Jeremiah 13:15-27. For the third day in a row, wow! Or should I say woe? In Bible language “woe” is what we here from angles and other messengers from God when something serious is happening. It’s sort of a cry of sadness and emotional pain. Jeremiah is one of those messengers (as all prophets are) and he certainly is suffering here, although he doesn’t use the typical “woe”. As I read this I can feel his pain. I also wonder if the prophets ever felt like total failures, how can you spend your whole life warning people who never listen and not feel like you have failed? But Jeremiah was faithful in spite of the response of the people of Judah.
Today’s reading is a warning directly to the royal family. We don’t know which king this was addressed to but it must have been one of the later ones because the exile is directly in mind here. The principle though would apply to any one of the kings. Jeremiah first encourages the king to be humble. As I reread the “Intro to Jeremiah” I thought that this cold have been during the time of Jehoiakim. He ruled for 12 years and during his time there was domination by the Babylonians. He also had a new palace built for himself, increased taxes (which in those days usually went to support the king), and eventually made an alliance with Egypt n an attempt to get rid of Babylonian domination. He sounds pretty prideful; pretty into himself; and in need o little humility.
In verse 16 the history surrounding whatever king was in power is compared to a journey in the hills. But it is getting dark and there is a danger of stumbling. Jeremiah encourages the king to “give glory to the LORD (Yahweh) your God.” The Hebrew word “God” is interesting because it is related to the word for strength. I wonder if the king got that hint; Yahweh is your real strength. Also the word “glory” has as part of it’s meaning the idea of “heavy” or “weighty”. The idea is that something is very impressive. When we give glory to God we are admitting how impressive he is. Jeremiah is encouraging this king to be impressed with Yahweh (the personal name of the one true God) and be impressed with his power. If he doesn’t then the darkness of the events surrounding the king are only going to get worse, much worse.
In Jeremiah 11:14 God told Jeremiah not to pray for the people of Judah. The people had been warned from the beginning that if they got involved with false gods that the one true God would put them into the hands of the ones they were trusting in. That is why Jeremiah was told not to ask God for help, he would not give it (at that time at least, because as we have seen God does not ultimately abandon all Israelites for all time) . Here in Jeremiah 13:17 Jeremiah cries in secret because once again his message is being rejected. The pride of the king has resulted in the captivity of his subjects. Jeremiah does not just sit around having a pity party for himself though he gets right back up and keeps doing what a prophet is supposed to do, bugging people about God. By this point in the story all of the people of Judah have been taken captive but there is still hope if the king will turn back to God and quit trying to be the boss. It seems that the city of Jerusalem itself is still unconquered or that there is still some piece of the kingdom intact. In those days it was not uncommon for a conqueror to leave people in a region sort of running their own lives but they would have to send tribute (a kind of tax honoring the conqueror) to him. That was certainly going on in the later years of Jeremiah’s ministry. Jehoiakim died and the kingdom was taken over by his son Jehoichin right before an invasion in response to a rebellion by his father. That invasion resulted in he and his mother (the queen mother of verse 18?) being taken captive back to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon appointed his uncle as the new “king” of the area. It seems like his uncle would not fit the situation in verse 21 where the conqueror “appoints one you have taught” as head over them. But the uncle was the ruler in Jerusalem while the king and his mother were captives in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had a policy of keeping the Jewish people segregated in captivity; they lived separately. We also know that Nebuchadnezzar took some very young but smart Israelites and made them leaders (Daniel was one of these along with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego (Daniel 1)). It cold be that Jehoiachin was now being “ruled” by someone who had been a student in his “kingdom”. The description of the invasion (from the North, v. 20) fits with the path Nebuchadnezzar took each time he invaded the area.
In verses 21-22 it is the king who is feeling the pain now, “Why has this happened to me?!” The answer is because of his “iniquity”. That word contains the idea of bent or twisted. All of the talk about pride and humility in this section makes me think that this particular king had twisted reality by making himself the center of attention instead of God; he thought he was the powerful one to be honored instead of God. But instead of honor his life becomes one of shame instead. In verse 22 we see that he is stripped naked, publicly. Although some people think there is some sort of honor in being naked in public I think most of us would agree that we would be very uncomfortable if all of the sudden at school or a restaurant we were stripped of all of our clothes and pushed out in front of everyone.
There seems to be a change in who Jeremiah is talking to somewhere around verse 20 or 21. Although it looks like he is still talking to the ruler remember that he was taken into captivity in verses 18-19. And he is definitely talking to an individual who had been trusted with the “flock” (the people of Judah) in verse 20-21. But by verse 22 we see that there is more thatn one person being stripped naked (“skirts”). We have seen in previous posts that we are each individually responsible before God. Certainly the king is responsible for his actions but the people are responsible for theirs too. And at this point in history the people were putting a lot of pressure on the king or other leaders to rebel against Babylon, make alliances with Egypt, and other things that God had told them not to do. While these verse have a message for the leader I think we also see the people being scolded too.
In verse 23 Jeremiah uses two examples of things that are basically fixed, the color of a persons skin and the pattern of an animals fur, to show that the people and rules of Israel are not going to honor God. Certainly people can change, but as we saw yesterday, it takes direct help from God for that to happen. We also saw that we need to want God to help us, he will not force himself on us. Here we see that the people and the leaders have rejected God. So God is going to allow the winds of human events to carry them away; Nebuchadnezzar is going to invade and do what he wants with them.
In the last half of verse 25 and in verses 26-27 we see that the shame they are going to suffer is because they have trusted in lies. The lies are specifically about God and gods. The people have forgotten the true God and have cheated on him with false gods on every hill and in every field.
There are at least three things that impressed me in today’s reading. First is that God will allow human events to run their course, sometimes. Although he can always control events sometimes he lets us run our own path (and it usually means trouble when we do). We certainly saw that idea in Isaiah when the Assyrians were “used” by God to deal with the Northern Kingdom but were later help accountable for their excessive brutality. God did not force them to be brutal and then punish them, he allowed them to act and them help them accountable for their extremeness. Second is that there are consequences for not recognizing God for who he is but god is also very giving and forgiving. God constantly warns us and gives us opportunities to return to him. It’s not one strike and you are out or even three, God give us many chances to turn back to him. And as we saw yesterday he not only gives us chances but he want to help us have a good relationship with him. Even in the “twilight” (dusky, v. 16) of their existence as a kingdom Jeremiah was bringing God’s message to turn back to God. Finally I am impressed how it always seems to come back to people. In the talk of kings and kingdoms it is the “sheep” that God is most concerned about. It’s not the palaces and fields and lands that Jeremiah is weeping over but the captive flock, the missing sheep (vv. 17, 20). In contrast there is going to be a time when the devil has a kingdom set up on earth. Interestingly his capital will either be where Babylon was or will be compared to Babylon. During the reign of Satan God will cause great trouble on the earth in order to get people to turn to Him (Revelation 9:20-21; 16:9-11), but they will not. At one point God will destroy the center of Satan’s kingdom, Babylon the Great City. Interestingly the language used to describe the attitude of the people represented by that city is a lot like the attitudes of the king and queen mother in today’s reading. Also what interests me is that while Jeremiah creid for the sheep; the people, in that future world the people of the world will be sad because of all the stuff that is lost with the destruction of Satan’s capital. We love stuff but God loves us, that is the thing I am most impressed with in today’s reading.
Just the other day I was talking with a young person who was being bugged by another young person. The other person was constantly telling them that they were basically “trash”; useless junk. I can’t even use the best word I have to reject that kind of talk but let’s just say that person’s attitude toward the other person should be coming out of the opposite end of their body not their mouth. It is very clear to me that we are precious to God, in spite of the the fact that we are constantly being disrespectful and disobedient toward him. God loves us! That is why he created us (even knowing all the bad stuff each of us would do), and that is why he warns and warns and warns. We are precious to God, each one of us, and he wants us, each one of us, in Heaven with him for eternity. He will even do and allow extreme event in our lives to try to get our attention. If you have given your life to Yahweh remember that you are precious to him and honor him with your lives each day. If you have not given your life to Him, remember that you are precious to Him, and there is nothing you have done that he is not willing to forgive. Even if you are at the edge of darkness or fully in the night you can turn to God and he will forgive you and accept you back. Don’t just hope for light but turn to Jesus. He is the light of the world and if you turn to him you will no longer have to walk in darkness but see his path now and for eternity.
God help be a light giver. Let me help the world see you and realize how much you love us and want us. Help me show the people around me that Jesus is the one true path to a great forever with you. Help me honor you and you alone. Help me be concerned with people and not with stuff. Help me honor you by loving what you love. Thank you for loving me and giving yourself for me, help me love others and give myself for them.