Dave Burnette's Commentary

Jeremiah Chapter 9

Written By: God through Inspiration
Penned By: Jeremiah
Date Penned: (627-586 BC)
Overview: To Urge God's People to Turn from Sin to God (c 1-52)
Theme: God's Judgement on Judah (c 1-45)
Message: Jeremiah Weeps for the People (v 1-26)

Jeremiah 9 Commentary 

(9:1-6) Anger and Compassion - Jeremiah felt conflicting emotions concerning his people. Lying, deceit, treachery, adultery, and idolatry had become common sins. He was angered by their sins, yet he had compassion, too. Jeremiah was set apart from the people by his mission for God, but he was also one of them. Jesus had similar feelings when he stood before Jerusalem, the city that would reject him (Matthew 23:37). 

(9:7) Refining - A metallurgist refines metal by heating it to such high temperatures that it melts and the impurities (dross) rise to the surface and can be removed. This image is used in other prophetic passages to illustrate how God was punishing his people for their unfaithfulness (see Isaiah 1:25; Jeremiah 6:27; Ezekiel 22:18). The Lord uses trials and tribulations to refine those who belong to him. Let hard times do their work to remove the dross and slag from your life. 

(9:23-24) Knowing God - People tend to admire the wisdom, power, and riches of others. But God puts a higher priority on knowing him personally and living a life that reflects his justice, righteousness, and love. What do you want people to admire most about you? 

(9:25-26) Circumcision - Circumcision went back to the time of Abraham. For the people of Israel, it was a symbol of their covenant relationship with God (Genesis 17:9-14). Circumcision was also practiced by pagan nations, but not as the sign of a covenant with God. By Jeremiah's time, the Israelites had forgotten the spiritual significance of circumcision even though they continued to perform the physical ritual. God wanted his people to be wholly devoted to him with their hearts, not just to be following practices for the sake of tradition.

 


Dave Burnette's Life Application


Hate Sin while Loving the Sinner

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today, we continue in the Book of Jeremiah with chapter 9. In our text today, we see Jeremiah weep for the people; he feels conflicting emotions as their sin angers him, but he has compassion for the sinner. Later in the New Testament, Jesus Christ had the same feelings for Jerusalem. In making an application, we see the heart of God toward sin, which should cause us to react the same. I hate sin but love the sinner. Today, we still need to speak out on sin but simultaneously love the sinner, have compassion, and make a difference in others. How about you? Do you love sinners? Let us learn from our text today and see the Heart of our Lord, so we, too, should hate the sin but love the sinner.

 

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Jeremiah 9

Jeremiah 9

 1Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

 2Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

 3And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.

 4Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.

 5And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

 6Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.

 7Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?

 8Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.

 9Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

 10For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.

 11And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.

 12Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?

 13And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;

 14But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:

 15Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

 16I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

 17Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:

 18And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

 19For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.

 20Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation.

 21For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.

 22Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.

 23Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

 24But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.

 25Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;

 26Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.