Jeremiah 16: 1 – 21
New church policies
1 The word of the LORD also came to me, saying, 2 “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land: 4 “They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.” 5 For thus says the LORD: “Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the LORD, “lovingkindness and mercies. 6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. 7 Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother. 8 Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.” 9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. 10 “And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’ 11 then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the LORD; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. 12 And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. 13 Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’ 14 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers. 16 “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the LORD, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 17 For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes. 18 And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.” 19 O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, worthlessness and unprofitable things.” 20 Will a man make gods for himself, which are not gods? 21 “Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know My hand and My might; And they shall know that My name is the LORD.
How would you like to incorporate these new church policies;
1. We will no longer be performing marriages in the church building.
2. We will no longer be performing funerals nor memorials.
3. We will no longer offer any counseling services
4. We will no longer offer addiction rehab referrals
5. We will no longer have any group functions in the building except a church service
6. We will no longer have any social gatherings in the church facility
What do you think about all these new church policies? I think you answer is ‘silly’. I respond, ‘O really?’
In case you have not been keeping up with the local and national news the church is under attack.
I am sure you have been reading about various businesses who specialize in services are being sued because the owner does not want to serve certain people because what they want is against their religious beliefs.
A Christian cake baker based in Colorado, is being sued for a third time for declining to make a cake that expresses messages contrary to his religious beliefs.
Last year, the Christian owner won a six-year legal battle that led all the way up to the Supreme Court, which upheld Phillips’ religious freedom and freedom of expression in his declining to make a cake in 2012 that would have celebrated a same-sex union.
Three months after winning the Supreme Court case, the man was sued again by a Colorado lawyer who identifies as a transgender woman, for his refusal to make a gender transition cake.
The case was dropped but the same individual sued again for the cake show owner to make a birthday cake with pink cake and blue frosting. After a employee of the business confirmed to the person ordering, the employee was advised that its purpose was to reflect a status as a transgender female”.
It was at this point that the cake enterprise declined the order. Thus, a new law suit.
So, what would you do if you are this business owner? I am proud of this brother for standing firm to the word of God. The bible says in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 10, “23 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. 24 Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being. 25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience’ sake; 26 for “the earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness.” 27 If any of those who do not believe invites you to dinner, and you desire to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no question for conscience’ sake. 28 But if anyone says to you, “This was offered to idols,” do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience’ sake; for “the earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness.” 29 “Conscience,” I say, not your own, but that of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man’s conscience? 30 But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken of for the food over which I give thanks? 31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, 33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.”
The church itself is also going through attacks by individuals and groups who have a vendetta against Christianity. All the things I suggest as new church policy sounds crazy but these are the areas the these people are going after. For example, they want to just walk into any bathroom they want whether it is for the women or men. Whatever sex they feel that they are on that day, you would be discriminating against them. If you put on a woman’s or men’s sole event, then they would want to infiltrate it even if they are not of the same sex.
If you will not agree to marry certain individuals, then you are discriminating because you marry others.
My suggestions of new church policies sound strange but could be effective. If you stop marrying and having wedding receptions at your church and only do them at outside venues, then you could still not be available to do weddings that are against the bible. It is kind of hard for someone to say you are discriminating against them for there are many other avenues that these people could go to fulfill their desires.
This even can apply to the refusal of doing funerals or memorials. Right now for example there are so many people dying in Philadelphia from drug overdoses that there is no open dates to use the facilities.
Our Mighty and Majestic Holy God informs Jeremiah that there is going to be so many dead people that there is no time to do any mourning.
In powerful words YHWH now tells Jeremiah that he is to demonstrate to Judah what is coming on them in three distinct ways, each of which was to do with things central to Judah’s way of life: firstly by himself not taking a wife or having children, secondly by refraining from attendance at funerals, and thirdly by not taking part in celebratory feasting. And he was to make it clear that in doing so he was conveying to the people the words of YHWH. Abstaining from marriage and not having children would be a sign of what was coming on Judah in that his restraint would indicate that they, their wives and their children were to die in disgrace. Abstaining from attendance at funerals would indicate that well-being had been taken from them and that death had become so much a part of life that mourning could be ignored. Abstaining from feasting would indicate the dark times that were coming when there would be nothing to celebrate, not even marriage. For YHWH was taking away their ‘shalom’, their shalom (peace, well-being) from them.
