Day 218: Jeremiah 19–21 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Hey, Bible Nerds, this is Dr. Manny Arango. 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 thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. Family, welcome to day 218. We are in Jeremiah chapters 19, 20, and 21. Our context is gonna change drastically when we get to chapter 21, but our context for chapters 19 and 20 are actually the same as yesterday. So no need to update you on the context. I will give a ton of context clues when we do go to chapter 21. So the order of today's episode may be slightly different. We may handle some nerdy nuggets first, then get to some context clues, then get to a timeless truth, but buckle up. We got more persecution for Jeremiah. We are actually gonna pull in a lot of what happened yesterday in chapter 18. In yesterday's episode, I didn't really touch chapter 18 a lot, and we're gonna really tackle chapter 18 today. If you've done the reading, good on you, good work, good job. If you've done the reading, then everything that I'm gonna share today is going to make perfect sense because you've got context for it.

If you haven't done the reading, then stop the video, pause the audio, and go read Jeremiah chapters 19, 20, and 21. Because chapters 18 and 19 belong together, maybe next year, we'll see. I may actually take chapter 18 from yesterday's reading and put it onto today's reading. But the Bible reading plan, we tweak it every year because we notice little things like that. So let's dive in. So one of the things that we talked about yesterday was just how difficult Jeremiah's life is. This man's life is full of persecution. And one of the verses that I was really looking for yesterday, but it's almost like it just escaped my eye, was Jeremiah chapter 18, verse 18. It says this, Jeremiah's prophesying. He's giving a warning to the people. Hey, the Babylonians are coming. God is not playing games. There's no opportunity for repentance. If you repent, that's good, but your repentance needs to be in the form of surrendering to the Babylonians when they get here. Don't fight them. Don't resist them. Surrender to the Babylonians, okay? So Jeremiah 18, 18. They said, come, let's make plans against Jeremiah.

For the teaching of the law by the priest, Jeremiah's a priest, by the priest will not cease, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let's attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says. And then chapter 18 is going to end, okay? With Jeremiah saying these words, but you Lord know, this is verse 23 of chapter 18. So just a couple of verses later, it says, you Lord know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you. Deal with them in the time of your anger. So again, persecution is just simply mounting up. It's rising up like the people and especially like other leaders are heavily, heavily, heavily persecuting Jeremiah. So that was kind of, I felt like that was a loose end from yesterday that I just wanted to kind of wrap up, okay? So Jeremiah is essentially depressed about life. Like, I mean, the man really does have a very, very, very difficult life and persecution is only going to get worse. And we'll continue to trace that theme as we march through each day of the Bible reading plan. Let's get into chapters 19, but 18 and 19, okay?

Because the same metaphor that starts in 18 is gonna carry us into chapter 19. And that metaphor is of Yahweh as a potter and the people as clay. And here's the big thing that you really have to understand. And I know this is difficult for us, but we're gonna have to get this. It doesn't matter how good the potter is because Yahweh is a perfect potter. He's a perfect everything. Doesn't matter how good the potter is, if the clay is hard, there's nothing that can be done to the pot or the vessel except to destroy it, to break it. So there's two kinds of potters. kinds of clay, moldable soft clay and hardened callous clay. I would actually contend that soft moldable clay is a good metaphor for the human heart and that hardened callous clay is a great metaphor for the human heart, okay? So doesn't matter how good the potter is, if clay refuses to be molded because it is hard, then there's nothing that the potter can do. This clay is now utterly destroyed. It's useless, it's ruined, just like the dirty underwear. There's nothing we can do with this anymore. So God's communicating, there is no repenting. There is no going back. The Babylonians are coming. Judgment is set and it will happen

and there's no going back, okay? So Jeremiah 18, okay, Jeremiah gets his vision, it's actually a very, very well-known vision of him going down to the potter's house and the potter's working with the clay, okay? Jeremiah 18 actually starts out and we're talking about soft clay, okay? It says verse four of chapter 18, but the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands. It can only be marred in his hands if it is soft. So the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seems best to him. So God is able to mold you from one thing into something else as long as the clay is soft. And then Jeremiah is gonna announce, okay? But God is gonna bring judgment because you haven't repented, there's no going back. And then Jeremiah is gonna experience persecution because nobody wants to hear that. And then chapter 19, this is what the Lord says, "'Go and buy a clay jar from a potter, probably the same potter.'" Okay, so this is a natural flow. Everybody preaches chapter 18, nobody touched chapter 19, by the way. Okay, chapter 19, "'Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests and go out to the valley of Ben-Hinnom.'" Now, what is this valley?

