That Which is Easily Broken is Not Easily Repaired

I. The Proclamation of the of Desolation Jerusalem 1-5
A. The Message at Hinnom
1. Jeremiah is commanded to buy a clay pot.
a. We are still dealing with the potter’s metaphor from Ch 18.
b. Notice that there are differences.
2. We are no longer dealing with pliable clay.
3. The pots that have been excavated from this period have a long, narrow neck.
4. If the pot is broken, it cannot be repaired.
5. This is the symbolism that God is trying to convey through Jeremiah to the ancients.
6. Exactly what is the Message at Hinnom.
B. The Message of the High Price of Idolatry
1. Idolatry is high priced because God will destroy Jerusalem v.3
2. Idolatry is high priced because of the blood of the innocent v.4
3. Idolatry is high priced because: v.5
a. The people have gone on building the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal
b. God never commanded a human sacrifice.
c. God never decreed the burning of children
d. It never entered the mind of God to destroy innocent human lives which I did not command or decree, nor did it enter my mind.
II. The Proclamation of Devastation 6-9
A. Jeremiah prophesied complete physical devastation.
1. Jerusalem would be destroyed and defiled!
a. Jerusalem was destroyed in Jeremiah’s lifetime (586BC) by King Nebuchaddnezzer of Babylon.
b. Jerusalem was destroyed again in 70AD by Titus of Rome.
2. The destruction of Jerusalem served two purposes.
a. It fulfilled prophecy and punished the people living in the city at the time.
b. It became a metaphor for a greater loss.
B. Jeremiah prophesied complete spiritual devastation.
1. The state of final spiritual ruin without spiritual death.
(For those who saw the error of their ways and repented.
2. The state of final spiritual ruin with resultant spiritual death.
a. Damnation.
b. The Second Death
c. Hell.
(1) The prophet was specifically told where to go and the way to take.
(2) He was to go to the Valley of Hinnom by way of the Potsherd Gate.
(3) Because of its proximity to the potter’s house (18:1) and the dumping of potters’ waste outside it, one gate of Jerusalem became known as the Potsherd Gate.
(4) It led to the Valley of Hinnom.
(a) Because it had been connected with child sacrifice, Josiah had made the valley a garbage dump for Jerusalem (2 Kings 23:10).
(b) Its rubbish fires constantly smoldered. The NT Gehenna ("hell") is a corruption by the Jews for "Ge [valley of] Hinnom."
(c) There is a link between the name of the gate and the action Jeremiah performed.
(d) The Jews of the day knew what God was telling them and refused to listen.
(e) What are we doing today?
III. The Proclamation of the Demolition of Judah 10-13
A. Judah would be destroyed and defiled!
B. After this message of doom, Jeremiah was commanded to break the jar in the sight of the elders who accompanied him (v.10; cf. Ps 2:9).
1. This was another illustrated oracle (ef 13:111).
2. The gravity of Jeremiah’s act lay in the fact that it not only illustrated the Lord’s acts, but inaugurated them, so to speak.
3. This was more than dramatization; it was seen as actually activating the Lord’s word of destruction (v.11).
a. This explains Pashhur’s violent reaction