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Jeremiah notes by Stephen Thompson

Daily Bible thoughts 881: Wednesday 20th May 2015: Jeremiah 6:1-9.

Jeremiah 6:1-9.

‘’This city must be punished; it is filled with oppression.’’ (6b)

We find in these verses a graphic preview of Jerusalem’s future. The clock had run down. The Babylonians from the north were going to come and ‘harvest’ the ‘’grapes’’ (9). The nation was ripe for judgment. (But after harvesting a crop there is always a small portion; a‘’remnant’’ ,remaining. This points to the survivors being carried off to Babylon.)

Why was this going to happen?

‘’You’re in deep trouble, Jerusalem.
    You’ve pushed me to the limit.
You’re on the brink of being wiped out…’’ The Message.

Jerusalem was:

‘’A city full of brutality,
    bursting with violence.
Just as a well holds a good supply of water,
    she supplies wickedness nonstop.’’ The Message.

We may feel like we’re dealing with an ancient and musty document, and ‘what has all this got to do with us?’ But the prophetic books tell us that God observes all human behaviour (see 7b), and His judgments are worked out in history. He is patient, but there always comes a point where God says, in effect, ‘Enough is enough’, and the time for repentance runs out. Yes, there is going to be a final judgment at the culmination of history, but many mini-judgments are being worked out even now. This should motivate us to pray for our nation and our leaders, if we don’t already. Don’t let yourself think the U.K. has an exemption certificate. Pray that the heart of this nation will turn back to God. Who knows when it may be too late for us? People need the Lord. Our only hope is in Jesus.

‘’I have likened my dear daughter Zion to a lovely meadow. Well, now ‘shepherds’ from the north have discovered her and brought in their flocks of soldiers. They’ve pitched camp all around her, and plan where they’ll graze.’’ The Message.

What could happen to ‘’England’s green and pleasant land’’ if we persist in rebellion towards God?

‘’In verses 6-7, the Lord speaks to the Babylonian attackers; it’s as if He Himself were leading the assault on Jerusalem. And, indeed, in one sense, He was; the Babylonians (just like the Assyrians before them) were the instruments of God used to punish His faithless people…But, in verse 8, God still speaks to warn His people; His longing for them continues to the last moment.’’ Tom Hale: ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1086.

Prayer: Lord have mercy on our land and turn us back to you.

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Daily Bible thoughts 872: Thursday 7th May 2015: Jeremiah 5:20-25

Jeremiah 5:20-25

‘’There are none so blind as those who will not see.’’ (See verses 20, 21).

As we have seen, the people of Judah did not want to see the uncomfortable truth (12, 13), but preferred false teaching that made it easy on them (30,31). Before we jump in to condemn, let’s realise that we can be similarly obtuse.

‘’What is your attitude when you come into God’s presence? We should come with fear and trembling (that is, awe and respect) because God sets the boundaries of the roaring seas and establishes the rains and harvests. God had to strip away all the benefits that Judah and Israel had grown to respect more than him, with the hope that the people would turn back to God. Don’t wait until God removes your cherished resources before committing yourself to him as you should.’’ The Life Application Study Bible, p.1291.

Leaders/preachers can be given extremely tough assignments. They can have a script put in their hands that their listeners will not want to hear (20ff.) But we must be faithful to our calling.

‘’Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God…’’ (Romans 11: 22).

God, in His ‘common grace’ shows His loving kindness to all He has made (Matthew 5:44, 45).God’s kindness should move us to fear Him; to love, honour and worship Him. But if we do not respond to His overtures of kindness, we will come into contact with His sternness.

Prayer: Lord God, open our blind eyes and deaf ears.

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Daily Bible thoughts 871: Wednesday 6th May 2015: Jeremiah 5:12-19

 Jeremiah 5:12-19

‘’It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me, but the bits I do.’’

Note 4 things in today’s passage:

  • They contradicted the message (12): They did not like the words of threatened judgment and calls to repentance. They loved how they were living and did not want to change. Like many today, they wanted to have their ears ‘tickled’. They wanted to go to ‘church’ and be entertained. The just wanted to have fun. It’s interesting how we can rationalise more pleasant alternative interpretations of heart-searching Scripture passages. When we contradict what the Bible clearly says we are actually lying about God.
  • They abused the messengers (13): They didn’t like the message and so they ‘shot’ the messengers. ‘Let these bad things happen to them’, they said, ‘Not to us!’ (There were other messengers whose sermons they did love: verses 30, 31. There were people preaching a false and powerless message. God saw this as ‘’horrible and shocking’’, but the majority of the people loved it. No wonder a former great leader of Methodism asked, ’’What evil have I done that all men speak well of me?’’)
  • The rejected message does not lose its power because it has been rejected (14-17). It will come back to bite those who have slammed the door in its face. If someone tells you that there’s an escaped lion in your garden, but you refuse to believe them, your ‘unbelief’ will not prevent the animal having its way with you when you step outside. As we read earlier (6), the Babylonians were going to come and ‘’devour’’ (15-17).
  • There is hope (18, 19). As we have seen over and again, even amidst deep darkness a bright light shines.

There are ‘hard’ sayings in the Bible. Be careful that you don’t deliberately soften them; that you don’t dilute them to taste. If you twist the plain message of Scripture you will be lying about God (2 Peter 3:16). Just because we don’t like the preaching of judgment doesn’t mean we won’t have it to face. We can mock the preachers all we like, but we will be ‘burned by their words (14).

I understand the Bible to teach that we cannot reject Jesus in this world and be accepted by Him in the next. This is a truth to face, and not push away.

Prayer: Lord God, please give me the willingness to listen to all you have to say, and respond as you desire.

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Daily Bible thoughts 869: Monday 4th May 2015: Jeremiah 5:1-9

Jeremiah 5:1-9

I have found, at times, that people can use pious language but live far from God. This was so in Jeremiah’s day (2). Some hypocritical people freely use religious language, but they can’t hide from God. He sees through the cloak of their verbal ‘fig leaves’. These opening verses depict a desperate scenario. God’s city was full of injustice. Here was behaviour to befit pagans. That’s what the people had become at heart (8, 9). Virtually the entire population was corrupt.

God is longsuffering. He sends preliminary warnings, prior to the main event of judgment (2 Peter 3:8, 9). The people to whom Jeremiah was preaching had not responded to God’s chastisements, other than by hardening their hearts. We should not be surprised if some set themselves against the gospel, the good news of Jesus. It will sadden us, but it ought not to surprise us. Although God is patient and merciful and gives repeated calls for repentance, not everyone will turn from sin and trust in His dear Son.

The leaders had greater knowledge and therefore greater responsibility (4-6). But there was not a flicker of an appropriate response from them either. ‘’Then I said to myself, ‘’Well, these are just poor people. They don’t know any better. They were never taught anything about GOD. They never went to prayer meetings. I’ll find some people from the best families. I’ll talk to them. They’ll know what’s going on, the way GOD works. They’ll know the score.’’ But they were no better! Rebels all! Off doing their own thing.’’ The Message. So Babylon would become the agent of God’s judgment (6). The Babylonians are pictured here as wild animals.

Idolatry lay at the centre of all that was wrong in the land (7-9). The sexual imagery speaks of the fact that the people had abandoned the Lord, their true ‘Husband’ and deserted Him for other ‘lovers’ (gods). They were spiritual adulterers. It also underlines the point that promiscuous sex was part of the religion itself. Their corrupt worship erupted in this terrible lava of immoral behaviour, flowing down to cover and destroy society. Their sin against God was a sin against Love. ‘’I satisfied their deepest needs, and then they went off with the ‘sacred’ whores, left me for orgies in sex shrines! A bunch of well-groomed, lusty stallions, each one pawing and snorting for his neighbour’s wife.’’ The Message.

Throughout this passage you get a feeling of the heart-broken, yearning love of God. The Lord is longing for His people to turn to Him and live right. He doesn’t want them to experience the punishment that is now available. But there does come a point where it is too late to change. ‘’…the people’s sins are piled sky-high; their betrayals are past counting.’’ The Message. If you keep pushing away the good news about Jesus who has come to save us; if you keep rejecting Him rather than receiving Him, there will come a point of no return.

‘’Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?’’ (9b). Probably the people of every nation should examine themselves in the light of this question.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for your patient love. Enable me to not take you for granted.

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Daily Bible thoughts 862: Thursday 23rd April 2015: Jeremiah 4:23-31

 Jeremiah 4:23-31

‘’The gospel is bad news before it is good news.’’

In verses 23-26 Jeremiah has a vision of the earth returning to its most primitive state (see Genesis 1:2). It is as if the Lord has ‘uncreated’ the earth, and ‘’the fruitful land’’ God had given His people exists no more (26).

‘’I looked at the earth- it was back to pre-Genesis chaos and emptiness. I looked at the skies, and not a star to be seen. I looked at the mountains – they were trembling like aspen leaves, And all the hills rocking back and forth in the wind. I looked – what’s this! Not a man or woman in sight, and not a bird to be seen in the skies. I looked – this can’t be! Every garden and orchard shrivelled up. All the towns were ghost towns. And all this because of GOD, because of the blazing anger of GOD.’’ The Message.

The last section of this chapter paints a picture of the enemy army wreaking devastation among the people while they desperately seek out potential refuge (29). The final two images make a shocking contrast. In the first (30), Jerusalem is portrayed as a gaudy prostitute. She hopes somehow to ‘seduce’ Babylon, but she will be destroyed by her desired ‘lovers’ (30). In (31) we see her as a mother dying in childbirth. It is all desperately sad, and, remember, totally unnecessary.

