Year 6, Day 72: Jeremiah 19

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Prophet 

• Prophet: A prophet is one of the fivefold ministry categories that is used throughout the Bible and especially lifted up in Ephesians 4:11.  The prophet is primarily concerned with whether or not the people are hearing the voice of God.  The prophet is also concerned about whether or not the people are responding to God’s voice. 

This is a really deep chapter when considering the prophet. God asks Jeremiah to perform a public demonstration of wisdom.  Jeremiah is to bring the priests out to see and hear God's declaration.  As Jeremiah smashes the pot, Jeremiah is to declare that God will bring judgment upon Israel. 

Certainly, Jeremiah is serving as a prophet here in this passage.  He is bringing God's message to the people around Him.  He is concerned that the people actually hear from God.  This is what prophets do. 

I want to make sure that we truly understand what Jeremiah is doing here, though.  Jeremiah is gathering the priests around him.  Jeremiah is taking on the elite.  He is being a prophet to the leaders.  Jeremiah is risking irritating the powerful.  Remember yesterday when people wanted to silence him?  Today, Jeremiah puts himself directly in harms way in order to be a prophet for God. 

However, Jeremiah goes one step further.  He isn't just a prophet to the elite.  After performing the duty that God asked of him, Jeremiah goes back to the people of Jerusalem and proclaims te message for all the people.  Jeremiah wants all people to have access to God's word.  Jeremiah likely fears that the elite will ignore him and he wants all people to hear and be able to respond. 

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Year 6, Day 71: Jeremiah 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Approval 

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position. 

God calls Jeremiah to go and visit a potter.  I don't know if you have ever watched a pottery wheel in action, but I find it a hypnotic experience.  The clay goes around and around.  The potter has wet hands to shape the clay.  The clay can't be too dry or it won't mold.  But the clay can't be too wet or it will collapse and lose its form.  If you watch long enough – even with expert potters – you will see a structure collapse.  This is what Jeremiah sees happen.  God tells Jeremiah that the people are just like this clay. 

God wants the people to be molded in an image of His own making.  He has given them every opportunity to succeed.  But they don't want it.  They don't want to be made in His image.  They want to be made in their own image.  They want to do what they want with their life. 

As evidence of this, they reject Jeremiah's message.  Even worse, they plot to destroy Jeremiah!  They want to silence his message.  Here is what Jeremiah gets for following God.  The people put their own approval ahead of God's approval.  The people want what they want for themselves rather than what God wants for them. 

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Year 6, Day 70: Jeremiah 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

The end of this chapter is crystal clear.  God tells Jeremiah to tell the people that all they have to do to enjoy God’s blessing is to respect the Sabbath.  All they have to do to have good princes and kings is to honor the day of the Lord.  It sounds so simple.  Nevermind that there are 9 other commandments; God is absolutely content to settle for a single one being honored.

No, I don’t genuinely think that God is throwing out the other 9 commandments.  But I do think that the point that God wants to make about the people of God is that our attitude towards God has a huge impact on the rest of our life.  If we are humble before God, the rest of our life will follow.  But if we are arrogant and do not humble ourselves before God then we cannot truly expect the rest of our life to be with God, either.

When we acknowledge God and center our week upon Him, we will center our lives upon Him, too.  When we are humble before God and acknowledge Him, He will look into our lives and fill it with godly people who can walk with us in our faith.  If our life is full of obedient worship of God, we aren’t likely to have trouble honoring parents, not lying, not murdering, not being envious, or any of the other things that God wants us to do.  Being godly starts with us taking up a position of obedience to Him.

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Year 6, Day 69: Jeremiah 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

It is finally in this 16^th chapter of Jeremiah that we get a glimpse of God’s full plan.  Yes, there have been all kinds of promises about judgment in the prior chapters.  There is even a healthy dose of that here in Jeremiah, too.  But it isn’t the judgment that makes this chapter special and unique.  It is the promise at the end.

As we finish this chapter, we hear the Lord make an unusual claim.  There will come a day when people stop talking about the Hebrew people as the people who were brought up out of Egypt by God.  That should make us raise our eyebrows a little.  After all, the Exodus is one of the greatest stories in the Bible!  God’s power was on full display!  Why would they stop talking about that event?  God then tell us that there will come a say when people remember the Hebrew people as the people that God brought out of the northern country.

Think about this claim for a second.  What this means is that God will have beaten the Egyptians – the big power in the world for many centuries.  Then God will have beaten the Assyrians and Babylonians, the next two big powers on the scene.  God is telling the Hebrew people – and the world – that He can protect His people from even the biggest nations in the world.  Human and worldly power means nothing to God’s plan.

But God goes further than just promising protection.  God tells us how He is going to do it.  God tells us that He is already preparing to send fisherman to catch the people who go into captivity and who turn to Him.  {As an aside, I love that the occupation represented the most among Jesus’ disciples is the fisherman!}  God tells His people through Jeremiah that hunters will go out and seek the lost.

This is what I love about God’s protection.  God isn’t passive about His protection.  He doesn’t just say, “I’m a shelter if you come to me.”  God says, “I will actively protect you.”  God says, “I will actively send people out into the world to protect you.”  That’s God’s protection.

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Year 6, Day 68: Jeremiah 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

This is another difficult chapter to read in Jeremiah.  This chapter is full of God’s insistence that the people won’t repent.  God insists that Jeremiah will be like a bronze wall to them.  In other words, the people will rise up against him, speak against him, and try to overcome him in spite of their inability to do so.  This chapter is all about how the people may claim repentance but their lives don’t bear it out.

One of my favorite passages in this chapter is the claim that Moses and Samuel couldn’t help these people.  God’s not trying to be rude to Jeremiah.  He’s not trying to say that Jeremiah is inferior to Moses or Samuel.  What he is actually trying to do is to make Jeremiah feel better. 

Remember that the generation that was with Moses was the generation of the exodus.  These are the people who got to see God’s plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven, the water from the rock, and several other things.  They saw all of these great things and had Moses as their leader.  Yet they rebelled so much that the whole generation died in the desert.

Or, take the generation with Samuel.  God was their king.  Yet, they rebelled against God’s nature as king.  They wanted a human king.  So they got Saul.  But the point is that even though Samuel was an incredible man and a very righteous leader the people rebelled.  They got something in their mind that was contrary to God and they disobeyed.

The generation that Jeremiah lives among is no different.  Jeremiah is a righteous man like Samuel and Moses.  But the people still do not obey.  The people are not getting their identity from God.  Jeremiah 15:6 is a telling verse.  They are so disobedient that God is weary of withholding His judgment.  That’s not a great place to find oneself.

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Year 6, Day 67: Jeremiah 14

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: In

• In: This is the word we use to express our relationships with our spiritual family.  These are often the people who hold us spiritually accountable.  They are the ones to whom we typically go for discussion and discernment.  These are the ones with whom we learn to share leadership.  They are the ones with whom we become family on mission.

The opening of this chapter is much like we’ve encountered in other chapters of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah speaks about how the Lord seems distant from the Hebrew people.  God’s response is typical of God’s responses in other places.  God tells Jeremiah that it is the people who have wandered from Him, not He who has wandered from the people.  God is willing to let us wander.  After all, is there any place we can go from which He cannot reach us?  However, when we are distant from God we need to remember that it is we who wandered.

So how does this bring us to the topic of In?  If we look into the second section of this chapter we get an opportunity to hear Jeremiah talk about how the prophets are announcing news contrary to Jeremiah.  The prophets are announcing that there will be peace, not a sword.  The prophets are announcing that God will not bring judgment.  The prophets are encouraging people to live their lives as they see fit rather than warning them of the judgment to come.  The prophets are encouraging rampant humanism rather than drawing the people closer to God.

Fundamentally, this is a problem of In.  We need to be careful about to whom we listen.  If we want to be godly, we need to make sure that when we seek advice it is from godly people.  If we do not get sound godly advice, then we will wander away from God.  If we do not get sound godly instruction then we will pursue the desires of our own heart.

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Year 6, Day 66: Jeremiah 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

God asks Jeremiah to go and find a linen belt.  Some translations call this a loincloth.  The main point of this garment is that it is a belt that went around the waist and held a person’s undergarments to their body.  Being close to the body, you would want it to be clean and smooth so that it wouldn’t chafe.

