Jeremiah 8:1-13.  Yesterday’s reading contained a prediction of disaster coming on the people of Judah.  We saw that it was going to be so severe that even newly weds would have no joy in their lives.  I said the people should b e doubly unhappy because they had brought the trouble on themselves.  Today’s reading continues to look at that Idea.

Chapter 8 begins by telling us what will happen “in that day”.  When the invading army comes they are going to dig up the graves of who ever they can from the leaders down to the common people.  The fact that Jeremiah lists four groups is probably to point out that members of all four groups are guilty.  From the king down to the common person all of them have offended God and rejected him.  So the invading army is going to show the highest disrespect for the society they are invading by digging up the graveyards.  What is even worse they are going to put the bones they have dug up out under the stars, moon, and sun “which they have worshipped”.  Yesterday we saw that the Israelites would have to eat the sacrifices that they were making because the “gods” that they were honoring were powerless.  Now the bones of their relatives and leaders were being shown to those very same “gods”.  It’s kind of ironic, it seems like the Babylonian army might have been saying, “In your face Israelite gods.”  Since the Israelites had been sacrificing to one of the Babylonian gods, the Queen of Heaven, though it’s more likely that the Babylonians were “honoring” the very “gods” that had let the Israelites down.  Whatever the meaning of the actions the Israelites should have felt like complete losers.  In verse 3 we see that the situation will be very bad and that the people of Judah, described as “that evil family”, will want to die rather than be captured.  Notice too that God is taking credit for being behind the events that are going on.  God does not control every action by every human being, or even every government, but he uses the actions of each of us, “spins” them to accomplish his goals in our world.  Some people might disagree and say that he specifically causes them but if you read through the book of Isaiah with us you might remember that the Assyrian invaders in the North were punished when they went too far in their actions during the invasion.  Certainly God does not cause and then punish for that would be a violation of his justice, he is always pointing out our injustice and it would be hypocritical of him to require justice in us while acting unfairly with us.

Verses 4-12 contain a message to the people of Judah from God.  Jeremiah is the person God used to deliver the message.  In verse 4-5 God asks if people fall down and don’t get back up.  The implied answer is, No!”  Yet the people of Judah are not learning from their mistakes.  The bones on the ground outside town were a reminder that the “gods” that they had been serving were powerless.  The very first commandment that the Israelites had been given, written on the stone tablet in the ark in the temple right there in Jerusalem, was that they should have no other gods.  A couple of posts ago I mentioned that the Israelite were watering down the message of who their God (Yahweh, the one true God) was and the eternal consequences of rejecting him.  That is why God won’t share his people with fake gods.  The word apostasy means to “turn away”.  The Israelites had turned away from God, away from the spiritual truth they had, and would not turn back.

In verse 6 when it says no one would repent from their evil it means the same thing; repent also means to turn back.  The evil that God is talking about is denying the reality that he is the one and only God in the universe.  Instead they have invented an imaginary world where god is not supreme, he is one of many, if at all.  Evidently horses get crazy when they are involved in a battle, rather that running away from all the chaos they run right for it.  They are oblivious to the danger they are facing; they are the “pit bulls of propulsion” (Job 39:19-25).  The Israelites are like crazy horses in this respect running head long into destruction, the destruction that comes when we reject God.  But keep in mind, God’s complaint here is not just that we have turned away, but that we don’t turn back; in fact that is the biggest part of the complaint.  Verse 8 tells us that animals obey the instructions God has built into them but sadly we do not obey the instructions he has given us.  He gave the Israelites rules and they disobeyed them.  The Law had been lost or hidden away sometime before Josiah became king (740 BC).  In 722 BC the Law book was discovered (probably the book of Deuteronomy) as the temple was being fixed up.  When Josiah heard what the book said he was very disturbed.  After making sure that the book was really God’s word (as opposed to some ones personal ideas about god (like in Jeremiah 8:7)) Josiah gathered the people of Judah and read the book of the law to them (2 Kings 23:1-2, compare verse 1 with Jeremiah 8:1).

Verse 8 in today’s reading makes it seem like the “turning away” was after they had heard the Law read.  Although verse 7 says the people do not know the rules in this context it is clear that it means they are not following the rules.  In fact the Hebrew word used for “know” can mean just that “know by experience”.  Not only does verse 8 clearly tell us that they had hear the rules it also tells us that the religious leaders, the scribes, were changing the meaning of what it said; they have taken the truth of God’s word and made it into a lie.  These wise men should be ashamed, they have been caught changing the meaning of God’s message, but instead they keep on rejecting God and his truth.  Verses 10-11 focus on the consequences these “leaders” will face.  While they desire more and more they will have less and less.  Their fields and families will become the fields and families of someone else, probably the Babylonian invaders.  They have lied to the people promising peace but there is none.

