Jeremiah 17
Chuck Smith on Jeremiah 17
Verse by verse, taught on Sunday nights: the C2000 series, 1979 to 1985, and the C3000 series, 1985 to 1999. Permission granted by The Word For Today.
Sunday Nights, 1979 to 1985 (C2000)
Chapter introduction
Chapter 17:
Verse 1
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond (17:1):
Interesting that they were using diamonds for pens in those days, isn't it? Diamonds set in iron.
Verses 1–5
it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars; Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills. O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders. And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever. Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD (17:1-5).
And so God pronounces the curse upon those that would trust in an alliance in Egypt to deliver them from this Babylonian invasion. "Cursed be the man who puts his trust in man, and makes the flesh his arm, who has departed from the Lord." That is, from trusting in the Lord.
Verse 6
For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited (17:6).
In contrast to the, "Cursed be the man."
Verse 7
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is (17:7).
Or is the Lord.
Verse 8
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not worry in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit (17:8).
So the cursing upon those that would trust in man, in the arm of flesh and not the Lord, but the blessing upon those that would trust in the Lord. Those who trust in man and the arm of flesh will be dried, withered, dead, uninhabited. Those that trust in the Lord will be like a tree planted by the waters that doesn't even know when summer comes because of the freshness that it draws out from that water.
Now verse 9:
Verse 9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (17:9)
God's talking about your heart and my heart. Socrates cried, "Man, know thyself." But who really does know himself? The scripture says, "Thou, O Lord, searches the heart and the reins." God knows my heart better than I know it. God knows what deception is there. And it is easy for us to become deceived. It's easy for us to follow a vain philosophy. It's easy for us to take that adage, "The end justifies the means." And so our means become perverse, crooked.
Paul the apostle talks about those who say, "Well, our lies bring glory to God so God shouldn't judge us for lying." Or those who would say, "Well, if I sin I'm only proving that God is telling the truth when He said all have sinned. So how can God judge me for proving Him to be speaking the truth? I'm only helping prove the truth of God's Word so God really can't judge me because I'm only proving what He said is true." And Paul speaks out against the perversity of such kind of logic and how God will judge all.
Now there are those who in the name of the Lord are doing crooked and perverse things. And if you talk to them about it, challenge them, they would be shocked. They would be disturbed. "My, brother! You know, you're judging me." The Bible says judge righteous judgment. I think that we've been put off a long time because we are afraid of people saying, "Well, you're judging, you know." The Bible says, "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:16). And it is wrong to use deceit and lies and gimmicks to try to extract funds from the people of God in order to support your program. I don't care how righteous or good your program may be.
My wife told me not to get into this tonight. It's right here in the scripture. It just came along. I just... I cannot understand men advertising their fasting and prayer when Jesus said, "When you fast, anoint your face. Wash yourself that you might look cheerful and all. That you don't appear unto men to fast. And your Father which sees in secret, He'll reward you. And when you pray, don't go out on the street corner, but go into your closet and shut the door." And when some guy sends letters out all over the country saying, "I'm going to spend some time fasting and praying, send me your requests with your fifty dollar check because I want to pray for you, too," something's wrong. Desperately wrong.
"The heart is deceitful, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" But God declares, "I the Lord search the heart. I try the reins." That is, the motivations. "Even to give every man according to his ways." Now Jesus tells us that we are to be careful that we don't do our righteousness before men to be seen of men because we have our reward. Now Jesus plainly warns us about that. There is a way that I can do my righteousness so that people see me and they say, "Oh my, isn't he spiritual?" And we've got to watch out for this, because it is such a deceiving, terrible thing. My old pride and my old flesh wants people to think that I am a spiritual man of God. I like people when I walk by to whisper, "Oh, isn't he spiritual? Oh." My flesh just really enjoys that. And so it's easy for me to get little spiritual affectations that my mind isn't really necessarily upon God. As I stand there, you lift your head upward and close your eyes because that looks more spiritual. I wonder if people are seeing me now. Surely they'll know I'm very spiritual. I hope they're watching. And then if you go up on your tiptoes it even looks a little more, you know, spiritual. But my mind, what am I thinking? Am I thinking, "I hope they're watching. I hope they see. I hope they notice. I hope they realize how spiritual I am." God said, "Look, I'm searching the heart. I'm trying the motives."
