Devotions

I Will Give Your Life

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Jeremiah is living through a very challenging time. People are not listening to the word of the Lord. Nations that have ruled with great power are falling away as others rise. The word of the Lord changes from Jeremiah 25:5 ‘Turn back please, … and live on the land that Yahweh has given to you” to drink from, in Jeremiah 25:15 “this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand”. Because, in Jeremiah 25:31 “there is a lawsuit of Yahweh against the nations”. Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch must go into hiding and Baruch cries out in Jeremiah 45:3 “Yahweh has added sorrow to my pain. The Lord responds in Jeremiah 45:5 “do you seek great things for yourself? … I am about to bring disaster upon all flesh … but to you I will give your life”. Is our day any less challenging? Can we be content? In John 4:34–35 Jesus said to them, “… do the will of the one who sent me and complete his work … look at the fields, that they are white for harvest”. 

You Have Not Inclined Your Ear to Hear

Jeremiah 25:1–11
A word again comes in Jeremiah 25:1 “concerning all the people of Judah”. They have seen the fall of Assyria and Egypt exerts control putting Jehoiakim on the throne but now Nebuchadnezzar, who had already been leading the Babylonian army, takes the throne.

Publicly in Jeremiah 25:2-3 “the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem … these twenty-three years the word of Yahweh has come to me, and I have spoken to you over and over again, but you have not listened”. Then again he says in Jeremiah 25:4 “you have not listened and you have not inclined your ear to hear”. Then in Jeremiah 25:7 “yet you have not listened to me” and in Jeremiah 25:8 “Therefore … because you have not obeyed …”. They could have responded. They could have heard. They could have obeyed and there would have been a different outcome. But now, they are headed for seventy years in exile.

Now, the Lord says in

Jeremiah 25:9–11 “I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant … against this land, and … all these nations all around, and I will destroy them … 10 And I will exterminate from them … the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp. 11  … these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

The prophets (God’s servants) had been sent to warn them and turn them to avoid this judgement, but now, “Nebuchadnezzar has become king of Babylon (25:1), and he will be God’s servant in judging and destroying them (25:8–10). The land will lie waste and its people languish in exile for seventy years (25:11–14)”.1

All of their way of life, their culture will be disrupted, “Social life (marriages), business (millstones), and home life (light) will cease”.2

As a side note, “After the division of Solomon’s kingdom in 922 B.C., the relatively weaker states of Judah and Israel more often were forced to pay tribute to the large powers which increasingly dominated the Near East … The Jews later paid tribute in one form or another to Babylon, Persia, the Ptolemies and Seleucids, and Rome”.3

Take This Cup of the Wine of Wrath

Jeremiah 25:12–26
The message has changed. No longer is it listen and turn, now it is a pronouncement of the Babylonian captivity. But even more than that, it is a pronouncement of judgement on the nations in Jeremiah 25:12 “And then when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation”. But in the middle of this pronouncement, we shift to a spiritual encounter between Jeremiah and the Lord and in Jeremiah 25:15 “all the nations to whom I am sending you”. Then the Lord says in Jeremiah 25:16 “they will drink” and in

Jeremiah 25:17 “So I took the cup from the hand of Yahweh and I gave it to all the nations to whom Yahweh sent me to drink”.

Then Jeremiah lists nations and towns and kings and officials and servants in Jeremiah 25:18-26.

But who will drink? It is clear that this cup releases a spiritual force, in Jeremiah 25:16 “because of the presence of the sword that I am sending among them.”, an angel of the Lord (see Numbers 22:33, 1 Chronicles 21:16, 27, Jeremiah 47:6).

And I don’t think it is too much to say that there are “spiritual forces of evil” as “In Ephesians 6:12, Paul states that our battle is not against “flesh and blood” but against the powers, “the world rulers of this present darkness” and the “spiritual forces of evil.” This suggests that the powers throughout Ephesians are hostile and demonic”.4

We could develop this more, but clearly, the devil has authority over the kingdoms of the world or he would not have been able to offer this temptation to Jesus in

Luke 4:5–6 “And he led him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to him, “I will give you all this domain and their glory, because it has been handed over to me, and I can give it to whomever I want.

 

There is a Lawsuit of Yahweh Against the Nations

Jeremiah 25:27–38
There is a judgement coming at the end of the Babylonian captivity in

Jeremiah 25:31 “The rage of battle will resound to he end of the earth, for there is a lawsuit of Yahweh against the nations. He is entering into judgment with all wicked flesh, he will give them to the sword,’ declares Yahweh.”

but there is a greater judgement coming at the end when Babylon, “the dwelling place of demons” in Revelation 18:2 receives “the cup that she mixed” in

Revelation 18:6 Pay back to her as she herself also paid out, and pay back double according to her deeds; in the cup that she mixed, mix double for her.

 

I Will Give Your Life

Jeremiah 45:1–5
In the midst of Jeremiah’s twenty three years of struggle to get the the word of the Lord to the people of Judah, we find a message from the Lord to Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah. But first, who was Baruch? He “may have worked as a royal scribe before his employment with Jeremiah, as evidenced by the discovery of a seal impression reading, “belonging to Berechiah, son of Neriah, the scribe” (Avigad, “Baruch the Scribe and Jerahmeel the King’s Son,” … (and) well-known or respected in Israel. For example, he was able to speak in the temple precinct and hold private meetings with the king’s officers; the officers’ request that he go into hiding also attests to his popularity (Jer 36)”.5

And it may be this need to go into hiding that causes Baruch’s lament in Jeremiah 45:3 “Yahweh has added sorrow to my pain. I am weary in my groaning and I do not find rest”.

Baruch likely had a good natural career path based on family relationships and position. But he gave that up the work with Jeremiah. And now he is asking “What did I get for this?”

There are many of us that must also understand the time that we live in. We might take the Lords response for ourselves. The Lord answers him, in

Jeremiah 45:4-5 “Thus you will say to him: ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Look, what I have built I am about to tear down, and what I have planted I am about to pluck up, it is all the land”. 5 And you, do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek great things, for look, I am about to bring disaster upon all flesh,” declares Yahweh, “but to you I will give your life as booty in all the places where you may go.” ’ ”

There is a time when God’s blessing will come, when he will wipe away every tear, but now is the time for harvest. As it says in

John 4:34–35 Jesus said to them, “My food is that I do the will of the one who sent me and complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months and the harvest comes’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.

The time is short. It isn’t time to worry about a promotion or retirement or the things of this world. It is enough that in Jeremiah 45:5 “I will give your life as booty in all the places where you may go”.

Who is This That Rises

Jeremiah 46:1–8

Study Verses

Today’s Reading

  • Jeremiah 25:1-38
  • Jeremiah 45:1-5
  • Jeremiah 46:1-8

References

  • 1. Knowles, A. (2001). The Bible guide (1st Augsburg books ed., p. 308). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.
  • 2. Martens, E. A. (1995). Jeremiah. In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3, p. 538). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
  • 3. Brisco, T. V. (2003). Tribute. In C. Brand, C. Draper, A. England, S. Bond, E. R. Clendenen, & T. C. Butler (Eds.), Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (p. 1625). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
  • 4. Dunne, J. A. (2016). Principalities and Powers. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
  • 5. Bledsoe, A. M. D. (2016). Baruch, Jeremiah’s Scribe, Son of Neriah. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.