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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 said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

2And it shall come to pass, when they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.

3And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

4And I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

5For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall turn aside to ask of thy welfare?

6Thou hast rejected me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against thee, and destroyed thee; I am weary with repenting.

7And I have fanned them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them of children, I have destroyed my people; they have not returned from their ways.

8Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall upon her suddenly.

9She that hath borne seven languisheth; she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.

10Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent on usury, neither have men lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.

11The LORD said, Verily I will strengthen thee for good; verily I will cause the enemy to make supplication unto thee in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

12Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass?

13Thy substance and thy treasures will I give for a spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.

14And I will make them to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.

15O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered reproach.

16Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.

17I sat not in the assembly of them that make merry, nor rejoiced: I sat alone because of thy hand; for thou hast filled me with indignation.

18Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou indeed be unto me as a deceitful brook, as waters that fail?

19Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, that thou mayest stand before me; and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: they shall return unto thee, but thou shalt not return unto them.

20And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.

21And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.

Jeremiah 16

1The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,

2Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.

3For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land:

4They shall die of grievous deaths; they shalt not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the ground: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

5For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and tender mercies.

6Both great and small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:

7neither shall men break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

8And thou shalt not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.

9For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of 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.

10And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?

11Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

12and ye have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that ye hearken not unto me:

13therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the land that ye have not known, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; for I will shew you no favour.

14Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, As the LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

15but, As the LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

16Behold, I will send for many fishers saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

17For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from mine eyes.

18And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have polluted my land with the carcases of their detestable things, and have filled mine inheritance with their abominations.

19O LORD, my strength, and my strong hold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, unto thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nought but lies, even vanity and things wherein there is no profit.

20Shall a man make unto himself gods, which yet are no gods?

21Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is Jehovah.

Revised Version (RV). Revised Version (RV), 1885, public domain.