The Heart Tried by the LORD
SCRIPTURE READING:
Jeremiah 14-17
SCRIPTURE:
Jeremiah 14
¹ The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.
² Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
³ And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
⁴ Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.
⁵ Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
⁶ And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.
⁷ O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.
⁸ O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?
⁹ Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.
¹⁰ Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
¹¹ Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
¹² When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
¹³ Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.
¹⁴ Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
¹⁵ Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
¹⁶ And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.
¹⁷ Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.
¹⁸ If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.
¹⁹ Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!
²⁰ We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.
²¹ Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.
²² Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.
Jeremiah 15
¹ Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
² And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.
³ And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.
⁴ And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
⁵ For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?
⁶ Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.
⁷ And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.
⁸ Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.
⁹ She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.
¹⁰ Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.
¹¹ The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
¹² Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?
¹³ Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.
¹⁴ And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.
¹⁵ O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.
¹⁶ Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
¹⁷ I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.
¹⁸ Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
¹⁹ Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.
²⁰ And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
²¹ And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.
Jeremiah 16
¹ The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
² Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.
³ For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;
⁴ They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
⁵ For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.
⁶ Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
⁷ Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
⁸ Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.
⁹ For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
¹⁰ And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?
¹¹ Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
¹² And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:
¹³ Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.
¹⁴ Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
¹⁵ But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
¹⁶ Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
¹⁷ For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
¹⁸ And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.
¹⁹ O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
²⁰ Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
²¹ Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.
Jeremiah 17
¹ The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
² Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
³ O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
⁴ And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.
⁵ Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
⁶ For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
⁷ Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
⁸ For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
¹⁰ I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
¹¹ As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
¹² A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
¹³ O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
¹⁴ Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
¹⁵ Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.
¹⁶ As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee.
¹⁷ Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil.
¹⁸ Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
¹⁹ Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
²⁰ And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:
²¹ Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
²² Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
²³ But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
²⁴ And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;
²⁵ Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever.
²⁶ And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD.
²⁷ But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
DEVOTIONAL:
Drought, famine, sword, and false prophecy dominate Jeremiah 14 and 15. The prophet confesses Judah's sins and appeals to God's name, yet the people's long refusal has reached a point where familiar words cannot function as genuine repentance. False prophets promise that sword and famine will not come, offering a revelation the LORD has not sent. Their message is attractive because it separates reassurance from return. Jeremiah himself bears the emotional strain of proclaiming judgment and asks why his pain continues. God's answer distinguishes his servant from the surrounding deceit: if Jeremiah returns, speaks what is precious rather than what is vile, and refuses to be spiritually converted to the people, he will remain God's mouth. Prophetic ministry requires compassion for hearers without allowing their preferences to rewrite the message.
Chapter 16 uses Jeremiah's unmarried life and withdrawal from ordinary mourning and feasting as signs of the approaching catastrophe. The discipline is personal and costly, showing that the word of God is not abstract information for the messenger. Yet judgment is not the only future spoken. A coming restoration will be so remarkable that it will be remembered alongside the exodus, as the LORD gathers Israel from the lands of dispersion. The text refuses both sentimental optimism and final abandonment. Sin has real historical consequences, but the covenant God retains the initiative to restore. Israel's hope rests neither in denying exile nor in becoming indistinguishable from the nations, but in the LORD who remembers, gathers, and makes his power known.
Jeremiah 17 reaches the hidden center: sin is engraved upon the heart, and the heart is deceitful above all things. This does not mean every feeling is equally false or that self-examination is useless. It means the human interior cannot serve as its own infallible judge. The LORD searches the heart and tries the reins. Two lives are contrasted: the person who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm becomes like a shrub in the desert, while the one who trusts the LORD is like a tree planted by waters. Sabbath obedience then tests whether Judah will trust God's provision or make commerce the governing rhythm even at Jerusalem's gates. Inner allegiance becomes visible in embodied patterns of time, work, and worship.
Jesus answers the chapter's prayer, “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved.” He is the physician for hearts that cannot cure their own deceit and the Savior who bears covenant judgment. He also embodies perfect trust in the Father, refusing to turn stones to bread or secure life through disobedience. Through the new covenant, his Spirit writes God's instruction within and produces fruit that self-reformation cannot manufacture. Christians still examine motives, establish rhythms, and practice obedience, but they do so as people saved by grace. Their confidence is not in the sincerity of the heart alone but in the searching God who justifies the ungodly through faith in Christ and steadily sanctifies those he has made his own.
In daily life, refuse reassurance that asks nothing of your allegiance. When advice always confirms your desire, test it against Scripture and seek counsel from people who are free to disagree. Bring recurring pain to God without editing your questions, yet remain willing for him to correct the speaker as well as the situation. Build rhythms that expose where trust actually rests: a Sabbath-shaped pattern of worship and rest, honest limits on work, regular generosity, and freedom from constant commercial urgency. In family life, do not make children responsible for satisfying adult emotional needs. At work, distinguish prudent confidence from promises unsupported by evidence. In church, honor leaders who tell precious truth with tenderness and who are accountable when their own hearts distort judgment.
In U.S. civic life, Jeremiah commends discernment, since public fear creates a market for voices that promise safety without truth or sacrifice. Pray for citizens to test claims carefully, for officials to communicate risk honestly, and for communities to build humane rhythms that do not sacrifice families and workers to endless productivity. Christians should show up as discerning listeners who resist flattering certainty, honor truthful expertise, and place ultimate confidence in God rather than human assurances.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Why were the false prophets' promises of peace spiritually dangerous even though the people desired reassurance?
How do judgment and the promise of a greater gathering remain together in Jeremiah 16?
What does the deceitfulness of the heart require from Christian self-examination and community accountability?
How does Jesus heal, save, and create the inward obedience anticipated by these chapters?
Which rhythm of time, work, or money presently reveals the true object of your trust?
PRAYER:
ADORATION:
LORD who searches the heart, you know every motive, distinguish truth from flattery, and gather your people by sovereign mercy. You are the fountain beside whom faithful lives become fruitful.
CONFESSION:
We confess our appetite for reassuring voices, our confidence in flesh, and our resistance to limits. We have trusted our feelings as final judges and have allowed work, fear, or convenience to govern rhythms meant for worship.
THANKSGIVING:
Thank you for hearing honest lament, preserving a promise of restoration, and sending Jesus as healer and Savior. Thank you for the Holy Spirit, who exposes deceit without abandoning us and grows obedience from grace.
SUPPLICATION – GENERAL:
Make us discerning, teachable, and deeply rooted in you. Heal recurring wounds, purify our speech, establish wise patterns of labor and rest, and strengthen churches to tell the truth without losing compassion.
SUPPLICATION – U.S. / CIVIC:
Give our public life honest communication and resistance to manipulative certainty. Protect families and workers from systems that consume every margin, grant wisdom during crisis, and help believers honor expertise without turning it into an idol.
SCRIPTURE:
¹⁴ Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.