Now, in the New Testament, this valley is gonna be called Gehenna. This is gonna be the foundation of the idea of hell, or eternal judgment, okay? So Gehenna, but it's the valley of Hinnom, Ben-Hinnom, "'Near the entrance of the potsherd gate.'" This is geographically accurate, okay? The valley of Ben-Hinnom is on the southwestern side of Jerusalem. The way to access that valley is through the potsherd gate. "'There proclaim the words I tell you and say, hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and you people of Jerusalem.'" So we're now gonna get some leaders that are gonna be a part of the audience, okay? You kings of Judah, you people of Jerusalem, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says, "'Listen, I'm going to bring a disaster on this place and I will make the ears of everyone who hears it tingle, for they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods.'" And that's true. They had made the valley of Ben-Hinnom a place where they sacrificed their kids to Molech, okay? So this valley had become the valley of child sacrifice. This is detestable in the eyes of the Lord. This is totally evil. "'And have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew.

And they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.'" The blood of the innocent would be children, okay? Children that have been killed, murdered, sacrificed to Molech and to other gods. "'They have built the high places of Baal, burned their children in the fire as offerings to Baal, something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.'" This is totally evil. "'So beware, the days are coming,' declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.'" Instead of calling it Ben-Hinnom, the Son of Hinnom, you're gonna call it the Valley of Slaughter, because that's what it is. This is a valley of slaughter. You've slaughtered innocent children. You've offered children in this valley to the God of Baal and to the God of Molech. "'In this place, I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies.'" So the same way you've slaughtered the innocent, guess what? I'm gonna kill you in this valley. This valley is gonna be full of your blood. "'At the hands of those who wanna kill you, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds and the wild animals.

I will devastate the city and make it an object of horror and scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them.'" He's saying the siege that the Babylonians place on you is gonna be so intense that you are going to be relegated to cannibalism. You're gonna eat each other. That's how. hungry you're gonna be. Okay, this is intense. Verse 10, then break the jar while those who go with you are watching and say to them, this is what the Lord Almighty says. I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter's jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. So the jar that's soft in Jeremiah chapter 18 is gonna get reshaped, it's gonna get remolded. But this jar in Jeremiah chapter 19 is gonna get smashed, okay? Because there's only one thing you can do with a jar that's already hard. You can't remake it, there's no way to remake it. It has to be utterly broken.

And so we've got the potter, the potter in both of these represents Yahweh. In one instance, the heart or the ability of the potter does not change, but the quality of the jars do change. In one, the jar or the clay is soft, malleable, like it's able to be reshaped because it is not dry, it is not hard. But then once the clay is actually hardened, there's nothing, no potter could do anything with this. Do we believe in the sovereignty of God? Yes, but the Jewish worldview does not place the sovereignty of God at odds with free will. So sometimes when we come to the text, we ask very Western, very American questions. Like, so what is, is the clay in charge of clay or is the potter in charge of clay? Well, no, actually it's both and. It is part my responsibility to make sure that my heart is soft, that I am a malleable vessel. But the moment I'm stubborn and stiff-necked and I don't wanna change and I don't wanna obey, it's not as if God's cursed me to be that way, but because I am that way, God goes, ah, I'm limited in what I can do here. And I know it can be odd for us to think about God as limited, but he has to respect your human free will.

