Dirty Job.

Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah was saying to all the people: “Thus says the Lord: He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live. He shall have his life as a prize of war, and live. Thus says the Lord: This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and be taken.” Then the officials said to the king, “Let this man be put to death, for he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm.” King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your hands, for the king can do nothing against you.” So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud. – Jeremiah 38:1-6 ESV

No water. Only mud. Keep those four words in mind. Jeremiah has already been put in a dungeon for being accused of treason. After pleading with the king, Jeremiah is released to a comfortable internment in the court of the guard. But he obviously continued to speak up and let anyone who could hear understand that God was still offering two options: Stay in the city and die at the hands of the Babylonians or surrender and live. Remember, Jeremiah was initially arrested because they thought he was taking his own advice and trying to leave the city so he could surrender. But now, under armed guard, Jeremiah continued to spread his “treasonous” message. And the king’s officials don’t like what they are hearing, so they take the matter to King Zedekiah.

“Sir, this man must die! That kind of talk will undermine the morale of the few fighting men we have left, as well as that of all the people. This man is a traitor!” – Jeremiah 38:4 NLT

Off with his head! That’s essentially what these men were demanding. They wanted Jeremiah dead. And the king, exasperated by Jeremiah’s stubbornness, gives in to their demands.

King Zedekiah agreed. “All right,” he said. “Do as you like. I can’t stop you.” – Jeremiah 38:5 NLT

Well, he could have stopped them – if he wanted to, but he didn’t. He had lost patience. He was sick of hearing all of Jeremiah rhetoric about coming judgment and destruction. Zedekiah refused to believe that God was going to destroy the city of Jerusalem. He still held out hope that God would relent and change His mind. I am not quite sure why he held on to that overly optimistic outlook, but he did – to the bitter end.

So, Jeremiah is taken and lowered into an empty cistern. This is an interesting choice on the part of these men. Remember, the city has been under siege by the Babylonians for some time. They have been running low on food and water. The cistern, which normally would have been full of water, was empty. And this should remind us of something God had said two decades earlier and recorded in the second chapter of this same book:

“For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me—the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!” – Jeremiah 2:13 NLT

The cistern into which Jeremiah was lowered was empty. There was no water. Why? Because God was punishing them for having abandoned Him – the fountain of living water. All across Jerusalem, the man-made cisterns were empty and incapable of sustaining life. Just like the false gods on whom they had placed their hope and wasted their worship, these cisterns were proving useless in time of need. No water. Only mud.

This cistern, that should have been full of water and fully capable of slacking the physical thirsts of the people, was empty. And the mud was an apt symbol of the peoples’ filthy moral standing before God. And it was into this dark, dank and death-inducing atmosphere that Jeremiah was placed. But that had been his circumstances from day one. Nothing had really changed. Judah was a lifeless, spiritually waterless place where the living water of God had dried up a long time ago. But God had promised Jeremiah:

“And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” – Jeremiah 1:8 NLT

They could place Jeremiah in an empty cistern, but it would do nothing to restore their good fortunes. Putting the prophet of God in the dark was not going to shed any light on their circumstances. Because they were the ones who were devoid of living water. They had turned their backs on God long ago, now He was getting ready to turn His back on them. They had already felt the effects of their rebellion against God. Back in chapter 14, God described the circumstances within the walls of Jerusalem.

Her nobles send their servants for water;
they come to the cisterns;
they find no water;
they return with their vessels empty;
they are ashamed and confounded
and cover their heads. – Jeremiah 14:3 ESV

But as we will see in the following verses, God was going to come to Jeremiah’s rescue. Men had placed him in a cistern, but God would redeem him. He would be provided with a way out. But as far as the future of the people of Judah were concerned, their physical and spiritual thirst were going to remain and result in their physical and spiritual death. They would be the ones to suffer in the long run. Jeremiah was in a bad spot, sunk in the mud, and left to die. But God was on his side. He had been faithful. He had done what God had commanded him to do. And God was going to redeem and rescue him.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

Too Stubborn to Listen.

Now when the Chaldean army had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the approach of Pharaoh’s army, Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to receive his portion there among the people. When he was at the Benjamin Gate, a sentry there named Irijah the son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah, seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans.” And Jeremiah said, “It is a lie; I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.” But Irijah would not listen to him, and seized Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. And the officials were enraged at Jeremiah, and they beat him and imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan the secretary, for it had been made a prison.

When Jeremiah had come to the dungeon cells and remained there many days, King Zedekiah sent for him and received him. The king questioned him secretly in his house and said, “Is there any word from the Lord?” Jeremiah said, “There is.” Then he said, “You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” Jeremiah also said to King Zedekiah, “What wrong have I done to you or your servants or this people, that you have put me in prison? Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land’? Now hear, please, O my lord the king: let my humble plea come before you and do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary, lest I die there.” So King Zedekiah gave orders, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard. And a loaf of bread was given him daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread of the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard. – Jeremiah 37:11-21 ESV

Verse 5 of this chapter tells us that there was a brief respite in the siege against Jerusalem when the Babylonians abandoned their camps outside the walls in order to deal with a threat from the Egyptians. During this break in the action, Jeremiah made an attempt to leave the city in order to conduct some personal business in the nearby area belonging to the tribe of Benjamin. But as Jeremiah tried to leave the city, he was recognized by one of the guards and accused of trying to defect to the Babylonians. Obviously, Jeremiah was well known in Jerusalem. He had a reputation and it was not a good one. He was the prophet who was always prophesying doom and gloom. He was not well-liked or appreciated by the people. And even the sentry, a man named Irijah, thought Jeremiah was up to no good. His accusation that Jeremiah was defecting to the Babylonians was essentially a charge of treason. And Irijah probably remembered the words of Jeremiah, spoken to the people of Jerusalem, and assumed that Jeremiah was taking advantage of the lifting of the siege to escape the coming destruction.

“Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians will live. Their reward will be life!” – Jeremiah 22:9 NLT

In the very next chapter, we will see the officials of the city accuse Jeremiah of treason.

“Sir, this man must die! That kind of talk will undermine the morale of the few fighting men we have left, as well as that of all the people. This man is a traitor!” – Jeremiah 38:4 NLT

And the “kind of talk” they refer to are the words of Jeremiah encouraging the people to leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians.

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who surrender to the Babylonians will live. Their reward will be life. They will live!’” – Jeremiah 38:2 NLT

So, it seems that Irijah had every right to suspect Jeremiah’s intentions. And while Jeremiah would vehemently deny the accusation, he was arrested and dragged before the city officials. They were incensed and had Jeremiah flogged and imprisoned. This is a markedly different reaction from the city officials than the one they had when Baruch read the scroll containing the words of God recorded back in chapter six. On that occasion, they had responded positively. In fact, they had told Baruch and Jeremiah to hide. And when they had brought the scroll to King Jehoiakim and he had burned it, they pleaded with him to stop. But something had changed. At this point in the story, they are fed up with Jeremiah. There is a new king and the intensity of the Babylonian siege has everybody on edge. So, when they get the change to take out some of their frustration and anger on Jeremiah, they do so. He was eventually moved to a dungeon cell, where he remained for many days.

Some time later, King Zedekiah sends for Jeremiah and asks him an interesting question: “Do you have any messages from the Lord?” (Jeremiah 37:17 NLT). This is an interesting question. What was Zedekiah expecting Jeremiah to say? For several decades not, Jeremiah had said the same things over and over. His messages had not changed. His words of warning from God had not varied one iota. So, what was Zedekiah thinking the prophet was going to say? Did he really believe that throwing Jeremiah in prison was going to force him to give an upbeat message, rather than a negative one. Was brute force and intimidation against God’s prophet going to change the will of God? We aren’t told what the motivation behind Zedekiah’s question was, but we can assume that he was looking for good news. Yet, he would be disappointed, once again.

Jeremiah’s news was short and sweet: “You will be defeated by the king of Babylon” (Jeremiah 37:17 NLT). Probably not what Zedekiah was hoping to hear. But Jeremiah told him the truth. He could have lied and told the king that all would be well. Jeremiah could have told Zedekiah what he wanted to hear and been freed for doing so. But he would not lie. He could not bring himself to speak anything but what he had heard from God.

He did have a question for the king though. He wanted to know why he was being held a prisoner. He had committed no crime. All he had done was prophecy truth. In fact, he challenged the king to compare the words of Jeremiah with those of the false prophets who had been saying that all would be well. What was right? Who had been telling the truth? The siege engines were just outside the walls. The signs of famine, disease and death were everywhere. Jeremiah’s predictions had come true, signifying that they were from God. So, the only thing Jeremiah could be accused of was speaking the truth. And Jeremiah pleads with the king not to put him back in the dungeon for fear that he would die there. Zedekiah agrees to move Jeremiah from the dungeon, but still keeps him a prisoner, placing him in “the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace” (Jeremiah 37:21 NLT), and ordering that he be fed as long as any bread remained available in the city. It seems that Zedekiah still feared that Jeremiah might attempt to run away, so he kept him under lock and key. He was going to make sure that Jeremiah was there to experience every single aspect of the prophecies he had delivered against the city of Jerusalem.

Zedekiah was looking for a way to get out of this terrible jam. He had been placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar. And as soon as he was made king, he had gone out of his way to rebel against Babylon. He attempted to make an alliance with Egypt, which is why the Babylonians had temporarily lifted their siege. They were off dealing with a potential threat from the Egyptians. But it wouldn’t last. The Egyptians would run and the Babylonians would return. And yet, Zedekiah kept looking for ways to change the outcome. He kept hoping for a way out of the predicament they were in. But rather than repent, he kept scheming. Instead of returning to God in humility, he kept searching for ways to escape God’s wrath. Zedekiah represents all those who have heard the call of God, but refuse to heed it. He is that stubborn, hard-headed individual who knows what God requires, but is determined to find another way. He has been offered mercy from God if he will only do what God says. He doesn’t want to do thing God’s way. He has a mind of his own. His will takes precedence over God’s will. He thinks he knows what is best. But he will be proved dramatically wrong. His stubbornness will be his downfall. His refusal to submit to God will result in his humiliation before Nebuchadnezzar. 

Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. – Proverbs 16:18 NLT

Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. – Proverbs 11:2 NLT

Haughtiness goes before destruction; humility precedes honor. – Proverbs 18:12 NLT

Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. – Proverbs 29:23 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

Pray For Us!

Zedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim. But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

King Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please pray for us to the Lord our God.” Now Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people, for he had not yet been put in prison. The army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt. And when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: “Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Judah who sent you to me to inquire of me, ‘Behold, Pharaoh's army that came to help you is about to return to Egypt, to its own land. And the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against this city. They shall capture it and burn it with fire. Thus says the Lord, Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go away. For even if you should defeat the whole army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded men, every man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.’” – Jeremiah 37:1-10 ESV

Fast-forward about 18 years. Chapter 37 chronicles events that take place almost two decades after those recorded in chapter 36. Zedekiah is now the king of Judah and the Babylonians, referred to as the Chaldeans, are laying siege to Jerusalem. Jehoiachin (Coniah), the son of Jehoiakim, took the throne after his father, but only lasted three months before he surrendered to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and was taken captive. Then, Nebuchadnezzar replaced him with his uncle, Mattaniah, whose name was changed to Zedekiah.

The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign and carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the Lord had foretold. He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained, except the poorest people of the land. And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon. The king's mother, the king's wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, 7,000, and the craftsmen and the metal workers, 1,000, all of them strong and fit for war.  – 2 Kings 24:12-16 ESV

Jehoiachin’s surrender was costly. It not only meant his own captivity and deportation, but that of his mother, wives and all his chief officials. On top of that. the Babylonians plundered the palace and the temple; and took thousands of leading citizens of Jerusalem back to Babylon as slaves.

Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah became a vassal of Nebuchadnezzar, answering directly to the Babylonian king and commanded to pay an annual tribute tax. In the face of the ongoing presence of the Babylonians in Judah and the knowledge that God had predicted the fall and destruction of Jerusalem, Zedekiah sent two emissaries to plead with Jeremiah to pray to God on the nation’s behalf. But this time, Zedekiah would have been well aware of God’s predictions of the coming fall of the nation and the less-than-pleasant end that Zedekiah would face. 

Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. You shall not escape from his hand but shall surely be captured and delivered into his hand. You shall see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face. And you shall go to Babylon. – Jeremiah 34:2-3 ESV

Of course, this prophecy doesn’t sound so bad, but the actual way it all panned out paints a much more bleak and painful image.

Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians, they waited for nightfall. Then they slipped through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden and headed toward the Jordan Valley.

But the Babylonian troops chased the king and caught him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered. They took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah. They made Zedekiah watch as they slaughtered his sons. Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon. – 2 Kings 25:4-7 NLT

But in spite of God’s warnings against Zedekiah, he refused to repent. Instead, he asked the prophet to pray for he and the nation. He wanted to God’s forgiveness without showing any signs of repentance. He wanted God to show grace and mercy, while he and the people were unwilling to show any signs of true heart change. Part of what seems to have motivated Zedekiah’s request for prayer was the presence of the Egyptians. It seems that he had made a deal with the Egyptians to help bail them out of trouble. In the book of 2 Kings, we read that: “Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon” (2 Kings 24:20 NLT). But while Zedekiah had high hopes that God might use the Egyptians to buy relief from the onslaught of the Babylonians, it was not to be. God gave him bad news:

“Pharaoh’s army is about to return to Egypt, though he came here to help you. Then the Babylonians will come back and capture this city and burn it to the ground.” – Jeremiah 37:7-8 NLT

Zedekiah’s trump card was about to turn and run. They would prove to be no help. And God was not going to rescue them from all that He had predicted would happen. God wasn’t interested in Zedekiah’s request for help, because Zedekiah had not plans to repent. Zedekiah and the people may have been high-fiving one another when the Babylonians vacated their camps outside the walls. They may have excitedly assumed that the worst was over. But they were wrong.

