Jeremiah 9:7-26.  Yesterday’s reading ended with Jeremiah being very sad because of the trouble that was coming Judah’s way.  Verses 15-16 of chapter 8 gave a description of the invasion by Babylon that was coming.  Today’s reading gives a description of coming trouble but it seems different from the invasion from Babylon.  The invasion by Babylon resulted in what is commonly called the “Babylonian Captivity”.  When the Northern Kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC the people were scattered throughout the Assyrian Empire.  The strategy of the Assyrians was to dilute the feelings or ethnic pride a group felt by scattering them and getting them to intermarry.  America has been called the “melting pot” because after time emigrants who come here tend to blend together into one big society.  In recent times there has been some focus by some Americans on holding onto their ethnic or national identity but I think after a while it gets pretty watered down (maybe three generations or four).  The Assyrians did this so the various tribal or national groups that they conquered wouldn’t group back together in rebellion.

By the end of Jeremiah’s time of representing God to the people the Assyrian Empire would be basically overthrown by the Babylonian Empire and the Babylonian’s would be pushing their power and authority in the area.  The Babylonian’s would generally leave their conquests in place and just require taxes and respect from them.  They would also take various leaders (political, intellectual and perhaps religious) as captives back to the capital (Daniel was in this first group).  Theses leaders would then become advisors to the King of Babylon.  In the case of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) the leadership left in place rebelled a couple of times and eventually the Babylonian king took basically the whole population back to Babylon where they lived as a segregated group.  After 70 years as captives the Babylonian empire was taken over by the Medo-Persian’s and a new king came on the scene.  This king gave permission for people to return back to Jerusalem and Judah, about 50,000 did.  The rest remained dispersed throughout the empire (including some from the Assyrians conquest almost 200 years before), Esther and Mordecai are two of the people who remained behind.

In today’s reading we see more of the trouble that is coming in the lives of the Jewish people but it doesn’t seem to fit with the Babylonian captivity.  First though we see an explanation by God as to why the trouble is coming.  In verses 2-6, yesterday, we saw a description of the evil habits of the people of Judah.  Today’s reading starts out by telling us that because of that God is going to refine and assay them.  Those are terms used by people who deal with precious metals (gold, silver, etc.).  The first word means to “purge away”, like using water to get something out of your eye.  It’s a little different with metals where fire is usually what is used to get rid of the unwanted stuff.  Refining also usually involves crushing the “ore” (the rocks with the gold mixed into them) before using the fire or other means to get the gold out.  Assaying means to test or examine and in the case of metals the assayer is looking at the purity of the metal.  The ore can be assayed before refining to determine to gold (or other metal) content and the refined metal is also assayed.  The reading today’ continues by briefly describing the evil actions of the people of Judah, and the emphasis is on how they treat each other, they deceive and stab each other in the back.  In verse 9 the actions of God are described as punishment and vengeance (depending on your translation).  In the King James Translation the first word is translated “visit”; “shall I not visit them for these things”.  Now I get why some translations use a word like punish, I mean I don’t think God is dropping by for a cup of hot chocolate or to talk about sports.  The next word “avenge” helps us understand what the visit is all about, and part of the idea of the first word is to come by for an inspection.  But when we take this verse together with verse 7  I have a little hope because God doesn’t just swat us with a fly swatter (or human swatter I suppose) he checks things out first.  But not only dies he check us out he tries to purify us, too.  It’s not just, “Oh, some piece of rock with a speck of gold, forget this one”.  God tries to purge out the useless stuff in our lives.  There is a balance in how God is dealing with all of us, the balance seems to tip toward love and forgiveness, but also involves purity.  And remember any trouble we get we deserve and more.  The idea behind vengeance is a repayment for a wrong suffered.  We have offended God and deserve the consequences but instead of throwing us out God works on us instead.

Verses 10-11 show us that we are not the only ones who suffer.  Because of our actions, the land is desolate.  The pastures of the wilderness are described by a word that means burned up.  Jeremiah could be using the word poetically or literally, since invading armies often would burn the fields of the people they were invading, though it is less likely that they would burn wilderness pastures”.  We see that both domestic and wild animals are suffering.  The wild ones have left and the domestic animals are silent (probably because they have starved to death).  We also see that the city of Jerusalem is in ruins.

