Jeremiah 17: 1 – 27
Trust and Hope in The Lord
1 “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; With the point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars, 2 While their children remember their altars and their wooden images by the green trees on the high hills. 3 O My mountain in the field, I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures, and your high places of sin within all your borders. 4 And you, even yourself, shall let go of your heritage which I gave you; And I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you do not know; For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.” 5 Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD. 6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. 8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. 9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. 11 “As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, so is he who gets riches, but not by right; It will leave him in the midst of his days, and at his end he will be a fool.” 12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. 13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed. “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.” 14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise. 15 Indeed they say to me, “Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come now!” 16 As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You, nor have I desired the woeful day; You know what came out of my lips; It was right there before You. 17 Do not be a terror to me; You are my hope in the day of doom. 18 Let them be ashamed who persecute me, but do not let me be put to shame; Let them be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of doom and destroy them with double destruction! 19 Thus the LORD said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 and say to them, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the LORD: “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 22 nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. 23 But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction. 24 “And it shall be, if you heed Me carefully,” says the LORD, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, 25 then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. 26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the lowland, from the mountains and from the South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing sacrifices of praise to the house of the LORD. 27 “But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.”’?
When you think of the words hope and trust, do you think the words have the same meaning? They do not mean the same. Hope give us an emotional reaction that a situation will improve and keep offering the like emotion until the undesired situation has dissolved. Yet, the situation can’t dissolve because we keep feeding the situation with a weakened energy of hope. The situation will become more noticed and take center stage and even spill over to other life situations.
In the Gospel of John our Lord Jesus informed us as recorded in chapter 15, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
We can hope in our fallen condition which will form a shaky belief that something we desire will come about. Then we can also put our hope in what our great God has promised, and we know that everything He said is true.
In the book of 1 Corinthians 13: 13 we read, “13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Of all the things that we strive for in this world our Great and Holy God teaches us that only three matter – Faith, hope, and love. The question to ask then is why is ‘love’ the greatest? Because once you die and go to the presence of our Wonderful Master, King, and God Jesus Christ you do not need faith and hope anymore. You are home. So, the only thing we can take out of this world is ‘love’ Think on that!
Trust is the opposite of hope. Trust empowers us emotionally to know whatever situation has befallen, it will be dissolved, transmuted, and taken care of. Once we give in to the power of trust, we allow life to happen, to unfold like a rose.
The question now becomes, how do we transition from hope to trust? To transition from hope to trust is to believe what our Lord has said is true.
Proverbs 3: 5 – 6, “rust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
Hope is a nagging feeling. “I hope this will happen, I hope things will work in my favor.” Hope and worry are the same, different words, yet they give off the same energy. Trust is a feeling of engagement. You are more engaged with life and creative work of our Holy God in our lives. To trust is to let go and surrender to the serenity of what our Creator has promised.
The key verse of this chapter is verse 7 which teaches us that “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD.”
We will learn sadly that the Lord’s elect would not trust in the Lord. Let us all learn from this truth to not follow their ways.
The thought of what YHWH is going to do in the future brings Jeremiah back to the present to consider Judah’s current state and its consequences.
1 “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; With the point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars, 2 While their children remember their altars and their wooden images by the green trees on the high hills.
The depths of Judah’s sin is vividly brought out by its being seen as deeply inscribed on the heart with an iron stylus which has the point of an adamant (or emery), an instrument which was used to inscribe in stone or metal. The ‘adamant’ or ‘emery’ was the hardest material then known in that area. Thus, their sin, especially the sin of idolatry, was seen as deeply inscribed. This was why it endured despite the efforts of reforming kings. It nullified the covenant in men’s hearts. Josiah could reform the Temple and desecrate the altars of Baal, but he could do nothing about the ancient natural sites known only to the locals. He could not remove them from the local memory or eliminate the hold that they had on the hearts of the people.
And their sins were similarly inscribed on the horns of their altars (the upward protrusions on the four corners). Sacrifices for Baal were probably tied to them, and even the sacrificial blood smeared on them (as happened in the Temple with the offerings to YHWH). Every sacrifice that was offered, and every incense offering that was made, thus inscribed their sin more deeply. And its consequence was devastating, for it affected their children just as deeply. That is why their children also continued in their evil ways, ‘remembering’ their altars and their Asherim (either wooden poles or graven images representing Asherah) in the locally recognized sites under green trees or on the high hills. In this lay the problem for reformers. The ancient sites were mainly natural in formation, and while obvious altars could be broken up, the ancient sites were permanent natural sites and could not be removed, and the memory of them passed on in the local folklore, while Asherah poles were not always easily identifiable. Such shrines could be visited secretly at times of Yahwistic reform, and as soon as restrictions were lifted could blossom into open activity once more. Local superstition is often writ large on people’s hearts.
