Judah had broken God’s covenant
11
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: 2 📚“Listen to the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 11:2 This covenant was the one God made with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, first described in Exodus chapters 19 to 24. It was the basis of their whole existence as a nation, the most important thing of which Jeremiah need to remind them.⚜
3 📚and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: Cursed 📖 be the man who does not obey the words of this covenant 4 📚which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do according to all which I command you; so you will be my people, and I will be your God, 5 📚so that I may fulfil the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.’ ” Then I answered and said, “So be it, O LORD”.
6 📚Then the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: ‘Listen to the words of this covenant, and do them. 7 📚For I have earnestly warned your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt to this day, rising early and giving warnings, saying, Obey my voice. 8 📚But they did not obey and did not incline their ear, but each one walked in the imagination of his evil heart. Therefore I will bring on them all the words of this covenant which I commanded them to do, for they did not do them.’ ”
11:6-8 They did not do what God told them to do, so He brought on them the punishment for their sins that He said He would bring on them.⚜
9 📚And the LORD said to me, “A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 📚They have turned back to the evil deeds of their forefathers who refused to hear my words, who went after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.
11:9-10 They had agreed together not to follow the reforms brought in by good King Josiah (2 Kings 23). They determined to worship other gods and thus continued to break God’s covenant with them.⚜
11 📚Therefore thus says the LORD: See, I will bring disaster on them which they will not be able to escape; and though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.
12 📚Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they offer incense; but they will not at all save them in the time of their trouble.
11:12 Jer 2:28; Deut 32:38; Jud 10:14; 1 Kings 18:25-29; Isa 44:17-18; 57:13. If we choose the wrong source for help in trouble let us not be surprised if we receive no help. We should all understand that the failure of idols and gods does not mean the failure of the one true God.⚜
13 📚For the number of your gods 📖 is as many as your cities, O Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem is the number of the altars you have set up to that shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.
14 📚“Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen to them when they cry out to me in their trouble.
15 📚“What has my beloved 📖 to do in my house,
since she has performed
vile acts with many;
and can the consecrated flesh avert
disaster from you?
When you do evil, then you rejoice.
16 📚The LORD called your name,
‘A green olive tree, beautiful,
and with good fruit’;
with the noise of a great tumult
he has set it on fire,
and its branches are broken.
17 📚“For the LORD of hosts who planted you, has proclaimed disaster against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves, provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal”.
11:16-17 In the Bible individuals are compared to trees (Ps 1:3; 52:8; 128:3). Here the whole nation is called an olive tree, and God warns them that its branches will be broken. However much this might have been fulfilled by the Babylonian invasion the more complete fulfillment came after the Jews rejected Christ when He was on earth. See Rom 11:7-21.⚜
Sinners plot to murder Jeremiah
18 📚And the LORD has given me knowledge of it, and I know it, for you showed me their deeds. 19 📚But I was like a gentle lamb 📖 that is brought to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may no longer be remembered 📖”.
20 📚But, O LORD of hosts, you
who judge righteously, you
who test the inner being and the heart,
let me see your vengeance 📖 on them;
for to you I have committed my cause.
21 📚Therefore thus says the LORD: “About the men of Anathoth who seek your life, saying, ‘Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, so that you do not die by our hand’, 22 📚thus says the LORD of hosts, See, I will punish them. The young men will die by the sword; their sons and their daughters will die by famine, 23 📚and none of them will remain, for I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth, the year of their punishment”.
11:18-23 The men of Anathoth, Jeremiah’s home town, plotted to kill him. They wanted to stop the preaching of the truth. Death was their reward.⚜
11:23 God has His time for everything He does.⚜