Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

Jeremiah is finally in the same heart-space as God. The Lord spoke to him and told him to buy a potter’s vessel and take it out to the Potsherd Gate and proclaim words there. Jeremiah must have done this with a renewed purpose, knowing what God wanted, knowing what God said was true, and knowing the people would not listen in spite of that.

God’s words were that disaster was coming. Those hearing of it would scarcely believe. Because the people had profaned the land through idolatry and spilt innocent blood, doing things God hadn’t even IMAGINED they would do, they would experience judgment so severe it would change the name of the valley to the Valley of Slaughter. They would fall by the sword and be consumed by wild animals – no decent burials. Jeremiah broke the vessel in their sight and proclaimed God said that He would break Judah and Jerusalem like a pot gets broken. Nothing but useless shards would remain. Then Jeremiah went to the Temple and proclaimed in the courts that God was about to bring judgment on Jerusalem and all her towns. He would bring it because of their stiffened necks which refused to obey His word.

Pashur was a chief officer in the Temple and the son of Immer the priest. He heard Jeremiah prophesying and struck him. Then he put Jeremiah into the stocks in the upper Gate of Benjamin. He took Jeremiah out the next day, but instead of being contrite, Jeremiah spoke the words of the Lord: you will be a terror to yourself and all your friends. They will fall by the sword and you will see it. The city and all of Judah would fall defeated before Babylon. Anyone left alive would be carried off captive – and some would be killed when they got to Babylon. All the wealth of the city and all the precious things, all the treasures of the kings, and all the produce would go into the hands of the Babylonians. Pashur would be taken captive, taken to Babylon, die there and be buried. Him and his friends (who survive the sword) to whom Pashur had prophesied lies of peace.

All this made Jeremiah depressed, or at least dejected. Every time he proclaimed the words of the Lord, he was derided and rejected. Every time he speaks the truth, he gets mocked. When he has enough and decides to stop speaking the words of the Lord, they build up inside him like a fiery furnace and he can’t NOT speak. He had terror on every side. Everyone was trying to denounce him and he was just speaking the TRUTH. He was thankful and grateful that the Lord was with him, but it was getting draining. He was beginning to wonder why he bothered to be born.

King Zedekiah (2 Kings 24:17-18) sent Pashhur and Zephaniah to Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord. The king was wondering if maybe since Nebuchadnezzar had threatened war with them, the Lord might deal with the Babylonians according to God’s wondrous works that the Babylonians would flee from them. God responded. Not only would He take the weapons of the Judeans out of their hands, but God Himself would fight against the Judeans. He would strike the inhabitants of the nation and the city. He would deliver them to famine, the sword, and the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. He would not spare them or have mercy on them. He gave them a choice, though. If they stayed in the city, certain death. If they gave themselves up freely by leaving the city and going to the Babylonians, they would live. God’s face was set against the city and He would have the Babylonians destroy it with fire. God exhorted the king to pronounce fair and just judgments every day lest His fury at unrighteous deeds burn hard against them. The Lord was going to punish them according to the fruit of their deeds – a position NO ONE wants to be in (Hebrews 10:31).

“Thus says Yahweh: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and you must speak this word there. And you must say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter through these gates.” (Jeremiah 22:1-2)

Jeremiah was told to go to where the king was to proclaim what he had just proclaimed to the messengers of the king – there would be no excuse of not hearing or misunderstanding. God told them to be just in their judgments. To help the oppressed. Do not wrong a stranger or do violence to them. Not the stranger, the orphan, or the widow. They were also not to shed innocent blood. [These are the things Sodom and Gomorrah were charged with as WELL as their sexual immorality.] If they did this and acted righteously, they would have a triumph.

However. If they did NOT heed the words of the Lord, He would make them a desolation. He would raise up destroyers to make them a wilderness. They will be cut down and wiped out. All the other nations would weep and wonder what they did to deserve so cruel a fate. And all would know it was because they forsook God and rebelled in idolatry. This is what God said about the House of Judah:

Shallum, son of Josiah, would not return to Jerusalem anymore but die where he was taken into captivity. Josiah was intent on justice. Shallum was intent on covetousness, oppression, shedding innocent blood, and violence. Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, would not be lamented. He was spoken to in his prosperity, but he would not listen to the Lord. From his youth he would not listen. Even if Koniah, son of Jehoiakim was a signet ring on God’s hand, he would be plucked off. He would be given into the hands of those who sought his life. He and his mother would be cast into a country they had not been born in. They would desire to return, but they would not. He would be childless, not prosper, and his seed would not prosper, No descendant of his would EVER sit on the throne of David anymore in Judah.

Summary

Key Players: God, Jesus, Jeremiah, Pashhur, Zedekiah

Key Verse(s): Jeremiah 19:1-6, 10-13; 20:1-6, 7-9, 12-13; 21:1-6, 11-14; 22:6-10, 11-12, 18-19, 24-26, 29-30