Jeremiah 11
OGCREVIEW OF CHAPTER NINE
I. Facts to Master
The metaphorical description of Egyptian bondage (Jeremiah 11:4).
The basic stipulation of the Sinai covenant (Jeremiah 11:4; Jeremiah 11:7)
The number of the gods of Judah and Jerusalem (Jeremiah 11:13).
A striking metaphor used to describe the apostate nation (Jeremiah 11:16-17).
The Canaanite deity so popular in Judah (Jeremiah 11:13; Jeremiah 11:17).
Those who were plotting against Jeremiah (Jeremiah 11:18-21; Jeremiah 12:6).
The question which Jeremiah raises before God (Jeremiah 12:1-2).
Others who will taste of the judgment of God (Jeremiah 12:14).
That which Jeremiah is told to purchase and wear (Jeremiah 13:1).
Place to which Jeremiah was to take and hide the girdle (Jeremiah 13:4).
That with which God would fill the inhabitants of the land (Jeremiah 13:13).
Can the Ethiopian change his ____________ or the leopard his ___________ (Jeremiah 13:23)?
II. Question to Ponder
What is the background of Jer 11:1-17? To what covenant does Jeremiah refer?
What is a covenant? What kind of covenants existed in the ancient world?
Does God hear all prayers? See Jeremiah 11:11. Why are prayers sometimes unanswered? What does God think of fire escape religion?
Should we ever stop praying for lost souls? See Jeremiah 11:14
How did Jeremiah come to know of the plot of the men of Anathoth against him? See Jeremiah 11:18
Does the Bible answer the question which Jeremiah raises in Jeremiah 12:1? How does God answer him? Jeremiah 12:5-6
What is meant by the expression he shall not see our latter end? Jeremiah 12:4
Is it right for Jeremiah to pray for the destruction of his enemies? See Jeremiah 12:3 b
In what sense could Judah be referred to as My house i.e., the house of God? Jeremiah 12:7
What is the significance of the speckled bird of prey figure? Jeremiah 12:9
How does Jeremiah 12:13 show the blight of sin in the life of a nation?
Who were some of the evil neighbors against whom Jeremiah uttered prophecies? Jeremiah 12:14 See Chapter s 47-49
How can God use foreign nations to punish Israel and then punish those nations for having attacked His people? See Jeremiah 12:14
What is meant by the phrase sware by My name? What glorious future does Jeremiah see for Gentiles who are converted? Jeremiah 12:15-16
What did the new girdle which Jeremiah wore symbolize? What does the ragged girdle symbolize? Jeremiah 13:1-11
What is the background of the statement made by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 13:12? How does his audience react? How does Jeremiah use this simple truism as a point of departure for a solemn message?
Can a sinner ever drift beyond the limits of God’s compassion and pity? See Jeremiah 13:14
What is the date and background of Jer 13:18-27? Who is the queen-mother mentioned here?
On the basis of Jer 13:23 what would you say about Jeremiah’s doctrine of sin?
Jeremiah 11:1-8
CHAPTER NINE
CONSPIRACIES AGAINST GOD AND HIS PROPHET
Jeremiah 11:1 to Jeremiah 13:27
It is well nigh impossible to precisely date the discourses and activities contained in chapter 11-20. Naegelsbach feels that a date prior to the battle of Carchemish. should be assigned because of the lack of any reference to the Chaldeans. Most commentators, however, regard Jeremiah 13:18-27 as coming from the time of king Jehoiachin who reigned after the battle of Carchemish. One unit of this section, Jeremiah 14:1 to Jeremiah 17:18, originated during a time of famine which cannot be dated.
These ten Chapter s of the book contain excerpts from sermons, narratives and autobiographical elements. There are two collections of brief oracles, Jeremiah 14:1 to Jeremiah 15:9 and Jeremiah 17:1-18; and two parables, the parable of the linen girdle (Jeremiah 13:1-11) and the parable of the wine jars (Jeremiah 13:12-14). Of most interest, however, are the five confessions of Jeremiah which are contained in this section. These autobiographical glimpses into the inner thought processes of the prophet are unique in prophetic literature.
THE CONFESSIONS OF JEREMIAH
Jeremiah 11:18 to Jeremiah 12:6
The materials in Jeremiah 11:1 to Jeremiah 12:17 are related to two conspiracies. In the view of Jeremiah the people of Judah had conspired to violate the covenant which God had given at Sinai (Jeremiah 11:1-17). The prophet’s forthright preaching on this theme aroused hostility especially among the inhabitants of his home town of Anathoth. God reveals to Jeremiah that these acquaintances were conspiring to put him to death. The prophet went to his God in prayer about this matter and laid his case at the bar of divine justice (Jeremiah 11:18-23). Some time passed and the wicked schemers of Anathoth experienced no divine retribution. Jeremiah prayed again, this time calling upon God to pour out his wrath upon the wicked. God answered that prayer, but not in the way Jeremiah expected (Jeremiah 12:1-6). As the prophet wallows in self-pity he comes to realize what true pain God is experiencing because of the impending destruction of Judah, His beloved portion (Jeremiah 12:7-13). Finally, by revealing to Jeremiah the ultimate destiny of the wicked foreign nations God places the whole matter of divine judgment in proper perspective (Jeremiah 12:14-17).
