Iron pen: unyielding nature of Judah's sin
Diamond point: lasting impact of their sin
Tablet of the heart: not superficial but ingrained
Horns of the altars: religious practices tainted by sin
Engraved: Not easily erased - a constant reminder
Sin was engraved in their hearts like chiseled letters in a stone. They were insensitive to God and to one another. What did abandonment of God do for them? Prodigal behavior brought prodigal pain. They exchanged fullness and favor for hunger and insult.
Proverbs 3:3 says, “Do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”
2 Corinthians 3:3 says, “You are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
“While their children remember their altars and their wooden images by the green trees on the high hills.” Jeremiah 17:2
Instead of forsaking the idols of their fathers, the children preserved them. Proof their sin is graven on their hearts and altars. The Hebrew word for “grove” is Asherah (Astarte).
The Jamieson Fausset Brown Commentary says, “Astarte is the Hellenized (Greek) form of Ashtoreth. Astarte relates to the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar with shared associations with fertility, sexual love, and war. Ishtar is identified with Egypt’s Isis.” How crazy is it that in the 21st century, people who identified as Isis killed people who believe in the God of the Bible.
“O My mountain in the field, I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures, and your high places of sin within all your borders.” Jeremiah 17:3
The Jamieson Fausset Brown Commentary notes that Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains. The picture here is, ‘You rely on your high position, but I will make my mountain to become as if it were in a flat field.’ Their defenses will fail them.
Once, Jesus cursed a fig tree. It dried up. In this context, Jesus said in Mark 11:20-23, “Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” The mountain that needed to be removed at that time was Jerusalem’s unbelief in Messiah.
“And you, even yourself, shall let go of your heritage which I gave you. And I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you do not know. For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.” Jeremiah 17:4
The Jews will not be able to hold onto their heritage no matter how hard they try to do so. The fire of the Lord’s anger would refine them as a smelter’s fire removes dross from gold. What no caring prophet could do with words, God would do with pain.
“Thus says the Lord: cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.” Jeremiah 17:5-6
When people depart from God, curses follow. Rebellion against the Creator is the devil’s enterprise. He wants us to think that the whole concept of God is below our dignity.
The Jamieson Fausset Brown Commentary says that unbelievers “shall not see when good comes” because they wither in the heat of unbelief while believers draw life from a hidden source (the Lord) as a tree’s hidden roots draw water from a river.
Psalm 118:8 says, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” Hebrews 3:12 says, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8
Trust (reliance) on the Lord is the exhortation of Psalm 1 which uses a tree planted by water as a metaphor for a person who meditates on the Law of the Lord day and night. He is drawing from the source of life.
Jesus speaks of branches producing good fruit because they are connected to Him (the Vine) and cared for by the husbandman (the Father).
A tree by the water appears in Revelation 22:2, “In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9
Proverbs 28:26 says, “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoso walks wisely shall be delivered.”
The word “deceitful” stems from the Hebrew word “supplant.” In Hosea 12:3, the Lord says they were the offspring of Jacob who supplanted his brother Esau. They had his deceit but not his faith. They supplanted “trust in God” with “trust in man” but God was not fooled.
“The Art of War” is a book attributed to a Chinese man named Sun Tzu (544-496 BC). He taught that all warfare is based on deception. Some deceptions that he used to win wars included:
Misinforming and misleading his enemy
Posturing as weak where he was strong
Posturing as strong where he was weak
Appearing to retreat when he was attacking
Always masking his true intentions
In Matthew 24:4, Jesus said, “Watch out that no one deceives you.”
In 2 Timothy 3:13, Paul wrote, “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Those who deceive others are being deceived. The devil is robbing them of God.
