Back to Jeremiah, we’re reading chapters 15 – 19 this week: a lot of judgment! Also, threats against Jeremiah, for example:

Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends! I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me…LORD, you understand; remember me and care for me. Avenge me on my persecutors. You are long-suffering—do not take me away; think of how I suffer reproach for your sake. (Jeremiah 15.10, 15, ESV)

In the middle of that, Jeremiah still clings to the Word…

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15.16, ESV)

…and still proclaims judgment (see Jeremiah 16.1 – 9) summarizing:

And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, “Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?” then you shall say to them:

• “Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the LORD, and
• have gone after other gods and
• have served and worshiped them, and
• have forsaken me and
• have not kept my law, and
• because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.” (Jeremiah 16.10 – 12, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

“Served and worshiped” other gods. I heard a teenager say once, “I worship James Bond!” There’s a role model for you.

Chapter 17 reminds us that we have a choice. Stay tuned. In the meantime:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deuteronomy 6.4 – 7, ESV)