CHAPTER 17

(601 B.C.)

THE SIN OF JUDAH

¹The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars (Written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond, signifies that the heart has become so hard that it takes a pen made of iron, with its tip made of diamond, one of the hardest substances known to man, in order to penetrate such a hard heart.

Such portrays the utter foolishness of mans flimsy self-help programs for bringing about change! Only the Power of God can set such a captive free!);

²While their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills. (The children remembered other children who had been offered as human sacrifice to these horrible and hideous idols. Such would create a horror in the minds of these children, as they wondered if they would be next, or as they grieved over the loss of loved ones. Such further portrays the hardness of heart of the parents, who left Jehovah, the God of Love and Mercy, and instead served these heathen gods.)

³O My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures to the spoil, and your high places for sin, throughout all your borders. (O My mountain in the field, refers to Mount Zion, the site of the Temple. Your substance and your treasures refer to the holy utensils, such as the Brazen Altar, the Brazen Laver, and the Golden Lamp-stand, etc., which would be taken by Nebuchadnezzar as spoil. As well, all of their heathen idols on the high places for sin throughout the entirety of the Judah would also be taken!)

⁴And you, even yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you know not: for you have kindled a fire in My anger, which shall burn forever. (And I will cause you to serve your enemies, refers to being taken to Babylon and serving Nebuchadnezzar. They now revert to the slavery from which they were delivered when they came out of Egypt.

You have kindled a fire in My anger, refers to Gods just anger regarding sin and the judicial judgment that always follows.

Which shall burn forever, means that God will forever conduct Himself accordingly toward willful rebellion and disobedience.)

TRUST IN GOD IS THE ONLY HOPE

⁵Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD. (The people of Judah at this time proposed an alliance with the Egyptians as a protection from the Chaldeans. The folly of trusting them and not Jehovah and the wisdom of trusting Jehovah and not them are contrasted in Verses 5 through 8; and [Vs. 9] the nature of the heart incurably diseased with deceit which proposed this alliance is exposed. In a sense, Pauls statement in Gal. 1:8-9 is the same as here.)

⁶For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. (The heath is insensible and fruitless. Such is the Christless man insensible of good, fruitless in life, and a stranger to real fellowship. The sense of this Verse is that inasmuch as the people of Israel treated the Promised Land as they did, they would now inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not [previously] inhabited.)

⁷Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. (Verse 5 says that the man who does not trust in the Lord is cursed, while this Verse says that the man who trusts in the Lord is blessed. There you have it! This is where the die is cast.)

⁸For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. (To trust in the Lord gives one the Fruit of the Spirit. To trust man is to be cursed by the Lord. The modern Church should note this in her acceptance of humanistic psychology in place of the Word of God.)

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (God knows the hopeless corruption of the natural heart, and so He said to Nicodemus that no one, however cultured and moral, can either see or enter into the Kingdom of God. There must be a new birth.)

¹⁰I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (I the LORD search the heart, refers to the fact that only God knows the heart. I try the reins, refers to the Lord allowing certain particulars to take place, according to the disposition of the individual involved, in order to bring out what is actually there. The Lord through Omniscience already knows all things, in other words, what is in the heart of man, even before man knows it. But in order that man not be able to say that he is unjustly judged, the Lord allows events to transpire, uncaused or caused by Him, which always reveal exactly what is in the heart, whether good or bad. This is done in order that the Judgment Day will be fair and impartial, and that the record of such actions can be shown in black and white to the individual, who, at that time, will be without argument. Therefore, his judgment will be according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.)

¹¹As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatches them not; so he who gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. (The sense of this Verse is that whoever trusts in wealth is a fool. To trust man [Vs. 5], to trust ones own heart [Vs. 9], or to trust wealth [Vs. 11] ensures ruin.)

¹²A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of Our Sanctuary. (In Verses 12 through 14, the wisdom of trusting Jehovah, the Hope of Israel, and the happiness which results are contrasted with the folly and misery of confidence in human saviours. The pronoun Our in the phrase, Our Sanctuary, is emphatic. The word Sanctuary speaks of a place of sacred security; that place is glorious, it is set on high above the reach of calamity, and is long established. It is for the one who trusts exclusively in the Lord!)

