Truth and Consequences:
A study in the prophecy of Jeremiah
Lesson Sixteen (of 52): In the house of mourning
INTRODUCTION
This week we had much festivity. Sunday a wonderful wedding under a chuppah in the City and reception in Double Bay; the Jewish holiday of Purim and its commensurate joys on Thursday which you might remember was also St Patrick’s Day. Plenty of singing and wearing green and festivity. But that was what happened in the world of the calendar. In the real world of Lismore and other regional cities in New South Wales, the floods and their aftermaths continue, with blame for lack of foresight and slow response by services. And no one except the most pro-Putin Russians are thinking of gaiety in light of the bombings and deaths, the displacement and general loss of the Ukrainian people as it continues this week. Loss and death seems to increase, around the globe, in Japan after the earthquake, in parliament, and most notably across the table as you and your family struggle to make sense in a senseless world.
With that in mind, a study with the title “in the house of mourning” makes sense. Let’s read together.
1. Jeremiah is prevented (.1-9)
Verse two: God tells Jeremiah to be a bachelor. No way around this. You are destined for loneness and you AND the people around you will lose all their families, one by one, and there will be no hope. No burials. No caskets. No chevra Kadisha. Left as dung on the ground and wild animals will eat them. This is embarrassing and just plain wrong. Jewish people do not dishonour the dead. They do not shame the dead. They take care of the dead in such a quick manner that we only remember the dead as a living person. There is no wake. No viewing. Caskets are shut. But here, Jeremiah is told that dishonour is the name of the new game.
People will die by sword or famine, and they will rot. So, Jeremiah, don’t join them in merriment at Double Bay hotels. You will be an object lesson for Judah. No continuity of family. Death, death and more death.
By the way there was no word in ancient Hebrew for ‘bachelor.’ Why not? It didn’t exist. That category didn’t, due to social pressure and arranged marriages. You will hear and read about Yeshua, being 30 at the time of his public ministry beginning, and how that’s ridiculous. He had to be married by then. But, reality is, he wasn’t married. No matter what Dan Brown gave us.
Not only is Jeremiah personally prevented from marriage, but he is also prevented from attending both funerals and weddings. Funerals because there will be no actual burial, as people will be left to rot on the side of the road. And weddings because (and the phrases are repeated throughout the book) (verse 9) the voices are going to be eliminated. Kol sason, v’kol simcha, kol chatan v’kol kala. It’s as if all things normal in society, weddings and burials depicting, are removed. Jeremiah is prevented from these things and so is the Jewish people.
Verse five: I have withdrawn my peace. Hebrew is Asaf (gather) my peace. It’s as if God has had it all along and although the false prophets said that they and all the people would dwell in peace and safety, God is saying something like, you never had it, peace was gathered with me all along, and if you think you had it, I’m withdrawing it. Both a correction to the prophets of falseness and a reality check for all the people.
Don’t miss this. Verse five, “from this people.” God did not stop being the God of rachamim, but he took it away from this people who were being judged. To this day, we can still appeal to him on the basis of this triad of his character: Shalom, Chesed, Rachamim. Lean on him in tough times; look to his mercy and grace.
Eight years ago I went to a wedding and a funeral in the same week. It was St Patrick’s Day in 2014 and I was in Ireland. What a festive time celebrating the nuptials of a couple I know here in Sydney. Great music of course, and great whiskey, great golf and fun people. Easy to enjoy the festivities. Then on the flight to the USA which followed, I had the bumpiest time in my entire flying history. Finally we touched down and my emotions ran high, gladness for safety and firm footing. Also on arrival into New Jersey, I received a message from my sister that our brother had passed away, and I was immediately required to shift plans, rebooked flights to another city, accidentally forgot to collect my luggage at the carousel, and entered into grief mode in a heartbeat. That lasted for days, as Jewish people honour the dead with quick burial and enter into shiva immediately. From gladness to mourning in moments. And that all happened 8 years ago this week, and I still remember it like yesterday.
