A young newlywed asked me once, “How do you know when it’s God’s will for you to have a baby?”

“That’s easy!” I replied, “If you are thinking of having a baby, it’s God’s will for you to have a baby, because babies – new people in the world – are God’s favorite thing!”

While I believe that’s true most of the time, God took the unusual step of advising against parenthood in Jeremiah’s situation.

“Then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘You must not marry and have sons or daughters born in this place’ . . . They will die of deadly diseases . . . They will die by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.’” Jeremiah 16:1-4

God was talking about his own people, the Israelites, the people he brought to the Promised Land and defended for centuries. Now God was going to bring disaster on them and let Jerusalem be destroyed. It was going to be so bad that he said it would be better not to marry and bring children into the world.

Reasons for the Disaster

The Jewish people have a long history of persecution and suffering. They have been driven from their homes, tortured, and killed many times over the centuries. The worst example of this is the Holocaust, an event so terrible and inexplicable that some rabbinical teachers forbid people to talk about it. There is no explanation for the Holocaust except sin and evil in the hearts of those who perpetrated it.

But in the book of Jeremiah God explained exactly what was going to happen to his people and told them why. God the Father was disciplining his children for specific sins they refused to stop doing.

“Therefore I will teach them – this time I will teach them my power and might. Then they will know that my name is the Lord.” Jeremiah 16:21

“Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever.” Jeremiah 17:4

The sins of greed, injustice, persecution of the poor, murder of innocents, and Idolatry had brought about this time of death and destruction for Judah.

Those Who Trust God Get Grace

However, even as he threatened punishment God offered grace and protection to those who repented of their sins and trusted him to save them.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

God’s offer of grace was not based on what people thought they deserved. Their hearts told them that they didn’t deserve punishment for sin. Their minds told them God didn’t really care what they did or that he would never hold them to account for it.

But God told them their perceptions were unreliable.

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” Jeremiah 17:9-10

If Judah’s people had compared their conduct to what God said in the Law and the Prophets, they would have understood how God judged their minds and hearts. They could have repented and joined the company of those who were sheltered under God’s protection.

The Potter and the Clay

The Lord sent Jeremiah on another visit to the potter’s house where he watched the potter shape clay into a pot.

“But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

”Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, ‘Can I not do with you, Israel, as the potter does?’ declares the Lord. ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.’”  Jeremiah 18:4-6

God could change plans at any time, based on the nation’s response to him. If he decided to uproot and tear a nation down, but the people repented and sought his forgiveness, God would relent and not bring disaster on them. On the other hand, if he built a nation up and it turned against him and practiced evil in his sight, he would reconsider his plans to bless them.

God could not have made the message more clear:

“Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’ But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.’” Jeremiah 18:11-12

One of the most inexplicable things in the world is why people rebel against God when they have so much to lose. In the face of truth, people still cling to lies. “It’s no use” they say, “No matter what God says, we will go our own way.”

The Example of the Faithful Rekabites

Among the Israelite tribes was a clan of people descended from a man named Rekab. God sent Jeremiah to invite them to a social occasion at the temple. He told Jeremiah to offer them wine, but when he did, they refused it. The Rekabites weren’t anti-social, they were faithful people who had committed to a way of life generations earlier.

“‘We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jehonadab son of Rekab gave us this command: ‘Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine. Also you must never build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are nomads.’

“We have obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab son of Rekab commanded us.’” Jeremiah 35:6-9

Their explanation sounded legalistic, but it also revealed that these people were capable of absolute obedience to what they had been told. God wanted this kind of obedience from the people of Judah so he sent Jeremiah to them with a message.

“Will you not learn a lesson and obey my words? . . . Jehonadab son of Rekab ordered his descendants not to drink wine and this command has been kept. To this day they do not drink wine, because they obey their forefather’s command. But I have spoken to you again and again, yet you have not obeyed me. Again and again I sent all my servants the prophets to you  . . . but you have not paid attention or listened to me.” Jeremiah 35:13-15

This calloused disobedience doomed the people of Judah.

The Grace Period Ends

“Therefore this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem every disaster I pronounced against them. I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not answer.’” Jeremiah 35:17

With this passage the time of grace during which God spoke to Judah and offered them the opportunity to repent came to an end. The rest of our reading in the Old Testament will be about the terrible destruction of Judah, along with the demise of the other nations God punished.

The Israelites will go as captives to Babylon and Persia and we will see what the prophets said to them while they languished there. After seventy years we will see them make their way back to Jerusalem and begin the arduous work of rebuilding the city and the temple. Then four hundred years of silence from God will descend over the world.

Before he stops speaking in the Old Testament God will call people to repentance many more times. He will never stop offering mercy to anyone who asks for his forgiveness. He will never change his message.

The core of God’s story in the Old Testament is that he loved people. Everything he did, from beginning to end was driven by his love and desire for a good relationship with them. Like a potter with clay, God never stopped shaping and reshaping his plans to try and win as many people as possible to him.