Furthermore he had to make these words very clear to the people, and when they asked why this evil was coming on them, and what sin they had committed that rendered it necessary, he was to point out that it was because of the way in which they had forsaken YHWH and had turned to other gods and had not obeyed His Instruction (Torah, Law). It would happen because they were walking in the stubbornness of their own hearts and were refusing to listen to YHWH. That was why they would be cast out of the land to serve other gods in other lands in which they would be strangers. It would be because He had withdrawn His favor from them.
In some ways we today are called on to deliver a similar message, For while we are urgently to seek to bring people under the sound of the Gospel, it is to be with the recognition that for the large majority of people only judgment awaits. And it is a judgment that could come at any time, for ‘at such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man will come’ (Matthew 24.44). So the message is that at any time judgment could descend on this (or a future) generation. That is why we need to have the same urgency and concern as Jeremiah.
1 The word of the LORD also came to me, saying, 2 “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land: 4 “They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”
Jeremiah emphasizes that everything that he says and does is because YHWH has spoken to him, and His word has come to him. And this time it has come in order that by his own self-sacrifice he might bring home to the people the important lesson, that their futures were in future to be so troubled that what was usually central in their lives would through wholesale death become non-existent.
There is a reminder in these words that receiving the word of the Lord should be what is centrally important in all our lives.
Jeremiah’s abstention from marriage and childbearing was to underline the awful future that waited those who were married, along with their wives, sons and daughters.
The first sign that was to be given by Jeremiah was that of abstention from marrying and having children. To us that might not be so unusual, but it was very different for men in Israel in those days. For every Israelite adult male saw marriage and bearing children as being his most important basic duty and as being the most necessary requirement of life. By it he was not only fulfilling his own destiny (‘be fruitful and multiply’ - Genesis 1.28), but as also perpetuating his name, and ensuring the passing on of his inheritance through the family. Marriage was considered to form the very basis of society. And it was not only for his own sake. It was in order that he and his successors might provide security for the whole family. It was the very foundation of family life, providing stability for all, and ensuring its continual growth and prosperity. Not to marry was greatly frowned on, and almost unknown, and not to have children was an especially great grief, and a catastrophe for the family.
So, when Jeremiah was told by God not to take a wife for himself and have sons and daughters, he was being asked to go against the very tenets of society, to forego a basic right, and to be willing to face up to the abuse that would almost certainly follow. But the reason for the abstention was clearly laid out. It was to get over the fact that, in view of Judah’s future prospects, not being married and not having sons and daughters would be seen as a great advantage, because death would be so rampant. Fathers, mothers, sons and daughters would all die grievous deaths, and they would die in such circumstances that they would not be lamented because those deaths would be so much a part of what was happening around them that there would be no opportunity for mourning, and no one to do the mourning. Their dead bodies would lie unburied, lying scattered like manure on the fields, and sword and famine would continue to contribute to their numbers with the result that they would become the prey of scavenger birds and the dinner of equally unpleasant scavengers in the animal world. And that was only something which could happen because death had claimed the whole family so that none was left to fulfil the crucial burial duties. To be left unburied and to be eaten by scavengers was seen by Israelites as the most terrible of deaths.
The intention behind his abstinence from marriage was to cause people to ask him why he was not married, at which point he would explain the reasons so as to bring home YHWH’s warnings.
The second sign was to be the abstention from mourning and from attendance at funerals. Proper mourning for the dead was again seen as an essential part of life. Not to do so would have been severely frowned on, for true mourning was contributing to the well-being and continuity of the whole family. It ensured proper farewells, and proper succession, enabled release of emotions, and demonstrated proper respect for the one who had passed on. But death was to become so commonplace that there would be no time for such activities. Any who remained alive would be concentrating on their own near kin, and would have no time for mourning others.
