2:13). Everything that is said is meant to prevent people from knowing the LORD. This is also true today. In verse 3 it still says that they do not know the LORD, but in verse 6 it says that they refuse to know Him. This is because of their deceit. They don’t want to stop lying and cheating because there is no love for the truth.

The LORD is still out to refine them, not to destroy them (verse 7; cf. Mal 3:3a; Eze 22:18-22). He is left with no choice but to judge, He cannot act otherwise, but His goal is their restoration. He speaks of them as “the daughter of My people”. This shows His love for them.

He is going to punish the use of the tongue, which is a wonderful gift from Him, because they use it as a deadly arrow (verse 8). What is professed with the tongue may sound beautiful, but the thoughts behind it can be compared to an ambush. Behind or beneath their beautiful words, in their inner being, are greed and murderousness. They want to charm others with their pretty talk to such an extent that they become easy prey. They are out to kill others because they see advantage in it.

Such things the LORD cannot leave unpunished (verse 9), He must repay them. The conduct of His people touches Him in His soul and affects Him deeply. He cannot ignore it and must avenge this sinful behavior of them, of those who are named after His Name, to whom He has committed Himself with heart and soul.

Jer 9:10-16 | The Impending Judgment

10 “For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing,
And for the pastures of the wilderness a dirge,
Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,
And the lowing of the cattle is not heard;
Both the birds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.
11 “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
A haunt of jackals;
And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
12 Who is the wise man that may understand this? And [who is] he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through? 13 The LORD said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, 14 but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them”, 15 therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. 16 I will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them.”

Jeremiah sees the results of God’s judgments. He weeps over it and raises a lament over it (verse 10). All around him the ground is blackened. The road is impassable to people, and for the cattle there is nothing on the pastures, because everything has been laid waste, i.e. has been burned. All the birds and beasts have disappeared, fled. As a result, no sound of beasts will be heard. In Jerusalem there will be no more inhabitants (verse 11). Only jackals will live there. The cities of Judah will also be judged, so that no one lives there anymore.

The wise one is he who draws the lesson from everything, that only the fear of the LORD gives rest and peace (verse 12). Such a person understands God’s purpose in His actions and will come to know God’s heart and be able to make that known to others. But there are no such wise men. Therefore, the LORD Himself gives the answer and says that the cause of all misery is that they have forsaken His law (verse 13). Instead of listening to the LORD they have gone after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals (verse 14). They learned this not from the LORD, but from their fathers.

For this they cannot blame their fathers, but it is their own fault, for they have “walked after the stubbornness of their heart”. A thief will not get a reduction of punishment from the judge if he tells him that his father taught him the “thieves’ trade” and that he became a thief as a result. The origin of their sinful ways and actions lies in their stubborn heart. Here also lies the difference between the wise and the fool.

The LORD will therefore make them bear the consequences of their own actions. He will feed them, “this people”, who are now there, “with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink” (verse 15). This recalls Moses’ warning (Deu 29:18; Jer 8:14; Rev 8:11). Wormwood is a plant with a very bitter juice; gall water comes from a poisonous, bitter herb. They represent the bitter suffering of the fall of the kingdom. If they should have been obedient, they would have had honey to eat and milk to drink in abundance.

But this does not end the suffering. The LORD says He will also scatter them among the nations (verse 16). They will be carried away from their land. This judgment has already been announced by Moses (Lev 26:33; Deu 28:64). In the land of their exile, they are not yet at the end of their suffering either. The LORD will send the sword after them and only then will the end come for them. This extermination concerns the wicked members of the people.

Jer 9:17-22 | The General Dirge

17 Thus says the LORD of hosts,
“Consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come;
And send for the wailing women, that they may come!
18 “Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us,
That our eyes may shed tears
And our eyelids flow with water.
19 “For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion,
‘How are we ruined!
We are put to great shame,
For we have left the land,
Because they have cast down our dwellings.’”
20 Now hear the word of the LORD, O you women,
And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;
Teach your daughters wailing,
And everyone her neighbor a dirge.
21 For death has come up through our windows;
It has entered our palaces
To cut off the children from the streets,
The young men from the town squares.
22 Speak, “Thus says the LORD,
‘The corpses of men will fall like dung on the open field,
And like the sheaf after the reaper,
But no one will gather [them].’”

The LORD calls for mourning (verse 17). Mourning women are called to come and wail. Judah is thereby likened to a house of death. Death has also entered there in all its horrors, causing tremendous grief. More people need to come and help express their sorrow so that tears flow (verse 18). They want to unite with the mourning of Zion that mourns because she has been destroyed (verse 19). The occasion of the mourning is not the sin, but the consequences it must bear, such as the abandonment of the land and the overturning of their dwellings. When we mourn, we must not deceive ourselves and know the real reason for our sorrow.

The women, along with the children, suffer the most from the effects of sin (verse 20). The word of the LORD comes to them, and the call to listen to it. The suffering is so great – and therefore the need for mourning women – that they must tell the cause of the suffering to their daughters and girlfriends, so that they will also mourn. They must tell what has happened in their palaces, their well-timbered dwellings, and to their little children and their young men (verse 21).

The LORD tells them to paint the results of sin in all their horror (verse 22). They are not to paint it more beautifully than it is. Nor is it so much the judgment of God, as it is the results of their own actions. Death is presented here as a grim reaper who reaps ears from the field, binds them into sheaves and lays them on the ground. The corpses lie in the field like sheaves, and then not to be buried later, but as dung.

All the horrors that have befallen humanity in world wars have left many millions dead and countless physically and mentally crippled. There have also been economic losses of astronomical proportions. What is the result? Does man learn from it? We see that the love of wealth and pleasure has only increased and that God has been pushed further than ever from society.

Jer 9:23-24 | Boasting of Evil or of Good

23 Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things”, declares the LORD.

Man boasts more than ever of “his wisdom”, “his might”, and “his riches” (verse 23). The LORD warns against doing that. What is said here sums up the whole world:
1. Wisdom, science without God, fills the world. Everything is reasoned by the so-called wise. This wisdom pervades our whole society, a wisdom that boasts.
2. Might, power, violence, is the second of which the world is full. The “mighty” determine with a game of power and politics what should be done.
3. The third, riches, money, possession, is also what the whole world pursues. Whoever has money has power and influence.

Of these three things man boasts, while the believer is also inclined to attach value to them. But none of these things can avert judgment and displeasure from the LORD. The wisdom of men is not like the wisdom of God (Psa 111:10; Pro 1:7; 9:10). Their might is not the spiritual strength of righteousness. Their wealth is not the spiritual wealth that is immune from thief or destruction. Then as now, the student, the athlete, the warrior, and the financier are highly valued. Such persons tend to rely on their own resources.

Man has learned nothing from the past, how these things have worked. He is blind to the fact that they have brought nothing good, but only misery. The LORD in His grace holds out to man what true boasting is and that is boasting in understanding and knowing Him (verse 24). That is the key to all true wisdom, might and riches. The heart is then turned to Him Who “exercises lovingkindness” and proves it, and Who does “justice and righteousness on earth”. In these things the LORD finds His delight (cf. Mic 6:8). We see that lovingkindness comes first, but it will not be proven at the expense of justice and righteousness.

Our highest good is to know God, not merely intellectually or philosophically, but in spirit and in His true features. To know means to have fellowship of life with Him, to have an intimate, personal relationship with Him. This is true and abiding wisdom. The source of the highest Christian blessing is the knowledge of the Father and of Jesus Christ, Who was sent by the Father. To know the Father and the Son is eternal life (Jn 17:3; 1Jn 5:20).

Paul quotes these verses from Jeremiah to make it clear that nothing of man, but only the cross of Christ can save people (1Cor 1:30-31; 2Cor 10:17). Man’s wisdom is utterly reprehensible and cannot provide a solution in a person’s deepest need: his sins. The wisdom of God is evidenced by the redemption brought about by Christ for everyone who believes. Boasting may be in this, not in anything of man.

Jer 9:25-26 | Israel Is Uncircumcised of Heart

25 “Behold, the days are coming”, declares the LORD, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised— 26 Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and all those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.”

Verses 23-24 are a warning against trusting in human abilities. Verses 25-26 condemn reliance on religious prerogatives. Just as the knowledge of the LORD is more important than wisdom, might and wealth, so faith in the heart is more important than any outward form of religion. Judgment comes both on all who bear only the outward sign that they belong to God’s people and on those who do not have that sign, the nations (verse 25). They are all equal before God because they all do not reckon with Him (Rom 2:12).

Judah is mentioned in the same breath as the nations (verse 26) because they behave like the nations. Shaving away the hair at the temples is a heathen custom and forbidden by the LORD for His people (Lev 19:27). Judah is far more guilty than the nations, for they have the outward sign that they are God’s people, but they behave like the nations. They are ‘uncircumcised circumcised’ people, circumcised in the body, but uncircumcised in heart. What is true of Judah is true of all the house of Israel: they are all physically circumcised, but uncircumcised of heart. The true circumcision before God is that of the heart (Rom 2:29).

Jeremiah 10

Jer 10:1-5 | The Folly of Idolatry

1 Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says the LORD,
“Do not learn the way of the nations,
And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens
Although the nations are terrified by them;
3 For the customs of the peoples are delusion;
Because it is wood cut from the forest,
The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.
4 “They decorate [it] with silver and with gold;
They fasten it with nails and with hammers
So that it will not totter.
5 “Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they,
And they cannot speak;
They must be carried,
Because they cannot walk!
Do not fear them,
For they can do no harm,
Nor can they do any good.”

Constantly the call to hear the word that the LORD is speaking, also now is heard again (verse 1). That call is made to the “house of Israel”, that is, all who belong to it, wherever they are, in the land or in the dispersion. The Word is to govern all our thoughts and actions.

If we do not listen to the Word, we will learn the way of the nations (verse 2). Not learning the way of the nations means for us to not let the world influence our thinking (Rom 12:2). If the world does gain influence in our thinking, it will be seen in our behavior, in the things we pursue. We then shift the source of information about life from the Bible to idols.

The nations scour the heavens to observe signs from which they can make out the future. We call this astrology, which is thus condemned here. How many Christians are there who take note of horoscopes? Behind this are frightening demons, powers that “terrify”. For God’s people, from heaven comes what comes from God and He gives what is good to His people.

It is great folly to follow the methods of the nations, for they are nonsensical methods (verse 3). Paying attention to signs and not to what God says is nonsensical. Just look at how the nations operate. They worship wood that they
1. first cut from the forest themselves
2. and then worked on it and refurbished it into a god.
3. Then they decorated it with precious materials of creation (verse 4).
4. Finally, they nailed this god with their own hands in such a way that it could not totter or fall.
5. Later, they also put a royal robe on it (verse 9).

They should take a good look at it. Isn’t it too silly to have any respect for or expect help from a piece of wood that can’t even keep itself going, let alone its worshipers? Can they not see that such a god looks like a scarecrow (verse 5)? You have to be as dumb as a bird to be frightened by such an inanimate skeleton.

Such gods cannot do anything at all. They cannot say a word to comfort someone. They cannot take a step to come to the aid of someone in trouble. Instead, they themselves are a burden to be borne. Yet man bows down to them. What folly to pay any attention to such a god and become afraid of it, as if it could do anything, for better or worse. Yet it still happens today, for example, with a crucifix and other attributes that the roman catholic church sells and people walk around with.

God mocks the idols here (Isa 40:18-20; 41:7; 44:9-20; 46:5-7). The sarcasm drips off. That seems out of place in our age of tolerance. But we must show no respect for idols. They are ridiculous, idiotic. To entrust yourself to them and expect anything from such idiocy is even more idiotic.

If someone does not have a personal relationship with the living God through faith in Jesus Christ, it does not mean that he has no need of a god. Such a person submits to a substitute god and replaces true worship with false worship. The result is idolatry. We see this in the worship of the pope and sports heroes, for example. We also see it in the worship of matter. Man’s greed indicates that he is an idolater. God’s Word speaks of “greed, which amounts to idolatry” (Col 3:5).

Jer 10:6-16 | The Majesty of God

6 There is none like You, O LORD;
You are great, and great is Your name in might.
7 Who would not fear You, O King of the nations?
Indeed it is Your due!
For among all the wise men of the nations
And in all their kingdoms,
There is none like You.
8 But they are altogether stupid and foolish
[In their] discipline of delusion—their idol is wood!
9 Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish,
And gold from Uphaz,
The work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith;
Violet and purple are their clothing;
They are all the work of skilled men.
10 But the LORD is the true God;
He is the living God and the everlasting King.
At His wrath the earth quakes,
And the nations cannot endure His indignation.
11 Thus you shall say to them, “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”
12 [It is] He who made the earth by His power,
Who established the world by His wisdom;
And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens.
13 When He utters His voice, [there is] a tumult of waters in the heavens,
And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth;
He makes lightning for the rain,
And brings out the wind from His storehouses.
14 Every man is stupid, devoid of knowledge;
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols;
For his molten images are deceitful,
And there is no breath in them.
15 They are worthless, a work of mockery;
In the time of their punishment they will perish.
16 The portion of Jacob is not like these;
For the Maker of all is He,
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance;
The LORD of hosts is His name.

Then comes the great contrast. Alternately, these verses speak of the utter idiocy of the idols, their absolute worthlessness and deadness, and in contrast to this the all-transcending glory of the LORD Who works mightily. Opposite the foolish idols, those nullities, Jeremiah places the absolute majesty of the LORD (verse 6). No one is equal to Him. He is indescribably great and His Name is great in might. His Name contains all that He is. That gives peace to everyone who believes. He is the “King of the nations” – not just of Israel (Rom 3:29) – and only He inspires fear (verse 7). No wise man of the nations compares to Him.

In verses 8-9, the absurdity of the peoples worshiping their self-made and decorated objects is pointed out once again. The material needed to make an idol was taken from somewhere on earth. The idols are made by craftsmen, but those people are also foolish for believing in such a big lie. It is artful work with an evil goal. The teaching of the idols is worth as much as the wood of which those gods are made.

Opposed to idolaters and their works is the God of truth (verse 10). Through Him we know the truth about all things. He is the true God, He is true in all His judgments and actions. He is also “the living God”. Through Him life came into being and through Him we know life. He is also “the eternal King”, He governs and controls everything always and everywhere. Nothing is out of His control. This makes Him the judging God, Who does not let sin go unpunished.

There are three contrasts here:
1. the idols are false, God is true;
2. the idols are dead, God is the living God;
3. the idols are transient, they perish, God is eternal.

Jeremiah must point out to the people that God will completely wipe out the idols (verse 11). These are idols to which creative power is attributed, but which, of course, have brought nothing into being. The belief in causes outside of God, by which creation is said to have been brought about, is thereby designated as idolatry. Behind the idols are demons. The theory of evolution is a teaching of demons.

He, the living God, and not some idol, is the Creator and Sustainer of all His works (verse 12; Psa 135:5-12,15-17). His works show the great contrast with the impotence and folly of the idols, which are also merely territorial gods, gods with a limited sphere of authority. Thus He made the earth by His power and established the world by His wisdom. The heavens, which the idolaters look to for signs, He has stretched out by His understanding.

We see here three features of God as Creator:
1. the earth, matter, was made by an act (speaking) of “His power”;
2. the world, the ordering and arrangement of the earth as a place for man to dwell, is the work of “His wisdom”;
3. the stretching out of the heavens as a tent over the earth He has done by “His understanding”.

His word is His might. When He speaks, something always happens (verse 13; cf. Psa 33:9). His voice is heard in the various natural phenomena, to which Jeremiah refers here (cf. Job 37:2-3). We say “it rains”, but here we read that God makes His voice sound and then there is “a tumult of waters in the heavens”. The idols of the nations are captives of nature. God is not. He disposes of nature and determines its course (Job 28:24-26).

He “causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth” to make clouds of them that pour rain on the earth. He also made the lightning flashes that accompany them. He also “brings out the wind from His storehouses” (cf. Job 38:22). This omnipotence over nature is the omnipotence of its Creator, which is the Lord Jesus through Whom God made the worlds (Pro 30:4; Heb 1:2; Jn 1:1-3; Col 1:16).

If we think about the comparison of the LORD with the idols, we see that the prophet is not only saying here that the LORD is the Creator of the matter from which the idols are made. He also draws attention here to the natural phenomena that show that the LORD is the God Who sets nature in motion. But the greatest is that He is the Living God Who wraths and exercises wrath.

How stupid man is to exchange that exalted, all-transcending and governing God for a molten image that is “deceitful” (verse 14). Man who is “devoid of knowledge” of the true, living, eternal God resorts to falsehood. He goes to a goldsmith to put together a god for him. What that blacksmith makes is to his own shame. It is flimflam. There is not a whiff of breath in the image, not a trace of life. How can you expect any activity from such a thing. This is really very stupid.

Do they not see that what the hands of the blacksmith have made is “worthless”, empty, hollow, totally without substance (verse 15)? And not only that. An idol is also a work of mockery. You can only mock it, that’s all. How ridiculous it is to expect anything from an idol. Finally, such a god has an expiration date. You can only believe in it for a limited time, because a time of punishment will come and then it will perish, along with its worshipers. Then it becomes what it always was: nothing (cf. 1Cor 8:4-6).

Opposite is the imperishable “portion of Jacob”, which is the LORD Himself (verse 16). He made everything, He is “the Maker of all”. In the midst of it all, He took Israel as “His inheritance” (Exo 19:5-6). In spite of all their deviation and sin, that remains. Only “the LORD of hosts” can conceive and do such a thing. It is the Name that indicates that all the powers in the universe are subject to Him. He will not let anything or anyone deny or dispute His connection with Jacob and Israel, no matter how much He must judge them for their unfaithfulness and rejection of Him, as the following verses show.

Jer 10:17-22 | Exile for Sinful Israel

17 Pick up your bundle from the ground,
You who dwell under siege!
18 For thus says the LORD,
“Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land
At this time,
And will cause them distress,
That they may be found.”
19 Woe is me, because of my injury!
My wound is incurable.
But I said, “Truly this is a sickness,
And I must bear it.”
20 My tent is destroyed,
And all my ropes are broken;
My sons have gone from me and are no more.
There is no one to stretch out my tent again
Or to set up my curtains.
21 For the shepherds have become stupid
And have not sought the LORD;
Therefore they have not prospered,
And all their flock is scattered.
22 The sound of a report! Behold, it comes—
A great commotion out of the land of the north—
To make the cities of Judah
A desolation, a haunt of jackals.

The tone of the prophet changes again. The LORD calls Jerusalem – “you who dwell under siege” – to prepare for their exile (verse 17; cf. Eze 12:3-16). They should just grab together what they need for the exile. They may feel safe in their fortress, but that is a false sense of security.

The LORD is going to make His people suffer the consequences of their unfaithfulness by slinging them out of the land (verse 18). Their exile to Babylon will take place with the force and speed of a stone being slung away, without being able to resist it, just as a stone does not resist being slung away. The LORD will afflict them with the terrors of exile. Then they will experience the truth of all the warnings given to them by the LORD.

Upon hearing these words, Jeremiah cringes (verse 19). He makes himself one with those who refuse to listen to his message and are therefore judged. He loves his people so much that he feels God’s judgments on His people pressing down on him like a sickness, which he must bear, with no hope of a cure (cf. Nah 3:19a).

Because of God’s judgment, he has lost everything where he found rest and companionship (verse 20). By that can be meant the temple, but also Jerusalem and the whole land. The ropes, the connections, what holds everything together, have been broken. No one has a hold on anything anymore. There is also no one who can effect a change for the better, who can stretch out the tent again and set up the curtains again. No one can restore what has been lost. So great is the devastation and desolation.

Jeremiah does know the cause. The shepherds, the leaders of the people, kings like Jehoiakim and Zedekiah and lower administrators, have not sought the LORD (verse 21). They did not consult Him and then it is impossible to act wisely. Their wrong example has scattered the whole people like a flock. The unity is gone.

The terrifying sound of impending judgment follows (verse 22). Rumor reaches the city that the armies of Babylon have invaded the land in the north. The consequences are clear. They will make the cities of Judah a desolation. People will no longer be able to live there. They will become a haunt of jackals.

Jer 10:23-25 | Prayer for the People

23 I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not in himself,
Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.
24 Correct me, O LORD, but with justice;
Not with Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.
25 Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You
And on the families that do not call Your name;
For they have devoured Jacob;
They have devoured him and consumed him
And have laid waste his habitation.

Jeremiah, who here makes himself one with the people, expresses that he knows that it is not man who determines his own way, but the LORD (verse 23; Pro 20:24; Psa 37:23; Pro 16:9). Man is totally dependent on Him, even if he resists Him. Whoever comes to that understanding and accepts it, has found the way back to Him. The result is rest for the soul and trust in Him, while also acknowledging that punishment is deserved.

The realization that God leads and governs all things, brings about surrender to Him. It is not meant to eliminate responsibility, but to see that everything is in His hand. He determines the course of events and not man in his rebellion against God’s will. Just as a captain casts his anchor not inside the ship but outside the ship, so man must not expect his salvation from himself but from the Lord. He must not learn the way of men without God (verse 2), but he must learn to walk the way of the Lord.

With the acknowledgment of God’s righteous actions also comes the question of punishment or discipline or correction (verse 24). Again, Jeremiah makes himself one with the people. The question is not asked in pride. It is a question asked in the awareness that if we get what we deserve, there will be nothing left of us. Then we will be at the foundation of grace and we will be able to see His correction as an evidence of grace.

If it is about total judgment, it must be on people who do not know God and do not call upon Him, and who have abused His people (verse 25). If judgment is already so severe on those who are close to Him, how severe must it be on those who reject Him (Pro 11:31; cf. 1Pet 4:17).

Jeremiah 11

Jer 11:1-14 | The Breaking of the Covenant

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 3 and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant 4 which I commanded your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and do according to all which I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God,’ 5 in order to confirm the oath which I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as [it is] this day.”‘“ Then I said, “Amen, O LORD.” 6 And the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear the words of this covenant and do them. 7 For I solemnly warned your fathers in the day that I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, warning persistently, saying, “Listen to My voice.” 8 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked, each one, in the stubbornness of his evil heart; therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded [them] to do, but they did not.’” 9 Then the LORD said to me, “A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestors who refused to hear My words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.” 11 Therefore thus says the LORD, “Behold I am bringing disaster on them which they will not be able to escape; though they will cry to Me, yet I will not listen to them. 12 Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they surely will not save them in the time of their disaster. 13 For your gods are as many as your cities, O Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal. 14 “Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster.

A new word from the LORD comes to Jeremiah (verse 1). The LORD instructs him to “hear the words of this covenant”. By this He refers to His covenant that He gave His people after their exodus from Egypt at Sinai (Exo 19:5-6; 24:7; Deu 29:1). Jeremiah must first listen to this himself. Then he is to address the word to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem (verse 2). This is the order of God. If He wants us to say something to His people, we can only do so if we have first listened to Him ourselves.

When we think of the call to listen to the covenant, we need not think only of the giving of the law at Sinai. The people had also recently renewed the covenant during the revival under King Josiah (2Chr 34:19,31-32). Jeremiah is to pronounce the curse on behalf of “the LORD, the God of Israel” on anyone who does not heed the words of the covenant (verse 3; cf. Gal 3:10; Deu 28:15-20). These powerful words should bring the people to an inward turn.

The revival of Josiah only produced an outward return among the people and not an inward one. Therefore, Jeremiah must remind the people of what the LORD commanded their fathers when He brought them out “from the iron furnace” of Egypt (verse 4; Deu 4:20; 1Kgs 8:51). The “iron furnace” emphasizes the horrors they suffered there. After their exodus, He urged them to listen to His voice. This means that they should do all the words that He commanded. If they did, they should be His people and He would be their God (cf. Jer 7:23; 24:7; 32:38). Their connection to Him, and His recognition of them, is dependent on their obedience.

If they were obedient, He would keep the oath He swore to their fathers to give the people “a land flowing with milk and honey” (verse 5; Exo 3:8). The LORD has brought them there, as they see for themselves, but they have been unfaithful time after time. Therefore, the overflowing riches of the land disappeared. That, too, is the result of what the LORD swore if they were unfaithful.

At the time, all the people answered the curse time and again with “amen” (Deu 27:15-26). Here the uttering of “amen” is done by just one man, Jeremiah: “Then I said, “Amen, O LORD.”” There must have been more faithful ones then too, but we only hear it from this one man. It is reminiscent of the days of Elijah who, as a loner, also stood up for the rights of the LORD, yet there were also seven thousand who did not bow their knees to Baal (1Kgs 19:18). But where are they?

In accordance to the command to proclaim and what he should proclaim, the LORD tells Jeremiah to go out now (verse 6). He is to go and proclaim all the words the LORD has told him to Judah and Jerusalem, calling them to obedience to the covenant. Once again the LORD offers the opportunity to hear the words of this covenant and to do what it says.

Jeremiah should add, as an additional exhortation, that the LORD had already warned their fathers severely from the day He brought them up from the land of Egypt (verse 7). He has continued to do so over and over again, “even to this day”, that is, the day He gives the command to Jeremiah. Again and again, persistently, continually He has called them to listen to His voice (Jer 7:13,25). Unceasingly, He has labored to get them to listen to Him and obey His words. His concern to reach their hearts to bless them is impressive.

Therefore, it is not because of Him that they did not listen (verse 8). They have not even inclined their ear to hear some of His words. They chose to continue in acting according to their stubborn, evil heart. When a person rejects the Lord’s abundant efforts to turn him from his evil ways, it means that he himself is hardening his heart. Because they have shown this hardening, the judgments have come on them.

With “all the words of this covenant” which the LORD has brought upon them, the judgments of the covenant are meant in this context. The LORD is faithful to His covenant, both where blessing is involved in obedience and where judgment is involved in disobedience. Their whole history in the land testifies to their unfaithfulness. It must be said that “they did not” do the words of the covenant to obey the LORD. The judgments that the LORD has had to bring are entirely their own fault.

We are tempted to trust that God is like the modern, indulgent parents who do not punish their children when they disobey. A small reprimand perhaps, but still no harsh disciplinary measures. We are very much mistaken if we think that God is like that. Discipline will surely come if, despite many admonitions, we persist in doing what is evil in His sight.

The LORD informs Jeremiah of “a conspiracy” that He has discovered among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem (verse 9). This indicates a secret, organized opposition to Josiah’s reforms. They swore not to keep the renewed covenant and to return to a life of serving idols (verse 10). We can apply that to the effort to bring God’s people back to the idolatry of Rome. It is a conspiracy of the powers of darkness.

The covenant breaking applies to both northern Israel and southern Judah. The LORD speaks of “My covenant”. That is what makes its breaking so bad. The covenant breaking has happened knowingly and is directed against Him. His judgment will come upon it, a calamity from which there will be no escape (verse 11). No matter how severe it will be, the most severe thing is that He will not answer their cry to Him (Jer 7:16). The LORD does not listen to those who deliberately disobey and remain disobedient (Pro 1:28-29). Such people do want to be saved, but only out of misery, only to continue with their ungodly lives.

Then, if the LORD does not answer, they will resort to their idols (verse 12). They have honored those gods with their incense offerings. Surely those will help them. But surely those will not be able to help them, despite the fact that they have a huge number of idols (verse 13; Jer 2:28; Deu 32:37). No matter how many zeros are put in a row, the total number remains zero.

Once again Jeremiah is forbidden to pray for the people (verse 14; Jer 7:16). It does show how hopeless the condition of the people is when the LORD forbids intercession for them. He has given them over to their wrong thinking and they will eat the fruit of their own actions.

Jer 11:15-17 | Their Sacrifices Are Reprehensible

15 “What right has My beloved in My house
When she has done many vile deeds?
Can the sacrificial flesh take away from you your disaster,
So [that] you can rejoice?”
16 The LORD called your name,
“A green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form”;
With the noise of a great tumult
He has kindled fire on it,
And its branches are worthless.
17 The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me by offering up sacrifices to Baal.

In the midst of all the iniquity He enumerates, the LORD nevertheless speaks of His people as “My beloved” (verse 15). This is evident from all the care He has taken of them. It actually makes their sins intolerable to Him because they commit them as His beloved. How did they come up with the idea to do “many vile deeds” in His house? This refers to the abominable idolatry they commit en masse in His house.

He does not hate them (or us), but their (or our) sins. Their behavior in His house is repugnant to Him (cf. Isa 1:11-12). The reproach that “the sacrificial flesh takes away from you your disaster” refers to the futility of their sacrifices to the LORD. They bring the flesh into the sanctuary, into the temple, but they bring it with a corrupt heart, in an evil mind. The thought is that their sacrificial flesh does not make them pleasing to God. It does not cause Him to assert Himself in favor of them before their enemies, but He turns Himself away from them and gives them over to the enemies.

They take the greatest pleasure in doing evil and doing it in His house, in His presence. It betrays total insensitivity to Who He is. We can be pleasing to God only if we are faithful to the instructions of His Word. All our sacrifices are worthless and reprehensible to Him if we neglect His Word.

The LORD has made His people “a green olive tree” with beautiful, shapely fruit (verse 16a; cf. Psa 52:8; Hos 14:6). That is how He has called Israel. In giving them that name, He has wanted to give them the consciousness that He is their origin and that they are there for Him. He has made His people prosperous and wealthy and given them many privileges, that they might enjoy them. Above all, it has been His intention that He should enjoy them, both from the sight and the fruit of them. We may well pray that as His church on earth we may respond to His purpose for us.

But now He must burn and break up that tree with great tumult (verse 16b), which He will do by calling Babylon against them. The “the noise of a great tumult” is the warfare with which Nebuchadnezzar’s armies will invade Judah. They will kindle a devastating fire. As a result, the branches of the trees are broken. The tree, however, remains standing. The LORD does not make a final end of His people.

Though the LORD has planted His people, He will bring evil upon them (verse 17). He will do so as “the LORD of hosts”, as the One Who has power over all the armies in heaven and on earth. He has had to pronounce evil against those whom He Himself has planted, because of the evil they have done and thereby pronounced upon themselves. Here again northern Israel and southern Judah are mentioned separately (verse 10). Both houses brought Him to wrath by offering their abominable incense sacrifices to Baal.

Jer 11:18-23 | Conspiracy Against Jeremiah

18 Moreover, the LORD made it known to me and I knew it;
Then You showed me their deeds.
19 But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter;
And I did not know that they had devised plots against me, [saying],
“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
And let us cut him off from the land of the living,
That his name be remembered no more.”
20 But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously,
Who tries the feelings and the heart,
Let me see Your vengeance on them,
For to You have I committed my cause.
21 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, “Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, so that you will not die at our hand”; 22 therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, “Behold, I am about to punish them! The young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters will die by famine; 23 and a remnant will not be left to them, for I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth—the year of their punishment.”

After his preaching comes the response of the people. The LORD makes this known to Jeremiah, so that he will be aware of what they are up to (verse 18). The LORD has shown him their actions. Thus He protects His servant here, for Jeremiah can now take precautions. We see here that the LORD does not judge the devisers of evil and thus remove the danger, but warns His servant. He always knows the best way for His own when dangerous situations arise.

When Jeremiah is informed of the plans that have been devised against him, he feels like an unsuspecting lamb being led to the slaughter without noticing (verse 19). He knows nothing of their plans that they are devising against him. But the LORD has told him what they have devised. It is a plan in which Jeremiah will be dealt with radically and forever. Not even his name will be thought of again. This is another clear example of man’s prideful thinking. How much the LORD has disturbed and destroyed this thinking.

In verses 18-19a we see in Jeremiah the true Israel who has been given insight by the LORD into the wickedness of their enemies. It is the Spirit of Christ in him and them. As the lamb, he is a picture of the Lord Jesus (Isa 53:7; Acts 8:32). But there is a distinction. The Lord Jesus did not go to the slaughter like an unsuspecting lamb, but in full awareness of what was going to happen to Him (Jn 18:1,5). Jeremiah, in the tree with its fruit, is a picture of the faithful remnant of God’s people (verse 16a) whom the enemies want to eradicate and from whom they want to erase the remembrance of his name (verse 19b).

The enemies, in their description of Jeremiah as a tree with fruit – that is him and his preaching – unwittingly give a wonderful testimony of him. Similarly, in all the evil of which the enemies of the Lord Jesus accuse Him, His perfection is all the more evident. Jeremiah is besieged by men from Anathoth, his fellow townsmen (verse 21; Jer 1:1). He experiences the same thing the Lord Jesus experienced from the people of Nazareth, the city where He was raised (Lk 4:24).

When Jeremiah is informed by the LORD of their plans, his first reaction is to cry out to the LORD. He calls on Him as the “LORD of hosts, who judges righteously” (verse 20). He places the matter in the hand of the LORD. The Lord Jesus did the same (1Pet 2:23b). He knows that the LORD “tries the feelings [literally: kidneys] and the heart”, that is, the deepest inner being of every person, that He knows all motives and intentions, all thoughts and feelings, and can therefore judge them (cf. Rev 2:23b). Jeremiah does not avenge himself, but asks the LORD to take revenge for the evil his enemies want to do to him. He also expects this of the LORD, for to this end he has given his cause into His hands.

It is in keeping with the spirit of the Old Testament and God’s government that Jeremiah prays here for the destruction of these enemies of the LORD. It is not the grace of the gospel here, but the righteousness of God’s government (cf. Rev 6:10). For us, in the face of those who seek our doom, the prayer that the Lord Jesus prayed on the cross for His murderers is appropriate: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34a; cf. Acts 7:60).

The LORD answers him (verse 21). He knows that Jeremiah’s enemies are after him because he has prophesied to them in the Name of the LORD. They don’t want that. He knows that they have said that they will make him stop if he does not stop himself. Thus, in effect, they want to stop the LORD’s mouth. In His servant they reject Him. As if He does not have the right to choose His servants and to meddle in His own affairs, that is, in His own people.

After the indictment comes the judgment, pronounced by “the LORD of hosts” (verse 22). With Him they have to deal through Jeremiah. The LORD will judge from the men of Anathoth all those who are out for Jeremiah’s blood. The hatred against Jeremiah seems to be especially present in the younger generation. It involves the young men and their sons and their daughters. The young men will perish by the sword and their sons and their daughters by famine. That there will be “no remnant of them” (verse 23) refers to all those who have been out for Jeremiah’s death (verse 21), for a number return to Anathoth after the exile (Ezra 2:23).

Jeremiah 12

Jer 12:1-6 | The Prosperity of the Wicked

1 Righteous are You, O LORD, that I would plead [my] case with You;
Indeed I would discuss matters of justice with You:
Why has the way of the wicked prospered?
[Why] are all those who deal in treachery at ease?
2 You have planted them, they have also taken root;
They grow, they have even produced fruit.
You are near to their lips
But far from their mind.
3 But You know me, O LORD;
You see me;
And You examine my heart’s [attitude] toward You.
Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter
And set them apart for a day of carnage!
4 How long is the land to mourn
And the vegetation of the countryside to wither?
For the wickedness of those who dwell in it,
Animals and birds have been snatched away,
Because [men] have said, “He will not see our latter ending.”
5 “If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out,
Then how can you compete with horses?
If you fall down in a land of peace,
How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?
6 “For even your brothers and the household of your father,
Even they have dealt treacherously with you,
Even they have cried aloud after you.
Do not believe them, although they may say nice things to you.”

As a result of the murder plans plotted against him at the end of the previous chapter, a problem arises for Jeremiah, and that is how it is possible that the wicked can be so prosperous (verse 1). It is not that he doubts the righteousness of the LORD (cf. Psa 145:17a). He knows that the LORD’s righteousness would become apparent if he would assail Him with questions about His actions. He knows that the LORD has reasons for His actions. But what are those reasons? That is what he wants to know and that is why he wants to speak to the LORD about His judgments, about His way of judging.

Jeremiah asks the LORD the question of why the wicked prosper. He cannot understand that. It is the “why” of the God-fearing heart that wonders how the LORD, Who is righteous, permits the wicked to prosper instead of intervening and judging them. How can the wicked be at ease while they “deal in treachery”?

He wrestles with the same questions that Job and Asaph wrestled with (Job 21:7; Psa 73:2-3; cf. Psa 94:3; Hab 1:12-17). Of these struggles Jeremiah should know. He should also know the conclusion that Asaph came to: that he and we too should perceive the end of the wicked (Psa 73:17-18). It means that we are aware of what the end will be for the wicked.

Before we get to that point, we see that we have to go through experiences ourselves in order to come to the same conclusion that others have come to by experience. We torment ourselves with this question until we go into the sanctuary and pay attention to their end. The problem of the prosperity of the wicked in the light of the righteousness of God is nowhere directly resolved in Scripture. The ultimate answer lies in faith in the sovereign wisdom and righteousness of God.

Jeremiah points out that it seems that the LORD is providing this prosperity for them who are of the world, but also belong to God’s people, yet among these people there is only a hypocritical confession of His Name (verse 2). He says that it seems that the LORD has planted them and cared for them, for they have taken root, they can do what they want, and they produce fruit.

But that doesn’t square at all with what he knows about them. Jeremiah knows far too well that their prosperity only makes them appear outwardly righteous (Psa 1:3). Indeed, he also knows that in their hearts they are far from the LORD (cf. Isa 29:13; Eze 33:31; Mt 15:8; Mk 7:6). It is people today who go to church, talk about religious things and yet live in unrighteousness and go wayward ways.

Jeremiah becomes impatient to see them continue to live on while he suffers so much. He points out to the LORD the contrast between the wicked and himself. Without being haughty, he can say that his heart is with the LORD in truth and that it is far from hypocrisy (verse 3). When will the LORD put an end to this dishonesty? He asks the LORD to judge these hypocrites like sheep for slaughter.

How long must it be that things are going well for the wicked and bad for the land (verse 4)? The land is mourning because of the desolation as a result of the drought. Whatever crop is on it has withered and produces nothing to live on. The effects of the people’s sins can be seen in nature. Because of the evil “of those who dwell in it”, that is, of those who possess the land, the land and the beasts perish. Because of their sins, the LORD had to withhold the rain.

These people sin in pride by thinking that the LORD does not pay attention to what they do. They believe that Jeremiah will not see their end, meaning that they are giving themselves a longer life than Jeremiah so that he will not experience their downfall. They do not see the future as bleak as Jeremiah presents it. It is an agony for Jeremiah that they think and act this way, without God intervening. We see here the foolishness of the sinner and the impatience of the believer.

The LORD answers with a comparison (verse 5). He tells Jeremiah that the people with whom he is already having so much trouble because they are so prosperous are runners. Jeremiah can’t keep up with them. If he is already getting so tired of these people, what about when it all gets much worse and these runners become horses? The LORD is preparing His servant for an even worse situation.

It is already bad, but it will become much worse. There is peace in the land now, but how will it fare when it is taken away? That will happen when the enemy will flood the land like the Jordan overflows its banks. Just as the Jordan rises proudly, as it were, from its bed and overflows its banks and cannot be stopped in doing so, so also the enemy who floods into the land cannot be stopped.

On top of this aggravated, unstoppable situation comes a matter even more painful. Worse than the rejection by the men of Anathoth – his fellow townspeople in the previous chapter – is that while family members speak kindly, they deal treacherously with him (verse 6; Jer 9:3-4; cf. Mk 13:12; Mt 10:36). The LORD warns him not to trust them when they speak kindly to him. Jeremiah, so says the LORD, you are all alone, but with Me.

Jer 12:7-13 | Punishment of the Wicked

7 “I have forsaken My house,
I have abandoned My inheritance;
I have given the beloved of My soul
Into the hand of her enemies.
8 “My inheritance has become to Me
Like a lion in the forest;
She has roared against Me;
Therefore I have come to hate her.
9 “Is My inheritance like a speckled bird of prey to Me?
Are the birds of prey against her on every side?
Go, gather all the beasts of the field,
Bring them to devour!
10 “Many shepherds have ruined My vineyard,
They have trampled down My field;
They have made My pleasant field
A desolate wilderness.
11 “It has been made a desolation,
Desolate, it mourns before Me;
The whole land has been made desolate,
Because no man lays it to heart.
12 “On all the bare heights in the wilderness
Destroyers have come,
For a sword of the LORD is devouring
From one end of the land even to the other;
There is no peace for anyone.
13 “They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns,
They have strained themselves to no profit.
But be ashamed of your harvest
Because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”

In verse 7, the LORD Himself begins to complain. He speaks of “My house” and “My inheritance” and “the beloved of My soul”. These names show that He always sees His apostate people in what they are originally to His heart and why He is so concerned with them. He has had to forsake His house because of the persistence of their sins (Eze 10:18; 11:22-23). He has had to abandon His inheritance, His land and His people because they have become estranged from Him. He has given her, whom He loves with the love of His soul, into the hand of her enemies precisely because the people are so precious to Him and He loves them so much and they have become so apostate from Him. The enemy thinks he is doing it, but here it says the LORD is doing it.

The reason is that His people have rebelled against Him (verse 8). He compares His people, whom He again calls “My inheritance”, to a lion that roars. A roaring lion terrifies. Of course, God is not frightened by it, but it shows how much His people have turned against Him. Therefore He hates that people, He is disgusted with them, just as He hates and abhors sin.

His people, called “My inheritance” by Him for the third time, have become like a speckled bird of prey that is besieged by the nations around it that are birds of prey (verse 9). A speckled bird in a nest of black or white birds is pecked to death by the other birds. A speckled bird is neither white nor black. This is how God’s people are when they connect with the world. The LORD calls the predators to feast on His people.

The shepherds are the people who led God’s people – who the LORD now calls “My vineyard” (Jer 5:10; 6:9; 8:13) and “My field” – but who have ruined it and trampled it down (verse 10). By the shepherds can be meant the leaders of Israel, but also the rulers of the nations who destroyed the land that was to the LORD “My pleasant field”. We sense here how great the sorrow of God’s heart is that this has happened to His land. The land that He had looked upon with joy and expected to bring Him joy has become “a desolate wilderness.”

That the land is desolate is not because of Him (verse 11). People who have apostatized from Him, have made it desolate. The desolation is great. The LORD hears the land mourning. However, He is the only One Who hears it. It lies so devastated because no man lays it to heart, that is, there is no one who wonders how it came to be. His beloved is not moved by it to return. This language of God’s love passes her by. It is tragic that what means so much to God’s heart is considered so worthless by His people.

The destroyers were announced and also came (verse 12). They are identified with “the sword of the LORD” that devours from one end of the land even to the other, that is, the entire land. No one escapes, no one has peace, despite the prophecies of all those false prophets who proclaimed peace (Jer 6:14).

As a result of the enemy’s work as the sword of the LORD, whatever is edible becomes a torment (verse 13). All their work has been in vain. The wheat they have sown produces thorns (cf. Gen 3:17-18a). How could they have the benefit of a good harvest when they are only after their own benefit? They reaped the opposite of what they expected. The paltry yield should bring them to their senses. They should be ashamed of the cause of it: their disobedience to the LORD, which caused Him to bring His fierce anger upon them.

Jer 12:14-17 | Promises for Penitent Nations

14 Thus says the LORD concerning all My wicked neighbors who strike at the inheritance with which I have endowed My people Israel, “Behold I am about to uproot them from their land and will uproot the house of Judah from among them. 15 And it will come about that after I have uprooted them, I will again have compassion on them; and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land. 16 Then if they will really learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ even as they taught My people to swear by Baal, they will be built up in the midst of My people. 17 But if they will not listen, then I will uproot that nation, uproot and destroy it”, declares the LORD.

Suddenly a ray of hope breaks through again. Now we hear how the LORD stands up for His people against all who have sought to plunder His people for their own benefit (verse 14). The LORD speaks here of “My people Israel”, which is the people as a whole, the two and the ten tribes together.

All His neighbors, the neighboring nations of His people – such as Syria, Moab, and Ammon – He calls “My wicked neighbors” because they have taken advantage of His people, which means that they have also taken advantage of Him. He will judge those nations by the same people who judge Judah, Babylon, and do it in the same way, namely, by uprooting them from their land. He also will remove His people, “the house of Judah”, from those nations. With them He stands in a special relationship and He will also punish them separately.

Then He will return to them and have mercy on them and bring them back to their possession (verse 15). He will do the same with the hostile nations (Jer 48:47; 49:6). With His people it happened partially and in weakness at the return from the Babylonian exile. It will happen fully in the realm of peace. Each will get back his inheritance. We see here that God does discipline His people, but it is for the purpose of their restoration.

The LORD also has a promise for the nations who have taken advantage of His people (verse 16). If they join His people and walk in the ways of His people and confess Him as LORD, they will have a place in the midst of His people. To be in the midst of His people means that they, who before that time were enemies and haters of God’s people, will now be surrounded, protected and blessed by God’s people. They will then have repented of their former conduct. They used to be out to teach God's people to swear by Baal. If they have repented, they will learn from God’s people to swear by the Name of the LORD. But the people who will not listen, He will uproot forever and destroy them (verse 17).

Jeremiah 13

Jer 13:1-11 | The Ruined Linen Waistband

1 Thus the LORD said to me, “Go and buy yourself a linen waistband and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.” 2 So I bought the waistband in accordance with the word of the LORD and put it around my waist. 3 Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying, 4 “Take the waistband that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the rock.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD had commanded me. 6 After many days the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the waistband which I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it; and lo, the waistband was ruined, it was totally worthless. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9 “Thus says the LORD, ‘Just so will I destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this waistband which is totally worthless. 11 For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘that they might be for Me a people, for renown, for praise and for glory; but they did not listen.’

The LORD instructed Jeremiah to buy a linen waistband (verse 1). The LORD also says that he is to wear it around his waist and that the waistband is not to be put in water. In this command we have the first example of an act Jeremiah is to perform in order to thereby give important teaching to the people. More such acts will follow. Later, Ezekiel is instructed to use similar means during his ministry in Babylon (Eze 4:1-17; 5:1-4). The act is the preaching. Jeremiah, as an obedient servant, does what the LORD has said to him. He buys the waistband and puts it around his waist (verse 2). The fact that the waistband must be around the waist is mentioned three times.

Jeremiah is a priest and a waistband is part of the priestly garment (Lev 16:4). The waistband is a symbol of service (Lk 12:35,37; Jn 13:4-5) and here of priestly service, for it symbolizes Israel being dedicated by the LORD to His service (Exo 19:6a). The linen is a picture of righteous deeds of God’s people (Rev 19:8). That the waistband should not come in water – to be washed – is because the service has become unclean. No confession of sins has taken place. The people live on in their sins while professing to serve the LORD.

After some time, the word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah for the second time (verse 3). He has now worn the waistband for some time. It has become a part of his garment. He has also paid a price for it. The waistband is his property. That it is referred to “the second time” emphasizes its direct connection to the first time. The new instruction is that he is to go to the Euphrates and there hide the waistband he has bought in a crevice of the rock (verse 4).

The journey to the Euphrates is long, for the river is over a thousand kilometers from Jerusalem. It will take about a month of walking to get there. Because of that distance, it has been questioned whether the Euphrates is meant here. According to some, it could also be a small river with that name that lies five to six kilometers from Anathoth. Nevertheless, in any case, the thought of the Euphrates River is important because it flows along Babylon and Assyria. That puts the waistband in connection with Babylon and Assyria as areas where it is ruined, just as the connection with these countries ruined Israel. The ten tribes were carried away by Assyria and the two tribes will be carried away by Babylon.

Jeremiah does as the LORD has commanded him and hides the waistband by the Euphrates (verse 5). “After many days” the LORD tells him to go to the Euphrates again (verse 6). He is to pick up the waistband and take it with him. It is the waistband of which the LORD has commanded him to hide there. In these words the LORD emphasizes that it is the waistband that he has been commanded to hide. This points to a time of disappearance of the people. The words “after many days” also point to that. They refer to the time of the people’s captivity at the Euphrates, to which they will be taken.

He digs and takes the waistband from the place where he had hidden it (verse 7). It turns out that the waistband was ruined and unusable. It has decayed and is no longer good for anything. The application is that the captivity will not change anything about the condition of the heart of the people. Only sincere self-judgment can do that.

As Jeremiah stands with the ruined and useless waistband in his hands, the word of the LORD comes to him (verse 8). He tells him the meaning of what he had to do and of the result (verse 9). As the waistband is ruined, so the LORD will “destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem”. They have boasted of their service and glory, but it has become a worthless service and their glory or splendor has been destroyed. Jerusalem has boasted even more than Judah and has become even more apostate.

Becoming proud of what has been given is a horrible sin. It is the primal sin, the sin of satan. Pride is a great sin for the Christian, especially for those in a position of leadership. Everywhere in Scripture we are called to be humble and to humble ourselves.

The LORD calls His people “this wicked people” (verse 10). This refers to their mindset, their mind. Their wickedness is evident in their refusal to listen to His words. Instead, they follow their hardened hearts and go after other gods to which they bow down. Their refusal to serve Him and instead serve idols, ruined them and made them worthless to the LORD. A people who act like this are no longer good for anything, just like the waistband.

What a contrast this is to what God purposed with His people. He made this people cling to Himself, like the original purpose of the waistband (verse 11). So close is it to Him, “a people near to Him” (Psa 148:14b). He has brought them so close to Himself, that they might be to Him “a people, for renown, for praise and for glory”. He has wanted that His people would be a people for Him, His possession, serving Him devotedly. This they would do if they would cling to Him Who attaches them to Himself (Deu 10:20; 11:22).

He has also wanted that they should be to Him for renown, that is, that they should show His features to the nations around them. He has wanted that they would be to Him for praise, full of gratitude for all the privileges that possess a people who have Him as God. Such a people would radiate His glory. “But they did not listen.” Therefore, they will suffer the fate of the waistband: they will be put away, ruined, disposed of.

The waistband around Jeremiah’s waist represents Israel and Judah. As long as the waistband is around his waist, it takes the place of praise and glory. When it is loosened from the waist and buried, it becomes completely useless. Likewise, Israel and Judah have become useless after they have separated themselves from the LORD to go and serve false gods, the idols.

God has given the church, like Israel, a high position (1Pet 2:9). Shouldn’t what is said here of Judah and Jerusalem, be said of the church, and especially of those who profess to stand on the foundation of the church? How much we miss when we do not listen to the words of God, and how much God also misses then.

Jer 13:12-14 | The Wine of God’s Anger

12 “Therefore you are to speak this word to them, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “Every jug is to be filled with wine.”‘ And when they say to you, ‘Do we not very well know that every jug is to be filled with wine?’ 13 then say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings that sit for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness! 14 I will dash them against each other, both the fathers and the sons together”, declares the LORD. “I will not show pity nor be sorry nor have compassion so as not to destroy them.”‘“

Jeremiah is instructed to speak a word from the LORD to the apostate people (verse 12). The word “therefore” makes it clear that this new word directly follows on from the previous one. This new word is a “picture word”. It is about jugs that will be filled with wine. The empty jug is a picture of their emptiness. When the jug is filled with wine, it is not a picture of being full of the joy of the LORD, but of being full of the anger of the LORD. The reaction of the people shows that they understand nothing of the picture. They think only of literal jugs and literal wine. Of course, they know that each jug will be filled with wine when the wine harvest has arrived.

Then comes the sobering explanation (verse 13). Jeremiah is to tell them on behalf of the LORD that just as every jug is filled with wine, so all the inhabitants of the land, up to the highest placed and most privileged, will be filled with the wine of His judgment. The people are compared to empty jugs. The judgments coming on them through the Babylonians will render them so helpless and confused, that they will feel and act like drunken people. The mention of “David on his throne” indicates how much his descendants have departed from this man of whom God can say, that he is “a man after My heart” (Acts 13:22).

The LORD Himself will dash the jugs, that is, the people (verse 14; cf. Isa 30:14). Relationships of confidence, such as those between fathers and children, will be broken in pieces. Judgment will be carried out without any mercy from the LORD. No one will be spared. It will be carried out without any act of mercy from the LORD. The whole people will be brought to ruin.

Jer 13:15-17 | Warning Against Pride

15 Listen and give heed, do not be haughty,
For the LORD has spoken.
16 Give glory to the LORD your God,
Before He brings darkness
And before your feet stumble
On the dusky mountains,
And while you are hoping for light
He makes it into deep darkness,
[And] turns [it] into gloom.
17 But if you will not listen to it,
My soul will sob in secret for [such] pride;
And my eyes will bitterly weep
And flow down with tears,
Because the flock of the LORD has been taken captive.

The troubles arise when God’s people, instead of listening to the LORD and taking to heart what He has spoken, act haughtily (verse 15). Haughtiness is the primal sin and leads to doing one’s own will. If “the LORD has spoken”, that should be the end of all self-conceit and self-will. But God’s people do not care what the LORD has spoken and act haughtily.

In His grace, He points this out once again. Jeremiah calls for them to give glory to the LORD their God (verse 16), which means confessing their sins (cf. Jos 7:19). They must give up their pride. If the people do not, God will bring darkness, that is, spiritual darkness. A person who is in darkness cannot orient himself. They will not know how to walk without stumbling (Jn 11:10).

Even when it is only dusk, and thus not yet utter darkness, their feet will still stumble on the mountains. When they find that darkness surrounds them and they long for light, the LORD will make their light a shadow of death and turn it into darkness. This is because they seek the light, the outcome from their distress, not from Him, but from others.

Whoever refuses the light and chooses the darkness (cf. Jn 3:19-20), is given over to the darkness he has chosen. So it will be, in an even more terrible sense, with the very gifted professing Christianity after the church is caught up to be with the Lord forever. Then “God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness” (2Thes 2:11-12).

Jeremiah is again overwhelmed by the persistent rebellion and pride of the people (verse 17). He feels the sin of his people deep within him. He cannot express his grief openly, for they would not understand. He expresses his intense sorrow in hidden places. Paul also has intense sorrow over the decay of the church, evidenced by self-seeking (Phil 3:18-19). Do we feel the same sorrow and weep over it in secret when we see believers going a wayward way?

Jeremiah already sees in the spirit that “the flock of the LORD” has been taken captive. He sees how his prophecy is coming true. However, this does not fill him with a certain satisfaction, but with deep sorrow. His deep love for his people is evident in his deep emotions. It is the deep love he shares with the LORD, Who bears the greatest sorrow about what He must do to His people, His flock. The expression “flock” indicates that the LORD has always cared for His people like a Shepherd, but they are unwilling sheep who reject His care.

Jer 13:18-19 | Disaster in the Royal House

18 Say to the king and the queen mother,
“Take a lowly seat,
For your beautiful crown
Has come down from your head.”
19 The cities of the Negev have been locked up,
And there is no one to open [them];
All Judah has been carried into exile,
Wholly carried into exile.

Jeremiah is instructed by the LORD to address the king and the queen mother – because she is his counselor – directly, which is something exceptional (verse 18). He must call upon them to humble themselves. This most likely refers to Jehoiachin and his mother Nehushta, who were taken to Babylon during the second deportation (2Kgs 24:8,12,15). This happened after the reign of Jehoiachin of only three months.

They no longer have governmental power, which is represented by the crown having come down, to which they themselves have attached such great significance. It is “your beautiful crown”. Now they are called upon to acknowledge with appropriate humility, that all their fame and honor are gone, and that what suits them now is to take a lowly seat.

There is also nothing left to rule over. The cities in the Negev, the southern country, are already in the hands of the conqueror, which is Nebuchadnezzar. There is no one left to open the city gate for them, because, except for Jerusalem, all of Judah has been carried into exile, without exception (verse 19). It says it in powerful words “carried into exile, wholly carried into exile”.

Jer 13:20-27 | Captivity and Shame of Judah

20 “Lift up your eyes and see
Those coming from the north.
Where is the flock that was given you,
Your beautiful sheep?
21 “What will you say when He appoints over you—
And you yourself had taught them—
Former companions to be head over you?
Will not pangs take hold of you
Like a woman in childbirth?
22 “If you say in your heart,
‘Why have these things happened to me?’
Because of the magnitude of your iniquity
Your skirts have been removed
And your heels have been exposed.
23 “Can the Ethiopian change his skin
Or the leopard his spots?
[Then] you also can do good
Who are accustomed to doing evil.
24 “Therefore I will scatter them like drifting straw
To the desert wind.
25 “This is your lot, the portion measured to you
From Me”, declares the LORD,
“Because you have forgotten Me
And trusted in falsehood.
26 “So I Myself have also stripped your skirts off over your face,
That your shame may be seen.
27 “As for your adulteries and your [lustful] neighings,
The lewdness of your prostitution
On the hills in the field,
I have seen your abominations.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
How long will you remain unclean?”

The people are called to lift up their eyes and see who is coming from the north (verse 20). These are the Babylonians. They have taken away “the flock”, their “beautiful sheep” who have populated Jerusalem. The capital city is responsible for everything that happens to its inhabitants. The inhabitants here, as in verse 17, are presented as a flock. It is their own fault that others rule over them, for they have taught those others to do so (verse 21). They have allied themselves with the world and now bear the disastrous consequences. As a result, they are in great distress, which is compared to the distress a woman has when she is in childbirth.

They ask themselves, not out loud, but in their hearts, why these things have happened to them (verse 22). Asking that question proves their blindness. What they wonder about unspoken, “in your heart”, is known to the LORD. He knows their heart and answers the question, although He also knows that it is not a question that comes from a repentant heart. He tells them that it is because of “the magnitude of your iniquity”. Therefore, it is their own fault that all this is happening to them.

Jerusalem has behaved like a harlot and will be treated that way. Stripping the skirts refers to the scandalous behavior of a harlot (cf. verse 26; Isa 47:2-3; Eze 16:37). It is a great shame for a woman if that happens to her. The meaning of exposing the heels seems to be related to this. When the skirts are removed, the heels are the first to become visible. It indicates that Jerusalem, deprived of her honor and shame, will be led into exile barefoot.

Then Jeremiah uses a double example from nature to point out their unchanging tendency to sin (verse 23; cf. Gen 6:5; Jer 17:9). He points to the dark skin of the Cushite and the spotted skin of the leopard. It is impossible for both the Cushite and the leopard to change their skin. Similarly, it is impossible for the inhabitants of Jerusalem to change their habit of sinning.

It is not about the depravity of the sinful nature, but about the hardening that results from living constantly in sin. Because of their continued life in sin, they have developed a habit of doing evil, with the result that they no longer know what doing good is. This example does highlight the importance of teaching children early on what the Lord requires of them and not teaching them to do evil.

The incorrigibly evil behavior of the people cannot but cause the LORD to scatter His people, like drifting straw blown away by the desert wind (verse 24). He will do that through the Babylonians. That is the lot the LORD gives His people, the portion He measures to them, because they have forgotten Him and trusted in falsehood (verse 25). The “lot” and the “portion” refer to what the LORD originally had for them in the promised land. Now, because of their turning away from Him, their lot and their portion that He has allotted for them in His land, are connected to the land of their captivity.

In what will happen to the people, their shame will be seen, their honor will be taken away from them (verse 26). They have become adulterous and behaved like untamed horses (verse 27). Unrestrained, they have indulged in “the lewdness” of their “prostitution”. They have turned their backs on the LORD to seek salvation with the idols of the nations around them. These idols they worshiped on the hills in the fields.

Jeremiah desperately wonders if Jerusalem should not be made clean. He introduces those words with the words “woe to you”. Their uncleanness brings disaster upon them. Yet the last words of this verse are words of hope. The question “how long will you remain?” signifies that this situation is coming to an end. Here we see a glimmer of hope for restoration.

Jeremiah 14

Jer 14:1-6 | The Drought

1 That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah in regard to the drought:
2 “Judah mourns
And her gates languish;
They sit on the ground in mourning,
And the cry of Jerusalem has ascended.
3 “Their nobles have sent their servants for water;
They have come to the cisterns and found no water.
They have returned with their vessels empty;
They have been put to shame and humiliated,
And they cover their heads.
4 “Because the ground is cracked,
For there has been no rain on the land;
The farmers have been put to shame,
They have covered their heads.
5 “For even the doe in the field has given birth only to abandon [her young],
Because there is no grass.
6 “The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights;
They pant for air like jackals,
Their eyes fail
For there is no vegetation.

Jeremiah 14-15 belong together. They are about a terrible drought. Here we see again the personal utterances of Jeremiah. The LORD has brought His people into a land of abundant blessing (Deu 8:7). They would enjoy that blessing if they were obedient. But they have become disobedient. That explains the desolate sight of the land because of a drought, about which the word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah (verse 1). The land is dependent on the rain from heaven. Whether the rain comes is again dependent on their faithfulness to the LORD (Deu 11:10-15; 28:23-24; 1Kgs 8:35-36; 1Kgs 17:1).

In short phrases, Jeremiah indicates in the following verses the effects of the drought on land and city, on rich and poor, on man and beast. All prosperity is gone. There is sorrow in Judah (verse 2). The gates, through which food is brought in and where there are often many people to trade, give the picture of languishing, of fading away. Life flows out of them. The gates are also the places where justice is administered. The people who sit there to do that, also don’t know anymore what to say. They see no hope of improving the situation, for they sit on the ground in mourning.

The cry of Jerusalem ascends. There will be prayers for rain. However, their pleas are not expressions of repentance for their sinful ways and not a plea to the LORD for forgiveness. There is only crying because of the drought and because of the thirst and famine as a result. The drought and lack of water reflect the dryness of their souls. They have forsaken the source of living water, the LORD (Jer 2:13), and therefore not only their bodies but also their souls are languishing.

Even “their nobles”, the distinguished and considerable people, have nothing to their standing when it comes to having water drawn from the cisterns, for there is no water (verse 3). They don’t have to go out there themselves. They have their servants for that. But their servants return without success, with empty jugs and despondent. They can command their subordinates, but they cannot command God to give water. They have themselves to blame for the lack of rain.

Because there is no rain, the drought has also cracked the ground (verse 4) and there will be no harvest. The farmers are also at their wits’ end. The animals in the field are also suffering from the drought. The doe, known for her care of her young, abandons it before it has grown up and can go its way on its own (verse 5; Job 39:1b-4). The wild donkeys, used to the harsh and dry wilderness life, can no longer breathe (verse 6; Job 39:5-8). They can no longer see anything either, because there is nothing to eat. Their powers fail them. The beasts share in the consequences of the unfaithfulness of God’s people (cf. Rom 8:22).

Jer 14:7-9 | The Confession of the People

7 “Although our iniquities testify against us,
O LORD, act for Your name’s sake!
Truly our apostasies have been many,
We have sinned against You.
8 “O Hope of Israel,
Its Savior in time of distress,
Why are You like a stranger in the land
Or like a traveler who has pitched his [tent] for the night?
9 “Why are You like a man dismayed,
Like a mighty man who cannot save?
Yet You are in our midst, O LORD,
And we are called by Your name;
Do not forsake us!”

The prophet confesses the sins of the people and makes himself one with them by speaking of “our iniquities” (verse 7). He does not speak his confession loudly in the presence of the people. He appeals to the Name of the LORD, while acknowledging that they have sinned against Him with a multitude of apostasies. His only hope and the only hope for the people is the LORD. He is the “Hope of Israel” (verse 8). Jeremiah speaks more often of the LORD as a hope or trust for His people (Jer 17:7,13; 50:7; cf. Psa 71:5; Acts 28:20; Col 1:27; 1Tim 1:1). He alone is their “Savior in time of distress”, as He has so often shown (Judges 3-16).

Jeremiah asks “why” the LORD behaves like a stranger or a traveler, like someone who is only visiting the land for a short time. He would like the LORD to come to them and also to stay with them (cf. Lk 24:29). The previous ‘why-question’ concerns the prosperity of the wicked (Jer 12:1). This new “why-question” concerns the LORD’s relationship to those who do sincerely confess their sins. Why does He keep Himself apart from them?

It is impressive to note that Jeremiah compares the LORD to “a man dismayed” (verse 9), while he himself is characterized by dismay. He makes an urgent appeal to Him not to stand aside as one who does not know how to deal with the situation, or to behave like a hero who falls short in strength to save. Here he resembles the disciples who, also in their dismay, reproach the Lord Jesus for not taking any notice of their distress (Mk 4:38). As Jeremiah does, the disciples cry out to the Lord Jesus, and both Jeremiah and the disciples do not do so in vain.

He pleads the presence of the LORD in their midst and the fact that they are called by His Name. He appeals to Him to do something for His people for the sake of His Name. Even though He should forsake them because of their sins, He cannot forsake them for the sake of His Name. With this he resorts to grace and unconditional promises.

For us, it is also true that we cannot live a moment without Him. Our prayer must therefore be that we will not deviate from Him. If we stay with Him, He stays with us. If we have forfeited all rights to His abiding with us, we can only resort to God’s grace and His unconditional promises in Christ.

Jer 14:10-12 | The LORD’s Response Is Judgment

10 Thus says the LORD to this people, “Even so they have loved to wander; they have not kept their feet in check. Therefore the LORD does not accept them; now He will remember their iniquity and call their sins to account.” 11 So the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. 12 When they fast, I am not going to listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather I am going to make an end of them by the sword, famine and pestilence.”

In His response to Jeremiah’s call, the LORD points out the wandering of the people (verse 10). It is a harsh answer. They have not kept their feet in check in their love for other gods, but have used them to run after their gods. That is the reason He is not pleased with them. And because they persist in this, He calls their sins to account and punishes them. Jeremiah is not allowed to pray for the people, because it makes no sense (verse 11).

For the third time Jeremiah is forbidden to pray for the people (Jer 7:16; 11:14). Because of their resolute disobedience, they are beyond help. Intercession is an important duty of a prophet, but Jeremiah is not allowed to intercede during that fatal time. He loves them too much to let them go on their own sinful ways and therefore they will have to feel God’s discipline. That is why He tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people.

In the New Testament, we read of sin leading to death, and that for this there should not be made request (1Jn 5:16b). When discipline is despised and the Spirit of grace is scorned, there comes a time when it is too late for supplication or intercession. As a final act of the holy government of God, the erring one is put away and the case is dealt with before the judgment seat of Christ (cf. 1Cor 11:30). So it is here with Israel. It is too late for them to exercise grace alone. They must now come to know the full government of God.

The LORD does not listen to the cries of His people, even though they are fasting (verse 12). Even their offerings He does not accept. All their fasting, praying and religious activities are worthless. Neither fasting nor offering can bring the people back into God’s favor, as long as they bow down to idols. The LORD looks for truth in the heart above all else. If that is lacking, outward signs of repentance are useless. Instead of accepting them, He is going to put an end to them by more severe judgments than drought, namely war (the sword), lack (famine) and disease (pestilence). The combination of these three judgments occurs several times in the book (Jer 14:12; 21:7,9; 24:10; 27:8,13; 29:17-18; 32:24,36; 34:17; 38:2; 42:17,22; 44:13).

Jer 14:13-16 | Judgment on the False Prophets

13 But, “Ah, Lord GOD!” I said, “Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’” 14 Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds. 15 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them—yet they keep saying, ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’—by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end! 16 The people also to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them—[neither] them, [nor] their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters—for I will pour out their [own] wickedness on them.

Jeremiah points out to the “Lord GOD” the opponents of the truth, which are the false prophets (verse 13). These are the ‘fair weather’ prophets. They preach pleasant things, things that lull the people to sleep and make them persist in their cherished sins. They dare to do this in the Name of the LORD. It is bad to preach lies, it is even worse to do so in the Name of the LORD.

They speak of peace that the LORD would give, yes, even of “lasting peace”, a peace that always remains and is not taken away. By speaking in this way, they encourage the people in their sinful behavior, as if they had no sinful behavior. The hallmark of a false prophet is that he completely leaves out the conscience and does not speak of repentance.

Such false prophets are also many today. They are those people, theologians and church officials, who proclaim, for example, that gay and lesbian relationships are relationships of ‘love’. They are exposed when we see that they are not preaching Christ, but on the contrary are condoning sin. They pass on their own thoughts and not God’s Word. Sin always brings judgment, but false prophets do not speak of sin and therefore do not speak of judgment.

People who live in sin and do not want to break with it, always follow people who give them room to do so and even encourage them in it. We see this in religion and also in politics. There the ‘enlightened’ thinking of mankind is the starting point. That thinking is darkness and quicksand.

The LORD answers Jeremiah that those prophets are lying prophets and He did not send them (verse 14). He knows exactly what they are like, He knows their intent. They are self-serving. What they prophesy is invented, it’s hollow talk, it doesn’t amount to anything. It is deceit that springs from their own depraved heart. The LORD will bring judgment on them by the sword and by famine, the very means they deny (verse 15). This is the irony of God.

The judgments that the false prophets have denied, will also come on the people (verse 16). The LORD will pour out their own evil on them. All of them will perish, they themselves, their wives and their sons and their daughters. They all perish. There is no one to bury them. The people may have been misled, but that does not make them any less guilty. How often have they been warned not to listen to false prophets. The blind people and the blind prophets both fall into the pit (Mt 15:14). The people themselves are responsible for having listened to those prophets and not turning away from them. Thus the foolishness of the false prophets will be revealed, as with Jannes and Jambres (2Tim 3:8-9). Denying or falsifying and twisting what God has said, has no bearing on what God has said.

In these verses we see a serious picture of professing Christianity in which we find ourselves. The servants of satan turn the ear of their hearers away from the truth and turn it to fables. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They pretend to be servants of Christ, but they overthrow faith in the truth and the authority of Scripture. They ridicule it and trample on the great and holy truths of the atonement and the eternal judgment that awaits everyone “who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified” (Heb 10:29). Those who listen to such preachers with approval will be judged with the judgment that comes on these false preachers.

Jer 14:17-18 | The Grief of Jeremiah

17 “You will say this word to them,
‘Let my eyes flow down with tears night and day,
And let them not cease;
For the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow,
With a sorely infected wound.
18 ‘If I go out to the country,
Behold, those slain with the sword!
Or if I enter the city,
Behold, diseases of famine!
For both prophet and priest
Have gone roving about in the land that they do not know.’”

The faith of the people in the words of false prophets again brings great sorrow to Jeremiah (verse 17). He is instructed to tell that sorrow to the people. The people who have been deceived by the false prophets must pay dearly for it. The enemy sent upon them by the LORD will break them with a great breach and cause wounds that hurt greatly. Jerusalem is again compared to a woman here. The city is called a virgin daughter to indicate that the city has not yet been inhabited by anyone other than its own people.

In his spirit Jeremiah sees the consequences of the coming of the Babylonians. Everywhere he looks, whether in the city or outside in the country, he sees death and disease (verse 18). The people who have spoken with such certainty of peace are walking around dazed. Their talk is over. They now have nothing more to say and no more advice to give. Who would believe them now anyway?

Jer 14:19-22 | Confession and Prayer for Help

19 Have You completely rejected Judah?
Or have You loathed Zion?
Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing?
[We] waited for peace, but nothing good [came];
And for a time of healing, but behold, terror!
20 We know our wickedness, O LORD,
The iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You.
21 Do not despise [us], for Your own name’s sake;
Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory;
Remember [and] do not annul Your covenant with us.
22 Are there any among the idols of the nations who give rain?
Or can the heavens grant showers?
Is it not You, O LORD our God?
Therefore we hope in You,
For You are the one who has done all these things.

Although Jeremiah was not allowed by the LORD to pray for this people (verse 11), at the sight of the misery of his people he cannot help but pray to Him for them (verse 19). In his distress, the LORD is his only refuge. He cries out to the LORD, asking if He has then rejected Judah altogether and if He then truly has loathed Zion. This is a third ‘why-question’. The first is: why does God leave the wicked in peace (Jer 12:1); the second is why does the LORD hold Himself as a stranger to the faithful (Jer 14:8). The third is the question of the discipline that comes upon the people, why it happens.

He cannot imagine that the LORD now loathed Zion, whom He loved so much and in whom He rejoiced so much. What is the reason that He has so smitten them that no healing is possible for them anymore (cf. 2Chr 36:16)? From the word “us” we see that Jeremiah takes the place of the repentant part of the people and identifies with them.

The people desperately look forward to peace, but it is nowhere in sight. There is nothing good from which they can derive any hope of improving the situation. Healing is nowhere to be found either. Instead, they see only more terror. Looking forward to peace is in vain because the people have forsaken the LORD. Therefore, there is terror instead of healing.

No one but Jeremiah knows better why God has so stricken His people and there is no healing. He then gives the answer himself: it is because of their wickedness and iniquity (verse 20). He confesses the iniquity of their fathers and that they themselves have also sinned against the LORD. At the same time, he simply cannot believe that the LORD has made a final end of His people, that He has rejected them forever.

Therefore he appeals to the Name of the LORD, to His glorious throne, and to His covenant with His people (verse 21). There is no change in the conduct of the people, but surely neither is there any change in the LORD? Surely He can bless His people from His own Name and His own government and His own obligations? Yes, He can, but it must be on a righteous basis. He has that basis in Christ and His work on the cross.

Jeremiah’s only hope is the LORD, Whom he compares to the nullities, the idols, of the heathen nations (verse 22). The idols can give no rain – there is still that terrible drought. Only the LORD, Who is the God of His people, can do that (Job 38:25-28). Therein lies the hope of Jeremiah and of the remnant, and therefore they, “we”, look forward to Him, to Him Who “has done all these things”, Who alone can give rain and blessing.

Jeremiah 15

Jer 15:1 | No Prayer for Judah

1 Then the LORD said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go!

Here comes the LORD’s answer to the previous ‘why-question’ (Jer 14:19). It is again a hard answer (verse 1). The prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much, but in this case intercession by the most influential men of God, men of prayer, will not avail for a people who have deviated so much from the LORD. Moses and Samuel both pleaded with God for the people (Exo 32:6,11-14; 1Sam 7:9; 12:23) and He answered their prayers (Psa 99:6-8). But with such a people as they are today, He cannot have anything to do.

The LORD tells Jeremiah that instead of praying for them that He accept them, He must send them away from His presence. Instead of bringing them in prayer before God, He doesn’t want to see them anymore, they have to go. When God does not want to see someone anymore, it is a terrible judgment. Such a person is given over to death.

Jer 15:2-9 | The Punishment Determined

2 And it shall be that when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD:
“Those [destined] for death, to death;
And those [destined] for the sword, to the sword;
And those [destined] for famine, to famine;
And those [destined] for captivity, to captivity.”‘
3 I will appoint over them four kinds [of doom]”, declares the LORD: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
5 “Indeed, who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
Or who will mourn for you,
Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?
6 “You who have forsaken Me”, declares the LORD,
“You keep going backward.
So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
I am tired of relenting!
7 “I will winnow them with a winnowing fork
At the gates of the land;
I will bereave [them] of children, I will destroy My people;
They did not repent of their ways.
8 “Their widows will be more numerous before Me
Than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man,
A destroyer at noonday;
I will suddenly bring down on her
Anguish and dismay.
9 “She who bore seven [sons] pines away;
Her breathing is labored.
Her sun has set while it was yet day;
She has been shamed and humiliated.
So I will give over their survivors to the sword
Before their enemies”, declares the LORD.

The LORD is preparing Jeremiah to receive the question from the people as to where they should go (verse 2). That question is closely related to verse 1 where the LORD has said that they cannot go to Him and that He does not want to see them again. The answer Jeremiah has to give is not that they can decide for themselves where they will go, but that they are on their way to their self-chosen destination: to death, by which is possibly meant pestilence, the sword, famine, and prison.

In verse 3 the LORD says what means He will use to punish them. The sword will cause death. The dead will not be given an honorable burial, but the corpses will be dragged away by the dogs, while they tear them up and are devoured by the birds of the sky and the wild beasts. It is the greatest conceivable humiliation for a Jew if his dead body is not buried and then becomes food for the beasts.

This will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth. The punishments come because of Manasseh, for what he has done in Jerusalem (verse 4; 2Kgs 21:1-16; 2Chr 33:1-11). Manasseh not only overturned all the reforms of his God-fearing father Hezekiah, but he deliberately introduced idolatry and demon worship to defy the LORD. That Manasseh is emphatically called “the son of Hezekiah” here is because of the contrast between such a God-fearing father and such a wicked son. Manasseh’s actions took place some time ago. However, if a sin has not been properly confessed and removed, the consequences remain. The LORD always points to the origin of sin and judgment.

In verse 5, three questions are asked of Jerusalem. The questions are about who will pity them, who will mourn for them, and who will ask about their welfare. The answer is included in the question. There will be no one who pities on them or mourns for them or asks about their welfare. The comfort that lies in the pity of others will not be there for Jerusalem. No one will bother to deviate from his path for a moment to ask how she is doing.

They have to blame themselves, for they have forsaken the LORD, the One Who has always had compassion on them and cared for them (verse 6). But they did not want His care and they went backwards. Therefore the hand of the LORD is stretched out to bring judgment down upon them. His patience has come to an end and He will now bring evil to them. He has delayed it so many times and for so long now, but now it must come. He is “tired of relenting”.

The LORD will judge, by a winnowing fork, the wicked of His people in the gates of the land where justice is done (verse 7). The winnowing fork is used to separate the chaff from the wheat. The chaff are the wicked. They are blown away by the winnowing fork of judgment (Mt 3:12). By doing so, He will rob His people of children and thereby make the continued existence of the wicked impossible. Once again the reason is given, namely, that they continue in their sinful ways and have not returned from it to Him.

There will also be a great number of widows, which means that many men will die (verse 8; cf. 2Chr 28:6). The LORD brings judgment on “the mother”, that is the people, (not “of”, but) “by a young man”, that is the young power Babylon, “the destroyer at noonday”. At the same time, the LORD says that He Himself will bring judgment on the people. What Babylon is doing is nothing more than carrying out His will. The sudden terror that overtakes the people when the enemy comes is caused by Him.

The childbearing woman who gave birth to seven represents Israel under the LORD’s perfect blessing (Deu 28:4a). Of that childbearing, nothing remains because of their disobedience (Deu 28:18a). The woman, the people, are languishing, withering away, and will breathe their last (verse 9). While the sun is still shining, the sun of God’s mercy, it becomes night for her because of her sins. What is left of people and goods will be taken away by the enemies.

Jer 15:10-11 | The Complaint of Jeremiah

10 Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me
[As] a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land!
I have not lent, nor have men lent money to me,
[Yet] everyone curses me.
11 The LORD said, “Surely I will set you free for [purposes of] good;
Surely I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you
In a time of disaster and a time of distress.

The announcement that nothing will escape judgment seizes Jeremiah again (verse 10). Here he turns to his mother and expresses woe over her having given birth to him (Jer 20:14; cf. Job 3:3-10). The woe does not concern his mother, but his birth and therefore the LORD. He has wished her a different kind of son than the son he is. She has not been able to take pleasure in him, for his whole life is an affliction.

His complaint does not concern what will come upon the land, but what will come upon himself. Because no one agrees with him and everyone opposes his preaching, he begins to doubt the meaning of his life and service. He sees that people hate him because of his judgments. Everywhere he goes and preaches, what he says becomes cause for division and strife. We too can sometimes feel like being the cause of strife and discord. What a comfort it is then, that when we stand well, the Lord stands up for us.

The cause is not his behavior with regard to greed, for there is nothing to be said about that. For example, he did not lend anything, nor did men lend money to him, which could be a cause of discord and lopsidedness (Pro 22:7; Neh 5:1-13).

In His answer to the complaint, the LORD reminds Jeremiah with a powerful “surely” that He has taken care of him for good (verse 11). He has stood up for him against his enemies, no matter how those enemies stirred. In every time of calamity and every time of distress, the LORD has been there for him. That Jeremiah would meet opposition, He already told him when He called him (Jer 1:19a). He also promised that He would be with him (Jer 1:19b). This is how the LORD encouraged him.

Jer 15:12-14 | The Inevitable Judgment

12 “Can anyone smash iron,
Iron from the north, or bronze?
13 “Your wealth and your treasures
I will give for booty without cost,
Even for all your sins
And within all your borders.
14 “Then I will cause your enemies to bring [it]
Into a land you do not know;
For a fire has been kindled in My anger,
It will burn upon you.”

Judgment comes from the north (verse 12). Just as iron and bronze cannot be broken with bare hands, so the people of Judah will not be able to break the power of the Babylonian army. All the wealth and all the treasures will be given to the enemy as booty, without them having to pay anything for it (verse 13). This is the consequence of their sins. The inhabitants will be taken away to an unknown land (verse 14). This fire of judgment that will burn against them has been kindled by the anger of the LORD.

Jer 15:15-18 | Jeremiah Doubts the LORD

15 You who know, O LORD,
Remember me, take notice of me,
And take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
Do not, in view of Your patience, take me away;
Know that for Your sake I endure reproach.
16 Your words were found and I ate them,
And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart;
For I have been called by Your name,
O LORD God of hosts.
17 I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers,
Nor did I exult.
Because of Your hand [upon me] I sat alone,
For You filled me with indignation.
18 Why has my pain been perpetual
And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive [stream]
With water that is unreliable?

Jeremiah again turns to the LORD (verse 15). It all becomes too much for him. He asks the LORD to remember him and take notice of him. He knows his innocence, doesn’t He? So why does he have to suffer like this? Jeremiah calls upon the LORD to take avenge him of his persecutors, the people who make his life so difficult. Let the LORD have patience with him, because for His sake he is suffering reproach. Jeremiah pours out his heart before the LORD. He is accustomed to His presence and speaks confidentially to Him about his distress.

The words of the LORD were food for him (verse 16). As soon as he had found them – meaning that his heart went out to them – and heard them, he ate them up, absorbed them intensely, unlike the people who rejected God’s words (Jer 8:9b). We can also think of the finding of God’s Word in the temple during the reign of Josiah (2Kgs 22:13; 23:2).

Eating the words of God symbolizes identifying with the revealed truth of the Word of God (Eze 3:1-3; 2:8-10; Rev 10:9). Jeremiah is a prophet to the fullest. His greatest joy is found in the Word of God. That is his food and drink (cf. Jn 4:34). When he hears God’s words, it makes him whole heartedly happy. He gladly listens to those words (Psa 19:10; 119:103,111), for they come from the mouth of Him Who has proclaimed His Name over him (Jer 14:9). He is the LORD God of hosts, the Almighty, also for Jeremiah.

As a great contrast to the great joy he finds in the Word, he says he has not been in the circle of the merrymakers (verse 17; Psa 1:1-3). He has not joined in the flat fun of people who mock God’s Word. He has sat alone, not to exult on his own, but because he has felt the hand of the LORD press heavily upon him and His indignation has filled him in his innermost being.

Nor did he, in the mind of the Pharisee, separate himself in pride. This is evident in the question that torments him why – the fourth ‘why-question’ (Jer 12:1; 14:9,19) – he must always suffer, why there is no healing (verse 18). Is his cry to Him in vain then? Is He not listening? Is He then after all a deceiver, that although He promises that He is there for him and helps him, He does not do what He says (cf. Job 6:15)?

This ‘why-question’ is actually not a question, but an indictment. Jeremiah accuses the LORD of being like a deceptive stream to him, a stream that promises refreshment but does not give it. These are the ‘why-questions’ of Job. Moses, Joshua and Habakkuk also expressed to the LORD their doubts about His ways, as did the Lord’s disciples (Num 11:11; Jos 7:7; Hab 1:2-3; Mk 4:38).

Jer 15:19-21 | Rebuke of God and Encouragement

19 Therefore, thus says the LORD,
“If you return, then I will restore you—
Before Me you will stand;
And if you extract the precious from the worthless,
You will become My spokesman.
They for their part may turn to you,
But as for you, you must not turn to them.
20 “Then I will make you to this people
A fortified wall of bronze;
And though they fight against you,
They will not prevail over you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you”, declares the LORD.
21 “So I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grasp of the violent.”

The LORD answers Jeremiah’s complaint that he must return to Him if he has lost his trust in Him to any degree. Jeremiah needs to repent. Here we see the conversion of someone who is already converted. If a believer deviates from the path of trusting in the Lord, he must repent of his error and return to the Lord.

The LORD’s response is again a correction to Jeremiah’s attitude. Jeremiah must return, for else the LORD cannot continue with him. If he returns, that is, longs to trust the LORD again, He will let Jeremiah to return to Himself. He says to him He will help him. Then he will stand before Him again.

In God’s presence, Jeremiah can extract the precious from the worthless and have the proper sense of right and wrong. By “the precious” are meant the words spoken by the LORD. By “the worthless” are meant the words he spoke reproachfully to the LORD as a weak man. When he knows again what is precious, he will be able to be the spokesman of the LORD.

The application is that we must always separate the good from the evil, the precious from the worthless. Satan will always try to mix that up. And how has he succeeded in professing Christianity. The believer, through the Spirit of God, can know what is precious, what is in accordance with God’s Word, and engage in that.

As for the people, they must join Jeremiah and also stand before the LORD. Jeremiah must not under any circumstances return to the people, that is, express and behave as they do and what he has just done in his reproach. We should not blame Jeremiah too much. He is a tormented man by all that he sees around him, while also perceiving the total unwillingness of the people to even listen to his message. The people are insensitive and just continue their evil practices. As a result, he has lost his way for a while and therefore he must return to the LORD and start speaking His words again.

Once with the LORD, in His presence and service, there must be no turning back to the unfaithful and no adapting to the wayward desires of a people disobedient to God’s Word. The faithful are to be called to separate themselves from that people and also to come into the presence of the LORD. We also see here that the faithful do not despise the unfaithful people, but feel in their hearts the pain of the position in which the unfaithful people find themselves.

The LORD repeats His promise that He made to Jeremiah at his calling (verse 20; Jer 1:18-19). He encourages him that He will make him an impregnable fortress. Every battle against him will be futile, for the LORD is with him, to deliver and save him. He rescues from the hand of evildoers and redeems from the grasp of the violent (verse 21). All of Jeremiah’s enemies are powerless against the LORD of hosts.

Jeremiah 16

Introduction

In the section that now demands our attention, we no longer hear the seer’s gentle supplication in favor of Judah. He has pleaded tirelessly when there seemed to be hope of averting the impending disaster. But there is no repentance on the part of the people.

The holiness of God demands that sin in those who are so closely associated with His Name should not be lightly passed over. This section is a serious indictment from His side, showing why His hand must be against them, however much His heart goes out to them even now.

Jer 16:1-9 | The Solitude of Jeremiah

1 The word of the LORD also came to me saying, 2 “You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bear them, and their fathers who beget them in this land: 4 “They will die of deadly diseases, they will not be lamented or buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth.” 5 For thus says the LORD, “Do not enter a house of mourning, or go to lament or to console them; for I have withdrawn My peace from this people”, declares the LORD, “[My] lovingkindness and compassion. 6 Both great men and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, they will not be lamented, nor will anyone gash himself or shave his head for them. 7 Men will not break [bread] in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s father or mother. 8 Moreover you shall not go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.” 9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I am going to eliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your time, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.

The word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah (verse 1). The LORD tells him not to marry, which also means that he will not have sons and daughters (verse 2). By “this place” is meant Jerusalem. Such a command or prohibition is extraordinary. Marriage – and directly related to it, having children – is part of God’s plan for life (Gen 1:28; 2:18; Deu 7:14). The command not to marry or the desire not to marry is exceptional. It is not comparable to Paul’s advice that it is better not to marry, for that advice he gives “in view of the present distress” in which the people of the world find themselves (1Cor 7:26; cf. Mt 19:12b).

The personal life of a prophet is in the service of the LORD (cf. Isa 8:18; Eze 24:15-27; Hos 1:2-3). A prophet preaches to the people not only through his words, but also through his personal circumstances. Normally a man marries. The fact that Jeremiah is not allowed to marry carries the message to the people of Jerusalem that judgment will come and therefore it is pointless for him to start a family. It indicates the end of the connection between the people and the LORD. That he will have no children points to the total desolation of the city as the result of the severing of the connection between the LORD and Jerusalem.

What the LORD says to Jeremiah is not a general call to all who are God-fearing not to marry. Nor is it advice to believers in countries where there is a chance that their children will be raised by the state, as was the case with Moses, for example. Nor is it an exhortation not to marry and not to have children in times of war in order to spare oneself or any children the difficulties that these things bring at such a time. Jeremiah’s personal circumstances serve as a sign to the people.

It is a mercy of the LORD that He spares Jeremiah the suffering that would come upon his descendants (cf. Lk 23:29). The sons and daughters who do give birth in Jerusalem will perish, along with the mothers who gave birth to them and the fathers who conceived them (verse 3). The married ones and their children will die of deadly diseases (verse 4).

They will not be mourned. There will be no burial ceremony where mourning can be expressed. For they shall not be buried, but shall be dung upon on the surface of the ground. Others will perish by the sword and still others by hunger. Their bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth. This is quite a dramatic ending to a marriage and the children born of it.

The prophet is also not allowed to attend funerals (verse 5). He may not unite with the mourning of the people because the LORD has taken away from them His “peace …, lovingkindness and compassion”. It is precisely these features of God that are so necessary for life in an end time, in which we too live. We may and should wish these features for one another (cf. 1Tim 1:2). If they are taken away, we are irretrievably lost. We see that here. God’s judgment rests on them and Jeremiah must accept that. If the LORD no longer shows compassion, he may not show it either. If he were to unite with their mourning, it would render his message powerless.

The whole land will become one great mourning center (verse 6). “Great men and small”, that is, the people of distinction and the people of low rank, will die, but not be buried. There will be no permissible lament over the dead. But neither will there be unlawful heathen expressions of grief. Gashing the body and making oneself bald are heathen practices and forbidden to God’s people (Lev 19:28; 21:5; Deu 14:1). However, these practices are found among God’s people (Jer 41:5; 47:5; Eze 7:18: Amos 8:10; Mic 1:16).

The usual mourning customs will not take place (verse 7). It is customary to take food to the family of the deceased, eat the meal with them and comfort them in their grief. In this case it will not happen because there is no one to comfort. Also, there is no one to give the cup of comfort because of the death of one’s father or mother.

Breaking bread and drinking from the cup to remember a dead person we see also at the institution of the Supper by the Lord Jesus. On that occasion the Lord gives this old custom a new, unique meaning and connects it with new truths (Mt 26:26-28; 1Cor 10:16). He connects this custom to the Passover, for then He instituted the Lord’s Supper. Of the Passover we know that it speaks of Him and of the work of redemption He has done (1Cor 5:7b).

Jeremiah is also no longer allowed to attend festive occasions such as weddings (verse 8). That he is no longer allowed to fulfill his social obligations, such as visiting those who mourn or those who celebrate, will have made him all the more an object of contempt. He will feel even more lonely than he already does. What it must have been like for Jeremiah, always being negative, always announcing judgment. He did have an especially hard service.

When asked about his ‘anti-social’ behavior, he must answer that “the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel”, will cause all joy to cease from Jerusalem (verse 9). Jeremiah will be an eyewitness to it, for the LORD will do it before his eyes. When Jerusalem is surrendered into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, there is no longer a voice of joy. All the voices of joy are summed up in “the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride”.

The joy that is present at a wedding is the highest joy that can be found on earth. That joy, which God Himself gave because He Himself instituted marriage, is now being taken away by Himself. Because of the judgment He is executing, there will be no more marriages, because of the lack of people.

Jer 16:10-13 | The Cause of Judgment

10 “Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘For what reason has the LORD declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the LORD our God?’ 11 Then you are to say to them, ‘[It is] because your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘and have followed other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law. 12 You too have done evil, [even] more than your forefathers; for behold, you are each one walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me. 13 So I will hurl you out of this land into the land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor.’

That the people are hardened is evident in their reaction, which the LORD knows in advance (verse 10). Amazed, as if they are not aware of any wrongdoing, they ask why the LORD is acting in this way with them. In doing so, in veiled terms, they blame Him for all the calamity that befalls them. What have they done wrong, what is their iniquity and sin with which they would have sinned against Him? Let Him tell them then. It is the haughty language of a people who imagine they are serving God, while they are fulfilling it in their own self-willed way (cf. Mal 1:6-7; 2:17; 3:7-8,13).

They are so hardened by sin that they do not appear to have any sense that God’s wrath is on them because of their sins and deviation from Him. Sin is no longer felt. God’s will is not asked for. In His incomprehensible patience with this apostate people, the LORD tells Jeremiah what to answer (verse 11). First He points out to the people what their fathers did, how they have forsaken Him and went after other gods and served and worshiped them. His law they have not observed. They have become disobedient.

But they, their children, have not done better (verse 12). On the contrary, they have done even more evil than their forefathers. They are not only going after idols, but are walking according to the stubbornness of their own hardened, evil heart. They show this clearly by not listening to Him. They have not only done the same sins, but committed them with greater eagerness, while having far more cautionary examples than their forefathers. Their stubbornness and rebellion is greater than that of their fathers.

“So”, for this reason, the LORD will hurl them out of this land, in which they now dwell, into another land which they have not known, nor have their fathers known (verse 13). The word “hurl” indicates both the power and the contempt with which the LORD performs this act. In that foreign land they will be completely at the mercy of other gods whom they will serve “day and night”, that is, incessantly.

What they have done voluntarily in their own land, they will have to do in the land of their exile compulsorily and ceaselessly by serving the idolaters as slaves. The first, the voluntary serving of idols, is their sin; the second, the forced serving of other gods, is their punishment. They suffer this punishment “for” the LORD withholds His favor from them. The favor that serves to support persons in need will not be granted to them. No favor will come from those whom they are to serve, nor will it come from the LORD. This will make their punishment even more severe.

Jer 16:14-15 | Restored to the Land

14 “Therefore behold, days are coming”, declares the LORD, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.

When we read these two verses, we can hardly believe that what is written here is true. After the most terrible announcements of judgment, in which the people in no way show any awareness of their condition, as if out of nowhere comes this announcement of salvation. What a comfort to the tormented and afflicted prophet!

The LORD briefly interrupts His announcement of judgment to make it clear that His judgments do not mean that Israel is no longer His covenant people (verse 14). He points to days to come, by which He means the end time, when He returns and establishes His realm of peace. Then they will no longer look back to their exodus from Egypt as the great evidence of His preservation and deliverance. For there will be a new exodus, and it will be from the north, Babylon, and all the other lands to which He has banished His people (verse 15). So here we suddenly have another word of encouragement, what the LORD will do in the future for the benefit of His people.

The LORD here promises that He will bring His people back to the promised land after His discipline over them has accomplished His intended purpose. The return from the Babylonian exile is only a partial fulfillment of this promise. It involves a return of His people from all over the world. What we see today in the return of many Jews to Israel is not yet a full fulfillment of this promise. Full fulfillment requires repentance and confession of sins and these are not yet present.

Jer 16:16-18 | Full Repay

16 “Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen”, declares the LORD, “and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks. 17 For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes. 18 I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.”

After assuring the return to the land in the previous two verses, the LORD goes on to describe His impending judgments. He compares the Babylonians to fishermen and hunters (verse 16). They will catch the Jews in their nets and carry them away (cf. Eze 12:13a). All who have escaped from the nets they will hunt from the places where they hid, for it is impossible to hide from the LORD (Amos 9:1-4).

No one will escape judgment, for the LORD sees them everywhere, and He also sees all their ways (verse 17). He is omniscient and omnipresent. Who they are, where they are and what they do, everything is an open book to Him. They cannot hide themselves, but neither can they hide or cover their sinful deeds from Him.

The LORD will punish them doubly for polluting what He expressly calls “My inheritance”, which is His land (verse 18; cf. Isa 40:2b). The double repayment, by which is also meant complete punishment, is for a double sin. They have polluted His property in a horrible way in a double sense. They have done so by filling His land, His property, with the dead bodies of their abominable idols – idols are dead things – and their abominations. The language used makes one feel the horror that the LORD has over their actions. He finds this abhorrent and totally reprehensible.

Jer 16:19-21 | The Nations Blessed

19 O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,
And my refuge in the day of distress,
To You the nations will come
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood,
Futility and things of no profit.”
20 Can man make gods for himself?
Yet they are not gods!
21 “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—
This time I will make them know
My power and My might;
And they shall know that My name is the LORD.”

In that situation, the LORD is very personally for Jeremiah “my strength and my fortress, and my refuge” (verse 19). Each of these three words points to the protection that the LORD is to him. He needs that protection because it is a “day of distress” for him and for every God-fearing person.

However, Jeremiah also looks beyond the time of distress in which he lives. He tells the LORD that the nations will come to Him from the ends of the earth. They will come with a confession about the futility of idols. That will happen when Christ rules and they come to Him, Who is the LORD.

Those who yield to idols receive falsehood as an inherited possession, a possession that is not a permanent one. Everything that idols give – that is, the demons behind the idols, for idols themselves are dead things – is deception and disappointment. The conclusion, then, is to ask whether a man would make himself gods, with the immediate answer that those are not gods (verse 20).

When the nations, as well as God’s people, acknowledge His hand and His power, they will know Who He is (verse 21). The outcome of the pressure of God’s hand and the exercise of His power is that they will acknowledge that He has dealt with them, He, Whose Name is LORD. It may be that by “them” whom He causes to acknowledge His hand and His power, the Jews are meant; it may also be that by them the nations are meant. In any case, it applies to both groups (Eze 36:23).

Jeremiah 17

Jer 17:1-4 | Israel’s Indelible Sin

1 The sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus;
With a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart
And on the horns of their altars,
2 As they remember their children,
So they [remember] their altars and their Asherim
By green trees on the high hills.
3 O mountain of Mine in the countryside,
I will give over your wealth and all your treasures for booty,
Your high places for sin throughout your borders.
4 And you will, even of yourself, let go of your inheritance
That I gave you;
And I will make you serve your enemies
In the land which you do not know;
For you have kindled a fire in My anger
Which will burn forever.

Jeremiah uses strong language to put before the people their iniquity (verse 1). “The sin of Judah” is in the singular. It is the sin of idolatry. All those idols and all the tributes to them are summed up in this singular designation. That “the sin of Judah” is engraved in their hearts means that they love sin and that it is completely integrated into their lives, is completely intertwined with it. Sin is more than a wrong action, it is the condition of the heart.

What is engraved is written indelibly (Job 19:24), in this case as an everlasting indictment, a monument of sin. It is engraved like the inscription on a tombstone. It was done with an iron stylus, with a diamond point. With a diamond point, the hardest stone can be worked. Their sin is engraved in their hearts, where the law should be written (Jer 31:33; cf. Heb 8:10; 2Cor 3:3; Pro 3:3; 7:3).

Their sin is also written on the horns of their altars. These are their idol altars. A horn speaks of strength and here means that they are powerful in committing sin. These altars have nothing to do with the altar of burnt offering in the temple, on which the blood of atonement is put (Lev 4:7,18). The LORD does not see the blood that speaks of the sacrifice of His beloved Son, but He sees the sin of guilty Israel engraved on their hearts and on the horns of their idol altars. God’s judgment of their sin is therefore as inevitable and inescapable as their sin is indelible.

The people of Judah think of their idols as often and with as much love as they do of their children (verse 2). Children and altars are the objects of their love and they link them together. They train their children to commit idolatry and bring them “by green trees on the high hills”, which are mentioned here as the usual places of idolatry (Eze 6:13).

Many Christian parents are intent on telling their children a lot about great names in the world, sports heroes or thinkers honored in the world, while teaching them nothing about great names in Scripture. They bask in the knowledge of those impressive names, like sitting in the shade of a leafy tree. They also revere those names by praising them, which is like taking a seat on a high hill.

“Mountain of Mine in the countryside” (verse 3) represents Zion or Jerusalem or the temple (Mic 3:12). It is a picture of Israel in the world as the people who have strayed from God. Therefore, He will abandon His people and carry them away into exile where they will serve their enemies. The idolaters think that Jerusalem or the temple is theirs, but the LORD never gives up His ownership. It is because it is His property and they have misused it, that He gives it for booty to the enemy, whom He sends against them. He will also give over for booty all their wealth and treasures, for which they worship their idols, as if they had received these things from them.

The people will be forced to let go of the land, which had been given to them as an inheritance, but which they have so defiled with their idolatry (verse 4). This speaks of the rest of the sabbath years that the people have not given the land, against the LORD’s command (Exo 23:10-11; Lev 25:4-5). This will happen when the LORD brings enemies upon them who will subdue them, remove them from their land, and whom they will have to serve.

The land they do not know is Babylon. That they will be there, they have themselves to blame. They have taunted the LORD to the extreme with their idolatry. Now His anger has been kindled in all its intensity, with no way to extinguish it. His anger has been kindled by them because they persist in sin. His anger will burn for all eternity, like the fire in hell. God’s anger against sin is always for eternity. His anger only comes to an end when sin is confessed and hands are laid in faith on the atoning work of Christ.

Jer 17:5-8 | The Way of Curse and Blessing

5 Thus says the LORD,
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6 “For he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt without inhabitant.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD
And whose trust is the LORD.
8 “For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit.

In these verses Jeremiah compares the way of the wicked with the way of the God-fearing. He contrasts curse and blessing – and thus death and life. Judah turned to false gods and sought protection from foreign powers (verse 5). Here it is about putting their trust in alliances with Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt (Isa 31:1-3), as the situation demands. Judah is “the man who trusts in mankind”, that is, the weak, perishable, mortal man (Isa 40:6). He is also one who “makes flesh his strength”, that is, seeks his strength from the creature and not from the Maker (cf. Psa 56:4). This happens because their heart has turned away from the LORD. Their heart is not set on Him.

If our heart is not set on the Lord, we too will fall into the trap of ‘human expectations’. This happens when we put our trust in people and not in the Lord when faced with problems. This can be, for example, with illness, financial worries, marriage problems, forms of addiction, unemployment. Jeremiah calls this trap a curse and a departure from the LORD. The bad feature of the trap of human expectations is that it shuts God out of our thinking.

Whoever sets his expectation on men and not on the Lord will be blind to the good that is coming (verse 6). Nothing goes out from him and there is nothing that brings him to fruition. His condition is barren and hopeless. Because the heart is deceitful (verse 9), man chooses to dwell like a barren bush in the driest places, believing that it is good to be there. But it is impossible to produce fruit and see goodness apart from the source of living water. The deceitful heart takes the mirage of the world for reality.

The man who trusts in the LORD (verse 7a), yes, what is more, whose trust is the LORD Himself (verse 7b), is in a totally different condition. He is at the Source and receives his strength to grow from Him (verse 8; Psa 1:3). He does not notice when evil comes, for it does not bother him. He continues to radiate freshness and bear fruit even if a period of drought comes, because the roots are still connected to the Source.

There is a remarkable similarity in the use of words in verse 6 and verse 8 that is at the same time a sharp contrast. The expressions “will not see” (verse 6) and “will not fear” (verse 8) are the same word. In the context in which these words are used, we see that those who forsake the LORD are insensitive to good, and those who trust in the LORD are insensitive to heat and drought because they extend their roots by a stream.

Jer 17:9-13 | The Deceitfulness of the Human Heart

9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?
10 “I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds.
11 “As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid,
[So] is he who makes a fortune, but unjustly;
In the midst of his days it will forsake him,
And in the end he will be a fool.”
12 A glorious throne on high from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O LORD, the hope of Israel,
All who forsake You will be put to shame.
Those who turn away on earth will be written down,
Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the LORD.

If the way of blessing and the way of curse are so clearly presented in the verses above, why does a man still choose the way of sin? The reason lies in his heart. The source of all the trouble a man brings upon himself is his heart (verse 9; Mt 15:19). Hence we are called to “watch” over our hearts “with all diligence, for from it [flow] the springs of life” (Pro 4:23). The heart means the total inner man, including his thinking. From the heart come the will and actions. The heart is also desperately sick. No one can fully fathom his own heart (cf. Psa 64:6).

The question of verse 9 is answered in verse 10. Man does not know his own heart, but the LORD knows and searches it perfectly (Heb 4:12-13; Psa 7:9b; 139:2-6; Jn 2:25). With that knowledge, He can also make a perfect judgment in accordance with the fruit of his deeds, which come from the deliberations of his heart. By the fruit of his deeds the tree, man, is known (Mt 12:33-35). To the believer this is an encouragement and to the unbeliever a threat.

The example of the partridge hatching eggs it did not lay shows that the young she wants to show off are not her own (verse 11). So it is with wealth that has not been honestly obtained. This hypocrisy comes from the deceitful heart. The time will come when this becomes clear and then he will lose everything and become known as a fool himself (cf. Lk 12:20; 1Sam 25:25; Pro 23:5).

In complete contrast of all the appearances and uncertainty of the previous verse, there is one certainty for the believer and that is the glorious throne of God on high (verse 12). Opposite the riches that are lost like that, there is the eternal throne of God. That is the place of the believer’s sanctuary. Therefore, we must seek the things that are above (Col 3:1).

There is the “hope of Israel” (verse 13). Those who turn away from Jeremiah, who speaks God’s Word and calls for repentance, have only the firmness of the earth and that is no firmness. Those who are written in the earth will soon be erased and forgotten, as wind and rain do to what is written in the dust of the earth. It clearly draws the impermanence of man. Only the LORD, the source of living water (Jer 2:13), gives safety and security. Those who forsake Him are lost. ‘Being written down on earth’ is contrasted with ‘being written in the book of life’ (Exo 32:32; Lk 10:20; Rev 20:12; 21:27).

Jer 17:14-18 | Jeremiah’s Plea for Justification

14 Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed;
Save me and I will be saved,
For You are my praise.
15 Look, they keep saying to me,
“Where is the word of the LORD?
Let it come now!”
16 But as for me, I have not hurried away from [being] a shepherd after You,
Nor have I longed for the woeful day;
You Yourself know that the utterance of my lips
Was in Your presence.
17 Do not be a terror to me;
You are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18 Let those who persecute me be put to shame, but as for me, let me not be put to shame;
Let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed.
Bring on them a day of disaster,
And crush them with twofold destruction!

Jeremiah knows where to find healing: with the LORD (verse 14). He also knows where salvation can be found: also with the LORD. It is about support and protection. He wants to be healed of his doubts and despondency and tendency to give up his service. He is wounded in his spirit by the constant opposition and rejection of his preaching. The salvation he asks for has to do with being rescued from the power of enemies and their plans to kill him and be preserved for God’s kingdom. From this prayer his trust in the LORD speaks, for he knows that only the LORD can do what he asks (cf. 2Tim 4:18).

He bases his prayer on the fact that the LORD is his praise. His sickness and misery seem to be caused by the mockery of the people, that God’s Word, which he has been preaching for 22 years now, is not coming true after all (verse 15; cf. Isa 5:19; Amos 6:3). That can start to gnaw, because scoffers don’t know when to stop. And it will continue for another 18 years. The false prophets have been right until now, and so have the mockers. Those scoffers have not been stopped from speaking although the word of Jeremiah has come true. Mockers do not know how to stop, nor are they persuaded by the clearest evidence of the truth of God’s Word. There will always be mockers. They are also there today (2Pet 3:3-4).

Jeremiah appeals to his sincerity, that surely he has not done otherwise than the LORD has said to him and that it was in accordance with His heart (verse 16). He has been the shepherd that the LORD has wanted him to be and has gone after Him for that. This means that a shepherd does not have to find the way himself, but is content to follow the great Shepherd of the sheep. We then see the beautiful picture of the great Shepherd with shepherds following behind Him and with the sheep behind them again.

Love for his people has always been his motive in preaching about the coming judgment. There has been no joy in announcing that day of doom. Everything he has spoken, he has spoken in the consciousness of God’s presence. What passed from his lips came from the presence of God and therefore agreed completely with what he heard from the LORD. We also see this with Paul (2Cor 2:17).

Anything may be a terror to Jeremiah and anyone may be against him, provided it is not the LORD (verse 17; cf. Job 6:4). It would be a terror to him if the LORD would forsake him or hide Himself from him. That would be intolerable. After all, the LORD is his refuge in a day of disaster.

He asks that what he does not wish for himself, will happen to his persecutors: shame and dismay (verse 18). His persecutors do not reckon with the LORD. He does. Therefore, he asks for God’s intervention, that He may judge them. This fits the time in which Jeremiah lives. The double severance Jeremiah asks for, means as much as asking that the LORD root out the enemies, and that this prospect already confuses them and renders them powerless.

Jer 17:19-27 | Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy

19 Thus the LORD said to me, “Go and stand in the public gate, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, as well as in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 and say to them, ‘Listen to the word of the LORD, kings of Judah, and all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in through these gates: 21 Thus says the LORD, “Take heed for yourselves, and do not carry any load on the sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 You shall not bring a load out of your houses on the sabbath day nor do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers. 23 Yet they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their necks in order not to listen or take correction. 24 “But it will come about, if you listen attentively to Me”, declares the LORD, “to bring no load in through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but to keep the sabbath day holy by doing no work on it, 25 then there will come in through the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. 26 They will come in from the cities of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the LORD. 27 But if you do not listen to Me to keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not be quenched.”‘“

The LORD listens to our complaints, but also wants that we continue to work for Him. For this He also gives the necessary strength. Jeremiah, in response to his complaints, is given a new assignment that centers on the sabbath commandment. He is to go to the public gate – through which kings enter and exit – and also to the other gates (verse 19). Jeremiah has prophesied under five kings and possibly every time another king comes in, he passes his message there.

It may seem at first glance that the verses of this section have a quite different subject from what has been before us in the previous verses. But it is not. Keeping the sabbath day holy, the fourth commandment of the ten commandments of the law, has a special significance. The keeping of the sabbath day means the weekly acknowledgment of the LORD as Creator and Redeemer and is thus a testimony against idols. It guarantees God’s people rest, which the idols cannot give. It is also one of the special features of Israel’s religion because it shows the special covenant relationship that exists between the LORD and them.

The attitude of the people toward the sabbath day reflects the attitude of the people toward the LORD. If for them keeping the sabbath day holy is a joy, it is evidence that their heart is faithful to the LORD. If they do what they please on that day, it makes clear their abandonment of the LORD. The sabbath day is the great touchstone that God presents to the people, by which they can show that they are obedient to His Word (Exo 20:8-11; 31:13; Eze 20:12).

The word Jeremiah is to preach is not only to the kings, but also to all the people (verse 20). He is to say to all: “Listen to the word of the LORD.” In this word the people are warned concerning their conduct on the sabbath day, for their life is at stake (verse 21). They are instructed that they shall not carry a load on the sabbath day to bring it into Jerusalem. Nor are they to take any load out of their homes. They must not even do any work (verse 22). The constant pressure of materialism on their life makes keeping this commandment a real test.

If one trades or works in spite of the prohibitions, it cannot be done other than for one’s own interest, for greed. It is to trade and make a profit (Neh 13:19; Amos 8:5). The LORD has already given the commandment to keep the sabbath day holy to their fathers (Deu 5:12-15). From the earliest days of their existence as a people, He wanted that day to be set apart from all other days, as a day to serve, not themselves, but Him. This is not about keeping the commandment outwardly, but about making visible an inner mind toward the LORD.

Sadly, it is clear how they are toward the LORD. In verse 23, the LORD shows how averse they have been:
1. “Yet they did not listen
2. or incline their ears,
3. but stiffened their necks
4. in order not to listen
5. or take correction.”

This observation does not stop there. The LORD, in His great mercy, adds the invitation to repent (verse 24). The people are given another opportunity to avert judgment, the curse, which will happen if they do not “listen attentively” to Him. The word “attentively” shows that the LORD is not waiting for lip-service, for fancy words alone. He is looking for truth in the innermost being, followed by action. In this case, the people can show that they are listening to Him and doing what He has said regarding the sabbath day.

The blessing that follows obedience to the sabbath commandment is broadly expressed (verse 25). The throne of David will not be empty. Someone from the lineage of David will always reign. And “this city [Jerusalem] will be inhabited forever”, meaning that it will not be depopulated. Instead of being depopulated, people will flock to the city from all sides (verse 26). All these people will offer their various sacrifices there in “the house of the LORD”. That is God’s purpose when He populates a city. That is also God’s purpose with the gathering of the local church. He wants sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, spiritual sacrifices, to be offered there, in the place where the Lord Jesus now dwells.

This promise of blessing upon obedience is followed by the dark flip side (verse 27). If they do not keep the sabbath day holy, but use it for themselves, the LORD will kindle the fire of judgment in the gates of Jerusalem. In the place where the transgression is most visible and where God’s Word has sounded strongly against it, the word of warning will be fulfilled. That fire will reduce their beautiful dwellings to ashes, without any chance of quenching the fire. This actually happened by the armies of Babylon (Jer 52:12-13).

Jeremiah 18

Introduction

Jeremiah 18-20 belong together. In these chapters we have pictorial teaching about a potter and his workpiece, a vessel. This imagery is used more often in Scripture (Isa 29:16; 64:8; Rom 9:21).

Jer 18:1-12 | The Message of the Potter

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter [does]?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy [it]; 8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. 9 Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant [it]; 10 if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. 11 So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.”‘ 12 But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

Jeremiah receives a command from the LORD through the word that comes to him (verse 1). He is sent to the potter’s house. That house is in the lowlands, for he is to go down there. It is not a potter’s house, but the potter’s house. It is a particular house known to Jeremiah. There are potters in the service of the king. They enjoy his protection. In the house where the king’s authority is and his protection is enjoyed, vessels are made (1Chr 4:22-23). Potters are held in high esteem in those days.

In the potter’s house, the LORD will let Jeremiah hear His words (verse 2). Jeremiah obeys and goes to the potter’s house. When he gets there, he describes what he sees (verse 3). Before he is told the words of the LORD, he first takes in what he sees. It is likely that Jeremiah does know how a potter works. Yet he must see the work done up close and fill his mind with it, so that from a renewed acquaintance with it he can deliver his message. Likewise, we must always be fresh in the application of everyday things as we bring the message of God’s Word.

He sees the potter busy making something on the wheel. These are two discs connected by a spindle. They are set in motion by setting the lower wheel in motion with the foot. On the upper wheel, which rotates simultaneously, a lump of clay is worked.

Jeremiah sees the potter at work. Then he describes what the potter does to a vessel that is spoiled (verse 4). The potter’s hand has worked the clay, but the result is not good in his eyes. He does not throw the clay away, but makes another vessel from the same piece of clay, which is good in his eyes.

The potter works according to a plan. He has in mind to make something that meets the goal he has set himself. If the pot does not meet it, he makes another vessel from the same lump of clay. That is his freedom as a potter. He can do with the clay whatever he wants. The point is not that the vessel is not beautiful, but that it does not meet the goal.

We can think of the wheel as the circumstances of our lives. With these, God, the great Potter, forms us. We are like the clay in His hand. We can have joy or sorrow, wealth or poverty, prosperity or loss. All are touches of His hand by which we are formed. Sorrow is the pressure of His hand so that He may accomplish His goal with us. Thus we are formed like earthen vessels (2Cor 4:7-8).

When Jeremiah has seen the potter busy and has noted what he does with the clay when the vessel is spoiled, the word of the LORD comes to him (verse 5). The LORD, through Jeremiah, addresses Israel directly. In what He says, His unquestionable right to and His irresistible power over peoples and kingdoms are evident (cf. Job 12:23; cf. Isa 40:15).

He points out that as the sovereign Former He can do to them what the potter did to the vessel (verse 6; Isa 64:8; Isa 29:16; 45:9; Rom 9:20-23). Israel is in His hand as the clay is in the hand of the potter (cf. Job 10:9). The main idea is that the potter has complete power over the clay. We also see here both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. We humans cannot combine the two, God can.

We err if we think that everything in God’s plan is immutably fixed. He can go back on a purpose if He is given cause to do so. For example, He tells the sinner that His anger is on him. But if the sinner repents, He turns His anger away from him. He is also a God Who answers prayers and thereby comes to a change of His original purpose.

However, we also err when we think that nothing is fixed with God and that He lets Himself be led by the current situation. He has control over everything and nothing is out of His hands. We must accept that God is Who He is: God; and we must remain aware of who we are: puny, little creatures who cannot call God to account (Rom 9:19-21).

The example of the potter does not mean that the LORD did not work skillfully. Israel is not a spoiled pot because the LORD is an incompetent potter. The clay has become unsound. The vessel has come forth from His hand well, but has rebelled against its Maker. We should not extend the picture and say that the people, like the clay, are passive. Through repentance a person can become a new vessel.

Therefore, the LORD must pronounce upon that people and that kingdom, which is Israel, that He will uproot it and pull it down and destroy it (verse 7). Israel has forsaken the LORD and no longer fulfills His purpose. However, there is a way back, there is a way to become a vessel again that fulfills His purpose and that is the way of turning from evil (verse 8; cf. 2Chr 7:14).

When the people turn from their evil, the LORD will relent concerning the calamity He planned to bring on them. Then the Maker will change His mind and build and plant that people and kingdom (verse 9). Then He will make a vessel out of that same piece of clay to His glory. Thus He spares Nineveh when the city repents, after He has announced judgment on her. But if the people do what is evil in His sight by not listening to His voice, then that good will not come (verse 10).

The potter’s house is a house of comfort for Jeremiah. There he sees in picture what the LORD will do to Israel. He is discouraged by what he has had to announce about Israel, but now he is told that the LORD can make another vessel out of the spoiled Israel that does fulfill His purpose.

In verse 11, the assignment for Jeremiah comes in connection with what he has seen and what the LORD has said about it in connection with Israel. He is to go to Judah and Jerusalem with a message from the LORD and tell them of the calamity the LORD is fashioning against them and the plan He is devising against them. The word “fashioning” in Hebrew is jasar. From that the word joser, which is potter, is derived. The imagery continues in these words.

On the announcement of the calamity, Jeremiah must let the call to repentance follow. The people must repent of their evil ways, not continue in them, but turn toward God. They must also prove their repentance by making good their ways and deeds, that is, start doing in their comings and goings what the LORD asks of them. God’s will over Jerusalem is a will for good, for salvation. He wants nothing more than for them to repent, so that He does not have to carry out His decree of disaster and misery. We hear here what the heart of God is after.

The reaction of the people is astonishing (verse 12). There is not just indifference, but a deliberate choice of evil (cf. Jer 2:25; 6:16). They point out to Jeremiah that he should not count on them to repent. Any hope of that they declare as futile. They have their own plans. The plans of God do not interest them. The people live for themselves and according to their own stubborn, wicked hearts. For a people with such an attitude, there is indeed no hope.

Jer 18:13-17 | The Fickleness of Judah

13 “Therefore thus says the LORD,
‘Ask now among the nations,
Who ever heard the like of this?
The virgin of Israel
Has done a most appalling thing.
14 ‘Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country?
Or is the cold flowing water [from] a foreign [land] ever snatched away?
15 ‘For My people have forgotten Me,
They burn incense to worthless gods
And they have stumbled from their ways,
From the ancient paths,
To walk in bypaths,
Not on a highway,
16 To make their land a desolation,
[An object of] perpetual hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And shake his head.
17 ‘Like an east wind I will scatter them
Before the enemy;
I will show them My back and not [My] face
In the day of their calamity.’”

The LORD expresses His amazement at how a people can react like that (verse 13). He wants them to ask among the nations if they have ever heard anything so horrible there as what Judah did. In any case, the nations are consistent in their idols and do not change idols constantly. It is therefore unheard of, even among the nations, what Israel has done. Israel is here called “the virgin of Israel”. That is how the LORD intended her, but she played the harlot with the idols and declared her love to them.

Even nature, under God’s command, is consistent in its behavior, in this case in providing refreshment (verse 14). Has the snow of Lebanon ever ceased to supply cold, flowing water? In other words, did His gracious provision for their refreshment fail, that they forgot Him and offered incense to a nullity?

Despite all God’s care for them, His people forgot Him (verse 15). This ‘forgetfulness’ is a guilty forsaking of the LORD. This sin is immediately followed by a second sin, that of idolatry. Their religion has degenerated into idolatry. They brought their incense offerings, the sacrifices that smell good, to those useless idols.

By this course of action they have stumbled from their ways. Their walk is not steadfast, even though they walk in ancient paths, which are the paths of the covenant of the law. Old religion is worthless if it is no more than tradition and the heart is outside of it. Then the old paths are no longer pleasing. Then the people go in bypaths, that God has not appointed, paths that are not according to His Word.

A “bypath” is a path that seems attractive but is unknown. It is a path fraught with dangers of stumbling and even perishing on it. It is the way of a self-willed religion, a religion adorned with all kinds of nice things. We must be on the highway of the Word.

By leaving the ancient paths of God’s law and going their own ways, the land has become a desolation (verse 16). There is also no blessing to be expected and no attraction for others. No one wants to live there. That is what they have made of God’s land. This is where God must bring His discipline.

He will send the enemy as an east wind (verse 17; cf. Jer 4:11-12; 13:24). The east wind whisks up the sand and scatters it. So will the enemy chase up and scatter His people. They will have to flee from Him. The LORD will show them His back. They have hardened their backs against Him, now He is turning His back on them, that is, His determination to punish them for their rebellious and apostate behavior. That will be the day of their ruin.

Jer 18:18 | The Conspiracy Against Jeremiah

18 Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the law is not going to be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the sage, nor the [divine] word to the prophet! Come on and let us strike at him with [our] tongue, and let us give no heed to any of his words.”

In this verse we hear the reaction of the people. They turn against the man who brings them God’s words to persuade them to return to the source of blessing. However, they do not want that. They want to get rid of him, the preacher of doom (cf. Jer 11:18-19). Instead of him, they desire a lot of others. With him, the last priest, sage or prophet really does not die. There are plenty of priests who teach the law and sages who counsel and prophets who speak the word. These are all priests, wise men and prophets they love to hear.

They will be so opposed to him that he will not speak. And if he does say something, they will pay no attention to it, no matter what he says. It may also be that this means that they want to use what Jeremiah says to set up an accusation against him in order to shut him up. In this he resembles the Lord Jesus, Whose enemies also sought to trap Him in a statement (Mt 26:59; Mk 12:13).

Thus, even today there is a call to silence the man who brings God’s Word. After all, there are plenty of classified theologians, men of repute, who know and who tell what people like to hear. People who call for repentance should shut up. People who say pleasant things are allowed to open their mouths.

Jer 18:19-23 | The Plea of Jeremiah

19 Do give heed to me, O LORD,
And listen to what my opponents are saying!
20 Should good be repaid with evil?
For they have dug a pit for me.
Remember how I stood before You
To speak good on their behalf,
So as to turn away Your wrath from them.
21 Therefore, give their children over to famine
And deliver them up to the power of the sword;
And let their wives become childless and widowed.
Let their men also be smitten to death,
Their young men struck down by the sword in battle.
22 May an outcry be heard from their houses,
When You suddenly bring raiders upon them;
For they have dug a pit to capture me
And hidden snares for my feet.
23 Yet You, O LORD, know
All their deadly designs against me;
Do not forgive their iniquity
Or blot out their sin from Your sight.
But may they be overthrown before You;
Deal with them in the time of Your anger!

The people of Judah call one another to disregard the words of Jeremiah (verse 18). Now Jeremiah asks the LORD to heed to him by listening to the voice of those who accuse him (verse 19). He presents his case to the LORD. Surely the LORD cannot repay the good he did with the evil the opponents plan against him, can He (verse 20)?

That his opponents seek his evil is evident from the fact that they have dug a pit for him, literally for his soul. That is, they want to destroy him spiritually so that he gives up his service. But surely he is in the service of the LORD, and surely his service is to speak good on their behalf and to seek good for them by turning away His wrath from them, isn’t it?

If the matter stands like this and they cast off good in his person, he must plead against the people. They do not deserve to grow as a people (verse 21). Children must perish from hunger or by the sword. The women must lose their most precious possession. They must also become widows, for their husbands must perish. Even the young men, the hope of the nation, must fall by the sword.

The safe dwelling places, the houses, must become places of fear and terror because of the sudden intrusion of a band of robbers (verse 22). That band of robbers must be sent by the LORD. It must come upon them all, because they are out to capture Jeremiah in a pit and snares, to deprive him of his freedom to preach (Psa 141:9-10).

Jeremiah knows that the LORD knows all the deliberations of his enemies to kill him (verse 23). He does not have to seek his own justice, but can place it in the hand of the LORD. He also presents Him with the requirement of justice because he knows His justice. It is not about seeking vengeance for what has been done to himself. It is about the dishonor done to the LORD.