I. THE PREACHING OF THE PROPHET
Jeremiah was no innovator; he was a restorer. He wanted to see the ancient Sinai covenant restored to its rightful place in the life of the people of Judah. He exhorted his people to fulfill with their covenant obligations (Jeremiah 11:1-8). Yet even as he gave forth this exhortation he came to realize that the men of Judah were conspiring to violate that covenant (Jeremiah 11:9-17).
A. Exhortation to Keep the Covenant Jeremiah 11:1-8
TRANSLATION
(1) The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD: (2) Hear the words of this covenant and speak unto the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (3) Then you shall say unto them: Thus says the LORD God of Israel: Cursed is the man who does not hear the words of this covenant (4) which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them from the land of Egypt, from the furnace of iron and said: Obey My voice and do them, according to all which I have commanded you. Then you will be My people and I will be your God; (5) in order to establish the oath which I sware to your fathers to give to them a land flowing with milk and honey as at this day. And I answered and said, Amen, O LORD. (6) And the LORD said unto me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. (7) For I earnestly testified to your fathers in the day I brought them up from the land of Egypt even unto this day (rising early and testifying): Obey my voice! (8) But they did not hearken nor did they incline their ear, but went on every man in the stubbornness of their heart. Therefore I brought against you all the words of this covenant which I commanded them to do, but they did not.
COMMENTS
The exhortation to keep the covenant of the Lord is usually dated by commentators just after 621 B.C., that crucial year when the lost law book was discovered in the Temple. Others would assign this material to the early years of king Jehoiakim. The truth of the matter is that either date remains somewhat speculative. However it is most difficult to read this paragraph and not think of the covenant recently renewed by king Josiah.
Six times in Jeremiah 11:1-8 Jeremiah calls upon the people of Judah to hear (i.e., obey) the words of the covenant. The imperative speak in Jeremiah 11:2 is plural. Jeremiah is exhorting the people to submit to the words of the covenant and then go out and convince others to do the same. The prophet is attempting to organize an evangelistic campaign to spread the word of the Lord to every inhabitant of the land. Only when preachers learn to enlist others in the task of proclamation will the Gospel make the impact which God would have it make upon this generation. It is the old covenant of Sinai which had been renewed several times in the history of God’s people that Jeremiah would have restored in his day.
Jeremiah’s message on the covenant begins on a negative note. Utilizing the language of Deuteronomy (cf. Deuteronomy 27:26) Jeremiah pronounces a curse upon any one who refuses to hear (obey) the words of the covenant (Jeremiah 11:3). The covenant to which Jeremiah alludes is that ancient covenant which God had made with the Israelites when ,He brought them forth from the land of Egypt. That trying and bitter experience of bondage in Egypt is metaphorically called the furnace of iron i.e., a furnace used for smelting iron. As the captivity of the past was a furnace of affliction even so would be the captivity of the future (Isaiah 48:10).
Two kinds of treaties or covenants were known in the ancient Near East. Parity treaties were drawn up between two parties who were equals. Vassal treaties were issued by a superior king to an inferior. The Sinai covenant was of the latter type. Man’s part in the treaty of the Great King is, in essence, obedience. Men do not bargain with God, they submit to Him. God commands and men obey. For the prophets, obedience was the fundamental duty of man. God expected Israel to heed His Voice and observe the individual commands which he had given to them. Israel’s unique relationship to God would continue only so long as the nation was obedient (Jeremiah 11:4). The land promises made to the Patriarchs were also conditional. They would continue to dwell in that land flowing with milk and honey only if they continued to be faithful to the covenant (cf. Deuteronomy 7:8 ff; Deuteronomy 8:18 ff.).
In Deuteronomy Moses instructed the children of Israel to gather at Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim in Canaan and renew the covenant with God. As the Levites pronounced certain prescribed curses upon those who were covenant breakers all the people were to respond by saying Amen. (Deuteronomy 27:11 ff.). Since God has just pronounced a curse upon those who disobey the covenant Jeremiah responds in the prescribed manner, Amen, O Lord. So be it! (Jeremiah 11:5). Amen is a formula of asseveration indicating that the statement just made is true, faithful and trustworthy. Jeremiah is ready to do what God has commanded.