5 For thus says the LORD: “Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the LORD, “lovingkindness and mercies.
Jeremiah was called on not to partake in mourning, especially a mourning-feast, which would be partly celebratory of the deceased, because mourning was connected with comfort and comfort, and in the future that was coming there would be no comfort or condolences for His people. And this was because YHWH had removed what was essential for the people’s well-being, ‘even covenant love and tender mercies. In other words, He no longer had regard for them because they had rejected His covenant and would therefore leave them to face the worst and would offer them no comfort.
6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. 7 Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother.
His abstention was intended to indicate that death would have no favorites. Both great and small would die equally. And none would be buried or mourned for. No one would undergo religious ritual on the behalf of others (cutting themselves and self-inflicted baldness were signs of great emotional intensity and of contact with the gods. Thus, the people are also seen as being unfaithful to their false gods). No one would participate in a wake in their memory. There would be no bread or wine offered in consolation to the households of the dead. The cup of consolation would appear to have been offered when a parent had died. For no one would indulge in mourning of any kind because circumstances would be so devastating.
So, Jeremiah’s abstention from everything connected with mourning would draw attention to the intensity of the desolation that was coming on the land, and would again raise questions in people’s minds, enabling Jeremiah to press home his message.
The third sign was to absent himself from all celebratory feasts, as an indication that the future was so black that there was nothing to celebrate. It was a sign that soon all merriment would cease in the land. Nothing would attract attention more than someone who refused to partake in celebratory meals in a day when there was little other recreation and such feasts were the highlight of their lives. This above all would cause people to ask him questions.
8 Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”
Feasts were of many kinds but the aim of all of them was celebration and to have a good time. Jeremiah’s refusal of all invitations would draw comment. Did he not believe in having a good time? And it would give him the opportunity to explain his reasons. His attitude was evidence of the fact that there would soon be nothing to celebrate.
9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
When they questioned his behaviour he would be able to point out that soon God would be causing all mirth and merriment to cease, and that it was to happen before their very eyes and in their own day. Thus those who were questioning him would soon see it for themselves. And things would be so bad that even marriage celebrations would cease because of the vicissitudes of the times.
With Jeremiah having brought home to the people the significance of his signs, i.e. that they are indications of great desolation ahead, they are then moved to ask him why YHWH has pronounced this great evil on them (verse 10). In view of their claim that ‘they had done nothing wrong’ we may assume that their questions were indignant rather than fearful. It reveals that they were so hardened in their disobedience that they could not understand why Jeremiah was suggesting that God was angry with them. To them it seemed preposterous.
As with so many people in the present day they were so blind spiritually that they were confident that there was nothing in their lives that really displeased God. Conviction of sin has always been one of the most difficult things to bring about in men’s lives, and they were unable to see that it was their whole attitude of heart that was wrong.
Jeremiah’s response is to bring out that in fact their sin is so serious (verses 11-12) that what is to happen to them will alter their whole view of history. For after what is in the future to happen to them in ‘the land of the North’, they will no longer see the deliverance from ‘the land of Egypt’ as the great past event of their history but will date their renewed nationhood from the time of their deliverance from ‘the land of the North (verses 14-15). And that is because they are to receive double payment for their sins (verse 18).
10 “And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’
When Jeremiah tells the people the significance of his signs they are unable to believe what they are hearing. They were fully confident that they and their way of life were satisfactory to God. Were they not maintaining the Temple ritual in the way that was required? Why then should God be displeased? Had they not always given Him His due? Let Jeremiah now explain in what way they had fallen short.
11 then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the LORD; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. 12 And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.
YHWH’s reply was straight and to the point. It was because He was no longer the center of their lives. It was because they had failed to live in accordance with His Instruction (Law). It was because they had forsaken Him and in their daily personal worship had walked after the ways of other gods and served them and worshipped them. It was because He was no longer the One to Whom they listened. It was because they stubbornly walked in their own ways and in accordance with their own ideas. Central to all was that they were not responding to God’s word.
13 Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’
So, if they wanted other gods they could have them. He was casting them forth out of the land as He had warned He would do from the beginning if they went after other gods and walked in their ways (. And it would not be onto familiar ground but into a land they had never known or experienced, and there they would serve other gods both day and night (indicating their total commitment). And all this would happen to them because His favor had been withdrawn.
