Jeremiah 34-36: Little Pieces of Paper

Jeremiah Thirty-Six contains the interesting story about Jeremiah, the scribe Baruch and the king, Jehoiakim.

Jeremiah dictated the words that he heard from the Lord to Baruch who wrote the words down on a scroll and took the scroll to the temple to read to all of the people.  The officials sitting in the temple heard the words of the Lord and told Baruch to go back, get Jeremiah and go into hiding.  These were not words that the king was going to like. The officials, who feared the king more than they did God, took the scroll to Jehoiakim, who didn't fear anyone.

It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. - Jer. 36:22-24 NIV

It's pretty easy to fear nothing when you're sitting comfortably in front of a burning fire, surrounded by your friends and others in powerful positions.  It's easy to fear nothing when, even though the enemy has the city surrounded, you have everything you need.  Fear is for those who are having difficulty finding food.  Fear is for those whose houses have been burned by the enemy.  Fear is not for the high and mighty, comfortable in the luxury that their wealth and influence has afforded them.  Cut all the dire predictions into little pieces.  Throw them into the fire, they mean nothing.   It's just paper, it's just words. The enemy, who's that?  God, who does he think he is?

2010 Post - Jeremiah 34-36:  Freedom

Jeremiah 32-33: A Righteous Branch

They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. - Jer 32:33 NIV

“This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it—the LORD is his name: Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Jer. 33:2-3 NIV

“‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
 “‘In those days and at that time
   I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line;
   he will do what is just and right in the land.  - Jer. 33:14-15 NIV

“This is what the LORD says: ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time, then my covenant with David my servant—and my covenant with the Levites who are priests ministering before me—can be broken and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne.- Jer. 33:20-21 NIV

Mankind has not changed and neither has God.  God knows exactly how we are...how we turn our backs to him instead of our faces.  But God is steadfast when we are not.  He keeps his covenants when we do not and the covenant he made with his people is as unbreakable as his covenant with the day and night.  He had to keep his covenant, so he had to make a way for a recalcitrant people.  There was only one way to fulfill that gracious promise he had made to the house of Israel, another had to come.  A righteous Branch that would make a way, not only for the house of Judah, but with all of his creation.  The way is there, has always been there.   For anyone who will call, he will answer.

 2010 Post - Jeremiah 32-33:  The Deed is Sealed

Jeremiah 30-31: The Lord Will Ransom

“Hear the word of the LORD, O nations;
   proclaim it in distant coastlands:
‘He who scattered Israel will gather them
   and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’
For the LORD will ransom Jacob
   and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.
They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;
   they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD—
the grain, the new wine and the oil,
   the young of the flocks and herds.
They will be like a well-watered garden,
   and they will sorrow no more.
Then maidens will dance and be glad,
   young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
   I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
   and my people will be filled with my bounty,”
            declares the LORD. - Jer. 31:10-14 NIV

Over and over again, God tells us one thing through the prophets.  Israel, and Jerusalem in particular, will be restored.  There will be grain, new wine and oil, there will be singing and dancing in the streets.  The abundance that was once promised them will become a reality. And the most incredible thing is that we have been invited as well.  Someday, maybe even soon, those of us who have been grafted in will share in God pouring out his favor once more upon his chosen people.  There will be a new heaven and a new earth.  The king will take his place on his rightful throne.  Fighting, disagreements, wars, even all the nations will cease to exist.  There will only be the kingdom of the one we love and we will get to be part of it.  We will get to see him.  Israel will see their God.  They will be filled with his bounty.They will rejoice in the Lord, they will shout for joy. They will be redeemed.  And so will we. The Ransom has been paid.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 30-31:  God's Never Ending Love for Israel

Jeremiah 28-29: If It Prospers, You Too Will Prosper

Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have- Jeremiah 29:7-8 NIV

All of us are in exile of one kind or another.  We are aliens after all, living in a realm that is not our eternal home, so we shouldn't find it strange when we the world does not agree with us or we encounter hardships; when our leaders, our neighbors, even our own bodies don't behave as we think they should.  Instead we should remember that it is the Lord who has placed us where we are, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.  Some of us are already in prosperous places, by God's design, and others in less tenable positions.  In all instances, we have but one response:  to seek the peace and prosperity of the city into which we have been carried into exile.  We are to seek peace for this planet, we are to seek prosperity for this planet.  Not just for us, not just for God's people, but for the whole of creation.  That's why God placed each of us where we are at this point in time. 

Jeremiah was thought of as a doomsayer.  While his contemporaries were promising the return of those in exile to a crumbling Jerusalem, Jeremiah told the exiles to settle where they were, to build houses and families, to live their lives as if they were truly home.  We have to do the same.  We know this is not our final destiny, but we have to live our lives as if we were truly home.  We have to bring prosperity, healing, the hope of redemption to the alien world around us.  If it prospers, we will prosper as well.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 28-29:  Surrounded by Voices of Hope

Jeremiah 26-27:

The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD.  But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, “You must die! Why do you prophesy in the LORD’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?” And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. - Jer. 26:  7-9 NIV

We all have a tendency to want to hear only those things that tickle our ears.  We want to hear how good, how charming we are, but we don't want to hear of our faults.  It's one thing to have exclusive hearing in our personal lives, but when it comes to things of God, especially in the house of God, there should be no doubt as t whether or not it is his voice that is being heard.  In Jeremiah's time, it wasn't the politicians so much as the priests and prophets who didn't want to hear or wouldn't believe that God was going to do anything bad to his people.  They were his chosen after all, they could do what they wanted with no consequences. 

God's word, his prophecy has never been for the outsiders.  He has always spoken to his people, they are the ones he holds accountable, no one else.  Perhaps we should stop looking at the world and look closely at ourselves and see if God is speaking to us about changing our ways.  Perhaps if we would, it would change the course of history and the lives of those who don't hear the voice of God.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 25-27:  The Cup of God's Wrath

Jeremiah 23-24: Peaceful Meadows Laid Waste

Weep and wail, you shepherds;
   roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock.
For your time to be slaughtered has come;
   you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery.
The shepherds will have nowhere to flee,
   the leaders of the flock no place to escape.
Hear the cry of the shepherds,
   the wailing of the leaders of the flock,
   for the LORD is destroying their pasture.
The peaceful meadows will be laid waste
   because of the fierce anger of the LORD. - Jer. 25:34-37 NIV

Those who would be in leadership need to be mindful of this one thing.  God has a high standard for those who influence and watch over his flock, whether it be politicians, the head of world banks, media moguls, pastors, or televangelists.  Whenever those in leadership abuse their power, God will call them to account.  The verdant green pastures where they eat their fill at the expense of those they are supposedly representing will be destroyed and they will have no means of escape.  God will never let anyone live in peace at the expense of another. 

2010 Post - Jeremiah 23-24:  Two Baskets of FIgs

Jeremiah 21-23: It's Still His Story

“So then, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ but they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”  - Jer.23:7-8 NIV

We love to visit Israel, something I never thought I would say.  Once you set foot in that land that was promised to the descendants of Abraham, you experience something different, your perspective changes.   It becomes a historical perspective of promise.  You see something that God is doing for his people in the land he chose for them centuries ago.  You see the intertwining history of a people with their God and the land; people who have not forgotten their God and a God who has not forgotten the land or his people..  You see something that is alive, still living.  What is taking place in that land and among that people is real.  The relationship between God and his people is not dead, it is not finished.  You see the story as it is being told in this century.  You see God's hand at work; bringing his people out of all the countries where he had banished them.  It's still His land.  It's still His people.  It's still His story.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 21-23:  Beyond Hope