Jeremiah 19:1-15.  This section is connected to the one before it by the use of the potter but the reader is left hanging in the first few verses.  In verse 1 Jeremiah is sent to the potter to buy a piece of pottery.  But then he is told to get some of the religious leaders and take them out to the valley of Ben-hinnom.  In Jeremiah 7:31 this valley is mentioned as a place where earlier kings had performed human sacrifices.  Josiah, who was king when Jeremiah began bringing messages from God to the people, desecrated the alter used for such sacrifices and forbid the practice (2 Kings 23:10).  Later the practice would be started up again by a later king Jehoiakim.  In New Testament times the Greek form (Greek is the language the New Testament was originally written in) of the name Ben-Hinnom, Gehenna, became a synonym for Hell.  We are also told that the valley is by the “potsherd” gate.  The word “potsherd” in Hebrew comes from a word that is used for “sun” and “itching”.  The word “potsherd”  means to scrape and probably refers to a piece of broken pottery or tile used to “scratch where it itches”.  So Jeremiah leads the leaders out the gate past all the broken pottery to the valley.

In verses 3-9 Jeremiah delivers a message from God to the leaders.  IN verse 3 he tells them that the LORD of hosts (the personal name of the one true God, Yahweh, combined with the idea that he controls the armies of angles in heaven, the “hosts”) is going to send calamity on the city.  The word for calamity has a lot of meanings including something displeasing or hurtful.  Basically Jeremiah is telling them that God is sending some pain their way and that they are not going to like it.  All the people who see it will be horrified (the idea behind tingling ears).  In verses 4-5 Jeremiah tells them it is because of what had gone on in the valley; worship of false gods including sacrificing of their children in fires.  God never commanded such practices in fact it was the furthest thing from what he might have commanded them to do.  According to verse 6 the valley will not be called Ben-hinnom any longer nor the place of fireplaces (Topheth) but will become famous as a place of slaughter.  In verse 7 we learn that the death will be the result of war (the sword).  The military plans of the leaders will fail and so many people will die that there will not be enough people to bury them quickly.  As a result the vultures will come eat the bodies, an idea that would have been very troubling to the Jewish people since they felt it was a curse not to be buried right away.  Different translations translate the word for what will happen to the plans of the leaders differently, “ruin” or “make void”.  The word is related to the word for jar and means to be “empty”.  I wonder if they kept looking at the jar in his hands wondering what he was going to do with it.  In verses 8-9 the message gets worse, not only will the valley be a place of military defeat so bad that the vultures will have a great feast, the city will be surrounded and tings will get so bad inside that the people will resort to cannibalism; eating the bodies of their children and each other.  According to verse 9 not only will people around them have tingling ears they will actually begin to make fun of the people of Jerusalem; hissing at the city, a way of showing great disrespect.

In verse 10 Jeremiah finally makes use of the jar he bought earlier.  He destroys it.  After completely smashing the jar Jeremiah informs the people that in the same way God will smash and completely destroy Jerusalem.  We know this happened less than 40 years later (perhaps only a few, depending on just exactly when Jeremiah gave this message) in 586 BC when Jerusalem was besieged the final time by Nebuchadnezzar.  In this example Jeremiah tells them Jerusalem will be like the jar, irreparable.   We know that Jerusalem was rebuilt later and re-inhabited by the Jewish people.  This is not a contradiction though for a couple of reasons.  First if you look in verse 11 you will see that the people are also mentioned.  Although places are certainly a part of God’s plan it is the people who are important to him.  These particular people are the ones who would suffer the immediate consequences of their actions, they would fall and become forever separated from God.  They were unacceptable to God and the reason is clear, they had been continually unfaithful to him.  It has been clear from our study of Jeremiah so far, that God allows people to come back to him, but they must do just that, come back, be faithful, and turn away from the false gods they had been following.  At this point in time and for these people though they were unacceptable to God, they were like Topheth, the place where they had sacrificed their children to false gods.   With respect to the city and the territory it’s uselessness seems to depend on the people living there.  In the law certain objects could become unclean and then be restored through certain rituals of dedication, but only after a time cleansing.  These rituals also often involved a waiting period.  On the other hand sometimes objects would become unclean, unacceptable, and would be destroyed, remaining that way forever.  In certain respects the valley of Ben-Hinnom was like that.

Remember that Jeremiah had taken leaders of the people to the valley to give them the message we have just looked at.  And certainly those leaders don’t seem to be interested in changing.  Jeremiah then returned to the city to a courtyard in the Temple and gave a very short message to the people of Jerusalem in general.  He warned them that God was going to destroy the city and surrounding towns.  I like the last part of today’s reading, the trouble was coming because the people would not turn their heads (they stiffened their necks) as God was calling out to them.  I like this because it shows me that there is always a chance with God.  What we need to do is turn to him when he is calling.  The situation is never hopeless as long as we have breath.  Not too many years before one of the kings, Hezekiah, had a death sentence pronounced against him by God.  When Hezekiah turned back to God and begged for mercy God allowed him to live another 15 years (2 Kings 20:1-6).  God is pure and he will deal with the dirt and evil of our disobedience and rebellion (sin).  In the end we will closely live with him in a pure and perfect world.  But God is also merciful and loving and he will forgive if we turn to him and allow him to do what only he can, clean up our lives for now and eternity.

God thank you for your love. Thank you for your patience.  Thank you for your mercy.  Thank you for holding back and allowing us time to turn around.  Thank you that Jesus dealt with my sins, past, present, and future.  Thank you that he made me a “clean” place where your Spirit can live and help me.  Let me listen well and live more for you each day.  Make the unclean “Topheth” that my life is, clean for you each day.