Jeremiah's Struggle with God and Judah
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 21 viewsNotes
Transcript
Jeremiahs surprised by Opposition 11:1 - 12:17
Jeremiahs surprised by Opposition 11:1 - 12:17
You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant that I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, that I may confirm the oath that I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.” Then I answered, “So be it, Lord.”
A common theme that Jeremiah continues to refer to, blessing if they obey and curses if they disobey
“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
Then the people go after Jeremiah.
Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, and say, “Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or you will die by our hand”—
These are the people of his own hometown, rejecting him.
But you, O Lord, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter.
This is Jeremiah’s prayer toward the people
Q: The
A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming A Lamb Led to Slaughter (11:18–23)
These passages are models for the depth of honesty that is appropriate in prayer. The hazard of such honest prayer, as we shall see, is that Yahweh can be equally honest and therefore abrasive in response to prayer.
God then reminds Jeremiah in equally strong language that what he is enduring now is nothing compared to what he will have to go through.
These prayers follow a pattern similar to the Psalms
The Complaint - The trouble that is at hand
The Petition - the request from God
The Divine Response - God
Jeremiah feels betrayed by God 13:1-15:21
Jeremiah feels betrayed by God 13:1-15:21
Thus says the Lord to me, “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water.” So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord, and put it around my waist. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, “Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.” So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me. And after many days the Lord said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Thus says the Lord: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.
A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming The Linen Waistcloth (13:1–11)
1st command: buy and wear (vv. 1–2)
2nd command: remove and hide (vv. 3–5)
3rd command: recover and find useless (vv. 6–7)
3rd interpretation: cling to Yahweh (v. 11).
2nd interpretation: Israel refuses Yahweh (v. 10).
1st interpretation: Israel is worthless (v. 9).
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.
The Evil that Israel is committing is so habitual that its as like to change as an Ethiopian changing his skin or a leopard changing their spots.
Chapter 14:
There is a drought in the land. The drought is so severe that it not only affects the crops and farmland but also the nobles who have access to the best water.
O you hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?
The people accuse YHWH of not being in the Land with them to bless them but they make the case as before resting on God’s character, not their own merit for the blessing.
Jeremiah Renewed by God - 16:1 - 17:18
Jeremiah Renewed by God - 16:1 - 17:18
The word of the Lord came to me: “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.
How can the message that Jeremiah being renewed start off with him being commanded not to take a wife?
How would you take that news?
“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall 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 I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.
Since the people have chosen to forget what their forefathers have gone through God will put them through something surpassing even the Exodus so they will once again remember.
Q: How do you remember what God has saved you from?
Q: How is our church remembering what God saved us from?
Q: How is our nation remembering?
Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
“ ‘But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, then there shall enter by the gates of this 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 inhabited forever.
Q: HOw does it follow that resting on the Sabath will result in Kings going through the gates of the city?
God is the Potter, He will do with the clay as He wishes.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And 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 to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, 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.’
and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind—
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
Jeremiah endures suffering and questions his calling 19 -20
O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
The despair of Jeremiah
Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, “A son is born to you,” making him very glad. Let that man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great. Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?
and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind—
A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming Theological Tradition
1. The governing paradigm for the tradition of Jeremiah is Israel’s covenant with Yahweh, rooted in the memories and mandates of the Sinai tradition.
A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming Theological Tradition
Moreover, Deuteronomy asserts that every dimension of Israel’s common life is to be brought under the rubric of covenant obedience.
A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming Theological Tradition
2. The book of Jeremiah, however, cannot be completely understood by simple reference to a notion of covenant violation and covenant curse, the central assumptions of Deuteronomic theology. Along with the paradigm of covenant, the book of Jeremiah affirms another theological claim, the pathos of Yahweh. In spite of Israel’s obduracy and recalcitrance, Yahweh nonetheless wills a continuing relation with Israel.