Jeremiah

God bears the consequences of our sins.

God bears the consequences of our sins.

Jeremiah 52

Once again, in this chapter, we are reminded of how the residents of Judah were finally carried off into Babylon, and Jerusalem was destroyed. How depressing. And even though he was given every opportunity to change his course, I still couldn’t help but feel bad for Zedekiah, whose sons were killed right in front of him before his eyes were plucked out. That would be an awful image to have to remember for the rest of your life. It’s just another stark reminder of the evil darkness we face when we try to live life without God.

God doesn't want us to be lost at sea.

God doesn't want us to be lost at sea.

Jeremiah 51

To the Hebrew mind, the sea was associated with evil. In Isaiah 57, Isaiah wrote that the wicked were like the sea. In Psalm 89, the psalmist wrote that the raging sea was akin to the opponents of the Lord. In Revelation, the sea is pictured as the birthplace of the Satanic beast (Rev 13) and the place of the dead (Rev 20). No wonder, when John pictured the earth made new, he wrote that the sea had disappeared (Rev 21).

God's kingdom is everlasting.

God's kingdom is everlasting.

Jeremiah 50

As I read this chapter (the first of two that details the end of Babylon), I couldn’t help but ponder the fact that every single “great” kingdom of this earth hasn’t lasted. All the formidable kingdoms or empires that once conquered and ruled most of the world—the Assyrian, the Roman, the Babylonian, the British, the Egyptian, and many others—have either been totally destroyed or divested of their power.

God thinks of others.

God thinks of others.

Jeremiah 47

Because of my parent/child context on this trip through the Bible, this jumped out at me from today’s chapter: “The people will cry out; all who dwell in the land will wail at the sound of the hooves of galloping steeds, at the noise of enemy chariots and the rumble of their wheels. Parents will not turn to help their children; their hands will hang limp.” (vs 2-3)

God turns great disappointments into great expectations.

God turns great disappointments into great expectations.

Jeremiah 45

This is the short message written on the back cover of my mother’s book about suffering: “After Ken was diagnosed with a terminal illness, I knew that our life as we had planned it was over. But then God turned our crisis into a grand experience, and He can do the same thing for you.”

God reasons with us.

God reasons with us.

Jeremiah 44

Once again, the people of Israel have (1) promised to follow everything God says to a T, then (2) done the exact opposite of what He says. In our last chapter, God not only warned them that things wouldn’t go well for them if they moved to Egypt, but also promised that they would have a good life if they stayed in occupied Israel. But, the people didn’t listen. They were determined to substitute true security for perceived security.

God often says, "Wait."

God often says, "Wait."

Jeremiah 42

As a mostly impatient person, I couldn’t get over the sequence of events in this chapter. After the disturbing events of last chapter, all the people left in Israel came to Jeremiah to ask for counsel from the Lord. They were so eager to hear His word, they made an oath to obey: “Then they said to Jeremiah, ‘May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us. Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God.’” (vs 5-6)

God allows awful stuff to happen.

God allows awful stuff to happen.

Jeremiah 41

There’s just no getting around it—especially when you read a chapter like this. God allows awful stuff to happen in this world. He allows evil men and women to do evil things to innocent people for (apparently) no reason. He allows things to happen to His children that most of us think we would never allow our children to go through if we were in His shoes.

Or would we?

God is the way to freedom.

God is the way to freedom.

Jeremiah 40

I found it surprising that, after the Babylonian siege and the devastation of Jerusalem, Jeremiah was released by the commander of the Babylonian Imperial Guard to go wherever he wanted: “When the commander of the guard found Jeremiah, he said to him, ‘The Lord your God decreed this disaster for this place. And now the Lord has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him. But today I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists. Come with me to Babylon, if you like, and I will look after you; but if you do not want to, then don’t come. Look, the whole country lies before you; go wherever you please.’” (vs 2-4)

God's word is true.

God's word is true.

Jeremiah 39

So once again, we read about the fate that befell poor old Zedekiah. If only he had listened to God—perhaps he would have lived out the rest of his years with his sons in relative Babylonian comfort. Alas, the last thing he ever saw (before his eyes were gouged out) was his sons being killed by those Babylonians: “There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the nobles of Judah. Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.” (vs 6-7)

God always tries to help.

God always tries to help.

Jeremiah 38

Well, in this chapter, Jeremiah found himself stuck in the mud because people didn’t quite like what he’d been saying: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague, but whoever goes over to the Babylonians will live. They will escape with their lives; they will live.’ And this is what the Lord says: “This city will certainly be given into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.”‘” (vs 2-3)

God doesn't want you to be deceived.

God doesn't want you to be deceived.

Jeremiah 37

Poor Zedekiah. He was so deceived. He thought that making a military alliance with Pharaoh would help him. It didn’t. He thought if he asked Jeremiah to talk to God for him, he might get some good news. He didn’t. Somehow, in his mind, he thought there still might be a way out of his predicament. There wasn’t.

God can't be stopped.

God can't be stopped.

Jeremiah 36

When I was an impressionable teenager in the mid-90s, Doritos developed an advertising campaign for their tortilla chips that I still remember to this day. Maybe you remember it, too. The catchy slogan was, “Crunch all you want, we’ll make more.” I thought about that ad campaign as I read today’s chapter from Jeremiah. I could just hear God saying, “Burn all you want, I’ll make more.”

God will try anything.

God will try anything.

Jeremiah 35

I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again: what you see in the Bible at any given time is highly dependent upon your immediate context—that is, your current life’s circumstances that provide the “frame of reference” by which you relate to the world around you. For example, if you are currently a student, you may notice things about education or wisdom. If you are currently a farmer, references to planting and harvest will likely pique your curiosity.

God is a libertarian.

God is a libertarian.

Jeremiah 34

Alright, alright. I try to stay away from politics on the blog, because there is something in me that resists trying to put God into one of our many political boxes. But when I opened the Bible to my chapter for today, I was struck that yet again God is addressing the issue of freedom. This is the sixth time since we began Jeremiah that a blog is about freedom (or the power to choose), and I know there have been many other chapters that contained those issues, but I wrote about something else because I’m trying to provide some variety!