Jeremiah 14: 1 – 22
Entitlement?
1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts. 2 “Judah mourns, and her gates languish; They mourn for the land, and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up. 3 Their nobles have sent their lads for water; They went to the cisterns and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty; They were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads. 4 Because the ground is parched, for there was no rain in the land, the plowmen were ashamed; They covered their heads. 5 Yes, the deer also gave birth in the field, but left because there was no grass. 6 And the wild donkeys stood in the desolate heights; They sniffed at the wind like jackals; Their eyes failed because there was no grass.” 7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for Your name’s sake; For our backslidings are many, we have sinned against You. 8 O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble, why should You be like a stranger in the land, and like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night? 9 Why should You be like a man astonished, like a mighty one who cannot save? Yet You, O LORD, are in our midst, and we are called by Your name; Do not leave us! 10 Thus says the LORD to this people: “Thus they have loved to wander; They have not restrained their feet. Therefore, the LORD does not accept them; He will remember their iniquity now and punish their sins.” 11 Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good. 12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.” 13 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’?” 14 And the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart. 15 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land’— ‘By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed! 16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; they will have no one to bury them—them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters—for I will pour their wickedness on them.’ 17 “Therefore you shall say this word to them: ‘Let my eyes flow with tears night and day, and let them not cease; For the virgin daughter of my people has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow. 18 If I go out to the field, then behold, those slain with the sword! And if I enter the city, then behold, those sick from famine! Yes, both prophet and priest go about in a land they do not know.’?” 19 Have You utterly rejected Judah? Has Your soul loathed Zion? Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but there was no good; And for the time of healing, and there was trouble. 20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You. 21 Do not abhor us, for Your name’s sake; Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory. Remember, do not break Your covenant with us. 22 Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are You not He, O LORD our God? Therefore, we will wait for You, since You have made all these.
I love the word of the Lord for a variety of reasons. Here are a couple;
. His insight and truth are thrilling for me to learn and understand.
. I am convicted, and I learn what I need the Lord to help me change.
. I want to share His amazing perception with others
Like today’s scripture for instance. His word does cut through the bone and marrow. We are going to read about the Israelites gumption of informing our Holy Creator God that He should stick to His Covenant but not to have any expectation that they should do their part. Truly amazing!
If you are a parent then I am sure that at one time in your child(s) life he or she said, ‘I wasn’t asked to be born.’ As I observe families today many sons and daughters think that somehow, they are entitled to privileges.
Our Majestic Holy Father God Yahweh of course Is Great in pointing out the right response. In today’s verses I want you to keep an eye out for His loving corrections to wrong perceptions.
Our Great and Mighty God teaches the Israelites and us that a lesson should be learned from our alphabet. He informs them ‘I’ comes before ‘U’. These two letters spell out a lot. First, He Is the Great ‘I AM’. All humans need to get this straight. He Is the One ‘I’ that people need to understand. They are not to consider their being at any time as the ‘I’. If we all look to Him as the only ‘I’ we will not be so fixated on pleasing ourselves. With His Holy Spirit then we can think of helping others who are the ‘U’.
Many of today’s millenniums follow their liberal college professors who present socialism. I am not surprised for a lot of young adults accept this type of government. I like the statement that says, ‘If you have $20 dollars and a Socialist leader has a dollar, how many dollars does the Socialist think he has? The answer is the Socialist believes that all twenty-one dollars are his. Most of our kids do not have to go through the school of hard knocks to make it in their lives. We wind up covering all their expenses while they pursue their future careers. You kind of enjoy someone else picking up the tab.
Our Holy God straightens us up quick when He teaches and shows us by examples that what His is His and what yours is His also.
Another problem we get by spoiling our kids is that their expectation of privilege becomes so great and fixated in their lives that anything of hardship causes them to feel depressed and oppressed.
You must not love them to provide whatever they want and whenever they want it. If you do not co-sign for a new sports car for them then you must not really love them.
As a preliminary warning of what is coming YHWH sends a great drought on Judah with the result that the cisterns are empty, the springs are dry, the pastures are bare, and the ground is parched and cracked. Of course according to their then current theology it was Baal who should have ensured the supplies of rain as a result of their ritual antics before him, for he was the god of rain and storm, but they recognize that he had failed them, and that in such circumstances there was only one final port of call and that was to YHWH. Recognizing it for what it was, a judgment from YHWH because of their sins the people cry to Him in a well-rehearsed ritual only to discover that this time He has no intention of responding because He is sick of their wandering. In view of His past mercies it is an unexpected warning shot across their bows. Like so many they had always been confident that in the last analysis they would be able to persuade YHWH to help them even if they had rather neglected the covenant. Had He not done so in the past time and again? Now was the time for them to be pulled up short and to learn that even YHWH’s patience had its limits.
1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts.
The plural for ‘droughts’ suggests that there had been a series of droughts, probably over a number of years. Such droughts did occur in Canaan from time to time and their effects could be devastating. In the days of Joseph there had been one lasting for seven years, which had caused the move to Egypt. In the days of David there was one that lasted for three years (2 Samuel 21.1) which caused great distress. In the days of Elijah there was one that lasted for three and a half years (1 Kings 17-18). Thus while, thankfully, comparatively rare, such severe droughts were not unknown.
Unlike Egypt with the Nile, and Mesopotamia with its great rivers, Judah and the surrounding countries very much depended on the rains for its water (and therefore on the God of Heaven - Leviticus 26.4). When the rains were normal water was reasonably plentiful, but when the rains were sparse then the land suffered. Thus a period of two or three years when water was really scarce could bring the land to its knees. Reserves would soon be used up, cisterns would be drunk dry and the land would soon become barren. Water would be at a premium. That was the situation being described here.
2 “Judah mourns, and her gates languish; They mourn for the land, and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.
Jeremiah draws a vivid picture of the feelings of the population as they saw their land withering around them and struggled to find enough water for their families, while the hot sun continued to beat down. Judah was in mourning. Those who sat in the gates, the elders responsible for the cities and towns, were anxious and troubled. They had clothed themselves in black as a sign of their distress, whilst from the whole of Jerusalem a plaintive cry went up, ‘for pity’s sake send us rain’.
3 Their nobles have sent their lads for water; They went to the cisterns and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty; They were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads.
Even the large and wealthy households were without water. They sent their servants to their large cisterns, but they found no water there, and came back with their vessels empty, ashamed and confounded, and with their heads covered as a sign of their distress.
4 Because the ground is parched, for there was no rain in the land, the plowmen were ashamed; They covered their heads.
It was not only the lowly servants who had to cover their heads in distress. The ground was cracked there was no rain on it, and the ploughmen thus ploughed in vain, also ashamed because they were producing no food for their dependants, and they too were covering their heads in distress. There was distress throughout the land in both town and countryside.
5 Yes, the deer also gave birth in the field, but left because there was no grass.
The droughts were such that even the hinds, famous for their motherly instinct, abandoned their new born calves because there was no grass, and therefore no milk for their calves.
6 And the wild donkeys stood in the desolate heights; They sniffed at the wind like jackals; Their eyes failed because there was no grass.”
And it was no better in the wild. The wild asses standing on the heights in the burning sun were desperate for air and panted as though they were jackals. In the burning sun they were becoming dehydrated, weak and feeble, with their sight failing, because there was no vegetation.
Thus the whole land was affected and the situation was becoming desperate. All their efforts to make the gods concerned about their problems had failed and so at last they began again to think about YHWH.
Things had come to such a pass with the effects of the droughts that the people began to visit the Temple in droves and call on YHWH. Of course, it had not been so to begin with. They had initially engaged in their usual antics in the high places on the mountains and in the cities, offering incense and seeking to stimulate the gods with their sexual activities, being confident that they would receive a response. But year after year no answer had come. The drought had continued, and at length they were brought to realise that this must be YHWH’s doing. That was why they now turned to YHWH, and why He was so sickened by their approach. For He knew that they had come to Him, not because they wanted to seek His face, but because they had reached an impasse where there was nowhere else for them to turn. He was simply the last resort.
7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for Your name’s sake; For our backslidings are many, we have sinned against You.
It is regularly at times of national emergency that men and women seek God, for then there is nowhere else to look. It was so then. It is so now. And then when the emergency is past they conveniently forget Him again. But God was not deceived, even though they gave every appearance of genuineness. They admitted that their sins testified against them and confessed their sinfulness. They even admitted to the many times that they had backslidden in the past (while making no promises for the future). And they asked YHWH to work ‘for His Name’s sake’, in other words, to demonstrate that He was still their covenant God Whom they could turn to when all else failed. Sadly like many people today, saw Him as the God of last resort.
8 O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble, why should You be like a stranger in the land, and like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?
