Year 3, Day 90: Jeremiah 37

Chronology Regained!

Jeremiah 37-39 bring us back to the chronology of Jeremiah 33-34.  Zedekiah is back on the throne.  Jerusalem is in the midst of its last breaths.  Jeremiah and Zedekiah – or should I say the Lord and Zedekiah – are having their last gasps of struggle.  Here we have confirmation of the time when Pharaoh came out of Egypt to challenge Babylon.  Remember when the Hebrew people gave up their slaves only to take them back?  This is now where Jeremiah 37 falls into place.

Zedekiah’s Appeal

Zedekiah sends out a delegation to ask Jeremiah to pray for him and the people of Jerusalem.  I laugh at moments like this in the Bible – or moments like this in life.  I find it highly ironic that people who will not humble themselves before God fall and ask prayer from those who do.  It is such a brash and bold move of utter arrogance and self-centeredness.  Here Zedekiah is saying, “I have no place to go, we’re at our end, I won’t turn and humble myself to God, and I certainly won’t change to live according to His ways; but if it pleases you, pray that this God with whom I don’t have any kind of relationship will be merciful and save us.”  Zedekiah is hoping that the prayers of a godly man will make up for his own lack of relationship with God.  For the record, they don’t.

As an aside, I do pray in those situations.  There is no reason not to pray.  I pray for God’s will to be done and I pray for God to come meaningfully into the life of the person who asks.  Much like Jeremiah does here.  Jeremiah does pray for the situation in Jerusalem.  Just because there is irony is no reason not to take the request seriously and honor the prayer.

Jeremiah also receives a righteous response from God.  God tells Jeremiah that Zedekiah will be judged.  The Babylonians (Chaldeans) will come back.  They will finish off what the Lord has called them to do.  Pharaoh will be chased back to Egypt and the Babylonians will complete the work that they began.

The Bleakness of the Response

In fact, look at what God says.  Even if the Babylonians should return and they should reach a point where every single soldier is wounded and recovering in their tents – even then, they will have enough strength to capture Jerusalem.  There is no hope for Jerusalem as long as they refuse to repent and turn back to God.  Their self-centered arrogance is the bed in which they will lay down and never get up again.  The generations who humble themselves after the fall will get up again, but this generation will not.

Jeremiah Imprisoned

It is now at this point that we understand why it is that Jeremiah finds himself in prison.  The details are surprising.  It is natural to assume that Jeremiah would be in prison because of his oracles against Jerusalem.  It is reasonable to think that Jeremiah is imprisoned because of the harsh critique he gives over the utter lack of faith among the people.  But no.  These are not the reasons for which Jeremiah finds himself imprisoned.  Jeremiah finds himself imprisoned because people think that he is deserting to go and help the Babylonians.  Jeremiah was heading to Anatoth to take care of some personal business.  For that of all things he finds himself imprisoned!

Zedekiah’s Interview with Jeremiah

Zedekiah sends for Jeremiah.  Zedekiah asks if there is a word from the Lord.  Remember, this is Zedekiah, who refuses to humble himself to God, who now has the gall to ask a prisoner if there is any word from the Lord.

Zedekiah gets what he deserves.  Jeremiah tells him that there is a word from the Lord.  The word is not favorable, but it is consistent.  Zedekiah will be delivered over to the hands of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.  I can imagine the satisfaction that it gave Jeremiah to say those words – especially as a man made prisoner in his own city.

Then Jeremiah argues against his imprisonment.  Jeremiah argues that if the Lord is right and the Chaldeans are coming back, he really has no place to go.  He’s a prisoner in Jerusalem – they all are.  So he argues to be kept in the courtyard rather than in a dark house that has been converted into a prison.  In a stroke of compassion, Zedekiah grants the request.

This passage makes me consider how we treat people who disagree with us.  Do we seek to lock them up?  Do we seek to have conversation?  Do we seek to get them back onto our side?  Do we seek to protect them if they are in the minority?  Or do we simply seek to banish them, get rid of them, and be done with their witness?

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Year 3, Day 89: Jeremiah 36

Historical Anomaly, Part Two

Jeremiah 36 is also slightly out of chronology.  The fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign was from 605-604 BC.  This means that this did happen after Jeremiah 35, but still prior to the messages given to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 33-34.

What is really interesting is how long this oracle goes on.  The Lord comes to Jeremiah in the fourth year.  Jeremiah calls Baruch and together they begin assembling a scroll full of the Lord’s prophecies to Jeremiah.  But it isn’t until the ninth month of the fifth year of the king that Baruch actually gets up to fulfill the word of the Lord.  Somewhere between 22 and 10 months go by as this demonstration of the word of the Lord takes place!  Think of all the planning and prayer and preparation that went on during this time.

This is good to realize today.  Sometimes we think that we get a word from the Lord and we have to act now.  Sometimes we do.  But other times God gives us a plan well enough in advance that we can plan and prepare before acting upon it.  It is good to remember that God often moves very slowly, giving us plenty of time to prepare if we are willing to take advantage of it.

God’s Omniscience

Verses like verse 3 often cause me some inner angst.  God says to Jeremiah, “Maybe if the people hear the words they will repent and I can forgive them.”  {Note the emphasis on grace and forgiveness as a condition of the heart, not as a condition of external sacrificing.}  At the same time, though, does not God know the future?  Does not God know that the people will not hear?  Does not God know that they will not repent?  So what is really going on here?

Yes, God knows what will happen.  But that doesn’t mean that God isn’t willing to try.  God wants to be fair.  God is a God of opportunity.  God wants everyone to at least have a chance.

Think about it.  How does it make you feel when someone comes up to you and says, “I didn’t tell you about this thing I was doing because I knew you wouldn’t want to do it anyway.”  Don’t you feel ripped off and cheated of your opportunity to accept or decline?  Isn’t it dissatisfying when people take choices out of our hands?  God knows this about us.  God knows how we will respond, but He still wants to put the opportunity in front of us.  This way, we can at least say, “I had my opportunity and I missed it.”  It is far more constructive to say, “I screwed up my opportunity,” than it is to say, “God assumed my nature and I had no chance.”

