Jeremiah 14
OGCREVIEW OF CHAPTER TEN
I. Facts to Master
The time when Jeremiah received this word from God (Jeremiah 14:1).
Two titles of God used in Jeremiah 14:8.
Number of times God forbids Jeremiah to pray on behalf of his people.
What would not avail to spare the people from further calamity. (Jeremiah 14:12).
The message of the false prophets (Jeremiah 14:13; Jeremiah 14:15).
The divine explanation of false prophecy (Jeremiah 14:14).
The fate of the false prophets (Jeremiah 14:15).
Two great prophetic intercessors from the past (Jeremiah 15:1).
The four fates awaiting the sinners of Judah (Jeremiah 15:2).
The four destructive agencies God has appointed over them (Jeremiah 14:3).
The one king in particular whose sin necessitated the destruction of Judah (Jeremiah 15:4).
That of which Jeremiah accused God (Jeremiah 15:18).
Three prohibitions in chapter 16.
The great event of the future which would make Israel forget the Exodus from Egypt (Jeremiah 16:14-15).
The unique figures by which the Chaldeans are described (Jeremiah 16:16).
The sin of Judah is written with the point of a _________ (Jeremiah 17:1).
Their sin was engraved upon their and the _____________ (Jeremiah 17:1).
The heart is and is exceedingly (Jeremiah 17:9).
The place where Jeremiah delivered his sermon on Sabbath observance (Jeremiah 17:19).
What they were not to do on the Sabbath (Jeremiah 17:21-22).
II. Questions to Ponder
Just how serious was the drought which occasioned the oracles in this block of material? See Jeremiah 14:2-6.
Who is responsible for the prayer in Jeremiah 14:7-9, the prophet or the people? Is it sincere? Were the people really willing to pay the price of divine blessing? What was God’s response to the prayer? See Jeremiah 14:10-12.
What is the point of the reference to the sojourner and wayfaring man in Jeremiah 14:8?
By what criteria could a false prophet be distinguished from a true prophet? How can the message of a false prophet today best be countered? See Jeremiah 14:17.
Who is praying in Jeremiah 14:19-22?
What is the mood of the prophet at this time? See Jeremiah 15:10. How does God answer Jeremiah’s complaint? Jeremiah 15:11-14.
Why does Jeremiah feel that God owes him some thing? Jeremiah 15:16-18 a.
Did Jeremiah go too far in his complaint? How does God answer His bitter and discouraged prophet? Jeremiah 15:19-21.
why was Jeremiah refused permission to marry? See Jeremiah 16:3-4. Are wives a help or hindrance to the Gospel minister?
Does God expect Christians to cease mourning for the dead (Jeremiah 16:5) and to eliminate times of rejoicing (Jeremiah 16:8)? Why these prohibitions to Jeremiah?
Is a sinner aware of his iniquity? See Jeremiah 16:10.
What is meant by recompense their iniquity and their sin double? Jeremiah 16:18.
In Jeremiah 16:19-20 Jeremiah expresses confidence that Gen tiles will eventually cast away their idols. How does God respond to that prayer in Jeremiah 16:21? Does God have a plan for the nations? Where do Christians fit into that plan?
What is my mountain in the field? Jeremiah 17:3.
In Jeremiah 17:5-8 the believer and the unbeliever are contrasted. How do they differ?
Does Jeremiah 17:9 teach total depravity?
What is the point of the proverb about riches in Jeremiah 17:11?
For what does Jeremiah pray in Jeremiah 17:12-18?
What does Jeremiah’s sermon on Sabbath observance prove as regards his attitude toward religious observances?
Jeremiah 14:1-6
CHAPTER TEN
NATIONAL DISTRESS AND PROPHETIC DISCOURAGEMENT
Jeremiah 14:1 to Jeremiah 17:27
Sometime during the ministry of Jeremiah a terrible drought or series of droughts (the Hebrew word is plural) struck Palestine (Jeremiah 14:1). This national crisis forms the background of most if not all of the materials in Chapter s 14-17. No date for the drought is given. But since in these Chapter s Judah’s punishment is still future and since no reference is made to the deportation of Jehoiachin in 597 B.C. it is likely that these events transpired in the reign of Jehoiaklm. Droughts were not uncommon in Old Testament Palestine and numerous references to them occur in the Scriptures,[200] In the Book of Deuteronomy the Lord threatens to use drought as one of the disciplinary disasters which He will bring upon His people if they are unfaithful to Him (Deuteronomy 11:10-17; Deuteronomy 28:23-24). Growing out of this crisis is a personal crisisthe second onein the ministry of Jeremiah. Chapter 17 contains a series of utterances more appropriately called Jeremiah’s sayings than Jeremiah’s sermons. Perhaps these sayings were excerpts from the preaching which Jeremiah did during the drought.
[200] Genesis 12:10; Genesis 26:1; Genesis 42:1-2; Rth 1:1; 2 Samuel 21:1; 1 Kings 8:37
I. PROPHETIC INTERCESSION Jeremiah 14:1 to Jeremiah 15:9
One of the hallmarks of a prophet is that he prayed on behalf of his people. During the time of the terrible drought (Jeremiah 14:1-6) Jeremiah prayed three times for his countrymen (Jeremiah 14:7-9; Jeremiah 14:13; Jeremiah 14:19-22). Three times God rejected the petition of his prophet, the third time emphatically so (Jeremiah 14:10-12; Jeremiah 14:14-18; Jeremiah 15:1-9). Jeremiah was to learn through this frustrating effort that intercessory prayer without prior repentance on the part of the sinners is futile and useless.
A, The Description of the Drought Jeremiah 14:1-6
TRANSLATION
(1) The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah concerning the matters of the drought. (2) Judah mourns; her gates languish. They make themselves black to the ground and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up. (3) And their nobles have sent their inferiors for water. They have come to the pits, and have not found water; their vessels return empty; they are ashamed and dejected, they cover their heads. (4) Because of the ground which is dismayedfor there is no rain in the landthe ploughmen are bewildered, they cover their head. (5) For even the doe in the field gives birth and forsakes her kid because there is no grass. (6) And the wild asses stand on the bare hills, they gasp for air like jackals; their eyes fail because there is no grass.
COMMENTS
Whether or not Jeremiah 14:2-6 are to be considered a part of Jeremiah’s prayer or a background to it is not clear. In either case these verses are a masterful description of the national plight created by the drought. This is Hebrew poetry of the first rank.
In Jeremiah 14:2 Jeremiah pictures the whole nation engaged in lamentation. Even the gates of cities are said to be participating, perhaps bemoaning the absence of those who formerly had assembled there to transact business. By heaping dust upon themselves both the people and their garments became black. This blackening of oneself was one of the customary signs of mourning in antiquity.[201] The nobles would send their inferiors (liter ally, their little ones) to the cisterns for water but they would return with empty vessels. Ashamed, dejected these servants would return to their master with heads covered as a sign of deepest mourning[202] (Jeremiah 14:3). The farmers are as confused as the nobles. The ground can no longer fulfill its function of producing fruit because of the absence of rain (Jeremiah 14:4). Even the wild animals are suffering in the drought. The tender doe is starving. Her natural affection for her young is forgotten as she desperately seeks food for herself (Jeremiah 14:5). The rough wild ass, accustomed to the harsh realities of desert life, desperately sniffs the air in an attempt to pick up the scent of water. Finally with no water and no food the animal languishes and dies (Jeremiah 14:6).
[201] See 2 Samuel 13:19; 2 Samuel 21:10; Job 2:12; Lamentation Jeremiah 2:10.
[202] 2 Samuel 15:30; 2 Samuel 19:4; Esther 6:12.
Jeremiah 14:7-12
B. The Prophet’s Intercession Rejected Jeremiah 14:7-12
TRANSLATION
(7) If our iniquities testified against us act, O LORD, for the sake of Your name; for our backsliding are many, against You we have sinned. (8) O Hope of Israel! His Savior in the time of distress! Why should You be like a stranger in the land and like a wayfaring man who has turned aside for lodging. (9) Why have You become like a man astounded, like a mighty man that cannot save? But You are in our midst, O LORD, and we are called by Your name; do not let us down. (10) Thus says the LORD to this people: Thus they love to wander! Their feet they have not refrained. Therefore the LORD takes no pleasure in them. Now He will remember their iniquity that He may punish their sins. (11) And the LORD said unto me, Do not pray for the good of this people. (12) When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they offer up burnt offerings and meal offerings I will not accept them; but with sword and famine and pestilence I am about to consume them.
COMMENTS
From his narration recounting the plight of the nation Jeremiah moves to formal intercession. He makes no excuses. He openly confesses the sin and guilt of his people. Yet he calls upon God to intervene on behalf of the drought-stricken nation for the sake of Your name (Jeremiah 14:7). He is asking God to act in His own self-interest. Should God allow His people to be done in by the drought the heathen would boast. In antiquity the esteem in which a deity was held by the world community was in direct proportion to the national well-being of the people who worshiped that deity. The thought may also be present that the Lord’s name pledges Him to be merciful toward His people even when they have sinned against Him.
