Jeremiah 6:1-30--Impending Disaster for Jerusalem

Jeremiah 6
English Standard Version

Impending Disaster for Jerusalem
6 Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin,
    from the midst of Jerusalem!
Blow the trumpet in Tekoa,
    and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem,
for disaster looms out of the north,
    and great destruction.
2 The lovely and delicately bred I will destroy,
    the daughter of Zion.
3 Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her;
    they shall pitch their tents around her;
    they shall pasture, each in his place.
4 “Prepare war against her;
    arise, and let us attack at noon!
Woe to us, for the day declines,
    for the shadows of evening lengthen!
5 Arise, and let us attack by night
    and destroy her palaces!”

6 For thus says the LORD of hosts:
“Cut down her trees;
    cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city that must be punished;
    there is nothing but oppression within her.
7 As a well keeps its water fresh,
    so she keeps fresh her evil;
violence and destruction are heard within her;
    sickness and wounds are ever before me.
8 Be warned, O Jerusalem,
    lest I turn from you in disgust,
lest I make you a desolation,
    an uninhabited land.”

9 Thus says the LORD of hosts:
“They shall glean thoroughly as a vine
    the remnant of Israel;
like a grape gatherer pass your hand again
    over its branches.”
10 To whom shall I speak and give warning,
    that they may hear?
Behold, their ears are uncircumcised,
    they cannot listen;
behold, the word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn;
    they take no pleasure in it.
11 Therefore I am full of the wrath of the LORD;
    I am weary of holding it in.
“Pour it out upon the children in the street,
    and upon the gatherings of young men, also;
both husband and wife shall be taken,
    the elderly and the very aged.
12 Their houses shall be turned over to others,
    their fields and wives together,
for I will stretch out my hand
    against the inhabitants of the land,”
declares the LORD.
13 “For from the least to the greatest of them,
    everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.
14 They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
    when there is no peace.
15 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
    at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”
says the LORD.

16 Thus says the LORD:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
    and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
    and find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
17 I set watchmen over you, saying,
    ‘Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!’
But they said, ‘We will not pay attention.’
18 Therefore hear, O nations,
    and know, O congregation, what will happen to them.
19 Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people,
    the fruit of their devices,
because they have not paid attention to my words;
    and as for my law, they have rejected it.
20 What use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba,
    or sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,
    nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.
21 Therefore thus says the LORD:
‘Behold, I will lay before this people
    stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble;
fathers and sons together,
    neighbor and friend shall perish.’”

22 Thus says the LORD:
“Behold, a people is coming from the north country,
    a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
23 They lay hold on bow and javelin;
    they are cruel and have no mercy;
    the sound of them is like the roaring sea;
they ride on horses,
    set in array as a man for battle,
    against you, O daughter of Zion!”
24 We have heard the report of it;
    our hands fall helpless;
anguish has taken hold of us,
    pain as of a woman in labor.
25 Go not out into the field,
    nor walk on the road,
for the enemy has a sword;
    terror is on every side.
26 O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth,
    and roll in ashes;
make mourning as for an only son,
    most bitter lamentation,
for suddenly the destroyer
    will come upon us.

27 “I have made you a tester of metals among my people,
    that you may know and test their ways.
28 They are all stubbornly rebellious,
    going about with slanders;
they are bronze and iron;
    all of them act corruptly.
29 The bellows blow fiercely;
    the lead is consumed by the fire;
in vain the refining goes on,
    for the wicked are not removed.
30 Rejected silver they are called,
    for the LORD has rejected them.”

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The message of Jeremiah is mostly to the people of Jerusalem--the royals, the Levites and the priests living and working around the Temple, and the people that traded their lives of being farmers and shepherds for living in the city.  They thought they were protected by the walls, but the fact that the palace and the Temple were there, and that Jerusalem was up on a high mountain.  If you knew you the enemy was coming, this was the place you would want to be and where you would probably feel most safe.

Jeremiah speaks metaphorically to say that Jerusalem is like a polluted well with no source of fresh water to clean out the pollution and replace the bad water with good water.  This is why it was so important to the people to keep wells and cisterns covered so they would not become polluted--they understood this concept of bad water that was undrinkable.  All the people are greedy and corrupt--even the prophets and the priests are guilty.  They have scorned the LORD, so they will become the objects of His wrath.

He speaks, but they cannot listen, because they do not have the spiritual "circumcised" ears to hear His message and understand it.  His message does not make sense to the natural man (as I described before, they were in the most defensible position in the region and felt safe and secure, and they felt pretty good about their morality and their wisdom.  Both young and old alike were foolish and immoral and stood condemned.  Men and women together were condemned.  Rich and poor together were condemned.  "There is none righteous, no, not even one" as the book of Romans tells us.  All were deserving of the wages of sin, which is death and eternal separation from God.  There will be no peace that comes from obedience and adherence to the Law of God.  True peace comes from being at peace with God--then we can know the peace of God.

They want to foolishly discard the "old ways" and find a "new way" of living (nothing really new about it) where they are in charge and God is not.  God tells them to return to the "old way"--the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David.  They will not, but the LORD is still calling them to repentance.  If they would have returned, He probably would have forgiven them and given them the blessings of His covenant once again (or at least delayed His judgment until future generations got so far off track that their rebellion could not be ignored).  He will bring disaster upon them because they will not listen too or heed his warnings, and He's going to use pagan Gentiles to do it.

​The LORD is going to let His people be conquered and taken captive.  He will turn their laughing into mourning and weeping.  They will lose everything that they currently value (they will not lose Him, but they currently don't value Him).  Their lives that they imagine as sweet will become bitter--so bitter that they will not be able to sing the Psalms when the Babylonians ask them to sing.  They will hang up their harps in the willow trees of that place and not be able to make music with them.  They will put on sackcloth and ashes and mourn, crying for the LORD to relent and change His mind, but the amount of the days of their punishment have been set--one year for each Sabbath year that they failed to let the Land rest as they were supposed to--70 years total.  The punishment is long, but not forever.  A new generation that has known nothing other than their captivity will return to the Land--for them, it will be like when the Israelites entered Canaan after their bondage in Egypt.  This wicked generation will die in Exile as the wicked generation of the book of Numbers died in the wilderness.  Yet, there was a remnant of the righteous among them that made it almost the entire time, just like how the LORD preserved Joshua and Caleb, He preserved Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 

Just like fire tests metal to see if it is pure, so this trial would test God's people and burn away their impurities.  Many would start living like the Gentiles around them because that's what they wanted to be.  Some would try to preserve their culture while they were away (this is where the synagogues come from).  Some will be truly devoted to the LORD in the face of threats of death, though many will compromise or give up on their faith completely.  Everyone will be shown for who they truly are when they are persecuted because no one will "fake it" anymore when they are faced with the threat of death for being true to the LORD.  This is why, in many ways, persecution is good for God's people.  Those who are "His people" in name only will renounce their faith and deny Him quickly when they think it might save their lives.  Jesus said it this way, "

Matthew 16:24-27
English Standard Version

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.