The Reading of the Scroll

This is where the story gets interesting.  Baruch – Jeremiah’s scribe – goes out to read.  Apparently he does a really good job at reading them, too.  Because soon Baruch is invited into a room with some people who are favorable to hearing the message of Jeremiah.

However, the son of Gemariah – Micaiah – hears what Baruch is saying so he goes and reports it to the king’s officers.  They are fairly disturbed, so they send out a team to talk to Baruch and hear the message for themselves.  Upon hearing the message, they are shaken with fear.  They tell Baruch to give them the scroll and hide for their lives.  Letting Baruch go, they take the scroll back to the king and read it before him.  As the scroll is read, the king cuts off the end of the scroll and burns it.

God sees Jehoakim’s response and tells Jeremiah to write up another scroll.  In addition to this second scroll, Jeremiah is told that Jehoiakim won’t have a permanent heir on the throne.  This comes true.  Jehoiakim’s son only reigns for three months prior to being taken by the king of Babylon.  It is under Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin, that Nebuchadnezzar takes the glory of the temple and all of its furnishings back to Babylon.  Jehoiakim’s brother, Zedekiah (Mattaniah), becomes king.  The Davidic line then passed through Zedekiah.

Consequences

This chapter really makes me think about life.  Here we clearly see how the arrogance of one’s leaders can bring down a society.  There were those who heard the words of the scroll favorably.  They just weren’t in power.  Jehoiakim was not favorable to the message and in spite of the pleading of a few righteous people he angered the Lord.  Because he did not humble himself before the Lord, he set a culture in Jerusalem that nobody needed to humble themselves.  It is true what they say, leadership dictates culture.  I think we would be wise to look at this dynamic when it comes to leaders of churches, denominations, state governments, and local governments.  I think this is even an important lesson to ponder for people who are considering marriage and family.  Leaders of a space – regardless of how big or small that space is – will always dictate the culture to be found within.

I would, however, also like to end on the consequences for Jeremiah and Baruch.  Here we see faithful leaders.  God found a way to protect them.  God put a buffer of friendly faithful people between them and Jehoiakim.  God hid them when the king searched for them.  The consequence for Jeremiah’s and Baruch’s faithfulness was favor in the sight of the Lord.

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Year 3, Day 88: Jeremiah 35

Historical Anomaly

As we get to this chapter, we need to understand the internal dating given to this passage from Jeremiah.  Jehoiakim reigned from 609-598 BC, which means that this prophetic voice from God was given at least 11 years prior to the prophecies from the past few chapters.  This doesn’t diminish the truth in this chapter one bit.  It merely helps us keep our internal chronology as we read through a book that is not put together in a chronological fashion.

You might be wondering why Jeremiah would put this book together in a non-chronological fashion.  There are many reasons, but the most likely reason in this particular case is because Jeremiah is setting up a contrast.  In the prior chapter, Jeremiah put the absolute lack of faith and repentance of the Hebrew people on display.  Here in this chapter, we see an example of a family that is absolutely faithful.

Rechabites

The Rechabites were a clan of Hebrew people descended from a man named Rechab.  If you turn to 2 Kings 10:15-27 you can read the story of Jonadab [also known as Jehonadab] the son of Rechab.  Jehonadab joined with Jehu in purging the worship of Ba’al from the people of Israel.  After this act, Jehonadab rejected a settled life in favor of a nomadic life without alcohol.  After all, what nomad can make their own wine or beer?  Alcohol is a product of settled life, not life on the move.

Certainly Jehonadab was faithful to God.  Certainly his way of life was passed down through the generations of Jehonadab’s offspring.  In the time of Jeremiah, the Rechabites still were living nomadically and still refraining from drinking alcohol.  The only reason they were in Jerusalem for this prophecy was because the coming of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian army had made it impossible to live safely as a nomad.

But here is the really neat principle to be found in this passage.  Jehu reigned in Israel from 841-814 BC.  This prophecy in Jeremiah is delivered somewhere between 609-598 BC.  Therefore, it can be said with assurance that this family of Rechabites had been faithful to the command of Jehonadab son of Rechab for a minimum of 205 years.  {If you’re curious, the other extreme is 243 years.}  For at least two centuries this family was faithful to the word of Jehonadab.

Let’s put that in perspective, shall we?  America fought for its independence and became its own country in 1776.  That was 237 years ago.  That’s within the span of time that the family of Jehonadab has been faithful to his decree.  I find that utterly amazing.  Most people in America can’t even count their lineage back halfway to 1776 {regardless of whether one’s family was here or not by then, mine weren’t} much less say that they were obedient to anything established by their family back then!

Clearly the family of Jehonadab had a good system of passing along not only information but also culture.  Clearly the family of Jehonadab had a means for teaching normative behavior as well as giving individual members of the family a personal attachment to their family identity.  Clearly the family of Jehonadab was doing something right as attested by God and his pronouncement of faithfulness here in the book of Jeremiah.

This chapter got me thinking about our culture today.  How many of us genuinely worry about whether the next generation will learn the cultural values that we hold dear?  How many of us can’t even guess whether the second generation after them will be obedient?  How many of us really can’t even think about the generations to follow?  Jehonodab’s family had it figured out.  For two-hundred years, a good ten generations worth of offspring carried their cultural values with them.

Judgment Pronounced

Of course, as the Rechabites are lifted up, the people of Judah are condemned.  The Rechabites were able to remain faithful for a few centuries; therefore, there is no excuse for the rest of the people.  {For the record, just because I say faithful does not mean that I mean sinless.}  The Rechabites prove that cultural values can be properly passed down and assimilated.  The fact that the people of Judah have chosen to pass other priorities along to their children is noted and punished by God.

That also has me thinking.  I do genuinely believe that one generation does pass along values to the next.  In fact, we pass along the values that we hold most dear.  The question is, what are those values?  Do we value normative behavior under humility before God as the Rechabites do?  Or do we value free expression of whatever we happen to believe at any given time?  I can go on with this if I want, but I’ll stop with the examples there.