Now the Bible tells us that one day all of our works are going to be judged by fire. And much of what we have done is going to go poof! It's going to go up in smoke. "Wait a minute, Lord, did I not prophesy in Thy name? Didn't I work miracles in Your name? Didn't I heal the sick in Your name? Lord!"
Verse 10
I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins (17:10),
All of your works are wood, hay and stubble. They were done to be seen of men. They were done for your own glory and to spread abroad your own name. You named your chapels and your universities and all after your own name. Sad. Sad. What a day of awakening it's going to be.
"The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." Now David realizing this, realizing that he didn't even know his own heart because of the deceitfulness of the heart, said, "Thou O Lord hast searched me and You know me. You know my thoughts in their origin. Such knowledge," he said, "is too great for me. I cannot attain it" (Psalm 139:1,6). I cannot really attain the true knowledge of myself. But then he said, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts. And see if there be some way of wickedness in me, and lead me in Your way eternal" (Psalm 139:23-24).
Now the man who understands and knows that his heart is deceitful and desperately wicked is the man who will join David's prayer and say, "O God, You search my heart. You know. You try me. And God, if there's something there that is wrong, is displeasing to You, reveal it to me, Lord." I don't want to be deceived. I don't want to be deceiving myself. I don't want to stand before God and suddenly find all that I've done wiped out in a puff of smoke as the fire consumes all of that work of wood, hay and stubble. Jesus said, "You've not chosen Me, but I've chosen you, and ordained you, that you should be My disciples, that you should bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:16). That's what I want, remaining fruit. So God help us. He's searching our hearts. He tries the rein.
And He's going
to give to every man according to his ways (17:10)
What's in my heart? Why did I do it? That's what's going to be judged.
Verses 10–11
God is going to give to him
according to the fruit of his doings. As the partridge sits on eggs, and doesn't hatch them; so is he that gets riches, and not by right (17:10-11),
But by wrong means. He is accumulating wealth.
Verses 11–12
he shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end he shall be a fool. A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary (17:11-12).
That place of our sanctuary is God's glorious high throne.
Verse 13
O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters (17:13).
Takes us back to the first cry of God against Israel in that they have committed two evils: "They have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed out for themselves cisterns that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13).
Verses 14–16
Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now. As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee (17:14-16).
He's not rejoicing in the things that he is saying.
Verses 17–18
Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil. Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction (17:17-18).
Now the Lord spoke to him concerning the gates where the king went in and went out, and He said, "Now go down to the gate and when the king comes in give him this message."
Verses 19–23
Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I have commanded your fathers. But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear (17:19-23),
Now that is, their fathers obeyed not. "I told your fathers not to do this," God is saying, "but they didn't obey Me. Neither did they incline their ear."
Verses 23–25
but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein; Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever (17:23-25).
God is still holding out the opportunity of salvation and hope to them. Even at this late stage of their backsliding. Even when the judgment is hanging over their head. Even when Babylon is marching to destroy this place. God is still holding out to them a hope. "Just turn to Me, just obey Me, and the gates here, the kings and the princes will be passing through forever. You'll never be destroyed or put out of the land." God's mercies just are so extensive. They're right up until the moment a person dies. God extends His mercy. Oh, how merciful is our God!
Verse 26
And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD (17:26).
It can happen. It can happen to you. Just turn back to Me. Just obey My commandments.
Verse 27
But if you will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched (17:27).
Sunday Nights, 1985 to 1999 (C3000)
Chapter introduction
Interesting, man making a god, isn’t it? And how often we see men making their own gods. Now in chapter 17 the sign of the unmarried prophet continues.
Verse 1
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your alters;
Their sin is deep rooted. It is at the core of their being. It is engraved in their heart. They are totally given over to sin. Engraved upon the horns of the alter. The horns of the alter was a symbolic place where the people would come on and hold on to the horns of the alter, a place where they sought mercy form God. But in that place of mercy, sin has been engraved.