2. Jeremiah explains the situation (.10-18)
Once again the people seem confused. They ask in verse 10, “Why did this come upon us?” The most innocent people on the planet are in jail, of course, and although some really are innocent, the majority are duly captured and punished for their wrongdoing. The NCAA basketball tournament, nicknamed March Madness, began this week in the US, and every time a basketball player is called for a foul, a penalty is applied. And it seems that much of the time, the player has a look on his face of ‘What? What did I do?’ until the replay is shown and the umpire or referee is vindicated. The claim of innocence is overused, to be sure. And here the Jewish people are asking and amazingly, Jeremiah answers them.
Verse 11, your forefathers were evil and wrong. Verse 12, you were worse! When past judgments came, you should have learned both from the wrongs, the sins of your parents, and from the judgments of the past.
What’s coming? We will be hurled out, or cast out. The term is used in Jonah’s description of the storm smashing or being hurled against the ship, and also his being tossed or hurled into the sea to prevent further judgment on the mariners. That’s the energy level of God casting us away, it’s violent!
Then Jeremiah uses other images, like fishing and hunting, even banking! If the Jewish people tried to escape the ravages of judgment, we would be hunted down, like by a hunter in the forest, or like a fisherman with a net so large that not one fish would escape. It’s a picture of comprehensive inescapable capture.
Banking… that’s an unusual image. Maybe this story will help, although it’s a bit current and has a bit of whimsy.
Three guys are shipwrecked and land on a desert island. Each is religious in his own way. After they walk around the small island to discover their worrisome plight, the Catholic begins praying and sets up a small chapel with rosary beads and a cross he draws daily after the tides wash out yesterday’s drawing. He says, “I hope that helps.” The Muslim bows down on a carpet of his own clothing, five times a day, to pray and to hope that Allah will hear his fervent requests. The Jewish man is sitting quietly on a rock, reading a book he brought with him.
The Catholic says, “What are you doing? You should call on your God and ask him to assist us!”
The Muslim joins in, “You need to get serious. We won’t do this just the two of us. We all have to do something. What’s wrong with you?”
Maury says, “Look, I’ve just made a large pledge to the Jewish Relief Fund. Don’t worry; they’ll find me.”
Cute, to be sure, and fun in context, but in the context of the chapter, the bankers of chapter 16 verse 18, “will firstly repay doubly for their iniquity and their sin.” Ouch. Be sure your sin will find you out. Be sure that nothing you do in secret will not come to the light. God will reveal your sins. If you have repented earlier, then your repentance will wash away that blight; if not, when that revelation of your sins is made, your just punishment will ensue and you will be unable to escape. The choice is yours.
It's almost like the NT quote, “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Yeshua Messiah is Lord.” (Phil. 2.10). Remember God through Isaiah had said part of that as well, “I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.” (45.23)
Paul makes that ‘me’ of Isaiah into Yeshua, so that no one misses the point. My point just now is to highlight this reality. Every knee will bow. God will have the ultimate say. Everyone, no matter their previous beliefs or unbeliefs, will bow and declare Yeshua to be Lord. But that won’t make everyone everywhere into believers. It will be a regretful confession of reality by those who rejected him previously. Yes, Hitler will bow the knee to the Lord. Saddam Hussein and the most ardent of atheists in print or in your neighbourhood will bow and proclaim Yeshua is Lord. That will not get them out of eternal damnation. That will only highlight to themselves that they were wrong and judgment is deserved.
3. There is hope (.14-15, 19-21)
This chapter is not all bleak, however. And we have seen this over and over in the prophecy of this book. Listen to verses 14 and 15.
“Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.”
What a flashback of love and kindness. What a demonstration that no matter what we ruin and how far we are hurled away from God’s presence as an entire nation, that God will not abandon us. There will be others, not us, who will be restored and brought near. In the marvellous reminder of God’s powerful interventions in Egypt which we will again celebrate on Passover in a few weeks, the call here is that God will do even more. If he was known as the God who delivered the Jewish people from Egypt, buckle your seatbelts, he’s going to do exceeding abundantly beyond what we could ask or think. (Ephesians 3.20)
And if you think that’s amazing, then read the last three verses of our text. Weirsbe says, “in a burst of faith and prophetic joy, Jeremiah saw not only the gathering of the Jewish remnant but also the coming of the Gentile nations to worship the true and living God of Israel.” (page 91) So many other prophets have had this same vision including Isaiah (2.1-5, 11.10-16, 45.14) and Zechariah. (8.20-23).