The reality is that leadership defines culture.  Parents set the culture for their families.  Pastors {and other prominent church leaders} set the culture for the church.  Politicians, lawyers, and pop-culture sensations set the culture for the nation.  We are all responsible for setting the culture for the next generation.  I think it is high time that we take a good look at the culture that we happen to be creating.

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Year 3, Day 87: Jeremiah 34

Mercy

You might be wondering how it is that I can title the first section of my writing as mercy when it really describes Zedekiah’s capture, captivity, and death.  Here’s the thing.  Zedekiah was rebelling against God every day that he refused to humble himself to Nebuchadnezzar and accept God’s edict that Nebuchadnezzar was God’s rod of judgment.  Zedekiah was living in utter rebellion.  God could have been justified in having Zedekiah be captured, dragged to Babylon, and executed in Nebuchadnezzar’s presence.  It would have been a fit and just end to his life.

But this is not what God declares.  God says to Zedekiah that he will not die by the sword.  God tells him that he will die in peace.  He will die in such a manner that connects him to the kings that came before him.  God is merciful, even in the midst of God’s wrath and judgment.

Emancipation Proclamation

Then we learn something utterly despicable.  The Hebrew people had made slaves of their own kind.  They had forced one another into subjugation.  I’m left wondering: when your city around you is being encircled, when the food is running out, when the drinking water is tainted, and when life is bleak – what exactly is the purpose of slaves?

We don’t really have the answer here as to why they had slaves in captivity in the first place.  Well, we don’t have the answer other than human beings tend to be cruel to one another.  We tend to always want someone who is below us.  Although I think it is anathema, humanity does attach itself to a saying first composed for Satan in the book Paradise Lost: “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”  While I disagree with that saying in its entirety, humanity does live along that line.  We live as though it is always better to reign in a horrible place than serve. 

So why would people in a besieged town have slaves?  They needed to rule someone.  If they ruled someone, then there was always someone worse off than they were.  Fundamentally, that is why I think slavery endured in Jerusalem even into the siege.  I really loathe that dynamic of human culture.

However, in a moment of repentance, the people of Jerusalem are convinced to give up their slaves.  How pleased must God have been that they finally listened!

Revoked

How pleased must God have been until they revoked the emancipation, that is!

You might be wondering what happened here.  Why would the people give up their slaves only to take them back?  The answer is pretty easy historically speaking – but not exactly given to us in scripture.

When the Hebrew people of Jerusalem gave up their slaves, God allowed the army of Babylon to pull away from the city.  In fact, the Pharaoh in Egypt came up to attack the army of Babylon.  So the Babylonians had to abandon their siege for a little while to repel the attack of the Egyptians.  God actually did relent when they listened to His decree about taking their own people as slaves!

However, when the Babylonians pulled away from Jerusalem, a bunch of the Hebrew people started looking at their disassembled town.  They started looking at the siege implements surrounding their city.  There was a lot of work to be done getting the city back to the way it was.  Of course, they decided that the quickest way to get the job done was to take their slaves back and put them to work!

So that is exactly what they did.  When the pressure was off, the repentance was proven unfounded.  The people didn’t care about God when they gave up their slaves; they wanted to save their own neck.  Once their neck was saved, they went back to their old way of living: subjugate others.  It is pretty sad, to be honest.

What we see happening is that once the Hebrew people have demonstrated that their repentance was false, the Babylonians are brought back by God.  They deal with the Egyptian threat from the south and then immediately reinstate their siege warfare against Jerusalem.  The Hebrew people had an opportunity to show true repentance and utterly blew it.

It makes me wonder how many times this is also true about me or my community.  How often do we feign repentance to get what we want or at least take the pressure off?  How often are we convinced our outward behavior can fool a God who can see the inward nature of our heart?

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Year 3, Day 86: Jeremiah 33

Gore

We’ve enjoyed a few chapters that ended with a word of peace.  This is another one.  But this chapter starts off with a horrifically real prophecy to the people of Jerusalem.  It occurs in verse 4.

You see, the army of Babylon is surrounding the city.  We heard yesterday about the siege ramps and siege mounds that were literally being built up against the city.  These ramps were being built so the Babylonian soldiers could simply charge over the walls without having to scale them or knock them down.  It was a very labor-intensive but common practice.

As the people outside built ramps, the people inside had the futile choice of resisting.  In order to resist, the city inside was often dismantled.  You see, the city inside didn’t have the endless raw materials that the army outside had.  So they had to take apart their own town brick by brick and stone by stone.  Slowly the town – even the royal palace! – was dismantled in an attempt to shore up the walls and make the siege warfare from the outside useless.

Literally, the people of Jerusalem were dismantling their own precious city.

Literally, they were taking apart brick by brick the city that the Lord had built for them.  This precious city of God was being dismantled because the people had become rebellious and turned this city into something abominable to the Lord.  They rebelled and fell away from God.  Now they tore apart their precious city to protect their rebellion and to intentionally resist being humbled before God.  Because they resisted the chastisement of God, they tore apart their own livelihood.  There’s a good lesson in that.

I’d like to point out a quick fact.  What is really interesting is that as they are disassembling the city they maintain the place for a prison.  This chapter comes to Jeremiah while he is still imprisoned!  The town around him is being torn apart, but the prison stands!

Coming back to the chapter, listen to what the Lord tells Jeremiah as they dismantle their own city.  The people of Judah have come to Jerusalem to fight against the Chaldeans (Babylonians) so that their own dismantled homes can be filled with their dead.  Their resistance in the face of God will only hasten their death and fill their precious city with decay.

This is a dark day for Jerusalem.  There is reason to mourn for them.  There is reason to mourn for all who do not learn this lesson.  When we rebel against God, we do hasten our death – presently and eternally.

Restoration

However, blessedly this is not the end of the story.  Immediately after pronouncing the hastening of their death, God then announces that a time of restoration is coming.  God announces that He will heal them.  Note the pronouns there.  God will heal the people.  God will cleanse them.  God will forgive them.  God will restore their reputation.  God will restore their joy.

