JEREMIAH 19A

Message in the valley of son of Hinnom verse 1- 3

Thus says the LORD- Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle
and take of the ancients of the people
and of the ancients of the priests
and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom
which is by the entry of the east gate
and proclaim there the words that
I shall tell you
And say
Hear you the word of the LORD
O kings of Judah – and inhabitants of Jerusalem
Thus says the LORD of hosts– the God of Israel
BEHOLD I willbring evil upon this place
the which whosoever hears his ears shall tingle

Valley will be called valley of slaughter verse 4- 6

BECAUSE they have forsaken ME and have estranged this place
and have burned incense in it unto other gods
whom neither they nor their fathers have known
nor the kings of Judah
and have filled this place with the blood of innocents
They have built also the high places of Baal
to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal
which I commanded not – nor spoke it
neither came it into MY mind
THEREFORE – BEHOLD – the days come – says the LORD
that this place shall no more be called Tophet
nor the valley of the son of Hinnom
BUT the valley of slaughter

During siege of city there will be cannibalism verse 7- 9

AND I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place
and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies
and by the hand of them that seek their lives
and their carcasses will I give to be meat
for the fowls of the heaven
for the beasts of the earth
And I will make this city desolate – and a hissing
every one that passes thereby shall be astonished
and hiss BECAUSE of the plagues thereof
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the
flesh of their daughters
and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the
siege and straitness wherewith their enemies
and they shall seek their lives shall straiten them

Message of the broken bottle verse 10- 13

THEN shall you break the bottle in the sight of the men that
go with you and shalt say unto them
Thus says the LORD of hosts
            Even so will I break this people and this city
                        as one breaks a potter’s vessel
                                    that cannot be made whole again
                                                and they shall bury them in Tophet
                                                            till there be no place to bury
Thus will I do unto this place – says the LORD
            and to the inhabitants thereof and even make this city as Tophet
                        and the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah
                                    shall be defiled as the place of Tophet
BECAUSE of all the houses upon whose roofs they have
burned incense unto all the hosts of heaven
AND they have poured out drink offerings unto other gods

Jeremiah gives message at the Temple verse 14- 15

THEN came Jeremiah from Tophet
            whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy
And he stood in the court of the LORD’S house
and said to the people
Thus says the LORD of hosts – the God of Israel
BEHOLD – I will bring upon this city and upon all her
towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it
BECAUSE they have hardened their necks
that they might not hear MY words

COMMENTARY:

DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers

: 4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estrangedthis place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents. (5234 "estranged" [nakar] means to scrutinize, pay regard, to treat as foreign, to misconstrue, disfiguring, making unrecognizable.
DEVOTION: The LORD tells Jeremiah to take an earthen bottle and go to the leaders of Jerusalem with an illustration of what is going to happen to their city. The LORD uses the word “because” many times in this chapter to give the reason why judgment is coming to Jerusalem.
One of the things that the children of Judah had done is turn a section of Jerusalem, the Holy City, into a place where they sacrificed their children to foreign gods. They used this place to burn incense to these false gods. They had turned a place that was supposed to be HOLY into a place that was disfigured to worship of God. It was a place that was foreign to the worship of the true God of Israel.
God was acquainted with Jerusalem and its purpose in HIS kingdom. The people had disregarded God's purpose. They used the city for a place to worship other gods. There were no other gods in reality but the people made things or objects into gods and spent time and money on them.
HE sent Jeremiah with an object lesson to the ancients of the city. The object lesson was to use a potter’s earthen bottle. Jeremiah proclaimed the LORD’S judgment on the people.
Once the judgment was proclaimed, the LORD told Jeremiah to break the bottle. Once broken, the LORD told them that it was impossible to put the bottle back together again.
So it was impossible for Israel not to go into judgment. The LORD continues to use object lessons in our lives. Are we listening to the object lessons? HE warned Judah, HE is warning us.
Is judgment coming? Are we making our homes a strange place for the LORD to work? Are we making our work place a strange place for the LORD to work? Are we making the church we attend a strange place for the LORD to work?
There should be nothing strange in any of the locations mentioned above. A strange thing is anything that can be worshiped other than the only true God of the Bible.
CHALLENGE: Always check with the LORD regarding any activity that might be done to worship anything or anyone in our life. It causes confusion. The LORD is the only one we should worship.)

DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers

:10–11 Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury. The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982).
Devotion: For young people and also adults, it is useful to dramatize your message and create a visual as well as a verbal impression. God does that very effectively with the people of Israel. He instructs Jeremiah to take a flask or a jar with him and then invite the leaders to accompany him to the valley. God then declares, through Jeremiah, that he would smash both the city and the nation as the flask has been smashed. The visual rubble and the complete reality that it could not be put back together again was to emphasize how they would be reduced to rubble and destruction. So much death and carnage would occur that there would be no room for burials to take place. The prophecy is powerful and should have stirred the leader’s hearts. Yet there is no repentance or remorse!
God continues to warn the people of this world of His judgment and all-consuming power. Like the nation of Judah the people in the NT are being warned and again they turn deaf ears and blind eyes to the teachings of God. Jesus warned the disciples of the destruction that would come in Mathew 24 and again Peter warns “that the day if the Lord will come as a thief in the night…” (2 Peter 3:10). Jude states that we are to have compassion and …save with fear, pulling them out of the fire…” (Jude22-23).
Application: In whatever way we can we need to be warning our culture and people that we love of the impending judgment God will pour out upon this world one day! Jeremiah did not know the exact day or time it would happen but he knew God had spoken! We may not know when He will return but we do know that he has spoken and it will come to pass. Be dramatic and demonstrate how complete the destruction will be when He judges the earth! (Dr. Brian MIller – board member)

DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers

: 15      Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardenedtheir necks, that they might not hear my words. (6203 “hardened” [‘oreph] means obstinate, stubborn, impudent, difficult, stiffen, cruel, or harsh.
DEVOTION:   Here we have the LORD communicating with the leaders of Jerusalem first and then Jeremiah heads to the Temple to speak to all the people. HE wants HIS message to be heard by not only the leaders but also the common man in the streets. HE doesn’t want anyone to say that HE didn’t warn them concerning what was happening in the near future.
HE doesn’t hide HIS plans from HIS people throughout the Old Testament and even today through the New Testament. HE sends HIS messengers with HIS message for all to hear and either obey or disobey. No one can come to HIM and say HE never gave them warning.
The “evil” that is talked about in this verse is HIS judgment for their disobedience. HE is sending the Babylonians to judge HIS people for their sins.
HE even gives the reason for HIS judgment. The reason is that they are stubborn in the way they are not listening to the LORD. They are difficult to work with in a proper relationship. They have been cruel to the messengers the LORD has sent.
God has throughout history sent HIS messengers with a message for not only the leaders who have a greater judgment but to the common man who will receive judgment but to a lesser degree.
In the New Testament we are told that those who know much will receive a greater judgment because they have led people away from the LORD instead of toward HIM. The Pharisees were a group that worked hard to convert individuals into their way of thinking and the LORD Jesus Christ told them that they were making their disciples twofold more a child of hell.
Leaders who are not listening to the LORD lead their followers further from the LORD and cause them to receive judgment. We are not to be leaders who lead people further from the teachings of the Word of God but we should bring people closer to the Word of God.
Once individuals understand their responsibility to worship the LORD with all their heart, soul and mind our ministry is successful. Our goal should always be to lead people closer to the LORD and HIS commandments.
CHALLENGE:   We need to be listening to the Word of the LORD in our life. We need to have a tender heart toward what HE is trying to teach us, so that we can teach others. This will bring glory to God.)

DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:

BODY

Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)

SOUL

Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)

SPIRIT

Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)

Court of the house of the LORD verse 14

DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:

Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)

Proclaim word’s from LORD verse 2
Word of the LORD verse 3

vGod the Father (First person of the Godhead)

LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal) verse 1, 3, 6, 11,
12, 14, 15
LORD of hosts verse 3, 11, 15
God – Elohim (Creator, Sovereign) verse 3, 15
God of Israel verse 3, 15
Evil = Judgment of God verse 3, 6- 9, 15

God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)

Valley of the son of Hinnom verse 2, 6
Tophet = Valley of slaughter verse 6, 11- 14
Enemies verse 7, 9

Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)

Forsaken LORD verse 4
Estranged Temple verse 4
Burned incense to other gods verse 4
Filled Jerusalem with blood of innocents verse 4
Built high places to Baal verse 5
Offered human sacrifices to Baal verse 5
Burned incense to host of heaven verse 13
Drink offerings to other gods verse 13
Hardened their necks verse 15
Not hear LORD’S words verse 15

Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)

Proclaim words of the LORD verse 2
Prophesy verse 14
Listen to the words of the LORD verse 15

Israel (Old Testament people of God)

Ancients of the people verse 1
Ancients of the priests verse 1
Kings of Judah verse 3, 4, 13
Inhabitants of Jerusalem verse 3, 11- 13
God will make void the
Counsel of Judah verse 7
Counsel of Jerusalem
This people verse 11
Jeremiah verse 14

Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)

QUOTES

Jeremiah stood in the court of the temple and repeated his warnings of the approaching “disaster” (raʿ, “evil”) on “this city and the villages around it” (lit. “upon this city and upon all its cities,” an unusual expression but correctly translated by the NIV). Judgment was certain because the people were stiff-necked (lit. “they have stiffened their neck”) and refused to listen to the Lord’s words delivered through his prophet.
In this chapter Judah is referred to as a broken jar, i.e., its punishment was irrevocable. Its future, however, was not. To the contrary, its future was very bright according to the promise of the new covenant. In this period of Judah’s history, there was a shift from corporate responsibility to individual responsibility (Jer 31:27–30; Ezek 18:1–32). No longer would the people suffer for the sins of their ancestors. It is the same today. When people stand before God in a state of sin, they need to be broken like the jar that cannot be reassembled as it was; but now in the hands of the Potter, the repentant person can be reformed (18:1–12) into a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). (Huey, F. B. (1993). Jeremiah, Lamentations (Vol. 16, p. 189). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)

Can nations and individuals sin so greatly that even God can’t restore them? Yes, they can. As long as the clay is pliable in the hands of the potter, he can make it again if it’s marred (18:4), but when the clay becomes hard, it’s too late to reform it. Judgment is the only response to willful apostasy. The Northern Kingdom of Israel refused to repent, and the Assyrians took it captive. Now the Southern Kingdom of Judah was resisting God’s truth, and Babylon would destroy the land and deport the people. The Jewish people rejected their King when they asked Pilate to crucify Jesus; forty years later, the Romans did to Jerusalem what the Babylonians had done six centuries before. “There is a sin unto death” (1 John 5:16). Jeremiah experiences pain (20:1–6). What before had been threats now became a reality. Pashur, son of Immer, assistant to the high priest and chief security officer for the temple, didn’t like what Jeremiah was saying. Therefore, he had Jeremiah arrested, beaten, and put into the stocks until the next day. The stocks were located at a prominent place in the temple area, in order to add shame to pain. Spending all night with your body bent and twisted wouldn’t be at all comfortable, and when you add the pain of the beating, you can imagine how Jeremiah felt. (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be Decisive (pp. 89–90). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books)

Ver. 15. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, &c.] See the note on ver. 3: behold, I will bring upon this city, and upon all her towns; the city of Jerusalem, and all the cities and towns near it, even all the cities and towns in Judea; of which Jerusalem was the metropolis, and therefore called her’s: all the evil that I have pronounced against it; or decreed against it, as the Targum; all that he had purposed, and all that he had threatened, or spoke of by the Prophet Jeremy, or any other of his prophets; for whatever he has said he’ll do, and whatsoever he has resolved upon, and declared he will do, he assuredly brings to pass: because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words; they turned their backs upon him, pulled away the shoulder, stopped their ears that they might not hear what was said by the prophets from the Lord; they neither inclined their ears to hearken to, nor bowed their necks to receive the yoke of his precepts; but, on the contrary, were, as was their general character, a stiffnecked people, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, obstinate and disobedient; and this was the cause of their ruin, by which it appeared to be just and righteous. (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 5, p. 511). London: Mathews and Leigh.)