Bible In One Year Day 230 (Jeremiah 7, Ezekiel 36, Proverbs 14:29-32)

   You may subscribe yourself at the Ascension site here and receive notifications in your email, or just follow along on my blog.  Bible in One Year Readings Index 

Day 230: A New Heart 

Agape Bible Study 
Jeremiah 7 

Chapter 7: Jeremiah's Final Appeal

The obligation to administer justice and to ensure that the people were obedient to their covenant with Yahweh was the duty of the Davidic king. During the reign of King Josiah, he saw that the people were obedient to the commandments of the Law and to the requirements of Temple worship. However, thirteen years after Jeremiah's inaugural oracles (fourteen years as the ancients counted), Josiah was killed by the Egyptians at the Battle of Megiddo in 609 BC, and during the reign of his son Jehoiakim, all the previous evil practices returned (2 Kng 23:36-24:4; Jer 22:13-17). King Jehoiakim (609-598 BC) promoted the worship of "the Queen of Heaven," the goddess Astarte/Ishtar, throughout Judah, and he allowed the building of other pagan altars, even within Yahweh's holy Temple. Additional abominations during his reign included the re-introduction of illicit sacrifices in Temple worship as well as child sacrifice to Baal/Molech in the Hinnom Valley south of Jerusalem (7:18, 21, 30-31).

Jehoiakim became the king of Judah after the Egyptians deposed his brother in 609 BC (ruled three months) and established him as their vassal. In 605 BC, the Babylonians successfully defeated the armies of the Assyrians and their Egyptian allies at the Battle of Carchemish and became the rulers of Mesopotamia and the Levant, making Jehoiakim a vassal of Babylon. He ruled for eleven years, and when he revolted against his Babylonian overlords, he was taken away in chains to die in Babylon in about 598/7 BC (see Jer 1:3). At that time, he was succeeded by his son, Jehoiachin (2Kng 23:34-24:9; 2 Chr 36:5-9). Jeremiah's oracles in this lesson appear to take place during the years of King Jehoiakim's reign, immediately before the Babylonian conquest of Judah and Jerusalem in 598/7 BC.

Jeremiah's heart-rending appeals for the people to repent and return to true worship, based on Yahweh's promise that Jerusalem would never fall to their enemy if only the people would confess and demonstrate true repentance, have failed. The people continued their abominable practices (7:9 and 11), and even though they erected pagan idols within the Temple complex (7:30), they still believed that God would not destroy Jerusalem because His Presence dwelled within His Holy Temple (7:4 and 10).

In the call to return to true worship, Chapter 7 is divided into four sections:

1. The Temple will not save them (7:1-15).
2. The condemnation for worshipping alien gods (7:16-20).
3. The practice of insincere worship (7:21-28).
4. The threat of exile (7:29-34).

God promises salvation is still possible for the Jerusalemites in Chapter 7, but the people must amend their ways. The violations named in Chapter 7, in addition to apostasy from the covenant, idol worship, and the sexual sins named previously, include nine sins (nine is the number of judgment in Scripture):

1. taking advantage of foreigners (Jer 7:6a)
2. exploiting orphans and widows (Jer 7:6b)
3. shedding innocent blood (Jer 7:6b, 9)
4. following false gods (Jer 7:6c, 7:9c, 18)
5. theft (7:9)
6. adultery (7:9)
7. perjury (7:9)
8. child sacrifice (7:31)
9. insincere and illicit worship of Yahweh (7:10, 21)

Jeremiah 7:1-15 ~ The Temple will not Save Them
In 7:1-15, there is an introduction followed by three Temple oracles in prose:

1. Introduction, verses 1-2
2. Oracle #1, verses 3-7
3. Oracle #2, verses 8-11
4. Oracle #3 in verses 12-15

The gate of the Temple may have been the main gate leading into the Temple complex, or it may have been the gate leading from the Courtyard of the Women into the inner courtyard called the Courtyard of the Priests and the location of the altar of sacrifice. It appears the Temple court was Jeremiah's usual place of public appearances (19:14-15; 28:1; 36:5-6). However, his oracles were also delivered at other city gates like the Benjamin Gate (17:19); the Potsherd Gate (19:1-2); and the city gate near the royal palace (22:1-2).

The first oracle in verses 3-7 is a reform oracle in which Yahweh, through Jeremiah, calls upon the people to amend their sinful ways if they want to stay in "this place." The question is what is "this place"? Is it a reference to the Temple, to the city of Jerusalem, or to the Promised Land?
Question: In Jeremiah's court defense in Jeremiah 26:12, where does he testify that he was sent to prophesy?
Answer: Jeremiah says he was sent to prophesy against both the Temple and the city of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 7:16-20 ~ Alien Idols

Question: What does Yahweh tell Jeremiah he must not do and why?
Answer: Yahweh tells Jeremiah that he must no longer offer intercessory prayer for the people, because pleading to God for leniency on behalf of a thoroughly sinful and unrepentant people will do no good.

Jeremiah 7:21-26 ~ Worship without Sincerity

Jeremiah is still speaking the words of Yahweh but in prose and not the oracle in poetic form. The subject is again abuse of Temple worship as in 6:20, and the criticism of insincere worship is the same.

Jeremiah 7:27-29 ~ The Threat of Exile

The prose continues from the previous passage until verse 29 that returns to the poetic form. Yahweh tells Jeremiah that despite his warning the people will not listen, and therefore they will not repent. When this happens, he is to tell the people to cut their hair and sing a lament as acts of mourning because, as they have abandoned Yahweh, He has abandoned them.

Jeremiah 7:30-34 ~ The Threat of Divine Judgment for all Forms of Idolatrous Worship

These verses return to the prose format. "Their Horrors in the Temple" are pagan altars set up by King Jehoiakim. He also reintroduced child sacrifice in the valley south of Jerusalem, like his great-grandfather Manasseh (see 2 Kng 21:1-16). The Hebrew word topheth means "incinerator and refers to where children were sacrificed in honor of Baal/Molech. The word was also associated with the cemetery where the child sacrifices dedicated to Baal/Molech were buried in urns (Lev 18:21; Is 30:33 and Jer 32:35). It was because of the abomination of child sacrifice practiced by the Canaanites that Yahweh used the Israelites as His instrument of divine justice to drive the Canaanites out of the land. The Israelites/Judahites are now as wicked as the people who were driven out. God warned the Israelites just before the conquest of Canaan, if the day came when they committed the same sins as the Canaanites, He would also drive them from the land.

Agape Bible Study Ezekiel 36 

The Second Part of Oracle 4: Ezekiel 36:1-15 ~ Yahweh's Prophecy Concerning the Restoration of the Land of Israel

Part 2 of the 4^th oracle divides into three parts:

1. Yahweh's answer to the mountains of Israel concerning those who tried to take possession of the land (verses 1-5).
2. The prophecy of the restoration of the land of Israel and prosperity for its people (verses 6-12).
3. The promise that the people will not repeat the sins that led to God's divine judgment against them, the consequence of which was the death of their children (verses 13-15).

Ezekiel 36:1-5 ~ Yahweh's Prophecy for the Mountains of Israel

Yahweh refutes the claim of the Edomites and Judah's other neighbors that the mountains of Israel now belong to them. He promises the land of Israel that He will save it from those who have ravaged, oppressed, and ridiculed it.

Ezekiel 36:6-12 ~ The Restoration of the Land

Despite their collective and individual sins, they are still His covenant people, and God is angry over their neighbors taking pleasure in their suffering since their neighbors have committed many of their same sins.

1. God swears their neighboring nations will have sufferings and insults of their own to bear, which suggests they will not be a threat to the land or the returning exiles (verse 7).
2. The land will become fruitful again when the exiles return (verses 8-9).
3. The population of the people will increase and so will the animals (verses 10-11a).
4. The cities will be lived in again and the ruins rebuilt (verse 10).
5. They will become more prosperous then they were before the exile (verse 11b).
6. The exiles will return to the land that is still their heritage (verse 12a).
7. The sins the people committed against Yahweh that brought devastation to the land and death to their children will not be repeated (verse 12b).

Experiencing the fulfillment of the promises will make the people return to "knowing" Yahweh in a covenant relationship. The promises in verses 7-12 recall the blessings for covenant obedience in Leviticus 26:3-13 and Deuteronomy 28:1-14.

Ezekiel 36:13-15 ~ No Repeat of the Covenant Failure that Makes the People Responsible for the Death of Their Children

Verses 13-15 are a continuation of the promise in verse 12.
Question: What led to the land of Judah's destruction by the Babylonian "sword," the loss of the lives of her people, and exile for the survivors?
Answer: Judah's idol worship and apostasy from the covenant with Yahweh and the refusal to repent resulted in God's divine judgment that led to the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah, and exile for the survivors.

It was from the oracles of Yahweh's prophets that Judah's neighbors knew of Judah's sins against Israel's God and understood that Judah was responsible for the destruction of her land, her citizens, and deaths of her children (verse 13; Jer Chapter 27).

+++

 A Daily Defense

DAY 230 A Quantum Mechanical Argument

CHALLENGE: “Modern physics undermines belief in the existence of God.”

DEFENSE:On the contrary, modern physics supports the existence of God.

Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics that studies very small phenomena like the behavior of subatomic particles. According to some interpretations of quantum mechanics, an argument supporting God’s existence may be constructed as follows:

1. The universe contains phenomena that appear to require a conscious observer to achieve a definite state.

2. These phenomena achieve definite states.

3. Therefore, there are conscious observers.

4. There cannot be an infinite regress of physical observers.

5. Therefore, there was a first physical observer.

6. The first physical observer cannot have actualized its own existence.

7. Therefore, a non-physical observer actualized it.

8. That non-physical observer is God.

9. Therefore, God exists.

The premises of this argument are lines 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8. The conclusions (lines 3, 5, 7, and 9) follow from them.

Line 1 is a finding of quantum mechanics. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Eugene Wigner wrote: “It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to consciousness” (Symmetries and Reflections, 172). A famous non-technical illustration is Schrödinger’s cat (a thought experiment in which a cat is not definitely alive or dead until it is observed).

Line 2 is established by experiment. Line 4 is supported by the fact that the known history of the universe would not allow life, and thus conscious physical observers, to exist before a certain point.

Line 6 is based on the fact that the first conscious physical observer would need to be in a definite state—actually alive—in order to observe things in the world. It is also based on the metaphysical principle that nothing that could be otherwise (such as a physical observer who did not previously exist) is its own cause. This is also verified by experience. We do not see things causing themselves in the world.

Line 8 is based on the conception of God as the Supreme Being who is ultimately responsible for life. This fits with the idea of a non-physical observer being responsible for the first physical observer being actually alive.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist