Jeremiah stood in front of the temple. The people were there. Jeremiah had to tell them bad news. God said for him to say every word He spoke to Jeremiah. (The setting has similar details to when Jesus was found falsely guilty by the Jews and sentenced to die on the cross.)

The crowd wanted Jeremiah to die for speaking the harsh truth that Jerusalem would be cursed because of their great sin. But then, wise old men spoke up and told that God may change His mind if the people begged for mercy.

After all of this, one person stepped forward for Jeremiah and kept him from dying. He is not a famous Bible character. But his role was needed and critical in Jeremiah’s life. He was a member of the Shaphan family who were connected to King Josiah, a godly king of Judah.

Ahikam was his name. In a moment of bold obedience, he saved Jeremiah’s life.

Jeremiah 26:

1 This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord early in the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah. ² “This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard in front of the Temple of the Lord, and make an announcement to the people who have come there to worship from all over Judah. Give them my entire message; include every word. ³ Perhaps they will listen and turn from their evil ways. Then I will change my mind about the disaster I am ready to pour out on them because of their sins.

⁴ “Say to them, ‘This is what the Lordsays: If you will not listen to me and obey my word I have given you, ⁵ and if you will not listen to my servants, the prophets—for I sent them again and again to warn you, but you would not listen to them— ⁶ then I will destroy this Temple as I destroyed Shiloh, the place where the Tabernacle was located. And I will make Jerusalem an object of cursing in every nation on earth.’”

⁷ The priests, the prophets, and all the people listened to Jeremiah as he spoke in front of the Lord’s Temple.⁸ But when Jeremiah had finished his message, saying everything the Lordhad told him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people at the Temple mobbed him. “Kill him!” they shouted. ⁹ “What right do you have to prophesy in the Lord’s name that this Temple will be destroyed like Shiloh? What do you mean, saying that Jerusalem will be destroyed and left with no inhabitants?” And all the people threatened him as he stood in front of the Temple.

¹⁰ When the officials of Judah heard what was happening, they rushed over from the palace and sat down at the New Gate of the Temple to hold court.¹¹ The priests and prophets presented their accusations to the officials and the people. “This man should die!” they said. “You have heard with your own ears what a traitor he is, for he has prophesied against this city.”

¹² Then Jeremiah spoke to the officials and the people in his own defense. “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this Temple and this city,” he said. “The Lord gave me every word that I have spoken. ¹³ But if you stop your sinning and begin to obey the Lord your God, he will change his mind about this disaster that he has announced against you. ¹⁴ As for me, I am in your hands—do with me as you think best. ¹⁵ But if you kill me, rest assured that you will be killing an innocent man! The responsibility for such a deed will lie on you, on this city, and on every person living in it. For it is absolutely true that the Lord sent me to speak every word you have heard.”

¹⁶ Then the officials and the people said to the priests and prophets, “This man does not deserve the death sentence, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”

¹⁷ Then some of the wise old men stood and spoke to all the people assembled there. ¹⁸ They said, “Remember when Micah of Moresheth prophesied during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah. He told the people of Judah,

¹⁹ But did King Hezekiah and the people kill him for saying this? No, they turned from their sins and worshiped the Lord. They begged him for mercy. Then the Lord changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had pronounced against them. So we are about to do ourselves great harm.”

²⁰ At this time Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim was also prophesying for the Lord. And he predicted the same terrible disaster against the city and nation as Jeremiah did. ²¹ When King Jehoiakim and the army officers and officials heard what he was saying, the king sent someone to kill him. But Uriah heard about the plan and escaped in fear to Egypt.²² Then King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Acbor to Egypt along with several other men to capture Uriah.²³ They took him prisoner and brought him back to King Jehoiakim. The king then killed Uriah with a sword and had him buried in an unmarked grave.

²⁴ Nevertheless, Ahikam son of Shaphan stood up for Jeremiah and persuaded the court not to turn him over to the mob to be killed.

This passage from Psalm 84 is filled with great promises from God. I confidently live a life of obedience to God so I proclaim these as reality in my life and my family’s life.

Psalm 84:

Jeremiah told of the future birth of Jesus.

Jeremiah 23:

“For the time is coming,”
    says the Lord,
“when I will raise up a righteous descendant
    from King David’s line.
He will be a King who rules with wisdom.
    He will do what is just and right throughout the land.
⁶ And this will be his name:
    ‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’
In that day Judah will be saved,
    and Israel will live in safety.

Paul wrote two letters to the church at Thessalonica. In the first one he ended it with a list of several things to do to live a more godly life.

1 Thessalonians 5:

¹² Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance.¹³ Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other.

¹⁴ Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.

¹⁵ See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people.

¹⁶ Always be joyful. ¹⁷ Never stop praying. ¹⁸ Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

¹⁹ Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Do not scoff at prophecies, ²¹ but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. ²² Stay away from every kind of evil.

²³ Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. ²⁴ God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.

²⁵ Dear brothers and sisters, pray for us.

