Jeremiah (1-31) 19:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Jeremiah (1-31) 19:1

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Then the response of God: ‘Thus saith the LORD,’ all this is true. They are against you. They are going to persecute you and treat you cruelly and lie against you. You appeal to me for help and safety. Here is my instruction, ‘Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people,’ – the most elderly, elderly men – ‘and of the ancients of the priests; and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom,’ where dreadful things were done by the people of Judaea and Jerusalem, ‘which is by the entry of the east gate,’ and preach there. ‘O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD.’ Poor Jeremiah, you may say. He has got to go to the very place where the worst sins are committed and presumably when they are all assembled and determined to destroy him, lift up his voice and proclaim the hardest warning of all. ‘Get back to your task’, says the Lord. ‘Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.’ What Jeremiah is to say will be shocking to those who hear it, and to those who hear about it – their ears will tingle. Great evil is met with great punishment, and even with extraordinary punishment. God will design a punishment for the nation which shows how offended he is at what they have done. And the reason is given: ‘Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;⁵ They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind.’ Idolatry has led Israel and Judah to commit atrocities which imitate the worst of what the nations around them do. They have acted against nature and behaved with utmost cruelty where nature taught them to show utmost compassion and love: to their own children. They have offered them up in their own children in their relative innocence to Molech (Jeremiah 32:25), the god of the Ammonites (1 Kings 11:7). How Satan must have triumphed to see what he had led God’s people into! What is more, they had carried out these obscene cruelties in the very place where they should have been worshipping the Lord. These gods they have gone after were strangers to them, so that it cost them much effort to seek out such things which they did not know about before. They put much energy into their sins, much more than they would put into the obeying the true God.

Application

A sinful world rejects the word of God and pushes back hard against it, but God does not give way, and neither should his servants. They represent him, and they need to be filled with the same determination to fight against wickedness that the Lord has. Those who speak for the Lord require great courage. They may not have natural courage – John Calvin said that he was by nature a retiring man who preferred to avoid the public eye – but they must seek for courage from the Holy Spirit to do what he has called them to do. Often they will be called to stand in a minority or even alone, against a whole world that rebels against the Lord. They must not look at this situation with the natural eye but with the eye of faith. Natural reason sees that it is outnumbered, but the eye of faith sees that the Lord is on our side, and none can stand against him. It says, with Elisha, ‘Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them’ (2 Kings 6:16). It speaks with a power that is able to lay low the consciences of many because the truth witnesses against them from within them where they are not able to defend against it. That courage within the Lord’s spokesman arises from an assurance that he has the truth and the truth of God will prevail against all. The Lord could speak for himself, but it is the privilege of his servants to speak for him, and they must know that they are speaking for him. Because they do so, they must not speak other than in the way that he would speak. What could be more unfitting than for the prophet to speak for God while cowering before the people? ‘Thus saith the Lord’ cannot be delivered in a quavering voice – ‘If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God’ (1 Peter 4:11).

Those who commit extreme sins should expect extreme punishments from God. Korah and his company perished in a unique way, which fitted the wickedness of their rebellion (Numbers 16:29-33). Nabal was smitten by God soon after his mistreatment of David (1 Samuel 25:38). One hundred and eighty-five thousand of the army of Sennacherib were destroyed (2 Kings 19:35), and Sennacherib himself was slain by two of his own sons (2 Kings 19:37; 2 Chronicles 32:21). Ananias lied to the Holy Ghost and as a result fell down dead in front of God’s people (Acts 5:5). On account of his hubris Herod was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. (Acts 12:23). The prophetess, figuratively known as Jezebel, who seduced those from the church of Thyatira, was punished in such a way that all knew this was the signal punishment of God (Revelation 2:20-23). The devil and the beast and the false prophet will be tormented forever (Revelation 20:10).

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Jeremiah (1-31) 19:1 Commentary and Bible Study