Bible Commentaries

CHAPTER 11

The Broken Covenant and the Plot Against Jeremiah

1. The broken covenant (Jeremiah 11:1-17)

2. The plot revealed and Jehovah’s answer (Jeremiah 11:18-23)

Jeremiah 11:1-17. Jehovah had made a covenant with His people. He tells the prophet about it and the responsibility which was connected with that covenant. They were to obey His voice. Then should they be His people and He their God. And of this covenant it was written, “Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant.” The prophet answered the Lord: “So be it LORD” (Amen). Then he is commanded to proclaim this covenant and tell the people that they had broken the covenant. They had followed the evil example of their fathers. They had burned incense to the idol gods. Therefore the prophet again is told not to pray for this adulterous generation, “for I will not hear them in the time they cry unto Me in their trouble.” Yet the Lord in spite of it all still calls them “My Beloved,” though they had broken the covenant and worked lewdness. Jeremiah 11:16 is used by the Spirit of God in Romans 11:1-36, the chapter which begins with the assurance that God has not cast away His people. The branches of the green olive tree are broken. Yet there is hope; they are still beloved for the Father’s sake.

Jeremiah 11:18-23. The Lord revealed unto him their doings. He was ignorant of it, like a lamb or an ox brought to the slaughter. They wanted to cut him off from the land of the living. He calls for vengeance upon them, which is in full keeping with the law dispensation and God’s righteous government.

Righteousness characterizes the saint as well as love, and has its place where there are adversaries to that love and to the blessing of the loved people. It is the Spirit of prophecy, not the gospel, no doubt because prophecy is connected with the government of God, not with His present dealings in sovereign grace. Hence in the Revelation vengeance is called for by the saint. (Synopsis of the Bible.)

The men of Anathoth had intimidated him by saying, “Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that thou die not by our hand.” The Lord answers him that their young men should die by the sword, and their sons and daughters by famine. No remnant of them should be left.