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Scripture Reading: Jer. 7; Jer. 8; Jer. 9; Jer. 10
In this message we will consider further Israel's hypocritical worship to Jehovah.
The tabernacle and the ark were once at Shiloh, a place which eventually was defeated and overtaken. In 7:12-14 Jehovah says that He will do to the house that is called by His name, in which Israel trusts, as He has done to Shiloh.
Jehovah will cast Israel out from before Him, as He cast out all the seed of Ephraim (v. 15).
Jehovah will make the valley of Topheth the valley of slaughter to bury them, and their corpses will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth (vv. 32-33). Jehovah will cause the voice of gladness and the voice of joy to cease, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem. He will make the land a waste (v. 34). There will be no joy; instead, the whole land will be a waste.
The bones of the kings of Judah, of its princes, of the priests, of the prophets, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will be brought out from their graves and spread out to the sun, to the moon, and to all the host of heaven, which Israel has loved and served and which she has gone after, sought, and worshipped. These bones will not be gathered up or buried; rather, they will be left like dung on the surface of the ground. Death will be chosen rather than life by the remnant of her evil family that remains in all the places where Jehovah has driven them (8:1-3). What a picture we have here!
This picture indicates that Israel had degraded to such an extent that, with them, the divine revelation was in the sunset. Actually they were already in darkness and had no light.
In 8:10 Jehovah says that He will give their wives to others and their fields to those who will possess them.
Verse 16 goes on to say that the snorting of the enemy's horses is heard from Dan and that at the sound of the neighing of their stallions the whole land quakes. They come to devour the land and its fullness, the city and those who dwell in it.
Jehovah is sending among Israel serpents, adders, to bite them (v. 17).
Jehovah is leaving them, and her King is not in her (v. 19). Her harvest has passed, the summer has ended, and the people are not saved (v. 20). Their recovery has not occurred (vv. 21-22).
According to 9:7, Jehovah will refine and test Israel.
Jehovah will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a habitation of jackals. He will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant (v. 11).
Jehovah will feed Israel with wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink (8:14; 9:15). Their food will be bitter and their drink poisonous.
Jehovah will scatter Israel among the nations and send the sword after them until He has consumed them (9:16).
Jeremiah 9:19 speaks of a voice of wailing which was heard from Zion. The voice said, "How we are ruined! / We are utterly put to shame! / For we have forsaken the land / Because they have cast down our dwellings."
Death has come up through Israel's windows. It has entered their palaces to cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the open squares. The corpses of men will fall like dung on the surface of the field and like a sheaf after the reaper, and there will be no one to gather them (vv. 21-22).
"Behold, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will punish all those who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised" (v. 25). Israel had been circumcised physically, on their body, but not psychologically, in their inner being.
Jehovah will shame every goldsmith by his idol and will punish the molten image of falsehood, for such images are vanity, the work of delusion (10:14-15).
Jehovah is slinging out the inhabitants of Israel and bringing distress on them (v. 18). He is casting them away like stones.
A great commotion is coming from the north land (Babylon) to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a habitation of jackals (v. 22). The nations have consumed Jacob and brought him to an end (v. 25).
Jehovah came in to correct His hypocritical worshippers, and Jeremiah reacted to Jehovah's correction of Israel. We see Jeremiah's reaction in certain portions of chapters eight, nine, and ten. These portions show us that the prophet's reaction was very tender, sympathetic, and compassionate.
Jeremiah longed for someone to comfort him in his sorrow, and his heart within him was faint (8:18). He could hear the voice of the cry of the daughter of his people in a land far away. For the brokenness of the daughter of his people he himself was broken (vv. 19, 21). In verse 22 he said, "Is there no balm in Gilead? / Is there no physician there? / Why then has the recovery of the daughter of my people / Not occurred?" Here we have the sighing of the prophet over the people of Israel.
In his reaction to the situation concerning Israel, Jeremiah wished that his head were waters and his eye a fountain of tears, that he might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of his people (9:1). Then he went on to say, "Oh, that I had a traveler's lodging place in the wilderness / That I might leave my people and go away from them, / For all of them are adulterers and an assembly of treacherous men" (v. 2). Jeremiah was disgusted with Israel and wished that he could live in the wilderness apart from them.
In 10:19-25 we have a word spoken by the prophet for the people of Israel. In verse 19 Jeremiah speaks about his hurt, wound, and affliction. In verse 21 he says that the shepherds, who are stupid, have not sought Jehovah and therefore have not prospered. All their flock is scattered. In verses 24 and 25 he spoke to Jehovah, saying, "Correct me, O Jehovah, but in measure, / Not in Your anger lest You bring me to nothing. / Pour out Your wrath on the nations / Who do not know You/And upon the families/Who do not call on Your name;/For they have consumed Jacob, yes, consumed him and brought him to an end,/And they have made his habitation desolate."
In chapter nine we see not only Jehovah's correction to Israel, His hypocritical worshippers, but also His feeling concerning Israel's suffering of His correction.
Jehovah said that for the mountains He would take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness, a lamentation. He would do this because they had been burned up so that no one passed through, and the sound of cattle was not heard. Both the birds of the sky and the beasts had fled and gone (9:10). Then Jehovah said, "I will make Jerusalem heaps, / A habitation of jackals; / And I will make the cities of Judah / A desolation without inhabitant" (v. 11). This indicates that although Jehovah was punishing Israel, He was still sympathetic toward them. On the one hand, He was punishing Israel; on the other hand, He was sympathizing with His punished people.
"Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Consider, and call for the mourning women to come, / And send for the skillful women to come; / Let them hasten and take up a wailing for us, / That our eyes may shed tears / And our eyelids may pour forth water. / For a voice of wailing / Was heard from Zion: / How we are ruined! / We are utterly put to shame! / For we have forsaken the land / Because they have cast down our dwellings" (vv. 17-19). Here Jehovah proposed that the mourning women, professional wailers, come and wail "for us." In these verses the words us and our indicate that Jehovah joined Himself to the suffering people and was one with them in their suffering. The sympathetic God who punished was also among His punished people. He joined Himself to them and stayed with them. Eventually, those who wailed were wailing not only for Israel but also for Jehovah. Jehovah Himself was weeping in sympathy for His people. He was like a mother who, while spanking her child, weeps along with her child.
Jeremiah's writing in these chapters is inclusive. He wrote about Israel's hypocrisy and corruption, Jehovah's correction of Israel, his own reaction to this correction, and Jehovah's feeling regarding Israel's suffering of His correction. Finally he gave some words of wisdom to the erring and suffering Israel. As the last item in this message, we will consider these words of wisdom.
Jeremiah 9:23 and 24 say that the wise man should not glory in his wisdom, the mighty man should not glory in his might, and the rich man should not glory in his riches. Rather, the one who glories should glory in that he has insight and knows Jehovah, the One who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth and delights in these things. This word of wisdom about glorying in the Lord is quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:31 and 2 Corinthians 10:17.
In Jeremiah 10:6 the prophet declares that there is none like Jehovah; He is great, and His name is great in might. In verse 7 he continues, saying, "For it befits You, / For among all the wise of the nations / And in all their kingdoms / There is none like You."
Jehovah is the true God. He is the living God and the eternal King (v. 10).
Jehovah is the One who has made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom. By His understanding He stretched out the heavens (v. 12).
Finally, in verse 23 Jeremiah declared that he knew that a man's way is not in himself. It is not in the man who walks to direct his step.