What he asks for is consistent with the age in which he lives. If there is such stubborn resistance to the Word of God, there can be no reconciliation for iniquity, and sin cannot be blotted out from before God. Such people cannot stand before God’s face. Jeremiah asks the LORD to so deal with them “in the time of Your anger”, leaving to Him the time of the exercise of judgment.

If Jeremiah seems to us as too harsh in his judgment of evil, perhaps it is because we do not judge the evil that surrounds us today harshly enough. Thanks to the media, we see so much evil and sin today, without doing anything about it, that we tend to see it as a normal part of life. More and more often and in more and more areas, evil is called good. We get so used to it that we no longer have feelings of revulsion or have them only about the very worst forms of it. We may pray earnestly, however, that the Lord will keep us from getting used to evil.

Jeremiah 19

Introduction

In Jeremiah 18, the LORD shows Jeremiah that in sovereign grace it is possible to turn a vessel that is spoiled into a vessel that is usable (Jer 18:4). In Jeremiah 19, the malleable clay has hardened and cannot be reformed into another vessel or jar. Nothing is left but to break it. Jeremiah must say to the elders that their generation will be irreparably broken like a broken jar and its pieces will be taken to Babylon. That generation will not be restored to the land (Jer 19:10-13).

Jer 19:1-5 | The Earthenware Jar

1 Thus says the LORD, “Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and [take] some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests. 2 Then go out to the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold I am about to bring a calamity upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle. 4 Because they have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods, that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had [ever] known, and [because] they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent 5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it [ever] enter My mind;

The LORD answers Jeremiah’s prayer, with which the previous chapter ends, by giving him a new commission. Jeremiah is to leave the judgment to the LORD and continue his work despite all the personal distress and suffering. He must go and buy an earthenware jar. He must not do this alone, but he must take with him some elders of the people and elders of the priests, that is, the men with the most responsibility (verse 1). These elders are the direct cause of the misery in which God’s people find themselves. They are leading the people down a path of sin.

The LORD instructs Jeremiah to go to the valley of Ben-hinnom, specifying that this valley is by “the entrance of the potsherd gate” (verse 2). The valley of Ben-hinnom is the garbage dump of Jerusalem south of the city. There the garbage is burned and children are sacrificed to Molech (Jer 7:31-32; 32:35). It is against this background that Jeremiah must speak his words of warning. It is the vivid and also lurid illustration of the result if they do not listen to his words. Then the city will be made like this valley.

Today, we see children being given up to death, so to speak, as a result of the adulterous behavior of the parents. Father and mother who have grown tired of each other are encouraged to ‘enrich’ their lives by visiting dating sites that promote cheating. Such people lack any sense of responsibility for their children. Of course, they themselves vehemently deny this. It is truly astounding how much people can kill their still somewhat natural feelings and with them their children.

A further indication of what awaits Jerusalem if they continue their stubborn disobedience is the name “potsherd gate”. That name is an indication of what will happen to the jar. The jar will be smashed in shards, and be unusable and also irreparable (verse 11). It is no longer clay from which another jar can be made. In that place, reminiscent of Israel’s breakup, Jeremiah must speak the words the LORD speaks to him.

Jeremiah must begin with the urgent call: “Hear the word of the LORD” (verse 3). That word the leaders of the people want to withhold from the people, they oppose it. Despite that, the word must be addressed to the kings of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that is, to everyone, from high to low. They must all listen to the judgment that God is going to bring upon them. The LORD speaks as “the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel”, which further indicates that He is exalted above all powers and that He is their God. Therefore, let them listen carefully to Him and obey His words! What He has to say will make the ears tingle of everyone who hears it (cf. 1Sam 3:11; 2Kgs 21:12).

The reasons for the judgment are also given (verse 4). It is for multiple reasons. They have forsaken the LORD and filled the city with their idolatry and blood guilt, thereby alienating it from Him. Jerusalem, the city of God, has become a city where the LORD is like a stranger. He no longer knows His city! There is nothing left of His purposes with it. The LORD has been exchanged for Baal to whom they have built the high places to sacrifice their children to it (verse 5). It is something that was never commanded by Him, that was never spoken by Him, that never even entered His mind.

Jer 19:6-9 | The Inevitable Disaster

6 therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter. 7 I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give over their carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. 8 I will also make this city a desolation and an [object of] hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its disasters. 9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will distress them.”‘

Through the mouth of Jeremiah, the LORD is pointing out to the elders that He will change the names for the garbage dump of Jerusalem, “Topheth” and “Ben-hinnom”, and give “this place”, that is Jerusalem, the name “valley of Slaughter” (verse 6). This change of name has to do with the many who will be killed in Jerusalem. He says He will make void the counsel of His apostate people, for He knows those counsels (verse 7). He will make them void by giving them up to the sword of their enemies. Their carcasses He will expose to the greatest reproach by giving them to the beasts for food.

He will make an object of desolation and of hissing of the city (verse 8). Instead of being an attractive city, the city will become a dismay to everyone who passes by it. Instead of sacrificing their children to idols (verse 5), they will eat the flesh of their children and neighbors because of the tremendous distress caused by a siege (verse 9; Lev 26:27-29; Deu 28:53; 2Kgs 6:26-29; Lam 4:10). All feeling and sense of natural love are gone. This is due to idolatry.

Jer 19:10-13 | The Destruction of Judah

10 “Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you 11 and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Just so will I break this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury in Topheth because there is no [other] place for burial. 12 This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants,” declares the LORD, “so as to make this city like Topheth. 13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place Topheth, because of all the houses on whose rooftops they burned sacrifices to all the heavenly host and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”‘“

After the words of judgment Jeremiah has spoken before the ears of the elders who have gone with him, he must now break the jar before their eyes (verse 10). He must immediately communicate the meaning of this on behalf of “the LORD of hosts” (verse 11). The meaning is, that what Jeremiah did to the jar, the LORD will do to the people and the city. It is the same as what the Lord Jesus will do to the nations (Psa 2:9; Rev 2:27).

The breach will be irreparable (verse 12). This then concerns the wicked masses. We see something similar in the cursing by the Lord Jesus of the fig tree, on which there will be no more fruit forever (Mt 21:19). The fig tree is a picture of the wicked masses of the people. To their shame, the corpses will be buried in Topheth, the place where they brought their child sacrifices. The LORD confirms in the most serious way, that He will carry out His purpose in judgment regarding the place and its inhabitants by pointing out that He will make that place like Topheth.

All the houses of Jerusalem – a city is made up of houses – including those of the kings of Judah, become as unclean as Topheth because of the many corpses (verse 13). The city becomes one big Topheth, one big garbage dump. This is because they have turned their houses into idol altars. Indeed, on their roofs incense offerings were brought to heavenly bodies and drink offerings to other gods (Jer 32:29; Zep 1:4-5a). Their houses thus became high places for Baal, filling the city with abominations, an abomination to the LORD.

Jer 19:14-15 | The Message of Topheth Also in the Court

14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’s house and said to all the people: 15 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have declared against it, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words.’”

After Jeremiah has spoken the words of the LORD to the elders in Topheth, he goes into the court of the LORD’s house to address the people present there (verse 14). He speaks the same words of judgment there as he spoke in Topheth. He now speaks on behalf of “the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel” (verse 15; verse 11). The content of the judgment is what the LORD has spoken. The reason for the judgment is their obstinacy in not listening to His words (cf. Acts 7:51).

Jeremiah 20

Jer 20:1-6 | Opposition of Pashhur

1 When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, 2 Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of the LORD. 3 On the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “Pashhur is not the name the LORD has called you, but rather Magor-missabib. 4 For thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and while your eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I will give over all Judah to the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away as exiles to Babylon and will slay them with the sword. 5 I will also give over all the wealth of this city, all its produce and all its costly things; even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give over to the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away and bring them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; and you will enter Babylon, and there you will die and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have falsely prophesied.’”

Pashhur is the son of the priest Immer (verse 1). Immer is a descendant of Eleazar. He belongs to the sixteenth division of those appointed to do priestly service (1Chr 24:14). Pashhur is therefore a very privileged and at the same time a very responsible man. In addition, he is also chief officer in the house of the LORD. He is a kindred spirit of the chief officer of the temple about whom we read in the book of Acts, who is present to imprison Peter and John, as they also spoke words displeasing to the religious leaders (Acts 4:1-3).

Pashhur hears the words of Jeremiah. He does not like those words because they only cause unrest among the people and he cannot abide that. God’s words reveal his evil mind. The cause is that he is not willing to bow to the call to repentance. He considers himself important. He also resents the thought that Jerusalem and the temple will be given up to the enemy. He takes that as preaching against the city of the great King and against the house of the LORD, which, according to his view, will never be given up by the LORD. Jeremiah is accused of the same thing the Lord Jesus was accused of, as well as Stephen (Mt 26:59-61; Acts 6:13-14).

Instead of standing beside Jeremiah and supporting his words, he reveals himself as an adversary (verse 2; cf. Amos 7:10-17). He has “Jeremiah the prophet beaten”, which underscores the wickedness of Pashhur’s attitude. Pashhur proves to be an enemy of God because of the words spoken by the prophet. Those words are intolerable to him. He imprisons Jeremiah in a cell built near to the house of the LORD. This is Jeremiah’s first captivity. The blocks into which he is put is not only to shackle him, but also to torment him (cf. 2Chr 16:10a; Job 13:27; Jer 29:27). The Hebrew word for block, mahpeketh, means ‘to cause pain’.

It is the ancient truth that the prophets of God are persecuted, most violently by the leaders of God’s people. Jeremiah here is again a picture of the Lord Jesus, the perfect Prophet, Who is also beaten when He gives His testimony before the religious leaders (Mt 26:67-68a; Mic 5:1; cf. Acts 23:2).

The upper Benjamin Gate is possibly the courtroom; in the gate justice is done (Deu 16:18; 17:8). In this place of justice and so close to the house of the LORD, in His presence, before His face, great injustice takes place. This is also how it went with the Lord Jesus. Where there should be protection of the God-fearing prophet, great injustice is done to him.

The next day, Pashhur releases Jeremiah. Possibly he has thought that Jeremiah has learned his lesson and will stop preaching his morbid message. But then he is very much mistaken. Jeremiah addresses the word to him (verse 3). It is a word of judgment. The name he gives Pashhur, “Magor-missabib”, means ‘terror on every side’. Jeremiah explains the meaning of this name (verse 4). Pashhur will have terror everywhere, inwardly and outwardly. The man will be surrounded by terror. All who love him will be gripped by fear. All who love a man like Pashhur share in his fate. They are like him. Family members will be killed and others captured and taken away to Babylon and killed there.

Also all the wealth of Jerusalem and all her produce, all the costly things and treasures, of which Pashhur may possess a lot, will be given into the hand of the enemy (verse 5). The enemy will rob them and bring them to Babylon. Here Babylon is mentioned by name for the first time.

Then Jeremiah addresses Pashhur personally. Pashhur, along with all the inhabitants of his house, his family members, will also go into captivity to Babylon and die there (verse 6).All his friends will also share in that fate, against whom he prophesied lies and who believed them. How great is the responsibility of a preacher!

Jer 20:7-10 | Jeremiah’s Inescapable Calling

7 O LORD, You have deceived me and I was deceived;
You have overcome me and prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
Everyone mocks me.
8 For each time I speak, I cry aloud;
I proclaim violence and destruction,
Because for me the word of the LORD has resulted
In reproach and derision all day long.
9 But if I say, “I will not remember Him
Or speak anymore in His name,”
Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
And I am weary of holding [it] in,
And I cannot endure [it].
10 For I have heard the whispering of many,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce [him]; yes, let us denounce him!”
All my trusted friends,
Watching for my fall, say:
“Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him
And take our revenge on him.”

The courageous, fearless man before men, who has just testified vigorously before Pashhur, struggles and wrestles with God in His presence. He now pours out his complaint before the LORD. We see something similar with Elijah (1Kgs 18:21,30,36-40; 19:1-4). Jeremiah complains that he should never have begun his service, but that the LORD deceived, persuaded, indeed, forced him to it (verse 7; Jer 1:4-10,17-19). Every servant should be able to say that to some degree. Enthusiastically stepping into service for the Lord without fear and cost calculation, is not the start that proves the calling (cf. Mt 8:19-20).

Jeremiah complains how his service is being responded to. Everyone is laughing at him and mocking him. This is more than he can bear. His message is not pleasant either. He doesn’t like to bring it either. He even dislikes what he has to say. It is quite a struggle for the sensitive Jeremiah to shout out a message of violence and destruction (verse 8). That word of the LORD, which He has spoken in His law, he must bring, for the people transgress in a shameful way. But to that word, which is in him, the people respond with reproach and jeers. He receives their reproaches and derisions all day long.

Jeremiah has known times when he has wanted to bid the LORD farewell (verse 9) and throw in the towel. Yet this is impossible for him because the word burns like a fire in his heart (cf. 1Cor 9:16; Amos 3:8b). It is shut up in his bones, which means that it is felt very deeply and intensely by him (Job 30:17; 33:19). Even when he tries his best to hold back his words, he cannot.

The false prophets don’t know such inner struggle. They do not reckon with God, but only with their own feelings and the will of the people. They talk to them and leave their conscience out of it. Then they will not encounter any opposition to their message.

We may also be overcome by the feeling that we no longer want to continue our service, that we no longer want to think about the LORD. After all, there is no point to it all. But then, like Jeremiah, we will still have no choice but to continue because we are inwardly convinced of the truth. The heart is burning, even though we are disappointed with the results of our service. When we see the state of corruption and the judgment that threatens, we cannot help but speak God’s words.

The reason for Jeremiah to resign his ministry is the evil rumor he heard from many (verse 10). This is indicated by the word “for” at the beginning of this verse. He is aware that his fellow citizens, with whom he has lived in peace, are bent on his downfall (cf. Mk 3:2; Mt 22:15,23,35; Lk 14:1). The name he gave Pashhur, they now give him (Psa 31:13). They want to do to him, what he prophesied about Pashhur and want to surround him with terror from every side. They want to frighten him so that he will stop his preaching of doom.

Rumors buzz around him. He is being spied on. If only he says or does something wrong, if there is any stumble in word or deed, they seize him. He only has to slip up and he will be condemned as a traitor or blasphemer. He sees hatred in the eyes of his fellow citizens. They don’t seize him yet, but their constant talking about him as an undesirable person with an undesirable message does its job of eliminating him. It is unbearable when people around you are talking about you without ceasing. You can tell by the looks they throw at you and by the isolation you are placed in.

It is about you and directed against you. You feel how they all look in your direction, while you cannot defend yourself. This is called character assassination. Then it can become too much for you and you cry out that life makes no sense anymore, yes, that you even wish you had never been born. Jeremiah, after a burst of faith in verses 11-13, does just that in the verses that then follow.

Jer 20:11-13 | Jeremiah Clings to the LORD

11 But the LORD is with me like a dread champion;
Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will be utterly ashamed, because they have failed,
With an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.
12 Yet, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous,
Who see the mind and the heart;
Let me see Your vengeance on them;
For to You I have set forth my cause.
13 Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD!
For He has delivered the soul of the needy one
From the hand of evildoers.

Suddenly Jeremiah throws himself upon the LORD (verse 11). Suddenly he sees Him “like a dread champion” Who is with him. In the powerful language of faith, he measures the strength of his opponents not by his own strength but by that of the LORD. They will stumble and fail in their purpose, powerless, as they are against the dread Champion. They will also be put to shame, for their course of action is not wise because it is without the LORD, yes, even contrary to Him. Their fate is in everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten, they will always be aware of it.

Jeremiah knows the LORD as “the LORD of hosts”, as the One Who is above all earthly and heavenly powers (verse 12). He knows that the LORD knows him as a righteous man and sees his whole inner self. Therefore, he prays with boldness that the LORD will show him His vengeance on his opponents. After all, he has made his lawsuit known to Him and has not acted as his own judge.

That thought even brings out in him the call to a song of praise (verse 13). He sees in faith the salvation of his soul from the hand of the wicked as the result of his prayer. He allows others to share in the joy of this deliverance and calls them to sing to the LORD and praise Him.

Jer 20:14-18 | Jeremiah Curses His Day of Birth

14 Cursed be the day when I was born;
Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news
To my father, saying,
“A baby boy has been born to you!”
[And] made him very happy.
16 But let that man be like the cities
Which the LORD overthrew without relenting,
And let him hear an outcry in the morning
And a shout of alarm at noon;
17 Because he did not kill me before birth,
So that my mother would have been my grave,
And her womb ever pregnant.
18 Why did I ever come forth from the womb
To look on trouble and sorrow,
So that my days have been spent in shame?

In the verses before this (verses 11-13), the LORD stands before the eye of the prophet’s faith. In the verses that now follow, He no longer sees the LORD. He sees only the circumstances and himself. The result is that he sinks into a sudden depression. What he utters is reminiscent of what Job utters in the face of all the misery that has befallen him: “Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his [birth]” (Job 3:1). We get the impression that Jeremiah was familiar with the book of Job in which we see the ways of the LORD, that He goes with Job. When we compare Job 3 with these five verses of Jeremiah, we see how much the complaints of these dedicated men are similar.

After the flare-up of confidence in the preceding verses, Jeremiah is again assailed by a feeling of hopeless misery (verse 14). From the heights of faith confidence, Jeremiah falls into deep despair. This despair is so strong that he curses the day of his birth. The day his mother gave birth to him, he denies the blessing. He finds the blessing of the birth of a child misplaced as far as his own birth is concerned.

Even the bringer of the good news of his birth to his father is cursed by him (verse 15). The birth of a son is the best news a man can receive. It means continuation of the family name. But Jeremiah says that his birth is no cause for rejoicing. He would be given a service not of bringing good news, but of bad news. The man who announced the news of his birth must suffer the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah (verse 16; Gen 19:25). That man must be put in such great distress that he cries out all day with misery instead of being in a jubilant mood about his birth.

Actually, it is the LORD’s fault, because He allowed him to be born. After all, He could have killed him in the womb (verse 17). Then he would have it wonderfully peaceful now, because he would be dead in his mother’s womb. His mother would be his grave and there he would always have been. Things turned out differently. He came out of the womb (verse 18). But why? Is it really to see only trouble and sorrow and to end his days in shame? What a life and what a fate!

It is the last ‘why-question’. There is no answer given to this question. The LORD gives His servant time to think about it for himself and come to an answer. What we can say is that God holds the believer even though he feels alone and abandoned.

Jeremiah 21

Introduction

Here begins a new part of the book. We are here in the reign of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. After Jeremiah 1, this is the first time Zedekiah is mentioned here again (Jer 1:1; 21:1). In the following chapters we hear of him frequently. He is a wicked man, but also one who still wants a message from the LORD. It is the time when the king of Babylon has already laid siege to the city.

Jer 21:1-7 | The Envoy of Zedekiah

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, 2 “Please inquire of the LORD on our behalf, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is warring against us; perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all His wonderful acts, so that [the enemy] will withdraw from us.” 3 Then Jeremiah said to them, “You shall say to Zedekiah as follows: 4 ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to turn back the weapons of war which are in your hands, with which you are warring against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the wall; and I will gather them into the center of this city. 5 I Myself will war against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, even in anger and wrath and great indignation. 6 I will also strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great pestilence. 7 Then afterwards,” declares the LORD, “I will give over Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people, even those who survive in this city from the pestilence, the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their foes and into the hand of those who seek their lives; and he will strike them down with the edge of the sword. He will not spare them nor have pity nor compassion.”‘

Jeremiah is visited by two priests, Pashhur and Zephaniah (verse 1). Zedekiah has sent them to him. Possibly this is an encouragement to Jeremiah, who is so depressed, that at least Zedekiah considers that he is a true prophet of the LORD. Zedekiah wants Jeremiah to inquire of the LORD for him, that is, pray for him (verse 2). He has been cornered by Nebuchadnezzar and now wants outcome from the LORD. The name of Nebuchadnezzar is mentioned here for the first time.

Zedekiah wants the LORD to do a wonder for him, or deliver him in a wonderous way. He knows that the LORD has done many wonderful acts in the past, such as with his ancestor Hezekiah who also had to deal with a siege. Hezekiah then also sent an envoy to a prophet and was then delivered by the LORD from his enemies (2Chr 32:20-21; Isa 37:1-4,36-37). Would He “perhaps” want to do it now as well and, for their benefit, cause Nebuchadnezzar to go away?

Here we have a prayer from a wicked person that is an abomination to God and to which He does not listen (Pro 28:9). It is the kind of prayer that Pharaoh desires from Moses when he asks him to pray to be delivered from the plagues with which the LORD is striking his land (Exo 10:17). The knowledge of God’s wonders that Zedekiah possesses is an intellectual knowledge and is not accompanied by faith in the God of wonders.

Jeremiah sends the two men back to Zedekiah with three answers, one for Zedekiah, one for the people, and one for the house of David. He tells the two men what to say (verse 3). The answer through Jeremiah’s mouth comes from “the LORD God of Israel” (verse 4). It is not the answer they have been hoping for, but a repetition of what Zedekiah already knows.

In this answer we often hear the LORD say “I will”. He will make the weapons they use against the enemy into weapons that turn against themselves. He will render them powerless against the enemy who is now outside the wall of the city, and He will bring the enemy into the center of the city. They will experience that He Himself will fight against them (verse 5). Nebuchadnezzar is not the real enemy, but the LORD! It must be a huge shock to Zedekiah to hear that.

The LORD fights against him in anger and wrath and great indignation because of his apostasy and that of the people. The “outstretched hand” and the “mighty arm” that once redeemed the people (Deu 4:34; 5:15; 26:8), now give the people over to misery, subjection and exile. The LORD in His anger has utterly turned against His people. Instead of a wonder of deliverance, the wrath of God will be poured out. This message is in stark contrast to what the false prophets have always said, who have always presented God as the Helper of Israel. Now He turns out to be their Adversary.

The inhabitants of the city will not only die by the sword of the enemy, but also by a pestilence that He will send (verse 6). Man and beast will be affected by it. Those who are still alive after the previous disasters, including Zedekiah and his servants, should not think that they have escaped God’s judgment (verse 7). The hand of Nebuchadnezzar is the hand of the enemy and is the hand of those who are after them. He will not spare them, but kill them by the sword without mercy. They need not expect pity nor compassion.

Jer 21:8-10 | The Choice

8 “You shall also say to this people, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 He who dwells in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence; but he who goes out and falls away to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live, and he will have his own life as booty. 10 For I have set My face against this city for harm and not for good,” declares the LORD. “It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire.”‘

Jeremiah also gives a message from the LORD for the people (verse 8). Among them there are those who still want to be faithful, while the king is not. It is a message of hope. That message is the gospel, as it were, and connected to a choice. That choice is the way to life or the way to death (verse 9; Deu 11:26-28; 30:15-20).

First, the way to death is presented. For this they do not have to do anything. The word “who” indicates that it is a personal choice and that the whole city is not expected to bow to God’s judgment. Each is personally responsible for the choice he makes. Those who remain in the city will die.

Whoever chooses the way of life must do something. He must leave the place, on which God’s anger rests and about which God’s anger will soon erupt, and go out and fall away to the enemy. Whoever does so will live and have his life as booty. To defect to the enemy means to bow to God’s judgment and that is always the way to life.

Judgment comes irrevocably (verse 10). The city is before the LORD’s face not for good, but for harm. It will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, who will burn it with fire. It is clear. The choice can be made.

Jer 21:11-14 | Exhortation to the House of David

11 “Then [say] to the household of the king of Judah, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, 12 O house of David, thus says the LORD:
“Administer justice every morning;
And deliver the [person] who has been robbed from the power of [his] oppressor,
That My wrath may not go forth like fire
And burn with none to extinguish [it],
Because of the evil of their deeds.
13 “Behold, I am against you, O valley dweller,
O rocky plain,” declares the LORD,
“You men who say, ‘Who will come down against us?
Or who will enter into our habitations?’
14 “But I will punish you according to the results of your deeds,” declares the LORD,
“And I will kindle a fire in its forest
That it may devour all its environs.”‘“

Then there is another word from the LORD “to the household of the king of Judah” (verse 11). It is called upon to listen to the LORD. To that house, which is then addressed as the “house of David”, it is told to administer justice in the morning (verse 12; cf. Psa 101:8; 2Sam 15:2). The call comes to a dilapidated house, a house where corruption and injustice reign supreme.

Whoever has been robbed, that is the widow, orphan and stranger, must be given justice. They are without support, without property and without freedom. Such socially vulnerable people easily fall into the hand of a ruthless man. Therefore, the house of David must administer justice. Failure to administer justice is a thing that causes the LORD’s wrath to go forth like fire. If justice is not administered, the wrath of the LORD will burn unquenchably over those evil deeds.

In their pride, those who dwell in the valley think that no one sees them and that no one will come to them to deal with them (verse 13). The rock in which they dwell, they believe, is untraceable and also impregnable. But they are not reckoning with the LORD. He will come to judge them and will deal with them in a perfectly righteous manner (verse 14). They will be punished according to the fruit of their deeds. Everything they have surrounded themselves with, as with a forest, will be devoured by the fire of His judgment.

Jeremiah 22

Introduction

In Jeremiah 22-23, Jeremiah gives a number of prophecies that are linked together by their content. Jeremiah 22 is about the political leaders of the people; Jeremiah 23 is about the Messiah in contrast to the false spiritual leaders. Both the political leaders, the kings, and the spiritual leaders, the prophets, with the exception of Jeremiah and a few others, are responsible for the national disaster.

Jer 22:1-9 | Admonition to Righteousness

1 Thus says the LORD, “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there speak this word 2 and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates. 3 Thus says the LORD, “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of [his] oppressor. Also do not mistreat [or] do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you men will indeed perform this thing, then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting in David’s place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, [even the king] himself and his servants and his people. 5 But if you will not obey these words, I swear by Myself,” declares the LORD, “that this house will become a desolation.”‘“ 6 For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah:
“You are [like] Gilead to Me,
[Like] the summit of Lebanon;
Yet most assuredly I will make you like a wilderness,
[Like] cities which are not inhabited.
7 “For I will set apart destroyers against you,
Each with his weapons;
And they will cut down your choicest cedars
And throw [them] on the fire.
8 “Many nations will pass by this city; and they will say to one another, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this great city?’ 9 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.’”

Jeremiah is commissioned to go down to the king’s house. It is a remarkable assignment in two ways. It means that the king’s house is in a dilapidated state, in the lowlands. It also means that Jeremiah is to go fearlessly into the lion’s den. This is reminiscent of Elijah’s attitude toward Ahab and John the baptist’s toward Herod (1Kgs 17:1; Mk 6:18). He must go without being summoned by the king, because the LORD says so.

He is to address the word to Zedekiah and address him in the full responsibility of his position as “king of Judah” and as the one “who sits on David’s throne” (verse 2). All who serve him and support him in that position and his people over whom he rules also need to hear the word of the LORD. In short, powerful words, Zedekiah and his people are told what the LORD expects of them (verse 3). It is to do justice and be merciful to the socially weak and to refrain from violence and bloodshed.

If the king will go before the people in repentance to God, as he has gone before the people in rebellion against Him, they will be exalted and the kingship will be permanent (verse 4). After all, “righteousness exalts a nation” (Pro 14:34a). If they do not listen to these words of the LORD, the kingship will become a desolation (verse 5). To underscore and reinforce the certainty of His words so that they will be impressed by them, the LORD swears by Himself (cf. Jer 49:13; 51:14; Gen 22:16; Isa 45:23; Amos 6:8; Heb 6:13-18). There could not be a stronger endorsement of a declaration from God.

The LORD tells what the royal house means to Him (verse 6). It is to Him like “Gilead”, recalling the covenant between Jacob and Laban (Gen 31:44-48). It is a place of testimony. That is what the royal house is to Him. It should be His witness. We too ought to be that today. The royal house is also like “the summit of Lebanon” to Him, magnificent and great, impressive.

However, the LORD must say what He is going to make of them because of their unfaithfulness. He will make them a wilderness and their cities uninhabitable. For this purpose He will set destroyers against them (verse 7). They will cut down and burn with their own methods everything that His people find beautiful and that gives the land prestige, so that only ashes remain. Their palaces and houses, which they have built with beautiful cedars, will be cut down and burned.

The sight will cause consternation among the nations as they pass by it, instead of the former admiration (verse 8). They will attribute the destruction of the city to the LORD. They will ask why He acted this way with the great city of Jerusalem, the city of great importance, where great kings have reigned. The answer sounds that it is because of the unfaithfulness of the people (verse 9; Deu 29:25-28; 1Kgs 9:8-9). That unfaithfulness is twofold. They have, on the one hand, forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and, on the other hand, bowed down to other gods whom they have come to serve.

Jer 22:10-12 | The Fate of Shallum (Jehoahaz)

10 Do not weep for the dead or mourn for him,
[But] weep continually for the one who goes away;
For he will never return
Or see his native land.
11 For thus says the LORD in regard to Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in the place of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place, “He will never return there; 12 but in the place where they led him captive, there he will die and not see this land again.

In the following verses Jeremiah pronounces judgment on every son or grandson of Josiah who has reigned. Shallum (or Jehoahaz) is the first son on whom he pronounces judgment (verses 10-12); he has reigned only a few months. This is followed by the judgment on Eliakim (or Jehoiakim) (verses 13-19), who was made king by Pharaoh and reigned for ten years. After Jehoiakim, his son Coniah (or Jehoiachin), a grandson of Josiah, becomes king; he is taken away to Babylon after only a few months. Finally, judgment follows on Josiah’s third son, Mattaniah or Zedekiah, the last king of Judah.

Jeremiah says to the people as a whole, that they need not weep over a dead person or lament him (verse 10). Here we can think of the death of the God-fearing king Josiah, who was killed at Carchemish in 609 BC (2Kgs 23:29-30; 2Chr 35:25; Zec 12:11). In any case, he is buried in the land, awaiting the coming of the Messiah.

They had better lament over him who “went forth from his place”, which is Shallum. Shallum was taken away to Egypt by Pharaoh Necho 18 years earlier, from where he will not return to see his homeland (2Kgs 23:31-34). Shallum is the fourth son of Josiah (1Chr 3:15). The people elected him king (2Kgs 23:30b; 2Chr 36:1). He is a full brother of Zedekiah. Their mother is Hamutal.

The LORD puts great emphasis on the origin and position of Shallum (verse 11). He is the son of the God-fearing Josiah, but has no part in his God-fearing. He is also “the king of Judah”, which gives him great responsibility to rule over God’s people according to God’s laws. However, he does not heed God, but does “evil in the sight of the LORD” (2Kgs 23:32). This makes his unfaithfulness to Him so great, even though he only reigned for three months, and this makes the judgment of the LORD so just. Shallum has departed from this place, fallen away from His privileges. He will not return to it, for the judgment on him is final.

Once again, the LORD emphasizes the finality of the judgment (verse 12). Shallum will die in the land of his exile and not see God’s land again. Possibly some may have hoped that this son of the God-fearing Josiah would return to deliver them, but such a hope is without foundation.

Jer 22:13-23 | The Condemnation of Jehoiakim

13 “Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness
And his upper rooms without justice,
Who uses his neighbor’s services without pay
And does not give him his wages,
14 Who says, ‘I will build myself a roomy house
With spacious upper rooms,
And cut out its windows,
Paneling [it] with cedar and painting [it] bright red.’
15 “Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
And do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.
16 “He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy;
Then it was well.
Is not that what it means to know Me?”
Declares the LORD.
17 “But your eyes and your heart
Are [intent] only upon your own dishonest gain,
And on shedding innocent blood
And on practicing oppression and extortion.”
18 Therefore thus says the LORD in regard to Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah,
“They will not lament for him:
‘Alas, my brother!’ or, ‘Alas, sister!’
They will not lament for him:
‘Alas for the master!’ or, ‘Alas for his splendor!’
19 “He will be buried with a donkey’s burial,
Dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 “Go up to Lebanon and cry out,
And lift up your voice in Bashan;
Cry out also from Abarim,
For all your lovers have been crushed.
21 “I spoke to you in your prosperity;
But you said, ‘I will not listen!’
This has been your practice from your youth,
That you have not obeyed My voice.
22 “The wind will sweep away all your shepherds,
And your lovers will go into captivity;
Then you will surely be ashamed and humiliated
Because of all your wickedness.
23 “You who dwell in Lebanon,
Nested in the cedars,
How you will groan when pangs come upon you,
Pain like a woman in childbirth!

Jeremiah pronounces woe on someone because of the unbridled lust for luxury that this person shows and that in a time of the greatest disaster (verse 13). Further on we read that it is Jehoiakim (verse 18). The people are impoverished (2Kgs 23:35) and few in number. Yet this king wants to live in opulence. To do so, he commits injustice and demands from his subjects what he needs for his self-indulgent life.

His subjects are here tellingly called “his neighbor”. To God, king and subject are equal. Both are subject to His will and law. But Jehoiakim thinks otherwise. He makes his subjects work for him without paying them the wages they deserve. By such a course of action, he brings the judgment of the LORD upon himself (Deu 24:14-15; Lev 19:13; Jam 5:1-6).

In his delusions of grandeur, he says he will build a house for himself of great dimensions and with spacious upper rooms (verse 14). Everything must serve him and give him prestige. The material must be indestructible and the colors must attract attention. Jeremiah ironically points out to him how he exercises his kingship (verse 15). Surely he wants to be king in handling cedar and show that he is the best at it?

Then he points him to his God-fearing father Josiah, but without mentioning his name. He did not lack food or drink, because he did “justice and righteousness”. This is what God expects of the king who rules over His people. Like a shepherd, such a person must pasture the flock and not exploit it for the satisfaction of his own lusts. And look how it went with Josiah: “Then it was well with him.” Jehoiakim would do well to follow that example.

Josiah cared for the socially weak and stood up for their rights (verse 16). His course of action brought blessing not only to himself but also to the whole people. Therefore it sounds again, but now in a general sense, with reference to the whole people: “Then it was well!” The LORD’s appreciation follows immediately when He questions that whoever acts as Josiah did shows that he knows Him. This is not a mere lip confession, but an act according to His will.

It takes more than ordinary courage for a simple priest like Jeremiah to look a haughty king like Jehoiakim sternly in the eyes and declare: “But your eyes and your heart are [intent] only upon your own dishonest gain” (verse 17). The man who is in a position of power pursues only gain with his eyes and his heart. His eyes follow his heart.

To possess what he covets, he does not shy away from using violence. Jeremiah also confronts him with his murdering, oppressing and exploitation. This king will stop at nothing to satisfy his unbridled lust for pleasure. To him, to rule means to dominate and exploit. He rules like a tyrant.

Without waiting for anything of a response from the king, the LORD informs Jehoiakim of his end (verse 18). Like Shallum (verse 11), he is again (verse 15) emphatically linked to his God-fearing father and his privileged and also responsible position of king of Judah. This makes the evil that he does so great and the judgment so righteous. Not only does God’s judgment strike him, but the judgment of his people on him is harsh as well. No one will shed a tear for him.

His death will be a relief, for his government is a reign of terror. No one will lament for him. Two categories are mentioned of whom it is said that they will not lament for him. The first category is his family. No one from his family will lament for him: “Alas, my brother!” Nor will there be any pity for his wife. None of the relatives will groaningly say to her, out of pity that her husband is dead: “Alas, sister!” His subjects are the second category. None of them will say: “’Alas for the master!’ or, ‘Alas for his splendor!’”

Not a single tear of sorrow flows, either among his family or his subjects. At the death of Zedekiah, who is after all also a wicked king, at least people will still cry “Oh, [my] lord!” (Jer 34:5), but for this man there is no respect.

Not only will he not receive an honorable burial, but “he will be buried with a donkey’s burial”, that is, he will have no burial at all (verse 19). This is a huge disgrace. When a donkey dies in the city, the animal is dragged away and thrown outside the gate. With the same contempt they will deal with the corpse of Jehoiakim. Not having a burial means not being connected to the coming of the Messiah. “Beyond the gates of Jerusalem” means far away from the center of blessing for the whole earth.

Jehoiakim is called, challenged, by the LORD to climb the heights and call for help (verse 20). Lebanon and Bashan are high mountains. When he gets there, he will see that those from whom he expects his help have been broken. All covenants with other peoples he has relied on are to no avail. Peoples whom he has approached with love and who have helped him for wages have perished.

The LORD did speak to him (verse 21). He did so while Jehoiakim was in carefree rest. Here we see how dangerous such rest is. He was absorbed in it without any need of the LORD, but rejected Him. Very deliberately, he has told the LORD that he will not listen. The LORD knows him and knows that he was like that from his youth. Never has he listened to His voice. How dramatically hopeless is the situation of such a person.

Judgment also comes on the false shepherds of Jehoiakim (verse 22). Instead of caring for the people, they, like Jehoiakim, oppressed the people. They themselves will be shepherded by wind, that is swept away by a storm wind. As a result, they will experience what their actions as shepherds lead to. And the lovers, the peoples on whom Jehoiakim has relied for protection, will go into captivity, so that their support will fall away. Yes, then he will have nothing left but shame and disgrace. That is the result of the evil he has committed.

With almost biting irony, Jeremiah holds out to Jehoiakim that he can imagine himself on Lebanon, because he lives in a house made of the cedars of Lebanon (verse 23). He has nestled there like an eagle, under the delusion of being untouchable (cf. Hab 2:9). But that will change dramatically. False comfort and haughty pride will be broken when the siege and destruction will become reality.

Then the man who has set himself in a high and luxurious place will cringe because of the disasters that will come upon him. The contrast between his life of luxury and prosperity and his life under the calamities that befall him is evocative. Nothing of his opulence will give him any relief. This is how he will come to his end.

Jer 22:24-30 | The Rejection of Coniah (Jehoiachin)

24 “As I live,” declares the LORD, “even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet [ring] on My right hand, yet I would pull you off; 25 and I will give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life, yes, into the hand of those whom you dread, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 I will hurl you and your mother who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you will die. 27 But as for the land to which they desire to return, they will not return to it.
28 “Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar?
Or is he an undesirable vessel?
Why have he and his descendants been hurled out
And cast into a land that they had not known?
29 “O land, land, land,
Hear the word of the LORD!
30 “Thus says the LORD,
‘Write this man down childless,
A man who will not prosper in his days;
For no man of his descendants will prosper
Sitting on the throne of David
Or ruling again in Judah.’”

Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim (verse 24) and grandson of Josiah, is as bad as his predecessors. The LORD cannot maintain him on the throne of David. Even if he were a signet ring on the LORD’s right hand (cf. Hag 2:23), because of his behavior He would pull it off. A signet ring is intimately connected to the person and expresses authority. Letters are sealed with a signet ring. The right hand represents power and the place at the right hand is the place of honor.

The judgment on him is set (verse 25). The LORD will no longer protect him. He withdraws His hands from him and gives him into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and his people. His mother, who will have supported him in his wicked reign, will suffer the same fate (verse 26). Jeremiah mentions this deportation here for the second time (Jer 13:18-19). There is no mention of a return to the promised land, no matter how much they will yearn for it (verse 27).

The LORD asks some questions about Coniah (verse 28). These questions are meant to provoke thought. What kind of man is Coniah? Is he useless or worthless? How is it that he and his descendants were forcefully removed from their land and ended up in a foreign land? Whoever answers these questions will be warned by them to stay close to the LORD and not become unfaithful to Him, or else he will share in the fate of Coniah. Contrary to this judgment of the LORD, some in their folly do value Coniah (Jer 28:1-4).

After the probing questions, the LORD calls the whole nation to listen to His word (verse 29). The LORD calls out three times the name of those He is addressing. If a name is called twice, that is already penetrating. Here it happens three times. Then it is very probing.

The LORD’s word for the land is about how “this man” – the LORD does not even mention his name anymore – is to be remembered (verse 30). It is a man who should be entered in the history books as childless, and who is also not prosperous in his days. His memory is a terrifying example to all who read about him. He does have children (1Chr 3:17), but for his descendants there is no hope of prosperity and no hope of government. There is no connection to the throne of David.

How is it, then, that this Coniah or Jeconiah nevertheless appears in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus given in Matthew 1 (Mt 1:11)? Because in Matthew 1 the legal right to the throne is given. If we follow this genealogy, we see that after Coniah, no one from the line of David through Solomon sat on the throne. Zerubbabel, the grandson of Jeconiah (Mt 1:12), returns from Babylon with the remnant and becomes governor over Judah (Ezra 3:2; Hag 1:1), but is never king. Judah and Israel have never had a king since Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, was taken as a captive to Babylon. With Coniah, the royal line of descendants of David through Solomon who have sat on the throne of the LORD ends.

However, there is another genealogy that runs from David through Nathan. Therefore, we have two genealogies of the Lord Jesus in the New Testament. Matthew gives the Lord’s genealogy through David’s son Solomon (Mt 1:1-15) and Luke gives the Lord’s genealogy through David’s son Nathan (Lk 3:23-38). Matthew’s genealogy ends with “Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah” (Mt 1:16). This clearly shows that the Lord Jesus is not a physical descendant of Coniah.

The Lord Jesus is entitled to the throne and will reign over a penitent people. However, He was not born of the line of Coniah, which is the line of David that runs through Solomon, but He was born of Mary, who is descended from the line of David that runs through Nathan (Lk 3:23-38). He was not conceived by Joseph. As already mentioned, Joseph does descend from the line of David, but through Solomon and then also through Coniah (Mt 1:7,12,16). Joseph is not the corporeal father of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and therefore as Man the Son of God (Lk 1:35). This emphasizes the importance of the virgin birth.

As a result, the promises of the LORD to David and Solomon have been fully fulfilled. David was promised that his house and throne would remain forever (2Sam 7:15-16). There are no conditions attached to these promises. Solomon was promised that his throne would be forever, with the condition attached that he must remain faithful (2Sam 7:13-14). He did not remain so and as a result he forfeited the kingship. Both of the LORD’s words have been fulfilled.

Spiritually speaking there is another serious lesson to be learned from the judgment on Coniah that he will be recorded as childless. Everyone who has been saved by the blood of Christ should have the desire to win people to Him. Whoever knows Christ has a treasure that he may pass on to people who do not know Him, so that they may be saved from an eternity without Christ. He who shirks this task will also come to be known as ‘childless’. He will not be able to point to spiritual offspring and that will be a great lack, both for himself and for Christ.

Jeremiah 23

Jer 23:1-4 | The False Shepherds

1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD. 2 Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the LORD. 3 “Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD.

The LORD addresses the word to the false shepherds, the thieves and wolves who kill the sheep of His pasture and scatter them everywhere (verse 1). These are not just the four wicked kings from the previous chapters, but all the leaders of Judah. The job of a shepherd is to feed and protect sheep and keep the flock together (Jn 10:11-13). He, “the LORD God of Israel”, condemns these shepherds for what they do to His people (verse 2). He will repay them for their evil deeds.

It affects Him deeply that these shepherds scatter His people in this way. He compares His people to a flock of sheep grazing in His pasture, the land of Israel (Psa 74:1b; 79:13; 95:7; 100:3). Sheep need each other and a shepherd. A sheep alone and without a shepherd is hopelessly lost. Instead of keeping the sheep together, these shepherds scatter them. Because of the unfaithfulness of the shepherds, the sheep were scattered by the Assyrians. Instead of providing safety for the sheep, they drive them away. Instead of caring for the sheep they do not look after them. They are worthless shepherds (Eze 34:1-10).

The LORD Himself will take care of His sheep (verse 3). He will gather them out of all the countries where they have been scattered. He will do this by His righteous Branch or Sprout (verses 5-8). We see a small foreshadowing of the return to the land in the return of a remnant from Babylon under Joshua and Zerubbabel.

It is noteworthy that first it is said of the shepherds, that they scatter and drive out the sheep, but that here the LORD says that He has driven them out. Both are true. The behavior and condition of the leaders of the people left the LORD no choice but to scatter the sheep. But He places the responsibility for this on these leaders.

He is also powerful to bring the sheep back to their pastures or sheepfolds. Sheepfolds are places of safety and care. Through His care they will be fruitful and become numerous. We can apply the gathering in sheepfolds to the gathering of scattered children of God in local churches, to be fruitful and become numerous there. That is what the Lord wants to do even today.

He will put His care for them in the hands of faithful shepherds (verse 4). They will be the under-shepherds of the true Shepherd, whom God will appoint over His people (Eze 34:23-24). The sheep will lie down peacefully, not fearing what may happen or being dismayed by an enemy that appears. No power will be able to rob one. No one can snatch one out of the hand of the Father and the Son (Jn 10:28-29).

Jer 23:5-8 | The Righteous Branch

5 “Behold, [the] days are coming,” declares the LORD,
“When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch;
And He will reign as king and act wisely
And do justice and righteousness in the land.
6 “In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell securely;
And this is His name by which He will be called,
‘The LORD our righteousness.’
7 “Therefore behold, [the] days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 8 but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from [the] north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.”

The days to come (verse 5) are the days of the reign of the Lord Jesus in the realm of peace. In those days, the promise of the LORD in the previous verses will be fulfilled. He will do that Himself by “raising up for David a righteous Branch [literally Sprout]”. He is working that a descendant of David, the Lord Jesus, the great Son of David, will sit on the throne of David. Then the government will be in the hands of an infallible King, Who rules justly and acts wisely. This righteous Sprout is the Messiah.

The name Sprout appears in various compositions and each time shows us a different glory of the Lord Jesus that we can connect with the four Gospels. He is called:
1. “The Branch [or Sprout] of the LORD” (Isa 4:2). This is the Name that brings to mind the Gospel according to John. This Name speaks of His Deity Who is brilliantly described by John in his Gospel.
2. “A righteous Branch [or Sprout]” (Jer 23:5; 33:15). This is in connection with Him as the righteous King. This is how we see Him in the Gospel according to Matthew.
3. “My Servant the Branch [or Sprout]” (Zec 3:8). In the Gospel according to Mark we see Him as Servant.
4. “A man whose name is Branch [or Sprout]” (Zec 6:12). This brings us to the Gospel according to Luke, for in it He is presented as Man.

There will be no more injustice, for He will “do justice and righteousness in the land”, as His father David did (2Sam 8:15). As the true Son of David, the true Solomon, He will judge His people “with righteousness and … with justice” (Psa 72:2). This will be a relief after a long period when unrighteousness and injustice have prevailed, when oppression and misery have been the portion of the faithful.

By “in His days” (verse 6) is meant the days of His reign, when He, Who already has all power in His hands, rules publicly over heaven and earth. In those days, His people will experience the blessing of it. Judah will be redeemed, and all the people of Israel, the twelve tribes, will live securely (Eze 37:15-28).

In the Name by which they call Him, “the LORD our righteousness”, they will acknowledge Him as their righteousness. In no other way will they seek anymore to maintain their own righteousness. This Name of the LORD contrasts with that of Zedekiah. Zedekiah means “the LORD is my righteousness”, a name that was made a lie through his life.

Immediately and inseparably linked to the messianic hope is the national restoration of Israel. What the LORD will then do for His people, the deliverance He will then work, will dwarf the deliverance from Egypt (verse 7). The final deliverance of His people, the gathering of them together from all the lands to which they have been scattered, far exceeds the deliverance from Egypt (verse 8). They will live in their own land and never be driven from it again.

Jer 23:9-12 | Calamity Will Be Upon the False Prophets

9 As for the prophets:
My heart is broken within me,
All my bones tremble;
I have become like a drunken man,
Even like a man overcome with wine,
Because of the LORD
And because of His holy words.
10 For the land is full of adulterers;
For the land mourns because of the curse.
The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.
Their course also is evil
And their might is not right.
11 “For both prophet and priest are polluted;
Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD.
12 “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them,
They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it;
For I will bring calamity upon them,
The year of their punishment,” declares the LORD.

With verse 9, another subject begins, which nevertheless connects to the previous one. The previous section deals primarily with unfaithful kings, but ends with the announcement of the Messiah, the faithful King. Jeremiah is the faithful prophet who announces both judgment and ultimate blessing for the people. The section that follows deals with the false prophets.

Jeremiah speaks of them more than any other prophet. When he thinks about them, he feels a tremendous pain inside. It makes him sick and nauseous and he feels like a drunken man, someone who is swaying back and forth and cannot think clearly. This feeling is caused by what he perceives and sees it in the light of the LORD and “His holy words”.

The difference between the words of the false prophets and the holy words of the LORD is enormous. It is not just a factual observation, but a situation that upsets him. The transgressions of the false prophets are many and great. After the wicked kings, it is mainly the prophets who are responsible for the destruction of the nation.

Those who love the Lord and His Word will experience the same. Everything that goes against Him and His Word causes pain and sorrow. It then concerns those who presume to speak His words in the Name of the Lord. This is not bearable for the God-fearing soul. If you notice it, you are deeply affected and sometimes so upset that for some time you are unable to continue to do anything for the Lord.

The result of what false prophets speak is quite something: “The land is full of adulterers” (verse 10). The first thing a lying prophet is recognized by, is infidelity in marriage. Lying prophets bring a curse upon the land, withering the pastures of the wilderness and leaving no food for the sheep. These prophets do not pursue good, but evil. They do not use their power for God’s people, but for themselves. Energy that is not used properly is wasted energy.

Not only do God’s people have to suffer, even the LORD does not escape their wicked behavior. The false prophet has a partner in evil in the unfaithful priest. Both prophet and priest commit sacrilege, not sparing God’s house either (verse 11). Nothing is sacred to these people. But the LORD sees it and confronts them.

They think they are on a road of prosperity and happiness, but that road will be dark, with slippery paths (verse 12). It is already difficult to walk on slippery ice, let alone when it is dark. There is no turning back. They will be pushed on by their lust and will slip on those slippery paths, fall down and perish. This judgment awaits them in “the year of their punishment”. The LORD says so, so it will happen.

Jer 23:13-15 | False Prophecy in Samaria and Jerusalem

13 “Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing:
They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray.
14 “Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing:
The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood;
And they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.
All of them have become to Me like Sodom,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
15 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets,
‘Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood
And make them drink poisonous water,
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
Pollution has gone forth into all the land.’”

Among the prophets of Samaria, the capital of the ten tribes realm, the LORD has seen “an offensive thing”, a thing that is not fitting for a prophet (verse 13). There are prophets there who prophesy on behalf of Baal and thus deceive God’s people. The LORD still calls Israel “My people” here. Beginning with Jeroboam, the ten tribes realm strayed further and further from the LORD and gave itself over to idols, to Jeroboam’s self-conceived religion (1Kgs 12:26-33).

What Samaria has done is bad, but what Jerusalem is doing is even worse (verse 14). There the LORD did not ‘merely’ see an offensive thing as in Samaria, but He has seen there “a horrible thing”. Israel openly committed idolatry, but Judah prophesied in the Name of the LORD while committing the most reprehensible sins.

The first evil mentioned is again adultery, within its woke falsehood. Those who commit adultery live in falsehood. It is a gross lie to justify sins in the Name of the LORD. This is what happens in our day when it is said that love is from God and that a homosexual relationship is ‘therefore’ in accordance with God’s will and can even be blessed in the church. Instead of calling for condemnation and repentance of evil, they are so utterly depraved that they encourage others to continue in doing evil. The result is hardening and not repentance from wickedness. The LORD cannot judge them any differently than He did Sodom and Gomorrah, because they act like Sodom and Gomorrah.

The anger of the LORD is on those prophets (verse 15). In His omnipotence as “the LORD of hosts” He says what He will do to these prophets. He is going to feed them wormwood and make them drink poisonous water. They themselves have given the people bitter and poisoned food and drink. Therefore, they will now get to eat and drink it themselves. The taste will be horrible. They will have to take this because “from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has gone forth into all the land”. Their corrupting influence has permeated the whole land with pollution, so that nothing is holy anymore. Sin has permeated everything.

This is the situation also today in professing Christianity. Nothing is holy anymore, everything that belongs to and is for God and His honor is trampled upon and that by using His Word. How great is the sacrilege committed under the cover of God’s Word! We can think [as to the Netherlands] of the annual Christ-degrading and blasphemous spectacle ‘The Passion’ of the tasteless Evangelical Broadcasting Company. In it the story of Christ’s suffering is played out in a contemporary way by ‘Dutch Celebrities’, many of whom have no relationship whatsoever with the Christ of the Scriptures.

Jer 23:16-22 | The Words of the Lying Prophets

16 Thus says the LORD of hosts,
“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you.
They are leading you into futility;
They speak a vision of their own imagination,
Not from the mouth of the LORD.
17 “They keep saying to those who despise Me,
‘The LORD has said, “You will have peace”‘;
And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,
They say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’
18 “But who has stood in the council of the LORD,
That he should see and hear His word?
Who has given heed to His word and listened?
19 “Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath,
Even a whirling tempest;
It will swirl down on the head of the wicked.
20 “The anger of the LORD will not turn back
Until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart;
In the last days you will clearly understand it.
21 “I did not send [these] prophets,
But they ran.
I did not speak to them,
But they prophesied.
22 “But if they had stood in My council,
Then they would have announced My words to My people,
And would have turned them back from their evil way
And from the evil of their deeds.

The LORD now issues a clear warning not to listen to those prophets (verse 16). He says with great emphasis “do not listen” because the people are so very eager to listen to those prophets. Their talk is beautiful and pious, but they are air. They tell an optimistic story about the future. The people love to hear that, but at the same time it makes them blind to the impending doom.

Therefore, the hope they are given is “futility”. It is a hope that comes from the imagination of the false prophets, from the imaginations of their own heart and not from the mouth of the LORD. Such hope is quicksand; there is no firmness in it. Their imaginations lack any real authority. They cannot stand the test of God’s Word. It is preaching ‘according to man’ and not a preaching that urges self-examination, confession and repentance.

Everything we hear should be tested against God’s Word. We should not accept things because they sound credible, or are brought with great conviction. Many misleading prophets have gone forth (1Jn 4:1). The devil has many in his power.

The devil also knows that repetition is the best advertising. The false prophets “keep saying”, repeating it over and over again: “The LORD has said” (verse 17). And what the LORD has said is, of course, pleasant to hear. They find a listening ear with those who despise the LORD. Of course, there is no exhortation to repent. No, they can really count on peace. They can just continue in the way of sin, for “calamity will not come upon you”. This is what the hardened heart loves to hear.

These prophets are far from the counsel of the LORD (verse 18). They do not know His counsel, they have never been in it. They have not seen and heard His word, which is necessary to be a true prophet. A true prophet is involved in that word, he heeds and listens to it, that is, shows it in his life. But these prophets themselves live in the lie. How then can they pass on what the LORD has spoken!

Repeatedly calling for wickedness causes a “storm of the LORD” (verse 19). Wrath emanates from Him like a whirling tempest that “will swirl down on the head of the wicked”. This judgment will come furiously upon them and the storm will not be blown out until the LORD has performed and carried out all that He has thought in His heart (verse 20). We see these judgments in the book of Revelation. They come on His people Israel and also on professing Christianity and also on the world.

Jeremiah and God’s people cannot yet understand this in their time (cf. 1Pet 1:10). “In the last days”, that is in the end time, they will “clearly understand it”. We may well understand everything now, for we have the Spirit Whom God has given us. He makes it known to us (Jn 16:12-14).

The false prophets were not sent by the LORD, yet they went out with a message on His behalf (verse 21). Full of zeal they go around with their predictions of good fortune. The LORD has not told them anything they should say, yet they have gone around prophesying in His Name. This is a great posturing that we also see frequently in professing Christianity today, where liberal preachers dare to speak in the Name of the Lord.

The proof that these false prophets are not in the counsel of the LORD is that they have not caused anyone to turn back from their evil ways and from their evil deeds (verse 22). They have not made God’s people hear God’s words or urge repentance and conversion. The fruit of their ‘prophetic service’ is only hardening.

The false prophets are in great contrast to what prophets do who are sent by God and speak what He says. Such prophets stand in God’s counsel. They know His thoughts and communicate them to His people. These words turn erring people from their evil ways and cause them to stop their evil deeds. These are the characteristics of the true prophets. It is not a question of whether their preaching is successful or not, but whether they speak what the LORD wants. Jeremiah is a true prophet of the LORD, even though his preaching was humanly speaking unsuccessful.

Jer 23:23-32 | God’s Judgment on the Lying Prophets

23 “Am I a God who is near,” declares the LORD,
“And not a God far off?
24 “Can a man hide himself in hiding places
So I do not see him?” declares the LORD.
“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.
25 “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ 26 How long? Is there [anything] in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even [these] prophets of the deception of their own heart, 27 who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal? 28 The prophet who has a dream may relate [his] dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have [in common] with grain?” declares the LORD. 29 “Is not My word like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock? 30 Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the LORD, “who steal My words from each other. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the LORD, “who use their tongues and declare, ‘[The Lord] declares.’ 32 Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,” declares the LORD, “and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares the LORD.

The three questions of verses 23-24 are practically the same questions. They are questions that at the same time give the answer. God is not a local God, but is everywhere; He is not a God Who sees only the perceptible, for nothing is hidden from Him (Psa 139:7-10; Amos 9:2-4). He fills the heavens and the earth with His holy presence, so that there is no place beyond His authority, where He is not present, where anyone could be without Him being there.

He is omnipresent and nothing escapes Him. It is a great encouragement to the believer that he may be aware of God’s presence always, everywhere and in all circumstances. It is a serious call for the unbeliever to break with his sins. We may well pray that we never lose the sense of His presence.

These false prophets emphatically state “I had a dream” and repeat it again, just to impress (verse 25). It is all about their own ‘self’. They want to draw attention to themselves. What they then tell are lies, in which they also use the Name of the LORD. But He has heard it!

God certainly did speak through dreams, as we know from the history of Joseph with Pharaoh and Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar (Gen 37:5-9; 41:1,28-32; Num 12:6; 1Sam 28:6; Dan 2:7; Joel 2:28). It may be about one’s own dreams or dreams of others.

How long will the dreaming false prophets continue to preach their castles in the air and how long will the people listen to them (verse 26)? What these prophets tell comes from their corrupt hearts; it is lies and deception. Their goal is to make God’s people forget His Name with their dreams. They are telling each other their dreams and the people are standing there and listen to them and loving their words (verse 27). What they are doing is the same as what their fathers did by clinging to Baal. It comes from the same depraved source and has the same consequence.

Let the false prophet tell his dream (verse 28). Let him go about his business. What God wants for everyone with whom His word is, to speak His word truthfully. The lie is always exposed by the truth. Truth and lie have nothing to do with each other, any more than the worthless straw in which there is no food has anything to do with the nutritious grain. The straw is the worthless prophecy of the lying prophets and the grain is the true proclamation of God’s Word.

In addition to food, the word of the LORD can also be compared to a fire and to a hammer (verse 29). This will be experienced by all who engage in the lie, either to spread it or to embrace its preacher. The lie is always pleasant, while the word of truth consumes the lie and the lying prophets like a fire and works like a hammer which shatters a rock. Nothing remains of the lie.

The LORD is “against the prophets”. He will act with the force of the hammer just mentioned against those “who steal” His “words from each another” (verse 30). They boast that they are the only ones who can explain God’s Word and they do so in a pernicious manner. In doing so, they steal from each other what the other has come up with as an explanation.

We can also apply this to passing on God’s Word today. We can read an explanation that is good. But if we pass it on to show thereby how much we know of the Word, we are stealing the words from the other person. It is not our property and does not come from our hearts, but from our heads. We can and do make grateful use of what others have said and written about God’s Word. However, it is not our property until we have thanked God for what He has shown us of the truth of His Word through that other person.

The LORD will also deal forcefully with prophets who use their tongues and then have the audacity to say that He, the LORD, is speaking (verse 31). This is an abominable thing. Therefore, the LORD states for the third time that He will act with power against those prophets of false dreams (verse 32).

It is remarkable how often these verses say “declares the LORD” (verses 29,30,31,32). We see here the exaltedness of His speaking in the face of the mendacious speaking of these lying prophets.

These people deceive His people with their lies that are nothing but drivel. Vigorously the LORD testifies of them that He did not send them, did not command them, and that they are of no use to His people. He wipes them out. What fool will then want to hear even one word from these lying prophets, let alone attach any value to them?

The issue in verses 30-32 is three classes of false prophets. With each of those classes the LORD will deal.
1. The first group (verse 30) commit plagiarism. They are not original; they steal the words of the true prophets and act as if they were their own.
2. The second group (verse 31) uses their tongue without restraint to deceive. By introducing their words with “declares the LORD”, they act as if their words have divine authority.
3. The third group (verse 32) plays on national feelings. This group addresses the whole people. They want to encourage them with their lies and not to care about the threats of the true prophet.

Jer 23:33-40 | The Oracle [or: Burden] of the LORD

33 “Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you saying, ‘What is the oracle of the LORD?’ then you shall say to them, ‘What oracle?’ The LORD declares, ‘I will abandon you.’ 34 Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, ‘The oracle of the LORD,’ I will bring punishment upon that man and his household. 35 Thus will each of you say to his neighbor and to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ 36 For you will no longer remember the oracle of the LORD, because every man’s own word will become the oracle, and you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. 37 Thus you will say to [that] prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ 38 For if you say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’ surely thus says the LORD, ‘Because you said this word, “The oracle of the LORD!” I have also sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’”‘ 39 Therefore behold, I will surely forget you and cast you away from My presence, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers. 40 I will put an everlasting reproach on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten.”

Jeremiah is told by the LORD that the possibility exists that this people or a prophet or a priest will come to him to ask him about the oracle or burden of the LORD (verse 33). A burden a prophet must carry is the message the LORD has placed on his heart (cf. Isa 13:1; 14:28; Nah 1:1; Hab 1:1). They want to know what the LORD wants from them, what burden He is putting on them. But it is a hypocritical question. The LORD knows their hearts, that they do not want to do His will at all.

Therefore, Jeremiah must say with indignation in his voice: “What burden?” By doing so, he lets them know that he rejects their question. Next, he must say that the LORD will abandon them. By this he indicates that they themselves are a burden to the LORD, a burden that He will cast off.

With that answer the questioners will not be satisfied. They will throw in another tack and then take up the words themselves that to them is given “a burden from the LORD” (verse 34; Lam 2:14). In doing so, they claim that they have a command from Him. The LORD will turn against them and punish them.

What they should do is ask one another what the LORD has answered or spoken (verse 35). Likewise, we are to ask one another what is written in God’s Word and not what brother so and so has said, although faithful brothers who have an understanding of God’s Word may be asked for their explanation of a particular verse.

What they should no longer do is think that others can tell them what the burden of the LORD is (verse 36). It is about having their own relationship with Him. The liars will bear their own burden. They have their own responsibility and will receive the punishment for their perverting of “the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God”. This impressive portrayal of God does show how seriously He takes what people who claim to speak on His behalf do with His Word.

It is surely one of the worst things that can happen to a person if his words are perverted. It is one of the greatest responsibilities of someone who is giving a statement of God’s Word not to distort the words of the living God (cf. 2Pet 3:16) in the slightest way.

Again Jeremiah is told what to say to the false prophet, to bring him into the light of God (verse 37). The false prophet will fall through because of the questions of God’s prophet. Jeremiah has no desire to know what the man dreamed, but he wants to know what the LORD answered that prophet and what the LORD said to him.

So when that prophet does come up with the words “the burden of the LORD”, it is proof that he is a disobedient prophet (verse 38). Indeed, the LORD has clearly given the message not to say that. Therefore, the judgment comes that He will forget them altogether (verse 39). He will forsake the city that He gave to their fathers. He will lay an everlasting reproach and humiliation on them, that will not be forgotten (verse 40). People will always remember them as false prophets. That is the only appropriate judgment, because they are out to make the people forget the LORD. The judgment on those who pervert God’s words and disobey what He says is that severe.

Jeremiah 24

Introduction

We have in this chapter an explanation of the two ways presented in Jeremiah 21: the way of life and the way of death (Jer 21:8-9). The explanation is presented in the picture of two baskets of figs: a basket of good figs and a basket of bad figs. One may expect any blessing from God if one first humbles himself. We must first acknowledge that we deserve judgment, then we will receive the blessing. The Judge Who condemns then becomes the Giver of blessing.

Jer 24:1-3 | The Vision of the Two Baskets of Figs

1 After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me: behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of the LORD! 2 One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten due to rottenness. 3 Then the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad [figs], very bad, which cannot be eaten due to rottenness.”

The LORD draws Jeremiah’s attention to two baskets of figs set down before the temple of the LORD (verse 1). That they are set before the temple makes these baskets reminiscent of the basket of first fruits. That basket is set down by the priest before the altar (Deu 26:1-4). There is no mention of that here.

It is the time when the first carrying away into exile took place (2Kgs 24:8-16; 2Chr 36:9-10). Nebuchadnezzar has carried away captive the leaders, leaving the people without leadership. He has also carried away captive the craftsmen and smiths from Jerusalem and has brought them to Babylon, so that the people also have no people to provide them with means of defense and weapons.

We are told the contents of both baskets of figs. In the one basket are “very good figs” (verse 2). These good figs are “like first-ripe figs”, which are figs to be offered to the LORD as first fruits (Deu 14:22). They are good to eat (Isa 28:4b; Hos 9:10). The LORD says of them: “A first-ripe fig [which] I crave” (Mic 7:1c). In the other basket are very bad figs, so bad that they cannot be eaten. The poor quality is emphatically mentioned.

Then the LORD asks Jeremiah what he sees (verse 3; cf. Jer 1:11,13). Jeremiah must accurately tell what he sees so that the LORD can also make the meaning clear to him. His answer is that he sees figs and also that there is a great difference between them. He describes them exactly as they are described in the previous verse. This shows that he sees them as the LORD sees them.

Jer 24:4-7 | Explanation of the Good Figs

4 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 5 “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place [into] the land of the Chaldeans. 6 For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not overthrow them, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 7 I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.

Then the LORD goes on to give the meaning (verse 4). As “the LORD God of Israel”, the God of His people, Who knows His people through and through, He tells Jeremiah what the figs represent. He begins with the good figs (verse 5). The good figs are those who have been sent into exile by Him. They are gone from His land, but not from His heart. He regards them as good because they have accepted His discipline. What that good is, He then declares. We hear what He will do, showing that He has a fullness of blessing in mind for them.

They are under His discipline, but His eye remains on them for good (verse 6). If we also realize this despite all our unfaithfulness, that is already a great blessing. He shows His goodness by making them return to this land. The exile is not final, but temporary. He will build them and not, as it seems now, overthrow them. He will plant them and not, as it seems now, pluck them up. The restoration will be complete. This full restoration has not come after a remnant returns from Babylon to the land after seventy years of exile. That is a partial and also temporary restoration. The full restoration will take place in the end time.

The good figs are not in themselves better than the other figs. They are good because they bow under God’s judgment. Therefore, the LORD “will regard” them “as good” (verse 5) and set His eyes “on them for good” (verse 6). All the emphasis is on the fact that He will regard the exiles for good. This goes directly against the view of those left behind, who look down with contempt on those taken away, while seeing themselves as the faithful ones.

The LORD will also give those who are carried away a heart to know Him (verse 7). Then they will be in a close relationship with Him. They will know Him as the LORD, the God of the covenant, Who fulfills all His promises. They will be His people and He their God. It will be so because they will return to Him “with their whole heart”. Then there will be perfect harmony between the LORD and His people because His people will be in complete accord with His plan.

Jer 24:8-10 | Meaning of the Bad Figs

8 ‘But like the bad figs which cannot be eaten due to rottenness—indeed, thus says the LORD—so I will abandon Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and the ones who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them a terror [and an] evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places where I will scatter them. 10 I will send the sword, the famine and the pestilence upon them until they are destroyed from the land which I gave to them and their forefathers.’”

The judgment on the bad figs, which are those who remain in Jerusalem, is sweeping. The basket of the bad figs is also before the temple (verse 8; verse 1). These bad figs are overripe, rotten figs, which cannot be eaten. They are the sacrifices that God abhors (cf. Mal 1:7-8). These sacrifices are made by people who are religious, but adhere to a self-willed religion. They do not ask themselves what God wants, but fill in for themselves what God should be satisfied with, while flattering themselves with the thought that they are bringing God sacrifices after all.

The bad figs represent Zedekiah and all those who remained in Jerusalem and also those who believe they escaped exile by fleeing to Egypt. They have not bowed under the discipline of God. However, there is no escape from God’s discipline. He will bring a heavier discipline upon them (verse 9). What will happen to them from the hand of the LORD will be an example to all the kingdoms of the earth which will shock them. The reproach will be great. They will become a proverb and an object of ridicule and curse. They will be so in all the places to which the LORD will yet drive them.

All those who have remained in the land believing that the enemy will not be able to overcome them will perish there by violence, want or disease (verse 10). As a result, they will be destroyed from the land that the LORD gave them and their fathers, but on which they laid claim.

Jeremiah 25

Jer 25:1-7 | Israel Rejects Prophetic Service

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. 4 And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear, 5 saying, ‘Turn now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell on the land which the LORD has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever; 6 and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm.’ 7 Yet you have not listened to Me,” declares the LORD, “in order that you might provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

In this chapter we go back to the reign of Jehoiakim (verse 1), for the previous chapter is about the time of Zedekiah. The prophecies of Jeremiah 1-12 take place during the reign of Josiah. After that, no special time is mentioned and we must see if it is the time of Jehoiakim, Zedekiah or Gedaliah. Here we are in the fourth year of Jehoiakim which is at the same time the first year of Nebuchadnezzar (cf. Jer 36:1; 45:1; 46:2). With the first year of Nebuchadnezzar begin “the times of the Gentiles” (Lk 21:24). He is given world domination. This is followed by three other empires with world dominion, the description of which is found in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7.

Since the time Jeremiah began prophesying, the political situation has changed greatly. When he begins, Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, has been destroyed by the attacks of Babylon. Babylon then increases in power, but Egypt still has dominion over Israel. This did not last long. At the battle of Carchemish, Babylon defeated Egypt (Jer 46:2) and took over world power and with it power over Israel. This is the battle in which Josiah interfered, a battle that did not concern him and in which he lost his life (2Chr 35:20-24).

Jeremiah can then still move freely among the people and call them to submission to the king of Babylon (verse 2). However, the people do not want that. He delivers his message because the LORD speaks to him (verse 3). From the thirteenth year of Josiah until now, his message has sounded. That is a period of twenty-three years: nineteen years under Josiah and four years under Jehoiakim. He is here about at or just past the halfway point of his service as a prophet. In addition to Jeremiah, the LORD has sent other prophets, such as Zephaniah (Zep 1:1), but the people do not listen. In fact, they are averse to the messages and do not heed the calls of the prophets at all, they ignore them (verse 4).

The message is clear. They must repent, each one personally, of their evil ways and evil deeds (verse 5). The promises are also clear. They will live forever in the land that the LORD has given them and their fathers. We see here the patience of God. God does not like to punish. He will do anything to bring a person to repentance. He is working “again and again [literally: rising early and sending]” to reach them, that is, not slowly and not carelessly, but from early in the morning till late in the evening, as long as a person can be reached. In this way, He devotes Himself to seeking the salvation of a person – and in this case of His people. Only when it appears that a person – or His people – absolutely does not want to, He brings the judgment, because He cannot do otherwise.

The call has constantly sounded to not go after other gods to serve them nor to bow down to them (verse 6). He has let them know that they will provoke Him to wrath if they bow down to the work of their hands. He will not harm them if they stop to do so. The conclusion, unfortunately, must be that they have not listened to Him and, on the contrary, have provoked Him to anger by the work of their hands (verse 7). In so doing, they have done themselves harm.

Jer 25:8-11 | Prediction of Exile

8 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the LORD, ‘and [I will send] to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. 10 Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

The LORD has no choice but to bring judgment on them. It is because they have not listened to His words (verse 8). Through His servant Nebuchadnezzar, He will execute judgment (verse 9). He calls Nebuchadnezzar “My servant” (cf. Jer 27:6; 43:10) because he will do what He has set out to do to His people and also to the surrounding nations. It is a disgrace to Israel – who should be the LORD’s servant – that He gives this name to a heathen ruler and that He must use him to discipline His own people.

Through Nebuchadnezzar, the LORD will take away everything from His people that gives joy to people (verse 10). No more joyful events will take place and no more expressions of joy will be heard; nothing will come from the land that can be ground to make bread; there will be no more oil to give light. In a spiritual sense, it means that love and joy will disappear and spiritual food and the light of the Spirit will be absent. God’s people will end up in famine and spiritual darkness. It is always a sad experience when we see homes or families where there used to be joy, to have been destroyed by sin that has gained entrance into one or more members of that family.

The judgment will last for seventy years (verse 11). Then the land will receive its sabbaths, which the people out of greed did not give the land for this length of time. As a result, the people have disobeyed the word of the LORD concerning this (Lev 25:3-4; 26:33-35; 2Chr 36:20-21). During that time, the people will be in exile, taken away to Babylon. It is the first announcement about the length of the period of exile. Seventy years is the period of a human life (Psa 90:10a; Isa 23:15).

Jer 25:12-14 | Judgment on Babylon

12 ‘Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares the LORD, ‘for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation. 13 I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. 14 (For many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them; and I will recompense them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.)’”

The judgment is limited to seventy years. After those seventy years, the time has come when God will also judge His disciplinary rod, Babylon (verse 12). He will do so because Nebuchadnezzar has gone beyond the LORD’s will in carrying out his mission. The LORD is using Babylon not because of any excellence of that people, but because of the sins of His own people. The nations also reap what they sow. That is a generally valid rule for every person and every nation (Gal 6:7).

God will bring His judgment on Babylon – and also on other nations – according to all that is written in this book of Jeremiah and what Jeremiah has spoken (verse 13). Jeremiah was also appointed a prophet to all the nations (Jer 1:10). God also expressed Himself toward the nations. He will repay all deeds and all the work of man’s hands (verse 14).

Jer 25:15-29 | The Cup of God’s Wrath

15 For thus the LORD, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. 16 They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.” 17 Then I took the cup from the LORD’s hand and made all the nations to whom the LORD sent me drink it: 18 Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and its kings [and] its princes, to make them a ruin, a horror, a hissing and a curse, as it is this day; 19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes and all his people; 20 and all the foreign people, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines (even Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod); 21 Edom, Moab and the sons of Ammon; 22 and all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon and the kings of the coastlands which are beyond the sea; 23 and Dedan, Tema, Buz and all who cut the corners [of their hair]; 24 and all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign people who dwell in the desert; 25 and all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam and all the kings of Media; 26 and all the kings of the north, near and far, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the earth which are upon the face of the ground, and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. 27 “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Drink, be drunk, vomit, fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send among you.”‘ 28 And it will be, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you will say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “You shall surely drink! 29 For behold, I am beginning to work calamity in [this] city which is called by My name, and shall you be completely free from punishment? You will not be free from punishment; for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth,” declares the LORD of hosts.’

The nations around Israel will not escape God’s wrath either. Jeremiah must give “this cup of the wine of wrath” from God’s hand and cause all the nations to drink it (verse 15). The cup is a familiar picture in Scripture to denote the wrath of God (Jer 49:12; 51:7; Job 21:20; Isa 51:17,22; Eze 23:31; Mk 10:39; 14:36; Jn 18:11; Rev 14:8,10; 16:19; 18:6). Also against the nations, God will send His servant, the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is His sword that He sends among them (verse 16). This will strike them in such a way that they will stagger and go mad, they will lose control of their way and of their minds.

As a faithful prophet, Jeremiah does what the LORD says to him. It is not a pleasant task, but he takes the cup from the LORD’s hand and gives it to all the nations to whom the LORD has sent him to drink it (verse 17). The disasters that come upon the nations are carried out by satan, for evil rulers conquer and exterminate the nations. They are not guided by God, but by satan. Yet even satan is ultimately nothing more than a tool in God’s hand to bring the nations to the acknowledgment that He, the LORD, is God.

The LORD begins this judgment on the nations (verses 18-26) with the judgment on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and its princes (verse 18; verse 29). Jerusalem and Judah have learned nothing from God’s judgment on the ten tribes, who have already been carried away at this point. The judgments on the other nations then follow. The judgments on many nations mentioned here, Jeremiah will describe in more detail later in this book, in Jeremiah 46-51.

By Sesach (verse 26) is meant, so several interpreters assume, Babylon, which is plausible after the enumeration of the previous empires. After the judgments that Babylon, as the disciplinary rod of the LORD, carried out on the various nations, that people themselves will have to drink the cup of God’s wrath. They deserve that judgment because they too have been guilty of many offences. They have learned nothing from the judgments they have exercised, but have done so in pride.

We will be wise to use the little bit of knowledge we possess with wisdom. Wisdom we can gain through experience, through life lessons from our own lives, but also through what we see in the lives of others. What we see in others we should take to heart. That will save us from much personal suffering.

Jeremiah is to speak to the nations on behalf of “the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel” (verse 27). On His behalf he must say that God is sending His sword among them through Babylon, so that they will turn back to Him. If they do not, they will not rise again. Refusal to undergo God’s discipline calls for its even more forceful exercise of it (verse 28). The LORD points out that He does not spare His own city, but begins His judgment right there (verse 29; cf. 1Pet 4:17; Eze 9:6). Then the nations must not think that they will escape equally righteous judgment that will come on them because of their many and persistent sins (Pro 11:31).

Jer 25:30-38 | The Whole World Is Judged

30 “Therefore you shall prophesy against them all these words, and you shall say to them,
‘The LORD will roar from on high
And utter His voice from His holy habitation;
He will roar mightily against His fold.
He will shout like those who tread [the grapes],
Against all the inhabitants of the earth.
31 ‘A clamor has come to the end of the earth,
Because the LORD has a controversy with the nations.
He is entering into judgment with all flesh;
As for the wicked, He has given them to the sword,’ declares the LORD.”
32 Thus says the LORD of hosts,
“Behold, evil is going forth
From nation to nation,
And a great storm is being stirred up
From the remotest parts of the earth.
33 “Those slain by the LORD on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be lamented, gathered or buried; they will be like dung on the face of the ground.
34 “Wail, you shepherds, and cry;
And wallow [in ashes], you masters of the flock;
For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions have come,
And you will fall like a choice vessel.
35 “Flight will perish from the shepherds,
And escape from the masters of the flock.
36 “[Hear] the sound of the cry of the shepherds,
And the wailing of the masters of the flock!
For the LORD is destroying their pasture,
37 “And the peaceful folds are made silent
Because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
38 “He has left His hiding place like the lion;
For their land has become a horror
Because of the fierceness of the oppressing [sword]
And because of His fierce anger.”

Jeremiah is urged to deliver his message (verse 30). He is to prophesy all the previous words, pointing, not to Babylon, but to the LORD. The LORD roars “from on high … from His holy habitation”, that is from heaven. His roaring is “against His fold” on earth, because of all their iniquity. It is also against the enemies. His roar is at the same time a shout of joy, because the judgment on all the inhabitants of the earth means the salvation of the faithful remnant at the same time.

The judgment, the sword, which He brings upon the nations, the wicked, all flesh, will be in the form of a controversy (verse 31). He will demonstrate conclusively the lawfulness of the judgment. The sword He brings is the evil that goes forth from nation to nation (verse 32). The nations are killing each other. He causes the nations to fall onto their own sword. The army of Babylon is the great storm that passes over the earth, subduing the nations and killing many.

At the same time, they are “those slain by the LORD” (verse 33). He does it by the hand of Babylon. The earth is full of corpses. This is the direct result of the domination and subjugation of nations. We can apply this to domination in personal relationships and also in the church. That also causes many victims.

A major cause of the world’s misery is the behavior of those who should be caring, the shepherds (verse 34). Shepherds have become “masters”, rulers. They have pastured themselves instead of the flock. But their days are numbered. It is not the sheep that will be slaughtered, but they. Others will be scattered. There will be no way for them to flee or escape (verse 35). Zedekiah experienced this firsthand.

They will cry and wail because their sources of profit have been destroyed by the LORD (verse 36). In places where they first thought they were at peace, the fierce anger of the LORD causes destruction (verse 37). The LORD is exercising judgment. He has hidden Himself for a long time, as if in a hiding place (verse 38). But the time is coming when He will come forth as a lion in great power and will judge. The land will become a horror. This will happen in the near future through the oppressor Nebuchadnezzar as an instrument of the fierce anger of the LORD.

Jeremiah 26

Introduction

The temple speech in verses 1-6 can be seen as a summary of the temple speech in Jeremiah 7. There, the content of Jeremiah’s message is at issue, whereas the main focus of this chapter is on the reaction of all the hearers, which is described next.

Jer 26:1-6 | The Temple Speech

1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD, ‘Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah who have come to worship [in] the LORD’s house all the words that I have commanded you to speak to them. Do not omit a word! 3 Perhaps they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way, that I may repent of the calamity which I am planning to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.’ 4 And you will say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD, “If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, 5 to listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have been sending to you again and again, but you have not listened; 6 then I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse to all the nations of the earth.”‘“

The events in this chapter take place “in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim” (verse 1). Those in the previous chapter take place in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jer 25:1). We go back in time. Jeremiah is to go to the temple and preach in the court to the people who come there to worship the LORD (verse 2). The court is a gathering place of people. There Jeremiah has a great audience.

He must speak to them all the words that the LORD has commanded him to speak. He is not allowed to omit a word. The LORD says this because the message is hard and Jeremiah may be tempted to soften it by omitting something. Every servant of the Word has that tendency. It has also often happened that the message of God’s Word has been adapted to the natural man. That may not happen. We must proclaim the whole counsel of God and withhold nothing (cf. Acts 20:27).

God's purpose with the preaching of Jeremiah is for the conversion of His people (verse 3). “Perhaps” they will listen. The LORD presumes that they will listen anyway. If they listen and turn from their evil way, He will repent of the calamity He plans to do to them. We see here the purpose of God to punish evildoers. We also see here that He gives opportunity to escape that punishment. The condition is also clear: repentance.

What God is going to do if they do not repent is presented just as clearly by Jeremiah. He is to tell them what will happen if they do not listen to the LORD (verse 4). To listen is not only to hear, but also to obey, which will be shown by walking according to the law of the LORD that He has set before them. The LORD has made an effort to hold the law before His people, for He has continually sent His servants, the prophets, to them (verse 5). However, He must conclude that they did not want to listen.

If this remains the case, He will make the house where they came to worship (verse 1) – that is, the temple – as Shiloh (verse 6; Jer 7:14). Jerusalem, instead of being a blessing (cf. Gen 12:3), will become a curse to all the nations of the earth.

Jer 26:7-11 | Arrest and Condemnation of Jeremiah

7 The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. 8 When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded [him] to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You must die! 9 Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD saying, ‘This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered about Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. 10 When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the LORD and sat in the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD’s [house]. 11 Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the officials and to all the people, saying, “A death sentence for this man! For he has prophesied against this city as you have heard in your hearing.”

The company of listeners who are in the court of the temple hear Jeremiah speak (verse 7). We would think that such a company of worshipers would be open to the word of the LORD. However, the opposite is the case. They are deeply offended. They let Jeremiah speak, but then they seize him, shouting that he must die (verse 8). Even before the trial has taken place, the condemnation is already in place. The priests and the prophets are at the forefront of this. Those who should be leading the people in serving the LORD are leading the people in rejecting His prophet. To all of them Jeremiah is a false prophet and they want to try him as such (cf. Deu 18:20). This is also how it went with the Lord Jesus.

The charge is made directly by the priests and the prophets. They find it intolerable that Jeremiah announced the demise of the temple and the city, their national pride (verse 9). He even dared to do this in the Name of the LORD. Such a thing can never be from the LORD, they claim. They do not say a word about Jeremiah’s call to repentance.

Then we read for the first, but not the last time, that Jeremiah’s life is threatened. The whole furious crowd gather about him, which must be a terrifying experience for him. Paul and Stephen, and above all the Lord Jesus, also stood in the midst of enraged crowds who wanted to kill them in their religious fanaticism. In the case of Stephen, his words about the temple were decisive for the leaders of the people in deciding to put him to death (Acts 6:13).

The political leaders of the people hear the uproar and come up from the king’s house to the temple (verse 10; cf. Acts 21:31-32). They take their seats in the New Gate of the temple to administer justice (cf. Deu 21:18-19; Rth 4:1-11). The priests and prophets address the judges and all the people and demand that Jeremiah be put to death, for he has offended their national pride (verse 11). Surely this does not require further explanation, for surely the princes heard it for themselves, didn’t they?

Jer 26:12-15 | Defense of Jeremiah

12 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and to all the people, saying, “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. 13 Now therefore amend your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will change His mind about the misfortune which He has pronounced against you. 14 But as for me, behold, I am in your hands; do with me as is good and right in your sight. 15 Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, and on this city and on its inhabitants; for truly the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”

Jeremiah defends himself against the charge of the priests and prophets, addressing all the officials and all the people (verse 12). He speaks without hesitation, boldly and earnestly, without asking for them to be merciful. He appeals to his calling by the LORD. His first defense is that he was sent by no one but the LORD. He has spoken His words. He is at peace with that himself and therefore he can continue to testify fearlessly. Undaunted, he repeats, the LORD will not let evil come if they listen to His voice (verse 13). They can still repent.

As for himself, he knows that his life is in the hand of the LORD. Therefore, he can say that he is in their hand and that they may do with him according to what is right in their eyes (verse 14), for they do not reckon with the will of the LORD anyway. He does not try to evade their power or plead for his life. He boldly looks death in the eye.

However, he does let them know that they will shed innocent blood when they kill him and therefore bring that blood upon themselves, the city, and the inhabitants (verse 15). The same thing happened with the killing of the Lord Jesus (Mt 27:25). Jeremiah continues to confess without fear that he has spoken the truth. The LORD sent him with the words he spoke. Killing him does not change that.

Jer 26:16-19 | Release of Jeremiah

16 Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, “No death sentence for this man! For he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.” 17 Then some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, 18 “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Thus the LORD of hosts has said,
“Zion will be plowed [as] a field,
And Jerusalem will become ruins,
And the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.”‘
19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD, and the LORD changed His mind about the misfortune which He had pronounced against them? But we are committing a great evil against ourselves.”

The officials and all the people are convinced of Jeremiah’s innocence (verse 16). Here again the people agree with the officials. The popular masses change their minds so easily (cf. verse 9). We also see this in their assessment of the Lord Jesus, but in reverse. First they shout: “Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD” (Jn 12:13), and five days later they cry out: “Away with [Him], away with [Him], crucify Him!” (Jn 19:15).

The officials turn to the accusers, the priests and the prophets. They acquit Jeremiah before them of the charges and affirm the truth of what he said. They acknowledge him as a man who spoke to them in the Name of the LORD. This is different from how it went with the Lord Jesus. Although Pilate says several times of Him that He has done nothing that deserves death, the people, led by the priests, demand that He will be put to death. Pilate grants that demand.

The officials are joined in their assessment of Jeremiah, by men from among the elders of the land (verse 17). These point to a similar case from the history of God’s people, in which Micah also preached against the temple. We would say: they know their Bible and know how to quote the right thing at the right time from it. They recall the prophet Micah from Moresheth (Mic 1:1), who prophesied in the days of Hezekiah with words similar to what Jeremiah said (verse 18) and they quote the words of Micah (Mic 3:12). Like the elders, we too should not reject a faithful preacher of the Word, but receive him, even if his message does not immediately please us.

The elders point to Hezekiah’s response to Micah’s preaching. They do so in the form of a few questions to which only one answer is possible. Doing it this way forces the hearers to give that answer themselves. Hezekiah and all Judah did not put Micah to death, because he feared the LORD (verse 19). Hezekiah also took the message to heart, for he sought the LORD’s favor to avert evil.

The last words of the elders are a warning. They acknowledge that they are in the process of doing themselves a great harm by their rejection of Jeremiah. The question is whether there is also a real work in the conscience. Quoting God’s Word is good. It keeps from committing a crime. But is this done so as not to get into trouble themselves or is it done out of a convicted conscience before God? They are indeed doing a great evil to themselves. But where is the awareness that they are in the process of doing great dishonor to God by not listening to Him?

Jer 26:20-24 | The Murder of Uriah

20 Indeed, there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land words similar to all those of Jeremiah. 21 When King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and all the officials heard his words, then the king sought to put him to death; but Uriah heard [it], and he was afraid and fled and went to Egypt. 22 Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt: Elnathan the son of Achbor and [certain] men with him [went] into Egypt. 23 And they brought Uriah from Egypt and led him to King Jehoiakim, who slew him with a sword and cast his dead body into the burial place of the common people. 24 But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hands of the people to put him to death.

Another prophet is pointed out and that is Uriah (verse 20). Like Micah from the previous section, he too preached a message similar to that of Jeremiah. Like Jeremiah, Uriah did not endear himself to the people. When Jehoiakim hears Uriah’s words, he wants to kill him (verse 21). This makes clear the contrast with Hezekiah, who bowed to the words Micah spoke. Micah did not have to flee. His words received a positive response. Uriah is forced to flee because his words meet with great resistance. Sometimes servants have to flee.

Uriah flees to Egypt. There he is not safe, however, because Jehoiakim is so angry with him, that he sends a group of men led by Elnathan after him (verse 22). They bring Uriah to Jehoiakim, who kills him with the sword and treats his dead body with contempt (verse 23). He throws his dead body in the cemetery for the common people. He is not buried in his family tomb.

Jeremiah, however, is spared (verse 24). To rescue him from the hand of his accusers the LORD uses Ahikam, the son of Shaphan [see about Shaphan and his sons and grandsons at the end of the chapter]. Ahikam still served under Josiah (2Kgs 22:12). He is the father of Gedaliah, who is appointed governor over Judah by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 39:14; 40:13-16; 41:1-3; 2Kgs 25:22). Ahikam puts himself on Jeremiah’s side and thus prevents him from being given into the hand of the people to kill him.

We cannot ascertain why Uriah is killed and Jeremiah is spared. It is as with James who is killed by Herod with the sword, while the Lord frees Peter from prison and thus prevents Herod from killing him too with the sword (Acts 12:1-10).

Shaphan and his sons and grandsons

Shaphan and (some of) his sons and grandsons play an important role in the final years of Judah. Shaphan is the scribe of King Josiah, who reports to Josiah the finding of the book of the law (2Kgs 22:3-13). Of four sons we are informed in Scripture:
1. Ahikam. This son is sent by Josiah to the prophetess Huldah to inquire about the meaning of the newly found book of the law (2Kgs 22:12-20). He prevents Jeremiah from being killed.
2. Gemariah. This son urges Jehoiakim not to destroy Jeremiah’s scroll (Jer 36:12,25).
3. Elasah. This son takes Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles (Jer 29:1-3).
4. Jaazaniah. This son takes part in the idolatry in the temple (Eze 8:11-12).
We are also told of two grandsons of Shaphan:
1. Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam. This grandson is appointed governor of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 39:14; 40:5).
2. Micah, the son of Gemariah. This grandson informs the princes that the scroll of Jeremiah will be read by Baruch (Jer 36:11-25).

Jeremiah 27

Jer 27:1-11 | The Message for the Envoys

1 In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying— 2 thus says the LORD to me—“Make for yourself bonds and yokes and put them on your neck, 3 and send word to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the sons of Ammon, to the king of Tyre and to the king of Sidon by the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. 4 Command them [to go] to their masters, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, thus you shall say to your masters, 5 “I have made the earth, the men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will give it to the one who is pleasing in My sight. 6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him. 7 All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will make him their servant. 8 “It will be, [that] the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine and with pestilence,” declares the LORD, “until I have destroyed it by his hand. 9 But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers or your sorcerers who speak to you, saying, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ 10 For they prophesy a lie to you in order to remove you far from your land; and I will drive you out and you will perish. 11 But the nation which will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let remain on its land,” declares the LORD, “and they will till it and dwell in it.”‘“

The word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah (verse 1). Jeremiah tells what the LORD has instructed him to do (verse 2). He is to portray something, making the message all the more clear. What is portrayed enlivens the message. Jeremiah is to walk around with bonds and yokes on his neck. The yokes and bonds are symbols of subjection, slavery and exile.

Thereby he shows the state of miserable bondage that will surely come if his message is rejected. He is to take his message not only to God’s people, but also to five other nations (verse 3). He is also the prophet of the nations (Jer 1:10). That this message also goes to the nations is a testimony to God’s grace.

It seems that these nations want to make a covenant with Judah. The fact that these nations were hostile to Israel until recently, seems to have been forgotten because they now have the same enemy as Israel. They seek the support of Israel to stand together against the king of Babylon and thus escape God’s discipline. For this purpose they have sent envoys to Zedekiah. But this, probably secret, consultation is not hidden from the LORD. He has a word for all these envoys that He has His servant proclaim openly.

Jeremiah is to speak to those envoys the words of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel (verse 4). God is the almighty God and specifically the God of Israel, but He is also the God of the nations (Rom 3:29). He introduces Himself to the nations as the Creator of the earth, men and beasts (verse 5). He also points to His great power by which He gives every nation and person on earth a place as it is right in His sight.

He, Who is great in power, has given dominion over the earth, man and beast, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, whom He calls “My servant” (verse 6). The wild animals are mentioned to indicate how far-reaching Nebuchadnezzar’s authority is (Jer 28:14; Dan 2:38). The LORD has also determined the length of time Nebuchadnezzar will reign (verse 7). He will yet be succeeded by his son Evil Medorach (Jer 52:31) and his grandson Belshazzar (Dan 5:2).

Although his reign will not be short-lived, the time will also come for him when his reign will be taken away from him (Dan 5:30) and he himself will serve other nations. It proves that God has all nations in His hand. He gives them into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand, but He also puts an end to Nebuchadnezzar’s empire.

When we look at the history of the nations, it seems that God does not interfere with them. Here we see that the nations are just as much under His rule as His own people. It is not the rulers of the world who rule, but God Who rules. We have to be in God’s sanctuary, the sanctuary of His Word, to see that.

God does not let disobedience to His command go unpunished (verse 8). Anyone who does not submit to Nebuchadnezzar is resisting His will. The punishment for this is that He will give that people or kingdom over to sword, famine and pestilence. As a result, He will break its power and He will bring it down by His hand. Whoever throws off the yoke of Babylon from his neck will bring even greater misery upon himself.

Jeremiah warns the envoys not to listen to all those people who tell them not to serve the king of Babylon (verse 9). They are not servants of God, but “your prophets, your diviners” and so on, all people from these five kingdoms who are under demonic influence. That makes all the difference. The false prophets are an international evil. In times of crisis, all kinds of fortune tellers come forward and say how things will go. They find a good outlet for their message, because people do want to be informed about the future, as long as it is not by the truth.

These people all speak lies by which they will be taken far from their land, from which the LORD will drive them out and they will perish (verse 10). However, whoever listens to the LORD and submits to the king of Babylon will be left in his land (verse 11). He will live in it and till it for his livelihood, so that he will dwell there.

Jer 27:12-15 | Speech to Zedekiah

12 I spoke words like all these to Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and live! 13 Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, famine and pestilence, as the LORD has spoken to that nation which will not serve the king of Babylon? 14 So do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they prophesy a lie to you; 15 for I have not sent them,” declares the LORD, “but they prophesy falsely in My name, in order that I may drive you out and that you may perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you.”

After his words to the five nations, Jeremiah now addresses Zedekiah and calls on him to surrender to the king of Babylon (verse 12). He appeals to his sober mind (verse 13). Why will they die? No one wants to die, right? But that is what awaits him and his people if they will not serve the king of Babylon, in disobedience to what God has said.

He should not listen to the lying prophets who claim otherwise by saying not to serve the king of Babylon (verse 14). Jeremiah clearly states that those prophets are not sent by the LORD and that they prophesy lies in His name (verse 15). The result is that Zedekiah will perish along with his prophets.

It is the same today. People would rather believe anyone than a true prophet of the LORD. The reason is obvious. A true prophet calls for repentance, for a breaking with sin. A human being does not want that. He wants to continue living his own life. To do this, the false prophets urge with their false promises of peace.

Jer 27:16-22 | Warning for Priests and People

16 [Then] I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, “Thus says the LORD: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of the LORD’s house will now shortly be brought again from Babylon’; for they are prophesying a lie to you. 17 Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon, and live! Why should this city become a ruin? 18 But if they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, let them now entreat the LORD of hosts that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon. 19 For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, concerning the sea, concerning the stands and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, 20 which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he carried into exile Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. 21 Yes, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of the LORD and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem, 22 ‘They will be carried to Babylon and they will be there until the day I visit them,’ declares the LORD. ‘Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.’”

Jeremiah, after his words to the five nations and to King Zedekiah, also has a word for the priests and for the people (verse 16). He speaks to them about the vessels of the house of the LORD. It is about their service to God. The vessels necessary to serve God will soon be brought back from Babylon, at least so the false prophets prophesy. False prophets tell political and religious lies. Politics and religion are conveniently linked together. False prophets always go against God’s Word, both in serving the government and in serving God. They do not give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, nor do they give to God what is God’s (Lk 20:22-26).

Jeremiah refutes the lying prophets without equivocation. The priests and the people should not listen to them (verse 17). If they listen to the LORD and serve the king of Babylon, they will live. Let them at least recognize that! Why should the city become a ruin? If those prophets are true prophets, they can prove it by urging the LORD that the vessels which are left in the temple not end up in Babylon (verse 18). True prophets are praying prophets. Prayer is having fellowship with God. It is better to pray for what is left than to think about what has been lost.

If we bow down to God’s discipline, we will urge God not to let everything be taken away to Babylon. The vessels that are left to us will be able to be used by us in worship. We no longer have everything that the first church had, but what we have, we must hold on to and glorify the Lord with it. He will then also bring back certain aspects that have been lost, just as happened in the days of the return from Babylon. Then the temple utensils were brought back with them (Ezra 1:7-11).

What remained in the temple were some large vessels and a few more vessels (verse 19). These Nebuchadnezzar did not take with him in his second deportation, when he carried Jeconiah and all the nobles into exile (verse 20). The LORD does have a word to say about those vessels left behind (verse 21). They are for His attention, just as they are for the attention of the false prophets. But while the false prophets do not want to hear of their being taken away, on the contrary, saying that the vessels taken away will soon return, the LORD says that those vessels will also be taken to Babylon.

However, a day is coming when the LORD will look after them. This is a great word of comfort for all who want to be faithful to Him. The LORD will bring the vessels which are carried to Babylon back to Jerusalem. He will do this Personally, of course through the returned exiles.

Jeremiah 28

Jer 28:1-4 | Hananiah Contradicts Jeremiah

1 Now in the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two years I am going to bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 I am also going to bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’”

From verse 1 it is clear that the first verse of the previous chapter also concerns the kingship of Zedekiah (Jer 27:1). In the fourth year of Zedekiah, a false prophet, Hananiah, appears. This man comes from Gibeon, a place with a religious history. There the tabernacle stood in the last days of David and the first days of Solomon. This place has tradition.

Hananiah dares to utter the false prophecy in the Name of the LORD of hosts, that the LORD will soon break the yoke of the king of Babylon (verse 2). He does so “in the presence of the priests and all the people”. With his false prophecy he influences both the religious leaders and the common people. In doing so, he places a great responsibility on himself.

What he says completely contradicts what Jeremiah, the prophet from Anathoth, spoke in the Name of the LORD. As a result, the people are faced with two opposing messages, both spoken in the Name of the LORD. What are they to believe? They do not believe the words of the LORD, but the message that pleases them most, the message of a speedy restoration. Possibly the occasion is the covenant Zedekiah made with other nations to defend themselves jointly against Babylon (Jer 27:3). Human efforts to free themselves from a yoke appeal to them more than humbling themselves before the LORD.

Hananiah is even bold enough to say that within two full years the LORD will bring all the vessels of the temple back to Jerusalem from Babylon (verse 3). He emphasizes the time element by mentioning that first. He also predicts the return of Jeconiah and all the exiles (verse 4). This too he does in the Name of the LORD. This shows that his preference, and also that of the people, is for Jeconiah over Zedekiah. Once again he pronounces that the LORD will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Jer 28:5-9 | Jeremiah’s Appeal to the Past

5 Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD, 6 and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the LORD do so; may the LORD confirm your words which you have prophesied to bring back the vessels of the LORD’s house and all the exiles, from Babylon to this place. 7 Yet hear now this word which I am about to speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people! 8 The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms, of war and of calamity and of pestilence. 9 The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that prophet will be known [as] one whom the LORD has truly sent.”

Jeremiah addresses the prophet Hananiah while the priests and people stand by (verse 5). Here we have prophet versus prophet. Hananiah is seemingly standing strong. He has a powerful, pleasant message, which goes down well with the people. Jeremiah has a weak appearance. He stands with a yoke on his neck and has an unpleasant message. But we see in Jeremiah how God’s power works in weakness.

Jeremiah speaks in their “presence”. They stand by and watch. With an “amen” Jeremiah agrees with what Hananiah has said (verse 6). By this he means that he would like Hananiah to be right. He knows, however, that it is not so. The exile will not last two years, but seventy years. That is what the LORD has spoken. Time will tell that Hananiah’s prophecy is a lying prophecy (Deu 13:1-5).

Then he addresses the ears of Hananiah and the ears of the people (verse 7). He points out that Hananiah and he are not the first prophets (verse 8). There have been many prophets before them. We can think of Isaiah, Amos, Micah. To whom and what did they prophesy? They have prophesied against many nations and great kingdoms “of war and of calamity and of pestilence”. They have not brought a pleasant message. That these are true prophets, they can all know. After all, they have seen that their prophecies have come true.

Of the prophet who prophesies of peace, that is Hananiah, this is yet to be seen. When the prophesied peace comes true, that prophet will be acknowledged to have been sent by the LORD in truth (verse 9; Deu 18:20-22). Jeremiah can speak in this way because he knows that Hananiah is a lying prophet. The characteristic of a lying prophet is that he always predicts prosperity without any condition attached to it and without the need for repentance.

Jer 28:10-11 | The Answer of Hananiah

10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it. 11 Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Even so will I break within two full years the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations.’” Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.

Hananiah should be willing to wait for the LORD whether his prophecy would come true. However, he knows that he is making up his prophecy. What Jeremiah says scares him. He is too proud to admit that he is prophesying lies. His response consists of an act and an explanation of it. To impress the people, he underscores his words with a violent action. He takes the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and breaks it (verse 10). He can no longer stand it. This yoke, this symbol of submission and oppression, is a thorn in his side. It must be broken. As if by doing so, its meaning would also be nullified.

The people stand and watch (verse 11). Hananiah adds to his act the statement that will have sounded pleasant to the people’s ears. When he explains the meaning of his act, he again begins his words with the formula that true prophets use. Again he misuses the Name of the LORD.

We hear no reaction from the priests or the people. They will have nodded in agreement at the words Hananiah speaks. At least this is language of hope, they think. Redemption in the near future. Jeremiah does not respond either, but goes “his way”. He does not enter into a war of words. Sometimes it is better to keep quiet and go away, than to continue to fight a lying prophet. He knows that he has the LORD on his side.

In this, Jeremiah is an example for every servant of the Lord. He has testified powerfully against evil before kings and princes, before priests and people. Here he no longer does that. He is done talking to Hananiah and does not begin a war of words “which is useless [and leads] to the ruin of the hearers” (2Tim 2:14). At some point, it is good to stop responding to the claims of those who oppose God and His Word. Jeremiah leaves it to the LORD to judge between a prophet and a prophet.

Jer 28:12-14 | Jeremiah’s More Powerful Statement

12 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, 13 “Go and speak to Hananiah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, “You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made instead of them yokes of iron.” 14 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they will serve him. And I have also given him the beasts of the field.”‘“

The LORD speaks to Jeremiah after “Hananiah the prophet” had broken the yoke from the neck of “the prophet Jeremiah” (verse 12). Both Jeremiah and Hananiah are called prophet time and again in their confrontation. It is a great trial to be opposed by people who hold the same position in God’s people. Jeremiah has given the matter into the hands of the LORD. From Him he is now instructed to prophesy against Hananiah (verse 13).

He must say to him that the wooden yokes he has broken will be replaced by iron yokes (Deu 28:48). The wooden yoke is the soft yoke of the will of God. The iron yoke is the hard yoke of sin. These yokes Hananiah will make for himself, that is, they will come upon him through his own fault. The incitement to rebel, which will avail nothing, has only brought him under even tougher domination. The LORD will do this through Nebuchadnezzar, to whom He has given power over all the nations, also giving the beasts of the field into his hand (verse 14).

Jer 28:15-17 | Death of Hananiah the Prophet

15 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen now, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you are going to die, because you have counseled rebellion against the LORD.’” 17 So Hananiah the prophet died in the same year in the seventh month.

Jeremiah has one more word for Hananiah personally (verse 15). It is a touching word, a call to listen anyway and recognize his sin that he was not sent by the LORD and caused the people to trust in a lie. Perhaps it is a call like Joshua once made to Achan (Jos 7:19). However, the judgment is certain. The LORD is going to remove him from the face of the earth (verse 16). Hananiah called for apostasy, not from Babylon, but from the LORD. This is the sin of the antichrist, of whom Hananiah is a picture (cf. Isa 22:15-19).

In Hebrew, there is a play on words in verse 15 and verse 16. Because the LORD “has not sent” (lo-selahaka) Hananiah, He says that He will “send” (mesallehaka) him from the face of the earth, that is, he will die. In other words, Hananiah was not sent as a prophet by the LORD to His people, but is now sent by the LORD from life.

Jeremiah also mentions a time limit. It is the time limit within which Hananiah will die, which is within seven months. Halfway through that year, two months after the announcement (verse 1), Hananiah dies by the judgment of God (verse 17; cf. Eze 11:13).

These are two months that the LORD adds to his life, during which he could have still made use of grace. Whether he did, we do not know. With his death, the authority of the true prophet was confirmed. These events underscore the service of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 29

Introduction

The historical situation of this chapter is that in 597 BC some 3,000 Jews were carried away into exile with Jehoiachin, including a number of priests and false prophets, along with the royal household. In Jerusalem, Jeremiah hears that some exiled false prophets are predicting a speedy fall of Babylon and a speedy restoration of the exiles.

Jeremiah therefore writes several letters to the exiles. In them, he warns them against this deception and urges them to wait patiently for God’s time. We read the first letter in verses 1-23, the second in verses 24-28, addressed to Shemaiah, a false prophet in Babylon, the third in verses 31-32.

Jer 29:1-3 | The Letter of Jeremiah

1 Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 (This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.) 3 [The letter was sent] by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying,

Jeremiah has so far always spoken to those who have remained in the land. Now we see here that the LORD is also concerned with those who have been taken into exile to Babylon. Jeremiah shares His feelings and writes them a letter (verse 1). The letter is not only addressed to the elders, but to all the exiles.

Among those who left for Babylon are the political leaders and also “the craftsmen and the smiths” (verse 2). The latter are the executors of what the politicians devise. By taking them all away, both the government and the executive are broken and there is nothing left to fear from Israel. The queen mother is Nehushta (Jer 13:18; 2Kgs 24:8).

Zedekiah has the letter delivered by two men in Babylon (verse 3). It may be that these men are an envoy going to Babylon to remit the tax to Nebuchadnezzar and assure him of Zedekiah’s loyalty. Babylon probably allows communication between those left behind in Judah and the exiles. The exiles are as exposed to the message of the false prophets as the people in Jerusalem. The hope of a soon end to the exile is also proclaimed in Babylon by the false prophets.

Jer 29:4-9 | Prescriptions for Living in Babylon

4 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 5 ‘Build houses and live [in them]; and plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. 7 Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.’ 8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. 9 For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares the LORD.

Jeremiah speaks in his letter on behalf of “the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel” (verse 4). God remains the God of His people even though they are in Babylon. Jeremiah in his letter calls the people to settle in Babylon and submit to the authority of the king of Babylon. This means acknowledging God’s judgment. Obedience is the basis for the promised blessing.

They are to do everything there that belongs to normal life. They are to build houses to live in and gardens to live from (verse 5). They are also to establish families there (verse 6). By settling there as families, children will be born who will soon be able to go back to the promised land. In the city where they reside, they are not to seek to overthrow the authority of their heathen rulers, who are certainly not well disposed to them, but they are to seek peace for them (verse 7). They are even instructed to pray for them (cf. Ezra 6:10; Psa 122:6; cf. Mt 5:43-44). The result will be that they will then have peace themselves.

Jeremiah exhorts them to live like this because their false prophets, who are there with them, say that the time of sojourn in Babylon will be but short (verse 8). Therefore, they declare, there is no need to settle there. The exiles, however, should not listen to them, for those prophets prophesy lies in the name of the LORD (verse 9). Nor has He sent them. True hope is grounded in what God says in His Word and not in the dreams of fantasists. Jeremiah confirms in his letter the duration of the exile. This is at the same time an encouragement, for he also speaks of its end.

Jer 29:10-14 | Seventy Years Exile

10 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find [Me] when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’

The LORD has determined the time period of exile for His people (verse 10; Jer 25:11-12). That period will not be exceeded. After seventy years, He will visit them. Then He will fulfill His good word and bring them back to Jerusalem. He knows His plans for His people. That are good plans, plans for welfare and not for calamity.

His plans that He communicates are about the future of His people with which He wants to give them hope (verse 11). He knows these plans, it keeps Him busy and He carries them out. Do we also know His good plans for us? Do we entrust ourselves to them? For us there is “a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1Pet 1:3).

Trusting in the goodness of the LORD will be evident in calling on and praying to Him (verse 12). He will listen to that. He will be found by those who seek Him and ask for Him with their whole heart (verse 13). The temple service is not needed as a means of drawing near to Him and the false prophets are certainly not needed for that purpose.

When someone approaches Him with a sincere heart, He will listen and hear. They may feel abandoned, but He will let Himself be found if they seek Him in spirit and in truth (cf. Jn 4:23-24). The LORD here links deliverance from exile to the prayer of His people, prayed to Him far away from the temple (verse 14; 1Kgs 8:46-51). How this works we see in what Daniel does (Dan 9:2-3).

The majority of the people will not live to see the deliverance; it is mostly for the young among them. Nevertheless, even the older ones are called to pray for it. By doing so, they can show that they trust the LORD to fulfill His Word and will encourage the young people to also pray and trust in His promises for the future.

Jer 29:15-19 | Those Who Remained in Jerusalem

15 “Because you have said, ‘The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon’— 16 for thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile— 17 thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Behold, I am sending upon them the sword, famine and pestilence, and I will make them like split-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness. 18 I will pursue them with the sword, with famine and with pestilence; and I will make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a horror and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19 because they have not listened to My words,’ declares the LORD, ‘which I sent to them again and again by My servants the prophets; but you did not listen,’ declares the LORD.

There are also in Babylon some lying prophets, of whom the people say that the LORD has raised them up (verse 15). But surely it is clear that the word of Jeremiah has come true, establishing the falsity of their prophecies, isn’t it? Despite this, they still refuse to bow under God’s judgment. Now they are told by the LORD what will happen to those who remained in Jerusalem, who did not leave with them into exile (verse 16). Zedekiah is not mentioned by name, but he is spoken of as “the king who sits on the throne of David”, which emphasizes his great responsibility.

Those left behind in Jerusalem should not think that they can escape God’s judgment. The LORD will send the sword, famine and pestilence among them (verse 17). As a result, they will become like split-open figs that are so bad that they cannot be eaten (cf. Jer 24:2-3).

The LORD will know how to find them, when He will go after them with the sword, famine and pestilence (verse 18). Besides being miserable themselves, they will be made a terror to all the kingdoms by the LORD. No one will have regard for them. They will be a mockery and reproach among all the nations to which they will be driven by the LORD. The reason is that they have not listened to His words (verse 19). This is the cause of all the misery in the world, for God’s people and every person, believer or unbeliever.

Jer 29:20-23 | Indictment of Two False Prophets

20 You, therefore, hear the word of the LORD, all you exiles, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. 21 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you falsely in My name, ‘Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will slay them before your eyes. 22 Because of them a curse will be used by all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon, saying, “May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, 23 because they have acted foolishly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken words in My name falsely, which I did not command them; and I am He who knows and am a witness,” declares the LORD.’”

Another word from the LORD (verse 20) comes to the exiles. Once again He reminds them that He Himself sent them away to Babylon. He does so emphatically by the calling: “Hear the word of the LORD.” In this we hear a deep compassion that they will listen to Him, lest, even in exile, they be deceived by the false prophets.

He points them to two lying prophets, Ahab and Zedekiah (verse 21). Because they have prophesied lies, He will hand them over into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar who will slay them before the eyes of the exiles. Nebuchadnezzar will do this because these two men have called for them not to submit to him. They will witness with their own eyes the fate of those who abuse the Name of the LORD and prophesy lies in His Name.

Their names they shall keep in remembrance (verse 22). These will always be mentioned as a proverbial curse. Thus they will pass on the warning not to oppose the king of Babylon and more so the LORD. If they do, they will be roasted in the fire just as they were. It seems that burning is a general death sentence in Babylon. We also see this with the friends of Daniel (Dan 3:19-22).

The LORD communicates why He is subjecting them to this judgment (verse 23). They have lived morally unsound lives by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors. In addition, they have also prophesied lies. These two always go together. Those who live in immorality live in lies and spread lies. God’s judgment on that does not slumber.

Jer 29:24-32 | Judgment on Shemaiah

24 To Shemaiah the Nehelamite you shall speak, saying, 25 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are in Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying, 26 “The LORD has made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, to be the overseer in the house of the LORD over every madman who prophesies, to put him in the stocks and in the iron collar, 27 now then, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who prophesies to you? 28 For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, ‘[The exile] will be long; build houses and live [in them] and plant gardens and eat their produce.’”‘“ 29 Zephaniah the priest read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet. 30 Then came the word of the LORD to Jeremiah, saying, 31 “Send to all the exiles, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite, “Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, although I did not send him, and he has made you trust in a lie,” 32 therefore thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am about to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants; he will not have anyone living among this people, and he will not see the good that I am about to do to My people,” declares the LORD, “because he has preached rebellion against the LORD.”‘“

There is also a word for Shemaiah, the Nehelamite (verse 24). This man wrote letters in his own name and sent them from Babylon to Jerusalem. In those letters he addresses the people and the priests (verse 25). In particular, he addresses the priest Zephaniah to take charge of his task as overseer in the house of the LORD, a task he has been given in place of the priest Jehoiada (verse 26). He points out to the priests, that because of their responsibility, they are obligated to throw into prison anyone who has the insane notion of being a prophet (cf. Hos 9:7b) and to chain him in such a way that it is impossible for him to speak to the people.

If this is so, why do they let this madman Jeremiah roam free (verse 27)? That man pretends to be a prophet who, by the way, dared to send a letter to them in Babylon saying that they should stay there for a long time and build houses and gardens to eat their produce (verse 28). Surely such a man must be gagged so that he cannot continue to spread his falsehood. The priest Zephaniah reads the letter to Jeremiah (verse 29). Why he does this is not clear. Is it to intimidate him, or is it to warn him?

After this word of a man the word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah (verse 30). Jeremiah is to send a new message on His behalf to all the exiles, this time about Shemaiah (verse 31). In it, the LORD declares how it really is. Shemaiah prophesied, but did so on his own initiative. The content of his prophecy is falsehood and its effect is that the people trust in falsehood and not in the word of the LORD.

The LORD declares that He will punish Shemaiah and also his descendants (verse 32). The punishment is severe. He will have no one who belongs to and is a part of God’s people. He himself will “not see the good” that the LORD will do to His people. This “good” is explained in more detail in the following chapters, Jeremiah 30-33. Shemaiah himself is completely out of it, as well as his descendants. The way away from God you never go alone. His descendants share in that fate because they themselves chose to heed their father’s call to apostasy from the LORD.

Jeremiah 30

Introduction

So far in this book we have heard prophecies of Jeremiah, that with the exception of a few passages (Jer 2:1-3; 3:14-17; 16:14-15; 23:1-8; 24:4-7), are all threatening and gloomy in character. In Jeremiah 30-33, the prophetic perspective changes to primarily hopeful. This is all the more remarkable, because the prophecies in Jeremiah 32-33 were given in the tenth year of Zedekiah, that is, just before the final fall of Jerusalem. The main idea of these chapters is that Israel as a nation will not perish.

Jer 30:1-3 | Return From Exile

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Write all the words which I have spoken to you in a book. 3 For behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah.’ The LORD says, ‘I will also bring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers and they shall possess it.’”

These verses are the introduction to Jeremiah 30-31. They deal with the hopeful theme of the restoration of the people. These verses clearly and unequivocally establish that the people will return to the land. The LORD says this to Jeremiah in a new word (verse 1). We come to a climax here.

“The word” that comes to Jeremiah implies a special commission. It does not relate to preaching or delivering a message, but is intended primarily for himself. Since he is a type of the believing remnant, it is also meant for them. He is instructed to write in a book all that the LORD has spoken (verse 2). This seems to involve Jeremiah 30-33 in particular (cf. Jer 36:2). What is written provides certainty and means of verification. Others also wrote their words in a book, such as Moses (Exo 17:14; Deu 31:24), Joshua (Jos 24:26), Isaiah (Isa 8:1; 30:8), Nahum (Nah 1:1), Habakkuk (Hab 2:2).

Jeremiah 30-33 are a separate book in this book. This “book” of four chapters is sometimes called “the book of comfort” because it is full of comfort and promises. These chapters contain the assurance of the Jews’ continued existence. At a time when so many of their people are in exile, this must be a great comfort to those who believe. It contains prophecies about the realm of peace and about the Lord Jesus, for then and through Him all that is promised in these chapters will be fulfilled. They also have a practical meaning for us who are already living in the kingdom, even though that kingdom exists now in a hidden form (Rom 14:17). In spiritual terms, we can already experience such restoration now.

Above all, through the inspired Word we know the truth of God. We see the confirmation of what He has said when what He has said is fulfilled. Here He speaks in regard to His plan to bring about a turn in the captivity of both Israel and Judah (verse 3). It is about the restoration of the twelve tribes. Israel is scattered and Judah is in exile. They will again be as one people in the land of the fathers. It is not so now and it did not happen at the return from Babylon. The return from Babylon was imperfect, both in number and in condition.

Jer 30:4-7 | The Time of Jacob’s Distress

4 Now these are the words which the LORD spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah: 5 “For thus says the LORD,
‘I have heard a sound of terror,
Of dread, and there is no peace.
6 ‘Ask now, and see
If a male can give birth.
Why do I see every man
[With] his hands on his loins, as a woman in childbirth?
And [why] have all faces turned pale?
7 ‘Alas! for that day is great,
There is none like it;
And it is the time of Jacob’s distress,
But he will be saved from it.

The LORD’s words concern the twelve tribes, now divided into ten tribes, “Israel”, and two tribes, “Judah” (verse 4). He is speaking to all of them. His words concern the whole. The words Jeremiah is to pass on from the LORD do not initially contain words of hope, but are those of “a sound of terror” (verse 5). When deliverance comes, the people will be in the deepest misery, in great fear. There is no prospect of peace.

With a question, the LORD points out the dismay of that time. He wants people to think about what caused it. The events foretold work an enormous, panic-stricken fear in the men, comparing it to the labor pains of a pregnant woman (verse 6). All their faces pale at the sight of the disasters that are coming upon them and against which all resistance is futile.

What happens next makes that day – meaning a period of time – a day unparalleled in the entire history of God’s people (verse 7). The exclamation “alas” belongs to that day. That day is the period of “the time of Jacob’s distress” (cf. Mt 24:21). At the same time, the comfort or encouragement also comes: “He will be saved from it.” When the need is greatest, the LORD comes to the aid of His people and will save them.

The prophetic Scriptures contain many references to this unique time of Jacob’s distress (Jer 46:10; Isa 2:12-21; 13:6; 34:1-8; Eze 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:1-2,11; Dan 12:1; Amos 5:18-20; Mic 1:2-5; Zec 14:1-8,12-15). The tribulation will culminate in both physical and spiritual salvation (cf. Zec 12:10-14; 13:1) such that Israel will never again be subdued by any nation. This cannot be said of any salvation that has taken place to date. The promise, “he will be saved from it”, refers to a time even now in the future.

Jer 30:8-11 | Saved From Tribulation

8 ‘It shall come about on that day,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘that I will break his yoke from off their neck and will tear off their bonds; and strangers will no longer make them their slaves. 9 But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
10 ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant,’ declares the LORD,
‘And do not be dismayed, O Israel;
For behold, I will save you from afar
And your offspring from the land of their captivity.
And Jacob will return and will be quiet and at ease,
And no one will make him afraid.
11 ‘For I am with you,’ declares the LORD, ‘to save you;
For I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you,
Only I will not destroy you completely.
But I will chasten you justly
And will by no means leave you unpunished.’

The outcome from that great distress comes from the LORD. He will break the yoke of the covenant between the antichrist and the head of the Roman empire, wearing down on His people, that is, upon the remnant thereof (verse 8). The bonds with which the remnant of His people are then bound, He will break. It is a total salvation from all hostile, oppressive powers. He will do that through His King David, the Messiah, Whom He will raise up for them (verse 9). Then they will serve the LORD their God.

With the promise of the breaking of the yoke, the LORD encourages His “servant Jacob” not to fear (verse 10). The yoke that is imposed on them next, they will gladly take, for it is the gentle, benevolent yoke of their Messiah King (Mt 11:28-30). Jacob is His servant, the people serve Him. Those who serve Him are protected by Him. “Israel” need not be dismayed either, for the people will be saved by Him from the distant lands in which they are captives. The LORD will allow Jacob to return and let him dwell in his land in peace, without worry and without fear of enemies.

He guarantees it, He is with them (verse 11). This is the great and glorious promise that makes every opposition and every danger meaningless. When He is with us, nothing can threaten us and every threat is struck down. When He has scattered His people and is bringing them back, He will destroy completely all who seek to prevent it.

But His people He will not destroy completely, of them He will not make an end. He will certainly punish them because they have deserved it. But He will do that in moderation, so that they will not be totally annihilated. He will use that discipline to cleanse them and then He will fulfill His promises to them, that is to the remnant according to the election of His grace.

Jer 30:12-17 | Wounds of Israel Healed

12 “For thus says the LORD,
‘Your wound is incurable
And your injury is serious.
13 ‘There is no one to plead your cause;
[No] healing for [your] sore,
No recovery for you.
14 ‘All your lovers have forgotten you,
They do not seek you;
For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy,
With the punishment of a cruel one,
Because your iniquity is great
[And] your sins are numerous.
15 ‘Why do you cry out over your injury?
Your pain is incurable.
Because your iniquity is great
[And] your sins are numerous,
I have done these things to you.
16 ‘Therefore all who devour you will be devoured;
And all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity;
And those who plunder you will be for plunder,
And all who prey upon you I will give for prey.
17 ‘For I will restore you to health
And I will heal you of your wounds,’ declares the LORD,
‘Because they have called you an outcast, saying:
“It is Zion; no one cares for her.”‘

The condition of the people at this time looks hopeless (verse 12). The breach between the ten and two tribes is incurable; it is a painful wound. No man can do anything about it, nor are there any means of recovery (verse 13). Politics, science or education, everything has proved futile to give them back their health. The situation is hopeless for those who do not repent.

All those on whom they placed their hope have forsaken them, they are no longer worthy of their attention (verse 14; Jer 22:20). The reason for that is that the LORD has wrought it, and the cause of it is their iniquity. He has smitten them because of the multitude of their sins. Therefore, He has become to them as “an enemy” and “a cruel one”. It is not the nations that are their real enemies, but the LORD. Therefore, crying out is completely unjustified (verse 15). They have themselves to blame for their misery. Nor do they need to blame the nations, for what comes upon them comes from the LORD. They need to turn to Him in their distress.

This is not to say that their enemies go free (verse 16). Their enemies who discipline them under God’s permission devour God’s people. They do everything out of pure self-interest, they are out for their own benefit. They too do not reckon with God. Therefore, all their adversaries will go into captivity and suffer the misery they have inflicted on God’s people.

