Chapter 30

One curious thing that I have noticed in the last couple of days: Somehow some songs that I remember hearing a long time ago have come back to mind. Here is a youtube link to one that somehow seems appropriate for today’s passage. According to this page, the structure of Jeremiah has turned a bit of a corner. Chapters 29-33 refer to the great hope of Israel. He hasn’t finished declaring doom by a long stretch, but at least we receive a bit of a rest from the constant doom and gloom! Whereas previous chapters have been about God’s promise to bring judgement, this chapter is about God promising to bring His people back. Let’s have a look at the list of promises: God will: • Turn everything around (v3) • Bring them back to the land He gave their ancestors (v3) • Bring his people out alive (v7) • Free them from slavery (vs 8-9) • Save them from faraway places (v10) • Bring their children back from exile (v10) • Give ‘Jacob’ a good life(v10) • Be with them and save them (v11) • Punish them, but fairly (v11) • Bring vengeance to those who hurt them (vs 16 – 17) • Compassionately rebuild homes (v18 – 21) • Be their God as they are His people (v22) • Sweep up the evil like a dust devil (v23) That’s a lot of promises, right there . . . The big thing is that over all, God is promising , now that the people have been exiled, to bring them back, and to be their God. It’s all about redemption.

Chapter 29

I have actually been looking forward to writing on this chapter for a while.

For many Christians, Jeremiah is simply too hard to read. And, well, I can’t blame them – even after my commitment to write on whatever book my readers selected, I have been finding Jeremiah heavy going.

But even then, most of us kind of know little popular snippets of many books, and one of the commonly lifted passages is Jeremiah 29:11. ‘“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”’

And yet . . .

I have to admit that I was almost afraid to read this. I have found that many of the proof texts that we so love as Christians, if read in context, are actually not saying what we think they are saying. I was afraid of what this wonderful passage might say in context.

I needn’t have worried. The circumstances in which Jeremiah wrote were, of course, less than ideal; by the time he wrote this part of the book, the Exile had already begun. The Babylonians had already invaded and taken the cream of the people of Israel back to serve them (incidentally, Daniel was one of those taken, and if he’s typical of the quality, you can see why they were keen to put them to work!). Jeremiah has been left behind (which kind of emphasizes the “ordinariness” of Jeremiah seen in the introduction of this series!), and he sends a letter to the exiles to encourage them.

This passage is a little confusing in the Message. That is because this chapter actually represents 2 letters, one to the Exiles and the other to a person named Shemaiah. The Message doesn’t really show the separation very well, so for this chapter I recommend you switch back to the NIV or some other translation.

For me, this chapter is fasicinating because it really reveals the heart of God. At this time, Judah is experiencing what it is like to be left behind in a desolate place as a result of her disobedience. She’s at her lowest ebb. And remember that of the 28 previous chapters, most are further condemnation.

But now it’s all happened, God is singing a different tune. Before He was warning of exile: now exile has happened. The other shoe has dropped, sort of. So God can now step in and be merciful. It is in this context that we read Joshua 29. God has just spent some time encouraging His people to plant gardens, learn to live in Babylon – the exile will last 70 years!

And then the famous line comes in.

God is encouraging people in the midst of (possibly) the worst moment of their lives so far. At times like that it is more important than any other time to acknowledge God’s sovereignty.

When you go through bad times, it can be tempting to assume God has dropped the ball. It’s at that time that you most need that message – that there IS a plan, that God DOES want to prosper you and not to harm you. God loves you at all times, but sometimes it pays to remind ourselves of that.

This passage is specifically intended for a group of people who are feeling like God has abandoned them. Maybe that’s you right now. If so, Jeremiah 29:11 is for you, even in context!

Chapter 28

When you’re trying to tell something unpleasant to someone (particularly if that someone has trouble believing you, it can really be offputting when a third party – someone not directly involved – starts contradicting you.

It’s bad enough when you’re not sure about the facts of the matter. But it is a thousand times worse when you know exactly what the facts are, and your opponent is talking nonsense.

This is the scenario Jeremiah is facing in this passage. He is trying to get the people of Judah to listen to his truthful (but unpopular) message from the Lord – that they be exiled, and that God plans to fight against Judah on the side of their enemies.

Another “Prophet”, Hananiah, has seen Jeremiah walking around with his yoke (see chapter 27), and sees an opportunity. He grabs Jeremiah’s yoke, picks it up and smashes it. He declares that just like this, God would smash the armies against Judah.

