Jeremiah 15:1-9

1 Then the LORD said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. 2 And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD:

“ Such as are for death, to death;
And such as are for the sword, to the sword;
And such as are for the famine, to the famine;
And such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.”’

3 “And I will appoint over them four forms of destruction,” says the LORD: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
5 “ For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem?
Or who will bemoan you?
Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing?
6 You have forsaken Me,” says the LORD,

“ You have gone backward.
Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
I am weary of relenting!
7 And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land;
I will bereave them of children;
I will destroy My people,
Since they do not return from their ways.
8 Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them,
Against the mother of the young men,
A plunderer at noonday;
I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly.
9 “ She languishes who has borne seven;
She has breathed her last;
Her sun has gone down
While it was yet day;
She has been ashamed and confounded.
And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword
Before their enemies,” says the LORD.
Jeremiah 15:1-9 NKJV

The discussion between the LORD and Jeremiah is apparently continued from chapter 14. God invokes the names of two of Israels revered leaders of the past and states that not even if Moses and Samuel stood with the Jews would He change His mind toward the people. The wickedness of Manasseh is cited as being reason for God's judgments. Perhaps this portion of Jeremiah occurred early in Jeremiah's ministry as part of the reformation efforts under Josiah. The reign of Manasseh was so wicked and led the Jews to embrace such wickedness it seems that nothing can bring them back from the precipice of the disaster the nation is to be subjected to. God promises a winnowing, where the chaff will be blown away. Since the majority of the people have turned away from God and forsaken Him, what will remain of them? Fear, death, destruction is promised to those who are proud in their rejection of the Lord. God is issuing what may be the final warning. The mercy of God cannot override the justice of God. How Jeremiah must have felt a great sadness at the message of despair he is called upon to deliver. Surely Jeremiah searches the faces of those to whom he speaks, looking for signs of an awakening to the danger that is surrounding the people of Judah. Jeremiah longs for the people to see the results of the path they are choosing, that they will turn back to give God the honor and respect that will lead to the saving of his homeland. God promises only woe upon them for their rejection of Him and His saving grace. The Jews have reveled in their wickedness and their rejection of God during the light of the relative peace of the day. Now night approaches, and the light God wishes to send upon them is being rejected. Jeremiah can see the darkness approaching, the people see only the desires of their hearts and plot against each other and against God.

Lord,
Help me today to listen as You warn me of the future. Help me to trust in You and to give all my being to You. There is no hope and there is no salvation apart from You. You know your plans for me, plans for peace and not of evil. You want to give me a future and a hope. Help me to accept the hope and a future of eternity with You. Help me to seek You with all my heart, and fulfill Your promise that I will find You. Renew me today, with Your spirit filling me with Your love and giving me the courage to share Your love with all whose paths cross mine today.

Jeremiah 14:19-22

19 Have You utterly rejected Judah?
Has Your soul loathed Zion?
Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us?
We looked for peace, but there was no good;
And for the time of healing, and there was trouble.
20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness
And the iniquity of our fathers,
For we have sinned against You.
21 Do not abhor us, for Your name’s sake;
Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory.
Remember, do not break Your covenant with us.
22 Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Are You not He, O LORD our God?
Therefore we will wait for You,
Since You have made all these.
Jeremiah 14:19-22 NKJV

Jeremiah calls on God in his distress at the word God has given him. Has God utterly rejected His people? Jeremiah begs God to not throw away His people. Jeremiah acknowledges the sins and wickedness of Judah, he also acknowledges Gods wondrous power. He asks God to remember the covenant that He made with the Jews. Peace is desired, but only trouble is seen. It is not, Jeremiah admits, God who is at fault. The people of Judah and their leaders have sinned almost continuously against God. They are full of wickedness and they are unrepentant. Jeremiah still begs God to remember them in a favorable light. Jeremiah decides that because of God's greatness that he can see, namely the power of God to control the rain, that he will trust in the Lord. Jeremiah is willing to wait for an answer. God is powerful and Jeremiah has learned to trust Him, he will wait for God and trust God to fulfill His word.

Lord,
Help me to wait on You. I want an answer now and I want an answer that meets my expectations. Please help me to be patient and wait on You to give me the correct answer at the correct time. Help me to trust in You, that the love and goodness that You have shown in the past proves your good intentions for me. I am impatient and ignorant of what Your plan for me is. Help me to trust that Your love for me will cause my good, if I walk with You and allow you to guide me in my paths.

Jeremiah 14:11-18

11 Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good. 12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.”
13 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’”
14 And the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart. 15 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land’ — ‘By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed! 16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; they will have no one to bury them—them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters—for I will pour their wickedness on them.’
17 “Therefore you shall say this word to them:
‘ Let my eyes flow with tears night and day,
And let them not cease;
For the virgin daughter of my people
Has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow.
18 If I go out to the field,
Then behold, those slain with the sword!
And if I enter the city,
Then behold, those sick from famine!
Yes, both prophet and priest go about in a land they do not know.’”
Jeremiah 14:11-18 NKJV

It seems strange to me that the Lord tells Jeremiah to not pray for the people and for their good. God tells Jeremiah that He will not listen and that He will not accept their offerings. When Jeremiah says that prophets are telling the people that they will have peace, God says the prophets are liars and will be destroyed in the coming war along with the people. I do not understand why God tells Jeremiah to not pray for them. Is it too late for the leaders and the people to turn back to God? Have they passed the point of being able to repent and be forgiven. Form the other calls to obey God and repent in the book, some which seem to come later and closer to the doom which was Judah's fate, I think there was still hope. Perhaps the refusal of the people to turn from their wickedness and heed the warnings God has given them to this point has frustrated God. Perhaps God speaks in such a way to show the seriousness of the situation in which Judah finds itself. They can only turn their backs to God and refuse His love and help so long, before the judgment will come. God wants them to know that it is not play. They cannot pretend any more. It is time for them to be honest with themselves and their God.

