1-3 The Lord said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go! And if they ask you, 'Where shall we go?' tell them, 'This is what the Lord says: Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity.' “I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” declares the Lord, “the sword to kill and the dogs to drag away and the birds and the wild animals to devour and destroy. 4 I will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.”

5 ‘Who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Who will mourn for you? Who will stop to ask how you are? 6 You have rejected me,’ declares the Lord. ‘You keep on backsliding. So I will reach out and destroy you; I am tired of holding back. 7-9 I will winnow them with a winnowing fork at the city gates of the land. I will bring bereavement and destruction on my people, for they have not changed their ways.  I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. At midday I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of their young men; suddenly I will bring down on them anguish and terror. The mother of seven will grow faint and breathe her last. Her sun will set while it is still day; she will be disgraced and humiliated. I will put the survivors to the sword before their enemies,’ declares the Lord.

10 Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends! I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me. Jeremiah 15:1-10 New International Version

Verses 1-3 are the terrible message that Jeremiah was told to give to the nation. God was sending them them away from Himself. They were beyond the help of prayer. The sword, starvation and captivity awaited them. Many modern day people might say that sounds so cruel. How can God do such things? But what did God say was the reason for such judgement? (vs 4)

A King named Manasseh had done terrible things in his reign. And we know from the earlier chapters of Jeremiah that the people were now doing the same things. Some of the things Manasseh had done are described in the 2nd book of Kings, chapter 21. It says: “He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight and followed the detestable practices of the pagan nations that the Lord  had driven from the land. He rebuilt the pagan shrines and constructed altars for Baal. He set up an Asherah pole and bowed before all the powers of the heavens and worshiped them. He built pagan altars for the powers of the heavens in both courtyards of the Lord’s Temple. He sacrificed his own son in the fire and practiced sorcery and divination and consulted with mediums and psychics.” No wonder God had had enough of such evil doings. But verse 6 was surely the final nail in their coffin!

They had told God they did not want His way of living and kept on sliding further and further away! Verses 7-9 go on to describe the pitiful condition the nation would end up in when God's judgement had fallen. Those are awful words indeed. But the reality and worse news is that the Bible speaks of a coming day when God's wrath will be poured out on all nations when Jesus Christ returns. Oh may we not be among those who reject God and slide further into sin.

But there's also a lesson here for Christians who faithfully tell others what the Bible says about sin and the coming judgement of God. How did the people respond to Jeremiah's message of what the future had in store for them? (vs 10)

The people cursed him and regarded him worse than scoundrels who lent money at terribly high interest rates, or didn't pay back their debts. Their hatred was so fierce Jeremiah wished he had never been born. So don't be surprised if people hate you for warning them of God's judgement. Jesus said: “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.” (John 15:18)