Jeremiah 19:1-9 – Never forsake God

Both Jeremiah chapters 18 and 19 are illustrated sermons. The objective of the message from chapter 18 was on the sovereignty of God and in chapter 19, it was on the wrath of God. Here in Jeremiah 19:1-9, the prophet was first instructed to buy an earthenware made by a potter. He was to bring earthenware he had bought to the entrance of the potsherd located at Valley of Ben-Hinnom just outside the city wall. The Valley of Ben-Hinnom was the place where the people of Judah once sacrificed their children to Molech and performed other rituals to Baal and foreign gods. The potsherd was the dumping ground where potters would discard their spoilt or old and broken pottery.

God’s instruction was for Jeremiah to bring along some elders of Jerusalem and some senior priests together with the earthenware he had bought with him. Then there at the entrance of the potsherd gate, he was to proclaim the words that God would instruct him concerning the future of Judah. The message Jeremiah was to proclaim would be about the severity of the upcoming wrath of God. It was going to be a severe calamity of unimaginable proportion. So much so that the ears of those who listen to the message would tingle. What was God saying? He was telling them that the message would  be so impactful that the effect could be felt all the way up to their ears. Their experience  would be like someone who had just received the tragic news of a sudden death.

In verses 4-5. The reasons why the judgment would be justified were given. Firstly it was because they had forsaken their God. They had totally forgotten about honoring  their true God. Secondly, they pursued and worshipped false gods. They had made Jerusalem a strange place, desecrating it by burning sacrifices to false gods. Thirdly, they murdered their children. They had unwittingly “…filled this place with the blood of the innocent and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal.” What they did was something that never even crossed God's mind nor had He instructed them to do.  

The severity of the judgment, and the extensive destruction that would take place, the place would more rightly be renamed the Valley of Slaughter. It would no longer be referred to as Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinn0m.  For God would “make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and …will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and …will give over their carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.” The city would become a desolation and become a place where even passers-by would sneer and scorn. Furthermore, the severe starvation would bring unimaginable stress that the people would even eat the flesh of their own children.  

The lesson: the wrath of God is always unjustified. Every unrepented sin deserves His judgment. And no sin is more scandalous than forsaking God and pandering to idols and false gods. Remember the words of Exodus 20:3-5 - “You shall have no other gods before Me….  You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them….” The call is for us to stay faithful and worship only Him, our one and only true God.