I love this immediate change from death to restoration because the source of the change rings forth loud and clear.  Jerusalem is being destroyed and filled with decay because the people are refusing to humble themselves before God.  They are refusing to accept God’s rod.  When we focus on what human beings can do, it ends in death.  But the restoration comes at God’s hand.  When we allow ourselves to be removed from the picture and let it be about God and what He desires to do in and through us, then there is restoration!  When God is the center instead of our human desires, then end result is completely and totally different!

Unbreakable Covenant

The final section of this chapter has to deal with the covenant.  One of the elements of this chapter and how it deals with the covenant is the unbreakable nature.  When I read this section of text I couldn’t help but think about just how often we as people are prone to making assumptions about God.  We assume that because things are going poorly that God has abandoned us.

In a way, that is no different than a child who is sent to their room believes that their parent has abandoned them.  I’m sure we’ve all been there, so we can all agree that this is just human nature.  But the reality is that the parent is establishing a framework around us so that we can process our life.  A child is set to their room to think about what is going on.  There is usually some internal processing of anger, frustration, and family dynamics - even if the child doesn’t think in those terms.  We are sent to our room to process life and come out with a modified perspective.

God is no different.  The Hebrew people need to be sent to their rooms so that they can process their life.  They need to sit down and think long and hard about what got them there.  Then they can come out with a new perspective.  As the siege mounts and they are dragged into captivity, God has abandoned them.  God has put them right where they need to be!

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Year 3, Day 85: Jeremiah 32

The Price of Being a Prophet

In chapter 32 we understand that Jeremiah is imprisoned by Zedekiah.  Jeremiah had been telling Zedekiah that nothing he tries will work.  There is no escaping Nebuchadnezzar.  God had ordained Nebuchadnezzar to come and punish the Hebrew people.  To resist Nebuchadnezzar would be to resist God.

As you might expect, Zedekiah didn’t particularly appreciate this message.  I don’t know many of us who would, to be fair.  We talk all the time about how much we need people in our lives to correct us.  But that does not mean that we look forward to it.  None of us look forward to the time when someone tells us about the consequences of our actions.  So, Zedekiah punishes Jeremiah by throwing him in prison.

Purchasing the Land

While in prison, the Lord gives Jeremiah a message.  The Lord told Jeremiah that his cousin was going to come to him with a request to redeem his land.  This was done according to the law of God.  When a person was forced to sell their land heritage, the duty of buying the field (or even buying the field back for the relative) fell upon someone within the family.  That way the land would never leave the possession of the family and tribe to which it was given.

You might be wondering why it is that God sent a message to Jeremiah regarding this.  After all, Jeremiah certainly knew the law, right?

Here’s the deal.  Remember that Jerusalem was under siege.  Anathoth – the village from which Jeremiah came – was outside Jerusalem.  Thus, it was already in Babylonian control.  Essentially, Jeremiah’s cousin was going to come to him and ask him to buy land that wasn’t ever going to be able to be used by Jeremiah.  This is what makes Hanamel’s request so absurd.  This is why God tells Jeremiah ahead of time to follow through on the request.  The Babylonians had already seized the land that Hanamel looked to sell.

Explanation of the Purchase

Jeremiah goes to the court officials and makes the purchase official.  Again, this might seem silly.  Why would Jeremiah make official the purchase of land that he’ll never use?  The reason is so that Jeremiah can make a statement about the future.  Jeremiah is saying that while they may be headed into captivity there will come a time and a day when the Hebrew people will return to the land.  There will come a day when the Hebrew people will once again work the land and live on the land.  They are headed into captivity, but all hope is not yet lost.

Jeremiah and God Have an Exchange

Jeremiah and God then trade exchanges.  Jeremiah prays humbly to God.   He acknowledges God’s omnipotence.  He acknowledges God’s justice.  He declares both God’s love and His punishment of sin.  Jeremiah acknowledges everything that has happened and clearly states sin as the reason for the unraveling of the people of God’s Promised Land.

Then God speaks.  God declares that everything is within His power.  God declares that Nebuchadnezzar will ravage the city.  Because of their idolatry, God would burn the city to the ground.  Because they offered up their children – their inheritance – as sacrifices to foreign gods they would be destroyed.

Everlasting Covenant

For the second chapter in a row, we also hear God’s promise of a new covenant.  This time, we hear God declare that it will be an everlasting covenant.  He will be God.  His people will have a heart for His ways.  His people will know the true meaning of fearing the Lord because He Himself will put it within them.

God reminds Jeremiah that although the Babylonians are now in control of the land, it will not always be so.  There will be a time and a place for fields to be bought once more.  Deeds shall change hands and be witnessed.  God will restore the fortune of the Hebrew people.

I love this ending.  What it demonstrates is God’s ability to see into the future.  It also demonstrates our short-sightedness.  We think about the here and now.  We might occasionally think about the near future.  But we seldom if ever think about the distant future.  How often do we make a decision based on what could happen seventy years from now?  We think that absurd.  God does it regularly.

Those last two sentences really convicted me as I typed them.  It made me wonder even more deeply:  How many other things do we regard as absurd that God does regularly?  Just how different is the character of God from us?  How much of God’s character do we simply not understand because we cannot see – or choose not to see – with the perspective of the Father?

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Year 3, Day 84: Jeremiah 31

A Rare Voice to Israel

We haven’t heard Jeremiah say much about Israel in this whole book.  Okay, well, that isn’t quite true.  We’ve heard the name Israel fairly frequently.  But most of the times that it was said in the past were in this expression: the God of Israel {or some derivation}.  We’ve heard the name Israel often in reference to God.  We’ve not heard many proclamations at all regarding the nation of Israel.

Jeremiah gives us a full-blown prophecy meant to be spoken to the nation of Israel.  Remember, these people are already in captivity.  They were taken off into captivity by the Assyrians over a century before this prophecy was given.  Here is another moment of grace.  God could have abandoned faithless Israel.  Instead, He reaches out to them in the midst of their captivity and promises some hope.

