Jeremiah 17 · The Lantern

The Sin and Punishment of Judah

The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with a point of flint; it is engraved on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of your altars,

Then there is another prophecy, which — I do not know how — we did not find among the Seventy, but we found in the remaining editions, clearly lying in the Hebrew, and it is filled with matters most necessary, able, if we attend, to turn our soul back.

(Chapter 17, Verse 1) The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, engraved with an adamantium nail, upon the width (or height) of their hearts (or in the depth of their hearts), and upon the horns of their altars (or thrones). Concerning the nations that have turned to the Lord, it has been said: Behold, I will show them in turn, I will show them my hand and my power.

Nothing is more potent than the conscience: letters inscribed on it are indelible. I mean, even if everyone mounted a case to his or her conscience supported by favorable evidence, the conscience itself cannot tolerate the wickedness of falsehood. It is pricked and goaded and delivers its verdict incorruptibly.

when their sons remember their altars and their Asherahs by a green tree, on the high hills.

My mountain in the field — your wealth, all your treasures I will give as plunder, your high places, for sin, in all your borders.

And you will let go, of yourself, of your inheritance that I gave you; and I will make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know; for a fire you have kindled in my anger — forever it will burn.

Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart turns from the LORD.

Then, since many words have been gone through, there was indeed something to say about each of the things spoken, but time does not allow, as it presses upon us.

In order that we fall not away from the virtue of the soul, we ought to watch especially against those snares of the suggestions of the devil that we presume not of our own strength. For "cursed is everyone who places his hope in humankind." And who is he, but mortal? We cannot therefore truly say that the person who places his hope in humankind places it in himself.

All things which are good, even those of which man is the agent, really come from God rather than man. "It is the spirit," we are told, "that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer." Hence there is a curse on the man who puts his trust in man, for although our whole hope rightly depends on God made man, it is not because he is man but because he is God.

And he will be like a shrub in the desert plain, and he will not see when good comes; and he will dwell in parched places in the wilderness, a salt land not inhabited.

One thing you must flee, sin. One refuge from evil must be sought, God. Do not trust in princes. Do not be exalted in the uncertainty of wealth. Do not be proud of bodily strength. Do not pursue the splendor of human glory. None of these things save you. All are transient. All are deceptive. There is one refuge: God.

It is not only the one who puts his hope in humankind that is accursed, but also the one who uses the flesh of his arm, that is, his strength and all that he does, not for the Lord of mercy but so that power will be thought to have come from him. For whoever does this withdraws his heart from the Lord by claiming himself to be capable when he is not capable.

But let us see what kind of fruits a bad tree produces, and let us avoid bearing such fruits. The prophet Jeremiah says, "Cursed is the one who puts his trust in human beings and makes his flesh his support, and whose heart turns away from the Lord; such a person will be like a tamarisk in the desert."

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and the LORD is his trust.

For as it says in the psalm, "Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy," so also in the gospel, those who sow in laughter, that is, because of joy, shall reap in tears. Long ago did the Creator set these things side by side: Christ, by not changing them but only giving them emphasis, has made them new.

He said to him, "Yes, sir. The long duration of my illness makes me desire health. But, desire it as I may, I have no one." Do not lose heart, my good fellow, because you "have no one." You have God standing by you. One who is at once man and God under different aspects, for both must be confessed.

You have begun to love what is outside of yourself. You have gone outside of yourself. When a person's love goes away from him toward things that are outside of him, he begins to become vain along with useless goods, and somehow to spend his substance like the prodigal son. He is emptied. He is poured forth. He becomes a beggar.

And he will be like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by a stream; and it will not see when heat comes, and its leaf will be green; and in a year of drought it will not be anxious, and it will not cease from making fruit.

The heart is more twisted than all, and it is incurable — who can know it?

For this reason [it is, said], "Who shall declare His generation?" since "He is a man, and who shall recognise Him?" But he to whom the Father which is in heaven has revealed Him, knows Him, so that he understands that He who "was not born either by the will of the flesh, or by the will of man," is the Son of man, this is Christ, the Son of the living God.

The apostle says, "For God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." He does not say "in the likeness of flesh," for Christ took on himself the reality, not the likeness, of flesh. Nor does he say in the likeness of sin, for he did not sin but was made sin for us.

On hearing this curse pronounced in the figurative language of prophecy on him that trusts in man, and the blessing in similar style on him that trusts in God, the inquirer might have doubts about our doctrine, in which we teach not only that Christ is God, so that our trust is not in man, but also that He is man because He took our nature.

I the LORD search the heart, test the kidneys, and give to a man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

A partridge that hatches what it did not bear — one making riches and not by judgment. In the half of his days he will leave them, and at his end he will be a fool.

Jeremiah’s Prayer for Deliverance

A throne of glory, on high from the first, the place of our sanctuary.

Hope of Israel, LORD — all who forsake you will be ashamed. Those who turn from me will be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the fountain of living waters, the LORD.

"The endurance of Israel." Just as the Savior is righteousness-itself, truth-itself, sanctification-itself, so also he is endurance-itself. And it is not possible either to be righteous apart from Christ, or holy apart from him, or to endure without having Christ. For he himself is the endurance of Israel.

[Daniel 7:10] "There were millions ministering unto Him, and a billion stood by His side." This was not intended to be a specific number for the servants of God, but only indicates a multitude too great for human computation.

We must therefore not doubt that at the time when he was chosen by Christ and obtained a place in the apostolate, the name of Judas was written in the book of the living, and then he heard as well as the rest the words, "Rejoice not because the devils are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven." But because he was corrupted by the plague of covetou…

Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved; for you are my praise.

Then again there is a prayer that runs thus: "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my boast. Behold, they say to me, 'Where is the word of the Lord?

(Verse 14) Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise. In the Gospel (Matthew 9), many physicians had cured the woman with the issue of blood, who had lost all her substance on them, yet she could not be healed by anyone except by Him who is the true physician, and whose healing is in His wings.

No evil person does good. And if no evil person does good, how could an evil person make himself good? He who is eternally good can make an evil person good. "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be saved."

See, they say to me: Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come now!

And I — I have not pressed on from being a shepherd after you, and the incurable day I have not desired. You know: what came out of my lips was before your face.

Further, also, it is written concerning the Sabbath in the Decalogue which [the Lord] spoke, face to face, to Moses on Mount Sinai, "And sanctify ye the Sabbath of the Lord with clean hands and a pure heart." And He says in another place, "If my sons keep the Sabbath, then will I cause my mercy to rest upon them." The Sabbath is mentioned at the beginning of the creation [thus]…

Let us give thanks to God, and let us ask him in his good will to be our shield and crown, that we may never depart from him and that we may follow him and declare with Jeremiah, "I was not weary of following you." To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

For it is but little for a monk to have once made his renunciation, that is, in the early days of his conversion to have disregarded the present world, unless he continues to renounce it daily.

Do not be to me a shattering; you are my refuge in the day of evil.

Let my pursuers be ashamed, and let me not be ashamed. Let them be shattered, and let me not be shattered. Bring on them the day of evil, and break them with a double breaking.

Restoring the Sabbath

Thus said the LORD to me: Go and stand in the gate of the sons of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem.

And say to them: Hear the word of the LORD, kings of Judah and all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in by these gates.

Thus says the LORD: Guard yourselves in your souls, and do not lift a burden on the day of the sabbath and bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.

And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the day of the sabbath, and do not do any work; and you will sanctify the day of the sabbath, as I commanded your fathers.

But they did not hear and did not incline their ear, and they stiffened their neck so as not to hear and not to take discipline.

And it will be, if you diligently listen to me — the utterance of the LORD — to bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the day of the sabbath, and to sanctify the day of the sabbath by doing no work in it,

then there will come in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in the chariot and on the horses, they and their princes, the man of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city will be inhabited forever.

And they will come from the cities of Judah and from around Jerusalem and from the land of Benjamin and from the lowland and from the hill country and from the Negev, bringing burnt offering and sacrifice and grain offering and frankincense, and bringing thanksgiving to the house of the LORD.

But if you do not listen to me, to sanctify the day of the sabbath and not to lift a burden and come in by the gates of Jerusalem on the day of the sabbath, then I will kindle a fire in her gates, and it will devour the citadels of Jerusalem and will not be quenched.

Jeremiah17

The Sin and Punishment of Judah

Jeremiah’s Prayer for Deliverance

Restoring the Sabbath