Trust Issues 15 Lord, you understand;    remember me and care for me.    Avenge me on my persecutors.You are long-suffering—do not take me away;    think of how I suffer reproach for your sake.16 When your words came, I ate them;    they were my joy and my heart’s delight,for I bear your name,    Lord God Almighty.17 I never sat in the company of revelers,    never made merry with them;I sat alone because your hand was on me    and you had filled me with indignation.18 Why is my pain unending    and my wound grievous and incurable?You are to me like a deceptive brook    like a spring that fails. Jeremiah 15:15-18 Have you ever felt like God cannot be trusted? It […]

Mixed Messages 13 But I said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! The prophets keep telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”14 Then the Lord said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. Jeremiah 14:13-14 What do you do when you hear competing messages? Jeremiah has been proclaiming destruction while other so-called prophets have been exclaiming good times are ahead. Who would you believe? I think it’s easier to listen to […]

Ruined This chapter opens with the Lord instructing Jeremiah to perform a symbolic action. He is instructed to buy a linen belt (or waistband or loincloth – depends on your translation: something tied/wrapped around the waist). Next, he is instructed to hide it at the Euphrates. An alternative reading is to hide it at Perath, which is the name of a place just 3.5 miles from Jeremiah’s town of Anathoth. The Euphrates River, on the other hand, is 700 miles away. I think the closer location makes more contextual sense. When Jeremiah returns later, it is ruined. The Lord responds […]

Feeling the Heat Jeremiah complains to the Lord how the wicked prosper, yet he suffers for obeying God. The Lord answers him with less than encouraging words: “If you have raced with men on foot    and they have worn you out,    how can you compete with horses?If you stumble in safe country,    how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan? Your relatives, members of your own family—    even they have betrayed you;    they have raised a loud cry against you.Do not trust them,    though they speak well of you. Jeremiah 12:5-6 If Jeremiah thought life had been hard so far, it was only going to get harder […]

Good and Bad From the time I brought your ancestors up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, “Obey me.” But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep. … Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. Jeremiah 11:7-8, 11 I’ve been mentioning little-used Hebrew words in my recent posts. Today I’m going to […]

No Sense There’s a word repeated three times in this chapter that rarely occurs elsewhere in the Bible: “senseless” (NIV) or “stupid” (ESV). (See Jeremiah 10:8, 14, 21) This Hebrew verb (בער) can be translated in its noun form as cattle or livestock (ex: Number 20:4). I interpret this to mean that it describes how these animals act. “You’re acting like a dumb animal!” doesn’t sound like a compliment. Jeremiah compares idols to “a scarecrow in a cucumber patch” (Jeremiah 10:5). They can’t walk or talk or do anything. Is that worth dedicating one’s allegiance? Wouldn’t it make more sense […]

Refinery Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says:“See, I will refine and test them,    for what else can I do    because of the sin of my people? Jeremiah 9:7 The words “refine” (tzaraf) and “test” (bachan) are metallurgy terms. They are each used a couple dozen times. Another example of them being paired together: For you, God, tested [bachan] us;    you refined [tzaraf] us like silver. Psalm 66:10 Refining ore involves melting it down. The impurities are burned off. Rock or other substance is separated from it. Then its quality is tested. There are other words translated “test” (nisa, like when God tested Abraham in Genesis 22) […]

Leftovers There’s one word that caught my attention in the Hebrew in this week. Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, declares the Lord Almighty. Jeremiah 8:3 I want to focus on the word translated “survivors”. Strangely, it’s two words in Hebrew which could be translated “the remnant [that] is remaining”. They are different forms of the same word, which feels redundant. The Hebrew word שְּׁאֵרִית֙ (she’arit; noun form) means that which remains or is left (over). The same root word is used in Isaiah 7:3 for the name of Isaiah’s son, Shear-Jashub, which means, […]