Verse 2
Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
The children, rather than really knowing what it was to worship the LORD there in the temple, they were taken by their parents to these places of worship of every high hill the alters unto Ashteroth, the Canaanitish female goddess of fertility.
Verse 3
O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasure to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
The land of God, the Holy Land, polluted by God’s people.
Verse 4
And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.
They have gone too far. They are going to be taken away captive. God gave them this land as it was part of God’s heritage for them but they have polluted the land that God had given to them.
Verse 5
Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm,
What happened is that when the Babylonians were coming with their armies, the king of Judah sent down to Egypt to hire the Egyptians to come and to help him fight against the Babylonians. Rather then at that point turning to the LORD and repenting from their sin and having a wholesale repentance and turning to God and just throwing themselves upon the grace and the mercy of God, instead they sought deliverance from the enemy through the power of Egypt. So the LORD said, “Cursed be the man that trusts in man.” They were trusting in the Egyptians. “And who makes flesh his arm.” They were looking to the arm of Egypt to be your strength.
What happened is that the Egyptians started to come and so Nebuchadnezzar diverted and went down and wiped out the Egyptians and then came back and wiped them out. So it turned out that it was a curse. The Egyptians were no help to them. The Egyptians were also destroyed.
and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
Where do you seek your help? Where are you looking for help? Cursed be the man who is trusting in man, who is looking to the arm of flesh. We need to look to God. Our nation is in serious trouble economically. The economic situation of the country is terrifying. Many of you are already beginning to feel the pinch of the economic woes of the nation. Where are we looking for help? Federal reserve. Lower the interest rates. We are looking to the arm of flesh. Our nation ought to be on its knees, seeking God and asking God’s forgiveness and repenting before the LORD. Our nation is a mess from a sociological standpoint, these gang wars, they are actually out of control. Where are we seeking help? Beefing up the Police Department. The arm of flesh. We ought to be seeking God. We ought to be repenting.
So we are in must the same condition as Israel. They were down and out and the count had begun. And still rather that seeking the LORD they were seeking the arm of flesh, the help of man. And in our nation today, I see no signs of real true national repentance. But still man is scrambling and doing his best to find the solutions for all of the problems that are plaguing our nation at this time. Cursed be the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, who departs from the LORD because he is going to be like the little scrub weed in the desert.
Verse 6
For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
He is going to be left barren.
Verse 7
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Cursed is the man who trusts in man but blessed is the man who will trust in the LORD. That is true from a national standpoint but it is also true form an individual standpoint. Where do you turn in your hour of need? Who do you look to for help? So many are looking to man, the arm of flesh. But oh, how blessed is the man who turns to the LORD, who puts his trust in the LORD, who’s hope is in the LORD.
Verse 8
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
The blessing of the man who will put his trust in the LORD, he will be fruitful, he will survive. But the man who puts his trust in man will whither and die.
Verse 9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
What is the most deceitful thing in the world? Your heart. How many people are deceived by their own hearts! How Satan loves to deceive and when Satan is on the throne of a person’s life, he has them totally deceived. Deceived into thinking that they are all right. I am okay, you are okay. Deceived into thinking that it does not really matter with God how I live. Deceived in believing that as long as I am sincere, all paths lead to God. The heart is deceitful above everything else, above all things and it is also desperately wicked. The question is, who can know it?
David said, “Lord, You have searched me, You have known me, You know when I am up, You know when I am down. You understand my thoughts as they begin to originate in my mind.” Where do your thoughts come from? What is the origin of the thought in your mind? What juices go together to create that little electrical impulse that crosses your brain that causes you to remember a particular incident or thing in life? There are certain kind of triggers that will bring back memories to you. But how do they originate? How are they stored and what brings them into mind? Where does the whole thought process start. That is what the psalmist was saying when he said, “You understand my thoughts afar off.” It does not mean that God is way out at the other end of the universe and I am down here and He understands my thoughts over this vast distance between me and Him. That is not what is meant at all. What is meant is that God knows my thoughts in their origins, before I think them He already knows what I am going to be thinking.
