Jeremiah 7

 

The Lord tells us what were doing wrong

 

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim this word, saying, Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. 3 This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel says, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these. 5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; 6 If you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt: 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever.

 

  • They were to trust the Lord, not His house.
  • Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and do not lean unto your own understanding.

 

8 Look! You trust in lying words that cannot profit. 9 Will steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know; 10 And then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I have seen it, says the LORD. 12 But go to my place that was in Shiloh, where I set my name at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these works, says 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 this house, which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

 

  • These were the things they were doing to solve their problems and meet their needs. All the while God was waiting and wanting to give them things so much better.
  • Proverbs15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
  • Psalm 50:1 The mighty God, even the LORD, has spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down of it.

 

16 Therefore do not pray for this people or lift up cry or prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will 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 their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19 Do they provoke me to anger? says the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?

 

  • They are bringing disaster on themselves.
  • Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

 

The Lord wants to make things good for us

 

20 Therefore this is what the Lord God says; Behold, my anger and my fury 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. 21 This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel says; Away with your burnt offerings and sacrifices! Eat them yourselves! 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 or 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 walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you. 24 But they did not listen, or incline their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day I have sent to you all my servants, the prophets, daily, rising up early and sending them: 26 Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. 27 Therefore you will speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you will call to them; but they will not answer you. 28 But you will say to them, This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God or receive correction: truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth. 29 Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

 

  • Hair was cut as a sign of mourning. Hair was also a sign of submission.
  • They have rejected God’s authority over them.
  • God only becomes angry when we love and worship false things.

 

God never considered human sacrifice, murder, as a way to worship Him

 

30 For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the LORD: they have set their abominations/idols in the house that is called by my name, to pollute it. 31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, 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, neither did it come it into my heart. 32 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it will no more be called Tophet or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they will bury in Tophet, until there is no place. 33 And the carcasses of this people will be food for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will chase them away. 34 Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land will be desolate.

 

  • All this was their choice and totally unnecessary.
  • Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life: in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
  • Revelation 3:20-21 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will feast with him, and he with me. 21 To him that overcomes I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and have sat down with my Father in his throne.
  • Revelation 21:7 He that overcomes will inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

 

 

                                             Jeremiah 8

 

1 At that time, says the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: 2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered or be buried; they shall be for dung on the face of the earth.

 

  • Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

 

3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the rest of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places where I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts. 4 Moreover you shall say to them, This is what the LORD says; Shall they fall, and not rise? Shall he turn away, and not return? 5 Why then has this people of Jerusalem slipped back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit, they refuse to return.

 

  • God wants only to bless.
  • But when He is refused, he sends reaping what has been sown to try to bring us back to Him.
  • He alone is life.
  • f we choose another we choose death.
  • He drove Adam and Eve out of Eden and protected the way back for those who might want to return eternally.
  • God’s title ‘LORD of hosts’ means that He controls and sustains all the countless armies of the angels of heaven.

 

The Lord, our Maker, listens for right words

 

6 I listened and heard, but they did not speak right: no man repented of his wickedness, saying, what have I done? Every one turned to his course, as the horse rushes into the battle. 7 Yes, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people do not know the judgment of the LORD. 8 How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Look, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. 9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: look, they have rejected the word of the Lord; look and what wisdom is in them?

 

  • In them is the false teachings of evil.
  • The scribes made ink, quills, and vellum or parchment.
  • They painstakingly preserved through the centuries the words of God.
  • A fraction of an error on a letter or a stray spot of ink could cause the whole part to be redone.

 

10 Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet to the priest every one deals falsely. 11 They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. 12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush! Therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says the LORD. 13 I will consume them, says the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine or figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. 14 Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defended cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

 

  • Matthew 27:34 They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.

 

15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble! 16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they have come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell in it.

 

  • The snorting of horses is military invasion.

 

God hurts when we hurt

 

17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you that will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, says the LORD. 18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me. 19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images, and with foreign vanities? 20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. 21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt; I am black; astonishment has taken hold on me. 22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

 

  • Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
  • Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
  • Matthew 23:37-38 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent to you, how often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

 

 

                                            Jeremiah 9

 

The Lord wants us to know Him

 

1 O 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 wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers: an assembly of treacherous men. 3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the LORD.

 

  • John 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, except by me.
  • Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest unto your souls.
  • John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

 

4 Take heed every one of his neighbor, and do not trust in any brother: for every brother deals deceitfully, and every neighbor will walk with slanders. 5 And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity. 6 Your house is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says the LORD. 7 Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts says, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for what else can I do for the daughter of my people?

 

  • The melting is the purifying of metal in a furnace.
  • The metal was heated so that the impurities rose to the top to be skimmed off.
  • This isn’t God’s choice. This is man’s choice—the result of disobedience.
  • The whole passage shows what they are doing that brought this on them.
  • Isaiah 48:10 Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
  • Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

 

The Lord weeps and wails over the destruction to come

 

8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he lies his wait. 9 Shall I not visit them for these things? Asks the LORD: will not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 10 I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains and a lamentation for the dwellings of the wilderness, because they are burned up so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast have fled; they are gone.


  • God is just.
  • He is righteous.
  • He does what is right, every time.
  • They have done this to their own people.
  • And He weeps because it has to be.

 

11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant. 12 Who is the wise man that understands this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it. Why does the land perish and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through? 13 And the LORD says, Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked in it; 14 But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:

 

  • ‘Baal’ meant master. This was a god of power, power over people like the power that leaders and politicians have.
  • Also like the Nicolaitans in Revelation 2:6, power over people for their own ends rather than God’s.

 

15 Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel says; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. 16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.

 

  • The Lord scatters them among those they have followed.
  • God’s disciplines are always designed to correct the error rather than just punish (Deuteronomy 30:1).

 

He teaches the women a death march

 

17 This is what the LORD of hosts says, Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for wise women, that they may come: 18 And let them hurry, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. 19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out. 20 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation. 21 For death has come up into our windows, and has entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets. 22 Speak, This is what the Lord says, Even the carcasses of men will fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvesters, and none will gather them.

 

The Lord delights in loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness

 

23 This is what the Lord says, Do not let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his strength, do not let the rich man glory in his riches: 24 But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who exercises loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD.

 

  • The word glory is the Hebrew word ‘halal’ which means to be clear, to shine, to make a show of, or to boast.
  • It is that which stirs up excitement in us so much that we talk about it.

 

25 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will punish all those who are circumcised with the uncircumcised; 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all that are in the farthest corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

 

  • The Lord punished those ceremonially correct with those not ceremonially correct because neither of them knew Him.
  • The uncircumcised heart lives for the things of this life with no thought to its Maker or eternity.
  • Matthew 7:23 And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.

 

 

 

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SUMMARY: Jeremiah 7-9

 

  • The Lord tells us what were doing wrong
  • The Lord wants to make things good for us
  • God never considered human sacrifice, murder, as a way to worship Him
  • The Lord, our Maker, listens for right words
  • God hurts when we hurt
  • The Lord wants us to know Him
  • The Lord weeps and wails over the destruction to come
  • He teaches the women a death march
  • The Lord delights in loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness