Jer 11:15-19 | KingComments | STEP | In the midst of all the iniquity He enumerates, the LORD nevertheless speaks of His people as “My beloved” ( ). This is evident from all the care He has taken of them. It actually makes their sins intolerable to Him because they commit them as His beloved. How did they come up with the idea to do “many vile deeds” in His house? This refers to the abominable idolatry they commit en masse in His house. He does not hate them (or us), but their (or our) sins. Their behavior in His house is repugnant to Him (cf. ). The reproach that “the sacrificial flesh takes away from you your disaster” refers to the futility of their sacrifices to the LORD. They bring the flesh into the sanctuary, into the temple, but they bring it with a corrupt heart, in an evil mind. The thought is that their sacrificial flesh does not make them pleasing to God. It does not cause Him to assert Himself in favor of them before their enemies, but He turns Himself away from them and gives them over to the enemies. They take the greatest pleasure in doing evil and doing it in His house, in His presence. It betrays total insensitivity to Who He is. We can be pleasing to God only if we are faithful to the instructions of His Word. All our sacrifices are worthless and reprehensible to Him if we neglect His Word. The LORD has made His people “a green olive tree” with beautiful, shapely fruit ( ; cf. ; ). That is how He has called Israel. In giving them that name, He has wanted to give them the consciousness that He is their origin and that they are there for Him. He has made His people prosperous and wealthy and given them many privileges, that they might enjoy them. Above all, it has been His intention that He should enjoy them, both from the sight and the fruit of them. We may well pray that as His church on earth we may respond to His purpose for us. But now He must burn and break up that tree with great tumult ( ), which He will do by calling Babylon against them. The “the noise of a great tumult” is the warfare with which Nebuchadnezzar’s armies will invade Judah. They will kindle a devastating fire. As a result, the branches of the trees are broken. The tree, however, remains standing. The LORD does not make a final end of His people. Though the LORD has planted His people, He will bring evil upon them ( ). He will do so as “the LORD of hosts”, as the One Who has power over all the armies in heaven and on earth. He has had to pronounce evil against those whom He Himself has planted, because of the evil they have done and thereby pronounced upon themselves. Here again northern Israel and southern Judah are mentioned separately ( ). Both houses brought Him to wrath by offering their abominable incense sacrifices to Baal.

‏ Jeremiah 11:15-19

Their Sacrifices Are Reprehensible

In the midst of all the iniquity He enumerates, the LORD nevertheless speaks of His people as “My beloved” (Jer 11:15). This is evident from all the care He has taken of them. It actually makes their sins intolerable to Him because they commit them as His beloved. How did they come up with the idea to do “many vile deeds” in His house? This refers to the abominable idolatry they commit en masse in His house.

He does not hate them (or us), but their (or our) sins. Their behavior in His house is repugnant to Him (cf. Isa 1:11-12). The reproach that “the sacrificial flesh takes away from you your disaster” refers to the futility of their sacrifices to the LORD. They bring the flesh into the sanctuary, into the temple, but they bring it with a corrupt heart, in an evil mind. The thought is that their sacrificial flesh does not make them pleasing to God. It does not cause Him to assert Himself in favor of them before their enemies, but He turns Himself away from them and gives them over to the enemies.

They take the greatest pleasure in doing evil and doing it in His house, in His presence. It betrays total insensitivity to Who He is. We can be pleasing to God only if we are faithful to the instructions of His Word. All our sacrifices are worthless and reprehensible to Him if we neglect His Word.

The LORD has made His people “a green olive tree” with beautiful, shapely fruit (Jer 11:16a; cf. Psa 52:8; Hos 14:6). That is how He has called Israel. In giving them that name, He has wanted to give them the consciousness that He is their origin and that they are there for Him. He has made His people prosperous and wealthy and given them many privileges, that they might enjoy them. Above all, it has been His intention that He should enjoy them, both from the sight and the fruit of them. We may well pray that as His church on earth we may respond to His purpose for us.

But now He must burn and break up that tree with great tumult (Jer 11:16b), which He will do by calling Babylon against them. The “the noise of a great tumult” is the warfare with which Nebuchadnezzar’s armies will invade Judah. They will kindle a devastating fire. As a result, the branches of the trees are broken. The tree, however, remains standing. The LORD does not make a final end of His people.

