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.