Jeremiah 13:12-14

B. WARNING: Pride Causes Drunkenness Jeremiah 13:12-14

TRANSLATION

(12) And you shall say unto them this word: Thus says the LORD God of Israel: Every bottle shall be filled with wine. Then they shall say unto you, Do we not know very well that every bottle shall be filled with wine? (13) Then you shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land and the kings that sit on David's throne and the priests and the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness. (14) And I will dash them against one another, the fathers and sons together (oracle of the LORD). I will not have mercy nor will I have pity nor will I have compassion to prevent them from being destroyed.

COMMENTS

The exact background of this little passage is not known. Perhaps Jeremiah was addressing those who were assembled at some festival. The presence of some empty earthen jars or wine skins might have provided the occasion for the parable which he offered. Jeremiah solemnly pronounced the formula, Thus says the Lord. The crowd of merrymakers became hushed and listened with rapt attention to what the eloquent orator from Anathoth might have to say. They no doubt expect a colorful sermon filled with biting sarcasm, pungent metaphors and daring attacks upon the unpopular king Jehoiakim. Instead they heard the commonplace and obvious truth: Every bottle shall be filled with wine. In shocked silence the crowd awaited for something more. But that was it. The prophet was through, for the moment at least. Someone in the crowd chuckled then all enjoyed a hardy laugh. They began to heckle the prophet: What marvelous wisdom! But tell us something we do not already know Jeremiah! Have you nothing more profound to say in the name of the Lord than this childish ditty? (Jeremiah 13:12).

Jeremiah did have something more to say and when the crowd had finished its laughter he drove home his point. Empty bottles are meant to be filled and that is just what God is about to do with the population of Judah. They are empty bottles and they will be filled with the wine of God's wrath (cf. Jeremiah 25:15). They will be filled with drunkenness i.e., irrationality and helplessness. When men depart from the Lord they blunder, stagger and fall like a Skid ROW drunk. Men who are mentally and spiritually intoxicated are oblivious to danger, insensitive to warning, devoid of moral scruples. inconsiderate of and offensive to others. The drunk is dazed, confused, befuddled. What a perfect picture of the man who has rejected God. To emphasize the universality of this forthcoming judgment Jeremiah mentions five different segments of the national population: The inhabitants of the land, the residents of Jerusalem, the prophets, the priests and the kings who OCCUPY the throne of David. The plural kings is used no doubt to refer to all the kings who reigned during the final years of the history of Judah (Jeremiah 13:13).

Reeling helplessly as drunken sots the inebriated inhabitants of Judah will crash into one another. They will all fall; they will all perish. The reference here is probably to the internal confusion within Judah at the time she is under attack by her enemies. But God will have no pity upon these fallen sots and he will not intervene to prevent them from being destroyed (Jeremiah 13:14). The grace period has ended, Those who have through the years rejected the infinite mercy of God will now face His fierce wrath.