They acknowledged now that they recognized Him as ‘the hope of Israel’ (something that had been slipping their mind for years) and as their ‘Saviour in time of trouble’ (when all else failed and everyone else to whom they had been giving glory let them down). Both thoughts would, of course, have been true if they had been faithful to Him. But addressed to One Whom they had forgotten for years it had a hollow ring to it. Then they asked Him why He should act like a passing traveler, or a resident alien, when surely Jerusalem was His dwelling place. It was language designed to flatter or to persuade YHWH of what was His duty because He was the God of Israel. There was no genuine repentance or submission in it. They wanted Him while it was convenient and there was a drought to get rid of.
9 Why should You be like a man astonished, like a mighty one who cannot save? Yet You, O LORD, are in our midst, and we are called by Your name; Do not leave us!
They then called on Him to reveal His true worth in positive action, and to demonstrate that He was not inadequate. Let Him stand up and be counted. Let Him act and prove Himself.
Then they pointed out that it was He Who dwelt among them and that they were called by His Name. Were they not said to be YHWH’s people? Surely then it was His responsibility to save them and prove Himself at the same time. And it was on that basis they called on Him not to desert them. But as will be noted, while there was a lot of attempt at persuasion, and at putting YHWH under an obligation, they said nothing about their obligations, or their returning to the covenant and beginning to walk in obedience to Him. Their prayers were mainly nonsense as a last desperate hope. They were playing Him like a musician plays his stringed
10 Thus says the LORD to this people: “Thus they have loved to wander; They have not restrained their feet. Therefore, the LORD does not accept them; He will remember their iniquity now and punish their sins.”
But this time YHWH’s reply was one of rejection. It was no good their deserting Him, and then calling on Him not to desert them. They had done it too often before. But what they had proved was that they loved to wander away from Him. They had made no real attempt to prevent their feet from straying. Now therefore it was too late. While in the past He had often responded to such entreaties, now He was not willing to accept them back. Rather He would remember their iniquity and visit on them their sins. They had reached the end of the road.
We learn with something of a shock that God no longer wished Jeremiah to pray for His people. The time when He would respond to prayer for them was past. Now only judgment awaited, judgment by sword, famine and pestilence. They had rebelled against Him once too often.
It is a reminder to us that there does come a time when God has been so rejected that the time for mercy ceases, and only judgment awaits. We cannot go on putting Him off forever.
A different story, however, was being taught by the false prophets. They were promising that YHWH would bring peace to Jerusalem. But YHWH assured Jeremiah that they had not been sent by Him and that what they were prophesying was lies. They too would experience the sword and the famine, along with the people. Meanwhile Jeremiah himself was to confirm that not only Jerusalem, but also the whole land, was soon to experience sword and famine.
11 Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good. 12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.”
YHWH informs Jeremiah that he was not to pray for good to come to His people, for He would no longer hear such prayers. When they fasted, He would not hear their cry, when they offered their burnt offerings and cereal offerings He would not accept them, for their hearts were not right and they were not coming to Him in restored obedience to His covenant. Intercession for them would thus no longer be successful, for His intention was to consume them by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. These were three of the curses which were threatened for breach of the covenant. Deuteronomy 28.21-24. The three regularly went together, as well as occurring independently. War would bring famine, and famine would bring pestilence.
13 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’?”
Jeremiah then points out that many prophets claiming to speak in the name of YHWH were promising the people that neither sword nor famine would come on them, but that they would have assured peace ‘in this place’. There are never lacking those who will promise fair weather ahead, and who dismiss ideas of God’s severity against sin, and there were plenty such in the final days of Judah before disaster came on them, as there had been previously in the days of Micah 3.8-11. It was, of course, a popular message and one that the people wanted to hear and made life very difficult for Jeremiah with his constant warnings of judgment. It was such prophets whose urgings were responsible for the final fatal rebellion against Babylon.
14 And the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.
YHWH’s reply is comprehensive as He describes the activities of such prophets, many involving methods condemned by the covenant. He declared that what these prophets were declaring in His name were lies, and that they were not prophets who had been sent by Him, or who had been commanded by Him, or who had heard His voice speaking to them, for He had not spoken to them. They were thus not authorized to speak in His name. What they prophesied was a lying vision, which included what they learned from divination which was forbidden by the Law. It was a nonsense, a thing of naught, arising from their being taken up with ‘no-gods’ (as many are today), and it arose from the deceit within their own hearts.
15 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land’— ‘By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed!
Such prophets were declaring that ‘the sword and famine will not be found in this land’. But the truth was that those prophets would themselves experience the sword and the famine.
16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; they will have no one to bury them—them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters—for I will pour their wickedness on them.’
And not only would the false prophets experience it, but also the sinful people of Jerusalem. There would be massive slaughter and large numbers of deaths because of famine and sword, so that the bodies would be thrown out into the streets with none to bury them. And this would happen to all, to the menfolk, to their wives, and to their sons and daughters because He would pour out on them the punishment for their many sins. This no doubt partially occurred during the droughts described above as people died of malnourishment, but it would be multiplied repeatedly when the invaders arrived.
17 “Therefore you shall say this word to them: ‘Let my eyes flow with tears night and day, and let them not cease; For the virgin daughter of my people has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow.
Jeremiah is to appeal to the people based on his own grief for them. He is to bring home to them that his eyes run with tears day and night because of what is coming on his people. Here was a prophet whose love reached out longingly on behalf of his people, even though he knew that there was no hope for them. Right to the end they would have no excuse for their failure to respond from the heart to YHWH.
But the reason for his tears was the terrible wound that was about to be inflicted on Judah, a great breach that would break them. And this is made even more terrible by his description of them as ‘the virgin daughter of my people’, a description which brings out their helplessness in the face of such a fearsome enemy. The pathos is underlined by the fact that this is what they should have been, a pure daughter, untarnished and untouched. The irony comes out in that they were far from that, having adulterated themselves with idols.
18 If I go out to the field, then behold, those slain with the sword! And if I enter the city, then behold, those sick from famine! Yes, both prophet and priest go about in a land they do not know.’?”
Jeremiah looks ahead and describes the vision of the future that YHWH has given him. Wherever he goes he will find nothing but death. When he goes into the open country all he will find will be bodies slain with the sword. When he enters the besieged cities he will find nothing but famine and need. There is much sickness because of famine. In contrast when the priests and the prophets go about the land they see nothing of this. For they are without the knowledge of what YHWH is going to do. They are oblivious to the future. They ‘go about the land and know not’.
Jeremiah puts in a desperate plea for his people, unable to believe that YHWH has utterly rejected His people, and acknowledges their sin on their behalf, calling on YHWH not to forget His covenant. For he recognizes that only YHWH can end the series of droughts. But he learns that for this generation YHWH’s rejection is indeed final, and that even the intercessions of men like Moses and Samuel would have made no difference. The only end that awaits is death through wild beasts, through the sword, through famine and through captivity, the latter resulting in their being scattered among the nations. And this is because of what Manasseh had done in Jerusalem in leading it astray after idols, a leading astray which they had avidly seized on to and participated in even after Manasseh’s repentance. For even though He had made every effort to win them back they had not returned from their ways. Thus, inevitable judgment must come upon them.
There is in this a warning for us all not to delay repentance, lest we become hardened and the opportunity slip away.
19 Have You utterly rejected Judah? Has Your soul loathed Zion? Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but there was no good; And for the time of healing, and there was trouble.
Here Jeremiah just cannot intellectually accept that YHWH has rejected Judah, and views Zion with loathing, and seeks an explanation as to why they have been smitten with no remedy available. They had looked for such a remedy, but it had not come, and all that they had received in respect of the time of healing that they sought was dismay because it had not happened. (The questions will be answered in chapter 15.5-6).
20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You. 21 Do not abhor us, for Your name’s sake; Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory. Remember, do not break Your covenant with us.
Jeremiah then confesses the people’s sins on their behalf and calls on YHWH not to bring dishonor on Himself by not responding and by breaking His covenant. It was a similar basis to that on which Moses had previously prayed for the people centuries before when he had been concerned for YHWH’s honor and for His faithfulness to His promises made to Abraham, and then it had been effective (Exodus 32.11-13). But that had been in the beginning when the nation was still young, not when it had become hardened by sin as it was now.
‘The throne of your glory’ probably refers to Jerusalem as containing the Dwelling place of YHWH. His hope was still that YHWH would observe the covenant even in the face of the people’s disobedience. He still clung to the hope that it was not too late for God to show mercy. But he is to learn that it is now too late for that (15.1).
22 Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are You not He, O LORD our God? Therefore, we will wait for You, since You have made all these.
The drought is still in mind as Jeremiah asserts on behalf of the people that he at least recognizes the futility of appealing to false gods. He recognizes that there are none among the gods of the nations who can bring showers when called on. They cannot cause it to rain. Nor can the heavens (the sun, moon and stars). It is only YHWH Who can do such things because He is the Creator. Because His is ‘HE’, the One Who is. That is why he and the people need to ‘wait for Him’ (pray in expectancy and hope), because He made the rain and ‘all these things’.
Outwardly the people would appear to ‘wait for Him’, but it would only be by using ritual to persuade Him to act differently. There would be no thought of obedient response to the covenant.