Verse 12 tells us that, not only were these leaders liars, but that they weren’t even ashamed when they got caught.  Because of their stubborn refusal to admit their guilt (repent, turn back) they were going to suffer the ultimate punishment, they would die in the invasion.  Unlike their lies this is the certain truth, signed by God personally.

Some Bibles have verse 13 as part of the next paragraph but it seems like a repeat of the curse God has just given on the false leaders.  Since it does repeat the same ideas of complete loss, using the example of dying plants,  it could be sort of a conclusion or explanation of our reading today but it also could be the beginning to tomorrows reading.  It is probably both, a transition or bridge.  We will see tomorrow.

I like the idea through out this reading today that people can turn back.  Sure God hates our disobedience and disrespect, sin is bad, but God wants us to come back in spite of our sin.  Not that we can go on doing things our own way (that wouldn’t be turning around anyway) we do actually need to change our actions, but God will let us do that.  God loves us and wants a relationship with us but we need to honor him with our lives.  Disobedience and rebellion broke our relationship with him and they separate us from him.  The word death means separation and if our disobedience and disrespect aren’t dealt with that separation is forever.  But God loved the world so much that he sent his son to become a man and be separated in our place (die for us) so that whoever would believe in him (Jesus) could have that relationship with God restored forever (eternal life rather than eternal separation or death) (John 3:16, 1 John 2:2, 4:10; 1 Peter 3:18).  It is awesome that God would even consider letting us return, it is more awesome that he suffered the consequences for us.  But what Jesus has done for us doesn’t apply if we don’t accept tie truth.  If we make up our own rules about life and eternity and reject the truth God has given us we will be like those Israelites so many years ago; we will pay the price ourselves, and it won’t be just family and fields we will lose it will be eternity with God.  We need to take God seriously and return to him today.  If you don’t know the way, it’s Jesus (John 14:6).  Put your eternity in his hands today if you already haven’’t.

God thank you for giving us an opportunity to return.  I know it would have been completely fair if you didn’t.  Your existence is clear from your creation, at least some of your standards are clear form our conscience and yet we turn away.  We make up or own gods and claim it is them that give structure and meaning to our existence.  We do bad things in spite of the guilt we feel, and then try to claim the guilt is just a “trip” some one has put on us.  You do exist and we are guilty.  We deserve to be banished.  Yet you love us and want us to come home.  Thank you for Jesus.  Thank you that he took the punishment.  Thank you for building that cross shaped bridge back home.  Thank you for helping me find it and cross it.  Help me be a guide to others.

Jeremiah 7:16-34.  Wow!  If yesterday was a break today Jeremiah gets right back at it with some very heavy words for God.  That’s not to say that yesterday’s reading wasn’t serious too, it’s just that but the first part of this chapter was an appeal by God to come back.  In today’s reading all we see is the down side of disobedience and disrespect toward God.

Right off the bat we see a pretty negative statement, God tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people, he is not going to listen.  God’s reason?  He tells Jeremiah to look around him; in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem honoring false gods has become a family pastime.  The kids gather the wood, the dad builds the fire and mom make treats to offer to the fake god.  Jeremiah mentions one popular “god” that they were worshipping, the “
Queen of Heaven”.  Scholars aren’t sure which false god this was but some think it may have been the Babylonian goddess “Ishtar” or “Astarte”.  It doesn’t really matter though, she was not Yahweh and there fore was a false god (or goddess).

Then God asks if they aren’t provoking him or acting in spite.  The word here can also mean “to make sorry”.  It is not God who will be sorry though, it is the people; they should be ashamed of their actions.  Why?

