Jeremiah
What Can We do in Difficult Times?
Jeremiah was imprisoned, yet God gave him instruction in prayer. What can we do in difficult times? God invites us to call on Him. Like Jeremiah we can respond to God’s invitation to prayer. 1. His prompting – “Call on me” (v. 33a). 2. His promise – (v. 33b). (a …
Religious Ritual Doesn’t Change a Sinful Life Style
Any theology which said Jerusalem was safe because of the Temple failed to take note of the hypocrisy practiced there. Those who came to the Temple had been guilty of stealing, murder, adultery, and false swearing. They had sacrificed to Baal and walked after other gods. Yet because …
A Compassion For Those Who Are Lost
Jeremiah responded to the news of the Babylonian invasion by crying out in anguish. His heart pounded and he could not keep silent as he thought of the approaching battle and the disaster it would bring Judah (vv. 19-21). He concluded that the people of Judah were fools and had n …
Refusing to Listen to God’s Direction
Even the dead would not escape God’s judgment. Jeremiah describes how the enemy will desecrate the graves which was a common practice in the warfare of that day. The bones of those who had died before the fall of Jerusalem would be removed from their graves and exposed to t …
God Never Forgets His People
Jeremiah writes a letter to all the priests, prophets and people that Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon (vv. 1-2). The setting is probably after the fall of Judah in 597 b.c., following the deportation of Jeconiah (Jehoiachin). The couriers were from p …
What The Lord says about Damascus
This passage has to do with God’s Judgment against Damascus (vv. 23-27). Damascus is the capital of Syria and was located at the intersection of three major trade routes. It was as much north of Canaan as Edom was south. Damascus was an old city (Gen. 14:15) but little is k …
How to Respond to Criticism
The people refused to accept Jeremiah’s declaration of doom because it conflicted with the life they were enjoying (vv. 18-23). Proud sinners don’t enjoy hearing about God’s sovereignty or the threat of impending judgment. Their solution was to attack him with t …
Loyalty to a Group or to God?
While the Rechabites obeyed and followed the teachings of Jonadab their father, Israel had neither obeyed the Lord nor followed His instructions. The Rechabites were more loyal to their earthly father and his human judgments than the people of Israel were to their Creator God. (v …
God’s Judgment Against Babylon
This passage has to do with God’s Judgements against Babylon (vv. 1-10). Jeremiah is God’s prophet declaring God’s truth that the heathen Babylonians will be captured and punished for their sins of pride and corruption. Their God Bel (also known as Marduk) who w …
Sacrifices Can be Meaningless
The people of Judah offered all the correct sacrifices, but they failed to obey God and to walk in His ways (vv. 21-29). Verse 22 is not to be understood as a denial that God commanded the sacrifices to be made. Rather it is an argument against substituting sacrifice for obedience …