Fri 091211 am Jer 5-9

Jeremiah 5
5.8  neighing for his neighbor's wife...  The imagery hear of an adulterer is classic and instructive.  I love the way the OT prophets used language.
5.31  my people love to have it so...  That may be the biggest problem with sin and self deception.  We like them so much.
    
Jeremiah 6
6.7  so she keeps fresh her evil...  O how we nurture and pamper our sins and sinful desires.
6.10 ears are uncircumcised...  follows up on the theme in Jer. 4.4
6.15  they did not know how to blush...  I am thinking about how we loose our innocence and what should be done to regain it.  When is the last time I have been truely ashamed?
  
Jeremiah 7
7.6-7  not execute justice, oppress, shed innocent blood, steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, go after other gods...  With the exception of offerings to Baal we seem to be going gang busters.
7.14  in which you trust...  It is interesting that they would trust the Temple when they had such disregard for the God it was build for.  It seems to be a good word of warning for us and the games that we play in our minds sometimes.
7.24  walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness...  
7.31  Topheth...  from Hebrew: toph, “a drum,” because the cries of children here sacrificed by the priests of Moloch were drowned by the noise of such an instrument; or from taph or toph, meaning “to burn,” and hence a place of burning, the name of a particular part in the valley of Hinnom. "Fire being the most destructive of all elements, is chosen by the sacred writers to symbolize the agency by which God punishes or destroys the wicked. We are not to assume from prophetical figures that material fire is the precise agent to be used. It was not the agency employed in the destruction of Sennacherib, mentioned in Isa. 30:33.
     Tophet properly begins where the Vale of Hinnom bends round to the east, having the cliffs of Zion on the north, and the Hill of Evil Counsel on the south. It terminates at Beer 'Ayub, where it joins the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The cliffs on the southern side especially abound in ancient tombs. Here the dead carcasses of beasts and every offal and abomination were cast, and left to be either devoured by that worm that never died or consumed by that fire that was never quenched." Thus Tophet came to represent the place of punishment. http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/tophet.html
Hinnom...  a deep, narrow ravine separating Mount Zion from the so-called "Hill of Evil Counsel."  It took its name from "some ancient hero, the son of Hinnom." It is first mentioned in Josh. 15:8. It had been the place where the idolatrous Jews burned their children alive to Moloch and Baal. A particular part of the valley was called Tophet, or the “fire-stove,” where the children were burned. After the Exile, in order to show their abhorrence of the locality, the Jews made this valley the receptacle of the offal of the city, for the destruction of which a fire was, as is supposed, kept constantly burning there.
     The Jews associated with this valley these two ideas: (1) that of the sufferings of the victims that had there been sacrificed; and (2) that of filth and corruption. It became thus to the popular mind a symbol of the abode of the wicked hereafter. It came to signify hell as the place of the wicked. "It might be shown by infinite examples that the Jews expressed hell, or the place of the damned, by this word. The word Gehenna [the Greek contraction of Hinnom] was never used in the time of Christ in any other sense than to denote the place of future punishment." About this fact there can be no question. In this sense the word is used eleven times in our Lord's discourses (Matt. 23:33; Luke 12:5; Matt. 5:22, etc.). http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/hinnom.html
  
Jeremiah 8
8.6  This is a great verse, worthy of thought and soul searching.
8.10  greedy and deals falsely tend to go together.
8.12  did not know how to blush...  mentioned again.
8.22  The Balm of Gilead...  The people of Jericho today prepare for the benefit of pilgrims a "Balm of Gilead" from the zaqqum (Balanites Aegyptiaca), but this has no serious claims to be the balm of antiquity. If we are to look beyond the borders of modern Palestine we may credit the tradition which claims that Mecca balsam, a product of Balsamodendron Gileadense and B. opobalsamum, was the true "balm," and Post (HDB, I, 236) produces evidence to show that these plants were once grown in the Jordan valley. Yet another suggestion, made by Lagarde, is that the sturax tree, and if so then "balm" would be the inspissated juice of the Storax- tree (Stytax officinalis), a common inhabitant of Gilead.  http://www.studylight.org/enc/isb/view.cgi?word=Balm+of+Gilead&search.x=20&search.y=8&search=Lookup&action=Lookup
  
Jeremiah 9
9.14  followed their own hearts...  Now that's a dangerous path.
9.23-24  Another great and classic two verses.

Wed 0912090 pm Jer 3-4

Jeremiah 3
3.10  did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense...  I can understand a return with a divided heart but and curious what they hoped to gain with their pretense.
3.21  have forgotten their Lord...  Not opposed Him, rebelled or sinned against Him, etc., just forgot Him.  Living like there is not God is always a danger.
  
Jeremiah 4
4.2  if you swear, "As the Lord lives," in truth...  
4.3b  break up the fallow ground... http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/article_pdf.php?aid=579
4.22  They are 'wise'--in doing evil!...  The wrong thing to be good at.

Mon 091207 pm Jer 1-2

Jeremiah 1
1.5  before you were born I consecrated you...  This is a big thought, that God not only knew him, but set him aside for His service.  How does God do it!?
1.12  watching over My word to perform it...  Faithfulness.
  
Jeremiah 2
2.13  This verse is a good reminder of how foolish we can be.
2.19, 22, & 29   declares the Lord...
2.28  ...where are your gods?
2.34  the poor...