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One-sentence summary: Jeremiah prophesies "doom and gloom" to the people who have forsaken the Lord.
The Lord speaks to Jeremiah over the droughts. Judah languishes and Jerusalem cries because there is no water. They are ashamed because there is no rain. Jeremiah asks the Lord to do it for His name's sake, though their iniquities testify against them. He says their backslidings are many, and they have sinned against the Lord. He calls the Lord the hope of Israel and their Savior in time of trouble. The Lord is in their midst, and they are called by His name. The Lord answers that the people have loved to wander and have not restrained their feet. He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. He tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people for their good. He will not hear their fasts or accept their sacrifices but consume them by sword, famine, and pestilence. Jeremiah answers that their prophets are prophesying peace. The Lord says they are prophesying lies in His name, and He has not sent them; it is divination and worthless and comes from the deceit of their hearts. So the Lord says that by sword and famine they will be consumed, and those to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem; when they die, no one will bury them. The Lord tells Jeremiah to say, "Let my eyes flow with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been broken..." The dead and sick are everywhere. Jeremiah asks if the Lord has utterly rejected Judah and hated Zion, and why He has stricken them so that there is no healing. They looked for peace but there was no good, for a time of healing, but only found trouble. Jeremiah repents for the people before the Lord and asks Him not to break His covenant. He says no idol can cause rain, and neither can the heavens. He says they will wait for the Lord.
The Lord responds that even if Moses and Samuel stood before Him, He would not look with favor on His people. He tells Jeremiah to cast them out of His sight and to go forth. If they ask where they should go, he is to say, "Such as are for death, to death, such as are for the sword, to the sword... for famine, to famine, and... for captivity, to captivity." The Lord says He will appoint the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, and the birds and beasts to devour and destroy. He will hand them over to trouble and to the kingdoms of the earth, because of King Manesseh of Judah's wickedness in Jerusalem. He asks who will have pity on Jerusalem. "Who will turn aside to ask how you are doing? You have forsaken Me. You have gone backward," He says. Therefore, the Lord will stretch out His hand against them to destroy them. He says He is tired of relenting and will destroy His own people, since they do not return from their ways. Anguish and terror will fall on them suddenly. Jeremiah says woe to him because his mother bore him. He declares he is a man of strife and contention to the whole earth, and everyone curses him. The Lord says it will go well with his remnant, but the Lord's anger will burn on His people. Jeremeiah asks the Lord to remember Him and take vengeance on His persecutors. He says for the Lord's sake, he has suffered rebuke. He says to the Lord, "Your words were found, and I ate them.. they were the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by Your name." He says he did not sit with mockers but sat alone because the Lord filled him with indignation. He asks, "Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable that refuses to be healed?" The Lord answers that if they return, he will bring His people back, "if they take out the precious from the vile." He tells Jeremiah to let the people return to him but tells him not to return to them. He says that they will fight against him but not prevail because the Lord is with him to save and deliver.
The Lord tells Jeremiah not to take a wife or have children in this place, because the sons and daughters, and mothers and fathers in the land, "will die gruesome deaths" and not be buried. They will be consumed by sword and famine. The Lord tells him not to mourn for them, because the Lord has removed HIs peace, lovingkindness, and mercies from His people. He tells him neither to feast with them. The Lord says the voice of gladness will cease. When Jeremiah shows the people the words of the Lord, and they ask why the Lord has pronounced such disaster against them and what is their sin, He is to say it is because their fathers have forsaken Him and served other gods and not kept His law; they have done worse than their fathers, "following the dictates of their evil heart," and no one listens to God. They will be cast out to a land they don't know and serve other gods day and night without favor from the Lord. Jeremiah says it will no longer be said, "The Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt," but, "The Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them." The Lord says He will bring them back to the land He gave to their fathers. Many fishermen will fish them and hunters will hunt them, He says. The Lord's eyes are on all their ways, and He will repay them double for their iniquity and sin because they have defiled the Lord's land, His inheritance, by filling it with idols. Jeremiah says the Lord is His strength and fortress. He says all the Gentiles will come to Him and say that their fathers have inherited lies. The Lord says they will know HIs hand and HIs might and know that He is the Lord.
Judah's sin is engraved on their hearts, says the Lord, like iron. They will lose their heritage and serve their enemies in a foreign land. The Lord says the one who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength and departs from the Lord is cursed. He will be "like a shrub in the desert and not see good but inhabit the parched places in the wilderness." However, "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is the Lord. He will be like a tree planted by the waters. Its roots will spread out. He will not fear when heat comes. He will always yield fruit and not be anxious in the year of drought." Jeremiah says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" The Lord says, "I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind.. to give to every man according to his ways.. to the fruit of his own doings." If one does not get riches in the right way, it will leave him, and he will be a fool, the Lord says. Those who forsake the Lord will be ashamed and will be "written in the earth." They have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. Jeremiah prays, "Heal me, oh Lord, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise." The people ask where the word of the Lord is. Jeremiah says the Lord is His hope in the day of doom. The Lord tells him to stand in the gate of the people where the kings of Judah come and go and in the gates of Jerusalem and tell them to hear the words of the Lord. The Lord tells the people to take heed and not work on the Sabbath but to make it holy. He says they have not listened but have been stiff-necked. If they will hallow the Sabbath, there will be kings and princes that will sit on David's throne, and the city will remain forever. If they will not listen, however, a fire will devour their palaces, and it not be quenched.
Thoughts/discussion questions:
Our choices- that start with our thoughts and attitude- are the most powerful thing we have. A choice not to change is still a choice. We must choose to change with the Lord before He chooses for us.