Jeremiah 7:16-18 - Do not pray for this people

7:16

Jeremiah is told not to pray for the people of Judah! This shocks most of us, but we need to take it on board. There comes a point where someone is beyond saving without dramatic intervention from God. Their hearts are so hardened that they will not respond to anything. Now, there needs to be an immediate caveat here. We (you and I) are the not equipped to make such decisions, our default position should be to seek to see someone come to repentance. But there may come a point where even to pray for them is futile. This is not being unmerciful, it is realism when a person has repeatedly failed to respond to mercy.

7:17,18

God’s decision was not capricious or an act of rage. It was based on the evidence. God knew Jeremiah would not like this instruction, so God tells him to look around Jerusalem and Judah to remind himself of what is going on. They were devoting their efforts to worshipping idols, in particular the Queen of Heaven. The Queen of Heaven was a fertility god, the supposed wife of Baal or Molech. Men, women and children devoted effort to worshipping false gods. There was family worship of idols! And they poured out drink offerings to other gods.