Lectionary Calendar

Thursday, November 21st, 2024
the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33

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Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 12

JeremiahJer 11 JeremiahJer JeremiahJer 13

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Verses 1-17

Intro:
1. 12:1-5 was Jeremiah’s Prayer. 12:6-17 was God’s response!
2. Jeremiah was going through his theological crisis!(12:1,4)
  1. Then God answered (5-17)
MY HERITAGE! (12:7-13)
1. Read vs.6 (Jer.’s bro’s come against him) vs.7 God says, “Jeremiah your tragedy is only a miniature of mine!” “My whole nation has come against me!!!”
  1. Take any of our most wounding situations in our life & realize “our tragedies our God’s in miniature”!
  2. Q: Can you think of examples of these? Ingratitude(towards God), indifference, disappointment, desertion by a spouse, defiance by a son or daughter, a close friend turn turncoat, physically abused(J.C.)
  3. “Our tragedies our God’s in miniature!” – What does this do for you? (God can relate! He sympathizes w/us)
2. Note: God’s grief keeps showing through amidst his anger: “My house, My heritage, The dearly beloved of my soul.”
3. A LION
4. Instead of purring like a kitten in God’s hand, they were roaring at Him.
  1. Q: Which can you show love to? A furry rabbit in your hand? Or, a ferocious rottweiler in your face?
5. Q: What type of animal would your love for God be likened unto?
  1. A fish/slippery; a penguin/cold w/no arms; a ferret/nervous paranoid; cheetah/running away fast.
  2. What about a Koala bear? a puppy that loves to cuddle?
6. A SPECKLED VULTURE
7. The Vulture – a dirty bird(only bird with no feathers on its neck & head) that feeds off carrion(dead animals). They hunt by soaring high & watching for other vultures descending to feed.
  1. Judah is set apart as a vulture that all other vultures are against!
    1. “Judah you want to be like your neighbors here you go!”
    2. Judah’s enemies were ready to swoop on them.
MY EVIL NEIGHBORS! (12:14-17)
1. Here judgment comes against the other Vultures.
2. Here comes some of Jeremiah’s “Action Sermons!”
  1. 7 vivid images that judgment was going to fall.

return to 'Top of Page'

Verses 1-17

Intro:
1. 12:1-5 was Jeremiah’s Prayer. 12:6-17 was God’s response!
2. Jeremiah was going through his theological crisis!(12:1,4)
  1. Then God answered (5-17)
MY HERITAGE! (12:7-13)
1. Read vs.6 (Jer.’s bro’s come against him) vs.7 God says, “Jeremiah your tragedy is only a miniature of mine!” “My whole nation has come against me!!!”
  1. Take any of our most wounding situations in our life & realize “our tragedies our God’s in miniature”!
  2. Q: Can you think of examples of these? Ingratitude(towards God), indifference, disappointment, desertion by a spouse, defiance by a son or daughter, a close friend turn turncoat, physically abused(J.C.)
  3. “Our tragedies our God’s in miniature!” – What does this do for you? (God can relate! He sympathizes w/us)
2. Note: God’s grief keeps showing through amidst his anger: “My house, My heritage, The dearly beloved of my soul.”
3. A LION
4. Instead of purring like a kitten in God’s hand, they were roaring at Him.
  1. Q: Which can you show love to? A furry rabbit in your hand? Or, a ferocious rottweiler in your face?
5. Q: What type of animal would your love for God be likened unto?
  1. A fish/slippery; a penguin/cold w/no arms; a ferret/nervous paranoid; cheetah/running away fast.
  2. What about a Koala bear? a puppy that loves to cuddle?
6. A SPECKLED VULTURE
7. The Vulture – a dirty bird(only bird with no feathers on its neck & head) that feeds off carrion(dead animals). They hunt by soaring high & watching for other vultures descending to feed.
  1. Judah is set apart as a vulture that all other vultures are against!
    1. “Judah you want to be like your neighbors here you go!”
    2. Judah’s enemies were ready to swoop on them.
MY EVIL NEIGHBORS! (12:14-17)
1. Here judgment comes against the other Vultures.
2. Here comes some of Jeremiah’s “Action Sermons!”
  1. 7 vivid images that judgment was going to fall.

return to 'Top of Page'

Verses 7-17

Intro:
1. 12:1-5 was Jeremiah’s Prayer. 12:6-17 was God’s response!
2. Jeremiah was going through his theological crisis!(12:1,4)
  1. Then God answered (5-17)
MY HERITAGE! (12:7-13)
1. Read vs.6 (Jer.’s bro’s come against him) vs.7 God says, “Jeremiah your tragedy is only a miniature of mine!” “My whole nation has come against me!!!”
  1. Take any of our most wounding situations in our life & realize “our tragedies our God’s in miniature”!
  2. Q: Can you think of examples of these? Ingratitude(towards God), indifference, disappointment, desertion by a spouse, defiance by a son or daughter, a close friend turn turncoat, physically abused(J.C.)
  3. “Our tragedies our God’s in miniature!” – What does this do for you? (God can relate! He sympathizes w/us)
2. Note: God’s grief keeps showing through amidst his anger: “My house, My heritage, The dearly beloved of my soul.”
3. A LION
4. Instead of purring like a kitten in God’s hand, they were roaring at Him.
  1. Q: Which can you show love to? A furry rabbit in your hand? Or, a ferocious rottweiler in your face?
5. Q: What type of animal would your love for God be likened unto?
  1. A fish/slippery; a penguin/cold w/no arms; a ferret/nervous paranoid; cheetah/running away fast.
  2. What about a Koala bear? a puppy that loves to cuddle?
6. A SPECKLED VULTURE
7. The Vulture – a dirty bird(only bird with no feathers on its neck & head) that feeds off carrion(dead animals). They hunt by soaring high & watching for other vultures descending to feed.
  1. Judah is set apart as a vulture that all other vultures are against!
    1. “Judah you want to be like your neighbors here you go!”
    2. Judah’s enemies were ready to swoop on them.
MY EVIL NEIGHBORS! (12:14-17)
1. Here judgment comes against the other Vultures.
2. Here comes some of Jeremiah’s “Action Sermons!”
  1. 7 vivid images that judgment was going to fall.
SPOILED SASH! (13:1-11)
1. “Linen sash” = An undergarment worn next to the skin.
2. Q: What do wear that is “closest” to you? (Underwear/roo’s)
  1. Go get/buy(purchased); a linen sash(new underwear); the priests wear white(holiness){ie. fresh out of the cellophane}; Around the waist(close intimacy); No water(Priests continually had to have clean bodies besides hearts.){this exception spoke of their moral filth/Jeremiah has to wear the same pair of underwear L}; Hole in the rock(Babylon){will be brought back out of}; they are profitable for nothing(Mt.5:13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”)
3. Euphrates(500-700 m.)[peratah] = or Perath(or wadi farah) a few miles n. of jer.
4. Vs.11 – Cling to me!” - “Judah was clinging to the wrong help. Clinging to those heathen powers/gods which had rotted their sp.fibre.
  1. We need to cling to God! Deut 30:20!!!
5. I was going to do a visual aid but…nay!
SMASHED & DASHED! (12-14)
1. Jeremiah used a familiar proverb of the day “Every bottle shall be filled with wine.”
  1. The proverb taught peace & prosperity!
  2. In 1589 King Henri IV of France said in his coronation address “I hope to make France so prosperous that every peasant will have a chicken his pot on Sunday.”
  3. In 1928 the American Republican party used, “A chicken in ever pot” as a campaign slogan. (W.W.W. Be Decisive pg.194 #11)
2. The leaders were busy filling up their jars w/wine preparing for a party – But God would fill em w/drunkenness!
  1. “Alcohol does not drown care, but waters it and makes it grow faster.” [Benjamin Franklin ]
  2. The church is told to remain sober! (1 Thes.5:6-8 “Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober,)
STUMBLING SEARCHERS! (15,16)
1. “Hear & give ear” = Jer. was giving them an opportunity to repent.
