(Through the Bible) Jeremiah 16-20 — Chuck Smith

Jeremiah’s Celibacy as a Sign of Coming Judgment

Shall we turn now to Jeremiah 16? Now you remember that Jeremiah was just a young man when God called him to this prophetic ministry. And so in chapter 16, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Thou shalt not take a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.

So Jeremiah is commanded by God not to marry. And the reason for the commandment not to marry or not to have children was to be a sign to the people of the terrible times that were coming. They were going to really be facing hard times.

And it was no time to be having children because if you have children, they're going to die of starvation. They're going to be killed in the siege. It's just not a time to be having children or to be getting married.

And also it was to be a sign. His bachelorhood was to be a sign unto the people. Now, it is interesting that God spoke to Hosea and told him to marry. And God directed him concerning his marriage. And with Hosea, his marriage was to be a sign unto the people.

With Isaiah, he was to name his children as signs to the people. And so their names meant certain things that were again a sign to the people. So with Jeremiah, God called him to bachelorhood. For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and the daughters that are born in this place, concerning their mothers that bear them, concerning the fathers that begat them in this land.

They shall die of grievous deaths. They shall not be lamented, neither will they be buried, but they will be as dung upon the face of the earth. And they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.

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 loving kindness and mercies. 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.". Now, in Israel they have customs. When a family member dies, you're not to shave for 30 days.

And then when you shave, you take the hair that has grown in that 30 days and offer it unto the Lord as sort of a sacrifice. But it is a sign of mourning. And even to the present day, the Jews observe this sign of mourning at a death.

So the shaving was after the 30 days that they had died. But he's saying there's not going to be any kind of a memorial or shaving of yourself or whatever for those who have died. Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning.

And of course, these people sought to show their great love for the deceased and the more wailing that went on in the house indicated to everybody how much you love them. And so when someone died that was very close to you, you wanted everybody to know how deeply you loved them.

And so you would hire wailers to come into your house. And there were professionals that could really wail. And they would come in and go through this wailing process. And of course, you would join in with them.

And there was this lamenting the wailing that they did for the dead. And so he is saying that that's not going to even be going on. The tearing of themselves or this 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. So, don't get married. Don't have children because the people that are here, the children that are now being born are going to suffer fearful, awful deaths as their bodies won't even be buried.

There will be no one around to mourn their deaths. And he's just telling of the hard, hard times that are coming. And because of that, as a sign to the people, he was not to marry nor to have children.

Feasting Ceases Under the Coming Judgment

Now the Lord gave him a second commandment in verse 8. Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting to sit with them to eat and to drink. Now, of course, the feasts were great occasions. And it was really, they didn't have television, radios and movie theaters.

And so their entertainment was at these feasts. And these feasts would be great occasions, not only of dining, but also of entertainment. And so there was great laughter as you had all kinds of entertainment during these feasts and all.

And they were just times of entertainment and celebration. But the prophet is told not to go to these feasts. 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 merriment and the voice of gladness and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

During your time, during this generation, these things are all going to cease in this land. So as a sign to the people that the end has come, don't go into the house of feasting. Don't join in that merriment.

And it shall come to pass when thou shalt show this people all these words and they shall say unto thee, Why has 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?

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 not kept my law, but you have done worse than your fathers.

For behold, you walk, everyone, after the imagination of his evil heart that they may not hearken unto me. So there was anarchy. Everyone was following the imagination of his own evil heart. God's law was forsaken and thus the judgments of God were coming upon them.

Israel’s Ancestral Apostasy and Stephen’s Indictment

Now, the Jew was immensely proud of his heritage. They were always talking about our fathers. And Jesus brings out the fact how they are always saying, Well, our fathers and in the days of our fathers.

So you remember when Stephen was called in before the Sanhedrin. As he started to sort of rehearse for them their, what they felt, illustrious history. He got caught up as he was rehearsing their history with the whole hypocrisy of the thing.

For remembering their history, he remembered how they had treated the prophets of God. Now, here's Jeremiah and he's saying, Hey, this is all happening to you because your fathers have forsaken God. They are worshipping these other gods.

But you are even worse than your fathers. Everyone is doing after the imagination of his own wicked heart. And for this cause, God is pronouncing this judgment that is coming. Now, their reaction to Jeremiah was to put him in prison when he brought this message to them.