“Do not fool yourselves into thinking that the Babylonians are gone for good. They aren’t! Even if you were to destroy the entire Babylonian army, leaving only a handful of wounded survivors, they would still stagger from their tents and burn this city to the ground!” – Jeremiah 37:9-10 NLT

They couldn’t pray away the Babylonians. Begging God to change His mind wasn’t going to cut it as long they refused to change their ways. They were essentially asking God to repent, to change His mind about destroying them, when they were the ones in the wrong. I am reminded of the response God gave to King Solomon on the day that the temple of God was dedicated. He told the people of Israel:

“At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or send plagues among you. Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place. For I have chosen this Temple and set it apart to be holy—a place where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart.” – 2 Chronicles 7:13-16 NLT

Notice what God wants: Humility that reflects an awareness of their guilt and their need for God’s forgiveness; and a turning to Him and away from their sin. THEN, God will hear, forgive and restore. Prayer without humility, a seeking of God and a rejection of sin is pointless and powerless. Those prayers will not be heard or answered. And what is amazing is that Zedekiah and the people of Judah, who had refused to listen to one thing that God had said to them through Jeremiah, had the audacity to expect God to hear their requests to spare them.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

He Would Not Hear.

Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says the Lord, You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cut off from it man and beast?” Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night. And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the people of Judah all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, but they would not hear.’”

Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them. – Jeremiah 36:27-32 ESV

Jehoaikim could burn the scroll, but he couldn’t eliminate the words of God. He could consign God’s words to the fire, but it would do nothing to alter the plans of God. Judgment was coming. And to prove just how inevitable God’s will was, Jeremiah was instructed to take yet another scroll and dictate the words of God so that Baruch could write them down. But this time, God gave Jeremiah a few additional words just for Jehoiakim.

Then say to the king, ‘This is what the Lord says: You burned the scroll because it said the king of Babylon would destroy this land and empty it of people and animals. Now this is what the Lord says about King Jehoiakim of Judah: He will have no heirs to sit on the throne of David. His dead body will be thrown out to lie unburied—exposed to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. I will punish him and his family and his attendants for their sins. I will pour out on them and on all the people of Jerusalem and Judah all the disasters I promised, for they would not listen to my warnings.’” – Jeremiah 36:29-31 NLT

The original scroll had contained God’s dire predictions of coming judgment due to the sins of Judah. If you recall, when God had instructed Jeremiah to record these words of warning on the scroll, He had also said: “Perhaps the people of Judah will repent when they hear again all the terrible things I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrongdoings” (Jeremiah 36:3 NLT). When Jehoiakim’s father, Josiah, had been king of Judah, he had rediscovered the book of the Law and, when he had heard it read, he had repented. He had immediately launched an effort to bring spiritual reform to the nation of Judah. He tore his clothes as a sign of mourning and conviction over the sins of he and his people. But Jehoiakim had reacted quite differently. Rather than tear his clothes, he had cut the scroll containing God’s words. Instead of burning the high places where false gods were worshiped in Judah, like his father had done, Jehoiakim had burned God’s message. But his efforts to destroy the words of God would fail miserably. And, eventually he would find that what God says, goes. What He predicts, happens. What He decrees, comes to pass. Ignoring God does not make Him go away.

Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon. – 2 Chronicles 36:5-6 NLT

There seems to be a bit of confusion as to what exactly happened to Jehoiakim. God predicts that “His dead body will be thrown out to lie unburied—exposed to the heat of the day and the frost of the night” (Jeremiah 36:30 NLT). This same prophecy is recorded earlier in the book of Jeremiah.

He will be buried like a dead donkey—
    dragged out of Jerusalem and dumped outside the gates! – Jeremiah 22:19 NLT

But the book of 2 Chronicles records that he was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon. So, did he die in Judah or Babylon? It would seem the the Chronicles passage simply states that Nebuchadnezzar had Jehoiakim arrested and “bound in chains” with the intent of taking him to Babylon. But God’s prophecy was fulfilled before that could happen. Jehoiakim would die an ignominious death in Judah, and his body thrown outside the city walls, just as God had said. And while his son, Jehoiachin would claim the thrown after his father’s death, it would not be according to God’s will and his reign would be short-lived – a mere three months. Nebuchadnezzar would remove him and replace him with his uncle, therefore fulfilling God’s prophecy that Jehoiakim would “have no heirs to sit on the throne of David” (Jeremiah 36:30 NLT).

The will of God can be ignored, but it cannot be stopped. Even the might King Nebuchadnezzar would be unable to alter the will of God. He may have had plans to take Jehoiakim back to Babylon, but that is NOT what God had said would happen. God’s will trumps man’s plan every time.

The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. – Proverbs 16:9 ESV

Jehoiakim could despise the words of God, but he could not alter the outcome they predicted. He could attempt to eliminate the scroll containing God’s words along with the prophet who spoke them and the scribe who penned them. But his efforts would prove futile. Men and nations refuse to honor God as God. They deny His will and attempt to live their lives as if he doesn’t even exist. But Jehoiakim and, eventually, Nebuchadnezzar, would learn that God is sovereign over all.

Why are the nations so angry?
    Why do they waste their time with futile plans?
The kings of the earth prepare for battle;
    the rulers plot together
against the Lord
    and against his anointed one.
“Let us break their chains,” they cry,
    “and free ourselves from slavery to God.”

But the one who rules in heaven laughs.
    The Lord scoffs at them.
Then in anger he rebukes them,
    terrifying them with his fierce fury. – Psalm 2:1-5 NLT

God’s will will be done. His plans will be fulfilled. What He says will come to pass will do so without any alteration or interference. Kings and nations can rage against Him. Individuals can attempt to act as if He does not exist. But God continues to rule and reign. His will continues to happen just as He has planned it. Jehoiakim could burn the scroll of God, but he would never make a dent in the plans of God.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

The Folly of Fools.

So they went into the court to the king, having put the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the secretary, and they reported all the words to the king. Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the secretary. And Jehudi read it to the king and all the officials who stood beside the king. It was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter house, and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him. As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot. Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments. Even when Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son and Seraiah the son of Azriel and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the secretary and Jeremiah the prophet, but the Lord hid them. – Jeremiah 36:20-26 ESV

This section of chapter 36 provides a sharp contrast between Jehoiakim, the current king of Judah, and that of Josiah, his father. During the reign of Josiah, when the scroll containing the law of God was found during renovation work on the temple, he had reacted quite differently to its reading.

Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” Shaphan read it out loud before the king. When the king heard the words of the law scroll, he tore his clothes. – 2 Kings 22:10-11 NLT

Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him. And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant. – 2 Kings 23:1-3 NLT

Quite a difference. Josiah had received the word of God with fear and reverence. He had recognized the sins of the people and understood the gravity of their rebellion against God. And he took full responsibility for it.

But what about Jehoiakim? How did he respond when he heard the words of God as spoken to Jeremiah the prophet and recorded by Baruch?

Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king took a knife and cut off that section of the scroll. He then threw it into the fire, section by section, until the whole scroll was burned up. – Jeremiah 36:23 NLT

Arrogantly and fearlessly, he personally burned the scroll containing the words of God – piece by piece – until it was completely destroyed. And he did this even as Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged him to stop. But the king and his advisors were completely unmoved by the warnings of God contained in the scroll. Slowly but surely, the king threw them in the fire, to be consumed, and to illustrate his disdain for them. And the text makes it very clear that, “Neither the king nor his attendants showed any signs of fear or repentance at what they heard” (Jeremiah 36:24 NLT).

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. – Proverbs 9:10 ESV

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. – Proverbs 1:7 ESV

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. – Psalm 14:1 ESV

These verses provide a vivid description of what is going on in the winter room of the palace as Jehoiakim slowly destroys the words of God found on the scroll. He has no fear of God. He is a fool. And, in reality, he is acting as if there is not God. But he was not alone. The prophet Ezekiel was given a vision by God, in which he was able to see hidden things going on in Judah, that no one was aware of, but God.

“Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’” – Ezekiel 8:12 NLT

The elders of the people were guilty of committing sins against God, in secret, and justifying their actions because they believed that God was unable to see them. In essence, they were acting as if there was no God. They were fools. They were acting just like the wicked described in Psalm 10: “The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us! He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!” You see this attitude reflected throughout the psalms, revealing a disturbing trend among God’s people.

“The Lord isn’t looking,” they say,
    “and besides, the God of Israel doesn’t care.” – Psalm 94:7 NLT

But they were wrong. Their assessment of God’s sovereignty and omniscience was way off the mark. And God lets them know it.

Think again, you fools!
    When will you finally catch on?
Is he deaf—the one who made your ears?
    Is he blind—the one who formed your eyes?
He punishes the nations—won’t he also punish you?
    He knows everything—doesn’t he also know what you are doing?
The Lord knows people’s thoughts;
    he knows they are worthless! – Psalm 94:8-11 NLT

God was watching as Jehoiakim threw the pieces of the scroll on the fire. As each section containing the words of God was consumed, God’s righteous anger intensified. And the fate of Judah became more permanently sealed. Rather than repent, Jehoiakim sent men to arrest Jeremiah and Baruch. Not content with the destruction of the scroll, he wanted to get his hands on the ones who had produced it. He thought that, by eliminating Jeremiah, his problems would be over. He wrongly assumed that his nemesis was a man, but in reality, Jehoiakim was choosing to do battle with the Lord of Hosts, God Almighty. And that was a battle he was not going to win. He could refuse to listen to the words of God. He could even burn them in a fire. He could attempt to eliminate the prophet of God. But he could not make God go away. And none of his efforts would alter the plan of God one iota.

Think about it, you rebels!
Remember what I accomplished in antiquity!
Truly I am God, I have no peer;
I am God, and there is none like me,
who announces the end from the beginning
and reveals beforehand what has not yet occurred,
who says, ‘My plan will be realized,
I will accomplish what I desire,’
who summons an eagle from the east,
from a distant land, one who carries out my plan.
Yes, I have decreed,
yes, I will bring it to pass;
I have formulated a plan,
yes, I will carry it out. – Isaiah 46:8-11 NLT

Jehoiakim was a king. He had a palace. He had some semblance of power and authority. He could strike fear into the hearts of men. But he was not God. He was no match for God. While he could burn a scroll in a fire, God could consume an entire nation with a single word. He could bring destruction in the form of the Babylonians and reduce Jehoiakim’s palace and capital to ashes. But in his pride, Jehoiakim acted as if God didn’t exist. In his foolishness, he assumed God didn’t see and, even if He did, He wouldn’t act. He was wrong. Dead wrong. And God was about to let him know just how wrong he was.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

Read It and Weep.

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord that he had spoken to him. And Jeremiah ordered Baruch, saying, “I am banned from going to the house of the Lord, so you are to go, and on a day of fasting in the hearing of all the people in the Lord's house you shall read the words of the Lord from the scroll that you have written at my dictation. You shall read them also in the hearing of all the men of Judah who come out of their cities. It may be that their plea for mercy will come before the Lord, and that every one will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.” And Baruch the son of Neriah did all that Jeremiah the prophet ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the Lord in the Lord's house.

In the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord. Then, in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll, in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper court, at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house.

When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, he went down to the king’s house, into the secretary’s chamber, and all the officials were sitting there: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son of Achbor, Gemariah the son of Shaphan, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the officials. And Micaiah told them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of the people. Then all the officials sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, “Take in your hand the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come.” So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them. And they said to him, “Sit down and read it.” So Baruch read it to them. When they heard all the words, they turned one to another in fear. And they said to Baruch, “We must report all these words to the king.” Then they asked Baruch, “Tell us, please, how did you write all these words? Was it at his dictation?” Baruch answered them, “He dictated all these words to me, while I wrote them with ink on the scroll.” Then the officials said to Baruch, “Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.” – Jeremiah 36:1-19 ESV

It has been about 22 years since Jeremiah began his prophetic ministry in Judah. He started when Josiah was king in Judah. Now Jehoiakim sits on the throne. In the two decades he has been acting as God’s spokesman, he has said many things. He has provided the people of Judah with many warnings and pleaded with them repeatedly to return to God and find grace, mercy and forgiveness. But there has been little to no positive response to his messages. The people remain stubbornly opposed to any form of repentance. They refuse to change their ways. So, God instructs Jeremiah to put it all in writing on a scroll. This would create a permanent record of God’s words and a tangible reminder of just how many times He has patiently pleaded with His people to change their ways.

Jeremiah enlisted the aid of Baruch, who carefully recorded on the scroll all that Jeremiah dictated to him. When this process was complete, Jeremiah instructed Baruch to take the scroll and read it in the presence of all the people at the temple on a fast day. It seems that Jeremiah was under some sort of civil restriction that prevented him from going to the temple himself, which is why he sent Baruch. And when the day came, Baruch did as instructed and read from the scroll. The text tells us, “People from all over Judah had come to Jerusalem to attend the services at the Temple on that day” (Jeremiah 36:9 NLT). It was a full house. We’re told that Baruch “stood in front of the Temple room of Gemariah, son of Shaphan the secretary. This room was just off the upper courtyard of the Temple, near the New Gate entrance” (Jeremiah 36:10 NLT). This is an important point of interest, because Gemariah’s father, Shaphan, was the one who had read the rediscovered book of the Law to King Josiah. During Josiah’s reign, he had committed himself to restoring and revitalizing Judah’s spiritual heritage. He instituted a wide range of reforms, including making much-needed repairs to the temple of God. In the process, they discovered the book of the Law.

