Jeremiah

Chapter 15:1-9 (ESV) - Then the LORD said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD:

“‘Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence,
    and those who are for the sword, to the sword;
those who are for famine, to famine,
    and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’

I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

“Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
    or who will grieve for you?
Who will turn aside
    to ask about your welfare?
You have rejected me, declares the LORD;
    you keep going backward,
so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—
    I am weary of relenting.
I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork
    in the gates of the land;
I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people;
    they did not turn from their ways.
I have made their widows more in number
    than the sand of the seas;
I have brought against the mothers of young men
    a destroyer at noonday;
I have made anguish and terror
    fall upon them suddenly.
She who bore seven has grown feeble;
    she has fainted away;
her sun went down while it was yet day;
    she has been shamed and disgraced.
And the rest of them I will give to the sword
    before their enemies,
declares the LORD.”

Question to consider: Why would Josiah still try to reform Judah if the LORD would not relent even if Moses or Samuel interceded for them?

Unlike some of the other prophets like Ezekiel or Zephaniah, Jeremiah doesn’t give a timeline on each of the visions he received. We are still a few chapters away from when king Zedekiah is mentioned so I would guess this word from the LORD came while it was still Josiah’s reign. Manasseh was Josiah’s grandfather, and reintroduced pagan worship to Judah after his father, Hezekiah, removed the high places to Baal and Asherah poles.

Since Josiah took the throne at eight years old, he was being advised by the false prophets and teachers until Zephaniah and Jeremiah came on the scene and started giving him the true word of the LORD. All of these pronouncements were made to give Josiah the chance to repent and change the course for Judah which was set because of what Manasseh had done. If things were hopeless for Josiah, he would not have tried to reform Judah but accepted its fate.

Without the reforms done by Josiah, it wouldn’t have mattered if it was Moses or Samuel interceding for Judah instead of Jeremiah and Zephaniah, the heart of the LORD would not be changed. When Josiah began to reform Judah and Jerusalem, the judgment was pushed off until Zedekiah was made king and tried to team up with Egypt to overthrow Nebuchadnezzar.

Without their repentance, the people of Judah were given the option of either going into exile or being killed by pestilence, the sword, or famine. Those who were to be destroyed would face one of four destroyers: the sword, dogs, birds of the air, or beasts of the field where they would be devoured instead of buried.

The Latter-day Saints (Mormons) profess that at this time, exiles from Judah got on a ship and set sail for the Americas where their adventures were captured in the Book of Mormon, but this wasn’t one of the options given to them by the LORD. The Israelites who fled in the Book of Mormon were portrayed as righteous, but if there were righteous Hebrews like Nephi in Judah, they wouldn’t have been facing exile to begin with.

The only ones portrayed as righteous during the exile were Daniel and his friends, and the LORD used them during the exile to point Nebuchadnezzar to the LORD and to intercede for Israel during their time of captivity.

Prayer

Dear heavenly Father, thank You for giving Josiah ears to hear the warnings from Jeremiah and Zephaniah so that he would attempt to reform Judah. Help us to be like Jeremiah and Josiah as we preach repentance and Christ crucified for the forgiveness of our sins. Amen.