Chapter 21 – What if God is on Their Side?

Jeremiah 21 brings a chilling turn. The people who are facing disaster go to Jeremiah and ask him to enquire of the Lord. These are some of the same people who had wished Jeremiah dead and thrown him into a pit. There is an army approaching and the leaders fear that they will be unable to stand. The army is that of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is uniformly feared. He is the king of Babylon which has become the military and political powerhouse in the world. Babylon, lead by their king is swallowing up land and Judah (the land of Jeremiah) is facing calamity. 
The leaders ask Jeremiah to enquire of God and as they do they offer a possibility; “Maybe God will show how wonderful and loving he is to us. Maybe God will turn back Nebuchadnezzar and his armies.” 

The chilling turn is that God, through Jeremiah, says that not only will Nebuchadnezzar not turn back, but God himself will be among the destroying armies. He says this, “I myself will fight against you .. in anger and in fury.” God goes on to say that the people will be carried off into exile and that those who remain will be killed in the battle or will die of pestilence. It’s not a lovely uplifting passage. 

Why this terror? 
Later in the chapter we see that the people have not executed justice. This is the crime of injustice towards the outsider and the poor that has been noted so often in this book.  

The leaders of the nation have oppressed and maligned and blamed and hurt the poor and the needy. While they have done this they have claimed to be particularly close to God. 
They are now about to see God, who they had invoked in their injustice, on the side of their destroyers. 

Dear God; 
In your mercy help me to see where I make such terrible assumptions. I can assume that you would protect my way of life, my comfort all while some of the ways in which I live contribute to injustice in the world. Open my eyes to the humanity of all people, including those who are so easily forgotten and dehumanized. 
And Dear God, allow me to see where leaders, even Christian leaders, particularly Christian leaders, have come to protect a way of life, have come to line their own pockets, have come to deceive others into thinking that the people to be feared are those without power, the poor, the racialized, the forgotten and broken. It’s an imaginative exercise; you were on the side of the destroyers in the time of Jeremiah. If you fought alongside Nebuchadnezzar, who was a destroyer of nations, perhaps I can see you among people much more loving and peaceful than the Babylonian king. Perhaps I see your outstreteched arm among protestors who would tear the whole system down. 
Give me eyes to see. 
Amen. 

Chapter 20 – Jeremiah is Beaten

In chapter 20 Jeremiah bears the physical burden of his words against the powerful. A priest, named Pashur has Jeremiah apprehended and beaten. When Jeremiah is brought before Pashur after this beating, Jeremiah tells the priest that the nation will suffer judgment and be taken captive to Babylon and Pashur and his family will be among the exiles. 
He says that Pashur will not be known as Pashur to God, but as “terror on every side”. 

Then, beginning at verse 7, Jeremiah pleads and cries before God. 
This section contains some of the most stark, striking poetry in the book. 
“The word of the Lord has become a reproach to me all day long.” 
“If I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” 
Jeremiah faces this trouble; he would rather not speak the word of God for the pain and opposition that it brings him, but if he does not speak the word of God, he is overcome by pain at holding it in. 
He then says that people are calling him (not Pashur) “terror on every side”.  

To get a sense of the emotion and turmoil that Jeremiah is feeling look at verses 13 and 14: In verse 13 Jeremiah sounds like a Psalmist filled with praise; 
“Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of the evildoers.” 

Then verse 14; 
“Cursed is the day on which I was born...”  

One of the most cruel deceptions of our current religious landscape is the prosperity gospel. 
“Believe for your miracle.” “If you just feed your faith, you will know blessings of health and success.” It’s cruel because it lines the pockets of those who sell it with the money of its victims and it leaves its victims feeling that any suffering on their part must be their fault. 
It presents the false idea that if only we believe, we will avoid difficulty and pain. 
We are indeed promised blessing from God, but we are not immune from pain and sorrow and loss.  

Consider Jeremiah. Jeremiah believed. Jeremiah heard the word of the Lord. Jeremiah knew that miracles were possible. He obeyed. He followed God’s lead. And he suffered greatly.  
In it all, God was with him, even when he expressed suicidal thoughts and words as he did in this chapter. 

