Jeremiah Chapters 16-18

16:11-13 - Most of chapter 16 sounds pretty brutal and cruel, with no hope on the horizon. These are the kind of passages that non-Christians like to bring up to discredit that God is a "God of love." Yet we find out as we keep reading why the wrath of God is burning so hot - the people have rejected their creator...their king...their God. The chosen people of God who are supposed to be a light to the world leading all people to Him, have instead chosen to emit more vile, sinful, evil into the world and that cannot stand. God in His infinite goodness cannot allow evil to go unchecked in the world, especially int he lives of those who know better!

16:15 - And as always, in the midst of judgment there is a future hope. God's motivation for fighting back against evil and for punishing His people is always love. He promises that just as He brought His people out of Egypt, He will again bring them out of the enslavement they will soon find themselves in. God always brings redemption out of suffering. Jesus himself cried out to God - "Why have you forsaken me?" God allowed Jesus to be punished for the sins of the world so that Jesus could be glorified in the resurrection and so that we could be redeemed. God allows His people to experience the consequences of their actions with the end goal of bringing the people back to Him.

16:18 - Hypocrisy and unrighteousness are serious business for God, especially when it comes from the lives of people who cal themselves God-fearers. Because when believers live anti-God lives, the image of God and name of God that is reflect in their belief claims in ruined. What we really need is less people calling themselves Christians and more people living as Christ in this world.

17:5 - How much do you and I need to learn this truth? How much does every human being that walks the face of this earth need to understand this fact? When you place you trust in flesh: human strength, human wisdom, human accomplishment, etc...you become cursed by being totally dependent on a source of strength that actually has no real power. Oh the frailty of man!

17:7ff - Yet on the other hand, if we truly put our trust in God and stand firm in the faith, there is no season of life - good or bad - in which we cannot bear good fruit.

17:9-10 - The human heart is deceptive...the human nature is selfish and twisted...why do we so often give in to the evil desires of our hearts? This reminds me of the struggle that Paul describes in Romans chapter 7 - he says, "I keep on doing what I do not want to do because of the sinful human nature that is within me!" Don't we all? It makes no sense that we continually seek out the things that are going to destroy us and have destroyed us and many others before us in the past! It is so frustrating. But God can see inside the hearts and the mind of all people...and through the redemptive work of the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit we are offered a chance to be transformed by the renewing of our minds...a step by step process where we join in with God and make out thoughts obedient to Jesus Christ! Thank you God for saving us from ourselves.

17:27 - The Sabbath is vitally important because it is a show of respect for and dependence on God. It is the very lack of dependence the Israelites had that led them to worship false idols (The same goes for us too). They believed they no longer needed God because they had other pagans gods to worship...we sometimes allow ourselves to believe we don't really "need" God because of a steady job, food in the pantry, great success, etc. The people are warned that if nothing changes in their attitude towards depending n God that there will be consequences...and the same goes for us once again.

18:7-8 - God is the creator...He is the potter. As the potter, He has every right to destroy and remake His creation when it is flawed and corrupt. He breaks the wet clay down - destroys it - and reshapes it to fit the mold that He originally intended...and when that happens the reshaping will end and the pot will be able to be hardened by the dire of the Spirit and used as it was always meant to be used.

18:11 - Again, the purpose of the remaking/discipline/the disaster that is soon to be upon them, is to bring the people back around to right living with God.

18:23 - Jeremiah's anger boils over...the people of God attack him from all sides because he is speaking the words of God. It is shocking and vile and Jeremiah demands justice. I am glad that God is the one who is going to be determining the justice in the end, because human beings would totally screw it up. Notice at the end of Jeremiah's speech there is no future hope of redemption or plan to bring these people back to him...he is just vengeful. God's anger is always focused on bringing His people back in the end...I'm glad He is the one in charge!