October
28th Jeremiah
16
Judgement of the Lord
1:
The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying, 2:
Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or
daughters in this place. 3:
For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the
daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers
that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this
land; 4:
They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented;
neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face
of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine;
and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the
beasts of the earth. 5:
For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning,
neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace
from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies. 6:
Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not
be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor
make themselves bald for them: 7:
Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort
them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation
to drink for their father or for their mother. 8:
Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them
to eat and to drink. 9:
For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will
cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the
voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the
bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. 10:
And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these
words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD
pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity?
or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?
11:
Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me,
saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served
them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not
kept my law; 12:
And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every
one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not
hearken unto me: 13:
Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know
not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods
day and night; where I will not shew you favour.
The
return predicted
14:
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no
more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel
out of the land of Egypt; 15:
But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the
land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them:
and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their
fathers. 16:
Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall
fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall
hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the
holes of the rocks. 17:
For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face,
neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes. 18:
And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double;
because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance
with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things. 19:
O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of
affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the
earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity,
and things wherein there is no profit. 20:
Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? 21:
Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause
them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name
is The LORD.
Jeremiah
17 The sins of Judah
1:
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of
a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the
horns of your altars; 2:
Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the
green trees upon the high hills. 3:
O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy
treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all
thy borders. 4:
And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I
gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land
which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger,
which shall burn for ever.
Curses
and blessings
5:
Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and
maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. 6:
For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when
good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
in a salt land and not inhabited. 7:
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD
is. 8:
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth
out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but
her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of
drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. 9:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who
can know it? 10:
I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man
according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. 11:
As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that
getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of
his days, and at his end shall be a fool. 12:
A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our
sanctuary. 13:
O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed,
and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because
they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
Jeremiah’s
prayer
14:
Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be
saved: for thou art my praise. 15:
Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come
now. 16:
As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee:
neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came
out of my lips was right before thee. 17:
Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil. 18:
Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be
confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring
upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
The
Sabbath to be observed
19:
Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children
of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which
they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20:
And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah,
and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by
these gates: 21:
Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on
the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 22:
Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day,
neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded
your fathers. 23:
But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck
stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. 24:
And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith
the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the
sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein; 25:
Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes
sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses,
they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever. 26:
And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places
about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain,
and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings,
and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing
sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD. 27:
But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not
to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the
sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it
shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
Jeremiah
18 The Potter
1:
The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2:
Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee
to hear my words. 3:
Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a
work on the wheels. 4:
And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the
potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the
potter to make it. 5:
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6:
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the
LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine
hand, O house of Israel. 7:
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a
kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 8:
If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil,
I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 9:
And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning
a kingdom, to build and to plant it; 10:
If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will
repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. 11:
Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I
frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye
now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings
good. 12:
And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own
devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
13:
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath
heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible
thing. 14:
Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of
the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another
place be forsaken? 15:
Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to
vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the
ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; 16:
To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that
passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. 17:
I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will
shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
Another
pot
18:
Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for
the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise,
nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the
tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. 19:
Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that
contend with me. 20:
Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my
soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and
to turn away thy wrath from them. 21:
Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their
blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of
their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let
their young men be slain by the sword in battle. 22:
Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop
suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid
snares for my feet. 23:
Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me:
forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy
sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in
the time of thine anger.
The next
instruction from the Lord is that Jeremiah is not to marry. The Lord
explains that the mothers, daughters and sons born in Judah will die
terrible deaths. And the Lord says you must not mourn for them,
because he says, l have taken away my peace - my loving kindness and
my mercies. Great and small will die in this land and they will
remain unburied and unmourned. Nor is Jeremiah to go to a funeral
meal. The sound of joy and happiness will cease in the land and none
shall marry. And the Lord says when you bring this message to the
people they will say to you, what have we done wrong? Then you will
tell them that they have forsaken me, says the Lord, and gone after
idols to worship them. And that is why you will be thrown out of this
land in fact a day will come when men will not say the Lord who
brought us up out of Egypt but the Lord who brought us out of the
north country and from all lands where we were scattered. This was
fulfilled when Judah returned from Babylon but it will be fulfilled
fully when the ten tribes will be gathered from every nation, in the
future – before the kingdom. The Lord will send his ‘fishers’
and ‘hunters’ to find every Israelite living in every nation and
on every Island. In that day every son of Jacob will know that Gods
name is The LORD. (Jehovah) The prophet declared that the sins of
Judah are written with an iron pen with a diamond tip. And it is
engraved on the memory of Israelites. The Lord curses the man who
trusts in men and relies on the strength of the flesh whose heart has
departed from the Lord. However blessed is the man who trusts in the
Lord and those hope is the Lord. He will be like a tree planted by
waters, whose roots reach the river. He will be evergreen and
fruitful. The Lord warns that the mind of men of terribly deceitful
and desperately wicked, who can know how wicked it is? The Lord
searches the minds of men and tries his motives so that he will
punish or bless according to his actions. The rich man is like a
partridge who sits on dead eggs and they do not hatch so is he that
gets rich by evil methods. He will leave them in the middle of his
life and in the end he will find that he was a fool. Jeremiah is sent
to go and stand in the gate of the city. (This location gives him the
best opportunity of meeting most people. It is the judicial and
social centre of the city) It is through this gate that the king
enters and leaves the city. Jeremiah brings a message to the Kings of
Judah. He is to tell the Kings not to break the Sabbath day. (The
Sabbath day is symbolic of all the Mosaic Law.) if they keep this law
then This will be a token obedience that will turn away the wrath of
God. It will be the beginning of a spiritual revival. The Sacrificial
system will follow, whereby Israel will have their sins covered. But
if they will not keep the Sabbath then a fire will burn the gates and
it will burn until everything is consumed. Next the Lord sends
Jeremiah to the Potter’s house. Jeremiah sees a vessel that is
being formed but in the hands of the potter collapsed and so he took
the heap of misshapen clay and made a new vessel. And so this was the
message to the house of Judah. The Lord says that every men will walk
by and shake their heads in disbelief. The men of the city instead of
being smitten by his words begin to argue with Jeremiah. Jeremiah
calls on the Lord to judge Judah with slaughter. He says do not
forgive them and do not blot out their sin.
- Why was Jeremiah not to marry?
- How will the Lord gather his people from afar?
- What is the point of the vessel in the potters house?
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