Some see ‘on the horns of your altars’ as referring to the bronze altar and the incense altar in the Temple, both of which would have the shed blood of sacrifices applied to their horns. The idea is then that this very act testifies against their hypocrisy and double mindedness, emphasizing their sin.
3 O My mountain in the field, I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures, and your high places of sin within all your borders.
But all this was taking place on ‘YHWH’s mountain’. This might indicate Jerusalem as YHWH’s mountain, but the mention of ‘borders’ suggests that it rather indicated the Central and Judean highlands, it was not only Jerusalem and the cities that were involved and were to be punished, but the whole countryside. And the result would be that the whole country would be despoiled, with all its substance and its treasures taken, whether from town or country, and the high places would be despoiled and would eventually be erased from the memories of their children when they were in the land of exile (which was one reason why exile was so necessary). After seventy years there would be no one left alive who remembered the ancient sanctuaries. This despoliation was the price of their seeking to the ancient sanctuaries and failing to hold to the covenant.
4 And you, even yourself, shall let go of your heritage which I gave you; And I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you do not know; For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”
The people themselves would also be exiled. They would ‘discontinue from the land that they had inherited’, that YHWH had given them, and it would be their own doing and their own responsibility. The word rendered ‘discontinue’ indicated ceasing to use the land. And there in exile YHWH would cause them to serve their enemies in an unknown land. All this would be because they had kindled an unceasing, unquenchable fire in arousing the anger of YHWH. For many of them it would never cease, for as time passed they would cease to see themselves as Israelites, while even today this fire of God’s anger continues to burn, for what remains of cast out Israel (which is spoken of here) is still in unbelief.
But not all of Judah will come under YHWH’s anger. Only those (the huge majority) who have turned from Him and forsaken Him and are under the curses described in Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28. For them there will be barrenness and emptiness. But provision had to be made for those comparatively few who did truly respond to YHWH, and for them there is promised blessing and fruitfulness. They will flourish during the carnage, and this included a Jeremiah dragged to Egypt by refugees from Palestine. And whoever is to receive this blessing will be determined by the One Who searches the mind and tries the heart.
Thus, in the midst of the outright condemnation of Judah and the declarations that YHWH would no more spare His erstwhile people, it was seen to be very necessary that a word be spoken explaining the position of those few who did remain true to him. And that is what we find here.
5 Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD. 6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.
The nation having been cursed, the blessings and the cursing of the covenant are now applied to individuals revealing that in the end every man must be responsible for his own fate. Judah as whole is under the curse, as has already been made clear, and their situation, and the reason for it, is described here. But the following verses will then give the assurance that even in such a situation those who truly respond to YHWH will flourish. God never leaves Himself without a witness, and those who trust in Him will never be put to shame wherever they might find themselves (Daniel in Babylon, Ezekiel in Babylonia, Jeremiah in Egypt).
The man who is cursed is the one who, whoever he may be, trusts in man, and relies on human flesh because his heart has departed from YHWH. He is differentiated by the fact that he no longer genuinely looks to God but to human aid. His reliance is on alliances and on the ideas built up by his own political, religious and social environment, rather than on the ideas found in God’s covenant and God’s word. His trust is in man and in human resources. Such a man will be like a bare bush, or a destitute man (literally something or someone destitute), struggling to survive in the desert, and will see no good for it will pass him by. For him it will be as though he exists in the parched places in the wilderness, a place so salty that no one lives there. He is to be thirsty and without hope. That is to be his destiny.
The point is that for them the following verses will be true wherever they must survive, whilst those who do not truly believe and respond to God will find themselves in such a desert in their innermost being even while they reside in king’s palaces).
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. 8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.
In contrast is the man who is truly blessed. The man who is truly blessed, and will enjoy the blessing of God, is the man whose whole trust is in YHWH. YHWH means everything to him. He loves Him with heart, soul, mind and strength (Deuteronomy 6.5-6). He will be like a tree planted by permanent waters, whose roots spread out to absorb the moisture from the ever-flowing river. Such a tree is not afraid of the heat (and even for the believing remnant the heat was coming), its leaf will continue to be green, and it will not be fearful of drought, nor will it cease from continually producing fruit. A similar idea is reflected in Psalm 1, and in the teaching of John the Baptist and Jesus Himself. It was what John’s baptism illustrated. It is by their fruits that men will be known.
