JEREMIAH
page 5.

The Potter, The Law.

Jeremiah 18 to 20

Jeremiah 18:1-23

Temple security was the responsibility of a priest who was called Pashur, he considered Jeremiah a trouble maker and decided to punish him by locking him in the stocks overnight. King Jehoiakim was probably on the throne, he had no respect for God or His prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was told by God to visit the potter, there he watches the potter make a mistake, the clay was not suitable to work, therefore the potter had to restart the pot after making the clay ready.

Jeremiah 15:5-10: God said the people are like the clay, He can make this "clay" suitable in any way, He wants to make a perfect vessel. If the people repented then He would remove the punishment. If no repentance, then He could stop His blessings and allow judgement, verses 8-10.

Verses 11-17: God called for a response from the individuals of the tribe, to accept or reject the Word of God. Unlike the clay, we have a free will and can resist God, the people choose to follow their own evil worship and so suffer His rejection.
God may want to "mold us" to make a "perfect vessel," but we can reject.

Verses 18-23: The people thought that by silencing the messenger, God would be silenced. The threats to Jeremiah makes him want God to deal with the people. Righteous anger against sin is acceptable to God,
See Mark 3:5,
or Paul with the Corinthians,
2 Corinthians 11:1ff,
"let God deal," is the right action.

Jeremiah 19:1 to 20:6

Jeremiah brings another message of warning, ending with the breaking of a potters jar which cannot be remade, a representation of the coming judgement. A list of future events for the people is given. Jeremiah then repeats the message in the temple. This results in the security priest, Pashur, punishing Jeremiah.

During the night God visits Jeremiah and gave him a message for Pashur. On release, Jeremiah, gives Pashur the message and a new name, "Magormissabib" meaning, "terror on every side," Jeremiah then tells him what the future holds for him and his relations and friends. This prophecy probably came true soon after. In 605 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar arrived to raid, burn the temple and Jerusalem, then took the leaders off to Babylon.

Jeremiah 20:4-6: This is the first time Jeremiah speaks of the Babylonians being the tools of God.

Jeremiah 20:7ff.

Jeremiah gets depressed, he feels he has been lied to, God has taken advantage of him, but God does not lie. He brings these thoughts to God privately. Looking back when God first called him,
Jeremiah 1:1-10, there is no evidence of being mislead.

Jeremiah decided to quit being the messenger, but the messages burned into his heart, he swings from revenge to worship, turning it all over to God.
Verse 14: However, it does not last long as he curses his birth, "my life is only trouble and sadness, better not to have been born," verse 18.
It is not normal for God’s chosen servants to become depressed and risking their ministries, however, every servant is human and we are all subject to human weakness and nature. If we examine the scriptures we occasionally find this weakness of our nature taking over,
Moses, Numbers 11:10-15;
Joshua, Joshua 7:6-11;
Elijah, 1 Kings 19:1ff;
Jonah, Jonah 4:1ff.
Jeremiah made the right response, he turned to God for help.

The Later Prophecies

Jeremiah 21:1 to 24

The following chapters record events and prophecies after the time of Josiah, and therefore are not necessarily in order of time. This chapter is centered upon the siege during the reign of King Zedekiah. The message given to Jeremiah is that God will not deliver the people from the armies, God has in the past always protected the Jewish nation but this time they had broken the covenant so seriously, their sins were so bad, He has refused to help and protect the Jews.
In addition, God has said that He will also assist and help the attacking enemies carry out their plans. "I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.
" Jeremiah 21:5
- Jerusalem will fall, God has promised!!!
Compare terms of Covenant and effect of failing, spoken through Moses:
Deuteronomy 29:1ff;
Deuteronomy 32:22 to 32:43;
Leviticus 26:27-39.

The siege began in 588 B.C., and ended in 586 B.C. It lasted about 30 months. King Zedekiah’s sons were killed in front of him, he was then blinded and taken to Babylon, where he died.
Jeremiah 39:1-10;
Jeremiah 52:1-11;
2 Kings 25:1-21.