Eternal Love

God declares something special to Israel.  Even though they were not faithful, God was faithful.  God’s love for them endured through the rejection.  God’s love for them endured through the turning and the disobedience.  God’s love endured for them through the rebellion and the captivity.  No matter how bad they were, God still loved them and longed for the day that they would be called back home.

Look specifically who it is that the Lord says that He will call home.  The analogies God makes to the people of Israel are the blind, the lame, and the pregnant.  These are three groups of people that in ancient days were utterly helpless.  These groups of people depended upon the mercy of others.

God compares Israel to the blind since they refused to see Him even though He sent prophets among them to tell them about God.  God compares them to the lame because they refused to go out and do anything about their faith.  They were so self-absorbed that they never got up to fulfill God’s calling them as His chosen people.  God compares them to a pregnant woman because they have born much strife and agony – yet they are about to give birth to a new thing when God calls His people out of captivity.

God also speaks to them about their joy.  God uses images of His bountiful goodness: grain, wine, oil.  All of these demonstrate a good harvest under the provision of God.  God uses images of pasture: flocks and herds and watered gardens.  All of these demonstrate safety and security.  There will be dancing and merrymaking.  Their mourning will be turned to joy.  All of these things come about simply because God’s love is greater than His wrath.  They endured captivity; God will show His love to them once more.

Peace Amidst Suffering

Jeremiah then gives a very poignant message.  Jeremiah tells the captives to not weep and shed tears.  He tells them to settle into the work of captivity, for there is a reward for such work.  There is a hope in things to come.  They do not need to weep and wail and mourn, for the Lord has not forsaken them entirely.  The time will come when God will bring them back to the land.  As Jeremiah says in verse 20, although God may speak harshly against “Ephraim,” He has neither forsaken nor forgotten them.  In fact, we hear that God’s heart still yearns for Him.  There is every reason to work today; there is a future with God tomorrow!

A Message for Judah

Jeremiah 31:23-30 gives us a return to Jeremiah’s prophetic messages to the land of Judah.  There will be a day when Jerusalem will be called a holy hill once more.  There will be a day when the people of Judah shall dwell together.  In fact, there will be a day when the people of Judah and Israel even dwell together.  The broken nation that has suffered individual exiles can be restored only through the power and the grace of God.

In those days, children will no longer eat the sour grapes of their fathers.  In other words, people will not be in exile for the disobedience of their ancestors.  In the future that the Lord is creating people will suffer the fate and judgment of their own actions.  There is a day coming when every person will die for their own sin.  {Now, there’s a happy thought to end a section of happy prophecy, right?}

New Covenant

Jeremiah 31:31 begins one of the greatest sections of the book of Jeremiah.  This section talks about the New Covenant.  It is a time when people will no longer have to be taught to be obedient because we will have God dwelling within us to be our teacher.  We won’t have to study the Law because God Himself will carry His ways within us!  How lucky are we to live within that age!  How lucky are we to look forward to the age when we will know God so fully that sin will be utterly cast away from us!

When the Lord dwells within us, He cannot be plucked up or overthrown.  When the Lord dwells within us, the world can do its worst to us but they can never take away God within us.  When the Lord dwells within us, we shall be sacred to Him.

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Year 3, Day 83: Jeremiah 30

Preparation

God looks to Jeremiah and tells him to write something prophetic.  Even though the people of Judah were just now going into bondage, God wants to give them a lesson about the time when they will come out of bondage.  This is actually a very strong act of compassion.

God knows how difficult it will be for the Hebrew people to leave their homeland.  They will feel like God’s promises weren’t forever.  They will feel hopeless.  They will not see their own guilt in the matter at first.  It is going to be a difficult time for them.

Thus, God sends a word of promise to them through Jeremiah.  There will be a future.  There will be a restoration.  The promises won’t be forgotten.  God is at work.

I wonder what it was like for those people going into the Babylonian captivity to look to the future.  Were they filled with hope?  Could they focus on anything but their own misery?  How difficult was it for them to stay faithful?  How many turned away from God?  Since the majority of the people were already rebellious against God, how many came back to Him?  I wonder about all of these questions.

I think this is fertile soil for us to consider in our day.  God has asked us to follow His Son.  He has told us that it will be difficult.  He has told us that there will be hard choices to make.  There will be sacrifices.  The temptations of the world will be many.  We will have opportunity after opportunity to rebel and turn away.  But He has given us the promise of eternal life with Him if we stay the course.

In many respects we are like those early captives headed off to Babylon.  We have a future hope, but our current reality will make it hard to hang onto that future hope.  How many will hang on?  How many will fall along the way?  How many who aren’t currently hanging on will learn to hang on as time goes on?  These questions are at the heart of what it means to follow in obedience to the identity that God gives to us.

Breaking the Yoke

God declares several times through Jeremiah that the day is coming when He will break the yoke that is upon the Hebrew people.  Quite literally, it is possible to take this passage to mean that there is a day when the yoke of Babylon will be broken away from them.  We do know that day comes under the Persians.  There is a literal fulfillment of this passage.

However, as I often spoke of in Isaiah, I wonder if there is a double (or even triple) prophetic voice being said here.  After all, while the Hebrew people were allowed to return to Jerusalem under the Persians they weren’t exactly “free.”  Then along came the Greeks and there was no freedom whatsoever.  I think we all know what happened when Rome moved into town.  After Rome, the Muslims came in and that was pretty much the end of the story.

So could it also be that there is a spiritual interpretation here.  When Jesus Christ came, He preached, taught, and lived a life that was free from the bondage of sin.  Jesus was about living a life in which the yoke of sin was broken away from our necks.  We still might be in the world, but we need not be of it!  Is it possible to read this passage as being spiritually fulfilled under Christ and not necessarily fulfilled under the Persians?

Of course, there is also a third possibility.  There will come a day when Christ returns to this world.  There will come a day when sin and death are entirely put away.  There will come a day when all enemies have been spiritually and physically put under the feet of Christ.  That day has not yet come.  I believe in that day we will see the true ultimate fulfillment of this passage.

