Jeremiah Chapter 11

Have you ever broken a promise? Well, most of us would have one way or another. 

Sometimes we don’t feel anything about breaking a promise. Probably because the other party didn’t take the promise that seriously either. Or maybe because the matter was insignificant. 

But sometimes we fail to keep our promises and it deeply hurts the person that we failed. Maybe as you read this, you would recall the feelings of guilt that you might have had as you faced the person you disappointed.

Maybe the reason why we can easily feel this guilt is because the person whom we disappointed is also very real to us, and maybe we can easily see the hurt and disappointment in the person.

Nowadays, how guilty do we feel when we fail to keep the covenant we have entered into with God, or what we have once resolved to do for God?  

If God spoke to you and told you that you have failed to keep your promise, how would you feel?

Well, in Jeremiah 11, that is what God told His people. He said that the people had broken His covenant. The time for mercy and forbearance was coming to an end. The time for judgment would soon be arriving. Perhaps this was understood by Jeremiah, and so when God said in verse 2 “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant…”, He didn’t plead or interceded for the people like how Moses did when God wanted to destroy the people. Instead, Jeremiah said “So be it Lord” (in verse 5).

It seems the prophet is really in tune with what God is thinking for God says later in verse 14 “So do not pray for this people or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble.” So even before God tells Jeremiah this, Jeremiah already knows what the hour and the time is, and therefore only says “So be it Lord”.

 As a disciple of the Lord, are you in tune with the mind of God? 1 Cor 2:11-12 tells us that no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. But we have received the Spirit of God that we might know the things freely given to us by God. Unfortunately, many of us can’t really know the mind of God because our thoughts and hearts are not directed to God.

When God said in verse 2, “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant…”, my mind is cast back to the time when the people of God stood on mount Ebal in Deuteronomy 27, where they proclaimed the curses they would suffer if they did not obey God. What strikes me the most is that God is a God that keeps His word. He keeps His promises of blessing, but also the promises of curses. 

Actually, what God requires is quite straightforward, we must obey His words. Unfortunately, man is often weak and unable to do what he promised God. Thankfully, it is much “easier” for us to repent now than in the time of the Israelites. In those days, they had to prepare the animal sacrifice. And repentance would have been a very public thing because you had to make the sacrifice in front of others.

Today, comparatively, we have it much easier physically. But do we cherish this grace that we have to quickly repent from our sins?

Finally, something that strikes me is how God mentions how Israel was meant to be the green olive tree that bore good fruit. However, Israel failed to fulfill what God intended for them. Therefore, the branches were broken off (Jer 11:16). If I am not wrong, Paul picks up on this in Romans 11. 

Some of us might be familiar with what Paul wrote in Romans 11:17 where he talks about how the branches (Jews) were broken off so that the wild olive tree (gentiles) could be grafted in, and become partakers of the root and fatness of the olive tree.

Paul then, much like Jeremiah 11, admonishes the readers to consider the severity of God.

So today, let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Bear in mind that God is severe and He will keep His promises. With a heart of reverence, let us draw closer to God, so that we can know more of the mind of God.

•