So, as Stephen is rehearsing to the Sanhedrin who, you know, our fathers. And you remember Jesus in talking with them. They said, they were kept talking about our fathers. And Jesus said, look, if Abraham was your father, then you believe in me.

For Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it. And they were arguing with Jesus about that. And they said, we have, you know, Abraham was our father. Jesus said, you're of your father, the devil, and his works are the works that you're doing.

Well, Stephen got carried away and he said, which of the prophets have you not stoned? And he started really laying on them what their fathers had done, that they weren't these glorious, illustrious kind of men of faith that they had actually turned away from God and reminded them of that fact.

Therefore, God said, will I cast you out of this land into a land that you know not, neither ye nor your fathers, and there you will serve other gods day and night where I will not show you favor. 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, but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from the lands whether he had driven them, and I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

Now, he's speaking about this dark period of history that they're facing. During your time, the land is going to be laid desolate. During your time, you're going to be carried away captive because of your evil in turning against God.

It's all going to happen in your time. And yet, though he is pronouncing this judgment, he goes ahead and speaks of that glorious day when God will gather them back again into the land. After the 70-year captivity, the Lord will bring them back into the land and the day will come when they'll say, the God who brought us out of our captivity rather than the God who brought our fathers out of Egypt, they'll talk about God who brought us back from the captivity and put us back in the land.

Gentile Salvation and Jeremiah’s Prayer

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, from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

For my eyes are upon all their ways, and they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from my eyes. And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have defiled my land, and they have filled my inheritance with the carcasses of the detestable and abominable things.

Jeremiah cried out in response to what God had said, 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.

Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, and I will cause them to know mine hand and my might, and they shall know that my name is Jehovah.

So, Jeremiah cries out almost as a psalm. In fact, there are psalms, the Lord is my strength, my refuge, my fortress. And he is perhaps thinking of that psalm when he cries out, O Lord, my strength, my fortress, my refuge in the day of affliction.

And then the prophecy of the Gentiles coming from the ends of the earth. And Paul makes mention of the prophecies concerning the Gentile salvation in the book to the Romans. Chapter 17, the sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron and with a point of a diamond.

Trusting God Rather Than Human Strength

Interesting that they were using diamonds for pens in those days, isn't it? Diamonds set in iron. It is graven upon the table of their heart and upon the horns of your altars. Wilt their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees and upon the high hills?

O my mountains 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. And thou, even thyself, shall 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 my anger which shall burn forever.

Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm and whose heart departs from the Lord. And so God pronounces the curse upon those that would trust in an alliance in Egypt to deliver them from this Babylonian invasion.

Cursed be the man who puts his trust in man and makes the flesh his arm who has departed from the Lord, that is from trusting in the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert. He shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in the salt land and not inhabit it.

In contrast to the cursed be the man, blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is or is the Lord. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters that spreads out her roots by the river and shall not see when the heat comes, but her leaves shall be green and he shall not worry in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

So the cursing upon those that would trust in man in the arm of flesh and not the Lord, but the blessing upon those that would trust in the Lord. Those who trust in man in the arm of flesh will be dried, withered, dead, uninhabited.

Those that trust in the Lord will be like a tree planted by the waters that doesn't even know when summer comes because of the freshness that it draws out from that water. Now verse nine, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it? God's talking about your heart and my heart. Socrates cried, Man, know thyself, but who really does know himself? The scripture says, Thou, O Lord, searches the heart and the reins. God knows my heart better than I know it.

The Deceitfulness of the Heart and False Religious Motives

God knows what deception is there and it is easy for us to become deceived. It's easy for us to follow a vain philosophy. It's easy for us to take that adage, the end justifies the means. And so our means become perverse, crooked.

Paul the Apostle talks about those who say, Well, our lies bring glory to God. So God shouldn't judge us for lying. Or those who would say, Well, if I sin, I'm only proving that God is telling the truth when He said all have sinned.

So how can God judge me for proving Him to be speaking the truth? I'm only helping prove the truth of God's Word. So God really can't judge me because I'm only proving what He said is true. And Paul speaks out against the perversity of such kind of logic and how God will judge all.

Now, there are those who, in the name of the Lord, are doing crooked and perverse things. And if you talk to them about it, challenge them. They would be shocked. They would be disturbed. My brother, you know, you're judging me.

