“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond. It is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars. Even their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles by the green trees on the high hills. My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a plunder, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders. You, even of yourself, will discontinue from your heritage that I gave you. I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you don’t know, for you have kindled a fire in my anger which will burn forever.”
There are those who don’t believe that God would ever send anyone to Hell. Perhaps that’s why God gave us passages in the Bible like this one. In this passage, God talks about Judah’s coming takeover by Babylon again but this time, He emphasizes the condition of the hearts of the people. He says that their sin is etched into their hearts like you would engrave something on stone. He mentions that even their children look back and remember idols instead of remembering God. The picture I get is one of permanence. The hearts of the people and their children have been permanently dedicated to idolatry. They have been ruined.
The thing that caused me to stop and think for a while is the statement that God makes at the end. He says that they have “kindled a fire in my anger which will burn forever.” At first, I thought that it looked like a contradiction. God can’t be angry with Israel forever and still allow them to return to the land, but when I carefully consider what is said here, it doesn’t say that God would be angry with Judah forever. He merely says that His anger will burn forever because of what happened. Let’s consider that a little.
In the book of Revelation, we learn that God has prepared a lake of fire for Satan and his angels. This is a place where fire burns forever but it isn’t a place intended for man at all. Men will go there, but it wasn’t for them. Could it be that Hell is a result of God’s eternal anger against the fact that sin corrupts those He loves? God was expressing His anger over the fact that sin was permanently etched in the hearts of those He wanted for Himself, but I believe His anger is directed against Satan, not His people. His people will be punished temporarily, but only Satan and His followers will be facing eternal fire. Hell is necessary because it demonstrates God’s eternal anger against sin. That’s how bad it really is and how much He hates it.
For Yahweh says, “Don’t enter into the house of mourning. Don’t go to lament. Don’t bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people,” says Yahweh, “even loving kindness and tender mercies. Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried. Men won’t lament for them, cut themselves, or make themselves bald for them. Men won’t break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead. Men won’t give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
Here we read that God was so serious about bringing shame on Israel that He told Jeremiah that he wasn’t allowed to be seen publicly mourning for any of them. God intended for them to feel the pain and not to be comforted in their sin. This is an important and difficult part of being a follower of God.
God has been impressing on me the importance of maintaining purity as a Church. The world around me is stressing that we follow a doctrine called: “inclusiveness.” It’s important for us as believers in Jesus to see this for what it really is. It’s an invitation to be impure. A bride that has been engaged is not to be inclusive of other men. Only the bridegroom matters now. God has called out the Church. That means we are exclusive not inclusive. Part of being exclusive is to separate from those who have chosen to live a life of sin against God. If we mourn with those who are being punished by God, we are saying that we agree that God is mistreating them. We are acting like one of them. We are not separating ourselves from their way of thinking and agreeing with God’s way of thinking.
The concept of worldviews is very strong in this part of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was just reprimanded by God for being influenced by the thinking of the world around him, and here we read that he is to maintain his separation by not participating in their mourning ceremonies. Jeremiah was a Jewish man just like those around him. It must have been hard to not participate in common customary events but it serves as an example to us today. Are we participating in worldly things that God does not approve of? It’s important for us to consider this carefully and separate ourselves to God and dedicate ourselves to His way of thinking.
Then Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.” For Yahweh says concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became their father in this land: “They will die grievous deaths. They will not be lamented, neither will they be buried. They will be as dung on the surface of the ground. They will be consumed by the sword and by famine. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.”
I would have to agree that this is not your typical devotional passage, but we are committed to hear what God says to us, and not just what makes us feel good. It probably didn’t feel too good to Jeremiah that he was not to get married or have children, but what God was doing was protecting him from the sorrow that the other Israelis were going to feel. Jeremiah had just prayed against them and God’s judgment was so severe that it mean that Jeremiah would do best to not have any relatives to worry about.
When I read this graphic description of death, I wondered why God would choose to have it written. I believe that God has allowed me to detect a couple of reasons. God knows that when we are told to do something that we have the tendency to ask: “Why?” Notice that Jeremiah doesn’t have to ask. God makes it clear why he shouldn’t marry and have children by describing what would happen to them. That makes it a lot easier for him to bring his desires into alignment with God’s and to understand that God is being merciful not restrictive. Another reason that comes to mind is that God may have wanted to impress upon Jeremiah the seriousness of the coming horror so that when he spoke to the people, it would be obvious to them that Jeremiah really knew something. By making Jeremiah more sober, it would give the people less excuse to not believe his words. This is another sign of God’s mercy and desire for the people to turn from their sin before it is too late.
This passage may not be comforting when you read about the horrible deaths of children, but God’s desire to warn His people through Jeremiah is a sign of His deep desire to give mercy. That is a comforting thing because you and I have accepted His mercy. We can also rest assured that when God denies us of something that would He would normally allow, He has a good reason for it. He may be sparing us from very deep sorrow caused by the sins of those around us.