Jeremiah 26:1-15.  Yesterday I talked about how prophets were supposed to be messengers from God and that a big part for their job was to remind people about things God had already communicated in the Bible.  In Jeremiah’s day that would have been part or most of the Old Testament.  You might want to read “The Old Testament Connection” to get an idea of what the Old Testament is mainly about (Hint:  It’s about our messed up relationship with God and how God is going to fix it).  Jeremiah has been warning the people about how their relationship with God is messed up and what they needed to do about it.  Yesterday we saw the warning extended to “all the kingdoms of the Earth”.  We want to keep in mind that God is not really about punishing or destroying; he wants us back (2 Peter 3:9).  But sin (disobedience and rebellion toward Him) has consequences and he will ultimately banish from his forever kingdom those who reject Him.  The accuracy of the prophets in the Old Testament show us that this in no fairy tale but reality.

Today’s reading starts a section of Jeremiah that goes all the way through chapter 45.  Most Bible experts believe that this part of the book was written down by Jeremiah’s secretary, Baruch.  The events are about Jeremiah and his messages from God are in it but he probably didn’t write it.  If you notice those sorts of things the writing changes from first person to third person.  Don’t let it bother you that this part wasn’t written specifically by Jeremiah.  God used many people to write just the right words to be a part of His book, the Bible.  Jeremiah was a part of what the people of Jesus time (including Jesus) considered the writings of God (in the New Testament they usually use the word “Scriptures” as the name for their Bible.  A word that translates as “writings” and mostly refers to what we call the Old Testament).  If you have read “The Old Testament Connection” you know that the Old Testament (and the rest of the Bible as far as that goes) tells the story of certain people and events that is important to know in order to understand the mess we are in with God and what it is going to take for that mess to be fixed.  Many parts of these stories had to be finished by people who were not the main authors of the different “writings”; or books as we call them.  Obviously Moses, who wrote the first five books of the Bible, couldn’t write about his own death, someone else finished that part of the story.  But God was in control of all of it (1 Peter 1:20-21).

Today’s reading jumps back a little in time from what we have been reading (Remember that these “writings” were not written to be a “timeline” of history but had a purpose.  Sometimes the events are in order and sometimes the author jumps around to make his point).  The message in chapter 25 was originally given in the “fourth year of Jehoiakim” (Jeremiah 25:1) now we are “at the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim” (Jeremiah 26:1).  In verse 2 Jeremiah is told to go to the Temple (called the house of the LORD) and to talk to “all the cities of Judah who are there to worship.”  In Israel there were certain feast days when the citizens of Israel were supposed to go to the Temple to remember God and honor him.  Of course not every Jew could go every time and there were provisions in the Law of Moses for that, but Jerusalem would be very crowded on those days and all of the cities of the kingdom would have probably been represented.  On any given day in the Temple offerings were being made and even on a regular day most of not all of the cities of Israel might have some of their people there.  Visiting the Temple would have been a big deal to any Israelite interested in God and hearing a prophet speak would have been a big deal too. If Jeremiah was speaking in the Temple it would have gotten around.  Of course we want to remember that by Jeremiah’s time the nation of Israel had been split in two, the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, and that the Northern Kingdom (also called Israel) had been destroyed by the Assyrian’s 100 years earlier. That left only the people of the Southern Kingdom (called Judah) to hear from Jeremiah.

It seems interesting that God specifically told Jeremiah not to leave anything out from the message (v. 2).  I wonder if Jeremiah though, “Really?”  He wasn’t in the habit of leaving parts out.  Or maybe he though, “Whatever!” Knowing the people didn’t really want to hear what he was going to say and were becoming more and more hostile to him.  The fact that the people were not in the habit of listening can be seen in verse 3 when God says, “Maybe they will listen and every one will turn away from this bad ways…”  There is something more interesting in this verse though, why does God say “maybe” or “perhaps”?  Doesn’t God know how the people will react?  In Psalm 139:4, 16 the Psalm writer insist that God knows what he is going to say before he says it and that he knows what is going to happen in every day of the persons life even before he lives even one of them.  So what God is saying to Jeremiah has nothing to do with what he knows it has to do with how people (like you and me) are going to respond.  God knows what we are going to do but we still need to live out our lives and make those decisions that he know about.  We also see in this verse that God’s actions are dependent on ours.  We don’t control God but he doesn’t control us either.  He gives us real choices  with real consequences good and bad.  The warnings for their bad actions were conditional; “if…then…”  God still controls the universe he just decided to give us freedom to chose or reject Him.   In verse 4 we see the “if” and in verse 6 we see the “then”.  In this case it is a negative, “if you will not listen and obey, then …”.

The “then” mentions several things.  First he says that he will make “this house” the Temple) like Shiloh.  Many years earlier, when Joshua led the Israelite people into the land they honored God in the “tabernacle”, sort of a portable church or temple that they had used during the forty years they had spent wandering around in the desert before entering the land.  In fact the Tabernacle was where the Israelite people honored God for about 450 years after they entered the land.  For the first 400 years they had no central government, God was supposed to be their king, and they were held together by their worship of Yahweh (the personal name of God).

One place that the Tabernacle was set up after they entered the land was in a town called Shiloh.  One important item that was in the Tabernacle was the “ark of the covenant”.  It was a fancy box or chest, covered with gold with carved angles on top of it.  Inside were the stone tablets that God carved and gave to Moses with the first ten rules for the people on them (the Ten Commandments).  It also had a jar of “manna” in it (the miraculous food God had provided during the 40 years of wandering) and the staff (walking stick) that belonged to Aaron (Moses’ brother) that he used during the miracles that were supposed to convince Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt (Exodus 7-12).  (See also Hebrews 9:4).  This “ark” represented the presence, promises, and power of God in the Israelite’s live.  In 1 Samuel 4 the Israelites lost a battle to the Philistines (some of the original inhabitants of the land that the Israelites were to conquer).  The Israelites mistakenly thought that they were in control and that all they needed to do was take their magic box out to the battlefield and they would win the next battle.  They lost again and this time the Philistines took the “ark”.  The destruction of Shiloh that Jeremiah talks about probably happened at that time, the year was about 1050 BC.  Eventually the Israelites Got the Ark back from the Philistines and kept it in a place called Kiriath-Jearim for a while.  Eventually it was taken to Jerusalem that became the new capital of Israel and finally the third king of Israel, Solomon, built a Temple as the permanent place for honoring God (about 950 BC).  Here in Jeremiah almost another 400 years later the Temple was in danger of being destroyed just like Shiloh had been and for very similar reasons.  The people in 1 Samuel though that they could manipulate God and here in Jeremiah’s time the false prophets and the people were doing the same thing; going their own way (See Judges 21:25 which describes the attitudes at the end of the first 400 years in the land about the time of the 1 Samuel story).

In verses 7-9 we see the reaction of the priests and prophets (the religious leaders who were supposed to be helping the people honor God) and all the people.  The clearly hadn’t learned much over the 400 years since Shiloh, they were still confusing places and things with a living God.  Because Jeremiah predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple they thought he was speaking out against God.  In Deuteronomy 18:18-20 we see God promising to send prophets to the people to “speak all that [He] commanded” them to speak.  If the people didn’t listen they would be punished but if the prophet spoke on his own and claimed it was from God then he was to be put to death.  Because they improperly linked God to the Temple and the city the people of Judah felt Jeremiah was making his own predictions and deserved to die.

In verses 10-19 we have an actual trial.  In verse 10 the political leaders of the territory gathered near the Temple to conduct the trial.  In verse 11 the priests, prophets, and people present they claim and ask for Jeremiah to be put to death.  It is interesting that they propose the punishment before they even make their case.  In verses 12-15 Jeremiah gives his defense.  Really his only defense is his claim that he actually is speaking for God.  He then repeats his warning about how they are living and appeals to them to turn back to God.  No question about what he said, the only question is did he speak from God or not.  He said he was.  In verse 14 he then puts his “fate” in the hands of the leaders hearing the case.  But he warns them that if they put him to death that they will have innocent blood on their hands. In another part of the Law we learn that killing an innocent person is a serious offence (Deuteronomy 19:1-13).  In verse 15 Jeremiah tells them that he expects them to do what is “good and right” and then ends by repeating his claim to be speaking for God.

Tomorrow we will see the outcome of his trial but will also see what happened to another prophet who was giving the same message around the same time.  For us today we need to see that it can be difficult to honor God with our lives.  He has given each one or us a job to do and words to speak to those around us (2 Corinthians 5:16-20).  At least for now, for us here in the United States, most of us will probably not be faced with death for standing up for God.  In other parts of the world people are not so fortunate.  We need to be careful to “speak all that God has commanded us and to not omit a word”.  Jeremiah didn’t get that bold over night remember at this point he had been speaking out for God at least 19 years, and in the beginning it was easy during the reign of the good king Josiah.  We need to practice now while we have a chance so that if and when more serious trouble comes we will be able to say to our enemies, “I am in your hand, do what is good and right, I have spoken honestly to you from God.”

God help me get lots of faithful practice being your representative in the world (ambassador, 2 Corinthians 5:20).  Help me repeat all that you have given me to say.  Let me leave nothing out.  Give me boldness, strength, and peace.  Let me be strong and courageous in the face of our enemies.  Help me remember that this life is passing but that eternity is forever.  Let me bring you honor.

Jeremiah 25:15-38.  In yesterday’s reading we saw that God had been warning the people for years about their unfaithfulness to Him.  We saw repeatedly that they had actively not listened to God’s messengers.  We also saw that there are consequences for not honoring God with our lives.  We also saw that God can use the actions of others as those consequences.  Notice that I underlined “can”, we want to be careful in making everything that happens in life a direct action from God.  If every human action is seen as a direct order from God then no human action can be labeled “sin”.  That is because “sin” is disobedience to God, literally a “missing” of His mark or target.  We cannot say that God tells us not to do something and then causes us to do it (James 1:13-18).  Yes God is ruler of the universe, or as scholars like to put it He is sovereign, but in his sovereignty He has chosen to give us the ability to make choices, and often we choose badly.  Finally we saw that, even if God uses someone’s actions as a consequence, He will still hold them accountable for those actions if they are “sin”.

At the end of yesterday’s reading we saw specifically that Babylon would eventually pay a price for taking the people of the southern kingdom, Judah, as captives.  The Babylonian Empire would only last about 70 years then would be gone.  That’s not very long as great empires go.

Remember that a prophet is a messenger from God.  The biggest part of their job was to remind the people of things God had already communicated in the Bible.  But they weren’t just teachers, they were usually applying the truth to a specific and current situation.  As we saw yesterday their messages sometimes contained predictions of things that would happen in the future.  Sometimes those things would happen in the near future and sometimes they would be far off.  In the book of Daniel, Daniel lays out a whole timetable for the coming of the Messiah, the promised coming king of Israel.  The prediction involved a period of 490 years.  The “clock” wouldn’t start running until a specific historic event occurred that was many years after Daniel wrote the prediction and within the “timeline” there was to be “pause” in the action at a very specific point for an open ended period of time.   Fulfillment of predictions within their lifetime would support their claim to be speaking for God.  Predictions of future events would serve the purpose of warning and/or encouraging the people who read or heard them, that includes us today.

Sometimes a description of some future event can actually find it’s fulfillment in more than one future event, one close to the time of the prediction and one later in the future.  I’m not talking about something lame like, “I predict that a vehicle will go down my street today.”  Remember we are talking about specific predictions.  In the book of Isaiah there is a very famous prediction about a virgin giving birth to a son.  God applies this prediction to the virgin birth of Jesus (actually it would be a virgin conception, but what ever) in Matthew 1:23.  But the entire prediction was given as a sign to then king Ahaz and based on what it says it had to have a fulfillment back then too (though in that fulfillment there was no virgin conception, see Isaiah 7:10-16).

If you have read “The Old Testament Connection” you might remember that the Jewish people (or Israelites) were part of a plan by God to help all of us understand that we have a broken relationship with Him and what will and won’t fix that relationship.  One thing that happens with some of the visions that prophets would have is that the timeline would not always be apparent.  The end of yesterday’s reading is like that.  It describes the short “lifespan” of the Babylonian Empire but also talks about other nations being involved in “punishing” the Jewish people, and suffering for it (Jeremiah 25:14).  Today’s reading starts out by continuing that idea.  Jeremiah is given a “cup” that is filled with God’s “wrath” for all the nations of the earth to drink from.  It is interesting that in verse 14 this all starts out with nations that have oppressed the Jewish people but in today’s reading the Jewish people themselves get to “drink” some of this wrath.  But then again, in yesterday’s reading, this whole idea of consequences for showing God disrespect started with the people of Judah (the Jews).  No one is immune from the consequences for disobedience, disrespect, and rebellion toward God.  With respect to time though, the oppression of the Jewish people is something that has happened through out history and is still happening today, so is their personal disobedience to God.  The events talked about in this part of Jeremiah extend from his day to ours and will not be completely finished until Jesus reenters the world as that promised king whose timetable Daniel laid out.  We are now in the “pause” but there are 7 years left in that “game” during which the Jewish people will be both oppressed and have an opportunity to be the messenger for God that He always wanted them to be.  You really don’t get that sense of timing from Jeremiah but that is how this prediction or vision is playing out.

In verses 17-26 we see a whole list of nations who will “drink” this punishment from God.  The list is both specific and general.  The history of the nation of Babylon gives us enough proof that Jeremiah was actually speaking for God (Remember the part about the 70 years in yesterday’s reading).  The specific names in the list tell us that God is a God who is near by and knows all the players (Jeremiah 23:23).  Near the end of the list, though, we see the prediction/warning extended to “all the kingdoms that are on the face of the earth”.  In that we see that God is also God over all (far off, Jeremiah 23:23).

To some it seems odd that Babylon, the current threat, isn’t mentioned in the list, but actually it is.  The last name in the list, Sheshach, is actually written in an ancient Hebrew code called Athbash (or Atbash).  In it the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are written in two lines one above the other, one of the lines is in reverse order.  When a person puts a word in the code he looks at the letter he wand and writes the one below it.  For us A-B-C would be Z-Y-X in the code.  Also in ancient times Hebrew (the language of the Old Testament and the language Jeremiah would have written in) was written using only consonants, no vowels (and no spaces between words either).  Sheshach is three consonants equal to our SSK.  In thier code (using the Hebrew alphabet) that is a code for BBL, the three consonants that make up the word Babylon.  So Babylon is not only in the list but it is placed at the end to emphasize it.  Jeremiah uses this code again in chapter 51.  Unfortunately no one seems to know why he would use the code instead of writing the actual name.   We know he wasn’t using it to keep the name secret because he does use the name Babylon in other places where he predicts their destruction.

It is also interesting that Jeremiah says that Sheshach will drink last of all  because Babylon certainly was destroyed before some of the others in the list (Tyre still exists as a city today, but it was completely destroyed in 332 BC by Alexander the Great, about 200 years after Babylon ceased to exist as a nation).  The description in this list may go beyond “judgment” of the kingdoms back in the times of the Old Testament and may be referring also to the destruction of nations in that 7 year time period predicted by Daniel.  In the New Testament that time period is described in the Revelation and the anti-God world wide empire is called Babylon the Great.  Perhaps Sheshach is a reference to that completely backwards anti-God civilization.

In verses 27-28 Jeremiah is told to make the nations “drink” God’s wrath.  He probably didn’t travel to all those places and force some icky drink down several king’s throats, but he may have approached traveling business men from those various places and offered them some nasty drink as a symbolic act.  The word translated “wrath” is interesting, it can mean “anger, displeasure, fury”, but it’s root has the idea of passion and is used to describe the passion between lovers.  One thing that is clear from the Bible is that God is passionate about us.  He loves us and wants us to be a part of his future forever existence (the “kingdom” promised to the Messiah, or chosen one, Jesus).  Because “sin” separates us from God and that forever future God is very passionate about helping us understand how serious sin is.  He wants us to understand that sin has consequences that need to be dealt with and can only really be dealt with by Immanuel (“God with us”, Jesus, see Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23.  See also “The Old Testament Connection”), so in history God uses events to teach us that lesson and a record of some of that (enough for us to understand) has been made for us in the Bible.  In verses 27-28 we see that no one can avoid the consequences of sin (not without Jesus that is, see Isaiah 53:6).  Verse 29 gives the ultimate example of that truth by reminding everyone that if God’s “chosen” people and his “chosen” city were not excused from punishment no one will be (but remember Isaiah 53:6).

Verses 30-32 are a very strong statement of all of this by God to His fold (his flock, the Jews) and to all nations (everyone, the rest of us).Verses 32-38 describe a time of great terror and judgment on the whole earth.  On the other hand the reference to shepherds and masters of the flock seem more directed at Jewish people.  Again this may be a description both near in time (describing the Babylonian invasions) and future (maybe even describing the last 7 years of Daniel’s prediction).  This may be an example of how time is sometimes compressed in prophecy and of multiple fulfillments.  What we can be sure of is sin has consequences for every one, both now and in eternity (but remember Isaiah 53:6).

Christians like to talk about God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness.  But we need to remember that mercy is not giving someone what he or she deserves.  Because of our rebellion and disrespect (sin) we all deserve to have our relationship with God cut off forever.  But God is merciful.  His mercy comes at a price though; God graciously paid our debt of infinite separation by allowing his infinite son, Jesus, to die on the cross and be separate from Him for a brief period (That is why Jesus said on the cross, “My God MY God why have you forsaken (or left) me.”).  It’s good to be reminded that God has standards, that we have all violated them (and Him), and that the consequences are brutal and ugly (without God life would be one total bummer, see Colossians 1:16-17 and think what would happen if he decided to “let go”, think atom bomb on a universe sized scale).  There really isn’t much hope in this part of the chapter; I’m glad that there is more than just this part.  As we saw yesterday God repeatedly warned the Jews and even told them if they would turn back to him he would let them stay in the land forever.  God is really about restoring our relationship with Him (remember Jesus and Isaiah 53:6).  But we do need to take Him seriously; we need to be careful not think that God will just pretend we didn’t offend him.  Our part of course is to turn back (that is what “repent” means) to God, to listen to the warnings, to take God seriously and to let Jesus’ death take care of our offenses.  God thank you for making it very clear what happens when we reject you.  Thank you for paying the price I never could.  Thank you for showing me who Jesus is and what he has done for me.  Help me keep my ears open and let me obey your voice.