Ephesians 6:12 says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Hitler’s heart told him that only the strong should survive. His heart led him to massacre over 15,000 handicapped people. He influenced others to embrace eugenics, euthanasia, infanticide, abortion, and racial extermination. Richard Weikart, in his book entitled, “From Darwinism to Hitler,” concluded that Hitler built his view of ethics on Darwinism. [1]
Margaret Sanger’s heart told her that certain people were unfit for life. Sanger said birth control was “nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit [and] of preventing the birth of defectives.” She is considered by many to be the mother of the modern abortion movement. [2]
Genocidal studies specialist, Dr. James Waller, states that prior to genocidal events, one group of people begins to dehumanize another. In Rwanda, the Tutsis began to dehumanize the Hutus. After that, the Tutsis massacred 800,000 Hutus in 30 days. Abortionists dehumanize the unborn. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 73 million abortions occur globally each year.
The devil is bold. He will lay an obvious trap and tell people that it is not a trap. He nudges his prey forward by saying, “You will be fine. You can beat the odds.” Then, laughs at the fool.
Satan’s lie is, “Sin yields pleasure and God is too loving to punish it.” God’s truth is, “The wages of sin is death and God is too righteous not to punish it.”
Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The only way to be with God after we die is to believe in His Son Jesus Christ.
“I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:10
God’s Word helps us to discern where our heart is with God. Hebrews 4:12 says that “the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.” Psalms 19:12-13 is a prayer: “Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me.” Proverbs 17:3 says, “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tries the hearts.”
Have you had a heart checkup with the Lord recently?
With whom do I need to be more patient? With whom do I need to be more generous? Which of my friends am I most likely to envy? Who do I need to listen to more carefully? In what ways can I be more courteous? With whom have I rejoiced this week? Am I too focused on me?
The Lord knows each of our hearts. In 1 Samuel 9:19, “Samuel answered Saul and said, ‘I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for you shall eat with me today; and tomorrow I will let you go and will tell you all that is in your heart.’”
“Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means. When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools.” Jeremiah 17:11
Proverbs 15:27 says, “He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, but he who hates bribes will live.”
In Mark 12:40, Jesus warned us against those who devour widows’ houses, are deceptive actors, and make long [fake] prayers.
Titus 1:11-12 says, “There are many insubordinate… idle talkers and deceivers… whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.”
2 Peter 2:1, 3 says, “False prophets and false teachers by covetousness exploit you with deceptive words. For a long time, their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction doesn’t slumber.”
In Luke 12:20-21, Jesus spoke of a man who idolized riches. God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
“A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.” Jeremiah 17:12
The people who derive their strength and holiness from the throne of God are blessed indeed.
Hebrews 11:12 urges us to “look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Revelation 3:21 says, “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
“O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed. ‘Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.’” Jeremiah 17:13
Names written in the earth are blown away by the wind. Names written in heaven are eternal.
In John 8:3-4, “The scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery… ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’” John 8:5-6 says, “They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.”
Her accusers disappeared. Jesus likely wrote down the sins that the woman’s accusers were guilty of. Perhaps, He wrote the leaders’ names in the dust and wiped them away.
In John 8:8-11, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
In Luke 10:20, Jesus urged His disciples to rejoice that their names were recorded in heaven.
“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise.” Jeremiah 17:14
Heal me! Save me! Jeremiah had been wounded by those he tried to save. They plotted to destroy him. “You are the One I praise!” He continued to praise the Lord.
Psalm 34:19 says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
In Acts 16:25-26 says, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.” God breaks bondages as we praise Him.
“Indeed they say to me, ‘Where is the Word of the Lord? Let it come now!’” Jeremiah 17:15
Mockers mocked Jeremiah. They did not want to face reality. 2 Peter 3:3-4 says, “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’”
“As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You, nor have I desired the woeful day. You know what came out of my lips; it was right there before You.” Jeremiah 17:16
The Lord, by His Spirit, helped Jeremiah with two miracles. One, not to behave as a hireling when the proverbial wolves attacked him. Two, not to desire woes upon ungrateful sheep.
In Acts 20:24, Paul testified, “Trials don’t stop me. I do not count my life dear to me. I want to finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God.”
In 2 Corinthians 2:17, Paul wrote, “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the Word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.”
“Do not be a terror to me. You are my hope in the day of doom.” Jeremiah 17:17
Jeremiah did not want the Lord to be to him as He was to the people in the days when Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai. Exodus 20:18 says, “Being afraid, they stood at a distance.”