Dear God; I pray that I would not only read this book, but that I would see the life and pain of this man Jeremiah. I pray that I would see it in the book and I pray that I would see it in the world. Help me to know that whatever pain and sorrow Jeremiah took on, that pain and sorrow and much more, was taken on by my Lord Jesus. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear. And thank you, dear Lord, for those who stand against the powerful when the powerful practice injustice and oppression. Thank you that so many through history have stood courageously even though they too have been beaten and attacked. As I read Jeremiah’s words and prayers and cries help me to hear the words and prayers and cries of those who take such stances even today.  
In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Chapter 19 – Broken Vessel

After visiting the Potter’s House, Jeremiah is instructed by God to go and purchase a clay jar. 
He is then to gather some of the people and some of the elders and pronounce the word of the Lord while holding the jar. After that he is to smash the jar. As the pieces, so the nation. 
The idea in the metaphor is that the destruction would be utter and irreparable.   

What does it mean that Jesus is renewing all things?  

Colossians 1:19,20 
“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.”  

I think that he can even repair broken and smashed clay jars. 

Chapter 18 – The Potter’s House

Another metaphor for the sin of the people and the judgment of God. God tells Jeremiah to go and watch a potter at the wheel. The image is of a pot that is marred, not turning properly, flawed. The potter stops what is being made and reshapes, remakes. So it will be with the people. 

There are a few other things going on in the chapter. God explains the metaphor, then Jeremiah notes that people are speaking against him. They are digging a pit with intention of throwing him into it. Jeremiah has had enough. He now asks God to just wipe the people out. He asks God to not forgive them, to hand their children over to famine. It is not Jeremiah’s best moment. 

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. 

Chapter 16 - A New Exile, A New Return

There is more dire warning here, more talk of judgment, more death. It is true that it can be difficult to read some parts of the Bible. In Christian faith we get through often because we can read with the truth and person of Jesus in mind. It is in Jesus that the love of God is fully revealed. It is in Jesus that the pathos of God is answered, completed and relieved.  
In the book of Jeremiah it is stark.  
Here, in this chapter, we see God again speaking words of warning and judgment, but there is also talk of a new exile and a new exodus. Warning warning warning, that the people will be thrown into a foreign land not their own, but foretelling of a return that will be remembered as a new exodus, a return from exile.  

Dear God; Show me how the fullness of sin, judgment, forgiveness and redemption are realized in Jesus Christ. Forgive me my sin and lead me in the way of love. In Jesus’ name.  Amen. 

Jeremiah 16: 19 “O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in day of trouble.” 

Chapter 15 – Even if Moses and Samuel were to Intercede

In the book of Job there is a foretelling of Jesus Christ, in fact there are many. Job laments his circumstance and longs for an intercessor. Job’s cry is to present his case before God and he says, “if only there was someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together.”  

In Jeremiah 15 it is not the people thinking about intercession, it is God and God is saying that even if Moses and Samuel were to intercede, he would not listen. 
There is a back and forth in this chapter. As in previous chapters there is a lot of talk of judgment. Then you can hear the voice of Jeremiah pleading before God. Then you can hear God again saying that he is with Jeremiah. Then you hear the refrain of mercy as God says that he will bless if the people return to him. 
Be careful about thinking that the Bible is filled with clear lines. You won’t find them in many places. Is God pronouncing judgment here? Of course, he is. However, there is also hope and there is pathos within God himself. 

Oh that we had a mediator, an intercessor who could bring us together.  

Come, Lord Jesus.  
Amen. 

Chapter 14 - Drought, Sword and Now Pestilence (Pandemic)

Imagine a circumstance in which leaders of a nation, political leaders and religious leaders, try to get the people to believe that though things are falling apart, everything is mostly okay. Imagine that people are dying, that things are getting worse, not better, but that the leaders are intent upon holding on to power by convincing the people that the danger in the land is not terribly significant. 

There you have Jeremiah 14. 
The chapter refers to famine and the sword. This is a poetic way of saying that the economy will dry up and the nation will be ravaged by other nations. The sin and ignorance of the leaders and the people has reached a point where the environment has been devastated. The chapter says that the land is “betrayed” or in the NIV the land is “cracked” and dry and useless. 

However, even as pestilence begins to come over the land, the leaders tell the people that there is really nothing to worry about. 

God calls them false leaders, worthless shepherds.  Hmmn. I think it might not be a stretch to imagine vacant leadership like that.

Chapter 13 - Things Get Even Tougher to Take

Many of us have lived most of our lives in relative comfort and security. This past number of months may have been the first time we have seen how quickly things can come apart for a country, for the world. Even if we have done well as a province, as a nation, the pandemic has demonstrated how thin the thread is that seems to hold everything together. 

What might it look like if everything came apart? 
Take a look at Jeremiah 13. This is a weird chapter. If you have read other prophetic books of scripture, say for instance, Ezekiel, you will know that these odd object lessons are occasionally taken up by God. In this case God tells Jeremiah to buy a loincloth. Jeremiah does so. Then God tells Jeremiah to wear the loincloth. Jeremiah does so. Then God tells Jeremiah to take the loincloth off and go hide it, bury it in between rocks in the desert. Jeremiah does so. Sometime later God tells Jeremiah to go dig up the loincloth. Jeremiah does this as well. 
And then God tells Jeremiah to notice that the loincloth is soiled and really not good for anything in such a state. And then God says that the loincloth is like the people. Okay. 
There is intimacy in this metaphor. It’s a bit much to take actually, but God is saying that the people were that close, that intimate to him and now things are just terrible. 
There are more tough metaphors in the chapter. God warns of coming defeat and exile and says that the people have “lifted their skirts”. He then says that he himself will “lift your skirts above your face”. 

I can barely read stuff like this. 
And then the last verse; “How long will it be before you are made clean.” 

Then I pray, 
Dear Lord Jesus; 
Let me see you, even in this passage. I hear David’s prayer, 
“Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” 

Amen 

Chapter 12 - “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?”

Take some time with this prayer that is also a poem. There is much in here. A question that exists over the ages, in almost all times and places, as Jeremiah looks around he asks God;  

“Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?”  

It can seem like that, even now. It is not the case that ALL of the treacherous thrive, but it felt like that for Jeremiah and it can feel like that now. 
Read the poem again. Let the language enter your mind/heart. 
There are so many striking and beautiful, if terrible, metaphors here. 
Describing the treacherous, Jeremiah says to God, “you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.” 
Have you noticed that, that some people love to talk about God? It is not always the case, but sometimes those who speak about God the most (near in their mouth) can seem to reflect his character the least (far from their heart). 

After Jeremiah’s prayer, God responds and it is beautiful, but not easy to hear. 
“If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with the horses?” 
Jeremiah is being told that he doesn’t know the half of it and he has not seen anything yet.  

And again God says that he will leave the people to destruction. And again God says that he will not allow them to be entirely destroyed. 

Read the poem again. Hear the word of the Lord. 

Chapter 11 - If God Didn’t Listen

This chapter focusses on the covenant. God has made promises to the people and he has called the people to hear his voice and enter into the covenant. Here, we see that they have turned away. They have forgotten the covenant and they have failed to follow. In verse 11 there is one of the most devastating lines in all of the Bible. It is from God to the people. He had promised to bless. He had promised to hear, but now the people have turned away and God says the following,  “Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them.” 

This is not the end of the story. The pain that God feels all through this book, as demonstrated in Jeremiah himself, is that God never turns away, God never breaks covenant. Thought the people are unfaithful, God remains faithful. 

The rest of the chapter has echoes prefigurings of Jesus himself; one who is led to the slaughter, but by his own choice, one who intercedes for us, though here Jeremiah is told not to intercede.  

When I consider this I think of Jesus himself. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  

Dear Jesus: Help me to see how you exist in this in-between place. Help me to see, in your incarnation and in your sacrifice, the love of God who never turns away, who hears our cry. 