That is the day when we shall truly live in quiet and ease.  After being disciplined, that is the day when God will ultimately cure us from what ails us.  That is the day when those who devour us shall be devoured.  Then we shall be restored to health.  Then we shall truly be His people and He shall truly be our God.

The Incurable Ailment

As I finish this blog post, I must comment on the multiple times in this chapter that the Lord says, “You hurt is incurable and your wound is grievous.”  What an incredibly profound description of sinfulness.

As I pondered this thought in conjunction with the tri-fold understanding of this chapter that I unveiled above, I couldn’t also wonder about how this passage is to be understood.

It is possible that there is a physical understanding.  The people will learn repentance in captivity.  They will come back to the Lord in a worldly sense.  They will focus and order their life around God.  But we know humanity.  This doesn’t cure the incurable sin of humanity.

In Christ, we see the cure.  Christ dies on the cross.  He is the cure for the incurable.  However, we ourselves are not yet cured.  The cure is present, but it is not yet fully and completely in effect.  Spiritually we are cured, but the flesh is still weak.

Then we die.  Paul tells us several times that we must be crucified with Christ.  We die to Christ; we die to this world.  The day will come when we are remade by God for the purposes of eternity.  Only God can cure the incurable both physically and spiritually.

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Year 3, Day 82: Jeremiah 29

A Letter to the Exiles

In this chapter, Jeremiah gives us letter that he sent to the exiles that were taken when Nebuchadnezzar dethroned Jehoiachin and his mother in 597 BC.  Of course, this means that the letter was written sometime after the deportation.

More False Prophets

Again we see that one of the main thrusts of this chapter is God’s concern through Jeremiah that there are false prophets among the people.  There were prophets among the exiles who shared Hananiah’s view from the prior chapter.  There were prophets who were teaching that the exile into Babylon was going to be short.  They taught that God would rescue them soon.

As a bit of an aside to this chapter, I really have to worry about the logic of some people.  Let’s remember the history of the Jews, shall we?  Abraham was given a covenant of child {and then even a multitude of heirs!} by God.  Many years went by before it was fulfilled – and Abraham actually tried to fulfill God’s promise out of his impatience.  Or maybe we should talk about the Egyptian captivity.  That lasted almost half of a millennium.  Or maybe we should talk about the exodus itself – it was 40 years of wandering in the desert while the whole generation died before Joshua led the people into the Promised Land.

Although they certainly wouldn’t know it in Jeremiah’s day, just think how long the Hebrew people waited for a Messiah between David and Jesus (roughly 1,000 years).  Or think about how long it took for the Gospel of Christ to spread throughout the known world (at least a millennium and a half … and there are still places unreached by the message of the cross).

What is my point?  I don’t think God ever does any kind of large scale movement quickly.  I certainly think that there are decisions that we need to make quickly, of course.  But I don’t believe that God ever moves mountains of faith quickly.  His pattern is slow and steady.  God takes His time.  In fact, to be even more accurate I would say that God takes His time in order that humanity should have time to expose itself, come to an understanding of its sin, and come to a genuine place of repentance.  Because humanity is so stubborn, God must take His time.  God knows that it is far more important to learn His lesson than to escape out of the consequences.  In that respect He is actually quite merciful.

So when I hear that there were prophets who spoke of a very short captivity, I wonder how well these prophets were trained in their own scripture.  God doesn’t deal with sin – national sin especially – quickly.  God doesn’t make major movements quickly.  What on earth would cause people to believe that the captivity in Babylon would be terribly short?  {In fact, in the light of the examples that I listed earlier, I think 70 years is actually remarkably short!}

Prosper Where God Has Planted You

So Jeremiah gives them some godly advice: prosper where God has planted you.  Pray for the cities in which the exiles now reside.  Sons are to marry.  Daughters are given away in marriage.  Children are to be born.  Every indication is that the people should settle into the land.  For as the security of Babylon goes, so will their exile.

The.Most.Famous.Verse.In.Jeremiah.Evah

I’ve got to confess.  I think yesterday I discovered that I like the end of Jeremiah 28:11 far more than the whole of Jeremiah 29:11.  I say that because I think far too many people abuse this verse.  Far too many people look at this verse and actually turn it into a message of which Hananiah or the false prophets of exile would be proud.

You see, if you actually read this verse in its genuine context, you have to understand that the Lord is setting up a pattern of behavior.  God says that it’s going to take 70 years worth of strife before the exiles actually figure out what repentance looks like.  Then – and ONLY after repentance – will God remember His promise.  Then – and only then – will God return the people to their land.  {And for the record, once more this process will be very slow.}  Finally, notice that the plans of the Lord are His plans, not our own.

Far too many people read this verse and jump straight past the context of repentant living.  Yes, God absolutely does desire to give us hope and future.  But this is after we humble ourselves to Him.  God desires our hope and future even more than we desire it, but only after we have left our agenda and picked up His agenda.  Hope and future come from the Lord and are defined by the Lord, but they come on His timeline and after a season of learning to humbly abide in Him. 

When we make up our own plan and use this verse to support it, we do a horrible injustice to the Lord.  When we use this verse to leap past repentance, we do an injustice to the Lord.  When we use this verse to ignore the true work of the Lord and only focus upon His blessing, we do a grave injustice to the Lord.

After all, what does Jeremiah 29:13 tell us?  You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me and find Me with all of your heart.  Those are real words by which we can live.  We will have the Lord’s future and the Lord’s hope when we have come to a place of humbleness before the Lord.

The Rest of the Chapter

I believe that from Jeremiah 29:14 through the end of the chapter we actually have a condemnation of people who are of the mindset to abuse Jeremiah 29:11.  Because they focus on peace and forget about repentance, they will be punished.  Because they try to prevent the speech of those who try to call the people to repentance first, there will be famine and sword.  It is natural to want to jump ahead to God’s grace, but we must abide in the season of His pruning first.

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Year 3, Day 81: Jeremiah 28

Direct Opposition

Jeremiah 28 comes in direct opposition to Jeremiah 27.  In the prior chapter, Jeremiah told the gathering emissaries that their coup would fail.  Jeremiah told them that the Lord had given Nebuchadnezzar the right to rule.  Jeremiah told them that they were to place themselves under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar.  Remember that God also told Jeremiah that any who placed themselves thusly would be allowed to remain in their nations.

