Here is a teaching of chapters 16 & 17 of the book of Jeremiah. If you want to check out Bible studies of the previous chapters, click here
Chapter 16: Day of Disaster
1 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For this is what the Lord says about the sons and daughters born in this land and about the women who are their mothers and the men who are their fathers: 4 “They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like dung lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.” 5 For 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the Lord says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love, and my pity from this people,” declares theLord. 6 “Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut themselves or shave their head for the dead. 7 No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead—not even for a father or a mother—nor will anyone give them a drink to console them." 8 “And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink. 9 For this is what the lord almighty, the God of Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this place."
So in these verses here, the Lord is warning Jeremiah and telling him not to marry or have children because all the children and parents in the land will perish from sword and famine. And he's telling him not to go into a house where they're having a funeral meal, mourn for them, or have any type of sympathy for them because he's taken away his blessing, his love and his pity from these people. If you've been following along in the previous chapters, we see time and time again where he's telling Jerusalem and Judah to acknowledge their guilt, ask for forgiveness, repent and truly change their ways and they will be his people and he will choose them. Time and time again, they rebel against him, have these false idols, these false gods that they worship and they completely disregard the Lord unless they need help or there's disaster upon them.
10 “When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshipped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. 12 But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. 13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
14 “However, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 15 but it will be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.
So in verses 14-15, the Lord is speaking of future restoration. So he is going to bring them back to the land that he gave their forefathers. But first, there's going to be an exile, which we're going to go over in verses 16 through 18 right now.
16 “But 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 and from the crevices of the rocks. 17 My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. 18 I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”
Okay, so I'm just going to stop right there for a minute cause I wanted to say a few things. So in verses 10 through 13, he reiterates the same thing we've been reading throughout Jeremiah that the Lord has been telling the people of Israel and the people of Judah to acknowledge their guilt, ask for forgiveness, and truly change their ways and they continue to follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts, continue to serve and worship other gods, and just go about living their life in wickedness.
I'm just going to go back to chapter 4 of Jeremiah for a second because in verses 1-2 of chapter four it says "If you will return O Israel returned to me, declares the Lord. If you put your detestable idols out of my sight, no longer go astray, and in a truthful, just, and righteous way, you swear 'as surely as the Lord lives' then the nations will be blessed by him and in him, they will glory." I have the Bible study over chapter four of Jeremiah on my YouTube channel if you want to look further into it. But, I just wanted to point that out because here in verses 14-15 where he says, "however, the days are coming, when men 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 Israelites up out of the land of the North and out of all the countries where he had banished them.'"
In verses 16 through 18, he's saying that he can see all of their sins and all of their wicked ways. He said he's going to repay them double for their wickedness because they've defiled his land and he's continuously given them chance after chance to acknowledge their guilt, repent, only serve him, not have these false idols and false Gods they're serving, and they continue to go about their wicked ways, worshiping worthless idols in serving false gods. They just keep rebelling against him, so he's saying that he's going to repay them double for their wickedness.
19 Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you, the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good. 20 Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!”
21 “Therefore I will teach them— this time I will teach them my power and might. Then they will know that my name is the Lord."
So here in these verses, Jeremiah is saying that the Lord is his strength in his time of distress, he is his refuge, and all the nations will come from the end of the earth and say that their fathers had possessed nothing but false gods and worthless idols and that, people make their own gods but they're not gods. The Lord Almighty is the only God. Then the Lord goes on to say, therefore he will teach them and this time he's going to teach him his power, his might, and that they will know that his name is the Lord.
Chapter 16 Study Guide:
1. What does the Lord say about the children and parents in the land of Jerusalem?
2. How did the ancestors of the people of Jerusalem forsake the Lord?
3. Why is the Lord going to throw these people out into a land that neither they nor their ancestors have known?
4. What similarity is there between verses 14-15 of Jeremiah Chapter 16 and verses 1-2 of Chapter 4 of Jeremiah?
5. Why is the Lord going to repay them double for their wickedness?
6. Why does the Lord say that this time he will teach them how power and might?
Chapter 17:
1 “Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars. 2 Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills. 3 My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country. 4 Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever.”
All right, so I'm just going to stop right here real quick cause I'm going to go over some of the metaphors that he uses in verses 1-4. So here where it says "Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point." So the iron tool that was inscribed with the Flint point is used for cutting inscriptions in rock or stone. So here are the metaphors showing the indelible nature, which indelible means "making marks that cannot be removed." So the engraved sins of Judah are marks that can not be removed, their sin cannot be removed. Where it says here "on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars," both the heart and the religious works of the people were very engraved in sin. It's saying here that their sins are marks that can not be removed in their hearts and in their religious works.
Now I was reading different commentaries on these verses to really understand the metaphors, to be able to understand these verses and help you guys understand these verses to the best of my ability and where it says "to the horns of their altars," his may be a reference to the altars of Baal, which Baal has been mentioned at least a couple of times in the previous chapters that we went over in Jeremiah. Baal is one of the false gods that Judah and Israel worshiped and served. Where it says "even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high Hills," an engraving on a stone tablet will last for generations, so this engraving of sin in their hearts and in the altars, are gonna set a sinful course for generations to come.
5 This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. 7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
So in these verses, what it's saying is the people that trust in other men and in themselves to find strength and to follow them; they're going to be cursed and they're not going to have prosperity. The people that trust in the Lord and confide and rely on him for their strength and their comfort, they will prosper. Those people will never have to worry when there's a drought, disaster, or anything that comes upon them because they know the Lord our savior is protecting them and has their best interest at heart.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” 11 Like a partridge that hatches eggs, it did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means. When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools. 12 A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. 13 Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.
14 Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. 15 They keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it now be fulfilled!” 16 I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you. 17 Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster. 18 Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction.
In verses 14-15, these verses are what Jeremiah is saying to the Lord, that the Lord has his refuge in the day of disaster and he hasn't turned away from being his shepherd. He says, "heal me Lord and I will be healed, save me and I will be saved." He's confiding in the Lord and trusting in the Lord. When Jeremiah says "what passes, my lips is open before you," he's saying, "I will say whatever you command of me." He is also asking for the Lord to put his persecutors to shame and put terror on them but not on him.
Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy
19 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and stand at the Gate of the People, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem. 20 Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem who come through these gates. 21 This is what the Lord says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors. 23 Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline. 24 But if you are careful to obey me, declares the Lord, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it, 25 then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. 26 People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord. 27 But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.’”
So in these verses here, the Lord is saying to keep the Sabbath day Holy. If they keep it Holy and they don't bring the worries or burdens of caring about worldly things, then he will restore their prosperity. If they do not obey him, they don't keep the Sabbath day Holy, and they bring loads of work into Jerusalem, then he is going to Kindle a fire and the Gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.
Chapter 17 Study Guide:
1. In verse 1, what metaphors are being used about Judah’s sin?
2. Why are these metaphors being used?
3. In verse 1 where it says “on the horns of their altars,” what may this be referring to?
4. Why does it say “even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles?”
5. What will happen to the people that trust in other men to find strength and follow them?
6. What will happen to the people that trust and confide in the Lord?
7. What is the Lord to Jeremiah on the day of disaster?
8. What does it mean when Jeremiah says “what passes my lips is open before you?”
Before I let you go, I'm going to leave you with a prayer. So please, if you would close your eyes and pray with me. Lord, I pray that you'd be with every single person listening to this right now Lord. I pray that you open up their mind, their heart, their body, their spirit to you, Lord. I pray that you open up their eyes to see the truth, the truth of your word and that you give them the wisdom, the knowledge, the strength and the courage to be able to understand your word and share the truth of your word to other people to be able to make an impact in their life Lord. I pray that you use them as a vessel for your work and work through them to make an impact. I pray that they have a clear vision on the calling that you've placed in their heart and that they stay faithful to that, and they lean on you for guidance, support, strength, and everything that they need to fulfill the purpose that you have for them. In Jesus's name, Amen.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
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Holy Bible. New International Version (NIV)
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