Lesson 4 Jeremiah 11:1-12:17 - About 604 BC, early in the reign of Jehoiakim Jeremiah 13:1-27 About 598 BC during the short 3 month reign of Jehoiachin In lesson three; we studied the prophecy contained in the scroll recorded in Jeremiah 7:1-10:25. It was probably given in the days just following the death of Josiah in about 608 BC. The scroll was written in the form of a conversation between the LORD and Jeremiah. The scroll recorded all of the failures and sins of Judah and also all the times the LORD had mercifully withheld judgment. However it also warned, by the example of the now extinct Northern Kingdom that the LORD s mercy was not without limits, and that destruction was coming on them from Babylon. The scroll also recorded the LORD s warning to Jeremiah that no one (or very few) would listen to his message, and Jeremiah s lament to the LORD that this was to be the end result of his long ministry. As we have noted before, the Book of Jeremiah contains a number of prophetical scrolls, each containing a separate revelation given to Jeremiah by the LORD. The first passage we are studying in this lesson, Jeremiah 11:1 12:7, stands as one of those scrolls. Like the previous scroll, it makes no reference to a King or historical event by which to date it. However, we do know that it was after the time that the LORD had given Jeremiah his mission to preach to Judah, and long enough after he had begun that people were plotting Jeremiah s death (Jeremiah 11:18-20). I think the events of this scroll probably occurred in about 604 BC, early in the reign of Jehoiakim, and shortly after the events of Jeremiah 7:1-10:25. Jeremiah 11:1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: This marks the beginning of the new different scroll and prophecy. Jeremiah 11:2 Listen to the terms of this covenant and tell them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem. 1 / 18
The covenant the LORD is speaking of here is the Mosaic Law as contained from Exodus through Deuteronomy. Just before Josiah had cleansed the Temple about twenty years before, he had called all the people together to hear the covenant read (2 Chronicles 34:29-32). Jeremiah 11:3 Tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Cursed is the man who does not obey the terms of this covenant These were the curses enumerated in Deuteronomy 28:15-68, which encompassed every kind of disaster. They included agricultural disasters like failing crops and dying herds. They also included health disasters like disease, weather disasters like scorching heat and drought, military disasters like defeat in battle, psychological disasters like madness and confusion of mind. They also included failure in marriage, and failure in business. Finally, they would include complete destruction and enslavement of the nation of Israel. Jeremiah 11:4 the terms I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace. I said, Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. The LORD reminded them that they had no excuse; he had clearly laid down the guidelines when He first brought them out of Egypt where they had also been prepared by adversity. Jeremiah 11:5 Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey --the land you possess today. I answered, Amen, LORD. Among all the peoples of the world, the LORD had given the people of Israel a unique place and opportunity. Because they were to bring in the Savior of the World, if they obeyed His commands they would also have a unique national blessing. However, to prevent them from failing, the LORD would have to bring a unique national curse against them. Jeremiah 11:6 The LORD said to me, Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them. 2 / 18
Jeremiah was to be careful to teach the meaning of the Law of Moses. It was not harsh. It was just statement of truth. When the LORD gave the Law of Moses to the people of Israel, it was comparable to a modern American parent telling his young child on the first day of kindergarten: If you pay attention in class, and obey your teachers while you are in school, and work hard, you will be able to get a decent job when you grow up. If you don t do any of these things, you will probably either wind up with a minimum wage job, or in prison. That parent would not be considered cruel. His truthfulness would actually be kind. Jeremiah 11:7-8 From the time I brought your forefathers up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, Obey me. But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep. The LORD had patiently warned them again and again without effect. So, as an act of kindness, the LORD had finally had to use the stick instead of the carrot. This next is the LORD speaking to Jeremiah about how the people would plot against Jeremiah. Jeremiah 11:9 Then the LORD said to me, There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. As we shall find out in verse 17 of this chapter, the conspiracy was directed against the life of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 11:10 They have returned to the sins of their forefathers, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers. The reason for their designs on the life of Jeremiah was because of their hardness of heart 3 / 18
toward the words the LORD had sent Jeremiah to speak. Jeremiah 11:11 Therefore this is what the LORD says: I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. The LORD was informing Jeremiah of this partly so the he would not trouble himself with thoughts of revenge. Vengeance is the LORD s. Deuteronomy 32:35 It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them. Jeremiah 11:12 The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes. Those Jews would cry out uselessly to the false gods that the preferred to the true god. Jeremiah 11:13 You have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem. This tells us how quickly the Jews had returned to the apostasy of the times of Manasseh. Jeremiah 11:14 Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress. We are given an insight into the tender heart of Jeremiah. He was warned not to waste his time praying for those people to whom the LORD had already shown the full measure of forbearance. You also are permitted to quit praying for those who persecute you (Luke 6:27-28) when the LORD gives you similar specific instructions. 4 / 18
Jeremiah 11:15 What is my beloved doing in my temple as she works out her evil schemes with many? Can consecrated meat avert [your punishment]? When you engage in your wickedness, then you rejoice. Here the LORD addresses His people Israel (my beloved) as a person. Although they had returned to most of the abuses of the age of Manasseh, they evidently had not quit offering sacrifices to the LORD in the Temple. This was fruitless in the light of the wickedness in their heart. Jeremiah 11:16 The LORD called you a thriving olive tree [a] with fruit beautiful in form. But with the roar of a mighty storm he will set it on fire, and its branches will be broken. The olive tree provided the oil for the lamps in the Tabernacle and Temple. This was the destiny of Israel, to bring forth the oil to provide the light of the world. However, the tree that Israel had become would have to be nearly destroyed to restore it to fruitfulness. Jeremiah 11:17 The LORD Almighty, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you, because the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done evil and provoked me to anger by burning incense to Baal. The LORD who had planted them in the first place would have to do this. This ends the LORD s comment about the people who were conspiring against Jeremiah. Jeremiah 11:18 Because the LORD revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. This is Jeremiah s comment. Jeremiah 11:19 I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off 5 / 18
from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more. Jeremiah would have been aware that they did not accept his warning, but he had innocently believed that was as far as it went. He did not realize their rejection was so violent that they wanted his death. This argues for the youth of Jeremiah at the time of this scroll. Jeremiah 11:20 But, O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. Jeremiah trusted the LORD for vengeance. Jeremiah 11:21 Therefore this is what the LORD says about the men of Anathoth who are seeking your life and saying, Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD or you will die by our hands -- Evidently, the men who had been tasked to kill Jeremiah were from Jeremiah s home town (Jeremiah 1:1) of Anathoth. Jeremiah 11:22 therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. The LORD told Jeremiah that their judgment would come with the judgment of the rest of the people. Jeremiah 11:23 Not even a remnant will be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment. At that time, they would be totally wiped out. 6 / 18
Jeremiah 12:1a You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Jeremiah agreed that the LORD s judgment and timing in this case was right. Jeremiah 12:1b Yet I would speak with you about your justice: However, he had a question that many people ask. Jeremiah 12:1c Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? Although Jeremiah could see putting off judgment on the wicked of Anathoth, he could not understand why the LORD allowed others to live in prosperity and ease. [b] Jeremiah 12:2 You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts. Jeremiah must have been thinking of some his worst enemies. They were the High Priest (planted by the LORD) and other high ranking priests of the Temple. He couldn t understand why the LORD put up with them. Jeremiah 12:3 Yet you know me, O LORD; you see me and test my thoughts about you. Jeremiah understood that the LORD knew the thoughts of his heart and judged him. Why then was the faithlessness of these men seemingly ignored? 7 / 18
Jeremiah 12:3b Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter! For those men, Jeremiah could not share the LORD s patience. In the next verse, Jeremiah s thoughts turn back to the land of Israel. Jeremiah 12:4 How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered? Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished. Moreover, the people are saying, He will not see what happens to us. Here Jeremiah was betraying his real impatience with how long it was taking for the LORD to turn things around for the people of Israel. Later, he will be told it will take seventy years and will not happen until after he is dead. At this time, in his younger years, he does not appreciate the LORD s time table. Jeremiah 12:5 If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan? This was the LORD replying to Jeremiah, saying in effect, If you are impatient now, in the relatively easy times, how will you deal with it when the going gets really tough. Jeremiah 12:6 Your brothers, your own family-- even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you. Furthermore, the LORD warned Jeremiah that even his own family was secretly against him. 8 / 18
Jeremiah 12:7 I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance; I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies. This was the LORD speaking of giving the Temple (my house) to destruction and His land (Israel) into the hands of the Babylonians. Jeremiah 12:8 My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She roars at me; therefore I hate her. The people of the land were not just indifferent to the LORD; they were actively trying to thwart the LORD s plan. The hatred here is of the kind expressed in two Messianic Psalms: Psalms 31:6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols; I trust in the LORD. Psalms 45:7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Jeremiah 12:9a Has not my inheritance become to me like a speckled bird of prey that other birds of prey surround and attack? There are two aspects of this analogy. First, all birds of prey were considered unclean according to Leviticus 11:13-19. So Israel had become unclean to the LORD. Second, it is observed in nature that speckled or off colored birds are often attacked by other birds, who will not allow a strange looking bird among them. This is what will happen to the Jews. They will not be accepted among the other peoples, but will always be persecuted. Jeremiah 12:9b Go and gather all the wild beasts; bring them to devour. 9 / 18
The bitter irony for those Jews who oppose the will of the LORD is that they don t even have the protection of Satan. He hates them all implacably. Jeremiah 12:10-11 Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland. It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares. This is another prophecy of the way the land would be made desolate for forty years. Jeremiah 12:12 Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm, for the sword of the LORD will devour from one end of the land to the other; no one will be safe. This desolation would sweep the people of Judah from the land from the pleasant climes in the north and west to the barren heights of the desert wilderness in the south and east which were usually a safe refuge. The agents of much of this destruction would be the neighbors of Judah like Edom who allied themselves with the Babylonians in hopes of taking the land for themselves. The book of Obadiah describes their actions at that time: Obadiah 1:10-14 Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you (Edom) will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever. On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble. You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor look down on them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster. You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble. Jeremiah 12:13 They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing. So bear the shame of your harvest because of the LORD s fierce anger. 10 / 18
These neighbors would try to inhabit the land, but it would not produce anything for them. Jeremiah 12:14 This is what the LORD says: As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and b ut [c] I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. Those neighbors will be driven out of the lands of Judah, but not before the LORD had uprooted Judah and sent them into exile. Jeremiah 12:15 But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to his own inheritance and his own country. However, the LORD promised to bring the Jews back Jeremiah 12:16 And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, As surely as the LORD lives --even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal--then they will be established among my people. But the condition was that they learned to truly become the LORD s people who trusted in Him, not in false gods. Jeremiah 12:17 But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it, But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, declares the LORD. I have substituted the literal King James translation. The nation (or people) the LORD was talking about was not any nation, but the Jews. The LORD kept them in place until forty years after Jesus Christ had come. At that time they had separated themselves into those who swore 11 / 18
by the revealed name of the LORD (Jesus Christ) and those who would not. The unbelieving Jews drove out the believing Jews, and at that time, the LORD destroyed the nation and sent them into exile. What stands as Chapter Thirteen of Jeremiah seems to be a separate revelation and scroll. Jeremiah 13:18 seems to indicate it that it was written during the short reign of Jehoiachin and his mother while the armies of Nebuchadnezzar had surrounded the city after Jehoiachin s father, Jehoiakim had revolted against the Babylonians. Jeremiah 13:1 This is what the LORD said to me: Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water. A prophet s belt in scripture often symbolized his message on God s authority to His people. Examples the prophet s belts are those of Elijah and John the Baptist (Matthew 3:4, 2 Kings 1:8), and the belt of Paul (Acts 21:11). Jeremiah 13:2 So I bought a belt, as the LORD directed, and put it around my waist. This is one of many examples where the LORD had a prophet undergo a tactile and visual experience to teach a lesson. Jeremiah 13:3-4 Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath the Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks. For some unknown reason, the NIV here translates the Hebrew word ת ר פ {per äth'} as Perath although every other passage it appears in the NIV (beginning with Genesis) it is translated Euphrates. Jeremiah 46:2 clearly identifies the Perath as the river which flows close to Carchemish which is the Euphrates. In every other translation I looked at, in this passage the word was translated Euphrates. 12 / 18
You will notice that this is an extraordinary command. Jeremiah was located in Jerusalem. To get to the Euphrates was a one way journey of at least four hundred miles. It must have taken Jeremiah at least three months to cover the 800 mile round trip. Considering the plots against Jeremiah s life about this time, this may have been one of the ways the LORD kept him out of harm s way. Jeremiah 13:5-6 So I went and hid it at Perath the Euphrates, as the LORD told me. Many days later the LORD said to me, Go now to Perath the Euphrates and get the belt I told you to hide there. We have to assume that Jeremiah returned to Jerusalem since that was where the LORD had told him to preach. How long he was there, we are not told, but after many days the LORD told him to repeat the long journey. Some have speculated that it was during these journeys that Jeremiah struck up the cordial relationship with Nebuchadnezzar which is evidenced in Jeremiah 39: Jeremiah 39:11-12 Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given these orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard: Take him and look after him; don t harm him but do for him whatever he asks. Jeremiah 13:7 So I went to Perath the Euphrates and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless. So after the long trip back, the LORD merely had Jeremiah dig up the belt to find it was useless. Jeremiah 13:8-10 Then the word of the LORD came to me: This is what the LORD says: In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt--completely useless! 13 / 18
