Jeremiah 19
COMMENTARY:
: 4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents. (5234 “estranged” [nakar] means to scrutinize, pay regard, to treat as foreign, to misconstrue, disfiguring, making unrecognizable.
DEVOTION: The LORD tells Jeremiah to take an earthen bottle and go to the leaders of Jerusalem with an illustration of what is going to happen to their city. The LORD uses the word “because” many times in this chapter to give the reason why judgment is coming to Jerusalem.
One of the things that the children of Judah had done is turn a section of Jerusalem, the Holy City, into a place where they sacrificed their children to foreign gods. They used this place to burn incense to these false gods. They had turned a place that was supposed to be HOLY into a place that was disfigu003300 to worship of God. It was a place that was foreign to the worship of the true God of Israel.
God was acquainted with Jerusalem and its purpose in HIS kingdom. The people had disregarded God’s purpose. They used the city for a place to worship other gods. There were no other gods in reality but the people made things or objects into gods and spent time and money on them.
HE sent Jeremiah with an object lesson to the ancients of the city. The object lesson was to use a potter’s earthen bottle. Jeremiah proclaimed the LORD’S judgment on the people.
Once the judgment was proclaimed, the LORD told Jeremiah to break the bottle. Once broken, the LORD told them that it was impossible to put the bottle back together again.
So it was impossible for Israel not to go into judgment. The LORD continues to use object lessons in our lives. Are we listening to the object lessons? HE warned Judah, HE is warning us.
Is judgment coming? Are we making our homes a strange place for the LORD to work? Are we making our work place a strange place for the LORD to work? Are we making the church we attend a strange place for the LORD to work?
There should be nothing strange in any of the locations mentioned above. A strange thing is anything that can be worshiped other than the only true God of the Bible.
CHALLENGE: Always check with the LORD regarding any activity that might be done to worship anything or anyone in our life. It causes confusion. The LORD is the only one we should worship.
: 8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished and his because of all the plagues thereof. (8074 “astonished” [shamem] means desolate, waste, appalled, to be in a state of being struck with dread, fear or consternation, to be or make uninhabited or deserted, or cause to tremble.)
DEVOTION: The LORD was going to cause Jerusalem to become a deserted city because the children of Israel were worshiping false gods and had no intention of returning to the correct worship of the LORD.
They were giving the LORD no place in their lives and so HE said that HE was no longer going to protect them from their enemies. HE was sending judgment that all the people around them would know that HE had stopped protecting them because of their sin.
Today, we find that the LORD is not protecting many people who claim to be followers of HIM yet are living in sin and not concerned about what was going to happen when they met the LORD.
The children of Israel were the chosen of the LORD but they didn’t think that was important in their daily lives. So they would worship whoever they wanted and do whatever they wanted and thought that the LORD would still protect them from their enemies.
They were lying to themselves and the LORD sent Jeremiah to them to proclaim the truth that they were no longer going to receive HIS blessings because of their actions.
Any nation that doesn’t honor the LORD will receive HIS judgment. We need to realize that it is our responsibility to spread the Good News of the Gospel to every individual we know if we want the LORD to bless us and our nation.
Salvation is only promised to those who honor the LORD in their daily life. Yes, we still sin but we need to confess our sins and realize that if we mean business the LORD will forgive our sins and cleanse us.
HE could cleanse Israel but they never returned to HIM in repentance. HE respects genuine repentance from HIS people both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
CHALLENGE: Judgment follows if there is no genuine repentance and turning from sin to service to HIM.
: 10–11 Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury. The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982).
DEVOTION: For young people and also adults, it is useful to dramatize your message and create a visual as well as a verbal impression. God does that very effectively with the people of Israel. He instructs Jeremiah to take a flask or a jar with him and then invite the leaders to accompany him to the valley. God then declares, through Jeremiah, that he would smash both the city and the nation as the flask has been smashed. The visual rubble and the complete reality that it could not be put back together again was to emphasize how they would be 003300uced to rubble and destruction. So much death and carnage would occur that there would be no room for burials to take place. The prophecy is powerful and should have stir003300 the leader’s hearts. Yet there is no repentance or remorse!
God continues to warn the people of this world of His judgment and all-consuming power. Like the nation of Judah the people in the NT are being warned and again they turn deaf ears and blind eyes to the teachings of God. Jesus warned the disciples of the destruction that would come in Mathew 24 and again Peter warns “that the day if the Lord will come as a thief in the night…” (2 Peter 3:10). Jude states that we are to have compassion and …save with fear, pulling them out of the fire…” (Jude22-23).
CHALLENGE: In whatever way we can we need to be warning our culture and people that we love of the impending judgment God will pour out upon this world one day! Jeremiah did not know the exact day or time it would happen but he knew God had spoken! We may not know when He will return but we do know that he has spoken and it will come to pass. Be dramatic and demonstrate how complete the destruction will be when He judges the earth! (Dr. Brian Miller – board member of SCM)
: 15 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words. (6203 “hardened” [‘oreph] means obstinate, stubborn, impudent, difficult, stiffen, cruel, or harsh.
DEVOTION: Here we have the LORD communicating with the leaders of Jerusalem first and then Jeremiah heads to the Temple to speak to all the people. HE wants HIS message to be heard by not only the leaders but also the common man in the streets. HE doesn’t want anyone to say that HE didn’t warn them concerning what was happening in the near future.
HE doesn’t hide HIS plans from HIS people throughout the Old Testament and even today through the New Testament. HE sends HIS messengers with HIS message for all to hear and either obey or disobey. No one can come to HIM and say HE never gave them warning.
The “evil” that is talked about in this verse is HIS judgment for their disobedience. HE is sending the Babylonians to judge HIS people for their sins.
HE even gives the reason for HIS judgment. The reason is that they are stubborn in the way they are not listening to the LORD. They are difficult to work with in a proper relationship. They have been cruel to the messengers the LORD has sent.
God has throughout history sent HIS messengers with a message for not only the leaders who have a greater judgment but to the common man who will receive judgment but to a lesser degree.
In the New Testament we are told that those who know much will receive a greater judgment because they have led people away from the LORD instead of toward HIM. The Pharisees were a group that worked hard to convert individuals into their way of thinking and the LORD Jesus Christ told them that they were making their disciples twofold more a child of hell.
Leaders who are not listening to the LORD lead their followers further from the LORD and cause them to receive judgment. We are not to be leaders who lead people further from the teachings of the Word of God but we should bring people closer to the Word of God.
Once individuals understand their responsibility to worship the LORD with all their heart, soul and mind our ministry is successful. Our goal should always be to lead people closer to the LORD and HIS commandments.
CHALLENGE: We need to be listening to the Word of the LORD in our life. We need to have a tender heart toward what HE is trying to teach us, so that we can teach others. This will bring glory to God.
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