Today’s passage: Jeremiah 11:1-23

Helpful thoughts:

• Israel had heard the words of the covenant with God and agreed to them.  They broke the covenant over and over.
  • Israel wanted to sin against God and then expect Him to hear their prayers and come to their aid.  They were not interested in relationship or repentance.  They were not interested in being loyal to God.  They wanted to use Him for their own selfish interest.
• The “Iron furnace” is being used as a metaphor for the hardship Israel had endured as slaves in Egypt.
• Verses 18-23 record a plot to kill Jeremiah by the people of the village of Anathoth (Jeremiah’s home!) and God’s response.

Questions to consider:

1. What had to be true of the values and desires of Jeremiah’s heart to endure this plot by his own neighbors?
2. What role does God have in your daily life?  Would you characterize your activities with Him as a relationship or as a pursuit of an ideal or an interest?  Would you say you are growing in knowledge of God or growing in your relationship with Him?
3. How does the concept of relationship affect your prayers, your activities, your Bible reading, etc.  How does the concept of a relationship with God change the way we would look at repentance?  Is repentance just stopping being bad and starting being good?  When are a married couple restored in their relationship?  How do they know they are doing well?  How would that relate to our relationship with God?

Today’s passage: Jeremiah 10:1-25

Helpful thoughts:

• Verse 23 is incredibly counter-cultural and entirely true.
  • Every false god is the invention of someone who was created by God.
  • Every false religion is the invention of someone who was created by God.
• God, Himself is the portion (Or the inheritance) of His people.
  • Israel and Judah preferred the gods and religions that came out of the hearts of man.
• In verses 24-25, Jeremiah pleads with God in solidarity on behalf of Judah.

Questions to consider:

1. When we look at any and every false religion, including humanism/atheism, what will we find?  What does man really want (Or want to avoid) in the end?
2. Are there ways that people could make Christianity (Or some of the major components, like Jesus, the cross, the love of God, etc.) into a man-centered, man-affirming, making everything go my way right now kind of a religion?
3. What are the “gods” of our culture and our day?  Is the church today completely innocent of the sins of Israel and Judah?  Are there any ways we have been tempted to worship multiple gods “alongside” of Jesus Christ?

Today’s passage: Jeremiah 8:18-9:26

Helpful thoughts:

• God’s love does not lack emotional affection.  Even in His justice, there is a grief for those who are judged.
• Verse 8 depicts an astounding truth.  When a person speaks peaceably to his neighbor when there is deceit, he has not withheld the arrow!  His faking of peace is an arrow shot.
  • God will avenge this sin.
• In Jewish custom, people could be hired to wail and mourn (Verses 17-18).  There were actual professional mourners.  They were often hired by the rich to attend their funerals.

Questions to consider:

1. What is the irony of calling on professional mourners?  What should Jerusalem have already been doing all along?  What would have brought about their repentance so many times before?  If all they could muster up was paid professionals, what was the sad truth of their spiritual condition?
2. What is the main message of verses 23-24?  What delights the Lord?  And in turn, what also is our greatest delight?
3. What does the final statement in verse 26 confirm about the Lord’s requirement of us?  Beyond simple religiosity, what does a follower of Jesus love and live like?

Today’s passage: Jeremiah 7:28-8:17

Helpful thoughts:

• Verse 27 leads us into this next passage.  What Jeremiah is about to say, no one is going to listen.
• God’s Word never returns void.  It always accomplishes exactly what God sent it to do.  (Isaiah 55:11)
  • Sometimes God sends His word to show His glory through righteous judgment.
• Chapter 8, verse 3 is such a sad truth…so very sad.

Questions to consider:

1. What sins does God specifically use to show Judah’s rejection of Him in this passage?  How far had they gone in their sinfulness?
2. What did Judah (And Israel) look for MOST before God (Verse 15)?  When we desire ease and prosperity more than we want God, what happens?  What do we receive when we desire Christ first (Philippians 4:4-9)?

Today’s passage: Jeremiah 7:1-27

Helpful thoughts:

• The people of Judah had come to use their ritualistic worship in Jerusalem as justification for sin.
• Jesus called the Temple a den of thieves again in Matthew 21:12-13.
• God had allowed the Philistines to defeat Israel at Shiloh in 1 Samuel 4.  The same was about to happen to Jerusalem.
• The “Queen of Heaven” was called Ishtar, Ashtoreth, or Astarte by different nations.  She was supposed to be the wife of Baal or Molech.  Worship of this false goddess consisted of prostitution.
  • Yet, Jeremiah shows this worship to be done as a family affair (Verses 18-19).

Questions to consider:

1. Where did Jeremiah preach this message?  What did it sound like the Jews were doing in the Temple?  What were they doing at home?  Is the Christian life just for the church house?  How much of your life does the Lord of Hosts own?
2. How are sins passed down from generation to generation?  Do we teach our kids certain sins with instruction or by example?  What can parents learn from this?  Who is our hope for our children’s rescue?
3. False gods were always created and revered because they gave people what they wanted.  Is that how the true God works?  Is it possible to worship the true God falsely?  Why do you worship God?  Do you come to him because He agrees with you or do you come to Him to learn from Him and learn to agree with Him?

Today’s passage: Jeremiah 6:1-30

Helpful thoughts:

• Remember, the people God is talking about in verse 10 are the people who identified as God’s people.
• Prophesying or teaching that there is peace when people are still in rebellion against God is sin.
  • In our culture, we have come to value peace of mind over peace with God.  We should not have the ability to enjoy peace of mind if we are not right with God.
• The imported frankincense in verse 20 would have been seen as extravagant worship by the people.  They spared no expense to express outward forms of worship.  But that attempt to impress only stings all the more when there is a lack of submissiveness.
  • God did not want imported spices.  He wanted sackcloth and ashes.  He wanted repentance.
• Verse 27 refers to Jeremiah and his role as God’s prophet to the people.

Questions to consider:

1. What kind of peace do you value most?  Why is it tempting to try to simply turn down the volume of life and conflicts around us and just settle for that?  What kind of peace truly blesses our lives and the lives of others most?
2. What is the reality of Jeremiah’s restated assignment in verse 27 tell us about expectations for our efforts in ministering the truth to others?  How will different people respond?
3. What was true even of Jeremiah?  Was he without fault?  What is our ultimate hope and who is our true PEACEMAKER? (Colossians 1:15-20)

Today’s passage: Jeremiah 5:1-31

Helpful thoughts:

• Verse 2 is a striking follow-up to verse 1.  The people of Jerusalem thought they were godly, yet not one of them was repentant.
  • We can be blind to our blindness.  The temptation is to read these verses and look down on the people of Jerusalem at the time.  What we need to do is ask God to reveal the truth of our own hearts to us.  He know us better than we do.
  • This chapter may be more applicable for the church today than we would want to admit.
• The people of Judah saw themselves as experts of God’s Word, and then when God’s Word came to them to tell them to repent, they rejected the words.  (Verse 12)
• Verse 28 reminds us of Asaph’s complaint in Psalm 73 (Verse 4).  Asaph complained because the wicked had grown fat and sleek (Signs of prosperity).  In Jeremiah 5, God calls the people of Judah fat and sleek.
  • God’s rebuke?  They had prosperity and they hoarded it for themselves instead of using it to love others.

Questions to consider:

1. What came upon the people of Judah as a result of their willful blindness?  (Verse 29)
2. What should we be doing right now as Christians (And as the First Baptist Church) in our community?  How are we doing?  If we need to repent, what would that look like?
3. If God uses the word to reveal something to your heart, what must you do?  If we are convicted and we turn and carry on without change, what are we saying/doing?

Today’s passage: Jeremiah 4:1-31

Helpful thoughts:

• Chapter 4 begins with a continuation of God’s call for Israel’s repentance.
• Repentance is a matter of the heart (The inner man) before it ever becomes evident in our actions.
• The idea of judgment against Jerusalem was bewildering to Jeremiah, but it was coming.
  • Verse 23 brings to memory Genesis 1:2.  God took was was formless and void and filled it with purpose.  Now Judah would see the undoing of it’s purpose.

Questions to consider:

1. In awaiting judgment, what should have been shocking to the Jews?  Why should they have lamented?
2. Would we typically be more prone to lament the downfall of our country militarily or the downfall of our country righteously?  Would we be more prone to lament the consequences of our sin or the sin itself?
3. What do we know now about the future of Jerusalem?  Would it remain formless and void?  What is God going to do? (Revelation 21:1-4)

Today’s passage: Jeremiah 3:6-25

Helpful thoughts:

• In this illustration of marriage, Israel had left her groom (God) for false gods made of stone and wood.  This is spiritual adultery.
  • God hates divorce, but according to the Old Testament law, it could be seen an act of mercy when adultery is involved (Leviticus 20:10, Matthew 5:32).
• God is merciful and calls for the repentance of Israel.  But, reconciliation was only possible if Israel confessed and repented (Verse 13).
• Their repentance is guaranteed (In God’s sovereignty) and depicted in the latter portion of the chapter.
  • Verses 16 and 17 teach us that this time of Israel’s repentance will be after the second coming of Christ.  They will not speak of the Ark (Where God’s presence resided) anymore because God will be with His people.

Questions to consider:

1. How does the illustration of marriage help us to understand marriage in this life and how does it help us to understand our relationship with God?  How does sin in marriage and the reality of divorce in this world make it harder?  What kind of “husband” is the Lord?
2. Why is the first portion of verse 13 so important in helping us know how to be reconciled together?  When have we truly made peace with others?  If two people are at odds with each other, how many of them have to be involved to truly make things right?
3. In order for Israel to return and be healed (Verse 22), what has to happen to their hearts (End of verse 17)?  What would Israel (And all of us) continue to do if God had not intervened graciously in our lives?