Lord,
Help me today to listen to both Your words of comfort and Your words of judgment. Help me to understand the seriousness of the situation the world is in today, and help me to prepare my heart by accepting Your love and Your truth. Guide me, lead me, save me.

Jeremiah 14:10

10 Thus says the LORD to this people:
“Thus they have loved to wander;
They have not restrained their feet.
Therefore the LORD does not accept them;
He will remember their iniquity now,
And punish their sins.”
Jeremiah 14:10 NKJV

They have loved to wander, they have not restrained their feet. Each day we make choices. We may like to blame others for the results of our choices, bad things happen to us because of what others do, and we like to think we have no control over the things that happen. That thinking absolves us of responsibility and we are the victim. And it is true that others may do bad things to us or those we love. It is our response and our attitude, how we choose to react to the things that happen that determines our path in life. In the book Swift Arrow, George is taken prisoner and lives for many years with Indians in the Midwest far from his home in Pennsylvania. He eventually returns home, but now looks somewhat like an Indian. George's father berates him when they meet after the many years apart, because his father thinks he is an Indian and he hates the Indians because they had taken his son away from him. This is a natural reaction, but the hate he had harbored for so many years made him hate his son upon there meeting because of who he thought his son was. (Once George convinced his father of his identity, happiness reigned.)
We must make choices every day, for God or against God. For most, our natural inclination is to wander away from God. Our culture and our sinful nature tells us that all the shiny things we see around us are what we want. So we wander here and there, searching for wealth and happiness. Even when we see glimpses of the truth, that happiness is in being in a relationship with God, too often we do not restrain our feet. We keep our fruitless searching for happiness, seemingly unable to sit with the Lord and let Him into our hearts. God calls us and teaches us. We must choose to listen and learn. Everyday we must choose. We should choose wisely and accept God into our hearts and walk in the path He sets before us. One choice leads to what we desire, the other leads to punishment and suffering.

Lord,
Today help me to choose You. Help me to have an attitude of thankfulness to You and praise for You. Forgive me for my iniquity and remember my sins no more, giving me a clean heart that loves and obeys You in all that I do.

Jeremiah 14:1-9

1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts.
2 “Judah mourns,
And her gates languish;
They mourn for the land,
And the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.
3 Their nobles have sent their lads for water;
They went to the cisterns and found no water.
They returned with their vessels empty;
They were ashamed and confounded
And covered their heads.
4 Because the ground is parched,
For there was no rain in the land,
The plowmen were ashamed;
They covered their heads.
5 Yes, the deer also gave birth in the field,
But left because there was no grass.
6 And the wild donkeys stood in the desolate heights;
They sniffed at the wind like jackals;
Their eyes failed because there was no grass.”
7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us,
Do it for Your name’s sake;
For our backslidings are many,
We have sinned against You.
8 O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble,
Why should You be like a stranger in the land,
And like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?
9 Why should You be like a man astonished,
Like a mighty one who cannot save?
Yet You, O LORD, are in our midst,
And we are called by Your name;
Do not leave us!
Jeremiah 14:1-9 NKJV

Drought is devastating to any land and especially so to an agricultural based society. Evidently this was a very serious drought as people searched for water and found none. Crops withered and died as the rains did not come. The animals, both domestic and wild, suffered from the lack of food and water. It can be the same with us when we have a lack of God's word in our lives. When we wander away from God and don't commune with Him through His word and through prayer, we create a drought in our lives that is spiritually comparable to the lack of water in a farming community. The fruit that should be produced in our lives dries and withers and eventually we will die spiritually if we don't allow God's word and Spirit to come back into our hearts.
Jeremiah's prayer in verses 7-9 admits the sins of Judah, recognizes their only hope for restoration is the Lord, and calls upon Him to save them. The drought was both physical, in the lack of moisture, and spiritual, in the lack of communication with God. Jeremiah reminds God that the Jews are called by His name, and begs God not to leave them. God is still with them, but through their iniquity and the closing of their hearts to God's messages and love, the people are building walls between God and themselves. They are choosing, and they are choosing against God. The drought is another warning of what their lives will be like without God. Jeremiah sees their need is to come closer to God and allow Him to save them. Will the Jews allow God to work for them and give them the rain of His love they so desperately need?

Lord,
Help me today to allow You to water my soul with Your love. Help me to accept the gifts You desire to give me. Help me to accept the opportunities to serve You that You place before me today. Heal my spirit and forgive my sin. Do not leave me.