Jeremiah session 7

The pastoral mix-up has been resolved! This week we covered chapters 13-18. Bullet notes:

• 13:1-11--the soiled-loincloth action prophecy. Linen = priestly (pure) material that became ruined here (cf. Exodus 19:5-6 and 1 Peter 2:9-10). In Jesus Christ, we are the new Israel--but it's still easy to become unfaithful.
• 13:12-14--jars of wine (representing drunkenness). See Rom. 1:24-32--God gave them over to their own desires.
• 13:15-27--humbling Israel (still applies to today with us). Tragedy: "the Lord's flock" juxtaposed with prophecy of impending exile. It's the result of Israel's Baal worship (degeneration: compare with Lord of the Flies.)
• 14:10--shocking and terrible! We want God to forget our sins--but here He is fed up with 900 years' sinfulness.
• 15:1-2--continued awfulness. Compare Revelation 6; also Luke 16:19-31.
• 15:10-21--a complaint. Chapter 19 is worse. Verse 16--see Psalm 1 ("law" = Torah, the totality of God's Word).
• 16:1-13--judgment on Israel. Why? Sin.
• 16:14-21--restoration; some brought back.
• 17:1ff--Israel's hearts had sin engraved on them with (poetically) iron/diamond.
• 17:19-27--compare Pharisees and letter-of-the-law hypocrisy.
• 18:1ff--clay and potter. God, the Potter, decided to start over with Israel, His unfaithful and stubborn clay.
• 18:23--contrast Psalm 51:1-2.