Note this – God didn’t say anything of the sort to Hananiah. His desire to smash the yoke was to cost him his life. We don’t know why he wanted to smash it. Maybe he was trying to be nice to Jeremiah, but I suspect not. For all we know, perhaps it was effectively a piece of performance art! My own idea, however, is that he was somehow threatened by people listening to Jeremiah, and wanted to counteract the attention that he’d been getting lately.

People always think they know better. Younger people especially (I say as a teacher!).

The problem is simple, though – Hananiah’s comment came from him, and not from God. And as a result, God orders for him to die by the time the year is over. This may sound harsh, but remember – prophets have a lot of influence, and for people to pretend that God speaks through them is a serious matter. Consider how easily people could be fooled by that into doing something disastrous?

In fact this is what I wanted us to concentrate on this evening. Simply this – Given that it’s presumptuous for a person to speak words as God’s words when he or she has not been spoken to, I wonder how many times this might be thought to apply to our own conversations.

Two questions: 1) Do you ever say or imply that you believe God to be directly speaking through you? Sometimes He may, and that’s great. But we need to be absolutely certain that He is speaking through us, and it’s worth remembering the lesson of Hananiah.

2) What is your source of authority? Is it God’s word? or is it you yourself?

It is a serious thing to speak on God’s behalf, and we need to ensure that we do it in a correct and righteous manner.

Chapter 27

In this chapter, Jeremiah is asked to give an object lesson to the people of Judah.

Now, up to this point, God has provided Jeremiah himself with object lessons (the kettle, the potter and the pants, for example[1]), but he has yet to give the people anything other than words as far as we can tell.

This time God has changed tactics. He really wants these people to listen!

Spare a thought for how God must feel here – He knows how set in stone the future is (something that you and I don’t really know), and whether or not the people of Judah can really alter their fate; either way, He knows what they will choose, and He knows that it won’t be good.

As God is feeling, so is Jeremiah. After all, Jeremiah is acting as God’s messenger throughout this whole thing. Like God he can see the peoples’ headalong rush towards destruction; but he can’t influence anyone, and he can see that peoples’ decisions don’t favour him.

There is much pathos in what we see. Jeremiah’s future is our past. History tells us that Nebuchadnezzar came in, defeated Zedekiah and dragged his nobles into exile. So we know that ultimately Jeremiah was not successful, at least in the macro scale.

It’s hard not to feel sorry for the guy.

This message God gives is, apart from giving the opportunity for people to escape, largely unaltered. Doom is coming on the city unless you 1) escape or 2) Bow down before the next ruler.

So what do WE learn from this gloomy piece of Scripture?

We learn that God is gracious, and even in situations like this where there there seems to be no hope at all for people, He gives second chances – even if, as in this case, there is likely to be little or no uptake of said second chance. But in order to ensure that this chance gets through to people, we also learn that God is willing to change His tactics, and go to extraordinary lengths to get His message through.

This is another example of how we can see that Jeremiah worships the same God as we do. The God who is willing to get someone to run around town wearing a yoke, in an attempt to trigger people into thinking “Hey, maybe I should listen to that Jeremiah guy” is a God who is willing to use anyone who makes themselves available.

More than that, He’s a God who is not particularly going to surprise you when hundreds of years later, He volunteers to take the punishment for sinners who are yet to repent.

This is the God we worship. It’s time for us to express our gratitude to Him, for being willing to go to such extreme legths – for you and I.

Chapter 26

So once again Jeremiah is given God’s message to speak. This time he’s commanded to go straight to the Temple, and to preach to the worshippers there.

But his message is once again controversial (I think most genuine prophets have that problem sooner or later!). This time God has shown a little crack to His resolve – He goes as far as saying that if the people repent, he’ll relent! But the people are as hard as nails, and they simply get angry.

Ironically, in verse 11, we read that the people who are the most vehement in their criticism of Jeremiah – demanding his death, no less! – are the prophets and priests. What this says about their mandate from the Lord is interesting. At the very BEST, these people are ignoring God in their jealousy of Jeremiah; at worst, God was never speaking through them, and they were frauds all along – frauds who are desperate to avoid being found out!

Jeremiah’s answer to these guys?

Firstly he restates the danger. He has a captive audience, so he makes the most of it. Finally, he tells the people that if they wish to kill an innocent man, go right ahead – but if they do, they’re going against God.

