Jeremiah 26 - Remaining faithful under threat.

This chapter probably follows chronologically after 7:15. However, it was placed here for a reason. It is in a sense giving a summary of God's dealings with the people and His intentions. The previous section has just told of the wrath of God that is coming upon the nation. 

Jeremiah was instructed by God to speak to the people. He stood in the courtyard of the Lord's house, ie the temple. The people had a superstitious attachment to the temple, so God went to where they were, where they expected to meet God, and they would indeed hear the word of the Lord there, but they would reject it. 

God's hope was that the people would listen to His word, repent, and so be saved. However, if they did not pay heed then the temple would be destroyed. Any "dwelling place" of God, any Christian denomination, church grouping or Christian project, is only good if it is a place where people listen to the Lord, trust the Lord and obey the Lord. 

Instead of repenting the priests, prophets and people seized Jeremiah because he was prophesying the destruction of the temple. There are great similarities here to the way they treated Jesus. The officials then came and decided that Jeremiah should be sentenced to death.

Jeremiah entrusted himself to the Lord and continued to give the same message. Notice that he does not "demand his rights". 

In verse 16 there seems to be a relenting of the people. Perhaps there was a recognition somewhere in their conscience that Jeremiah actually was speaking the word of God. They remembered that Micah had prophesied similar things. Some recognised the mistake they were in danger of making and recalled how Hezekiah had reacted. Notice the consistency of Scripture, and how the whole Bible hangs together. 

Jeremiah was not the only prophet of God, Uriah was another faithful prophet. He too was threatened with death. Uriah fled to Egypt but Judah sent Elnathan to capture him. Uriah was captured, returned to Jerusalem and killed. Jeremiah did not flee and was not killed. God is able to protect us in the midst of opposition.

Jeremiah 25:15-38 - The wrath of God

The wrath of God is not a popular subject, indeed even many "Christians" seek to pretend it doesn't exist. This is a foolish line to follow. There are two key aspects to the wrath of God: (i) it is a passionate hatred of sin and all its consequences; (ii) it is utterly rational and reasonable. We often confuse the wrath of God with a fit of rage, but this is not what the wrath of God is. The truly frightening thing about the wrath of God is that it is utterly reasonable. Moreover, as has been made clear in Jeremiah, the wrath of God comes only after many years of patiently waiting, giving the people the chance to repent. 

Those who seek to ignore or gloss over the wrath of God are ignoring and glossing over the reality of our sin, of its disastrous effects on us and on those around us. Indeed if we do this we are acting just like the religious leaders of Jeremiah's day. See what happened to them and take warning.

Now here the wrath of God is going not just to Judah, but to many nations. Many of the nations in the region are named, Sheshak (v26) is Babylon.

Verse 29 reminds one of 1 Peter 4:17, judgement begins in the house of God, but it does not end there. A storm of judgement would sweep across the whole earth. 

Jeremiah 25:1-14 - Without excuse

Jeremiah speaks to the people in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. He starts by reminding them that he has been prophesying to them for several years, but they haven't paid a blind bit of notice.

Moreover, Jeremiah was not the first prophet God had sent, He had sent many prophets, each one had been ignored. People often talk about the problem of hell, but it will transpire on the last day that no one is without excuse. They had had ample warning. Each prophet gave the same message, repent and believe.

The people had brought harm upon themselves.

It was because of the disobedience of the people that God was going to summon the Babylonians to attack and destroy Jerusalem.  Joy and gladness would be banished from the land, the place would become desolate.

However, even in the midst of this severe judgement there is hope and the ultimate destination is not Babylon. The captivity would last for seventy years. At that time Babylon would be punished for her guilt.

Jeremiah 24 - Figs

The defeat of Jerusalem has now taken place and Jehoiachin, along with his officials and many skilled workers and craftsmen, have been carried off into exile.

The Lord gives Jeremiah a vision. The vision is of two baskets of figs, one very good, the other bad beyond recovery. 

Surprisingly it is those who have been carried off into exile who are better off. The Lord will look after them and eventually bring them back to Jerusalem to rebuild without tearing down. He will also give them a new heart. "They will be my people, and I will be their God". This is a refrain repeated in various books of the Old Testament. 

Sometimes we suffer an uprooting in our lives, a disruption that seems devastating. But God is doing this to give us a new heart and to bring us to a place where we will be permanently established. Note that even during the disrupting times, during the suffering, God is still watching over us. Note also that the end result is an everlasting change. We need to understand that God is leading us to permanency, to immortality. 

