Jeremiah 26:1-27:22, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18, Psalms 85:1-13, Proverbs 25:16
Today is the 15th day of October. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you. Welcome to the middle of the month. And, yeah, lunchtime today is middle of the month. So, let’s pass through it together and take the next step forward on the trail that we’re following that is leading us through the Bible this year. So, we are in the book of Jeremiah and we’ll continue that by reading the 26th and 27th chapter today. And we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week.
Commentary:
Okay. So, as we’re moving through Jeremiah today, God instructed Jeremiah the prophet to into the temple courtyard and say some things that were sure to get Jeremiah in trouble. And, so, Jeremiah’s gotta go into…and we gotta…I mean the temple isn’t in Jerusalem. It was destroyed, right? It was destroyed and well…the final…the most recent temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, by the Romans, but here in Jeremiah we’re talking about Solomon’s Temple, the temple of God, like the identity of the Hebrew people, the place where the God of Israel dwelled. I mean, this is a big deal for them. And, so, Jeremiah’s supposed to go into the temple courtyard at the temple and say, “this is what the Lord says. If you will not listen to me and obey my word I have given you, and if you will not listen to my servants the prophets, for I sent them again and again to warn you, but you would not listen to them then I will destroy this temple as I destroyed Shiloh.” And Shiloh…I mean…before there ever was a temple for 430 years, Shiloh was the place where the people went to meet with God, where the tabernacle dwelt. So…so this prophet is saying that God is gonna wipeout the place where he set His name, in Jerusalem. He said, “I will make Jerusalem an object of cursing in every nation on earth”. So, Jeremiah did obey, but he got in a bunch of trouble, which isn’t shocking. Jeremiah walked into the courtyard of the holiest site in the holiest city and foretold its destruction. So, like, yeah, like we were just saying, like everything that gave the Hebrew people their identity he’s prophesying it is going to go away and be destroyed. So, we can understand why a mob would form around this. We can understand why people would be angry and wanting to do away with Jeremiah, but why did God send Jeremiah? L why did he send him to do that? We find that out in God’s conversation with Jeremiah as He’s sending…as He’s sending him. “Perhaps they will listen and turn from their evil ways. Then I will change my mind about the disaster I’m ready to pour out on them because of their sins.” So, it’s very easy to continually read through the prophets and see the foretelling of destruction and some really, really, horrible events, and for that to subtly shift our view of our Father, of our heavenly Father. But once again we’re watching God give options through his prophets. Jeremiah’s simply stating the direction that the people were heading in and where that was gonna end up, what its outcome would be. But another reality was possible. They could repent. So, fundamentally, God sent Jeremiah into the holiest site in the holiest city to tell the people that if they would change their minds, right, repent, He would change His mind too, which is pretty huge. And as we know from the Scriptures, a mob formed, Jeremiah was in the middle of it, he was dragged before the Jewish council, a bunch of people had like a blood vendetta, they were going to execute him because he spoke against the temple. Does that not sound familiar? This is the same accusation that would be aimed at Jesus 600 years later. And, so…so, once the tempers and stuff cool down and everybody was debating about what to do with Jeremiah he eventually was released, but God was about to send him to do something just…that would be just as inflammatory. He told Jeremiah, take a yoke, put it on your neck, right? Use leather straps and hook it up to yourself and send messages to the kings of Edom, Moab, Amon, Tyre and Sidon through their ambassadors who are visiting with King Zedekiah in Jerusalem. And the message that Jeremiah was supposed to speak instructed all of those kingdoms, all of them, including Israel, to surrender to the Babylonian Empire. I mean…just…if I were there at that time hearing Jeremiah, I don’t know that I would’ve given it…like paid any attention at all because the temple was in Jerusalem. This is the place where God put his name. These were God’s chosen people. Like, they had this specific identity. To surrender to another nation was to surrender to another nations God at that time. So, God is speaking through Jeremiah that he is involved in this surrender like one way or another. Whether through conquest or surrender He is wiping the slate clean. He has had enough. And the people just cannot in any way get their minds around this. Not to mention the fact that a lot of other prophets were in complete contradiction to Jeremiah. And Jeremiah then had the opportunity toi talk to the King of Israel. “Why do you insist on dying?” Right? “And all the people with you. Why would you choose war and famine and disease which the Lord is going to bring to every nation that refuses to submit to Babylon?” And as we continue forward we’ll see that the king, he wants more clarity on this, but he cannot like…he cannot surrender his nation to Babylon, not only because he doesn’t want to give up his authority and power but because of fear of the people. Like if they’re gonna mob Jeremiah for going into the temple complex and prophesying that people should surrender what are they gonna do to a king who does surrender? Like this is not a good situation. And, so, you know, as we read today, Jeremiah’s prophecies and his pleading didn’t work. And we can see why. It’s no small thing for a nation to surrender and be assimilated into another nation or an empire. And as we know, Babylon did conquer and did destroy the land and the people were exiled, which…which is going to bring us to perhaps the most famous verse in the whole Bible, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
Prayer:
Father we have some context for the things that will be said tomorrow, and we have some context for what’s happening in the prophet’s lifetime. We can see just how difficult the situation was. And, so, we find ourselves often in difficult situations to navigate as well. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit that we might see the counterintuitive ways of Your kingdom in our lives. Come Holy Spirit, we pray into all of this in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.
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