The king’s punishment had been settled, now God gave another message to Jeremiah, tell the people they have a choice, two ways,
Jeremiah 21:8 to 10
Stand and fight, then die or surrender to the enemy and live. Jeremiah’s message was considered an act of treason,
see Jeremiah 37:11-21.
Note, that as this punishment was under the purpose and control of God, then surrendering to Babylon was actually surrendering to the will of God.

Prophecies for the kings and priests.

Jeremiah 22:1 to 23:8

Jeremiah takes the message from God directly to the King Zedekiah. He was sitting on the throne of David but not following and serving the Lord as David. The message was "repent or else", verse 4.
Verses 10-12 King Jehoahaz(Shallum), already a prisoner in Egypt, would not return.
See 2 Chronicles 36:1-8.

The coming Messiah, a future prophecy.

Because of evil leaders the people were to be punished, but God will later restore the nation.
See also Jeremiah 30:1ff.
God will one day call His people from all the nations and send the Messiah.

Verse 9-40 The sins of the false prophets are exposed, "For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD." verse 11. The prophets and priests gave the wrong message, they were worshipping idols and pretending to worship God, they gave a false hope to the people. Their message was "The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you." verse 17, but that was not the message from God for "He did not know them." God knew what was happening "Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD. " verse 24.
Verses 25-32: The priests and false prophets depended upon their dreams for guidance.

We today also have false prophets,
2 Peter 2:1,2;
1 John 4:1-6;
Jude 1:3,4.

A Vision of the figs from God .

Jeremiah 24:1-10.

The message that God gave to Jeremiah in this parable is that those who have gone into exile with Jehoiachin will be better off than those left behind in Jerusalem. The bad figs represented king Zedekiah and the other leaders. Rotten figs are thrown away as rubbish, the good figs are protected and enjoyed. God is saying that He will look after those in exile, protect them and prepare them for their return to Israel, just as He planned.

The people hear the truth.

Jeremiah 25 to 29

Jeremiah was called into the position of God’s messenger in 626 B.C. and continued until the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C., for over 40 years he preached the message and gave warnings of coming disaster.
Many years have now passed, we are about half way through this period, Jeremiah has now been the messenger of God for about 23 years. Jeremiah continues to serve the Lord and is still attempting to bring Judah back to worship the true God as he delivers the next 2 messages, one to the Jews, verses 1-14, and one to the Gentile nations, verses 15-38.

The Jewish message

The people get the message "you have not listened" four times, verses 3,4,7 and 8. For 23 years Jeremiah has brought the warnings from God, all the people did was to ignore the messages and God. The day of God’s anger and fulfillment is rapidly approaching.
Again they are warned of the coming attacks and invasion by Babylon lead by Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, God even used the title "my servant", verse 8, Nebuchadnezzar, the tool God was to be used for the punishment of God’s people. Remember, the Lord knows all things and is in full control of all events, He chooses to use what ever "tools" are available to fulfil His will.
Not only Judah but also the nations around the area were to be punished, verse 9, because they had influenced the behaviour of Judah.

The Babylonians were evil and once they had carried out the work for God they too would be punished. They fell to the armies of the Medes and Persians in 539 B.C.,
Daniel 5:1ff.

The 2nd. Message, to the Gentiles.

Though these nations had not received the Law of God or entered into a covenant, God still held them accountable for their sin, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;"
Romans 1:18;
"Both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:" Romans 3:9,10;

God told Jeremiah to make the nations drink from His "cup of wrath," how this was done we are not told as he would not have had time to personally visit every nation listed, a local representative perhaps? It is interesting to note that it starts with "Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah", verse 18.

Jeremiah 25:15-38: We find a list of nations which were also to be punished, also listed are a number of ways that God will work on them:-

• verses 30 The wine press.
• verse 31 The Law.
• verses 32,33 A whirlwind Storm.
• verse 33 Become like rubbish, "they shall be dung upon the ground."
• verse 34 Smashed into pieces.
• verses 34-38 Killed like sheep and cattle.