Jeremiah is to travel the length and breadth of the land in preaching his message of obedience to the covenant. He is to call, cry, proclaim or perhaps read aloud these words of God in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. His object is to influence the people to obey the recently discovered law of God (Jeremiah 11:6). The message is nothing new. Over and over again, ever since the day He brought them out of Egypt, God had exhorted the children of Israel through their prophets to obey the divine voice (Jeremiah 11:7). The phrase rising early and testifying, a favorite expression of Jeremiah, means to earnestly and incessantly undertake a task. God had been very zealous in urging His people to be obedient. But the people of God did not hearken to His messengers. They continued in their own stubborn ways each man doing whatever he set his heart to do. As a result, all of the penalties for covenant breaking stipulated in the law of Moses had come upon the people (Jeremiah 11:8).
Jeremiah 11:9-17
B. Exposure of the Conspiracy Jeremiah 11:9-17
TRANSLATION
(9) And the LORD said unto me: Conspiracy is found among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (10) They have returned to the iniquities of their first fathers who refused to listen to My words, and they walked after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers. (11) Therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I am about to bring unto them a calamity which they will not be able to escape; and they will cry unto Me but I will not hearken unto them. (12) And the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall go and cry unto the gods to whom they continue to make offerings, but they shall utterly fail to save them in the time of their calamity. (13) For according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have made altars to Shame, altars for making offering to Baal. (14) But as for you, do not pray on behalf of this people and do not raise up a cry and prayer on their behalf; for I will not hear in the time of their calling unto Me, because of their calamity. (15) What business does My beloved have in My house since she commits treachery? Will a multitude (of sacrifices) and holy flesh remove (sin) from you When you do evil then you rejoice. (16) The LORD has given you the name a green olive tree, beautiful, with well-formed fruit. At the noise of great tumult He has kindled a fire against it and its branches are broken. (17) For the LORD of host, who planted you, has spoken evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and Judah, which they have committed to their own harm in order to provoke Me by offering to the Baal.
COMMENTS
Sin is treason against the heavenly King! The people of Judah are accused of national conspiracy to renounce their allegiance to the Lord. This is not a cloak and dagger conspiracy carried on in secret but an open and evident revolt against God. The men of Judah were encouraging one another to engage in apostasy and idolatry and this in the eyes of God constituted a conspiracy (Jeremiah 11:9). For awhile under the influence of the godly king Josiah the men of Judah had discontinued the sin of their fathers; but now, says the prophet, they have returned to the sins of their first fathers, the Israelites of the wilderness period and the period of the Judges. Like their forefathers the present generation has walked after other gods to serve them. The house of Judah as well as the house of Israel had violated the terms of the ancient covenant made at Sinai (Jeremiah 11:10). Rebellion against the crown brings inevitable punishment. In that hour of calamity the men of Judah will desperately try to call upon God but He will not be inclined to answer their prayers (Jeremiah 11:11). They shall turn in that time of crisis to the gods they have continued to worship;[193] but these man-made gods shall be powerless to save (Jeremiah 11:12). Every city had its tutelary deity. Altars to Shame, i.e., Baal could be found on every street of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 11:13). Like the men of Athens the population of Jerusalem was very religious. But their religiosity would not save them from the wrath of the God of judgment.
[193] The Hebrew participle suggests that even while they were crying to God they continued to make offerings to their gods.
Because of the apostate condition of the men of Judah it is useless for Jeremiah to continue to pray on their behalf. God will not hem. The Hebrew here uses a participle which implies that God will continue to refrain from hearing no matter how hard or long the people might cry unto Him (Jeremiah 11:14). Because of her adulterous apostasy God’s beloved, the nation Judah, no longer has any business in the House of God. As long as the nation continues in this treachery no amount of sacrifices will be able to remove their sin. Sacrifice without repentance and contrition is valueless. Far from feeling any remorse or shame because of their evil the people of Judah actually rejoiced in wrong doing (Jeremiah 11:15). In earlier days God had regarded Israel as beautiful green olive tree because the nation had produced the finest fruit. The olive tree is one of the most hardy and productive trees of Palestine. But that tree is now worthless. The branches are dead and unfruitful. When the tumult of battle is heard in the land the enemy soldiers will break off the branches of that tree and use them for firewood (Jeremiah 11:16). The Lord of hosts, who had planted that olive tree, has the power to also uproot it and that is just what He plans to do. The house of Israel and the house of Judah, the two branches of the olive tree, engaged in evil practices to their own hurt. They have provoked God by offering sacrifices to Baal. The Lord has therefore pronounced evil or calamity against His people. One branch, Israel, had already been destroyed by the Assyrian empire. The second branch, Judah, is about to experience the same fate at the hands of the Chaldeans.