Though the LORD has planted His people, He will bring evil upon them (Jer 11:17). He will do so as “the LORD of hosts”, as the One Who has power over all the armies in heaven and on earth. He has had to pronounce evil against those whom He Himself has planted, because of the evil they have done and thereby pronounced upon themselves. Here again northern Israel and southern Judah are mentioned separately (Jer 11:10). Both houses brought Him to wrath by offering their abominable incense sacrifices to Baal.

Conspiracy Against Jeremiah

After his preaching comes the response of the people. The LORD makes this known to Jeremiah, so that he will be aware of what they are up to (Jer 11:18). The LORD has shown him their actions. Thus He protects His servant here, for Jeremiah can now take precautions. We see here that the LORD does not judge the devisers of evil and thus remove the danger, but warns His servant. He always knows the best way for His own when dangerous situations arise.

When Jeremiah is informed of the plans that have been devised against him, he feels like an unsuspecting lamb being led to the slaughter without noticing (Jer 11:19). He knows nothing of their plans that they are devising against him. But the LORD has told him what they have devised. It is a plan in which Jeremiah will be dealt with radically and forever. Not even his name will be thought of again. This is another clear example of man’s prideful thinking. How much the LORD has disturbed and destroyed this thinking.

In Jer 11:18-19 we see in Jeremiah the true Israel who has been given insight by the LORD into the wickedness of their enemies. It is the Spirit of Christ in him and them. As the lamb, he is a picture of the Lord Jesus (Isa 53:7; Acts 8:32). But there is a distinction. The Lord Jesus did not go to the slaughter like an unsuspecting lamb, but in full awareness of what was going to happen to Him (Jn 18:1 ; 5). Jeremiah, in the tree with its fruit, is a picture of the faithful remnant of God’s people (Jer 11:16a) whom the enemies want to eradicate and from whom they want to erase the remembrance of his name (Jer 11:19b).

The enemies, in their description of Jeremiah as a tree with fruit – that is him and his preaching – unwittingly give a wonderful testimony of him. Similarly, in all the evil of which the enemies of the Lord Jesus accuse Him, His perfection is all the more evident. Jeremiah is besieged by men from Anathoth, his fellow townsmen (Jer 11:21; Jer 1:1). He experiences the same thing the Lord Jesus experienced from the people of Nazareth, the city where He was raised (Lk 4:24).

When Jeremiah is informed by the LORD of their plans, his first reaction is to cry out to the LORD. He calls on Him as the “LORD of hosts, who judges righteously” (Jer 11:20). He places the matter in the hand of the LORD. The Lord Jesus did the same (1Pet 2:23b). He knows that the LORD “tries the feelings [literally: kidneys] and the heart”, that is, the deepest inner being of every person, that He knows all motives and intentions, all thoughts and feelings, and can therefore judge them (cf. Rev 2:23b). Jeremiah does not avenge himself, but asks the LORD to take revenge for the evil his enemies want to do to him. He also expects this of the LORD, for to this end he has given his cause into His hands.

It is in keeping with the spirit of the Old Testament and God’s government that Jeremiah prays here for the destruction of these enemies of the LORD. It is not the grace of the gospel here, but the righteousness of God’s government (cf. Rev 6:10). For us, in the face of those who seek our doom, the prayer that the Lord Jesus prayed on the cross for His murderers is appropriate: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34a; cf. Acts 7:60).

The LORD answers him (Jer 11:21). He knows that Jeremiah’s enemies are after him because he has prophesied to them in the Name of the LORD. They don’t want that. He knows that they have said that they will make him stop if he does not stop himself. Thus, in effect, they want to stop the LORD’s mouth. In His servant they reject Him. As if He does not have the right to choose His servants and to meddle in His own affairs, that is, in His own people.

After the indictment comes the judgment, pronounced by “the LORD of hosts” (Jer 11:22). With Him they have to deal through Jeremiah. The LORD will judge from the men of Anathoth all those who are out for Jeremiah’s blood. The hatred against Jeremiah seems to be especially present in the younger generation. It involves the young men and their sons and their daughters. The young men will perish by the sword and their sons and their daughters by famine. That there will be “no remnant of them” (Jer 11:23) refers to all those who have been out for Jeremiah’s death (Jer 11:21), for a number return to Anathoth after the exile (Ezra 2:23).