Jeremiah – Chapter 19

Verse 1 – Thus says the Lord: “Go and get a potter’s earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests.

verse 2 – “and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you,

Verse 3 – “and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle.

Verse 4 – “Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents.

Verse 5 – “(they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind),

Verse 6 – “therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of slaughter.

So, Jeremiah gets a potter’s clay jar, goes to their garbage dump (Valley of the Son of Hinnom) and begins to tell the people what the Lord has said. This is the same place that the people would sacrifice their sons to the pagan god Molech.

Verse 7 – “And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth.

Verse 8 – “I will make the city desolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.

Verse 9 – “And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.” ‘

So severe would the siege of Jerusalem be, that those who survived would turn to cannibalism. This happened in the Babylonian siege in 587 B.C. and in A.D. 70 when Jerusalem fell to the Romans. The sad part is, they knew it was going to happen and did nothing. They continued to ignore Jeremiah’s warnings.

Verse 10 – “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,

Verse 11 – “and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury.

Verse 12 – “Thus I will do to this place,” says the Lord, “and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet.

Verse 13 – “And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the hosts of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods.” ‘ ”

This happened twice, in 580 B.C. during the Babylonians invasion under Nebuchadnezzar, and in A.D. 70 when Titus destroyed Jerusalem. They were so desperate for food that they resorted to eating their own children. It’s as though these people had no minds to even think the simplest of thoughts. Here was a God that had given them and provided everything and they had just spit in His face. They would soon see where that got them.

Verse 14 – Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people,

Verse 15 – “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.’ ”

If you are reading this, please don’t think it is just another Bible story. This happened just as Jeremiah predicted and so will the Book of Revelation. What God says is coming and will happen and for those who reject His Son and stiffen their necks, there will only be heartache and destruction.