Jeremiah 26:7-9 – Speak truth not falsehood

In the first six verses of Jeremiah 26, we saw how Jeremiah obediently stood at the court of the temple and faithfully proclaimed the prophecy God had given him. Remember a prophecy always has two parts – a message of judgment as well as the message of hope. It is for the people to whom the message was sent to respond rightly. The message of judgment would provide a hopeful way to which one could do to avert the judgment. There would always be two kinds of responders. Those who hardened their hearts and with malicious intention, harm the prophet and those who would hear with a receptive heart, repent and rightly respond to God.

In  Jeremiah 26:7-15 we are introduced to the group that took offense with his prophecy and set out to harm Jeremiah.  Verse 7 reveals that they were the priest and the “so-called” prophets and the people in the crowd. When Jeremiah had finished prophesying, they all seized him and told him he must die.  These people could not accept the truth. So when they heard that ‘This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant”, they took offense and became aggressive. They would rather believe their delusional notion that they could continue to find security in Shiloh despite the warning.  So all of them gathered around Jeremiah in the temple of the Lord and ready to lynch him.

It behooves us to rightly discern the word of God. Faithful servants of God always speak the word without compromise. They are in the ministry to please God and not men. Such servants are not afraid for their own lives. They are willing to pay a price because they know their calling. People who go for the grandeur of the ministry are hireling. They would not speak truthfully when they know that what they said would be offensive and may jeopardize their position and ministry. Remember if there’s a choice, it is better to be divided by truth than to be united by error. Truths may hurt but they always heal, lies will comfort but they always kill.  

 

 

Jeremiah 26:1-6 – Right attitude towards God’s Word

Jeremiah was told by the Lord to stand in the court of the temple to prophesy to the people from the different cities of Judah who would go to worship there (Jeremiah 26:2). He was told not to skip or omit a word that he was instructed to tell the people.

When did this happen? According to Jeremiah 26:1, this took place at the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign who was made the king of Judah in the place of his brother Jehoahaz by Pharoah Neco of Egypt. Second Kings 23:34 tells us that Pharoah Neco also changed his name from Eliakim to Jehoiakim. As a puppet king, he was made to pay tribute to Egypt which he did so by taxing the people. According to Jeremiah 22:13-14, Jehoiakim also exploited the people by using the people to build his luxurious palace without paying for the services they rendered.   

What was God’s purpose for doing this? Verse 3-6 showed that He wanted the people to turn from their evil ways, repent, and walk upright. He wanted them to obey the law as well as to pay attention to the things He was telling them through Jeremiah, His true prophet. God’s intention was clear, He was warning them of the severity of the impending calamity. But it could still be averted if they repent and change. But if they refused, the temple would be destroyed like what was done to Shiloh. Besides, Jerusalem the city become a symbol of God’s curse to all the nations of the earth.  

Though the subject of Jeremiah’s message in these verses was the impending judgment of God and what could be done to avoid it, we cannot get away from the importance of hearing and obeying God’s Word. Leaders who share His Word must not omit or skip what they are told to share. People who listen must take heed of the Word and obey. Both those who share God’s Word and those who listen have responsibility. The former must accurately and completely share the truth and the other must attentively listen, faithfully obey and carefully live out the Word.  

Jeremiah 25:34-38 – Be a responsible leader

Jeremiah 25:34-35 now brings a direct prophecy to the shepherds of Judah. By shepherds, he meant the leadership of Israel. The king., the priests, and even the prophets, especially the false ones were leading the nation to ruin. These leaders who were supposed to guide the people of God were failing them. They show examples that left much to be desired. God called on them to wail and mourn. For their day of reckoning had come.  There was no escaping for them and they too would be scattered and perish together with the people they were leading.

Verses 36-38 describe what terror they would be experiencing. The Lord would be destroying the pasture i.e. the land.   Shepherds would weep and wail in grief when they see their peaceful pasture being destroyed. So will the leaders of Judah wail grievously as they see their beloved Judah being invaded and devastated by the Babylonians. The Lord, in His anger, like a fierce lion had come out from His hiding place to show His anger with the people.  The land would become like a place of horror when the sword of the Lord through the Babylonians falls. There would be great bewilderment and great silence would fall among the people who once thrived in the land.

 

People go astray when leaders fail to discharge their roles and duties responsibly. While the Lord would deal with the followers, the fault always lies squarely on the shoulders of the leaders. Uncompromising leaders will always result in a positive impact on the people they are leading. On the other hand, when leaders are weak and compromising, the followers inevitably run the risk of leading compromising life. In civil society, the home, or in the church, strong godly leaders are needed. If we are in any leadership capacity, let us strive to be responsible and quality leaders for the glory of God.   

Jeremiah 25:30-33 – Be aligned with God’s purpose and plan

Everyone wants to avoid a judgment if it is avoidable at all. But Jeremiah 25:30-33, God guarantees us that none could escape the judgment that was coming upon the wicked of the nations. Firstly, the judgment of God would come upon His own people. Like a ferocious lion, God would attack His own fold. His voice was like the mighty roar of would come from His holy habitation. The roar of a lion is a petrifying experience. A lion roars before it pounces on its prey. Its intention is to intimate, frighten, and immobilize the prey. In the same way, God’s roar upon His people would be as petrifying, frightening, intimidating, and immobilizing as the lion’s roar. None would be able to escape His terror. 

 

Secondly, God pictures the inhabitants on earth like grapes being crushed and trampled upon. God Himself would trample on the inhabitants to destroy them. Thirdly, there would be a commotion in the nations because the Lord would be indicting its guilty inhabitants. Fourthly, The wicked would have no place they could seek refuge from the sword of God.  

 

Verses 32-33 describe how terrible would the judgment be. There would be unburied corpses left rotting under the sun with no one to gather, lament, or mourn over them. Those corpses would be left like stinking manure everywhere on the ground.  

 

Whether we know it or not, God’s judgment is a process. It begins with His assessment of us to see if we are walking in line with His purpose. When we are not, He would warn us of the dangers of not walking in line with HIi purpose and plan. If we would not change but persist in our waywardness, we will have to bear with the consequence of not being in line. This is to help us realize the pain of it and at this point, it is still not too late to realign our steps quickly with His. But when we would not listen, persist in our wrong, and refuse to change the ultimate would be unbearable. Know that God is interested in our lives profoundly. He wants us to fulfill the plan and purpose He has for us. And He keeps watch over us.       

Jeremiah 25:17-29 – Jesus drank our bitter cup

In Jeremiah 25:17, Jeremiah was seen to do what the Lord told him to do. He took the cup as instructed by God and made the nations drink. Jerusalem and all its cities and her kings and princes God would be judged. Verse 18 indicated that they would be made to drink the cup of the wine of God’s wrath. Not only did Jerusalem drink of this bitter cup, but according to verses 19-26, other nations such as Egypt which extend as far as the south, and Elam and Media located in the east would have to drink of the cup. The nations that would partake of the bitter cup were enumerated in verses 19-26. The last on the list would be the king of Shechach. “Shechach” was in fact a name cryptic name referring to Babylon.

There was no way those nations could refuse to drink the cup. There was no escaping for any of them which had been listed. They all had to drink the cup. For the sword of God’s wrath had come among them. The implication is that if God could bear to judge Jerusalem His people, the nations would not be allowed to go unpunished. So beginning from Jerusalem to the last on the list of nations enumerated in these verses, all would be punished.

Verse 27 tells us that when God’s apportion the due judgment none could refuse. For to drink of the cup was never an invitation but a command. The question we ask is: apart from Judah, what rights did Jeremiah have to speak to other nations this way. When we recall his commission to be a prophet to the nations in Jeremiah 1, he was reticent about his calling. Jeremiah 1:9-10 then explicitly said “‘Then the Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me,’

“Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.

See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms,
To pluck up and to break down,
To destroy and to overthrow,
To build and to plant.”

This was the role Jeremiah was to accomplish. These verses suggest that all sinners whether believers or not will have to drink of the bitter cup of God’s wrath.  However, for us, Jesus Christ our Lord had taken the bitter cup on our behalf.  He drank the cup so that we who believe in Him and choose to follow Him to walk in His way will not have to drink of it. Shouldn’t we be forever grateful to our Lord? So tuck in our hearts and never forget what the Lord had done for us. The lyrics of the song “Had it Not Been" invites us to reflect on what our end would be without Jesus.  The lyrics of the song say:

 

Just suppose God searched through Heaven,
And couldn't find one willing to be,
The supreme sacrifice that was needed,
That would buy eternal life for you and me

 

Had it not been for a place called Mount Calvary,
Had it not been for the old rugged cross,
Had it not been for a man called Jesus,
Then forever my soul would be lost.

