Year 2, Week 13, Day 3 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 13, Day 3

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Jeremiah 26-27.

Today’s reading continues the second segment of Jeremiah. This second segment of Jeremiah (chapters 21-29) consists of two sets of messages that provide specific historical contexts. The first set of messages, which consisted of three messages, ran from Jeremiah 21-25. Today’s reading begins the second set of messages from the second segment of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 26, set early in the reign of King Jehoiakim, pertains to a message Jeremiah proclaimed at the Temple with a special emphasis upon the response to Jeremiah: “The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die!” (Jeremiah 26:7-8). Jeremiah’s words from the LORD were not well received. Jeremiah 27, set early in the reign of Zedekiah, records Jeremiah’s message in which he symbolizes his message by wearing a wooden yoke in order to declares that Judah and its neighbor nations must submit to the yoke of Babylonian rule: “But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, declares the LORD, until I have consumed it by his hand” (Jeremiah 27:8).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is that while the LORD is threatening to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple, it is not His primary inclination to judge His people, but to preserve them: “Thus says the LORD: Stand in the court of the LORD’S house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the LORD all the words that I command you to speak to them; do not hold back a word. It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds” (Jeremiah 26:2-3). Jeremiah is charged to proclaim hard words for the intent of softening hearts. The LORD desires repentant hearts from His people: “…God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3b-4). Hard words are not the outcome of a hot-headed angry God, but an extremely patient God who knows how to balance justice and love: “From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers” (Jeremiah 7:25). Thus, the LORD command repentance: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31). And the LORD’s desire to see repentance hearts often leads to the use of dire words of warning: “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth” (Jeremiah 26:4-5).

While Jeremiah’s words no doubt seem severe, they were rooted in reality. The people of Judah had come to falsely believe that no harm could befall them because they had the Temple: “Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD” (Jeremiah 7:4). The LORD raised up Jeremiah to reorient Judah by tearing off the scab of their false hope and faulty living: “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?” (Jeremiah 7:8-10). A fierce warning to stimulate repentance was laid before the people: “And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh” (Jeremiah 7:13-14).

And while the response was kill Jeremiah, the LORD raised up someone to speak on behalf of Jeremiah by reminding the people that Jeremiah was not coming up with anything new: “And certain of the elders of the land arose and spoke to all the assembled people, saying, “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and said to all the people of Judah: ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “‘Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.’ Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD, and did not the LORD relent of the disaster that he had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring great disaster upon ourselves” (Jeremiah 26:17-19). In fact, when an earlier prophet brought hard words for King Hezekiah to hear, he knew to repent rather than kill the prophet. Jeremiah was just in a long line of prophets sent by a God who is “slow to anger.”

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

Pastor Joe