Chapter 10 - Idol Making

We have said that there are two repeated accusations against the people in the book of Jeremiah; idolatry and injustice. Chapter 10 focusses on idolatry, giving a poetic account of how the making and worshipping of idols is, in the words of the chapter, “stupid and foolish”. One of the voices of the prophetic tradition in religious history is that of mockery. You will see it often as a first step of resistance or dissent. Here it is God who is taking up a kind of mockery of the idolatrous practices of the people.  
To paraphrase; 
“Here is how it works. They cut down trees, actual living trees in forest, and then they cut them up and make little figures out of them, and then they decorate the figures, and then they call what they have made “god”, and then they worship the things that they have made.” 

The history of humanity is that of a people fashioning objects of worship. We make statues and celebrities and we come up with a system of exchange that places value on work, and then we worship celebrities and idols and money. If you look at it, the opulence and bravado; it is as stupid and foolish now as it was then. 
Upon reading a chapter like this I am led in prayer to ask about the gods that I have made for myself. Even religion can be an idol. We don’t have to look far to see that. Education can become an idol, home ownership can become an idol, work can become an idol. 

You make a thing, you declare it of tremendous value and then you determine your value (and that of others) by that thing itself. Life is found not in idol worship, but in relationship. 

The end of the chapter sounds like a prayer of Jeremiah. He seems to be re-describing the reasons for the terrible situation of the people. He asks God to destroy the nations that “don’t know God” as if that is the matter here. It really is not. The matter here is how the people called by God’s name have brought upon themselves destruction by worshipping things that don’t bring life.  

Dear God; Help me to see the places of idolatry in my life. I can tend to set up what seem like more acceptable objects of worship. I have known, since I became aware of your presence, that the only life that I know comes from you. Though I have known that I so easily live as if life comes from elsewhere and at times I live in fear that if I lose this thing or that thing I will not feel alive.  Thank you for your goodness, for life abundant. In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Chapter 9

This chapter contains two of the most poignant, most important passages of the book. Jeremiah’s vivid lament at the beginning of the chapter and God’s outlining of what matters in the world towards the end of the chapter. In between there is a description of what has happened to the land itself by way of the sin of the people. The land has become desolate. Birds are gone, the sound of cattle is not heard and there is weeping and wailing for the mountains. Not only have the people failed to show compassion to other people, but their stubborn selfishness has begun to lay waste to the land itself.  

Jeremiah’s lament; 

“Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.” 

God’s reminder (then and now);

 “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 boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth.” 

AMEN. 

Chapter 8 - The Summer is Ended, and We are Not Saved

“My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick within me.”  

“They don’t know their times”, “They say that they are wise and that the way of God is within them, but their scribes use pens that lie”, “They turn to their own course like a horse stupidly going towards the battle”. 

Such are the ways of the people. 
And Jeremiah, speaking the word God has given says describes their fate; 

“They shall fall among the fallen.” 
The people themselves seem to finally be hearing at least a note of the warning and they themselves say that they are doomed to perish. Jeremiah says that it will be as if God has sent serpents and adders that cannot be charmed. 

Then, now fully eight chapters in, we see Jeremiah lamenting under the weight of the word and of the pain of his people. 
“My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick within me.” 
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved.” 
“For the wound of my people is my heart wounded.” 
“I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.” 

We will see, in this book, that the word of the Lord is conveyed by Jeremiah not even most strongly in words, but in his mourning and in his pain. Jeremiah is a mediator, standing between the holiness of God and the failure of the people. Jeremiah shows us that it is in fact God’s heart that breaks. Jeremiah, in this, prefigures Jesus Christ. 

Dear God; The words of Jeremiah in sorrow for the people are almost too much to take. But I hear them over the world still. Even in this pandemic time. We so often think that nothing bad will happen to us, not in our time. We think that whatever pain we might encounter will be quickly gone. I hear Jeremiah’s words, “the harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved”. A few weeks becomes five months, seasons change and we still are not assured that everything is okay. I ask you, Heavenly Father, to show me that your heart breaks over our sin. We treat each other so callously. We fail to see the humanity in other people, particularly people who are different than us.  Grant that I would hear Jesus himself weeping over the city and over the world. Let me know the hope that is in Christ. Amen. 

As side note, a comment on the text, notice the powerful poetry of the book.  
In Jeremiah’s lament there are poetic devices that emphasize the sorrow.  
Verses 18 and 20, holding the lament together both have a three part structure (joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick within me) and (harvest past, summer ended, we are not saved). The language, though utterly sorrowful, has a tempo to it that helps us to see it and feel it. 

Chapters 6 and 7 - Caring for the Needy

It can be tough to be told what we have done, what we are doing, is wrong. 
Each of us (excepting sociopaths) know what it feels like to called to account for wrong we have done. There can be an accompanying feeling of being upset at ourselves. This can lead us at times to lash out at those who are reminding us of our misdeeds, our coldness, our failure to do right. 
As I read through Jeremiah I get a bit weary of God over and over again reminding people of their sin, the wrong that they have done. Chapters 6 and 7 are more of this. Chapter 6 is basically a description of the total collapse and loss that will occur because of the wrongdoing of the people. A nation will defeat them and lay waste to everything and everyone. There is a note through the chapter that will be a repeated refrain in the book. God tells the people that he hates their religion. He reminds them that they have taken advantage of the poor, that they have acted unjustly, but that they have then taken up practices of religion and worship as if they are blessed by God. 
This is one of the most sickening aspects of what we read in Jeremiah. The people who had been delivered and blessed by God were now oppressing other people, but they were at the same time claiming that God was with them, that they somehow mattered God more than others mattered to God. This is part of what is meant by “Royal Temple Theology”. In chapter 7 God actually says through Jeremiah that the people keep saying, “Temple Temple Temple” as if their religion, allowed them to practice injustice without consequence. 
We mentioned, as be began this summer in Jeremiah, that we ought to consider how we submit our life, our current circumstance to scripture. We said that this is more important than the question of “application”.  
The twofold indictment of God against the people is that they have become idolatrous and that they have not treated the poor and the needy and the refugee with justice. 
Chapter 7 verse 5 and following; 

“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner (refugee), the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers.” 

No doubt the voices of leadership at the time were saying that God was with them and that the people to be feared were the foreigners. Their own wealth, false gods and national ideology had become idols but they still claimed that God was with them more than God was with others. They still claimed to have moral authority. They did not. And God was saying so through Jeremiah. 
Is it possible that as God hated the religious gatherings of the people back then, he might just hate some of the religious gatherings of today? 

Chapter 5 - Injustice

In this chapter a search is undertaken. God sends a search looking for even one person who does justice and seeks truth. 
None can be found. 
More metaphors next, “a lion shall strike them down, a wolf shall devastate them, a leopard is stalking and will tear people apart”. 
Idolatry is again described, but then the chapter focuses on injustice. 
”They judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper and they do not defend the rights of the needy.” 
The agent of the oncoming devastation is introduced. There will be a nation from the north who will come and “eat up your harvest and eat up your sons and daughters.” Yet even then,”, God says, “I will not make a full end of you.”  
The people may have broken covenant, but God has not. God will not forget those who have been victimized, but God will not utterly destroy even those who have turned away.

Chapter 4 - God in Anguish

There is a lot at stake in the book of Jeremiah. Reading it brings you warning, description of terror and devastating loss. Depicting such warning and loss requires the employment of metaphor after metaphor. In chapter 4, “break up the fallow ground, wrath like fire, a lion has gone, like chariots as a whirlwind, like keepers of a field.” 
Each metaphor can help us to see the intensity of what is being described. The metaphors refer to the sin of the people, the judgment of God, the strength of the invading nation, and the resulting loss. The book will also present, even in most warnings of impending judgment, metaphors to describe future renewal. 
What strikes me most in this chapter arrives from verses 19 and following. First, we hear of anguish. This is not, as described here, the anguish of the people. It is the anguish of God. 
Hear it again; 

“My anguish! My Anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent.” and then soon after, “My people are foolish, they know me not.” 

I read passages like this and I am moved to pray.  
Dear God, show me the love you have for this world. I have had times when I have felt my heart pounding like this. As I hear you speaking of feeling the “walls of your heart” I picture the your grief and the pain and loss and hatred in the world.  

Right after this description there is another metaphor. It comes up in verse 23 of the chapter. The world itself, creation itself, is being undone by the evil of the people. The evil is idolatry and injustice. People have failed to see God’s love and they have failed to love others. This evil has brought about a kind of reversal of creation itself. 

“I looked to the earth and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains and behold, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked and behold there was no man, and all the birds of the air had fled.”  Such powerful metaphors, God’s anguished heart and the undoing of creation itself. 

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is a scathing focus on idolatry. The metaphor used to speak of idolatry is that of sexual infidelity. Chapters like this are tough in scripture because the metaphor employed moves back and forth from a spouse unfaithful in a marriage to a child who rejects the love of a parent. It is uncomfortable to read. 
The metaphors ought not cement hierarchical thinking about relationships. They are intended to speak of the pain experienced by God as ones he loves have turned away. 
There is this refrain in the chapter. “Look up to the hills.” Here the reason is that the hills were the places where false gods were worshipped. There were altars and shrines in the hills to rain gods and storm gods. These two nations had turned away from God who loved them to these false gods. The language of infidelity is used to express the anguish felt by God. 
There is a failure, on the part of Israel and Judah to see and to know their worth. They have turned from the life-giving love of God to the worthlessness of false gods. The chapter becomes hard to read when God speaks of the nations, “playing the whore”. Such language seems misogynistic and brutal. I pray as I read such language. “Dear God, help me to see who you are by seeing the love of Jesus. Help me to see here, your broken heart over people and over the world.” 
And then; 
Even in this tough chapter, there is talk of return and blessing and future promise. After noting the pain of separation, God promises reconciliation and fulfillment. “I will give you shepherds after your own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” 

Dear God; I wrestle with this chapter. I don’t like the sounds of it. In my ear it can sound like an abusive spouse on the attack. Give me ears to hear. Help me to hear instead your love for humanity and the pain you take into yourself. In my Christian faith help me to see that judgment is exercised on the cross, in Jesus taking on the sin of all the world, even my own. I can see the pain that we cause each other in this world. We can hear the cries of mourning. Show me today what it means to trust in you and to love others. Amen. 

Chapter 2 – A Poem Full of Heartfelt Questions

Chapter 2 is all poetry. It is the utterance of Jeremiah to the people of Jerusalem. It is the word of the Lord come to Jeremiah. Here, in poetic structure is a kind of assault on the imagination, an assault that forces the seeing of failure and infidelity.
God poses questions. Who has changed their gods and turned to follow “no-gods”? Who would chase after worthlessness and in so doing become worthless? 
God is presented as a loving spouse or a caring parent. The poem is an indictment. It is a description of a relationship gone bitter. The questions keep coming. 
There are two accusations in God’s indictment on the people. First, they have turned to other gods (idolatry) and second, they have not cared for the poor and for others (selfishness).  
The picture is hard to look at. The chapter itself speaks of shame. Instead of fidelity to God, the people (vs 27) have taken a tree and said, “You are my father”.  They have taken a rock and said, “You gave me birth.” When trouble comes, and trouble is coming, where will the new gods be then?  
There is an introduction here of two other places, Egypt and Assyria. These places will come to represent the people’s attempts to hang on to what they have as best they can. Judgment is coming. Exile is coming. The people will be taken into exile in Babylon. God will be with them even there in exile. However, some of the people and some of the politicians will counsel going to Egypt in attempt to avoid Babylon. God is warning against this. 
The end of the chapter has a striking image, another poetic device. 
“You shall be put to shame by Egypt, from it you will come away with your hands on your head...” Such are the times. How could this be? How could a people lose so much that they had taken for granted as certain? 
As you read chapters like this consider the tone of the voice of God.  
God seems to be experiencing a kind of pain and loss.  If he did not care for the people, there would be no questions like those in this chapter. There will be plenty of judgment and terror in the book of Jeremiah, but the heart of it is this emotional wrenching.  
What does it mean for people to be in relationship with God? In that relationship what are the points of joy and comfort and what are the points of sorrow and pain? 

Dear God; Help me to see how I so easily turn to worthless things seeking meaning or security. Show me again today what it means to trust in you, to be grateful for your love and to seek to reflect such love. Let me recount your faithfulness and give me eyes to see the needs of others. Give me eyes to see your love for all people. I trust in you.  In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Chapter 1 - Never the Same Again

We’ll take a couple of months to read through this book, one of the longest in the Bible. It’s 52 chapters and some of those chapters are lengthy. The book speaks of the changing of the world. A whole nation of people had come to think that they could pretty much count on things staying as they were. We know what happens when a whole nation of people thinks that. We might know that change comes to those who expect no change, but we don’t often think that we ourselves will live through historical upheaval. Until now. 

Jeremiah Chapter 1 So much in here; 

We are introduced to Jeremiah himself. He is a priest. We are told where he lives. Right away we can see that Jeremiah, though he is crucial in the book, is not the main character. The main character in the book is “the word of the Lord”. This word, we are told, came to Jeremiah during the reign of three kings in the nation of Judah. Then, verse three brings about the telling of a cataclysm. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah during the reign of these three kings, until the captivity of Jerusalem. That is the thing that no one would have expected, and it is pronounced here with certainty. There is no escaping it. The world is about to change. 

At verse 4 the text moves to poetry. Allow yourself to feel this shift. Three verses of direct declaration and description, and then a turn to a poetic focus on Jeremiah and the “word of the Lord”. As you read the next 7 verses you can likely see the shift by how the words are laid out in your Bible.  Here we have God calling Jeremiah. We already know, from the first three verses, that we are set in a time of tumult and loss. Now the focus moves to one person within that chaos and more specifically to the relationship of God to that one person. Hear the words,  from God to Jeremiah;  “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,  and before you were born, I consecrated (called) you,” 

What else is there to know? God starts not with a declaration of historical events or with reference to kings and kingdoms, but with the promise and the assurance to Jeremiah that Jeremiah is KNOWN by God. You could take a moment there. What might it mean to hear that? In the chaos of our times and our days could you think about this for yourself and for others? We are each of us, known by God. Jeremiah is told that God knew him before he was formed. This is an astounding assurance. In the midst of chaos there is One simply saying, “I know” and “I know YOU”.  

Jeremiah seems to get the seriousness of this right away. Often the first human reaction to divine call is resistance. Jeremiah resists citing his youth and his perceived lack of eloquence. He is questioning why God would choose someone like him.  The next part of the interaction is telling as well. God tells Jeremiah not to be afraid of “them” because God will deliver Jeremiah.  Next, God outlines the mission. It will be with words (the word of the Lord) from the mouth of Jeremiah that nations and kingdoms will be, “plucked up, broken down, destroyed, overthrown and then built and planted”.  After this, two little visions, these are like preparatory trials for how Jeremiah will see and hear God’s word. An almond branch and a boiling pot. “Yes. You can see. Now listen and I will tell you.” God says to Jeremiah. 

And then an assurance that is both a blessing and a kind of fearsome foretelling. “Jeremiah, I will make you strong. Do not be dismayed. I will make you like an iron pillar, like a bronze wall. The very kings of Judah and all of the officials and the priests will come against you, but I will be with you.”  

Is that the kind of promise that you would like to hear? Maybe not. “God will be with you” sounds great on a lovely summer morning (like today), but when the promise includes “no matter what people do to you and no matter how powerful the opposition is” then we might begin to think, “well, what’s next then?” 

Things are about to get interesting.