Thus it is clear from this that while political Jerusalem was so hidebound that there was no righteous person to be found there (5.1), such righteous people could be found elsewhere in the land of Judah. Jeremiah was not alone.
9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?
But the vital question is, who will decide which among the people of Judah are the truly righteous? Who can discern who it is who truly trusts in YHWH? It is not a decision that can be made by Judah itself, nor by its priests and prophets. For all men in their hearts deceive themselves. When they face up to such issues their decisions are unreliable. This is because their hearts are so totally corrupt that they are no judges in the matter.
Even at this time many in Judah would still loudly have proclaimed that they did trust in YHWH. It was true, they would have said, that they did participate in other religious activity, which was as it happened the ways of their fathers, and that they did follow other gods, but that did not mean that they had failed to maintain the Temple ritual and the priesthood, and to observe the feasts, even if somewhat watered down and ‘brought up to date’. They would thus have seen themselves as reasonably good Yahwists. But the truth was that they were deceiving themselves, because of the deceitfulness of their own hearts. For as far as YHWH was concerned only those who were wholly true to him were genuine Yahwists. And it was He alone Who knew men’s hearts and could test out their ways to get at the truth.
While these words do bring out well the sinfulness of man’s heart, and are true in that regard, the context requires that it is more than just a general statement about all men, for the context is distinguishing ‘the wicked’ from ‘the good’. Thus what it is bringing out is that man’s heart is so deceitful that he cannot be trusted to make a right judgment in that regard. We only must think of the attitude of the more belligerent of the elders and Pharisees towards Jesus to recognize the truth of this fact.
10 I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
For searching out men’s minds and trying their ways was exactly what He was about. It is YHWH, and YHWH alone, who can search the mind and try the heart to give to every man his deserts, and to reward him according to his fruitfulness. It is He alone Who ‘knows those who are His’ (2 Timothy 2.19) and can discern truth from false. And it was He alone Who would determine who was to be cursed and who was to be blessed.
11 “As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, so is he who gets riches, but not by right; It will leave him in the midst of his days, and at his end he will be a fool.”
Thus those who were like partridges (or sand grouse) who sit on other birds’ eggs until they hatch, only to find themselves rejected by the fledglings, in other words who sought to make themselves prosperous and wealthy by unfair methods, will find in the midst of their days that their wealth will desert them and ‘reject’ them, and they will end up looking like a fool, and go to a fool’s end.
Jeremiah exults in the glory of the significance of the Temple as YHWH’s throne, and as the one place where YHWH was to be truly worshipped and declares that all who forsake Him will be put to shame, to which YHWH replies that all who forsake Him will perish, because they have deserted Him as the perennial spring of living water. This causes Jeremiah, aware of his own failings, to ask YHWH that he himself might be fully restored to total dedication.
He then explains how the people deride him by doubting his prophecies, but that he has neither sought to escape his responsibilities, nor tried to hurry the woeful prospective happening of events. And he asks that as YHWH knows him through and through and knows that he had spoken only what was pleasing to YHWH (it was spoken before His face) He will not cause him grief but will be his refuge in the day of trouble. In contrast he seeks that his enemies will indeed be caused grief and will receive the punishment that is their due.
12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. 13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed. “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.”
In 3.17 it is Jerusalem which will be called the throne of YHWH, and this was an extension of the thought that the Ark in the Temple was His glorious throne (14.21). This latter is what is in mind here. The ‘place of our sanctuary’ as spoken by Jeremiah can only signify the Temple, but ‘on high from the beginning’ emphasizes that the glorious throne is to be seen as a ‘shadow’ of a greater reality. In the words of Solomon, ‘even the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house which I have built’ (1 Kings 8.27). So the Ark represented His eternal throne beyond and above the Heavens. And it was Judah’s privilege to house it. It was the guarantee of YHWH’s concern for Judah/Israel, and His watch over them. That was why He could be called ‘the hope of Israel’. But it was also a reminder of His invisible and constant presence with His people and a reminder that He therefore knew all that was going on. It was a reminder that His interest and concern could not be presumed on. And because He was present among them all who forsook Him, and who forsook true Temple worship and obedience to the covenant, could be sure that they would be put to shame (made ashamed).
Jeremiah’s analysis is confirmed by YHWH as He declares, “Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken YHWH, the fountain of living waters.” Anything ‘written in the earth’ was intended to be transient and could quickly be erased. Thus, the idea may be that those who forsook Him would be blotted out as easily as removing words written in the dust by a sweep of the hand. And that blotting out would be because they had deserted the permanent and enduring spring of living waters, YHWH Himself.
14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise.