In contrast, God will restore His people and will do so soon (verse 17). He will do so because the enemies have exploited His people while they have regarded and treated them as pariahs. They have scornfully called it “Zion”. God will show that He has chosen precisely what they have despised.

It is as with a father who disciplines his children, but who will fight like a lion against anyone who wants to harm his children. In this way, God does not allow His people to be treated with contempt or spoken of disparagingly. Whoever touches His people touches the apple of His eye.

Jer 30:18-22 | Rebuilding Jerusalem

18 “Thus says the LORD,
‘Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob
And have compassion on his dwelling places;
And the city will be rebuilt on its ruin,
And the palace will stand on its rightful place.
19 ‘From them will proceed thanksgiving
And the voice of those who celebrate;
And I will multiply them and they will not be diminished;
I will also honor them and they will not be insignificant.
20 ‘Their children also will be as formerly,
And their congregation shall be established before Me;
And I will punish all their oppressors.
21 ‘Their leader shall be one of them,
And their ruler shall come forth from their midst;
And I will bring him near and he shall approach Me;
For who would dare to risk his life to approach Me?’ declares the LORD.
22 ‘You shall be My people,
And I will be your God.’”

Glorious promises about the restoration of God’s people follow. The LORD speaks of “the tents of Jacob” and of “his dwelling places” (verse 18). These are the dwelling places in the land where He will let His people dwell in peace. Those dwelling places are now ruins because the people have been driven out of the land. Jerusalem, His “city”, His dwelling place, will also be rebuilt, as will “the palace”, the dwelling place of His King. Everything will have its rightful place. There is also a certain ascension to be seen: tent, dwelling, city, palace.

When His people dwell in peace in the land again, the land will be filled with thanksgiving (verse 19). This will go out to the LORD and be perceived as a testimony by the nations around them. It is the sound of joyful people who will be numerous. The nations around them will look up to them and despise them no more.

Their sons will serve the LORD in faithfulness, and the whole, the congregation of Israel, will be established in the land before Him forever (verse 20). They will never again be removed from it. Anyone who dares to lay a finger on them will be punished by Him.

We have in verse 21 one of those beautiful Old Testament references to the Messiah. First, the nation will be blessed with a Ruler of their own people and not of a foreign people. “Their leader”, that is the Messiah, shall be “one of them” (cf. Isa 10:34; 11:1). This is a prophecy that presents a strong consolation in light of the people’s imminent subjugation to a foreign power. He is not a foreigner, like the many foreign rulers who have ruled over them. He will speak of them as of ‘My brethren’ (cf. Deu 17:15). He is their Ruler, “the government will rest on His shoulder” (Isa 9:5), He, Who will “be ruler in Israel” (Mic 5:2). He rules.

Also, He is the One Who approaches God. This points to His priestly position and ministry (cf. Zec 6:13; Psa 110:4). He is the King-Priest, the true Melchizedek. He is the Mediator between God and His people. This Ruler needs no mediator. He is therefore greater than David and Solomon. Like Melchizedek, He will have a double function. No man can take on the service of the priesthood by himself (cf. Heb 5:4). In fact, it is dangerous even for a king to do so. We see this with Jeroboam (1Kgs 12:26-33; 13:1-6) and Uzziah (2Chr 26:16-20).

In view of the importance of approaching God, Jeremiah shows in the last lines of verse 21 by a rhetorical question that it is not a light matter. Approaching God is allowed only to the priests, who serve in the holy place, while on the day of atonement only the high priest is allowed to enter the holy of holies. The question implies a negative answer. But when the true David reigns, Israel will in truth be God’s people, and God can openly acknowledge them as His people (verse 22).

In asking who would dare to risk his life to approach the LORD, we can think of the price the Lord Jesus was willing to pay for His people on the cross. There He not only risked His life, but He gave it. He made His soul a guilt offering (Isa 53:10b) and paid the debt that we could not pay. There the Divine exchange took place: He took our sins and we received His blessing.

In Proverbs 17, we read that a person is “a man lacking in sense” if he stands surety for his neighbor (Pro 17:18). After all, you never know what you might end up with. The debt may well be so great as to be unaffordable. What the Lord did was not without “sense”. For He knew perfectly how high the price was and He knew that He could pay it. It reminds us of the statement in the letter to Philemon where the apostle Paul, as a true follower of the Lord Jesus, offers himself to Philemon as guarantor for Onesimus (Phlm 1:18).

Jer 30:23-24 | Judgment and Then Blessing

23 Behold, the tempest of the LORD!
Wrath has gone forth,
A sweeping tempest;
It will burst on the head of the wicked.
24 The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back
Until He has performed and until He has accomplished
The intent of His heart;
In the latter days you will understand this.

Mentioned here is another word about the great tribulation, called “the tempest of the LORD” and “wrath” and “a sweeping tempest” (verse 23). This word concerns the wicked. God’s burning wrath does not turn away from them, but remains on their head (cf. Jn 3:36b). Before there can be blessing, the guilty must be judged. This is said precisely here, lest the careless be given false assurance in their sins. Despite promises of hope, God always remains faithful to the holiness of His nature in all His actions.

The LORD stands behind the judgment being carried out by Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah uses the picture of a sudden tempest to describe that judgment. The LORD is doing His work of redemption by showing His power in judgment. The blessings spoken of by Jeremiah are only for the God-fearing.

God’s anger will take its full course and effect (verse 24). It cannot be stopped. For the believer, it cannot be stopped either, but he may know that it has been averted and come down on the Lord Jesus. Those who do not believe will have to bear God’s wrath themselves. We cannot always understand how God expresses His anger and thereby brings about the thoughts of His heart. There will come a time when we will understand. We may already understand much of it when we read the book of Revelation, where much is revealed about the exercise of God’s anger.

Jeremiah 31

Jer 31:1-6 | God’s Lovingkindness for Ephraim

1 “At that time,” declares the LORD, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”
2 Thus says the LORD,
“The people who survived the sword
Found grace in the wilderness—
Israel, when it went to find its rest.”
3 The LORD appeared to him from afar, [saying],
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.
4 “Again I will build you and you will be rebuilt,
O virgin of Israel!
Again you will take up your tambourines,
And go forth to the dances of the merrymakers.
5 “Again you will plant vineyards
On the hills of Samaria;
The planters will plant
And will enjoy [them].
6 “For there will be a day when watchmen
On the hills of Ephraim call out,
‘Arise, and let us go up [to] Zion,
To the LORD our God.’”

“At that time” (verse 1) is again the familiar expression for the end time (cf. Jer 30:24). Then the LORD will be the God of His people, who are here represented as “all the families of Israel”, that is, the twelve tribes and not just Judah. This refers to all the generations through the ages, but also to all the generations at that time. God will then joyfully acknowledge them as His people. They will then be focused on Him and serve no other gods.

The people who will be there then are a people preserved by grace (verse 2). Many of them have fallen by the sword of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. There are also those who have survived that sword. That is what grace has worked. They all deserved the same judgment. They found grace in the wilderness of their exile (Jer 16:14-15; 23:7-8).

The reason for His grace is His everlasting love (verse 3; Hos 11:4; 14:1; Zep 3:17). The believer sees it from afar, from distant times, for the LORD shows it to His elect. Because of that everlasting love, He has “drawn” His people “with lovingkindness”. We see how God expresses Himself in grace, love and lovingkindness. For the people, this happened the first time at Sinai. There the bond between God and His people began (Jer 2:1-3).

In His love, He will build His people again and they will be rebuilt (verse 4). He is doing it and they will experience it. He is fulfilling His promise. He is doing that to the “virgin of Israel”. They will be like a new people who are in an untainted relationship with Him and are faithful to Him. There is no mention of previous unfaithfulness. He begins history anew, as it were, with a new exodus under music and song as back then, when they went out of Egypt. “Tambourines” and “dances” are characteristic of times of joy (cf. Exo 15:20). These expressions of joy are contrasted with the sorrow of exile (Psa 137:1).

The conditions under which that new Israel will be built are those of music and dance. There is merriment all around. It is like the homecoming of the prodigal son (Lk 15:25-27). They will “again” surround themselves with music and express their joy. That time is also a time of renewed prosperity. “Again” they will plant the land with fruits that speak of joy, “vineyards”, and the fruit of them they will enjoy themselves (verse 5).

That time is the time of the restoration of the unity of the people. What the watchmen call out proves that the breach in the kingdom, which has lasted for many centuries, has been healed (verse 6). The watchmen stand in Ephraim, the ten tribes realm, and call out to arise and go up to Zion in the two tribes realm. For “the LORD our God” is there. There is then no longer any question of any jealousy between the two realms.

Jer 31:7-14 | Joy Is Back in Israel

7 For thus says the LORD,
“Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
And shout among the chief of the nations;
Proclaim, give praise and say,
‘O LORD, save Your people,
The remnant of Israel.’
8 “Behold, I am bringing them from the north country,
And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth,
Among them the blind and the lame,
The woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together;
A great company, they will return here.
9 “With weeping they will come,
And by supplication I will lead them;
I will make them walk by streams of waters,
On a straight path in which they will not stumble;
For I am a father to Israel,
And Ephraim is My firstborn.”
10 Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
And declare in the coastlands afar off,
And say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him
And keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.”
11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob
And redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
12 “They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion,
And they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD—
Over the grain and the new wine and the oil,
And over the young of the flock and the herd;
And their life will be like a watered garden,
And they will never languish again.
13 “Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance,
And the young men and the old, together,
For I will turn their mourning into joy
And will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow.
14 “I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance,
And My people will be satisfied with My goodness,” declares the LORD.

The LORD calls to sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, the twelve tribes (verse 7). With five verbs, “sing”, “shout”, “proclaim”, “give praise” and “say”, Jeremiah celebrates the great salvation that lies ahead for Israel. The people who have been trampled on for so long will then stand as chief above all the nations. Because it is not yet so, the call sounds to praise the LORD and to add to this the prayer that He saves His people. His people are “the remnant of Israel”.

Here we see that praise precedes prayer. The praise proclaims the assurance that the prayer will be answered. The answer also comes immediately, for the LORD causes the remnant to come from all the ends of the earth (verse 8; Mt 24:31). No one will be left behind by weakness or prevented by natural circumstances. It will be a great multitude. The “woman with child and she who is in labor with child” announce new life, which will make the great multitude even greater.

The remnant who return are aware that they have to blame themselves for the scattering (verse 9). For this they will weep tears of repentance. Their supplications will be answered by the LORD with His guidance. Weeping and supplication are the attitude and mind that are a joy to His heart. Such a people He can lead to streams of refreshing waters (cf. Isa 41:18; 43:20; 49:10). He does so on a path that is without unexpected turns and without any obstacles risking the danger of stumbling. He does so as a father in his care for his beloved child who is his firstborn, which is especially true of Ephraim.

The LORD makes known to all the nations what He will do to Israel (verse 10). Indeed, He had to scatter Israel because of their abandonment of Him. But He will gather them again and shepherd them. He is the good Shepherd for His people (Jn 10:1-16).

The LORD will gather His people again because He has ransomed them and redeemed them from powers stronger than they (verse 11). Without Him, His people are weaker than the weakest people. He is stronger than the strongest power and when His people acknowledge Him again, their redemption is a fact. This is especially applicable to the redemption from the power of the antichrist in the end time.

His people will come in the realm of peace – for that time is what it is all about – as a redeemed people, and stand on Zion to cheer Him (verse 12). “The bounty of the LORD” are the blessings of the land which they will enjoy abundantly: the grain, the new wine and the oil (cf. Deu 11:13-14). They will offer sacrifices to Him and honor Him. Their souls will be at perfect rest, enjoying His benefits. There is no longer any reason to be sad. Nor will the abundance of blessing make them unfaithful any longer, as it has often been with them and often is with us. The selfish use of material blessing is a source of much hatred.

The youth, which also points to this new, fresh situation, will express themselves in joy, and the old will join them (verse 13). Young women dance together, young men and old also dance together. The following practical remark may be attached to this. We do not read anywhere in God’s Word that dancing is done by a man and a woman together. It is always plural or alone and before the LORD. No wrong feelings are present in this. Dancing to please people as the daughter of Herodias does, does arouse those feelings (Mk 6:22).

It is a state of peace in the realm. There, mourning is changed to joy and there is comfort after sorrow. That reversal is from the LORD. He is the cause of their joy and comfort. He is leading His people into the realm of peace.

The priests, those who sacrifice to the LORD, will be satisfied with abundance (verse 14). So great will be the prosperity of the people bestowed upon them, that the priests will be satisfied because of the many sacrifices offered by the worshipers (cf. Lev 7:34). The abundant harvests will increase the portion of the priests.

The people, that is all the people, will also be satisfied and they will be satisfied “with My goodness”. What a deep satisfaction that must be. Spiritually speaking, we can already experience this now, if we occupy ourselves with all the good blessings given to us by the Lord Jesus and presented to us by the Spirit in God’s Word.

Jer 31:15-22 | Israel’s Lamentable Present

15 Thus says the LORD,
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
Lamentation [and] bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
She refuses to be comforted for her children,
Because they are no more.”
16 Thus says the LORD,
“Restrain your voice from weeping
And your eyes from tears;
For your work will be rewarded,” declares the LORD,
“And they will return from the land of the enemy.
17 “There is hope for your future,” declares the LORD,
“And [your] children will return to their own territory.
18 “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving,
‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised,
Like an untrained calf;
Bring me back that I may be restored,
For You are the LORD my God.
19 ‘For after I turned back, I repented;
And after I was instructed, I smote on [my] thigh;
I was ashamed and also humiliated
Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
20 “Is Ephraim My dear son?
Is he a delightful child?
Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him,
I certainly [still] remember him;
Therefore My heart yearns for him;
I will surely have mercy on him,” declares the LORD.
21 “Set up for yourself roadmarks,
Place for yourself guideposts;
Direct your mind to the highway,
The way by which you went.
Return, O virgin of Israel,
Return to these your cities.
22 “How long will you go here and there,
O faithless daughter?
For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth—
A woman will encompass a man.”

Suddenly we are back from the future to the present condition. The state of Israel now is still a state of desolation (verse 15). There is no talk of rejoicing yet. What is heard is weeping for which there is no comfort, because there is no prospect. This verse is applied to the infanticide in Bethlehem (Mt 2:16-18).

Ramah lies on the border between the ten and two tribes. Rachel’s two sons, Joseph and Benjamin, are separated. Joseph belongs to the ten tribes and Benjamin to the two. However, the children are not only separated, but they are not even there anymore, they have been taken away: the ten tribes into the scattering, the two tribes into exile. That is why Rachel weeps.

Then comes the comforting word from the LORD (verse 16). They no longer need to utter their voices in weeping and their tears need not come forth, for they will be rewarded for their faithfulness. That reward is a return from the land of the enemy. What the LORD Himself has wrought is also rewarded by Him. He gives them hope by directing their attention to what will happen in the future to the children she now weeps over: they will return to their territory, the land He has promised to give to their fathers and their descendants (verse 17).

The LORD assures Ephraim that He hears what they are complaining about (verse 18). He does not forget them, but takes note of what they say. He hears their confession, in which they acknowledge that they have been justly chastised, because they had behaved selfishly like an untrained calf. Through that chastisement, that disciplining, they are led to ask Him to accept them again because they are His own people. They ask this in the words: “Bring me back that I may be restored.” It is the prayer – not of a single sinner, an individual person, but – of the remnant of the ten tribes’ realm to the LORD to complete His work, by bringing the already inwardly converted people back into the land as well.

This question to the LORD for bringing back is misused in certain Christian (Reformed) circles as an argument that a person cannot turn back or repent, but that God must do so. This abuse stems from a misunderstanding of election. That in other Bible verses God calls man to repent, yes, commands that man must repent (Acts 17:30), people in those circles do not care. When you point that out, they invariably come up with this verse anyway. Therefore, it is important to read this verse in the context in which it appears. It concerns a people who have already come to repentance through a work of God.

The same is true of what Jeremiah says in Lamentations 5: “Restore us to You, O LORD, that we may be restored” (Lam 5:21). Jeremiah speaks these words for and on behalf of the people and not for himself or anyone personally. Jeremiah is obviously already converted and born again. This is a reversal, a return of God’s people to the relationship in which they stood to God before they abandoned Him. Therefore, an appeal to these verses by a single person as an excuse that he cannot repent is utterly misplaced.

Ephraim’s repentance is sincere. Repentance is the basis for restoration. It has dawned on them after conversion how great their unfaithfulness has been (verse 19). They have discovered themselves and acknowledged that they have been acting in their own strength. They acknowledge this with shame. Because of their deviations, even from their earliest youth, they have become humiliated.

The LORD’s response to their confession is the assurance of their worth to Him (verse 20). They are to Him a precious son, a favorite child. All of His speaking to them comes from His thoughts that are continually occupied with them. His heart goes out to them. His inner feelings go out to them, to have mercy on them. Fatherly tenderness here transcends childish rebellion and also takes it away in a righteous way. In Hebrew, “My heart yearns” is literally “My bowels make noise”. The LORD’s speaking here is very human.

He is pointing His people, the ten tribes, out of the scattering, the way back to Him (verse 21). They are to determine the direction and set their hearts on it. Then, like the prodigal son, they practice what they intended to do and get up and head for their land (Lk 15:18,20a). He is calling them as “virgin of Israel” to now make their way back to Him and to their own cities.

The “virgin of Israel” is now still the “faithless daughter” (verse 22), turning in all directions to get support from somewhere, but not looking up to ask from the LORD for that support. However, her twisting is coming to an end. The LORD will create something new. She will repent to the LORD. Then she will overcome the power of the nations that now rule over her. Generally, “woman” stands for weakness and “man” for strength. The main idea of the verse is that what is weak will win over what is strong. God’s power is accomplished in weakness. The weak shames the strong (cf. 1Cor 1:27b).

Jer 31:23-26 | Judah’s Bright Future

23 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Once again they will speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities when I restore their fortunes,
‘The LORD bless you, O abode of righteousness,
O holy hill!’
24 Judah and all its cities will dwell together in it, the farmer and they who go about with flocks. 25 For I satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes.” 26 At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

The LORD encourages Judah and its cities (verse 23). He says He will bring a reversal in their captivity. Then the old greeting of blessing will again be heard from the mouths of those who visit Jerusalem. That blessing is based on the fact that they will again live in Judah on the basis of righteousness and holiness. There is no blessing apart from these aspects, which are also the absolute guarantee of the blessing. “The holy hill” refers to the Temple Mount and to Jerusalem as a whole (cf. Psa 2:6; Isa 66:20).

At that time, the city will again be characterized by its righteousness (cf. Isa 1:21). When that righteousness is there, which has its origin in the Messiah Who reigns, there will also be peace. There will be fellowship and cooperation in peace (verse 24). They will be satisfied and refreshed by the LORD (verse 25). Fatigue and sorrow will no longer be there because He has removed all reason for them.

Jeremiah has seen that scene in a dream (verse 26), for the reality that surrounds him is totally unlike it. When he wakes up, he looks around and observes it. Yet his dream is not a deception. He is pleasantly refreshed by his sleep. He is comforted by it because what he has seen will happen. Here the dream is a means that reveals what will happen. We see such dreams for example in the histories of Jacob, Joseph, Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar.

We may also think about the fact that the Lord Jesus will make everything right. We do not see that yet, we only see misery, but the thought of the future is pleasant to us and refreshes us. When we think of the future we read about in God’s Word, we are not daydreaming or building castles in the air. It is really true what awaits us because it is based on righteousness and holiness through the work of Christ. The false prophets also have their dreams and tell them to the people (Jer 29:8). When they wake up, it will not be pleasant.

Jer 31:27-30 | Abundance Under the Messiah

27 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. 28 As I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD.
29 “In those days they will not say again,
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.

The time of blessing will come (verse 27). There will be an abundance of people and beasts in both the houses of Israel which will then be one house. The LORD will sow the seed of people and beasts and there will be an abundant harvest (cf. Eze 36:8-11; Hos 1:11; 2:23). What a contrast that will be, compared with the desolation of the land now, when the people have been taken away into exile and the livestock have nothing to live on.

The LORD will fulfill His word to build up and plant just as He has said about to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy and to bring disaster (verse 28). They will see that His judgments were justified. They will acknowledge that they came on them not because their fathers sinned (verse 29), but because they themselves deserved them (verse 30; cf. Eze 18:2-3).

Jer 31:31-34 | A New Covenant

31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Verses 31-40 are about the new covenant:
1. The time of the covenant (verse 31) – “days are coming”
2. The Maker of the covenant (verse 31) – “the LORD”
3. The name of the covenant (verse 31) – “new covenant”
4. The parties of the covenant (verse 31) – “the LORD”, “the house of Israel” and “the house of Judah”
5. A different covenant (verse 32) – “not like the covenant” of old, the first covenant, based on merit and works
6. The place of the covenant (verses 33-34) – “within them and on their heart”
7. The immutability of the covenant (verses 35-37) – as immutable as the fixed cycle of nature
8. The tangible aspects of the covenant (verses 38-40) – Jerusalem rebuilt in holiness and permanence
9. The surety of the covenant – “says the LORD” (nine times).

This section does represent a highlight in Jeremiah’s teaching. It begins with the attention-grabbing word “behold” (verse 31). The words “days are coming” Jeremiah has used before. They place the prophecy in Messianic times, in the day of the LORD, the period leading to the conclusion of the history of the people (cf. verse 27).

In the days to come, the LORD will make a new covenant with the two houses of Israel. The parties of the covenant are the LORD, the house of Israel and the house of Judah. We see here that the covenant recalls the tearing of the people into two kingdoms, but we also see that it includes both parts of the people. The entire covenant is for the whole people. Therefore, the new covenant, like the old covenant, will be made with God’s chosen earthly people. It cannot be made with the church, simply because there is no former (old) covenant made with the church. Nor can it be made because the church did not exist at all in the Old Testament.

At the same time, this new covenant is a quite different covenant. It is not like the old covenant that He made with their fathers at Sinai, after He delivered them from Egypt (verse 32). Attached to that old covenant are also conditions to which the people committed themselves. They are, as it were, marriage conditions, for the LORD has married them and shown them His love. However, the people have broken their promises of faithfulness and thus the promised blessing was forfeited.

The new covenant is of a quite different character (verse 33). It is not better because the old one is bad, but because it is based on better promises. The old covenant depends on man’s obedience. The new covenant is a one-sided covenant with only conditions or promises on God’s side. In addition, He can fulfill His conditions by virtue of the blood of His Son, through which sins committed under the old covenant can be forgiven (Mt 26:27-28; Lk 22:20; Heb 8:12). The Lord Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant. He has secured the blessings of the new covenant through His death (Heb 9:15).

He will also enable them to fulfill what He asks of them, for He gives His law in their innermost being and writes it on their heart. They will fulfill His will with full consent and completely. Then He will be their God and they will be His people. The relationship is made right by the faithfulness of God, a relationship based on the blood of the new covenant (2Cor 3:1-18; Heb 8:1-13).

They will no longer need to exhort one another to be faithful to the LORD (verse 34). The prophets are no longer needed. Teaching in the law is also no longer necessary, for they all have knowledge of the LORD and His will. Knowing the Lord Jesus is the starting point for getting to know Him better, to “know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Phil 3:10). We may pray that we be given “a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Eph 1:17).

In their relationship to the LORD, what had hindered that relationship was removed: their iniquities and their sins. This is also a cause for us to surrender ourselves completely to the will of God and live for Him. If we love Him, we will live for Him and keep His commandments and His word (Jn 14:21,23).

Jer 31:35-40 | Israel Remains Forever

35 Thus says the LORD,
Who gives the sun for light by day
And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar;
The LORD of hosts is His name:
36 “If this fixed order departs
From before Me,” declares the LORD,
“Then the offspring of Israel also will cease
From being a nation before Me forever.”
37 Thus says the LORD,
“If the heavens above can be measured
And the foundations of the earth searched out below,
Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel
For all that they have done,” declares the LORD.
38 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the city will be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The measuring line will go out farther straight ahead to the hill Gareb; then it will turn to Goah. 40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD; it will not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”

The LORD confirms all the previous promises with the strongest pledges. He points to the fixed order in the creation of sun, moon and stars, to which no power can change anything (verse 35). He also stands behind the roaring of the waves of the sea which also no man can tame. His Name is “LORD of hosts”.

Just as the ordinances He instituted for His creative work will never depart from before Him, so the posterity of Israel will never cease to be a people before Him (verse 36). He adds, “forever” which is literally “all the days”. Every day He will be there for His people, just as He cares for His creation every day. He had to hide His face from them for some time, but that time is gone forever.

To establish His covenant with His people even more strongly, He points to the immensity of heaven above and the impossibility to search out the foundations of the earth below (verse 37). It is reminiscent of Paul’s praise of God’s actions in restoring Israel (Rom 11:33-36). All that the people have done has not been able to change His mind regarding His purpose to bless them. The way in which He has acted in this regard is eternally worthy of our worship. His righteousness and mercy have been fully vindicated by what Christ has done. To Him be the glory forever!

In the days to come, Jerusalem will be rebuilt (verse 38). She will then be before the LORD. The circumference of the city will be measured (verse 39), reminiscent of the measuring of the new Jerusalem (Rev 21:15). Measuring means establishing ownership. There will also be an area with remembrance of the judgments (verse 40). That area will be set apart for the LORD. Everything outside of it will be kept by Him. Never again will any of it be torn away or broken down. When He rules, there will be complete peace and security.

Jeremiah 32

Introduction

In this chapter Jeremiah’s faith in the LORD’s words about restoration in Jeremiah 30-31 is being tested. This chapter is important because it shows the reality of Jeremiah’s faith in the promises of the LORD about the restoration of the people.

Jer 32:1-5 | Circumstances of Jeremiah

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 Now at that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which [was in] the house of the king of Judah, 3 because Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it; 4 and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye; 5 and he will take Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will be there until I visit him,” declares the LORD. “If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed”‘?”

These verses are the introduction to a special event in Jeremiah’s life. That event relates to buying a piece of land and contains a wonderful illustration of true faith. The situation at that time looks anything but rosy for Jeremiah. This event is right in the middle of the comfort book of Jeremiah 30-33 and fits in perfectly.

The word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah in the tenth year of Zedekiah’s reign (verse 1). Zedekiah reigned for eleven years (2Chr 36:11). In the eleventh year, Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem. Before the word of the LORD is given – it comes in verse 6 – we first hear of Jeremiah’s circumstances. The situation is very dire. The Babylonians have moved against Jerusalem and laid siege to the city (verse 2). In the captive city, Jeremiah himself is also imprisoned.

Zedekiah has him shut up because he constantly says that the LORD will give the city into the hand of the king of Babylon (verse 3). Zedekiah will also be captured and brought before the king of Babylon (verse 4). There he will remain, until the LORD finds it enough and will visit him (verse 5). Jeremiah called for him not to fight against the king of Babylon, but to surrender to him. All this Zedekiah holds out to Jeremiah. He should, as it were, just think about it and stop speaking so. Then he will be set free again.

Jer 32:6-8 | Offer to Buy a Field

6 And Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 7 ‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you, saying, “Buy for yourself my field which is at Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy [it].”‘ 8 Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of the LORD and said to me, ‘Buy my field, please, that is at Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for you have the right of possession and the redemption is yours; buy [it] for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

While Jeremiah is in prison because Zedekiah no longer wants to hear His service, the word of the LORD comes to him (verse 6). A prison is no hindrance to the LORD passing on His word to His prophet. He tells Jeremiah that he will be visited by his cousin Hanamel (verse 7). His cousin will ask him to buy his field, because he has the right of redemption (Lev 25:23-28; Rth 4:1-6). The enemy has already taken possession of the entire land, including Anathoth. Only Jerusalem has yet to be taken. That the enemy already possesses Anathoth makes the request to buy the land remarkable.

As the LORD has said, it happens. Hanamel comes to Jeremiah in his captivity and makes him the offer to buy his field (verse 8). He adds where the field is and why Jeremiah is being offered the field for sale. Jeremiah acknowledges in what is happening, that it is the hand of the LORD.

It is a remarkable message. It is not a command, for we do not read the LORD telling Jeremiah to buy that field. All the circumstances indicate that buying a piece of land is a foolish investment. The enemy is in front of the city and it will soon be destroyed. Anathoth is already in the hands of the enemy. Jeremiah himself is in prison. Now in such a situation and with such a prospect, what is one to do with buying a piece of land?

However, it is not a foolish investment if you believe that the LORD will give restoration. Rather, it is then a testimony of faith. Jeremiah also spoke of that restoration and not just the removal and destruction. The simple purchase of a field becomes an act of faith because of the circumstances.

Jer 32:9-15 | Jeremiah Buys a Field

9 “I bought the field which was at Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle’s son, and I weighed out the silver for him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I signed and sealed the deed, and called in witnesses, and weighed out the silver on the scales. 11 Then I took the deeds of purchase, both the sealed [copy containing] the terms and conditions and the open [copy]; 12 and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel my uncle’s [son] and in the sight of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, before all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard. 13 And I commanded Baruch in their presence, saying, 14 ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Take these deeds, this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, that they may last a long time.” 15 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”‘

Jeremiah, recognizing the word of the LORD through his cousin’s visit and offer, buys the field (verse 9). He weighs the asking price for it. Although Jeremiah is a prisoner, he apparently does have some freedom of action. The amount is not high. That will have to do with the situation at the time.

The transaction is recorded in a deed of purchase that Jeremiah signs (verse 10). He then seals the deed and has witnesses confirm that he has paid the correct amount. The deed consists of two deeds: a sealed deed and an open deed (verse 11). The sealed deed provides security; the open deed can be seen by anyone to prove that the deal was done entirely as agreed.

The sealing is regulated by law. Jeremiah gives both deeds to Baruch. Everything is transacted with the greatest openness (verse 12). Everything is transparent and observable by all. There is no suspicion that anything is done with hidden intentions. At the same time, it is also a testimony of faith. Jeremiah buys a piece of land also as proof of his trust in the LORD, that He will give restoration.

When Jeremiah hands the deeds to Baruch, he adds a command (verse 13). Baruch is to put the sealed deed and the unsealed deed in an earthenware jar (verse 14). Jeremiah gives him this instruction in the Name of “the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel”. The power of God and that He is the God of His people are for faith the guarantee of His promises (cf. Jer 27:4). They are to be put into an earthenware jar, in order that both deeds may be kept for a long time and that they may be legible after that long time. When they are brought out after a long time, it will be seen that the deed left open and the sealed deed have the same content. The purchase will still be in full force.

That they will be brought out is certain. For the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says that a time will come when houses and fields and vineyards will be bought again in this land (verse 15). Jeremiah’s purchase is a purchase in faith. He is doing in faith what will soon be possible for the whole land.

What happens to Jeremiah is a picture of what happens to Christ. Christ has not only been in prison, but has purchased the field, the world, with His blood (Rev 5:1-13). We see Him breaking the seals of ownership of the world because He is the rightful Owner (Rev 6:1-17). Then He comes to claim His inheritance and all believers may be present at that moment (Rev 19:11-21).

Jer 32:16-25 | Jeremiah’s Doubts and Prayer

16 “After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, then I prayed to the LORD, saying, 17 ‘Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You, 18 who shows lovingkindness to thousands, but repays the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their children after them, O great and mighty God. The LORD of hosts is His name; 19 great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, giving to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds; 20 who has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, [and] even to this day both in Israel and among mankind; and You have made a name for Yourself, as at this day. 21 You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror; 22 and gave them this land, which You swore to their forefathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. 23 They came in and took possession of it, but they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your law; they have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have made all this calamity come upon them. 24 Behold, the siege ramps have reached the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, the famine and the pestilence; and what You have spoken has come to pass; and behold, You see [it]. 25 You have said to me, O Lord GOD, “Buy for yourself the field with money and call in witnesses”—although the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’”

When the purchase is done, Jeremiah is overcome by despair and prays to the LORD (verse 16). He does not report his doubts to people, but does the only right thing. He turns to the Lord GOD, Adonai Yahweh, which is the sovereign Ruler (Adonai) and the God of the covenant with His people (Yahweh) (verse 17). He remembers Who the LORD is. He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, which He made by His great power and His outstretched arm. For that great, all-powerful Creator, nothing is too difficult. That Creator proves Himself both in lovingkindness and in repayment of the iniquity to men (verse 18). Also in these acts He proves to be the “great and mighty God”.

This God is “great in counsel and mighty in deed”, just in His ways with men, to thereby give to each what is due him as a result of his actions (verse 19). He is not an unmoved spectator of all that men do. Often we think so, but that is because of our limited view. That He is concerned with what happens on earth and especially with His own, He has shown in the signs and wonders He performed in Egypt, at the deliverance of His people from it (verse 20). He has also shown it in Israel and to all people on earth, as it was visible at that time.

With His people He has gone a special way. He has always proven Himself to His people as the God Who has been working for them since He led them out of the land of Egypt (verse 21). He has brought them into the land which He swore to their fathers to give them, the good land flowing with milk and honey (verse 22). Briefly Jeremiah summarizes: “They came in and took possession of it” (verse 23). Immediately he adds how they behaved in it. They have not done what the LORD has said, and therefore He has made all this calamity they are now experiencing, to come upon them (Neh 9:22-35).

Jeremiah, with the exclamation “behold, the siege ramps “ directs the LORD’s attention to the current situation (verse 24). At the same time, he justifies the LORD. What He has said that should happen, is happening. After all, the LORD sees it Himself.

Then comes his desperate question that always plays in the background of everything he has said before about the LORD and His people. How is it possible, when the situation is so hopeless because of the people’s unfaithfulness, that he had to buy a certain field with witnesses to it (verse 25)? Surely the LORD does see that this purchase seems to be of no use because the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans, doesn’t He?

Jer 32:26-35 | The Answer of the LORD

26 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 27 “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” 28 Therefore thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am about to give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it. 29 The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will enter and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses where [people] have offered incense to Baal on their roofs and poured out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger. 30 Indeed the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have been doing only evil in My sight from their youth; for the sons of Israel have been only provoking Me to anger by the work of their hands,” declares the LORD. 31 “Indeed this city has been to Me [a provocation of] My anger and My wrath from the day that they built it, even to this day, so that it should be removed from before My face, 32 because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah which they have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their kings, their leaders, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned [their] back to Me and not [their] face; though [I] taught them, teaching again and again, they would not listen and receive instruction. 34 But they put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. 35 They built the high places of Baal that are in the valley of Ben-hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through [the fire] to Molech, which I had not commanded them nor had it entered My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

Then comes the LORD’s answer to Jeremiah (verse 26). It is an answer in which we must learn to rest. He is “the LORD, the God of all flesh” (verse 27), that is, not only of His people Israel, but of all mortal and limited people. He is far above them. All His purposes He will carry out, no matter how the situation, in which His people, then or now, find themselves, may seem to belittle it. To Him nothing is too difficult, a word the LORD also said to Abraham a thousand years earlier in connection with the birth of a son, while he and Sarah were at that time humanly too old to have children (Gen 18:14).

The city will be taken by the Babylonians (verse 28). That is the current situation. The LORD is doing this on the basis of His Word, because His people have been unfaithful to Him. The enemies will ruin the city (verse 29). They will burn the city and also the houses, because many houses have become idolatrous altars, where people offer sacrifices to Baal and other gods. Consequently, the LORD has become angry toward the city.

Their behavior has not suddenly changed. They have done what is evil in His sight from their youth, from their earliest days as a nation (verse 30). There has hardly been a time when the city has responded to His purpose (verse 31). It is remarkable how long the LORD has endured the city. But the time of forbearance has an end. He must now remove the city from before His face. The attitude of the entire population of the city is the cause of it (verse 32).

The LORD taught them about His will every time, early and late, all day long, but they turned their back and not their faces to Him (verse 33). We too can experience this ingratitude from those to whom we have done good and for whom we have sought good.

Instead of repenting, they have taken their wickedness to the extreme, by setting up abominable idols in His house (verse 34). By doing so, they have defiled the house of His Name. Even outside of it, the abominations are endless (verse 35). They sacrifice their children to Molech, the god of the Ammonites. God did not command this, it is nowhere in the law, not even a thought of it entered His heart. Such disgusting acts are entirely strange to Him and He does not encourage people to do them (Jam 1:13). Idolatry in any form and sins in any expression do not come from Him. He is not the Author of sin.

Jer 32:36-44 | Promises of Restoration

36 “Now therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning this city of which you say, ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine and by pestilence.’ 37 Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My anger, in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety. 38 They shall be My people, and I will be their God; 39 and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good and for [the good of] their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me. 41 I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul. 42 For thus says the LORD, ‘Just as I brought all this great disaster on this people, so I am going to bring on them all the good that I am promising them. 43 Fields will be bought in this land of which you say, “It is a desolation, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.” 44 Men will buy fields for money, sign and seal deeds, and call in witnesses in the land of Benjamin, in the environs of Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland and in the cities of the Negev; for I will restore their fortunes,’ declares the LORD.”

The LORD now has another word of comfort for Jeremiah and for every God-fearing person (verse 36). He again introduces Himself as “the LORD God of Israel”, despite the circumstances in which His people find themselves. The city is given into the hand of the king of Babylon under terrible circumstances. Jeremiah rightly says so.

Then comes the word of comfort, the promise (verse 37). The “anger”, “wrath”, and “great indignation” of the LORD to which He also points at the same time, do indicate in their combination how much the punishment is deserved. But the disciplining has an end and the people have a restoration. God will bring His disciplined people, whom He has driven out and scattered, back to Jerusalem and cause them to dwell there unconcerned, without fear of enemies and in peace and prosperity. They will be His people and He will be their God (verse 38).

Their hearts will no longer be divided, but undivided on Him (verse 39). They will have a new heart (Eze 36:26), by which they will also go one way, His way. They will not stray from that way, to go back into their own ways. There is fear of Him in them and also in their children. That fear will be a benefit to them. Fearing the LORD brings good upon a people.

The LORD makes an everlasting covenant with them (verse 40). He guarantees its fulfillment. He promises that He will not turn away from them, and will do them good. He does not have to turn away from them anymore either, because He will put His fear into their hearts so that they will not turn away from Him anymore. God never changes. The problem is always man’s erring heart. That problem will then be solved. There is perfect harmony between the desires of God and those of His people. They will delight the LORD and He will do them good (verse 41).

He will turn everything to good for His people, who will then be faithful to Him, “with all My heart and with all My soul”. This is a unique expression that reveals that the LORD is speaking in rapture, as it were, of His purpose to plant His people in their land.

It is God’s greatest possible joy also today, to bring restoration among His people when He sees repentance. Then He wants to give again the enjoyment of the blessings of the land, blessings connected with a glorified Lord. Returning to the land also means returning to God’s altar and God’s house.

The LORD will bring good upon His people, just as He has brought disaster on His people by virtue of His Word (verse 42). He has spoken it, and what He says He makes true. His Word is a word that has power. It makes everything sure and certain.

When the people have returned from exile, fields will be bought again, as Jeremiah has already done in faith (verse 43). It will take a long time, another seventy years, but the return will come. Then the whole exile will be forgotten. For Jeremiah, its redemption will happen in the realm of peace. What he has acquired, he will not lose.

All possessors of fields will then be put in possession of their property (verse 44). Each one will be able to prove the right to it. It is a right granted to them by the LORD who has given a portion in the land to each tribe of His people. They can count on it to happen, for the LORD has said that He will restore the fortunes of His people.

Jeremiah 33

Jer 33:1-3 | Call to the LORD

1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD who made [the earth], the LORD who formed it to establish it, the LORD is His name, 3 ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

Jeremiah is confined, but that does not prevent the LORD from sending His message to this man of God (verse 1; 2Tim 2:9). The LORD first directs Jeremiah’s attention to Himself as “the LORD Who made” it (verse 2). He is the God Who works it, whatever it is – except sin, for it is not in Him and He cannot sin. Jeremiah may know that, like Paul (Eph 3:1; 4:1), he is a prisoner of His. The LORD forms His plan and establishes His purpose. He works on a plan and also carries it out. “LORD is His Name.” That is the guarantee of everything.

When He has thus presented Himself, He encourages Jeremiah to call to Him, the LORD (verse 3; Mt 7:7-8). He assures him that He will answer him. In that answer, He will make known to him “great and mighty things”. The things that Jeremiah does not know and no man can know, because they are beyond his human understanding and knowledge, the LORD will tell him when he calls to Him.

This is also a great incentive for us to call to Him. He wants to make known things that are beyond human understanding and require Divine revelation.

Jer 33:4-5 | Certainty of the Fall of Jerusalem

4 For thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah which are broken down [to make a defense] against the siege ramps and against the sword, 5 ‘While [they] are coming to fight with the Chaldeans and to fill them with the corpses of men whom I have slain in My anger and in My wrath, and I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness:

First the LORD speaks of the houses of Jerusalem, both of the common man and of the kings (verse 4). He points out that they are broken down to make siege ramps and defend themselves behind them with the sword. They do everything they can to defend themselves against the Babylonians (verse 5). It will all be in vain, for the LORD has taken away His favor from them because of “all their wickedness”.

What they have built to defend themselves will be filled with the dead bodies of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Those dead bodies have been slain by Him. The Chaldeans are doing what He wants to bring upon them in His anger and wrath, because of the wickedness of the city. He can no longer look upon the city because it is full of sin. Here we see the folly of disobedience. When we go our own way and follow our own will, disaster is the result.

Jer 33:6-13 | Days of Return and Joy

6 Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth. 7 I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and will rebuild them as they were at first. 8 I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me. 9 It will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.’ 10 “Thus says the LORD, ‘Yet again there will be heard in this place, of which you say, “It is a waste, without man and without beast,” [that is], in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, 11 the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say,
“Give thanks to the LORD of hosts,
For the LORD is good,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting”;
[and of those] who bring a thank offering into the house of the LORD. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were at first,’ says the LORD. 12 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘There will again be in this place which is waste, without man or beast, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds who rest their flocks. 13 In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin, in the environs of Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who numbers them,’ says the LORD.

Then suddenly, the word of restoration and healing sounds (verse 6). The LORD Himself will work that. The result will be an abundance of lasting peace. It will not be the case that after a period of rest the people will turn away again, as has so often been the case in the history of Israel and as we see for example in the book of Judges. This promise is a wonderful grace. God is indeed the God of all grace. We too have lasting peace if we walk in fellowship with Him, in His way, and surrender all our needs and concerns to Him, trusting that He will make all things well (Phil 4:6-7).

The LORD will work that reversal (verse 7). A small pre-fulfillment is the return from Babylon, but there is no lasting peace then. The full fulfillment will take place in the realm of peace. Then the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel will be over and they will be built up as before, in the days when they entered the promised land. There are two captivities here, one of Judah and one of Israel. Both empires have been in captivity in diverse ways. Judah has been in Babylon and Israel has been in the scattering.

In order to bring them into that blessing, the LORD must first cleanse them from all their iniquity (singular) with which they have sinned against Him (verse 8). We can think here of the sinful nature, the source from which all their iniquity sprang. He will cleanse them by pardoning them all their iniquities (plural) with which they have sinned against Him and rebelled against Him. They are two forms of iniquity: that of sin and that of rebellion. Both are sins against God. One is more general, doing one’s own will in a way of unbelief and disobedience. The other is more violent, rejecting any correction.

The city will then become to the LORD a name of joy, praise and glory (verse 9). Now Jerusalem is still a name that brings shame and causes sorrow to the LORD. That will change. Jerusalem means “foundations of peace”. All the nations of the earth will praise the city for its splendor. They will hear all the good that the LORD will do to it.

Also, they will fear and tremble, precisely because of all the good and all the peace that the LORD provides for His people. They have always thought they could oppress Israel and always tried to wipe it out. Now they see the LORD blessing the people. They see themselves facing the power of the LORD, Who is on the side of the people they wanted to destroy.

The LORD goes on to speak of the profound change that the city and the land will undergo in that time of good and peace (verses 10-11). A partial fulfillment of this we see in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, but the final, full fulfillment takes place again in the millennial realm of peace. All kinds of sounds of joy will again be heard in the ruined and desolate city.

There is now no joy without the LORD. All this joy is expressed in praising the LORD, that He is good because His lovingkindness is everlasting. This is the characteristic expression for the realm of peace. The praise of the LORD will be expressed in the offering of a thank offering in the house of the LORD, the temple.

All this will happen through the reversal that the LORD will bring to the captivity of the land. As a result, the land will become as it was at first, says the LORD. Not only have the people been in captivity, but also the land has been in captivity. The land is the LORD’s land, but it has been in foreign hands because He had to surrender it to them because of the unfaithfulness of His people. This will also come to an end in the reversal that He is working. Then the land and all that it yields and everyone who lives in it will be completely dedicated to Him.

The LORD points out again that all these glorious things will happen in the place that is now desolate and waste (verse 12). In Jerusalem and in all the cities of Judah, there will again be pasture land where shepherds rest their flocks. It shows a scene of care and peace, rest and security. All the sheep that are there will be counted (verse 13). Not one will be missed. That is what the LORD will do to His people. It will happen, because the LORD says so. Each time we read “says the LORD” is a confirmation that it will definitely come to pass because He has said so.

Jer 33:14-22 | Restoration of Kingship and Priesthood

14 ‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. 16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell in safety; and this is [the name] by which she will be called: the LORD is our righteousness.’ 17 For thus says the LORD, ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; 18 and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to prepare sacrifices continually.’” 19 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 20 “Thus says the LORD, ‘If you can break My covenant for the day and My covenant for the night, so that day and night will not be at their appointed time, 21 then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant so that he will not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levitical priests, My ministers. 22 As the host of heaven cannot be counted and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.’”

The LORD points to the days to come as days when He will fulfill “the good word” that He has spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah (verse 14). That fulfillment is fully connected with the coming of the “righteous Branch”, Whom the LORD will cause to arise for David in those days and in that time, the time of the realm of peace (verse 15). That is none other than the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, through Whom the LORD will do justice and righteousness on earth as an introduction to the establishment of a thousand years of peace. Every restoration has Him as its centerpiece; it depends entirely on Him. Without Him there is no restoration.

Justice and righteousness are also the hallmarks of His government during the realm of peace. He is the Prince of peace. Judah is then delivered from all its enemies (verse 16). Jerusalem will be in safety and live untroubled. The city is then called by the name by which previously the LORD, that is, the Lord Jesus, was called (Jer 23:5-6). Jerusalem is a glorious city because of the glory of the LORD that He has placed upon it, a glory that it will never lose.

This is because the Davidic kingship will not come to an end (verse 17). The King Who reigns then, will reign in everlasting faithfulness. The Levitical priesthood will also have no end (verse 18). The priests will forever offer the sacrifices that will always remind the LORD of the basis for that glorious time: the perfect and glorious work of His Son on earth. Those sacrifices will be offered “continually” or “all the days”.

Again it is said that the word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah, again that certainty that what follows is sure because He says it (verse 19). The confirmation of what the LORD has said is underlined even more powerfully by His reference to His covenant with the day and His covenant with the night (verse 20). As impossible as it is to break the cycle of day and night, it is impossible to break God’s covenant with David “My servant”, and with the Levites, “My ministers”. David’s kingship remains and so does the Levitical priesthood (verse 21). Here again we see the close connection between kingship and priesthood.

There will even be a posterity of David and of the Levites that is compared to the way the posterity of Abraham is described (verse 22; Gen 22:17a). This indicates that the offspring of Abraham, that is all the people, will be a royal priesthood (Exo 19:6a). Thus, they will serve the LORD.

Jer 33:23-26 | Confirmation of the Promises

23 And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 24 “Have you not observed what this people have spoken, saying, ‘The two families which the LORD chose, He has rejected them’? Thus they despise My people, no longer are they as a nation in their sight. 25 Thus says the LORD, ‘If My covenant [for] day and night [stand] not, [and] the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established, 26 then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.’”

Again the word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah (verse 23). The LORD asks Jeremiah if he has also noticed how the people speak of what He, according to them, has done to His people (verse 24). They speak of the fact that He has now rejected the two generations that He had chosen – by this they mean that of David and that of Levi about which the LORD has just said such wonderful things. They blame Him for the misery they are in and declare that God’s people are no longer His people.

Jeremiah should just not be fooled and discouraged by that talk. Once again the “thus says the LORD” is heard followed by a repetition of the declaration of God’s covenant with the day and the night (verse 25). An additional assurance is added and that is that He also established the fixed patterns of heaven and earth. Just as He will not overturn those two fixed certainties, neither will He reject the descendants of Jacob and that of His servant David (verse 26). That would be tantamount to saying that He would not take rulers from the descendants of David to rule over the descendants of the patriarchs to whom He promised.

The mention of the names “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”, of whom they are “the descendants”, gives the greatest possible assurance of the fulfillment of the promises made to them. The unchanging promises He has made to them guarantee that He will see to it that the descendants about whom and the rulers of whom He has spoken will be there. For this He will bring a reversal in their captivity. He will not leave His people to their fate, but will take care of them.

Jeremiah 34

Jer 34:1-7 | Announcement of the End of Zedekiah

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army, with all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him: “Thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire. 3 You will not escape from his hand, for you will surely be captured and delivered into his hand; and you will see the king of Babylon eye to eye, and he will speak with you face to face, and you will go to Babylon.’”‘ 4 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the LORD concerning you, ‘You will not die by the sword. 5 You will die in peace; and as [spices] were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will burn [spices] for you; and they will lament for you, “Alas, lord!”‘ For I have spoken the word,” declares the LORD. 6 Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem 7 when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the remaining cities of Judah, [that is], Lachish and Azekah, for they [alone] remained as fortified cities among the cities of Judah.

After the “book of comfort” (Jeremiah 30-33) we are back to everyday life. The word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah at the moment when the entire world is gathered against Jerusalem (verse 1). Nebuchadnezzar and all his army and all the kingdoms over which he rules and all the nations over which he does not rule are fighting against Jerusalem and all the cities that belong to it. Jerusalem is the target. In that situation, the LORD instructs Jeremiah to go to Zedekiah saying that He will give the city into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar who will burn it with fire (verse 2).

The LORD alludes to Zedekiah’s fleeing when He says that he will certainly be seized and brought before Nebuchadnezzar personally (verse 3). His fleeing will be futile. He will come to Babylon. He will come face to face with the king of Babylon, but Babylon itself he will not see, because his eyes will be put out before he is taken to Babylon (Jer 52:11; Eze 12:13b).

In His mercy, the LORD also says that Zedekiah will not die by the sword (verse 4), but in peace in Babylon. It is even so, that spices will be burned for him (cf. 2Chr 16:14; 21:19). This is an unexpected sign of tribute to this yet so wicked king, who apparently still had a certain care for his people (verse 5).

Once again the Spirit of God points out the circumstances under which Jeremiah speaks all his words to Zedekiah (verse 6). The battle for Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah that have not yet fallen is in full swing (verse 7). Two remaining cities are mentioned by name, because they are the only cities that have been fortified – by Rehoboam (2Chr 11:5,9) – and there the opposition is fiercest.

Jer 34:8-11 | The Servants Deceived

8 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim release to them: 9 that each man should set free his male servant and each man his female servant, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman; so that no one should keep them, a Jew his brother, in bondage. 10 And all the officials and all the people obeyed who had entered into the covenant that each man should set free his male servant and each man his female servant, so that no one should keep them any longer in bondage; they obeyed, and set [them free]. 11 But afterward they turned around and took back the male servants and the female servants whom they had set free, and brought them into subjection for male servants and for female servants.

Again the word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah (verse 8). The occasion is a covenant Zedekiah made with all in Jerusalem to proclaim the release of the male servants and the female servants (verse 9). The agreement is that each one will release his male servant and his female servant who was a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, that is, a member of the people. This will be done from the understanding that it is a brother, a neighbor. It seems that the rich made the poor serve as servants for longer than the seven years prescribed by God in the law (Exo 21:1-11; Lev 25:39-55; Deu 15:12-18). This covenant is entered into by many (verse 10). They obey it and set them free.

Then comes the regret (verse 11). As soon as they notice what a loss they have suffered, they turn around and take back the servants and submit them to themselves again as male servants and female servants. This is a low, mean trick. The covenant was not made wholeheartedly. It has been assumed that Zedekiah also made this covenant only for political reasons. He must have thought that the free male servants and female servants would be much more willing to help defend the city against Nebuchadnezzar’s attack than if they had to do hard servant service. It is impossible to imagine that such a wicked man who cared nothing for God’s law would now suddenly be so insistent on carrying out a commandment of the law. He is known as a covenant breaker (Eze 17:11-21).

However, as soon as relief comes in the distress, they come back to their decision (cf. Ecc 5:3). It can rightly be said of them: “For your loyalty is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early” (Hos 6:4b). The enemy has (temporarily) moved away (verse 21). This will be related to a threat from Egypt (Jer 37:5,7-10). Life largely resumes its normal course and they force the freed servants to serve them again.

The precept about the release of a servant has a spiritual meaning for us. For us, it means that we show our brother his true spiritual freedom and do not oblige him to us. If a brother owes us something, we must write off his debt. If we do not do so, we keep him in bondage in a certain respect. Then we will be disciplined. What matters is how we treat each other as brothers and sisters, whether we submit to each other and not someone to us.

Jer 34:12-16 | The Sin of the Nation

12 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 13 “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘I made a covenant with your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, saying, 14 “At the end of seven years each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who has been sold to you and has served you six years, you shall send him out free from you; but your forefathers did not obey Me or incline their ear to Me. 15 Although recently you [had] turned and done what is right in My sight, each man proclaiming release to his neighbor, and you had made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name. 16 Yet you turned and profaned My name, and each man took back his male servant and each man his female servant whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your male servants and female servants.”‘

Then comes the word of the LORD to Jeremiah (verse 12). The LORD recalls to the people that He, “the LORD God of Israel”, made a covenant with their fathers when He led them out of Egypt, the house of slavery (verse 13). With emphasis, Egypt is called “the house of bondage”. Then the LORD decreed that a Hebrew brother who had had to sell himself as slave must be set free by his lord after six years of service (verse 14; Exo 21:1-6).

This law was given right after their exodus from Egypt, where they themselves served as servants for a long time. As a result, they know what it is to be a servant. Then you would say that they would execute such a law wholeheartedly. But the fathers did not listen. Man quickly forgets the misery in which he has been when things are going well for him and is then even able to exploit others.

Now the people to whom Jeremiah addresses the word, did listen to this commandment (verse 15). The LORD even says that they have repented and done what is right in His sight. The release and the covenant they have carried out. He praises that. What He does not praise, however, is that they have gone back on the covenant they made (verse 16). He blames them for that. It is a great injustice and unworthy of man to go back on such a decision. It is a great sin against God and against their neighbor. They had the servants “set free according to their desire”, but then subjected them to serve as servants again. The LORD is rightly very angry about this.

Jer 34:17-22 | The Retribution of Betrayal

17 “Therefore thus says the LORD, ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming release each man to his brother and each man to his neighbor. Behold, I am proclaiming a release to you,’ declares the LORD, ‘to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine; and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18 I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not fulfilled the words of the covenant which they made before Me, [when] they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts— 19 the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officers and the priests and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf— 20 I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. 21 Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon which has gone away from you. 22 Behold, I am going to command,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring them back to this city; and they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.’”

A new judgment from the LORD follows (verse 17). He will declare them outlaws, as it were, to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine because of their disobedience to the law of release. He will give these deadly means a free hand. These will do a thorough work, so that they will become a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

The LORD knows all the men who have broken His covenant (verse 18). They are the men who made a covenant before Him and symbolically ratified it by cutting a calf in two and passing between the pieces. They did not make the covenant on a whim, but consciously and willingly. Whoever violates the covenant will suffer the fate of the calf killed at the covenant making. In the covenant that God made with Abraham, only God passed between the pieces, not Abraham (Gen 15:7-21). Therefore, that covenant rests solely on God’s promises, without any responsibility on the part of man.

This is not a small and select company, but it is people from all segments of the population, from high to low, who have acted in this way (verse 19). All these transgressors the LORD will give into the hand of their enemies, including enemies who seek their life (verse 20). The bodies of those who are killed will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. They will not be chased away, contrary to what Abraham did (Gen 15:11).

To Zedekiah, the most responsible, another special word comes from the LORD. He will also fall under God’s judgment (verse 21). Zedekiah first gave the command, but failed to act against all who returned to it. He is told that he will fall into the hand of the enemy, the king of Babylon, although it does not appear that the king of Babylon will take the city, for he is just now moving away from Jerusalem because of an attack by the king of Egypt (Jer 37:5). As a result, the inhabitants of the city think that evil has passed. Possibly that is also why they have returned to their covenant to release the servants.

However, the enemy has only temporarily moved away (verse 22). The LORD speaks that He will give command and then the enemy will come back to fight against the city. Then the city will be taken and burned with fire. The other cities of Judah will also be destroyed, so that they will be a wasteland without inhabitants. The LORD says He will do it, therefore it will happen.

Jeremiah 35

Jer 35:1-5 | The Rechabites Tested

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, 2 “Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.” 3 Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites, 4 and I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the doorkeeper. 5 Then I set before the men of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine and cups; and I said to them, “Drink wine!”

In verse 1, we again have a time indication that determines us in what time the event being described takes place. Here we go back seventeen years in time. There is no chronological order in this book. Jerusalem is not yet under siege. Nebuchadnezzar comes up against the land (verse 11).

The Rechabites (verse 2) are descendants of the Kenites or Midianites (1Chr 2:55; Jdg 1:16; 4:11). They have joined the people of God. Jeremiah is to speak to them, which will mean informing them of the LORD’s will. That will is for them to go to the house of the LORD, where in one of its chambers Jeremiah is to give them wine to drink.

Jeremiah does as he is instructed (verse 3). He takes Jaazaniah, the leader of the house of the Rechabites, with his brothers and all their relatives. He brings the whole company into the house of the LORD in a chamber that is specifically described (verse 4). First it is said to whom the chamber belongs. It is “the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God”.

About Igdaliah – his name means ’great is Yahweh’ – we are told nothing else in Scripture than what we read here. He has a son and grandsons. His son Hanan is a “man of God” – given the structure of the sentence, that title seems to apply to him and not to Igdaliah – an expression also used for men like Elijah and Elisha. That name means that Hanan is someone who upholds God’s rights in a time when the masses do not take those rights into account.

This is followed by saying who the neighbors next door and below are. In the chamber next door are the princes and in the chamber below that lives the doorkeeper. These are all people with a high and responsible position in the midst of the people and with regard to the house of God. Maaseiah is one of the three doorkeepers of the temple (Jer 52:24).

In the chamber of the sons of the man of God, a chamber surrounded by an exquisite company, Jeremiah brings in the raw nomads. There he sets before them a large quantity of wine and commands them to drink wine (verse 5).

Jer 35:6-11 | Loyalty of the Rechabites to Jonadab

6 But they said, “We will not drink wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall not drink wine, you or your sons, forever. 7 You shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed and you shall not plant a vineyard or own one; but in tents you shall dwell all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ 8 We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, not to drink wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons or our daughters, 9 nor to build ourselves houses to dwell in; and we do not have vineyard or field or seed. 10 We have only dwelt in tents, and have obeyed and have done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. 11 But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come and let us go to Jerusalem before the army of the Chaldeans and before the army of the Arameans.’ So we have dwelt in Jerusalem.”

However, the Rechabites refuse to drink of the wine that Jeremiah has set before them (verse 6). They refuse not because the LORD would have forbidden them to drink wine. They refuse because their ancestor Jonadab forbade them to do so. He not only forbade it to his own children, but gave the prohibition for his entire posterity, forever. Their lifestyle resembles that of the Nazirite (Num 6:1-7).

Jonadab lived during the time of Jehu, who had to exterminate the house of Ahab (2Kgs 10:11-17). Here we are about two and a half centuries later. Jehu found an ally in Jonadab. Jonadab did not participate in the worship of Baal. He is one of the seven thousand who did not bow their knee to Baal (1Kgs 19:18).

The faithfulness to the word of Jonadab is great. The time of Jehu is a time of great wickedness. During that time, Jonadab wants to live as a true Nazirite. He does not want to go along with the trend of the times and he wants his children to live like that as well. This does not mean that they are hermits, but people who are aware of the temporal nature of life and entrust themselves to the LORD for that.

Obedience to Jonadab’s words does not only involve not drinking wine. He also told them not to build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard or take possession of a piece of land (verse 7). The command is to live in tents as long as they live. As a result, they will live many days in the land where they are staying as strangers. Jonadab was aware of his foreignness and lived consistently accordingly. He has lived as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and as a Nazirite.

This he also told his descendants, and they complied (verse 8). They listened to his voice, they, their wives and their sons and daughters, and drank no wine. They repeated everything Jonadab commanded them and said they have obeyed and have done according to all that Jonadab commanded them. They did not build houses to live in. Nor did they have a vineyard or a field, not even seed (verse 9). In tents they dwelt, according to the word of their forefather Jonadab (verse 10).

Driven by circumstances, they came to give up life in tents and live in Jerusalem (verse 11). This is not disobedience to the word of their forefather. They are acting with deliberation here, exchanging nomadic life for life in the city for the sake of safety. But they keep the commandment not to drink wine.

Jer 35:12-17 | The Reproach to Judah

12 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 13 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “Will you not receive instruction by listening to My words?” declares the LORD. 14 “The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are observed. So they do not drink [wine] to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. But I have spoken to you again and again; yet you have not listened to Me. 15 Also I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, sending [them] again and again, saying: ‘Turn now every man from his evil way and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to worship them. Then you will dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your forefathers; but you have not inclined your ear or listened to Me. 16 Indeed, the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have observed the command of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not listened to Me.’”‘ 17 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them; because I spoke to them but they did not listen, and I have called them but they did not answer.’”

After this example of obedience of the Rechabites to the word of their forefather Jonadab the word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah (verse 12). We are now told why the foregoing took place. It is not to make Israel live the way the Rechabites do, but to impress upon unfaithful Israel the faithfulness of the Rechabites to the word of their forefather. For example, Israel must plant vineyards and may live in cities.

