Don’t get married! Don’t have children! Why? The Lord revealed to Jeremiah vivid details of what was to come. Corpses everywhere! Gaunt from starvation! Horribly disfigured! No one to bury or mourn them! God wanted to spare Jeremiah from the heartbreak of losing a family.
Jeremiah’s prophecy parallels Revelation 19:17-18, “Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in mid-heaven, ‘Come, assemble for the great supper of God. That you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.’”
“For thus says the Lord: do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them. For I have taken away My peace from this people, says the Lord, lovingkindness and mercies.” Jeremiah 16:5
Like the receding ocean tide before a massive tsunami waves strikes, the Lord removed any sense of His peace, love and mercies from the people before tribulation broke out.
“Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.” Jeremiah 16:6
The Jamieson Fausset Brown Commentary explains that cutting oneself and cutting off the hair were pagan customs, which God forbade His people to do. There is no mourning, skin or hair cutting for the dead, because no one will be available to make it happen.
“Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead. Nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother. Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.” Jeremiah 16:7-8
God called Jeremiah to decline invitations to funerals and to meals after funerals. He was not to validate their pagan practices with his presence.
1 Corinthians 5:11 says, ““I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.”
The prayer is that Christ will use the temporary exclusion from the fellowship to move the defiled brother or sister to repent and be eternally included in Christ.
2 John 1:9-11 says, “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.”
In Deuteronomy 13:1-5, God commanded Israel to worship Him alone and to be faithful to Him. He told them to execute false prophets. He commanded them to purge evil from their midst.
Jesus did not tell His disciples to put people to death but did urge them to discern prophets by their fruits. Some fruits of the Spirit are love, joy and peace. In Ephesians 5:11, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”
The Bereans were commended in Acts 17:11 for testing Paul’s message against the Scriptures. In John 16:13, Jesus said the Spirit will lead you into all truth. The Spirit bears witness to truth.
“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.” Jeremiah 16:9
The breakdown of marriage and the family unit is actually a judgment of God. It is a sign that something is wrong with a society and that it needs God’s intervention. Ronald Reagan noted, “As the family goes, so goes the nation.” Strong families are essential for national strength.
Revelation 18:23 speaks of the absence of marriage ceremonies as a divine judgment. It is a work of the devil to divert people from the marriage blessing. “The light of a lamp will never shine in you anymore. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you anymore.”
“And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me, says the Lord; they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them and have forsaken Me and not kept My law.” Jeremiah 16:10-11
If Isreal had been teaching the Law of Moses to their children, they would have known from Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 that God’s Law contains blessings and curses. Blessings if they obeyed Him and curses if they did not.
“And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.” Jeremiah 16:12
They needed to pray the prayer that King David prayed in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Proverbs 11:14 says, “Where there is no guidance the people fall but in abundance of counselors there is victory.”
“Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers. And there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’” Jeremiah 16:13
The Good Shepherd is willing to lead us when we are ready to follow. But if we forsake Him... remember! We live in His universe, breathe His air, and drink His water. He can share or withhold these blessings from us.
God told the high priest Eli in 1 Samuel 2:30: “Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.”
The people called by God’s Name did evil in His sight.
“Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.” Jeremiah 16:14-15
The people of Israel talked about their deliverance from Egypt for hundreds of years in much the same way as we in the Church have talk about the miracle of Messiah for hundreds of years. The Lord prophesied that after Israel returned from the lands of the north (Assyria and Babylon) that their remembrance of this miracle would be talked about more than their previous deliverance from Egypt.
Jeremiah prophesied of a day of home coming for the Jews.
“Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” Jeremiah 16:16
“Fishermen” is used in a bad sense. Babylon would catch them as fishermen catch fish. Hunters is used in a good sense. God would hunt, find and bring them back home. [JFBC]
In Matthew 4:19, Jesus used the word ‘fishermen’ in the sense of capturing souls from Satan to bring them to God. He said, “Come, follow Me and I will send you out to fish for people.”
“For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.” Jeremiah 16:17
Nothing escaped God’s attention. He saw every detestable act they did.
1 Corinthians 4:5 says, “The Lord will bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts.” Hebrews 4:13 says, “All things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him.”
“First, I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land. They have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.” Jeremiah 16:18
Human victims offered to idols, not sweet-smelling sacrifices, were offensive odors to God.
Psalm 106:38 says, “They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with the blood.”
In Revelation 18:6, there is a similar judgment on defilers: “Render to her just as she rendered to you and repay her double according to her works. In the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her.”
In Isaiah 40:1-2, the Lord speaks of comfort for His people. Why? Because God ended her war with guilt. He pardoned her sin. He gives her double forgiveness for her double sins.
Our sin debts have been paid in full by Jesus. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Colossians 2:14 says that Jesus wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
“O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, ‘Surely our fathers have inherited lies, worthlessness and unprofitable things.’” Jeremiah 16:19
The result of God’s judgments on Israel will be that both they and Gentiles shall acknowledge that they were wrong about God. This passage was fulfilled in part when the Jews returned from Babylon. At that time, Israel renounced idols, and some Gentiles believed in the Lord.
In Revelation 7:4-14; 14:3-5, during the tribulation of the last days, 12,000 Israelites from each of the twelve tribes of Israel will be followers of Christ. They evangelize for Christ! As a result, John sees an innumerable amount of people from every nation in heaven. They are glorifying God. These people came out from the great tribulation.
“Will a man make gods for himself, which are not gods?” Jeremiah 16:20
Idol making and selling is a big industry. In America, manufacturers make multimillions of dollars by selling superhero costumes at Halloween, and by selling Santa Claus and Easter Bunny images during the seasons of Christmas and Resurrection Day.
“Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know My hand and My might. And they shall know that My Name is the Lord.” Jeremiah 16:21
Praise God for HELPING people to know that He is God. In Psalm 68:28, King David prayed, “Summon your power, God. Show us Your strength, our God, as you have done before.”
Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)
Do you know God? If not, now, is the time to ask Him as David did in Psalm 51:10-12...
“Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.”
[JFBC] = Jamieson Fausset Brown Commentary
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