Day 216: Jeremiah 12-14 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango
When Jeremiah vents his frustration to God, he expects comfort—but instead, God tells him to get tougher. In Jeremiah 12–14, we see the prophet wrestle with divine delay, national rebellion, and personal burnout. These chapters remind us that faith doesn’t mean the absence of complaint—but it does mean trusting God enough to keep going when the answer is “buckle up.” If you’ve ever felt weary in the work of the Lord, this one’s for you.
✈️ Overview:
• Jeremiah 12 opens with the prophet lamenting the prosperity of the wicked and questioning God’s justice
• Instead of rebuke, God responds with a challenge: if you’re tired now, what will you do when it gets worse?
• Chapters 13–14 feature powerful metaphors—a ruined loincloth, cracked jars, and a national drought—to expose the pride and brokenness of Judah
• God calls out false prophets and declares that no ritual or intercession can stop the coming judgment
🔎 Context Clues:
• The line “If you have raced with men and they have worn you out…” (Jer. 12:5) shows God preparing Jeremiah for a harder road, not an easier one
• The ruined loincloth in chapter 13 symbolizes the intimacy Judah once had with God—and how pride has made them useless
• The drought in chapter 14 is both literal and symbolic—pointing to spiritual dryness and desperate conditions
• Jeremiah pleads for mercy, but God distinguishes between genuine intercession and empty rituals
🤓 Nerdy Nuggets:
• The wordplay in Jeremiah 13:11 around “cling” echoes covenant language—God intended Israel to cling to Him like a waistband
• False prophets in 14:14 are accused of speaking from “their own imagination,” not from God—highlighting a contrast between revelation and fabrication
• God says “I will weep in secret” (Jer. 13:17), revealing His own grief over judgment—not just anger
• The phrase “sword, famine, and plague” becomes a prophetic formula that echoes throughout Jeremiah and later in Revelation
✅ Timeless Truths:
• God can handle your complaints—but He might answer them with a challenge
• Just because ministry is hard doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong
• Pride can take something useful and render it worthless—humility is the path to restoration
• God’s heart breaks even when His justice must be enforced
• You may be tired, but you’re not alone—God is preparing you for more
God doesn’t dismiss Jeremiah’s pain—He dignifies it with purpose. When we ask “Why?” God often responds with “Now watch what I’ll do.” In seasons of discouragement, don’t quit. Buckle up. God isn’t just refining your words—He’s refining your soul.
Welcome to the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebaldapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) Family, welcome to day 216. We're in Jeremiah chapters 12, 13 to 14 today. Buckle up, we got a lot to talk about today. I'm gonna give you a lot of context clues, like always gonna walk you through as many nerdy nuggets as I can and like always gonna leave you off with a timeless truth 'cause we are not just studying history here. We're actually learning history in order to study the character and the nature of God. And the way that God related to his people actually tells us a lot about who he is for all of eternity and that is timeless. So if you have done the reading, my job is to help bring the text to life. So if you've already done the reading for the day, which is Jeremiah chapters 12 through 14 and hopefully the stuff that I have to say is gonna make perfect sense and is gonna help you to understand and comprehend and interpret the reading even better. If you haven't done the reading, go ahead, stop the video, pause the audio and go do the reading.
Today we're reading Jeremiah chapters 12, 13 and 14 and with no further ado, let's jump into our context clues. All right, I'm gonna give you a ton of context that's actually gonna be helpful for today but also gonna be helpful for the remainder of the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah's life is going to span a lot of kings, okay? And so just kinda wanna wrap your head around the last five kings of Judah and like their stories, okay? Just wanna take a couple of minutes. This will help with our reading today but really this is gonna help you understand this entire time period and the entire book of Jeremiah 'cause the further further we get into the book of Jeremiah, the more and more this context or this history is gonna be really important. So last five kings of Judah, number one, I'm just gonna list them and then we'll explain who they all are, okay? Last five kings of Judah, you got Josiah and you got Jehovah has and you got Jehovah Kim and you got Jehovah Chin and then you got Zedekiah, all right? The last five kings of Judah, one more time, Josiah. Jehovah has, who is Josiah's son? Then we got Jehovah Kim, which is also Josiah's son and then we got Jehovah Chin
which is gonna be Josiah's grandson, Jehovah Kim's son and then we got Zedekiah who is also Josiah's son, okay? So out of the last five kings of Judah, three of them are going to be the, well, three, these three are all going to be sons of Josiah. So Josiah, big, big deal. By the best king or the most righteous king since David, he's following in his great grandfather's footsteps. If you remember, you probably remember this 'cause you're a Bible nerd, that his great grandfather is a man by the name of, drum roll please, Hezekiah, okay? So Hezekiah was a righteous king, incredible king. Isaiah was prophesying during the reign of Hezekiah. Hezekiah had a son named Manasseh. Manasseh had a son named Ammon. Ammon had a son named Josiah. And so Josiah's gonna be, remember Josiah's gonna find the book of the law. It's gonna be great. So let's gotta talk through, how is it that Josiah's gonna get multiple sons on the throne? First thing, Josiah is going to rebel against Assyria, okay? And he's gonna be hoping that the Babylonians are able to defeat the Assyrians. And so instead of trusting the Lord, he is gonna fight against Egypt who's coming to help Assyria.
