Jeremiah 18: the potter works his clay, getting rid of what is not good

 In Jeremiah 18 we read:

5-10 Then God’s Message came to me: “Can’t I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?” God’s Decree! “Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel. At any moment I may decide to pull up a people or a country by the roots and get rid of them. But if they repent of their wicked lives, I will think twice and start over with them. At another time I might decide to plant a people or country, but if they don’t cooperate and won’t listen to me, I will think again and give up on the plans I had for them.

11 “So, tell the people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem my Message: ‘Danger! I’m shaping doom against you, laying plans against you. Turn back from your doomed way of life. Straighten out your lives.’

12 “But they’ll just say, ‘Why should we? What’s the point? We’ll live just the way we’ve always lived, doom or no doom.’”

The Lord asks Israel to repent but they just want to live as always have lived, doom or no doom.

Jeremiah talks against idolatry:

15
For My people have forgotten Me,
They burn incense [e]to worthless gods.
And they [f]have stumbled in their ways,
In the ancient roads,
To walk on paths,
Not on a highway,

However, instead of repentance, they devised plans against Jeremiah. In their opinion, there are other ways to listen to the Law:

18 Then they said, “Come and let’s devise plans against Jeremiah. Certainly the Law is not going to be lost by the priest, nor advice by the wise, nor the divine word by the prophet! Come, and let’s strike at him with our tongue, and let’s pay no attention to any of his words.”

Jeremiah cursed his opponents with the opposite of the Aram blessing:

17
Like an east wind I will scatter them
Before the enemy;
I will [g]show them My back and not My face
In the day of their disaster.’”

Jeremiah 17: don't look your heart, it is deceitful

 In Jeremiah 17 we read:
1-2 “Judah’s sin is engraved
    with a steel chisel,
A steel chisel with a diamond point—
    engraved on their granite hearts,
    engraved on the stone corners of their altars.
The evidence against them is plain to see:
    sex-and-religion altars and sacred sex shrines
Anywhere there’s a grove of trees,
    anywhere there’s an available hill.

The idolatry (with sex shrines) is engraved in Judah. The Lord will punish Judah:

3-4 “I’ll use your mountains as roadside stands
    for giving away everything you have.
All your ‘things’ will serve as reparations
    for your sins all over the country.
You’ll lose your gift of land,
    The inheritance I gave you.
I’ll make you slaves of your enemies
    in a far-off and strange land.
My anger is hot and blazing and fierce,
    and no one will put it out.”

We understand that the Lord removed the idolatry through the Babylonian captivity.
The Lord sets a cursing and a blessing to his people:

5-6 God’s Message:

“Cursed is the strong one
    who depends on mere humans,
Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone
    and sets God aside as dead weight.
He’s like a tumbleweed on the prairie,
    out of touch with the good earth.
He lives rootless and aimless
    in a land where nothing grows.

7-8 “But blessed is the man who trusts me, God,
    the woman who sticks with God.
They’re like trees replanted in Eden,
    putting down roots near the rivers—
Never a worry through the hottest of summers,
    never dropping a leaf,
Serene and calm through droughts,
    bearing fresh fruit every season.

Is this blessing and cursing today? In the New Testament, Jesus sets a blessing and cursing after the Sermon of the Mound in Matthew 7. Certainly that this blessing and cursing is valid to we Christians.
It is so easy to say that we depend on the Lord (and we are to be blessed) when in fact, not, because:

9-10 “The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful,
    a puzzle that no one can figure out.
But I, God, search the heart
    and examine the mind.
I get to the heart of the human.
    I get to the root of things.
I treat them as they really are,
    not as they pretend to be.”

This is one more point to believe that "fear of the Lord" is in fact "fear" and not simply respect. The blessings and cursings must cause some kind of apprehension, fear. We must check: Do I really trust the Lord? It is impossible to believe that I trust in the Lord looking my heart only (because it is deceitful). I need a greater belief: I need Jesus as my Redeemer.

Jeremiah 16: they will know that My name is YHWH

 Christians are called to celebrate a new life with Jesus. In a way, the holy communion is a feast but poor Jeremiah must evict feasts (ex: marriage), mourning and even, he must be alone, with no family:

8 Moreover, you shall not go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.” 9 For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I am going to eliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your time, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of joy, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.

5 For this is what the Lord says: “Do not enter a house of mourning, or go to mourn or to console them; for I have withdrawn My peace from this people,” declares the Lord, “and My favor and compassion.

1 The word of the Lord also came to me, saying, 2 “You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For this is what the Lord says concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their mothers who give birth to them, and their fathers who father them in this land: 4 “They will die of deadly diseases, they will not be mourned or buried; they will be like dung on the surface of the ground. And they will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.”

Interestingly, people in Judah would not recognize that deserves punishment:

10 “Now it will happen that, when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘For what reason has the Lord declared all this great disaster against us? And what is our wrongdoing, or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 Then you are to say to them, ‘It is because your forefathers have abandoned Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and have followed other gods, and served and worshiped them; but they have abandoned Me and have not kept My Law. 12 You too have done evil, even more than your forefathers; for behold, each one of you is following the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me. 13 So I will hurl you off this land to the land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night, because I will show you no compassion.’


Despite this great punishment, the Lord will restore the land to his people:

14 “Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.

Jeremiah praises the Lord because He is powerful, not compared to any other man made god:

19 Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
And my refuge in the day of distress,
To You the nations will come
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood,
Futility, and [a]things of no benefit.”
20 Can a person make gods for himself?
But they are not gods!

21 “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—
This time I will make them know
My [b]power and My might;
And they will know that My name is YHWH.”

Jeremiah 15: Jeremiah is not happy with the Lord and prays about it.

 In Jeremiah 15 we read:

1  Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My [a]heart would not be [b]with this people. Send them away from My presence and have them go!

The Lord called Jeremiah to call His people to repent or to face doom; however, now, the Lord is so angry that He prophecies about Judah:

8 Their widows will be more numerous before Me
Than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man,
A destroyer at noon;
I will suddenly bring down on her
Shock and horror.
9 She who gave birth to seven sons withers away;
[d]Her breathing is labored.
Her sun has set while it was still day;
She has been shamed and humiliated.
So I will turn over their survivors to the sword
Before their enemies,” declares the Lord.

Jeremiah prays to the Lord:

5 You know, Lord;
Remember me, take notice of me,
And take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
Do not, in view of Your patience, take me away;
Know that for Your sake I endure reproach.
16 Your words were found and I ate them,
And Your words became a joy to me and the delight of my heart;
For I have been called by Your name,
Lord God of armies.
17 I did not sit in a circle of revelers and celebrate.
Because of Your hand upon me I sat alone,
For You filled me with indignation.
18 Why has my pain been endless
And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream
With water that is unreliable?

Although Jeremiah delighted in the Lord in the past, now, he is wounded and he sees the Lord as an unreliable stream of water.
The Lord responds:

19 Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
“If you return, then I will restore you—
You will stand before Me;
And if you extract the precious from the worthless,
You will become [e]My spokesman.
They, for their part, may turn to you,
But as for you, you are not to turn to them.
20 Then I will make you to this people
A fortified wall of bronze;
And though they fight against you,
They will not prevail over you;
For I am with you to save you
And rescue you,” declares the Lord.
21 “So I will rescue you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the [f]grasp of the violent.”

The Lord calls Jeremiah to repent (return v19) so that he becomes His spokesman.

Jeremiah 13: let your undergarment rot

 In Jeremiah 13 we read:

1-2 God told me, “Go and buy yourself some linen shorts. Put them on and keep them on. Don’t even take them off to wash them.” So I bought the shorts as God directed and put them on.
3-5 Then God told me, “Take the shorts that you bought and go straight to Perath and hide them there in a crack in the rock.” So I did what God told me and hid them at Perath.
6-7 Next, after quite a long time, God told me, “Go back to Perath and get the linen shorts I told you to hide there.” So I went back to Perath and dug them out of the place where I had hidden them. The shorts by then had rotted and were worthless.


The Lord commands Jeremiah to use an undergarment for some time and then, to hide it in a crack in the rock. After some time, Jeremiah returned and saw how rotted it was.

8-11 God explained, “This is the way I am going to ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem—a wicked bunch of people who won’t obey me, who do only what they want to do, who chase after all kinds of no-gods and worship them. They’re going to turn out as rotten as these old shorts. Just as shorts clothe and protect, so I kept the whole family of Israel under my care”—God’s Decree—“so that everyone could see they were my people, a people I could show off to the world and be proud of. But they refused to do a thing I said.

The shorts are compared to the Lord's people. His people was to "clothe and protect" other nations, but his people doesn't obey the Lord and therefore, the Lord will let them rot as the old shorts.

Jeremiah 14: false prophets have a positve message

 In Jeremiah 14 we read about a severe drought.

4-5  Because the ground is [b]cracked,
For there has been no rain on the land.
The farmers have been put to shame,
They have covered their heads.
5 For even the doe in the field has given birth only to abandon her young,
Because there is no grass.

Would the Lord let his people die because they are sinners? The prophet prays:

7 Though our wrongdoings testify against us,
Lord, act for the sake of Your name!
Our apostasies have indeed been many,
We have sinned against You.
8 Hope of Israel,
Its Savior in time of distress,
Why are You like a stranger in the land,
Or like a traveler who has pitched his tent for the night?
9 Why are You like a confused person,
Like a warrior who cannot save?
Yet You are in our midst, Lord,
And we are called by Your name;
Do not leave us!”

The Lord answers the prophet:

11 So the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for a good outcome on behalf of this people. 12 When they fast, I am not going to listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather, I am going to put an end to them by the sword, famine, and plague.”

Jeremiah argues for Judah. They were misled by false prophets who have a "positive mindset" that are in fact lies.

13 But I said, “Oh, Lord [c]God! Behold, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see a sword, nor will you have famine; on the contrary, I will give you lasting peace in this place.’” 14 Then the Lord said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them, nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility, and the deception of their own [d]minds. 15 Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them—yet they keep saying: ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’—by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end! 16 And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them—neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters. For I will pour out their own wickedness upon them.

Jeremiah 12: is the Lord righteous with Jeremiah?

 
In Jeremiah 12, Jeremiah doesn't understand why the Lord is righteous, when he compares how the Lord treats him and the wicked:

1 Righteous are You, Lord, when I plead my case with You;
Nevertheless I would discuss matters of justice with You:
Why has the way of the wicked prospered?
Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease?
2 You have planted them, they have also taken root;
They grow, they have also produced fruit.
You are near [a]to their lips
But far from their [b]mind.
3 But You know me, Lord;
You see me
And examine my heart’s attitude toward You.
Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter,
And set them apart for a day of slaughter!

The Lord answers:

5 “If you have run with infantrymen and they have tired you out,
How can you compete with horses?
If you fall down in a land of peace,
How will you do in the thicket by the Jordan?
6 For even your brothers and the household of your father,
Even they have dealt treacherously with you,
Even they have called aloud after you.
Do not believe them, though they say nice things to you.”

7 “I have forsaken My house,
I have abandoned My inheritance;
I have handed the beloved of My soul
Over to her enemies.
8 My inheritance has become to Me
Like a lion in the forest;
She has [e]roared against Me;
Therefore I have come to hate her.

The Lord is asking Jeremiah to have a stronger vision: he doesn't know what is reserved for the wicked, so he shouldn't envy them. Although Jermiah is alone (even his brothers deal trecheurously with him), the Lord is with him, while the Lord has forsaken others.

Jeremiah 11: plot against Jeremiah's life

 In Jeremiah 11 we read:

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 3 and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: “Cursed is the one who does not obey the words of this covenant 4 which I commanded your forefathers on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and [a]do according to all that I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God,’ 5 in order to confirm the oath which I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.”’” Then I replied, “Amen, Lord.”

The people of the Lord is to be blessed or cursed according to the obedience to the Lord. In Jeremiah, we see the cursing due to disobedience.