Then Jeremiah is told to go and bury the loincloth.  Like all things organic, the water in the soil and the soil itself works on the linen and destroys it.  The linen is no longer clean. It is no longer smooth.  If worn, the linen belt will chafe the body uncomfortably.  In other words, the linen belt has lost its ability to be useful.  It has lost its identity.

God reminds us that this linen garment is an analogy for His people.  They have allowed themselves to be corrupted in the world.  They lust after things that are not of God.  Their heart desires that for which God has not made them.  In their passion, they become soiled.  They become something that chafes when used.  God’s people have lost their identity.

Why does this happen?  God tells us why as we close out this chapter.  The people are proud.  They are self-centered.  They care only about themselves.  We only care about the crown of greatness that we can make for ourselves that we don’t even realize when that crown of earthly greatness becomes our very bondage.  We lose our identity and find ourselves soiled for the purposes of God.

Thankfully, we can know forgiveness.  We can try again.  We can be made clean again.  We may lose our identity, but God enables it to not be lost forever.  Our identity can always be restored through God.

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Year 6, Day 65: Jeremiah 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

Jeremiah opens this chapter by lodging a complaint with God.  Mind you, this isn’t a complaint against God as we would see it.  He isn’t blaming God for making these people evil.  Jeremiah is complaining because he sees all of the unrighteous people around him going allowed to be unrighteous and not getting any punishment.  Jeremiah is wondering why it is that the unrighteous prosper.

That’s really the challenge of the righteous, isn’t it?  The people of righteousness are called to do the right thing regardless of how other people behave.  When we see people living unrighteously and prospering, it can be difficult for us to stay the course of righteousness.  It can be difficult for us to understand why the unrighteous prosper in a world over which God is supposed to be King.

That’s what Jeremiah is thinking and feeling.  That’s the challenge with which Jeremiah wrestles.  But God comes in and shows Jeremiah the way through the challenge.  God reminds Jeremiah about perspective.  We see with a perspective of “now.”  We want righteousness now.  We want justice now.  We want a verdict now.  God sees with a perspective of “all.”  God knows judgment is coming.  God knows the judgment will sift the righteous away from the unrighteous.  God knows that the judgment will bring the righteous back into restoration.  We see now; God sees all.

For the record, in Christianity we can also see through the lens of eternal.  We should always be willing to let go of the current events in light of the future existence.  Isn’t it worth putting up with a little unrighteous prospering knowing that God will make an eternity of perfection?  Isn’t the future life with God worth allowing God to give the unrighteous enough rope to prove why God’s judgment is righteous?

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Year 6, Day 64: Jeremiah 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

Jeremiah continues to be a difficult book to read because so much of the book is about rebellion.  The people aren’t listening to God.  They aren’t listening to God speak through Jeremiah.  They don’t really care about God, God’s ways, or God’s desire for their life.  They aren’t looking to God or God’s messengers for approval.

In fact, they are looking to rebel against Jeremiah.  They are tired of Jeremiah and his message.  They are looking to bring harm to Jeremiah.  Not only are they not looking to Jeremiah for approval, they are finding their own approval by planning harm to Jeremiah!

So what does God say to all of this?  God tells Jeremiah to not even pray for them.  This is twice that we’ve heard this command from God.  God tells Jeremiah that if they are not going to look to Him for approval, then He will not feel the need to hear them when they cry out to Him.  Learn that lesson.

We will surely all rebel.  We will all sin.  But when we sin, we should want to repent.  We should want to be restored.  We should want God to hear us win our sin and in our need.  That is why we should seek the approval that comes from Him.

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Year 6, Day 63: Jeremiah 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

I believe that God’s omnipotence is the main theme of this chapter.  How many times do we hear a reference to God’s power?  He creates.  He establishes.  He rules.  He is the man in charge.

We also hear Jeremiah compare God to the other gods.  Can they walk around?  Can they move?  Can they do anything out of their own power?  Being fashioned by mankind, do they even have any power of their own?

I really believe that this chapter is all about God being the supreme king of the universe.  Nobody can match His power.  Nothing else can claim to have been around at the creation of the world.  Nothing else can actually do anything out of its own power.  He is the king.  He put this world into motion and it is Him who sustains it.

