Jeremiah 16-20
The Potter
Pays Back

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Psalm 85:1-13 Stopping the Vicious Cycle of Sin

You Have Been Favorable to Your Land
1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

 LORD, you were favorable to your land;
 you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people;
 you covered all their sin. Selah
3 You withdrew all your wrath;
 you turned from your hot anger.

4 Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
 and put away your indignation toward us!
5 Will you be angry with us forever?
 Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
6 Will you not revive us again,
 that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your steadfast love, O LORD,
 and grant us your salvation.

8 Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,
 for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
 but let them not turn back to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
 that glory may dwell in our land.

10 Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
 righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
 and righteousness looks down from the sky.
12 Yes, the LORD will give what is good,
 and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before him
 and make his footsteps a way.

Application

Avoid the vicious cycle of sin and judgment by fearing God and living in hesed with Him (do what He says). See Judges 1 for Breaking Sin Cycles.

Prayer

God, You are the one who forgives and restores; may I live in righteous loyalty to You, so You can give what is good. Thanks. Amen.

Proverbs 21:1-4 Matters of the Heart

1 The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;
 he turns it wherever he will.
2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
 but the LORD weighs the heart.
3 To do righteousness and justice
 is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart,
 the lamp of the wicked, are sin.

Application

Evaluate your life and motives from God's perspective every day.

Prayer

God, I want to be acceptable and right in Your sight; change my heart so I desire what You desire for me.  Amen.

Jeremiah 16-20 The Potter Pays Back

These chapters depict the destruction awaiting those who depart from God and stubbornly refuse to hear His word and repent. God gives encouragement and incentives to obey and horrible consequences for continued rebellion. Jeremiah gives warnings, calls to repentance, and object lessons, but only reaps abuse and pain for speaking God's truth. Some famous verses in the beginnings of chapters 17 and 18 shed light on God's purposes and human responsibility.

Jeremiah 16 From Ruin to Rejoicing

Disaster Predicted
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.
3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: 4 They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.
5 “For thus says the LORD: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the LORD. 6 Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them. 7 No one shall break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. 8 You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. 9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
10 “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’
11 then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, 12 and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. 13 Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
God Will Restore Israel
14 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15 but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.
16 “Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. 17 For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. 18 But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

19 O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,
 my refuge in the day of trouble,
to you shall the nations come
 from the ends of the earth and say:
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
 worthless things in which there is no profit.
20 Can man make for himself gods?
 Such are not gods!”

21 “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD.”

Application

Those who are sensitive to the true God will confess and forsake their sin and futile ways, and sing praises to the God who is their fortress and salvation.

Prayer

God, please cause me to see and forsake whatever is in my life that is displeasing to You and might incur Your judgment; then I will rejoice in You. Amen.

Jeremiah 17 Cursings and Blessings

The Sin and Punishment of Judah
1 “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, 2 while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, 3 on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. 4 You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

5 Thus says the LORD:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
 and makes flesh his strength,
 whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6 He is like a shrub in the desert,
 and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
 in an uninhabited salt land.

7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
 whose trust is the LORD.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
 that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
 for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
 for it does not cease to bear fruit.”


9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
 and desperately sick;
 who can understand it?
10 “I the LORD search the heart
 and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
 according to the fruit of his deeds.”


11 Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,
 so is he who gets riches but not by justice;
in the midst of his days they will leave him,
 and at his end he will be a fool.
Jeremiah’s Prayer for Deliverance

12 A glorious throne set on high from the beginning
 is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O LORD, the hope of Israel,
 all who forsake you shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth,
 for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.

14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;
 save me, and I shall be saved,
 for you are my praise.
15 Behold, they say to me,
 “Where is the word of the LORD?
 Let it come!”

16 I have not run away from being your shepherd,
 nor have I desired the day of sickness.
You know what came out of my lips;
 it was before your face.
17 Be not a terror to me;
 you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18 Let those be put to shame who persecute me,
 but let me not be put to shame;
let them be dismayed,
 but let me not be dismayed;
bring upon them the day of disaster;
 destroy them with double destruction!
Restoring the Sabbath
19 Thus said the LORD to me: “Go and stand in the People's Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20 and say: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22 And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. 23 Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction.
24 “‘But if you listen to me, declares the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25 then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. 26 And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD.
27 But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.’”

Application

Learn God's ways, align your heart with His word, and be blessed; or trust in your heart and don't listen to God, and be cursed. Hmmm, pretty obvious choice.

Prayer

All wise and knowing God, help me diligently listen to Your word, and incline my heart to trust and obey You, the Spring of living water. Amen.

