This is what the LORD says, “Your wound is incurable, your injury beyond healing, there is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sore, no healing for you.

When I read this I thought of the cross, and of Jesus, the Saviour, Who did this very thing for us. He cured our incurable wound. He healed our unhealable injury. He bled for our cause, and applied His blood as a remedy for our sore. He healed us completely from the pain and death of sin. He rescued us and gave us life with peace and joy even in our struggles on earth, giving us unspeakable peace and joy for eternity with Him.

There is lots of punishment, destruction, sin and lying, captivity, false prophets and loss of hope in the writings of Jeremiah, but there in the midst of it all come these great and precious promises. vs. 11. 12. 13 ” For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Notice, He isn’t delivering them out of their trials, He is giving them hope IN their trials. He is meeting them in their misery with a promise – like a lifeboat to a drowning man.

Then the prophet, Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. ”

In the face of disaster, people grasp for something better to believe, they seek for salvation from their troubles. In this chapter, the false prophet, Hananiah, offers a false sense of security, and feeling of hope. People are always willing to hear those things that “sound good”. As Christians, we know that salvation has been provided for mankind. The key is confession of sin. The true sense of security is God’s love and eternal life in return. This is the truth. If what you are hearing, doesn’t match up with God’s truth, reject it.

vs. 4 and 5 Give them a message for their masters and say, “this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Tell this to your masters: With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please. vs. 21 and 22 yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says about the things that are left in the house of the LORD and in the palace of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem: they will be taken to Babylon, and there they will remain until he day I come for them, declares the LORD. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.”

God created the earth, the people, and all of the animals. He can give them away or keep them. Then, we see in vs. 22, that He can come and get anything He wants and rescue it or restore it to whatever place He wishes. This is real power – power beyond our scope of understanding power. This is the One Who said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3) and light was created. This is the One Who breathed life into the man He created from the dust of the earth He created. Through the sacrifice of Christ, we belong to the One Who has this power. We are His.

“This is what the LORD says: Stand in the courtyard of the LORD’s house and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of he LORD.: Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word. Perhaps they will listen and each will tum from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done.

Here is that re-occurring theme: with repentance comes relief from the Lord’s proclaimed disaster. When the people turn from their wicked ways God turns back His intended punishment. My dad worked in he San Joaquin Valley of California on the system of canals and waterways. He was part of a crew reclaiming the desert, turning it from a dry and dusty, fruitless place ,into a land where fruits and vegetables grew in abundance. God is in the original business of reclamation: re-claiming all people from the way of sin, and restoring them to His way, the way of godliness.

I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp.

I was sad when I read this. Sounds of joy and laughter, children playing and singing, the happy celebration of marriage – all removed from their lives. Abundance of food, the simple ability to light up the darkness with a lamp – all gone. Every vestige of gladness, joy, peace of heart and mind replaced by desolation. This is life without God’s hand of blessing. It seems like too steep a price to pay for sin.

I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.

This is our God. We are too sinful to have a relationship with Him, so He provides salvation for us. We are of little faith, so He provides the faith for us to believe and to receive that salvation. Our hearts are hard and wicked beyond measure, so he removes our heart of stone and gives us a new heart with which we can know Him and then desire Him with all of our new heart.

They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name through Baal worship. Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully for what has straw to do with grain””, declares the LORD

Those of us who belong to God through the blood of His Son will not forget His Name or the truth of His Word. That is why it is important to read and to study the Word of God. When others try to share with us what they THINK is the truth, we will know if it does not match the truth of the Word of God. If given the opportunity, We can share what is true, and correct what is false.