Zedekiah sought to remain in Jerusalem and sought help from Egypt. This would do him no good, nor any others who stood by him. There comes a time when we need to accept change.

Jeremiah 23:9-40 - A warning to false prophets

Now we return to the deluge of judgement, this time aimed at the false prophets. False prophets have a section or two of their own in most of the major prophets. Jeremiah is appalled at the state of the nation.

A prophet was meant to deliver the word of God, to tell the nation how they were doing compared to the Law. Instead they acted unjustly and plotted evil. "Prophet and priest are godless". Sadly the same could be said about sizeable chunks of the church today. Evil even happened within the temple. In the same way evil happens within the leadership of the church, but disaster will come, they will not get away with it for ever.

In Samaria (the northern kingdom) they even prophesied by Baal. In Jerusalem prophets committed adultery. Evil ran throughout Israel, north and south. 

So the Lord instructs the people not to listen to the prophets. For they spoke out of their own minds, not out of the mind of God. They prophesied peace when there was no peace. In charismatic churches we do need to be careful about prophecy. It can easily be used just to tell people what they want to hear. At the same time, note that the answer is not to abandon prophecy, but to prophecy properly. 

A true prophet stands in the council of God and proclaims God's word. This does not just mean new revelations, or "personal words", but includes applying the written word of God, assessing current events in the light of God's written word. A prophet needs to be most careful that he does not prophecy falsely.

Jeremiah 23:1-8 - A branch line

Calling someone a "Jeremiah" means they are someone who is always bringing doom and gloom, and given all that Jeremiah has been saying we can understand that, though this does rather neglect the fact that what he was saying was true. However, in the midst of all this is a message of salvation. We have actually seen hints of it here and there, though they tend to be quickly overwhelmed by the tsunami of judgement. Here we get one of the more explicit salvation passages. The general message is that we need to face up to the truth of the "human condition" before we can receive God's salvation. That is why we need to repent and believe.

This section actually starts with more judgement, this time on the shepherds, the leaders. They were meant to care for the flock, instead they were destroying and scattering then. So God would pore judgement upon the leaders. However, He would also take care of the flock Himself. This is why the good shepherd passages in the gospels are so important. Jesus is the fulfilment of the good shepherd prophecies in the Old Testament.

God Himself would gather a remnant from the nations and bring them back to their home. They would then be fruitful and increase. Sometimes sections of the church focus over much on being a remnant. We may start off as a remnant, but God's ultimate plan is always to be fruitful and increase, just as it was right back in Genesis. This has not changed!

The sheep will no longer be terrified nor will any go missing. Again we can appreciate the significance of Jesus saying He would not lose of any of those given to Him, and of the parable of the lost sheep.

Branch is a messianic title. He would be in the line of David and would rule wisely. He will bring salvation and safety.  He will called "The Lord our Righteous Saviour". 

This salvation that He will bring will be infinitely greater than anything that has gone before.

Jeremiah 22 - Speaking truth to power

Jeremiah is now sent to the centre of political power in Judah, to the king's palace. First the king is reminded that he sits on David's throne, a reminder of the heritage he has and the faithfulness of David.

"Do what is just and right". Any power we are given is the power to serve, in all positions of authority we are to what is "just and right", and we will be called to account one day. Rulers are also to protect the weak and certainly ensure that they do not do wrong to them. This is reminiscent of Micah's words (Mic 6:8). If rulers do this then they will prosper, but if they do not then disaster will come.

Great destruction would come and the nations would ask why the land was now desolate. They would also know the answer, because Judah abandoned her covenant with the Lord.

Shallum (v11) is Jehoahaz. He had been taken off to Egypt, and would never return.

Then the king is castigated for building wealth out of unrighteousness and exploiting workers. We need to take on board the whole word of God. Those on the "right" focus on some aspects of the word of God, claiming they have God's word on their side, but ignore many other sections of God's word. But those on the "left" talk an equal amount of nonsense, focusing on other aspects of the word of God, claiming they have God's word on their side, but ignoring many other sections of God's word.

The leaders had become corrupt, seeing power and authority as a means or personal aggrandisement. We see the same phenomenon today. Perhaps the clearest example is the bankers and other financiers who somehow find it impossible to do their job unless they are paid millions. All they do is demonstrate how pathetic they are, and reveal a true poverty.

The king would suffer much judgement, and would not be missed nor mourned by the people.