 

Well, I'm so glad He was willing to drink His bitter cup,
Although He prayed "Father let it pass from me",
And I'm so glad He never called Heaven's angels,
From these hands, Pulled the nails that torment me

Had it not been for a place called Mount Calvary,
Had it not been for the old rugged cross,
Had it not been for a man called Jesus,
Then forever my soul would be lost.

 

 

Jeremiah 25:15-16 - Make God our portion in life

What does the Bible mean when it uses the word “cup”? Understanding the Bible’s usage of the word “cup” will help us better understand Jeremiah 25:15 onwards better. In the Scriptures, the word “cup” has often been used as a metaphor to refer to the destiny of an individual or of a nation. It could be a positive or a negative destiny. Psalm 16 is an example of how the word “cup” is used to refer to positive destiny. In verse 5 the Psalmist asserted that said, “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You support my lot.” He determines the lot and portion of our lives.

For negative destiny, we look at how the Lord Jesus used the word. Matthew 26:39 tells us that He requested the Father for the cup to be removed from Him. We know that He was referring to His impending torture and ultimate death at Calvary. Though He made this request for that negative experience to be bypassed yet He would rather follow the will of God. Again in John 18:11, as he told Peter not to resist His arrest, He referred to the cup saying, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” Again He was referring to what was coming at His trials, torture, and eventual death on the cross.  

In Jeremiah 25:15 the cup God told the prophet to take and give it to the nation to drink was referred to as “the cup of the wine of wrath.” God was talking about the negative experiences that He was about to bring upon all nations. It is true that the end of every nation, know it or not, is determined by God. In Jeremiah 25:15 the prophet was commanded to take it from God’s hand and pass it around to the different designated nations to drink. Verse 16 tells us the negative impact of the drink on them. God said that His wrath would cause the nations to stagger and become senseless and mad like a drunkard. They would experience utter chaos because of the sword that He would bring upon them. In other words, God would cause invading army to battle them. It is hard to imagine that Jeremiah took the cup and literally went to all the different nations and made them drink. But this is possible if all that Jeremiah was describing was in a vision. However, it could well be that he went to the different foreign attaché in Jerusalem and had the ambassadors of each of those nations drink the cup.

When we consider the destiny of our lives, I am sure we would prefer to have positive ones. Even if we are to go through some negative experiences, our prayer is that our destiny will ultimately dovetail with God’s plan and purpose for us. Nothing can truly and deeply satisfy us outside of God. It is in a deep abiding relationship with Him that our destiny is sealed. A departure from God would spell misery but drawing near to Him would be life indeed.  Let’s exclaim like the Psalmist:

“Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:25-26).           

Jeremiah 25:12-14 – God's unending grace

The duration of Judah’s captivity was stipulated. God promised them that it would be seventy years. He only wanted to discipline “the basket of good figs” Jeremiah saw in his vision. He was using the captivity to cause them to repent and turn to Him. Although Babylon was the instrument that God would use to chasten His people, she was not at liberty to do as she like. The only person that could do as He liked was God Babylon. For she too was under the control of God and was merely an instrument in His hand.

In Jeremiah 25:12-14, while assuring liberty for the Judean whom He would be sending to captivity, God also assured them that Babylon and her king would be punished. After seventy years they too would be made to pay for their iniquity. God would devastate their land and bring it to utter desolation. The Babylonians would in return be captured and enslaved by different nations. And with the advantage of more revelation, we learned that they were conquered, and overtaken by the Medes and Persians, and even the Greeks. God indeed had made them pay for their wicked deeds.

The release of Judah from captivity is a demonstration of God’s grace. Like what He did to the people of Judah, God also uses the hard times of our lives to straighten us. When we yield to Him and His purpose in trials and tribulation, He uses the process to strengthen, restore and make us stronger and more stable. Trials are never easy to endure. But the grace of God will see us through. This is God’s promise to us in 1 Peter 5:10. He said, ^“After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”

 

This was the discovery of Annie Johnson Flint who wrote the lyrics of the hymn - He Giveth More Grace. Be encouraged by what she said:  

 

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;
To added afflictions, He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.