Author: Jon Green

We have all heard the phrase “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”. The people of Judah sure took that to heart. The people had been warned by God not to follow the practices of those around them, but they just could not resist. 

The beginning of this chapter tells how the people of Judah had begun to practice worshiping man made idols. These idols were made of wood and adorned with gold and silver. But through the prophet Jeremiah, God tells His people these idols will fade away. Nothing good will come from devotion to something that is made by man. This can seem really foreign to some in today’s world, but remember an idol is simply something we put as a higher priority than God.

Paul reminds us in Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. As we can see, idol worship is nothing new, but in today’s world it is very important that we are transformed daily. If we choose to follow the patterns of this world, then we will ultimately end up with the consequences of this world. Those consequences often lead us down a path that goes away from God and not toward our loving Father. 

The good news is that by the end of Jeremiah 10, God again shows us the path that leads straight to Himself. Jeremiah begins a prayer in verses 23-25. In this prayer we see Jeremiah ask for 2 things. First he asks God to direct, and secondly he asks God to correct. Jeremiah is bold in this difficult prayer. Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us to trust in the Lord and He will direct our paths. Yes, even if we are on the wrong path, once we Trust God he will direct us straight back to Himself. The second part of the prayer might be the most difficult because Jeremiah asks God for correction. We know that God only corrects those that he loves (Hebrews 12:5-6), but asking for that correction is very difficult.

It has often been said that if you don’t learn from history you are destined to repeat it. Jeremiah 9 gives us a lot to learn from. While it may appear that the chapter is only about sin and the coming judgment, we can learn so much more from the passage.  

On the surface the first part of the chapter may seem like a typical scenario of doing wrong equals punishment. However, as we dig deeper we can see that God only disciplines those he loves (Proverbs 3:11-12). And that the storms that arise through the consequences of sin are storms that we often start. The people of Judah had gotten so deep into sin that verse 3 says “They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me”. But God again says that He will refine the people just like in Jeremiah 6:27. That shows that God is not out to destroy us, but to lead us back to a path that leads us to Himself. The refining process is often difficult and sometimes painful, but be encouraged that no matter what we have done in life, God will see us through. He went to the cross knowing everything about us and still died for us.  

The second lesson we can learn from the people of Judah is that God wants our heart to turn to Him. So often as humans we judge others by their outward appearance, but God judges our motives and desires (Proverbs 16:2). The chapter ends with God telling the people that they will be judged just like the uncircumcised because they have uncircumcised hearts. God clearly shows us that the outward physical covenant means nothing if the heart doesn’t also follow the path to Christ. 

God so desperately longs for the people to turn their hearts towards Him. Paul addresses the same issue in Romans 2:29. As followers of Christ we learn that we can never perfectly follow the law, because we will fail. God is asking us to surrender our heart and experience the freedom that can only be found in His grace.

Jeremiah 8 is hard to read as we feel the anguish in the heart of Jeremiah over the rebellion of his people. However, as we shall see, he also reveals the deep love of God to a rebellious nation and rebellious man. His heart is deeply grieved over Judah’s continual rejection of God and His ways as we read in verse 18 which says, “You who are my comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me.” This is written during the time of the Babylonian captivity, and the people have either died or been exiled out of the Promised Land. Verse 3 puts an exclamation point on Israel’s self-inflicted situation saying, “Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, declares the Lord Almighty.” 

God’s judgment and conviction through the chapter includes the priests and scribes who were to be the holy and righteous representatives of God to the people. They and the nation were sadly described as backslidden, apostate (which means renouncing their faith), deceitful, liars, and unrepentant. God’s holy and chosen people have chosen their way over God’s ways, deceit over holiness, and willful disobedience over submission to the Law. Verse 12 describes this position of their hearts saying, “Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even blush.” 

However, we see the answer for the fallen nation, and for anyone of us today who find ourselves far from God and in a dark place in our lives. It says, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?” God, in His goodness and mercy cries out to His people through Jeremiah to return to Him. Today, this same cry for goodness and mercy is found in His son Jesus Christ! As Gilead, a day’s walk from Jerusalem, offered its medicinal balm that healed people in Jeremiah’s day, Jesus is the spiritual healing balm of Gilead for us now if we simply turn to Him. 