Jeremiah is found not guilty of any wrongdoing, and he discovers he has an ally – one Ahikam, son of Shaphan. This man hasn’t yet declaired himself to be in favour of Jeremiah’s message; rather, he has heard enough that he believes Jeremiah to have a valid point, and wishes to protect him against further attacks.

So what do we get out of this one today?

I think it’s mainly the contrast between the way we often are – frightened of standing up for God – and the way Jeremiah is, completely unfazed. I think this is mostly about faith.

If one has genuine faith in God, it makes it easier to stand out there in before the angry crowd, and just say “Repent”. After all, this life isn’t everything. It would mean that you’re genuinely more concerned with what God thinks than what humans think.

Given that, what is our attitude like? Are we like Jeremaiah, unafraid? Or are we like those opposing him in the temple?

It’s up to us.

Chapter 25

The pattern established in previous chapters, of Jeremiah preaching a message of doom on the hard-hearted people of Judah, continues here.

Verses 1 – 7 tell us of how Jeremiah (in company with many other prophets) has been preaching God’s warning to the people of Judah – only to be disappointed when they do not listen, when they do nothing.

In verses 8 – 11, Jeremiah expands on this by proclaiming the consequences that will occur – that Babylon will successfully invade and conquer the people of Judah, and that Judah will be taken captive.

Verses 12 – 14, however, tell us something new – that God will eventually put the Babylonians on trial for their own sins. So God’s wrath isn’t JUST reserved for the people of Judah – his anger burns against all who do evil, wherever they are. But He is particularly angry at Judah because JUDAH SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER.

We finish off by looking at God’s plans for the various nations around, including (but not limited to) Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Arabia and the like. Short version: God is rather cross.

So how do we make sense of this chapter?

I think the best thing to draw out of it is the position of the Nations in God’s economy. The key thing is something we need to ensure we understand. It is this:

God sees all peoples’ sufferings as important. Therefore, He wants to put a stop to it. And as far as God is concerned, the problem behind the problem is SIN.

We are coming up on Easter Sunday at the time I write this, and that celebration stands as a stark and solemn reminder of how seriously God takes sin. It is a fact that God sees sin as sufficiently awful that He chose to die painfully rather than live with it. We often say that God can do anything, and He can. But generally He chooses to separate Himself from sin as widely as possible. The cross is a case in point – when God’s beloved Son is facing His worst ever moments, God Himself chooses to turn away!

The consequences for sin are extreme. Some people ask if God is being harsh by punishing people for it. I say otherwise – God isn’t harsh, because He’d far rather we didn’t receive eternal separation from Him. God wants to be connected with all His people.

Needless to say, He won’t be connected to everyone. Some will reject Him, but we need to recognize that this is not us – and as a consequence, we are now responsible for sharing the good news of Jesus on to as many people who will listen.

Chapter 24

I have to admit that the temptation to make today some kind of April Fools joke is strong. However, I intend to resist.

One of the curious little oddities of the English language is how words change. Words which once held one meaning somehow meander until they hold another.

Case in point: Tonight’s passage. In his vision, Jeremiah sees “A basket of naughty figs,” in the King James Version! Of course, in modern English, it’s usually translated as “rotten figs,” or even more precisely, in The Message, “Rotten figs, so rotten they cannot be eaten.”

Here once again we see God’s promise for redemption of His people. Even here, at Israel and Judah’s lowest Ebb, God still cares about them. He wants to rescue them.

Yet the country is not what He had in mind. God desires to show mercy, but He also wants to show that Justice is to be done.

“Catch 22” perhaps?

Thankfully no, because there is a way for God to do both.

What He can do is to set before His people a choice, just as He did back in the days of Joshua – “I have set before you blessings and curses.”

Then, as now, God granted the people free choice.

It’s really up to the people whether they’re going to be “Good figs” or “Naughty figs.” And the way they choose is how they respond to God’s instructions!

Just in case you’ve forgotten along the way, God said that if anyone wishes to survive what is coming – the invasion of Jerusalem – they will need to surrender to the invading armies. They will be taken away (as were Daniel and his friends – they were exiles to Babylon from this period!) and their talents used, but they will survive; and one day God will bring them back to here. Not them personally, of course; their children, or maybe their childrens’ children. Meanwhile, the exiles have God’s promise of protection.

We face a choice like that in Jeremiah’s vision today. God has granted us too the opportunity to choose blessings or curses.

Needless to say, we must choose carefully.