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Tuesday · Week 32
The Early Prophets

Jeremiah 15-16

Week 32 · about 10 min
  1. Wed: 2 Kings 14-17
  2. Thu: Hebrews 5-7
  3. Fri: Hosea 1-3

Jeremiah complains to God, and God calls him to repent of self-pity. Then Jeremiah’s own life becomes a sign.

Thy Words Were Found and I Did Eat Them

Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.

Jeremiah 15:16 (KJV)

God says that even if Moses and Samuel prayed for Judah now, it wouldn’t change the outcome. Jeremiah wishes he’d never been born: “Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife.” He even accuses God of being like a stream that dries up when you need it. God doesn’t scold him for being honest, but he tells him, “If thou return, then will I bring thee again.” Even a prophet needed to repent of his self-pity. In chapter 16 God tells Jeremiah not to marry and not to go to funerals or parties. His lonely life itself became part of the message.

Reflect: What has Scripture been to you lately: food, duty, or something you skip?

Jeremiah 15

1Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go.

2If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword; those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’

3I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

4I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.

5Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Who will mourn for you? Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?

6You have forsaken Me, declares the LORD. You have turned your back. So I will stretch out My hand against you and I will destroy you; I am weary of showing compassion.

7I will scatter them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land. I will bereave and destroy My people who have not turned from their ways.

8I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. I will bring a destroyer at noon against the mothers of young men. I will suddenly bring upon them anguish and dismay.

9The mother of seven will grow faint; she will breathe her last breath. Her sun will set while it is still day; she will be disgraced and humiliated. And the rest I will put to the sword in the presence of their enemies,” declares the LORD.

10Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and conflict in all the land. I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.

11The LORD said: “Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will intercede with your enemy in your time of trouble, in your time of distress.

12Can anyone smash iron— iron from the north—or bronze?

13Your wealth and your treasures I will give up as plunder, without charge for all your sins within all your borders.

14Then I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for My anger will kindle a fire that will burn against you.”

15You understand, O LORD; remember me and attend to me. Avenge me against my persecutors. In Your patience, do not take me away. Know that I endure reproach for Your honor.

16Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts.

17I never sat with the band of revelers, nor did I celebrate with them. Because Your hand was on me, I sat alone, for You have filled me with indignation.

18Why is my pain unending, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become like a mirage to me— water that is not there.

19Therefore this is what the LORD says: “If you return, I will restore you; you will stand in My presence. And if you speak words that are noble instead of worthless, you will be My spokesman. It is they who must turn to you, but you must not turn to them.

20Then I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, declares the LORD.

21I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”

Jeremiah 16

1Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2“You must not marry or have sons or daughters in this place.”

3For this is what the LORD says concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and the mothers who bore them, and the fathers who fathered them in this land:

4“They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”

5Indeed, this is what the LORD says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal. Do not go to mourn or show sympathy, for I have removed from this people My peace, My loving devotion, and My compassion,” declares the LORD.

6“Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them.

7No food will be offered to comfort those who mourn the dead; not even a cup of consolation will be given for the loss of a father or mother.

8You must not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down with them to eat and drink.

9For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to remove from this place, before your very eyes and in your days, the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom.

10When you tell these people all these things, they will ask you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? What is our guilt? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’

11Then you are to answer them: ‘It is because your fathers have forsaken Me, declares the LORD, and followed other gods, and served and worshiped them. They abandoned Me and did not keep My instruction.

12And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me.

13So I will cast you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

14Yet behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of Egypt.’

15Instead they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and all the other lands to which He had banished them.’ For I will return them to their land that I gave to their forefathers.

16But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks.

17For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, and their guilt is not concealed from My eyes.

18And I will first repay them double their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and they have filled My inheritance with their abominations.”

19O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.

20Can man make gods for himself? Such are not gods!”

21“Therefore behold, I will inform them, and this time I will make them know My power and My might; then they will know that My name is the LORD.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB). The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain.