Rick and Linda Reed

Chapter 6 describes the preacher’s (and the Lord’s) dilemma. The Word of the Lord is clear, but the people are unwilling to hear: “Their ears are closed (literally, “uncircumcised”) so they cannot hear” (10, see also 19).   Jeremiah can sense and even see the disaster that is coming (prophets were called “seers”). He is frantically trying to convey God’s message of warning, but is not taken seriously. Other voices (priests and prophets) are giving a far more comforting message: “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace” (14).

This chapter includes God’s pronouncements of judgment and Jeremiah’s personal responses and reactions.   God’s direct declarations are found in 1-5, 6-9, 11b-12; 13-15; 16-20; 21, 22-23—note the translators use of quotation marks and phrases like “This is what the Lord Almighty says” in 6, 9, 16, 21, 22).   Jeremiah reacts emotionally to these dire declarations in 10-11a and 24-26. The chapter ends with God’s word to Jeremiah about his prophetic role as a “tester of metals” (27-30); Jeremiah bellows out God’s fiery words of warning, words intended to test and refine the people who hear them. Sadly, no purging is taking place, no dross is being consumed. The people are “rejected silver” (30).

Once again, God gives the warning of impending “disaster out of the north” (1); once again the Lord forewarns them of a military attack (6, 22-23) that will devastate the land (specifically the trees—6), the cities (especially Jerusalem, the Daughter of Zion—2, 8, 24) and the people (children, young men, older people, husbands and wives—11).

The Lord clearly holds the people responsible for their stubborn refusal to listen to His Word (17) and walk in His ways (16). Further, the Lord clearly takes responsibility or the punishment inflicted by the Babylonian armies: “I will destroy the Daughter of Zion” (2); “…I stretch out my hand against those who live in the land” (12); “…they will be brought down when I punish them” (15).

Jeremiah is agitated by God’s pronouncement. On one hand he seems desperate to get someone to believe his message (“To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? —10); on the other hand he is filled with a sense of God’s righteous wrath and can’t bottle it up inside him (11). Here we see the paradox of Jeremiah’s heart in this book. He weeps for the people and also rages against them. He is disgusted with their rebellion and distressed by their impending doom. He comes across as “against” the nation and “for” the nation—at the same time. In this way, he mirrors the heart of God.

These seemingly conflicted responses make Jeremiah such a complex and compelling figure to me. He’s a patriot and yet is seen as a traitor. He seems heartless and harsh in pronouncing judgment; he is tender and torn up in predicting destruction. He tears into the nation; He tears up over the nation. He is a faithful messenger and a good shepherd.

Jeremiah is an example for those of us who speak God’s Word to rebellious people in dangerous times. We must not pull back from prophetic words of warning and judgment. We must not imitate the false prophets and priests who “dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace” (14). We must forcefully and faithfully communicate God’s Word. At the same time, we must do it with a tender heart that aches for those we serve and weeps over the painful consequences of their rebellion.

The Lord compares Jeremiah’s role as His spokesman to “a tester of metals” (27-30). The word of the Lord is the fire, the people are the ore, and Jeremiah is to “observe and test their ways.” He is to see if the fiery message of warning and rebuke has a purifying effect on the people, burning away the “lead with fire” and purging out the wicked. But tragically, as God reports and Jeremiah observes, the people of Israel are “hardened rebels.” Though the “bellows blow fiercely”—a reference to God’s fiery words—the people do not change. They continue to sin with their words (“slander”) and “they all act corruptly.” The result is that after testing the people, God and Jeremiah have to pronounce them as “rejected silver.”

Here we see the intended impact of God’s Word on His people. As Jeremiah 23:28 says, God’s Word is a fire. The fire is meant to purge and purify evil, separating our sin from our silver. If we will not respond to God’s Word, we wind up as rejected silver. We can expect God’s fiery judgment to come upon us, like it did upon Israel.

The way to peace and protection is presented in the middle of this chapter: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it’”(16).   The picture God gives is that of a traveler trying to find his way through life. He comes to a crossroads, a point of decision. Two roads diverge and he must choose one.   God counsels him to “ask for the ancient paths” which reveal the “good way.” God’s Word maps out the ancient paths for us. We don’t need something trendy but something time-tested. We follow in the footsteps of those who’ve walked with God by keeping to His ways. This is the way to peace—to rest for our souls.   This is the way, walk in it (Isaiah 30:21).

This chapter gives a sad and shocking description of the spiritual state of God’s people in Jeremiah’s time. Verse 1 gives a thesis statement for this chapter: “If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city.” From the poor (4) to the leaders (5), they had all “made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent” (3).

In their spiritual hardness, they had lost all spiritual sensitivity. They had become callous to God’s attempt to rouse them through pain. They dismissed His true prophets as being full of hot air (“wind”—13). They wrote off the warnings of coming judgment as fear-mongering (“No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine”—12).

At the same time, they took for granted God’s ongoing kindness, presuming on his goodness. He supplied all their needs, but they still rushed to commit physical and spiritual adultery (7). They did not say to themselves, “Let us fear the Lord our God who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest” (24).

This hardness of heart was a form of spiritual leprosy. They had become insensitive to God and numb to his painful discipline (“You struck them but they felt no pain”). They had become “foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear” (21).

Dr. Paul Brand says the destructive power of Hansen’s disease (leprosy) is that the God-given pain sensors fail to work. The body is numb to pain. So people put their hands on hot plates or cut themselves without knowing it. Infection sets in and limbs get deformed or destroyed. Jeremiah confronts a people who had lost their spiritual sensitivity (conscience) and so were acting in ways that were self-destructive.

Their spiritual “rebellion” and “backsliding” led to a break down in society. Without a healthy fear of God, those in power abused their power. The “rich and powerful” got that way by setting traps for people (26-27). Rather than defending the “fatherless” and “rights of the poor” (28), they exploited them. Sexual morals also loosened; infidelity increased as people lusted after the wives of others (8).

Their stubborn, rebellious hearts rendered them insensitive to the ways of God (21) and the glory of God. They became fools who did not know God and even suppressed His truth in unrighteousness (see Romans 1). They no longer trembled at His works or His word: His power in setting a boundary for the ocean waves (22); His ability to send or withhold the “autumn and spring rains in season” (24, 25); His ability to dispatch the armies of Babylon to invade and destroy them (15).

The chapter ends with a description of something “horrible and shocking” (30-31). “The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way.” They are so spiritually insensitive and rebellious that they prefer falsehood to truth and human authority to God’s authority. As the apostle Paul would later put it, they want their ears tickled and choose to turn away from truth and turn aside to myths (2 Timothy 4:2-5).

Their “stubborn and rebellious hearts” (23) would bring God’s wrath upon the nation. Twice in this chapter we hear the Lord say, “Should I not punish them for this? Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?” (9, 29). He had already sent some level of discipline upon them; He had “struck” and “crushed” them (3). But they had only become “harder than stone” (3). So now the Lord would bring the Babylonia armies to devour  their harvests and food, sons and daughters, flocks and herds, vines and fig trees (17).

In verse 10, the Lord declares of Israel: “these people do not belong to the Lord.” This seems to allude to the basic covenant phrase: “You will be my people and I will be your God.” The nation had broken the covenant through their infidelity—swearing falsely in His name (2) and swearing by other gods (7). They had become “utterly unfaithful” (11). By becoming utterly unfaithful, Israel had broken their side of the covenant and would now experience the covenant curses laid out in Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26—including invasion from foreign powers and exile. “As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own” (19).