Well, the Bible says judge righteous judgment. I think that we've been put off a long time because we are afraid of people saying, Well, you're judging, you know. The Bible says, By their fruit she shall know them.

And it is wrong to use deceit and lies and gimmicks to try to extract funds from the people of God in order to support your program. I don't care how righteous or good your program may be. My wife told me not to get into this tonight.

It's right here in the Scripture. It just came along. I cannot understand men advertising their fasting and prayer. When Jesus said, When you fast, anoint your face, wash yourself, that you might look cheerful and all, that you don't appear unto men to fast.

And your father, which sees in secret, he'll reward you. And when you pray, don't go out on the street corner, but go into your closet and shut the door. And when some guy sends letters out all over the country saying, I'm going to spend some time fasting and praying.

Send me your request with your $50 check because I want to pray for you too. Something's wrong. Desperately wrong. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? But God declares, I, the Lord, search the heart.

I try the reins, that is the motivations, even to give every man according to his ways. Now Jesus tells us that we are to be careful that we don't do our righteousness before men to be seen of men because we have a reward.

Now Jesus plainly warns us about that. There is a way that I can do my righteousness so that people see me and they say, oh my, isn't he spiritual? And we've got to watch out for this because it is such a deceiving, terrible thing.

My old pride and my old flesh wants people to think that I am a spiritual man of God. I like people when I walk by to whisper, oh, isn't he spiritual? Oh, my flesh just really enjoys that. And so it's easy for me to get little spiritual affectations that my mind isn't really necessarily upon God.

As I stand there, you lift your head upward and close your eyes because that looks more spiritual. I wonder if people are seeing me now. Surely they'll know. I'm very spiritual. I hope they're watching.

And then if you go up on your tiptoes, it even looks a little more, you know, spiritual. But my mind, what am I thinking? Am I thinking, I hope they're watching, I hope they see, I hope they notice, I hope they realize how spiritual I am.

God said, look, I'm searching the heart. I'm trying the motives. Now the Bible tells us that one day all of our works are going to be judged by fire. And much of what we have done is going to go poof.

It's going to go up in smoke. Wait a minute, Lord. Did I not prophesy in Thy name? Didn't I work miracles in Your name? Didn't I heal the sick in Your name? Lord! I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins.

All of Your works are wood, hay, and stubble. They were done to be seen of men. They were done for Your own glory and to spread abroad in Your own name. You named Your chapels and Your universities and all after Your own name.

Sad. What a day of awakening it's going to be. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Now, David, realizing this, realizing that he didn't even know his own heart because of the deceitfulness of the heart, said, Thou, O Lord, has searched me and You know me.

You know my thoughts in their origins. Such knowledge, he said, is too great for me. I cannot attain it. I cannot really attain the true knowledge of myself. But then he said, Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be some way of wickedness in me and lead me in Your way eternal. Now, the man who understands and knows that his heart is deceitful and desperately wicked is the man who will join David's prayer and say, O God, You search my heart.

You try me. And God, if there's something there that is wrong, is displeasing You, reveal it to me, Lord. I don't want to be deceived. I don't want to be deceiving myself. I don't want to stand before God and suddenly find all that I've done wiped out in a puff of smoke as the fire consumes all of that work of wood, hay, and stubble.

Jesus said, You've not chosen Me, but I've chosen you and ordained you that you should be My disciples, that you should bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. That's what I want, remaining fruit.

So, God help us. He's searching our hearts. He tries the rain. And He's going to give to every man according to his ways. What's in my heart? Why did I do it? That's what's going to be judged. God is going to give to him according to the fruit of his doings.

Now, as a partridge sits on eggs and doesn't hatch them, so is he that gets riches not by right, but by wrong means. He is accumulating wealth. He shall leave them in the midst of his days and at his end he shall be a fool.

Forsaking the Fountain of Living Waters

A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. That place of our sanctuary is God's glorious high throne. 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.

It takes us back to the first cry of God against Israel in that they have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out for themselves cisterns that can hold no water.

Heal Me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Save Me and I shall be saved, for Thou art My praise. Behold, they say unto Me, Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now. As for Me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow Thee.

Neither have I desired the woeful day. Thou knowest that. That which came out of My lips was right before Thee. He's not rejoicing in the things that he is saying. Be not a terror unto Me. Thou art My hope in the day of evil.

Let them be confounded that persecute Me, but let not Me be confounded. Let them be dismayed, but let Me not be dismayed. Bring upon them the day of evil. Destroy them with double destruction. Now the Lord spoke to him concerning the gates where the king went in and went out, and he said, Now go down to the gate, and when the king comes in, give him this message.

Sabbath Obedience and God’s Offer of Mercy

Thus saith the Lord unto me, Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people where the kings of Judah come in, and by which way they go out. And in all of the gates of Jerusalem. 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.

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. Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but howl, O ye, the Sabbath day, as I have commanded your fathers.

But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear. Now that is their fathers obeyed not. I told your fathers not to do this, God is saying. But they didn't obey me, neither did they incline their ear. But they made their necks stiff that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

And it shall come to pass, if you diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city, on the Sabbath day, but howl of the Sabbath day to do no work therein.

Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots on horses. And they and their princes and the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in this city shall remain forever.

God is still holding out the opportunity of salvation and hope to them. Even at this late stage of their backsliding. Even when the judgment is hanging over their head. Even when Babylon is marching to destroy this place.

God is still holding out to them a hope. Just turn to me, just obey me. And the gates here, the kings and the princes will be passing through forever. You'll never be destroyed or put out of the land.

God's mercies just are so extensive. They're right up until the moment a person dies. God extends His mercy. Oh, how merciful is our God. 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 meal offerings and incense and bringing sacrifices of praise unto the house of the Lord.

It can happen. It can happen to you. Just turn back to Me. Just obey My commandments. But if you 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.

The Potter, the Wheel, and the Clay

Now in chapter 18, the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, Arise and go down to the potter's house and there I will cause thee to hear My words. Then I went down to the potter's house and behold, he brought a work on the wheels and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it again.

Another vessel has seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came unto me saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in My hand, O house of Israel.

Here again, as with Isaiah, the figure of the potter in the clay showing God's awesome sovereignty over man's destiny. God can make of you whatever He pleases. And as Paul the Apostle said in Romans 9, Who art thou, O man, who says unto the Lord, Why hast thou made me thus?

Hath not the potter the power over the clay to make of it whatever kind of a vessel he desires? In those chapters 9, 10 and 11 of Romans, where Paul speaks of this awesome sovereignty of God over man.

He uses the same figure of the potter in the clay. Now with Jeremiah, it is interesting. God said, go down to the potter's house and I'm going to speak to you there. He went down to the potter's house.

He saw him as he was working a work on the wheels. So the three objects, the potter, the wheel, the clay. Speak of God's dealing and working with man. The clay, a common worthless material in its native state.

And yet a material that has a potential of great value and utility according to the skill of the potter. The potter, his total control over the clay to make of it whatever he desires. God's awesome power over our lives.

The wheels, the circumstances of our lives by which God molds and shapes us. Now, in this case, as he watched the potter, the vessel was marred in the hands of the potter. He was making this vessel on the wheel, but suddenly the vessel took a wrong shape.

It maybe had a hard lump in the clay or something. The vessel was marred and so the potter just took and crumbled the clay again or compacted it again and then made of it a vessel as was good unto him to make.

And God spoke and said, is not Israel, the nation Israel, like clay in my hands? And though Israel had been marred, yet God would remake them. He would work in them again a new work. The vessel had been marred, but not to be discarded.

God would work yet again in making them that which he desires and intended them to be. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it.

Plucking Up, Tearing Down, and Repentance

Now, you remember in chapter one when God called Jeremiah, he said, I have called you over the nations. I've called you in his ministry was to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy. Now, that's quite a ministry to be called to.

Uproot things, Jeremiah. Plug them up. Destroy them. You see, there comes a time when the system gets so corrupt there's no renewing it. There's no reformation possible. It's gone too far. So before you can rebuild and plant and rebuild, you've got to just get rid of everything that is there.

And that is what God is saying. They've gotten so bad, we're just going to have to get rid of it, go back to zero, and then we'll start all over again. But you've got to tear down, root out, destroy that which exists.

So he brings him back to the first calling in chapter one. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom. Verse nine, to build and to plant. So in verse seven, he speaks of that plucking up, pulling down, destroying.

Now, if that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil and repent of that which I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it.

If you do evil in my sight, that it not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. Now, therefore, go and speak to the men of Judah and say to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, behold, I frame evil against you and devise a device against you.