Imagine that we are in Judah listening to Jeremiah's preaching:

11 Therefore this is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am bringing disaster on them which they will not be able to escape; though they will cry out to Me, I will not listen to them. 12 Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they [c]burn incense, but they certainly will not save them in the time of their disaster. 13 For your gods are [d]as many as your cities, Judah; and [e]as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the shameful thing, altars for [f]burning incense to Baal.

Imagine that we are idolaters listening that we broke the convenant and deserve punishment. Certainly, we would be against Jeremiah. The people of Judah devised plots to kill him:

8 Moreover, the Lord made it known to me and I knew it;
Then You showed me their deeds.
19 But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter;
And I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying,
“Let’s destroy the tree with its [k]fruit,
And let’s cut him off from the land of the living,
So that his name will no longer be remembered.”
20 But, Lord of armies, who judges righteously,
Who puts the [l]feelings and the heart to the test,
Let me see Your vengeance on them,
For to You I have [m]committed my cause.

However, Jeremiah was certain that the Lord was for him:

22 therefore, this is what the Lord of armies says: “Behold, I am going to punish them! The young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters will die by famine; 23 and a remnant will not be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth—the year of their punishment.”

Jeremiah 10: Correct me Lord and don't lose your temper.

 
In Jeremiah 10, the Lord says:

2 ...
“Do not learn the way of the nations,
And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens,
Although the nations are terrified by them;
3 For the customs of the peoples are futile;
For it is wood cut from the forest,
The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.

It is very common to be worried about the future: lack of money and health. I suppose that in Jeremiah days, astrology (signs of heavens) was very important. Today, we have some kind of astrology by looking time series, prognostics, statistics, etc. The Lord calls his people to trust in Him:

6 There is none like You, Lord;
You are great, and Your name is great in might.
7 Who would not fear You, O King of the nations?
For it is Your due!
For among all the wise men of the nations
And in all their kingdoms,
There is none like You.

Despite, Judah's sins:

16 The Portion of Jacob is not like these (idols);
For He is the [b]Maker of everything,
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance;
The Lord of armies is His name.

The Lord is the One who provided the Promised Land but:

17 Pick up your bundle from the ground,
You who live under siege!
18 For this is what the Lord says:
“Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land
At this time,
And I will cause them distress,
So that they may [c]be found.”

It shows that to know the Lord is our real blessing and not His blessings (ex: wealth, health) per si.

Jeremiah know that the Lord hates the sin and He will punish Judah. The prophet prays:

23 I know, Lord, that a person’s way is not in himself,
Nor is it in a person who walks to direct his steps.
24 Correct me, Lord, but with justice;
Not with Your anger, or You will [e]bring me to nothing.
25 Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You,
And on the families who do not call upon Your name;
For they have devoured Jacob;
They have devoured him and consumed him,
And have laid waste his [f]settlement.

Jeremiah 9: boast in understanding the Lord

 In Jeremiah 9 we read:

5 Everyone deceives his neighbor
And does not speak the truth.
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They weary themselves committing wrongdoing.

The Lord will destroy Judah. One reason is that they have taught their tongue to speak lies. Some people say that it is sign of intelligence to lie; the Bible says it needs some learning to lie; however, the one who lies is in constant motion not to be caught, he can't rest.

9 Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares the Lord.
“Shall I not avenge Myself
On a nation such as this?
...
11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
A haunt of jackals;
And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.”
...
16 I will also scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have put an end to them.”
...

23 This is what the Lord says: “Let no wise man boast of his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast of his might, nor a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let the one who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises [f]mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

Everyone boasts on his own strength because it gives some advantage over others; however the great advantage is to know the Lord that is merciful, just and righteous and He wants his people to be so.

25 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised— 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all those inhabiting the desert who trim the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.”

Interestingly the Lord is not delighted to see the sign of the covenant (circumcision) without a heart circumcised.

