![[object Object]](https://d20cai2bqfzz6a.cloudfront.net/images/main_image/shutterstock_296145239_potter_copy_1454427003_7.png)
Jeremiah 16-20
The Potter
Pays Back
Psalm 85:1-13 Stopping the Vicious Cycle of Sin
1.“Yahweh, you have been favorable to Your land. You have restored the captivity of Jacob.2.You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people. You have covered all their sin. Selah.3.You have taken away all Your wrath. You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger.4.Restore us, God of our salvation, and cause Your indignation toward us to cease.5.Will You be angry with us forever? Will You draw out Your anger to all generations?6.Won’t You revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?7.Show us Your hesed/loyal love, Yahweh. Grant us Your salvation/deliverance.
8.I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, for He will speak peace to His people, His saints; but let them not turn again to folly.9.Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land.10.Hesed/loyal love and faithfulness meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.11.Truth/faithfulness springs out of the earth. Righteousness has looked down from heaven.12.Yes, Yahweh will give that which is good. Our land will yield its increase.13.Righteousness goes before Him, and prepares the way for His steps.“
Observations
85:1-3.The psalmist recalls that God has been favorable to the land of Israel, and restored/turned back (used five times 85:1,3,4,6,8) the people to the land, forgiven their iniquity and covered over their sin. Note the differences between each of the items. Most commentators think this refers to the return from the Babylonian captivity. God has also taken all of His wrath away and turned from the fierceness of His anger.
85:4-7.
The psalmist asks God to restore the people. Some versions add “again,” thinking this is a new circumstance of sin that has aroused God's anger, and thus he appeals to God to repeat the forgiveness of 85:1-3. Another view is that in the first three verses, God has ceased the punishment or penalty of their sin (in reversing the captivity), but they are still reaping consequences of the ruptured relationship. Therefore he asks God to revive them personally so they can rejoice in their relationship with Him, living in hesed/covenantal loyalty.
85:8-13.
Either way, the things individuals need to live in hesed/covenantal relationship with God are: listening to God, obeying what He said rather than returning to folly, living in fear of displeasing God, so His presence/glory can dwell with them. When people live in faithful hesed/loyal love towards God, righteousness, peace and faithfulness are demonstrated on the earth. Then God can bless once again.
Application
Avoid the vicious cycle of sin and judgment by fearing God and living in hesed with Him (do what He says). See Judges 1 for Breaking Sin Cycles.
Prayer
God, You are the one who forgives and restores; may I live in righteous loyalty to You, so You can give what is good. Thanks. Amen.
Proverbs 21:1-4 Matters of the Heart
1.“The king's heart is in Yahweh's hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.2.Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but Yahweh weighs the hearts.3.To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.4.A high look, and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.”Observations
21:1.God can change hearts and does so with a purpose.
21:2.
Of course we think what we do is right, but God looks at the motives.
21:3.
God is not impressed with our ritual, but with our righteousness.
21:4.
Doing our thing independently of God is sin (which isn't good).
Application
Evaluate your life and motives from God's perspective every day.
Prayer
God, I want to be acceptable and right in Your sight; change my heart so I desire what You desire for me. Amen.
Jeremiah 16-20 The Potter Pays Back
These chapters depict the destruction awaiting those who depart from God and stubbornly refuse to hear His word and repent. God gives encouragement and incentives to obey and horrible consequences for continued rebellion. Jeremiah gives warnings, calls to repentance, and object lessons, but only reaps abuse and pain for speaking God's truth. Some famous verses in the beginnings of chapters 17 and 18 shed light on God's purposes and human responsibility.
Jeremiah 16 From Ruin to Rejoicing
1.The word of Yahweh came also to me, saying,2.You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.3.For thus says Yahweh concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became their father in this land:4.They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says Yahweh, even hesed/loyal covenantal love and tender mercies.6.Both great and small shall die in this land...8.You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.9.For thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before 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.It shall happen, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall tell you, Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?11.Then you shall tell them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says Yahweh, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;12.and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me:13.therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.14.Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be said, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;15.but, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them. I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.16.Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says Yahweh, and they shall fish them up; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.17.For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.18.First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.19.Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit.20.Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods?21.Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is YahwehObservations
16:1-9.Jeremiah is forbidden to marry and have children, because the inhabitants of Jerusalem will die in dishonor and become dung on the hills. There will be no lamenting nor celebrating because of the coming judgments. God will remove His peace and covenantal protection (hesed) from the land as a result of their rebellion (next section).
16:10-18.
The people are so insensitive to God that they don't think they're doing anything wrong, when in fact they have forsaken Him and sinned to a greater degree than their fathers. Each rebelliously does whatever his evil heart wants, and doesn't listen to nor obey God. In depicting the ensuing judgment and punishment, God graciously inserts a promise of return from captivity. Those who read this in captivity would be encouraged to faithfulness and have hope.
16:19-21.
Jeremiah responds with a little praise chorus, acknowledging that Yahweh is not only His strength and refuge, but that of the whole earth. The nations shall come to Yahweh, confessing that the gods they served are vain and profitless. When Yahweh destroys the city, He will cause Judah to know and acknowledge that the God they should have been hearing and worshiping is Yahweh, not Baal or Ashtoreth.
Application
Those who are sensitive to the true God will confess and forsake their sin and futile ways, and sing praises to the God who is their fortress and salvation.
Prayer
God, please cause me to see and forsake whatever is in my life that is displeasing to You and might incur Your judgment; then I will rejoice in You. Amen.
Jeremiah 17 Cursings and Blessings
1.The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars;2.while their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the green trees on the high hills3.My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a spoil, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.4.You, even of yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you don’t know: for you have kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn forever.5.Thus says Yahweh: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.6.For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited.7.Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose hope/confidence Yahweh is.8.For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be anxious in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.9.The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?10.I, Yahweh, search the emotions/kidneys, I examine the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.11.As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool.12.A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.13.Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be disappointed. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters.14.Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.15.Behold, they tell me, Where is the word of Yahweh? let it come now.16.As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you; neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of my lips was before your face.17.Don’t be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of evil.18.Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me be disappointed; let them be dismayed, but don’t let me be dismayed; bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.19.Thus said Yahweh to me: Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;20.and tell them, Hear the word of Yahweh, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:21.Thus says Yahweh, 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 holy, neither do any work: but make the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.23.But they didn’t listen, neither turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction.24.It shall happen, if you diligently listen to me, says Yahweh, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein;25.then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on 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 forever.26.They shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill country, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meal offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, to the house of Yahweh.27.But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
Observations
17:1-11.God gives two outcomes for His people: Depart from Him, and trust in finite humans and institutions, and you'll live in a spiritual desert and be destroyed. Continue in Him, trusting His word, and you'll be a fruitful tree experiencing prosperity regardless of the weather. God searches/examines the emotions (literally “kidneys”) and hearts to give to everyone the consequences of their actions. The uncircumcised/insensitive and untrained heart is inclined toward wickedness, rather than God's will, therefore it gets us into trouble. (“It's not my fault I have to blame someone/something for my failings.”) Those who prosper apart from God (as many do), are a temporary aberration in the eternal scheme of things.
17:12-18.
Jeremiah offers a principle and a prayer: Those who depart from the spring of living water won't have life; May those who persecute him be dismayed and destroyed.
17:19-27.
God tells Jeremiah to stand in the gate on the way to the temple and rebuke the people on their way to ritual worship for defiling the Sabbath (major command of the covenant; for their violation of it, they would go into captivity). But, they didn't want to listen, much less obey, yet God offers blessing and continuation of the Davidic Covenant (2Sam 7) if they would diligently listen and obey.
Application
Learn God's ways, align your heart with His word, and be blessed; or trust in your heart and don't listen to God, and be cursed. Hmmm, pretty obvious choice.
Prayer
All wise and knowing God, help me diligently listen to Your word, and incline my heart to trust and obey You, the Spring of living water. Amen.Jeremiah 18 Potter Pays Back
1.The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,2.Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.3.Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels.4.When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.5.Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,6.House of Israel, can’t I do with you as this potter? says Yahweh. Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.7.At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;8.if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.9.There are times I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;10.if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.11.Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.12.But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do everyone after the stubbornness of his evil heart.13.Therefore thus says Yahweh: Ask now among the nations, who has heard such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.14.Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? Shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?15.For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up;16.to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.17.I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.18.Then they said, Come, and let us devise schemes 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 strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.19.Give heed to me, Yahweh, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me.20.Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.21.Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men struck of the sword in battle.22.Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.23.Yet, Yahweh, you know all their counsel against me to kill me; don’t forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before you; deal you with them in the time of your anger.
Observations
18:1-17.God compares Himself to a potter who can make and then remake a pot that is marred or flawed. God can and does change His plans for people and nations based upon their free will choices to obey or disobey. Verse 8 states clearly that if they repent and turn from their evil, He will relent and not send the promised judgment. That's because God had promised to bless obedience and curse disobedience. If they disobey, God moves into the promised cursing mode. If they obey, He moves into the promised blessing mode. Unfortunately, they ignored His call to repentance (18:11), and chose to walk in their stubborn stupidity (18:12). They forsook the relationship they had with Yahweh to follow false gods, and refused to return. So God will scatter and destroy them.
18:18-23. The evil institutional hierarchy conspires against Jeremiah to do him evil. This is a typical response, claiming they have truth, when all they do is cling to false tradition. Jesus and Paul, and most other prophets had the same problem. Jeremiah calls for God to judge them terminally.
Application
If we return to God, He returns to us in blessing; if we rebel, He will turn from us in sending judgment. Any questions?
Prayer
God, thanks that You are totally just, and will repay evil to evildoers, and good to those who do good in serving You; protect me from the lying hypocrites who don't know or do Your will, and recompense them accordingly. Thanks again. Amen.
Jeremiah 19 Breaking the Bottle
1.Thus said Yahweh, Go, and buy a potter’s earthen bottle, and take some of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;2.and go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you;3.and say, Hear the word of Yahweh, kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears, his ears shall tingle.4.Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, that they didn’t know, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents,5.and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal; which I didn’t command, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:6.therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter.7.I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life: and their dead bodies will I give to be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth.8.I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.9.I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, shall distress them.10.Then you shall break the bottle in the sight of the men who go with you,11.and shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, that can’t be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury.12.Thus will I do to this place, says Yahweh, and to its inhabitants, even making this city as Topheth:13.and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the hosts of the sky, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods.14.Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of Yahweh’s house, and said to all the people:15.Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear my words.Observations
19:1-9.God tells Jeremiah to get a bottle and some elders to witness the next prophecy of judgment. Since Judah has forsaken Him to worship other gods and the host of heaven (stars), thus defiling the land, God will bring such a defiling judgment on them, that everyone who hears of it will be appalled. They will become cannibals during the distress of the siege.
19:10-15.
Jeremiah is told to break the bottle to demonstrate the irreparable nature of their judgment, because they make their neck stiff (rebellious) so that they would not hear God's words.
Application
Stubborn stupidity is doubly stupid, missing out on God's blessing, and incurring irrevocable wrath.
Prayer
God, may my heart and ears always be sensitive to Your voice. Amen.
Jeremiah 20 Pain From False Prophets
1.Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in the house of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.2.Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of Yahweh.3.It happened on the next day, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, Yahweh has not called your name Pashhur, but Magormissabib.4.For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall kill them with the sword.5.Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all its gains, and all the precious things of it, yes, all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies; and they shall make them a prey, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.6.You, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house shall go into captivity; and you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.7.Yahweh, you coerced me into being a prophet, and I allowed you to do it. You overcame my resistance and prevailed over me. Now I have become a constant laughingstock. Everyone ridicules me.8.For whenever I prophesy, I must cry out, "Violence and destruction are coming!" This message from Yahweh has made me an object of continual insults and derision.9.Sometimes I think, "I will make no mention of his message. I will not speak as his messenger any more." But then his message becomes like a fire locked up inside of me, burning in my heart and soul. I grow weary of trying to hold it in; I cannot contain it.10.I hear many whispering words of intrigue against me. Those who would cause me terror are everywhere! They are saying, "Come on, let's publicly denounce him!" All my so-called friends are just watching for something that would lead to my downfall. They say, "Perhaps he can be enticed into slipping up, so we can prevail over him and get our revenge on him.11.But Yahweh is with me to help me like an awe-inspiring warrior. Therefore those who persecute me will fail and will not prevail over me. They will be thoroughly disgraced because they did not succeed. Their disgrace will never be forgotten.12.O Yahweh who rules over all, you test and prove the righteous. You see into people's hearts and minds. Pay them back for what they have done because I trust you to vindicate my cause.13.Sing to Yahweh! Praise Yahweh! For he rescues the oppressed from the clutches of evildoers.14.Cursed is the day in which I was born: don’t let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.15.Cursed is the man who brought news to my father, saying, A boy is born to you; making him very glad.16.Let that man be as the cities which Yahweh overthrew, and didn’t repent: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime;17.because he didn’t kill me from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.18.Why came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?Observations
20:1-6.A leader of the ritual religionists heard Jeremiah proclaiming the word of God and responded by causing him to be beaten and put in torture stocks. The Hebrew word for “stocks” comes from a root that means “turn back on oneself” indicating a painful bending or distortion of the body. When released, Jeremiah says Yahweh changed his name from “Freedom” to “Surrounded by Terror”, and that he, and all the false prophets would die in Babylon.
20:7-13.
Jeremiah laments his career choice because of the opposition he encounters, and decides to quit. But he can't keep quiet about God's word. He recognizes that Yahweh is with him, and his enemies have not prevailed, although they have made life difficult. He also recognizes that Yahweh tests the righteous and judges righteously, and winds up praising God for deliverance. Anyone who preaches and practices truth will be swimming upstream, surrounded by proud and wicked slime slithering downstream. Get used to it, and keep focused on God.
20:14-18.
Slipping back into his melancholy, Jeremiah laments the day of his birth.
Application
Focusing on the promises and presence of God rather than problems eases pain.
Prayer
God, I realize that in standing with You, I will face the same rejection You experience from those who do Satan's will; may I rejoice in Your presence and promises more than my temporal comfort. Amen.
Digging Deeper
God in a nutshell: God has purposed to bless His people if they obey Him, and curse them if they don't. Their choice. He calls them to repentance, and back to a relationship with Him, but they stubbornly refuse, thus setting up the cursing part of His plan. His sovereign rule is to bless or curse depending upon the response of individuals. It is clearly not arbitrary. God protects His servants not allowing their enemies to prevail, but allowing the servants to experiencing purifying pain. He will pay back the enemies.Us in a nutshell: We have a choice to hear and obey, or refuse to hear and obey. Either course of action has consequences attached to it. We can make ourselves hear, or make ourselves not hear. Even though chosen by God to be His special people, we forfeit all His planned blessings by forgetting and forsaking Him to serve false gods. God's true servants must be prepared to find all their joy and comfort in the presence of God, because most people are opposed to truth.