So Egypt is gonna come help Assyria, defeat the Babylonians. Josiah wants the Babylonians to win. Why? 'Cause he's enslaved to the Assyrians and the enemy of my enemy is my friend, okay? So he wants the Assyrians to lose. And Egypt is an ally of Assyria. And so Josiah's gonna try to cut off Egypt's ability to get to a serious aid that is not gonna go well. So Niko, who is the pharaoh of Egypt is gonna defeat Josiah at Megiddo. And Josiah's gonna die, okay? So this king dead. Niko is then gonna take Josiah's son, Johor has hostage, okay? He's gonna take him to Egypt, which is gonna mean Jehoia Kim is gonna get on the throne. Josiah's next son, okay? So Josiah, this first son is taking hostage to Egypt as a repercussion for Josiah. And that means Jihoya Kim is gonna be on the throne. And then Jihoya Chin, the son of Jihoya Kim is gonna reign. The Bible also refers to this guy as Jekonaya, okay? So also, let me give you their other names. There's some help, okay? 'Cause the Bible's gonna give multiple names for these guys. Okay, so Josiah's son, Jihoya has, the Bible also refers to him as shalom, S-H-A-L-L-U-M. He only reigns three months. He's taking hostage to Egypt.
Next boy, Jihoya Kim, the Bible also refers to him as Alliah Kim, okay? E-Liah Kim, reign for 11 years. Jihoya Chin, who the Bible also refers to as Jekonaya, is only gonna reign for three months. And Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon is going to deport this guy, okay? He's gonna get, he's gonna get out of there. He's gonna get deported. And then his uncle, Zedekiah is gonna get set up as a puppet king on the throne of Judah. All right, those are the last five kings of Judah, knowing these last five kings, like honestly, I want you to be able to just go ahead and say, Josiah, Jihoya has, Jihoya Kim, Jihoya Chin, Zedekiah. Just let it roll off your tongue, okay? Josiah, Jihoya has, Jihoya Kim, Jihoya Chin, Zedekiah, last five kings of Judah, and Jeremiah is gonna live to see the very, very last king of Judah, which is Zedekiah. Well, actually, well, well, well, the very last king of Judah is a man by the name of Jesus, okay? So after Zedekiah, we're gonna get a long pause, and then we're gonna get the true Messiah in his name as Jesus, and he's still on the throne. I need a good amen at church. All right, let's go. That's all the context, okay? And if you need dates, okay, 609 BC is when Josiah's gonna die, and that is when Pharaoh Niko is gonna take Josiah's son,
Jihoya has, hostage in Egypt, and that is when Jihoya Kim is going to become king. Couple years later, in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is gonna defeat Assyria. So Josiah was hoping that that would happen in 609 BC, that is actually gonna happen four years later in 605 BC, massive date that you really need to know, okay? Because that changes everything for the political climate of the people of Judah. 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeats Assyria and becomes the New World Empire. That happens at Karkamesh. Babylon takes Judah as a vassal. Why? Because they were a vassal to Assyria, okay? And so if I take, if I'm Babylon and I defeat Assyria, I get all of Assyria's land, I get all of Assyria's property. And so Judah goes from being a vassal of Assyria, the Assyrian Empire, to being a vassal of the Babylonian Empire. At this point, a small number of young nobility are gonna get taken back to Babylon. This is gonna include Daniel, Shadrach, and Meshach, and Abednego, okay? This is like, we're talking about like pre-exile. And then in 597 BC, Jehoia Kim is gonna rebel against Babylon with Egyptian help. And Nebuchadnezzar is gonna siege Jerusalem the first time. And Jehoia Kim is gonna die during the siege.
