Jeremiah 25 - 52

1. Jeremiah 25 - 52
I. “Hashem has sent you all His servants the prophets, sending them
from early morning - but you did not listen, and you did not incline
your ear to hear.” 25:4.
The message from Jeremiah to the people here is one we’ve seen
before: to repent, each from his evil way and from the wickedness of his
deeds, so that they might remain on the land, and not to follow the
gods of others, worshipping them and prostrating themselves to them.
(murder, licentiousness, cheating, robbery, idolatry) Let’s focus on the
idea that there had been messengers for quite a long time. What does it
mean “from early morning?” And how would you explain the failure to
listen?

2. (It could have begun near the beginning of their tenure in the land. It
has certainly gone on a long time. It’s as if it was a full cycle of time,
with many opportunities to hear and get it turned around and right.
Actually, the time is spelled out in earlier verses here, of at least 20
years. And, according to Rashi, the warnings had been constant and
continual.
Its as if the people hadn’t even heard, much less attempted to act. They
didn’t even incline their ear to hear. Why?
Would they have had to be concerned if they had heard? Did they not
want even to be disturbed? Ignorance is the best way.
Avoidance?
Certainly, it was the most galling to God.
Do we avoid hearing critiques of our society? How does that refusal to
listen manifest itself? Why do we do it?
Discussion.)

3. II. “It happened that as Jeremiah finished speaking everything that God
had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the
prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You shall die! Why have
you prophesied in the name of God, saying, “This Temple will be like
Shiloh, and this city will be destroyed…” 26:8-9
The prophet had spoken in the Temple courtyard, as God commanded,
that both the Temple and the city would be destroyed if the people did
not mend their ways. Why did the prophets and the priests threaten
Jeremiah’s death?
(A. They were threatened themselves. He challenged them with
uncomfortable truths. They wanted him silenced. They wanted to
continue their ways, especially the fraud of their being ok.

4. B. Importantly, here, they were able to act especially incensed that
Jeremiah, arguably sacrilegiously, had threatened the destruction of the
Temple while inside the Temple. It’s as if he was disrespectful in
dishonoring the Temple; whereas, they were the ones who acted in ways
that disrespected the Temple and the principles of God, for which it
stood.)
C. Isn’t this exactly what the defenders of a corrupt status quo tend to
do? They don’t want the truth exposed. They want the tellers of truth
silenced or put away. And they use the optics to strengthen their hand.
If the true prophet says that major institutions of the society are
doomed, the prophet’s detractors will use the promised harm, which
does indeed bode ill for the society (here God’s house, after all!) as a
basis to punish the prophet. “He’s calling for the doom of all we care
for. Let’s do him in!”
Have you ever seen this before?
(Discussion)

5. III. In Chapter 28, a false prophet, Hananiah, gives an account of how
events will play out with Nebuchadnezzar that is not true. Yet, Jeremiah
does not directly assert it is false. For this, Jeremiah was punished in
ways we won’t discuss in further detail. I raise this story to ask you this
question: Why is it that even good people often won’t expose
statements made by “false prophets” as false, and counter/contest them
when made?
(It’s hard, isn’t it? How unpopular can a person be? Always contesting
others makes one thoroughly unsympathetic, especially when what is
being said, albeit fundamentally false, has elements of truth to it.
We all “want good tidings for the people.”
We all fear being rebuked and “turned off” by the people. However,
seeming to sanction a false prophet is harmful, often destructive, and
cannot be done or tolerated.
On the other hand, as Jeremiah does begin to separate himself from the
false prophet here, he can tell that he is in physical danger and goes on

6. his way. One doesn’t have to press the case so far at the time, thus
automatically triggering one’s own demise.
And, yet, God sends Jeremiah back to the false prophet to set the
record straight. It can’t be left false!)
IV. “I sealed a covenant with your forefathers on the first day I took
them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves, saying, ‘At the
outset of the seventh year, each of you shall send forth his Hebrew
brother who will have been sold to you…; but your forefathers did not
hearken to me, nor incline their ear…you repented and did what was just
in My eyes…But then you reneged and desecrated My Name, and
brought back his bondsman and every man his bondswoman whom you
had sent forth free on their own, and you subjugated them to be
bondsmen and bondswomen to you. 34:13-16
Once we explore some background about the rules involving indentured
servants and a little history about the changes of attitude to which the
verses refer, let’s address these questions:

7. A. What’s in our nature to dominate others, though we ourselves have
been freed from such domination?
B. Why do we give up bad practices and later pick them back up again?
C. Are there examples of these behaviors in other times, including our
own?
(We can be selfish. We don’t want to be ill-treated, but if we can gain
from controlling others, we are often inclined to do so.
If we’re punished or forced to quit our bad ways, we might. But, once
freed to be ourselves, we might return to them. It’s a sort of “foxhole
religion” that we practice when we agree to save ourselves to be right.
Once we’re safe, somehow, we forget our commitments.
In fact, we can be worse. Here the people actually recaptured others
who had been freed! We pile on. We violate God’s original command,
and we also violate the decree freeing the people and return them to
enslavement.

8. Discussion: think of kindness we tend to show in times in which we’re all
suffering, say, the Depression. But, once we see gaps build again, and
we’re safely behind our gates, we lose sensitivity.)
V. “It happened when Jeremiah finished speaking all the words of
Hashem, their God, to all the people…Azariah…said to Jeremiah, “You
speak falsehood! Hashem, our God, did not send you to say, ‘Do not go
to Egypt to sojourn there.’ Rather Baruch…is inciting you against us, in
order to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, to kill us, and to
exile us to Babylonia.” 43:1-3
The people asked Jeremiah whether God wanted them to go to Egypt to
flee the Babylonians. He told them God wanted them to stay in Israel.
As loyal as he had been to the people, they didn’t want to hear that, so
they accused him of lying (actually rather being bribed or incited to take
the position he did). What’s going on here? Does it sound familiar?
(People want what they want, and they want God’s blessing for it. When
they don’t get it, they start accusing others. Either someone has been

9. treacherous or wrong or disloyal or…Rationalization. Blame. Castigation.
All of that comes before admitting wrongdoing, being accountable, or
recognizing the right answer isn’t the easiest or the one they prefer.
Discussion.)
VI. A. “For because you put your trust in your accomplishments and in
your treasures, you (Moab), too, will be conquered.” 48:7
B. ”Moab was complacent from its youth, tranquil on its lees and not
being poured from container to container, and did not go into exile;
therefore its taste has stayed in it, and its scent was not diminished.”
48:11
C. “We have heard of the pride of Moab, it was excessively prideful: his
conceit, his pride, his haughtiness, and the arrogance of his heart.” 48:29
What are the ways of Moab that are decried?

10. (Arrogance, excessive pride, a surfeit of self-interest and material-
orientation, apparent lack of interest in the concerns of others and the
community, as well as the spiritual - these are suggestive of an
unbalanced way that lacks proper ethics in thought or action.
Further, it was a way of life in which the people were complacent,
refusing to see their errors, pay the price for them, or change.
VII. ”Why do you you (Ammon) take pride yourselves on the valleys,”
you who “trust in her treasures,” saying, ‘Who could ever attack me?’”
49:4
What are the ways of Ammon that are decried?
(Rashi says that they were especially proud of their fruitful values that
did not require much water. They, too, had counted on their wealth and
treasures to make them special and protect themselves. Do we?

11. Discussion.)
VIII. As to Edom, “counsel has been lost from the children; their wisdom
has tuned putrid.” 49:7
What’s the problem here?
(Presumably the wisdom of an earlier era is no longer in the minds,
hearts, or spirit of the children. It’s decayed and putrid. Does this sound
familiar? How?
Discussion.)
IX. “The Chaldeans will become plunder; all its plunderers will be
sated…because you (Babylonia) are glad, because you exult, you
tramplers of My heritage; because you fatten yourselves like a calf in the
grass and neigh like mighty steeds; your mother is very shamed; the one
who bore you is embarrassed…” 50:10-12
“Repay her according to her actions…” 50:29

12. “Babylonia will be a heap…” 51:37
(Even Babylon, which conquers Judah, will face an awful fate. What do
we learn from it?
Those who conquer others in imperial fashion think it’s because of their
own power and rightness. They take such power for granted. But it often
doesn’t work out that way. There are abundant examples of this in
history, such as Athens, Rome, others (?). While there’s a clear sense of
God’s presence in that destiny here, are there factors that are common
in both their rise and fall, and that of others?
Discussion.)