The nation of Israel simply needed to repent and turn away from their sin and return back to their God who loves them deeply. Through belief and acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we can return to God to receive forgiveness, and find grace, mercy, and goodness. Hence, we can choose life over death and His ways over our own. First John 1:9 offers the simple “how” in returning to God saying, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

Charles Spurgeon preached a beautiful sermon on Jeremiah 8 which mentions how migratory birds know the when, where, and way to go, and they show their wisdom by actually going to their sunny place. What a beautiful picture that paints for us as well. Let us all turn to the sunny place of forgiveness and wholeness only found in Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah is told by the Lord to stand at the gate of the Lord’s house to proclaim a prophecy to those who were entering the temple courts to worship. Dr. Thomas Constable, a retired professor from Dallas Theological Seminary, notes there was a custom at that time (which was most likely abandoned by the people) in which a priest of the temple would stand and ask the pilgrims coming to worship to examine their lives before entering the temple courtyard. 

God speaks through Jeremiah and tells the people to amend their ways and He will have mercy on them and let them dwell in the land He has given their ancestors (v. 7). God does not want followers who proclaim to the world, “We are delivered”, only to go on sinning, living like the rest of the world. Some of the sins listed are egregious, like stealing, murder, or adultery. Others we may commit without realizing, like sacrificing to false “gods”. We are prone to worship anything but the Lord, whether it’s extra 0s in the bank account, fewer pounds on the scale, or our favorite sports teams. As the late Tim Keller has said, “Idolatry happens when we take good things and make them ultimate things.” 

Jesus quoted Jeremiah 7:11 when He cleansed the temple in Matthew 21:13. Jesus seeing the sale of animals that would be sacrificed in the temple courts (the only place that gentiles were able to enter to worship the one true God) He overthrew the tables of the money changers and said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers”. 

In Jeremiah 7:14 Jeremiah declared that God would destroy the temple. Centuries later, Jesus did the same in Mark 13:2 and John 2. Paul said that the believer’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). We should constantly be cleansing ourselves to ensure we are worshiping the Lord alone and making no provision for the flesh (Romans 13:14).

It’s easy to read this chapter and think it’s about non-believers, but in reality this is Jeremiah prophesying over people coming to the temple claiming to follow God. The issue with this is they were attempting to worship Him on their terms and not His. In verses 22-23, God says when He brought their ancestors out of Egypt He didn’t speak to them about offerings and sacrifices but their hearts. Let this serve as a reminder today to check our hearts and ask God to purify them today.

The prophets throughout the scriptures reveal God’s heart for His children to come home. Amidst all their corruption and rebellion, God would raise His people to boldly proclaim what God would bring about if they continued in the whoredom after other “gods”. Jeremiah is another example of bold declaration and he is rejected; the people of Judah refuse to return to God. 

In Jeremiah 2:13 God says the people have forsaken Him…but how so? They saw “God’s Word as a scorn to them and took no pleasure in it” (v. 10). They had passively “paid no attention to God’s words and therefore rejected His law” (v. 19). At the root of this issue is the belief that God’s Law is to withhold, not protect. Jeremiah shared God’s heart to protect the people–but they simply did not trust God, so they did not trust His messenger.

They are guilty of greed, offering false peace, and growing comfortable with the exact things Gods detest (v. 13-15). How would God respond to this spiritual adultery? He extends an invitation to “find rest for their souls in the ancient paths” (v. 16). The only place where our souls will find rest is in the ways of the Lord. This is possibly what Jesus had in mind in Matthew 11:29. Even when communicating His incoming judgment, God desires them to repent and experience life to the full, both here and for eternity with Him (John 10:10).

God sets Jeremiah as a watchman over them to warn them but they refuse (v. 17). They simply do not want to worship God. They bring “frankincense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from a distant land?” (v. 20), but God is not pleased with empty sacrifices. He is after our hearts. David in Psalm 51:16-17 after his sin with Bathsheba writes, “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Judgment is surely coming but not without warning and invitation to fellowship with the Lord.

