Jeremiah 16:1-7 - You must not marry

16:1-4

Well this must be one of the gloomiest passages in the Bible! The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and he was told not to marry and have children in this place. Why? Because such a disaster was about to befall it. The people would die of diseases, no one would mourn them, bodies would be piled up as so much waste material. Life would be utterly worthless and merely food for the birds and wild animals. The first thing to note is that this happened. Secondly, did they really deserve this? The answer is yes, for they sacrificed children to Molech. What about our society? We treat life in the womb as waste to be disposed of, and do this on a grand scale. If God treated us as He talks about Judah here it would be no more than our society deserves.

16:5-7

The grimness continues. Jeremiah is not even to go into a house of mourning to express sympathy. For God has withdrawn His blessing, love and pity from the land. We take God’s love for granted, we say “God would never do that”. Well, the word of God says different, and we need to take this seriously. This judgement would affect all the people, both high and low. There will be an utter breakdown in society. In such a situation we have two choices. One is to deny that God would do this, or to say He is unfair if He does do this. The other is to repent. It is far better and far wiser to take the latter option.