The nations of the earth will come to realize their gods are not gods at all and will repent and come to the real God of heaven and earth. Note that verse 19 begins with Yahweh and verse 21 ends with his name again. It’s like a bracketed section of ‘don’t miss this!’
Look at verse 20: Can man make gods for himself? What would be the anticipated answer? “Yes, of course, they do that everywhere.” But the real answer Jeremiah gives is “they are not gods at all, not the real God.” Gentiles for Jesus—who would have thought a group like that could exist!
In a way the discipline of the nations, in coming to the faith in the Lord, is also an indictment as well on the Jewish people. This point is powerfully made by Chris Wright in his commentary.
“The pagan Abimelech teaches Abraham about truth-telling. Rahab the Canaanite turns to Israel’s God and is saved while Achan the Israelite rejects God’s commands and is destroyed. The Queen of Sheba told Solomon why the God of Israel had made him king, whereas Solomon himself quickly forgot the point. The Phoenician widow of Zarephath and the Syrian commander Naaman experience life and healing while the kings of Israel reject every word of Elijah and Elisha—a point that Yeshua made to outraged listeners one Sabbath day in Nazareth. And climactically it was a Gentile Roman soldier at the cross who recognized the truth about Jesus that Mark announces, but the Jewish leaders had utterly rejected…. It is an enduring paradox, still with us today, whenever the world exposes the failings of the church or when outright pagans seem more ready to embrace the gospel than the church is to renounce the idolatries of the world around us.”
That’s the point for each of you today. Whether you are Jewish like me or Jeremiah, or many on this zoom call, or you are a Gentile from the nations of the world, whether you are pro-Putin or don’t even know that there is a war going on in Ukraine… God loves you and wants to be your Saviour. You fall short. You need him. Receive Yeshua as your Salvador, as your messiah, as your saviour and be born again. That will change your world forever and will give you reason to share this news with others, like Jeremiah, before it’s too late for them. Share what you know; not what you don’t know. God will be well pleased.
CONCLUSION
God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life.
PRAYER
Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up.
We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 13. Until then, Shabbat shalom!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barnes, Albert, Albert Barnes’ Commentary on the Old Testament,
Craigie, Peter; Kelley, Page; Drinkard, Joel. Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah. 1991.
Henry, Matthew, Commentary.
Weirsbe, Warren. Be Decisive. David Cook Publishers, Colorado Springs 1991.
Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.
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ACTUAL TEXT
Jer. 16:1 The word of the LORD also came to me saying, 2 “You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their amothers who bear them, and their bfathers who beget them in this land: 4 “They will adie of deadly diseases, they bwill not be lamented or buried; they will be as cdung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the dbirds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth.”
Jer. 16:5 For thus says the LORD, “Do not enter a house of 1amourning, or go to lament or to console them; for I have bwithdrawn My peace from this people,” declares the LORD, “My clovingkindness and compassion. 6 “Both agreat men and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, they will not be lamented, nor will anyone bgash himself or cshave his head for them. 7 “Men will not abreak bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s father or mother. 8 “Moreover you shall anot go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.” 9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I am going to 1aeliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your time, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.
Jer. 16:10 “Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘aFor what reason has the LORD declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the LORD our God?’ 11 “Then you are to say to them, ‘It is abecause your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘and have followed bother gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law. 12 ‘You too have done evil, even amore than your forefathers; for behold, you are each one walking according to the bstubbornness of his own cevil heart, without listening to Me. 13 ‘So I will ahurl you out of this land into the bland which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will cserve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor.’
Jer. 16:14 “aTherefore behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives, who bbrought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the aland of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.
Jer. 16:16 “Behold, I am going to send for many afishermen,” declares the LORD, “and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will bhunt them cfrom every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks. 17 “aFor My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, bnor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes. 18 “I will first adoubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have bpolluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their cdetestable idols and with their abominations.”
Jer. 16:19 O LORD, my astrength and my stronghold,
And my brefuge in the day of distress,
To You the cnations will come
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but dfalsehood,
Futility and 1ethings of no profit.”
20 Can man make gods for himself?
Yet they are anot gods!
Jer. 16:21 “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know —
This time I will amake them know
My 1power and My might;
And they shall bknow that My name is the LORD.”
