Lesson 3 Jeremiah 7:1-10:25 A few years before 608 BC and the death of Josiah In lesson two; we studied the prophecy contained in Jeremiah 3:6-6:30. It was given in the latter days of King Josiah, and told that the Jews would fall under judgment, and the people would be taken into exile and the country would lie desolate. This came to pass after the destruction of Jerusalem. As we have noted before, the Book of Jeremiah consists of some historical passages, some of which are identical to passages in 2 Chronicles, and a number of prophetical scrolls, each containing a separate revelation given to Jeremiah by the LORD. The passages contained in Jeremiah 7:1 10:25 stands as one of those scrolls. We know the author, was Jeremiah, so we know the book was written during his life. The next question would be When during the life of Jeremiah was the book written? Unlike some of the other scrolls there is no reference to a King. However, we do know that the practice of child sacrifice which is described in Jeremiah 7:30-31 as being resumed was vigorously banned by Josiah (2 Kings 23:4-6). Therefore, my conclusion is that Jeremiah 7-10 was probably written sometime after the death of Josiah. My guess is that it was written during the wicked reign of Jehoiakim who was placed on the throne by Pharaoh Neco of Egypt to replace his brother Jehoahaz. Jeremiah7:1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: This marks the beginning of the revelation or scroll. Jeremiah 7:2 Stand at the gate of the LORD s house and there proclaim this message: Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. Jeremiah was directed to stand at the entrance to the Temple grounds. Although we know he was from the priestly family of Aaron, this would not have been an official function. Jeremiah was generally at odds with the Temple leadership at this time. 1 / 19
Jeremiah 7:3 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. We see throughout Jeremiah, the LORD continually offering those who would repent in Judah, the chance to remain in their own land. They never accepted His offer. Jeremiah 7:4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD! Evidently, the people were being told by the false teachers that because of the presence of the Temple in Jerusalem, the LORD would never allow them to be conquered or be taken away as the LORD had prophesied through Jeremiah. Jeremiah 7:5-7 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. The LORD expanded on what He meant by reform your ways and your actions. Jeremiah 7:8-10 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, We are safe --safe to do all these detestable things? The LORD pointed out the irrationality of their thinking that He could overlook all their evil. Jeremiah 7:11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But 2 / 19
I have been watching! declares the LORD. Den of robbers was the way that Jesus described the Temple in His day, [a] when he overturned the tables of the money changers Jeremiah 7:12 Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. The LORD pointed out that having been the location of the Tabernacle from the time of Joshua through the time of the judges had not protected Shiloh. It was now a ruin. Jeremiah 7:13 While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. The LORD reminded them of how many times they had ignored Him. Jeremiah 7:14 Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers. This refers to what happened to Shiloh after the Ark was carried away by the Philistines in 1 Samuel 4. This is also referred to in Psalms 78:59-61 When God heard them, he was very angry; he rejected Israel completely. He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among men. He sent [the ark of] his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy. What had happened to Shiloh would now happen to Jerusalem. Jeremiah 7:15 I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people 3 / 19
of Ephraim. This refers to the previous destruction of the northern Kingdom and the exile of many of its people. Jeremiah 7:16 So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. The LORD would not listen to any prayers for deliverance. A change of mind and behavior was what He demanded. Jeremiah 7:17-18 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. [b] They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. After the reign of Josiah, they had gone right back to their practices of the time of Manasseh and Amon before the short-lived revival. Jeremiah 7:19 But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame? This reflects the great principal recorded in Job: Job 35:6-8 If you sin, how does that affect him (the LORD)? If your sins are many, what does that do to him? If you are righteous what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only the sons of men. In other words, our sins do not affect the LORD. The LORD has not set up the guidelines for righteousness for His benefit, but for ours. 4 / 19
Jeremiah 7:20 Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched. The LORD was going to send judgment on them, not for His benefit, but for their benefit. And not least, it was also for the benefit of all mankind. Jeremiah 7:21 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! What the LORD was really saying was that their offerings to Him in the Temple were worthless and they might as well eat the meat themselves. The offerings were only supposed to be an outward sign of an inward heart of obedience and faith. It wasn t as if the LORD needed the food. Jeremiah 7:22-23 For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. This refers to the fact that long before the details of the Levitical sacrifices were given the LORD gave them this command: Exodus 19:5-6a Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Jeremiah 7:24-26 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their forefathers. 5 / 19
