The Berean Pursuit
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: "Listen to the words of this covenant and tell them to the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem. You must tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant, which I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, 'Obey Me, and do everything I command you, and you will be My people, and I will be your God.' This was in order to establish the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is to this day."
"Amen, LORD," I answered.
Then the LORD said to me, "Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Hear the words of this covenant and carry them out. For from the time I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt until today, I strongly warned them again and again, saying, 'Obey My voice.' Yet they would not obey or incline their ears, but each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant I had commanded them to follow but they did not keep."
And the LORD told me, "There is a conspiracy among the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem. They have returned to the sins of their forefathers who refused to obey My words. They have followed other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their fathers.
Therefore this is what the LORD says: 'I am about to bring upon them a disaster that they cannot escape. They will cry out to Me, but I will not listen to them. Then the cities of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to which they have been burning incense, but these gods certainly will not save them in their time of disaster. Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, O Judah; the altars of shame you have set up-the altars to burn incense to Baal-are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.'
As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not be listening when they call out to Me in their time of disaster.
What right has My beloved in My house,
having carried out so many evil schemes?
Can consecrated meat avert your doom,
so that you can rejoice?
The LORD once called you a flourishing olive tree,
beautiful with well-formed fruit.
But with a mighty roar He will set it on fire,
and its branches will be consumed.
The LORD of Hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you on account of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have brought upon themselves, provoking Me to anger by burning incense to Baal."
And the LORD informed me, so I knew.
Then You showed me their deeds.
For I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter;
I did not know that they had plotted against me:
"Let us destroy the tree with its fruit;
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
that his name may be remembered no more."
O LORD of Hosts, who judges righteously,
who examines the heart and mind,
let me see Your vengeance upon them,
for to You I have committed my cause.
Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the people of Anathoth who are seeking your life and saying, "You must not prophesy in the name of the LORD, or you will die by our hand." So this is what the LORD of Hosts says: "I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. There will be no remnant, for I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment."
Righteous are You, O LORD,
when I plead before You.
Yet about Your judgments
I wish to contend with You:
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all the faithless live at ease?
You planted them, and they have taken root.
They have grown and produced fruit.
You are ever on their lips,
but far from their hearts.
But You know me, O LORD;
You see me and test my heart toward You.
Drag away the wicked like sheep to the slaughter
and set them apart for the day of carnage.
How long will the land mourn
and the grass of every field be withered?
Because of the evil of its residents,
the animals and birds have been swept away,
for the people have said,
"He cannot see what our end will be."
"If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in a peaceful land,
how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?
Even your brothers-
your own father's household-
even they have betrayed you;
even they have cried aloud against you.
Do not trust them,
though they speak well of you.
I have forsaken My house;
I have abandoned My inheritance.
I have given the love of My life
into the hands of her enemies.
My inheritance has become to Me
like a lion in the forest.
She has roared against Me;
therefore I hate her.
Is not My inheritance to Me
like a speckled bird of prey
with other birds of prey circling against her?
Go, gather all the beasts of the field;
bring them to devour her.
Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard;
they have trampled My plot of ground.
They have turned My pleasant field
into a desolate wasteland.
They have made it a desolation;
desolate before Me, it mourns.
All the land is laid waste,
but no man takes it to heart.
Over all the barren heights in the wilderness
the destroyers have come,
for the sword of the LORD devours
from one end of the earth to the other.
No flesh has peace.
They have sown wheat but harvested thorns.
They have exhausted themselves to no avail.
Bear the shame of your harvest
because of the fierce anger of the LORD."
This is what the LORD says: "As for all My evil neighbors who attack the inheritance that I bequeathed to My people Israel, I am about to uproot them from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. But after I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land.
And if they will diligently learn the ways of My people and swear by My name, saying, 'As surely as the LORD lives'-just as they once taught My people to swear by Baal-then they will be established among My people. But if they will not obey, then I will uproot that nation; I will uproot it and destroy it, declares the LORD."
This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water."
So I bought a loincloth as the LORD had instructed me, and I put it around my waist.
Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: "Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go at once to Perath and hide it there in a crevice of the rocks."
So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD had commanded me.
Many days later the LORD said to me, "Arise, go to Perath, and get the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there." So I went to Perath and dug up the loincloth, and I took it from the place where I had hidden it. But now it was ruined-of no use at all.
Then the word of the LORD came to me: "This is what the LORD says: In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. These evil people, who refuse to listen to My words, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who go after other gods to serve and worship them, they will be like this loincloth-of no use at all.
For just as a loincloth clings to a man's waist, so I have made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me, declares the LORD, so that they might be My people for My renown and praise and glory. But they did not listen.
Therefore you are to tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Every wineskin shall be filled with wine.'
And when they reply, 'Don't we surely know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?' then you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: 'I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land-the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem. I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no mercy or pity or compassion to keep Me from destroying them.'?"
Listen and give heed. Do not be arrogant,
for the LORD has spoken.
Give glory to the LORD your God
before He brings darkness,
before your feet stumble
on the dusky mountains.
You wait for light,
but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.
But if you do not listen,
I will weep in secret because of your pride.
My eyes will overflow with tears,
because the LORD's flock has been taken captive.
Say to the king
and to the queen mother:
"Take a lowly seat,
for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads."
The cities of the Negev have been shut tight,
and no one can open them.
All Judah has been carried into exile,
wholly taken captive.
Lift up your eyes and see
those coming from the north.
Where is the flock entrusted to you,
the sheep that were your pride?
What will you say when He sets over you
close allies whom you yourself trained?
Will not pangs of anguish grip you,
as they do a woman in labor?
And if you ask yourself,
"Why has this happened to me?"
It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity
that your skirts have been stripped off
and your body has been exposed.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin,
or the leopard his spots?
Neither are you able to do good-
you who are accustomed to doing evil.
"I will scatter you like chaff
driven by the desert wind.
This is your lot,
the portion I have measured to you,"
declares the LORD,
"because you have forgotten Me
and trusted in falsehood.
So I will pull your skirts up over your face,
that your shame may be seen.
Your adulteries and lustful neighings,
your shameless prostitution
on the hills and in the fields-
I have seen your detestable acts.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
How long will you remain unclean?"