Study
11 From the Book of Jeremiah is: Jeremiah 16: 1 – 17: 18
1.
Consider how hard it must have been for a man of Jeremiah’s
affectionate and sympathetic nature to obey the commands of 16:2, 5 and 8. Why
did God lay this burden upon him? What
other trials that Jeremiah had to bear are referred to in 17:14-18?
2.
How does the passage illustrate Jeremiah’s oft-repeated
statement concerning God’s dealings with His people: ‘I will not make a full
end of you’? See 4:27; 5:10, 18; 30:11; 48:28.
Cf. Ps. 94:14; Rom 11:1-5.
3.
Contrast, clause by clause, 17:5 and 6 with 17:7 and 8. How do
verses 9:13 reinforce the certainty of curse or blessing? Examine yourself in
the light of this contrast. Cf. Ps. 146.
Notes
1.
16:6, 7. Mourning customs.
Cf. Am. 8:10; 2 Sa. 12:17; Pr. 31:6b.
2.
17:1, 2. ‘The tablet of their heart’: i.e., their inmost being.
‘The horns of their altars’: an allusion
to their polluted idolatrous sacrifices (cf. Lv. 4:7, 30; and with verse 2, cf.
2:20) ‘Asherim’: probably wooden images of the Canaanite godless, Asherab.
3.
17:15 Cf. 2 Pet. 3:3 – 4.