The psalmist said, “Such knowledge is too great for me. It is too wonderful. I cannot attain it.” And he confessed that he did not know himself. There were things about himself that he did not know. There are things about you that you don’t know. The LORD spoke to the children of Israel and He talked to them about their wilderness journey and He said, “I took you for forty years of wandering in the wilderness, to prove you and to know what was in your heart.” It was not for God to know what was in their heart, He knew what was in their heart, but it was for them to know what was in their heart but the trials that they went through brought out what was in their heart.
It is amazing how trials have a way of revealing what is in our heart. It terrifies me when I find out what is in my heart when I go through my heart. Driving freeways can be a trial to me. Some of these wild drivers in Southern California, and they do these crazy things that jeopardize your life. What I have found is in my heart is not very pleasant. I have to keep telling myself that this is a test. The LORD is revealing what is in my heart. You soon forget. You think, “Well, I am not too bad of a guy. I am pretty easy going and pretty well go it made.” But then the LORD brings something along, and that reaction, and suddenly you realize that you are not as cool as you thought you were. You don’t have things as well under control as you thought you did. This is a test. And the problem is that when you fail the test you have to take it over. He will keep testing you until you pass. But, how would we know what is in our heart unless we went through these experiences. It would be so easy to be completely deceived as people are. Because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
The psalmist said, “Try me oh LORD, and know my thoughts. Search me oh God, know my heart. Try me, put me through the test that I might know the truth about myself.” So the LORD speaks of the deceitful heart, the desperately wicked heart. He questions who can know it. But then He answers:
I the LORD search the heart,
God searches your heart. He knows what is exactly what is in your heart.
I try the reins,
Those controlling things. How much control!
Verse 10
even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
The testing.
As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not;
This is a proverb. It really fits with the Proverbs. It sounds like something Solomon would say.
so he that getteth riches, and not by right,
Or ill gotten riches.
Verse 11
shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
Several years ago when we were at the little chapel, a fellow started attending the church who was pretty deeply involved in the Mafia. His wife had come and had accepted the Lord and he was in trouble with the police and was coming as sort of an out. He invited me over to his house. He went to his safe and got out a wad of hundred dollar bills. It was a big roll. He said there were $ 200,000 in that role and I had no reason to doubt him. It was a big roll. And he said, “It is a crazy realm that I am in. I happen to be holding this right now. I scammed a guy and got it off of him. I happen to be holding to now but the whole crowd knows that I am holding it. Everybody is trying to scam me to get it. This wad of money just rotates around in our group. We all get to hold it for a little while until the guy scams it off of us. It is only a matter of time until I am going to fall for one of these scams and I will lose it and then that guy will have it for a while but then we will all try to scam him. It just moves in our circle.”
So riches that are not got by right, he will leave them in the midst of his days, in the end he will be a fool. That which you have will be taken from you, someone will scam you. But then verse 12:
Verse 12
A glorious high throne from the beginning is that place of our sanctuary.
The sanctuary is a place of protection. A place of rest and security. Where is your place of security? A glorious high throne from the beginning. God’s throne is our place of security, our sanctuary.
Verse 13
O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
You remember in Jeremiah 2 where the complaint of the LORD against the people is that they had forsaken Him the fountain of living waters and they have carved out cisterns and the cisterns cannot even hold water. Every man has to believe in something and does believe in something. Every man has a philosophy, or an ideal or a religion where by his life is governed. The governing principles of a person’s life. Now we are governed by the law of God, by our submission to Jesus Christ.
The fountain of living water, and thus there is life, abundant life in Him. But there are people who have their own philosophies. They have carved out their own cisterns. The best they can old is stagnant water but at worse the cisterns leak and they cannot hold water. And so are the religious systems of man, they just cannot hold water.
Here is a guy that is forsaking God, the spring of water. The whole idea is that here is a spring of fresh water, it is just bubbling out of the ground. It is fresh water, you can just go and drink of it. Up at our Conference Center near Green Valley Lake, we have a spring up there where the water just comes gushing out. It is cold and it is clear and it is delicious. I love to go and put my face down there and just drink it. It is good water. We also have a little stream that dries up during the year, but there are little stagnant ponds, I don’t drink out of that. There is green moss and algae.
