Jeremiah

Jeremiah Chapter 19

• Jeremiah 19:1 Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;

He was to take with him the ancient priests. I understand this to meant those that were the spokesmen or spiritual leaders of the people. He was to take an earthen vessel or a vessel that is breakable.

• Jeremiah 19:2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,

This is to be known as the valley of slaughter.

• Jeremiah 19:3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.

Again and again the Lord warns of what is to come. Surely there must have been a desire in God that people would repent so that He would not have to bring such judgment. If it were not so, I don't believe He would have sent so many people to warn.

• Jeremiah 19:4 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;

God always tells those to whom judgment is to fall what it is that caused the judgment. Idolatry is very serious because of the evil spirits that accompany them. It always leads to the slaying of innocents and sexual immorality of some kind. Here is a break down of verse 4.

1. Forsaken God. (this always causes the sins that follow.)
2. Used the place, perhaps the temple for other purposes. 
3. Burned incense to appease other gods, which are really not God or a god but there are evil spirits behind every false religion. 
4. Filled this place with the blood of innocents. 
5. Built high places of Baal. 
6. Burnt their own children as offerings to Baal.

It is unbelievable in a civilized world that people would do these things but little by little that is how deception creeps into societies. The further we get away from God and living by His word, the more evil we will get into. At one time in the early United States history, slavery was allowed. The buying and selling of human beings was done. It took a war, much blood shed and years to overcome the evil of slavery. Now we have abortion. I am praying that one day we will see the evil of abortion like we finally saw the evil of slavery.

Abortion started out slow; so it's easier to deceive people. It started out just to allow abortion in the very early beginning of a woman's pregnancy. They used the term, "A woman's right to choose," as a catch phrase to deceive and make it acceptable. Then they began to abort children later in the pregnancy, after that it became a big business with the selling of body parts for medical research.  Shame on us for allowing that. Since I first wrote this study, some states allow a baby born alive to be left to die and harvest its body parts to sell. The aborted fetal cells are used in vaccines.

• Jeremiah 19:5 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:

Here we see how evil they had become. They had even gone so far as to sacrifice their own children (blood of innocents) to these false gods. Notice that God says that He never once commanded them to burn their children as a sacrifice. The one time commandment to Abraham to test him was never repeated and that was for a reason and God stopped Abraham from offering up Isaac.

God never desires that one kill a live person as a sacrifice upon an altar. Never. Jesus Christ was that sacrifice once and for all and further sacrifices is not needed. He was sinless and perfect and there is no need of any other. The difference in Jesus, was that He was a willing sacrifice. Jesus could have called the angels to rescue Him at any time. 

God never commanded the sacrifice of children, neither was it in His mind for them to kill their own children. I really don't believe there is a difference between killing a child already born or that is still in the womb of its mother. It is still life.

It is Satan, the devil that desires human sacrifice, not God. God provided a sacrifice for sins. Satan desires for us to find another way and reject Jesus Christ. All those other ways, though cannot save the soul nor redeem from sin. It is the evil spirit of Satan behind idol worship or false religion that demands human sacrifice. 

We need to see how serious rejection of God was in those days and now. To reject God is to reject the fountain of living water. To reject God hurts us. God is still in heaven and cannot be physically hurt. It hurts us to reject God. God loves us and wants things for our good. To reject Him is to reject eternal life. It is to reject life itself and choose death or eternal separation in hell. God is life.

Satan offers death eternally. The soul never really dies but will suffer eternally in hell. This is the second death. It does not ever end. God knows this. He knows our end. He knows how rejecting Him will bring us to everlasting destruction. Why do you think He is angry with sin. Its because He sees the end result. He sees that sin brings death, Sin influences our children and brings them to this death. He sees the future. We only see this life and what we are surrounded with now. God sees us in light of eternity.

We can now choose life (Jesus Christ) or death. (rejection of Christ). Christ means Messiah, savior and redeemer. Christ is the way out of sin. Christ is the only way of salvation.

• Jeremiah 19:6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
• 7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
• 8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
• 9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

This surely happened at that time because the people rejected the message of Jeremiah and the other prophets and were removed from the land. Some were killed, some starved, and some were taken captive.

• Jeremiah 19:10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
• 11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
• 12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
• 13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
• 14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD'S house; and said to all the people,
• 15 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

Refusing to hear brought this evil. It is so dangerous to refuse, reject, ignore and harden our hearts against the word of God. I cringe when I see a disregard for the word among the nations of the world. I even see churches who claim to believe in Christ but reject His teaching and do not preach against things and some even allow things in the church that are sinful. Hey, if the bible says something is sin then it is sin and we do not need to be living in that type of lifestyle.

Jesus Said:

• John14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 
• 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

God has a better way, a perfect way and a way of joy to those that come to Him for salvation. The comforter is the Holy Spirit that abides within a believer.

• 1John 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 
• 4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 
• 5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
• 6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

How can we say we are believers and are Christians if we do not keep the sayings of Jesus Christ? He that abides in Him should walk like He walked. We must strive to be like Him. If we ignore everything the bible teaches, how can we say that we have been saved?

Let us return to the study of the Word of God and refrain from books and man's teachings for a season until we get built up in the Word of God again. There are so many different opinions, doctrines, denominations and faiths that we need to set it all aside, get out the word of God and ask God to help us understand and stay in that book until God's spirit changes us His way and not man's way.  DC

Study of Jeremiah 20