Podcast

God declares again that He will restore both Israel and Judah, and declares that the king will be from their own, as opposed to being ruled from outside, and God will bring him near, as opposed to him daring to approach God. Even Samaria will come back to Zion.

Jeremiah prophesies consolation for God’s people after the exile, even the priests whom he has often prophesied hardship. The people will mourn for what has happened, and there is a prophecy about the slaughter of the innocents by Herod.

Jeremiah also prophesies that there will be a new covenant, one based on forgiveness, that God will usher in.

Hananiah proclaims that Babylon will be defeated within two years and the things that they ave stolen from the temple will be restored. Jeremiah says that this is not what the true prophets have prophesied about before, and that the people should not believe Hananiah’s words until they come true. Hananiah would die shortly thereafter.

Jeremiah tells the people not to wait to start families and prepare for their return, as the return will not come quickly. Jeremiah also talks about the bleak future for the false prophets and their families during those years.

Jeremiah prophesies in the Temple that the Temple will be sacked, and the priests and false prophets want to kill Jeremiah for it, but the people are persuaded that if they do kill Jeremiah, and he is a prophet, they will have innocent blood on their hands. There is precedent among the prophets for this in Micah and a counterexample in Uriah.

Jeremiah puts a yoke on his neck to warn the people of the subjugation Judah will experience, and to tell the envoys of Judah’s neighbors that they must all submit to Babylon or die. The vessels of the Temple, which the false prophets are predicting will come back, are in fact, gone until God restores them.

Jeremiah pronounces judgment on Jehoiachin and criticizes all the kings but Josiah. He also refers to the entire people returning to Israel, as well as a righteous branch of David who will rule there. This is a messianic prophecy, and it refers to Jesus. Jeremiah goes after the false prophets as well.

Jeremiah is shown a basket of figs, some good and some bad. These figs are like the people of Israel, and God will restore them to the land. The bad people, however, will be treated like bad figs by God.

Jeremiah sees a potter whose clay has not turned out the way he wanted to, and God uses this to explain his actions. God will rework Israel into a different type of vessel if Israel will change its path, which Paul would echo in 2 Timothy 2:20-21. This does not match what the priests and false prophets were saying at the time, but those people, both then and now are not guaranteed to proclaim what is in the Bible and the catechism. Jeremiah shatters a flask to emphasize the analogy.

Jeremiah is placed in stocks by Pashur son of Immer, and the people seek to kill Jeremiah, for prophesying things like Israel will be captured, but people will die unless they surrender. Even Jeremiah’s own family is against him, and Jeremiah is despairing more than at any other point in the Bible.

At this point, the timeline is interrupted and goes back to the reign of Josiah.

Jeremiah is distressed by the fact that the people are against him, and has no wife to comfort him in his distress, since children would not be safe in this time. Jeremiah prophesies that if Jerusalem keeps the Sabbath, kings will rule in Jerusalem and people will come bearing offerings, but if they do not keep the Sabbath, the city will be consumed by fire.

God tells the people of Israel and the surrounding nations that they will be conquered, but Israel will be restored, as well as any nation that will worship God as other nations have convinced Israel to worship Baal. Any nation that does not do this will be destroyed.

There is an extended section of visions told in a parabolic form next. Jeremiah is told to bury a waistcloth, a piece of intimate apparel, and then to dig it up, finding it spoiled. This is analagous to Israel, who was designed to be intimate to God, who now has become spoiled. God also likens the people to clay pots filled with wine, as God will fill the priests, prophets and kings with drunkenness, and he will dash the pots together. Jeremiah then begins a long section of comparisons of what will happen to Israel, it will weep when the Lord’s flock are taken into exile, as well as the king and the queen mother, who will be brought low, the nation will be raped, and they will be like chaff.

Jeremiah asks that God might have mercy, since He is in their midst in the Ark of the Covenant in the temple. God says that He will not. Jeremiah also protests that the people are not listening to him but rather the false prophets who are preaching prosperity. Contrary to what they are saying, the drought and famine will come.

Jeremiah embraces the book of the law that was discovered, the book of Deuteronomy. Meredith Klein, in ”The Treaty of the Great King”, says that Deuteronomy follows a well-defined formula of a Hittite treaty from a subject to his ruler. These treaties go over the history of the relationship, the conditions of the treaty, and the consequences of breaking it. (Some of these curses can be found in Deuteronomy 27).

Jeremiah takes the people to task for failing to meet that covenant, and his kinsmen turn on Jeremiah. It can be confusing at times to read as it is unclear if it is Jeremiah or God speaking, and some sections of things to come are described as having happened already, as God’s assurance that they will happen is every bit as real as having been completed already.  Even though God will punish the people for their infidelity, God promises that He will have compassion on them.

The Lord tells His people that if they circumcise their hearts as Moses told them to do in Deuteronomy 10:16, they will be able to return to the land. Jeremiah protests to the Lord that He is deceving the people: we know from 2 Thessalonians that God can allow the people to be deceived.

The people had been led astray by the priests (the tradition of being led astray by those claiming religious authority continues in some quarters down until today), but they would have to be reconciled to God by themselves.

God recalls when Israel came into the land out of Egypt and how He dealt harshly with those who would dare to touch His people, the first fruits of the harvest. Unfortunately, Israel became dissolute. The people carried on the religious ceremonies despite God not being in the ceremonies, and the people didn’t even ask where God was.

The Israelites did not seek refuge in God when the nation was threatened; they sought protection from Egypt, who liked to exact a terrible price from their beneficiaries later. Jeremiah says that Israel’s unfaithfulness is as bad as a prostitute’s. Even the faithless Samaritans were not as guilty as Israel, who should have known better.