But does that stop him from pursuing, from wooing, from trying to convince, from wrestling with us? No, but at some point God has to go, ah, this jar has to be smashed. Like this jar has to get broken. That's the only way to do this. The jar that's marred in the potter's hands is also getting broken. Only one is broken beyond repair and one is broken to be reformed. Everyone's gonna get broken. Maybe that's our timeless truth for the day. Everyone's gonna experience brokenness, but when I'm soft and I can get marred in the potter's hands, I experience brokenness, but then I can get redeemed, I can get reshaped. So I'm broken, but I'm still malleable. I'm still soft. I'm broken, but man, I can get reshaped and remade. Whereas if I'm stuck in my ways, if I'm stubborn, if I'm obstinate and stiff-necked, and I don't obey the voice of the Lord, I'm also gonna get rebroke, I'm also gonna get broken, but the possibility of being reshaped into something is no longer there. And we do believe that there will be a day when the window of opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior is closed. That window of opportunity doesn't stay open forever.

That window of opportunity closes. And in some people's lives, that window closes while they're still alive, not because of God, but because of them, because of their own stubbornness. Does that mean we shouldn't be praying and shouldn't be inviting people to church and shouldn't be evangelizing? Absolutely not. We should still do that, because I don't know the state of somebody's heart. I don't know whether or not their clay is hard beyond repair, I don't know. Jeremiah knew because he got a specific word for these specific people, but I don't know. Therefore, I'm always assuming that people are not beyond repair or beyond redemption, because I do not know, okay? I am not a prophet. I am not Jeremiah. I have not gotten a specific word about specific people. Therefore, I will always engage, I will always invite, I will always assume that there's hope. But the reality is that for some people, they've made a decision already and they are beyond being reshaped. They're beyond the brokenness that can be reshaped into something else. They're at the level of brokenness that if God breaks you now, this is it.

You're gonna get broken and you're just gonna shatter into a million pieces, okay? 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 & Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes & Noble, or you can go. 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. All right, let's get into, really, I mean, that was, we just kind of morphed right into our nerdy nuggets. I'm sorry I didn't make like a formal announcement that we were gonna get into our nerdy nuggets. All right, what is the result of this sermon? Jeremiah's message?

Well, let's read Jeremiah 20, verse one. How does this end? When the priest, Pasher, son of Emmer, the official in charge of the temple of the Lord, so this is a fellow priest. Remember, Jeremiah's a priest. Now this guy, Pasher, son of Emmer, is also a priest. The official in charge of the temple of the Lord heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. He had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the upper gate of Benjamin at the Lord's temple. So now he's in prison. He's placed in the stocks. So stocks, you fasten your feet in them and you're locked in place, you can't move, okay? So beaten and put in the stocks. Jeremiah's already experienced persecution. What happens now as he continues to preach? More persecution, which now lands Pasher in some deep water. And Jeremiah's gonna prophesy this in verse six. And you, Pasher, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried. You and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies. So we're actually gonna see Pasher in the, and I'm pretty sure we're gonna see him in the next chapter because once we get to chapter 21, we are actually decades ahead in the story. So, but it fits thematically. So chapter 21 is gonna follow chapter 20,

not because of the sequence, but because of the theme. Actually, you know what? I'll leave, we can actually go right into chapter 21. I'll use what I was about to say as a Thomas Truth. So let's go to chapter 21, okay? Chapter 21 is going to open. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord when kings at Achaia. So now we're all the way into the future, okay? This is the very, very, very, very, very, very, very last king of Judah. We have skipped ahead like big time. I'm actually gonna try to find exactly how many years into the future we've gone. And chapter 21 now is gonna start a new section of the whole book of Jeremiah, which deals now with the leaders of false Judah, say bad leaders. So the following chapters, we'll see Jeremiah clashing with kings, their officials, false prophets, and the overriding message will be summed up in chapter 24. Obviously we'll get there soon, with the image of good figs and bad figs. So this section all the way to chapter 29. So this whole section, chapter 21 and chapter 29, is concerned with separating those who are truly loyal to Yahweh and those who are not. These chapters are not in chronological order, but now chapter 21, we're in Zedekiah's reign,

