Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place.” For this is what the Lord says about the sons and daughters born in this land and about the women who are their mothers and the men who are their fathers: “They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like dung lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.”
For this is what the Lord says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,” declares the Lord. “Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut themselves or shave their head for the dead. No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead—not even for a father or a mother—nor will anyone give them a drink to console them.
“And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink. For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this place.
“When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the Lord our God?’ then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
“However, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ but it will be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.
“But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”
Lord, my strength and my fortress,
    my refuge in time of distress,
to you the nations will come
    from the ends of the earth and say,
“Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods,
    worthless idols that did them no good.
Do people make their own gods?
    Yes, but they are not gods!”
“Therefore I will teach them—
    this time I will teach them
    my power and might.
Then they will know
    that my name is the Lord.

• Jeremiah 16:1-21

To read Jeremiah 17:1-27, click this link HERE.

To read Jeremiah 18:1-23, click this link HERE.

This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
“‘In this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds and the wild animals. I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.’
“Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’”
Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the Lord’s temple and said to all the people, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.’”

• Jeremiah 19:1-15

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Jeremiah 16 ‘prophets doing strange things’: ”The third message was about Jeremiah’s strange conduct (Jer. 16:1-21).
“In order to get the attention of the people, God sometimes told the prophets to do unusual things. Isaiah gave two of his sons odd names, which he used as a text for a message (Isa. 8) and he also dressed like a prisoner of war to call attention to a coming conflict (Isa. 20).”

• Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive

Jeremiah 16:2 ‘You shall not take a wife’: “Since destruction and exile are soon to fall on Judah, the prophet must not have a wife and family. God’s kindness will keep him from anxiety over them in the awful situation of suffering and death (v. 4). Cf. 15:9; 1 Corinthians 7:26.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 16:10-13 ‘Why?’: “Jeremiah was to explain the reason for the judgment, i.e., their forsaking God and worshiping false gods (v. 11; 2:13). They would get their fill of idols in Babylon (v. 13).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 16:14-21 ‘The New Exodus by God’s People’: “Here, Jeremiah points out the magnitude of the final regathering in comparison with previous works of God. In verses 14-15, the regathering is compared to the exodus. The exodus has long been considered the high point of Jewish history, but after the final regathering, this will change (verse 14). In the future it will be the final regathering that will become the high point of Jewish history (verse 15).
“In verses 16-18, God declares that He will send forth fishers and hunters to find the Jewish people because prior to the confession and restoration of Israel there must be judgment. In verse 16, he describes the fishers and hunters as fishing and hunting for the people of Israel for the purpose of punishment because Israel is the chosen people of God, and they must receive discipline for their sins (verse 18). This reaffirms a point made in Isaiah 40:1-2. Jeremiah then goes on in 16:19-21 to discuss the conversion of the Gentiles. Just as Israel’s salvation is a work of God, so will the Gentile salvation be a work of God.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Jeremiah 16:14-15 ‘no more be said.’: “In view of the Lord’s promise of restoration from Babylon, the proof of God’s redemptive power and faithfulness in delivering Israel from Egypt would give way to a greater demonstration in the deliverance of His people from Babylon. This bondage was to be so severe that deliverance from Babylon would be a greater relief than from Egypt.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 16:16 ‘many fishermen … hunters’: “These are references to Babylonian soldiers, who were doing God’s judgment work (v. 17).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 17 ‘A different six deadly sins’: ”The fourth message was about Judah’s sins (]er. 17:1-27).
“President Calvin Coolidge came home from church one Sunday, and his wife asked, ‘What did the preacher preach about?’ ‘Sin,’ the president said in his usual concise manner ‘What did he say about it?’ Mrs. Coolidge further inquired, and the president replied, ‘He was against it.’
“Jeremiah was against the sins of his people, six of which he named in chapter 17.
“Idolatry (vv. 1-4).
“Unbelief (vv. 5-10).
“Greed (v. 11).
“Forsaking the Lord (vv. 12-13).
“Rejecting God’s servant (vv. 14-18).
“Profaning the Sabbath (vv. 19-27).”

• Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive

Jeremiah 17:1 ‘sin of Judah’: “Reasons for the judgment (ch. 16) continue here: (1) idolatry (W. 1-4), (2) relying on the flesh (v. 5), and (3) dishonesty in amassing wealth (v. 11). pen of iron. The names of idols were engraved on the horns of their altars with such a tool. The idea is that Judah’s sin was permanent, etched in them as if in stone. It was very different to have God’s word written on the heart (31:33).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 17:5-8 ‘Cursed is the man’: “Jeremiah contrasted the person who experiences barrenness (vv. 5, 6) with the one who receives blessing (vv. 7, 8). The difference in attitude involves ‘trust’ placed in man or ‘trust’ vested in the Lord (vv. 5, 7). And the contrast in vitality is between being like a parched dwarf juniper in the desert (v. 6) or a tree drawing sustenance from a stream to bear fruit (v. 8; cf. Ps. 1:1-3).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 17:7 ‘trust in Jesus’: “Just prior to his crucifixion, [Jesus] told his disciples that he would be leaving them.
‘Where I am going you cannot follow now, but you will follow later’ (John 13:36).
“Such a statement was bound to stir some questions. Peter spoke for the others and asked, ‘Lord, why can’t I follow you now?’ (John 13:37).
“See if Jesus’ reply doesn’t reflect the tenderness of a parent to a child: ‘Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house; I would not tell you this if it were not true. I am going there to prepare a place for you … I will cume back and take you to be with me so that you may be where I am’ (John 14:1-3).
“Reduce the paragraph to a sentence and it might read: ‘You do the trusting and I’ll do the taking.’ ”

• Max Lucado, When Christ Comes

Jeremiah 17:9 ‘Challenge’: “People are not all right except for minor maladjustments. They are lost, inwardly lost, morally and spiritually lost. That has been the persistent Christian testimony from the first, and human history has shown how correct it is. There is nothing in us that can serve as a model for the new man. Conformity to ourselves, even our better selves, can lead only to ultimate tragedy. ‘The [human] heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked’ (Jeremiah 17:9). It must have help from outside itself, from above itself, if it is to escape the gravitational pull of its own sinful nature. And this help the gospel furnishes in full and sufficient measure.”

• A. W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous

Jeremiah 17:10 ‘search the heart’: “For the sin of man (vv. 1-4), for the barren man (vv. 5, 6), or the blessed man (vv. 7, 8), God is the final Judge and renders His judgment for their works (cf. Rev. 20:11-15). By Him, actions are weighed (1 Sam. 2:3).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 17:11 ‘a partridge’: “This referred to a sand grouse which invaded and brooded over a nest not its own, but was forced to leave before the eggs hatched. It depicted a person who unjustly took possession of things he had no right to take but couldn’t enjoy the benefits, despite all the effort.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 17:21-24 ‘Sabbath Day’: “Not only had the Jews failed to observe Sabbath days, but the required Sabbath year of rest for the land (Lev. 25:1-7) was regularly violated as well. God had warned that such disobedience would bring judgment (Lev. 26:34, 35, 43; 2 Chr. 36:20, 21). The seventy-year captivity was correlated to the 490 years from Saul to the captivity, which included seventy Sabbath years. When the Jews were restored from captivity, special emphasis was placed on Sabbath faithfulness (cf. Neh. 13:19).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 18:1-20:18 ‘Seventh Message’: “A close link exists between chapter 17 and chapters 18-20. Destruction is in view (ch. 17), but repentance can yet prevent that (18:7, 8). However, repentance was not forthcoming (18:12), so Jeremiah’s shattered earthen flask illustrated God’s violent judgment on Israel (ch. 19). Then, their rejection of God’s Word (cf. 19:15) led to persecution against God’s mouthpiece (ch. 20).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 18:2-6 ‘potter’s house’: “God sent Jeremiah to a potter, who gave him an illustration by shaping a vessel. The prophet secured a vessel and used it for his own illustration (19:1ff.). Jeremiah watched the potter at his wheel. The soft clay became misshapen, but the potter shaped it back into a good vessel. God will so do with Judah, if she repents.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Jeremiah 18:6-10 ‘the clay resists the potter’: ”Over thirty words in the Hebrew vocabulary relate directly to pottery, because the manufacture of pottery was a major industry in the Near East in that day. No doubt Jeremiah had passed the potter’s house many times, but this time God had a special message for him that, after he preached it, would put him in jail. When you follow the Lord, you never know what will happen to you next.
“The potter sat before two parallel stone wheels that were joined by a shaft. He turned the bottom wheel with his feet and worked the clay on the top wheel as the wheel turned. As Jeremiah watched, he saw that the clay resisted the potter’s hand so that the vessel was ruined, but the potter patiently kneaded the clay and made another vessel.
“The interpretation of the image was national, relating to the house of Israel (Jer. 18:6-10), but the application was individual (vv. 11-17), calling for a response from the people of Judah and Jerusalem. It also calls for a personal response from us today.”

• Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive

Jeremiah 18:11 ‘’: “This text is all about repentance. It is an exhortation from God, brief but earnest and plain. This is the call of mercy. But remember that it is equally the call of a holy God, the God who knows you cannot be saved unless you turn from your evil ways. A holy God will give no salvation to the person who continues in unrighteousness. To ‘turn’ involves a picture of a person who is going the wrong way. The first thing such a person needs to do is to stop and consider where he or she is going. But suppose a person did stop? That would not be turning; it is but the commencement of the turn when a person stops. It will be necessary for him, next, to turn around. He must turn his face in the opposite direction from that in which he was traveling.
“When are sinners to turn? The text says, ‘Turn now.’ This turn should be immediate. People are willing to promise to turn around when they have gone a little farther, but ‘now’ is always an ugly word to them. ‘Tomorrow,’ they like much better. But if you do not turn now, you may not live to turn at all.
“Who is to turn? The text says, ‘Turn now, each from your evil way.’ Every man, every woman, every child who has not turned should hear the voice of the Lord repeating this message to them.
“And from what are these people to turn? ‘From your evil way.’ Each person has a way of his own—an evil way of his own—some personal form of sin. Such evil ways may be because of some peculiarity of constitution, circumstances, or habits. What is the sin into which you most frequently fall? That is the evil way from which you are especially called on to turn from.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Jeremiah 18:12 ‘That is hopeless!’: “Jeremiah brought the people to the point where they actually stated their condition honestly. The prophet’s threats were useless because they were so far gone—abandoned to their sins and the penalty. All hypocrisy was abandoned in favor of honesty, but repentance was not in Israel (as v. 18; 19:15). This explains a seeming paradox, that Israel can repent and avert judgment, yet Jeremiah is not to pray for Israel (7:16; 11:14). It would do no good to pray for their change since they steeled themselves against any spiritual change.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 18:13 ‘virgin of Israel’: “That Israel was the virgin whom God had chosen (cf. 2 Kin. 19:21) only enhanced their guilt.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Jeremiah 18:14 ‘snow water … cold flowing waters’: “No reasonable person would forsake such for ‘the rock of the field,’ perhaps a poetic term for Mt. Lebanon, from which the high mountain streams flowed. Yet, Israel forsook God, the fountain of living waters, for broken foreign cisterns (cf. 2:13).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Jeremiah 19:1 ‘elders of the people … the priests’: “These were chosen to be credible witnesses of the symbolic action with the ‘earthen flask,’ so no one could plead ignorance of the prophecy. The seventy-two elders who made up the Sanhedrin were partly from the ‘priests’ and the other tribes (‘people’).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 19:6 ‘Tophet’: “Hebrew uses the word toph for ‘drum.’ This was another name for the Valley of Hinnom, an east-west valley at the south end of Jerusalem where, when children were burned as sacrifices to idols (cf. vv. 4, 5), drums were beaten to drown out their cries. Rubbish from Jerusalem was dumped there and continually burned (cf. 2 Kin. 23:10). The place became a symbol for the burning fires of hell, called Gehenna (Matt. 5:22). Cf. 7:30-32; Isaiah 30:33. It was to become a place of massacre. See … 7:31.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 19:7 ‘smashing a pot’: ”At the command of the Lord, Jeremiah made a second trip to the potter’s house, this time as a customer and not a spectator, and he took with him some of the Jewish elders. Knowing their evil plots against him, it’s an evidence of his faith that he was willing to walk with them and then do so daring a thing as declare in their very presence that disaster was coming to the land because of their sins. Obviously his prayer to the Lord had brought him peace and courage.
“ ‘I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place’ (Jer. 19:7). To demonstrate this, Jeremiah broke a clay jar and said, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired” ‘ (v. 11 NIV). The nation was beyond discipline (2:25), beyond prayer (7:16), and now, beyond repair! They had so hardened themselves against the Lord that all hope was gone.
“What before had been threats now became a reality. Pashur, son of Immer, assistant to the high priest and chief security officer for the temple, didn’t like what Jeremiah was saying.  Therefore, he had Jeremiah arrested, beaten, and put into the stocks until the next day. The stocks were located at a prominent place in the temple area, in order to add shame to pain.  Spending all night with your body bent and twisted wouldn’t be at all comfortable, and when you add the pain of the beating, you can imagine how Jeremiah felt.”

• Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive

Jeremiah 19:9 ‘eat the flesh’: “Desperate for food during a long siege, some would resort to cannibalism, eating family members and friends (Lam. 4:10).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 19:13 ‘defiled’: “Their houses were desecrated by idolatrous worship. incense to … host of heaven. This refers to worship of the sun, planets, and stars from flat housetops (Cf. 32:29; 2 Kin. 23:11, 12; Zeph. 1:5).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

 

My Thoughts

God gives several commands at the beginning of Jeremiah 16, but I have only heard one of them suggested in our modern times.  There are many who may or may not marry, but they have decided to not have children.  Why bring children into this present mess?  I have heard no one suggest not mourning the death of someone and especially not feasting.  In fact, many people feast all the more in fear that it may be their last.

Yes, some of this is conspiracy theories, but a lot of people are seeing similarities with the times of Jeremiah and the modern times, especially in ignoring God.

And why do the people of Israel deserve such punishment?  Worshipping other gods and forsaking the true God.  But to be specific, Jeremiah 17 lists six sins: Idolatry, reliance on man instead of God, greed, forsaking God, rejecting God’s messenger, and profaning the Sabbath.  This is not the same as the seven deadly sins, except greed is in both.

Jeremiah 18-19 focuses on two illustrations using pottery.  Jeremiah sees a potter make a misshapen pot.  The potter simple folds the clay in and starts over and makes something a little different.  God is saying that Israel had its chance.  If they repent, God can still use them, but otherwise they will be sent into exile.  The leader’s response was to conspire to attack Jeremiah.

In Jeremiah 19, he goes back to the potter’s house and buys a pot.  He leads a group of church and government leaders out the potsherd gate, and he smashes the pot.  This gate, with the meaning of broken pottery, leads to Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom.  Manasseh took children to be sacrificed out this gate to either kill them or burn them alive.  As Rev. MacArthur describes, the meaning of Toph, part of Topheth, is “drum” to drown out the screams of anguish.  The valley is now considered either the Valley of Slaughter or the Valley of Death, as a result of all the blood shed in the valley in the name of false gods.  And note, Manasseh repented late in his reign as king.  It is possible, no matter how vile someone becomes, and Manasseh was the worst king in many scholar’s estimation, to be forgiven by God, if we only repent.

We will see the leader’s response to Jeremiah’s prophecy in Jeremiah 20.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

“Jeremiah 16:1-18 Day of Disaster, Part 1 1. Have you had to make sacrifices to serve God? Give an example. Are there any activities you may have given up in order to be more effective in God’s service? Why?
“2. Have you ever gone to the funeral of someone in your church whom you did not know? The wedding of a stranger? Are these events strictly private or do they belong to the entire community of faith?
“3. When did a condemnation of society’s failing last pass your lips? A prayer of compassion for a sick world? Set some time aside this week to pray for the world.
“Jeremiah 16:19-17:18 Day of Disaster, Part 2 1. What times of spiritual ‘drought’ have you experienced? What keeps you going during those dry times?
“2. At present, are you feeling more like a ‘bush in the wastelands’ (v.6) or a ‘tree planted by the water’ (v.8)? Why?
“3. How honest are you with yourself? Could your heart be deceiving you about the motives of some of your actions at work? At home? In relationships?
“4. What feedback would you like the group to give you on an area in question?
“Jeremiah 17:19-17:27 Keeping the Sabbath Holy: 1. Orthodox Jews do not drive, cook or carry money on Saturday. Would you like the Christian Sunday to be like the Jewish Sabbath?
“2. Do you need to put more worship, more leisure, or more spiritual growth into your Sundays?  How can you begin doing that next week?
“Jeremiah 18-19 At the Potter’s House: 1. Are God’s plans set in ‘concrete’ or ‘wet clay’? How much does he mold people, and how much do people mold themselves (see Ro 9:19-23)?
“2. The prophets often dramatized their messages. What message do you want the world to hear today? How could you make the point through a symbolic action or dramatized parable? Could you see it being covered on national TV news?
“3. Why did the people of these ancient cultures kill their children? For what reasons are children killed today?
“4. Do you suppose God saved the mold when he first created you, so that he could create more people like you? If God were to re-create you, what (chip, crack or bulge) in your life’s jar would you like God to fix the second time around?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Jeremiah 16-17 is divided into three sets of questions as noted above.  Jeremiah 18-19 has one set of questions for both chapters.

There are a couple of questions that also provide challenges for this next week.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.