Jeremiah 11:18-20
II. THE PLOT AGAINST THE PROPHET
Jeremiah was to suffer much during his ministry. At times his enemies almost got the best of him. But God was faithful to His promise to deliver Jeremiah from his enemies. In the present paragraph Jeremiah experiences his first personal crisis. He learns through revelation that the men of his home town are plotting against him (Jeremiah 11:18-23). These developments seem to catch Jeremiah by surprise and in great distress he cries out to God in the first of his complaints or confessions. Probably this material is to be assigned to the early years of wicked king Jehoiakim.
A. The Case Which He Presents Jeremiah 11:18-20
TRANSLATION
(18) And the LORD made known to me that I might know; then You showed me their deeds. (19) But I was like a pet lamb brought to the slaughter; and I did not know that they were plotting against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit and let us cut him off from the land of the living that his name be remembered no longer. (20) But, O LORD of host, who judges with righteousness, who tries the kidneys and heart, I will see Your vengeance upon them for I have revealed my case unto You.
COMMENTS
Jeremiah learned that the men of his home town were plotting against him through special revelation from God. God caused Jeremiah to correctly analyze and interpret the deceitful deeds of these cunning adversaries (Jeremiah 11:18). Jeremiah had never suspected that they were plotting against him. He was as unsuspecting and trusting as a lamb being led to the slaughter. As Jeremiah had been comparing Judah to a tree which God would destroy (Jeremiah 11:16-17) so the men of Anathoth contemptuously refer to Jeremiah as a tree which must be destroyed. They wish to rid themselves of that tree and its fruit. Since Jeremiah had no children, the fruit of the tree probably refers to his life work, his prophetic ministry. If they could slay Jeremiah there would be no descendant to perpetuate his name. Thus they schemed and plotted in an effort to find an opportunity to assassinate Jeremiah or have him publicly executed (Jeremiah 11:19).
Upon learning of the plot against him, Jeremiah turns immediately in prayer to God. As a petitioner before a court of law the prophet presents his case to the righteous Judge knowing that the Judge of all the earth will do right. God alone can test or try the kidneys and heart, the innermost feelings and thoughts of a man. The Lord knows that Jeremiah has been utterly sincere in his ministry. There has been no guile or bitterness in his heart. On the other hand God knows the hypocrisy and the evil intent of the men of Anathoth. Jeremiah is confident of the verdict which the righteous Judge will render in his behalf. Divine vengeance will be poured out upon the evil schemers and thus the cause of God and His prophet will be vindicated. Jeremiah has only to reveal his case to God and the just verdict will be rendered (Jeremiah 11:20). God, of course, was aware of the plight of the prophet; Jeremiah is not telling God something which He did not already know. To reveal one’s case is to publicly, formally plead one’s case before the bar of justice.
When the conspiracy against Jeremiah was exposed the men of Anathoth openly and outwardly began to threaten the life of the prophet. Only if he ceased to prophesy in the name of the Lord would his life be spared (Jeremiah 11:21). Other prophets had been threatened. Amos was ordered to leave Bethel (Amos 7:10 ff.). Elijah had to flee for his life to Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19:1-4). Some prophets had died because they fearlessly preached in the name of God. Zechariah was slain in the Temple (2 Chronicles 24:20-22) and Isaiah, according to tradition, was sawn asunder during the reign of king Manasseh. In Jeremiah’s own day a prophet by the name of Uriah, who spoke words similar to those of Jeremiah, was slain by king Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 26:20-23). The threats made by the men of Anathoth were not idle. These men meant business. From this day forward Jeremiah would be putting his life on the line every time he uttered an oracle in the name of the Lord.
Jeremiah 11:21-23
B. The Verdict Which He Receives Jeremiah 11:21-23
TRANSLATION
(21) Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth who are seeking your life, saying, Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD and you will not die at our hand; (22) therefore thus says the LORD of host: Behold, I am about to punish them! The young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters will die by the famine; (23) and they shall not have a remnant, for I will bring calamity unto the men of Anathoth, the year of their punishment.
COMMENTS
The righteous Judge was quick to render His verdict in favor of the plaintiff. Punishment is about to fall upon the inhabitants of Anathoth. The young men of military age would die by the sword of the enemy. Younger children would die in the famine which would result because of prolonged siege (Jeremiah 11:22). No remnant of those conspirators[194] would survive the calamity which God was about to bring upon the land. The year of their visitation or punishment is upon them (Jeremiah 11:23). They shall not be able to escape the ruthless armies of Nebuchadnezzar.
[194] That the threat is limited to the conspirators is indicated by the fact that some men of Anathoth did survive the exile and returned to their home city. See Ezra 2:23.