And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king. – 2 Kings 22:8-10 NLT

Now, nearly two decade later, Baruch is reading the scroll containing God’s pronouncements against Judah from the room that belonged to the secretary for the temple, Gemariah, son of Shaphan. This note provides a tangible link back to the days when the book of the Law had been rediscovered and read to the king. And when King Josiah had heard what was written in the book of the Law, he had responded in fear and remorse. He told his spiritual advisors:

“Go, seek an oracle from the Lord for me and the people—for all Judah. Find out about the words of this scroll that has been discovered. For the Lord’s fury has been ignited against us, because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this scroll by doing all that it instructs us to do.” – 2 Kings 22:13 NLT

These men ended up seeking the help of a woman known as Huldah the prophetess. And she gave them a word from God.

Say this to the man who sent you to me: “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to bring disaster on this place and its residents, the details of which are recorded in the scroll which the king of Judah has read. This will happen because they have abandoned me and offered sacrifices to other gods, angering me with all the idols they have made. My anger will ignite against this place and will not be extinguished!’” – 2 Kings 22:15-17 NLT

Fast-forward twenty years later and you have Baruch reading a scroll containing the words of God given to Jeremiah. Nothing had changed. The reforms of Josiah had failed to change the hearts of the people. They had continued to abandon God and follow after false gods. Their wickedness had increased rather than diminish.

And when Micaiah, the son of Gemariah and grandson of Shaphan, heard the words that Baruch read, he went immediately to the palace and reported what he had heard to a group of administrative officials who in the midst of a meeting. Notice that these men were not attending the fast day at the temple. They were too busy working. But when Micaiah told them what was happening at the temple, they immediately sent for Baruch and, when he arrived, they had him read the contents of the scroll to them. Upon hearing the words read by Baruch and, after having determined that they were from Jeremiah himself, they decided that this news needed to get to the king. And knowing that this news was not going to be received well, they instructed Baruch:

“You and Jeremiah should both hide,” the officials told Baruch. “Don’t tell anyone where you are!” – Jeremiah 36:19 NLT

They told Baruch and Jeremiah to go into hiding and then they secreted the scroll itself in the secretary’s office in the palace. Once again, it is interesting to note that there had been a group of men gathered for a meeting in the secretary’s office. One of them was Elnathan son of Acbor. Elnathan’s father had been present at the reading of the law scroll in Josiah’s day, and he had been one of the men sent to seek an omen from the prophetess. So, there is another detail provided that forms a generational link between the days of King Josiah to those of King Jehoiakim. Twenty years had passed, but no read change had taken place, except that the people had actually become worse, not better. The sins of Judah had increased, not decreased. The book of 2 Kings tells us that King Josiah, “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left” (2 Kings 22:2 ESV). But of Jehoaikim it says: “he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done” (2 Kings 23:37 ESV).

Two decades had passed. Three different kings had reigned in Judah. And during that time, God had spoken time and time again through Jeremiah, calling the people of Judah to repentance. But no one would listen. And yet, God had told Jeremiah, “Perhaps the people of Judah will repent when they hear again all the terrible things I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrongdoings” (Jeremiah 36:3 NLT). That was not to be the case. And God was not surprised by their response. He knew the condition of their hearts. They were incapable of turning from their sins. They were addicted to their spiritual adultery and apostasy. So, judgment was inevitable.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

Failure to Listen.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to my words? declares the Lord. The command that Jonadab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept, and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me. I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, ‘Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to you and your fathers.’ But you did not incline your ear or listen to me. The sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have kept the command that their father gave them, but this people has not obeyed me. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered.”

But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done all that he commanded you, therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before me.” – Jeremiah 35:12-19 ESV

The Rechabites had kept their word. Jeremiah had invited them to a private session somewhere within the temple and, under directions given to him by God, had ordered them to drink wine. But they had refused. They were not going to disobey the command given to them by Jonadad, their leader, and they were not going to break the vow they had made to him. When Jeremiah had placed the wine in front of them and ordered them to drink, they had politely deferred, saying:

“So we have obeyed him in all these things. We have never had a drink of wine to this day, nor have our wives, our sons, or our daughters. We haven’t built houses or owned vineyards or farms or planted crops. We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed all the commands of Jehonadab, our ancestor.” – Jeremiah 35:8-10 NLT

Now, God commands Jeremiah to take yet another message to the people of Judah warning them of what is about to happen. Remember, this chapter is actually out of chronological order. It takes us back in time to the days when Jehoakim was king. Chapter 34 chronicled the last days of Zedekiah, the king who reigned after Jehoakim. There is no reason given for the out-of-order telling of these events, but it seems to be a simple retrospective recounting of just how things had gotten to the sad state of affairs that led to the fall of Judah and Jerusalem. God’s decision to bring judgment on His people had not been a spur-of-the-moment decision. He had not knee-jerk reacted and flown off the handle in a rage at a single, isolated incident. The nation of Judah, like its northern neighbor, Israel, had a long track record of disobedience and stubborn refusal to listen to the call of God. 

And God allowed His prophet, Jeremiah, to see up close and personal what real faithfulness looks like. The Rechabites provided a living lesson of uncompromising, unwavering obedience. It’s interesting to note that the Rechabites were actually living within the city walls of Jerusalem when Jeremiah made his offer of wine to them. At first blush, this might aappear to be a violation of their vow to Jonadab.

“You and your descendants must never drink wine. And do not build houses or plant crops or vineyards, but always live in tents. If you follow these commands, you will live long, good lives in the land.” – Jeremiah 35:6-7 NLT

Yet, the Rechabites admitted that they were living in Jerusalem.

“But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked this country, we were afraid of the Babylonian and Syrian armies. So we decided to move to Jerusalem. That is why we are here.” – Jeremiah 35:11 NLT

They made it clear to Jeremiah that their presence in Jerusalem was simply to escape destruction at the hands of the Babylonians. They were seeking refuge, not setting up residence. There is no indication that they had bought houses or had intentions of making Jerusalem their permanent home. Jonadab’s command restricted them from building homes. They were required to live in tents. And, more than likely, that was exactly what they had been doing when Jeremiah called on them and extended his invitation for a meeting in the temple. 

God made it clear to Jeremiah just what the point of this little episode with the Rechabites was all about. Jeremiah was to tell the people of Judah: “Come and learn a lesson about how to obey me” (Jeremiah 35:13 NLT). Then, He had pointed out: “The Recabites do not drink wine to this day because their ancestor Jehonadab told them not to” (Jeremiah 35:14 NLT). These people were obeying the words of a man. But the people of Judah had refused to listen to or obey the words of God. “But I have spoken to you again and again, and you refuse to obey me” (Jeremiah 35:14 NLT). Jonadab spoke, and his people obeyed. God spoke, and His people refused to listen and obey. And God spoke repeatedly. He sent His prophets. They provided timely reminders. They warned and threatened. The offered promises of God’s blessings for obedience. They told of unprecedented curses for refusal to be faithful to their covenant with God. But the people refused to listen. They heard, but they did not obey. And makes a clear comparison between the Rechabites and the Judahites.

“But you would not listen to me or obey me. The descendants of Jehonadab son of Recab have obeyed their ancestor completely, but you have refused to listen to me.” – Jeremiah 35:15-16 NLT

Then God drops the bomb. He says, “Therefore…”. As a result of their blatant disobedience, the people of Judah were going to suffer the judgment of God. And God describes Himself as “the Lord of Hosts”. The New Living Translation reads, “the God of Heaven’s Armies”. And in the Hebrew, it can be literally translated, “Yahweh of armies”. God presents Himself as the commander-in-chief of all the host of heaven. He is all-powerful and has a limitless number of heavenly hosts (angels) at His disposal. Jesus Himself referred to God’s heavenly host on the night he was betrayed in the garden. Peter, in a vain attempt to protect Jesus from capture, had cut off the ear of one of the high priest’s servants. Jesus immediately responded, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53 NLT).

By presenting Himself as Yahweh of armies, God was emphasizing His sovereignty and power. He also described Himself as the God of Israel. The Rechabites had Jonadab. But the Israelites had God. And yet, they still refused to obey Him. So, warns God, “Because you refuse to listen or answer when I call, I will send upon Judah and Jerusalem all the disasters I have threatened” (Jeremiah 35:17 NLT). No obedience? No mercy. But then, God spoke a word to the Rechabites, describing Himself with the very same term.

“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You have obeyed your ancestor Jehonadab in every respect, following all his instructions.’ Therefore, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Jehonadab son of Recab will always have descendants who serve me.’” – Jeremiah 35:18-19 NLT

The God of Israel was promising the people of Recab, who were Kenites and not Jews, that He was going to bless them. This group of people would have a place in God’s presence forever. They would be sustained and protected by God. This simple, nomadic people, would be rewarded for their faithfulness and obedience. And the people of Judah would suffer the consequences of their disobedience. It would seem that God would have us take away the obvious lesson found in this chapter regarding obedience. God puts a high value on faithfulness. When He speaks, He doesn’t just expect His words to be heard, but to be obeyed. It is not enough to read God’s Word. We must apply what we hear to our lives. Knowing what God expects of us is not sufficient. Awareness of His will is not the same thing as obedience to it. Like a sovereign over a nation, God, Yahweh of armies, stands over His people and demands their allegiance and obedience. He is Lord of all. He is the one true God. He is to be heard and obeyed. He is to be feared and revered. The Rechabites would never have considered disobeying their vow to Jonadab. But the people of God regularly and blatantly broke their commitments to God. As the prophet, Samuel, told the disobedient King Saul:

“What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.” – 1 Samuel 15:22-23 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

The Original Promise Keepers.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak with them and bring them to the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers; then offer them wine to drink.” So I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites. I brought them to the house of the Lord into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the officials, above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, keeper of the threshold. Then I set before the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, “Drink wine.” But they answered, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons forever. You shall not build a house; you shall not sow seed; you shall not plant or have a vineyard; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed, but we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done all that Jonadab our father commanded us. But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Syrians.’ So we are living in Jerusalem.” – Jeremiah 35:1-112 ESV

The events in this chapter actually precede those recorded in chapters 32-34. King Jehoiakim is sitting on the throne when the Babylonians make their first foray into Judah. As a result of the Babylonian invasion of that area of the Middle East, Jehoiakim will become a vassal of King Nebuchadnezzar, an arrangement that will last three long years, until 602 B.C., when he will rebel against Babylon. The book of 2 Kings records what happened as a result.

During Jehoiakim’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. Jehoiakim was his subject for three years, but then he rebelled against him. The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets. – 2 Kings 24:1-2 NLT

Jehoiakim found himself having to deal with not only the Babylonians, but raiding parties made up of Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites as well. Jehoakim could attempt to resist the control of Babylon and refuse to submit to King Nebuchadnezzar’s control, but he would not succeed. What he failed to realize was that this was all part of God’s plan. Jehoakim succeeded Josiah as king of Judah. But he did not continue Josiah’s efforts to bring reform to the nation.

Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother was Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as his ancestors had done. – 2 Kings 23:36-37 NLT

God has given Jeremiah some fairly stern words to speak to King Jehoakim regarding his reign.

“But you! You have eyes only for greed and dishonesty!
    You murder the innocent,
    oppress the poor, and reign ruthlessly.” – Jeremiah 22:17 NLT

“I warned you when you were prosperous,
    but you replied, ‘Don’t bother me.’
You have been that way since childhood—
    you simply will not obey me!” – Jeremiah 22:21 NLT

Jehoakim was greedy and godless. He was unjust and disobedient to God. And God had some bad news for this egotistical, money-hungry king:

“It may be nice to live in a beautiful palace
    paneled with wood from the cedars of Lebanon,
but soon you will groan with pangs of anguish—
    anguish like that of a woman in labor.” – Jeremiah 22:23 NLT

So, sometime in the middle of Jehoakim’s reign, God sent Jeremiah on a mission. He was to go to a settlement where the Recabites lived. The Rechabites were descendants of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Jethro had been a Kenite, or non-Hebrew, and Moses had married his daughter. When the Hebrews entered the land of Canaan, the Kenites accompanied them, many of them settling into their own towns and villages. But Jonadab, the son of Rechab, had forbidden his people to drink wine or to live in cities. Instead, they were to live nomadic lives, set apart and compliant with the wishes of their patriarch. And, they had done so for hundreds of years.

God commands Jeremiah to extend an invitation to the Rechabites, requesting that they join him at one of the inner rooms of the temple in Jerusalem. And, oddly enough, God instructed Jeremiah to offer them wine, which he did.