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Year 6, Day 62: Jeremiah 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

I find this chapter an interesting perspective on humanity.  God complains through Jeremiah that His people cannot be trusted.  They lie.  They deceive.  They are not trustworthy.  They weary their communities.  The heap oppression upon the oppressed.  We plan to take advantage of our neighbors even while we talk nicely to one another.  God gives a horrible condemnation at the end of the chapter when He claims that all the nations are uncircumcised and even His own people are uncircumcised in their hearts.

What do all of these things say?  Human beings are selfish.  We are self-centered.  We lie to get our own advantage.  We say one thing but do another when it is to our advantage.  We make nice with the people around us until we can take advantage of them.  In other words, our ambition reigns supreme.  We want what we want and we want it now.  We don’t consider who will have to do without, we only care what we can have.

What can we really learn?  If the problem is that we spend too much time focusing on ourselves, then the answer is focusing on ourselves less.  That’s why I love Jeremiah 9:23-24.  We should not boast in our own strength, our own wisdom, or our own wealth.  We should boast in that we know the Lord.  That’s the funny thing.  When we focus on God and God’s ways we also inherently focus on our neighbors, the poor, the unprivileged, the downtrodden, the orphans, the widows, and so forth.  The cure isn’t making ourselves better.  The cure is letting go of ourselves and focusing on God more.

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Year 6, Day 61: Jeremiah 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Bear Fruit

• Bear Fruit: We bear fruit after we grow.  Bearing fruit is ultimately the goal of abiding and the goal of being called into the Kingdom of God.  However, while bearing fruit is our calling, it is not the end.  We bear fruit so that we can then prune, abide, grow, and bear more fruit in another season.  Bearing fruit is not the end, but rather only a portion of the whole rhythm of life into which God has called us.

I think the lens of fruit is an interesting one through which we can view this chapter.  Once more we hear God complaining about the Hebrew people.  But you’ll notice that in today’s verses we don’t focus as much on what they’ve done wrong.  What we can hear as a theme through the text is more along what the people haven’t done right.

They have healed the people lightly.  In other words, they are busy telling the people around them, “Oh, there’s nothing wrong with you.  You’re fine just the way that you are.”  They say, “Peace, peace” when there is no peace.  In other words, the Hebrew people aren’t bearing fruit of repentance and relationship with God.  They are encouraging one another to continue to exist as they want, not as they should.

In another verse, God tells them that they didn’t even know when to be ashamed of themselves.  “They don’t know how to blush,” God says.  Now we find the reason that the Hebrew people can’t correct the lives of the people in their community.  They don’t even know what is right and wrong in themselves!  It’s hard to bear fruit when you don’t even know how.

This brings us to one of my favorite phrases in Jeremiah when it comes to God’s expectation to see fruit in us.  “When I would gather, there are no grapes on the vine or figs in the trees.”  In other words, there is no fruit.  There is nothing in their lives in which God can partake.  What a sad expression of God’s own people.

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Year 6, Day 60: Jeremiah 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

I say above that character is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.  Here again we can hear God chastising the Hebrew people for their behavior.  They are claiming to be in relationship with God but there is no substance to their life.  They love their own desires and don’t really care that they are straying far from God’s path.

God then tells Jeremiah to not pray for these people.  God tells Jeremiah to not lift up a cry for them.  In other words, God is done with them.  Of course, remember that God had Jeremiah tell them only a few verses earlier that if they repent that God will forgive them.  Also remember that God has promised to bring them back out of captivity.  So it isn’t so much that God is done with them as it is that God is frustrated with them in the moment.

But if you are Jeremiah, what do you do?  God is clearly frustrated.  God clearly has a plan.  But these are people that you feel called to love as well.  What does a person of impeccable character do?  Love the people God has called you to love or obediently listen to the voice of God?

I’m reminder of another great leader in the Bible: Moses.  When Moses was up on Mount Sinai and the people built a golden calf, God came to Moses with a plan to smite the people and start over.  In Moses’ case, he argues for the people and carries the day.  God relents and the people live – albeit wandering through the desert for 40 years.

What do you do if you are Jeremiah?  What does having good spiritual character mean in this circumstance?

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