Jeremiah 16, No Mercy…Mercy

A pallor of shock and sadness has hung over Israel since October 7, 2023, when they were attacked by Hamas fighters. Life can’t go on as normal. It is the same when someone meaningful to us dies. Judah should be living under a pallor of sadness because of the promised judgment to come in the form of Babylon’s invasion. But since she isn’t living that way, Jeremiah will have to.

16 Then the word of Yahweh came to me: ² “You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place.” ³ For this is what Yahweh says about the sons and daughters born in this land and about the women who are their mothers and the men who are their fathers: ⁴ “They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like dung lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.”

It is horrible to bury a child. But what if there were so many children dying, as would happen when Babylon brought war to Judah and deadly disease became rampant? No time or bandwidth for mourning and burial would exist. This is not a time for Jeremiah to marry and have children. Death is around the corner. Jeremiah’s life must illustrate the somberness to come.

⁵ For this is what Yahweh says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,” declares Yahweh. ⁶ “Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut themselves or shave their head for the dead. ⁷ No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead—not even for a father or a mother—nor will anyone give them a drink to console them.

Jeremiah was not even to attend funerals, illustrating that a time was coming when none of the mourning rituals for the dead would happen because of the sheer numbers of the dead. Ironically, some of the rituals described were prohibited by the Law (cutting themselves and shaving their hair, Leviticus 19:27,28) as pagan practices, but Judah was doing them.

⁸ “And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink. ⁹ For this is what Yahweh Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this place.

Jeremiah surely couldn’t go to parties, since such celebrating was going to be a thing of the past when God’s judgment came.

¹⁰ “When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has Yahweh decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against Yahweh our God?’ ¹¹ then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. ¹² But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. ¹³ So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

Jeremiah’s behavior would draw attention and questions. Why Jeremiah? Because of the judgment coming, he would answer. But should the people ask, hypocritically, why God wold judge them, Jeremiah should answer that their ancestors were rebellious and they are even more so. They will be tossed out of the land and sent to a land totally unfamiliar to them, where false gods are worshiped and their worshipers rule over God’s people. No mercy!

¹⁴ “However, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely as Yahweh lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ ¹⁵ but it will be said, ‘As surely as Yahweh lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.

Strangely, after saying He will show no mercy to His people, Yahweh declares that after this punishment, He will show mercy and restore Israel, deliver them from the north (Babylon) like He delivered them from Egypt. A true miracle! Israel will harken back to this as they did the exodus from Egypt.

¹⁶ “But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares Yahweh, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. ¹⁷ My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸ I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”

But don’t be fooled by this promise of future restoration. The judgment is coming, where like fishermen catching many fish, or hunters catching many prey, Babylon will pay back Israel for her sins, for the way she has defiled the land with her idolatry.

¹⁹ Yahweh, my strength and my fortress,
    my refuge in time of distress,
to you the nations will come
    from the ends of the earth and say,
“Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods,
    worthless idols that did them no good.
²⁰ Do people make their own gods?
    Yes, but they are not gods!”

Jeremiah’s heart cannot help but respond with praise for the God who, in his loneliness and sorrow, has been his strength. But he does not praise Yahweh for the future return of his people from exile, but for the foreign nations, the Gentiles, who will come to the realization that what they have worshiped is false, something Judah has yet to learn. No doubt, Judah and Israel will learn this or they would not be restored. But God has a bigger plan to save all the nations. Jeremiah is foreseeing the Messianic age.

²¹ “Therefore I will teach them—
    this time I will teach them
    my power and might.
Then they will know
    that my name is Yahweh.

Yahweh promises to teach the nations, and Israel too, of His power and the right that only He should be worshiped.

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Discussion Questions:

1. When have you felt your life come to an abrupt halt?
2. Do you think it is fair for God to ask Jeremiah to not marry and have a family?
3. Has Jeremiah’s prophecy of the nations coming to God been fulfilled?
4. How does God want to use your life as an illustration of His greatness?