The belt of Jeremiah, the belt of a prophet, the authority of the LORD s word, had become useless because the people would not listen. Because of that, the people had also become useless. Jeremiah must have thought that the LORD could have just given him that message and saved him the 1,600 mile walk. However, he didn t understand everything else the LORD was doing. It occurs to me that we are often in the same situation. Jeremiah 13:11 For as a belt is bound around a man s waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me, declares the LORD, to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened. The LORD reflected on the incredible honor the people had been offered, to be identified with the LORD himself. But the people seemed to have thought it was a little thing. Jeremiah 13:12a Say to them: This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Every wineskin should be filled with wine. This was the new message the LORD told Jeremiah to tell the people. Jeremiah 13:12b-13a And if they say to you, Don t we know that every wineskin should be filled with wine? then tell them, When they predictably responded this way he was to tell them it would be the wine of drunkenness: Jeremiah 13:13b-14 This is what the LORD says: I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land, including the kings who sit on David s throne, the priests, the prophets 14 / 18
and all those living in Jerusalem. I will smash them one against the other, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them. It would not be the wine of prosperity, but the wine of conflict and senselessness which would destroy them. It would be a drunkenness that persuaded them that they could revolt against the Babylonians. Jeremiah 13:15-16a Hear and pay attention, do not be arrogant, for the LORD has spoken. Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings the darkness, before your feet stumble on the darkening hills. However, as always the LORD offered His hand of love to those who would seek it. Jeremiah 13:16b-17 You hope for light, but he will turn it to thick darkness and change it to deep gloom. But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the LORD s flock will be taken captive. However, if they would not, the LORD would weep about it although they would be taken captive. This was spoken about those to whom this was preached. These were the people who were taken back to Babylon after the siege of Jerusalem at the end of Jehoiakim s reign in about 597 BC. Jeremiah 13:18 Say to the king and to the queen mother, Come down from your thrones, for your glorious crowns will fall from your heads. This passage gives us our date for the events at the end of this scroll. It tells us it is speaking of Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim and his mother. The siege and subsequent exile is described in 2 Kings: 15 / 18
2 Kings 24:8-17 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father had done. At that time the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem and laid siege to it, and Nebuchadnezzar himself came up to the city while his officers were besieging it. Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his attendants, his nobles and his officials all surrendered to him. In the eighth year of the reign of the king of Babylon, he took Jehoiachin prisoner. As the LORD had declared, Nebuchadnezzar removed all the treasures from the temple of the LORD and from the royal palace, and took away all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made for the temple of the LORD. He carried into exile all Jerusalem: all the officers and fighting men, and all the craftsmen and artisans--a total of ten thousand. Only the poorest people of the land were left. Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. He also took from Jerusalem to Babylon the king s mother, his wives, his officials and the leading men of the land. The king of Babylon also deported to Babylon the entire force of seven thousand fighting men, strong and fit for war, and a thousand craftsmen and artisans. He made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin s uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah. Jeremiah 13:19a The cities in the Negev will be shut up, and there will be no one to open them. Probably the cities of the Negev were made viable by the troops that defended that southeastern border. With all the troops taken into exile, they would have to be abandoned. Jeremiah 13:19b All Judah will be carried into exile, carried completely away. Eventually, all of Judah would be carried far away beyond the Euphrates. Perhaps this was one of the reasons the LORD told Jeremiah to take the belt there. Jeremiah 13:20 Lift up your eyes and see those who are coming from the north. Where is the flock that was entrusted to you, the sheep of which you boasted? This was still speaking to King Jehoiachin and his mother. The sheep were the people who were entrusted to them. Those coming from the north were the Babylonians. 16 / 18
Jeremiah 13:21 What will you say when [the LORD] sets over you those you cultivated as your special allies? What will you say when He appoints over you And you yourself had taught them Former companions to be head over you? Will not pain grip you like that of a woman in labor? I have substituted the New American Standard translation. This would seem to be speaking of the appointment of Jehoiachin s uncle Zedekiah to be king instead of him. Jeremiah 13:22 And if you ask yourself, Why has this happened to me? -- it is because of your many sins that your skirts have been torn off and your body mistreated. As we saw in the passage from 2 Kings, this happened because Jehoiachin s throne did evil. The Hebrew verb translated you ask is in the feminine singular indicating that this was addressed to Jehoiachin s mother who was evidently the moving power behind the throne. Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil. This is a principal of human behavior which has become proverbial even in our day. Jeremiah 13:24 I will scatter you them like chaff driven by the desert wind. They you here should be them. That is the Hebrew. It is also the way the KJV, AV, and ASV have it. The scattering is the fate of the flock that had been entrusted to the King and Queen mother. Jeremiah 13:25-27 This is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you, declares the LORD, because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods. I will pull up your skirts over 17 / 18
your face that your shame may be seen-- your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution! I have seen your detestable acts on the hills and in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you be unclean? Finally Jeremiah was to turn his fire on the people of Judah and Jerusalem. He pronounced the cause for the lot they had brought on themselves. [a] Psalms 52:8, Hosea 14:6, Romans 11:17-24. [b] See also Psalm 73 by Asaph. [c] The Hebrew here can be translated either and or but. In the English, I think but is better. 18 / 18