The prophet still trusts in God in spite of the terrible drought. He addresses the Lord as the hope of Israel and as his (i.e., Israel’S) Savior in the time of distress. The concept of God as savior goes back to the period of the Judges when God would raise up saviors or deliverers for His people (Judges 3:9; Nehemiah 9:27). King Jehoahaz who was able to break the yoke of Aramaen oppression is also called a savior (2 Kings 13:5; 2 Kings 13:25). God is first called savior in 2 Samuel 22:3, a psalm attributed to David. The name savior was one of the favorites of the prophet Isaiah who uses it at least eight times. God in the past has proved Himself to be a savior to Israel and Jeremiah is confident that God can and will so reveal Himself again in the present crisis.
While Jeremiah believes in God’s ability to save he is unable to comprehend why the Lord delays His intervention on behalf of Israel. Two questions are directed to God both of which are in reality appeals for divine aid. (1) Why have You, Lord, become to us like a stranger or wayfaring man? (Jeremiah 14:8). One who merely passes through a country takes no active interest in the affairs of that land. It seems to Jeremiah that as far as Israel was concerned God had become a disinterested bystander, unwilling to get involved. (2) Why have you become like a mighty warrior who is dumbfounded? Jeremiah knows that God has the power to intervene; but God seems to have become like a soldier who in battle becomes terrified to the point of paralysis. The Septuagint renders the phrase like a man in a deep sleep. The point is that God has not acted on behalf of His people and Jeremiah cannot understand it. He knows that God is still in the midst of the nation. He knows that Israel still wears the name of God as His national bride. Therefore he calls upon God, Do not let us down (Jeremiah 14:9).
God’s reply to the praying prophet is straightforward and blunt. He does not deny that He has in fact abandoned His people. But He has forsaken them because they first abandoned Him. They love to wander after other gods and neither the national leaders nor the people themselves have made any effort to curb that quest for idolatry. As a result God cannot accept or countenance such a people. The Lord reminds Jeremiah of the threat he had earlier spoken concerning Israel: NOW He will remember their iniquity that He may punish their sins (Jeremiah 14:10). In view of the fact the judgment has already been decreed it is useless for Jeremiah to continue to pray for his people (Jeremiah 14:11). Nor will God be influenced by the ritualistic cries for help which might accompany the burnt offerings and meal offerings. God is not ruling out the possibility of sincere repentance for later, in the eleventh hour of the final siege, Jeremiah still holds out to the people the possibility of survival if they will only submit to the Lord. The thrust here is that God knows the heart of a man and He will not accept outward forms in place of genuine repentance. Ritual will not work any longer. God is about to consume them with war and all of its accompanying calamities (Jeremiah 14:12).
Jeremiah 14:13-18
C. The Prophet’s Second Petition Rejected Jeremiah 14:13-18
TRANSLATION
(13) And I said, Ah Lord GOD, Behold, the prophets are saying to them, You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine; for I will give you peace in this place. (14) And the LORD said unto me: Falsehood the prophets are prophesying in My name. I did not send them nor did I command them, nor did I speak unto them. A lying vision and divination and a worthless thing and the deceit of their heart they prophesy to you. (15) Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name although I did not send them and they are saying, Sword and famine shall not come upon this land: By sword and famine those prophets shall be destroyed. (16) But the people to whom they prophesied shall be cast into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword and there will be none to bury them, neither they, nor their wives, nor their sons nor their daughters; and I shall pour out upon them their evil. (17) Now tell them this word: My eyes shall drip tears night and day and they shall not cease for the virgin daughter of my people is utterly shattered, a very grievous wound. (18) If I go out to the field then behold, the slain of the sword! And if I go to the city, then behold, those who are famished with famine. For both the prophet and priest will rove about in a land they do not know.
COMMENTS
In spite of God’s refusal to hearken to his first petition Jeremiah prays again on behalf of his people. The words of the prayer itself are in the form of a complaint. He calls God’s attention to the false prophets who are deceiving and misleading the people. These influential religious leaders were saying that God will never bring the sword and famine upon Judah as predicted over and over again by Jeremiah. In their view Judah was under the special protection of God. The Lord would see to it that His people had peace. Jeremiah was concerned about these prophets and the damaging message which they brought. But Jeremiah is not merely complaining to God; in reality he is again interceding. He is placing the responsibility for the condition of the nation squarely on the shoulders of the false prophets. The implied petition of Jer 14:13 is for God to be merciful to the people as a whole in view of the fact that they have been misled by their leaders.
The Lord concurs with Jeremiah’s evaluation. The false prophets are guilty of speaking falsehood to the nation in the name of the Lord. God did not send them, command them or speak to them. They are acting strictly on their own initiative. Their visions of peace and prosperity are spurious and utterly worthless. They themselves are deceived and consequently that which they prophesy is deception. The Lord likens what these prophets are saying to divination (Jeremiah 14:14). It may well be that some of these prophets were using the methods of pagan diviners to attempt to pry into the future. On the other hand the term divination may be used here as a means of showing the emptiness and futility of the message of these men.
