I want to do something a bit different today, something I like to do from time-to-time.  Instead of reading the passage and then preaching a sermon, I want to give you a very short sermon, but with lots of preparation before reading the passage.  The reason I want to do it this way is that the passage for this morning is by a biblical great whom you’ve heard of, but probably don’t know much about:  Jeremiah.  So, before I talk about what Jeremiah said in our passage for this morning, I want to talk about who he is, because he is a fascinating man. 

The Book of Jeremiah is a very hard one to read because it doesn’t follow a logical sequence.  It begins in the beginning of Jeremiah’s ministry with his call to be a prophet.  Then it jumps ahead twenty years.  Then it jumps ahead another ten years.   Then it jumps back twenty or so years.  There’s no consistent timeline, so you don’t really ever know what is going on.  Then, to make matters worse, it ends with a series of sermons that Jeremiah gave to different groups of people, with no sense of when he gave them or what he was really talking about.  Still, if you read the book closely, you get a sense of what Jeremiah was about.

Jeremiah was born sometime in the middle of the 7th century B.C., and became a prophet around 627, B.C. after having an experience of hearing God’s voice.  Jeremiah says in scripture that “the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’  Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.’  But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, "I am only a boy;” for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.’ Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, ‘Now I have put my words in your mouth.’”

He became a prophet at an interesting time in the history of the Israelites.  It was during the reign of king Josiah in the kingdom of Judah.  You may remember that several months ago I spoke about the prophet Elijah, who lived more than 100 years before Jeremiah, and preached to the northern kingdom of Israel.  By Jeremiah’s time, the northern kingdom had been destroyed by the Assyrian Empire.  The people had been scattered throughout the Assyrian lands, with only a remnant remaining in the north.  The southern kingdom of Judah had managed to remain somewhat independent by submitting to partial Assyrian rule and paying a high tariff for their independence, while also by allowing the Assyrian religion to be practiced in Judah and Jerusalem.  Under king Mannaseh, and his son Amon, Judah had accommodated the Jewish faith to the Assyrians, which was disturbing because it go to the point that they even allowed some human sacrifice.  This was the situation into which Jeremiah was born. 

By the time he was a teen, things had gotten better under the rule of king Josiah.  Josiah instituted a series of reforms that outlawed the practice of the Assyrian faith, but the reforms were mainly focused on the practice of religion.  There was not as much focus on the actual faith.  So the people were pretty good at following the Jewish rituals such as yearly pilgrimages and temple sacrifices, but when it came to their actual faith, they prayed to Jahweh, Baal, or any other deity who they thought could make life go their own way.  They were Jewish on the outside, and anything that worked on the inside. 

The kingdom of Judah was also going through a time of false confidence.  Josiah believed that they were a stronger nation than they were.  They had grown stronger militarily and economically only because the Assyrian Empire was under assault by the Babylonian and Egyptian empires, which were both growing in strength.  As a result, Josiah played a dangerous game in which he played the Assyrians, the Egyptians, and the Babylonians off against each other.  It made the small nation of Judah much wealthier, but it was a dangerous game because if they backed the wrong empire, they could be crushed (which is what eventually happened).  Jeremiah was called to be a prophet in the midst of this turmoil.  He was called by God to call people back to a focus on God in spirit, mind, and body, rather than just in religious practice.

Jeremiah was a dramatic speaker.  In many ways, Jeremiah was the original “children’s sermoner.”  What I mean is that he used objects, just as we do in a children’s sermon, to make his point.  For example, one time he heard God telling him to take a linen cloth to be used as a belt, but not to soak it in water, which is what was normally done to give the linen heft and strength.  Instead, he was to place the belt under a rock for several days.  When he came back, the belt was all corrupted and decayed.  Jeremiah used this belt during his preaching to show the Jewish people that they had become like the belt—at one point their faith girded their loins, but now it was decrepit, corrupted, and worthless. 

Another time Jeremiah went to a potter to watch him shape a pot. The clay was spoiled and full of air, which meant it couldn’t be shaped properly.  The potter smashed the clay down and started over, pounding out impurities and eventually creating a new pot.  Jeremiah used this as a parable to say that the people of Judah had become spoiled and unable to be molded by God.  His point?  That God was now going to use the Babylonians to smash down the people and remold them. 

Again, another time he took a new pot with him around the city.  And standing before a gate to the city he told the people that like the potter who had crafted that pot, God had crafted the people of Judah.  God had made them empty vessels that God filled with goodness and blessings.  But the people had filled themselves with other things, and so now God was going to smash them.  And with that Jeremiah threw down and smashed the pot. 

Jeremiah was a very controversial figure.  You can understand how.  He was delivering a message during times of prosperity that said the people were going to pay for their tepid faith.  He continually drummed the beat that the Babylonians were coming, that they were the hand of God, and that they would destroy Judah.  The people did not appreciate his message, even though it came true.  In fact, he eventually became banned from the temple in Jerusalem after twice giving doom and gloom sermon.  So what did Jeremiah do?  He dictated a sermon to his aide, Baruch, who wrote it on a scroll and then read it aloud at the temple.  The temple authorities confiscated the scroll, taking it to king Jehoichim, Josiah’s son.  Jehoichim had the scroll read to him, and then burned it.  Jeremiah’s response?  He dictated a new scroll that was even more acid-tongued than the first.  After that, he was persona non grata in Jerusalem. 

What was it that Jeremiah had preached? He kept telling the people and the king not to make an alliance with Egypt.  He said that Babylon was the hand of God, that even though the people would be conquered by Babylon, they would not be harmed if they had faith. They would be exiled, but eventually God would restore them.  He also prophesied that in the future a new king, a messiah, would come who would restore all of Israel.  Of course, Jehoichiim wanted to hear nothing about allying himself with Babylon, and made a pact with Egypt.  The consequences were that Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem, and eventually conquered it.  They took all the artisans, scholars, doctors, craftsmen, and King Jehoichim back to Babylon to serve as slaves, leaving Jehoichim’s brother, Zedekiah, to rule Judah. 

Jeremiah continued to preach the same message, that Babylon was God’s hand and that the people needed to trust that the Babylonians would treat them well.  Unfortunately, Zedekiah continued to play off the Babylonians against the Egyptians.  And he got burned.  The Babylonians laid siege again to Jerusalem, and this time they destroyed it all, leaving a small remnant, while taking the rest of the population to Babylon to serve as slaves.  For the next 70 years the Jews lived in Babylon as slaves. 

Jeremiah was not taken back as a slave.  The Babylonians gave him his freedom (he had been imprisoned by Zedekiah for his preaching).  Jeremiah traveled toward Egypt, hoping to convince a remnant to give themselves over to the Babylonians, but to no avail. After that, no one really knows what happened to Jeremiah.  There are some reports that he was killed in Egypt because of his preaching.  Others say that he eventually traveled to Babylon to preach a message of God’s love, redemption, and restoration to the enslaved Jews. 

So, what was Jeremiah’s message to us today?  Our passage is from the early part of Jeremiah’s ministry, as he tries to convince the people to move back to a devotion to God in mind, heart, and soul, rather than just in ritualistic practice.  Our passage begins: 

Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.
Thus says the Lord: What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves? They did not say, "Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives?"  I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.
The priests did not say, "Where is the Lord?" Those who handle the law did not know me; the rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after things that do not profit.

Jeremiah is basically saying to the people of his day that they have been given so much by God, why was it so easy for them to turn their back on God.  Why was it so hard for them to have gratitude and devotion?  His message has relevance for today.  All of us have been given the gift of life, family, friends, opportunity, possessions, education, ability, love, and so much more.  Why is it so easy to forget God’s role in all of this?  Why is it so easy to forget that all we have is a gift from God, and that we should place God at our center in gratitude for all God has done for us? 

The people of Jeremiah’s day looked for other gods to hedge their bets, even though they weren’t really gods.  Instead of staying steadfast to God for all God had done, they consistently looked to other gods for help in times of trouble.  Again, don’t we do that?  We may say we have a Christian faith, but it is very easy to look for other help in times of trouble.  Perhaps we put our faith in money and possessions.  Perhaps we put our faith in little schemes and self-help programs, hoping that they will make us feel better.  Perhaps we put our faith in astrologers, palm readers, and others who promise to help us.  Perhaps we just trust in ourselves and our own ability to fix our own problems.  There are a million and one things that we can put our faith in, but why don’t we keep God at the center? 

Jeremiah goes on: 

Therefore once more I accuse you, says the Lord, and I accuse your children's children.
Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has ever been such a thing.  Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

What is he saying here?  He’s saying that even though we may look to other gods, they aren’t gods.  They are false and they bring nothing.  Then he compares the people of his day to cracked cisterns.  For the people of his day, this would have been a vibrant analogy.  Cisterns were dug near wells to hold water for irrigation and emergencies.  Cisterns were large, water-holding holes lined with limestone brick and plastered to be watertight.  Unfortunately, water in cisterns easily turns stagnant, and over time the walls will crack.  Jeremiah’s point?  That the people had become so indiscriminant in their faith that they now couldn’t tell the difference between a living God and stagnant gods.  Just as good water is available in wells, God is the living spring of water who can nourish and bless us, and the other gods were nothing but cracked shells.  The people couldn’t distinguish between what was cracked, empty, and full of mud, and what was fresh and flowing. 

Again, there’s a lesson here for us.  How often do we go to God first when we are in need?  How often do we place God at the center and go to God to refresh us?  Typically we seek for pleasure, comfort, and wisdom in things other than God.  Yet the key to a life of peace and love is in God. 

Jeremiah has much to teach us for today, if we are willing to listen.  The question is, are we listening? 

Amen.