Year 2, Week 11, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 11, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Jeremiah 9-11.

Today’s reading completes the first collection of declarations against Judah and begins the second collection. Remembering the basic structure of the Book, Jeremiah 2:1-20:18 contains two collections of declarations against Judah (and these two collections correspond to the two collections in Jeremiah 46:1-51:64). Thus, Jeremiah 2:1-10:25 is the first collection, while Jeremiah 11:1-20:18 is the second collection. Jeremiah 9 confronts Judah over their lack of true boasting in the LORD: "Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 9:24-25). Their misplaced boasting reveals their lack of a circumcised heart: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh…all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart” (Jeremiah 9:25-26b). Jeremiah 10 mocks the false gods, who will be destroyed by the true God: “But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation. Thus shall you say to them: “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens” (Jeremiah 10:10-11). Jeremiah 11 highlights the failure of Judah to keep their covenant obligations, which results in Jeremiah being refrained from interceding for them: “For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, altars to make offerings to Baal. “Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble” (Jeremiah 11:13-14).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the emphasis upon the curse that was falling on Judah due to their failure to keep the covenant: “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant that I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Jeremiah 11:2-4a). The Covenant that the LORD made with Israel through Moses, which was renewed when Israel was on the verge of entering the Promised Land, required obedience. The consequences of failure to obey were clear: "Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen” (Deuteronomy 27:26). Much of Deuteronomy 28 lays out the particulars of such a curse that the LORD would send upon them.  As Jeremiah is reminding Judah of this matter of curse, he also reminded them of the goodness and blessing that the LORD had established for them to experience through obedience: “Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, that I may confirm the oath that I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day” (Jeremiah 11:4b-5). Judah refused to listen to how a cursed and a blessed life could be be lived.

While Judah had refused to remember through the failure to listen, the LORD has Jeremiah tell Judah again: “And the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them” (Jeremiah 11:6). There is nothing innovative with Jeremiah’s approach; a new strategy would not remedy Judah’s failure. Jeremiah’s words were essentially Moses’ words. Concerning the requirements of the covenant, Judah was to do them: “For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice” (Jeremiah 11:7).  And concerning the consequences for failure to do them, Judah faced the same: “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not” (Jeremiah 11:8).

The LORD informs Jeremiah that His instructions to tell Judah what had always been important for them to do, would get Jeremiah in grave danger: “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, and say, “Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, or you will die by our hand”— therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine, and none of them shall be left. For I will bring disaster upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their punishment” (Jeremiah 11:21-23). Jeremiah was somewhat naive to the dangers he was in: “But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more” (Jeremiah 11:19). But as he more fully learned of the dangers he faced, he grew in his confidence in the LORD: “But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause” (Jeremiah 11:20).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe