Jeremiah 25:1-14. \u00a0In recent readings in Jeremiah we have seen many warnings to the people of Judah and their leaders about coming trouble.\u00a0 We have seen that the trouble was deserved because they had been disrespectful and disobedient toward God.\u00a0 Their religious leaders had been encouraging them to honor false gods and the prophets, who were supposed to deliver messages from God, were making up their own messages for the people.\u00a0 These messages were usually the opposite of what God was actually telling them through his faithful representative, Jeremiah.<\/p>\n
In yesterday\u2019s reading Jeremiah had a \u201cdream\u201d or vision, and this one was from God.\u00a0 In that vision the people of Judah were compared to two baskets of figs, one good and the other spoiled.\u00a0 This vision came after some of the people of Judah had been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon.\u00a0 The baskets of figs in the vision represented the people of Judah.\u00a0 Most of us think pretty highly of ourselves and when something like that happens we like to think that the other guy got what he deserved.\u00a0 Most of us would see being taken captive to another country as some sort of punishment.\u00a0 That seems to be the attitude behind the vision that Jeremiah had.\u00a0 But God turned the feelings of the\u00a0 people who had remained in the land inside out.\u00a0 In the vision the good figs represented the people in captivity and the bad figs represented the people left in the land.\u00a0 God promised the people taken captive that they would have a pretty good life where they were and that they would eventually return.\u00a0 The people in the land were warned about the path they were on (one that involved turning to Egypt for help instead of trusting God).\u00a0 The people who remained in the land were told that eventually they would be seen by the world as a cursed people.<\/p>\n
The vision in chapter 24 is some time after Jeconiah (also called Jehoiachin and Coniah) was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 That happened in 597 BC.\u00a0 The events in today\u2019s reading take place in the \u201cfourth year of Jehoiakim\u201d.\u00a0 Jehoiakim was Jehoiachin\u2019s father and he reigned from 609 BC to 598 BC\u00a0 (Remember he was the guy who got Nebuchadnezzar all stirred up by not paying tribute (a sort of tax) then died and left his son to face Nebuchadnezzar).\u00a0 His 4th<\/sup> year would have been 605 BC the same year Nebuchadnezzer thrashed the Egyptians at Carchemish.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzer also took captives from the cities of Palestine back to Babylon (see Daniel 1).\u00a0 So this chapter is sort of a flash back.<\/p>\n In verse 2 notice that Jeremiah speaks to all the people of Judah and Jerusalem.\u00a0 We need to keep in mind that God makes sure that we know what he wants.\u00a0 So what does Jeremiah have to say to they?\u00a0 In verse 3 he reminds the people that he has been bringing the word of God to them for the last 23 years, but they have not been listening.\u00a0 That phrase occurs again in verses 4, 7 and we learn in verse 4 that it was not just Jeremiah telling them what God though, there were other prophets too.\u00a0 In verse 7 the LORD (all capitals in many English translations mean that this is the one true God\u2019s personal name Yahweh) makes it clear that this message came from him; it was Yahweh that they were not listening to.\u00a0\u00a0 Jeremiah also emphasizes that the message has been repeated over and over again in verses 3 and 4.\u00a0 In verse 4 Jeremiah tells the people that they have not \u201cinclined\u201d their ear.\u00a0 The word translated \u201cinclined\u201d means to \u201cstretch out, hold out, turn toward\u201d.\u00a0 The idea is like turning your head to hear better or putting you had behind your ear to direct the sound in to it better.\u00a0 The problem isn\u2019t that these people couldn\u2019t hear but that they were trying not to hear; they weren\u2019t listening, for 23 years.\u00a0 We see this idea in verse 7 too.<\/p>\n So what was the \u201cmessage\u201d from God?\u00a0 In verse 5 Jeremiah tells them (and us) that he continually told them to stop doing \u201cevil\u201d.\u00a0 That\u2019s pretty general, but he gets more specific.\u00a0 In verse 6 we find out that the people were chasing after other gods.\u00a0 We also learn that they had made these gods with their own hands.\u00a0 When we read through Isaiah he made a big deal of how stupid it is to carve a piece of wood and then set it up and serve it as a god while you are warming yourself by a fire made from the other parts of the same tree or bush or whatever.\u00a0 Many of the false gods that the people worshipped were the \u201cgods\u201d of the people who had inhabited the land before the Israelites took it over.\u00a0 God foresaw this and that is why he made such a big deal of having the Israelites getting\u00a0 rid of the former inhabitants when they took over.\u00a0 Unfortunately they never did a good job of that and now 800 years later they were seeing the consequences.\u00a0 As we saw a couple of days ago the \u201cgods\u201d are often linked to the land; they are seen as a part of it in a way.