Sadly, the whole 900 year history of Israel since the Exodus had been a drifting away from the LORD. The period of the Judges was not good. The period of the Kings had gotten even worse. Jeremiah 7:27 When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. Here the LORD had a personal comment for Jeremiah, warning him not to expect a positive response. Jeremiah 7:28 Therefore say to them, This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips. When they rejected his message, this was what the LORD told Jeremiah to say. The measure of any nation is whether or not truth has vanished from their lips. Jeremiah 7:29 Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath. Cutting off one s hair was a sign of shame and mourning. [c] Jeremiah 7:30-31 The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the LORD. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire--something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. The Jews had returned to the worst excesses of the time of Manasseh. Jeremiah 7:32 So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no 6 / 19
longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. The valley of Ben Hinnom would not be big enough to bury all the bodies of the people who would be killed when the LORD s judgment came on the Jews. Jeremiah 7:33-34 Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate. This is a terrifying picture of what the people will bring on themselves. Jeremiah 8:1-2 At that time, declares the LORD, the bones of the kings and officials of Judah, the bones of the priests and prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves. They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshiped. They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like refuse lying on the ground. According to ancient Jewish burial customs, the bodies of the recently deceased would be placed in the family tomb. Then after one year, after there was nothing left but the bones, they would be recovered and placed in a small bone box or ossuary which would then be placed in a small niche in the burial cave or tomb. Although it is not recorded in 2 Kings or 2 Chronicles, evidently at the time of the fall of Jerusalem and its leveling, all the tombs were emptied and the bones scattered. This would have made sense to the Babylonian soldiers, as often, in the pagan religions that many of the Jews had embraced, valuable items would be buried along with the bodies. Jeremiah 8:3 Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, declares the LORD Almighty. 7 / 19
This would of course only apply to those who were part of the evil nation, not to those who were still part of the LORD s covenant through faith, like Daniel and his three friends. Jeremiah 8:4-5 Say to them, This is what the LORD says: When men fall down, do they not get up? When a man turns away, does he not return? Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. Jeremiah is told to point out to the people that they never seemed to act rationally or in their own interest. What they had done had led to disaster, but they would not change their thinking. Jeremiah 8:6 I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle. They LORD s ears were open to hear if they would repent, but they wouldn t. Jeremiah 8:7 Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD. The people insisted on being ignorant. Jeremiah 8:8 How can you say, We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD, when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? This seems to indicate that the scribes of that day were not only misinterpreting Holy Scripture, but perhaps even changing it. 8 / 19
Jeremiah 8:9-10a The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what kind of wisdom do they have? Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. No teacher or preacher who rejects the Divine inspiration of scripture will ever have wisdom worth having. This is a verse which could also be applied to Solomon, who had great human intellect, but wound up rejecting the word of the LORD, and so died after leading a meaningless life (his own assessment). Jeremiah 8:10b From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. Peace, peace, they say, when there is no peace. This exact expression also occurred in Jeremiah 6:13-14. At any time the spiritual teachers of a nation can be described in this way, a nation is in serious trouble. The teachers of deceit who were greedy were very popular. The teachers of truth, like Jeremiah, were despised. Jeremiah 8:12 Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished, says the LORD. The false prophets and priests would be destroyed with the rest. Jeremiah 8:13 I will take away their harvest, declares the LORD. There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them. The gain they were greedy for would be taken from them. Jeremiah 8:14 Why are we sitting here? Gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities 9 / 19
