Jeremiah 17

 

1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars; 2 While their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees on the high hills. 3 O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures to the spoil/plunder, and your high places for sin, throughout all your borders. 4 And you will let go of your inheritance that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land that you do not know: for you have kindled a fire in my anger that will burn forever.

 

  • Jeremiah 16:11 explains that God’s people defiled His land with their idols and the corpses of those murdered in their false worship.
  • They chose to serve false gods, God’s enemies.
  • To correct them, God sent them out of the Promised land to serve their enemies (Deuteronomy 30:1-3).
  • Jeremiah 16:11 Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
  • Jeremiah 19:5 They have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I did not command… nor did it come into my mind:

 

6 For he will be like the juniper in the desert, and will not see when good comes; but will live in the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. 7 Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. 8 For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and will not see when heat comes but her leaf will be green; and will not be careful in the year of drought or stop yielding fruit. 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

 

  • God knows everything and is always right (1 John 3:20, Deuteronomy 32:4).
  • When our opinions are different from His, we are wrong.
  • It is wise to align our thinking with His before we go to be with Him.
  • We do this by learning His word rather than following our own thoughts.
  • Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and do not lean unto your own understanding.  6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.

 

The Lord’s glorious high throne has been our sanctuary from the beginning

 

10 I the LORD search the heart, I test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. 11 As the partridge sits on eggs and does not hatch them; so he that gets riches, but not the right way, will leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end will be a fool. 12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

 

  • Ezekiel 1:26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and on the throne was the likeness of a man upon it. 27 And I saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from his loins upward, and his loins downward, I saw fire, and it had brightness round about. 28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.

 

He is the fountain of living waters

 

13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all those that forsake you will be ashamed, and those that depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters. 14 Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved: for you are my praise. 15 Behold, they say to me, Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come now. 16 As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows you, I have not urged you to send disaster; you know what came out of my lips; it was right there before you/it was your message and not my own.

 

  • The believers that depart from God will be ‘written in the earth.’
  • They do not dwell with the Lord in the heavenly city but have their inheritance on earth.
  • Luke 10:20 Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
  • John 4:14 But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that l give him will be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
  • Psalm 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; 4 Who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies;

 

The Lord is our confidence in the day of evil

 

17 Do not be a terror to me: you are my hope in the day of evil. 18 Let those that persecute me be ashamed, but do not let me be ashamed: let them be terrified, but do not let me be terrified: bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

 

  • Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

 

19 This is what the Lord said to me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, where the kings of Judah come in, and where they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 And say to them, Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: 21 The Lord says; Take heed for the sake of your lives, and carry no load on the Sabbath day, or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 22 Do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. 23 But they did not obey or incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear or receive instruction.

 

God promised great and enduring blessing for observing His day of rest

 

24 And if you diligently listen diligently me, says the LORD, to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep holy the Sabbath day, to do no work in it; 25 Then kings and princes will enter into the gates of this city 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 remain forever. 26 And they will come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise to the house of the LORD. 27 But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to carry a burden, entering in at 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 it will not be quenched.

 

 

                                           Jeremiah 18

 

God is the potter; He desires to mold us into His image

 

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Get up and go down to the potter's house. There I will cause you to hear my words. 3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he making a work on the wheels. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was ruined in the hand of the potter: so he made it again, another vessel, as seemed good in the eyes of the potter to make it. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6 O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? asks the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

 

  • Romans 8:14 as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

 

He builds and plants nations and turns back from judgment when men return to Him

 

7 The instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 8 If that nation against whom I have spoken turns from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in my sight, that it does not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, that I said I would do good to it.

 

  • This shows us God ruling over the nations.

 

11 Now please speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, This is what the LORD says; Behold, I am forming evil against you, and devising a plan against you: turn now from his evil way every one of you, and make your ways and your doings good. 12 And they said, There is no hope: we will walk after our own thoughts, and we every one will do the stubbornness of his own evil heart. 13 Therefore the Lord says this; Ask now among the heathen/nations, who has heard such things: the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. 14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon that comes from the rock of the field? Or will the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? 15 Because my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to evil, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths that are not a road; 16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passes by there will be astonished, and wag his head. 17 I will scatter them like an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

 

The Lord scatters and turns His back to those following evil in the day of trouble.

 

18 Then they said, Come, and let us plot schemes against Jeremiah; for the law will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not listen to any of his words. 19 Pay attention to me, O LORD, and listen to the voice of my adversaries. 20 Will evil be repaid for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before you to speak good for them, and to turn away your wrath from them.

 

  • The Lord has given us all, life and breath and all things.
  • He sent His Son to die for our sin.
  • When we don’t listen to Him, we have turned to evil.

 

21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be killed by the sword in battle. 22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you bring a raiding party on them suddenly: for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet. 23 Yet, LORD, you know all their counsel against me to kill me: do not forgive their iniquity or blot out their sin from your sight, but let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.

 

  • Psalm 9:12 When he makes inquisition for blood, he remembers them: he does not forget the cry of the humble.
  • Psalm 141:10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets while I completely escape.

 

                                            Jeremiah 19

 

1 The Lord said this, Go and get a potter’s earthen jar, and take the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests; 2 And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the sun gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you, 3 Say, Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel says; Behold, I will bring evil on this place, the whoever hears, his ears will tingle. 4 Because they have forsaken me, and have profaned this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; 5 They have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or say, neither came into my mind: 6 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that this place will no more be called Tophet or The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.

