It’s easy to get lost in all the doom and gloom of these verses. Let me see if I can help us zoom out and see the main points.

JUDGEMENT IS COMING & WHY (ch. 6)

“Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her; they shall pitch their tents around her; they shall pasture, each in his place.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭6‬:‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The invading army is described like flocks and their commanders as their shepherds. When Jerusalem is surrounded by the Babylonians, they will look out their windows and find that their city is now in the middle of a vast army camp; each tidy division with its rows of tents. Only the pasture upon which the “flocks” will feed is the city and its inhabitants.

And the LORD describes Himself as the One Who is organizing the whole thing and determining how the city will fall:

“For thus says the Lord of hosts: “Cut down her trees; cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem. This is the city that must be punished; there is nothing but oppression within her.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭6‬:‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Verses 11-13 repeat that this judgement is going to come upon everyone; no matter the age, gender, or station. Why? Firstly, the LORD says, “there is nothing but oppression within her.” And that took many forms of vice. But it’s not just oppression. The other reason is because the inhabitants have no conscience.

“Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,” says the Lord.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭6‬:‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

He isn’t talking about some tender Puritanical or Victorian sensibility that blushed at the merest suggestion of anything sensual – like a bared ankle. These people were so hardened that they could not only observe, but commit “abomination” and it didn’t even phase them.

It’s the same idea as the reprobates in Romans 1:18-32, and the seductive teachers that Paul warned Timothy about:

“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,”
‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

What sort of abomination is the LORD talking about? We keep coming across “idolatry” but whenever we read that word, most of us probably picture something like this from our favorite local Chinese restaurant. 🥡🥢

And yeah, burning incense to statues was going on. But the next chapter gives us more insight to the “abominations” that they were engaging in with zero remorse: child sacrifice.

“For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.” Jeremiah‬ ‭7‬:‭30‬-‭31‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Modern abortion is basically the same thing. Infants are burned or dismembered while the participants are that it is a good thing – a “rite” even – and so many people’s consciences are seared.

Oh – and to those who might hold to a deterministic view of God (5-point Calvinism); what do you do with the last phrase of verse 31 where Yahweh says they are doing something that He A) did not command and B) never even entered His mind? Hmm?

So this is why God is going to destroy Judah and Jerusalem and send the people into captivity. He is completely justified in doing so. This brings us to the 2nd section:

REPENT! BUT I KNOW YOU WON’T (ch. 7)

God is SO good that even now He offers the people an escape, BUT they MUST change their ways.

😐 God sure is merciful. I would’ve nuked ‘em a LONG time before this.

I hate to say it, but so would I.

“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.” Jeremiah‬ ‭7‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The people then were not unlike many “Christian,” “spiritual,” and “religious” people today. They want to approach God (the Temple) on their own terms. They want to make their own lifestyle choices AND call themselves people of God.

“Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭7‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Let me be direct.

Humans do not get to decide how the Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth is pleased or displeased. He doesn’t look to us for approval. Just because sin “doesn’t bother” you is no indication of how God views it. You aren’t God.

If doing or approving of something the Bible clearly identifies as sin doesn’t make your conscience uncomfortable, uh… here’s your red flag: 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

“Reinterpreting” scripture to allow what God has condemned never ends well.

The hubris of thinking that a created being has every right to defy the will of the Uncreated Creator… let me see… sounds familiar… oh yeah… that’s the argument of none other than the Serpent in Eden. 🐍

Just because someone calls himself a Christian and attends church is not what makes him right with God. The people of Judah thought that they were still ok with God because they had the temple and the Lord had promised to live there.

So God tells them to go have a look at the ruins of Shiloh. That’s where the Tabernacle was for about 300+ years when Israel first came into Canaan. But it became so corrupt (and the sons of Eli were the last straw) that God allowed the town to be destroyed and the Ark captured by the Philistines while the Levites grabbed the most important pieces of the Tabernacle and fled.

That’s God basically saying, “You don’t believe I would destroy my own chosen dwelling? Go look at what’s left of Shiloh. I did it before, I will do it again.”

Yahweh even tells Jeremiah not to intercede for the people as previous prophets have done. Previous prophets were the warnings. Jeremiah is the eviction notice.

Instead of interceding, God tells Jeremiah to go straight into mourning. That’s what the cutting off of his hair in 7:29 is about. It’s like having the funeral while they’re still alive because they are all dead men. 💀 But there will be no graveside service. Because their bodies will just be thrown in heaps here:

King Josiah had turned it into a garbage dump when he burned all the broken idols and shrines and bodies of the executed priests there to pollute it from future use.

In Hebrew, Valley of Hinnom is Gay Hinnom. In Greek it is Gehenna. By the time of Jesus it was Jerusalem’s “landfill;” only instead of burying the garbage and the animal carcasses, there were perpetual fires 🔥 burning the garbage. Jesus made it a metaphor for Hell.

“And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭9‬:‭43‬, ‭45‬, ‭47‬-‭48‬ ‭ESV‬‬ (See also Mt. 10:28)

Every instance of “hell” in the verses above have Gehenna in the Greek. And maybe it’s not strictly metaphorical. Jesus is quoting Isaiah in the last line:

“For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord. “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭66‬:‭22‬-‭24‬ ‭ESV‬‬

While not explicitly stated, the text seems to say that at some point, worshipers who come to (New?) Jerusalem will exit and see the dead bodies of the rebels of earth. And Jesus quotes this last line and applies it to Gehenna/Hell/The Valley of Hinnom.

This is a very grim connection, but it shows us something in the physical realm that connects to the spiritual. Just as the wicked rebel sinners of Jerusalem were slaughtered and thrown into Gehenna, so will be the lot of all who rebel against God.

😐 That’s it? You’re just gonna end on hellfire?

Yeah. And tomorrow we’ll pick right back up with the dead men’s bones.

🫤 Ugh. Sounds cheery.