Again we find that amidst the dark night of a judgment scene, something of the light of hope begins to shine (27). Jeremiah will expand on this later on in the book. But Christians know that the only true and lasting hope is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith in His saving work on the cross a person can be delivered from God’s anger against sin and brought to experience the fullness of His love.

‘’The gospel is bad news before it is good news.’’ We must be brought to see how desperate our situation is before we will be prepared to reach out for the available cure.

At this time Judah was gravely ill.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that in your mercy you warn us and give the opportunity to turn back to you. May I not be blind or deaf to your Word.

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Daily Bible thoughts 861: Wednesday 22nd April 2015: Jeremiah 4:18-22

Jeremiah 4:18-22

‘’Break my heart for what breaks yours.’’

Here are three simple thoughts from today’s reading:

  • The prophet weeps (19a): Jeremiah has come to be characterised as the ‘weeping prophet’. In ‘Jeremiah’ and ‘Lamentations’ we get a number of insights into his heartbreak over the situation. What breaks our hearts? Do we care about sin and how it ruins lives and ravages nations and communities? Do not our all too dry eyes rebuke us? I remember many emotionally charged services and prayer meetings back in my teenage days. I often saw tears and heard crying. It was quite unnerving at times. But what moves us? Jeremiah felt things deeply: ’I’m doubled up with cramps in my belly – a poker burns in my gut. My insides are tearing me up, never a moment’s peace.’’ The Message. How much do you care?
  • The prophet sees farther (19b-21): He or she sees what’s around the corner and they announce it. It may not be popular. People may want to stop up their ears. But the prophetic men and women see the impending disaster caused by sin, and they warn that it will happen, unless there is repentance. But there is that hopeful note in their preaching too, that things don’t have to be this way. While speaking of the coming ‘flood’, they clearly point to the ‘ark’. Praise God for the faithfulness and endurance of the prophets.
  • The prophet sees the stupidity of self-destruction (22): He knows the folly of sin and that ‘’senseless children’’ bring the roof down on themselves. It’s important to note that in the Bible the word ‘fool’ often refers to someone who is both ungodly and immoral. The crazy element of sinful self-destruction comes across particularly well in The Message: ‘’What fools my people are! They have no idea who I am. A company of half-wits, dopes and donkeys all! Experts at evil but klutzes at good.’’ (By the way, this is the only place in today’s reading where the Lord speaks directly. But we must remember that Jeremiah’s own words in this book are also God’s. The Lord is always the ultimate ‘speaker’ in Scripture, whether He is doing so directly or indirectly.)

‘’Notice Jeremiah’s deep love for his people and also his faithfulness in conveying God’s stern message to them. In a sense, Jeremiah was standing between God and the people, suffering on behalf of both. In this, Jeremiah was a forerunner of Jesus, who became the Mediator between God and men, and who suffered to bring salvation to the world (1 Timothy 2:5).’’ Tom Hale: ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary, p.1084.

Prayer: ‘’Break my heart for what breaks yours.’’ Help me, dear Lord, to see through your eyes and feel with your heart.

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Daily Bible thoughts 860: Tuesday 21st April 2015: Jeremiah 4:11-18

Jeremiah 4:11-18

‘’The essence of Hell is the truth discovered too late.’’ Dorothy L. Sayers.

‘’Your own conduct and actions have brought this upon you. This is your punishment. How bitter it is! How it pierces to the heart!’’ (18). Here is the truth realised too late, and it is tragic. ‘We thought we could sow weeds and grow flowers, but we have in fact reaped what we have sown!’

It did not have to be like this, for even as God warned His people of impending judgment, He made it clear that He did not want this for them. He gave the opportunity to turn back (14).

The judgment coming from the north is depicted in two graphic images: the roaring lion (as we saw yesterday in verse 7) and a raging wind (11, 12)

‘’A wind that’s up to no good, a gale-force wind. I ordered this wind. I’m pronouncing my hurricane judgment on my people.’’ The Message.

As the chapter unfolds it becomes clear that this ‘wind’ is an army:

‘’Look at them! Like banks of storm clouds, racing, tumbling, their chariots a tornado, their horses faster than eagles…Invaders from afar off are raising war cries against Judah’s towns. They’re all over her, like a dog on a bone.’’ The Message.

In (13) it’s like a watchman actually sees the approach of the enemy. In (15, 16) the message is given first from Dan, in Israel’s far north, and then, as the enemy comes closer, from Ephraim in the central hill country, until the news finally hits Jerusalem.

For a person to continue in wrong ways and refuse to repent is to press a self-destruct button. Sin rebounds on the sinner ultimately. We damage and devastate our own lives by persisting in our own ways. Sooner or later it will lead to the words of (18) in our experience too. It would be better to clean up your act while there is still a chance (14).