Considering the glory of YHWH’s throne and the fate of those who forsook Him, has brought to Jeremiah’s own sin and rebellion (compare 15.19-21). He is only too aware of his own sinfulness. So he now calls on YHWH to heal him and deliver him because He and no other is the One Whom Jeremiah praises. It is an expression of total dependence on and confidence in YHWH for his own daily restoration, just as we daily seek God’s forgiveness for our sins. It also probably includes the desire to be healed from the hurtful wounds of the people’s words, and to be saved from their persecution, but we cannot doubt that Jeremiah constantly recognized the need for YHWH to forgive, encourage and strengthen him, and save him from himself. (His heart too was naturally deceitful above all things and desperately wicked).
15 Indeed they say to me, “Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come now!”
He then in the context of this reminds YHWH of what the people are saying. They are deriding him because of the delay in what he has warned them about and they are jeeringly asking him where the fulfilment is of what he claims to be the word of YHWH. ‘Let it come now’, they sneer (implying ‘and then we will believe it’). In other words, they are saying, ‘Demonstrate that what you are saying is true,’ and by it indicating that they did not believe it. We can almost see them adding, ‘for everything goes on as it always has’ (2 Peter 3.4 spoken by those warned about Jesus’ second coming). As the test of whether a prophet was genuine was that what he prophesied came about this was quite a serious matter (Deuteronomy 18.21-22).
16 As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You, nor have I desired the woeful day; You know what came out of my lips; It was right there before You. 17 Do not be a terror to me; You are my hope in the day of doom.
But Jeremiah assures YHWH that he has made no attempt to run away from his calling. He has not been hastily trying to avoid following Him and being His shepherd to the people (‘being a shepherd after you’). Nor, he assures Him, has he desired the woeful day to come. He was not looking forward to it, and he considered that it would have been presumptuous for him to try to hasten the coming of judgment on his people just in order to vindicate himself.
He is, however, confident that YHWH knows this already. ‘You know,’ he says. He recognizes that YHWH knows all things, and certainly knows him through and through. And he recognizes also that his words which come from his lips are spoken in the presence of YHWH (‘before your face’). Thus, he asks Him not to frighten him with warnings and threats or put him in too much danger from the people, for he looks on Him as his refuge in the day of evil.
18 Let them be ashamed who persecute me, but do not let me be put to shame; Let them be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of doom and destroy them with double destruction!
But he does pray that those who persecute him might be put to shame, although naturally wishing to escape it himself. And he prays that they might be dismayed, although naturally desiring that he himself might not be dismayed. And he prays, ‘bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction’ (giving full recompense). He wants God to finally fulfil His threats
Once again, we may be shocked at his attitude as a man of God. But we must remember a few things:
• 1). That YHWH had pointedly told him several times not to pray for them because their doom was certain. So, he knew that there was no point in praying for God to have mercy on them, and that indeed it would be an act of disobedience and unbelief. Hope of deliverance was a thing of the past, and would not now happen. Their end was fixedly determined.
• 2). That in line with 1). he knew that their coming judgment was inevitable and irrevocable, so that he was merely asking YHWH to hurry up and do what he intended to do (waiting can be the most difficult thing of all).
• 3). That the delay in that inevitable judgment simply added to his own afflictions, for he was being persecuted and intimidated and never knew how they were going to treat him next, and he knew that the situation was getting worse and becoming more dangerous.
• 4). That he may well have begun to be concerned for some of his doubting followers, who may indeed have begun to doubt whether he really was a man of God after all. Judgment coming on Judah would vindicate him and settle their doubts. It would also encourage those whose faith was stronger, but who found the current conditions distressful. The general attitude of fear and concern, together with the political infighting and intrigues, and the speed at which emotions could be roused, could have been making life difficult for those whose full trust was in YHWH, and Jeremiah may have seen some of them going off in a direction that he did not like.
Thus his feeling may well have been, ‘let us get it over with so that I am no longer accused of being a false prophet, and so that those who believe in You might find peace and no longer be in danger of failing’.
In 17.5-11 YHWH had promised cursing and blessing on individuals depending on whether they were obedient to His covenant, and this had included a warning about those who obtained riches unfairly. Now YHWH sets a standard test to see whether His people will obey Him or not, and whether they will count that obedience as more important than profit from trade. By it He is giving them the opportunity to face up to the covenant and clearly declare that they are His people, for the maintenance of the Sabbath, along with circumcision, were the two clear signs of those who were His.
