by
Susan Cyre
*NARRATIVE*
I) Introduction to the passage
Read chapters 7-13. Jeremiah has been presenting God’s case against
the people. They have rejected the covenant and its stipulations
given in the Ten Commandments. God had said in Exodus 19, “If you
will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My
own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and
you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Following that, in chapter 20 of Exodus, God gave the people the
stipulations of this covenant and then in chapter 24, the people
ratify the covenant with the “blood of the covenant” and pledge,
“All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do.”
In Jeremiah 7:23, God reiterates the covenant but then charges that
the people “did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their
own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart. . .” “They
have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My
voice nor walked according to it, but have walked after the
stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers
taught them” (9:13-14). They offered their children in sacrifice to
idols (Jer 7:31). They loved and served the sun, moon and all the
host of heaven (Jer 8:2). They rejected the Law of the Lord (8:7-9).
They lied and did evil (9:3). They did not trust one another (9:4).
They worshiped idols they made of wood and silver and gold (Jer
10:9). And now in 13:10 Jeremiah quotes the Lord, “This wicked
people, [who] refuse to listen to My words, [who] walk in the
stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve
them and to bow down to them. . . “
Therefore, God tells the people through Jeremiah, He will execute
judgment. The people who were created to glorify God, to be a
kingdom of priests serving and loving God, will be destroyed.
Jeremiah is told by God to give a visual parable by burying his
loincloth in the Euphrates. The parable demonstrates that when what
is created for one purpose is misused, it becomes useless for its
original purpose.
Interestingly, the word, “cling” in Jeremiah, 13:11 is the same word
used in Genesis 2:24, “For this cause a man shall leave his father
and his mother and shall cling to his wife and they shall become one
flesh.” The formula for the covenant in Exodus 6:7 and Jer 7:23 is
the formula of an Ancient Near Eastern marriage covenant. Israel was
to cling to God in the same way a husband and wife cling together
and become one. But Judah has broken the covenant and been
unfaithful to her husband. She has played the Harlot with other
gods. (Jer 2, 3, 13: 27)
Just as the loincloth was to become one with its wearer, when it is
used inappropriately, it no longer can be the clinging garment it
was created to be.
The author, Bellis, argues that “pride is the heart of the problem.
The people’s prideful behavior is what detached them from God and
caused them to seek security in foreign gods and political
alliances.” Scripture describes the people as “trust[ing] in
falsehood (13:25), not listening to God (13:10, 11, 17), boasting in
their own wisdom (9:23) which can all be interpreted as “pride” or
self-reliance. It has a two-fold aspect: trusting self and,
therefore, not trusting God. Doing what is right in one’s own eyes
instead of doing what is right in God’s sight. Pride is
self-reliance, self-centeredness, self-sufficiency, self-trust. It
is the opposite of trusting God, obeying God, denying self and
picking up our cross and following Christ. See Genesis 3.
When Bellis suggests, “the Hebrew’s problems were according to
Jeremiah, as much spiritual as political” she might go on to explain
that the blessings of the land, economic prosperity, and political
peace were contingent upon their living as the covenant
people-trusting God alone and obeying his law. When the people broke
the covenant and worshipped other gods, political unrest, social
chaos, economic ruin and eventually exile from the land followed.
Jeremiah wept not just because the people would loose everything and
be taken prisoners in a foreign land but he wept because those were
a result of the greater loss, that they had turned from the true,
living God to worship worthless idols made of wood and stone as
lifeless as scarecrows in a field (Jer 2:8, 28,10:5,14).
Because Bellis emphasizes “pride” and does not explain its origin in
Genesis 3 or its relationship to the covenant, she begins to drift
into popular psychological notions of what causes pride and comes to
the conclusion that “low self-esteem” causes pride and arrogance.
“When we have healthy self-esteem, when we feel good about
ourselves,” she argues, “we are usually more open to listening to
others and to God than when we inwardly hate ourselves.” This
statement flies in the face of reformed faith. It makes our
“cleaning up our act” a prerequisite to faith in God. Bellis is
arguing that faith is only possible when we have good self-esteem;
as if self-esteem can be obtained apart from God and as a
prerequisite of faith.
Instead reformed faith says that we are hopeless creatures, unable
to help ourselves, “From this original corruption, whereby we are
utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and
wholly inclined to all evil…” (Westminster Confession of Faith
6.035) The Heidelberg Catechism asks, “Are we so perverted that we
are altogether unable to do good and prone to do evil?” And it
answers, “Yes, unless we are born again through the Spirit of God.”
The recognition of our sinfulness should bring us to despair and
certainly low self-esteem. Our situation would indeed be hopeless
were it not for the fact that “God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should never
die.” That truth, should tell us of our inestimable worth to God
that Christ would give his life for us.
If one follows Bellis’ arguments to their logical conclusion, the
church’s condemnation of sin based on Scripture, causes people to
have low self-esteem which in turn prevents them from listening to
God. The logical conclusion is that God’s Word which condemns sin
causes low-self-esteem and therefore pride. This is itself pride-it
is calling God’s Word a lie, which is what the serpent did in
Genesis 3 and what the people of Judah did in Jeremiah.
*QUESTIONS TO ASK*
1. Not as Bellis suggests, “what are the kinds of pride that
separate us from God today?”
Instead, read the Heidelberg Catechism in our Book of Confessions
for the meaning of the Ten Commandments. In what areas of our own
lives have we broken the commandments and thereby shown our lack of
trust in God and instead trusted ourselves and done what was right
in our own eyes. How have we broken the Commandments and defied God
by putting our trust in ourselves, our decisions, thoughts,
emotions, wisdom, knowledge, reason rather than in God’s Word and
Law?
2. “Think of situations in our personal lives or in the life of our
country in which one small sin leads to another and another until it
becomes very difficult not to continue to sin. How can the cycle be
interrupted?”
3. Have there been times in your life when God in judgment has
removed something from your life to show you that you were putting
your trust in someone or something other than Him and His Word.
4. Bellis suggests that we examine the alliances the US is involved
in and question which ones God would approve of. God condemned
Israel’s alliances because they were Israel’s attempt to “save
themselves” apart from God and His Word. Israel was a theocracy with
God as its king. The United States is under the Lordship of Christ
but it is not a theocracy.
5. Bellis asks, “In what ways do we love God and listen for God’s
word throughout every day of our lives?” This seems to be asking for
times that we “listen for God’s word” apart from Scripture. Rather,
Scripture is the lens through which we interpret the world and the
experiences of our lives. A better way to ask this would be, “in
what ways do we love God and see God acting or speaking in our daily
lives according to his Word?
*SUGGESTIONS FOR LEADERS*
Preparing for the Lesson –
Read chapters 7-13 of Jeremiah. Then prepare the lesson.
Connect with God and One Another
*Opening Prayer
Lord we are a rebellious people. It is often much easier to be like
Eve and do what seems right to us, what is a delight to our eyes and
what we believe will make us wise, than it is to be like Mary and
submit obediently to God’s plan and purpose revealed by His Word.
Forgive our sins. Fill us
with such love for you that we delight to hear your Word and do your
will. Amen
*use Horizons question
Discovering Scripture
*1. Put the text in your own words.
2. How do you imagine the people responded to these words?
3. Are these prophecies still relevant for us today? How can we
share them with our neighbors? How would they respond and how would
that make us feel? Would we be so fearful of their reaction that we
would hesitate to share the message?
Exploring Scripture
*Ask the whole group to reconvene and invite each group to share
their discussions.