Jeremiah 8: lack of repentance and punishiment

 In Jeremiah 8 we read:

 1-2 “And when the time comes”—God’s Decree!—“I’ll see to it that they dig up the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the princes and priests and prophets, and yes, even the bones of the common people. They’ll dig them up and spread them out like a congregation at worship before sun, moon, and stars, all those sky gods they’ve been so infatuated with all these years, following their ‘lucky stars’ in doglike devotion. The bones will be left scattered and exposed, to reenter the soil as fertilizer, like manure.

I don´t know what for would the Babylonians profane the graves. The destruction will be so great that even the dead will be disturbed by it.

4-7 “Tell them this, God’s Message:

“‘Do people fall down and not get up?
    Or take the wrong road and then just keep going?
So why does this people go backward,
    and just keep on going—backward!
They stubbornly hold on to their illusions,
    refuse to change direction.
I listened carefully
    but heard not so much as a whisper.
No one expressed one word of regret.
    Not a single “I’m sorry” did I hear.
They just kept at it, blindly and stupidly
    banging their heads against a brick wall.
...

It is expected that the one fall in temptation , repent and return to the Lord; but hte people is living in sin with no regard to the will of the Lord.

8-9 “‘How can you say, “We know the score.
    We’re the proud owners of God’s revelation”?
Look where it’s gotten you—stuck in illusion.
    Your religion experts have taken you for a ride!
Your know-it-alls will be unmasked,
    caught and shown up for what they are.
Look at them! They know everything but God’s Word.
    Do you call that “knowing”?

The religion experts are proud owners of God's revelation, but they don't really know God's word.
The Lord will severely punish his people:

18-22 I drown in grief.
    I’m heartsick.
Oh, listen! Please listen! It’s the cry of my dear people
    reverberating through the country.
Is God no longer in Zion?
    Has the King gone away?
Can you tell me why they flaunt their plaything-gods,
    their silly, imported no-gods before me?
The crops are in, the summer is over,
    but for us nothing’s changed.
    We’re still waiting to be rescued.
    
If the Lord severely punished his people at that time, it is supposed that the Lord punish his people today.

Jeremiah 7: the Lord wants a holy people and will destroy the Temple.

 Jeremiah 7 was written before the destruction of the temple. The Lord says that the temple will be destroyed as Shiloh that was in Ephraim was destroyed:

12 “‘Take a trip down to the place that was once in Shiloh, where I met my people in the early days. Take a look at those ruins, what I did to it because of the evil ways of my people Israel.

13-15 “‘So now, because of the way you have lived and failed to listen, even though time and again I took you aside and talked seriously with you, and because you refused to change when I called you to repent, I’m going to do to this Temple, set aside for my worship, this place you think is going to keep you safe no matter what, this place I gave as a gift to your ancestors and you, the same as I did to Shiloh. And as for you, I’m going to get rid of you, the same as I got rid of those old relatives of yours around Shiloh, your fellow Israelites in that former kingdom to the north.’

Who would believe in this message? The people had some mystic relationship with the temple as the Lord says:

3-7 “‘Clean up your act—the way you live, the things you do—so I can make my home with you in this place. Don’t for a minute believe the lies being spoken here—“This is God’s Temple, God’s Temple, God’s Temple!” Total nonsense! Only if you clean up your act (the way you live, the things you do), only if you do a total spring cleaning on the way you live and treat your neighbors, only if you quit exploiting the street people and orphans and widows, no longer taking advantage of innocent people on this very site and no longer destroying your souls by using this Temple as a front for other gods—only then will I move into your neighborhood. Only then will this country I gave your ancestors be my permanent home, my Temple.

There were false prophets saying that the Temple was a permanent home to the Lord, therefore, the Temple and the people were protected. It is similar to a church full of sins saying that the Lord will keep it alive because it is the house of the Lord.

Imagine how angry were the leaders of Judah when heard Jeremiah saying that the Lord will destroy his Temple and many will die; but despite that, Jeremiah was praying to the Lord for the Jews:

16-18 “And you, Jeremiah, don’t waste your time praying for this people. Don’t offer to make petitions or intercessions. Don’t bother me with them. I’m not listening. Can’t you see what they’re doing in all the villages of Judah and in the Jerusalem streets? Why, they’ve got the children gathering wood while the fathers build fires and the mothers make bread to be offered to ‘the Queen of Heaven’! And as if that weren’t bad enough, they go around pouring out libations to any other gods they come across, just to hurt me.