I set cups and jugs of wine before them and invited them to have a drink… – Jeremiah 35:5 NLT

These men, representing their families and clan, found themselves within the city walls of Jerusalem and sitting in a room located in the inner recesses of the temple. There, hidden from view, they were tempted by the prophet of God, under orders from God Himself, with the chance to drink wine. But we’re told, they refused. ‘No,’ they said, ‘we don’t drink wine, because our ancestor Jehonadab son of Recab gave us this command: ‘You and your descendants must never drink wine. And do not build houses or plant crops or vineyards, but always live in tents. If you follow these commands, you will live long, good lives in the land.’ So we have obeyed him in all these things. We have never had a drink of wine to this day, nor have our wives, our sons, or our daughters. We haven’t built houses or owned vineyards or farms or planted crops. We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed all the commands of Jehonadab, our ancestor’” (Jeremiah 35:6-10 NLT).

They flatly said, “No!” They turned down Jeremiah’s offer. It didn’t matter to them that the wine was offered by the prophet of God in the very temple of God. They were not going to disobey their vow. We are not told why Jonadab required his people to make this vow. That point doesn’t seem to matter. What seems to be the issue is that Jehoakim, the king of Judah, had been accused by God of disobedience. He had not kept the laws of God or lived in keeping with the will of God for His people. He did what was evil in the sight of God. But here were the Kenites, these non-Jews, who, when offered the chance to break their vow to abstain from wine, refused to do so. Even though it was being set in front of them by the prophet of God in the house of God. They were committed. They were faithful. There’s was a vow made to a man, but as far as they were concerned, it was unbreakable. And yet, Jehoakim, the king of Judah, and the people over whom he ruled, were guilty of having broken their covenant with God. Not once, but many times and over many centuries.

As we will see in the rest of this chapter, God will use this example of faithfulness and obedience as a living lesson of what He expected from His own people. But they had failed to follow through. Their lives had been a perpetual display of what it means to be unfaithful and unwilling to keep their commitments to God.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

Slaves to Sin.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them, that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother. And they obeyed, all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again. They obeyed and set them free. But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and brought them into subjection as slaves. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying, ‘At the end of seven years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you must set him free from your service.’ But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name, but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves.

“Therefore, thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor; behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, declares the Lord. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts—the officials of Judah, the officials of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf. And I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives. Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. And Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon which has withdrawn from you. Behold, I will command, declares the Lord, and will bring them back to this city. And they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.” – Jeremiah 34:8-22 ESV

It is approximately 588 B.C. and the city of Jerusalem is surrounded. Things are not looking good. Outside the walls of the city, the Babylonian troops can be seen busily at work building siege walls and preparing to assault the city. In the midst of all the chaos and with the words of Jeremiah the prophet ringing in his ears, Zedekiah, the king of Judah, convinces the people to make a covenant with him to release any and all their fellow Hebrews that they owned as slaves. Now, it makes sense to ask why any Hebrew would have a fellow Hebrew as a slave. This was actually quite common in those days. In most cases, the enslavement or servitude was linked to indebtedness. If a Hebrew borrowed money from another Hebrew and could not pay the debt, he become the servant or slave of the lender until the debt was paid off. The book of Proverbs speaks to this situation, warning: “the borrower is the slave of the lender” (Proverbs 22:17 ESV). We find some strong words from God regarding the abuse of this system in the book of Amos.

“The people of Israel have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! They sell honorable people for silver and poor people for a pair of sandals.” – Amos 2:6 NLT

The people of Judah and Israel had taken advantage of the poor and needy within their midst. Once again, the book of Proverbs speaks to this problem.

Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty. – Proverbs 22:16 NLT

Don't rob the poor just because you can, or exploit the needy in court. – Proverbs 22:22 NLT

God had made provision for those who found themselves in debt and in need of help. A Jew who found themselves with no means of income could voluntarily offer themselves as a servant to another Jew. If they owed a debt they could not pay, they could voluntarily become the lenders servant.

“If a fellow Hebrew sells himself or herself to be your servant and serves you for six years, in the seventh year you must set that servant free.

“When you release a male servant, do not send him away empty-handed. Give him a generous farewell gift from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. Share with him some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you. Remember that you were once slaves in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you! That is why I am giving you this command.” – Deuteronomy 15:12-15 NLT

But notice that God made provision for their release. They were not to remain in servitude indefinitely. And the lender had no right to sell the debtor in order to profit from their sale. At the seventh year, all Hebrews were to release their Hebrew slaves or servants. Their debt was to be considered paid. And the lender was not to send them away empty handed. So, in this chapter, we see Zedekiah making a covenant with the people to release all their Hebrew slaves. We are not told why Zedekiah made this announcement, but we can speculate that he was hoping this action might appease God in some way. Perhaps it was an attempt to increase the number of free men able to serve in the army in the defense of the city. Whatever his motivation, Zedekiah convinces the people to agree to the conditions of the release. But then they change their minds. They renege on their commitment.

…but later they changed their minds. They took back the men and women they had freed, forcing them to be slaves again. – Jeremiah 34:11 NLT

We do know from verses 21 and 22, that the Babylonians had evidently disappeared for a period of time. It could be that their unexpected departure led the people to change their minds. They could have believed that the siege was over and they had been delivered from destruction. So, they decided not to keep their commitment. What had appeared to be an act of repentance turned out to be nothing of the sort. Even though they had been faced with their own destruction and possible enslavement themselves, the people were not willing to set free their fellow Hebrews. This all reminds me of a parable that Jesus told in response to a question from Peter regarding the topic of forgiveness.

“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.

“But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.

“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

“His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.

“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.

“That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.” – Matthew 18:23-35 NLT

The people of Judah were indebted to God. They owed Him for the sins they had committed against Him. And they would have longed for Him to show them mercy and forgive their sins. But here they were, refusing to forgive the debts of those who owed them so much less. It should bring to mind the words of Jesus in His model prayer found in His Sermon on the Mount: “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12 ESV). And Jesus would go on to comment about the issue of forgiveness of debts. “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15 ESV).

God reminds Zedekiah and the people that their actions were reminiscent of the sins of their ancestors. God had given them the command regarding the seventh year, but they had refused to obey. Now, the people of Judah had made a covenant with God and were breaking it.

“Recently you repented and did what was right, following my command. You freed your slaves and made a solemn covenant with me in the Temple that bears my name. But now you have shrugged off your oath and defiled my name by taking back the men and women you had freed, forcing them to be slaves once again.” – Jeremiah 34:15-16 NLT

So, God gives them the bad news. Since they didn’t keep their vow and set their fellow Hebrews free, God was going to set the offenders free to suffer at the hands of the Babylonians. “I will set you free to be destroyed by war, disease, and famine” (Jeremiah 34:17 NLT). At the end of the day, the people of Judah were slaves to sin. They were addicted to wrongdoing. They just couldn’t give up their love affair with evil, even when faced with their own destruction. And they would learn the hard way, that the wages of sin is death.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

No Escape.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and all of its cities: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. You shall not escape from his hand but shall surely be captured and delivered into his hand. You shall see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face. And you shall go to Babylon.’ Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the Lord concerning you: ‘You shall not die by the sword. You shall die in peace. And as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so people shall burn spices for you and lament for you, saying, “Alas, lord!”’ For I have spoken the word, declares the Lord.”

Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, Lachish and Azekah, for these were the only fortified cities of Judah that remained. – Jeremiah 34:1-7 ESV

Chapters 30-33 provided apleasant diversion from all the prophecies that Jeremiah had been required by God to proclaim to the people of Judah. They contain much more optimistic news regarding the long-term future of Judah. But now, in chapter 34, Jeremiah goes back to his original predictions of Judah’s looming destruction. The Babylonians are at thegate – literally. They have the city besieged and it’s only matter of time before the walls fall, the troops descend, and the destruction begins. And God has a special message for King Zedekiah.

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. You will not escape his grasp but will be captured and taken to meet the king of Babylon face to face. Then you will be exiled to Babylon.” – Jeremiah 34:2-3 NLT

God doesn’t pull any punches. He doesn’t sugarcoat the reality of what is about to happen. It’s not going to be pretty. And Zedekiah is not going to escape the inevitable outcome of Judah’s apostasy and disobedience. Even the king will fall. He will be taken captive. But God has some good news for Zedekiah.

“You will not be killed in war but will die peacefully. People will burn incense in your memory, just as they did for your ancestors, the kings who preceded you. They will mourn for you, crying, “Alas, our master is dead!” – Jeremiah 34:4-5 NLT

Granted, at first blush this probably didn’t come across as the best of news to Zedekiah. And it doesn’t completely provide the details of Zedekiah’s ultimate demise. That comes later in the book of Jeremiah.

But the Babylonian troops chased King Zedekiah and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered. They captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There the king of Babylon pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah. The king of Babylon made Zedekiah watch as he slaughtered his sons. He also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah. Then he gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in bronze chains, and the king of Babylon led him away to Babylon. Zedekiah remained there in prison until the day of his death. – Jeremiah 52:8-11 NLT

God was going to bring Zedekiah’s reign to an end. He would live out his days in captivity, blind and with the last scene he could remember being the death of his own sons. And this would happen because Zedekiah refused to heed God’s warning and submit to the authority of Nebuchadnezzar as a representative of God’s judgment. Jeremiah 52 tells us: “Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon” (Jeremiah 52:3 NLT). This is what had led to the siege of Jerusalem, a situation that would last three years, leaving the citizens starving to death within the walls and awaiting their inevitable end at the hands of the Babylonians.

The end was coming. The very outcome of God’s prophecies concerning Judah was going to come to pass just as He had said – down to the last detail. And while the preceding chapters had outlined God’s future restoration of Judah and Israel, they would first go through a demoralizing and humiliating fall from God’s grace. They would suffer for their unfaithfulness. God would not and could not overlook their sin. He couldn’t turn a blind eye to their apostasy and spiritual adultery. How would it look if God simply excused their behavior? What would the nations of the earth think if the God of Israel did nothing about the blatant rebellion of the people of Israel? He would be seen as weak and incapable of ruling His own people. There would be no fear of Him among the pagan nations. He would be seen as impotent and inconsequential, rather than a force with which to be reckoned.

Before the grace of God could be experienced, the wrath of God would have to be assuaged. His justice would have to be meted out and the disobedience against His sovereign will would have to be punished. And while Israel and Judah would suffer for their sins, their complete reconciliation to God would eventually happen. There was a day coming when they would be restored to a right relationship with Him. Not because they deserved it. Not because they willingly returned to Him in repentance. But because He would choose to shower them with His grace and mercy, and make available to them the forgiveness made possible through His Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

A Righteous Branch.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

“For thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.”

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Thus says the Lord: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me.”

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Have you not observed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two clans that he chose’? Thus they have despised my people so that they are no longer a nation in their sight. Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.” – Jeremiah 33:14-26 ESV

God continues to assure Jeremiah that the future is far more bright than it may immediately appear. Yes, the Babylonians have Jerusalem surrounded, Jeremiah is in jail and God has promised that the nation will fall and many of its citizens will go into captivity. But that’s not the full extent of God’s plans for Judah. In chapter 29, God had reassured Jeremiah, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV). The fall of Jerusalem was part of the plan, but not its final fulfillment. There was more to come. Their destruction by the Babylonians would be the result of their own sin and rebellion against God – they had broken their part of the covenant they had made with Him. During the time of the Exodus, when God was leading them out of slavery in Egypt to the land He had promised to Abraham, He laid out His law for them. God clearly articulated the conditions for their relationship with Him. And when they heard it, they had agreed to it.

Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” – Exodus 24:3 ESV

They had not kept their promise to God, and the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel years earlier, and the impending fall of Judah were the result of their disobedience. But God was going to keep His word. He had promised David that his kingdom would last forever.

“And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” – 2 Samuel 7:16 ESV

“When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.” – 1 Chronicles 17:11-14 ESV

This promise to David was only partially fulfilled in the reign of Solomon, David’s son, because Solomon’s reign did come to an end, because of his idolatry. And as a result of Solomon’s unfaithfulness to God, the nation of Israel was split in two, with the ten northern tribes becoming the nation of Israel and the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin becoming Judah. Israel had already fallen to the Assyrians because of their sin. Now Judah was on the brink of suffering the same fate. It won’t be long until there is not king anywhere to be found in the former land of Israel. But God is telling Jeremiah that a new day is coming. And this was simply a reiteration of what God had told Jeremiah earlier, as recorded in chapter 23.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.” – Jeremiah 23:5-8 ESV

A righteous branch. An offshoot of David. A godly ruler who would live in obedience to the law of God and rule according to the will of God. And that individual would be Jesus, a descendant of David and the Son of God. It is interesting to note that in the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus gave as part of His Sermon on the Mount, He used these words: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10 ESV). And that prayer will be ultimately fulfilled by Him when He returns to earth to rule and reign in Jerusalem.

And along with the return of Christ and the establishment of His kingdom in Israel, the New Covenant, which replaced the old one with the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, will see the reestablishment of the Levitical priesthood and the sacrificial system. During the time of Jeremiah, the priesthood had become corrupt and immoral. With Christ’s return, God will also return the practice of the offerings, but instead of them looking forward to the coming of the unblemished Lamb of God, they will be commemoration and celebrations of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. 

“For thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.” – Jeremiah 33:17-18 ESV

This will all take place in the Millennial Kingdom, the period of Christ’s thousand year reign on the earth. For all of this to happen, God is going to have to bring about a major change within the people of Judah and Israel. To restore the priesthood to its intended holiness, God will have to do a work. For the people to honor Christ as their King, they will have to have their hearts transformed. And God has promised to do that as well.

