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.

Jeremiah 8:14-9:6.  In yesterday’s post I said that verse 13 is like a bridge or transition, it fits with what we read yesterday and with what we are reading today.  Yesterday we read about the invasion of Judah.  God was going to allow the invasion as a way to get the attention of the people of Judah.  He wanted them to be aware that there are consequences when we ignore the existence of God and don’t care about what God cares about.  In a way verse 13 sums up that idea.

When I first looked back at that verse this morning I though that the vine and tree and plant were being compared to the deceitful leaders (and maybe even all the people who where ignoring God), but I think there is more there than that.  The verse starts out with “them” being ”consumed” (different translations may use a different English word).  The idea is that the “them” is being gotten rid of.  In this case we need to see that the “them” is the false leaders from verses 8-12.  In a garden when plants stop producing or wither up we pull them out and get rid of them.  So I thought that the “plants” were the leaders.  The rest of the verse then would be kind of a description of God getting rid “them”.  But I think there is more here than that.  Most of mankind’s existence for most of history has centered around agriculture, sure there have been lots of people who were “hunter-gatherers” but even thy had to gather food from plant whether they planted them or not.  So when the plants fail, whether in fields or in the “wild”, a famine happens and people die.  In verse 13 grapes and figs and healthy plants may be talking about the usefulness of different people in our society but it could also be talking about grapes and figs and healthy plants; it’s probably talking about both.  I think that because of the way the verse ends, God tells them that “what he has given them will pass away.”  It is important to see that good things in life, whether helpful people (at least the priests and prophets were supposed to be helpful) or necessary plants, are given by God.  Disrespecting God brings loss into our lives, real important loss.  Plants nourish us physically and faithful representatives of God nourish us spiritually by giving us the words of God (1 Timothy4:6-8), the loss of either brings death.  We need to remember God wants us to live and has given us both for that purpose.

With that in mind verses 14-17 are shocking, if God wants us to live then why all this “bad” stuff?   In verse 14 Yahweh our God doomed the people of Judah and given them poisoned water.  In verses 15-16 we have a description of the invasion by Babylon, the people wanted peace but didn’t get it.  Instead the invasion came from the north (Dan was basically the northernmost city of the original nation of Israel), an army with many horses, the land shook and was either burned up or eaten up (devoured) or both since invading armies would take what was useful or valuable to them and burn the rest with fire.  Then in verse 17 we see the action compared to God sending poisonous snakes among them that bite them.  Just like the action ending in verse 12 yesterday was sealed with God’s signature verse 17 is “signed” the same way, this is God speaking.

If God is for us then what is this all about?  Verse 14 gives us the answer, the trouble was brought on by their own actions, by their rebellion and disobedience to God; Sin.  Sin is an archery term that means to miss the bulls eye.  The kind of actions God want is our lives is the bulls eye and when we don’t do what God wants we have missed that mark; we have “sinned”.  The trouble we have in life is brought on by us.  Sometimes the trouble is from our own actions and sometimes we feel the effects of the actions of others.  A bomb goes off in a crowded mall or a student rages with guns and people who had nothing to do with the bomber of student get hurt or killed, they are suffering because of the actions of others.  Other times we disobey our parents or God or others who have given us instruction and we get hurt or die, we are suffering for our own actions.  And remember there are two types of life here, physical and spiritual.  The physical one (the union of our body and spirit or soul) has been temporary since Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8-9,17; 3:1-19); physical death is an appointment we all have (Hebrews 9:27).  It wasn’t that way from the beginning it was a consequence of their disobedience and of our’s.  On the other hand spiritual death has been a reality in our existence since then too.  When God entered the garden that day and asked where they were it was not because he didn’t know, it was to show them that he was now a stranger to them.  Death means separation and there was a break between them and God, caused by their disobedience.  When we disobey God we show that our relationship with him is broken too.  This spiritual separation or death cannot be fixed by us, we cannot undo our disobedience, the separation is, or should be permanent; eternal.

There was another tree in the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life.  Evidently eating from that tree heals the physical brokenness we have; it is the real “Fountain of Youth” if you know that legend.  When Adam and Eve disobey God put them out of the Garden and locked the door.  The reason was to keep them from eating from the Tree of Life.  It’s not because God didn’t want them to have eternal physical life back, because we know that in the end that mankind (at least the ones with God) will be allowed to eat from this tree and will be healed physically (see Revelation 2:7; 22:1-19).  If Adam and Eve had eaten from that tree though they would have become immortal and I suppose all of their offspring would have too, including Jesus.  In that case Jesus, the Infinite God-Man would not have been able to die on the cross and pay the infinite price we all owed for our sin.

So God’s actions are all about the best way to see the most people have the best eternity possible.  Those actions included allowing a time for mankind to learn and see how bad our situation was and is (see the “Old Testament Connection” for more on this).  Those actions included dealing with the penalty of eternal separation from him (spiritual death).   And those actions include a time to allow mankind to “get it” and respond to God’s loving offer of restoration through Jesus.  Remember all the talk earlier in Jeremiah about returning to God.

The fact that God loves us and is not happy with our situation is seen in the feelings of Jeremiah in verses 18-22.  Verse 18 could be God talking, an extension of verse 17.  But in the middle of verse 19 we see God being talked about in the “third person” (It isn’t God talking directly about himself).  But in the last line of verse 19 God is talking about himself.  This mixture of verses being both from Jeremiah’s point of view and from God’s really points out the fact that true prophets speak for and represent God.  We might say that Jeremiah had the heart of God and his feelings reflect the feeling of God.  Here we see Jeremiah (and God) extremely sad about the situation with Judah (and us).  In verse 19 we see Jeremiah asking if God isn’t a part of the lives of the people of Judah.  Remember that in verse 13 that God was described as a provider.  So the real question is why aren’t the people of Judah having a “good life”.  The answer is that the people had turned away from God.  Verse 20 returns to the idea of the plants from verse 13 and we see that the people think that their chance for care is gone and they have lost.  Verse 21 seems to tell us that the people could still turn back to God but they won’t, God cares and is willing but the people aren’t.

Balm is another word for ointment, a gooey sort of medicine.  Gilead was a region of Israel known for it’s balm.  In verse 22 we see another example of Jeremiah’s poetic form when he uses parallel ideas.  The idea of medicine and a doctor are parallel ideas used to make Jeremiah’s and God’s point.  The answer to the question is of course there is medicine in Gilead.  Remember that the sickness being talked about here is spiritual sickness, our messed up relationship with God.  The answer to the question at the end of verse 22 is that the people are not healed because they haven’t returned to God, they haven’t turned back, Jeremiah has repeatedly pointed this out so far.

In chapter nine Jeremiah (and God) again cries for the people, he is sad aver the situation.  In verses 3-6 we see the problem the people are not honoring God with their lives, they love evil and lies, they treat each other God poorly.  In verse 3 God tells us that the people don’t really know him in verse 6 we see that they refuse to know God.

Our relationship with God is sad, the Creator God of the universe wants a relationship with us, but we are turning him away.  He is offering a balm, Jesus, but we are rejecting it.  That is very sad.  The happy side of this story is that God is there offering to fix our relationship.  God loves us and wants us in spite of our rebellion.  That is good news very good news, it is the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ.

God thank yo for loving me.  Thank you for waiting for me to respond to you.  Thank you for giving mankind the information and the time.  I’m sorry for the pain I have caused you, the sadness.  Help me cause you less sadness each day.  Let me be sad, too, about the people around me who are lost.  Let me be a balm to those around me, let me be a doctor for the spiritually dying.  Let me bring Jesus to the lives of many.