Jeremiah 19:1 - Meaning and Application

Because human sin has made it necessary to teach line by line and precept by precept, God’s grace has also provided repeated instruction. We are so slow to receive truth, and so quick to forget it, that even stubborn people may be left without excuse. For that reason the prophet is sent here with a message much like what he has already spoken before, but with added details that would make people notice it more. Ministers should pay attention to that, because a small detail can sometimes help greatly, and anyone who wants to win souls must act wisely.

First, Jeremiah was to take the elders and leading men of both church and state as his hearers and witnesses, the elders of the people and the elders of the priests. These were the most important men in government and in worship, so they could testify faithfully, like those in (Isaiah 8:2). It is remarkable that such great men would go at the call of a poor prophet and leave the city for a place they did not know, for a reason they did not know. Still, even if most of the elders were against Jeremiah, some of them likely regarded him as a prophet of the Lord and were willing to honor the heavenly message.

People of rank have a chance to honor God by careful attendance on the ministry of the word and other acts of worship. They should count that an honor, not a shame, even if the setting seems plain or lowly. The greatest person is still less important than the least of God’s ordinances.

Second, Jeremiah must go to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and deliver the message there, because God’s word is not limited to one place. A sermon can be just as good in Topheth as at the temple gate. Christ preached on a mountain and from a boat. This valley was partly south of Jerusalem, but Jeremiah’s route to it was by the east gate, called by some the Sun Gate (Jeremiah 19:2), though others think it was the Potter’s Gate.

The message had to be spoken there for two reasons. First, that was where they had committed their worst idolatry, offering their children to Molech, a shocking act of evil. The sight of the place would remind them of their sin and shame them for it. Second, that was where they would soon suffer their worst disaster. It would become the place of great slaughter, and since it was the city’s common dump, they could look at it and see what Jerusalem would become, like the Valley of Topheth. God tells Jeremiah to speak the words I will give you when you get there, which shows that God often revealed his message to the prophets only at the very moment they were to speak it.

Third, Jeremiah must give a public warning that a general ruin is coming soon upon Judah and Jerusalem (Jeremiah 19:3). Like one making a formal announcement, he must begin with an urgent call: Hear the word of the Lord, even if it is a dreadful word, because they have brought it on themselves. Both rulers and common people must listen, at their own risk. The kings of Judah, the king and his sons, and the king and his princes and advisers must hear the word of the King of kings, for though they are high, he is higher still. The people of Jerusalem must also hear what God says to them.

Both rulers and people have helped bring guilt on the nation, so both must join in repentance, or both will share in the ruin. They must all know that the Lord of hosts, who has power to do what he says, will bring disaster on this place, Judah and Jerusalem, so shocking that anyone who hears about it will have his ears ring. The report will leave a lasting terror in the mind. This is how the ruin of Eli’s house is described in (1 Samuel 3:11), and also the ruin of Jerusalem in (2 Kings 21:12).

Fourth, Jeremiah must plainly tell them why God is arguing with them, in (Jeremiah 19:4-5). They are accused of turning away from God, and of abusing the privileges of the visible church, the outward fellowship of God’s people. They have estranged this place, meaning they have treated Jerusalem, the holy city, and the temple, the holy house, as if they belonged to something else. These places were meant to honor God and support his kingdom among people, but they had been polluted by sin until God no longer owned them and left them to destruction.

They are also charged with loving and worshiping false gods, gods that neither they nor their fathers knew. Those gods had never shown power or goodness to them or their ancestors, as the Lord had done for the people they were now abandoning. Yet they chose them anyway, almost as a random choice. Worse still, they seem to have liked these gods because they were new, as if novelty in religion were as appealing as novelty in anything else. They are also accused of murder, deliberate murder from settled hate: They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people. This was Manasseh’s sin (2 Kings 24:4), and the Lord would not pardon it.

As if idolatry and murder were not bad enough on their own, they joined them together into one horrible crime by burning their children as offerings to Baal. This was the boldest rejection of both natural religion and revealed religion that people had ever committed. By it, they plainly showed that they loved their new gods more than the true God, though those gods were cruel masters who demanded human sacrifices. I would call them inhuman. The Lord Jehovah, who owns every life and soul, never asked such a thing from his worshipers. He never spoke of it, and it never entered his mind. See (Jeremiah 7:31).

Fifth, Jeremiah must try to move them deeply with the greatness of the coming desolation.

He must tell them, as he had done before (Jeremiah 7:32), that this valley of the son of Hinnom would get a new name, the valley of slaughter (Jeremiah 19:6). Many people would fall there by the sword (Jeremiah 19:7), either when they rushed out against the besieging army and were driven back, or when they tried to escape and were captured. They would fall before their enemies, who would not only try to seize their houses and property, but would also hate them so fiercely that they would seek their lives. They would crave their blood, and after they were dead, they would not even allow them to be buried. Their bodies would become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

What a dreadful place the valley of Topheth would become then. As for those who stayed inside the city and would not surrender to the besiegers, they would die of hunger after first eating the flesh of their sons and daughters and closest friends, because their enemies had trapped them so tightly (Jeremiah 19:9). This was warned about in the law as one of the terrible extremes to which God’s judgments would bring them (Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53), and it was later fulfilled (Lamentations 4:10).

Finally, the whole city would be left empty and ruined. The houses would be burned, and the people would either be killed or taken prisoner. No one would come there anymore, and everything in it would look sad and terrible, so that anyone who passed by would be shocked (Jeremiah 19:8), just as he had said before (Jeremiah 18:16). The place that holiness had made the joy of the whole earth, sin had turned into the shame and disgrace of the whole earth.

He must also warn them that all their efforts to escape this ruin would fail as long as they stayed stubborn and unchanged (Jeremiah 19:7). “I will make Judah and Jerusalem’s plans fail” means he would defeat the counsel of the princes and leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, right there in the royal palace on the south side of the city, not far from where the prophet stood. There is no escaping God’s justice except by running to his mercy. Those who will not accept God’s counsel by humbling themselves under his mighty hand will find that God will ruin their own plans and bring down the schemes they thought were so carefully prepared for their safety. There is no wisdom or strength against the Lord.