Jeremiah 16 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence

This prophecy was mostly likely given near the end of King Jehoiakim’s reign close to the time of the actual invasion by the Babylonians.  Because the entire land was about to be destroyed along with all of its people, God tells the prophet not to take a wife in Jerusalem nor to have sons and daughters in the Promised Land, for soon they would all be dead.  If they didn’t die from the sword, they would die from famine or from deadly diseases, for the Lord was about to unleash his wrath upon the nation of Judah and there was no turning back.  A similar warning was given both by Jesus in Matthew 24 before the destruction of Jerusalem, and also by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 predicting a great distress at that time in which one should not even seek a wife.

This coming judgment upon the nation of Judah was going to be so terrible that thousands of bodies would just be lying in the street, being eaten by the birds of the air and the beasts of the fields.  But Jeremiah exhorts them not to weep over their dead for this is the Lord’s doing in taking away from them His peace, His steadfast love and His mercy from His people.  And when the people plead with Jeremiah asking him why the Lord has pronounced such a great evil against them, he was to tell them ultimately that it was because of their stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to the Lord.

This devastation would be so great and memorable, that no longer would Israel look back on their exodus from Egypt, but on how the Lord had brought them out of the North Country and all the other places that the Lord had driven them during this time.  Even now, the Lord had sent hunters and fishermen to catch and kill the Jews.  Harkening back to Amos 4:2 and Habakkuk 1:15 the Babylonians were said to drag their net over the Jews in large numbers in order to take them away as captives.  This all was the Lord’s doing to pay back the Jews for all their sin and idolatry throughout the years.

However, in contrast to the sins of the Jews, the prophet actually foresees gentiles coming to faith in God n vv.19-20, saying, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.  Can man make for himself gods?  Such are not gods!”  On the one hand this is good news for the nations of the world, but it is also meant to be a slight against Israel who is turning more and more to worthless idols, when the idolaters themselves are turning away from their idols unto the Lord.  If the Jews refuse to come to know the Lord, the Lord will make the Gentiles come to know Him instead, revealing to them His power and might that they might know that God’s name is the Lord.

Now, if God treated his original people in this manner, bringing such terrible judgment upon their nation for forsaking Him and turning to idols, what would he do to a Gentile nation like ours who had at one time turned away from idols, but now are turning back to them all over again?  In Romans 11 Paul says we should be fearful.  “For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.  Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off.”  That’s certainly food for thought and prayer.