Jeremiah 17, Deceitful Hearts (DRAFT)

 (This DRAFT study has been done fairly quickly, without the further guide of commentaries. I hope to improve on it later.)

Jeremiah 17:1-4, Engraved in hearts

 "Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, 

inscribed with a flint point, 

on the tablets of their hearts 

and on the horns of their altars.

Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles 

beside the spreading trees and on the high hills. 

My mountain in the land 

and your wealth 

and all your treasures 

I will give away as plunder, 

together with your high places, 

because of sin throughout your country. 

Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. 

I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, 

for you have kindled my anger, 

and it will burn forever." 

The stubborness of Judah is described as engraved with iron in the rock tables to the people's hearts. And so, yes, the people will be enslave and removed to a land they do not know.

Jeremiah 17:5-8,

This is what the LORD says: 

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man, 

who depends on flesh for his strength 

and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

He will be like a bush in the wastelands; 

he will not see prosperity when it comes. 

He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, 

in a salt land where no one lives. 

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, 

whose confidence is in him. 

He will be like a tree planted by the water

 that sends out its roots by the stream. 

It does not fear when heat comes; 

its leaves are always green. 

It has no worries in a year of drought 

and never fails to bear fruit."

This passage has numerous echoes of Psalm 1. There is the man who trusts in mankind (and presumably "sits in the company of mockers" (Psalm 1:1.) And there is the man who leans in YHWH and become a tree planted by a running stream.

Jeremiah 17:9, Deceitful above all

The heart is deceitful above all things 

and beyond cure. 

Who can understand it? 

Jeremiah wonders at the consistent, powerful rationalization of the heart for sin and deceitfulness. (In the New Testament, Jesus elaborates on this in Mark 7:20-23.)

Jeremiah 17:10-11, I search the heart

"I the LORD search the heart 

and examine the mind, 

to reward a man according to his conduct, 

according to what his deeds deserve." 

Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay 

is the man who gains riches by unjust means. 

When his life is half gone,

 they will desert him, 

and in the end he will prove to be a fool. 

YHWH search the heart and mind, examining a man. A proverb about a partridge describes a man who becomes rich by deceit.

Jeremiah 17:12-13, The hope of Israel

A glorious throne, 

exalted from the beginning, 

is the place of our sanctuary.

O LORD, the hope of Israel, 

all who forsake you will be put to shame. 

Those who turn away from you 

will be written in the dust 

because they have forsaken the LORD, 

the spring of living water. 

The hope of Israel is in the Creator, who has a glorious throne. We must submit to Him or disappear into the dust.

Jeremiah 17:14-18, Heal me!

Heal me, O LORD, 

and I will be healed; 

save me and I will be saved, 

for you are the one I praise. 

They keep saying to me, 

"Where is the word of the LORD? 

Let it now be fulfilled!" 

I have not run away from being your shepherd; 

you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you. 

Do not be a terror to me; 

you are my refuge in the day of disaster. 

Let my persecutors be put to shame, 

but keep me from shame; 

let them be terrified, 

but keep me from terror. 

Bring on them the day of disaster;

 destroy them with double destruction. 

Jeremiah returns to his cries of pain. He begs for healing and freedom from his persecutors.

Jeremiah 17:19-23, Speak out on the Sabbath

This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and stand at the gate of the people, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem. Say to them, `Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem who come through these gates. 

This is what the LORD says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers. 

Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline. 

Jeremiah is to stand in the gates of the people and remind them of their commitments. In particular (especially visible) are their actions on the Sabbath.

Jeremiah 17:24-27, Sabbath renewal

But if you are careful to obey me, declares the LORD, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it, then kings who sit on David's throne will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. 

People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings, incense and thank offerings to the house of the LORD. 

But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.'" 

The Sabbath is especially critical -- the people, followed by their leaders, are to celebrate the Sabbath and thus renew Jerusalem. (But, as claimed earlier, this is unlikely to happen.)