Jeremiah 6:16-30.  Today’s reading continues the warning to Jerusalem and Judah that has been a major part of the book so far.  In the first two verses God challenges the people to follow the way that has been shown to them for centuries, but they refuse.  Then he challenges them to listen to the message they have been told for centuries, and again they refuse.  Notice that the “path” they were to follow is called “the good way” and it is a path that leads to rest.  Notice too that the “rest” is for their “soul” that is their inner being, the part of you that is really you.  In Ecclesiastes the last king of the united nation of Israel informs us that we have “eternity in our hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  The point is that we know we are eternal, we know that we are made to relate to God, and that is why all through human history mankind has made up gods and ways to honor them.  Our inner being will not allow us to deny God’s existence and it seems to realize there is a problem in the relationship.  Our souls want rest with respect to God.  The problem is we are rebellious and disrespectful in our being as well.  That is how the relationship with God got broken to begin with and tht is how it stays broken.  The only rest is to follow god path back to him, and we need help doing it.  Jesus is that path (John 14:6) and the holy Spirit is that help (John 14-16).

In verses 18-19 god addresses the whole earth.  The Israelites were to be an example to the rest of the people groups on the earth, if they had followed God then the earth would have come to understand that Yahweh was the one true person that they needed to get right with, that Yahweh was the God they were longing to be with in eternity.  But Israel’s defection meant a different type of lesson, this lesson would also make the reality of which God was the one true God clear.  But it would be a hard and painful lesson for Israel (see “The Old Testament Connection”), a disaster according to the words of verse 19.  Also you might want to notice that the trouble was deserved, it is called the “fruit” of their plans or schemes; the coming trouble was brought on by their own actions.  Verse 19 also makes it very clear that the actions are rebellion and disobedience against God (they didn’t listen to his words or obey his rules).  The actions in verse 20 are about honoring God; making offerings to him, but he doesn’t want them.  According to Psalm 51:17 the sacrifices that God wants are a broken and crushed heart.  The offerings in the Law Of Moses were there to make things right between us and God they were there to show us how wrong things were.  First of all the Israelites never were faithful to the rules; that was lesson one.  But the Psalm 51:16 tells us that God is not pleased ‘burnt offerings”, the kind of offering s Jeremiah is talking about in today’s reading, but also burned animal offerings described in the Law of Moses.  Of course god doesn’t delight in them, they are disgusting reminders of the consequence of Adam and Eve’s rebellion against him.  On the day they broke the rule death came into human existence; spiritual death (or separation from God) and physical death (the eventual separation of our soul or spirit from our bodies).  The spiritual death is seen in the fact that God was asking Adam where he was later that fateful day, physical death was seen in the example of the clothes God made for them.  Can you imagine the horror as God ripped the skin from a dead animal and put that bloody coat onto Adam and Eve?  The disgusting reality of what they had done (and what each of us does every day) should have broken and crushed their hearts.  Unfortunately we have become good at ignoring the truth, the death and suffering in our world today should be constant reminders of our broken relationship with God.  We need to respond not with some bits of tree bark in a fire but with a bits of a broken heart offered to God.  In verse 21 we see God making the people fall down.  It’s more of the same idea, getting our attention, making us realize our brokenness.  The point of pain and suffering in our world, and how much it offends us, is that we should cause us to look back to God and be internally broken about our relationship with him.

Verses 22-26 describe harsh destruction that is coming.  Big pride requires big pain to break it.  The Israelites, and especially the people of Judah and Jerusalem, somehow felt that they were immune to trouble, they were God’s chosen people and God had made them promises.  But they were enemies of God just like you and me and needed to realize it.  So the trouble would come.  Notice though that God calls them his daughter.  Also notice that there are warnings in the passage not just about what is coming but about what not to do when it does.  Also this “daughter” is encouraged to be sad, mourn, it’s a lot like the attitude David described in that Psalm, a broken and crushed heart.

The fact that God is interested in progress and not just pain is seen in how he describes Jeremiah.  The message Jeremiah is bringing and the eventual “fire” of the invasion are designed to purify.  An assayer in our day is a person who tests metal to see what kind and how pure it is.  In these verses the person seems to have the job of purifying the metal as well as inspecting it, we might call him an assayer and smelter.  The words used mean tester or inspector and gatherer so the idea fits.  We are told the results of the test, the people are stubborn and rebellious; their lives are like a soap opera or wild story.  Their lives are corrupt, spoiled like useless rotten fruit.  God keeps working on them but they just aren’t getting pure the wickedness stays in these people who are like bronze and iron (two very strong metals in those days).  It is unfortunate because God is looking for silver and he finds none so they are rejected.

Metals are what they are, but is clear from Jeremiah so far that people can change or be changed.  There is no silver in iron or Bronze but God is the creator of the universe and he can transform us.  In Romans 12:1-2 Paul tells the believers not to be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewing of their mind.  In Ephesians 4:17-24 language very similar to that of Romans 12, Psalm 51, and today’s reading we learn that we are renewed when we submit our lives to God through who Jesus is and what he has done for us.  In Romans 12:2 that word “transformed” is the Greek word we get our word metamorphosis from.  When we allow God to take control of or live we can be transformed from a slim little larva into the beautiful butterfly that God wants us to be.  When there is fire in our lives we need to see if God is telling us something and respond.

God as you refine me and transform me let me be cooperative.  Change me from prideful iron and bronze in to beautiful silver.  Let my life be conformed to your plan for me and when the nations look at me let them not see the seriousness of your wrath but the beauty of your love and mercy.  Thank you for taking the time to purify me, let me be ready for an eternity with you when it comes.