Chapter 17

(Double punishment referenced in vs. 18.)

An indictment.  A recounting of Judah's sin, and justification for what is coming for all to see and read:

4 You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever." [Jer 17:4 ESV]

Their hand is loosened, but not removed?  As in they will some day grasp again the heritage that God gave them after Egypt?  Interlinear does not indicate this really.  Interlinear gives more the idea that Israel chooses to give up their heritage.  Which is more what their abandonment of God's covenant and the law and their embracing of idols instead was about.  They loosened their own grip.  Oh my...the first punishment was for turning against the stips of the Mosaic covenant and worshiping other God's.  The second was for violating the word God gave them as they  left Egypt, but before the law.  To worship and honor God.  There was that earlier verse saying that at the beginning, all God had required was that they look to Him.  And in 70 AD, they had abandoned that also, even though they were not worshiping idols.  They just flat rejected God...no.  They didn't do that.  Many still tried to worship the right way in 70 AD.  But it was too late.  This is not part of the double.   And does this mean God was against the Jews at the coming of Christ because his anger still burned?  Does it mean their rejection of Him was inevitable because they had to pay double, and because God says this punishment for the sins of Manasseh will continue without end?  Is this what Hitler was about - that even in exile God's wrath still burned against them?  Is this the root of antisemitism worldwide and still continuing to this day?  The question then becomes...when does forever end?  Interlinear says this form of "forever" is either a preposition or a conjunction.  It is not the noun "forever".  ESV seems to have translated it as a noun.  NLT says "my anger blazes like a fire that will burn forever".  YLT says it this way: For a fire ye have kindled in Mine anger, Unto the age it doth burn.  I don't think this verse means that God will be angry with His people Israel forever.  If that were so, they would never see heaven, none of them ever would.  We know this is not the case.  So we cannot really accept the ESV translation.  I think we should read this as God is very angry, and so that we can "visualize" how angry He is, picture a fire so bright so hot so unquenchable that it seems as if it will burn forever.  This is maximum anger.  This is as angry as you can get, and this is where God is at this time in Jeremiah with respect to Israel.

So much today...I'm "full".  And this is true once again in 2020.  These four chapters have sooo very much in them!

vss 5-13 contain a direct revelation of the words of God.

Those who trust in flesh are contrasted with those who trust in God.  The picture is of a desert shrub, parched, alone and desolate vs a tree planted by the water, whose roots always have water, and whose leaves stay green through any drought.  Beautiful picture.

The second one is what all men crave.  Peace through trial.  Not just a source of water, but a source that never dries up, that can be counted on without a second thought.  No worry about the necessities.  The first one is what most men have.  Isolation.  Worry.  They never see good.

This would be really good for FB.

2021 - Seems like the summary verse for 5-13 is actually in 5: 

5 Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. [Jer 17:5 ESV]

This may just be hitting me because of Beyond Order chapter 12 that I read last night.  Peterson makes man his own god in that chapter.  That's the current state of things.  We don't need God because we are already god ourselves.  We are making flesh our strength.

This right after it - this is what Peterson was trying to explain without resorting to the supernatural - and he couldn't do it except by promoting flesh to the divinity:

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? [Jer 17:9 ESV]  Only God can understand it.  Only God can understand the true implications of the fall.  It is not about resentment building up because life is not fair.  It is because of sin.

vs 10, God says all will get justice:

10 "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds." [Jer 17:10 ESV]

vss 14-18 are Jeremiah's prayer for deliverance and protection.  This verse:

18 Let those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction! [Jer 17:18 ESV]

This too sounds like many chapters of the Quran.  Surely Muhammad must have been familiar with Jeremiah's writings.

Verse 19 starts a new message.  It is introduced by the words:

"Thus said the Lord to me:".  This is in first person.  So the voice is NOT the key to where the breaks between the messages are.  I am not sure those breaks are really there.   I am pretty sure that if they are, the reasons and explanations are over my head.

The next words are "...Go and stand in the People's Gate...".  So God tells Jeremiah where He wants this messaged delivered, exactly, precisely, a spot on the map.

The message starts with a warning to all Jerusalem to not bring goods in through the gates on the Sabbath.  It goes on to say no work should be done on the Sabbath. 

This seems almost like an aside from what has been going on in the book.  Suddenly we are told to keep the Sabbath, and that doing so will result in permanent habitation of Jerusalem and so on.  But if the Sabbath is not honored, God will kindle a fire in Jerusalem that "...shall not be quenched."  Perhaps the point is to get back to the most basic of all laws.  The simplest one to keep.  Just honor the sabbath, just do that...

2021 - This verse:

21 Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22 And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. [Jer 17:21-22 ESV]  In Chosen season 2, they have Simon saying this is just oral tradition and not the Law.  But in this verse, God says it.  This calls into question even more whether the story of the healing of the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda is accurate, or complete.  I get the whole thing about being wise enough to understand the intent of the law, and the necessity sometimes of breaking the letter to maintain the intent.  But this case at Bethesda...This is a tough one.  And the easy way out is to note that the story does NOT appear in all the manuscripts.  Some consider it a later addition, that maybe ought not to be there anyway.  Just like the story of Jesus writing in the dirt and the last several verses of Mark.

2021 - Vss 24-27 I think point to the sacrificial system that will be in place during the Millennial.  I think this makes it very certain that sacrifices will take place in Ezekiel's Temple.  There will be sacrifices - animal sacrifices - in the Millennial.  These verses pretty much insure that.