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In chapter 13 we see God giving prophecy and signs for Jeremiah to warn Judah and Jerusalem of where they are headed in their disobedience. The Lord starts by tasking Jeremiah to head north to bury a linen belt likely near the Euphrates River. The belt or “sash” was associated with nobility (Leviticus 16:4) and held a status of beauty value. Following, Jeremiah returns to dig up the sash only to find it “ruined and completely useless” (v. 7) to symbolize how the Lord will “ruin the great pride of Judah and Jerusalem”. 

God is specific with how they were disobedient. First, they “refuse to listen to my words”, they were cold toward the word of God. Second, they “follow the stubbornness of their hearts”. Finally, they “go after other Gods to serve and worship them” (v. 10). David Guzick says in his Enduring Word commentary, “Just as the sash expressed beauty and nobility, so God wanted His people to be ornaments of His greatness to all the world”. 

Going into verse 12, God uses wineskins to exemplify that just as wineskins are to fulfill their purpose, so had God set out for his people to fulfill what God had set before them. To do so with nobility and honor, but out of their disobedience and unrepentance they would instead be filled with stupor out of their ignorance.

So, how is God calling His people to respond to these warnings? Verse 15-16 tells us, with humility and honor given to the Lord. Every time the Lord speaks to us we have the opportunity to respond with pride or with humility. Like Judah and Jerusalem, we have the opportunity to seek the word of God and confirm it with truth or neglect what He could be calling us to do. God has set before each of our lives a purpose to be the salt of the earth and light to the world (Matthew 5:13-16) and when we do not abide, or flesh can so easily set aside the desires of the Lord and put on the idols of our hearts. 

Judah and Jerusalem knew that they were God’s chosen people, but they lacked a heart posture of humility and dependence. The promised judgment was not far away and this call to repentance was urgent. But let’s not neglect that their lack of obedience broke God’s heart. Re-read verse 17 and meditate over the compassion of the Lord. Ultimately we see from this chapter that in His rich compassion, God would not allow His children to continue in their disobedience. God had a purpose set out for them, and His desire to correct them was because He is a good Father!

Jeremiah’s posture in verse one sets an example for how we approach the Lord in our suffering and confusion. He praises God’s righteousness, reminding himself of the Lord’s goodness, and then asks his question in gratitude.   

Jeremiah asks God why unrepentant hearts seem to be blessed. They prosper, yet they would take the Lord’s name in vain. Jeremiah may be struggling with a Jewish teaching of his time, that retribution comes for those who do evil, yet despite Judah’s evil they have not experienced wrath. In verse 3, Jeremiah stumbles by boasting in his righteousness compared with Judah’s evil. But God has declared already, “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom… [but] that they have the understanding to know me” (Jeremiah 9:23-24). Jeremiah is asking the Lord to overthrow his enemies on account of his suffering and how righteous he thinks himself, but who is able to claim this but the Son of Suffering himself, Jesus?   

So, the Lord responds with little comfort for Jeremiah. Essentially, Jeremiah has not experienced the extent of Judah’s betrayal. It is as if he is saying, “I see your suffering, and I raise you mine.” Jeremiah has not been made to empathize with the betrayal and two-facedness of Judah yet, but he will. He will experience betrayal from his family and the falseness of those who would speak poison-laced kindness. God’s judgment here alternates between grief and wrath as he pours out his heart. There is wrath so deep because of grief so deep because of love so deep, yet “there is no one who cares” (v. 11). 

Verses twelve and thirteen call back to what Jeremiah previously complained, that Judah seems to prosper. God answers that while they have sown in their unrighteousness, they will not be the ones to reap this pitiful harvest. The armies of Nebuchadnezzar are coming to pillage the land and destroy Judah’s counterfeit glory. Psalm 127 warns: “Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.” The Lord has turned his face away from Judah; their end is imminent.  

The last part of Jeremiah 12 is a foreshadowing of the Gospel to come. While the wrath of the Lord is scorching, those of all nations who repent will be brought into the fold of the Good Shepherd. This foreshadows the salvation of those who mourn their sin and repent, as well as Jesus opening the door to the Gentiles.  

This chapter begins with a reminder of the covenant that God had established with His people centuries before. At the time of the exodus as the Israelites were anxiously awaiting their opportunity to enter the promised land, God established the Mosaic Covenant. This covenant built upon the Abrahamic Covenant, going all the way back to Genesis 12:7 when God promised land to Abraham’s offspring. The Mosaic Covenant was how the Israelites were to fulfill their end of the covenant: by following God’s laws.

As we know, they wandered and strayed from their end of the bargain. God’s people ended up wandering from God’s instructions. They disregarded God’s Word and built idols of their own. Judah even had as many idols as they did cities (v. 13)! As a result of their unfaithfulness, all of the curses God had promised (Deuteronomy 27) were headed their way due to their stubbornness and wickedness. Their actions had reached such a tipping point that God told Jeremiah he wasn’t going to hear Israel’s prayers anymore (v. 14). 

Towards the end of this chapter, Jeremiah reveals that he has been preaching and prophesying to people that want to kill him. They had grown tired of the message he was delivering (on behalf of Yahweh), so they wanted him put to death despite having only done what God instructed him to do. As we have discussed previously in our study of Jeremiah, he is the prophet most often compared to Jesus and the plot to kill them, despite both only trying to fulfill the will of God, is yet another way there are similarities between the two. 

Reading this chapter today, there are elements of it that are difficult for us to stomach. The idea of God not hearing the prayers of His people can be hard for us to reconcile. We, however, have the benefit of reading this chapter through the lens of the Gospel. Because we (as followers of Jesus) have the Holy Spirit, we aren’t cut off from God. We have an Advocate (John 14:16)! Even when we wander and even when we stray, God offers us a pathway of repentance that draws us back to Him.

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.