Coming Judgement Against Judah (Day 8)

Read Jeremiah 4:1-18
 
   Jeremiah told the people to plow up the hardness of their hearts as a plow breaks up unplowed ground; soil that has not been tilled for a season. Good kings like Josiah had tried to turn the people back to God, but the people had continued to worship their idols in secret. Their hearts had become hardened to God’s will. Jeremiah said the people needed to remove the sin that hardened their hearts before the good seed of God’s commands could take root. Likewise we must remove our heart-hardening sin if we expect God’s Word to take root and grow in our life. 
   The disaster from the north would come from Babylon when Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II would attack (2 Chronicles 36). Jeremiah, deeply moved by God’s words, expressed sorrow and confusion to God. Jeremiah was intercessor for the people. These people had false expectations because of the past promises of blessings, their blindness to their own sin, and the false prophets who kept telling them that all was well. 
 
   Disaster was announced first from Dan and then on to the hills of Ephraim because Dan was located at the northern border of Israel. Thus, the Danites would be the first to see the approaching armies as they invaded from the north. No one would be able to stop the armies because they would be coming as punishment for the people’s sin.