His son, Jehoia Chin, or Jeccania becomes king and surrenders to Nebuchadnezzar. And then the next round of exile is gonna start, okay? Jehoia Chin, most of the royal family, the court and many of the priests, including Ezekiel, are going to off to Babylon, okay? Artisans and nobility and wealthy people are all gonna be taken off to Babylon. And then in 586 BC, Zadakiah, who is Jehoia Chin's uncle, is finally gonna get taken off to Babylon. The temple's gonna get destroyed, Jerusalem's gonna burn to the ground, and Nebuchadnezzar's gonna take everybody, okay? So, tons of context. All right, let's dive into some nerdy nuggets for the day. Jeremiah chapter 12, Jeremiah is complaining. Why is he complaining? He's complaining because he's experiencing persecution. Nobody wants to hear what Jeremiah's gotta say. Jeremiah is going to prophesy, beyond a shadow of a doubt, guys, Babylon is coming, we don't need to fight back, we just need to surrender, we are going off into captivity. This is it, God's done, God's done playing games. Other people are gonna be prophesying, no, that's actually not the truth. And of course, whatever's popular is going to be accepted. And Jeremiah's words are not popular. And so, Jeremiah chapter 12 is his complaint
and then God's response. We're actually gonna get into his complaint and God's response as our Thomas truth. Now, if you're reading Jeremiah chapter 13 in the new international version of the Bible, the NIV, then you're probably gonna be confused because when Jeremiah chapter 13 starts in the NIV, it says this, verse one, "This is what the Lord said to me, 'Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.'" So I bought a belt as the Lord directed and put it around my waist. The NIV for whatever reason is gonna translate this Hebrew word as belt. That is not a good translation. Let's go to the N-R-S-V. Okay, so we're moving from the NIV to the N-R-S-V. Chapter 13, verse one, says this, "Thus said the Lord to me, 'Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth.'" Well, that's not a belt, it's very different, okay? A loincloth is underwear. So it's not a belt. It's a linen loincloth and put it on your loins, not your waist, but your loins, but do not dip it in water, meaning don't clean it. I want you to wear some underwear and I don't want you to clean them. This is fantastic.
If you're reading the NIV, it just says belt and it says don't dip the belt in water. Well, why would I dip my belt in water? That doesn't make sense. It's not about dipping the belt in water. It's about putting your underwear in water and cleaning them. So Jeremiah's not allowed to clean his underwear. Well, that's whatever, okay? Why should we care? Jeremiah, you're underwear, you're business. That's none of our business. You know, keep you and you're underwear to yourself. No, actually, well, this is a prophetic act. And not only can he not clean his underwear, but he's got to walk. Where does he need to walk? Now, if you're reading the NIV, it says verse three, "Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time." Take the belt you bought, AKA underwear, that you are wearing around your waist and go now to parath. Where's parath? Is that down the street? Is that around the corner? Is that the bodega? Where's parath? I don't know where parath is, but if you're reading the NRSV, we can start reading right there in verse three and the word of the Lord came to me a second time saying,
"Take the loincloth that you bought "and are wearing and go now to the Euphrates." The Euphrates? Dude, that's like, in somewhere in between, depending on where Jeremiah is in Judah, that could be anywhere between 400 to 700 miles. So my man's gonna walk all the way to the Euphrates in his underwear and he can't clean them. This is fantastic, man. Yo, let me tell you something. I'm not trying to be an Old Testament prophet, okay? Isaiah's gotta be naked, Ezekiel's gotta lay on one side for like a couple of years. Jeremiah's gotta walk all the way to the Euphrates and his dirty underwear. So this is fascinating, okay? Next, so I went and I hid it. So not only does he have to go to the Euphrates, but he has to hide the underwear there and a cleft of the rock. So, hey man, go to the Euphrates, does he bring a next repair of underwear? We don't know, but he has to hide his dirty underwear and the cleft of a rock. And then if you're reading the NRSV, this is not 100% clear, but he has to wait a year. He's always underwear sweaty. I'm assuming these are sweaty gross underwear at this point. He's walked all the way to the Euphrates and his underwear.
He now, he goes back home. I don't know if he goes back home with no underwear, does he get new underwear? I don't know, the text doesn't tell us, but then the Lord commanded me to go back, okay? So verse six. And after many days, the Lord said, now go back to the Euphrates and take from there the underwear that I commanded you to hide there. Then I went to the Euphrates and dug and took the loincloths of the place where I had hidden it. But now the underwear were ruined and good for nothing. Yeah, I mean, I would imagine, dude. I mean, you wore underwear for a long time. 700 miles walking in your underwear, they got dirty. You weren't allowed to clean them and you had to hide them in a rock. Yeah, these underwear and yeah. Also mind you like ancient underwear, not like underwear today. I mean, it's not like this is not Hanes, it's not through the loom, okay? It's not like moisture wicking and no dry fit, okay? You're not wearing, you're not Adidas underwear, okay? So we got, it's literally a loincloth, okay? But you tie it, they kind of like think about a sumo wrestler, right? They tied around their waist and they, you know, they took it, you took it, you get it, you get where it needs to be tucked.
All right, so now you have to go, you have to retrieve the underwear and this all a message, verse eight. Down the word of the Lord came to me, "Thus says the Lord, just so I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem, this evil people who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own will and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. So I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, in order that they might be for me, a people a name, a praise and a glory, but they would not listen. Okay, so what is the message here? The message is that the loin cloth is to be placed on the most intimate part of your body. And God, Yahweh is saying, Judah and Israel were to me the most intimate people of all the nations. And they did not take that responsibility. They didn't accept that responsibility well. They didn't live out who they were supposed to be. And so now they're ruined. It's not that I made them dirty. Actually, their relationships with other gods made them dirty and they're beyond cleaning. They are totally ruined, okay?
So the significance is that loin cloth are the most intimate parts of clothing. And of all the nations of the earth, Judah was the most intimate with God. But now Judah was unclean. So why would God wear Judah anymore? God would not. And then the next significant thing is that the underwear, Jeremiah's underwear, are buried at the Euphrates signifying the exile, meaning Judah would go into exile beyond the Euphrates into Babylon. And then the final picture would be the loin cloth rotted and completely useless, which Judah had become, absolutely useless. So this is beyond a sermon illustration at this point. This is a lived out illustration, okay? This is probably taking Jeremiah over a year of his life. He's walked 700 miles all the way to the Euphrates. He's hid this underwear all to communicate to the God's people. You were precious to me. Our relationship was intimate. But you've taken that which is intimate and you've made it disgusting. You've made it gross. And because of that, our relationship is totally ruined. I cannot place you where you used to be. Jeremiah puts these underwear on. That would be absolutely ridiculous.
And in the same way, God can no longer wear Judah in an intimate way that he's been wearing them in the past. They are going into exile. So if you're reading Jeremiah chapter 13, especially if I know most people read the NIV, then I wanted to do a lot of our nerdy nuggets today around this chapter so that it would actually make sense to you. Next, let's do Jeremiah chapter 14. Because in Jeremiah chapter 14, Jeremiah is gonna address the fact that there's a drought in the land. A drought means that there's no water. No water means that there's no crops. No crops means that there's a famine. A famine means people are not just dying of thirst, but dying of hunger, okay? Now, I wanna give you context for why there's a drought. Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 18. Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 22 to 23. Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 38 to 42. Deuteronomy chapter 29 verse 19. And Deuteronomy chapter 29 verse 22 to 28. All spell out very clearly that if the people of God, if the people of Israel, the people of Judah, God's chosen people, the 12 tribes, if they worship other gods, then God will send a drought. This is clearly laid out. So what's happening in Jeremiah is Jeremiah is just going, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. The God of the covenant is visiting the covenant curses on you.
In the same way that there are covenant blessings, there are covenant curses, and this is laid out clearly in Deuteronomy chapter 28. Max is gonna read one of these for you. Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 22. Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere books are sold. Literally today, I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book and if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. The Lord will strike you with wasting disease with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought. Here we go, keyword drought, with blight and mildew,
the sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. So bronze and iron means the earth has become a furnace and a furnace can't give rain, right? The heavens aren't giving rain, they're closed up. And that means the earth, because the earth is not receiving any water, it's closed up. Let me read one more to you, verse 38 of chapter 28. You will so much seed in the field, but you will harvest little because locus will devour it. Verse 39, you will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes because worms will eat them. Verse 40, you will have olive trees throughout your country, but you will not use the oil because the olives will drop off. Verse 41, you will have sons and daughters, but you will not keep them because they will go into captivity. Verse 42, swarms of locus will take over your trees and the crops of your land. So drought, Jeremiah is prophesying that this drought is actually a fulfillment of the covenant curses that can be found in Deuteronomy chapter 28 and Deuteronomy chapter 29. All right, so also let me help you with what what Yahweh's perspective is on rain and drought, okay?
I'm gonna read this to you from my notes. The idea behind drought was that rain was the default position. If everything is okay, it rains. Yahweh made a world in which it rains so that crops can grow and humans and animals can drink. Today we would say God made the water cycle, okay? That's how we would describe it today. But the normal baseline feature of the earth is that it rains. That's how the world works. Without any outside intervention, God does not make it rain. Rather, He made a world in which it rains. I know in church, we love to say God makes it rain. No, God doesn't make it rain. God has set the earth in a system where rain happens. Naturally, this is incomplete contrast to the pagan world. In the pagan worldview, Bael was the rain and storm God. He's essentially the Canaanite version of Thor. So it was his job to make it rain. He had to actively make it rain as opposed to Yahweh who just set up a system where it just naturally rains, okay? Bael has to make it rain every day. He has to remember to send the rain. And if he doesn't remember to send the rain, you have to remind him to do so by making sacrifices. Therefore, if you wanted rain, you had a sacrifice to Bael. So what does it mean for Judah if it doesn't rain?
