Dusk at a city gate of Jerusalem: the heavy timber doors stand open and a stony road leads out and away into dark hills, with no one on it.

Covenant and complaint

Jeremiah 15

The book doesn’t date this oracle. Has speaking up for God ever cost you friends?

21 verses≈ 5 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1The callJosiah’s thirteenth year (about 627 BC): a prophet to the nations
2–6Return to MeBroken cisterns, faithless Judah, disaster from the north
7–10The temple gateThe temple sermon, a weeping prophet, the living God
11–20Covenant and complaintThe broken covenant, the potter, Jeremiah’s confessionsChapter 15
21–29Shepherds and prophetsKings judged, the Branch, seventy years, the yoke, the letter
30–33The Book of ComfortRestoration, the new covenant, a field bought in a siege
34–39The last days of JudahThe scroll burned, the cistern, Jerusalem falls (586 BC)
40–45After the fallGedaliah at Mizpah, the flight to Egypt, a word for Baruch
46–51The nationsEgypt to Babylon: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
52Jerusalem fallsThe record of 586 BC, and a king released

Judgment to Continue

God

Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go!

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God

If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says:

‘Those destined for death, to death;

those destined for the sword, to the sword;

those destined for famine, to famine;

and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’

God

I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

God

I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.

God

Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem?

Who will mourn for you?

Who will turn aside

to ask about your welfare?

God

Evening on a rock threshing floor outside a town gate: a wooden winnowing fork stands upright in a heap of chaff while the wind carries husks away; nobody is there.

I will scatter them with a winnowing fork

at the gates of the land.

I will bereave and destroy My people

who have not turned from their ways.

God

I will make their widows more numerous

than the sand of the sea.

I will bring a destroyer at noon

against the mothers of young men.

I will suddenly bring upon them

anguish and dismay.

God

The mother of seven will grow faint;

she will breathe her last breath.

Her sun will set while it is still day;

she will be disgraced and humiliated.

And the rest I will put to the sword

in the presence of their enemies,”

declares the LORD.

Question

Quick question

The LORD names two of Israel’s great intercessors in 15:1. Look back at the first line.

Whom did the LORD name as great intercessors who still could not turn Him now?

Jeremiah’s Woe

Jeremiah

A narrow market lane in Jerusalem: a lean man in a dark mantle walks alone up the lane, seen from behind, while the sellers and buyers turn their backs or stare after him.

Woe to me, my mother,

that you have borne me,

a man of strife and conflict

in all the land.

I have neither lent nor borrowed,

yet everyone curses me.

God

The LORD said:

“Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose;

surely I will intercede with your enemy

in your time of trouble,

in your time of distress.

God

God

Can anyone smash iron—

iron from the north—or bronze?

God

Your wealth and your treasures

I will give up as plunder,

without charge for all your sins

within all your borders.

Then I will enslave you to your enemies

in a land you do not know,

for My anger will kindle a fire

that will burn against you.”

Jeremiah

You understand, O LORD;

remember me and attend to me.

Avenge me against my persecutors.

In Your patience, do not take me away.

Know that I endure reproach for Your honor.

Jeremiah

Your words were found, and I ate them.

Your words became my joy

and my heart’s delight.

For I bear Your name,

O LORD God of Hosts.

Jeremiah 15:16

Jeremiah

Evening in Anathoth: a lean man sits alone on a flat roof with a rolled scroll beside him, while far below in a lamplit courtyard neighbors share a meal and laugh.

I never sat with the band of revelers,

nor did I celebrate with them.

Because Your hand was on me, I sat alone,

for You have filled me with indignation.

Jeremiah

Noon in the Judean wilderness: a dry wadi bed of white stones shimmers in the heat as if water lay in it; close at hand there is only dry stone.

Why is my pain unending,

and my wound incurable,

refusing to be healed?

You have indeed become like a mirage to me—

water that is not there.

Pray

LORD God of Hosts, Your words are my joy and my heart’s delight. When my pain seems unending and You feel far away, keep me feeding on what You have said. I bear Your name; help me bear it well. Amen.

The LORD’s Promise

God

Dawn in a gateway of Jerusalem: a lean man in a dark mantle stands upright in the gate, seen from behind with his staff in hand, as the city wakes beyond him.

Therefore this is what the LORD says:

“If you return, I will restore you;

you will stand in My presence.

And if you speak words that are noble instead of worthless,

you will be My spokesman.

It is they who must turn to you,

but you must not turn to them.

0:15

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

God

Low sun on a great city gate: its doors and lower courses sheathed in dark bronze plates that glint, the stone wall above with a flat, level top; no one on it.

Then I will make you a wall to this people,

a fortified wall of bronze;

they will fight against you

but will not overcome you,

for I am with you to save and deliver you,

declares the LORD.

God

I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked

and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”

You’ve experienced

Jeremiah 15

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A verse to carry with you

Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts.

Jeremiah 15:16

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