Jeremiah 32:26-44.  Two days ago we started reading about an event in the life of Jeremiah.  Jerusalem was under siege and was about to fall to the Babylonians, Jeremiah was under arrest in the “courtyard of the king” for consistently predicting the downfall of Jerusalem.  The siege was interrupted by an attack by the Egyptian army.  It would not be long before Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptians and returned to Jerusalem.  In the mean time, Jeremiah was visited by a relative who needed help paying off a debt so some land could stay in the family.  Jeremiah was to “redeem” the land and seal the deed in a jar “for a long time”.  The point was that the Babylonians would win, Jerusalem would fall, the Temple would be destroyed, and most of the people would be taken as exiles.  Jeremiah’s act was to symbolize the fact that God would eventually bring the people back and the city and Temple would be rebuilt (after 70 years according to Jeremiah earlier prediction).  In yesterday’s reading we saw Jeremiah pray after he finished “redeeming” the land and sealing the Jar.  In the prayere he rrecognized the greatness of God, the mercy of God, the rebellion and unfaithfulness of the people of Israel, the faithfulness of God to his promises and predictions, and he ended by commenting on the symbolic task God had him do.  He seems to have been kind of shocked at “redeeming” the land since he knew it would soon be under foreign control.  I’m sure he was confident that God would bring the people back but maybe it was hard because he was old and knew he probably would never get to repossess the land he had bought.

In today’s reading God answers Jeremiah.  In verse 27 God identifies himself by his personal name, Yahweh (translated “LORD” in most English Bibles) and tells Jeremiah that he is God of “all flesh” (everyone).  He then asks Jeremiah, “Is anything too hard for me?”  We are supposed to understand that the answer is, “NO!”  This might help us understand why Jeremiah brought up the symbolic act he had done; it looks like he might have been a little unsure that it would happen.  As I said yesterday, Jeremiah was a human being with feelings, emotions, even fear (see 1 Kings 19:1-18), so it would be understandable if he was just a little unsure.

Verse 28 starts out, “Therefore thus says the LORD”.  That phrase occurs again in verses 36 and 42.  It kind of sets off each of those groups of verses as a little section.  In this first section (verses 28-35) Yahweh (LORD, God) confirms again that he is going to destroy Jerusalem.  In some of theses verses God calls the Babylonians Chaldeans.  Remember that Chaldeans were a people group and Babylonian refers to the city.  Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonian Empire, was a Chaldean.  We are told in verse 29 that the invaders will destroy the city by fire, a common practice in those days.  What is more important to notice in these verses is the reason God is going to let the city be destroyed.  In verse 29 we learn that the people of Jerusalem had set up shrines or altars on the roof of their houses to burn incense to the main false god of the area, Baal (Maybe you have to put it in your roof because Baal can’t see inside very well, or more of the smell can get to him).  We also learn that they made other offerings to other false gods in their homes.  In verse 29 we see that God was upset by that activity.  In verse 30 we see that the actions of the Israelites was continually evil, theses weren’t little slip ups, in fact they started their defection from Yahweh while they were still young.  We also see in verse 30 that it was both parts of the nation; the Southern Kingdom of Judah and the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

In verse 31 we see that theses bad habit went all the way back to the beginning of Jerusalem as an Israelite city.  We also learn in verse 32 that it was all the people; kings, leaders, priests, prophets, the men of Judah (women too) and all the people of Jerusalem.  That is why the city was to be destroyed (v. 31).  In verse 33 we see that the people had turned their back on God in spite of the fact that he was constantly teaching them.  In verse 34 we see that they even put images of the false gods in the Temple where only Yahweh, the true God, was to be honored.

Verse 35 concludes with perhaps the worst evil of all.  In the Valley of Ben-Hinnom altars (fancy tables to make sacrifices to gods on) were set up for more worship of Baal and another local “god” Molech.  In this valley the way they respected these “gods” was by burning their children to death as an offering to these false gods.  In verse 35 even God says he didn’t command such things and he hadn’t even imagined them (“it never entered Yahweh’s mind”, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t know they were going to do it God knows everything and always has, this is his way of helping Jeremiah and all of us understand how disgusting all of that was to him).  These practices evidently were happening way back at the beginning of Jeremiah’s time as a prophet.  The first king he delivered messages to was Josiah, who tried to reform the people and get them to honor Yahweh.  Josiah destroyed the altars God is talking abut here and did other things to make the valley forever “unclean”.  In order for people to make offerings to Yahweh and participate in other God honoring celebrations and ceremonies they had to be “clean”.  “Clean” was a technical term that dealt more with attitudes and symbolic notice of our disobedience and rebellion toward God, as well as a recognition of God purity, than it dealt with actual physical dirt (though that was a part of the symbolism too).   One of the things Josiah did was to make the valley a grave yard.  It was also the city sewer and trash dump.  All making it a nasty place and technically “unclean”.  There were perpetuual fires in the valley to dispose of bodies and waste and by the New Testament times it’s name, Gehenna, came to mean Hell.  The most interesting thing to me about all of this is that it is the same place that will be included in the ultimate restored Jerusalem that Jesus will uses as his capital (Jeremiah 31:40).

