Jeremiah 15 – The Lord tells
Jeremiah that things have gotten so bad, even Moses and Samuel would not be
able to convince Him to take these people back. “I will make them an
object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh, son
of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem” (15:4).
In
2 Kings 21, Manasseh was 12 when he become king and reigned 55 years. He rebuilt the high places his father had
destroyed; he erected altars to Baal and a sacred pole, altars in the temple
for the whole host of heaven. He
immolated his own son by fire, practiced soothsaying and divination,
reintroduced the consulting of ghosts and spirits. His son Amon did more of the
same for two years. But then
Josiah came to the throne at the age of eight.
It
is more obvious from the passages in this chapter that, though the disgraces
and sufferings brought upon Judah are seen as from the Lord -- “I was weary of
sparing you” 15:6 -- there is definitely a
sense here that these are sufferings that have come about “naturally” as we
would say, “historically” from the wrong choices and stupidity of a people
who have lost their way morally.
The
prophet is in anguish: “Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth! A man of
strife and contention to all the land! I neither borrow nor lend, yet all curse
me” (15:10). “Why is my pain continuous,
my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become for me a treacherous brook, whose
waters do not abide!” (15:18) The Lord tells Jeremiah that he too must
repent and be a pure “mouthpiece.” (15:19).
Jeremiah 16 - The prophet is told
he should not marry, for the “sword and
famine will make an end” of the children of this generation. And Jeremiah is told he must not grieve
for his people because “I have withdrawn by peace from this people” (16:5).
He
must not rejoice with them either, for God will stop their joy. When they ask why, he is to tell them
it is because both previous generations and this generation too have forsaken
the Lord. But Jeremiah also
prophesies a restoration that will
be equated with Israel’s first redemption from the slavery of Egypt. The
restoration of the people when they repent will be a new story of liberation
like the one of Moses (16:14-15).
Jeremiah’s prophesy
extends also to the “heathen.”
Someday they too will realize the gods they worship are “empty idols of no use” (16:19), and
they too “shall know that my name is Lord” (16:31).
Jeremiah 17 -
Jeremiah tells them they will be enslaved. “A
curse on the man who puts his trust in
man, who relies on things of flesh, whose heart turns from Yahweh. He is like a dry scrub in the wastelands: if good comes, he has no eyes
for it, he settles in the parched places of the wilderness, a salt land,
uninhabited. A blessing on the man who
puts his trust in Yahweh, with Yahweh for his hope, he is like a tree by the waterside that
thrusts its roots to the stream: when the heat comes it feels no alarm, its
foliage stays green; it has no worries in a year of drought, and never ceases
to bear fruit” (JB 17:5-8)
Then
more deep words: “More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who
can understand it? I, the Lord, alone probe the mind and test the heart, to
reward everyone according to his ways. . .” (NAB 17:9-10)
The man who puts his trust in human beings,
into the kind of shallow values and pursuits that are characteristic of human
striving, shall be like a barren bush.
But the man who trusts in God, in things of the spirit, he shall be like
a tree planted beside the waters.
For the life of the person rooted in the stream will endure
hardship. As far as why the human
heart seems so inclined to put his trust in superficial, material and passing
things, this is a mystery “beyond remedy” he says.
“Heal me, Yahweh, and I shall be really
healed;
save me and I shall be saved. . .” (17:14).
The chapter ends with prayers for justice (as
between Jeremiah and his enemies) and reminders about the importance of the
Sabbath.
Jeremiah 18 - Yahweh is likened to a potter who
finds flaws with his work and refashions it to perfect his creative
intention. God does change his
mind if people repent and changes his mind too if we enter apostasy. “Sometimes I threaten to uproot and
tear down and destroy a nation or a kingdom. But if that nation . . .turns from its evil, I also repent
of the evil which I threatened to do” (18:7-8). Blessings are not guaranteed. The passage is interesting for its
universality; it is not directed to Israel alone. Yahweh says, “my people have forgotten me! They burn their incense to a
nothing. They have lost their
footing in their ways, on the road of former times, to walk in tortuous paths,
a way unmarked. They will make
their country desolate.” (JB 18:15).
The men of Judah plot against Jeremiah,
seeking to destroy him by using his own words against him (perhaps those words
which could be interpreted as disloyal to the nation – his advice on surrender,
for example). Jeremiah looks to God
to keep him in mind (JB v18:8-20).
Jeremiah. 19 – He continues
preaching his message of doom. A plot is devised to silence Jeremiah. He calls God’s wrath down on them. He uses the breaking of the jug as a
symbol of what God, the potter, will do.
2 Corinthians 1 - In his opening and
thanksgiving, Paul refers to God as the “God
of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may
be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with
which we ourselves are encouraged. . .” (1:3). We are strengthened by God that we may be equipped to pass
on that strength to others, to make them feel that there is a source of
strength and comfort for every affliction in our God. He tells them something
they apparently already know—that he had to pass through some severe affliction
in Asia, an affliction that “utterly weighed” him down; but he was delivered.
He
speaks of knowing that he has conducted himself toward them “with the simplicity and sincerity of God” through
God’s grace (1:12). He had planned
to come to them on his way to Macedonia and then to return through Corinth
again back to Judaea. But
apparently he had to change plans and go from Troas (NW Anatolia]; they are
disappointed, but he isn’t coming so as not to inflict pain on them. He wrote scolding them, not to cause
them pain but to show his love.
2 Corinthians 2 - He urges them to
show love to “wrong-doers” they may have in their community. He will not argue
with them for having forgiven them (2:10). He speaks of the opportunities that
are created for the gospel - just by the “odor” or aroma believers give off—“an odor of life that leads to life” (2:16).
George
Fox refers to this as well—see page 27 of his
Journal where he says, “All things were new, and all the creation gave another
smell unto me than before, beyond what words can utter.” Everything that touches the salvation
work of God has this aroma.
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