Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions!
One-sentence summary: Jeremiah prophesies disaster on the Lord's people and the nations, because they have refused to repent and have done evil.
The Lord is angry at the shepherds who scatter His flock and vows to repay them. He says He will gather His remnant and will set up true shepherds who will feed them. "And they will fear no more or be dismayed, nor will they be lacking." The Lord will raise up a King, a branch of righteousness, to execute righteousness on the earth, and Judah and Israel will be saved. He will be called The Lord Our Righteousness. Jeremiah says his heart is broken because of his unfaithful people. Even the land mourns because of the curse. The prophets are profane, and the Lord tells them they speak a vision of their own hearts and not from His mouth. They speak peace to evildoers and prophesy lies in His name. The Lord says He is near, not a God far off, and no one can hide from Him. He fills heaven and earth. The Lord says His word is like fire and a hammer. He tells Jeremiah when a priest or prophet asks what the oracle of the Lord is, Jeremiah is to respond, "What oracle?" The Lord says He will forsake His people. He tells them not to mention the oracle of the Lord again. "Every man's word will be his oracle," since they have perverted God's words. The Lord says because they keep referring to His oracle when He has told them not to, He will forget and forsake them and their city.
The Lord shows Jeremiah two baskets of figs after the king of Babylonia carries away the kings captive. The Lord asks what he sees, and he says he sees both good and bad figs. The word of the Lord says the good figs the people He will acknowledge, those He led away captive for their own good. He will look on them for good, bring them back to their land, and plant them. He will give them a heart to know Him, that He is the Lord; they will be His people, and He will be their God, because they will return with their whole heart. As the bad figs, the Lord will give up and deliver to trouble those who dwell in the land, to all the nations of the earth to their harm, to be a byword and a curse. He will send the sword, famine, and pestilence until they are consumed from the land He gave their fathers.
Of Judah, the Lord says He sent prophets to tell them to repent so they could dwell in the land forever, but they have not listened. Instead, they went after other gods and provoked the Lord by doing evil. The Lord says He will take the families of the north and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (whom He calls "[His] servant",) and the nations all around to destroy them. The land will be a "desolation and an astonishment." They will serve Babylon for 70 years, and then after that, the Lord will punish Babylon and the Chaldeans, and all Jeremiah has prophesied will come upon them. The Lord will give the nations the cup of His fury, and they will "drink and stagger and go ma"d because of the sword He sends before them. Jeremiah takes it from the Lord's hand and makes them drink of it- Jerusalem, Judah, its kings and princes, Pharaoh and his people, the land of Uz and the Philistines, Edom, Moab, and Amon, Tyre, Sidon, the coastlands, and others. The Lord says they will rise no more. If they refuse the cup, Jeremiah is to say that they will certainly drink it. The Lord says He will roar against His fold and all the people of the earth. Disaster will come to the nations, and the slain of the Lord will cover the earth.
Thoughts/discussion questions:
We can see from Scripture that the Lord is anything but passive. He is a Man of War. He fights against the proud man and the evildoer, and He fights for the poor and the oppressed, and fo all the needy of the earth.