Jeremiah 18 Potter Pays Back

The Potter and the Clay
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.”
3 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’
12 “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

13 “Therefore thus says the LORD:
Ask among the nations,
 Who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
 has done a very horrible thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave
 the crags of Sirion?
Do the mountain waters run dry,
 the cold flowing streams?
15 But my people have forgotten me;
 they make offerings to false gods;
they made them stumble in their ways,
 in the ancient roads,
and to walk into side roads,
 not the highway,
16 making their land a horror,
 a thing to be hissed at forever.
Everyone who passes by it is horrified
 and shakes his head.
17 Like the east wind I will scatter them
 before the enemy.
I will show them my back, not my face,
 in the day of their calamity.”

Another Plot against Jeremiah
18 Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

19 Hear me, O LORD,
 and listen to the voice of my adversaries.
20 Should good be repaid with evil?
 Yet they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember how I stood before you
 to speak good for them,
 to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore deliver up their children to famine;
 give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless and widowed.
 May their men meet death by pestilence,
 their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
22 May a cry be heard from their houses,
 when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For they have dug a pit to take me
 and laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet you, O LORD, know
 all their plotting to kill me.
Forgive not their iniquity,
 nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
 deal with them in the time of your anger.

Application

If we return to God, He returns to us in blessing; if we rebel, He will turn from us in sending judgment. Any questions?

Prayer

God, thanks that You are totally just, and will repay evil to evildoers, and good to those who do good in serving You; protect me from the lying hypocrites who don't know or do Your will, and recompense them accordingly. Thanks again. Amen.

Jeremiah 19 Breaking the Bottle

The Broken Jar
1 Thus says the LORD, “Go, buy a potter's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, 2 and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. 3 You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 4 Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, 5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind—
6 therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. 9 And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’
10 “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. 12 Thus will I do to this place, declares the LORD, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. 13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—all the houses on whose roofs offerings have been offered to all the host of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled like the place of Topheth.’”

14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the LORD's house and said to all the people: 15 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words.”

Application

Stubborn stupidity is doubly stupid, missing out on God's blessing, and incurring irrevocable wrath.

Prayer

God, may my heart and ears always be sensitive to Your voice. Amen.

Jeremiah 20 Pain From False Prophets

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah
1 Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD.
3 The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4 For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. 5 Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.”
Jeremiah’s Complaint

7 O LORD, you have deceived me,
 and I was deceived;
you are stronger than I,
 and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
 everyone mocks me.
8 For whenever I speak, I cry out,
 I shout, “Violence and destruction!”

For the word of the LORD has become for me
 a reproach and derision all day long.
9 If I say, “I will not mention him,
 or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
 shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
 and I cannot.
10 For I hear many whispering.
 Terror is on every side!
“Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
 say all my close friends,
 watching for my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
 then we can overcome him
 and take our revenge on him.”
11 But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior;
 therefore my persecutors will stumble;
 they will not overcome me.
They will be greatly shamed,
 for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
 will never be forgotten.
12 O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous,
 who sees the heart and the mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
 for to you have I committed my cause.

13 Sing to the LORD;
 praise the LORD!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
 from the hand of evildoers.

14 Cursed be the day
 on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me,
 let it not be blessed!
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
“A son is born to you,”

 making him very glad.
16 Let that man be like the cities
 that the LORD overthrew without pity;
let him hear a cry in the morning
 and an alarm at noon,
17 because he did not kill me in the womb;
 so my mother would have been my grave,
 and her womb forever great.
18 Why did I come out from the womb
 to see toil and sorrow,
 and spend my days in shame?

Application

Focusing on the promises and presence of God rather than problems eases pain.

Prayer

God, I realize that in standing with You, I will face the same rejection You experience from those who do Satan's will; may I rejoice in Your presence and promises more than my temporal comfort. Amen.

Digging Deeper

God in a nutshell: God has purposed to bless His people if they obey Him, and curse them if they don't. Their choice. He calls them to repentance, and back to a relationship with Him, but they stubbornly refuse, thus setting up the cursing part of His plan. His sovereign rule is to bless or curse depending upon the response of individuals. It is clearly not arbitrary. God protects His servants not allowing their enemies to prevail, but allowing the servants to experiencing purifying pain. He will pay back the enemies.

Us in a nutshell: We have a choice to hear and obey, or refuse to hear and obey. Either course of action has consequences attached to it. We can make ourselves hear, or make ourselves not hear. Even though chosen by God to be His special people, we forfeit all His planned blessings by forgetting and forsaking Him to serve false gods. God's true servants must be prepared to find all their joy and comfort in the presence of God, because most people are opposed to truth.

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