\u00a0 The Israelites probably though that they needed to make these local gods happy when things were not going the way they wanted; that is what their non-Jewish neighbors would have told them.\u00a0 But just like the message from the figs yesterday, what God is doing doesn\u2019t always match what we think.\u00a0 Just last night I saw a trailer for a remake of \u201cLeft Behind\u201d.\u00a0 In the trailer one of the characters is mad about the rapture and the chaos that follows it.\u00a0 She says, \u201cThe God my grandmother always talked about would never do something like this.\u201d\u00a0 We need to be careful about putting God in a cage that we design, he knows what he is doing, and based on what I see in the Bible it will have the most benefit for the most people (see 2 Peter 3:3-15, especially vv. 9-10, 15).<\/p>\n IN verse 7 we see that the actions of the people \u201cprovoke\u201d God to \u201canger\u201d and that the result will be \u201charm\u201d to them.\u00a0 The phrase \u201cprovoke me to anger\u201d is one word in the Hebrew language \u201ckawas\u201d.\u00a0 It can also mean \u201cgrieved\u201d or \u201cindignant\u201d.\u00a0 Indignant is an interesting word that means \u201cnot worthy\u201d.\u00a0 When I put that together with \u201cgrieved\u201d (think sad) and the actions of the Jewish people I wonder if it they who are not worth or the fact that they don\u2019t seem to treat God like he has worth.\u00a0 It\u2019s like the people are throwing God away with all he has to offer them.\u00a0 Since God literally holds the universe together (Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:17) imagine what a mess we would be in without him.\u00a0 No wonder he is sad and mad and grieved.\u00a0 The word \u201charm\u201d at the end of verse 7 is the same word used to describe the bad figs in chapter 24.\u00a0 Basically the idea here is that throwing God away leads to a pretty rotten life.\u00a0 Although God is clearly in control of the whole universe (Bible scholars like to use the word \u201csovereign\u201d like a king), that does not mean that his control is not influenced by our actions.\u00a0 Verses 5-7 make it very clear that our actions affect what God does.<\/p>\n In verses 8-11 we are told that the harm that is coming their way is going to be at the hand of Nebuchadnezzer.\u00a0 God is going to use Babylon to show them what happens when you turn away from Him.\u00a0 These verses don\u2019t paint a very pretty picture including ideas like \u201cutter destruction\u201d and no \u201cjoy or gladness\u201d.\u00a0 I guess the girl in that movie trailer was wrong; we often are.<\/p>\n In verse 11 we get a little glimpse of hope.\u00a0 In that verse we are told that Babylon will have control for 70 years.\u00a0 In 2 Chronicles 36:21 that author mentions this verse and tells us that it is because of the land and \u201cit\u2019s Sabbaths\u201d.\u00a0 In the Law of Moses there was a rule that every seventh year the people were not supposed to plant any crops, they were to let the land rest (the word Sabbath means \u201cseventh\u201d but in the context of the Old Testament it contains the idea of rest).\u00a0 For 490 years the Jewish people had blown off the rule and now God was going to let the land have it\u2019s rest while they were in captivity in Babylon.\u00a0 The hope comes in the fact that there would be an end to the captivity (see also Jeremiah 24:6).<\/p>\n In verses 12-14 we see that at the end of the 70 years that the Babylonian empire would be destroyed.\u00a0 According to verse 13 this destruction was foretold by God.\u00a0 Some might think it is not consistent for God to use someone\u2019s actions and to later punish them .\u00a0 What we see here is God giving us freedom but also making the most out of the situation that we have created.\u00a0 The Babylonians were determined to dominate their world.\u00a0 God used their actions to teach the Israelites a lesson; turning away from God has consequences.\u00a0 But that goes for the Babylonians too.\u00a0 Their lack of respect for God would have consequences for them too.<\/p>\n I like it that God repeated himself over and over again, for 23 years.\u00a0 God really wants us to get the message and honor him with our lives.\u00a0 He even allows events that show us, in a little way, what happens when he isn\u2019t a part of our lives.\u00a0 God is very patient but there are consequences.\u00a0 God thank you for waiting.\u00a0 Thank you for letting me exist.\u00a0 Thank you for waiting until I heard about you.\u00a0 Thank you for waiting until I started to listen.\u00a0 Help me keep my ear stretched out to hear you.\u00a0 Help me listen.\u00a0 Help me obey.\u00a0 Thank you for holding our universe together.\u00a0 Let me honor you today and every day for all eternity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jeremiah 25:1-14. \u00a0In recent readings in Jeremiah we have seen many warnings to the people of Judah and their leaders about coming trouble.\u00a0 We have seen that the trouble was deserved because they had been disrespectful and disobedient toward God.\u00a0 Their religious leaders had been encouraging them to honor false gods and the prophets, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1742,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions\/1742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}