Chapter 9
2023 - For some reason, Jeremiah is just grueling to read. It beats me down every year. And maybe it is not that it is Jeremiah, maybe it is this reading plan. The chapters in Jeremiah are VERY LONG, and the plan calls for three LONG chapters every single day plus one in the NT. Just the reading can take half an hour or 45 minutes if you don't take a single note. And this goes on for days and days. To me, this is the "hill" that I have to get over to get the Bible read every year. After Jeremiah, it goes pretty quickly. But Jeremiah is tough. And that is likely why I struggle so with posts this time of year. I'm just trying to keep up.
2025 - ChatGPT came up with these numbers:
Using ESV total word count ÷ chapters:
Isaiah: 35,279 words ÷ 66 chapters = 534.53 words/chapter Bible Memory Goal+1
Jeremiah: 40,508 words ÷ 52 chapters = 779.00 words/chapter Bible Memory Goal+1
Result: Jeremiah has longer chapters on average by 779.00 − 534.53 = 244.47 words per chapter (≈ 244.5). Bible Memory Goal+1
So Jeremiah's chapters are 45.7% longer than Isaiah. So reading three in Isaiah every day seemed long....and then we carry that same kind of 3 chapter a day schedule in to Jeremiah and it's almost 50% more reading! NOT my imagination!
In vss 1-6, God is listing the current condition of the land. Sin is pervasive, all are wicked, no one can trust anyone else, even down to the next door neighbor.
vs 7 starts with "Therefore..."
Four things God says He will do:
1, in vs 7, He will refine them and test them. Implies that some will come out better on the other side.
2, vs 9, He will punish them for the things they've done.
3, vs 10, He will weep - not for the people - but for the desolation of the landscape and wildlife.
4, vs 11, "I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins..."
2025 - Notice the contrast of these two verses:
1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! 2 Oh that I had in the desert a travelers' lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men. [Jer 9:1-2 ESV].
He wants more water so he can cry more for his countrymen. He wants a retreat so he doesn't have to be around his countrymen at all. What a poignant contrast. To feel both love and revulsion toward these people at the same time.
Could this be worked into a FB post on how we CAN both love someone and detest their actions at the same time? However contradictory it sounds it is a VERY COMMON THING.
Christians DO love sinners while abhorring their sins. You CAN love a homosexual while despising their homosexuality. We can do that because we do NOT define a person by their sin but by the image of creator God that they carry with them. It is this characteristic, common to all men, that is the object of Christian love.
Do not let twisted words and misapplied definitions box you in!
2021-There is this repeating theme of just how completely dishonesty permeates this society. Neighbors are not living together in peace, but spying out how best to cheat each other. Look how it is stated in vs 6:
6 Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the LORD. [Jer 9:6 ESV]. They will not change direction. It has gone too far, leaving God to do what He must do in order to restore justice of some kind, to refine - which is to remove the dross and leave only the purest and finest - however little there is. He must keep some loyal to Him, lest there be no one to receive the promises. He could not let them forget him completely. Action had to be taken before there were none at all who worshiped the only true God. This is certainly what Satan wanted. He wanted "God-worship" to become just an archaic religion that some used to follow. A quaint memory from a bygone time. Satan is still trying to do that. He has had more than a little success in some places. In Jeremiah's day he was substituting idol worship for God-worship. Today, we have/Satan has elevated science as the source of our help, our explanation, our understanding. We worship what science tells us about our origins, our destinies, and the meaning of our lives. This is what is substituted for Godliness in a world beyond idol worship.
Possible FB post, using vs 7 also: 6 Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the LORD. 7 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: "Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people? [Jer 9:6-7 ESV]
Here's the thing for the USA. He has no need to refine us. We are Gentiles, not promised anything. (Is there any verse where Gentiles are promised a place in the Millennial kingdom? Find out before saying it is true.) For us, total annihilation is possible without making God a liar. For us the fire may not be to refine but to remove.
vss 12-16, God gives His reason for what is about to happen, in so many words. I have noticed this the last few days. So many people say they don't understand how a loving God could.... These last few days, I see that God has been very forthcoming with his reasons for bringing punishment and chastisement on his own chosen people. He has reasons, and He told them what they were at the time, and He told them how to stop it, and yet they would not. So who is it in this scenario that is unloving? Who in this scenario is callous toward the other party? This could all be put together into a pretty good lesson about how God operates. Start with God's own explanation in 7:12.
2023 - This verse:
16 I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them." [Jer 9:16 ESV]. How is this NOT being fulfilled, even today? How can we say that this has already happened, was completed, and we've moved on? Surely THIS is what Hitler was about and THIS is what is going on now in the world with all the hatred of Israel and calls for their genocide. The sword is STILL after them! God says he will stop when they have been punished double for what they have done. I think the crucifixion of Jesus just added to God's on-going wrath at that time. It is still ongoing. The church age is part of God's wrath as the special place of Israel in God's view is replaced with the church, leaving generation after generation doomed to hell. It won't stop until the 70th week begins. Only then will their eyes see again, their ears hear again, and their hearts soften.
vss 17-22 call for the women to mourn, because the land will be conquered, and the bodies will fall like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them. The picture is of a tremendous, needless, unnecessary waste.
These two verses. These awesome verses that ought to be memorized. God tells us who He is, how can we claim confusion about it:
23 Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD." [Jer 9:23-24 ESV]
This is God's own personality, revealed to us directly.
This may be the first true end times reference I've seen in Jeremiah:
25 "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh-- 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart." [Jer 9:25-26 ESV]
So many lessons here. Weeks of posting on FB are here!