The Lord rejects religious sacrifices when mixed with sin:

1-23 “The Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: ‘Go ahead! Put your burnt offerings with all your other sacrificial offerings and make a good meal for yourselves. I sure don’t want them! When I delivered your ancestors out of Egypt, I never said anything to them about wanting burnt offerings and sacrifices as such. But I did say this, commanded this: “Obey me. Do what I say and I will be your God and you will be my people. Live the way I tell you. Do what I command so that your lives will go well.”

This message tells me that the Lord rejects my religious offerings and even my time spent reading the Bible if I don't love the Lord as He is and if it doesn't translate into loving his sons and daughters.

Jeremiah 6 - a message not listened: Run for your lives, children of Benjamin!"

 In Jeremiah 6 we read:

1-5 “Run for your lives, children of Benjamin!
    Get out of Jerusalem, and now!
Give a blast on the ram’s horn in Blastville.
    Send up smoke signals from Smoketown.
Doom pours out of the north—
    massive terror!

The prophet Jeremiah preached for some decades. Although he was aware that Jerusalem would be destroyed, the people didn't listen to him. In a way, the Lord knew that everything would occur. What for did Jeremiah preach? I am a gentile, in 2023 Brazil, listening to Jeremiah before the Jerusalem destruction. So, although everything happened despite Jeremiah's message, his message resonates saying that the YHWH is the Lord who has everything under his control. It is very likely that the Jews would forsake the Lord if they didn't have theses prophecies.

6-8 God-of-the-Angel-Armies gave the orders:

“Chop down her trees.
    Build a siege ramp against Jerusalem,
A city full of brutality,
    bursting with violence.
Just as a well holds a good supply of water,
    she supplies wickedness nonstop.
The streets echo the cries: ‘Violence! Rape!’
    Victims, bleeding and moaning, lie all over the place.
You’re in deep trouble, Jerusalem.
    You’ve pushed me to the limit.
You’re on the brink of being wiped out,
    being turned into a ghost town.”

Who did build a siege ramp against Jerusalem? The Babylonian arm, but Jeremiah foresaw it as an order of the Lord.
Although it was very real that they should "run for their lives", nonetheles, nobody was listening.

10-11 “I’ve got something to say. Is anybody listening?
    I’ve a warning to post. Will anyone notice?
It’s hopeless! Their ears are stuffed with wax—
    deaf as a post, blind as a bat.
It’s hopeless! They’ve tuned out God.
    They don’t want to hear from me.
But I’m bursting with the wrath of God.
    I can’t hold it in much longer.

Jeremiah explains the reasons for the destruction to come:

13-15 “Everyone’s after the dishonest dollar,
    little people and big people alike.
Prophets and priests and everyone in between
    twist words and doctor truth.
My people are broken—shattered!—
    and they put on Band-Aids,
Saying, ‘It’s not so bad. You’ll be just fine.’
    But things are not ‘just fine’!
Do you suppose they are embarrassed
    over this outrage?
No, they have no shame.
    They don’t even know how to blush.
There’s no hope for them. They’ve hit bottom
    and there’s no getting up.
As far as I’m concerned,
    they’re finished.”
        God has spoken.
16-20 ....
I’m visiting catastrophe on this people, the end result
    of the games they’ve been playing with me.
They’ve ignored everything I’ve said,
    had nothing but contempt for my teaching.
What would I want with incense brought in from Sheba,
    rare spices from exotic places?
Your burnt sacrifices in worship give me no pleasure.
    Your religious rituals mean nothing to me.”

Jeremiah explains a bit more the destruction to come:

22-23 And listen to this verdict from God:

“Look out! An invasion from the north,
    a mighty power on the move from a faraway place:
Armed to the teeth,
    vicious and pitiless,
Booming like sea storm and thunder—tramp, tramp, tramp—
    riding hard on war horses,
In battle formation
    against you, dear Daughter Zion!”