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses.” – Ezekiel 36:25-29 ESV

The days are coming. A righteous Branch. New hearts. A new spirit. Those are some pretty incredible promises. And despite the fact that everything around Jeremiah looks like it is falling apart, God is trying to let him know that the future is bright. God has everything under control. He will do for His people what they could never have done for themselves. He will redeem and restore them. He will forgive their sins. He will return them to the land. He will reestablish the sacrificial system, not for the forgiveness of sins, but as a form of thanksgiving for the sacrifice of His Son that made the redemption of men possible. Ultimately, it is the righteous Branch who died a sinner’s death that will make the restoration of unfaithful Israel possible.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

Health, Hope and Healing.

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard: “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah that were torn down to make a defense against the siege mounds and against the sword: They are coming in to fight against the Chaldeans and to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom I shall strike down in my anger and my wrath, for I have hidden my face from this city because of all their evil. Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security. I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first. I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me. And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it.

“Thus says the Lord: In this place of which you say, ‘It is a waste without man or beast,’ in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man or inhabitant or beast, there shall be heard again the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord:

“‘Give thanks to the Lord of hosts,
    for the Lord is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever!’

For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the Lord.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: In this place that is waste, without man or beast, and in all of its cities, there shall again be habitations of shepherds resting their flocks. In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin, the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks shall again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the Lord.”  – Jeremiah 33:1-13 ESV

While Jeremiah was still locked up by Zedekiah, God visited Him a second time. And this time, He commands Jeremiah to pray to Him and promises to answer when he does.

“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” – Jeremiah 33:3 ESV

The term, “hidden things” in the Hebrew is a single word that is most often used to refer to the defensive capabilities of a city. It can actually be translate as “fortified” or “inaccessible”. It is somewhat ironic that God uses this word, because it can mean the walls of a city that are impenetrable. Here was Jerusalem, surrounded by Babylonian troops, with siege walls and ramparts set up all around its perimeter, and it’s fall eminent. But God said He was going to tell Jeremiah things that, unlike the walls of Jerusalem, were impenetrable or unknowable. Man could lay siege to God, demanding to know His will and His ways, but unless God determined to reveal His mysteries, man would remain ignorant and in the dark. The prophet, Isaiah, also recorded the words of God declaring His plan to reveal new and hidden things.

“From this time forth I announce to you new things,
hidden things that you have not known.
They are created now, not long ago;
before today you have never heard of them,
lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
You have never heard, you have never known,
from of old your ear has not been opened.” – Isaiah 48:6-8 ESV

Unless God makes Himself known to man, He remains unknowable.

Oh, how great are God's riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! – Romans 11:33 NLT

Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.
 – Job 36:26 ESV

He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. – Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT

God is unknowable, unless He chooses to make Himself known. While He has revealed His divine nature through His creation and men are without excuse who refuse to acknowledge His presence, they can only know Him in a limited sense. God had chosen to reveal Himself more intimately and deeply to the Israelites. He had chosen them as His own and revealed Himself to them in incredible ways. But they had chosen to reject Him and treat their relationship with him with disdain. So, now God was going to give Jeremiah a glimpse into the unknown, the hidden things of God. He was going to reveal to His prophet the incredible future of Israel and Judah. While He was going to bring punishment on them for their sins and allow the Babylonians to defeat them, He said:

“Nevertheless, the time will come when I will heal Jerusalem’s wounds and give it prosperity and true peace. I will restore the fortunes of Judah and Israel and rebuild their towns. I will cleanse them of their sins against me and forgive all their sins of rebellion.” – Jeremiah 33:6-8 NLT

God was going to do something remarkable and unbelievable. Just when things appeared to be catastrophic and the fate of Judah was sealed, God promised that their future would be bright. They would experience hope and healing.

“…in the empty streets of Jerusalem and Judah’s other towns, there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and laughter. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will be heard again, along with the joyous songs of people bringing thanksgiving offerings to the Lord.” – Jeremiah 33:10-11 NLT

The future. We can’t see it. We can only hope for it. Oh, we can worry about it and attempt to do things that we think will improve or impact it, but when all is said and done, we have very little influence over how the future will turn out. There are far too many things that can derail our plans and destroy our best intentions. But God knows the future. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are all the same to Him. He is not bound by time. And His plans for the future are not speculative, but predetermined. They will happen just as He has planned them. No wishful thinking. No hoping for a good outcome. What God says will happen, will happen, with the same degree of certainty as if it had already taken place. And we know from history, that the people of Judah did return to the land, seventy years later, just as God had said they would. So, we can also know that His plans for His as-yet-fulfilled promises regarding their future will also take place. He has proven Himself trustworthy and faithful. And one of the things God had in store for the nation of Judah was the future coming of the Messiah, the descendant of David. It would be hundreds of years before Jesus appeared on the scene. And when He came, He brought with Him the revelation of God’s plan for mankind: Salvation from sin and restoration to a right relationship with Him. Sadly, the people of Judah did not receive Him when He came. 

The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him. But to all who have received him—those who believe in his name—he has given the right to become God’s children—children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband’s decision, but by God. – John 1:9-13 NLT

But as John reveals just a few verses later, Jesus came to make God known and to reveal yet another impenetrable mystery regarding God’s plans for mankind.

No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father's heart. He has revealed God to us. – John 1:18 NLT

And John would later declare the true nature of Jesus’ arrival on earth.

Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! – John 1:29 NLT

God’s ways are beyond finding out. There was no way Jeremiah could know that God had a rich and fruitful future in store for the people of Judah. God had to tell Him. And there was certainly no way that Jeremiah could have known that one day God would send His Son, as a man, born to a woman from the tribe of Judah, who would die for the sins of men. It was a mystery. But in time, God revealed His plan by sending His Son. And His Son revealed the Father, proving the incredible love of God for sinful men. Hope and healing were going to come, but in a form that no man could have envisioned, including Jeremiah. For Jeremiah, sitting in jail as the Babylonians laid siege to his beloved city of Jerusalem, the future looked grim. But God was revealing something mysterious and unknowable to mere mortals: His unstoppable, unwavering plan for the world He had created. It’s important to note that God opened up His address to Jeremiah by describing Himself as “the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it” (Jeremiah 33:2 ESV). The God who created was going to recreate. The God who spoke light into darkness was going to send the true light into the darkness of man’s sin. Hope and healing are always in God’s hands. He is the only source for what mankind really needs. And as bleak as things may appear, we can rest in the knowledge that God has plans for us – “plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV).

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

Fields Shall Be Bought.

“Now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence’: Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

“For thus says the Lord: Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them. Fields shall be bought in this land of which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be signed and sealed and witnessed, in the land of Benjamin, in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb; for I will restore their fortunes, declares the Lord.”  – Jeremiah 32:36-44 ESV

When you find yourself in the midst of a difficult situation, it can be difficult to think of anything but what is happening at that moment. Yes, you may imagine yourself in better times and hope that your current circumstances improve. But the reality of your present conditions will always tend to overwhelm any dreams you may have of better days. That may be why God seems to keep repeating His message of restoration to Jeremiah and the people of Judah. Things had gotten progressively worse. At this point, Jeremiah had been imprisoned by King Zedekiah for stirring up trouble with his constant messages of doom and gloom. On top of that, the Babylonians have Jerusalem surrounded and under siege. And Jeremiah, in keeping with the command of God, has just purchased a tract of land in Anathoth, his home town, that has been captured by the Babylonians. At that moment, it would have been difficult for Jeremiah to see the silver lining on the dark cloud hovering over his head. So, God answers Jeremiah’s prayer and provides him with a personal reminder of what was going to happen in the future. It would be a reiteration of what He had already told Jeremiah before, but with a personal touch that answered Jeremiah’s concerns about his recent land purchase.

The opening line of God’s response to Jeremiah contains the word, “you”. But He is not speaking to Jeremiah alone, because the word God uses is a plural pronoun. He has a far greater audience in mind. It seems that everyone is in a pessimistic mood because of all that has happened. So, essentially God accuses Jeremiah and all the people of saying, “War, starvation, and disease are sure to make this city fall into the hands of the king of Babylon” (Jeremiah 32:36 NET). And they were right. The city was going to fall. God was going to give Jerusalem over to the king of Babylon. Babylonians forces would invade the city; destroy and plunder its finest homes and buildings; ransack the temple, then demolish it; and haul off thousands of its citizens as captives. But in the midst of all the bad news, God had some incredible and, albeit, difficult to comprehend good news. He was going to restore the fortunes of the people of Judah and restore the city of Jerusalem one day. In 586 B.C., Jerusalem fell. But 70 years later, just as God had promised, a remnant of the Jews living in exile in Babylon returned to the land. They slowly rebuilt and repopulated the city. They restored the walls and reconstructed the temple. And the various tribes and clans moved back to their designated homelands within Judah. This included the people of Anathoth. In the second chapter of the book of Ezra we are told that 128 men from Anathoth were among those who returned with the remnant. And God reminds Jeremiah, whose hometown was Anathoth, and whose recent land purchase was within the city limits of Anathoth, “Yes, fields will once again be bought and sold—deeds signed and sealed and witnessed—in the land of Benjamin and here in Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the hill country, in the foothills of Judah and in the Negev, too. For someday I will restore prosperity to them. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Jeremiah 32:44 NLT).

Now, it’s important to keep in mind that Jeremiah would probably be long gone by the time this all happened. This promise of God would not be fulfilled for another seven decades. But God is assuring Jeremiah that his land investment would pay dividends. The deed of sale that he had placed in a jar and hidden away would be preserved and provide proof that the land was his. So, when the people returned to Judah and needed land in which to settle, Jeremiah’s descendants would have clear title to the plot of land that God commanded Jeremiah to purchase 70 years earlier.

Sometimes, the things God asks us to do seem ridiculous and without merit. They make no sense. His timing appears off. His request comes across as poorly thought out and sure to result in failure. But God always has a very good reason behind His will for us. His instructions are never spur-of-the-moment or impulsive. When God had told Jeremiah and the people of Judah, “For I know the plans I have for you, They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT), He had meant it. He did have a plan. He does have a plan. And His long-term plan is one for good, not evil. Yes, they were going to suffer for a time. They would meet with disaster, but God intended to follow it up with a future filled with hope.

Notice how many ties in the passage God says, “I will…”.

“I will certainly bring my people back again from all the countries where I will scatter them in my fury.” – vs 37

“I will bring them back to this very city and let them live in peace and safety.” – vs 37

“I will be their God.” – vs 38

“I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship me forever…” – vs 39

“I will make an everlasting covenant with them…” – vs 40

“I will never stop doing good for them.” – vs 40

“I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me.” – vs 40

“I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land.” – vs 41

“I will do all the good I have promised them.” – vs 42

“I will restore prosperity to them. I, the Lord, have spoken!” – vs 44

God will. Those two simple words should be burned into our hearts as Christians. The story found in the book of Jeremiah should remind us that God keeps His word. He does what He says He is going to do. The very fact that Jerusalem was surrounded and on the brink of falling into the hands of the Babylonians was proof that God’s word could be trusted. Everything He had said would happen had happened. But it is essential to recognize that God was promising to do something miraculous in the future. There was a flip side to His message of pending doom. There was also future blessing coming. And much of God’s promises to Judah, as outlined in the book of Jeremiah, have yet to be fulfilled. They are still pending. Yes, the people did return from captivity. The people of Anathoth returned to their hometown. The property Jeremiah purchased regained its market value. But the nation of Israel would remain without a king. They would be without a standing army and a warrior to lead it. They would be easy pickings to any nation that viewed their land as a potential colonial possession. That’s how they eventually ended up under the control of Rome.

And even today, while Israel enjoys its status as a nation-state, they are still waiting the fulfillment of God’s promise. Yet, God has given His word that, one day, the Messiah will return to the land of promise and enter the city of Jerusalem, where He will set up His kingdom and rule from the throne of David.

For a child is born to us,
    a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
    And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace
    will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
    for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    will make this happen! – Isaiah 9:6-7 NLT

Jesus fulfilled the first part of this prophecy when He came as a child in Bethlehem. But the second half of the prophecy will be fulfilled at His Second Coming. Back in chapter two of Jeremiah, God gave a prophetic word concerning the future state of Jerusalem.

“In that day Jerusalem will be known as ‘The Throne of the Lord.’ All nations will come there to honor the Lord. They will no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires. In those days the people of Judah and Israel will return together from exile in the north. They will return to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance forever.” – Jeremiah 3:17-18 NLT

And the book of Daniel reveals another aspect of Jesus’ coming reign on earth.

I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed. – Daniel 7:13-14 NLT

And Jesus would quote this very passage when referring to Himself and the final judgment of the nations.

“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” – Matthew 25:31-32 NLT

God is not done. His plans for His people are not yet complete. There is an end to the story and it will result in God fulfilling every aspect of His promises to His people. In the meantime, we must wait. We must endure. We must face the trials and difficulties that come with living in a fallen world. Jeremiah would have to watch his beloved city destroyed and his friends and neighbors taken captive. He would have to witness the destruction and desecration of God’s temple. But He had personal assurance from God that fields would one day be bought and sold again in Judah. And one day the Messiah will return.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

Nothing But Evil.

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it. The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods, to provoke me to anger. For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth. The children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the Lord. This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, so that I will remove it from my sight because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction. They set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.” – Jeremiah 32:16-35 ESV

Jeremiah prayed and God responded. The prophet was a bit bewildered by God’s command that he buy a piece of property in Anathoth, just miles from Jerusalem. This piece of property was already under Babylonian control, the city of Jerusalem was under siege by Babylonian troops, and Jeremiah had been imprisoned by Zedekiah, the king of Judah. So, the timing of God’s command was a bit strange to Jeremiah. Yet, he had obeyed. He had done what God had told him to do. But that hadn’t stopped him from expressing his consternation to God in his prayer.