Jeremiah’s confrontation of Judah’s rebellion and unfaithfulness continues in this chapter. The Lord challenges Jeremiah to find one person who seeks the truth in Jerusalem, but sadly his quest discovers there is no one. The people of Judah have been utterly unfaithful to the Lord. They refuse to believe the warnings from the Lord concluding that God will do nothing: “No harm will come to us.” Even the prophets lie about God and the priests rule in their own power apart from the Lord. Therefore, the Lord Almighty tells Jeremiah to warn Judah of a distant nation coming against them. Because they have forsaken the Lord and worshiped foreign gods, they will serve foreigners in another land. Jeremiah continues to reveal the consequences of their refusal to fear the Lord. 

Admittedly, reading the warnings and description of the Lord’s judgment is intense. It is also disturbing to consider Jeremiah’s assessment of the unfaithful, foolish, and senseless people of Judah. They have rejected the Lord who has supplied all their needs, given autumn and spring rains, and provided regular weeks of harvest. They have pursued other gods rather than their God and their evil deeds have no limit. It is not shocking to read the question God asks, “Should I not punish them for this?” Jeremiah concludes in this chapter that not only have the prophets lied about God and the priests abused their God given authority, but also the people love it this way. 

These sobering words given to Jeremiah from the Lord reveal the hard, wicked unrepentant hearts of the people. No wonder Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet! However, in the middle of this chapter, there is a glimpse of God’s mercy that we must not miss. In verse 10, the Lord declares “Do not destroy them completely.” In verse 18, He repeats these merciful words, “Yet, even in those days (of the distant nation attack), I will not destroy you completely.” From God’s warning of judgment to His mercy by not fully eliminating the unfaithful in Jerusalem, we can cling to the truth: God is merciful!

Today, we experience His mercy through God’s Son, Jesus. Just as Jeremiah was unsuccessful in finding one faithful, righteous person, the same failed quest would be true in our midst. Romans 3:10 describes this: “there is no one righteous, not even one…” Thanks be to our Merciful and Gracious God for providing our salvation, our rescue through faith in Jesus! 

This chapter boils down to a promise that Israel will be destroyed if she does not turn from her wicked ways. That may sound familiar. The Old Testament, and particularly Jeremiah, are filled with prophecies of what will happen if things don’t change. God’s patient mercy for the Israelites is nearing an end, and only by His grace through Jeremiah’s prophecy are they warned of the pending reality of their own suffering. The usual suspects are to blame: idol worship, the abandonment of God’s law, and the slow adoption of norms that are outside of God’s design for His people. 

Perhaps the most striking image—and one we should note with great interest—comes from verses 23-26. He describes what amounts to a reversing of the original creation story that is documented in Genesis 1. Instead of the void being filled, he sees the earth as becoming formless and empty. Instead of the creation of light, he sees light leave the sky. Rather than the formation of mountains and hills, they quake on the verge of destruction. The birds no longer fly. The people are gone. Life as we know it ceases to exist. Creation is being undone. 

This image speaks to the conquest of an army, certainly. Even more so, this speaks to an interruption of God’s design for us. We were formed in Genesis 1 for communion with Him. When we, as individuals and as communities, abandon the original intention, it is like we are participating in the undoing of creation itself. To reject God is to act in opposition to creation. 

Thousands of years later that rings true. Where we submit to His design, life blooms. Where we act without Him, or in outright hostility towards Him, life dwindles until it is gone completely. 

But pay particular attention to the opening word of this chapter: If. The vision of destruction Jeremiah presents is dependent on Israel maintaining her wicked ways. This is not a foregone conclusion. There is still time to change. By His grace, there is still time for us too. 

Jeremiah continues to speak on the topic of Israel as an errant bride. The people of God have been challenged by Jeremiah through an analogy that they understood intimately, the expectations surrounding the marriage relationship. Israel, in plain terms, is compared to a harlot who has sought numerous other men besides her one true husband. God asks plainly why a husband would even consider taking back a wife who has behaved as Israel has time and time again, from before bondage in Egypt through their behavior after entering the Promised Land.

