Questions for thought:
1. When you see people who have been given many chances to come to God continue to live lives of sinfulness, do you wonder why God allows then to continue living in sin?
2. When you are trying to teach others about God, does it ever seem they are more interested in doing evil than good? Does that affect how you want to pray for them?
3. How hard would it be to continue speaking God’s word if those to whom you were speaking sought to do you harm?
In chapter 14 of Jeremiah, God came to Jeremiah once more telling him about the dearth that was to come. Beginning in verse 7 through the rest of the chapter we have Jeremiah’s three pleas to the Lord to not give up on the people. In the first plea in verses 7-10 Jeremiah confessed the sins of Judah and asked God not to leave them. God responded in verse 11 by telling Jeremiah not to pray for this people’s good because He would not hear their cry and He would not accept their offerings and sacrifices, but He was going to consume them. In verse 13 Jeremiah tried to excuse the people and he told God how it was the prophets who were telling the people they were going to have peace. In verses 14-18 God rejected this claim from Jeremiah and told him He had not sent them to prophesy but they did it on their own. Remember though in Jeremiah 5:32 God had said the people loved to have it so. Finally in 14:8-22 Jeremiah once again confesses the faults of the nation and begs God not to break His covenant with the people. In verse 22 Jeremiah praises the God of Israel.
Then in chapter 15 is God’s response to Jeremiah. He told him even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before Him, His mind would not be changed about the people. They had sinned and they would pay. In verses 11-14 God promised Jeremiah in the time of trouble it would go well with Jeremiah and the remnant. In chapter 16, Jeremiah was told by the Lord not to marry or have children because of the coming trouble. There would be no joy or gladness in the land and he did not need to bring children into such a situation. That is a bit like what Paul told the Corinthian church when he told them due to the current situation there it was good to not marry.
When Jeremiah prophesied and the people questioned him, he was to tell them the evil was coming upon them due to them having forsaken God and walked after false gods (16:10-11). But once more a promise of a remnant being allowed to return to their land is given in verses 14-15.
In chapter 17 we have another listing of the sins of Judah along with the blessings and cursings that would be theirs. They had gone into idolatry, worshipping in the groves and by the green trees. They had deceitful hearts. They had forsaken the Lord the fountain of living waters. Those who had not done so were promised blessings in verses 7-8 while those who had sinned were promised evil. Beginning in 17:19 the Lord instructed Jeremiah to call forth the people into an observance of the Sabbath Day. They were instructed concerning the rules of the Sabbath.
More signs follow in chapters 18-19. In chapter 18 the Lord told Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house. Jeremiah went and watched as the potter made a vessel. It was ruined in his hands, so he made another one. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and explained to him how the clay represented Israel and the potter represented the Lord. It was the Lord’s right to do as He chose with Israel and according to verse 8, if they chose to turn from evil and repent, He would build and plant them but if they chose to continue doing evil, He would no longer do good for them (verse 9).
Jeremiah went to tell the people what the Lord was planning but they did not want to hear Jeremiah. In 18:18 there is a plot to ignore Jeremiah. Jeremiah again asked the Lord to hearken to what was going on and take vengeance upon this evil people. The Lord then sent Jeremiah in chapter 19 to get a potter’s earthen bottle and take it with him as he continued to spread the word of doom to Israel. As he spread the word, he was to break the bottle in the sight of the men who went with him and he was to tell them the Lord of hosts would break the city as one breaks a potter’s vessel so that it cannot be made whole again.
The result of this prophecy as recorded in chapter 20 was punishment for Jeremiah. Pashur, the chief governor, had Jeremiah put into stocks which historians tell us were wooden frames where the neck, feet, and hands were clamped in to hold the body in a painful position of torture. One would expect the one suffering such pain to stop whatever he was doing when released, but instead, when Jeremiah was released the next day, he continued his prophecy of doom and included Pashur in that prophecy. He told Pashur he and his family would go into captivity and would die in Babylon.
Beginning in 20:7 Jeremiah again complains to God about the way he is being treated. He claimed in verse 7 God had persuaded him to speak and now he was being made fun of daily. In verse 9 Jeremiah revealed he had at one time decided he would not longer speak of the Lord any more, but he could not keep that plan. He said: “But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” Even with what Jeremiah knew he was going to have to suffer, he could not keep from warning the people of what was going to happen if they did not repent. How many of us are willing to be ridiculed, talked mean to and about, and even physically harmed for the cause of the Lord? Jeremiah could do it because he knew the Lord was with him (verse 11).
We leave Jeremiah at the end of chapter 20 in a sad state. He has been punished and made fun of. He is feeling deserted by God. Yet, he shows his faith in God. At the end of the chapter, he is moaning the day of his birth and wishing he had died. We will pick up with chapter 21 next time where Jeremiah is in conference with a different Pashur most likely 20 years after the events of chapter 20.
Christian Women's Responsibility in Sharing God's Word 