Here is what they were doing. They were forsaking these springs of living water. God, the fountain of life for cisterns that really do not hold water.
Verse 14
Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
The prophet was responding to God. LORD, heal me, save me. Because he was running into problems. The people were beginning to say to Jeremiah:
Verse 15
Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.
The judgment had not yet come. And so they began to really get on to Jeremiah. “Where is the word of the LORD? You tell us all this stuff, we don’t see this happening.” They were really beginning to give Jeremiah a bad time.
Verse 16
And Jeremiah said,
As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day;
LORD, you know that I don’t desire these things that I have been telling the people. I don’t desire these days when the Babylonians come and wipe us out. I don’t desire the days of slaughter, You know that.
thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee.
Now they are giving me a bad time for what You told me to tell them.
Verses 17–18
be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil. Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
The LORD said, “I will punish them double.” So he is saying to go ahead and give them the double destruction but LORD I have only been speaking your word, don’t let me be dismayed and confounded.
That ends the message of the sign of the unmarried prophet and this is another short message. He was told to deliver it at the gate.
Verse 19
Thus said the LORD unto me; God and stand in the gate of the children of the people, come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
So this is a message that he is to speak at the king’s gate and then at all of the gates at Jerusalem.
Verses 20–21
And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
In other words, calling again to honor the Sabbath day. Through out the Bible God made various covenants with His people. When God destroyed the world with the flood, when Noah came out of the ark and built an alter unto the LORD, the LORD made a covenant with the LORD. Do you remember the covenant? It was that God would never again destroy the whole world by a flood. That was God’s promise. Now God gave him a sign of the covenant. What was the sign? A rainbow.
When God gave the law to Moses for the children of Israel. God made a covenant with the nation of Israel that they would be His people and He would be their God. If they would keep the law. Keep all of the law and I will be your God and you will be My people and then there was a sign of the covenant. And the sign of the covenant was keeping the Sabbath day. That was there sign of the covenant.
With Abraham the covenant that through his seed all of the nations of the world would be blessed. The sign of the covenant was circumcision. In the New Testament Jesus said, “This is a new covenant in my blood which is shed for the remission of sins.” And so the cup of communion is the sign of the new covenant where by our faith in Jesus Christ God forgives us our sins. That is the covenant that God has made. Believe on Jesus Christ and you will be forgiven of your sins. The sign of the covenant is the cup of communion.
So, in telling them to keep the Sabbath and not to bear burdens on the Sabbath the LORD is actually saying to come back to this covenant relationship. In that covenant relationship God promised that He would be their God they would be His people and He would defend them from their enemies and they would be blessed and all of the blessing that went with the keeping of the covenant of God. Even at this state God is calling them back to the covenant but they are not responding. So the message at the gate, all of you inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do y any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
Come back to the covenant.
Verse 23
But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
They had set their heart against God and the things of God and they were abdurant. The Bible says that he being often reproved hardens his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. And that is just to the place that they are coming. They will suddenly be destroyed with no remedy. They have hardened their neck and they will not listen. Though God is still holding out His hand, offering them even now reprieve.
Verses 24–25
And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever.
God is still holding out the hand of opportunity to them. Just return to the covenant, return to God. You can have your kings and your princes and you will remain in this city.
Verse 26
And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD.
This can still be a place of blessing, a place of praise where the people can gather and worship God. And God making still this appeal to the people. How reluctant God is to bring His judgment. How longsuffering and slow to wrath. And even at this state of their moral degradation God is still stretching out His hand unto them. For the LORD warns:
Verse 27
But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
And so it was. The gates of the city burned. The palaces burned. Jerusalem burned and today you can go over and in the archeological digs you can see a layer of ash of when Jerusalem was burned by the Babylonians shortly after Jeremiah gave them this prophecy. Sad that people won’t wake up to the reality that going your own sinful path is only going to lead to destruction. God’s way leads to life, abundant life, eternal life.