2. He likens them to a traveler on an unfamiliar & dangerous mountain road/no map/no flashlight/& hoping for dawn. (Derek Kidner, Jeremiah pg.64)
  1. But dawn never comes…it only gets darker & darker!
3. Here we have the leaders to proud to admit they were lost…& they wouldn’t ask for directions!
  1. Moody – “Be humble or you'll stumble.”
  2. Henry Smith, PRIDE - “It thrust proud Nebuchadnezzar out of men's society, proud Saul out of his kingdom, proud Adam out of paradise, proud Haman out of court, proud Lucifer out of heaven.”
SHACKLED SHEEP! (17-20)
1. Vs.17 - Jeremiah weeps as he sees the Lord’s flock ready to get fleeced!
  1. Even during a time of scolding Jeremiah still shows an attitude of love!
  2. We need to show true compassion! Not like the Quaker that said to a burglar: "Friend, I would do thee no harm for the world, but thou standest where I am about to shoot."
  3. German Proverb – “Love sees the need, not the cause.”
2. Vs.18 – Here he tells King Jehoiachin & Queen Nehushta to repent & humble them selves.
3. Vs.19,20 - But they refuse to listen! (Prov.16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.”)
STRAINING WOMAN! (21)
1. Jeremiah’s saying, “The people you sought as allies will come & be your Masters, then what will you say? You’ll be so gripped w/pain that you won’t be able to say anything!”
2. Choose God’s way, not the way of the world!
  1. He writes in characters too grand For our short sight to understand; We catch but broken strokes, and try To fathom all the mystery Of withered hopes, of death, of life, The endless war, the useless strife -- But there, with larger, clearer sight, We shall see this -- His way was right.
SHAMED STRUMPETS(prostitutes)! (22,23; 26,27)
1. If a prostitute finds herself stripped, shamed, & abused, why should she be surprised? That’s what she asked for!
2. You Reap what you Sow!
  1. If lawyers are corrupt they can be disbarred, a clergymen will be defrocked. Others have then asked then can electricians can be delighted; musicians, denoted; cowboys, deranged; tree surgeons, debarked; and dry cleaners, depressed?
  2. D.Sutton “Everyone constructs his own bed of nails.”
SCATTERED SHEATHES! (24,25)
1. Stubble/Chaff = Useless by-product of the harvesting process.
2. God compares their wickedness to chaff being blown in the wind (Ps.1:4 “The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.”)
  1. How patient the Lord had been to them.
  2. How patient Jeremiah had been w/them!
  3. Not like the patience the truck driver had who dropped in at an all-night restaurant in Broken Bow, Nebraska. The waitress had just served him when three big, leather-jacketed motorcyclists -- of the Hell's Angels type -- entered and rushed up to him, apparently pushing for a fight. One grabbed the hamburger off his plate; another took a handful of his French fries; and the third picked up his coffee and began to drink it. The trucker did not respond as one might expect. Instead, he calmly rose, picked up his check, walked to the front of the room, put the check and his money on the cash register, and went out the door. The waitress followed him to put the money in the till and stood watching out the door as the big truck drove away into the night. When she returned, one of the cyclists said to her, "Well, he's not much of a man, is he?" She replied, "I can't answer as to that, but he's not much of a truck driver. He just ran over three motorcycles out in the parking lot." [now that’s not the right patience!]
3. Q: Will you still not be made clean? What a great question that today can still be answered! Q: How will you answer it tonight?

return to 'Top of Page'