In Luke 21:35-37, Jesus urged us to watch and pray always that we may “be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Yes, I want to be delivered from doom. I used to teach disciples in China. Concerning myself, I would pray one word, “Help!” The Lord knew my “help” meant that I did not want to be arrested. “Help” also meant that if I were arrested, I wanted Him to be with me.
“Let them be ashamed who persecute me, but do not let me be put to shame. Let them be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of doom and destroy them with double destruction!” Jeremiah 17:18
Jeremiah asked God to repay his persecutors with double destruction. His prayer is answered in Revelation 18:6. “Pay her back even as she has paid and give back to her double according to her deeds. In the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her.”
In Psalms 70:2, David prayed, “Let those be ashamed and humiliated who seek my life. Let those be turned back and dishonored who delight in my hurt.” One day, after many fights, he was crowned king.
“Thus the Lord said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; and say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates.” Jeremiah 17:19-20
The gate was where buyers and sellers gathered. His goal was to speak to as many people as possible. Acts 5:20 says to, “Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this life.” Proverbs 1:20 says of wisdom, “Wisdom shouts in the street, she lifts her voice in the square.” In Revelation 2:29, Jesus said, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
“Thus says the Lord: take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.” Jeremiah 17:21-22
According to 2 Chronicles 36:20-21, the exile in Babylon lasted 70 years “to fulfill the Word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. For as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath.”
God based the length of the exile on the years of unkept Sabbath years. For 490 years the Jews did not give the land a rest. To make up for every seventh-year (Sabbath-year) they defied, God gave them a year in captivity.
How many times did Jesus tell Peter that he should forgive a brother who sinned against him? In Matthew 18:22, Jesus said to Peter, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’’ That is 490 times which is the number of years that God forgave the Israelites for not keeping the Sabbath year rest.
In Ezekiel 20:12, the Lord said, “I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.”
Their obsession with material wealth and sinful pleasure led them to disregard the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is a reminder that one day this current cursed world will be no more, and we will return to paradise with God. Revelation 14:13 says that we will rest from our labors.
“They did not obey nor incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.” Jeremiah 17:23
In Proverbs 29:1, God says, “He, that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”
“And it shall be, if you heed Me carefully, says the Lord, to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever.” Jeremiah 17:24-25
God promised that they would enjoy international trade deals and royal visitations. Jerusalem would last forever. People from the countryside would enjoy abundant crops and bring their offerings and their praises to God into the city. The “carrying of no burdens” refers to not bringing merchandise into the city for selling on the Sabbath Day.
The Lord wants Christians to gather for fellowship. Christians gathering for fellowship in God’s Word and for prayer is mentioned throughout the Book of Acts. In Hebrews 10:24-25, the Lord said, “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
“And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the lowland, from the mountains and from the South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing sacrifices of praise to the house of the Lord.” Jeremiah 17:26
Hebrews 13:5 says, “Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His Name.” The Lord considers praise and professions of faith in His Name as pleasing offerings unto Him.
“But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” Jeremiah 17:27
Genesis 2:2 says, “On the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” God set the example for us. We honor Him when we follow His example.
God promised to set Jerusalem’s gates on fire if they disobeyed Him. He would destroy their marketplace that was defiled by their disobedience.
Simply put: the Word of God in Jerusalem – kings bring wealth in. The Word of God not in Jerusalem – kings take wealth away.
They didn’t listen or obey the Lord. 2 Kings 25:9 says, “He [Nebuchadnezzar] burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire.” In fact, the city was turned into rubble. Nehemiah 1:3 says, “The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”
In Hebrews 12:25, the Lord says, “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.” In Revelation 20:15, says, “Anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”
God wants no one to perish. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
The Lord loves us. Let us love God, believe God and abide in Christ.
[1] From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany was released in 2004 (paperback edition in 2006) with Palgrave Macmillan in New York, a major publisher of historical scholarship, from dustjacket
[2] Google resources
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