Jeremiah 19 … Consider His Instruction in His Irreparable Breaking

Originally posted: 5/20/2021

“Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you ¹¹ and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Just so will I break this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired…” (19:10-11).

Oh, today… this chapter will never fall into the category of an easy read. And once again we are faced with the side of God most of us would rather gloss over; and as we saw today, sadly, many do. I felt beyond overwhelmed at the prospect of considering Him in this chapter; but I was reminded that whether we find it easy or difficult, all of His Word is God-Breathed, and all of His Word is for our instruction and warning, that we would persevere as we are encouraged through His Scriptures.

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope, (Romans 15:4).

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come, (1 Corinthians 10:11).

Consider His Instruction in His Irreparable Breaking

Yes, today requires perseverance. But His heart is always to encourage us through the examples He has provided in Scripture, that we would listen and accept His Instruction in His Irreparable Breaking so as to gain His wisdom for our future.

Listen to advice and accept instruction,
that you may gain wisdom in the future, (Proverbs 19:20 ESV).

• Listen and accept His Instruction in His Irreparable Breaking: surrender to Him as the Lord of Hosts so as to humbly bow before Him by choice rather than in the day of calamity.
  • and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold I am about to bring a calamity upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle,” (19:3).
    • For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning
      Against everyone who is proud and lofty
      And against everyone who is lifted up,
      That he may be abased, (Isaiah 2:12).

• Listen and accept His Instruction in His Irreparable Breaking: pursue Him so as not to be led into the unrighteous, unreliable, deadly ways of the enemy.
  • “Because they have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods, that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent,” (19:4).
    • O Lord, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes;
      Make Your way straight before me.
      ⁹ There is nothing reliable in what they say;
      Their inward part is destruction itself.
      Their throat is an open grave;
      They flatter with their tongue, (Psalm 5:8-9).

• Listen and accept His Instruction in His Irreparable Breaking: seek His Truth with all our heart so as to learn His ways and not those of the world.
  • “and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind,” (19:5).
    • Make me know Your ways, O Lord;
      Teach me Your paths.
      ⁵ Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
      For You are the God of my salvation;
      For You I wait all the day, (Psalm 24:4-5).

• Listen and accept His Instruction in His Irreparable Breaking: know His judgment is coming so as to depart from evil and walk in His way.
  • “therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter,” (19:6).
    • The highway of the upright is to depart from evil;
      He who watches his way preserves his life.
      ¹⁸ Pride goes before destruction,
      And a haughty spirit before stumbling, (Proverbs 16:17-18).

• Listen and accept His Instruction in His Irreparable Breaking: follow His counsel so as not to be led in the way of death by the counsel of man.
  • “I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give over their carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth,” (19:7).
    • There is a way which seems right to a man,
      But its end is the way of death, (Proverbs 14:12).

• Listen and accept His Instruction in His Irreparable Breaking: believe His prophecies so as to live prepared.
  • “I will also make this city a desolation and an object of hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its disasters,” (19:8).
    • “Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame,” (Revelation 16:15).

• Listen and accept His Instruction in His Irreparable Breaking: humble our heart before Him so as to heed His Words of Wisdom.
  • “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have declared against it, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words,’” (19:15).
    • When pride comes, then comes dishonor,
      But with the humble is wisdom, (Proverbs 11:2).

How do we respond to His Instruction in His Irreparable Breaking?

The way we respond to the hard truth of His Instruction in His Irreparable Breaking will be in accordance with our belief. Do we believe everything He has said in His Word, or do we choose for ourselves what fits our own definition of God that lines up with our limited understanding?

The truth is today, we don’t hear a lot about the ruthless shattering of His Irreparable Breaking from many of our nation’s pulpits. But He has declared it so in His God-Breathed Word.

Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar,
So ruthlessly shattered
That a sherd will not be found among its pieces
To take fire from a hearth
Or to scoop water from a cistern,” (Isaiah 30:14).

And while He has provided redemption through the blood of the Lamb to escape His Irreparable Breaking, we are to receive His Instruction: sin must and will be judged.

For behold, the Lord will come in fire
And His chariots like the whirlwind,
To render His anger with fury,
And His rebuke with flames of fire.
¹⁶ For the Lord will execute judgment by fire
And by His sword on all flesh,
And those slain by the Lord will be many, (Isaiah 66:15-16).

But oh, praise and thanks be to God for His great love that provided the way for salvation, when the judgment we deserve for our sin was poured out on Jesus for whoever would believe and come to His Light.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹ This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil,” (John 3:16-19).

But, let us never forget to receive His Instruction: believers will also be judged one day, not in regard to eternity, but in how we chose to invest our time and life on earth.

Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad, (2 Corinthians 5:9-10).

Oh, that we would live to please Him with all that we are and do; and really, living a life that is pleasing to Him all starts, all rises and falls, with humility.

For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the humble with salvation, (Psalm 149:4 NKJV).

When we read the hard places in His Word, the places we would rather tuck away in a file marked, “not for today,” let us humbly remember, it is written for our Instruction.

Oh, let us persevere in His Word to receive His Instruction, that He would Irreparably Break our pride so as to learn from the humility of our Savior; that we would humbly bow before Him, pursue Him, seek His Truth, depart from evil, follow His counsel, believe His prophecies, and humbly heed His Words.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, (Philippians 2:5-8).

Let’s Grow Together!