Jeremiah's Confrontations
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Overview
Overview
In the previous chapters we went through Jeremiah being called.
Jeremiah preaching against a rebellious people
Israels state being described
They are following the ways of the nations around them instead of God
Vile practices, worshiping other gods and even sacrificing their children to false gods.
People are relying on the temple and God’s commitment to them to get them out of trouble.
The warnings being stated, turn back or be sent into exile.
A back and forth between how the chosen people has rejected God and how God rejected them in return
Still a promise and a hope that is offered if they turn away from sin.
Jeremiah struggles with God, with his people and His calling.
Questions his calling.
Being constantly burdened
God renews his strength and resolve.
Jeremiah Opposes Judah’s Kings (21:1 - 23:8)
Jeremiah Opposes Judah’s Kings (21:1 - 23:8)
Here we seen Jeremiah hitting his stride, its when he is the most bold in the face of the greatest opposition
Q: Does it feel like we have been in Jeremiah for a long time?
Stated the warning, turn back or Babylon will come. Well they have been actually experience it for a very long time.
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, “Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.”
Pay attention to the word PERHAPS
Pashur is the guy who in the previous chapter
Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side.
And Jeremiah responded by telling him that he will see all his friends die and he and his family will be exiled to Babylon as slaves and die there.
Back to Chapter 21
Also, the King and the prophets have resisted Jeremiah this entire time. Why would Zedekiah send anyone to talk to Jeremiah about God when they just beat him and haven't paid any attention?
They have exhausted all of their other resources. All strategy, discussion and policy measures they already tried to use but none worked.
As the saying goes “ all we can do now is pray” or “All we can do now is talk to Jeremiah and see if we can fool God to save us”
Again in verse 2 they appeal to God’s own goodness and His grace as shown before.
They are still aware that God brought them out of the land of Egypt but yet they dont act like it.
Jeremiah’s words from God to King Zedekiah
I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath. And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence.
This is an inverse of what was said about Egypt
And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders.
The question if God is still active is demonstrated by the active “I will ....
I will turn back the weapons of war
I will bring them together
I myself will fight
I will strike down,
I will give Zedekiah into the hands of hands of Nebuchadnezzar
GOD still acts.
“And to this people you shall say: ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.
Now he addresses the people, in as way there is distinction here between the leadership and the common people. They will be given direction, if you stay in the city you will die, If you leave the city and go with Babylon into exile you will live.
God is giving them a way to live even in the midst of enforcing judgement.
Side question, do both of these verse apply to us?
For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.’
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
NEVER READ A BIBLE VERSE, READ MANY, read the entire chapter, preferably know the book and even better the overall picture of scripture.
As josh says: The overall Bible is written for us but not about us.
Jeremiah 22:
Jeremiah now speaks to the new rulers of Judah. They do not follow the OT law, they mistreat the poor, the widowed, those who have been robbed, the foreigner. If they enact justice there would still be hope but they do not.
Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know? O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!
Coniah, also known as Jeconiah also known as Jehoiachin (Jehoiakim’s son)
Now their generation in the one that has lost the promised land, a complete reversal of the exodus.
Jeremiah confronts false prophets (23:9 - 40)
Jeremiah confronts false prophets (23:9 - 40)
For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right. “Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house I have found their evil, declares the Lord.
Jeremiah shows connection between the religious leaders and the effect that it has on the land.
Previously there was a drought and when speaking to the the Kings God said that if they obey their land would be blessed
MAYBE_____________________START
Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.
The spiritual leaders are acting upon their own emotions, inhibitions. They have been continually called to act in justice and righteousness for the weak, those who have been wronged.
They do not speak according to God’s words. This is the very thing that happens today. People make up their own ideas about who God is and what God is like.
Q: What so do we have about God?
God will now rhetorically ask them about this
MAYBE_____________________ END
For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?
But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.
He is the Lord of Hosts, the hosts of heaven.
This is happening to directly contrast Jeremiah and his calling as God’s prophet with the false prophets that God did not call upon.
Now the exile has occured. At this point historically after the Exile is when the people of the promise land will now start to be called Jews
Jeremiah Opposes Judah’s people
Jeremiah Opposes Judah’s people
After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.” Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.
“But thus says the Lord: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.
Q: Observations?
Historically there was a division here. The Jews in exile and the Jews that remained behind. The ones who remained gained a sense of arrogance an superiority, God must have rewarded them and punished the others. They again were moved by feeling instead of by the word.
The ones in exiled didnt feel like they were in God’s favor but were humbled which was the intended purpose
In fact it was the opposite, God favored the exiles and did not favor the ones who remained.God’s favor was not because of their own goodness but because of His
“Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.
Q: How often does our circumstance sway if we believe we are in God’s favor?
How can we remind ourselves that bad circumstance doesnt always equal God’s judgment on us or vice verse?
I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
There is a clear distinction that not submitting to the Babylonians is an act against the will of God.
Q: But the Babylonians are the bad guys, how can not submitting to the bad guys be an act against God’s will?
A: This is a result of their disobedience, in order for God to turn them around they need to be broken, to suffer and to be humbled so their hearts are in the right place.
A heart without the right foundation cannot have a proper house built on it.
Notice that God continues to flip things on their head, those who we dont value God wants, those who are exiled and we think have no future God promises the future is theirs. This is why Scripture cannot be interpreted emotionally.
Chapter 25 discusses God’s wrath over the nations, they will be held accountable, including Babylon.
Jeremiah Opposes false belief (26:1 - 29:32)
Jeremiah Opposes false belief (26:1 - 29:32)