as opposed to Jehoiakim's reign. Chapter 21 takes place somewhere around 588 BC. And everything that we've been reading thus far is somewhere around 605 BC. So between 605 and 588, that's almost 20 years. That's about 17 years, okay? So my guess was, I was off by about three years. All right, let's jump into chapter 21, okay? It says this, Zedekiah now wants to send message to Jeremiah. And this is, we need to understand this so that we can understand tomorrow's reading. The story jumps forward about 20 years into the future, 17, 20, now there is a siege, okay? The one that Jeremiah was prophesying about in chapter 20, that siege is now happening, okay? The king sends a group of priests, including Pasher, okay? So now Pasher's 20 years older, and Pasher is the guy who just persecuted Jeremiah in chapter 20. So now he's back in chapter 21. The king has sent a group of priests, including Pasher, who, as Jeremiah had prophesied, is still alive. And he's alive to see all of the events that are about to unfold. And what is the question Zedekiah has? He's got the nerve to wanna ask Jeremiah to inquire of Yahweh about the siege, hoping that perhaps Yahweh will deal with us. according to all his wonderful deeds, and take Nebuchadnezzar away from us."

Okay, so Zedekiah is hoping that the same thing that happened with Hezekiah and Sennacherib would happen again with him and Nebuchadnezzar, and Jeremiah is like, absolutely not. Okay, Zedekiah is at last doing what kings of Judah are meant to do, turn to their true suzerain and look for Yahweh's salvation. Yahweh is supposed to be the suzerain of Judah, and your suzerain is supposed to come to your aid. Has Judah been a good vassal? No. So is the suzerain going to say yes or no to the request? He's going to say absolutely not. Perhaps Zedekiah is thinking of when Hezekiah turned to Yahweh when Sennacherib's army was besieging Jerusalem. He is hoping that Yahweh would do the same once more and rescue them by destroying the foreign army. But the time has passed for the sons of David to call out to their true king for salvation. Judgment had come on Jerusalem. Judgment had come on its kings and leaders. Judah's suzerain had become her enemy. A call also goes out to the people. Do not stay in the city. Their only hope is to surrender to the Babylonians. So I want you to actually kind of see this. In chapter 20, Yahweh sends his messenger to the leaders to tell them his message. In chapter 21, the king of Judah sends his messengers to Jeremiah to talk to the Lord. Okay, so there's a reversal happening. And what is Yahweh's conclusion? No, judgment is already decided. And verse 5, I'll read Jeremiah chapter 21 verse 5. I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm. These are the same exact words used when Yahweh delivered the people from Egypt. How did he deliver the people from Egypt? With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. What is he going to have now? An outstretched hand and a mighty arm. In furious anger and great wrath. This is a reversal. You've experienced my mighty hand and outstretched arm when it was for you. Now you're gonna experience my mighty arm and my outstretched hand against you. Verse 6, I will strike down those who live in Jerusalem, who live in this city, both man and beast, and they will die of a terrible plague. After that, verse 7, after that declares the Lord, I will give Zedekiah, king of Judah, his officials and the people in the city who survived the plague, sword and famine, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,

and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will put them to the sword. He will show them no mercy or pity or compassion. It's over. You can see the natural. So chapter 19 flows naturally from chapter 18 and then we get chapter 21, which is going to be 20 years into the future. And it's now a new king, Zedekiah, the very, very, very last king of Judah. Remember, I've taught you this, the last five kings of Judah are Josiah, Jehoiah has, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and now Zedekiah. Okay, so we've moved from Jehoiakim to Zedekiah. We've moved 20 years into the future as we've crossed the threshold from chapter 20 to chapter 21. Now, for our time is truth, we're gonna just take one verse and just put it in context for our time is truth. The one verse out of Jeremiah chapter 20 that we love. I mean, I almost got it tattooed when I was younger. It's Jeremiah chapter 20 verse 9. Love this verse. We got to put it in some context and that's what we're gonna do as our time is truth. Here's the verse. His word is in my heart like a fire. A fire shut up in my bones. Oh, that's a good verse. Love that verse. His word is in my heart like a fire. A fire shut up in my bones. The only problem is that what Jeremiah has to say before that and after that. Okay, so when we take this verse out of context, it's just a feel-good, goosebumps, chills. Oh man, I love this verse. And now let's back up two verses. Jeremiah chapter 20 verse 7. You deceived me. You deceived me, O Lord. And I was deceived. You overpowered me and prevail. I'm ridiculed all day long. Everyone mocks me. I thought being a prophet was gonna be awesome. I thought being a prophet was gonna be great. You didn't tell me that I was gonna be persecuted and beaten and flogged and put in the stocks and put in prison and I couldn't have a wife and I wouldn't have children and I was just gonna have this depressing, sad, unpatriotic message and oh man, I didn't know that it was gonna be like this. You deceived me. You tricked me. You just told me I was gonna be a prophet. You didn't tell me that what I was gonna have to say. was gonna be the hardest things I'd ever have to prophesy. You overpower me and prevailed. You ridic, I'm ridiculed all day long.

Everybody mocks me. I'm the laughingstock of Jerusalem. Verse eight, whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. That's all I prophesy. I just prophesy violence and destruction. You haven't given me a word of hope. You haven't given me a word of peace. Just violence and destruction. I'm just here proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. God, everything I have to say just brings me ridicule. It brings me insult. People hate me. But if I say I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name, his word is in my heart like a fire. You see how once we have context, the actual verse that we love, it hits in a whole different way. But if I say I will not mention his word, it'll be beneficial for me to just stop talking about you. I don't wanna prophesy for you anymore because it just brings me ridicule. It brings me, all I talk about is violence and destruction. Everybody hates me. If I say I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name, his word is in my heart like a fire.

A fire should have been my bones. I'm weary of holding it in. Indeed, I cannot. Actually, that's the timeless truth that yes, is the gospel good news? Absolutely, it's good news. Absolutely, it's good news. But does that good news also come with some corresponding hard truth? Yeah, it does. And Jesus came full of grace and full of truth. And I think a lot of times we get really happy about the good news of grace, but then we can kind of be uncomfortable or kind of unhappy about the hard news of truth that also is joined with the good news of grace. But the reality is that it's all good news. The truth and the grace are both good news because at first I may be offended by the good news of truth, but eventually I'm gonna go, man, if it weren't for you telling me the truth, I wouldn't have had an opportunity to repent, to surrender to the Lord, to make him my Lord. Not just my savior, but my Lord. So I think the timeless truth for all of us is that the gospel does bring applause and it does bring amens. It is good news. The world does rejoice when you let them know

there's a way to God. There's a way to forgiveness. There's a path that leads to grace and mercy. That's good news. And the world rejoices at that. What the world doesn't rejoice at is, but you're gonna have to admit your sin. You're gonna have to confess that you're a sinful, flawed person. You're gonna have to repent. You're gonna have to admit that your actions are wicked and vile before God. And that this holy God actually has something to say about your opinions and your lifestyle and your choices. And I think there's a lot of us, we wanna preach the side of it that we think is God's grace. And then we don't wanna preach the side of it that's truth. But Jeremiah says, even though your word brings ridicule and insult and persecution, I will preach it. I think that for a lot of us, we don't actually know what the good news is. And the gospel is not just that Jesus is savior, but it's that Jesus is Lord. Just think about it. When the first century, when the disciples, when those original apostles are preaching the good news, they got persecuted for it.

Why would they get persecuted by just preaching that Jesus died for your sins? Well, it's because that's not what they're preaching. They're preaching that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar. And the message that Jesus is Lord, that will bring persecution. The message that Jesus is savior and you get out of jail free card, that doesn't really bring persecution. And so this is the timeless truth that actually the preaching of the word of God doesn't just bring amens and applause, but it also brings conviction. It also brings persecution. And I think that we, as the modern church of Jesus Christ, need to get a little bit more comfortable with not just the applause and the amens, but also the harder side of the response when we actually preach the truth. That doesn't mean that we're jerks. That never gives us license to be jerks, but it does say that we've gotta be okay, that his word should still be in our heart like a fire and we should be weary of holding it in, especially if there's a word of truth that we wanna proclaim. Man, it should attract non-believers to Jesus, but it should also attract persecution. And I think that's timelessly true. All right, tomorrow we got day 219.

We're gonna be in Jeremiah chapters 22 to 25. It's gonna be awesome. I can't wait to see you. I'm so proud of you, especially if you're on a streak. I'll see you right here tomorrow as we continue our trek through the book of Jeremiah. Love you. See you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment? and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.