So, God responds to Jeremiah with a reminder of all that He had put up with over the years. Jeremiah had just bought a piece of property that would be worthless for 70 years. But for hundreds of years, God had stood back and watched the people of Israel defile and contaminate the Promised Land with their sin and rebellion against them. He had put up with the persistent unfaithfulness of the people He had chosen to be His own. And God began His response to Jeremiah with the very same words Jeremiah had used in his prayer to God. “I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27 NLT). It was as if God was providing affirmation to Jeremiah’s somewhat less assured statement regarding God’s sovereign power. In essence, God was saying, “No, nothing is too hard for me.” And then He provided Jeremiah with a recap of all that was going to happen to Judah and a reiteration as to why it was going to happen.

“I will hand this city over to the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will capture it…” – Jeremiah 32:28 NLT

Notice that God reminds Jeremiah that the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians was going to be His doing. God can and will do whatever He wants, however He wants to do it. But He does nothing flippantly or without reason. And He provides Jeremiah with a very clear explanation of just why Jerusalem is going to fall. He says that the people have “provoked my anger by burning incense to Baal on the rooftops and by pouring out liquid offerings to other gods” (Jeremiah 32:29 NLT). So, God was going to have the Babylonians burn down those homes. The rooftops where the people had burned incense to false gods would be burned to the ground. But God isn’t done indicting the people for their sin and explaining to Jeremiah the reason for their coming judgment. He tells Jeremiah that the people of Israel and Judah “have done nothing but wrong since their earliest days. They have infuriated me with all their evil deeds” (Jeremiah 32:30 NLT). Since the day the city of Jerusalem had been built, its inhabitants had done little more than give God reasons to be angry with them.

And as far as God was concerned, everybody was guilty, including the kings, the officials, the priests, the prophets and the people. The entire nation was sinful and corrupt, from the top down. Sin had infiltrated every facet of society, from the government to the priesthood. There was no place unaffected by sin. There were even idols in the temple of God. So, God was going to clean house. While Jeremiah was somewhat perplexed and probably a bit put off at the prospect of having just put down good money on what amounted to a bad real estate investment, God was explaining that His investment in Israel and Judah had paid lousy dividends as well.

“My people have turned their backs on me and have refused to return. Even though I diligently taught them, they would not receive instruction or obey.” – Jeremiah 32:33 NLT

God had poured into them. He had blessed them time and time again. He had given them King David, who had built the nation of Israel into a powerful force to be reckoned with in that part of the world. Solomon had built the temple and overseen the further growth and expansion of the kingdom. But he had also failed to remain faithful to God, worshiping false gods in the latter years of his reign. So, God had been forced to split the kingdom in two. And that’s how the two nations of Israel and Judah had come about. And once the split occurred, the downward spiral had continued. Both nations had failed to correct their behavior or return to the Lord, despite all of His pleas to do so. In fact, God provides Jeremiah with a bleak picture of just how they had reacted to His blessings and prophetic warnings:

“They have set up their abominable idols right in my own Temple, defiling it. They have built pagan shrines to Baal in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and there they sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech.” – Jeremiah 32:34-35 NLT

None of this had been God’s idea. He had never commanded them to do any of these things. In other words, what God had commanded, they had refused to do. Instead, they had chosen to do what they wanted to do. And now, God was punishing them for their disobedience. The Babylonians had come. The siege walls were up. The starvation within the walls of Jerusalem had begun. One king had already been deported to Babylon and King Zedekiah would be next, just as God had predicted. The city of Jerusalem would fall. The temple would be destroyed. The people would be deported. Nothing is too difficult for God. He can build a city up and He can tear it down. He can choose a people as His own possession and He can give them over to their enemies. He can punish the disobedient and He can restore them if He so chooses. And that will be the next part of God’s response to Jeremiah. As bad as things looked, there was cause for hope. God had an investment in the people of Judah. They were going to be the means by which He brought His Son, the Messiah, into the world. Through the tribe of Judah, God would bring salvation to the world in the form of the Savior, Jesus Christ. God was going to punish the nation of Judah, but also preserve it. He was going to deport them, but also restore them. Nothing is too difficult for God.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

Nothing Is Too Hard For You.

“After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: ‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. You have shown signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all mankind, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day. You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and with great terror. And you gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. And they entered and took possession of it. But they did not obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all you commanded them to do. Therefore you have made all this disaster come upon them. Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and because of sword and famine and pestilence the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has come to pass, and behold, you see it. Yet you, O Lord God, have said to me, “Buy the field for money and get witnesses”—though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.’” – Jeremiah 32:16-25 ESV

If anybody but God had recommended to Jeremiah that he make a long-term investment in real estate located in Judah, he would have told them to take a hike. But when God commanded that Jeremiah buy land from his cousin, Hanamel, he obeyed. No, it didn’t make any sense. Paying good money for land that had been confiscated by the occupying forces of King Nebuchadnezzar had to have seemed like a lousy investment strategy – even to Jeremiah. But he did what the Lord commanded. Then he prayed. And in his prayer, he communicated to God his confusion over what had just transpired. But first, he started by praising God for His great power. He acknowledge that God was the creator of the universe. He acknowledged God’s unfailing love, but also noted that God was just and righteous, giving people exactly what they deserve. He confessed that God had a reputation for doing great things for His people, having delivered them from captivity in Egypt. Then He had given them the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, helping them take it from the pagan people groups that occupied upon their arrival. And Jeremiah praises God's all-powerful capacity to come to the aid of His people, acknowledging that “Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17 ESV). Now, part of that is probably Jeremiah speaking what he cognitively knows to be true, but he is obviously wrestling with it on a practical level. While he has praised God for His power and the unquestionable reliability of His word, he ends his prayer with the statement:

“Yet you, O Lord God, have said to me, ‘Buy the field for money and get witnesses’—though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.” – Jeremiah 32:25 ESV

Everything God had said would happen to the people of Judah had happened. He had brought disaster upon them in the form of the Babylonians. Siege walls had been erected the city of Jerusalem. Famine and pestilence had already begun with the city because of the blockade created by the Babylonian forces. Food was not making its way into Jerusalem. People were dying of hunger and, as a result, disease was spreading among the living. And Jeremiah tells God, “What you spoke has come to pass, and behold, you see it” (Jeremiah 32:24 ESV).

And this is where Jeremiah becomes a bit incredulous. With all that is taking place, he can’t believe that God would have him buy land in Judah. Even though he believes that nothing is too difficult for God, he is having a hard time getting his head around the idea that one day land in Judah will be of any value again. This prayer is a great reminder to each of us that trusting God will not always be painless or doubt-free. Jeremiah believed in God. He had seen God do incredible things. He had watched as every single one of God’s pronouncements against Judah had come about. He knew God was reliable and trustworthy. He was convinced that God was fully capable of accomplishing anything and everything He promised to do. But now that Jeremiah had a personal investment in the future of God’s restoration of Judah, he was struggling with some doubts. Now, he was personally dependent upon God to one day restore the people to the land. And it had to have crossed Jeremiah’s mind that he would not be around when that event took place. God had already said that the people of Judah would be in captivity for 70 years.

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” – Jeremiah 29:10-11 ESV

There is no way Jeremiah would live long enough to see that day. So, God’s command that he buy land in Judah had to have seemed that much more strange to him. How would he ever know how things turned out in the future? What guarantees did he have that his descendants would occupy the land he purchased? He was going to have to trust God. As we looked at yesterday. the author of Hebrews describes faith as “being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1 NLT). Jeremiah could see the Babylonian troops and the siege walls. He was fully convinced that God’s promises come true, because they were staring him straight in the face. But when it came to the promise of the restoration of the people to the land, something God had said would happen 70 years later, Jeremiah was a bit less adamant in his belief.

In speaking of the faith of Abraham and Sarah, the author of Hebrews says they “died in faith without receiving the things promised, but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13 NLT). That is exactly what God was asking Jeremiah to do. By having Jeremiah purchase the land in Anathoth, God was forcing Jeremiah to put his hope and trust in something he couldn’t yet see. Not only that, he would never live to see it happen. But this was about far more than just a piece of property in Anathoth. This was about the far-in-the-distance promises of God. At the end of Hebrews 11, the author states:

And these all were commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised. For God had provided something better for us, so that they would be made perfect together with us. – Hebrews 11:39-40 NLT

Each of the patriarchs listed in this great "Hall of Faith" died without having seen the promises of God fulfilled in their entirety. Moses never entered the land of promise. Jacob and his son Joseph would each die in Egypt, but both believing that their descendants would one day return to the land. Joseph even made his brothers promise to take his bones with them when the did return. Sarah had to believe that God was going to bless her with many descendants, even though Isaac would be the only one she would live long enough to see with her own eyes. She never lived to see the incredible fulfillment of God’s promise to she and Abraham. But she believed. And Jeremiah was going to have to believe God as well. The land purchased by Jeremiah would one day be inhabited by his descendants. No, he would not be around to see it, but he could trust God for it. And as Jeremiah stated in his prayer, nothing is too difficult for God. But he was going to have to trust God for that which he could not see. The apostle Paul puts it this way:

Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. – Romans 8:24-25 NLT

Paul emphasized the same thing to the Corinthian believers.

So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. – 2 Corinthians 4:18 NLT

For we live by believing and not by seeing. – 2 Corinthians 5:7 NLT

Jeremiah had been forced to invest in the trustworthiness of God. And isn’t that what each of us does when we place our faith in Jesus? We are believing in that which we cannot see. We are investing in a future that has not yet happened or realized. In His great Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke these powerful words that echo the expectation God was placing on Jeremiah by having him buy the land.

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” – Matthew 6:19-21 NLT

In essence, Jeremiah’s investment was a heavenly one. He was buying temporal land, but it was based on eternal and spiritual promises given by God Himself. His purchase was not based on earthly financial strategies. It was in obedience to the word of God and solely based on the trustworthiness of God to accomplish His divine will – even if Jeremiah never lived to see it happen. Now, that is faith.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

A Long-term Investment.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah. For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it; Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. And he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the Lord. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’?”

Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

“And I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy. And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. I charged Baruch in their presence, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’” – Jeremiah 32:1-15 ESV

The year is 587 B.C.. The fall of Jerusalem is less than a year away and Jeremiah has persistently and consistently been delivering his prophetic warning about the coming destruction of Jerusalem for a long time. But he has also been telling the people that God is going to restore them one day. Yes, they would spend 70 years in captivity in Babylon, but then God would miraculously restore a remnant of them to the land. And while Jeremiah has proven to be faithful to speak the words of God, it seems that he harbored some personal doubts as to whether all he prophesied was going to come true. So, God provides Jeremiah with a small test. He instructs Jeremiah to buy a plot of land in Judah. Now, it’s important to note that when Jeremiah receives these instructions from God, he is sitting in jail, having been imprisoned by Zedekiah. His crime? He had been telling the king that Jerusalem was going to fall to the Babylonians and that Zedekiah himself would be taken captive. This was probably viewed by the king as an act of treason. Jeremiah was seen as seditious, stirring up unrest in the city during a time of national crisis. So, he was imprisoned to keep him from causing panic among the people. So, it is while he was locked up in the court of the guard that Jeremiah received his instructions from God.

“Your cousin Hanamel son of Shallum will come and say to you, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else.’” – Jeremiah 32:7 NLT

God tells Jeremiah that his cousin is going to come and offer him the opportunity to buy a piece of land in Anathoth, his hometown. Land was extremely valuable in the Hebrew economy and it was important to keep land within the family. So, Hanamel was going to offer Jeremiah, as a family member, the first rights to buy the land. But think about the absurdity of this. Anathoth is just a few miles northeast of Jerusalem. For years now, Jeremiah has been prophesying the fall of Jerusalem and Judah. He has been warning about the coming of the Babylonians and even now, they are outside the walls of Jerusalem, laying siege to the city. It’s just a matter of time before the words of God come true and the destruction of the nation of Judah is fulfilled. And remember, Jeremiah is sitting in jail because he has been warning the people, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will take it’” (Jeremiah 32:7 NLT). 

Now God wants him to invest in land. It sounds absurd. The property values had to be at an all-time low. But in less than a year, they were going to be even worse. God was commanding Jeremiah to invest in the future. God was telling the prophet to make a long-term investment based on nothing more than His word. The day would come when the land would once again increase in value. Not only that, the people who returned to the land under Ezra and Zerubbabel would naturally head to their former cities and villages, in order to rebuild and start over. The book of Ezra describes exactly what happened 70 years later:

Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. – Ezra 2:1-2 ESV

It goes on to say that 128 men of Anathoth returned from captivity. And where would they head as soon as they returned to Judah? Their hometown. The very place where Jeremiah was instructed to buy land. And Ezra describes how God miraculously provided for the financial needs of the returning remnant as King Cyrus decreed that all those who chose to remain behind in Babylon were to provide the capital necessary to fund their trip and the rebuilding process.

“Anyone who survives in any of those places where he is a resident foreigner must be helped by his neighbors with silver, gold, equipment, and animals, along with voluntary offerings for the temple of God which is in Jerusalem.” – Ezra 1:4 NLT

So those 128 men who returned to Anathoth with their families would have resources available to buy land should Jeremiah choose to sell. But Jeremiah would also have written proof that he owned land in Anathoth because he had instructed Baruch to place the deeds of sale in earthenware jars to protect them from the elements.