The Lord assures his perplexed prophet that the false prophets will be punished for the role thy have played in misleading the nation. The punishment which they experience will be most appropriate, They have said that sword and famine will not come upon the land. Therefore they shall meet their death by sword and famine (Jeremiah 14:15). But judgment will also fall upon the people of the land. Though they have been misled they are not excused from their iniquity and their sin. Those who die defending Jerusalem and those who die of the famine brought on by the siege of that city will simply be cast in the streets. No one will have the courage, inclination or strength to bury their dead bodies. The divine Judge has rejected again the appeal of Jeremiah on behalf of the people of Judah. Their evil deeds demand the outpouring of divine wrath (Jeremiah 14:16).
In view of the fact that such a dire fate awaits both the leaders and the inhabitants of Jerusalem God instructs Jeremiah to go and speak a lamentation to them. The prophet is actually warning the people through this dirge. Jeremiah describes his uncontrollable weeping over the impending destruction of the virgin daughter of my people. It is generally thought that Jerusalem is called a virgin because hitherto no enemy had completely conquered her.[203] Shortly she would suffer a grievous wound from which she would not recover (Jeremiah 14:17). Projecting himself into the not too distant future Jeremiah describes the situation that will exist when the siege of Jerusalem begins. Outside the safety of the city walls the sword of Babylon has already done its deadly work. Inside Jerusalem people are starving to death. The prophet and priest and every other leader for that matter will be forced to rove about (literally, peddle their wares) in a foreign land (Jeremiah 14:18). Some commentators connect the verb translated here to rove about with a verb in Aramaic which means to go about like a beggar. If this be the meaning then these ex-nobles will go begging their way into the unknown land.[204]
[203] Freedman, op cit., pp. 103-104.
[204] Cheyne, op cit., I, 356.
Jeremiah 14:19-22
D. Jeremiah’s Third Petition Rejected Jeremiah 14:19-22
TRANSLATION
(19) Will You completely reject Judah? Will Your soul loath Zion? Why have You smitten us when there is not healing for us? We hope for peace but there was no good and for a time of healing and behold, terror. (20) We know, O LORD, our wickedness, the iniquity of our fathers for we have sinned against You. (21) For the sake of Your name do not spurn, do not demean Your glorious throne. Remember, do not forget Your covenant with us. (22) Is there any among the vanities of the nations who can produce rain? Can the heavens give showers? Are not You He, O LORD our God? And we wait for You for You have made all these things.
COMMENTS
Twice he has had his intercession rejected by God but still Jeremiah prays. With increased fervency he asks God how He can utterly reject Judah, how He can smite Judah and provide no divine healing for the wound. Misled by the false prophets the nation was confident of peace and a time of healing. But the drought continues. Nothing appeared on the horizon but the terror that accompanies any national calamity (Jeremiah 14:19). Jeremiah readily admits the sin of the nation. They are worthy of chastisement. The iniquity of Judah stretches back over the centuries to the fathers, the early ancestors of the nation (Jeremiah 14:20).
Jeremiah cannot ask for divine mercy on the grounds that Judah has taken the first feeble steps in the right direction. Nonetheless he does make a fourfold appeal for the intervention of God. (1) He asks God not to spurn the nation for the sake of Your name. When Israel suffers humiliation, the reputation of Israel’s God also suffers in the eyes of the nations. A similar appeal was made by Moses in the earlier history of the nation (Exodus 32:11-12; Numbers 14:13-16). (2) Jeremiah then asks God not to demean, disgrace or dishonor His glorious throne, either Jerusalem (Jeremiah 3:17) or the Temple (Jeremiah 17:12; Ezekiel 43:7). According to the Old Testament the Lord dwells between the cherubim in the Temple (Isaiah 37:16; Psalms 80:1; Psalms 99:1). (3) Jeremiah urges God to remember His covenant with Israel even though the people have broken their side of that covenant (Jeremiah 14:21). (4) Jeremiah’s final basis for appeal is simply that there is no one else to whom the people of Judah can turn. None of the vanities, i.e., idols, of the nation are capable of sending the much needed rains. The heavenly bodies which were the object of worship in Mesopotamia and Canaan as well certainly could not send the rain. It is the Lord, the God of Israel Who created the heavenly bodies and Who alone controls the processes of nature. He is the only hope for the nation. Therefore Jeremiah, speaking for his sinful people, affirms we wait for You (Jeremiah 14:22).