seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Jeremiah 16:1 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For this is what the Lord says about the sons and daughters born in this land and about the women who are their mothers and the men who are their fathers: 4 “They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like dung lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.”
5 For this is what the Lord says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,” declares the Lord. 6 “Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut themselves or shave their head for the dead. 7 No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead—not even for a father or a mother—nor will anyone give them a drink to console them.
8 “And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink. 9 For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this place.
10 “When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. 12 But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. 13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
14 “However, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 15 but it will be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.
16 “But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. 17 My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. 18 I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”
19 Lord, my strength and my fortress,
my refuge in time of distress,
to you the nations will come
from the ends of the earth and say,
“Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods,
worthless idols that did them no good.
20 Do people make their own gods?
Yes, but they are not gods!”
my refuge in time of distress,
to you the nations will come
from the ends of the earth and say,
“Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods,
worthless idols that did them no good.
20 Do people make their own gods?
Yes, but they are not gods!”
21 “Therefore I will teach them—
this time I will teach them
my power and might.
Then they will know
that my name is the Lord.
this time I will teach them
my power and might.
Then they will know
that my name is the Lord.
In the beginning of the book.... way back in Genesis..... God said.... "I'm a jealous God...... I want all your attention". Stupid humans had just melted down all their jewelry and fabricated a metal cow to dance around when Moses passed that message to them. Stupid humans were messing things up right out of the gate.... first in Eden... then at the base of the mountain where Moses was meeting with God. Moses made a treaty with God..... then those stupid humans went and broke that agreement....not once.... not twice.... but over and over and over and over and over.
Bible-studys.org was almost at the top of the list this morning.
To vividly portray Judah’s coming distress, the Lord commanded Jeremiah not to marry or have children. The Lord often used the marriages and families of the prophets to teach important lessons to the people (Isa. chapters 7-8; Ezek. chapter 24 and Hosea chapters 1-3)
Jeremiah was not to attend funerals or mourn for the dead. These were important social customs, but the dead were not to be mourned because their deaths were the judgment of God. The Lord had withdrawn His love and mercy from the people.
It would also be inappropriate for Jeremiah to attend feasts and celebrations during a time of national calamity.
“Wherefore hath the Lord…?” Jeremiah was to explain the reason for the judgment, i.e., their forsaking God and worshiping false gods. They would get their fill of idols in Babylon.
God includes a reassuring hope to Jeremiah. After Judah has paid for its sins and the divine purposes have been realized, God will regather His people to the land in a deliverance from the nations that surpasses that of Israel’s redemption from Egypt”. Nevertheless, Judah must first be judged.
The Lord’s deliverance of His people would be like a second Exodus. This Exodus would be even greater than the first because the Lord would rescue His people out of captivity from many nations.
“Shall no more be said”: In view of the Lord’s promise of restoration from Babylon, the proof of God’s redemptive power and faithfulness in the deliverance from Egypt would give way to a greater demonstration in the deliverance of His people from Babylon. That bondage was to be so severe that deliverance from Babylon was a greater relief than from Egypt.
¨God’s “name” will be vindicated and the “Gentiles” may even come to “know” him as “Lord”.
The result of God’s judgment on the Jews will be the end of idolatry. Even some Gentiles, witnessing the severity, will renounce idols. After the return from Babylon, this was partly fulfilled as the Jews entirely and permanently renounced idols, and many Gentiles turned from their idols to Jehovah. However, the complete fulfillment will come in the final restoration of Israel.
So back in Exodus.... there were over 2 million people.... they had a huge smoky tornado that led their way during the day. That same huge tornado turned into a light at night.... so they could travel. There clothes didn't get old and their shoes didn't wear out.... even though they walked around the desert for over 40 years..... nomads..... who hadn't seen their real home in their own lifetime..... they were marched from Egypt to Israel.... the longest way possible.... meandering even..... when countries around them shut their borders to them.... fearing their shear numbers.... they had to go around rather than straight thru.
I think these verses are saying "Jeremiah.... tell the people it's going to be a much worse march than the time I arranged the release of the descendants of Jacob [Israel] from that little pharoah who thought he was god. When I bring those descendants of Jacob [Israel] back to Jerusalem.... it'll be a much bigger deal than when pharoah had to go through all those plagues."
This is from the easy English site.
People would ask Jeremiah why the LORD had ordered such great trouble for them. They said that they were innocent. They had not done any wrong things. But they were avoiding the truth. They had sinned so much for a long time. So they did not see their wicked behaviour. Malachi also wrote about people who were very wicked. They did not understand why the LORD was angry with them (Malachi 2:17; 3:8). But their*ancestors were not continuing to worship the LORD. They were not obeying his laws. But in Jeremiah's time, the people were more wicked than their ancestors. They did not obey the LORD. Instead, they decided to do whatever they wanted to do. So the LORD would send them into a country that they did not know. There they would serve false gods all the time. The LORD would not be kind to the people. The Greek translation of this verse suggests that the foreign false gods would show no kindness to their prisoners.
The enemy would be like men who catch fish. The enemy would catch the people in Judah. In Amos 4:2, Amos had described how the Assyrians would take away the people in Israel with fish hooks (bent pieces of metal). That happened when the Assyrians led people away with hooks through their noses. Habbakuk also used that kind of description. He described that the enemy pulled people from the sea as if they were fish (Habbakuk 1:14-15). The enemy would also be like hunters. They would find the people wherever they might hide. Mountains and caves would not be safe places. Certainly, the enemy would find the people.
Yesterday.... on the news.... they were showing a street in a city in Syria in the news. There were dead bodies everywhere.... not side by side.... or stacked.... simply slain.... It seems that there were a dozen bodies in that street that I could count in the picture.... in a city block. The bodies were laying in little pools of blood.... other people were walking around [obviously taking pictures] but no one was laying over any of those bodies.... they were new kills I guess. There had been a warning.... "What you are about to see is graphic"..... but I wasn't ready for that... And.... this is not the Day of Disaster that Jeremiah described.... although for the people involved.... this was a day of disaster.... but the Day of Disaster was worse...... corpses were removed from this scene.... mourned and buried..... eventually.... but, according to what God told Jeremiah, the real Day of Disaster... [with 2 (not one but two) capital D's].... when the army from Babylon came to pull the descendants of Jacob [Israel] out of Jerusalem.... there would be no one left to bury the dead.... and the people who would have mourned them.... had been raped, castrated and enslaved.... they were force marched for months.... they were in no condition to think about the ones back in Jerusalem..... their situation was so bad... they couldn't mourn... they could only survive.IMHO.... humans really can't wrap their brains around God getting mad. The natural disasters God uses so well.... have been renamed..... now people say "Don't mess with mother nature". Even the Bible... the book we use to understand God a little better..... has been slandered. Just a collection of stories.... according to the naysayers..... written by a bunch of monks after the church told them what to include and what to exclude..... they say.
When God led more than 2,000,000 fugitives across the desert to Canaan..... Before God led those humans out of Egypt.... there were horrible plagues.... and every non-believer lost their firstborn.... be it human or animal.....
When God had the Babylonians invade Jerusalem.... and the humans were dragged for four months across the desert to Babylon.... humans were raped, castrated, or murdered..... their children were murdered and left for the birds..... so they wouldn't grow up to be soldiers.....
It wasn't a pretty site.