What is it that Hananiah claims that the Lord says to him?  “The yoke of Nebuchadnezzar is broken.”  If that statement does not fly directly into the face of Jeremiah’s earlier declaration I don’t know what else does.  I think the most offensive portion of this story is that Hananiah declares that this message came from the Lord.

As I ponder this statement, I can’t help but wonder all of the claims that are made in the Lord’s name today.  I’m sure some of them are absolutely true.  I’m also sure that some of them are absolutely not from the Lord.  But I wonder where the line between the two really resides.  I wonder just how many people in the world today are like Hananiah.  They are proclaiming what they want to be true as truth.  They claim that it really comes from the Lord just to appease their lack of hope.

Of course, Hananiah has also stated that the furnishings of the temple would be brought back.  Hananiah was from Gibeon, which Joshua 21:17-18 tells us was a city that was given to the priests.  Thus, it is possible that Hananiah was not just a prophet but a priest.  If Hananiah was a priest, it would make sense that he would show special concern for the temple furnishings.

Rebuttal

Jeremiah stands up to convict Hananiah.  He tells Hananiah two things.  First, he tells Hananiah that he really does hope that Hananiah’s version of the future would happen.  I believe Jeremiah really would prefer for the coup to work and the people to be saved.  Jeremiah knows that the vision that the Lord has given to him will be difficult.

However, Jeremiah also tells Hananiah that prophets have a long tradition of speaking about gloom and doom.  This is the really interesting part.  Jeremiah is making a really profound statement about humanity in verse 8.

Essentially, Jeremiah is saying that the one thing we can always count on with respect to humanity is that they will sin.  They will bring about war with each other.  Sin will be dealt with through famine and pestilence.  Humanity has a knack for bringing these upon themselves.  This is why prophet after prophet can speak of such things with confidence.  We know people are self-centered.  We know that human beings are self-mongers.  It’s a fact.  Without God, we can count on people behaving a certain way.

Then Jeremiah lowers the boom.  Jeremiah tells Hananiah that time will tell.  The mark of a true prophet is that the prophecy comes true.  Jeremiah knows that he has God and the self-monger nature of humanity on his side.  He is sitting pretty comfortable when he suggests that they wait and see what happens.  In this, I absolutely love Jeremiah’s response.

Hananiah’s Rebuttal

Hananiah then takes the yoke off of Jeremiah’s neck and breaks the bars.  He does this as a symbolic act to try and sway people back to his version of the truth.  Hananiah knows that human nature isn’t in his favor.  He should also know that God didn’t really speak to him.  So he has to do something drastic to Jeremiah to bring the people back to his side.

Jeremiah’s Response

The last sentence in Jeremiah 28:11 is going to become one of my favorite verses.  I think I need to make it one of my mantras.  This verse alone makes the reading of Jeremiah worthwhile for me.  “But Jeremiah the prophet went his way.”

I’m so proud of Jeremiah in this.  Jeremiah knew he was right.  Logically he was right.  From the human perspective he was right.  From the divine perspective he was right.  Jeremiah had every reason to stay and fight.  But he doesn’t.  He moves on.

I love this.  This is like the Old Testament’s parallel to Matthew 5:39.  There Jesus gives an incredible statement.  “Do not resist the one who is evil.  But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him also the other.”  An injustice has been done to Jeremiah.  But Jeremiah doesn’t resist.  Jeremiah walks away.  After processing this – and as dark as this book has been to read – this verse makes Jeremiah rise up in my estimation.

The End

Sometime afterwards, God sends Jeremiah back to Hananiah.  God sends Jeremiah to tell him first that the Hebrew people will not be freed from the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar.  But perhaps more importantly, Jeremiah tells Hananiah that God will remove him from the face of the earth.

Imagine that for a second.  Yes, we all die.  But we will likely die because of the natural course of human history.  Not so with Hananiah.  Hananiah’s death was a calculated move by God to remove him from having influence on the earth.  That gives me some pause today.

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Year 3, Day 80: Jeremiah 27

Everyone Loves a Coup, Right?

Sometime in 593, leaders from the conquered lands of Babylon met in order to try and form some kind of coup.  During that year, Nebuchadnezzar had to defend his empire from an uprising from the nations and regions listed here in this chapter.  Nobody particularly liked being under Babylonian control, and there was a thought that perhaps together they could overthrow the Babylonian government.

It was to the envoys from these nations that Jeremiah is sent.  Jeremiah was to get a yoke – yes, the thing they use to put oxen together – and go before these emissaries.  Jeremiah told them that God had ordained Nebuchadnezzar to be a ruler over them until the time of God’s choosing.  Their coup would not succeed.  In fact, their coup would not even be kept private.  If Jeremiah knew about it and God had established Nebuchadnezzar as the ruler of this place, then Nebuchadnezzar would be prepared to defeat their uprising.

Another Attempt to Proclaim Humbleness

So what does Jeremiah tell these emissaries?  Jeremiah lets them know that these nations have two options.  They can submit to God – therefore submitting to Nebuchadnezzar, God’s appointed ruler – or they can rebel.  If they submit to Nebuchadnezzar, they will be allowed to remain in their own land underneath the power of the Babylonians.  But if they rebel, God will punish them with the sword, plague, and famine.  Sounds like a fun choice, right?

There are a few things that I can take away from this.  First, judgment does come.  Judgment comes from God.  We cannot escape judgment.  However, we can also see that there is grace in judgment.  If we accept judgment and embrace what God is doing in our life things can still go well even underneath God’s rod of judgment.  Yet, if we continue to rebel underneath God’s judgment then we will feel the full brunt of His wrath.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to feel the full brunt of God’s wrath.

It really and truly is a chapter on humbleness before God.  We all have an opportunity to experience God.  We can hear God calling to us in our life through His grace and respond.  Or we can wait until God judges us and respond to His grace even in judgment.  Or, we can ignore Him completely and drink full that cup of God’s wrath.  But it really is our choice: humble or not?

