“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, 2 while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, 3 on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. 4 You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”
5 Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,[a]
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
11 Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,
so is he who gets riches but not by justice;
in the midst of his days they will leave him,
and at his end he will be a fool.
12 A glorious throne set on high from the beginning
is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O Lord, the hope of Israel,
all who forsake you shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth,
for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.
Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance
14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved,
for you are my praise.
15 Behold, they say to me,
“Where is the word of the Lord?
Let it come!”
16 I have not run away from being your shepherd,
nor have I desired the day of sickness.
You know what came out of my lips;
it was before your face.
17 Be not a terror to me;
you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18 Let those be put to shame who persecute me,
but let me not be put to shame;
let them be dismayed,
but let me not be dismayed;
bring upon them the day of disaster;
destroy them with double destruction!
Keep the Sabbath Holy
19 Thus said the Lord to me: “Go and stand in the People's Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20 and say: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22 And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. 23 Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction.
24 “‘But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25 then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. 26 And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord. 27 But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.’” Jeremiah 17 ESV
Jeremiah 17: 14-27 Prayer for Deliverance
…174I long for Your salvation, O LORD, and Your law is my delight. 175Let me live to praise You; may Your judgments sustain me. 176I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.… Psalm 119: 174-175
14-18. Save me and I shall be saved - Certainly, Oh God, if You take up my case, it shall be resolved. If You hold me, then though I should slip, yet I will not fall away. God, as soon as You decide to save me then it is as good as done. As anyone can imagine, who has read thus far, Jeremiah is not a popular man, unless by popularity you mean cool to be hated. Sure, generations that come later will look back at his words, and say, "wow, he really was a prophet, all this came true", but he is a hated man in his time, despised and separated even by family. Look at his message, he is no Joel Osteen, he is not passing out sweets, he has many enemies for saying what God said.
For You are my praise - My hope is not in men, not in me, because I can see that I do not have the strength of myself to stand up under this burden. I see that men judge poorly, and that they honor themselves whenever things are going well, but detach themselves quickly when things go south. Save me that I may praise Your salvation.
Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come - Similar to Isaiah's day when they said of judgement, and I paraphrase, but hurry up already. Bring it on! If you are really God's prophet then let these things happen already. Truly, Jeremiah was vindicated, and even while still alive, because Babylon came in his day, but love makes "I told you so" a bitter thing.
The day of the accomplishment of his prophecies would be a woeful day indeed to Jerusalem, and therefore he deprecated it, and wished it might never come, though, as to himself, it would be the avenging of him upon his persecutors and the proving of him a true prophet (which they had questioned, v. 15), and upon those accounts he might be tempted to desire it. Note, God does not, and therefore ministers must not, desire the death of sinners, but rather that they may turn and live. Though we warn of the woeful day, we must not wish for it, but rather weep because of it, as Jeremiah did. 3. He kept closely to his instructions. Though he might have curried favour with the people, or at least have avoided their displeasure, if he had not been so sharp in his reproofs and severe in his threatenings, yet he would deliver his message faithfully; and that he had done so was a comfort to him. "Lord, thou knowest that that which came out of my lips was right before thee; it exactly agreed with what I received from thee, and therefore thou art reflected upon in their quarrelling with me.’’ - Matthew Henry
10Now as for you, son of man, tell the house of Israel that this is what they have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy upon us, and we are wasting away because of them! How can we live?’ 11Say to them: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’ 12Therefore, son of man, say to your people: ‘The righteousness of the righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression; neither will the wickedness of the wicked man cause him to stumble on the day he turns from his wickedness. Nor will the righteous man be able to survive by his righteousness on the day he sins.’… Ezekiel 33: 10-12
I have not run away from being Your shepherd - Jeremiah has shown up for this difficult task, no matter how unfavorable and costly it has been to his relations. God has spelled out clear instruction to those that would be shepherds and this is to parents, to those that govern, manage or preach, and Jeremiah says, "you know what came out of my lips." He said what he was supposed to say, he carried the message with care. He was a true shepherd, called, but taking a beating because of so many false prophets claiming to be shepherds, yet leading people astray. He stays at it because his faith is not in self or others, but in the living God. Let me not be dismayed, because it is in you that I have placed everything, all my hope, my trust.
Let those be put to shame who persecute me - The things they don't like about Jeremiah, what he says, that comes from God. Jeremiah would prefer peace, to be liked, but God has called him to be His voice to this people, and yet some plot against him. He turns it over to God, let God judge that they have tried to kill the messenger, when it is the message that they hate, and it comes from God.
Note, God’s ministers have work to do which they need not be either ashamed or afraid to go on in, but they do need to be helped by the divine grace to go on in it without shame or fear. Jeremiah had not desired the woeful day upon his country in general; but as to his persecutors, in a just and holy indignation at their malice, he prays, Bring upon them the day of evil, in hope that the bringing of it upon them might prevent the bringing of it upon the country; if they were taken away, the people would be better; "therefore destroy them with a double destruction; let them be utterly destroyed, root and branch, and let the prospect of that destruction be their present confusion.’’ This the prophet prays, not at all that he might be avenged, nor so much that he might be eased, but that the Lord may be known by the judgments which he executes. - Matthew Henry
19-27. Bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath - God had set aside the seventh day for rest, for spiritual growth, it was sanctified as holy. It was a great testimony of this people when kept, that they had been set apart in such fashion. It extended to all within their borders as well. You could not work your servant on the Sabbath, nor a foreigner, and it was evangelical in that those that came there would ask why, and those that observed would say, "in six days God created the heavens and the earth and on the seventh He rested." It is to remember Who the Creator is, to learn and teach of Him, and remember that you are a created being. This was command to Israel which they disregarded in favor of commerce or other worldly pleasures.
…16Additionally, men of Tyre who lived there were importing fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah in Jerusalem. 17Then I rebuked the nobles of Judah and asked, “What is this evil you are doing— profaning the Sabbath day? 18Did not your forefathers do the same things, so that our God brought all this disaster on us and on this city? And now you are rekindling His wrath against Israel by profaning the Sabbath!”… Nehemiah 13: 16-18
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