14 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.
Jeremiah’s confidence that YHWH would one day restore His people to the land comes out here, but that is not the main emphasis of the verses. The main emphasis, continuing the theme of this passage, is that just as so long ago they had suffered so dreadfully in ‘the land of Egypt’, so now would they suffer even more dreadfully in ‘the land of the North’. So dreadful would be the things that they were about to experience that the awfulness of Egypt would be forgotten.
A great deal of the worship in the Temple was based on the fact of the deliverance from Egypt, and many of the Psalms emphasized the thought. It was the very basis of the nation’s existence. But so horrifying would be what they were about to experience that that emphasis would in the end change into how God had delivered them from their awful exiles among the nations in the North.
Nevertheless, having said that, the verses do also bring out Jeremiah’s confidence that in the end God would once again deliver His people, so much so that all their gratitude would in future be levelled at that fact. For this time the deliverance would not just be of one people in one place, but of people in many places who would return back to God and be brought back to the land which God had given them, something fulfilled in the return of the people after the Babylonian exile and onwards, which resulted in the establishment of an independent Jewish Kingdom composed of people from all the tribes of Israel, a return which prepared the way for the coming of Jesus Christ (it does not therefore await fulfilment).
It is an indication of how deeply rooted it was in Jeremiah’s thinking that God would one day restore His people that he is able to treat it here as an obvious assumption.
16 “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the LORD, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
There would be no way of escape from their fate. Their enemy would come down on them with the same urgency as that shown by fishermen when they were seeking to catch their fish and would take them up in their net. And they would follow this up, chasing down the survivors with the same urgency and thoroughness with which hunters pursue their prey. There will be no place of refuge. They will be hunted from every mountain, from every hill and from the very clefts of the rocks. None will escape.
17 For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.
And this thoroughness would be because YHWH was aware of all their ways, and of all their iniquity. His eyes were upon them and He saw everything. They could not hide from His face. And what He saw was disobedience (their disobedient ways) and iniquity.
18 And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.”
The consequence was therefore to be that He would recompense them double for all their sins in other words He would demand from them the full measure required. And this was because they had polluted His land, which belonged to Him and which He had given to them, by filling it with idols and false gods, and with the behavior that resulted from such worship. The ‘carcasses of their detestable things’ may refer to the sacrifices offered to the idols which were to be an affront to YHWH, and may include the idea that among other things swine and other unclean things were offered (Isaiah 65.4)
‘First.’ That is, first before anything else. YHWH sees it as His most urgent task. Deliverance may follow, but it is first necessary that there be a full measure of judgment.
The encouraging idea that one day the nations would turn from their idols and seek YHWH is prominent in a number of the prophets and is taken up by Jeremiah here in order to underline the heinousness of Judah’s own behavior. In the light of this fact their behavior is seen to be totally reprehensible.
19 O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, worthlessness and unprofitable things.”
Jeremiah’s confidence in YHWH has been restored so that he can now speak of Him as his strength and stronghold, and as his refuge in the day of affliction. And in the light of this he exults in his certainty that, as the prophets had promised, one day the nations would come to seek YHWH, admitting the folly of their previous idolatry. They would come from the ends of the earth and would declare that what they had previously believed in had been lies, merely a puff of wind (empty air), and profitless.
20 Will a man make gods for himself, which are not gods? 21 “Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know My hand and My might; And they shall know that My name is the LORD.
The fact that the nations would one day recognize the folly of their idolatry made it all the more reprehensible that Judah had chosen to make himself gods of what were no-gods. Would anyone do such a foolish thing? The answer is ‘yes, for Judah have already done it. That was especially why they had to be taught a sharp lesson. By it He would cause them to know His power and His might. The fact that He would cause them to know’ is emphasized twice, and the fact that they would ‘know’ is emphasized three times. And by it YHWH would bring home to them once and for all the power of His hand and of His might, and cause them to know that His Name was truly YHWH, ‘the One Who is whatever He wants to be’. It was a lesson that in future they would never forget and prepared the way for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Who made known His Name as never before, first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles.