 

  • The Lord brings evil where man chooses evil.
  • God made us.
  • He gives us life and breath.
  • We are indebted to Him for these things and to no other.
  • We are to honor Him, thank Him, worship Him and no other.
  • It should strike terror in the heart to hear this judgment from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth.
  • No higher being exists.
  • Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that is what he will reap.
  • Psalm 9:12 When he makes inquisition for blood, he remembers them: he does not forget the cry of the humble.

 

God cancels the advise of the wicked and brings their actions back on them

 

7 And 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 hands of those that seek their lives: and I will give their carcasses to be food for the birds of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city desolate, and a hissing; every one that passes by will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. 9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and every one will eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and distress with which their enemies, and those that seek their lives will oppress them.

 

  • God has desired only blessing and joy for mankind from the beginning.
  • Man has chosen wrong and evil.
  • These precious children sacrificed by their parents are taken straight into the presence of their heavenly Father instead.
  • God makes desolate places where leaders make desolate the people’s hearts instead of filling them with God’s love and goodness.

 

10 Then you will break the jar in the sight of the men that go with you, 11 And say to them, This is what the Lord of hosts says; I will break this people and this city like this, as one breaks a potter’s vessel so that it cannot be made whole again: and they will bury them in Tophet, until there is no place to bury.

 

  • Matthew 21:43 I say to you, The kingdom of God will be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth its fruits.
  • Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

 

12 I will do this to this place, says the LORD, and to its inhabitants, even make this city like Tophet: 13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, will be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods. 14 Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, 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 The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel says this; Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the evil that I have spoken against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

 

  • The people’s worship of false gods was like a woman bringing another man into her bed while her amazingly great husband is there.
  • God’s word changes man from the inside out.
  • When we learn His word, His thoughts are becoming our thoughts and His ways are becoming our ways.
  • These people would not listen and be changed.
  • Romans 12:1 I beg you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

 

 

                                           Jeremiah 20

 

1 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2 Then Pashur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD. 3 And on the next day Pashur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, The LORD has not called your name Pashur, but Magor-missabib/fear on every side.

 

  • Giving names is a function of Lordship. In Genesis 1 ‘And God called the light day and the darkness He called night.’
  • Matthew 25:40 And the King will answer and say to them, I tell you the truth, What you have done to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done to me.
  • Revelation 2:17 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches; To him that overcomes I will give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written that no man knows except he that receives it.

 

4 The Lord says this, Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your friends: and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them captive into Babylon, and will slay them with the sword. 5 Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, all its labors, all its precious things, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies that will plunder them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashur, and all that dwell in your house will go into captivity: and you will come to Babylon. There you will die and will be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.

 

  • God wanted to bless this man. But Pashur spurned God.
  • Psalm 1 Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law he meditates day and night. 3 He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf will not wither; and whatever he does will prosper. 4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the ungodly will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly will perish.

 

The Lord is stronger than we are and He prevails

 

7 O LORD, You have deceived me, and I was deceived: you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am in contempt daily; every one laughs at me. 8 For since I spoke, I cried out, I cried violence and plunder; because the word of the LORD has been a reproach to me, and a cause of daily mocking. 9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him or speak any more in his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary of holding it in, and I could not endure it. 10 For I heard the whispering of many, terror on every side. Expose, say they, let us expose him. All my trusted friends, watching for my downfall, say, Perhaps he will be enticed, and we will prevail against him, and we will take our revenge on him.

 

  • In Luke 24 Jesus made their hearts burn within them by showing them Himself in His word.
  • God cannot deceive anyone. He is truth.
  • John 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, except by me.
  • Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.
  • John 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

 

He is with us, awesome and mighty; He prevails against our enemies

 

11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty awesome one: therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail: they will be greatly ashamed; for they will not prosper: their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten. 12 But, O LORD of hosts, that tests/refines the righteous, and sees the mind and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for unto you I have opened my cause.

 

  • The Lord tests and purifies the righteous; He sees the heart and emotions.
  • Deuteronomy 32:35 To me belongs vengeance, and recompense; their foot will slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that come on them hurry.

 

He has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers

 

13 Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD: for he has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers. 14 Cursed is the day I was born: do not let the day in which my mother birthed me be blessed. 15 Cursed is the man who brought news to my father, saying, A man child is born to you; making him very glad. 16 And let that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without relenting: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noon; 17 Because he did not kill me from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb always great with me. 18 Why did I come out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

 

  • Jeremiah complained like Job—like all of us. But God is working it all for good.
  • Psalm 25:3 let none that wait on you be ashamed: let them be ashamed who transgress without cause.
  • John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

 

 

********************************************************

 

 

SUMMARY: Jeremiah 17-20

 

  • The Lord’s glorious high throne has been our sanctuary from the beginning
  • He is the fountain of living waters
  • The Lord is our confidence in the day of evil
  • God promised great and enduring blessing for observing His day of rest
  • God is the potter; He desires to mold us into His image
  • He builds and plants nations and turns back from judgment when men return to Him
  • God cancels the advise of wicked and brings their actions back on them
  • The Lord is stronger than we are and He prevails
  • He is with us, awesome and mighty; He prevails against our enemies
  • He has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers