Jeremiah 2

Jeremiah was young when he was called in 629/28 BCE which was the 13^th year of Josiah the good king. Josiah was now 8+13 years old, 21. Hilkiah, the father of Jeremiah, was Highpriest by the 18^th year of Josiah (2 Kings 22:8). Jeremiah had preached chapter 1’s message the past 5 years as the Lord told him. The year 624/23 BCE, Hilkiah found behind many bags of money the people donated a scroll that he gave to Saphan the scribe to read to Josiah the king, now age 26. After reading it the king commanded Hilkiah and the other priests to go and inquire from the Lord what next? Interestingly, Jeremiah’s father did not consult him the servant of the Lord but they all went to Huldah the prophetess, also a servant of the Lord (2 Kings 22:14). Why did Hilkiah not ask his son Jeremiah? Was he too young in his father’s eyes? The message of Huldah to them (2 Kings 22:16-20) is one hundred percent the same as that of Jeremiah in chapter 1, no difference. God’s truth does not change even if there is a gender change or different time or different prophet. Does God adapt His message to new times? No. Why are we trying to contemporize the Bible beyond biblical limits to lock it up in cultural non-relevance for ourselves? So the Lord came a second time to Jeremiah as Jeremiah 2 is recording. The book that was discovered by his father in the temple in 624/3 BCE was the Book of Deuteronomy. One scholar made the comment that Jeremiah used language from the book of Deuteronomy to imply that holy war language means that God is fighting the war for Israel. This is not the reason Jeremiah is using Deuteronomy. It was a popular book in Jeremiah’s day and the whole country reformed with Josiah because of this book of Moses. Moses was the favorite author on the market of those days and Jeremiah enjoyed reading it. Isaiah was the same since he also enjoyed reading Moses’ books. In Jeremiah 1:9 he says that God touched his mouth and put the words in his mouth. Only Moses in Deuteronomy 18:18 and Isaiah in Isaiah 51:16 used these words. Already in Jeremiah 1:8 is a connection to similar words in Deuteronomy 31:6. Connections to Deuteronomy in chapter 2 are going to be the following: verse 2 = Deuteronomy 2:7; verse 3 = Deuteronomy 7:6, 14; verse 6 = Deuteronomy 8:15; 32:10; verse 7 = Deuteronomy 8:7-9; 11:10-12; verse 16 = Deuteronomy 33:20; verse 17 = Deuteronomy 32:10; verse 20 = Deuteronomy 12:2; verse 25 = Deuteronomy 32:16; verse 28 = Deuteronomy 32:37; verse 31 = Deuteronomy 32:15. We get the pattern. For young Jeremiah to speak effectively to his father the highpriest as audience, he had to us prooftexts from the favored authority of Israel, Moses and Moses’ recent found book, Deuteronomy. This chapter shows Jeremiah writing with one hand and the other rolling open the scroll column after column for connections, almost chronologically (chapter 2, then 7, then 8, then 32). Jeremiah had to go to speak to Jerusalem where his father was Highpriest (verse 2) “in the ears of Jerusalem”. The Lord remembered His remnant in their virgin years in the Wilderness “your following after Me in the Wilderness” (verse 2d-e citing from Deuteronomy by Moses). They were holy [citation from Deuteronomy by Moses] (verse 3a); the first of the harvest (verse 3b); protected (verse 3c); any harm to them was cursed by the Lord (verse 3d). But all has changed and the Lord wants to know what He did wrong? (verse 5). They failed to seek God Who has chosen their route and supported them miraculously (verse 6). Our ways are also chartered by God and He will provide if we recognize Him. He took them to a good land [citing from Moses in Deuteronomy here] but they defiled the land by running after other gods (verse 7). Then Jeremiah listed problems in society before the time of his father and Josiah because “the priests did not say…[scribes] who handle the law did not say…rulers also transgressed. . . prophets prophesied by Baal” (verse 8). It cannot be Hilkiah, Jeremiah’s father as Highpriest, or Josiah the king or Saphan the scribe or Huldah the prophetess in 624/3 BCE. In the land of the Kittim or Kedar they cling still to their traditional gods but Israel exchanged their God with idols (verses 10-11). Two evils they committed: they have rejected God and secondly, they have made for themselves broken cisterns that hold no water (verse 13). Punishments came upon Israel: slavery or labor problems and a target for stealing (verses 14-15). The cities were destroyed without inhabitant (verse 15). Their heads were shaven at the top [citation from Deuteronomy of Moses] in Memphis and Tahpannes or Thebes (verse 16). They brought this on themselves by forsaking the Lord (verse 17). They migrated to Egypt and Assyria (verse 18). They experienced apostasy and the Lord said that evil and bitter awaits them (verse 19). God broke their bondage in history but they became rebellious on every high hill [citation from Deuteronomy by Moses] (verse 20). God planted them after the Exodus in 1450 BCE and the travel to Canaan until 1410 BCE as a “choice vine” a beautiful remnant for God (verse 21). They have degenerated “how then have you turned yourself before Me”. They are dirty and soap cannot wash them (verse 22). There is the stain of their iniquity before the Lord (verse 22c). This needs to be solved in our lives as well and the Investigative Judgment going on now is solving this problem for us. Since 1844 God is removing the stigma of our iniquity against us before the universe, a deed that the Trinity have completed in Christ ratified at the cross in 31 CE. That is why complete atonement will be in Christ our Advocate. The people denied their wrongdoing (verse 23). They were like a young camel and a wild donkey on heat (verse 23e and 24). They placed themselves into temptation (verse 25). They walked after strangers [citation from Deuteronomy by Moses] (verse 25d-e). Israel is shamed by the message, the whole society: kings, princes, priests, prophets (verse 26). This is not his father Hilkiah, Josiah, Saphan or Huldah. They fell into idolatry calling a tree his father or as Darwin did in the Victorian age, the animals our father (verse 27). “Let them arise if they can save you” [citation from Deuteronomy of Moses] (verse 28c). All have sinned against God (verse 29). He punished their sons and killed their bad prophets but to no avail (verse 30). God is back to His true identity: He is misunderstood by them. They are saying that they are [free to] roam [citation from Deuteronomy of Moses] (verse 31d). A virgin does not forget her ornaments or a student his/her smartphone but the remnant forgets God (verse 32). They sought after evil women (verse 33). They killed the poor for no reason whatsoever, not even for forced entry during theft out of protection (verse 34). There is a denial so the Lord will enter into Judgment with the unfaithful remnant (verse 35). They are saying: “I have not sinned”. The Judgments of the Investigative and Executive will be because of the same reason, people denying that they have done anything wrong (verse 35c-d). They go around and change their ways unpredicted like a chameleon. Egypt and Assyria would bring them to shame (verse 36). Also from Jerusalem there shall be trouble (verse 37). What we learn from this chapter and the style of Jeremiah’s preaching is that if you are young, you should use the Scriptures and Spirit of Prophecy to appeal to the minds of older more experienced listeners.

Dear God

Also us acts like chameleons sometimes changing so easily to secular surroundings and cultural habits and then tries to tell you we are not sinning. Show us the depth of our sins to find rescue in You before it is too late. Amen.