Fist of all we see that God is going to deal with their continual disrespect for him, remember that this is not just about God’s reputation but it is also about mankind’s eternity.  The Israelite people were supposed to be helping the world understand who the one true God is, but instead they were following after all the false gods they could find.  So punishment was necessary so that the world could see that Yahweh is not without standards or power.  In verse 21 God tells them to keep up their offerings to false gods, but no one but they themselves is going to be eating the offerings.  The false gods have no power to act in any way and God certainly isn’t interested in some other god’s leftovers.  Verse 23 seems to contain a quote form Exodus 15:26.  That verse is part of a story about the Jewish people complaining to Moses that they were going to die because they could not find fresh water in the desert.  God provided fresh water by changing water at an oasis from bitter to “sweet” or fresh.  The situation was used by God to see if they would trust him or not, when they didn’t seem to want to trust him he showed they he would care for them and them spoke the words that Jeremiah quoted.  All of this happened before God gave Moses the Law (all the rules about how they were to honor Yahweh).  The point of Jeremiah is that first and above all else God wanted the Israelite people to honor him with their lives and have a relationship with him.  Instead thought he came to focus on offerings and religion and eventually even dropped God from the picture altogether and replaced him with gods like the “Queen of Heaven”.  Verse 24 tells us that the first group who came out of Egypt didn’t honor God with their lives.

Verse 25 tells us that God didn’t leave it at just that one conversation; he repeatedly warned the people through his servants the prophets.  From the time they left Egypt 800 years earlier up until the days of Jeremiah.  In fact the people of Jeremiah’s time had become even more disobedient and rebellious than their ancestors.

In verse 27 God tells Jeremiah that he is going to remind the people of their rebellion but that they are not going to listen to him. How would you like a job like that, “You are going to feed some poor homeless people and they are going to beat you up.”  It’s sort of like that, prophets were often not appreciated; they were rejected, beaten, and even killed (tradition tells us that Isaiah was killed by being sawn in half (see Hebrews 11:37)).  Because of their rejection of his message and the resulting rejection of the people by God,  Jeremiah was going to shave his head and go up to a high place and sing a sad song.  Shaving the head was a sign of great sadness.  Verses 30-34 give a more detailed picture of what God is going to do and why.  The people of Jeremiah’s day were going to and had in the recent past made many places of false worship.  They had even gone so far as to use their children as human sacrifices; an idea which was horrifying even to God.  If God were a man he would not even imagine such evil actions.

The word Topheth in in verse 31 is borrowed from a language related to Hebrew, Aramaic.  It means “fireplace” and the people had build an altar with a fireplace attached; this was the place where they burned their children.  It was in a valley belonging to a guy who was the son of Hinnom, in Hebrew the phrase is Ben (son of) Hinnom.  Later in the history of Israel it would be called Gehenna (the valley of Hinnnom).  It would be used as a place for burning trash and was also associated with eternal punishment.  In Jeremiah’s time though it would become a “valley of Slaughter”.  It would be the place where the Babylonian invaders would kill many Israelite people; so many that they could not all be buried.  Bids of prey would come and feast on the unburied bodies and would be so bold that they cold not be scared away.  Verse 34 seems like an understatement, “In the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem there would be no happy voices, not even newly weds would be happy.”  Really?  I wonder why, such a gnarley mess in the valley outside the capital would affect most people.  And on top of that, if they realized that they had brought it on themselves they should be doubly unhappy.

We shouldn’t see the warning as just for the Israelites of Jeremiah’s day though.  What the events described point out is that pure and demands faithfulness from his people.  Remember that the Jewish people were supposed to be an example to the nations around them, and they were, an example of unfaithfulness.  The whole thing was very serious because all their false religion could have made people think that they could make up their own gods and own ways  of honoring them and be OK.  They might miss the truth that there is one true God, Yahweh, with standards of right and wrong.  The result of missing that point is an eternity without God, very serious stuff.  In the book of 1 Corinthians some believer sin that city were living in ways that dishonored God too.  They would gather together to celebrate what Jesus had done for them on the cross.  Their celebration involved a meal but during the meal they would only look out for themselves, each feeding their own people.  Some people in the group were going hungry.  Paul told them that the table they were eating at surely didn’t belong to Jesus and that they were making a joke out of being Christ followers (Christians).  As a result God actually caused some of them to die prematurely; he took them out because of their bad example.  Those people sill went to heaven but because their lives were distraction people from truly honoring God they were removed from the game.  Pretty serious, as in the time of Jeremiah, so in the time of Paul, and in our time too.  We need to be careful to honor God with our lives.  And remember the words of Jeremiah 7:5-6 that part of honoring God is treating others fairly and caring for the needy.  Similar problems similar consequences, be warned.

God help me honor you in the way you want.  It’s not about religion but a relationship.  My relationship with you should influence me to live in a way that would please you; that involves being fair and caring for others.  God help me pleas you each day.