This entire episode was designed to be a test of Jeremiah’s faith. By the time Hanamel came to Jeremiah with the offer to purchase the plot of land, Anathoth was already under Babylonian control. In essence, Jeremiah was being made an offer to buy land that no longer belonged to Hanamel. It was the property of the conquering king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. But this fact, combined with Jeremiah’s imprisonment, made the whole affair even more unthinkable and absurd for the prophet. But that was God’s point. None of it made sense. He was asking Jeremiah to do the ridiculous: Invest in land that had no value. Buy a piece of property that really wasn’t Hanamel’s to sell. And all on the future hope that God’s word would come true and the land would one day be returned to the people of Judah.

And Jeremiah did exactly what the Lord commanded him to do. He bought the land. And Hanamel and the witnesses to the transaction must have smiled to themselves, laughing at the stupidity of Jeremiah for agreeing to such a bad deal. But Jeremiah’s actions were based on faith in God. He may have appeared ridiculous to those around him, but he was stepping out in faith, trusting that what God was telling him to do was wise and would be well worth it in the long run. The author of Hebrews describes faith as “the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1 NLT). Jeremiah was putting his confidence in God, not his surrounding circumstances. He was in jail. He had just spent money on land that belonged to the Babylonians. He knew the entire land of Judah was soon to be under the control of King Nebuchadnezzar and would stay that way for 70 long years. But God was forcing Jeremiah to put his money where his mouth was. It was one thing to preach about future restoration. It was another thing to invest in it. Now, Jeremiah had some skin in the game. He had stepped out in faith and personally staked his hope of the promises of God. And that is the essence of faith. Abram had been promised a land by God, but he had to get up and move his family out of Ur. Noah had been promised salvation from the coming flood, but first he had to build an ark and suffer the ridicule of his neighbors. Sarah had to believe the promise of God that she would bear a son and become the mother of a multitude of nations, even though she was barren. David had to believe that his anointing as the next king of Israel was real, even though he had to suffer death threats and persecution at the hands of King Saul before it would ever happen. Faith requires hope. It demands patience. It takes a willingness to risk all by investing all in nothing more than the promises of God. Believing that He is faithful to do what He has said He will do.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

A New and Better Covenant.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Thus says the Lord,
who gives the sun for light by day
    and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the Lord of hosts is his name:
“If this fixed order departs
    from before me, declares the Lord,
then shall the offspring of Israel cease
    from being a nation before me forever.”

Thus says the Lord:
“If the heavens above can be measured,
    and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
    for all that they have done,
declares the Lord.”

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.” – Jeremiah 31:31-40 ESV

There is a day coming – a future day when things between God and His people will be different. While they have been His covenant people ever since the day He called Abram out of Ur, and made a promise to make of him a great nation, the people of Israel had long ago broken that covenant. They had failed to live up to their end of the bargain, consistently breaking their word and refusing to live in obedience to God. They had pursued other gods. Not only that, they had failed to pursue justice, righteousness and mercy. While they had gone through the motions of keeping God’s laws, their hearts had been far from Him. Their allegiance to Him had been nothing but a show, a facade of religious ritualism, but lacking in any kind of true devotion to Him. God had spoken through the prophet, Isaiah, to indict the people of Judah for their hypocrisy.

And so the Lord says,
    “These people say they are mine.
They honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
And their worship of me
    is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.
Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites
    with amazing wonders.
The wisdom of the wise will pass away,
    and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.” – Isaiah 29:13-14 NLT

But God tells Jeremiah that He is going to make a new covenant with His people. It is not that god is going to break the old one, but that He is going to do something even better than before. The people had violated the old covenant. They had failed to keep it. But God had remained faithful to maintain His commitments to them, including His promise to punish them for their sins if they failed to remain obedient. But this new and future covenant was going to be different.

“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” – Jeremiah 31:33 NLT

This covenant would not be left up to the whims of the people. It would not be dependent upon their ability to remain faithful and obedient. Instead, this time, God is going to do for them what they were incapable of doing on their own. He is going to change their hearts. He is going to give them the capacity to remain faithful to Him, because this covenant will not be based on external law-keeping, but an internal transformation of their entire beings – their hearts, souls, minds, and emotions.

“The Lord your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul and so you may live!…Then you will again obey the Lord and keep all his commands that I am giving you today.” – Deuteronomy 30:6, 8 NLT

Heart change is only possible through the work of God. Men cannot change their hearts. God had made this perfectly clear to the people of Judah earlier in this book.

Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin?
    Can a leopard take away its spots?
Neither can you start doing good,
    for you have always done evil. – Jeremiah 13:23 NLT

Their hearts were evil. Their sin natures were too powerful and stood in the way of them listening to and obeying the commands of God. So, God was going to do for them what they could have never done for themselves.

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.” – Ezekiel 36:252-7 NLT

True, lasting heart change is a work of God. Anything else is nothing more than behavior modification. Anyone can correct their external behavior for a time, but unless their hearts are changed, they will eventually find themselves resorting back to their old ways of living. It was Jesus who said, “For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you” (Matthew 15:19-20 NLT).

Earlier in the book of Ezekiel, God made a plea to the people, begging them to change their ways.

“Repent, and turn from your sins. Don’t let them destroy you! Put all your rebellion behind you, and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O people of Israel? I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign Lord. Turn back and live!” – Ezekiel 18:30-31 NLT

But God knew that what He was asking was impossible for them to do. He knew they could not change their hearts. He knew they couldn’t alter their behavior, at least not on a permanent basis. But God was letting them know that, for them to escape His ultimate wrath and permanent destruction, they were going to have to have new hearts and new spirits. Without them, they were doomed. But that’s what makes God’s good news so good. In spite of all they had done to sin against Him, God was not going to desert them. He was not going to break His covenant commitments to them.

“I am as likely to reject my people Israel
    as I am to abolish the laws of nature!” – Jeremiah 31:36 NLT

That doesn’t mean they were going to escape His judgment. He isn’t saying that they were going to be held accountable for their sins. But He is promising that a day is coming when they will be restored and He says, “I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins” (Jeremiahs 31:34 NLT). Not only that, He promises, “I will not consider casting them away for the evil they have done. God is going to restore the people to favor with Him and rebuild the city of Jerusalem, making it holy once again. And it never be under threat of capture or destruction again.

When would this all take place? How would this new covenant be instituted? Jesus gives us insight into these questions when He said to His disciples at the Passover meal He shared with them: “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you” (Luke 22:20 NLT). The author of Hebrews provides further insight into this new covenant:

But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.

If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. But when God found fault with the people, he said:

“The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.” – Hebrews 8:6-8 NLT

He goes on to write:

Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant. – Hebrews 9:13-15 NLT

Jesus is the source of the new covenant. He will be reason the Jews receive new hearts and the internal capacity to live in obedience to God the Father. It will because they place their faith in Him as their Messiah, that a remnant of God’s chosen people will be renewed and restored. The prophet Zechariah tells us of that day.

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” – Zechariah 12:10 ESV

In the very next chapter of Zechariah, God makes it clear that not all of Israel will be saved. Not all will receive new hearts and a new spirit. God, in His mercy and sovereign grace, will save some. He will spare a remnant. None deserve His mercy. All are worthy of destruction. But God will save some.

“They will call upon my name,
    and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘They are my people’;
    and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” – Zechariah 13:9 ESV

They will call on Him because He will give them the capacity to do so. He will change their hearts so that they can respond to His offer of mercy, grace and forgiveness. It is God who saves. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot redeem ourselves. The new covenant will be based on the sacrifice of God’s own Son, and will be available to all those who place their faith in Him. A new day is coming for the people of Israel because a new covenant has come.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

He Will Satisfy the Weary Soul.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes:

“‘The Lord bless you, O habitation of righteousness,
    O holy hill!’

And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks. For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord. In those days they shall no longer say:

“‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
    and the children's teeth are set on edge.’

But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.  – Jeremiah 31:24-30 ESV

God continues to speak of the future restoration of Judah. Their fortunes were going to change dramatically. Just a few chapters earlier we read of God’s pronouncement of Judah’s demise for their unfaithfulness:

“I will pursue them with sword, famine, and pestilence, and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, a terror, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them.” – Jeremiah 29:18 ESV

Their sins would be punished and, as a result, they would become “an object of damnation, horror, contempt, and mockery” (NLT). The nations that watched their fall from God’s grace would stand by ridiculing and cursing them. The once mighty nation of Judah would no longer be a threat to them. But God promises that a day is coming when that scenario will change drastically. Rather than the curses of its enemies, the streets of Judah will resound with the blessings of its people once again.

“The Lord bless you, O righteous home, O holy mountain!” – Jeremiah 31:23 NLT

Curses will be turned to blessing. The weary will find rest and satisfaction. Joy will replace sorrow. But why? What will have changed to make all this come about? This won’t all come about just because the people get to return to the land from their exile in Babylon. In fact, when they did eventually return from captivity, they found a land filled with destruction. The city of Jerusalem was empty and its walls and once-great structures were lay in ruins. Even fourteen years after the first wave of exiles returned under the leadership of Ezra and Zerubbabel, Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem and found that little had changed.

I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King's Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. – Nehemiah 2:13-14 ESV

The walls had yet to be rebuilt. The city was still not occupied. They would eventually complete the walls and repopulate the city, but the glory days of Judah and Jerusalem would still remain a memory. All of this was because of their sin and rebellion against God.

How the faithful city
    has become a whore,
    she who was full of justice!
Righteousness lodged in her,
    but now murderers. – Isaiah 1:21 ESV

So what was going to change to make Judah a place of blessing and hope? God was going to restore their fortunes. And notice what the words of those living in the land at that time will use to describe the city of Jerusalem: “habitation of righteousness”. God will return righteousness to the land. Justice will once again reign. And the prophet Isaiah describes how that will happen.

Look, a king will promote fairness;
officials will promote justice.
Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from a rainstorm;
like streams of water in a dry region
and like the shade of a large cliff in a parched land.
Eyes will no longer be blind
and ears will be attentive.
The mind that acts rashly will possess discernment
and the tongue that stutters will speak with ease and clarity.
A fool will no longer be called honorable;
a deceiver will no longer be called principled. – Isaiah 32:1-5 NLT

The Messiah will rule and reign in Jerusalem. The Son of God will take His place on the throne of David, bringing justice and righteousness back to the land. When the people arrived back in Judah after their return from exile, something was missing. They were still the same rebellious and stubborn people that went into exile in the first place. Their hearts had not changed. Their allegiance to God had not increased over time. They found themselves back in the land, but without a king and with no real hope for the future. But in this passage, God is giving Jeremiah a glimpse into what is coming. And when he woke up from his sleep where this vision appeared to him, he was well rested and satisfied. 

God had given Jeremiah renewed hope. The day was coming when God would bless the lands of Judah and Israel by making the people and the livestock fruitful. They would multiply and fill the land once again. The barrenness left in the wake of the Babylonian siege would be replaced with abundance. God promises Jeremiah that “in the past I deliberately uprooted and tore down this nation. I overthrew it, destroyed it, and brought disaster upon it. But in the future I will just as deliberately plant it and build it up” (Jeremiah 31:28 NLT). God’s choice of words would have had a special impact on Jeremiah, because they were reminiscent of what He had said to the prophet on the day He called him.

“Look, I have put my words in your mouth!
Today I appoint you to stand up
    against nations and kingdoms.
Some you must uproot and tear down,
    destroy and overthrow.
Others you must build up
    and plant.” – Jeremiah 1:9-10 NLT

Jeremiah had been given the unenviable task of bringing God’s message of destruction to the people of Judah. Rarely did he get to build up and plant. His was predominantly a message of doom and gloom. But now God was giving him a glimpse into what the distant future held for the people of Judah and Israel. The bad news was going to be followed by unbelievable good news.

In that day, justice will take place because the Messiah will rule. There will be no more injustice and unrighteousness flowing down from the throne. The King of kings and Lord of lords will serve up justice. Everyone will be responsible for their own sins. There would be no passing the buck or placing blame. There was a popular proverb in Jeremiah’s day that said, “The parents have eaten sour grapes, but their children’s mouths pucker at the taste” (Jeremiah 31:29 NLT). It was basically a way for one generation to blame their suffering on the sins of their ancestors. This sentiment is expressed in the book of Lamentations:

Our forefathers sinned and are dead,
but we suffer their punishment. – Lamentations 5:7 NLT

And while the people of Judah could easily point their fingers at the previous generations and accuse them of causing their suffering, the day was coming when each person would have to be accountable for their own sins. Even during the ministry of Jeremiah, he had warned the people that they were responsible for their own sins. They couldn’t blame their troubles on their parents and grandparents. God had made that point perfectly clear.

“When you tell these people about all this, they will undoubtedly ask you, ‘Why has the Lord threatened us with such great disaster? What wrong have we done? What sin have we done to offend the Lord our God?’ Then tell them that the Lord says, ‘It is because your ancestors rejected me and paid allegiance to other gods. They have served them and worshiped them. But they have rejected me and not obeyed my law. And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me.” – Jeremiah 16:10-12 NLT

Once again, God reminds Jeremiah and the people that a day is coming when perfect justice will rule in the land. “All people will die for their own sins—those who eat the sour grapes will be the ones whose mouths will pucker” (Jeremiah 31:30 NLT). In this future state of Israel, things will be radically different. God seems to be indicating that sin will be rare in this future kingdom. There will not be the mass rejection of Him as had taken place in Israel for generations. The book of Ezekiel contains God’s promise to give the people of Israel new hearts and a new desire to serve Him.