It is quite clear from what is said that the seventh day Sabbath Law had been diluted with the result that they were using the Sabbath as a convenient market day, a practice which had been prevalent in Israel, but was something which Amos 8.5 had made clear was not allowed. So the call was that they should demonstrate their obedience by going back to fully observing of the Sabbath day by not engaging in buying and selling, and by maintaining a day of complete rest. No doubt the hope was that this would then be a trigger which would spur them on to a new consideration of the whole Law. It was a demand which would separate those who were ready to obey the covenant from those who were not.
The Sabbath day was undoubtedly of ancient origin, and it is mentioned in all the early sources, thus there are no reliable grounds for denying these words to Jeremiah. It was to be used by him as an acid test of obedience.
19 Thus the LORD said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
Commencing with ‘the gate of the children of the people’, which was also the gate by which the Kings of Judah came in, and by which they went out (a reminder that the Temple was no longer the king’s chapel), Jeremiah was to go and stand in all the gates of Jerusalem in order to proclaim the message that follows. The ‘gate of the children of the people’ was clearly seen as an important and well used gate, and was probably the east gate of the Temple facing the door of the sanctuary, being the gate most regularly used by the people, and by kings of Judah, and gaining in importance from the royal use. It may have been intended to distinguish it from the gates more often used by the priests and Levites, of whom there would have been many. The mention of both kings and people emphasises that Jeremiah’s message was to both kings and people.
20 and say to them, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates.
The call was to ‘the kings’ of Judah, to all the people throughout Judah who had come to the feast, and to the people of Jerusalem themselves. The whole nation was thus involved.
21 Thus says the LORD: “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 22 nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. 23 But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.
The call was for them to remedy what their fathers had failed to do, and to commence keeping the Sabbath day correctly. This is an indication that the Sabbath day was only being observed laxly if at all. The purpose of carrying a burden on the Sabbath day would have been in order to take goods for resale to the Temple market for sale, which would include goods brought in by those who entered Jerusalem for a similar purpose.
Furthermore, they were to abstain from all work, thereby treating the Sabbath day as ‘holy’ (sanctifying it), and acknowledging YHWH’s Lordship. This had previously been commanded to their fathers, but they had not listened or responded. Indeed they had deliberately stiffened their necks so at to avoid hearing or being instructed. It had been a total slight to YHWH. Now their offspring were being given a ‘second chance’.
24 “And it shall be, if you heed Me carefully,” says the LORD, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, 25 then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever.
And the promise was that if they would renew their obedience to YHWH and listen diligently to Him, (it was the guaranteed word of YHWH), something that they would demonstrate, firstly by not bringing trading goods through the gates of the city on the Sabbath day, and secondly by ‘hallowing’ it by not working on it, then their kingship and rulers would be established, sitting on the throne of David and riding in authority and splendor, with the result that they, and the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem, together with their city, would remain forever. The Davidic rule would be permanently established. It was a remarkable call back to the covenant accompanied by remarkable promises. The implication was that even at that stage they were being offered independence and immunity for Jerusalem and its environs if only they would follow YHWH with all their hearts.
26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the lowland, from the mountains and from the South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing sacrifices of praise to the house of the LORD.
And not only so, but they would be free to worship in peace as they chose. The description of those who would come to worship indicates the size of the kingdom of Judah at this point. It included the cities of Judah to the south and west, the environs of Jerusalem, the land of Benjamin to the north, the Shephelah (lower hills) which would include Lachish and Libnah, the hill-country (which may have included the hill-country of Ephraim), and the far south, the Negeb, the pastureland with its oases and towns on their southern borders which would have included Beersheba.
And the people from all these areas would come bringing dedicatory burnt offerings, sin and peace offerings (sacrifices), meal offerings of grain, olive oil and frankincense, and praise and worship in psalms and prayers of thanksgiving, all to the house of YHWH. Judah would be a free and flourishing country under YHWH.
27 “But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.”’?
But if they would not listen to Him and would not hallow the Sabbath by abstaining from work, and would not abstain from trade on the Sabbath, then Jerusalem would be handed over to their enemies. Its gates would be burned down, its palaces would be ‘devoured’ by fire, and the fire would not be quenched. None would escape.
The point was not that if they kept the Sabbath nothing else would matter, but that how they responded to the Sabbath would reveal what their lives and thoughts were like generally. It would demonstrate a genuine dedication to God and a concern for their fellow human beings, and indicate that they desired to do God’s will. It was the litmus test, similar to Jesus’ command to the rich young man to sell all and follow Him and would mark them out as belonging to YHWH in a society which would resent it and demonstrate that He mattered more to them than profit and gain. One thing that all this does make clear is that YHWH gave Judah every opportunity to repent before He finally closed His offer and sealed their final judgment.
