Jeremiah, one of the major prophets, served between 627 and 586 BCE. One of his constant themes was that wishful thinking without righteous behavior would lead the nation into destruction.

• Jer22_1-2 What Do You See

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  The calling of Jeremiah. The first of his visions depicts God being faithful to His own word and the second, a northward facing boiling pot, prefigures the Babylonian invasion that would sweep Judah and Jerusalem away into exile.

• Jer22_3-4 Faithless Wife

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  Here God talks of the spiritual adultery of Israel and declares that her sister Judah is worse. At the time of the prophecy Israel had been in exile for over a century and Judah had not yet been exiled to Babylon. Even though God declares all of the reasons for His sorrow, He also promises a return and a reunification of the two houses.

• Jer22_4-6 Words of Fire

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  God sends Jeremiah to Jerusalem looking for even one who does justice and seeks truth. None is to be found either among the poor or the great. As Y'shua says, the only way to the Father is through Himself who is the Way the Truth and the Life. Since Jerusalem has abandoned the truth and gone after worthless idols, God's words will be to them a consuming fire.

• Jer22_6-8 Deceptive Words

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  Judah had fallen into idolatry and wickedness but still maintained some of the form of the worship of God. Their prophets and priests were encouraging the people with religious platitudes. Whereas those platitudes had been true when the nation walked with God, the same words were now false and misleading because God was not in them. This trust in what had become false kept the nation from seeing its need to repent.

• Jer22_8-10 The Way of the Nations

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  In explaining how Judah has fallen so far, God says that they followed the way of the nations which lead them to fear other gods - which are no gods at all. He mocks the stupidity of those who make idols from wood and stone and then fall down to worship the work of their own hands.

• Jer22_11-13 The Men of Anathoth

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  The clergymen of Anathoth, a Levite city, are speaking religious bromides which give evil Judah false comfort. Jeremiah, by speaking the truth, has brought embarrassment to the men in his home town. Thus they plot to silence and perhaps kill him.

• Jer22_13-14 False Repentance

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  Faced with calamity on all sides caused by their turning away from the ways of God, Judah cried out for God to remember His covenant and send them relief. God does not believe their sincerity and tells Jeremiah that there will be no relief and that the nation is going into exile.

• Jer22_15-16 Weary of Relenting

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  Judah has made one of her formulaic expressions of regret and repentance, but God does not believe their sincerity. He says that He is weary of relenting from exercising the negative side of His covenant. The nation is to be conquered and sent into exile.

• Jeremiah 17-18 Deceitful Heart

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  The heart, being preoccupied with the things of the world loses focus on the things of God. This loss of focus cascades until Judah is so deep in sin that she must be sent into exile. Even then, God offers hope that if they just kept Shabbat things might turn around.

• Jer22_18-20 Valley of Slaughter

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  The corruption of Jerusalem has become so great that even God expressed His surprise. They were burning their children for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. Therefore God was going to turn the entire city into a place for burying the bodies of the people of Judah. In doing this He would defile the place entirely.

• Jer22_20-23 Woe to the Shepherds

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  After Jeremiah was let out of the stocks, the king sent to him asking if the Lord would deliver the city from Nebuchadnezzar. God said that He would not and proceeded to lay the blame for the evil that was to befall the city on the dereliction of Israel's shepherds. They had enriched themselves through injustice and had not taught the people to follow the word of the Lord.

• Jer22_23-25 Good and Bad Figs

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  Among the people who matter in Judah, Jeremiah has been marginalized as a kook. People don't change their ways he gets considerable abuse. In chapter 24 his prophecy from chapter 21 is realized. Those who surrendered to the Babylonians were carried away but they were to live and prosper in exile. Those who listened to the false prophets and remained in Judah died.

• Jer22_26-29 The Yoke of Nebuchadnezzar

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  False prophets were saying that the Babylonian captivity was going to end quickly and that everything would be restored to normal. Jeremiah put on a yoke symbolizing the Babylonian occupation. He spoke both locally and by letter to the exiles in Babylon saying that they should settle down and prepare for a seventy year stay. In being good citizens and seeking to benefit Babylon they would find peace and prosperity for themselves.

• Jer22_30-31 The New Covenant

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  As Jerusalem is about to be destroyed by Babylon, God sends a message of hope to the people who are about to go into exile. He promises a future restoration and a new covenant with a reunited Israel. The only difference between the New Covenant and the old one is the medium upon which it is written. Moses wrote on tablets of stone symbolizing Israel's hard heart. God will write the same words but upon hearts of flesh. The terms of the covenant will be internal rather than imposed from the outside.

• Jer22_32-33 Real Estate

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  In another bit of 'performance prophecy' Jeremiah is instructed to purchase a field in Anathoth because he is the redeemer. Since Judah and Jerusalem are about to be destroyed, Jeremiah himself will not possess the field. The act then is a statement by God that He will restore Israel and Judah and that the original property rights will also be restored. In this continuation of His description of the New Covenant, God assures Jeremiah that He will neither forget His people nor the land he promised to them.