Chapter 17 - Sounding Like Proverbs

Jeremiah is a long book. You can get lost in it. Every once in a while verses show up that are well known. We can forget the context of such verses and begin to hear them as general truths over all of time. When we hear, in chapter 17 that, “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick”, does that mean always and everywhere? Maybe, an argument could be made. I don’t think so, though. The verse exists in a long indictment of God about the people and their idolatry and injustice. We ought to consider the idolatry and injustice from our lives as well, but thoughtful reading of scripture means that if and when we quote verses like this we will recall the context. 
This chapter contains poetry that sounds like the book of Proverbs. We are told that it is a curse to trust in man, to make flesh our strength. We are told that God searches the hearts of the people. 

The second half of the chapter is a lament of Jeremiah before God. He points out that God’s word has become a kind of terror to him. He is weary of bringing such news of judgment to the people. Surely he must be, as readers we are, wearying of hearing it. 

The next chapter is going to come like an answered prayer. God re-focussing Jeremiah through what has become a famous scene.