Mike Blogs

God through Jeremiah has been criticizing the current government of Judah. King Josiah’s sons, and one nephew, one after the other have served themselves, remodeling the capital while misleading the people, enriching themselves through corruption and violence, and playing a losing game of shifting alliances with Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon (reread chapters 21 and 22; especially the central theme in 22:13-17). Now we are ready to read the conclusion of God’s judgment of polit

In last week’s lesson, we learned what God expects from national leaders, and it should scare some people. Specifically, God sent a message to Josiah’s sons, beginning with Shallum, aka Jehoahaz. Jehoahaz was enthroned by the people of Judah, but after a couple of months when Pharaoh Neco stopped in Jerusalem on his retreat to Egypt, he captured Jehoahaz and took him along in exile, never to be seen in Judah again. In this week’s lesson, still in Chapter 22, Pharaoh Neco ha

God is in the middle of a long sermon that he is preaching through the prophet Jeremiah. And ‘No’ God doesn’t care if you are out of church by noon. God has a lot to say about the ungodly behavior of the nation of Judah. Moreover, God places the blame for the people’s failures directly on the shoulders of the leaders of the nation. God’s understanding of what leaders should be doing is not the same as the common understanding today. What is God’s sense of the primary duties

Jeremiah’s message has been generic in the sense that he seems to address any and all kings who sit on the throne. He does follow up with some current kings and they will appear later in this sermon (next week). This sermon began back in 21:11, but like the wandering preacher that he is, Jeremiah repeats himself as we begin Chapter 22. Jeremiah 22:1-4. Thus says the LORD: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, and say: Hear the word of the LORD

No one can hide from God’s judgment. After giving a warning and a prophecy, Jeremiah under God’s direction speaks some specific words for the leaders of Judah, the remaining descendants of the house of David. Remember that somewhere in this line of descent there is a strand that will lead to Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus, who therefore is also of the house of David. The future of the house of David balances on a knife blade, one step could end the line. The stakes ar

During World War I the British army adopted the motto “For God, King and Country.” It appeared in speeches, banners, and as a patch on some uniforms. Meanwhile, German soldiers had on their belt buckle the phrase “Gott mit uns.” This war cry went back to Prussian sources and was central to the ideology inspiring the army. Assuming that the same God/Gott was implied, one wonders who’s side the Lord was on. Probably neither as they both suffered tremendous loses. As Treebeard

Jeremiah has been called by God into prophetic service that is more difficult than he imagined. Being called to preach is one thing but being called to preach to people who not only won’t listen to God’s word but also turn on the preacher is another. They didn’t tell me in seminary that it would be like this! Jeremiah says: ‘I hear what they are saying about me, the plans they are making against me, and it scares me to death’. Jeremiah 20: 10. For I hear many whispering:

Under God’s orders, Jeremiah has been persistent in preaching warnings about sinful behavior and the effect of national sin on the fortunes of the kingdom of Judah. People don’t like what he is saying. The government doesn’t like to be reminded of how corrupt they are. Even his own family gets tired of it. So, some begin to take action against the preacher. “Justice must be served,” or so they say, but that depends on who is being prosecuted, doesn’t it? Why do those who dema

Jeremiah 19: 1-2. Thus said the LORD: Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jug. Take with you some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests, and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. Cultural and Historical Context. The potter’s house is his place of business. Pottery began to appear around 12,000 years ago in Japan, then China, and finally in the Near East by about 10,000 yea

Jeremiah 18: 12. But they say, “It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will.” Now, no one would really say this to God; but people certainly act like they secretly believe this. Their behavior reveals how hard-headed and stubborn they are. They refuse to recognize their sin and admit their guilt, let alone apologize and ask for forgiveness. In fact, in our day and age, it’s just the opposite. The tenden

Jeremiah 18: 1-4. The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So, I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working on his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Have you ever watched a potter working at his or her wheel? The potter begins the way God began at creation, with a lump of cla

We have come a long way from depending on the town crier for news. Back in the day, news was announced (cried out) in the town center, then spread from house to house with some adjustments by gossipy neighbors. The medium for messages, either news or proclamations, then moved from voice to print, that is, to newspapers, pamphlets (for example, during the Revolutionary War period), and to books. Still, the news could be slanted as the term ‘the yellow press’ reminds us. N

Sometimes our prayers are driven by desire; we want something to happen and hope that God will grant our wish. Sometimes our prayers are driven by concern; we want someone that we love to be blessed in the face of a threat to health or life. And sometimes our prayers are driven by exasperation; we have been working in the Lord’s service, but no one seems to care. Worse yet, instead of believing the Bible, some cynics seem to think that showing love and compassion for others

One of the practices to begin with in good Bible study is to see what words, concepts, or themes are repeated. In this chapter, the word for ‘heart’ and ‘hearts’ is repeated. In fact, it appears 40 times in the book of Jeremiah, more than any other book of the Bible, except Psalms and Proverbs. In Jeremiah, God says that Judah is close to his heart; but Judah has not kept God in their heart. God says that Judah’s hearts need to be circumcised. This metaphor was stated earli

We learned last week that Jeremiah not only prophesied (preached) but he also performed the word of God. That is, he conformed his behavior to demonstrate the word of God; perhaps for those who were hard of hearing. That’s a joke, but too true as a metaphor. Maybe the people who refused to hear the word of God would believe it if they saw it. Here are some additional instructions for Jeremiah about how to perform as a prophet. 16: 5-9. For thus says the LORD: Do not enter th

Would you like to be a prophet? You’d better think again. There is pain there that eats up your life. Perhaps that is why the prophet Amos loudly proclaimed: “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now then, hear the word of the LORD” (Amos 7: 14-15). We know, because he told us, that Jeremiah was from a

God has had enough of Judah’s disobedience, disrespect, and bad behavior. Through Jeremiah, God has revealed a future that few will survive. Here is how events will play out for the people and their families. 15: 8-9. I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. At midday I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of their young men; suddenly I will bring down on them anguish and terror. The mother of seven will grow faint

15: 1-2. Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go! And if they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says: Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity’. Jeremiah’s sermons and the prophecies given to him directly from t

The English term ‘disinformation’ came into everyday use in the 1980s (though it has a longer history). Its origin seems to be with the KGB who used it to describe government-driven campaigns to spread false reports in order to mislead or confuse the people. The Germans under Hitler tended to use a similar term, ‘propaganda’, which has a more neutral understanding in the long history of the Catholic Church where it means to ‘spread’ or ‘propagate’ the Gospel. Disinformation

We have established that this book preserves Jeremiah’s sermons preached over 40 years (627-586 BC). [Remember that BC means Before Christ, so the years go down instead of up.] Jeremiah’s scribe Baruch recorded these sermons and arranged them in this order. We should not expect, however, that the order is strictly chronological, although most of us would use this method. Still, think of novels or even non-fiction books that begin in the middle of a story and then use flashbac