Some things I jotted down as I read through Jeremiah 12-16:

In Jeremiah 12, Jeremiah has one perspective, that the wicked are prospering, God on the other hand has the perspective they have not prospered at His hand but due to the invitation submitted through the wicked acts of the people of God. In other words, they through their actions have embraced the wicked people along with the wickedness and unlike God wicked ways are not a kind a master.

But at the end of Jeremiah 12 God shows us that He will rid the land of the wicked, but He will also uproot Judah from her wicked ways and hopefully as a nation they will appreciate this and return unto God!

In Jeremiah 13 I wrote down something that is not a Biblical point at all, but it made me chuckle and I had to make note of it…I recently read an article that asked, “What is the true value of the belt?” and the premise of this short article was questioning does the belt really hold up our pants or do we hold up the belt. I feel that in this live action drama that God asks Jeremiah to be a part of in Jeremiah 13 we get the answer,

“For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,’” -Jer. 13:11a

There you go a fashion answer in the Bible, we hold up the belts…no wonder I still have a hard time with my pants sliding even though I wear a belt 🙂

On a more serious note in Jeremiah 13 verse 17,

But if you will not listen to it,
My soul will sob in secret for such pride;
And my eyes will bitterly weep
And flow down with tears,
Because the flock of the Lord has been taken captive.

I love the heart of Jeremiah. Oh that each of us would have that same depth of compassion for the lost when they go through trials and consequences even though when we know they are deserving of such trials and consequences. Jeremiah knew these people were wrong and yet he sobbed, he wept, the tears flowed down! That is the true heart of a pastor!

In Jeremiah 14 I found it interesting that God does not lay all the blame or consequences at the feet of the false prophets. They are teaching the people error, but God in verse 16 states that the people who listen to this error will also suffer the same consequences. Why? In other places in scripture God seems to show mercy on the people because they were led falsely astray and did not know better…why here the same consequences. I wonder if it could be because these people also had Jeremiah. They had the full opportunity to know truth and embrace truth. Maybe because of their history they knew right and wrong yet they followed after error.

I believe here the Bible is teaching…

We will not only be held accountable for what we know and did not follow, but what we could have known had we simply listened or accepted the opportunities of truth we’d been given.

So those are the notes I jotted down on these chapters. What were some of the notes God gave to you?

Tomorrow’s Reading: Mark 9 & 10