Return you now everyone from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good. And they said, there is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices and we will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart.

So they would not listen to Jeremiah. They said, there's no hope. You know, we're all going to go for it at this point. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, ask ye now among the heathen, who has heard such things?

The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon from the rock of the field? There shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken. That beautiful crystal clear snow water that comes out of the ground at the base of the mountains there in Lebanon.

Will a man leave that beautiful crystal snow water because my people have forgotten me? They have burned incense to vanity. This is forsaking me that fountain of living water. They have forgotten me. They've burned incense to vanity.

They have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient past to walk in the paths in a way not cast up. To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing, everyone that passes by shall be astonished and wag his head.

I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy. I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their calamity. Then said they, and Jeremiah delivered this message to them, and then they responded saying, Come, let us devise devices against Jeremiah.

For the law shall not perish from the priest nor counsel from the wise nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the tongue and let us not give heed to any of his words. And so Jeremiah said, Give heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.

Shall evil be recompensed for good? For they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them and to turn away thy wrath from them. Now here Jeremiah said, I've been interceding, I've been praying for them, and now they're devising to do me in, God.

Remember how good I was, Lord, and remember how evil they are. Therefore, deliver up their children to the famine and pour out their blood by the force of the sword. And let their wives be bereaved of their children and be widows.

And let their men be put to death. Let the young men be slain by the sword in battle. In other words, I'm not going to intercede for them anymore, God. Go ahead and give it to them. Let a cry be heard.

He was a melancholy, no doubt, if you've done any personality type of analysis. A great melancholy, and it will show up even more forcibly as we move on into chapter 20. We see the melancholy at his classic height.

Verse 23, Lord, you know all of their counsel against me to slay me. Forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight. But let them be overthrown before they deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

So the prophet is really upset with them. Heard again that they're plotting to get him and all. And this time he's had it. God, just take care of him. Do whatever you want. Wipe him out. I'm not going to pray for them any longer.

How different this is from Moses. You remember Moses. As he interceded, Oh God, you know, forgive their sin. And if not, blot, I pray thee, my name out of thy book of remembrances. I have a hard time identifying with Moses.

I find a very easy time identifying with Jeremiah. You know, I come to my car and I find someone's ripped off something from my car. Well, I pray God, you know, get him. Smite him, Lord. Let him fall and break their legs, you know, and just really do him in, Lord, you know.

I have no mercy for thieves and people that go around ripping people off. It just really upsets me. Let the angel of the Lord pursue him, you know, and just give him a bad time, Lord. So, I would classify more with Jeremiah than I would Moses.

The Broken Potter’s Bottle and the Valley of Hinnom

Thus saith the Lord, go and get a potter's earthen bottle. Take one of the bottles that the potter has made. Clay bottles. And take the old men of the people and of the priest and go forth into the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee.

Now, the valley of Hinnom runs along the south side of the city of Jerusalem and joins the Kidron Valley right down at the base of the hill of Ophel, which was the city of David. And as you're standing on Mount Zion, as you look down into the valley to the south, you're looking down into the valley of Hinnom.

And this is where the children of Israel had done so much of their pagan worship of the of the gods of the Canaanites and the people who inhabited the land before they came in. And so he is to go into this valley where all of these pagan rites were done by the people with this clay jar from the potter's house.

So call the ancient priests and the old men and gather them into the valley and I'll give you my word there. I'll tell you what to speak. And say, Hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel.

Behold, I will bring evil upon this place. The witch whosoever hears it, his ears will tingle because they have forsaken me. The reason why the judgment's coming. They've forsaken me and estranged this place and have burned incense in it unto other gods whom neither they nor their fathers have known nor the kings of Judah and they have filled this place with the blood of innocence.

They have built also the high places of Bel, altars to Bel, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings. Now if you go over to Israel in the Museum of Natural History, they have a collection in there of these little representations of the God Bel.

And they are, many of them made of iron, some of them are made of stone. And as you look at them, their hands are always pointed upwards with their palms in. And they are little figurines that look somewhat human with little arms out like this and hands pointed up.

Now, what they would do there in the valley of Hinnom is that they would set these little iron representations of the God Bel in the fire until they were glowing red hot. And then they would take their live little babies and place them in the glowing red hot arms of the little God Bel and burn them to death.