Well, if the system God has set up doesn't work, then something must be wrong. God must have intervened in order to stop it from working, aka stop it from raining. This should therefore get their attention and make them turn to Yahweh. The irony of this is that instead of turning to Yahweh whenever it doesn't rain, what do they do? They always go to Bael to try to get it to rain, which only makes Yahweh more upset, which only causes more drought. So anytime there's a drought, it means there's idolatry. And instead of turning away from their idolatry, repenting and returning back to God so that it can rain, so that a normal course of life can proceed. They think Bael has the power to make it rain. They sacrifice to Bael, which only makes the drought worse because Bael is nothing. And Bael has no power. And Bael's not the one that makes it rain. It's God's system that makes it rain. This is essentially human's worshiping nature, which is not a new idea. Today we would call that pantheism, right? In this worldview, this is just called making a God out of a natural thing. They made a God out of the rain and his name is Bael. That's gonna help us to really understand Jeremiah chapter 14. All right, let's end with our Thomas truth.
Jeremiah chapter 12 verse five says this, if you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? In Jeremiah chapter 12, Jeremiah is gonna complain. This message that you've given me is unpopular. Everybody persecutes me. Like my life sucks. Like, and we're gonna get into more detail on how difficult Jeremiah's life really is. Especially tomorrow. Jeremiah's personal life is difficult. He's experiencing so much persecution because of the message that God's given him. He's a true prophet, but he doesn't get recognized have way better things to say. Jeremiah's life is very difficult. Any complaints of the Lord. And God's response to his complaint is this. If you have race with men on foot and they have worn you out, how could you compete with the horses? It's not like God responds to Jeremiah and says, "Man, you're right, I'm sorry, let's lighten the load." No, God says the persecution is only gonna get worse. So if you're complaining about this level of persecution, what are you gonna do when the persecution gets worse? If you have race with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? That's a time of truth. That oftentimes we go to God complaining about an issue. And instead of God fixing the thing that we're complaining
about, God says buckle up. 'Cause if you think the lion and the bear's bad, wait till you meet Goliath. And if you think Goliath's bad, wait till you meet King Saul. And if you think Saul's bad, wait till you have to deal with yourself, David. And you realize that you are your own worst enemy. God does not say, you know what? Let's take away all the obstacles 'cause you're complaining about it. God actually says, whoa, are you complaining about racing against people? If you get worn out racing against people, how are you gonna do when you race against horses? God doesn't hear our complaints and think to himself, let's remove the obstacle. God actually gives you perspective and helps you to go, no, you actually need to increase your stamina because it's only gonna get worse. God says to Jeremiah, persecution is only gonna get worse, buddy. So buckle up and don't get worn out racing against people because one day you're gonna have to race against horses. Man, I wish I could tell every single person right now, are you complaining about how much time you don't have, wait till you get married? And then I wish I could tell every married person, you complaining about how much time you don't have, wait till you have kids, whoo, are you really complaining? If you're complaining at this level,
wait till you get to the next level, if you think that this is hard, it's only gonna get worse. I'd love to tell single people all the time. You think that marriage is gonna fix your less problem. Yeah, right. If you can't develop discipline now, it's gonna be way harder to develop discipline when you're married because the temptation to cheat or the temptation to be unfaithful is actually stronger. It's actually worse once you get married, not better. It's not easier. So I think that this verse, oh man, it's the Thomas truth. God does it say to Jeremiah what Jeremiah wants to hear. God says to Jeremiah what Jeremiah needs to hear, which is buckle up, buddy. There's only gonna get worse. And so you may wanna get your stamina up while you're racing against people because one day you're gonna have to race against horses. And if you can't keep up today, you're definitely not gonna be able to keep up then. And that is our Thomas truth for today. Tomorrow we got day 217 and we're gonna be in Jeremiah chapters 15, 16, 17, and 18. We got four chapters tomorrow. If you're on a streak, I'm so proud of you. Even if you're not, I'm proud of you too. How about you do the reading for tomorrow? And I'll see you right here tomorrow
as we continue our trek through the book of Jeremiah. Love you, peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebobbledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.
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