“I will cleanse you of your filthy behavior. I will give you good crops of grain, and I will send no more famines on the land. I will give you great harvests from your fruit trees and fields, and never again will the surrounding nations be able to scoff at your land for its famines. Then you will remember your past sins and despise yourselves for all the detestable things you did.” – Ezekiel 36:29-31 NLT

No passing blame. No denial of culpability. The people, whose hearts have been softened by God, will own their own sin and repent. They will take full responsibility for their rebellion against God. And their future behavior will be righteous, not rebellious. Their relationship with God will be marked by fidelity, not adultery. God will satisfy the weary soul, restore joy to sorrowful, and replace the life of sinfulness with that of righteousness.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

Hope For Your Future.

Thus says the Lord:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
    lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
    she refuses to be comforted for her children,
    because they are no more.”

Thus says the Lord:
“Keep your voice from weeping,
    and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,
declares the Lord,
    and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
There is hope for your future,
declares the Lord,
    and your children shall come back to their own country.
I have heard Ephraim grieving,
‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,
    like an untrained calf;
bring me back that I may be restored,
    for you are the Lord my God.
For after I had turned away, I relented,
    and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
    because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
Is Ephraim my dear son?
    Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
    I do remember him still.
Therefore my heart yearns for him;
    I will surely have mercy on him,
declares the Lord.

“Set up road markers for yourself;
    make yourself guideposts;
consider well the highway,
    the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel,
    return to these your cities.
How long will you waver,
    O faithless daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth:
    a woman encircles a man.”  – Jeremiah 31:15-22 ESV

Rachel, the wife of Jacob, is pictured as weeping for her children. She was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. This was in spite of the fact that she had been barren. And in her frustration over her barrenness, she had demanded of Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” (Genesis 30:1 ESV). And Jacob responded in exasperation and anger, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” (Genesis 30:2 ESV). But God gave her a son and she named him Joseph, saying “God has taken away my reproach” (Genesis 30:22 ESV). But she was not satisfied. She wanted more. “May the Lord add to me another son!” (Genesis 30:23 ESV). And God would grant her wish. She gave birth to Benjamin some years later, but would die in childbirth. Jacob would bury her and the town of Ramah is recognized as the location of her tomb.

Rachel would become the grandmother of Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons born to Joseph in Egypt. Their descendants would become two of the major tribes in northern Israel. So this imagery of Rachel weeping for her children is a metaphor for the sorrow associated with the defeat and deportation of the northern kingdom in 722 B.C. by the Assyrians. The image of a mother weeping over her lost children is a powerful one. It portrays a deep sorrow and a inconsolable sadness that nothing can assuage. But God speaks into this situation of deep despair, saying:

“Do not weep any longer,
    for I will reward you,” says the Lord.
“Your children will come back to you
    from the distant land of the enemy.” – Jeremiah 31:16 NLT

He is going to reward her. For what? In the Hebrew, the reward or wage is tied to Rachel’s work. Her weeping is seen as a form of effort being expended on behalf of her lost children. It is a picture of repentance and remorse over their fate. And God says that He is going to reward her for her efforts. And that reward will be in the form of hope in the midst of her helplessness and sorrow.

“There is hope for your future,” says the Lord.
    “Your children will come again to their own land.” – Jeremiah 31:17 NLT

A woman’s posterity was wrapped up in the lives of her children. Remember, Rachel had been barren at one time, and God had blessed her with two sons. But now, she is pictured as having lost all that was important to her: Her grandchildren and her future. But God provides assurance that her children, once lost, would be found and returned to the land.

The prophet, Hosea, paints a sad picture of how Ephraim and Manasseh ended up in Assyria.

“Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;
    I took them up by their arms,
    but they did not know that I healed them.
I led them with cords of kindness,
    with the bands of love,
and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,
    and I bent down to them and fed them.

“They shall not return to the land of Egypt,
    but Assyria shall be their king,
    because they have refused to return to me.
The sword shall rage against their cities,
    consume the bars of their gates,
    and devour them because of their own counsels.
My people are bent on turning away from me,
    and though they call out to the Most High,
    he shall not raise them up at all.” – Hosea 11:3-7 ESV

But Jeremiah provides an encouraging counterpoint to Hosea’s prophecy. He records the words of God saying, “I have heard Ephraim grieving” (Jeremiah 31:18 ESV). The exiled Israelites are pictured as calling out to God in sorrow and repentance, crying, “bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the Lord my God” (Jeremiah 31:18 ESV). And God responds with words of grace and mercy. “Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:20 ESV).

God promises to bring Israel back to the promised land, but more importantly, back to Himself. And He tells them to mark the path they took to get to Assyria. It would be by that same path that they would return. They would be required to reverse the direction of their previous journey, illustrating their repentance and return to God.

“Set up road markers for yourself;
    make yourself guideposts;
consider well the highway,
    the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel,
    return to these your cities.” – Jeremiah 31:21 ESV

This brings to mind another mention of paths and highways mentioned earlier in the book of Jeremiah.

Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” – Jeremiah 6:16 ESV

The people of Judah, the southern kingdom, had refused to walk the way of God. They had chosen disobedience over obedience. They had wandered from the ways of God, choosing to follow the ways of the world, pursuing false gods and seeking pleasure in those things forbidden by God. But God was going to bring them back. They would one day walk in the right direction, headed back to God rather than away from Him. He would return them to the land, but it would be their return to Yahweh that made the difference.

In verse, God shifts the imagery from that of a son to a daughter. He speaks to Israel as a faithless and adulterous daughter. Throughout the writings of the prophets, you see references to Israel’s spiritual adultery. The Hebrew word for apostasy is the same word used to describe an adulterous wife. Israel had prostituted herself with all the false gods of the lands around her. But now God calls His wandering bride back:

“Return, O virgin Israel,
    return to these your cities.
How long will you waver,
    O faithless daughter?” – Jeremiah 31:21-22 ESV

He refers to Israel as a virgin, cleansed and purified from her sins. Her adultery would be forgiven. Her spiritual defilement would be removed. And then God makes a rather enigmatic statement: “For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encircles a man” (Jeremiah 31:22 ESV). This is a difficult verse to understand and there have been a lot of different opinions over the years as to its exact meaning. But if we consider the context, it would seem that God is referring to an adulterous wife who returns to her husband. The Hebrew word that is translated as “encircles” in the ESV is cabab and it has a range of meanings, including “to turn towards, change direction, return”. It would seem that the “new thing” to which God is referring is an adulterous woman returning to her husband. That would have been a rare occurrence in those days. In fact, for a man to take back his adulterous wife would have, according to the Mosaic law, made him an adulterer as well. In the book of Hosea, we have recorded the real-life story of Hosea, whose wife committed adultery on numerous occasions. But God commanded Hosea to take her back.

And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” – Hosea 3:1 ESV

And that unlikely act of a husband taking back his adulterous wife was to be a real-life example of what God was going to do with the nation of Israel.

“For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.” – Hosea 3:4-5 ESV

Wayward Israel would return to God. The adulterous wife would return to her faithful husband. It would be out-of-the-ordinary. It would unprecedented and unheard of. It would be a new thing on the earth. God would make the impossible and improbable happen. He would provide hope for the future when there was none. He would provide restoration when condemnation seemed to be the only option. He would show forgiveness where none was warranted. He would show mercy when none was deserved. Because He is faithful and His love is everlasting.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠

An Everlasting Love.

“At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.”

Thus says the Lord:
“The people who survived the sword
    found grace in the wilderness;
when Israel sought for rest,
   the Lord appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
    therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Again I will build you, and you shall be built,
    O virgin Israel!
Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines
    and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
Again you shall plant vineyards
    on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters shall plant
    and shall enjoy the fruit.
For there shall be a day when watchmen will call
    in the hill country of Ephraim:
‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,
    to the Lord our God.’”

For thus says the Lord:
“Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
    and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
proclaim, give praise, and say,
    ‘O Lord, save your people,
    the remnant of Israel.’
Behold, I will bring them from the north country
    and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame,
    the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;
    a great company, they shall return here.
With weeping they shall come,
    and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,
I will make them walk by brooks of water,
    in a straight path in which they shall not stumble,
for I am a father to Israel,
    and Ephraim is my firstborn.

“Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,
    and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
    and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
For the Lord has ransomed Jacob
    and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
    and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
    and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall be like a watered garden,
    and they shall languish no more.
Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
    and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy;
    I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
    and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
declares the Lord.” – Jeremiah 31:1-14 ESV

This chapter continues God’s promise of future restoration for Israel and Judah. While the northern kingdom of Israel had been in captivity for many years at the point at which Jeremiah penned these words, God had still not forgotten them. He had not turned His back on them. His inclusion of them in His promise of restoration provides us with a glimpse into God’s everlasting love and faithfulness. Those two words – love and faithfulness – are directly tied to God’s covenant-keeping nature. The fact that God keeps His word and fulfills His commitments is not based on some legally binding requirement that God is obligated to keep. It is based on His love and faithfulness. God’s love for Israel and Judah was what kept them in His favor for so long, even while they committed spiritual adultery, throwing themselves at false gods and offering their affections to lifeless idols. God’s discipline of His children was a sign of His love for them.

My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline,
    and don’t be upset when he corrects you.
For the Lord corrects those he loves,
    just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. – Proverbs 3:11-12 NLT

The author of the book of Hebrews would quote from these verses when attempting to get his audience, made up mostly of Jewish Christians, to understand the suffering they were experiencing. He wanted them to know that their suffering was not a sign of God’s absence, but of His loving presence.

As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever? – Hebrews 12:7-9 NLT

Like any loving father, God was disciplining His disobedient children because He cared for them. He wanted His best for them. God reminds the people of Judah and Israel that His love has not faded. It is the same love that put up with the rebellion of their ancestors in the wilderness.

“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.
    With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” – Jeremiah 31:3 NLT

Notice those two words: everlasting and unfailing. Those are so foreign to us when we think about human love. Our love ebbs and flows, waxes and wains. It seems to increase and then, just as easily, fades away in a heartbeat. We find it so easy to fall in and out of love with one another. So, it is difficult for us to understand a love that is everlasting and unfailing. Paul’s poetic description of love found in his famous “Love Chapter” of 1 Corinthians, provides us with a written illustration of God’s love for us.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT

Love, God’s love, never fails. It endures all the way to the end. Remember, what God is having Jeremiah write down on a scroll is His promises for the future restoration of Israel and Judah. While some of His promises will be fulfilled when the remnant returns from captivity in Judah 70 years later, it will only be a partial fulfillment. The rest is yet to come. So God has Jeremiah put down in writing the following words:

Again I will build you, and you shall be built,
    O virgin Israel!
Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines
    and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
Again you shall plant vineyards
    on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters shall plant
    and shall enjoy the fruit. – Jeremiah 31:4-5 ESV

God is going to do something great, but it is in the future. It will be a re-creation of Israel’s original greatness. He will rebuild their cities. He will restore their joy. He will return their land to fruitfulness. In Isaiah 61, the passage Jesus read in the synagogue in Nazareth, the following verses describe God’s future restoration of Israel.

To all who mourn in Israel,
    he will give a crown of beauty for ashes,
a joyous blessing instead of mourning,
    festive praise instead of despair.
In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks
    that the Lord has planted for his own glory.

They will rebuild the ancient ruins,
    repairing cities destroyed long ago.
They will revive them,
    though they have been deserted for many generations. – Isaiah 61:3-4 NLT

Remember, when Jesus read this passage in the synagogue that day, he told the people, “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” (Luke 4:21 NLT). Jesus, the Messiah, had come to bring these things about. And the day is coming when He will return to earth and complete His God-ordained mission. He will set up His kingdom in Jerusalem and restore Israel to its former glory. He will gather His people from all over the world and return them to the land of promise.

“For I will bring them from the north
    and from the distant corners of the earth.
I will not forget the blind and lame,
    the expectant mothers and women in labor.
    A great company will return!
Tears of joy will stream down their faces,
    and I will lead them home with great care.
They will walk beside quiet streams
    and on smooth paths where they will not stumble.
For I am Israel’s father,
    and Ephraim is my oldest child.” – Jeremiah 31:8-9 NLT

God’s everlasting love will endure to the end. He will continue to love His people and remain faithful to them until His plans for them are fully complete. And God reminds His people that the day is coming when they will see and experience the full extent of His great love for them.

The Lord, who scattered his people,
    will gather them and watch over them
    as a shepherd does his flock. – Jeremiah 31:10 NLT

“I will turn their mourning into joy.
    I will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing.” – Jeremiah 31:13 NLT

“The priests will enjoy abundance,
    and my people will feast on my good gifts.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!” – Jeremiah 31:14 NLT

The love of God never fails. It never fades or diminishes in any way. We may experience His discipline, but as His children, we will never experience a loss of His love for us. His love for us is directly tied to His plans for us.

In his great love chapter, Paul tells us “love never ends.” And then he goes on to say, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT). In other words, we have a limited understanding of what God has in store. We can only see so far. We don’t know the final plans or exactly how and when God is going to accomplish them. But we can rest easy, knowing that His plans for us are based on His love for us. And His love never ends.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness. – Lamentations 3:22-23 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson