Jeremiah

Chapter 11:12-23 (ESV) - “Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they cannot save them in the time of their trouble. For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, altars to make offerings to Baal.

“Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done many vile deeds? Can even sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult? The LORD once called you ‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.’ But with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.”

The LORD made it known to me and I knew;
    then you showed me their deeds.
But I was like a gentle lamb
    led to the slaughter.
I did not know it was against me
    they devised schemes, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
    let us cut him off from the land of the living,
    that his name be remembered no more.”
But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously,
    who tests the heart and the mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
    for to you have I committed my cause.

Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, and say, “Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, or you will die by our hand”— therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine, and none of them shall be left. For I will bring disaster upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their punishment.”

Question to consider: What turns Jeremiah’s intercessory prayer into a request for vengeance?

As a young priest who loved Judah and the daughter of Zion, Jerusalem, Jeremiah has been crying out to the LORD on behalf of his brothers and sisters in the hope that the LORD would still grant mercy and keep them in the land. In today’s passage, the LORD continued to point out that the reaction of the people to the reading of the Law was not to repent and turn back to Him. Instead they would go and cry to the Baals— worthless idols for which they made offerings and lined the streets of Jerusalem with their altars.

Therefore the LORD reiterated to Jeremiah that he need not waste his breath in praying for Judah. When the LORD raised the question of whether even sacrificial flesh could avert their doom, it spoke to the faithlessness by which they gave sacrifices. As David once wrote, “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;  a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17) We know that the sacrifices brought to the LORD were insincere, for they also sacrificed to the Baals.

Jeremiah then came to realize that not only had the people acted against the LORD, but they were plotting to kill him if he continued to prophesy in His name. These were men from Jeremiah's own town of Anathoth— men whom he would have known his whole life and respected as peers, priests, and prophets. It definitely would have been a slap in the face to realize that those for whom you had been interceding in prayer were plotting against you. 

I also find it interesting that Jeremiah’s intercessory tune changed to one of vengeance the moment he realized that those who were acting against the LORD were also acting against him. Suddenly, their wickedness became very personal to him. This scene also reminds me of Jesus’ first sermon in Nazareth when those in His home town sought to stone Him for declaring that the “year of the LORD’s favor” was being fulfilled in Him. A prophet is not accepted in his hometown. (See my studies in Luke 4:14-21, 22-30)

While the LORD promised to judge those who plotted against Jeremiah, Jesus would say of His enemies, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

Prayer

Dear heavenly Father, may those who plot against us receive Your word and instead rejoice with us as brothers and sisters of Christ. Thank You for your continued mercy which assures us that there is joy in heaven for the repentant sinner. Amen.