²⁶ Greet all the brothers and sisters with a sacred kiss.

²⁷ I command you in the name of the Lord to read this letter to all the brothers and sisters.

²⁸ May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

This is really fun. Since I read the Bible every day of every year, it gets more and more familiar. I’m so thankful. When I read one passage it reminds of another. So then, I get to enjoy comparing the two.

I read Jeremiah 17:7-8. It really reminds me Psalm 1. Lots of times going through the Bible day by day will cause me to pull together truths that you just can’t find by doing a word study in a search engine or using a chain reference Bible.

So here we go, let’s compare the two passages. And then pray these powerful words of God over our family!

Jeremiah 17:

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
    and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
⁸ They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
    with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
    or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
    and they never stop producing fruit.

Psalm 1:

Like David, Jeremiah had enemies and He prayed some serious prayers that God would destroy his enemies and their families. God put a message in Jeremiah’s heart that could not be stopped. Jeremiah was destined to continue to warn Israel and Judah of their soon coming destruction. The people wanted to put Jeremiah in a pit and kill him so he would be silenced about their pending doom so Jeremiah asked God to Completely blot them out of existence.

Jeremiah 18:

¹⁸ Then the people said, “Come on, let’s plot a way to stop Jeremiah. We have plenty of priests and wise men and prophets. We don’t need him to teach the word and give us advice and prophecies. Let’s spread rumors about him and ignore what he says.”

The Prophet Jeremiah was probably a loner from time to time. He stayed close to God when most of God’s people carelessly sinned. God warned Israel and Judah many times that they would be corrected for all their sins. There have been times in my life when I had to stand alone for the things of God. In those moments I built confidence in godliness. When difficult situations happen and you have to continuously stay close to God, talk over every frustrating detail with Him. God sees our effort. God knew Jeremiah’s dedication and told him He would protect Him.

Jeremiah 15:

¹⁵ Then I said,

¹⁹ This is how the Lord responds:

Keep working hard.

Proverbs 24:

30 I walked by the field of a lazy person,
    the vineyard of one with no common sense.
³¹ I saw that it was overgrown with nettles.
    It was covered with weeds,
    and its walls were broken down.
³² Then, as I looked and thought about it,
    I learned this lesson:
³³ A little extra sleep, a little more slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest—
³⁴ then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit;
    scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. God’s will for his life was to tell Israel and Judah that they were going to be severely punished for their much wrongdoing.  In one instance God told Jeremiah to go buy a loin cloth. And then do the following:

1. Don’t wash it and wear it.

2. Take it off and hide it in rocks near a river

3. A long time later, dig it out of the rocks. It will be rotten.

God used this story to describe the state of His people.

God deeply loved His people. In this same passage, God told of His great desire for His people.

1. His people would cling to Him.

2. They would only be His people.

3. They would be His pride.

4. They would be His glory.

5. They would bring Honor to His name.

But instead of doing these things, they chose to worship false gods and do many other wrongs that saddened God’s heart. And then, as God’s heart was greatly saddened, He had to punish these beloved people.

But today, as Christians, we can fulfill the desire of God’s heart! We are the future generations of Israel and Judah. We can live our lives to please God in these ways.

Jeremiah 13:

13 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it on, but do not wash it.” ² So I bought the loincloth as the Lord directed me, and I put it on.

³ Then the Lord gave me another message: ⁴ “Take the linen loincloth you are wearing, and go to the Euphrates River. Hide it there in a hole in the rocks.” ⁵ So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the Lord had instructed me.

⁶ A long time afterward the Lord said to me, “Go back to the Euphrates and get the loincloth I told you to hide there.”⁷ So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was rotting and falling apart. The loincloth was good for nothing.

⁸ Then I received this message from the Lord: ⁹ “This is what the Lord says: This shows how I will rot away the pride of Judah and Jerusalem. ¹⁰ These wicked people refuse to listen to me. They stubbornly follow their own desires and worship other gods. Therefore, they will become like this loincloth—good for nothing! ¹¹ As a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me, says the Lord. They were to be my people, my pride, my glory—an honor to my name. But they would not listen to me.

¹² “So tell them, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: May all your jars be filled with wine.’ And they will reply, ‘Of course! Jars are made to be filled with wine!’

¹³ “Then tell them, ‘No, this is what the Lord means: I will fill everyone in this land with drunkenness—from the king sitting on David’s throne to the priests and the prophets, right down to the common people of Jerusalem. ¹⁴ I will smash them against each other, even parents against children, says the Lord. I will not let my pity or mercy or compassion keep me from destroying them.’”

We need rain from Heaven. I like the imagery found in verse 14.

Jeremiah 10:

13 But the Lord made the earth by his power,
    and he preserves it by his wisdom.
With his own understanding
    he stretched out the heavens.
¹³ When he speaks in the thunder,
    the heavens roar with rain.
He causes the clouds to rise over the earth.
    He sends the lightning with the rain
    and releases the wind from his storehouses.