When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the official in charge of the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the Lord’s temple. The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord’s name for you is not Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. I will deliver all the wealth of this city into the hands of their enemies—all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away as plunder and carry it off to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’”
You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived;
you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I cry out
proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the Lord has brought me
insult and reproach all day long.
But if I say, “I will not mention his word
or speak anymore in his name,”
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot.
I hear many whispering,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!”
All my friends
are waiting for me to slip, saying,
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we will prevail over him
and take our revenge on him.”
But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior;
so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced;
their dishonor will never be forgotten.
Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous
and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance on them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
Sing to the Lord!
Give praise to the Lord!
He rescues the life of the needy
from the hands of the wicked.
Cursed be the day I was born!
May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,
who made him very glad, saying,
“A child is born to you—a son!”
May that man be like the towns
the Lord overthrew without pity.
May he hear wailing in the morning,
a battle cry at noon.
For he did not kill me in the womb,
with my mother as my grave,
her womb enlarged forever.
Why did I ever come out of the womb
to see trouble and sorrow
and to end my days in shame?
- Jeremiah 20:1-18
The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. They said: “Inquire now of the Lord for us because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the Lord will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us.”
But Jeremiah answered them, “Tell Zedekiah, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in your hands, which you are using to fight the king of Babylon and the Babylonians who are outside the wall besieging you. And I will gather them inside this city. I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in furious anger and in great wrath. I will strike down those who live in this city—both man and beast—and they will die of a terrible plague. After that, declares the Lord, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the people in this city who survive the plague, sword and famine, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will put them to the sword; he will show them no mercy or pity or compassion.’
“Furthermore, tell the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; they will escape with their lives. I have determined to do this city harm and not good, declares the Lord. It will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will destroy it with fire.’
“Moreover, say to the royal house of Judah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says to you, house of David:
“‘Administer justice every morning;
rescue from the hand of the oppressor
the one who has been robbed,
or my wrath will break out and burn like fire
because of the evil you have done—
burn with no one to quench it.
I am against you, Jerusalem,
you who live above this valley
on the rocky plateau, declares the Lord—
you who say, “Who can come against us?
Who can enter our refuge?”
I will punish you as your deeds deserve,
declares the Lord.
I will kindle a fire in your forests
that will consume everything around you.’”
- Jeremiah 21:1-14
To read Jeremiah 22:1-30, click this link HERE.
To read Jeremiah 23:1-40, click this link HERE.
Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments
Jeremiah 20:1 ‘Pashhur’: “The meaning is either ‘ease,’ or ‘deliverance is round about,’ both in contrast to the new name God assigns him in verse 3. He was one of several men so named (cf. 21:1; 38:1). Immer. He was one of the original ‘governors of the sanctuary’ (cf. 1 Chr. 24:14). chief governor. He was not the high priest, but the chief official in charge of temple police, who were to maintain order.”
- John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Jeremiah 20:2 ‘struck Jeremiah’: “He or others acting on his authority, delivered forty lashes (see Deut. 25:3) to the prophet. put him in the stocks. Hands, feet, and neck were fastened in holes, bending the body to a distorted posture, causing excruciating pain. high gate. The northern gate of the upper temple court.”
- John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Jeremiah 20:7-18 ‘faithful regardless of mood’: ”Jeremiah 20:7—18 is the last of Jeremiah’s recorded laments; it’s a human blending of grief and joy, prayer and despair, praise and perplexity. When you call to mind the sensitive nature of this man, you aren’t surprised that he’s on the mountaintop one minute and in the deepest valley the next. Jeremiah, however, lived above his moods and did the will of God regardless of how he felt. In this honest expression of his deepest emotions, the prophet dealt with three important concerns: God’s call (vv. 7-9), his daily peril (vv. 10-13), and his inner despair (vv. 14-18).”
- Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive
Jeremiah 20:8 ‘derision daily’: “In verses 7-18, Jeremiah prayerfully lamented the ridicule he was experiencing because of God’s role for his life. His feelings wavered between quitting (v. 9a), being encouraged (vv. 9c, 11), petitioning for help (v. 12), praise (v. 13), and waves of depression (vv. 14-18; cf. 11:18-23; 15:10, 15-18).”
- John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Jeremiah 20:9 ‘I Will not make mention’: “A surge of dejection swept over Jeremiah, making him long to say no more. But being compelled within (cf. Job 32:18, 19; Ps. 39:3; Acts 18:5; 1 Cor. 9:16, 17) because he did not want his enemies to see him fail (v. 10), he experienced the presence of the Lord (v. 11) and remembered God’s previous deliverances (v. 13).”
- John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Jeremiah 21:1-14 ‘bad news from Jeremiah’: ”The events in Jeremiah 21:1—14 probably took place in the year 588 BC, when the invincible Babylonian army was camped around the walls of Jerusalem. Hoping to secure help from Egypt, weak King Zedekiah had rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar by refusing to pay tribute (2 Chron. 36:13; see Ezek. 17:11-18); now Judah was suffering the dreadful consequences of his foolish decision. In desperation, he looked to Jeremiah for help by sending Zephaniah the priest and Pashur, one of the court officers, to see whether the prophet could get guidance from the Lord. The king hoped that Jehovah would send a miraculous deliverance to Jerusalem as He had done in the days of godly King Hezekiah (2 Kings 18—19). Jeremiah, however, responded with dire pronouncements to the king (Jer. 21:3-7), to the people (vv. 8—10), and to the house of David (vv. 11-14).”
- Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive
Jeremiah 21:2 ‘war against us’: “This was during the last siege by Babylon (v. 4), c. 587/86 B.C., resulting in the third and final deportation of Jews. Zedekiah hoped for God’s intervention, such as Hezekiah received against Sennacherib (2 Kin. 19:35, 36).”
- John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Jeremiah 21:4 ‘turn back the weapons … assemble them’: “The Jews were already fighting the invaders by going outside the walls of the city to battle them on the hillsides and in the valleys as they approached. However, they would soon be driven back into the city where the enemy would collect all their weapons and execute many with those very weapons.”
- John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Jeremiah 21:8-9 ‘life and … death’: “Since a persistent lack of repentance had led to the conquest, Jeremiah urged the Jews to submit and surrender to the besieger so they would be treated as captives of war and live, rather than be killed.
”
- John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Jeremiah 21:12 ‘O house of David!’: “The royal family and all connected with it were called upon to enact justice and righteousness promptly (‘morning’). There was still time for them to escape the destruction, if there was repentance.”
- John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics
Jeremiah 22:1-9 ‘Zedekiah’: ”The last king of Judah was Zedekiah, who reigned eleven years and saw the kingdom and the Holy City destroyed by Babylon (Jer. 22:1-9; 2 Kings 24:17—25:21). He was blinded and taken to Babylon to die. As Kipling wrote, ‘The captains and the kings depart.’ ”
- Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive
Jeremiah 22:10-12 ‘Jehoahaz’: ”Godly King Josiah reigned for thirty-one years and sought to lead the people back to God. But the last Four kings of Judah were wicked men, even though three of them were Josiah’s sons and one was his grandson (Jehoiachin).
“Jehoahaz, or Shallum, succeeded Josiah and reigned only three months (Jer. 22:10-12; 2 Kings 23:30-33). Pharaoh Necho deported him to Egypt, where he died.”
- Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive
Jeremiah 22:13-23 ‘Jehoiakim’: ”Jehoiakim, also called Eliakim, reigned for eleven years (Jer. 22:13—23; 2 Kings 23:34—24:6) and died in Jerusalem. He was followed by his son Jehoiachin, also called Jeconiah and Coniah, whose reign lasted only three months (Jer. 22:24-30; 2 Kings 2426-12). Nebuchadnezzar took him to Babylon, where eventually he died.”
- Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive
Jeremiah 22:18-19 ‘Jehoiakim’: “Ruling from 609 to 598 B.C., he wickedly taxed the people (2 Kin. 23:35) and made them build his splendid palace without pay, violating God’s Law in Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:14, 15 (cf. Mic. 3: 10; Hab. 2:9; James 5:4). He was killed in Babylon’s second siege and his corpse dishonored, being left like a dead donkey on the ground for scavengers to feed on.”
- John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics
Jeremiah 22:29 ‘The Word of the Lord’: “God’s Word and God’s revelation are much more than just the Old and New Testament books. Nevertheless l invariably rejoice as l discover deep in the urgent appeal of one of the Old Testament prophets a sudden recognition of God’s speaking Word. For example, notice this message from the prophet Jeremiah: ‘O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
“Think what a change it would make in the world if men and women suddenly paused to hear the Word of the Lord! The Word of God being what it is, and God being who He is, and we humans being who we are, l am sure that the most rewarding thing we could do would be to stop and listen to the Word of God.”
- A. W. Tozer, Jesus, Our Man in Glory
Jeremiah 22:30 ‘Write … as childless’: “Jeconiah did have offspring (1 Chr. 3:17, 18), but he was reckoned childless in the sense that he had no sons who would reign (‘Sitting on the throne’). The curse continued in his descendants down to Joseph, the husband of Mary. How could Jesus then be the Messiah when His father was under this curse? It was because Joseph was not involved in the bloodline of Jesus since He was virgin born (Matt. 1:12). Jesus’ blood right to the throne of David came through Mary from Nathan Solomon’s brother, not Solomon (Jeconiah’s line), thus bypassing this curse (Luke 3:31, 32). Cf. 36:30; see … 36:30, 31.”
- John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Jeremiah 23:1-4 ‘poor shepherds’: ”Jeremiah denounced all the leaders (‘shepherds’) of Judah for the ruthless way they treated the helpless people (Jer. 23:1—4). Instead of leading the flock in love, they draw it mercilessly and exploited it. The shepherds didn’t visit (‘care for’) the sheep, but God would visit the leaders with punishment. Because the leaders disobeyed the law and refused to trust God, they destroyed the nation and scattered the flock among the Gentiles. God, however, promised to regather His people and transform the remnant into a nation. (The word remnant is used nineteen times in Jeremiah.) A remnant did return to Judah after the captivity, rebuild the temple, and restore national life.”
- Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive
Jeremiah 23:1 ‘scattering the sheep’: “What a dreadful woe this is on all false shepherds-those who profess to be sent by God to instruct the people but whose labors only result in the scattering of the sheep and destroying them instead of gathering them to Christ for their salvation.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes
Jeremiah 23:4 ‘The Great Shepherd’: “If the undershepherds do not feed the flock, God himself will do it. The Great Shepherd of the sheep will do what others fail to do.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes
Jeremiah 23:5-8 ‘The Righteous Branch to Come’: “The reign or wicked kings (Jeremiah 23:1-4) is contrasted with the reign of a future righteous king in Jeremiah 23:5-8. Jeremiah begins by saying in verse 5, ‘Behold, the days are coming,’ pointing forward to the prophetic future of the messianic kingdom. Then he states, ‘I will raise up for David a righteous Branch,’ emphasizing the absolute righteousness of the person (see Jeremiah 33:15). The point is that it is a descendant of David who will be characterized by absolute righteousness. Then Jeremiah states this descendant ‘will reign as king.’ This passage emphasizes both His messianic role and His kingly role. He is destined to ‘reign as king.’ When He does so, He will ‘act wisely, and do justice and righteousness in the land.’ Because the Messiah is characterized by righteousness when He rules, He will rule righteously and justly.
“Then Jeremiah states in verse 6, ‘In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely.’ He will extend His messianic protection over both houses of Israel. The verse concludes by revealing what the Messiahs name will be: ‘The LORD our righteousness.’ Here the Messiah is the only human being who was ever given the full name of YHVH—the name with four Hebrew letters that make up God’s name, which emphasizes His deity.”
- Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy
Jeremiah 23:7-8 ‘regathering greater than the Exodus’: ”Jeremiah, however, promised a much greater regathering of the Jews—a greater miracle than their deliverance from Egypt (vv. 7-8; see 16:14—15). God will call His people from the nations of the world, gather them in their land, purge them, and then send them their promised Messiah (Jer. 30; Isa. 2:1-5; 4:1-6; 9:1-7; 11:1-12:6; Zech. 12—14). David’s ‘family tree’ might have been cut down, but a ‘branch’ (shoot) would grow from the stump and become Ruler of the nation (Isa. 11:1; 53:2).”
- Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive
Jeremiah 23:9-40 ‘false prophets not form God’: ”What God said, as recorded in Jeremiah 14:14, summarizes 23:9-40: ‘The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart’ (NKJV). Jeremiah focused on three areas in their lives that were especially abhorrent.”
- Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive
Jeremiah 23:9 ‘Word of the Lord … overpowering’: “In Jeremiah’s day a set of men pretended to be prophets, yet they contradicted the Lord’s servant at every point. ‘I have become like … a man overcome by wine … because of his holy words.’ Jeremiah had received the word of the Lord, and it seemed to overpower him. As that word was full of terror, he felt like one who was overcome with wine.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes
Jeremiah 23:12 ‘slippery ways’: “What an awful description of the doom of the profane prophets and priests. Slippery ways are bad enough in the light, but their way will be slippery in the darkness.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes
Jeremiah 23:16-17 ‘mark of a false prophet’: “Here is one mark of a false prophet: he makes you feel that you are fine, that something in you is good. ‘They speak visions from their own minds, not from the Lord’s mouth.’ Here is another of the marks of a false prophet. Such a man as that is a great thinker. He has thought out his theology himself; he has imagined and invented it himself. ‘They have said to everyone who follows the stubbornness of his heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’ This is yet another mark of the false prophet. He always tries to smooth down the consequences of sin. ‘In the future state,’ he says, ‘sin may occasion some temporary inconvenience, but all things will come right sooner or later.’ By these three tests we may prove who are the false prophets—they make us vain; they speak out of their own heart, not out of the mouth of God; and they try to make it easy for us to sin by denying the greatness of the penalty attached to it.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes
Jeremiah 23:24 ‘God being infinite…’: “God is equally near to all parts of His universe. We think rightly about God and spiritual things only when we rule out the concept of space altogether. God being infinite, does not dwell in space; He swallows up all space. Scripture says, ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ and that sounds as if God were contained in heaven and earth. But actually God fills heaven and earth just as the ocean fills a bucket which has been submerged in it a mile down. The bucket is full of the ocean, but the ocean surrounds the bucket in all directions. So when God says He fills heaven and earth, He does. But heaven and earth are submerged in God, and all space is too. The ‘heaven of heavens cannot contain him’ (2 Chronicles 2:6). God is not contained; God contains. And there is the difference. ‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being’ (Acts 17:28).”
- A. W. Tozer, The Attributes of God I
Jeremiah 23:22 ‘if only God had sent the false prophets’: “False prophets are futile and vain; no good result comes of all their teaching. But oh, if they had known the word of the Lord! If they had really been sent of God, what a difference there would have been.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes
Jeremiah 23:28 ‘a true prophet speaks the word of the Lord’: “If a false prophet has a dream, let him say, ‘This is a dream I have dreamed, but it is only a dream.’ However, the one who has God’s word, let him speak it as the word of the Lord. ‘What is straw compared to grain?’ Human thoughts, human conceptions, at their best, are but as straw; only the word of the Lord is the true grain.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes
Jeremiah 23:30 ‘false prophets have nothing God said to them’: “All they had were borrowed sermons—pages oi other people’s from old or new preachers, nothing oi their own, nothing God ever said to them, nothing that ever thrilled their hearts or swayed their souls. God will not acknowledge such teaching as this.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes
Jeremiah 23:31 ‘God never said anything to them’: “These false prophets say, ‘He says,’ as if God had said to them something he never said.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes
Jeremiah 23:32 ‘preach only the gospel’: “God will deal with equal severity with any who preach or teach anything other than the gospel of his blessed Son—the pure revelation that is written in his holy book.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes
My Thoughts
Pashhur has Jeremiah beaten and placed into the stocks. Pashhur and his family are then cursed.
Then starting in Jeremiah 20:7 starts Jeremiah’s lament that God deceived him, but when Jeremiah was called as a prophet, he was told the people would reject the message. Yet, Jeremiah wants to not say what God told him to say, but God’s word burns like a fire in his heart. He cannot hold it in.
I see a lot of lukewarm Christians. They think that if they tone it down, the secular world will not attack. They either do not have the fire in them, or they have forsaken it. I feel as Jeremiah feels, and it often does not end well, no beatings and placing in the stocks – yet, but I have lost a lot of “so-called” friends in the process.
But Jeremiah ends the chapter by lamenting that he had never been born. I may not have begged God to curse the day of my birth, but I have often asked why was I born? More than lament a day decades ago, I do not wish to fall short of the “why” of my existence, to glorify and worship God, forever.
Pashhur is then sent back to inquire of Jeremiah if God will deliver Jerusalem. He was sent with Zephaniah the high priest and under the orders of the king, Zedekiah, but Jerusalem was clueless. They were so arrogant that they thought the label of “Chosen People” gave them free license to do whatever they pleased, but Jeremiah tells them they will all die by sword, famine, and plague.
Those three words: Sword, Famine, Plague are mentioned in the same verse in the NIV 25 times, over 20 times in that order, only once in the New Testament, Revelation. Seven times in Ezekiel. Fifteen times in Jeremiah, twice in this chapter, including once listed as plague, sword, famine (Jeremiah 21:7). But as I have written before, war comes (sword) which means the farmers become soldiers and the field becomes a battlefield, thus less food and famine follows. Then, without the people to clear the dead bodies, a plague is formed, usually transmitted by scavengers, either rodents or insects.
Jeremiah 22 is a command and curse to the kings of Judah. If they only avoided things like unrighteousness, injustice, working people without pay (slavery), dishonest gain, shedding innocent blood, oppression and extortion, God would keep them in the land.
Most people read the prophets and get false gods, false gods, but what does that lead to? A total destruction of justice and love. Also mercy for the widows, foreigners in the land, and those being oppressed is forgotten.
Jehoiachin is to be “as if” childless, but in Mary’s genealogy in Luke, Solomon’s brother, Nathan is mentioned, leaving Jehoiachin no connection to Jesus, the King of kings.
Jeremiah 23 starts with a discussion of the Righteous Branch, who will be called the Lord, our Righteous Savior. Jesus means “The Lord is Salvation.”
The rest of the chapter is a curse on false prophets. The spread of ungodliness spread from Jerusalem and throughout the land. The false prophets and priests were all godless. God commands them to not use His name when they spread their lies, but they keep doing it. God will forsake them.
And do we have false prophets today? Absolutely, and they hold great sway in the governments of the world.
Some Serendipitous Reflections
“Jeremiah 20: 1. Have you ever done the right thing and then suffered for it? How did it make you feel? What did you say to God?
“2. Where in your life are you facing a ‘no-win’ situation? How can the group help you find a ‘win-win’ solution to it?
“3. ls your way of handling anger and depression anything like Jeremiah‘s way: Have you ever wished you were never born? Do you keep violence inside, or let it out? How often do you ride an ‘emotional roller coaster’-up one moment, down the next?
“Jeremiah 21: 1. Why do some people never learn? Are you a slow learner: ls there some growing edge in your life that you refuse to attend to? A warning you refuse to heed? A conflict you refuse to resolve? Why? How can the group help?
“2. Would you have deserted the city, as Jeremiah advised? What would it have cost you to flee? What would it have cost you to remain? If forced to choose, which would be your way of death: Plague, sword or famine? Why?
“3. How might leaving Jerusalem be an allegory for becoming a committed Christian? What would you need to leave behind to become more committed to Christ?
“4. Who in your world are ‘oppressors’ and who are the ‘robbed’? How can you help bring justice to the oppressed?
“Jeremiah 22: 1. Does God care about how governments rule? How did the early Christians feel about pagan kings (see 1Ti 2:1-2; Ro 13:1-5)? How do you feel about the ‘kings’ of today?
“2. Which leader (church, civic or world leader) has made a great impact on you by their life? By their death? Explain.
“3. How do you feel when a public champion of peace and justice (Gandhi, JFK, Martin Luther King) is assassinated? Do you hold any real hope that love is stronger than bullets?
“4. As in Jeremiah’s day, leaders today usually set a tone for others. What positive tone or atmosphere are you setting in your home, job, school or church? Where might you have a negative impact?
“Jeremiah 23:1-7 The Righteous Branch: 1. Jesus applied this shepherd imagery to himself (see Jn 10:7-16). How does he fulfill this promise for you? Which title, name or role of Jesus is most special to you?
“2. Hope shines in even the ‘doomiest and gloomiest’ chapters of Israel’s history. How does hope shine for you?
“Jeremiah 23:8-40 Lying Prophets: 1. Are there ‘prophets’ (false or true) today? If not, why not? If so, how does one discern the modern true prophet? What is the message of the modern false prophet?
“2. Regarding ‘the Lord’s council’ (vv.18,22) and the shape of the future, do you think God: (a) Knows all? (b) Controls all? (c) Both? (d) Neither? What difference does it make to you?
“3. What does it mean for you to ‘stand’ in that council of the Lord (see 1 Co 2:16): What is involved, where, when, with whom?
“4. For what do you have a ‘burden’ today’? Do you have a message to give? An action to take? A situation to remedy? in what way is that burdensome? Can the group help carry it?”
- Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups
Jeremiah 20-22 each have one set of questions for each chapter. Jeremiah 23 is divided into two sets of questions as noted above.
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.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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