With the words “go and say” the LORD instructs Jeremiah to go out of the chamber and go to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to ask them if they will not listen to the words of the LORD (verse 13). Here we see that the action in the temple has a symbolic meaning. The LORD draws a comparison between His words to the children of Israel and Jonadab’s words to his children (verse 14). Jonadab commanded his children not to drink wine and they listened to that and did not drink wine until this day. The LORD has called His people to obedience time and time again, but they have not listened to Him.

The LORD has sent His servants, the prophets, again and again to His people with the call to repent (verse 15). He has also promised them that they will then remain in the land. But He has to conclude that they have not listened. Yes, the children of Jonadab, the man who does not belong to God’s people and neither do his descendants, have done what His people refuse to do (verse 16).

The contrast is great. Jonadab is a man and his descendants listen to him. The LORD is the eternal God and His people do not listen to Him. The Rechabites are made an example for Judah and Jerusalem. Judah and Jerusalem, so privileged, will be punished because of their disobedience, their unwillingness to listen or even respond to God’s call (verse 17).

Jer 35:18-19 | Reward for the Rechabites

18 Then Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father, kept all his commands and done according to all that he commanded you; 19 therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack a man to stand before Me always.”‘“

We now hear the LORD’s appreciation of obedience to the word of parents (verse 18). The Rechabites, says the LORD, have been obedient to Jonadab’s command in everything. Because of this complete faithfulness, He promises that Jonadab will always have a descendant, a man, to serve Him (verse 19). Serving God is the true life. It recalls the call for children to obey their parents in everything (Col 3:20). The reward for them is long life in the land (Eph 6:1-3), which for us means enjoying the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places all the time we are on earth and the eternity that follows.

If we summarize the differences between the Rechabites and God’s people, we see that
1. the Rechabites obey a fallible leader, while the Leader of Judah is the eternal, infallible God (verse 14);
2. the Rechabites receive a command from Jonadab only once, while the LORD has spoken to His people time and time again (verse 15);
3. the Rechabites obeyed Jonadab’s commands for about 300 years, while God’s people continually disobeyed (verse 16);
4. the faithfulness of the Rechabites will be rewarded, while the unfaithfulness of God’s people will be punished (verse 17).

Jeremiah 36

Jer 36:1-4 | The Writing of the Scroll

1 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 “Take a scroll and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel and concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations, from the day I [first] spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day. 3 Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them, in order that every man will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.” 4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD which He had spoken to him.

The word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (verse 1; cf. Jer 25:1; 46:2). That is the year when Egypt is defeated by Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar becomes king. It is the beginning of the Babylonian empire. That empire is the tool in God’s hand to discipline Judah, as well as other nations, for their attitude toward Him.

Jeremiah not only spoke, but also wrote (Jer 30:2). The written word gives the spoken word supporting and enduring power. The LORD instructs him to write down all the words He spoke to him in the previous thirty-five chapters (verse 2). It covers the period from the thirteenth year of Josiah (Jer 1:2) to the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which is a span of twenty-three years.

In doing so, the LORD gives the people another chance and proves a new and great mercy to His people. All the calamity that He has pronounced has had the intention of bringing His people to repentance (verse 3). That this is the purpose we see in Josiah who also, on hearing all the calamity that the LORD foretold, humbled himself deeply before Him (2Chr 34:26-27). What is written down is the totality of all the prophecies spoken. If these are successively recited to the people one more time, it will perhaps make an even greater impression than the prophecies pronounced individually. In this way, the total package of judgments is brought to the attention of the people.

Jeremiah does what the LORD has instructed him to do (verse 4). He calls Baruch, and he writes down in a scroll all the words of Jeremiah, which are expressly called “all the words of the LORD which He had spoken to him”. This is an example of the word-for-word inspiration of Scripture. We will see later the authority of the Word and the imperishability of the Word.

Paul usually dictated his letters (Rom 16:22; Col 4:18). The letter to the Galatians he wrote himself, which does seem to be an exception (Gal 6:11). God distributes His gifts differently. Some have a good talent for speaking and others for writing. Thus the gifts need each other (cf. 1Cor 12:21). The Spirit of God dictates to Jeremiah and Jeremiah dictates to Baruch, who was used by Jeremiah as a witness in the purchase of the field (Jer 32:12). Baruch is now his secretary and deputy in the prophetic office.

Jer 36:5-8 | Command to Read the Scroll Aloud

5 Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am restricted; I cannot go into the house of the LORD. 6 So you go and read from the scroll which you have written at my dictation the words of the LORD to the people in the LORD’s house on a fast day. And also you shall read them to all [the people of] Judah who come from their cities. 7 Perhaps their supplication will come before the LORD, and everyone will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that the LORD has pronounced against this people.” 8 Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from the book the words of the LORD in the LORD’s house.

Then Jeremiah tells Baruch that he himself cannot come to the house of the LORD to read the words of the scroll (verse 5). What causes this is not clear. Jeremiah has not yet been captured and can still move freely among the people (verse 19). Since he cannot go to the temple himself, he orders Baruch to go and read the scroll in the house of the LORD (verse 6).

If one servant is indisposed, it is nice if another servant can take over the service. The LORD uses Jeremiah to pass on His words and He uses Baruch to write them down and he may now preach them. Thus, each servant of the Word is given his own task. Baruch is a servant of Jeremiah, but also an instrument of the LORD.

Thus, Paul sends co-workers to churches, which he cannot visit himself. These co-workers pass on in his place what he wants to tell them. These are not always new things, but sometimes things he has told them before (1Cor 4:17).

What Baruch is to read are the words of the LORD, not his own words. In this chapter we see the importance of the written Word and how important it is to preach only that. Baruch is to preach it in the house of the LORD on a fast day, that is, in God’s presence and on a day when the people are fasting. What prompted this day of fasting is not said. Keeping a day of fasting presupposes the consciousness of misery. But this can easily be an outward display and not a matter of the heart (Isa 58:1-14; Mt 6:16-18).

Jeremiah tells Baruch that the reading of the words of the LORD will possibly work a supplication to the LORD among the people and that they will repent (verse 7). The word “will come” has the meaning of falling down and indicates the attitude of the supplicant. The supplication and the supplicant are identified, as it were. Jeremiah can hardly imagine that they will do this, because the anger and the wrath of the LORD against His people is so great.

Although the actual reading will not take place for several months, as the next verse makes clear, it already says here that Baruch does what Jeremiah has said (verse 8). Baruch obeys because he acknowledges that Jeremiah’s command is according to the LORD’s will. He sees that the LORD is leading Jeremiah. Baruch meticulously carries out the command in all respects, what he is to do, at what time and in what place.

Jer 36:9-10 | The Public Reading

9 Now in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the LORD. 10 Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the New Gate of the LORD’s house, to all the people.

Then a year later the day of fasting comes, the day set by Jeremiah to read his words (verse 9; verse 6). There is talk here of a special fast. This fast takes place in the ninth month, while the fast on the day of atonement takes place on the tenth day of the seventh month (Lev 16:29; 23:27-32). This fast may have been proclaimed to ward off the impending attack of Nebuchadnezzar. On this occasion, it can be assumed that the people will be more receptive to the words of the LORD, while there will also be a greater number of people gathered to hear those words.

Baruch is given the use of Gemariah’s chamber (verse 10). Gemariah is the son of Shaphan. Shaphan helped Josiah restore the temple (2Kgs 22:3-10). Gemariah has a chamber above the gate so that Baruch can read from there to all who enter the temple compound through the gate. That Gemariah makes his chamber available seems to indicate that he supports Baruch’s message.

Jer 36:11-19 |Reading to the Officials

11 Now when Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard all the words of the LORD from the book, 12 he went down to the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber. And behold, all the officials were sitting there—Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the [other] officials. 13 Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read from the book to the people. 14 Then all the officials sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, “Take in your hand the scroll from which you have read to the people and come.” So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and went to them. 15 They said to him, “Sit down, please, and read it to us.” So Baruch read it to them. 16 When they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one to another and said to Baruch, “We will surely report all these words to the king.” 17 And they asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us, please, how did you write all these words? [Was it] at his dictation?” 18 Then Baruch said to them, “He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink on the book.” 19 Then the officials said to Baruch, “Go, hide yourself, you and Jeremiah, and do not let anyone know where you are.”

Gemariah has a son, Micaiah, who hears the words of the LORD (verse 11). It is beautiful to see that line of grandfather (Shaphan), father (Gemariah) and son (Micaiah), all of whom have a connection to the Word of God. Micaiah is moved by what he hears. It causes him to go to the scribe’s chamber where all the officials are sitting (verse 12).

He tells them all that he has heard from the scroll that Baruch read (verse 13). If we have heard God’s words, and if they have affected and edified us, we will gladly communicate them to others who have not heard them for their edification.

Micaiah is a young man, but one who is taken seriously. He must have been known as trustworthy and God-fearing. The officials don’t say they don’t believe him, but take action after his report (verse 14). They send Jehudi out to get Baruch with his scroll. Why don’t they go to Baruch themselves? Are they ashamed to go into the midst of the people and listen together with them to the words of God? This is also the way Zedekiah later acts when he secretly sends for Jeremiah.

Baruch does not hesitate, but comes directly to them with the scroll in his hand. This is brave, because he knows that the scroll does not contain a pleasant message and he knows the unruly nature of the officials. Then they ask him to sit down and read the scroll to them (verse 15). Baruch does as he is asked, without reproach that they could have come to the gate anyway to hear it there and spare him this double work. He did it fearlessly before the people, he now does it fearlessly before the leaders of the people.

We do not hear what impression the reading of the scroll made on the people. We do read what the effect of the Word is on the officials. When they hear all the words, they become afraid (verse 16). They do know the message of Jeremiah. They will often have shrugged it off, but now the words impress them. They cannot hide their fear, but show it to each other. It is not clear whether it is fear of the LORD or fear of the king. In any case, the words do not bring them to a confession before the LORD, but to making known the words to the king. He is to be informed of them.

Then they want to know how Baruch wrote down all these words from Jeremiah’s mouth (verse 17). It seems more like a technical question than the question of a convinced conscience. Baruch’s answer is simple (verse 18). There is nothing startling about it. The officials acknowledge the danger Jeremiah and Baruch face for their lives when Jehoiakim hears these words. They advise them to hide. God can still use people who have some appreciation for His Word, but do not repent, for His work and the protection of His servants (cf. Acts 19:31).

The officials know their king (verse 19). They fear that his anger will kindle and that both Baruch and Jeremiah will be put to death if he knows where they are. Therefore, they tell Baruch that he and Jeremiah should hide. Just as Ahab diligently sought Elijah during the terrible drought to kill him (1Kgs 18:10), so too will Jehoiakim rage against them. The LORD, however, takes care of His servants.

Jer 36:20-26 | Jehoiakim Hears the Scroll and Burns It

20 So they went to the king in the court, but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and they reported all the words to the king. 21 Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it to the king as well as to all the officials who stood beside the king. 22 Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with [a fire] burning in the brazier before him. 23 When Jehudi had read three or four columns, [the king] cut it with a scribe’s knife and threw [it] into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. 24 Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments. 25 Even though Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah pleaded with the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. 26 And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the LORD hid them.

What happens next is so shocking and upsetting that Jeremiah describes everything in detail. The officials go to the king (verse 20). They do not take the scroll with them, but put it away in the scribe’s chamber. They apparently know the contents so well that they can make what is written in the scroll known to the king. However, the king wants to see the scroll himself (verse 21). He sends Jehudi out to get the scroll. Jehudi takes it from the scribe Elishama’s chamber. Twice it is said that the scroll is there. When Jehudi is back with the king, he reads from it. The king and all the officials hear the contents again. The officials are confronted with it for the third time.

The king sits in his winter palace (verse 22; Amos 3:15). He sits there doing nothing. Perhaps he is thinking about how he can assure himself of a good life. Then he is confronted with the Word of God, the thoughts of God, thoughts that go against his plans. It is winter time. The ninth month is our month of December. That explains why he is sitting at a fire burning in the brazier before him. Outside it is cold; but also his heart is as cold as ice.

When Jehudi has read a portion of the LORD’s words, the king cuts that portion off and throws it into the fire that was in the brazier (verse 23). He does not have the patience that the officials have to listen to the reading until everything is read. When he has heard the contents of “three or four columns”, he cuts them off the scroll in anger with a scribe’s knife – the knife with which the scribe sharpens his pen – and throws the columns, one by one, into the fire. [Note: In the old days, people did not write on stone tablets or on clay tablets, but on papyrus. A scroll consisted of papyrus sheets glued together and was written on in columns. ]

So it goes on until the entire roll is consumed by the fire and he is sure that there is nothing left of it. This is how thoroughly he proceeds. It is an act of supreme blasphemy and deepest contempt for God’s revelation in His written Word. Jehoiakim is doing the opposite of what God has said in the law, that the king himself should write for himself a copy of the law on a scroll in order to get to know it and rule in accordance with it (Deu 17:18).

In his folly he thinks that by doing so he is nullifying the threats that have been proclaimed against him, as if God cannot execute the verdict because the scroll is gone, in which the verdict was written down. What we think of the Bible and how we treat it has no effect on the Bible itself. What Jehoiakim does, happens daily with all truths that do not please a man. Anything that hinders a man in his complacent life is cut out of God’s Word. Portions about the judgment of God are left out.

A lot of preachers preach only pleasant things, nice promises, but refuse to speak about judgment. They speak of God as a God of love Who will not send anyone to hell. But no matter what we delete from the Bible, it does not change God’s Word. Our contempt does not change God’s judgment. Jezebel opposed God’s Word, but her opposition did not change the fact that she became, as God said, food for the dogs (2Kgs 9:10,35-36).

The coming of Christ to judge and establish His kingdom is not believed, but mocked (2Pet 3:3). This also cuts off the rapture of the church, which God’s Word clearly teaches (1Thes 4:15-18). The bodily resurrection is also denied (1Cor 15:12-23), as is the different place that man and woman have in God’s order of creation and also when the church comes together. The same goes for sexuality to be experienced only within marriage between that one man and that one woman, and for reverence for life at the beginning and the end. This is all being cut off.

Man judges everything by his own standards. He does not realize that he is guided by satan in doing so. Everything is thrown into the fire of his own judgment. And what about the commission to preach the gospel to all people? Have we cut that off too? And always pray? Do we do that? That too is a command of the Lord. If we don’t, we’ve cut it off. Do we listen to what the Bible says about our tongue (Jam 3:1-12)? If not, we have cut it off. We all so easily wield the scribe’s knife of our own opinions, sometimes without even realizing it.

The king cuts up God’s Word without batting an eye (verse 24). Even his servants stand by and do not turn pale because of the unprecedented disregard for the LORD’s words shown by the king, the king of God’s people! They do not rend their garments, as Josiah, this Jehoiakim’s own father, does, when the book of the law is read to him (2Kgs 22:11). They do the opposite. What is for Josiah the find of his life, is treated with the utmost contempt by Jehoiakim and all his servants.

Even earlier, the officials looked at each other anxiously when they heard the words read out (verse 16). There is no sign that the word of the LORD has worked anything in them. That is the consequence of not separating oneself from evil. Jehoiakim and the officials resemble modern translators and modern theologians who also treat the Word of God without respect and with contempt. We are just as good Christians as we have love for the Bible. In other words, the measure of love for the Bible determines the measure or quality of being a Christian.

A few servants still made a weak protest (verse 25). But people in the wrong position are powerless to act against a prevailing evil. Think of Lot in Sodom. The protest is more of a soothing of one’s own conscience. Those who are truly upset at the dishonor done to God will leave a fellowship that treats God and His Word with such contempt. Respect for God’s Word is demonstrated by obedience to God’s Word. God’s Word calls us to come out of a fellowship that refuses to judge evil, sin. It is either to remove the evil one (1Cor 5:13b), or to leave that fellowship if the evil one is not removed (2Tim 2:19-21).

Jehoiakim commands to seize Baruch and Jeremiah (verse 26). He has destroyed their penmanship, now he wants to kill them as well, so that they can no longer do their work. After destroying the written testimony, the witnesses themselves must then be killed. We also see this attitude with the chief priests regarding the gospel when the church has just come into existence (Acts 4:17). The command of Jehoiakim cannot be carried out because Baruch and Jeremiah are untraceable because the LORD hid them. The officials can advise that they hide (verse 19), but they cannot and dare not provide safety and protection. That is what the LORD does (Psa 31:20).

Jer 36:27-28 | The Command to Write Again

27 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll and the words which Baruch had written at the dictation of Jeremiah, saying, 28 “Take again another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned.

The LORD is not embarrassed by the action of Jehoiakim. When the king has done His devastating work of burning the words from Jeremiah’s mouth that Baruch wrote down, He speaks again to Jeremiah (verse 27). He has hidden both of His servants to use them again. He instructs them to take another scroll and write on it “all the former words that were on the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned” (verse 28). It is with this as with the broken stone tablets of the law: on the two new stone tablets were written all the words of the first tablets (Deu 10:4a).

The scroll rises again from the ashes, as it were, as a symbol of the indestructibility of God’s Word and that it is ineradicable. Throughout the history of mankind enemies of God have all tried by all means to remove God’s Word from the world. All attempts have failed. It is both futile and foolish to oppose the Word of God.

Jer 36:29-31 | The Condemnation of Jehoiakim

29 And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says the LORD, “You have burned this scroll, saying, ‘Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will make man and beast to cease from it?’” 30 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, “He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. 31 I will also punish him and his descendants and his servants for their iniquity, and I will bring on them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah all the calamity that I have declared to them—but they did not listen.”‘“

Jeremiah is also instructed to tell Jehoiakim of the judgment. We hear here why Jehoiakim burned the scroll (verse 29). He has accused Jeremiah that he has written that the king of Babylon will bring judgment on “this land” and on man and beast living in the land. He does not want such a message. He wants to hear of no judgment. The judgment on Jehoiakim speaks of the LORD’s great contempt for the man who has so scorned Him (verse 30). Those who scorn Him will be scorned by Him.

Jehoiakim will have no successor on the throne and he himself will have no burial. The fact that his son Jeconiah reigned for three months after him cannot be called a reign. Nebuchadnezzar takes him captive after three months and carries him off to Babylon

He, his descendants, and his servants, all of whom have shared in his evil, will all be punished by the LORD (verse 31). Over them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah the LORD brings the calamity that He has spoken, but to which they have not listened. God’s Word abides forever. It cannot be burned.

Jer 36:32 | The Words Written Anew

32 Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah, the scribe, and he wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many similar words were added to them.

After the judgment announcement on Jehoiakim, Jeremiah and Baruch do what the LORD has said (verse 32). Jeremiah speaks all the words and Baruch writes them down. Not one of God’s words will remain unfulfilled (Mt 5:18). The Spirit of God brings to Jeremiah’s mind all his speeches and prophecies. This makes the burning of the scroll by Jehoiakim a meaningless action. The Word of God endures forever. Words are even added to it. These include the words of this chapter, which mentions the judgment on Jehoiakim. God records everything, and what we need to know, He has communicated to us in His Word.

Whoever loves God, loves His Word. Whoever says he loves God, but does not read His Word, is a liar. Such a person loves his own God. We do not need new songs and other forms of religion, but a revival of love for the Word of God. Everything God does, He does through His Word (Psa 33:6,9). If that is a reality for us, we will read, study and live out the Word.

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He lived by it and defended Himself with it. He says: “It is written”, and that ends all contradiction (Mt 4:1-11). That is how it should be in our lives. The Word of God and that alone gives the victory over the temptations of the devil. All misery comes because we do not want to base our lives on God’s Word. If we hide the Word in our heart, we will not sin (Psa 119:11). Someone is a good Christian according to God if he abides in the Word and lives by it.

Jeremiah 37

Jer 37:1-5 | Request From Zedekiah

1 Now Zedekiah the son of Josiah whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had made king in the land of Judah, reigned as king in place of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim. 2 But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the LORD which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet. 3 Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please pray to the LORD our God on our behalf.” 4 Now Jeremiah was [still] coming in and going out among the people, for they had not [yet] put him in the prison. 5 Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s army had set out from Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they lifted the [siege] from Jerusalem.

Zedekiah, the brother of Jehoiakim, becomes king in the place of Coniah or Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim (verse 1; 2Chr 36:10). This fulfills the word of judgment on the wicked Jehoiakim (Jer 36:30). Zedekiah becomes king because Nebuchadnezzar makes him king. With Zedekiah taking office as king over Judah, the final phase of the two tribes realm in the land begins. Zedekiah is a man who does not listen to the words of the LORD, nor do his servants and the people of the land (verse 2). This is how widespread the apostasy is.

The fact that he does not listen to the words of the LORD does not mean that he has rejected the LORD, as did Jehoiakim in the previous chapter. There is a certain religiosity there. His asking Jeremiah to pray for him, that is, to consult the LORD for him, speaks of this (verse 3). However, he uses the LORD only for his own interests, for he has no intention of obeying Him at all. Jeremiah is more of a predictor of the future to him than a prophet of God. He has consulted Jeremiah before, but has done nothing with what the latter has said to him on behalf of the LORD (Jer 21:1-10).

Jeremiah still has freedom of movement (verse 4). The city is already in the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, but has rebelled. The armies of the king of Babylon are in front of the city. When the Chaldeans hear that Pharaoh’s army has come up from Egypt to liberate Jerusalem (verse 7), they move away from Jerusalem to fight against Pharaoh (verse 5).

Jer 37:6-10 | Answer of Jeremiah

6 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, 7 “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Thus you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army which has come out for your assistance is going to return to its own land of Egypt. 8 The Chaldeans will also return and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.”‘ 9 Thus says the LORD, ‘Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go. 10 For even if you had defeated the entire army of Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were [only] wounded men left among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.’”

Nebuchadnezzar’s army leaving the city, gives the inhabitants of Jerusalem hope. However, that hope will prove to be vain. This is evident in the LORD’s word to Jeremiah (verse 6). Jeremiah is to tell Zedekiah that Pharaoh’s army will return to Egypt (verse 7). Therefore, they will not succeed in helping Jerusalem. On the contrary, Nebuchadnezzar’s army that has gone away will return to Jerusalem and take the city and burn it (verse 8).

The LORD lets it be known once again that they must not deceive themselves with the deceptive words that the Chaldeans will go away, for they will not (verse 9)! In fact, even though they themselves would fight against the Chaldean army and defeat it, and only a few gravely wounded Chaldean men would remain, those men would then carry out God’s purpose (verse 10).

Jer 37:11-15 | Jeremiah Charged With Treason

11 Now it happened when the army of the Chaldeans had lifted [the siege] from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army, 12 that Jeremiah went out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin in order to take possession of [some] property there among the people. 13 While he was at the Gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah the son of Hananiah was there; and he arrested Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are going over to the Chaldeans!” 14 But Jeremiah said, “A lie! I am not going over to the Chaldeans”; yet he would not listen to him. So Irijah arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. 15 Then the officials were angry at Jeremiah and beat him, and they put him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, which they had made into the prison.

When the army of the Chaldeans has moved away from Jerusalem and the siege is lifted, there is freedom to go out of the city again (verse 11). Jeremiah also uses that freedom, for he has an inheritance in Benjamin and he can now go and accept it (verse 12).

But it turns out to be too early to take possession of it. In any case, he is stopped by the captain of the guard the moment he wants to go out of the city through the Gate of Benjamin (verse 13). The Gate of Benjamin is so called because behind it is the road to the territory of Benjamin. The captain of the guard Irijah, the son of Shelemiah – and probably the brother of Jehucal (verse 3) – arrests him and accuses him of wanting to defect to the Chaldeans. Jeremiah vigorously denies this, but his defense is in vain (verse 14). Irijah arrests him and brings him to the officials, the leaders and judges of the city.

The officials are angry at Jeremiah (verse 15). Without trial they beat him and put him in jail. That jail is the writer Jonathan’s house, which they have made into a jail. If a scribe’s house has become a jail, it does indicate that the scribe is not a scribe who writes about the freedom of the LORD. It is in that house that Jeremiah, the prophet of the LORD, who had the words of the LORD written down, is imprisoned. This is his second captivity after an earlier short one (Jer 20:1-3).

Jeremiah is imprisoned because they hate his message. They hate him because he preaches the word of God. It is the perfect opportunity for them to silence this man. The accusation is fabricated, but they believe it themselves and find in it a motive to silence their conscience. It is like the opposition to the preaching of the apostles and prophets and especially to that of the Lord Jesus.

Jer 37:16-21 | Jeremiah in Prison

16 For Jeremiah had come into the dungeon, that is, the vaulted cell; and Jeremiah stayed there many days. 17 Now King Zedekiah sent and took him [out]; and in his palace the king secretly asked him and said, “Is there a word from the LORD?” And Jeremiah said, “There is!” Then he said, “You will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon!” 18 Moreover Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “[In] what [way] have I sinned against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison? 19 Where then are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land’? 20 But now, please listen, O my lord the king; please let my petition come before you and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, that I may not die there.” 21 Then King Zedekiah gave commandment, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guardhouse and gave him a loaf of bread daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guardhouse.

Jeremiah stays “many days” in prison, in the deepest hidden and filthiest vaults of it (verse 16). Then Zedekiah sends for him (verse 17). He wants to know something from him. No one must know that he is talking to Jeremiah. That’s why it happens in his house, in secret. Zedekiah wants to know if there is a word from the LORD. By this he means a word favorable to him. Jeremiah’s answer sounds powerful that there is indeed a word. That word is now a personal word for Zedekiah and its content is that he will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon.

Despite the prison where he has been for many days now and which is a horror to him, Jeremiah speaks God’s words to Zedekiah. He does not detract from God’s message to free himself. He does not negotiate about it. That does not mean that he may not take the opportunity to ask the question of why he is in prison of the highest authority (verse 18). He is not asking for pity, but for justice. Is Zedekiah also able to tell him what he has done wrong that he, Zedekiah, has put him in prison? In this he is like Joseph in prison, who also says that he is innocent (Gen 40:14-15). He holds Zedekiah responsible for this.

He also asks him about his prophets who prophesied that the king of Babylon will not go against him and the land (verse 19). Where are they now with their big mouth? Surely Zedekiah has seen with his own eyes that he has come? If so, let the king listen to him for once, to his request not to have to go back to the house of the Jonathan the scribe, that terrible prison, so that he will not die there (verse 20). It is an ironic situation. The false prophets of the lies that have been so clearly exposed are walking free around and the true prophet whose words have been so clearly proven true is in prison.

Zedekiah allows his request, but he does not release him, although he is convinced of Jeremiah’s innocence (verse 21). He is spiritually very much akin to Pilate who also condemns the Lord Jesus against his better judgment (Lk 23:22-24). For Jeremiah, it is a relief that he does not have to return to his old prison. He is still in secure custody, but also assured of bread that he receives every day from the bakers’ street, until there is no more bread. He will stay there until the Babylonians free him.

Jeremiah 38

Jer 38:1-4 | Jeremiah Accused

1 Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchijah heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD, ‘He who stays in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his [own] life as booty and stay alive.’ 3 Thus says the LORD, ‘This city will certainly be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and he will capture it.’” 4 Then the officials said to the king, “Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is discouraging the men of war who are left in this city and all the people, by speaking such words to them; for this man is not seeking the well-being of this people but rather their harm.”

Jeremiah, who is now an old man, is imprisoned, but he continues to preach the word of the LORD (verse 1). Among those who hear it and are displeased by it is Pashhur, whom we may have met before (Jer 20:1-6; 21:1). Jeremiah’s message is unchanged and reads unabridged that those who remain in the city will die, and those who surrender will live (verse 2). He presents the way of death and of life. For the city will be taken by the king of Babylon (verse 3).

This word does not please these officials (verse 4). The words spoken by Jeremiah have a very demotivating effect on the soldiers, they think. It is clear, they argue, that Jeremiah’s sermons seek not welfare, but calamity for the people. They present themselves as the true patriots, while portraying Jeremiah as someone who is in league with the enemy. This is how it has often been reasoned about men who have brought God’s Word when that Word did not please the hearers.

How little can worldly Christians understand that true love for God’s people leads to the people being told their sin and shown its dangers. These four accusers also understand nothing of the prophet’s deep sorrow and soul struggle for their sake. Jeremiah is like Paul, who also becomes less loved by the Corinthians the more he loves them (2Cor 12:15).

It is one of the hardest trials for a servant of the Lord when evil is spoken of the good he does. His deep affection is mistaken for evil because he cannot let the people continue to sleep in their sins and therefore raises his warning voice. Yet this is the part of many faithful, God-fearing believers and above all of our Lord Himself. The world speaks well of the false prophet, but the Lord says: “Woe [to you] when all men speak well of you” Lk 6:26).

Jer 38:5-6 | Jeremiah in the Cistern

5 So King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your hands; for the king can [do] nothing against you.” 6 Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern [of] Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.

Zedekiah, as always a weakling, surrenders Jeremiah into the hands of these people, without any offence having been committed by him (verse 5). Zedekiah without any regard for Jeremiah, delivers him into the hands of murderers. He acknowledges to them that he, the king, is in their power. He is a powerless straw man. It does not make him any less guilty, any more than it does later Pilate, who also concedes because he is in the power of the people.

The murderers are also torturers. They throw Jeremiah into a cistern, but do so in such a way that he will die a slow death (verse 6). In utter and almost palpable darkness, Jeremiah slowly sinks into the mud. He will have kept dead still so as not to speed up the process of sinking. This must have been an enormous psychological torture for him. No matter how slow it is, he knows that death is approaching. Death will come more quickly if he does not remain standing and be overcome by fatigue and sleep.

Jeremiah is again a picture of the true Servant of the LORD, the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus preached the Word and was therefore hated. He was thrown by His people “in deep mire” without “foothold” (Psa 69:2a). By God He is “brought … up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay” (Psa 40:1b-2).

Jer 38:7-13 | Deliverance of Jeremiah

7 But Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, while he was in the king’s palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. Now the king was sitting in the Gate of Benjamin; 8 and Ebed-melech went out from the king’s palace and spoke to the king, saying, 9 “My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the cistern; and he will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.” 10 Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, “Take thirty men from here under your authority and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies.” 11 So Ebed-melech took the men under his authority and went into the king’s palace to [a place] beneath the storeroom and took from there worn-out clothes and worn-out rags and let them down by ropes into the cistern to Jeremiah. 12 Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Now put these worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits under the ropes”; and Jeremiah did so. 13 So they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern, and Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guardhouse.

Then Ebed-melech appears on the scene (verse 7) to speak up for Jeremiah. Therefore, we hear of this man, of whom we would never have heard otherwise. We hear of him for the first time here and for the last time in the next chapter. He appears in the hour of Jeremiah’s greatest distress and of the greatest opposition from the people to the man of God. Ebed-melech means “servant of the king”. In him it is revealed that he is a servant of the most high King.

He is an Ethiopian, a dark colored man. In the heart of this dark colored stranger compassion and sympathy burn and the conviction of the Divine service of Jeremiah lives. All of this is completely missing from the four accusers who are leaders of God’s people. God finds this servant willing to deliver His prophet. When Ebed-melech hears what has happened to Jeremiah, he leaves his place of work and goes to the king (verse 8), who is in the Gate of Benjamin to administer justice.

Undaunted, but with tact and wisdom, he speaks to the king that what the men have done to Jeremiah is evil (verse 9). He is careful not to accuse the king, who is after all the main culprit. He points out to Zedekiah that it was not at all necessary to throw Jeremiah into the cistern to make him die, because if he had remained a prisoner in the city, he would have died too. After all, the bread had run out.

In his changeable indecisiveness, Zedekiah orders the Ethiopian Ebed-melech to take thirty men and bring up Jeremiah from the cistern (verse 10). He also urges Ebed-melech to hurry, for Jeremiah must be freed before he dies. The king is well aware that he has delivered Jeremiah to death. Perhaps his conscience still speaks somewhat and he now sees an opportunity to appease it. However, there is no confession of his sin in Jeremiah’s condemnation, not even an apology for his so unjust surrender of him into the hands of his officials.

Be that as it may, Ebed-melech goes straight to work (verse 11). However, he is not tempted by his enthusiasm to go straight to the cistern. He realizes the condition of Jeremiah and what he needs to bring him up out of the cistern of mud in the most painless way possible. Jeremiah will be sucked in. Then ropes under his armpits without soothing clothes will cause tremendous pain. That is why Ebed-melech first goes “to [a place] beneath the storeroom” to bring from there “worn-out clothes and worn-out rags”, and then uses the ropes to let them down into the cistern.

We may well compare the work with the worn-out clothes to the cup of water given to persecuted people in the Name of the Lord (Mk 9:41). The Lord will not forget to reward that on the day when everything comes into the light. Thus He will not forget to reward Ebed-melech for what he did to ease Jeremiah’s pain. It is also remarkable with how much emphasis is spoken of this facet in Jeremiah’s deliverance. It is also remarkable that this old, worthless clothing has to come all the way from under the storeroom. Do we have to go so deep to give someone some relief from pain? How important even what is old can be.

How Jeremiah must have looked up, both literally and figuratively, when up there over the edge of the cistern appears the dark head of Ebed-melech. The voice of Ebed-melech must have sounded like music to his ears. It is the voice of a deliverer with a message of deliverance with instructions for that deliverance. Ebed-melech tells Jeremiah to put the worn-out clothes and rags under his armpits and the ropes under them (verse 12). Jeremiah obediently does what Ebed-melech says.

Then Jeremiah is pulled up with the ropes and lifted out of the cistern (verse 13). Not all thirty of the king’s men will have pulled on the ropes, but some will have helped. It was impossible for Ebed-melech to do it alone. The other soldiers must have provided protection during this liberation operation. After all, the adversaries can just show up.

The use of the worn-out clothes and rags holds a practical lesson for those who help others who are in need. It is not only a matter of saying the right things, but they must also be said in the right tone and at the right time. Someone who is in need should be treated with gentleness and not with rudeness. Good intentions alone are not enough; wisdom must also be used.

Jer 38:14-23 | Zedekiah’s Conversation with Jeremiah

14 Then King Zedekiah sent and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance that is in the house of the LORD; and the king said to Jeremiah, “I am going to ask you something; do not hide anything from me.” 15 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I tell you, will you not certainly put me to death? Besides, if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.” 16 But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in secret saying, “As the LORD lives, who made this life for us, surely I will not put you to death nor will I give you over to the hand of these men who are seeking your life.” 17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘If you will indeed go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will survive. 18 But if you will not go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given over to the hand of the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and you yourself will not escape from their hand.’” 19 Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I dread the Jews who have gone over to the Chaldeans, for they may give me over into their hand and they will abuse me.” 20 But Jeremiah said, “They will not give you over. Please obey the LORD in what I am saying to you, that it may go well with you and you may live. 21 But if you keep refusing to go out, this is the word which the LORD has shown me: 22 ‘Then behold, all of the women who have been left in the palace of the king of Judah are going to be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon; and those women will say,
“Your close friends
Have misled and overpowered you;
While your feet were sunk in the mire,
They turned back.”
23 They will also bring out all your wives and your sons to the Chaldeans, and you yourself will not escape from their hand, but will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned with fire.’”

The indecisive Zedekiah sends for Jeremiah (verse 14). He wants to know something from him, and Jeremiah doesn’t have to beat around the bush about it. Jeremiah knows the man, how unaccountable he is. This time he first wants assurance that what he is about to say will not lead to his death (verse 15). At the same time he adds that Zedekiah will not listen anyway. This is very clear language. Zedekiah swears to the LORD that he will not put Jeremiah to death or give him over to the men who would love to kill him (verse 16).

After promising that his life will be spared, Jeremiah relays to Zedekiah the words of the LORD (verse 17). Again he places God in all His greatness before this king. The message is still the same. Surrender to the king of Babylon means life for him and his house and preservation of the city. If he does not surrender, the city will fall into the hands of the Chaldeans who will burn it with fire (verse 18). He himself will not escape them either.

Zedekiah is indecisive because he is unwilling to surrender to the LORD. He loves the honor of men more than the LORD. The proverb “fear of man [someone] lays a trap” (Pro 29:25a) applies to him. His argument for not listening is his fear that the already defecting Judeans will mock him (verse 19). He does not think he can bear that shame and therefore he continues to disobey the word of the LORD.

Many put off a decision for the Lord Jesus with such reasons, only to be ultimately rejected by Him. The first to be named among those who will be in hell are “the cowardly” (Rev 21:8). They are not afraid of God, but of men. They reject God in order not to be rejected by men.

Jeremiah assures him that his premonition is deceiving him and that what he fears will not happen (verse 20). He begs the king to listen to the voice of the LORD anyway and points out the good it will bring him. It is his last chance. If he does not listen, he has another message (verse 21). Jeremiah unflinchingly presents Zedekiah with what awaits him then. His wives will be carried off (verse 22). They will scold him for deceiving them and as a result his feet will sink in the mire. All solid ground under his feet will disappear.

His whole family will be taken away (verse 23). He himself will not escape. The escape attempt he will make will fail. The king of Babylon will seize him and Jerusalem will go up in flames. That is what awaits him if he does not listen. It is the last word the prophet spoke to Zedekiah in great earnestness and with love for the city, the people and the king. But it is in vain.

Jer 38:24-28 | Questions of the Officials

24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know about these words and you will not die. 25 But if the officials hear that I have talked with you and come to you and say to you, ‘Tell us now what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide [it] from us and we will not put you to death,’ 26 then you are to say to them, ‘I was presenting my petition before the king, not to make me return to the house of Jonathan to die there.’” 27 Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. So he reported to them in accordance with all these words which the king had commanded; and they ceased speaking with him, since the conversation had not been overheard. 28 So Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guardhouse until the day that Jerusalem was captured.

When Jeremiah is finished speaking, Zedekiah tells him not to speak to anyone about it (verse 24). If Jeremiah complies, he will not die. The weakling misses the opportunity to be saved and to save the city. The only thing he fears are the people who surround him (verse 25). From that side he foresees problems and he wants to cover himself against them. He ignores that he has to deal with the eternal God. He knows his officials and knows that they will ask Jeremiah what he has discussed with him. They will threaten Jeremiah with death if he does not tell.

Zedekiah puts into Jeremiah’s mouth what he should answer the officials (verse 26). All he has to say to the officials is that he has asked not to have to go to Jonathan's house anymore to die there. Jeremiah indeed asked that, though not in this but in their first interview (Jer 37:20). Zedekiah has correctly assessed the action of the officials. They come to Jeremiah and question him about the interview he had with Zedekiah (verse 27). Jeremiah answers with the words the king said to him. With that, the officials are satisfied and they leave Jeremiah alone. Jeremiah spends the rest of his days in the court of the guardhouse until the day that Jerusalem is captured (verse 28).

The sentence, “stayed in the court of the guardhouse until the day that Jerusalem was captured”, shows that he is still alive at that moment, which is evidence of God’s faithfulness to him. God proves that He keeps those who trust in His promise of keeping and are obedient to His Word. Not every believer receives the pledge of being kept from sickness or death. Every believer does receive the promise of the Lord that He will not put to shame their trust in Him.

Jeremiah 39

Introduction

This chapter mentions the fall of Jerusalem. This is an event of such great significance that the Holy Spirit mentions it four times in God’s Word (2Kgs 25:1-15; 2Chr 36:17-21; Jer 39:10; 52:4-30).

Jer 39:1-3 | Jerusalem Is Captured

1 Now when Jerusalem was captured in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it; 2 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth [day] of the month, the city [wall] was breached. 3 Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer [the] Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.

What has been foretold is happening. The army of the king of Babylon returns from the battle against Egypt and besieges Jerusalem (verse 1; Jer 37:8). This happens in the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign. Over a year and a half later the city falls (verse 2). The date is given to the exact day.

All the officials of the king of Babylon are there, that is, there is a great display of power (verse 3). The starving city is dwarfed by it. The “Rab-mag” is the head of magi. The fact that the officials of Babylon are posted at the Middle Gate probably means that they form a government for the city there and also judge the captives there.

Jer 39:4-10 | The Fate of Zedekiah and Jerusalem

4 When Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they fled and went out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls; and he went out toward the Arabah. 5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and they seized him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him. 6 Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also slew all the nobles of Judah. 7 He then blinded Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in fetters of bronze to bring him to Babylon. 8 The Chaldeans also burned with fire the king’s palace and the houses of the people, and they broke down the walls of Jerusalem. 9 As for the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had gone over to him and the rest of the people who remained, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard carried [them] into exile in Babylon. 10 But some of the poorest people who had nothing, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard left behind in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at that time.

When Zedekiah sees the enemy appearing in the city, he concludes his evil reign with the shameful and cowardly act of attempting to flee (verse 4). Concerned for his own life, he abandons his people whom he has plunged into misery by his futile opposition to an overpowering enemy. Far worse, in doing so, he again demonstrates his disobedience to God’s Word that was so clearly preached to him by Jeremiah.

He ventures to break out together with the all the remaining men of war. They do it at night in a place that seems to be hidden from the eye of the enemy. He leaves “toward the Arabah”, i.e. the Jordan valley. The escape attempt proves to be in vain. It is also folly to run away from the clear statements of the LORD and the means He uses. He is overtaken in the plains of Jericho and seized there (verse 5). It is rather tragic that the last king of the people suffers this fate at the very place where Joshua and the people won their first victory in the land (Jos 6:2,20-21).

Zedekiah is brought up to the king of Babylon. There, as has been foretold, he stands face to face with the mighty Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 32:3-4), the man who made him king (2Kgs 24:17). He made a covenant with him and broke it (Eze 17:18). Now he reaps what he sowed in his folly (2Chr 36:12-13). The king of Babylon passes sentence on him. In a deeper sense, this is the sentence of the LORD.

His sons are slain before his eyes (verse 6). That must have been a terrible sight. All the nobles of Judah, who supported Zedekiah in his wicked policy, are also slain. Then Zedekiah’s eyes are put out and he is blind (verse 7). He has always refused the light of God’s Word and lived in spiritual darkness. Now he must also lack the light of his eyes for the rest of his life and literally live in darkness.

The last thing he saw in the light of the world was the slaughter of his sons. That picture will always stay with him and torment him. Then, blind and bound with fetters of bronze, he is taken to Babylon. Thus also the word is fulfilled that he will be brought to Babylon, but will not see it (Eze 12:13).

1. Zedekiah, the last king,
2. Samson, the last judge and
3. Laodicea, the last church,
all ended up blind. They are overcome by the world because of their unfaithfulness to God and their disobedience to His Word. As a result, they lost sight of the things of God.

The Chaldeans burn the king’s house and the houses of the people (verse 8). They also break down the walls of Jerusalem. What is left of the people, both in the city and outside it, is taken into exile to Babylon, as are the deserters (verse 9). The poorest of the land, those who have no possessions – perhaps the Rechabites? (Jer 35:1-11) – may continue to live in the land (verse 10). They pose no threat and can tend the vineyards and fields they are given at their disposal.

Jer 39:11-14 | The Deliverance of Jeremiah

11 Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, saying, 12 “Take him and look after him, and do nothing harmful to him, but rather deal with him just as he tells you.” 13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard sent [word], along with Nebushazban the Rab-saris, and Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the leading officers of the king of Babylon; 14 they even sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guardhouse and entrusted him to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him home. So he stayed among the people.

Nebuchadnezzar will certainly have been informed of Jeremiah’s preaching to the people to surrender to him. This is the reason why he gives orders concerning Jeremiah (verse 11). He commands that Jeremiah should be taken into protection and that no harm should be done to him (verse 12). On the contrary, he is to be served at his beck and call when he says something. Nebuchadnezzar commands his entire staff that is in Jerusalem to do this (verse 13).

They do as he commands and send messengers to Jeremiah to release him from his captivity (verse 14). Then they turn him over to the care of Gedaliah, who is to take him home. Jeremiah is free again. He reaps the truth of the LORD’s words that he spoke to all the people.

Jer 39:15-18 | Promise for Ebed-melech

15 Now the word of the LORD had come to Jeremiah while he was confined in the court of the guardhouse, saying, 16 “Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to bring My words on this city for disaster and not for prosperity; and they will take place before you on that day. 17 But I will deliver you on that day,” declares the LORD, “and you will not be given into the hand of the men whom you dread. 18 For I will certainly rescue you, and you will not fall by the sword; but you will have your [own] life as booty, because you have trusted in Me,” declares the LORD.’”

The LORD forgets nothing of what anyone has done for Him or His own. Before the city has fallen and Jeremiah is still a prisoner, the word of the LORD has come to him with a message for Ebed-melech (verse 15). He is to bring Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, the word of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel (verse 16).

First the LORD points out that He will bring His words of calamity upon the city. Ebed-melech will see that for himself. But the LORD will deliver him (verse 17). He does fear the Chaldeans, for he has been a servant of Zedekiah. Perhaps he is also afraid of the men who wanted to kill Jeremiah because he helped Jeremiah out of the cistern into which they had thrown him. They will want to make the man who did such a brave act of faith to pay for that.

But he has served the LORD, the King of kings, and He promises that He “will certainly rescue” him (verse 18) from all dangers. The sword will not strike him; he will remain alive. The reason is: “Because you have trusted in Me.” God honors those who honor Him. Let us too take the risks of faith in the way of obedience and thus adorn the gospel.

Jeremiah 40

Introduction

Jeremiah 40-44 contain prophecies and an account of events after the fall of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 40-42 deal with prophecies and events in Judah, Jeremiah 43-44 deal with those in Egypt.

Jer 40:1-6 | The Release of Jeremiah

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan captain of the bodyguard had released him from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in chains among all the exiles of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon. 2 Now the captain of the bodyguard had taken Jeremiah and said to him, “The LORD your God promised this calamity against this place; 3 and the LORD has brought [it] on and done just as He promised. Because you [people] sinned against the LORD and did not listen to His voice, therefore this thing has happened to you. 4 But now, behold, I am freeing you today from the chains which are on your hands. If you would prefer to come with me to Babylon, come [along], and I will look after you; but if you would prefer not to come with me to Babylon, never mind. Look, the whole land is before you; go wherever it seems good and right for you to go.” 5 As Jeremiah was still not going back, [he said], “Go on back then to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and stay with him among the people; or else go anywhere it seems right for you to go.” So the captain of the bodyguard gave him a ration and a gift and let him go. 6 Then Jeremiah went to Mizpah to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam and stayed with him among the people who were left in the land.

What follows now is the long history of Jeremiah in the midst of those left behind in Judah. It seems that Jeremiah, despite Nebuchadnezzar’s command (Jer 39:11-14), was nevertheless captured and handcuffed with the exiles on his way to Babylon (verse 1). This will be so because the soldiers did not recognize him. This will have been another tremendous trial for Jeremiah. When the error is discovered, he is released again. The captain of the bodyguard has Jeremiah brought to him (verse 2). He speaks of “the LORD your God”. He knows himself to be a tool in His hand.

He, as the king’s confidant, lets Jeremiah know that it is known to him that he has preached about the evil that the LORD his God has pronounced on Jerusalem. He will have heard this from those who had defected to the Babylonians or who had been taken away by them before. He knows the reason, which is that they have sinned against the LORD and have not listened to His voice (verse 3). Therefore, what He has spoken has been done “to you”, that is, to Jeremiah. Jeremiah suffers with all the people. From his mouth we do not hear a word about the evil that has been done to him.

Jeremiah gets his freedom back (verse 4). He is allowed to decide for himself what to do. The captain holds out to him the choice of going with him to Babylon. If he chooses to do so, the captain guarantees his safety. An attractive offer for the man so hated by his people because of his preaching and the fulfillment of his words. If he prefers to stay in Israel, that’s fine too. He may go wherever he wishes. He is dependent on the LORD for making that choice. Until it is clear to Jeremiah, he lives in Jerusalem.

The captain advises Jeremiah to get in touch with Gedaliah as long as Jeremiah – literally he, by whom is probably meant Nebuchadnezzar – does not return (verse 5). Gedaliah, an official of Judah, has been appointed by Nebuchadnezzar to be the leader of the people. If Jeremiah wants to go somewhere else, he can. He has complete freedom of movement. Then the captain gives him food for the road and a gift – as compensation for the injustice done to him? – and lets him go. We don’t read anything about Jeremiah’s considerations in the choice he makes, but he goes to Gedaliah, with whom he stays as one of those left in the land (verse 6).

Jer 40:7-10 | The Assurance of Gedaliah

7 Now all the commanders of the forces that were in the field, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam over the land and that he had put him in charge of the men, women and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been exiled to Babylon. 8 So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, along with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, [both] they and their men. 9 Then Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, saying, “Do not be afraid of serving the Chaldeans; stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, that it may go well with you. 10 Now as for me, behold, I am going to stay at Mizpah to stand [for you] before the Chaldeans who come to us; but as for you, gather in wine and summer fruit and oil and put [them] in your [storage] vessels, and live in your cities that you have taken over.”

In the field are all the remaining commanders of Judah with their men (verse 7). They have managed to hide from the army of the king of Babylon. They hear that Gedaliah has been appointed by Nebuchadnezzar over those who are left in the land. The commanders, who are named, go to Gedaliah (verse 8). Gedaliah assures them that they have nothing to fear if they serve the Chaldeans (verse 9). In fact, it will go well for them. He can say this because he believes the word of the LORD.

He himself remains in Mizpah to conduct the affairs of the people there with the rulers (verse 10). Let them occupy themselves to gather in wine, summer fruit and oil. They can then sell these and thus provide themselves with income. In this way they can continue to live in the cities they have taken and build a new existence in the land.

Jer 40:11-12 | The Return of the Refugees

11 Likewise, also all the Jews who were in Moab and among the sons of Ammon and in Edom and who were in all the [other] countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant for Judah, and that he had appointed over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan. 12 Then all the Jews returned from all the places to which they had been driven away and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered in wine and summer fruit in great abundance.

Still more Judeans hear of a remnant being left in Judah by the king of Babylon (verse 11). These are the Judeans who have fled to Moab, Ammon, Edom, and still others. They also hear that Gedaliah has been appointed over the land. What they hear prompts them to go back to Judah as well (verse 12). They come from the various places to which they have been driven and come to Gedaliah. They participate in Gedaliah’s program and gather in “wine and summer fruit in great abundance”.

Jer 40:13-16 | Gedaliah Is Warned About Ishmael

13 Now Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were in the field came to Gedaliah at Mizpah 14 and said to him, “Are you well aware that Baalis the king of the sons of Ammon has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life?” But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam did not believe them. 15 Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah, saying, “Let me go and kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and not a man will know! Why should he take your life, so that all the Jews who are gathered to you would be scattered and the remnant of Judah would perish?” 16 But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, “Do not do this thing, for you are telling a lie about Ishmael.”

Then Gedaliah is visited by Johanan and all the commanders of the forces who are in the field (verse 13). They come to warn Gedalia of an attempt that is being plotted on his life (verse 14). They know the details and inform him of them. The thing is, that Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, has sent Ishmael to kill him. Baalis had been an ally of Zedekiah in the battle against the king of Babylon. It seems that he still wants to fight against the king of Babylon. Now if Gedaliah is killed by Ishmael, Ishmael can take control and they can continue to resist the king of Babylon together.

Gedaliah, however, does not want to believe what he is told. Johanan does not give up and secretly seeks out Gedaliah (verse 15). He proposes that he will kill Ishmael. He will do it in such a way that no one will know that he has been murdered. The murder is necessary, he argues, because if that man kills Gedaliah, all who have joined Gedaliah will also perish.

Gedaliah forbids Johanan the mission he proposes (verse 16). This is not because he turns the matter over to the LORD. That’s what David does when his servant proposes to kill Saul (1Sam 24:7; 26:8-10). Here we hear nothing about the LORD. Jeremiah who is also there is not consulted by Gedaliah. Gedaliah is simply too trusting. He dismisses the threat, about which he has been informed, by stating that it is lies. He trusts his own judgment of the danger, and according to his judgment, there is no danger. That gullibility costs him his life.

Jeremiah 41

Jer 41:1-3 | The Murder of Gedaliah

1 In the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family and [one] of the chief officers of the king, along with ten men, came to Mizpah to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. While they were eating bread together there in Mizpah, 2 Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him arose and struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and put to death the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land. 3 Ishmael also struck down all the Jews who were with him, [that is] with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.

In the seventh month, Ishmael – someone of whom we now read that he is of royal descent – comes with the chief officers and ten men to Gedaliah (verse 1). He pretends to have peaceful intentions. Gedaliah seems to be up to no good, as he offers them a meal. During the meal – a picture of fellowship – the company, led by Ishmael, turns against Gedaliah and they kill him (verse 2). It is emphasized that they kill him “whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land”. Ishmael also kills all who are with Gedaliah, including some Babylonian men (verse 3).

In Ishmael we see the madness of power-seeking men, something we see again and again throughout human history and in the Word of God. Satan is always out to destroy the testimony of God. He succeeds here by a man bent on seizing power. The king of Babylon has allowed the poorest of the land in Israel to stay and has put Gedaliah over them. Under his leadership, they can rebuild something that can be to the glory of God, acknowledging the authority of a heathen ruler whom God has set over them because of their unfaithfulness.

Jer 41:4-10 | The Massacre of the Pilgrims

4 Now it happened on the next day after the killing of Gedaliah, when no one knew about [it], 5 that eighty men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria with their beards shaved off and their clothes torn and their bodies gashed, having grain offerings and incense in their hands to bring to the house of the LORD. 6 Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went; and as he met them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!” 7 Yet it turned out that as soon as they came inside the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the men that were with him slaughtered them [and cast them] into the cistern. 8 But ten men who were found among them said to Ishmael, “Do not put us to death; for we have stores of wheat, barley, oil and honey hidden in the field.” So he refrained and did not put them to death along with their companions. 9 Now as for the cistern where Ishmael had cast all the corpses of the men whom he had struck down because of Gedaliah, it was the one that King Asa had made on account of Baasha, king of Israel; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain. 10 Then Ishmael took captive all the remnant of the people who were in Mizpah, the king’s daughters and all the people who were left in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had put under the charge of Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; thus Ishmael the son of Nethaniah took them captive and proceeded to cross over to the sons of Ammon.

Two days later, no one is yet aware about the murder of Gedaliah (verse 4). But there is no rest for Ishmael. Men come from Shechem with the intention of offering grain offerings and incense in the house of the LORD (verse 5). These offerings are sacrifices without blood because there is no possibility of slaughtering animals (cf. Deu 12:13-14,17-18).

The company consists of eighty men. They wear signs of mourning including the heathen sign of carving in the body. Ishmael leaves Mizpah to meet them and hypocritically joins them by weeping with them (verse 6). He invites them to go with him to Gedaliah. When they arrive in the city, Ishmael casts off his mask and slaughters them (verse 7). The bodies he casts in the cistern. However, ten of the eighty men escape death by telling Ishmael that they have hidden supplies of wheat, barley, oil and honey in the field (verse 8).

The cistern into which the bodies of all the slain men are thrown, including those of Gedaliah and his men, has a history (verse 9). It is the cistern that King Asa made as a shelter. He did this for fear of Baasha, the king of Israel, threatening him (1Kgs 15:22; 2Chr 16:6). This cistern is filled by Ishmael with the fallen.

Then he carries off the remnant as captives and seeks refuge with the Ammonites (verse 10). He thought he could be king of Israel, but sees that he has ventured into an adventure, the consequences of which he has not foreseen. This is how many criminals act who expect a lot from their crime to improve their lives, while it only brings misery.

Jer 41:11-15 | The Escape of Ishmael

11 But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done. 12 So they took all the men and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and they found him by the great pool that is in Gibeon. 13 Now as soon as all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and the commanders of the forces that were with him, they were glad. 14 So all the people whom Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah turned around and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah. 15 But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men and went to the sons of Ammon.

Johanan, who has warned Gedaliah of Ishmael’s evil intentions, hears of all the evil that Ishmael has done (verse 11). He realizes that Nebuchadnezzar’s anger will kindle when he hears this and he will kill all in the land. To prove himself a faithful servant of the king of Babylon, he wants to fight Ishmael (verse 12). He meets Ishmael at the great pool that is in Gibeon. When all the people who are with Ishmael see Johanan, they are glad (verse 13) and defect to him (verse 14). Ishmael flees with eight of the ten men who are with him and escapes (verse 15). It appears that two were killed.

Jer 41:16-18 | The Run Into Egypt

16 Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him took from Mizpah all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, after he had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, [that is], the men who were soldiers, [the] women, [the] children, and [the] eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon. 17 And they went and stayed in Geruth Chimham, which is beside Bethlehem, in order to proceed into Egypt 18 because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, since Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

Starting in verse 16, it is about the journey to Egypt. In it we see the human considerations for running to Egypt. Everything is plausible to the human mind. However, it is not a work of faith. Faith is the great missing factor in all deliberations. The LORD is consulted, but without the willingness to do what He says, because the plans have been made and the decision has been made. The LORD only has to put His signature on it, as it were, by blessing their self-made plans.

Johanan is the deliverer of the remnant of the people who had been taken captive by Ishmael (verse 16). However, this does not put him out of danger. The king of Babylon will certainly hear what has happened and send a punitive expedition to Israel. Therefore, with all who are with him, he goes to Geruth Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, and from there continues on to Egypt (verse 17). He flees from the Chaldeans because Ishmael has killed the governor whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land (verse 18). Ishmael has fled and therefore Johanan can prove nothing of his intention to kill him and thereby show that the whole rebellion was not from him.

Jeremiah 42

Jer 42:1-6 | The Remnant Seeks Counsel

1 Then all the commanders of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people both small and great approached 2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please let our petition come before you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, [that is] for all this remnant; because we are left [but] a few out of many, as your own eyes [now] see us, 3 that the LORD your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.” 4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard [you]. Behold, I am going to pray to the LORD your God in accordance with your words; and I will tell you the whole message which the LORD will answer you. I will not keep back a word from you.” 5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with the whole message with which the LORD your God will send you to us. 6 Whether [it] is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the LORD our God.”

Before the remnant moves on, they all, from small to great, go to Jeremiah to ask him to pray for them “to the LORD your God” (verses 1-2). By speaking of the LORD in this way, it seems that they themselves have no real relationship with Him. They see in Jeremiah a mediator. However, there is an unusual, rare unity among the remnant. They all, without exception, want to know what to do and where to go and want God to make it known to them (verse 3). This is a good thing.

We hear again from Jeremiah here. We know that he was offered riches and ease if he would go with the others to Babylon, but that he could also stay in the land. He has chosen the latter, for he wants to stay with the little remnant. He is eager to comply with their request (verse 4). He will ask the LORD, of Whom he says to them that He is “your God”, in accordance with their wishes and make known to them what He will answer. Jeremiah emphasizes that he will not leave out a word of the answer, but will communicate to them every word that the LORD has spoken.

Thereupon the company, appealing to the LORD “as a true and faithful witness”, declares that they will do exactly as He will answer (verse 5). They confirm their promise with the assurance that no matter what the answer will be, they will listen to “the voice of the LORD”, Whom they now call “our God” (verse 6). In doing so, they testify that listening to the voice of the LORD means to them that things will go well for them.

It is similar to swearing an oath (cf. Gen 31:50; 1Sam 12:5). Here it is just like at Sinai, where God’s people also similarly affirm that they will do all that the LORD will command them (Exo 19:8). The difference is that at Sinai the people say this while blinded by their inability to obey, whereas here the company has already decided in advance what they will do.

Jer 42:7-17 | The Answer of the LORD

7 Now at the end of ten days the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah. 8 Then he called for Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him, and for all the people both small and great, 9 and said to them, “Thus says the LORD the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him: 10 ‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you; for I will relent concerning the calamity that I have inflicted on you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you are [now] fearing; do not be afraid of him,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand. 12 I will also show you compassion, so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own soil. 13 But if you are going to say, “We will not stay in this land,” so as not to listen to the voice of the LORD your God, 14 saying, “No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of a trumpet or hunger for bread, and we will stay there”; 15 then in that case listen to the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “If you really set your mind to enter Egypt and go in to reside there, 16 then the sword, which you are afraid of, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are anxious, will follow closely after you there [in] Egypt, and you will die there. 17 So all the men who set their mind to go to Egypt to reside there will die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence; and they will have no survivors or refugees from the calamity that I am going to bring on them.”‘“

Jeremiah conveyed their request to the LORD. The LORD does not answer immediately. After ten days of waiting, the answer comes (verse 7; cf. Dan 10:12-13). These ten days will have been a great exercise for Jeremiah and for the remnant. For Jeremiah, it is an exercise in waiting. He will also have wondered what the answer will be, although he will probably have known from all the LORD’s previous communications what that answer will be. The remnant will also have waited in suspense. Their fear of the Babylonians is great. The only solution they see is to flee further into Egypt, to which they are headed. The ten days are a test of faith, a test to see if there is real faith.

When Jeremiah has heard the word of the LORD, he calls to him all those who have come to him seeking His counsel and for whom he has prayed (verse 8; verse 1). He introduces the LORD’s response by introducing Him as “the LORD the God of Israel” and reminding them that they have sent him to present their petition before Him (verse 9). He is and remains the faithful prophet who speaks what the LORD has told him.

The answer is comprehensive and not unlike what he had always said to the people during the siege of the city by the Babylonians (verse 10). The threat now is the same and so is the answer. If they stay in the land, they will stay alive. The LORD will even build and plant them. He knows their fear of the king of Babylon. Therefore, He assures them that they need not fear him, for He will be with them to save them and deliver them from his hand (verse 11). He will not only not harm them, but will even show them mercy and return them to their land (verse 12). This seems to indicate that although they will be taken to Babylon first, they will find mercy there. It may also be that this is already the case now, because they are on their way to Egypt.

In any case, we see here what a wonderful God we have, Who, after so much rejection on the part of His people, still commits Himself in this way to bless them. If only they would listen and believe Him. He knows their insincerity, but that does not make His promise any less true.

The LORD also warns them in case they do not listen to His voice (verse 13). He knows their heart and that it is possible that they will say they will go to Egypt because they think they will be safe there, will not see war or hear its threat and that there will also be food enough there (verse 14). If they do plan to go to Egypt, even if it is to stay there as a stranger (cf. Rth 1:1), then they, “remnant of Judah”, should listen carefully once more to “the word of the LORD” (verse 15). He, Who is “the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel”, is speaking to them. It is as if the LORD places Himself before them in all His greatness, in order to give His speaking even more emphasis and to induce them to listen to Him and obey Him after all.

They will meet in Egypt precisely what they thought they were fleeing from (verse 16). They will not stay alive there, but die there. That will be the fate of all men who have set their sights on seeking a safe haven in Egypt and want to stay there as strangers (verse 17). No one will escape the calamity, because the calamity will not come from Babylon, but from the LORD Himself. They can avoid this disappointment if they listen to Him. Disappointment in expectations is the result of wrong expectations, expectations based on our own deliberations and not on what God has said.

Abraham, Isaac and Jeroboam have in common that they spent time in Egypt. They were not blessed stays. The lessons of people who have seen the world – Egypt is a picture of the world – as a solution to a problem should help us not to seek our salvation there. Stay with the Lord and He will bless us. Are we afraid of one power or another? The Lord will protect us. If we only look to the power that scares us, we are entering into another power that will truly destroy us. Running away from problems leads to even greater ones.

Jer 42:18-22 | Punishments for Staying in Egypt

18 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “As My anger and wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.” 19 The LORD has spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, “Do not go into Egypt!” You should clearly understand that today I have testified against you. 20 For you have [only] deceived yourselves; for it is you who sent me to the LORD your God, saying, “Pray for us to the LORD our God; and whatever the LORD our God says, tell us so, and we will do it.” 21 So I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the LORD your God, even in whatever He has sent me to [tell] you. 22 Therefore you should now clearly understand that you will die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence, in the place where you wish to go to reside.

After the promises and the warnings come the threats, which take the form of retribution because the LORD knows the heart of the people. When they shall come into Egypt, the LORD will pour out His anger and wrath on them there, as He did upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem (verse 18). They will not be witnesses to Him there, but to a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation and a reproach. The Egyptians will not greet them as friends. But returning to the land of Judah will not be possible either. Egypt will become the land of their burial and not the promised land.

It is impressive how clearly God speaks and warns. They have before them the result of their previous disobedience to His clear words about the destruction of Jerusalem. They have seen with their own eyes that the LORD has fulfilled His word. Now He warns again, but again they will not listen. How stubborn is man!

Jeremiah emphasizes again what the LORD has spoken and that he, Jeremiah, has warned them not to enter Egypt (verse 19). He places the entire responsibility for their going into Egypt on themselves. They are acting in self-deception. After all, they sent him to the LORD to pray for them, didn’t they? Did they not say that they will do all that he will make known to them from the LORD? Well, he has made it known, but in spite of that they do not listen or do what the LORD has said (verse 21). Then they must now face the consequences of their self-willed choice (verse 22). They must know very well that they will perish in the place where they think they can escape.

Jeremiah 43

Jer 43:1-7 | The Warning Despised

1 But as soon as Jeremiah, whom the LORD their God had sent, had finished telling all the people all the words of the LORD their God—that is, all these words— 2 Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You are not to enter Egypt to reside there’; 3 but Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us to give us over into the hand of the Chaldeans, so they will put us to death or exile us to Babylon.” 4 So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces, and all the people, did not obey the voice of the LORD to stay in the land of Judah. 5 But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took the entire remnant of Judah who had returned from all the nations to which they had been driven away, in order to reside in the land of Judah— 6 the men, the women, the children, the king’s daughters and every person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, together with Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah— 7 and they entered the land of Egypt (for they did not obey the voice of the LORD) and went in as far as Tahpanhes.

Jeremiah finished his message to the people (verse 1). He has spoken all the words of the LORD to them, words with which the LORD their God had sent him to them. Again, it says “all these words”. He did not withhold anything. Then comes the response (verse 2). Some leaders, collectively called “all the arrogant men”, oppose Jeremiah. Arrogance is the primal sin and is rebellion against God. It is the refusal to bow before God and His Word because one wants to be important oneself. They outright accuse Jeremiah of speaking lies, of being a liar. They flatly deny that the LORD sent him with the message that they must not enter Egypt.

According to them, Jeremiah is not passing on the words of the LORD, but those of Baruch (verse 3). He is behind it. He has stirred up Jeremiah to bring this message of doom. How did they get that idea! From Jeremiah we hear no rebuttal, but God’s Spirit is clear: They “did not obey the voice of the LORD to stay in the land of Judah” (verse 4). The leaders of the remnant continued their wayward ways (verse 5). All who have come to them from all the nations to stay in Judah leave again, now to go to Egypt.

Thus they lead all those left by Nebuzaradan with Gedaliah in Judah down an unholy road (verse 6). They drag them all along to destruction. They also take Jeremiah and Baruch with them. After so many years of prophesying and receiving hatred for it, after years of imprisonment, now he is also dragged off to Egypt. It is the tragedy of a man now grown old, appointed by the LORD to be a prophet to His people.

So they arrive in Egypt, at Tahpanhes, in disobedience to the voice of the LORD (verse 7). What a tragedy! The descendants of Abraham are returning to Egypt, from which they were freed so long ago. With great difficulty they escaped slavery in Egypt only to return there, some 900 years later, as a defeated and hopeless remnant.

Jer 43:8-13 | Prophecy of Jeremiah in Egypt

8 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, 9 “Take [some] large stones in your hands and hide them in the mortar in the brick [terrace] which is at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes, in the sight of some [of the] Jews; 10 and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am going to send and get Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I am going to set his throne [right] over these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his canopy over them. 11 He will also come and strike the land of Egypt; those who are [meant] for death [will be given over] to death, and those for captivity to captivity, and those for the sword to the sword. 12 And I shall set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them and take them captive. So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself with his garment, and he will depart from there safely. 13 He will also shatter the obelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt; and the temples of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire.”‘“

In Tahpanhes in Egypt, the word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah (verse 8). The people think that by fleeing from Judah they have put the problems behind them. But that is self-deception. They will suffer in Egypt the fate they think they have escaped. Never can anyone flee so far as to be beyond the reach of God’s arm (cf. Jona 1:1-17).

Jeremiah remains the prophet of the LORD, even in Egypt. He is instructed by the LORD to take large stones and hide them in the mortar in the brick terrace which is at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes in the sight of some Jews (verse 9). It will have caused a stir, that right in front of the center of Egyptian power, Jeremiah, the ancient prophet, carries out this command. He will have received the special protection of the LORD for it, for otherwise he would have been arrested immediately.

It is a remarkable command with a symbolic meaning. It is declared by the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel (verse 10). The LORD will bring Nebuchadnezzar, whom He calls His servant, and he will set his throne on top of those stones and spread his canopy over them. Jeremiah has laid the foundation, as it were, for a new government that will overthrow the old one.

Nebuchadnezzar will come and conquer Egypt (verse 11). Their flight from the Babylonians is therefore futile, for the LORD is sending Nebuchadnezzar’s armies there. Along with this, disasters will come on the people. They will die from various causes. The LORD shall by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt (verse 12). It is not Nebuchadnezzar who is the destroyer, but the LORD, Who uses him to bring His calamity upon them.

As a result, the land of Egypt will be cleared of lice – “wrap himself with the land” can also be translated to “delouse the land”. With the ease with which a shepherd rids his cloak of lice, Nebuchadnezzar sweeps away the idols from Egypt. When Nebuchadnezzar has finished his work, he will depart from Egypt in peace. No one will stop him. All idols are nothing (verse 13). He shatters them and burns them with fire.

Jeremiah 44

Jer 44:1-10 | Exhortation to Learn From the Past

1 The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews living in the land of Egypt, those who were living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and the land of Pathros, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are in ruins and no one lives in them, 3 because of their wickedness which they committed so as to provoke Me to anger by continuing to burn sacrifices [and] to serve other gods whom they had not known, [neither] they, you, nor your fathers. 4 Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate.” 5 But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn sacrifices to other gods. 6 Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become a ruin and a desolation as it is this day. 7 Now then thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, “Why are you doing great harm to yourselves, so as to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, from among Judah, leaving yourselves without remnant, 8 provoking Me to anger with the works of your hands, burning sacrifices to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you are entering to reside, so that you might be cut off and become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? 9 Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 But they have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in My law or My statutes, which I have set before you and before your fathers.”‘

The word comes again to Jeremiah (verse 1). It is a word for all the Jews living in Egypt. They have spread from Tahpanhes, where they came collectively into Egypt (Jer 43:7), to other cities in Egypt mentioned here. Four places are mentioned, three in northern Egypt: Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and one in southern Egypt: Pathros. The mention of these places shows how quickly the Jews spread throughout Egypt, from north to south.

In verses 2-6 Jeremiah gives his listeners a history lesson that shows the human cause and the Divine response of the ruin that Jerusalem has become. We are further in time here than in the previous chapter. Also in Egypt, the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, speaks through Jeremiah to the Jews (verse 2). He reminds them of the calamity He has brought upon Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah, which they have seen themselves. They have also experienced it firsthand that the cities have become a shambles and that no man lives there anymore.

The LORD also reminds them of the cause (verse 3). The calamity has come upon them because of their wickedness, with which they have provoked Him to anger. That wickedness is specified. It is the wickedness of burning sacrifices to other gods with whom they never had any connection, neither they nor their fathers. Here is the root of all mischief: idolatry. Nor did they offer these sacrifices once in a while, but persevered with it.

Through His servants, the prophets, the LORD has seriously warned them of this over and over again (verse 4). He has let His people know through them that these are horrible things that He hates. We hear here how intensely God’s feelings are grieved by this evil. Idolatry is a deep insult to Him. It is giving honor to something other than Him, which means giving honor to the devil and his demons who are behind the idol (1Cor 10:19-20). God hates idolatry.

However, they did not listen and did not repent. They did not stop these abominable practices (verse 5). Therefore, the LORD has poured out His wrath and anger on them which has raged like a fire in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem (verse 6). The result is that they are now a ruin and a desolation.

After this review, the LORD asks why they do this great evil (verse 7). He puts it this way, that they do this great evil to themselves. They plunge themselves, man and woman, child and infant, into destruction, with no one left. The ruin is total. It is also a mystery today why people continue to live a certain way of life with bad, harmful habits, knowing that it is taking them to the abyss, that they are in the process of killing themselves. If Christ is not our life, the flesh, the world and the devil have complete power over us.

They do it to themselves, for the anger of the LORD comes upon them because they burn sacrifices to other gods also in Egypt (verse 8). Once again the LORD says that by doing so they will cut off themselves. They will also become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth and not a testimony to His Name, which is what He so much wanted them to be.

They are in the process of exterminating themselves as a nation, they want to commit national suicide. The German philosopher Hegel rightly said: “What experience and history teach is that people and governments have never learned anything from history.” So it is with these Jews in Egypt. How disheartening it must have been for Jeremiah. All his life he preached against this idolatry in Judah and now the Jews are committing the same sin in Egypt that caused the fall of Jerusalem.

Once again, the LORD reminds them of the past (verse 9). He brings to their attention the evil deeds of their fathers, and also those of the kings of Judah. Then He points them to their own evil deeds and the evil deeds of their wives. Their wives openly practiced idolatry in Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Despite all the calamity that has come upon them, to this day there is no repentance or even a trace of contrite (verse 10). There is not even any fear of the newly announced judgments. How hardened a heart can be! A person hardens himself when he continues to oppose God and His Word and does not walk according to it.

Jer 44:11-14 | Warning of Punishment

11 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am going to set My face against you for woe, even to cut off all Judah. 12 And I will take away the remnant of Judah who have set their mind on entering the land of Egypt to reside there, and they will all meet their end in the land of Egypt; they will fall by the sword [and] meet their end by famine. Both small and great will die by the sword and famine; and they will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation and a reproach. 13 And I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine and with pestilence. 14 So there will be no refugees or survivors for the remnant of Judah who have entered the land of Egypt to reside there and then to return to the land of Judah, to which they are longing to return and live; for none will return except [a few] refugees.’”

The punishments presented to them by the LORD in these verses are the result of their self-willed, wrong choice. When the punishments come, they can only blame themselves for it. Because they persist in their sins, the LORD will turn his face against them not for good, but for woe (verse 11). Instead of building them up and protecting them, He will cut off all Judah.

It is about people who “set their mind” on going to Egypt to stay there as strangers (verse 12). Those who set their mind on something are beyond correction. Therefore, the judgment on them must be that they will all perish in Egypt by the sword and famine, from small to great. Instead of being a blessing to their surroundings, their surroundings will curse and terrify them, because they bring a curse and a reproach upon their surroundings.

The Egyptians will see the Jews punished by the LORD, that it will be in the same way He punished them in Jerusalem (verse 13). The LORD knows where His people are and strikes them where they are with the sword, famine and pestilence. No one will escape His judgment (verse 14). They have fled with the thought of finding temporary safety in Egypt. It is only to stay there as a stranger, they believe. There is no intention of settling there permanently. No, they long, when the coast is clear again, to return to Judah and live there again.

But the LORD says: “None will return.” Yet we see then that even here the LORD will allow some to escape. He is maintaining a remnant according to the election of grace. Possibly this involves some who were taken to Egypt against their will.

Jer 44:15-19 | Stubborn Persistence in Idolatry

15 Then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by, [as] a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah, saying, 16 “As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we are not going to listen to you! 17 But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for [then] we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune. 18 But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have met our end by the sword and by famine.” 19 “And,” [said the women], “when we were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and were pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her [sacrificial] cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

After Jeremiah has spoken the words of judgment from the LORD, comes the reaction of the people (verse 15). This is quite a large company, “a large assembly”. The Spirit of God introduces to us the people who respond. They are first “all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods”.

Such men do not behave as the head of their wives. It is written of Jacob that he did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols (Gen 31:32). These men simply allow their wives to do so. Such men are weak-minded straw men who bow to the will of their wives. In doing so, they throw overboard the will of God.

Then all the women, also as a group, are mentioned. The women’s movement is well represented. Those men and women form a large crowd. Then there is also “all the people”, the gullible, compliant crowd.

The response is truly mind-boggling (verse 16). They acknowledge that Jeremiah spoke the word to them in the Name of the LORD and in the same breath they say they will not listen to it. This is defiantly, willful sinning, punishable by death (Num 15:30-31). Jeremiah also denounced this sin earlier (Jer 7:17-18). It is falling away from the living God, with no possibility of repentance (cf. Heb 6:4-6; 10:29).

It seems that the women are the spokesmen. They are not doing what “the mouth of the LORD” has spoken, but they will, they say, “certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths” (verse 17). That means, they go on to say, that they will continue to burn sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.

They did the same in Judah and Jerusalem, just like their fathers, kings and princes. Then they had bread and things went well and they saw no evil. That changed when they stopped doing that (verse 18). That must have happened under pressure from Josiah. Then there was a lack of everything and the sword and famine struck them. By the way, their men know about it, but say nothing of it (verse 19). So what will Jeremiah tell them?

This kind of ‘theological gymnastics’, as someone called it, is something we also encounter today. It is hidden in the view that ceasing to sin brings unhappiness. People who practice one sin or another with commitment and devotion become unhappy when they stop. From this they conclude that sin makes them happy. In such people, sin is so deeply ingrained that they are no longer open to the truth and believe the lie as truth.

The first argument for continuing with their idolatry is: we do as we have always done. The second argument is that it went well for them when they offered the queen of heaven and it went badly for them when they stopped doing so. There is no sense of the discipline of God as the real cause of their misery. The third argument is that they did not do it without their men. They shift the blame. They overlook the fact that each has his or her own responsibility, which is not inconsistent with the woman’s submission to the man.

This is how the LORD is pushed aside. It is even worse. All blessing is attributed to the idols and all plagues to the LORD.

Those who want to be faithful to Christ may find themselves in difficult circumstances. The devil will use that to point out to someone that when he did not know the Lord, he did not have all those problems. Those who do not live from a living relationship with the Lord Jesus will fall back into the hands of the devil in a time of need. We are told “that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Therefore, the fiery ordeal of tribulation should not surprise us (1Pet 4:12).

These women when they practiced idolatry, had plenty to eat and an easy life, they say. They attribute the lack of prosperity to the displeasure of the idols when they ceased to sacrifice to them. They believe the lie and have been blinded by the devil. They are responsible for this themselves.

Their husbands as heads of the family are even more responsible. They allow their wives to do so (cf. Num 30:3,6-7,12). The wife is given to help the man, but here the women take the initiative and the men follow submissively. It is like with the fall in sin, where Eve also takes the lead and Adam follows.

Jer 44:20-30 | Judgment on Stubbornness

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and women—even to all the people who were giving him [such] an answer—saying, 21 “As for the smoking sacrifices that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your forefathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them and did not [all this] come into His mind? 22 So the LORD was no longer able to endure [it], because of the evil of your deeds, because of the abominations which you have committed; thus your land has become a ruin, an object of horror and a curse, without an inhabitant, as [it is] this day. 23 Because you have burned sacrifices and have sinned against the LORD and not obeyed the voice of the LORD or walked in His law, His statutes or His testimonies, therefore this calamity has befallen you, as [it has] this day.” 24 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, “Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt, 25 thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, as follows: ‘As for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled [it] with your hands, saying, “We will certainly perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” Go ahead and confirm your vows, and certainly perform your vows!’ 26 Nevertheless hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are living in the land of Egypt, ‘Behold, I have sworn by My great name,’ says the LORD, ‘never shall My name be invoked again by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “As the Lord GOD lives.” 27 Behold, I am watching over them for harm and not for good, and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will meet their end by the sword and by famine until they are completely gone. 28 Those who escape the sword will return out of the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number. Then all the remnant of Judah who have gone to the land of Egypt to reside there will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs. 29 This will be the sign to you,’ declares the LORD, ‘that I am going to punish you in this place, so that you may know that My words will surely stand against you for harm.’ 30 Thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I am going to give over Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt to the hand of his enemies, to the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave over Zedekiah king of Judah to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, [who was] his enemy and was seeking his life.’”

Then comes Jeremiah’s answer (verse 20). Do they really think that the LORD did not think of their idolatry and that of their fathers, kings and princes and all the people outside the cities (verse 21)? Wouldn’t thoughts have entered His heart about their abominable conduct? What foolishness to assume that. He has pointed it out time and time again. Also, they could have known it from His law. But His patience is not infinite. The time has come when He has been unable to endure their evil deeds, their abominations, any longer (verse 22). Therefore, the land became a desolation, without an inhabitant.

Surely they can observe that today, can’t they? It is precisely this idolatry that they have practiced and continue to practice today, even outside the land, that has caused this calamity to come upon them (verse 23). That judgment does not come from their idols, but from the living God. At length Jeremiah argues in which they have transgressed: burning sacrifices, sinning, not listening to the voice of the LORD, not walking according to His law, His ordinances and His testimonies. The proven charges are numerous.

Jeremiah continues his indictment of the people, also mentioning the women separately (verse 24). They are to listen to the word of the LORD. He, the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says that they have just pronounced their own judgment (verse 25). He has heard correctly that they and their wives – the women are again mentioned separately and therefore emphatically – have said that they are determined to fulfill their vows that they made to the idols. All right, says the LORD, do it! This is consistent with the word of Hosea: “Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone” (Hos 4:17). They no longer need to be warned because they don’t listen anyway. God gives them over to their actions.

They made a vow, the LORD also makes a vow, which He confirms with an oath (verse 26). Let none of the Jews living in Egypt ever again think that He will listen to them if they take His Name in their mouth. It is over now. He is watching over them for harm and not for good (verse 27). He has often done the latter, but they have now definitely turned their backs on Him. They will not obey. Judgment must come.

Only a few, “few in number”, will escape the sword and return to Judah (verse 28). They will all know whether His word stands, the word of God, or theirs, the word of men. To deny it will be impossible, for they will experience it firsthand (verse 29). The sign that His word is true, they will acknowledge by the punishments that come upon them.

They believe they are safe in Egypt because Zedekiah made a covenant with Pharaoh Hophra (verse 30). But the LORD will give Pharaoh into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Their security is a false security because in doing so they rely on the power of a man rather than the power of God. Those who go against God are not safe anywhere. The shelter will be taken away and so will those who sought shelter.

Jeremiah’s service in Egypt to the people who fled to Egypt is the last service we have of him in the midst of God’s people. Thankfully, it is not the end of God’s dealings with His people. He will fulfill all His plans to a remnant that He spares by grace.

Jeremiah 45

Jer 45:1-3 | The Complaint of Baruch

1 [This is] the message which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written down these words in a book at Jeremiah’s dictation, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying: 2 “Thus says the LORD the God of Israel to you, O Baruch: 3 ‘You said, “Ah, woe is me! For the LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest.”‘

Jeremiah receives a message from the LORD intended for “Baruch the son of Neriah” (verses 1-2). It is an appendix to Jeremiah 36, to which this chapter follows chronologically. The message Jeremiah receives came to him during the time Baruch was writing the words from his mouth on a scroll (Jer 36:4). That is about twenty years earlier than the time of Jeremiah 44. Baruch, shortly after writing the scroll, also read it out twice, first to the people and then to the officials (Jer 36:10,14-15).

We are back “in the fourth year of Jehoiakim” for a moment. The name of Jehoiakim recalls how, during the reading of the scroll, he again and again shamelessly cut off the piece being read and threw it into the fire (Jer 36:21-23). The name of “Josiah” is also mentioned, the name that recalls the reforms made by this God-fearing king, but made undone by his wicked son Jehoiakim.

Although the message came twenty years earlier, Baruch places it at the very end of the book, that is, when everything is in ruins. The LORD knows what Baruch is saying as he writes. He pronounces the “woe is me” on himself because of the poor treatment he is subjected to (verse 3).

He owes this poor treatment to the fact that he is Jeremiah’s secretary and ally. He shares in what the people do to Jeremiah. He blames the LORD for this, because He has done this to him and added even more sorrow to his pain (cf. Rth 1:20-21). He is completely worn out and wants to stop. There is no rest to be found for him anywhere.

This feeling can also overwhelm us when we cannot surrender a matter to the Lord. When we bow under His yoke, we find rest for our souls in the midst of all the turmoil around us (Mt 11:29). There are a few ways we can lose our peace. It happens
1. when we seek in ourselves what can only be found in Christ;
2. when we seek in creation what can only be found in the Creator;
3. when we seek on earth what can only be found in heaven.

Jer 45:4-5 | The Answer of the LORD

4 Thus you are to say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold, what I have built I am about to tear down, and what I have planted I am about to uproot, that is, the whole land.” 5 But you, are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek [them]; for behold, I am going to bring disaster on all flesh,’ declares the LORD, ‘but I will give your life to you as booty in all the places where you may go.’”

These verses show that the LORD’s sufferings and sorrows for His people are far greater than those of any man can ever be. He must deal with “the whole land”, which is His land, in such a way that nothing remains of it (verse 4). He Himself built it and Himself planted it. Now He is forced by the unfaithfulness of the people to tear it down and uproot it Himself.

That is why Jeremiah must tell Baruch that his hope rests on nothing (verse 5). If the LORD deals with His land in this way, should a person harbor ambitions with regard to that land and seek “great things” for himself? Putting your hope in something the LORD will bring judgment on, can only lead to disappointment. It seems that Baruch is disappointed because he is not receiving the appreciation for his service that he expected.

Surely he has devoted himself to the LORD and faithfully done what he has been told to do, hasn’t he? Instead of recognition, he receives contempt. That is the thanks he gets. He thought he could hold a prominent position in the midst of people of God. But the people do not listen and are taken away and he receives serious reproaches.

We see here the disappointment resulting from wrong expectations. We also hear this from the mouth of the disciples. They want to know nothing of the rejection of the Lord, Whom they follow. They want to go with Him to Jerusalem, to the throne, but not outside Jerusalem, to the cross. We hear the same thing from the mouth of the disciples going to Emmaus (Lk 24:13-21). We also experience this when we want to accept the blessings out of the hand of the Lord, but not the discipline.

The LORD knows the thoughts that Baruch is harboring. That is why He sends him this message through Jeremiah. It connects to the thoughts that Baruch harbors. The message implies that to seek great things for yourself, in a field that is given up to judgment, is foolish.

This also applies to us. We should not seek great things in the world, for judgment is coming on the world. Therefore, the warning also applies to us: do not seek those great things. God brings His calamity upon people who go their own chosen way, upon people who live without regard to Him. They think they can make the world a place for themselves. The purpose of our lives is to be pleasing to Christ.

As a reward for his service, Baruch receives the promise from the LORD that He will save him wherever he goes. A greater reward cannot be imagined. Thus the Lord Jesus says to us that He will be with us “always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). There is nothing greater for us than the promise of His presence in our life.

Jeremiah 46

Jer 46:1 | Prophecy Concerning the Nations

1 That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.

Already in Jeremiah 25, the LORD gave Jeremiah His messages to the nations, announcing His anger upon them (Jer 25:15-26). At that time, the LORD first dealt at length with His people. Now it is the turn of the nations. After all, God is the God Who rules over all nations (Rom 3:29) and Jeremiah is also the prophet of the nations (Jer 1:5).

God is sovereign and has the authority to address all nations. He does so by choosing and using Nebuchadnezzar as His disciplinary rod for the nations. What Jeremiah prophesies will be fulfilled in the near and distant future. In the future, all enemies will be judged, while Israel will be the head.

The nations which Jeremiah prophesies about are all outside of Israel and considered by Israel to be the world. Each people represents to us a particular character in which the world may present itself to us. Thus Egypt, which comes before our attention as the first nation, represents the world in its quirky character which does not look up to heaven to expect its help from there.

Egypt expects its salvation from the Nile. The Nile is created by the water of the sky, but Egypt sees only the Nile and expects its blessing from the flood and by bringing the water on the land by their own effort (Deu 11:10). Egypt boasts of its own wisdom (Isa 19:11-15; Acts 7:22). We read of the treasures of Egypt (Heb 11:26) and of the garlic and onions of Egypt (Num 11:5).

Jer 46:2-6 | The Army of Egypt Defeated

2 To Egypt, concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, which was by the Euphrates River at Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
3 “Line up the shield and buckler,
And draw near for the battle!
4 “Harness the horses,
And mount the steeds,
And take your stand with helmets [on]!
Polish the spears,
Put on the scale-armor!
5 “Why have I seen [it]?
They are terrified,
They are drawing back,
And their mighty men are defeated
And have taken refuge in flight,
Without facing back;
Terror is on every side!”
Declares the LORD.
6 Let not the swift man flee,
Nor the mighty man escape;
In the north beside the river Euphrates
They have stumbled and fallen.

The first message concerns Egypt (verse 2). Egypt has played a major role in the history of God’s people. It holds God’s people in bondage as they begin to become a people (Exo 1:8-14; 2:23). The remnant of God’s people, when they are no longer a people because of God’s judgment, seek refuge in Egypt. We have just seen this in the previous chapters in this book. Therefore, the judgment on Egypt naturally results directly from that.

This chapter is about the battle of Carchemish, where Pharaoh Neco is defeated by Nebuchadnezzar. That battle changed world history. From that moment on, Babylon is the world power. Before that time, Egypt and Assyria competed for world domination with varying degrees of success. When Babylon grows in power and Egypt feels threatened by it, Egypt moves against Babylon to fight against it. Josiah therefore marches against Egypt, but is killed in the valley of Megiddo (2Chr 35:20-24). Pharaoh advances to the Euphrates, is defeated at Carchemish, and returns to Egypt. A few years later he is utterly defeated by Babylon.

What follows in verses 3-27 is a description and the result of this great battle at Carchemish. As we read this account of the battle, we see man’s hunger for power and what it brings upon him. We hardly see anything of God in the description. What we do see of it shows us that He is in control of the final direction. We see this clearly when all that is happening now has become history. Then we see God’s hand in history.

In verse 3, preparations are made for battle. The foot soldiers prepare the small shield and the large shield. The call sounds to go into battle. The horsemen also prepare themselves (verse 4). It is vividly and – because of the short sentences – powerfully described. We see the activity. The horses are harnessed, the riders mount the horses. They have helmets on, sharpened spears in their hands and their armor on. A formidable army stands ready.

Then suddenly we hear the voice of the LORD (verse 5). He Who sits in heaven laughs (Psa 2:4). When the whole army of Egypt is harnessed and ready for battle, He suddenly sees them shrink back and flee in terror. And running fast they go! They don’t look back and run away as fast as they can, because they are so afraid. Their flight will prove to be futile (verse 6). Speed and courage will be of no avail. Their fast is not fast enough and the hero is not powerful enough to escape the judgment from the north. They will stumble and fall “beside the river Euphrates”, at Carchemish.

Jer 46:7-12 | The Pride of Egypt Humbled

7 Who is this that rises like the Nile,
Like the rivers whose waters surge about?
8 Egypt rises like the Nile,
Even like the rivers whose waters surge about;
And He has said, “I will rise and cover [that] land;
I will surely destroy the city and its inhabitants.”
9 Go up, you horses, and drive madly, you chariots,
That the mighty men may march forward:
Ethiopia and Put, that handle the shield,
And the Lydians, that handle [and] bend the bow.
10 For that day belongs to the Lord GOD of hosts,
A day of vengeance, so as to avenge Himself on His foes;
And the sword will devour and be satiated
And drink its fill of their blood;
For there will be a slaughter for the Lord GOD of hosts,
In the land of the north by the river Euphrates.
11 Go up to Gilead and obtain balm,
O virgin daughter of Egypt!
In vain have you multiplied remedies;
There is no healing for you.
12 The nations have heard of your shame,
And the earth is full of your cry [of distress];
For one warrior has stumbled over another,
And both of them have fallen down together.

It is as if the LORD is saying that He will take a good look at who it is that comes up there like the Nile with great violence (verse 7). Oh yes, it’s Egypt coming up like the raging Nile (verse 8). The LORD hears how he speaks with a big mouth, saying: “I will rise.” ‘I, mighty Egypt, am so numerous that I will cover that land, and: “I will surely destroy the city and its inhabitants.”‘

The horses and chariots are shouted at and chased (verse 9). The mighty men appear, assured of victory. There are not only Egyptians. Also “Ethiopia and Put, that handle the shield”, and “the Lydians, that handle [and] bend the bow”, are part of this mighty army.

Then we hear the LORD again in His exaltation above all this puffed-up stuff of puny little people. It is His day, not Egypt’s (verse 10). “The Lord GOD of hosts” will avenge Himself on His foes. It is He Who ultimately judges Egypt, using the Babylonians to do so. The slaughter wrought by the sword is “before the Lord GOD of hosts”. The place of slaughter is “in the land of the north by the river Euphrates”, at Carchemish.

Mockingly, the LORD addresses the “virgin daughter of Egypt” who lies there as mortally wounded on the banks of the Euphrates (verse 11). Let them go to Gilead to get balm for their wounds. The same was said to Judah (Jer 8:22). But though the Egyptians have so much medical knowledge and though they take so many medicines, there will be no recovery of their former strength. The blows and wounds inflicted upon them are incurable.

The testimony of their ignominious demise reaches the nations (verse 12). In their land itself there is wailing. Their warriors have all fallen from their pedestals. Instead of helping each other, they have stumbled over each other and both of them have fallen down together.

Jer 46:13-19 | The Coming of Nebuchadnezzar

13 [This is] the message which the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to smite the land of Egypt:
14 “Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Migdol,
Proclaim also in Memphis and Tahpanhes;
Say, ‘Take your stand and get yourself ready,
For the sword has devoured those around you.’
15 “Why have your mighty ones become prostrate?
They do not stand because the LORD has thrust them down.
16 “They have repeatedly stumbled;
Indeed, they have fallen one against another.
Then they said, ‘Get up! And let us go back
To our own people and our native land
Away from the sword of the oppressor.’
17 “They cried there, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt [is but] a big noise;
He has let the appointed time pass by!’
18 “As I live,” declares the King
Whose name is the LORD of hosts,
“Surely one shall come [who looms up] like Tabor among the mountains,
Or like Carmel by the sea.
19 “Make your baggage ready for exile,
O daughter dwelling in Egypt,
For Memphis will become a desolation;
It will even be burned down [and] bereft of inhabitants.

Pharaoh did try to defeat Babylon in his own land, but with poor results, for the LORD supports Nebuchadnezzar. The LORD announces to Jeremiah that He will send Nebuchadnezzar to Egypt to smite the land (verse 13). Jeremiah is to announce what the LORD says to him about Nebuchadnezzar’s coming to Egypt to the great cities of Egypt (verse 14). He is to tell them to get ready for battle. The enemy is coming and has made his way into those cities by killing everything on his way with the sword.

Again Jeremiah lets us hear the result (verse 15). He asks why the mighty were thrust down. At the same time, he himself gives the answer. They have not been able to stand because the true Mighty One, the LORD, has thrust them down. The LORD supports the army of Babylon. Then fighting against it is senseless. He caused the great losses and caused them to fall over each other instead of helping each other (verse 16). The reaction of the soldiers of Egypt is to flee, back to where they came from, away from the sword of the oppressor.

In their land, they rebel against Pharaoh (verse 17). They call him a big noise. He has been telling them with a big mouth that they are unbeatable. But the respect for him has gone. He has misjudged the time and responded too late to the threat of the enemy. Therefore, they are rebelling against him. The Lord Jesus will say to many people, when they stand before His throne, that they are braggers and that they have let the appointed time pass by.

Once again, the LORD confirms that the scenes He has just described, are not fabrications (verse 18). He says this as “the King”, Whose name is “LORD of hosts”. He is above Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and all kings, and all the heavenly and earthly hosts are at His disposal. When He speaks, who will turn it?

He points to the stability of Tabor and Carmel. As firm as those mountains stand, so certain it is that Nebuchadnezzar will come. That certainty lies in the fact that the LORD Himself is working to bring Nebuchadnezzar. On Mount Tabor, the LORD gave Barak a great victory over the Canaanites (Jdg 4:14-15) and on Carmel, Elijah killed 450 false prophets of Baal (1Kgs 18:19-20,40).

He advises the Egyptians to gather their household goods together and flee (verse 19). Resisting the enemy is futile. He addresses Egypt as “daughter dwelling in Egypt”. These are the women who stayed behind at home. They are warned of the devastation the enemy will wreak on their hometown. There will be no inhabitant left.

Jer 46:20-26 | The Fall of Egypt

20 “Egypt is a pretty heifer,
[But] a horsefly is coming from the north—it is coming!
21 “Also her mercenaries in her midst
Are like fattened calves,
For even they too have turned back [and] have fled away together;
They did not stand [their ground].
For the day of their calamity has come upon them,
The time of their punishment.
22 “Its sound moves along like a serpent;
For they move on like an army
And come to her as woodcutters with axes.
23 “They have cut down her forest,” declares the LORD;
“Surely it will no [more] be found,
Even though they are [now] more numerous than locusts
And are without number.
24 “The daughter of Egypt has been put to shame,
Given over to the power of the people of the north.”
25 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I am going to punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt along with her gods and her kings, even Pharaoh and those who trust in him. 26 I shall give them over to the power of those who are seeking their lives, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of his officers. Afterwards, however, it will be inhabited as in the days of old,” declares the LORD.

The LORD presents Egypt as “a pretty heifer” (verse 20). This is a name of derision. Egypt worships the cow as an idol. One of their gods is called Apis and is depicted as a bull. That idol will not be able to save them. Just as a cow is plagued and driven mad by horseflies, the LORD will send Nebuchadnezzar upon them like a horsefly. He is coming!

Pharaoh’s army also has mercenaries (verse 21). They are well paid and have feasted on themselves so that they look like fattened calves. Whether Egypt is a pretty heifer or fattened calf, it is ready for slaughter. The fattened calves flee. They too do not hold up. They see that the day of their doom has come upon them and that they will receive their deserved reward.

In yet another picture, Jeremiah shows the retreat of the armies of Egypt (verse 22). He now compares Egypt to a serpent shuffling back into the forest. It will be in vain, for the enemies come after it with axes. Then the soldiers also turn out to be lumberjacks. They cut down the forest in which it has withdrawn, even though it is so impenetrable (verse 23). There are so many of them that it is cut down in no time. When all the protection is cut away, the daughter of Egypt stands there embarrassed (verse 24). Her resistance has ended. She can no longer hide and is given into the hand of the Babylonians.

Among the many gods, the Egyptians also have a god Amon, the god of the city of Thebes (verse 25). The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, the one, true God, will punish that god and all the gods, including Pharaoh who allows himself to be worshiped as a god and all the high-ranking people who allow themselves to be served as gods. He will deliver them all to Nebuchadnezzar (verse 26). Then they will know how worthless those gods are to protect them.

Yet this will not be the final end of Egypt. The LORD promises that in the future Egypt will be inhabited as before (Isa 19:23-25; Eze 29:9-14). This will happen in the realm of peace when the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, will reign. Then Egypt will also be restored, which is directly related to the restoration of Israel under the Messiah in the following verses. We will see that such restoration also applies to Moab, Ammon and Elam.

Jer 46:27-28 | Blessing on Jacob

27 “But as for you, O Jacob My servant, do not fear,
Nor be dismayed, O Israel!
For, see, I am going to save you from afar,
And your descendants from the land of their captivity;
And Jacob will return and be undisturbed
And secure, with no one making [him] tremble.
28 “O Jacob My servant, do not fear,” declares the LORD,
“For I am with you.
For I will make a full end of all the nations
Where I have driven you,
Yet I will not make a full end of you;
But I will correct you properly
And by no means leave you unpunished.”

After this judgment on Egypt and the promise of restoration comes another word for God’s people (verse 27). They need not fear that there will be restoration for Egypt, but not for them. The LORD addresses them encouragingly as “Jacob My servant” and “Israel”. He has a relationship with them and He has given them His promises.

He promises them that He will “save” them “from afar” – which refers to the ten tribes realm that He will deliver from the scattering – and “from the land of their captivity” – which refers to the two tribes realm that He will deliver from Babylon. He will then bring them to safety. In the future, this will find its full fulfillment when all twelve tribes will dwell in the land under the blessed rule of the Messiah.

He repeats that they need not fear, for He is with them (verse 28). To all nations He will bring a destructive end, but not to them. Certainly, He will have to punish them, for they have deserved punishment. However, He will do so in moderation and not in a way that they will be utterly destroyed like the nations.

Jeremiah 47

Jer 47:1-7 | Prophecy Concerning the Philistines

1 That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh conquered Gaza. 2 Thus says the LORD:
“Behold, waters are going to rise from the north
And become an overflowing torrent,
And overflow the land and all its fullness,
The city and those who live in it;
And the men will cry out,
And every inhabitant of the land will wail.
3 “Because of the noise of the galloping hoofs of his stallions,
The tumult of his chariots, [and] the rumbling of his wheels,
The fathers have not turned back for [their] children,
Because of the limpness of [their] hands,
4 On account of the day that is coming
To destroy all the Philistines,
To cut off from Tyre and Sidon
Every ally that is left;
For the LORD is going to destroy the Philistines,
The remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.
5 “Baldness has come upon Gaza;
Ashkelon has been ruined.
O remnant of their valley,
How long will you gash yourself?
6 “Ah, sword of the LORD,
How long will you not be quiet?
Withdraw into your sheath;
Be at rest and stay still.
7 “How can it be quiet,
When the LORD has given it an order?
Against Ashkelon and against the seacoast—
There He has assigned it.”

Israel never drove the Philistines out of the land of Canaan. There has always remained strife with the Philistines. David did subdue them (2Sam 8:1) and also Hezekiah still successfully fought against them (2Kgs 18:8). Now Jeremiah prophesies against them that Babylon will come and destroy their cities.

First, the prophecy is said to have come concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh conquered one of the Philistine cities, Gaza (verse 1). Egypt is south and not north of Israel. Egypt defeated Judah (2Kgs 23:29), heading for Carchemish on the border of Babylon (Jer 46:2), and in the process also defeated Gaza. Later, during the reigns of kings Jehoram and Ahaz, the Philistines became more powerful again (2Chr 21:16-17; 28:16-19).

The great army will come from the north and do a devastating work in all the land of the Philistines (verse 2). Pharaoh thinks that his army will conquer all the lands like a raging mass of water, but Babylon is like “waters … from the north” that becomes “an overflowing torrent”. The armies of Babylon will overflow everything and cause great terror and misery, causing the Philistines to cry out and wail.

This reaction is caused by the galloping hoofs of mighty horses and the thumping of the chariots of the Babylonians (verse 3). It is foolishness to try to fight them. The supremacy is enormous and provokes great fear. Fathers, who normally fight like lions for their children, are paralyzed with terror. Their hands are slack. They have no strength to even look after their children, let alone pick them up and run away.

They see that the day of God’s judgment is coming (verse 4). In that judgment all Philistines will be destroyed. Of their helpers from the north, from Tyre and Sidon, a few remain, but they too will be destroyed. The remnant of the Philistines will also know how to find the LORD. That remnant has fled to Caphtor or Crete, the land where they lived after leaving Egypt (Amos 9:7; Gen 10:14; Deu 2:23). The LORD destroys them because of all the evil they have done to His people.

All prestige is taken away from Gaza, which is expressed by the baldness that has come upon this city (verse 5). In another city of the Philistines, Ashkelon, no one is left; all the inhabitants are exterminated. The folly of carving their bodies and thereby enforcing the help of their idols has proved utterly futile (cf. 1Kgs 18:28). How long will they continue with that before they see the futility of it?

Surely they do not think that the terrible sword of the LORD will be quiet by this, do they (verse 6)? As if they can ward off and appease the anger of the LORD with their idolatrous practices. It is as if they are addressing the LORD’s sword, that after all it has seen enough blood by notching up their bodies and that it can now return to its sheath, rest and be quiet, satisfied by the blood.

But how could the sword have rest if idolatrous practices continue as usual (verse 7)? God must punish sin and will judge all the evil done to His people. That’s why He instructs the sword, the Babylonians, to turn against Ashkelon and the seacoast, where the Philistines live. That is the target of the sword. That is what He has destined it against. The sword does not rest until the evil is judged.

The sword of God was awakened against the Lord Jesus when He was made sin (2Cor 5:21). Every person who repents may know that the sword of God’s righteousness has come down on His Shepherd. For such a person, God’s sword has found rest in the judgment that has struck His Companion (Zec 13:7a). The LORD’s sword comes to rest when there is repentance and conversion (1Chr 21:15-17).

When the Philistines are defeated, the entire land will belong to Israel (Zep 2:7). The Philistines will no longer exist as a people and will no longer pose any threat to attack God’s people. God will fulfill all His promises that He has made to His people.

The Philistines are a picture of professing Christianity. They are originally from Egypt, a picture of the world, but they claim the land of God. They came into that land by their own way, “the way of the land of the Philistines” (Exo 13:17-18), and not like God’s people through the Red Sea, which is a picture of the death and resurrection of Christ.

We recognize the Philistines in the religious, but natural man, the man without new life, who wants to put his stamp on the things of God. We see this in the ritualism in the church, as for example in the humanly organized priesthood and outward symbols such as toga, altar and crucifix. Whether conversion and being born again also took place is not an issue. Diplomas and rhetoric determine the service.

Some past actions of the Philistines are the taking away of Sarah, the wife of Abraham (Gen 20:1-18), stopping up the wells that Abraham dug (Gen 26:12-22), and the taking away of the ark (1Sam 4:1-11). The spiritual meaning is that they take away grace, Sarah represents grace, they prevent the blessings and refreshment of the Word by being preoccupied with the things of the earth, represented in the sand, and they take away attention from the Lord Jesus, of Whom the ark is a picture.

Jeremiah 48

Jer 48:1-6 | Desolation of the Cities of Moab

1 Concerning Moab. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel,
“Woe to Nebo, for it has been destroyed;
Kiriathaim has been put to shame, it has been captured;
The lofty stronghold has been put to shame and shattered.
2 “There is praise for Moab no longer;
In Heshbon they have devised calamity against her:
‘Come and let us cut her off from [being] a nation!’
You too, Madmen, will be silenced;
The sword will follow after you.
3 “The sound of an outcry from Horonaim,
‘Devastation and great destruction!’
4 “Moab is broken,
Her little ones have sounded out a cry [of distress].
5 “For by the ascent of Luhith
They will ascend with continual weeping;
For at the descent of Horonaim
They have heard the anguished cry of destruction.
6 “Flee, save your lives,
That you may be like a juniper in the wilderness.

The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, also pronounces His judgment on Moab (verse 1; Isa 15:1-9; 16:1-14). The God of Israel is also the God of all nations (Rom 3:29). Moab is the son of Lot, whom, after being made drunk by his daughter, he fathered in incest with his daughter (Gen 19:37). His descendants have always been enemies of God’s people. The name of Moab occurs over 30 times in this chapter.

This prophecy about Moab is longer than any other prophecy in Jeremiah 46-49. The length is partly due to the large number of geographical designations mentioned. It is the most thorough of all Old Testament prophecies about Moab (Deu 23:3; Psa 60:8; 83:6-7; 108:9; Isa 15:1-9; 16:1-14; 25:10-12; Jer 9:25; 25:21; 27:3; Eze 25:8-11; Amos 2:1-3; Zep 2:8-11).

Moab is a picture of the world in its laziness and pride. It is the world that seeks pleasure and flees trouble. Those who seek ease are quick to boast of what they have. But love of ease always leads to poverty. There is destruction, shame and dismay. The cities that are their pride are taken. Moab is east of Judah, on the other side of the Dead Sea. They have many cities. Nebo and Kiriathaim first belonged to the tribe of Reuben (Num 32:37-38; Jos 13:19), but were conquered by Moab. Those cities will be taken and destroyed by the enemy.

It is over with the glory of Moab (verse 2). Everything on which man boasts in his ease will be nullified. All glory of man is excluded. The only glory that remains is to glory in the Lord.

Heshbon also belonged to the tribe of Reuben (Num 32:37). In that city, plans are being devised to wipe out Moab. Another city, Madmen, receives the message that it will be destroyed and that those who flee from it will be pursued by the sword.

From Horonaim, another city, the sound of an outcry is heard (verse 3). There the enemy has already done his devastating work and one speaks of a great destruction. Moab has been plunged into disaster (verse 4). His small, defenseless children are also victims. They cry out. The passionate crying of children suffering from violence is an agony to the hearing of anyone who still has any natural feeling. It also means that the land has no hope of recovery.

One walks the streets dazed and constantly crying (verse 5). There are those who go the way up, to Luhith. Others go the way down, to Horonaim. On the way down, the cries of distress from Horonaim meet the refugees. Horonaim is already destroyed (verse 3). No safe refuge will be found there.

They cry out to each other to flee and save their lives (verse 6). Let them leave all their belongings behind and live like a juniper in the wilderness. It’s just a matter of surviving. Their condition here is compared to a juniper in the wilderness, a picture of devastation and desolation.

Jer 48:7-10 | Self-Confidence and Trust in the Idol

7 “For because of your trust in your own achievements and treasures,
Even you yourself will be captured;
And Chemosh will go off into exile
Together with his priests and his princes.
8 “A destroyer will come to every city,
So that no city will escape;
The valley also will be ruined
And the plateau will be destroyed,
As the LORD has said.
9 “Give wings to Moab,
For she will flee away;
And her cities will become a desolation,
Without inhabitants in them.
10 “Cursed be the one who does the LORD’s work negligently,
And cursed be the one who restrains his sword from blood.

The reason for this judgment is the trust in themselves and their idol (verse 7). God is not thought of. Those who are concerned only with themselves and live for themselves and boast of their own strength and riches will perish. Therefore, Moab will be taken. Their god Chemosh, like the gods of Egypt in the previous chapter, will prove to be a worthless god. He will go off into exile as a dead piece of material, along with the people who have worshiped him and ruled in his name.

The root of Moab’s misery is its pride. Chemosh (verses 7,13,46) is the national deity of Moab (cf. Num 21:29; 1Kgs 11:7,33). The reference to confidence in their works and treasures means that the reason for Moab’s fall is its materialism. When Chemosh goes into exile, his followers accompany him. Idols are usually captured with their worshipers (Jer 43:12; Isa 46:1-2).

Resistance to the destroyer who is coming is futile (verse 8). Even their god fails to protect them. No city will be spared. Also, all life in the valley and plain will perish. The enemy does a thorough job, for it is done “as the LORD has said”. Moab, therefore, must make haste to get away, as fast as birds can fly (verse 9). It is an exhortation to flee in haste. The cities will not be able to provide protection, for they will become a desolation where no one can live.

The enemy is urged to prompt and complete obedience by the LORD’s curse that will come upon him if he does not do what the LORD expects of him or if he is slow to do His work (verse 10). The LORD has commanded that the sword should strike Moab. Those who do not and disobey Him are cursed. Meroz is cursed “because they did not come to the help of the LORD” by helping Barak and Deborah who fought His battle (Jdg 5:23).

This word is also important to us. If we love ease and are slow to do the Lord’s work, the Lord pronounces His curse on that. This seems to be contrary to the age of grace in which we live, but it is not. Paul tells the Corinthians: “If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed” (1Cor 16:22).

Jer 48:11-19 | The Proud Contentment of Moab

11 “Moab has been at ease since his youth;
He has also been undisturbed, [like wine] on its dregs,
And he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
Nor has he gone into exile.
Therefore he retains his flavor,
And his aroma has not changed.
12 Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will send to him those who tip [vessels], and they will tip him over, and they will empty his vessels and shatter his jars. 13 And Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.
14 “How can you say, ‘We are mighty warriors,
And men valiant for battle’?
15 “Moab has been destroyed and men have gone up to his cities;
His choicest young men have also gone down to the slaughter,”
Declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
16 “The disaster of Moab will soon come,
And his calamity has swiftly hastened.
17 “Mourn for him, all you who [live] around him,
Even all of you who know his name;
Say, ‘How has the mighty scepter been broken,
A staff of splendor!’
18 “Come down from your glory
And sit on the parched ground,
O daughter dwelling in Dibon,
For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you,
He has ruined your strongholds.
19 “Stand by the road and keep watch,
O inhabitant of Aroer;
Ask him who flees and her who escapes
[And] say, ‘What has happened?’

Israel has always been engaged in struggle, except for a small time under the reign of Solomon. Moab never knew anything about worry or struggle (verse 11). A person who has grown up carefree and in prosperity, like a spoiled child, is not used to adversity. Such a person is ungenerous if others are not at his beck and call.

Moab is like wine that has not been poured over from one vessel to another. By pouring over, the wine becomes purer and purer, because after pouring over, the sunken lees remain in the old vessel. The more often this process is repeated, the purer the wine becomes. This did not happen with Moab. It has retained its corrupted taste and its smell is as of old. There is nothing fresh about it.

This is the characteristic of people who have everything their heart desires and have known no sorrows. The Christian who has no trials or struggles will not live a dedicated life, but will be concerned only with his pleasant life on earth and live for it. Those who come to faith in the Lord Jesus must “through many tribulations … enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). He must also come to know himself in the struggle described in Romans 7. This will bring to a life of full surrender to the Lord Jesus.

The LORD says to Moab that it will soon be over with his life of ease (verse 12). There will be those who tip vessels who will take away all his prosperity and all his comforts. They will be emptied. Then they themselves will be shattered like jars in which the wine was. They have attributed their prosperity to their god Chemosh and will find that it only results in shame. Let them look to Israel who also trusted in the idol, the golden calf at Bethel (verse 13; cf. Amos 3:14a). Israel was carried away into the scattering.

When they see that, how dare they be so overconfident as to say that they are mighty warriors, men valiant for battle (verse 14)? The answer is direct and unmistakable (verse 15). Nothing comes of all their bravado. It is told to them that Moab has been destroyed. It sounds ironic that ‘the valiant men’ have gone up to his cities, but that ‘his choicest young men’ are taken away to be slaughtered. There is no mention of any battle. The course of the battle is not determined by grandiloquent snoopers boasting of their strength, but by “the King” Whose Name is LORD of hosts. When He speaks, what then does puny man have to say? What He says happens, and that alone.

Therefore, the downfall of Moab is near; it is soon coming (verse 16). The enemies are the tribes from the east (Eze 25:9-10). The disaster that comes upon Moab will cause the surrounding peoples, all who have admired it, to raise a mourning (verse 17). His power and glory are broken. Bruised, he lies prostrate. The broken symbol of government and authority shows that their power and national glory are over.

Dibon and Aroer also belonged to the tribe of Reuben (Jos 13:15-17) and were taken by Moab. Dibon is a prosperous city, but the enemy is coming, the destroyer of Moab (verse 18). He will force “the daughter dwelling in Dibon” to descend from that glory. She will be so humbled that she will lack even water. The fortress, the strength where she thought herself safe, will be destroyed.

Aroer is called upon to stand by the road and look out for the refugees from Dibon (verse 19). When “the inhabitant of Aroer” then sees the long procession of refugees, the retreat and humiliation of Dibon, it will raise questions. She will ask “him … and her”, men and women who have fled, what happened anyway. If she is wise, she will be alerted by what she is told and flee as well. The disasters that befall others are a call from God for those who see it to turn to Him.

Jer 48:20-28 | The Fall of Moab

20 “Moab has been put to shame, for it has been shattered.
Wail and cry out;
Declare by the Arnon
That Moab has been destroyed.
21 “Judgment has also come upon the plain, upon Holon, Jahzah and against Mephaath, 22 against Dibon, Nebo and Beth-diblathaim, 23 against Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul and Beth-meon, 24 against Kerioth, Bozrah and all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near. 25 The horn of Moab has been cut off and his arm broken,” declares the LORD. 26 “Make him drunk, for he has become arrogant toward the LORD; so Moab will wallow in his vomit, and he also will become a laughingstock. 27 Now was not Israel a laughingstock to you? Or was he caught among thieves? For each time you speak about him you shake [your head in scorn].
28 “Leave the cities and dwell among the crags,
O inhabitants of Moab,
And be like a dove that nests
Beyond the mouth of the chasm.

The enemy has come and destroyed Moab (verse 20). All their bragging is gone. There they stand, ashamed and dismayed. Nothing remains but to wail and cry out. Yes, judgment has come, no city has been spared (verses 21-24). Everywhere they look, as far as they can see and also nearby, judgment has struck all the cities of Moab. Their strength, of which the horn and the arm are a picture, has disappeared (verse 25). The horn has been cut off and the arm broken.

Moab is in a miserable state. Not only the power, but the prestige is gone too (verse 26). That is what happens when someone elevates himself against the LORD. Such a person has lost his way. He no longer knows where he is going or what he is doing. Moab wanders down the road like a drunk and falls down and throws up. He has puked up his prosperity and now plays with his vomit. He makes a fool of himself.

Moab is reminded that he also laughed at Israel (verse 27). Now he is measured by the measure by which he measured. Surely Israel was not found among thieves who took their land. The LORD used to forbid His people to take possession of the land of Moab, which was conquered by the Amorites. But because the Amorites refused the Israelites free passage, they took possession of his land (Num 21:21-35). Their laughter is completely unfounded.

The Moabites are advised to “leave the cities and dwell among the crags” (verse 28). If they nestled like a dove in the opening of a rock crevice, they might escape the sword of the enemy.

Jer 48:29-39 | The Pride of Moab

29 “We have heard of the pride of Moab—he [is] very proud—
Of his haughtiness, his pride, his arrogance and his self-exaltation.
30 “I know his fury,” declares the LORD,
“But it is futile;
His idle boasts have accomplished nothing.
31 “Therefore I will wail for Moab,
Even for all Moab will I cry out;
I will moan for the men of Kir-heres.
32 “More than the weeping for Jazer
I will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah!
Your tendrils stretched across the sea,
They reached to the sea of Jazer;
Upon your summer fruits and your grape harvest
The destroyer has fallen.
33 “So gladness and joy are taken away
From the fruitful field, even from the land of Moab.
And I have made the wine to cease from the wine presses;
No one will tread [them] with shouting,
The shouting will not be shouts [of joy].
34 From the outcry at Heshbon even to Elealeh, even to Jahaz they have raised their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim [and to] Eglath-shelishiyah; for even the waters of Nimrim will become desolate. 35 I will make an end of Moab,” declares the LORD, “the one who offers [sacrifice] on the high place and the one who burns incense to his gods. 36 “Therefore My heart wails for Moab like flutes; My heart also wails like flutes for the men of Kir-heres. Therefore they have lost the abundance it produced. 37 For every head is bald and every beard cut short; there are gashes on all the hands and sackcloth on the loins. 38 On all the housetops of Moab and in its streets there is lamentation everywhere; for I have broken Moab like an undesirable vessel,” declares the LORD. 39 “How shattered it is! [How] they have wailed! How Moab has turned his back—he is ashamed! So Moab will become a laughingstock and an object of terror to all around him.”

The great sin of Moab is its pride (verse 29), along with its carelessness (verse 11). “We”, that is Jeremiah and his companions, “have heard of the pride of Moab”. Jeremiah has mentioned it before (verses 7,11), but not yet in the strong terms of this verse. Six times in this one verse, it is spoken of in different ways. Haughtiness is the primal sin. It is in the heart of Moab and in the heart of every man. Haughtiness is in the heart, but the LORD knows the heart of Moab and the pride of which it is filled (verse 30). For people, this pride expresses itself in ‘hollow talk’ and doing what is not proper. Haughtiness leads to all other sins.

Because of all these sins, judgment comes upon Moab. But Jeremiah does not rejoice over this (verse 31). Thereby he also shows that the LORD does not rejoice in the judgment that He must execute. He is expressing the feelings of the LORD. He will weep over them and mentions Sibmah (verse 32). Sibmah is known for its vineyards far and wide, as far as the sea of Jazer. The entire harvest was destroyed by the enemies. Wine is a picture of joy. To take away the wine means to take away the joy (verse 33). There is no harvest of wine. All the expressions of joy, heard at the treading of the grapes, are gone. The LORD has caused those to cease.

Instead of expressions of joy, outcry is now heard as an expression of deep sorrow (verse 34). This outcry, which sounds from Heshbon, which is near Sibmah, is heard everywhere. It covers, as it were, the whole land; the whole land is full of it. Not only is there no more wine, but there is also no more refreshment by water, for the waters of Nimrim will become desolate.

The LORD will not only cause joy and refreshment to cease, but He will also put a stop to idolatry (verse 35). He will do this by killing all those who offer sacrifices to idols. Meaning especially the priests, but also all the people who have devoted themselves to the idols, with Chemosh as the chief god. To him they sacrificed children (2Kgs 3:27), a practice the Israelites imitated (Jer 7:31; 32:35).

Because of the great and many sins, Jeremiah’s heart wails for Moab and the men of Kir-heres (verse 36). “Like flutes” refers to the use of the flute as an instrument to express feelings, both in joy and in sorrow. Jeremiah sees all that Moab has lost through its sins. In doing so, he does not think of the unjust way in which Moab obtained its abundance. He sees that the people get what they deserve, but that causes him sorrow and not gloating.

The Moabites also express their sorrow because of their losses (verse 37). They shave their heads, cut off their beards, make incisions in their hands, and wear a robe of mourning on their loins. In many ways they show their dejection. They also make their lamentation loud everywhere (verse 38). They let it be heard on all the roofs, where they sacrifice to their idols, and in all the streets, where they meet.

But there is no question of turning back to the LORD. He has done it. He has dealt with Moab as with a worthless vessel, in which no one is interested. Such a vessel only takes up space and is therefore smashed.

All who hear of it and see it, note how shattered Moab is (verse 39). Because of the loss of profit that lies in trading with Moab, they will lament over it. At the same time, they cannot restrain their laughter out of gloating, when they see that haughty Moab has become an object of terror. This is how opposite feelings can go together in a person: he grieves over his own loss and is glad over the loss of another.

Jer 48:40-47 | The Fear of the Intruder

40 For thus says the LORD:
“Behold, one will fly swiftly like an eagle
And spread out his wings against Moab.
41 “Kerioth has been captured
And the strongholds have been seized,
So the hearts of the mighty men of Moab in that day
Will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
42 “Moab will be destroyed from [being] a people
Because he has become arrogant toward the LORD.
43 “Terror, pit and snare are [coming] upon you,
O inhabitant of Moab,” declares the LORD.
44 “The one who flees from the terror
Will fall into the pit,
And the one who climbs up out of the pit
Will be caught in the snare;
For I shall bring upon her, [even] upon Moab,
The year of their punishment,” declares the LORD.
45 “In the shadow of Heshbon
The fugitives stand without strength;
For a fire has gone forth from Heshbon
And a flame from the midst of Sihon,
And it has devoured the forehead of Moab
And the scalps of the riotous revelers.
46 “Woe to you, Moab!
The people of Chemosh have perished;
For your sons have been taken away captive
And your daughters into captivity.
47 “Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab
In the latter days,” declares the LORD.
Thus far the judgment on Moab.

The enemy will come with the speed of an eagle (verse 40; Jer 49:22; cf. Eze 17:3). That eagle will cover all of Moab with its wings. Moab will be suddenly and completely conquered by the enemy. A strong city like Kerioth will be taken, and so will all the cities and also the strongholds they have deemed impregnable (verse 41). The hearts of the mighty men of Moab, the mighty men who would protect them, becomes like that of a woman in labor. They are defenseless and terrified. Moab will be so radically wiped out that it will no longer be a people (verse 42). The reason is that in their pride they have become arrogant toward the LORD. It is the sin of satan who has also wanted to be equal to God (Isa 14:13-14).

For the inhabitants of Moab, everywhere is terror, nowhere is a place of safety (verses 43-44). They will flee from the enemy out of fear, but then fall into a pit. If they manage to climb out of it and continue fleeing, they will be caught in a snare (cf. Isa 24:17-18a). Their situation is hopeless, there is no escaping judgment, for the LORD is bringing upon Moab the year of their punishment. The LORD declares it and so it happens.

Some think they will be safe in Heshbon and find protection (shadow) (verse 45). But the enemy will be there and devour them. The enemy rules in all of Moab. They can do nothing but lament (verse 46). Moab, the people of the god Chemosh, has gone down like a sinking ship disappearing into the waves, swallowed up by the ocean. Chemosh, the idol, has been exposed as a liar. He has not been able to prevent the sons and daughters of “his” people from being taken into captivity.

The chapter shows the justice of God in His judgment of sin. He will punish Moab for its sins of pride and idolatry. However, the last verse shows that God is also a God of mercy (verse 47). God promises here that Moab will be restored as a people in later times, that is in the last of days, the end time. When Christ appears on earth for the second time to then reign as Messiah, that will happen.

Jeremiah 49

Jer 49:1-6 | Prophecy Concerning Ammon

1 Concerning the sons of Ammon. Thus says the LORD:
“Does Israel have no sons?
Or has he no heirs?
Why then has Malcam taken possession of Gad
And his people settled in its cities?
2 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD,
“That I will cause a trumpet blast of war to be heard
Against Rabbah of the sons of Ammon;
And it will become a desolate heap,
And her towns will be set on fire.
Then Israel will take possession of his possessors,”
Says the LORD.
3 “Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed!
Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah,
Gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament,
And rush back and forth inside the walls;
For Malcam will go into exile
Together with his priests and his princes.
4 “How boastful you are about the valleys!
Your valley is flowing [away],
O backsliding daughter
Who trusts in her treasures, [saying],
‘Who will come against me?’
5 “Behold, I am going to bring terror upon you,”
Declares the Lord GOD of hosts,
“From all [directions] around you;
And each of you will be driven out headlong,
With no one to gather the fugitives together.
6 “But afterward I will restore
The fortunes of the sons of Ammon,”
Declares the LORD.

The Ammonites, after their brother people, the Moabites in the previous chapter, are now the subject of a prophecy (verse 1). They too are related to Israel through Lot (Gen 19:38). In Ammon we see the spirit of greed. Malcam, the god of the Ammonites, is given credit that the Ammonites now own the cities of Gad, a tribe with an inheritance in the region on the other side of the Jordan. There is no respect for what God has given someone, in this case His people, as a possession. In the name of Malcam, they promote themselves to be heirs of Gad. In doing so, they ignore that Israel itself has children who are heirs.

Ammon shows no respect for a family heirloom. Assyria carried Gad away into exile (1Chr 5:26) and the Ammonites moved in. This brings God’s judgment on Rabbah, the capital of Ammon (verse 2). Enemies, under shouts of war, will destroy the city and burn the villages with fire (cf. Amos 1:13-15; Eze 25:3-5,10). Those who live in it will become booty for the Israelites who return, who will thereby receive compensation for all that Ammon took from them. This will happen in the future.

Ai will also be destroyed (verse 3). This will hurt Heshbon and the daughters of Rabbah. They are called to wail and cry out. Another reason to mourn and walk around dazed is the exile of their god Malcam, together with his priests and princes. Thus all the idolatry will be judged and its worthlessness demonstrated. Malcam, whom they first honored as the heir of Gad (verse 1), turns out to be nothing more than a piece of wood that can be taken away.

Like Moab, Ammon is not free from pride (verse 4; Jer 48:29). Their valleys gave rich harvests, but there is nothing left of them. Ammon trusts in treasures and boasts that they fear no enemy. ‘Well’, declares “the Lord GOD of hosts”, ‘I will make you afraid (verse 5). An enemy is coming and will surround you. Wherever you look, fear will overtake you. You will flee and be torn apart.’ It is every man for himself, with no chance of reunion.

Yet there is recovery for Ammon as well (verse 6). When the LORD’s discipline has done its work, He will bring a reversal in the captivity of the Ammonites. Then He will bring them back to their land.

Jer 49:7-22 | Prophecy Concerning Edom

7 Concerning Edom.
Thus says the LORD of hosts,
“Is there no longer any wisdom in Teman?
Has good counsel been lost to the prudent?
Has their wisdom decayed?
8 “Flee away, turn back, dwell in the depths,
O inhabitants of Dedan,
For I will bring the disaster of Esau upon him
At the time I punish him.
9 “If grape gatherers came to you,
Would they not leave gleanings?
If thieves [came] by night,
They would destroy [only] until they had enough.
10 “But I have stripped Esau bare,
I have uncovered his hiding places
So that he will not be able to conceal himself;
His offspring has been destroyed along with his relatives
And his neighbors, and he is no more.
11 “Leave your orphans behind, I will keep [them] alive;
And let your widows trust in Me.”
12 For thus says the LORD, “Behold, those who were not sentenced to drink the cup will certainly drink [it], and are you the one who will be completely acquitted? You will not be acquitted, but you will certainly drink [it]. 13 For I have sworn by Myself,” declares the LORD, “that Bozrah will become an object of horror, a reproach, a ruin and a curse; and all its cities will become perpetual ruins.”
14 I have heard a message from the LORD,
And an envoy is sent among the nations, [saying],
“Gather yourselves together and come against her,
And rise up for battle!”
15 “For behold, I have made you small among the nations,
Despised among men.
16 “As for the terror of you,
The arrogance of your heart has deceived you,
O you who live in the clefts of the rock,
Who occupy the height of the hill.
Though you make your nest as high as an eagle’s,
I will bring you down from there,” declares the LORD.
17 “Edom will become an object of horror; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss at all its wounds. 18 Like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah with its neighbors,” says the LORD, “no one will live there, nor will a son of man reside in it. 19 Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan against a perennially watered pasture; for in an instant I will make him run away from it, and whoever is chosen I shall appoint over it. For who is like Me, and who will summon Me [into court]? And who then is the shepherd who can stand against Me?” 20 Therefore hear the plan of the LORD which He has planned against Edom, and His purposes which He has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: surely they will drag them off, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely He will make their pasture desolate because of them. 21 The earth has quaked at the noise of their downfall. There is an outcry! The noise of it has been heard at the Red Sea. 22 Behold, He will mount up and swoop like an eagle and spread out His wings against Bozrah; and the hearts of the mighty men of Edom in that day will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

Edom – that’s Esau (Gen 36:8) – is next to hear what the LORD has to say about him (verse 7). His land is located – as seen from Israel – on the other side of the Dead Sea, south of Moab. Edom is known for its boundless hatred of God’s people, that stems from envy. Edom is also known for its wisdom (Eze 25:13), with Teman as its center.

But their wisdom does not avail when God comes to judge. Then He mockingly asks if there is no wisdom left and if the counsel of the wise has perished or if wisdom is simply superfluous. The judgment announced on Edom is also found in Obadiah (Oba 1:1-19). This two-fold description of the judgment on Edom does show how much God’s anger rests on this people and how much Edom deserves it.

Then suddenly, the call to Dedan to flee is heard (verse 8). Dedan is a tribe that lives in the south of Edom and is known for its trade (Jer 25:23). They must give up their usual contacts with Edom, lest they be drawn into the destruction that is coming upon him. If they do, it will testify to wisdom. For the LORD is bringing “the disaster of Esau upon him”, His just punishment.

A grape gatherer always leaves some grapes hanging for a gleaning (verse 9; Lev 19:10). Thieves steal only what is of value and leave the rest. However, it will not be like that when the LORD judges Esau (verse 10). He will completely destroy him; there will be no place where he will be safe from His judgment. No one will escape, except for a few orphans and widows; the LORD will keep them alive if they trust in Him (verse 11).

Edom has made himself far more guilty than other nations and therefore will certainly not be considered to be innocent (verse 12). He will have to drink the cup of God’s wrath. Edom has sinned so much, that the LORD has sworn by Himself that He will destroy Bozrah and all its cities and make them perpetual ruins (verse 13). This means that there will be no restoration for Esau.

Jeremiah then speaks of a message he heard from the LORD (verse 14). This message reads that an envoy is sent among the nations, to say to gather themselves together and get ready for battle. The nations see Edom as a small people and despise him (verse 15). This has been wrought by the LORD. Edom himself thinks it is the other way around and that the nations fear him (verse 16). This self-deception comes from the pride of his heart. He believes that he lives in an impregnable fortress. But the LORD will bring him down from his height.

He will make Edom an object of horror (verse 17). Those who see him will make sounds of horror. Edom will perish, as happened with Sodom and Gomorrah about 1,200 years earlier (verse 18). Just as no one dwells there anymore, so in Edom no one will reside, no son of man.

Then the prophet tells of the enemy who is coming to destroy Edom (verse 19). That enemy is coming like a lion. The LORD will send him quickly. He has chosen this instrument. Who will be able to argue against it or call Him to account about it? Who will be able to stand up as a protector of Esau, that he might stand before Him? Here the LORD impressively announces that the judgment He has set out to execute on Edom is perfectly just and unalterable.

Then He will make known His plan that He has made against Edom and the purposes which He has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman (verse 20). It will not take much force to drag them away. Their habitation in the high mountains will be destroyed. Their fall will be great; the earth will quake at the sound of their downfall (verse 21). Their outcry will be heard from a great distance.

The picture of the lion (verse 19) now changes to that of an eagle. They have compared themselves to an eagle that builds its nest high on the rocks (verse 16). But when the enemy comes soaring like an eagle and spreads his wings over Bozrah, the heart of the mighty men of Edom will become like the heart of a woman in labor (verse 22). The enemy will totally overwhelm them and take possession of everything, while they will stand paralyzed with fear.

Jer 49:23-27 | Prophecy Concerning Damascus

23 Concerning Damascus.
“Hamath and Arpad are put to shame,
For they have heard bad news;
They are disheartened.
There is anxiety by the sea,
It cannot be calmed.
24 “Damascus has become helpless;
She has turned away to flee,
And panic has gripped her;
Distress and pangs have taken hold of her
Like a woman in childbirth.
25 “How the city of praise has not been deserted,
The town of My joy!
26 “Therefore, her young men will fall in her streets,
And all the men of war will be silenced in that day,” declares the LORD of hosts.
27 “I will set fire to the wall of Damascus,
And it will devour the fortified towers of Ben-hadad.”

Judgment is also pronounced on Damascus (verse 23). Damascus is the capital of Syria, the land from which Israel – and Judah in particular – suffered greatly. It is also the city to which the grace of God is attached through the conversion of Saul, when he was on his way there and where he also stayed for some time as a converted Jew (Acts 9:1-25).

Hamath and Arpad are cities in northern Syria, taken first by Assyria and later by Nebuchadnezzar (Isa 36:19). When these cities hear the news of an impending war, they melt away in fear. The inhabitants by the sea, to which they owe their prosperity, become filled with anxiety and restlessness that they cannot get rid of. Restlessness is a disaster in the life of a people and of an individual, and a cause of much misery.

There is no courage to resist the enemy who is coming (verse 24). All one can do is turn away and flee. The fear is deep, the distress is great and is compared to the contractions of a woman in childbirth. The city, on which they have boasted and where they have had fun, lies deserted because of their flight (verse 25). The praise and joy they think back on with melancholy, is praise and joy without any thought of God. Therefore, it cannot endure.

The Babylonians will come and kill the strength of the city, the young men and the men of war (verse 26). This says the LORD of hosts, Who governs all this. He will execute judgment on the town of their joy and the palaces of Ben-hadad, their king (verse 27; Amos 1:4). Several kings of Syria bear the name Ben-hadad. It is a title, as the kings of Egypt are called Pharaoh. Hadad is one of the gods of Syria and Ben means son. So they are called “son of Hadad.

Jer 49:28-33 | Prophecy Concerning Kedar and Hazor

28 Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated. Thus says the LORD,
“Arise, go up to Kedar
And devastate the men of the east.
29 “They will take away their tents and their flocks;
They will carry off for themselves
Their tent curtains, all their goods and their camels,
And they will call out to one another, ‘Terror on every side!’
30 “Run away, flee! Dwell in the depths,
O inhabitants of Hazor,” declares the LORD;
“For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has formed a plan against you
And devised a scheme against you.
31 “Arise, go up against a nation which is at ease,
Which lives securely,” declares the LORD.
“It has no gates or bars;
They dwell alone.
32 “Their camels will become plunder,
And their many cattle for booty,
And I will scatter to all the winds those who cut the corners [of their hair];
And I will bring their disaster from every side,” declares the LORD.
33 “Hazor will become a haunt of jackals,
A desolation forever;
No one will live there,
Nor will a son of man reside in it.”

The word of the LORD concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor comes next (verse 28). Kedar is a son of Ishmael (Gen 25:13). His descendants live in the wilderness of Arabia, where they are trading (Eze 27:21). The LORD commands Nebuchadnezzar to advance on Kedar and devastate it. Their tents, their merchandise (flocks) and their possessions are taken from them (verse 29). They will also take their camels. Kedar will be surrounded by the war cries of their enemies so that terror will grip them.

The inhabitants of Hazor are urgently advised by the LORD to flee as quickly as possible and to hide as deeply as possible (verse 30). Here we see the grace of God, Who always gives a warning before His judgment comes. This is also true now. Judgment is coming, but He still gives man the opportunity to repent. Here He makes the plans of Nebuchadnezzar known to them, so that they are warned.

He knows those plans and makes use of them (verse 31). Nebuchadnezzar is an instrument in His hand. Here we see the convergence of man’s plans and God’s counsel. The nation on which His judgment comes is a nation which is at ease. They do not care about anyone and go their own way. They also do not care about God and rely on their own strength.

But their lives, which revolve only around themselves, will be turned upside down (verse 32). All their possessions will be taken from them, becoming booty for the enemy. They themselves will be scattered to all directions. Regardless of the safety of the group, they will perish there. The LORD declares so and so it happens.

The depopulated Hazor will be populated by jackals (verse 33). It will not be rebuilt to be a city with inhabitants again. It is emphatically said that no one will dwell there and no son of man will reside there, forever. That is the fate of what has been built up without God.

Jer 49:34-39 | Prophecy Concerning Elam

34 That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying:
35 “Thus says the LORD of hosts,
‘Behold, I am going to break the bow of Elam,
The finest of their might.
36 ‘I will bring upon Elam the four winds
From the four ends of heaven,
And will scatter them to all these winds;
And there will be no nation
To which the outcasts of Elam will not go.
37 ‘So I will shatter Elam before their enemies
And before those who seek their lives;
And I will bring calamity upon them,
Even My fierce anger,’ declares the LORD,
‘And I will send out the sword after them
Until I have consumed them.
38 ‘Then I will set My throne in Elam
And destroy out of it king and princes,’
Declares the LORD.
39 ‘But it will come about in the last days
That I will restore the fortunes of Elam,’”
Declares the LORD.

The chapter concludes with a word of prophecy from the LORD concerning Elam, which is Persia, today’s Iran (verse 34). It comes to Jeremiah when Zedekiah is just becoming king of Judah. It is the time when Babylon is in the process of developing into a world power. Elam is one of the lands he will conquer.

The soldiers of Elam are skilled archers (Isa 22:6), but the LORD will break their bow and with it their fighting power (verse 35). Judgment will come on Elam from all sides so that they will be scattered to all sides, and they will be found among all nations (verse 36). They will become powerless, for the calamity that befalls them comes from the LORD (verse 37). The LORD will deal with them. He will show that He rules by setting up His throne in Elam and judging them (verse 38).

Then the reversal comes (verse 39). Elam will be brought back to its land. Possibly this is as a reward for defeating Babylon and allowing God’s people to return to their land.

Jeremiah 50

Introduction

Two long chapters are devoted to “the word … concerning Babylon” (verse 1). In Jeremiah 46-49 we see that Babylon is the disciplinary rod in the hand of God to discipline other nations. Now God’s judgment comes on this rod (cf. Isa 10:5-19). This judgment comes on it because the disciplinary rod is even worse than Israel itself. God disciplines His children because He loves them. When the rod goes beyond God’s purpose, God must judge the rod. God blames Babylon for executing judgment on Jerusalem in a way that He did not ordain (cf. Hab 1:13).

Again we have a double layer. Babylon is judged by the Medes and Persians (Dan 5:28-30). The Medes and Persians are the rod of God for Babylon. Babylon is also the great God-hating power in the end time, represented there in the restored Roman Empire. We know this, because judgment on Babylon is connected to the restoration of Israel in the end time, when the two and ten tribes are back in the land.

Jer 50:1-3 | The Word Concerning Babylon

1 The word which the LORD spoke concerning Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:
2 “Declare and proclaim among the nations.
Proclaim it and lift up a standard.
Do not conceal [it but] say,
‘Babylon has been captured,
Bel has been put to shame, Marduk has been shattered;
Her images have been put to shame, her idols have been shattered.’
3 For a nation has come up against her out of the north; it will make her land an object of horror, and there will be no inhabitant in it. Both man and beast have wandered off, they have gone away!

Jeremiah now, commissioned by the LORD, fearlessly speaks the word against mighty Babylon (verse 1; Jer 25:26; 27:7). This word spans two long chapters. Jeremiah makes the announcement of judgment on Babylon heard among the nations, who have also suffered under the yoke of Babylon (verse 2). When deliverance from that yoke comes, they may lift up a standard and say that Babylon has been captured. With that, his chief god Bel and other idols have also lost their power, they have been shattered.

The enemy who will defeat Babylon, comes from the north, just as Babylon itself, coming from the north, is an enemy for Israel (verse 3). The enemies for Babylon are the Medes and Persians. They defeat Babylon and turn the land into an object of horror, from which all life flees. The final fulfillment of this lies in the future.

Jer 50:4-8 | Return of Israel

4 “In those days and at that time,” declares the LORD, “the sons of Israel will come, [both] they and the sons of Judah as well; they will go along weeping as they go, and it will be the LORD their God they will seek. 5 They will ask for the way to Zion, [turning] their faces in its direction; they will come that they may join themselves to the LORD [in] an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.
6 “My people have become lost sheep;
Their shepherds have led them astray.
They have made them turn aside [on] the mountains;
They have gone along from mountain to hill
And have forgotten their resting place.
7 “All who came upon them have devoured them;
And their adversaries have said, ‘We are not guilty,
Inasmuch as they have sinned against the LORD [who is] the habitation of righteousness,
Even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.’
8 “Wander away from the midst of Babylon
And go forth from the land of the Chaldeans;
Be also like male goats at the head of the flock.

After the conquest “in those days and at that time”, Israelites from the twelve tribes, “the sons of Israel … they and the sons of Judah as well”, will set out to seek the LORD their God (verse 4). This happens as soon as the Medes and Persians are in power. Then in the first year of his reign, Cyrus gives the command that anyone who wants to go back to Jerusalem may go (Ezra 1:2-3).

All who take advantage of that opportunity will go to Zion (verse 5). That is where their heart is, that is their destination, that is where they set their faces, for the temple is there. They will come there and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be broken again or forgotten. There will be no new covenant breaking, because this covenant depends only on the faithfulness of the LORD. And He is the everlasting faithful One.

The LORD sees His people as “lost sheep” (cf. Mt 9:36) who have fallen victim to false shepherds (verse 6). These shepherds have fed themselves and left the sheep to their fate. They have not given them a place to rest, but have hounded them to keep their self-made commandments. These erring sheep have become easy prey for their adversaries (verse 7).

Added to that, those opponents also boast that they are innocent of this exploitation, because God’s people have sinned, and they are executing God’s judgment. They even manage to use beautiful and telling names for the LORD. He is “the habitation of righteousness”. Because the Israelites have sinned against it, they devour them. He is also “the hope of their fathers”. In that hope they did not follow their fathers, but sinned.

That devouring by adversaries has come to an end. God’s people are now called to flee from Babylon, back to Israel, to Jerusalem, to the LORD (verse 8). Those who go are a first ‘batch’; the rest of “the flock” will follow at another time.

Jer 50:9-16 | Sin of and Judgment on Babylon

9 “For behold, I am going to arouse and bring up against Babylon
A horde of great nations from the land of the north,
And they will draw up [their] battle lines against her;
From there she will be taken captive.
Their arrows will be like an expert warrior
Who does not return empty-handed.
10 “Chaldea will become plunder;
All who plunder her will have enough,” declares the LORD.
11 “Because you are glad, because you are jubilant,
O you who pillage My heritage,
Because you skip about like a threshing heifer
And neigh like stallions,
12 Your mother will be greatly ashamed,
She who gave you birth will be humiliated.
Behold, [she will be] the least of the nations,
A wilderness, a parched land and a desert.
13 “Because of the indignation of the LORD she will not be inhabited,
But she will be completely desolate;
Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified
And will hiss because of all her wounds.
14 “Draw up your battle lines against Babylon on every side,
All you who bend the bow;
Shoot at her, do not be sparing with [your] arrows,
For she has sinned against the LORD.
15 “Raise your battle cry against her on every side!
She has given herself up, her pillars have fallen,
Her walls have been torn down.
For this is the vengeance of the LORD:
Take vengeance on her;
As she has done [to others, so] do to her.
16 “Cut off the sower from Babylon
And the one who wields the sickle at the time of harvest;
From before the sword of the oppressor
They will each turn back to his own people
And they will each flee to his own land.

For the execution of judgment on Babylon, the LORD raises up a horde of great nations (verse 9). These are the nations of the Medes and Persians. They come from the north to Babylon and take it captive. They do so with ruthless precision. The use of their weapons is not a battle in the air. Chaldea becomes their booty and it is not inconsiderable (verse 10).

Judgment comes upon Babylon because the Babylonians have plundered the sanctuary of the LORD with great joy and without restraint (verse 11). They have acted in God’s land like an elated calf in freshly mown grass and have raged against God’s people like stallions. Therefore, there is now shame for Babylon toward her mother (verse 12). A mother usually likes to see her child’s success. That is not the case here. On the contrary. Babylon has gone from being the foremost of all nations, to being the least. Nothing remains of all its former glory. It is “a wilderness, a parched land and a desert”.

The indignation of the LORD is so great, that she will not be inhabited again (verse 13). Instead of admiration, it will provoke consternation in everyone who passes by Babylon (cf. Jer 19:8). This will be fully fulfilled in the end time (Rev 18:1-19).

The LORD calls His instruments to make themselves ready to fight against Babylon (verse 14). They need not hold back when it comes to using their arrows. The supply will not run out. The LORD will give enough to execute His judgment on Babylon, for she has sinned against Him. What they have done against His people has been done against Him. Whoever touches His people, touches the apple of His eye.

The LORD also foretells victory here already (verse 15). Babylon will surrender and the Medes and Persians can rejoice. All her defenses have fallen and been broken down. The people the LORD uses, are carrying out His vengeance. He is doing it. They may avenge themselves and treat Babylon as she has acted herself. Babylon reaps what she has sown (Gal 6:7b). There will be no more literal harvest for Babylon (verse 16). The sowers will be exterminated, and for what still grows, there will be no reapers, for they too will be exterminated. All who have been conquered by Babylon will flee, each to his land of origin.

Jer 50:17-20 | Comfort for Israel

17 “Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven [them] away. The first one [who] devoured him was the king of Assyria, and this last one [who] has broken his bones is Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. 18 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria. 19 And I will bring Israel back to his pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his desire will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead. 20 In those days and at that time,’ declares the LORD, ‘search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.’

After describing the judgment on Babylon, another word comes about Israel (verse 17). God’s people are compared to a cornered sheep that has been chased by two lions. One lion is the king of Assyria, the other the king of Babylon. They have left nothing of Israel. Therefore, the LORD will punish both nations (verse 18). Assyria has already been punished, having been given up to the power of Nebuchadnezzar. The king of Babylon will suffer the same fate as Assyria and in turn will be judged by the next world empire that God is raising up for it, namely the Medes and Persians.

As God punishes nations for their heartless behavior toward His people, so He will have mercy on His people (verse 19). He will bring His people back to their dwelling place and let them live there in peace and quiet: that is Carmel in the northwest, Bashan in the northeast, Ephraim, the ten tribes realm in the land and Gilead in the region at the other side of the Jordan. This will happen “in those days and in that time”, which are the days and the time of the future realm of peace (verse 20).

Then all the people, Israel and Judah, will be restored in the land because they will be free from their iniquity and their sins. This is because the LORD has pardoned the remnant which is “all Israel” (Rom 11:26). Therefore, any search for iniquity or sin is futile. This is how God does when He pardons sins: He erases them and they are gone, also gone out of His mind. This is possible because Christ has borne the sins of those who are pardoned, and anyone who repents of his sins and believes in the Lord Jesus, is pardoned of his sins.

Jer 50:21-28 | God’s Vengeance for His Temple

21 “Against the land of Merathaim, go up against it,
And against the inhabitants of Pekod.
Slay and utterly destroy them,” declares the LORD,
“And do according to all that I have commanded you.
22 “The noise of battle is in the land,
And great destruction.
23 “How the hammer of the whole earth
Has been cut off and broken!
How Babylon has become
An object of horror among the nations!
24 “I set a snare for you and you were also caught, O Babylon,
While you yourself were not aware;
You have been found and also seized
Because you have engaged in conflict with the LORD.”
25 The LORD has opened His armory
And has brought forth the weapons of His indignation,
For it is a work of the Lord GOD of hosts
In the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come to her from the farthest border;
Open up her barns,
Pile her up like heaps
And utterly destroy her,
Let nothing be left to her.
27 Put all her young bulls to the sword;
Let them go down to the slaughter!
Woe be upon them, for their day has come,
The time of their punishment.
28 There is a sound of fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon,
To declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God,
Vengeance for His temple.

Again, the LORD addresses the instruments of His anger on Babylon. They are to march against Babylon (verse 21). Merathaim is a poetic name for Babylon and means “double rebellion”. It speaks of Babylon’s pride and haughtiness and unwillingness to bow down. Therefore, the land and its inhabitants are to be destroyed and put under a spell. In doing so, they must not follow their own will, but must do according to all that the LORD has commanded them.

When the hostile armies enter the land of Babylon, it will be under the noise of battle (verse 22). The land faces a great destruction. Babylon, which has pounded on the nations like a sledgehammer and subjected those nations to itself, is now itself cut off and broken down (verse 23). The horror that went out from Babylon and caused fear has become a horror of dismay at what has happened to that people. Babylon has been captured by the LORD because it has engaged in battle against the LORD (verse 24).

Babylon does not reckon with the LORD and with His power, but that people will have to deal with the instruments of His indignation coming out of His armory (verse 25). The LORD of hosts will do His work in the land of the Chaldeans. No one will be able to prevent that. He calls His armies from the ends of the earth to take Babylon and rob her of all her supplies, leaving nothing that remains (verse 26). The animals must also be killed (verse 27). The “woe” comes upon them, for their day has come to repay them for all the injustice they have done to God’s people.

Those who fled from Babylon and escaped will go to Zion to report what happened in Babylon (verse 28). They will know how to tell that Babylon was judged, because God avenged His temple on them. The Babylonians destroyed God’s temple. God will punish them for that because they did it in proud arrogance.

Jer 50:29-32 | Arrogance of Babylon

29 “Summon many against Babylon,
All those who bend the bow:
Encamp against her on every side,
Let there be no escape.
Repay her according to her work;
According to all that she has done, [so] do to her;
For she has become arrogant against the LORD,
Against the Holy One of Israel.
30 “Therefore her young men will fall in her streets,
And all her men of war will be silenced in that day,” declares the LORD.
31 “Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,”
Declares the Lord GOD of hosts,
“For your day has come,
The time when I will punish you.
32 “The arrogant one will stumble and fall
With no one to raise him up;
And I will set fire to his cities
And it will devour all his environs.”

Again, the LORD calls the archers against Babylon (verse 29). They are to besiege Babylon from all sides and they are not to let anyone escape. Babylon is to be repaid according to all that she has done herself. With the measure by which she has measured, she himself must be measured (Mt 7:2b). The hubris with which she has acted against the LORD, “the Holy One of Israel”, is the cause of this judgment. Babylon will lose her young men and all her men of war (verse 30). Thus, the strength of this people will be broken.

“The Lord GOD of hosts” solemnly pronounces that He will punish this overconfident nation (verse 31). The time for that has come. And when the overconfident one has fallen, there will be no one to raise him up (verse 32). He will lie down forever. He will also have no place to live, for all his cities, yes, everything around him, will be devoured by a fire that the LORD Himself has kindled.

Jer 50:33-34 | The Redeemer of Israel

33 Thus says the LORD of hosts,
“The sons of Israel are oppressed,
And the sons of Judah as well;
And all who took them captive have held them fast,
They have refused to let them go.
34 “Their Redeemer is strong, the LORD of hosts is His name;
He will vigorously plead their case
So that He may bring rest to the earth,
But turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.

Against the oppressors of all Israel, all twelve tribes – “the sons of Israel … and the sons of Judah as well” –, the wrath of the LORD has been kindled (verse 33). They – Assyria, Babylon, and countless other nations – oppressed His people and held them captive and would not let them go.

But their Redeemer, their Goel, is strong (verse 34). His Name is “LORD of hosts” to Whom all heavenly and earthly powers are subject. He will stand up for His people and plead their case. Then the land, His land, will come to rest (Jer 31:2). The inhabitants of Babylon will know no rest, but turmoil.

Jer 50:35-46 | The Enduring Fate of Babylon

35 “A sword against the Chaldeans,” declares the LORD,
“And against the inhabitants of Babylon
And against her officials and her wise men!
36 “A sword against the oracle priests, and they will become fools!
A sword against her mighty men, and they will be shattered!
37 “A sword against their horses and against their chariots
And against all the foreigners who are in the midst of her,
And they will become women!
A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered!
38 “A drought on her waters, and they will be dried up!
For it is a land of idols,
And they are mad over fearsome idols.
39 “Therefore the desert creatures will live [there] along with the jackals;
The ostriches also will live in it,
And it will never again be inhabited
Or dwelt in from generation to generation.
40 “As when God overthrew Sodom
And Gomorrah with its neighbors,” declares the LORD,
“No man will live there,
Nor will [any] son of man reside in it.
41 “Behold, a people is coming from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth.
42 “They seize [their] bow and javelin;
They are cruel and have no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea;
And they ride on horses,
Marshalled like a man for the battle
Against you, O daughter of Babylon.
43 “The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
And his hands hang limp;
Distress has gripped him,
Agony like a woman in childbirth.
44 “Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thicket of the Jordan to a perennially watered pasture; for in an instant I will make them run away from it, and whoever is chosen I will appoint over it. For who is like Me, and who will summon Me [into court]? And who then is the shepherd who can stand before Me?” 45 Therefore hear the plan of the LORD which He has planned against Babylon, and His purposes which He has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: surely they will drag them off, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely He will make their pasture desolate because of them. 46 At the shout, “Babylon has been seized!” the earth is shaken, and an outcry is heard among the nations.

Previously the sword of the LORD has come upon Judah (Jer 12:12) and upon the Philistines (Jer 47:6) Now it comes upon all the layers of Babylon (verses 35-37). It is the sword of the avenger of blood, of God as the Redeemer of His people. The sword of death comes against the Chaldeans, against the inhabitants of Babylon, against her officials and against her wise men (verse 35). The common man, the officials and the counselors all perish.

The LORD calls them “oracle priests” who, because of this judgment, do not come to understanding, but to acting foolishly (verse 36). Nothing is to be expected of their mighty men. The sword also comes against them and they will be shattered. There is no strength to defend themselves. Their horses and chariots also fall under the blows of the sword (verse 37). The strangers who are in their midst will become like frightened women. The treasures they have looted will be plundered. No one and nothing will remain of Babylon.

The next judgment is drought (verse 38). There will be no more water. Their thirst will be so great that they will act like fools in order to thereby induce their idol to give them water. In all this, they are not turning to the living God. When Babylon is depopulated and the land has become a desert, no human being will ever be able to live there again (verse 39). The only inhabitants will be wild desert creatures along with the jackals and the ostriches. God has done to Babylon what He did to Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring places (verse 40).

For His judgment on Babylon, the LORD uses a people from the north (verse 41). They are a great people with numerous kings. They come from the corners of the earth. All their soldiers are skilled in the use of bow and spear (verse 42). They wield their weapons ruthlessly. They know not mercy. Their voice of mass war cries sounds like the sea. They are also swift, for they ride horses. Then they line up for battle. There is no mistaking who the battle will be against. It is “against you, o daughter of Babylon”.

When the upcoming army in all its strength is thus painted, the king of Babylon loses courage (verse 43). He is seized with the distress that seizes a woman in childbirth. Then there is no strength or even thought of resistance. Babylon himself had been compared to a lion, but now his enemy is so represented (verse 44).

This lion – Cyrus, but in reality, the LORD – emerges from “the thicket of the Jordan” and is sent by the LORD to Babylon, against that strong dwelling place. But his strong habitation offers no protection against this enemy. After all, the LORD has appointed him, hasn’t He? Who can raise any objection to that? No false shepherd who has so exploited His flock can stand before Him.

The plan concerning Babylon comes from the LORD (verse 45). He communicates His plans that He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans, and it is important to listen to them. The weakest of the flock, those who have been the prey of false shepherds and have not been able to defend themselves, will drag the mighty away from Babylon and destroy its habitation. The rumor that Babylon has been seized will cause great consternation in all the earth and among the nations (verse 46).

Jeremiah 51

Jer 51:1-14 | The Vengeance of the LORD on Babylon

1 Thus says the LORD:
“Behold, I am going to arouse against Babylon
And against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai
The spirit of a destroyer.
2 “I will dispatch foreigners to Babylon that they may winnow her
And may devastate her land;
For on every side they will be opposed to her
In the day of [her] calamity.
3 “Let not him who bends his bow bend [it],
Nor let him rise up in his scale-armor;
So do not spare her young men;
Devote all her army to destruction.
4 “They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans,
And pierced through in their streets.”
5 For neither Israel nor Judah has been forsaken
By his God, the LORD of hosts,
Although their land is full of guilt
Before the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And each of you save his life!
Do not be destroyed in her punishment,
For this is the LORD’s time of vengeance;
He is going to render recompense to her.
7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the LORD,
Intoxicating all the earth.
The nations have drunk of her wine;
Therefore the nations are going mad.
8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken;
Wail over her!
Bring balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
9 We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed;
Forsake her and let us each go to his own country,
For her judgment has reached to heaven
And towers up to the very skies.
10 The LORD has brought about our vindication;
Come and let us recount in Zion
The work of the LORD our God!
11 Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers!
The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes,
Because His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it;
For it is the vengeance of the LORD, vengeance for His temple.
12 Lift up a signal against the walls of Babylon;
Post a strong guard,
Station sentries,
Place men in ambush!
For the LORD has both purposed and performed
What He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your end.
14 The LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself:
“Surely I will fill you with a population like locusts,
And they will cry out with shouts of victory over you.”

This chapter continues the description of the judgment on Babylon that began in the previous chapter. The LORD uses every possible example and word to let us know how much He is wroth with Babylon and what He will do to her. Now He speaks of a spirit that He will stir up, a spirit that will destroy (verse 1). That spirit will come “against Babylon and against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai”. “Leb-kamai” is Hebrew for “heart of those who rise up against Me”. He will give to Babylon an evil spirit that will plunge her into destruction.

There will be foreigners who will winnow Babylon, enemies who will take away all that is precious from the land, leaving what is worthless (verse 2). Winnowing is also connected to the spirit (or wind, it is the same word) of verse 1. Winnowing is done by the wind. The wind takes up the worthless and scatters it, while what is precious is left behind. The enemy will scatter the people as worthless and appropriate the treasures.

Although the Babylonians are ready with bow and armor to defend themselves, all opposition will be ruthlessly struck down (verse 3). The young men are not spared, and all the army of Babylon is struck down. Dead bodies lie all over the land and in the streets of the cities (verse 4).

The LORD is also wroth with Israel and Judah, but He will have mercy on them (verse 5). Their land is full of guilt. The LORD sees this very well, yet He will not put an end to that people precisely because He is “the Holy One of Israel”. Isaiah uses this Name for the LORD 25 times. Jeremiah uses that Name here for the second and last time (Jer 50:29), both times in connection with the judgment on Babylon. Therefore, He calls His people to flee from Babylon and not be destroyed together with her in her punishment (verse 6; Jer 50:8). Babylon will receive from the LORD the judgment it deserves, and the time for that is now.

Babylon was used by the LORD as a golden cup, a cup containing the wine of the wrath of God (verse 7). Nebuchadnezzar is the golden head (Dan 2:38), to whom the LORD has given authority over all the nations. He executed God’s judgment on the nations. Every nation has trembled before him. But his power has come to a sudden end (verse 8). He has famously relied on his own power and has no regard for the LORD.

Attempts have been made, however, to heal Babylon again, to cure her. Indeed, Babylon has also brought many benefits. It has been a good land to live in. The fact that one was no longer free did not play a major role. However, the attempts to heal Babylon have proven to be in vain (verse 9). Therefore, everyone is telling each other to take the opportunity and return to their own land. It is pointless to stay there any longer, because the situation is worsening instead of improving.

Israel will become aware that the LORD has stood up for them (verse 10). They are aware of how the LORD sees them according to His counsel. They also tell one another to go to their land. They do so with the intention of telling in Zion the deeds of the LORD their God. Herein lies the lesson for us that when the Lord has delivered us from a distressing situation, it is good to tell of it in the place where He dwells, the local church.

The LORD calls His instrument to sharpen the arrows and fill the quivers (verse 11). He is stirring up the spirit of the kings of the Medes against Babylon. This is in keeping with His plan to destroy Babylon. Babylon has destroyed His temple and for that it has brought upon itself the vengeance of the LORD. It will know against Whom it has rebelled.

The LORD begins by lifting up a signal, indicating that victory has been won even before the war has begun (verse 12). Before the battle itself, He gives orders to strengthen the guard, station sentries, and place men in ambush. The certainty of victory does not make one overconfident. In this way, He will also carry out His purpose that He has spoken.

Babylon dwells by many waters (verse 13), that is, it rules over many nations (Rev 17:15). Babylon is also rich. She obtained this wealth through unbridled greed. However, her power and wealth are worthless as protection from God’s judgment. Babylon owes it to the LORD of hosts to have become as numerous as a swarm of migrating locusts, but she has given all the glory for it to herself. Therefore, the LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself that He will judge her (verse 14). This will cause a shout of joy among the oppressed peoples.

Jer 51:15-26 | The Almighty LORD and the Impotent Idols

15 [It is] He who made the earth by His power,
Who established the world by His wisdom,
And by His understanding He stretched out the heavens.
16 When He utters His voice, [there is] a tumult of waters in the heavens,
And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth;
He makes lightning for the rain
And brings forth the wind from His storehouses.
17 All mankind is stupid, devoid of knowledge;
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,
For his molten images are deceitful,
And there is no breath in them.
18 They are worthless, a work of mockery;
In the time of their punishment they will perish.
19 The portion of Jacob is not like these;
For the Maker of all is He,
And of the tribe of His inheritance;
The LORD of hosts is His name.
20 [He says], “You are My war-club, [My] weapon of war;
And with you I shatter nations,
And with you I destroy kingdoms.
21 “With you I shatter the horse and his rider,
And with you I shatter the chariot and its rider,
22 And with you I shatter man and woman,
And with you I shatter old man and youth,
And with you I shatter young man and virgin,
23 And with you I shatter the shepherd and his flock,
And with you I shatter the farmer and his team,
And with you I shatter governors and prefects.
24 “But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes,” declares the LORD.
25 “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
Who destroys the whole earth,” declares the LORD,
“And I will stretch out My hand against you,
And roll you down from the crags,
And I will make you a burnt out mountain.
26 “They will not take from you [even] a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for foundations,
But you will be desolate forever,” declares the LORD.

The LORD places Himself, in His omnipotence as Creator, before Babylon (verse 15). He brought about the creation by “His power” while working with “His wisdom” and “His understanding” in the process. All of nature responds to His voice (verse 16). Clouds, lightning, wind, He disposes of them. This is also how the LORD once placed Himself opposite Job, after which Job humbled himself deeply (Job 40:1-5; 42:1-6).

Babylon, however, has no attention for this almighty God. Babylon is a stupid man, without knowledge of God and therefore completely without knowledge (verse 17). A goldsmith is also a kind of creator, but of an idol. But what a deception, it is a dead thing. There is no breath or spirit in it. A goldsmith can only make something that is dead. Compared with Who God is, the silversmith’s work is worthless and a work of mockery (verse 18) that offers no protection in the day of retributive judgment.

How completely different is “the portion of Jacob”, which is the living LORD (verse 19). He is the Former of all things and in the midst of it. He has a special relationship with Israel who is His inheritance. He is the LORD of hosts, which is His Name. He is above all heavenly and earthly powers and no one is equal to Him.

Babylon is to the LORD a war-club, a weapon of war (verse 20). Babylon must not imagine to be someone of importance and to have power of her own. Every work of Babylon is a work of the LORD. The LORD will smite nations and destroy kingdoms through Babylon. Everything that falls under the hammer of Babylon is an object of the LORD’s judgment.

The hammer of the LORD comes down on “the horse and his rider” and on “the chariot and its rider” (verse 21); on “man and woman”, on “old man and youth” and on “young man and virgin” (verse 22); on “the shepherd and his flock”, on “the farmer and his team”, on “governors and prefects” (verse 23). The word for “shatter” has the meaning of powerful and intense smashing, it is crushingly smashing (Exo 15:6; Psa 2:9).

Babylon is an instrument in the hand of the LORD. This does not mean that the Babylonians do not have their own responsibility. For they have done evil to Zion without the LORD’s instruction (verse 24). The LORD cannot leave that unpunished, but will repay them.

The mighty mountain of Babylon that is destroying the whole earth, will be judged by the LORD (verse 25). He will stretch out His hand against her so that she will roll off her high rock. He will set her on fire with His fire, so that she will become a mountain on fire. The destruction will be so radical that nothing useful will remain that could serve as a foundation for rebuilding the city (verse 26).

Jer 51:27-33 | The Nations Commanded

27 Lift up a signal in the land,
Blow a trumpet among the nations!
Consecrate the nations against her,
Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz;
Appoint a marshal against her,
Bring up the horses like bristly locusts.
28 Consecrate the nations against her,
The kings of the Medes,
Their governors and all their prefects,
And every land of their dominion.
29 So the land quakes and writhes,
For the purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand,
To make the land of Babylon
A desolation without inhabitants.
30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They stay in the strongholds;
Their strength is exhausted,
They are becoming [like] women;
Their dwelling places are set on fire,
The bars of her [gates] are broken.
31 One courier runs to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another,
To tell the king of Babylon
That his city has been captured from end [to end];
32 The fords also have been seized,
And they have burned the marshes with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.
33 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
“The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
At the time it is stamped firm;
Yet in a little while the time of harvest will come for her.”

Again, the word of the LORD is to lift up a signal in the land, that is, in the land that is to make the attack on Babylon (verse 27). Other nations are called by the trumpet to join. There is to be a marshal and a crowd of horses. All that have already been brought under the rule of the kings of the Medes must be deployed (verse 28). Babylon will quake and writhe (verse 29). After all, the LORD has decreed it and it is fixed. Nothing more can be changed about it. Babylon will become a wasteland.

The mighty men of Babylon see the futility of fighting against the awesome superiority (verse 30). They stay in the strongholds, not to defend themselves, but to hide from the advancing enemies. The power they have possessed has ‘dried up’, every vitality is gone; they are weak as women. Their dwellings, by which may be meant barracks, where the mighty men, the soldiers, are stationed, have been set on fire. These forts are now open to all, for the bolts have been broken.

The king of Babylon is informed at breakneck speed by a relay of couriers and messengers how “his city” is doing (verse 31). He is told that the city is taken on all sides and that the escape routes through the fords of the Euphrates are occupied (verse 32). Escape is impossible.

Hiding in the marshes is not possible either, because the marshes have been burned. Nor can he count on human support, for the fighting men are overcome with terror and paralyzed. The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says that He will make the daughter of Babylon a threshing floor (verse 33). That threshing floor will be stamped on firmly by the judgments that come upon it. The harvest is coming, the harvest of judgment.

Much of what is described here will be fulfilled by the Medes and Persians when they conquer Babylon (Dan 5:30). However, the full fulfillment will occur in the end time (Rev 18:1-19).

Jer 51:34-44 | Pointless Defense of Babylon

34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me [and] crushed me,
He has set me down [like] an empty vessel;
He has swallowed me like a monster,
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies;
He has washed me away.
35 “May the violence [done] to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,”
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
And, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
Jerusalem will say.
36 Therefore thus says the LORD,
“Behold, I am going to plead your case
And exact full vengeance for you;
And I will dry up her sea
And make her fountain dry.
37 “Babylon will become a heap [of ruins], a haunt of jackals,
An object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.
38 “They will roar together like young lions,
They will growl like lions’ cubs.
39 “When they become heated up, I will serve [them] their banquet
And make them drunk, that they may become jubilant
And may sleep a perpetual sleep
And not wake up,” declares the LORD.
40 “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams together with male goats.
41 “How Sheshak has been captured,
And the praise of the whole earth been seized!
How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!
42 “The sea has come up over Babylon;
She has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves.
43 “Her cities have become an object of horror,
A parched land and a desert,
A land in which no man lives
And through which no son of man passes.
44 “I will punish Bel in Babylon,
And I will make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth;
And the nations will no longer stream to him.
Even the wall of Babylon has fallen down!

Then we hear the complaint of Jerusalem or Zion about what Nebuchadnezzar has done to her (verse 34). He has devoured Zion and crushed it and swallowed it like a sea monster. He has filled his stomach with all the delights of the land, and the land itself he has washed away by carrying off the inhabitants from it. The inhabitant of Zion is encouraged to ask for retribution (verse 35).

That is in accordance with the period of time in which he lives. The believer of the church does not ask that, but asks forgiveness for his enemies. In the Old Testament and after the rapture of the church, the law applies. During those periods, God is in relationship with His earthly people, a relationship governed by the law. The time of the church, God’s heavenly people on earth, is characterized by grace.

The LORD answers the demand for retribution with the promise that He will take the trial of His people (verse 36). He will take vengeance for them. He will drain the border river the Euphrates (Rev 16:12) so that hostile armies can enter the land without difficulty. He will also ensure that there will be no new supply of water. Babylon will be destroyed (verse 37). Only jackals will dwell there. No man will covet that place anymore, because horror emanates from it and it has become a mockery.

The Babylonians have always seen themselves as roaring young lions from whom everyone flees (verse 38). They only have to growl and terror is the result. But the LORD will prescribe drink to them that will make them drunk and lose sight of reality (verse 39; cf. Dan 5:1-4,30). They will be killed and never wake up again. The “perpetual sleep” is not soul sleep, for there is no such thing, but an indication that they will never possess power again. The LORD will kill them like lambs for slaughter (verse 40; cf. Jer 12:3).

Sheshak was conquered and with it the glory of all the earth was taken (verse 41). That relative is man’s fame, it can perish at the blink of an eye. The impressive Babylon perished and thus became a horror. What no one thought possible, that this mighty Babylon would fall, has happened. A sea of nations rose up against it and Babylon sank into it (verse 42; cf. verse 13). Its cities were destroyed uninhabitable, as was the land (verse 43). No one lives there anymore, no one even migrates through it.

Two things by which Babylon was famous, were the god Bel and the wall of the city. The LORD executes judgment on Bel, the god of Babylon (verse 44). Everything that has been conquered in the name of this god and dedicated to him, everything of which this abomination has received the honor, the LORD will take away from him. The demons behind this abomination will receive no more honor. The LORD will claim all honor. Every knee will bow before Him. After the judgment on the invisible demonic source of its power, the LORD also executes judgment on the wall, his tangible and visible source of power. All of Babylon’s resistance is broken with the fall of its wall.

Jer 51:45-48 | Israel Must Come Forth From Babylon

45 “Come forth from her midst, My people,
And each of you save yourselves
From the fierce anger of the LORD.
46 “Now so that your heart does not grow faint,
And you are not afraid at the report that [will be] heard in the land—
For the report will come one year,
And after that another report in another year,
And violence [will be] in the land
With ruler against ruler—
47 Therefore behold, days are coming
When I will punish the idols of Babylon;
And her whole land will be put to shame
And all her slain will fall in her midst.
48 “Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
Will shout for joy over Babylon,
For the destroyers will come to her from the north,”
Declares the LORD.

In view of the judgment on Babylon, the LORD calls His people to leave Babylon (verse 45; cf. verse 6). His fierce anger has been kindled against Babylon. If they do not heed the call to leave Babylon, they will be frightened by the news that will reach them about what is happening in the land (verse 46). There will be civil wars that will destroy unity and take away strength.

Days are coming when the LORD will punish the idols of Babylon (verse 47). Then those idols will prove to be no protection at all. For that, they need only look at the fallen in their midst. When the destroyers come from the north and destroy Babylon, it will cause great joy in all creation (verse 48).

Jer 51:49-53 | Certainty of the Fall of Babylon

49 Indeed Babylon is to fall [for] the slain of Israel,
[As] also for Babylon the slain of all the earth have fallen.
50 You who have escaped the sword,
Depart! Do not stay!
Remember the LORD from afar,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.
51 We are ashamed because we have heard reproach;
Disgrace has covered our faces,
For aliens have entered
The holy places of the LORD’s house.
52 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD,
“When I will punish her idols,
And the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.
53 “Though Babylon should ascend to the heavens,
And though she should fortify her lofty stronghold,
From Me destroyers will come to her,” declares the LORD.

Babylon has subjugated many nations, but the LORD charges Babylon especially with what she has done to Israel. Because she caused Israel to fall and has slain many, therefore there will be slain in Babylon, in the whole world empire. This is an encouragement to Israel, to those who have not been killed by Nebuchadnezzar’s sword, to remember the LORD and Jerusalem wherever they are (verse 50). That is what their heart should be set on again.

They may recall the former glory. So let them do so, but with due shame (verse 51). It is because of their own unfaithfulness that there are now aliens in the holy places of the house of the LORD. When that acknowledgment is there, they are in the right mindset to go back.

The LORD Himself will clear the way for them by punishing Babylon and her idols (verse 52). The land of Babylon will be full of the groans of the mortally wounded. There is no escape for Babylon from the judgment of the destroyers the LORD sends upon her (verse 53). No matter how high she would climb and how high she would build their fortress, judgment will strike her.

Jer 51:54-58 | The Destruction of Babylon Is Total

54 The sound of an outcry from Babylon,
And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55 For the LORD is going to destroy Babylon,
And He will make [her] loud noise vanish from her.
And their waves will roar like many waters;
The tumult of their voices sounds forth.
56 For the destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men will be captured,
Their bows are shattered;
For the LORD is a God of recompense,
He will fully repay.
57 “I will make her princes and her wise men drunk,
Her governors, her prefects and her mighty men,
That they may sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up,”
Declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
58 Thus says the LORD of hosts,
“The broad wall of Babylon will be completely razed
And her high gates will be set on fire;
So the peoples will toil for nothing,
And the nations become exhausted [only] for fire.”

Jeremiah sees the destroyers of Babylon as already present. There are cries coming from Babylon (verse 54). This is not a war cry, but a cry of anguish, because of the disaster that is coming to the land. That disaster comes upon them from the LORD, Who is destroying Babylon. He will stifle the great sound of their cries into an even greater sound of the approaching armies, roaring like mighty waters (verse 55). The destroyer who comes upon Babylon will capture their mighty men and break every resistance (verse 56). Babylon has to deal with the LORD as the God of recompence. He repays to Babylon for all the evil she has done.

All who are responsible in Babylon for the evil they have done, the princes, wise men, governors, prefects and mighty men, will lose their minds and strength and perish (verse 57). They will never again awaken on earth (cf. verse 39) and never again be given the opportunity to do evil. He Who declares this is the King, and His name is LORD of hosts. Therefore, it will be as He has said. The wall of Babylon is not a problem for Him (verse 58). All the work that has been done on it by people of all kinds, is useless. All the efforts have been futile. They have tired and worn out themselves for nothing. Their work becomes a prey to the fire (cf. Hab 2:13).

Jer 51:59-64 | The Command to Seraiah

59 The message which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (Now Seraiah was quartermaster.) 60 So Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, [that is], all these words which have been written concerning Babylon. 61 Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words aloud, 62 and say, ‘You, O LORD, have promised concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be nothing dwelling in it, whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation.’ 63 And as soon as you finish reading this scroll, you will tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates, 64 and say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become exhausted.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

At the end of the long prophecy against Babylon, after all the words Jeremiah has spoken about Babylon, he has a command for Seraiah (verse 59). Seraiah is probably the brother of Baruch (Jer 32:12) and quartermaster to Zedekiah. As quartermaster, he is to make sure that the king has a good home everywhere he travels.

In the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign, he goes to Babylon. Jeremiah has written in a scroll all the calamity he announced about Babylon (verse 60). These are the words that were probably written down by Baruch when Jeremiah uttered them. He gives the scroll to Seraiah when he goes to Babylon. When he comes to Babylon, he must first look around carefully (verse 61). He will see all the glory and power of Babylon.

Then he is to read all the words of the scroll. He is to do so with the prayer to the LORD that He has spoken these words concerning Babylon (verse 62). As a true Elijah, he will be aware that he stands before the LORD and not before the power of Babylon (cf. 1Kgs 17:1a). For Babylon, the end announced by the LORD will surely come. Nothing will be left of it. Jeremiah announced the downfall of Babylon, as he announced that of Judah and Jerusalem, even though there is not much to see of either downfall yet and even though many do not believe in it at all.

When Seraiah has finished reading aloud, he must tie a stone to the scroll and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates, where the river is deepest (verse 63). When he has done so, he must explain why he has done so, what that act means (verse 64). Just as the scroll sank to the depths of the river never to rise again, Babylon will sink and never rise again (Rev 18:21). This is the doom that the LORD has decreed upon Babylon. The grueling efforts to keep Babylon afloat remain unsuccessful. We see here that Jeremiah, during the time he is calling for submission to Babylon, is at the same time announcing the eventual fall of that city.

This ends the words of Jeremiah. His service is at an end. His prophecy against Babylon is meant to be an encouragement to the faith of the people of Judah. The chapter that follows describes the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. But it is clearly stated beforehand that Nebuchadnezzar’s power is neither unlimited nor endless. God has the final say. This knowledge provides support only if we trust God at His word.

Jeremiah 52

Introduction

This chapter is a historical addition to the book of Jeremiah. It tells
1. about the fall of Jerusalem,
2. what the Babylonians did to the temple and its tools,
3. how Nebuchadnezzar treats Zedekiah, Jehoiachin and other officials, and
4. the number of Jews taken into exile.

The purpose of the chapter is to show how Jeremiah’s prophecies were fulfilled, in contrast to those of the false prophets (Jer 27:16-22; 28:1-17). The chapter is almost identical to the history in 2 Kings 24 (2Kgs 24:18-20; 25:1-30).

Jer 52:1-11 | The Fall of Jerusalem

1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2 He did evil in the sight of the LORD like all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 For through the anger of the LORD [this] came about in Jerusalem and Judah until He cast them out from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4 Now it came about in the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth [day] of the tenth month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, camped against it and built a siege wall all around it. 5 So the city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 6 On the ninth [day] of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. 7 Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled and went forth from the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls which [was] by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. And they went by way of the Arabah. 8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. 9 Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him. 10 The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 11 Then he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his death.

This chapter describes the fall of Jerusalem. God emphasizes the importance of the fall by including a fourfold description of it in His Word (Jer 39:1-14; 52:1-11; 2Kgs 24:18-20; 25:1-30; 2Chr 36:11-21). The fall takes place during the reign of Zedekiah, who reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years (verse 1). His reign is of the same evil character as that of his brother Jehoiakim (verse 2), who also reigned eleven years (2Kgs 23:36). He too does what is evil in the sight of the LORD.

The LORD can no longer bear it and must reject Jerusalem and Judah from His presence (verse 3; 2Kgs 24:18-20). To all his evil deeds, Zedekiah adds that he rebels against the king of Babylon. He has already been to Babylon once and promised to obey Nebuchadnezzar. However, he broke that promise (Eze 17:12-15). Therefore, Nebuchadnezzar has gone up against Jerusalem with all his army and is besieging the city (verse 4).

The date of his arrival at the city is accurately recorded (Eze 24:1-2). The arrival of Nebuchadnezzar is the beginning of the end of the city. He besieges the city for nineteen months, closing it hermetically (verse 5). No one can get in or out.

After the nineteen-month long siege, the city falls, on a day again named with date (verse 6). The city is starving. There is no strength left to fight. Then the city is broken into (verse 7). The resistance is broken. The men can no longer fight, but they can still flee. Among the refugees is King Zedekiah. In the darkness of the night, they run away. The escape route is accurately described. They go out of the city through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. The direction of escape is the Arabah.

The refugees, however, are quickly overtaken (verse 8). Zedekiah is seized when he is in the plains of Jericho. His army does not protect him. It is separated from him and scattered and thus made even more powerless than it already is. Zedekiah is taken to the king of Babylon, who is in Riblah and passes sentence on him (verse 9). It is a horrible judgment.

First Nebuchadnezzar slaughters the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes (verse 10). He also slaughters all the princes of Judah in Riblah. With the slaughter of his sons on his mind, Zedekiah’s eyes are blinded (verse 11). Thus, the man who is blind to the LORD is also literally blind. As if that were not enough to subdue this wicked and untrustworthy man, Zedekiah is also bound with two bronze chains. In this way he is taken to Babylon. There he is put in prison where he remains until the day of his death.

Jer 52:12-30 | Consequences of the Fall of Jerusalem

12 Now on the tenth [day] of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, who was in the service of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 13 He burned the house of the LORD, the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every large house he burned with fire. 14 So all the army of the Chaldeans who [were] with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. 15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the artisans. 16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen. 17 Now the bronze pillars which belonged to the house of the LORD and the stands and the bronze sea, which were in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried all their bronze to Babylon. 18 They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the pans and all the bronze vessels which were used in [temple] service. 19 The captain of the guard also took away the bowls, the firepans, the basins, the pots, the lampstands, the pans and the drink offering bowls, what was fine gold and what was fine silver. 20 The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the sea, [and] the stands, which King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD—the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight. 21 As for the pillars, the height of each pillar [was] eighteen cubits, and it [was] twelve cubits in circumference and four fingers in thickness, [and] hollow. 22 Now a capital of bronze was on it; and the height of each capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon the capital all around, all of bronze. And the second pillar was like these, including pomegranates. 23 There were ninety-six exposed pomegranates; all the pomegranates [numbered] a hundred on the network all around. 24 Then the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest, with the three officers of the temple. 25 He also took from the city one official who was overseer of the men of war, and seven of the king’s advisers who were found in the city, and the scribe of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. 26 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 Then the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was led away into exile from its land. 28 These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away into exile: in the seventh year 3,023 Jews; 29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar 832 persons from Jerusalem; 30 in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile 745 Jewish people; there were 4,600 persons in all.

After the city falls into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, he sends Nebuzaradan to Jerusalem (verse 12). The dating is now done, not to the reigns of the kings of Israel, but to those of the heathen king, to whom God has given world domination and also the rule over His people. Arriving in Jerusalem, Nebuzaradan burns all the houses, beginning with the house of the LORD (verse 13). This is followed by the king’s house and all the other houses, including those of the dignitaries. All these houses are destroyed because the LORD is no longer served in them, but only idols.

Furthermore, the walls of the city are broken down by the army (verse 14). The people of the cities are carried away into exile to Babylon (verse 15). Only a few of the poorest of the land are allowed to stay in Judah to take care of the land there as vinedressers and plowmen (verse 16).

In verses 17-23, a more detailed description of the plundering and destruction of the temple takes place. Some parts are broken down, while other parts are taken to Babylon. The bronze pillar, Boaz and Jachin, are broken down, as are the stands and the bronze sea (verse 17). All their bronze is carried to Babylon. The objects for use in the temple service suffer the same fate (verses 18-19). The amount of bronze from the pillars, the sea, and the twelve oxen is impossible to weigh (verse 20). To give an impression of that enormous amount of bronze, the pillars with everything attached are described in detail (verses 21-23).

More important still is the spiritual meaning. Even today, what should serve as pillars in God’s house is completely removed and taken away by the enemy. Bronze is a picture of the righteousness of God. It indicates that a man can only exist before God on the basis of the righteousness of God, offered to him by Who Christ is before God and what He has done. This is taken away in professing Christianity by the preaching of a social gospel of fellow humanity and living by virtue of one’s own righteousness.

After the remaining objects of the temple, some persons are now taken, who have been in connection with the temple service (verse 24). They are the high priest, the second priest and three officers of the temple i.e. the doorkeepers. Some people who have been in connection with the army and the king are also carried away. These are an official, seven of the king’s advisers, an army official, and sixty more men of the land who are in the city (verse 25).

The religious leaders, the warriors, and the common people are all taken to Nebuchadnezzar in Riblah (verse 26). There, in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, which is Syria, they are all killed (verse 27a). The priesthood is finished. All the rest is led away into exile (verse 27b).

Verses 28-30 list the various deportations. There were deportations in
1. the seventh year, 599 BC (verse 28; 2Chr 36:9-10),
2. the eighteenth year, 588 BC (verse 29; 2Chr 36:20) and
3. the twenty-third year, 584 BC (verse 30; verse 12),

in which a total of 4,600 people were taken into exile. Daniel and his friends are already in Babylon by then. They were taken there in an earlier transport, around 606 BC (Dan 1:1-6; 2Chr 36:6-7).

Jer 52:31-34 | Jehoiachin Is Treated Kindly

31 Now it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the [first] year of his reign, showed favor to Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. 32 Then he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who [were] with him in Babylon. 33 So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and had his meals in the king’s presence regularly all the days of his life. 34 For his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king of Babylon, a daily portion all the days of his life until the day of his death.

After the righteous judgment that the LORD had to bring upon His people through the king of Babylon, we now see that He also shows mercy to His people through that same king (verse 31; 2Kgs 25:27-30). Jehoiachin did do what was evil in the sight of the LORD, but he did not resist the king of Babylon. He surrendered to him (2Kgs 24:12). When he has been in prison for thirty-seven years, the king of Babylon pardons him. Jehoiachin is then fifty-five years old.

The king of Babylon speaks kindly to him and gives him a privileged place above the other kings he has subjugated (verse 32). Jehoiachin is given other clothes instead of his prison clothes (verse 33). For meals he is always allowed to join the king. For the rest of his life he is assured of his meals and the place where he may take them. Everything he needs to live on is given to him daily by the king of Babylon (verse 34). It is said in a double affirmation: it is “all the days of his life” and “until the day of his death”.

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