God Confronts Falsehood

This section is also about how God deals with lies – especially lies spoken in His name.  God is clear throughout this whole chapter.  Those people who are proclaiming peace are absolutely lying.  They are absolutely giving a false message.  They are completely and totally prophesying under their own spirit rather than through the Spirit of God.

It is only the Spirit of God that is the true source of all prophetic words.  It is the Spirit of God out of which we can receive wisdom.  It is only from the true Spirit of God that we should receive our counsel.

Jeremiah Before the King

Jeremiah then goes before the King in Jerusalem.  He essentially gives the king exactly the same message as he had given to the emissaries.  This time, Jeremiah also uses logic.  Jeremiah asks what sense there is in dying under the depth of God’s full wrath.  Jeremiah asks what sense there is in drawing the sword, famine, and plague among them.  There is no reason to resist Nebuchadnezzar – especially when God has not ordained the resistance!

Jeremiah Gets Real Specific

In the last section of this chapter Jeremiah goes before the priests and gives the message once more.  However, in this portion of the passage Jeremiah gets terribly specific.  Jeremiah tells the priest to not get sucked into the “prophecy of peace” and the “prophecy of prosperity” that the false prophets were selling.

You see, the false prophets were trying to convince the priests to support their ideas.  In order to do so, the prophets told the priests that the wealth and splendor of the temple – which had been removed by Nebuchadnezzar – would be returned to the temple if they would just rise up against Nebuchadnezzar.  The prophets were pulling on the hearts – or perhaps the pocketbooks – of the priests in order to get them to lean the way of the false prophets.  Jeremiah gives them a stern warning.

Here’s what we can really take away from this chapter.  Be careful that you don’t listen to people who are trying to make a friend out of you by telling you something you want to hear.  Be careful that you don’t confuse the voice of God with what you would actually prefer to hear.  Truth is usually difficult and challenging.  God’s truth is usually even more this way.  When people are telling us precisely what we desire to hear, we need to listen very carefully.

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Year 3, Day 79: Jeremiah 26

Out of Time

Jeremiah 26 is a little out of place according to its own chronology.  According to the opening verse of this chapter, this oracle was given at the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim.  Jehoiakim came to the throne in 609 B.C.  This really means that this chapter was given somewhere around the messages spoken in Jeremiah 7-10.

Another Voice of Truth

Jeremiah’s message at the beginning of this chapter is something that quite honestly we’ve heard before.  If the Hebrew people repent, God will relent.  If the Hebrew people continue to follow after their foreign gods, God will bring about their destruction.

What’s Different…

There is something that is different here in this chapter.  In the prior chapters of Jeremiah, the content of the warnings were the focus.  However, in this chapter the focus isn’t as much on the message as it is on the people’s response to the message.  We find their response in verses 7 and following.

In verse 9, the religious leaders grab Jeremiah and threaten him with death.  They do not particularly care for his message of prophecy.  While I may not agree with them, I certainly can understand why they would be angry.  Who would want to hear Jeremiah’s prophecy?  Who ever really wants to hear that you have to change your ways and quit focusing on ourselves?  Human beings naturally want to fulfill their own desires.

Of course, that doesn’t make it right.  We may not naturally want to hear God’s ways, but we certainly need to hear God’s Word and change our ways.  We need to humble ourselves to God and become obedient to Him.  It may not be natural, but we need to recognize that it is better for us.  Our nature may be corrupted by sin, but God can change us.

But this is not the course that this chapter of Jeremiah gives to us.  The leaders drag Jeremiah before the governors and demand that he be killed.  They demand that he be killed because he uttered a prophetic oracle against the town.  They demand that he be killed because he is true to God. 

Jeremiah’s Response

Jeremiah’s response in the verses that follow are absolutely marvelous.  Once more they display Jeremiah’s patience and his wisdom.  Of course, this is wisdom and patience that ultimately comes from God.  Even still, it is rather amazing.

Think about what has just happened.  God tells Jeremiah to speak an unfavorable message to the people.  Jeremiah gives the message faithfully.  The people don’t listen – which is probably no surprise to Jeremiah.  They demand that he die.  If I were Jeremiah, I don’t think I would have responded with as much poise as Jeremiah displays.  I would have likely lashed out in anger against either the people or God – or perhaps both.

But this is not what Jeremiah does.  Jeremiah says, “Deal with me however you will.  But if you kill me, know that you are shedding innocent blood.”  Talk about poise.  Jeremiah is willing to put his own life aside for the sake of God.  What an incredible testimony!

There is an ever greater part of Jeremiah’s testimony.  Jeremiah reminds the people of the condition of his message.  Jeremiah didn’t tell them they would be judged.  Rather, he told them that they would receive the consequences of their choices if they didn’t obey but that God would relent if they repented.  I think this is absolutely astounding.  In the face of persecution, Jeremiah gave an option of grace to the people who threatened his life.  That is God working within mankind right there!

Jeremiah Spared

Jeremiah is spared for three reasons.  First of all, Jeremiah is spared because there was a precedent for not killing a prophet who came before the king with a bad message so long as it was in the name of the Lord.  Jeremiah’s honesty with the Lord and honesty with the people about the source of his message helped save him.  His reliance upon God’s word comes through.

Second, Jeremiah had internal support.  Jeremiah had Ahikam son of Shaphan on his side.  Ahikam was one of three faithful sons of Shaphan, who had four sons.  Shaphan was King Josiah’s secretary who reported finding the Law to Josiah.  (See 2 Kings 22:3-13)  Through the finding of the Law, Josiah was able to help make reforms in Judah.  Through the Law, Shaphan was able to help raise up three faithful sons.  One of those sons is in a place to help Jeremiah now.  God goes before us and provides what we need.

Third – and most importantly – God provides.  Jeremiah is fundamentally saved because of God’s action in Jeremiah’s life.  God is with Jeremiah, providing what Jeremiah needs when he needs it.  From the ability to speak honestly and through faith to the placement of allies where Jeremiah needs them – God will provide.  What a great chapter of faith!

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