In verses 12-13 God stops and asks who know why this is all happening, “is there anyone smart enough, how about anyone who I have warned?”  Then in verses 13-14 God makes sure they understand, the trouble is coming because the people have disobeyed him and because they have given honor to false gods.  Verses 15-16 tell us that because of this there will be only bad stuff to eat and they will be scattered and worse by war.  Verse 16 ends with a very strong word, in one translation the English word used is “annihilate”.   I’m no Hebrew scholar but that word seems a little too strong, that English word means to “reduce to nothing” and we know both from the promises of God and from history that the Jewish people have not nor ever will be nothing.  In fact the existence of the Jewish people as a distinct group in our world today and the nation of Israel as a basically ethnic nation is a testimony to the reality of what the Bible teaches.

But the Hebrew word is close to that idea and that brings us back to what I said in the first paragraph, this doesn’t seem to be a description of the Babylonian Captivity.  Historically Israel (or rather Judah) wasn’t “annihilated” and in fact it would be hard to apply that sort of idea even poetically to the captivity.  Certainly there was destruction of the land (though probably not the “wilderness pastures”) and Jerusalem was in ruins fro many years, but the people were kept together as a group and were not “scattered among the nations” (at least no the people of Judah to whom Jeremiah was writing).  Later on in history after Jesus, and after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Jewish people were scattered among the nations, they were pursued by the sword and they basically became non-existent in the world.  We need to remember that prophets wrote to current events but that they also would give the “big picture”.  Sometimes it is difficult to know exactly what the prophet is writing about and some parts even had or have double fulfillments, one then and one in the future.  The prophets themselves even had difficulty with the meaning or timing of what they were writing sometimes(See 1 Peter 1:10-12).  In this case I think Jeremiah is dealing with part of the big picture rather than the immediate future.  In verses 17-22 we see the people instructed to “mourn” like at a funeral about the death, destruction, and dislocation they are suffering.  This seems to be a return to the immediate situation but also applies to the total history of the Israelite people.

Verses 23-24 seem like an interruption in the flow of what Jeremiah is talking about because in verse 25-26 he returns to the idea of punishment.  In a way they are an interruption but also they get at the real message he is trying to get across.  Back in verse 16 we saw very strong language used, language that at least gets very close to complete and utter destruction.  Here in verse 23-24 God appeals to them to show a little wisdom,  real wisdom.  They were not to take pride in their own way of looking at life (their own wisdom).  They were not to trust in their own riches either (maybe this message was given during the fairly peaceful time during Josiah’s reign, see “Intro to Jeremiah”).  If the people were to boast about anything it should be that they were finally understanding who God is.  According to Jeremiah we need to see that God is loving and faithful (the Hebrew word here has a huge meaning and is about God’s care and faithfulness to all the promises he makes).  God is also Interested in fairness in our relationships with each other (justice) and right living according to his standards in our relationship with God (righteousness).

Verses 25-26 are a serious reminder though that God is also pure and will deal with sin (disobedience and rebellion).  He will deal with all who are “circumcised yet uncircumcised”.  Circumcision was a surgical procedure that left a permanent way of identifying the men of the nation of Israel.  It was fairly unique to those people.  It is interesting then that Jeremiah lists Egyptians, Jews, Moabites, Edomites, and Ammonites all in a group together.  It shows us that God is talking about something different than the physical surgical procedure.  The Jewish people needed to understand that they could not point to some part of their bodies and claim that they were exempt from God’s punishment.  While the rest of the people of the world were not physically marked as belonging to God the real issue was having a heart uncovered toward God, and many of the Israelites were in that boat too.  In Romans 2:29 Paul taught the believes in Rome that circumcision is an inward action performed by the Holy Spirit and in 1 Corinthians 7:19 Paul told those believers that it wasn’t about some surgical procedure but about how we actually lived our lives.  We need to honor God each day with our lives (see also Titus 2:5).

While this section has a very serious tone and a lot of warning about punishment and destruction there is also hope.  God asks the people to be “mourn”.  He talks about his lovingkindness.  He wants people to be truly wise and understand who he is.  The point of what the prophets were writing was so that the people would see the big picture as well as the more immediate consequences of their rebellion and disobedience and turn back to God.  Unfortunately in Jeremiah’s day they weren’t catching on too well, but then neither do we today.  We live by our own standards as if God isn’t there and often don’t really try to get to know him and live for him.  There will be consequences if we do, both now and in eternity.  We need to learn from the prophets and the people of Judah and turn to God today.

God thank you for taking the time to warn us.  Thank you for caring.  Help me listen to your Spirit.  Help me honor you with my actions each day.  Let my life be filled with fairness toward others and honor and respect for you.  Help me today and let me never ignore your presence and your reality.