In summary, the chapter flows like this: 

• Exhortations to repentance (v. 1-5)
• Judah is more guilty than Israel (v. 6-11) 
• But pardon is promised (v. 12-20) 
• The children of Israel express their sorrow and repentance (v. 21-25)

While this seems like a very brief overview, the central theme is found in the word “yet”. Even though Israel continues to wrap itself around other gods and false idols, not to mention continuing sins that are willful and completely without repentance, God still longs to bring Israel back into covenant with Him. Once again, we see God place value in Israel as His chosen people.

God declares Himself once again ready to pardon sin, and give the blessings that will be seen with the coming of Jesus. He directs them to return by confessing their sins, and He promises to be faithful and just in forgiving them. These promises are fully to come to pass in bringing back the Jews in after-ages. God will graciously receive those that return to him; and by his grace, he takes them out from among the rest.

Simply said, if those who have forgotten Him will repent and return to walk with God, He has grace upon grace for them. This becomes even more evident with the life and sacrifice of Jesus in the New Testament, where grace is made complete, if we have the trust to abide in His truth and love.

We see God, in the very beginning of this chapter, ask a deep and convicting question through His prophet Jeremiah that seems to be relevant for many of us today: “What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? (Jer. 2:5).” Amidst the all-powerful, almighty justice of God towards sin and rebellion, we see a gentle gaze and an overwhelming tenderness. His love. It’s like God pulled back the divine curtain of His emotions and reveals His innermost yearning; “Why did you leave me?” “Where did you go?”

Do you know how much God cares for you? That every single aspect of His nature is laced with a word we so often forget in our mess ups and our sins: compassion. And in His compassion, He will do whatever it takes to draw us back to holiness and a place of union and intimacy with Him. He goes on to say that the Israelites have committed two evils that have caused this reaction of justice from Him. It says in verse 13, “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” 

The Israelites have forsaken their first love. The Deity that holds every ounce of satisfaction and life and have tried to find it elsewhere in other idols and pleasures of their own creation. At some point, God became not enough for them. Not only have they walked away from the Spring of living water, but they have also tried to recreate it with their own cisterns. 

Have you ever walked away from the well of living water to try and build your own? Only to find out it’s broken and cannot hold anything of real value or joy or satisfaction. That it can never quench what we are truly thirsting for in God? There is a moment in John 4 where Jesus appears to a woman of Samaria by a well who is thirsty and searching for meaning in all of the wrong places. Jesus offers, in His compassion and love, living water. Himself. And He promises that this living water will never leave her thirsty again. That living water is found in Him alone! Today the world will try and convince you that other cisterns have life in them. They don’t! They never will. Let’s learn from the Israelites and this passage that nothing but God will leave you quenched and satisfied. 

In this chapter, the Lord is preparing Jeremiah for his calling as a prophet. His journey as a prophet is going to be an arduous 40 year period of giving prophecies to people that don’t want to hear it and retaliate against Jeremiah. This was going to take an extreme endurance that can’t come from man alone, but from God’s strength! For this reason, part of this preparation will be building Jeremiah up and more importantly setting the foundation of leaning on God’s strength and not his own. Fortunately, what God speaks into Jeremiah in many ways extends to us as well. Let us take time to focus on some of these truths!

We are cared for intimately and on God’s mind even when He is not on ours. This is very evident (v. 4), but this is found in other areas of scripture as well. Luke 12 states, “ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.   Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” What a blessing it is to know that He cares for us that deeply!

His power triumphs over our perceived shortcomings. In verse 6, Jeremiah states that he is too young to deliver God’s message. In a similar way Moses claimed He couldn’t speak for the Lord in Exodus 4:10 for speech issues. In each situation, God still uses them despite this! What wonderful news that God will provide what we need to take action on God’s commands.

God will protect us and be with us! In verses 18-19, this doesn’t mean that Jeremiah did not suffer, because he did suffer. However, God helped Jeremiah complete his task and supported him and cared for him. Likewise, we won’t be protected from suffering, but He will be our comfort and He has secured for us our eternity with Him. How much more true is it that He is with us always since we have been gifted the Holy Spirit!

May we each day remind ourselves of God’s truths so that we can likewise benefit from walking and abiding with God!