15 August

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Jeremiah 10-13

Jeremiah 10

Here begins the third movement in the commissioning of the prophet. In it the sin of idolatry is first dealt with. The prophet revealed the unutterable folly of idolatry in a powerful contrast between idols and Jehovah. He described the vanity of idols. They were the work of the hands of man. They were unable to move, but had to be carried.

In contrast, he declared the majesty of Jehovah. Continuing the contrast, he described the weakness of idols, and the might of the true and living God. The test as between idols and Jehovah he declared to be the test of creation. Gods that had not made the heavens and the earth must perish from the earth and from under the heavens. Jehovah God had made the earth and stretched out the heavens. He, therefore, was the God of power.

Once again, the prophet suggested a contrast, but it is now between the man and idolatry, and the man and Jehovah. The former becomes brutish, while the portion of Jacob is Jehovah Himself. On the sin of idolatry he then pronounced judgment. He next uttered the wail of the people, and ended by a cry of distress to Jehovah in the presence of the destruction of Jacob.

Jeremiah 11

He then proceeded to deal with the broken Covenant. There came to him from the Lord a special word commissioning him to pronounce a curse on "the man that heareth not the words of this covenant." To this command the prophet answered, "Amen, O Lord."

He was then commanded to proclaim in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the failure of the fathers, how God had warned, they had disobeyed, and God therefore had visited them with punishment. This sin of the fathers was being repeated by their sons. They were guilty of a conspiracy in turning back to other gods. Therefore, judgment was determined against them, and they were abandoned of God. The thought of the broken Covenant is carried out in the summary with which the section closes, and under the most tender figure--the marriage relationship. The beloved has no longer place in the house because she has "wrought lewdness." Therefore, Jehovah visits with punishment.

The closing part of this third movement in the process of commissioning Jeremiah is occupied with an account of how Jehovah strengthened him in view of the persecution which was already stirred against him, and of the still severer troubles awaiting him. In the present section we see him in peril among the men of his own city, Anathoth.

Jeremiah 12

Now we hear the prophet as he appealed to Jehovah to be his Defender, and. finally, we hear the divine determination. concerning his evil neighbors.

This peril was revealed to him by Jehovah. It was a plot against his life. He appealed to the Lord, and was told by the declaration of His knowledge of the plot, and of the fact that the severest punishments would be meted out to these men.

The prophet then poured out his soul in questions to God. Why is it, he asked, that the wicked prosper? "How long shall the land mourn?" Jehovah's answer indicated that the things he had seen, and the trials through which he had passed were as nothing to those which awaited him. Those to come were by comparison as horses to footmen, as the swelling of Jordan to a land of peace. Concerning His people Jehovah declared that He had forsaken them. With this statement of the case the prophet agreed. He saw the judgment, and recognized its: righteousness. Jehovah then declared that the evil neighbors of the prophet would be plucked up with Judah, but that there would yet be a way of deliverance for them, for He would visit them in compassion.

Jeremiah 13

The account of this time of communion between Jeremiah and Jehovah ends with the story of how Jehovah gave him two signs, one for himself and one for the people. That for himself was the sign of the girdle which he was to wear, then to hide by Euphrates, and then to seek in order to see its worthlessness. The significance of the sign was clearly stated to him. The girdle was the emblem of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah.

The second sign was a spoken one in the form of a proverb, "Every bottle shall be filled with wine." This he was to declare in the hearing of the people. Their obvious retort would be, "Do we not know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?" In answer he was commanded to declare that God would fill the rulers with drunkenness, and dash them one against another.

The account closes with the cry of the prophet to the people to hear, the last charge of Jehovah, which is a call to the king and queen mother, Jehoahaz and Hamutal; and an announcement of the coming judgment and its cause, the declaration of the hopelessness of the case, and a final pronouncement of doom.