Jeremiah is full of judgment and bad news. It can be tough to read, but chapter 17 is full of beautiful chunks of wisdom from God, little truths that are incredibly powerful instructions for life.

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. … But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit’” (v. 5, 7-8, NLT).

Well, this is almost a repeat of last week’s reading.

God continued to tell Jeremiah to warn the people of coming destruction, painting a picture of extreme desolation – drought, famine, violence, death.

It occurred to me Jeremiah probably didn’t get invited over for dinner very often. In fact, in chapter 11, he says that God revealed to him that others plotted against him. Evidently, they thought getting rid of the messenger would also get rid of the message. Not so! God told Jeremiah He would severely punish those who were plotting against Jeremiah. 

Hello, friends. We continue reading in Jeremiah 5-10. 

These chapters are sobering. I found myself feeling sad reading much of this (Jeremiah is called The Weeping Prophet, which makes sense!). Jeremiah continues to warn the people, at God’s direction, predicting the coming judgment. I sense an urgency in his words. Why, I wonder, does God warn Israel HE is bringing a nation against them? This can’t be good. They are given graphic details of the disaster to come: income taken away, families broken up, people scattered about, even death (Why is he warning the nation of Israel? Why aren’t the godless nations getting the same warnings?).