Consider the thoughts in 1 Peter 4:17.

Jeremiah in danger.

Jeremiah 26:1-24.

Jeremiah is instructed by God to go to the Temple to give the sermon. This message came from God, "all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:"
The basic thoughts of the sermon are found in verse 3 to verse 7. The main thought is "listen to the Lord’s Word". The false prophets did not come with the words from God so to them and the people this was a "blasphemous" message. The message given to Jeremiah said that God was about to destroy the Holy City and His Temple. The people could not believe that it would happen again,
See 1 Samuel 4:1-22. Jeremiah was saying that the covenant was about to be broken by God, the people said that would not happen. They forgot that they had already broken it by their behaviour. The false prophets were saying that Jeremiah was leading the people away from God and should be put to death,
Deuteronomy 18:20-22.
The people, lead by the priests now, were prepared to kill Jeremiah, verse 11. Jeremiah reminds them that his words were from God, if they killed him then they would be guilty of killing God’s prophet. They were in great danger and must listen to the message of salvation from God. If they killed him the punishment would be more severe as they had spilt innocent blood. What ever they decided he was prepared to accept any action by them.

The officials decided the accusations were false, verse 16, in addition the "wise men" remind the people of a previous similar event, verses 18-19 and,
Micah 1:1,
Micah 3:12. As a result Jeremiah was released.

Jeremiah wears a yoke.

Jeremiah 27:1 to 28:17.

God instructs Jeremiah to give a practical sermon by wearing a yoke, (a shaped piece of wood designed to fit across the necks of two animals, such as horses or cattle, to allow the attachment of a cart or plough, it made control easier.)
The message was being given by Jeremiah when king Zedekiah was having discussion with the five neighboring nations on how to deal with Nebuchadnezzar. It was a warning that the nations must submit to Nebuchadnezzar or be destroyed. God had given the nations to Nebuchadnezzar, to fight was to rebel against God. verse 7. "all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come:" - verse 12. "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. "

In Jeremiah 28:1-8
A false prophet comes with a message claiming it to be from God, "peace is coming," Jeremiah tells the people that the proof will be shown by what happens, whether message was from God or not.
Verses 10-17. The false prophet Hananiah takes the yoke off of Jeremiah, saying that God will remove the yoke of Babylon. Jeremiah does not resist his action but tells him that he will soon die as punishment for his false message. He died later that year.
Still the people ignored the warnings from God.

Letters written by Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 29:1-32

There are several letters mentioned it this passage.

From Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon. Jeremiah 29:1-14.

A letter of encouragement and how to behave in Babylon. The exiles were now in a pagan land and it was causing difficulty with their Jewish laws, the clean and unclean food etc.

They were now prisoners of the Babylonians, they had lost their freedom, separated from their families, it looked a hopeless situation.

The letter told them how to deal with the situation? They are to accept that it was all part of God’s requirements for them, He knows how to protect them.

A letter about the false prophets now in Babylon.
Jeremiah 29:15-23.

The false prophets, two were named, Ahab and Zedekiah, were telling the people that they were soon to return home so they did not need to settle in and adjust to their new life there. Jeremiah tells them that it would be for a long time, seventy years, verse 10. He told them that they must build houses and have families so that there would be people to return to Judah when they were released by God. This small group was later to be part of the restoration plan by God, verse 6.

The exiles were to live as good Jews in this pagan land, be willing to accept, yield to the Lord, believe in His promise, verse 14. Submit to the Babylonians, for God has put them over the Jews for this time as part of bringing them back to Him.

The false prophets were to eventually be punished.

A letter from Shemaiah to the temple priests about Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 29:24-29.

Shemaiah, another false prophet, had instructed, "in the name of the Lord," those left in Jerusalem to put Jeremiah in prison.

A letter from Jeremiah about Shemaiah to the exiles.
Jeremiah 29:30-32.

Jeremiah had been shown the letter and issued a warning that Shemaiah was against God and not sent by God. Shemaiah would die childless in Babylon as punishment.