Verses 7-17

Intro:
1. 12:1-5 was Jeremiah’s Prayer. 12:6-17 was God’s response!
2. Jeremiah was going through his theological crisis!(12:1,4)
  1. Then God answered (5-17)
MY HERITAGE! (12:7-13)
1. Read vs.6 (Jer.’s bro’s come against him) vs.7 God says, “Jeremiah your tragedy is only a miniature of mine!” “My whole nation has come against me!!!”
  1. Take any of our most wounding situations in our life & realize “our tragedies our God’s in miniature”!
  2. Q: Can you think of examples of these? Ingratitude(towards God), indifference, disappointment, desertion by a spouse, defiance by a son or daughter, a close friend turn turncoat, physically abused(J.C.)
  3. “Our tragedies our God’s in miniature!” – What does this do for you? (God can relate! He sympathizes w/us)
2. Note: God’s grief keeps showing through amidst his anger: “My house, My heritage, The dearly beloved of my soul.”
3. A LION
4. Instead of purring like a kitten in God’s hand, they were roaring at Him.
  1. Q: Which can you show love to? A furry rabbit in your hand? Or, a ferocious rottweiler in your face?
5. Q: What type of animal would your love for God be likened unto?
  1. A fish/slippery; a penguin/cold w/no arms; a ferret/nervous paranoid; cheetah/running away fast.
  2. What about a Koala bear? a puppy that loves to cuddle?
6. A SPECKLED VULTURE
7. The Vulture – a dirty bird(only bird with no feathers on its neck & head) that feeds off carrion(dead animals). They hunt by soaring high & watching for other vultures descending to feed.
  1. Judah is set apart as a vulture that all other vultures are against!
    1. “Judah you want to be like your neighbors here you go!”
    2. Judah’s enemies were ready to swoop on them.
MY EVIL NEIGHBORS! (12:14-17)
1. Here judgment comes against the other Vultures.
2. Here comes some of Jeremiah’s “Action Sermons!”
  1. 7 vivid images that judgment was going to fall.
SPOILED SASH! (13:1-11)
1. “Linen sash” = An undergarment worn next to the skin.
2. Q: What do wear that is “closest” to you? (Underwear/roo’s)
  1. Go get/buy(purchased); a linen sash(new underwear); the priests wear white(holiness){ie. fresh out of the cellophane}; Around the waist(close intimacy); No water(Priests continually had to have clean bodies besides hearts.){this exception spoke of their moral filth/Jeremiah has to wear the same pair of underwear L}; Hole in the rock(Babylon){will be brought back out of}; they are profitable for nothing(Mt.5:13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”)
3. Euphrates(500-700 m.)[peratah] = or Perath(or wadi farah) a few miles n. of jer.
4. Vs.11 – Cling to me!” - “Judah was clinging to the wrong help. Clinging to those heathen powers/gods which had rotted their sp.fibre.
  1. We need to cling to God! Deut 30:20!!!
5. I was going to do a visual aid but…nay!
SMASHED & DASHED! (12-14)
1. Jeremiah used a familiar proverb of the day “Every bottle shall be filled with wine.”
  1. The proverb taught peace & prosperity!
  2. In 1589 King Henri IV of France said in his coronation address “I hope to make France so prosperous that every peasant will have a chicken his pot on Sunday.”
  3. In 1928 the American Republican party used, “A chicken in ever pot” as a campaign slogan. (W.W.W. Be Decisive pg.194 #11)
2. The leaders were busy filling up their jars w/wine preparing for a party – But God would fill em w/drunkenness!
  1. “Alcohol does not drown care, but waters it and makes it grow faster.” [Benjamin Franklin ]
  2. The church is told to remain sober! (1 Thes.5:6-8 “Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober,)
STUMBLING SEARCHERS! (15,16)
1. “Hear & give ear” = Jer. was giving them an opportunity to repent.
2. He likens them to a traveler on an unfamiliar & dangerous mountain road/no map/no flashlight/& hoping for dawn. (Derek Kidner, Jeremiah pg.64)
  1. But dawn never comes…it only gets darker & darker!
3. Here we have the leaders to proud to admit they were lost…& they wouldn’t ask for directions!
  1. Moody – “Be humble or you'll stumble.”
  2. Henry Smith, PRIDE - “It thrust proud Nebuchadnezzar out of men's society, proud Saul out of his kingdom, proud Adam out of paradise, proud Haman out of court, proud Lucifer out of heaven.”
SHACKLED SHEEP! (17-20)
1. Vs.17 - Jeremiah weeps as he sees the Lord’s flock ready to get fleeced!
  1. Even during a time of scolding Jeremiah still shows an attitude of love!
  2. We need to show true compassion! Not like the Quaker that said to a burglar: "Friend, I would do thee no harm for the world, but thou standest where I am about to shoot."
  3. German Proverb – “Love sees the need, not the cause.”
2. Vs.18 – Here he tells King Jehoiachin & Queen Nehushta to repent & humble them selves.
3. Vs.19,20 - But they refuse to listen! (Prov.16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.”)
STRAINING WOMAN! (21)
1. Jeremiah’s saying, “The people you sought as allies will come & be your Masters, then what will you say? You’ll be so gripped w/pain that you won’t be able to say anything!”
2. Choose God’s way, not the way of the world!
  1. He writes in characters too grand For our short sight to understand; We catch but broken strokes, and try To fathom all the mystery Of withered hopes, of death, of life, The endless war, the useless strife -- But there, with larger, clearer sight, We shall see this -- His way was right.
SHAMED STRUMPETS(prostitutes)! (22,23; 26,27)
1. If a prostitute finds herself stripped, shamed, & abused, why should she be surprised? That’s what she asked for!
2. You Reap what you Sow!
  1. If lawyers are corrupt they can be disbarred, a clergymen will be defrocked. Others have then asked then can electricians can be delighted; musicians, denoted; cowboys, deranged; tree surgeons, debarked; and dry cleaners, depressed?
  2. D.Sutton “Everyone constructs his own bed of nails.”
SCATTERED SHEATHES! (24,25)
1. Stubble/Chaff = Useless by-product of the harvesting process.
2. God compares their wickedness to chaff being blown in the wind (Ps.1:4 “The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.”)
  1. How patient the Lord had been to them.
  2. How patient Jeremiah had been w/them!
  3. Not like the patience the truck driver had who dropped in at an all-night restaurant in Broken Bow, Nebraska. The waitress had just served him when three big, leather-jacketed motorcyclists -- of the Hell's Angels type -- entered and rushed up to him, apparently pushing for a fight. One grabbed the hamburger off his plate; another took a handful of his French fries; and the third picked up his coffee and began to drink it. The trucker did not respond as one might expect. Instead, he calmly rose, picked up his check, walked to the front of the room, put the check and his money on the cash register, and went out the door. The waitress followed him to put the money in the till and stood watching out the door as the big truck drove away into the night. When she returned, one of the cyclists said to her, "Well, he's not much of a man, is he?" She replied, "I can't answer as to that, but he's not much of a truck driver. He just ran over three motorcycles out in the parking lot." [now that’s not the right patience!]
3. Q: Will you still not be made clean? What a great question that today can still be answered! Q: How will you answer it tonight?

return to 'Top of Page'

JeremiahJer 11 JeremiahJer JeremiahJer 13

Copyright Statement
These files are the property of Brian Bell.
Text Courtesy of Calvary Chapel of Murrieta. Used by Permission.

Bibliographical Information
Bell, Brian. "Commentary on Jeremiah 12". "Bell's Commentary". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/cbb/jeremiah-12.html. 2017.

Bible CommentariesJeremiah 12

Bell's Commentary on the BibleBell's Commentary

Verses 1-17

Verses 1-17

Verses 7-17

Verses 7-17

Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 12