¹³O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed, and they who depart from me shall be written in the Earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the Fountain of Living Waters. (This refers to the Fountain of Life, which ever flows forth, in contrast to the parched places of Verse 6.)

¹⁴Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for You are my praise. (In this Verse, the Prophet, pleading on behalf of the people as their representative and identifying himself with them, prays that their incurably sick hearts may be healed. How can a wicked and deceitful heart be trusted? He pleads that God, not the Egyptian Monarch, should save them from the impending danger.)

¹⁵Behold, they say unto me, Where is the Word of the LORD? let it come now. (The people for whom Jeremiah prayed ridiculed the Divine Judgment which the Prophet announced, and, with skeptical contempt, demanded an immediate demonstration of it.)

¹⁶As for me, I have not hastened from being a Pastor to follow You: neither have I desired the woeful day; You know: that which came out of my lips was right before You. (Jeremiah, like a true Minister of the Gospel, did not in self-will choose to be a Preacher, nor, when bravely and faithfully announcing the coming Day of Judgment, did he desire that day; and he can sincerely state that the Truth he preached was uttered in the conscious Presence of God.)

¹⁷Be not a terror unto me: You are my hope in the day of evil. (The words, Be not a terror unto me, refer to the possibility that the Lord could forsake him, as threatened in 1:17. Thus he appealed to God for protection and vindication.)

¹⁸Let them be confounded who persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction. (Jeremiah now sees the necessity of such destruction and, in effect, sees as God sees!)

KEEPING THE SABBATH

¹⁹Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem (this was to be done so that everyone would hear and so no one would be able to say, I did not know);

²⁰And say unto them, Hear you the Word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter in by these gates (one can well imagine Jeremiah standing first at one gate and then the next, and possibly holding up a Scroll of the Pentateuch, saying, Hear you the Word of the Lord. His Message, sadly, was not received favorably, but rather was scorned with skepticism and bold opposition):

²¹Thus says the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem (the people have evidently claimed that they had already repented, or else they needed no repentance. At any rate, one test of professed Repentance was proposed to them, the observance of the Sabbath);

²²Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do you any work, but hallow you the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. (The length of the captivity 70 years was made to correspond with each seventh year, which was supposed to be kept as a Sabbath for the entire year, which they had defiled during the entirety of their 490 years of history from Saul to the exile [Lev. 26:34-35; II Chron. 36:21]. So the Lord would collect His Sabbaths, which numbered exactly 70 years.)

²³But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. (All God has ever required is obedience. But made their neck stiff, refers to an unbowing [unbending], which manifests itself in the average sinner of all races in all ages. Nor receive instruction, refers to the fact that the Lord stands ready to give instruction.)

²⁴And it shall come to pass, if you diligently hearken unto Me, says the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein (which means to use the day not only to rest, but to understand that it is God Who has given this for the good of man and, therefore, that He be praised);

²⁵Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain forever. (This Prophecy was given no doubt several times, and to as many Kings. Sadly, it was rejected! And yet Grace outlined a picture of glory and happiness for them; for God in His longsuffering, even at the last moment, opened the door of Repentance to them and to their King. But they refused!)

²⁶And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing Burnt Offerings, and Sacrifices, and Meat Offerings, and Incense, and bringing Sacrifices of Praise, unto the House of the LORD. (Verse 26 tells us that the House of the LORD is the principal interest after Repentance. Verse 21 proclaims the pleasing of themselves, while Verse 26 proclaims the pleasing of God.)

²⁷But if you will not hearken unto Me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched. (Christ is Gods Sabbath. To burden that Sabbath with sacerdotalism and its ceremonies and doctrines is to desecrate and destroy it. In other words, under the New Covenant, serving Christ, Who is the True Sabbath, constitutes keeping the Sabbath.)