Jeremiah 26:1-6; 7:1-8:3; 26:7-24; 11:1-12:17; 47:1-7; 46:1-12; 13:1-14; 18:1-17; 36:1-10; 25:1-14; 36:11-32

Yahweh tells Jeremiah that the men of Judah have entered into a “conspiracy” against Him. Yes, Jeremiah records God’s promised judgment upon Philistia and Egypt, too, but Judah? History records the devastating defeat of Pharaoh Nico and the Assyrian remnant at the hands of (then) Prince Nebuchadnezzar in 605 BC. These heathens were long overdue, but Judah? These are the people of covenant and nothing can happen once God gives His word. Right? Well, certainly there was a covenant, but a covenant has two parties. Now Yahweh clearly states that the house of Judah has broken the covenant. Yahweh did not break His promises.

Tragically, God tells Jeremiah to not even pray for them because he will not listen. It’s over. Done. So, Yahweh tells Jeremiah to take a beautiful linen sash and put it around his waist. At this point is serves the purpose for which it was designed and created. Curiously, he is then told to take the sash to the Euphrates River and bury it in the mud. When he returns to dig it up, unsurprisingly it is ruined.

The chosen people of God were designed and created for a purpose. They were to “cling to Yahweh’s waist” like a beautiful sash and be His people of renown, glory and praise. But they would not listen and walked after other gods. Like Jeremiah’s sash they are ruined. They are profitable for nothing.

When all of God’s words to Jeremiah were written and read in the Temple and Palace of the king, there should have been mass repentance. Because the land had not enjoyed its Sabbath rests (1 year out of every 7 for 490 years), there would be 70 years of desolation.

“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit. “Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted. “And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied. “But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it. And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies’ lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.

Leviticus 26:14-39

Yahweh is not arbitrary. He was not pitching a fit like a child. El Shaddai was keeping the covenant He made with Judah and Israel. This was part of the covenant all along. When the king heard the promise of 70 years of desolation, he burned the scroll thinking he could annul the words of God. In reality, they had wadded up the words of God and buried them in the mud long ago. They would not keep the word of God.

Even so, God keeps His word.

Consider His nature.  Consider His ways.  Strive to love Him more!