- By this time, Jeremiah is very unpopular. He still commands some attention, as is seen here by the elder and the priests, and in Chapter 21 where the King calls for him. Why should the elders and priests bother to travel with him?
- Technically, he had not yet been proven wrong in his prophecies
- Possibly they were looking for incriminating evidence against him
- Where does Jeremiah take them with his piece of potter (probably a small water jar based upon the Hebrew word)?
- Valley of Ben Hinnom and near the Potsherd Gate
- Area is also called the Hinnom valley, and the gate is also named the Dung Gate
- This is the area where refuse and broken pottery is disposed. (Probably near to a location as opposed to right in that spot, that is it would be very close. This makes sense in that sacrifices to foreign gods are done here, and the remains are thrown is some location in the valley.)
- For all the sins of Judah, and there are quite a few, what does God focus his anger against?
- Idolatry
- To include child sacrifice
- What is idolatry?
- Anything that replaces or diminishes God in a person's life
- Anything that captures an undue amount of affection to the detriment or a relationship with God. (This is not to suggest that a spouse could be an idol, but that any relationship can be carried to such an extreme as to take a person's thoughts away from God. Paul recognized that marriage divides a person's interest, and that is not sin, but there would seem to be an extreme which would be wrong.)
- Anything which is considered to have special properties that one puts their hope in for salvation and healing. (This one might be extreme, as it would include medicine. My thought would be that the person puts their complete hope in medicine or doctors and ceases to seek God.)
- Was Israel guilty of other sins? Most certainly. There were sins of adultery, greed, injustice, murder, homosexuality, theft … to name a few. But the main reason for the punishment is the worship of idols
- In verse 7, what is God's promise to Judah? To ruin their plans
- How does that differ from another famous verse in Jeremiah?
- No one ever quotes verse 19:7 like they quote 29:11
- APPLICATION: Sometimes God has to "ruin" our plans in order to get our attention and provide for us a much better plan
- What is the purpose of the smashing of the pottery?
- It is an image, which is hard to forget
- You really cannot put back together something that has been molded
- It suggest finality, no turning back. Earlier, Jeremiah seem to suggest that there was hope if the people repented, now there is no hope
- Also, Topeth, which is where refuse is now burned will become a cemetery
- Again, the main charge of Jeremiah (actually God) is idolatry. God now sends him to the temple. What is the message in the temple?
- There is no more hope. The time for repentance is past, as far as the nations goes. Individuals can always repent but it will not change the events against the nation, of which they will participate
- God says that he will bring on the city and the village every disaster pronounced against them
- What is God's reason for finality?
- They were stiff-necked
- They did not listen
- APPLICATION: What has God spoken to me about that I have not listened?
- Let's pretend that you are Jeremiah and you have just finished preaching the message God gave you. One of the religious leaders immediately has you arrested, beaten, and put in the stocks. The word for stocks is mahpeketh which means to cause distortion. The stocks were meant to torture. What are you thinking?
- God, what are you doing?
- God, you said you would protect me
- Actually, God only says that he will rescue him (1:7). God's promises of protection does not mean we will not suffer harm or hurt in life. Technically, our promises may all be future bases, i.e., the age to come. God does not lie. He does protect Jeremiah but that does mean Jeremiah would not suffer
- God then gives Jeremiah a prophesy against Pashhur. What do you think of prophecy?
- It was too light. Pashhur gets to live and die later in Babylon
- It was just right. Pashhur must live with the fact that he misrepresented God (20:6). He must watch with horror all his friends die. He must live under the taunts of the people who challenge him about his prophecies of deliverance. This assumes that Passhur has enough intelligence to review his life and has some concern about truth. Because some who are wrong, never admit or acknowledge they were wrong
- APPLICATION: Do I review my actions and thought processes? Do I let God change me? Or, am I so molded in a particular way of thinking and theology that everything else is wrong, just because I think it is wrong? Do I truly look to the word for truth or do I use the word to justify my way of thinking?
- I think I like Jeremiah so much because he is so honest. He expresses his heart. He is not afraid to rail against God. But he is not so bitter as to not listen to God's reply. He is real. He is not the stoic Christian who stands against the pain of the world, and says everything is fine because he trusts in God. Everything is not always fine, and there is nothing wrong with admitting it
- To whom does Jeremiah complain?
- God
- God is the person to whom we must learn to voice our complaints. We can't hurt God's feelings
- APPLICATION: If we are truly honest with ourselves we will learn to be honest with God. My only caution is that we need to take our criticisms to God and not to people. The former brings healing and the latter brings bitterness of soul
- First, this is a different Pashhur. Secondly, chapters 21 through 23 are a collection of messages closer to the time of the invasion
- It is interesting that King Zedekiah still hopes in some deliverance from the Lord. The pottery message was intended to show finality, that no repentance could change the course of outcome. Similarly is the rejection of Jesus by the religious leaders in Matt 12. That rejection begins a course that would not be changed
- Why does Zedekiah seek Jeremiah after all that Jeremiah has prophesied against Jerusalem?
- In a certain sense, Zedekiah is doing what Judah has been doing all along--refusing to listen to God
- God said he would not deliver Judah. Why then is Zedekiah asking for deliverance?
- Maybe a more appropriate question to ask would be: how can I save as many people as possible?
- Jeremiah gives the answer for the question not asked. If you want to live, you must surrender
- "Surrender to your enemies" is never a very popular message
- APPLICATION: There may be times when the message of the gospel is not popular culturally. We live in a day and age where tolerance has come to mean the acceptance as truth of many ways to God. We live where we are not only expected to accept certain immoral behaviors but to actually rejoice and take pride in them. I do think we can accept people, whatever their sins, but we should never admit that their behavior is morally correct. In short, we have a message which is not very popular, that doesn't mean we have to act like some stereo-typed 18th century preacher with a first-grade education. We ought to love as Jesus loved. We ought to serve others. We ought to treat people with gentleness and respect, irrespective of their treatment of us. We ought to know how to defend our beliefs. We ought stand up for what is true in a manner consistent with the life of Jesus
Background:
Jer 19:1-7 (NIV) This is what the Lord says:
"Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of
the people and of the priests 2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near
the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, 3 and
say, 'Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem.
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to
bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of
it tingle. 4 For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods;
they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers
nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the
blood of the innocent. 5 They have built the high places of Baal to burn their
sons in the fire as offerings to Baal — something I did not command or
mention, nor did it enter my mind. 6 So beware, the days are coming, declares
the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of
Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
7 "'In this place I will ruin the plans of
Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies,
at the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as
food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.
Jer 29:11-14 (NIV) For I know
the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will
call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will
seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found
by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity.
I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished
you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back to the place from
which I carried you into exile."
Jer 19:10-15 (NIV) "Then break the jar while
those who go with you are watching, 11 and say to them, 'This is what the Lord
Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter's
jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth
until there is no more room. 12 This is what I will do to this place and to
those who live here, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. 13
The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like
this place, Topheth — all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to
all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.'"
14 Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the
Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the Lord's temple and
said to all the people, 15 "This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of
Israel, says: 'Listen! I am going to bring on this city and the villages
around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were
stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.'"
Acts 7:51-54 (NIV) "You
stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like
your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet
your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming
of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who
have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not
obeyed it." // 54 When they heard
this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.
Jer 20:1-6 (NIV) When the priest Pashhur son of
Immer, the chief officer in the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying
these things, 2 he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at
the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the Lord's temple. 3 The next day, when Pashhur
released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord's name for
you is not Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib.
4 For this is what the Lord says: 'I will make you a terror to yourself
and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the
sword of their enemies. I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon, who
will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. 5 I will hand over
to their enemies all the wealth of this city — all its products, all its
valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away
as plunder and carry it off to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who live
in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried,
you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.'"
Jer 20:7-13 (NIV) O Lord, you deceived me, and I was
deceived;
you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8 Whenever I speak, I cry out
proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the Lord has brought me
insult and reproach all day long.
9 But if I say, "I will not mention him
or speak any more in his name,"
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot.
10 I hear many whispering,
"Terror on every side!
Report him! Let's report him!"
All my friends
are waiting for me to slip, saying,
"Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we will prevail over him
and take our revenge on him."
11 But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior;
so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced;
their dishonor will never be forgotten.
12 O Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous
and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
13 Sing to the Lord!
Give praise to the Lord!
He rescues the life of the needy
from the hands of the wicked.
Jer 21:1-10 (NIV) The word came to Jeremiah from the
Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest
Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. They said: 2 "Inquire now of the Lord for us
because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the Lord will
perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from
us."
3 But Jeremiah answered them, "Tell Zedekiah, 4
'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am about to turn against
you the weapons of war that are in your hands, which you are using to fight
the king of Babylon and the Babylonians who are outside the wall besieging
you. And I will gather them inside this city. 5 I myself will fight against
you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in anger and fury and great
wrath. 6 I will strike down those who live in this city — both men and animals
— and they will die of a terrible plague. 7 After that, declares the Lord, I
will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the people in this
city who survive the plague, sword and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon and to their enemies who seek their lives. He will put them to the
sword; he will show them no mercy or pity or compassion.'
8 "Furthermore, tell the people, 'This is what
the Lord says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of
death. 9 Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague.
But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you
will live; he will escape with his life. 10 I have determined to do this city
harm and not good, declares the Lord. It will be given into the hands of the
king of Babylon, and he will destroy it with fire.'
