Famine, Sword, and Death
The word of the Lord went to Jeremiah and told him that he would not take a wife or have children. This was because the sons and daughters born there, and the mothers and fathers concerning them would all die of deadly diseases.
They would not be lamented or buried. They would be as dung on the surface of the ground. They would perish to sword and famine, and their dead bodies would be food for the birds and beasts.
The Lord continued saying that they would not enter into the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them; for He had taken away the peace for the people and His steadfast love and mercy.
Both great and small would die in that land and would not be buried, and no one would lament for them or cut themselves, or make themselves bald. No one would break bread for the mourner, to comfort them for the dead, nor would anyone give a cup of consolation to drink for the father or mother.
No one would go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat or drink. The Lord would silence in that place right before their eyes, the voice of mirth, the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
When Jeremiah was to tell the people all of these things that the Lord had said, they would ask him why the Lord had pronounced this great evil on them, what their iniquity had been, and what their sin committed against the Lord was.
Jeremiah would respond by saying that it was because their fathers had forsaken the Lord and gone after other gods and served and worshiped them. The people had forsaken the Lord and not kept His law, doing worse even than their fathers had done.
They followed their own stubborn, evil will, and refused to listen to the Lord. Therefore they would be hurled into the land that neither they nor their fathers had known. There they would serve other gods day and night, and the Lord would show them no favor.
The Lord Will Restore Israel
The Lord declared that the days were coming when it would no longer be said, ‘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 the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For the Lord would bring them to their own land that He had given to their fathers.
The Lord was sending for many fishers and they would catch them. And afterward, He would send for hunters, and they would hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of rocks.
For my eyes are on all their ways.
They are not hidden from me,
nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.
-Jeremiah 16:17
The Lord would doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they had polluted the land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and had filled the Lord’s inheritance with their abominations.
O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
my refuge in the day of trouble,
to you shall the nations come
from the ends of the earth.
-Jeremiah 16:19
Therefore, behold, I will make them know,
this once I will make them know
my power and my might,
and they shall know that my name is the Lord.
-Jeremiah 16:21
The Sin of Judah
The sin of Judah was written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it was engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars. Their wealth and all their treasures would be given as spoil as the price of their high places for sin throughout all the territory.
They would loosen their hand from their heritage that the Lord had given them, and He would make them serve their enemies in a land that they did not know. The Lord’s anger was a fire kindled that would burn forever.
Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.”
-Jeremiah 17:5
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.”
-Jeremiah 17: 7
“I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
-Jeremiah 17:10
O Lord, the hope of Israel,
all who forsake you shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth,
for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.
-Jeremiah 17:13
Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved,
for you are my praise.
-Jeremiah 17:14
Jeremiah continued speaking to the Lord saying that he had not turned away from Him and had spoken what was commanded. However because of that, he was being persecuted by the people, and was asking for them to be put to shame for it. Jeremiah asked that they be put to shame, dismayed, and disaster brought upon them with double destruction.
Keep the Sabbath Holy
The Lord told Jeremiah to go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem. He was to tell the people the word of the Lord, saying, “Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear burden on the Sabbath day or bring in by the gates of Jerusalem. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.”
Yet they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their necks so they would not receive instruction. The Lord said that if they would follow His commandment and do no work on the Sabbath day that they would “enter by the gates of the city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inherited forever.”
The people would come from the cities of Judah and the surrounding places and bring burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord.
If they still refused to listen to the Lord and keep the Sabbath holy, then a fire would be kindled in its gates, and it would devour the palaces of Jerusalem and would not be quenched.
The Potter and the Clay
The Lord told Jeremiah to arise and go down to the potter’s house. So he did, and saw the potter working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good for the potter to do.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah asking if he had seen what the potter had done. The house of Israel was just as the clay in the potter’s hand and at any moment the Lord could pluck it up and break it down and destroy it.
Or if the nation would turn from their evil ways, then the Lord would relent from the disaster he intended to do to it. But if at any time the people chose not to do evil things, then the Lord could build and replant them.
The Lord said, “Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.”
But the people said those words were vain. They would still continue to follow their own plans, and all would act to the stubbornness of their evil hearts.
Then the people decided that they would make plots against Jeremiah, for the law would not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. They would strike him with the tongue, and pay no attention to any of his words.
Jeremiah spoke to the Lord and asked him to listen to what his adversaries were saying. He questioned if good should be repaid for evil, since all the while his enemies were digging a pit for his life. Jeremiah asked the Lord to remember all the ways he obeyed Him and did as he was commanded, hoping the Lord would bring vengeance on the people who were attacking him. Jeremiah said,
Yet you, O Lord, know
all their plotting to kill me.
Forgive not their iniquity,
nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.
-Jeremiah 18:23