Verse 36 begins the next little section (verses 36-41)  In these verses God first confirms that the people of the city will be sent into exile.  But then he tells Jeremiah that he will bring this rebellious people who have angered him back to the land where they will be his people and he will be their God.  Verse 39 is very cool because we see that God will help his people (and remember that ultimately that will include all who turn to God through Jesus) love him and obey him (the meaning of “heart” and “way”).  We also see that following God is “for our good” and the good of others.  In verse 40 God continues this idea and takes it to the highest level when he tells Jeremiah that he is going to make an “everlasting covenant” (a forever promise) to help his people love him (the idea of fear is one of respect and honor) and never turn away from him.  And he confirms that he will never turn away from us.  Verse 41 end this little section with God describing part of the good he is going to bring into the lives of the Israelites; he will restore them to the land, they will be planted like a well watered tree.  And we see that this makes God happy.

The last little section in today’s reading begins with God using the destruction of Jerusalem to confirm the restoration of the city and the people.  In verse 42 we see that the disaster is at least upon the city, in verse 43 the destruction is spoken of in past tense.  At least this last little part may have been after the return of Nebuchadnezzar and his destruction of the city (587-586 BC).  Remember that Jeremiah had spent a great deal of time predicting the destruction, now that it had happened it was confirmation that he was a true prophet of God; just as surly as the city was destroyed it would be restored.  Verse 44 is a direct answer to Jeremiah concerns, doubts, fears, what ever they were, in verse 25.  Here at the end of the section wee see God confirming that the very thing Jeremiah had done in the symbolic act would again happen in the restored kingdom.  He even mentions the very area that Jeremiah paid for land in; the land of Benjamin.

The thing I like most in today’s reading is how the valley of Ben-hinnom will be part of the new capital of the forever kingdom.  That is cool to me because no matter how ugly, disgusting, evil and unclean something is God can fix it.  According to 1 John 2:2 Jesus death paid for the sins of the whole world.  That’s comforting because I know that his death took care of all of my sins, no matter how bad they were, and there were some pretty bad ones.  NO one should ever think that they are too dirty for God to clean up.   Along with that it is very cool that God was right there with answers for Jeremiah.  Maybe it’s good we don’t know exactly what was going on in verse 25.  If we knew exactly what Jeremiah was going through we might think God could only fix that and not us where we are.  God was there for Jeremiah and he is there for each one of us too. The key is to turn to him (verse 33) God can make you clean, in fact it is his passion; he pours his whole “heart and soul” into helping us.  That word “soul” can mean “being”; all that God is he uses to help us.  That’s amazing considering he made all that is; that’s a lot of power.

God thank you for loving me with all that you are.  Thank you for applying all that you are to helping me see and understand and turn back to you.  Thank you for not using all that power to force me into this relationship that we have.  Thank you for drawing me to you.  Help me love you even a fraction of how much you love me.  Sorry for my part in messing up your “very good” creation.  Thank you for restoring me, help me be a part of your good work.

Jeremiah 32:16-25.  In yesterday’s reading we saw Jeremiah in prison for predicting the downfall of Jerusalem and the exile of the then current king, Zedekiah.  We also saw Jerusalem under siege.  God had Jeremiah perform a symbolic act in response to the siege, he was to make a deal for a piece of land and seal up the paper work in a jar for “a long time”.  The symbolic act showed us two things.  Jerusalem would be captured (which it was) and after a long time the people would be restored to the land (which they were 70 years later). In today’s reading we see that Jeremiah followed through with the deal and we see his prayer in response to the whole situation.

It is interesting to keep in mind that Jeremiah would be one of the ones who never got to return to Jerusalem, he never got to unseal his jar.  I must have been very hard for him to believe that Jerusalem and Judah would ever be restored.  The people hadn’t believed that Jerusalem would fall to Nebuchadnezzar, now the siege ramps were almost built and Jerusalem was about to fall.  There was a brief break in the action in Jerusalem when Egypt sent an army to the region to fight with Nebuchadnezzar, Egypt was quickly beaten and Nebuchadnezzar then returned to complete his invasion of Jerusalem.  The symbolic message about the land was probably given at the time of the break in the invasion.

Verse 16 starts out with Jeremiah giving the jar full of paperwork for his purchase to Baruch, his secretary, for safekeeping.  Then we are told that Jeremiah “prayed to Yahweh (LORD)”.  The mention of the jar tells us that that was what he was thinking about as he prayed.  In verses 17-23 we see two things; God’s power and how he used it to benefit the Israelite people and the consistent disobedience by the Israelite people.  In verse 17 Jeremiah confirms to God that he knows that God created everything.  He concludes that nothing is to hard for God.  In verse 18 we see Jeremiah calling God the “great and mighty God, Yahweh of the armies.  In verse 19 Jeremiah recognizes or confesses to God that he knows that God sees all and gives each person what he deserves.  IN verses 20-21 Jeremiah remembers the miracles that God did when he brought the Israelite people out of Egypt back in Moses’ day (about 1450 BC), miracles that he was still doing in Jeremiah’s day (900 years later).

In verse 18 we have an interesting statement by Jeremiah.  First Jeremiah tells God that he knows that he (God) shows mercy, love, faithfulness, and kindness (lovingkindness, Hebrew “hesed”) “to thousands”.  Then Jeremiah says that God “repays the iniquity (a word that contains the idea of twisted or warped) of the fathers into the bosom of their children”.  In English it seems like Jeremiah is saying that God dumps all the evil of the fathers in the kid’s laps.  But in the next verse Jeremiah tells us that God sees all and “gives to each person  according the path that person has traveled”.  That seems like a contradiction.  The word repays is the Hebrew word “shalom”, it is often translated peace.  We often think of “peace” as tranquility (like sitting in a quiet place) or the lack of conflict (like when the fighting of war stops).  To a Jewish mind “peace” is more inner than outer.  It’s about being filled and satisfied in body, mind, and spirit.  It may contain some hint of justice too.  The main idea is one of being full.  If a person is evil though then the just or right thing is for that person to be filled with the consequences of their actions.  That is how translators come up with a word like “repay”; theses people have been evil and they are getting what they fully deserve.  The problem is it looks like the kids are getting what the parents deserve, but Jeremiah contradicts that idea in the next verse. The word translated “bosom” or “lap”.  The word means “very close”.  In fact it seems to be closer than close.  In many of it’s uses it seems to be indicating a deep inner connection.  In Job 19:25-27 a guy named Job, who loved God very much and was suffering a lot, in those verses he tells some friends that even if he dies he will see his redeemer in a restored body.  He himself will see this “redeemer”.  The though of it makes his “consumes the heart within him” (some translations say his heart yearns or is faint).  That word “within” is the same word translated “bosom” or “lap”.  If we put these words together a little differently verse 18 might say something like “the twisted lives of the fathers was filled to it’s maximum in the hearts of their children”.  In 1 Kings 12:11 a guy named Rehoboam told the people of Israel, My father put a heavy load on you all and kept you in line with whips.  I’m going to make your load even heavier and keep you in line with scorpions>”  Rehobaom was the son of Solomon, the last king of the united nation of Israel.  Rehoboam’s attitude led to the split of the kingdom.  In respect to our reading here, you might say Rehoboam filled his Dad’s example to the max.  In other words the kids aren’t getting dumped on for their parents bad actions they are suffering because they have exceeded their parents in doing bad.  Verse 23 (as well as verse 19) seems to support this idea when we see that God brought the Israelite people into a great land but they insisted on being disobedient.  They did “nothing” that God told them to do.  The result was the trouble they were facing.

In verses 24-25 Jeremiah tells God that he sees the fulfillment of all the predictions of doom that he has delivered for God.  The Babylonians have built their ramps and are taking the city.  Jeremiah says to God, “Your words have been fulfilled”.  He then quotes God’s instructions to him, instructions that he followed in verses 1-15, after that he tells God, “the city has given (delivered, bestowed, granted, entrusted to) into the hands of the Chaldeans (Babylonians)”.  Some experts think that Jeremiah might be bringing up the ‘go buy that land” thing as a way of saying, “Hey all the trouble you predicted is happening, but you also said the land would be restored some day.”  Others think that Jeremiah is saying something like, “You told me to go buy that land (which he did) even though the city (and the rest of Judah) has been taken over.”  They think he cant really believe what God asked him to do in light of the invasion.  “How could God ask him to spend hard earned money on land that was now destroyed and in the hands of foreigners?” is the way some see this.  It’s kind of hard to know what Jeremiah was thinking, he certainly had feelings, if he could feel sorrow and sadness over the events of his lifetime he certainly could be shocked too.  It is clear that Jeremiah recognized that God’s predictions were all 100% so I don’t think he doubted that the land would be restored to Israel.  It was still pretty shocking to go through it all and it would be difficult to see your land under the control of a hostile enemy.

I want to remember that God is fair, consistent, forgiving, good, strong, able to control, able to bring good out of evil situations, watching, and that he has a plan to bring the most good into the most lives as possible.  God has a new contract with us, one of love and forgiveness, one that will see us into his forever family.  But here and now we may go through trouble, trouble that we have brought on our selves and trouble that is just a part of the messed up world we have made.  Jeremiah was very upset at the mess his world was in but I’m sure he could say with Job, “I know my redeemer lives and am confident that even if I die I will live again with him forever”.

God thank you for buying me back from eternal destruction.  Thank you for giving me a hope and a future.  Let me face the trials of life with confidence that you will do what you have said.  You will bring your people into eternity with you forever.  Let me be faithful in the mean time and remind others of your faithfulness too.