‘’The essence of Hell is the truth discovered too late.’’

Prayer: Lord give me the courage to face the facts about my situation now while there is still time to turn to you.

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Daily Bible thoughts 859: Monday 20th April 2015: Jeremiah 4: 5-10

Jeremiah 4: 5-10

‘’A lion has come out of his lair; a destroyer of nations has set out.’’ (7a).

In this section and the next one, which we will read tomorrow, the invader ‘’from the north’’ (6) is depicted in two word pictures: as a roaring lion and a rushing wind. Both will bring devastation. The remainder of chapter 4 portrays judgment on Judah. The speaker throughout is Jeremiah, but he is pronouncing God’s Word, and the speech is sometimes directly God’s (e.g. v 6b).

God’s Word is so sure; so certain, that Jeremiah can speak of the coming judgment as if it has already taken place (7, 8; for a positive version of this see Romans 8:30. The Roman Christians were not yet ‘’glorified’’, but as far as Paul was concerned it was as good as done!) We can have complete confidence in what God’s Word says, whether it comes in promising or threatening form, or a combination of both.

The political and spiritual leaders led the way in rejecting Jeremiah and his message (9), but their tune would change when the Babylonian ‘’lion’’ came near their homes, and their towns and cities; when they heard his terrifying roar and saw his teeth and claws. (Note, though, that the beast is not yet identified as Babylon.) The people who mock Noah cease their jeering when the rain starts, but then it is too late. (The exposure of the leaders in this verse does not diminish the responsibility of everyone who resisted God’s Word.)

In (10) Jeremiah is referring to the words of false prophets who contradicted him and falsely promised peace to an unrepentant people. God is ‘’Sovereign’’ and obviously permitted their preaching. But that does not mean that He was responsible for it. It doesn’t mean that he sent these so-called prophets. God’s only response, as we shall see, is to confirm that judgment is certain. People today who preach that you can live rejecting Christ and the gospel and still expect no negative consequences in the next life are similarly perverting the truth. They are dishing out false hope. Although the Lord allows this, we must never think that He approves it. The false prophets in Jeremiah’s day helped to bring about physical damage and destruction, but something far worse is at stake in false preaching today.

Prayer: Lord please forgive us if we have distorted your gospel in any way, preaching only love and grace, and missing out warning and repentance. Help us stay true to truth.

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Daily Bible thoughts 858: Friday 17th April 2015: Jeremiah 4:1-4

Jeremiah 4:1-4

‘’God must first do a work in us before He can do a work through us.’’ I heard a well-known preacher utter these words in an Easter time sermon given many years ago.

My wife, Jill, and I were talking about this passage in Jeremiah earlier today. We reflected on the fact that it contains many ingredients of a ‘gospel’ message. More of the ‘good news’ has been revealed to us since Jeremiah’s day. Nevertheless, there are elements here that we would see as essential in presenting the message of Jesus now. Notably there is a clear cut call to repentance, with a promise of blessing to (and through) those who do turn to God, and a warning of judgment for those who will not.

‘’If’’ is a word you find three times in (1,2a) followed by ‘’then’’ in (2b): ‘’If…then…’’ This is a message that comes repeatedly in the Bible. God calls His people to do certain things. ‘If’ they do them, ‘then’ there are certain consequences. So much is contingent on our positive response. In the last chapter we saw and heard people promising to return to God. He says in effect in these verses, ‘If you will do that, here’s what will happen.’ Someone observed that ‘’we make our decisions, then our decisions turn around and make us.’’ Like Israel of old, the church is in the world to bless it (see Genesis 12:1-3). So much hangs on our faithfulness. We have to fully get right with God if we are to have that impact on the world He desires. Only ‘if’ we repent will there be an unleashing of that blessing that the Lord wants to pour through us. ‘’And the godless nations will get caught up in the blessing and find something in Israel to write home about.’’ The Message.

The same call to repentance is heard in (3, 4) although using different language, and specifically directed to Judah and Jerusalem. There are three figures of speech employed:

  1. ‘’Break up your unploughed ground…’’ e. soften your hard hearts;
  2. ‘’…do not sow among thorns.’’ e. avoid worldly entanglements (Matthew 7:13, 22);
  3. ‘’Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts…’’ i.e. purify your hearts and dedicate them to God. The Jews placed confidence in external religious rituals and did not let God operate on their hearts. But He desires ‘’truth in the inner parts…’’ (Psalm 51:6). God wants something that goes deeper – the devotion of the whole being. Ritual and ceremony will never be enough to satisfy Him.

‘’God must first do a work in us before He can do a work through us.’’ Will we heed His call to turn to Him today?

‘’You must get rid of your stinking sin paraphernalia and not wander away from me anymore.’’ The Message.

Prayer: Lord God, help me to turn away from everything you detest.

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