and perish there! For the LORD our God has doomed us to perish and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against him. This seems to be the response that Jeremiah would make in the middle of his teaching to the LORD s revelation that he had just given to the people of Jerusalem while standing at the gate of the Temple. Jeremiah 8:15-16 We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there was only terror. The snorting of the enemy s horses is heard from Dan; [d] at the neighing of their stallions the whole land trembles. They have come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all who live there. This continues Jeremiah s response. It should be remembered that if this was indeed in the time of Josiah s son, Jehoiakim, then it would be almost twenty years before Jerusalem was destroyed. It was the first visit of Nebuchadnezzar to Jerusalem (which is mentioned here) when he forced Jehoiakim to switch allegiances from the Pharaoh Neco, the ruler of Egypt who had installed him on the throne. Nebuchadnezzar would come twice more. The next time he came to deal with Jehoiakim s rebellion and place his other brother Zedekiah on the throne. The last came he came to deal with Zedekiah s rebellion and to destroy Jerusalem. Jeremiah 8:17 See, I will send venomous snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you, declares the LORD. This was the LORD s response. I believe the snakes here are metaphorical and refer to the Babylonians. It also reminded the Jews of the time just before the people occupied the land at the end of the 40 years in the desert that the LORD had sent real snakes (Numbers 21:4-9). At that time, the only cure was to look at the brass serpent which was a symbol of Christ on the cross (John 3:14-15). Jeremiah 8:18 O my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. This was Jeremiah s response to the judgment of his people. 10 / 19
Jeremiah 8:19a Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King no longer there? This was Jeremiah s plea to the LORD to hear the prayer of Israel in captivity and his question about the destiny of the Promised Land. Jeremiah 8:19b Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols? The LORD again gave His reason for the judgment against Israel. Jeremiah 8:20-22 The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved. Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people? This was Jeremiah again. He despaired at the course of events and the lack of healing (repentance). Jeremiah 9:1-2 Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people. This reflected Jeremiah s sorrow at the fate of his people, even though they had willfully brought it on themselves. Jeremiah 9:3 They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that 11 / 19
they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me, declares the LORD. This was the LORD s assessment of the sin of the people that Jeremiah had to deal with. They loved lies and hated the truth. Jeremiah 9:4-6 Beware of your friends; do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning. You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me, declares the LORD. This was the LORD s warning to Jeremiah about the people to whom He had sent Jeremiah. Jeremiah 9:7 Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people? The LORD had no choice but to bring judgment. Testing will always prove what truth is and what is false. Jeremiah 9:8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks with deceit. With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets a trap for him. The people had become so divorced from the truth that all their relationships were enveloped in deceit. Jeremiah 9:9 Should I not punish them for this? declares the LORD. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this? 12 / 19
This divorcement from truth was the real sin that was the cause of judgment. Jeremiah 9:10-11 I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the desert pastures. They are desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds of the air have fled and the animals are gone. I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there. This was Jeremiah responding to the LORD. He would weep. What was the cause? He then recited back the message that the LORD had previously given him regarding the fate of Judah and Jerusalem in his first prophecy (Jeremiah 4: 23-28). Jeremiah 9:12a What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? This seems to be the LORD reminding Jeremiah that he was one of the few who could explain to the Jews why this judgment had come upon them. He had been personally instructed by the LORD. Jeremiah 9:12b-14 Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross? The LORD said, It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them. Again the LORD outlined for Jeremiah the reasons. It was not only that they had ignored the Law of the LORD, but because in doing so they had carried out what had been going on for many generations. Jeremiah 9:15-16 Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them. 13 / 19
Like the adult generation of males that wandered in the wilderness for forty years, none of the adults of this generation would survive to return to the land. Jeremiah 9:17-18 This is what the LORD Almighty says: Consider now! Call for the wailing mourning [e] women to come; send for the most skillful of them. The LORD calls for the mourning women to come. These were those whose profession was to sing songs of lamentation for the dead at funerals or sad occasions. Jeremiah 9:18 Let them come quickly and wail mourn over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids. The question here is: Who is the us? Since it is the LORD speaking, the us obviously includes the LORD. I believe the us here is the LORD and His people. The sad occasion was their forsaking of their special relationship with the LORD. Jeremiah 9:19 The sound of wailing mourning is heard from Zion: How ruined we are! How great is our shame! We must leave our land because our houses are in ruins. However, at hearing the prophecies, instead of mourning over the loss of their relationship with the LORD, they were mourning over the loss of their property. Jeremiah 9:20 Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD; open your ears to the words of his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail mourn; teach one another a lament. 14 / 19
Because of their failure to lament the important thing in their generation, the next generation (their daughters) would feel the judgment. Jeremiah 9:21-22 Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses; it has cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares. Say, This is what the LORD declares: The dead bodies of men will lie like refuse on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather them. This was the judgment the children and young men of that generation would see. Jeremiah 9:23-24 This is what the LORD says: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the LORD. The things of real value in this world are not human wisdom, strength, or riches, but a relationship with the LORD. The LORD delights in those who know Him. Jeremiah 9:25-26 The days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh-- Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart. True circumcision had always meant believing in the promise that the first circumcision memorialized. That was that the Christ would come in the flesh to redeem mankind. The nations and places mentioned were peoples and places to which the Israelites fled or were exiled to. This section is a warning in advance to those who would find themselves living in those places. Jeremiah 10:1-2 Hear what the LORD says to you, O house of Israel. This is what the LORD says: Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. 15 / 19
One of the practices of the peoples of those nations was the practice of reading the future by the stars. Christians who are caught up in this fallacy should take this to be the LORD s attitude toward astrology in any time. Jeremiah 10:3-5 For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good. Another forbidden practice was the practice of worshipping man made images which had no more power than scarecrows in a melon patch. What follows was Jeremiah s response. Jeremiah 10:6-16 No one is like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power. Who should not revere you, O King of the nations? This is your due. Among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you. They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols. Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz. What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple-- all made by skilled workers. But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath. Tell them this: These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens. But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses. Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. His images are a fraud; they have no breath in them. They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when their judgment comes, they will perish. He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including Israel, the tribe of his inheritance-- the LORD Almighty is his name. Jeremiah presented the power and wisdom of the LORD Almighty in contrast to the 16 / 19
foolishness of the gods of the world. Jeremiah 10:17-18 Gather up your belongings to leave the land, you who live under siege. For this is what the LORD says: At this time I will hurl out those who live in this land; I will bring distress on them so that they may be captured. Jeremiah then advised the people in the land, those few who were willing to hear, to flee the coming judgment. He then quoted for them what the LORD told him. Jeremiah 10:19 Woe to me because of my injury! My wound is incurable! Yet I said to myself, This is my sickness, and I must endure it. Jeremiah s wound or sickness was having to spend his life preaching to a people who would not listen. Jeremiah 10:20-21 My tent is destroyed; all its ropes are snapped. My sons are gone from me and are no more; no one is left now to pitch my tent or to set up my shelter. The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire of the LORD; so they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered. This described Jeremiah s feeling of abandonment and isolation. Even the shepherds (the priests) of Israel had turned their backs on the word of the LORD. Jeremiah 10:22 Listen! The report is coming-- a great commotion from the land of the north! It will make the towns of Judah desolate, a haunt of jackals. Jeremiah knew that what he had been warning about would finally come. 17 / 19
Jeremiah 10:23 I know, O LORD, that a man s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. Jeremiah was not happy with his mission in life, but he was willing to submit himself to the LORD s overriding will. Jeremiah 10:24 Correct me, LORD, but only with justice-- not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing. Jeremiah was aware that his questioning of the LORD betrayed a need for correction. Jeremiah 10:25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the peoples who do not call on your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him completely and destroyed his homeland. Jeremiah ended with the acknowledgement that the nations of the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel who have devoured the destiny intended for Jacob deserved judgment. [a] Matthew 21:13 [b] Probably refers to the worship of Astarte/Ishtar the Assyro-Babylonian goddess of love and fertility. [c] Isaiah 22:12 The Lord, the LORD Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to make yourself bald, and put on sackcloth. 18 / 19
Ezekiel 7:18 They will put on sackcloth and be clothed with terror. Their faces will be covered with shame and their heads will be shaved. [d] Dan was in the far north of Israel, the direction from which the Babylonians came. [e] The Hebrew words used here refer to the singing of songs of mourning, not incoherent wailing. 19 / 19