Devastation and Restoration
Coming Disaster Illustrated
- 16:2 “You must not marry” - to be single and childless was a shame and
dishonor. “In this place” - maybe he got a new life in Babylon after the
remnant was destroyed in Egypt?
- 16:3 “sons and daughters born in this place” - Jeremiah’s bachelor status
was a sign of the death and destruction to come.
- 16:5 “do not go to funerals” - this was a socially unthinkable, but it
signified that there would be too many dead for any funerals.
- 16:8 “do not go to parties” - this signified that the parties would
soon be over, and there would be no more weddings.
- 16:10 “What is our sin?” - such breathtaking cluelessness. Was it
deliberate suppression of the truth?
- 16:11 “your fathers have forsaken Me” - and set the nation on an
irreversible course to destruction.
- 16:12 “you are more evil than your fathers” - refusing to repent.
- 16:13 “There you will serve other gods day and night” - you want
to serve foreign gods? I’ll send you to foreign gods to serve them.
- 16:14 “yet behold the days are coming” - God can’t help mentioning
the future restoration.
- 16:15 “but for now” - the present judgement is sure.
- 16:16 “hunt them down” - no one will escape.
- 16:19 “our fathers inherited nothing but lies” - the gentile nations
will see the error of their ways.
- 16:21 “I will inform them” - the gentile nations will be instructed.