Jeremiah 5: sin from rich and poor, from who reads the Torah and who doesn't read the Torah.

 in Jeremiah 5, we read:

1 “Roam about through the streets of Jerusalem,
And look and take notice.
And seek in her public squares,
If you can find a person,
If there is one who does justice, who seeks honesty,
Then I will forgive her.

The prophet searches for one who does justice but he can´t find any.

4 Then I said, “They are only the poor,
They are foolish;
For they do not know the way of the Lord
Or the judgment of their God.

5 I will go to the great
And speak to them,
For they know the way of the Lord
And the judgment of their God.”
But together they too have broken the yoke
And burst the restraints.

Although the rich people have access to the Torah, they were sinners; some rich people explore the poor:

26 For wicked people are found among My people,
They watch like fowlers [f]lying in wait;
They set a trap,
They catch people.
27 Like a cage full of birds,
So their houses are full of deceit;
Therefore they have become great and rich.
28 They are fat, they are sleek,
They also [g]excel in deeds of wickedness;
They do not plead the cause,
The cause of the [h]orphan, so that they may be successful;
And they do not [i]defend the rights of the poor.

The Lord will not forgive Jerusalem:

7 “Why should I forgive you?
Your sons have forsaken Me
And sworn by those who are not gods.
When I had fed them to the full,
They committed adultery
And stayed at the prostitute’s house.
8 They were well-fed lusty horses,
Each one neighing at his neighbor’s wife.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares the Lord,
“And shall I not avenge Myself
On a nation such as this?
...
14 Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of armies says:
“Because you have spoken this word,
Behold, I am making My words fire in your mouth,
And this people wood, and it will consume them.
15 Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from far away, you house of Israel,” declares the Lord.
“It is an enduring nation,
It is an ancient nation,
A nation whose language you do not know,
Nor can you understand what they say.
16 Their quiver is like an open grave,
All of them are warriors.
17 They will devour your harvest and your food;
They will devour your sons and your daughters;
They will devour your flocks and your herds;
They will devour your vines and your fig trees;
They will demolish your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.

However, the Lord will not destroy Jerusalem completely:

18 “Yet even in those days,” declares the Lord, “I will not make a complete destruction of you. 19 And it shall come about when [d]they say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have abandoned Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

There are false prophets spreading a false message:

12 They have lied about the Lord
And said, “[c]Not He;
Misfortune will not come upon us,
Nor will we see sword or famine.
13 The prophets are as wind,
And the word is not in them.
So it will be done to them!”

Although rich and poor people have abandoned the Lord, the Lord still wants to make them his holy people; even thorough punishment.

Jeremiah 4: false assurance that Judah is safe

 
In Jeremiah 4, the Lord says:

 “If you want to come back, O Israel,
    you must really come back to me.
You must get rid of your stinking sin paraphernalia
    and not wander away from me anymore.

...

Here’s another Message from God
    to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:
“Plow your unplowed fields,
    but then don’t plant weeds in the soil!
Yes, circumcise your lives for God’s sake.
    Plow your unplowed hearts,
    all you people of Judah and Jerusalem.
Prevent fire—the fire of my anger—
    for once it starts it can’t be put out.
Your wicked ways
    are fuel for the fire.

Jeremiah calls Israel and Judah to come back to the Lord otherwise the fire of the Lord's anger will burn their wicked ways. The invasion from the north is coming:

6 Raise a flag toward Zion!
Take refuge, do not stand still,
For I am bringing evil from the north,
And great destruction.

Jeremiah questions the Lord:

10 Then I said, “Alas, Master God!
    You’ve fed lies to this people, this Jerusalem.
You assured them, ‘All is well, don’t worry,’
    at the very moment when the sword was at their throats.”

The Lord is warning Jerusalem about the coming destruction through the prophet Jeremiah, however Jerusalem is deceived, assured that everything is well. Interestingly the prophet blames the Lord for it. Yet:

11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness, in the direction of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse, 12 a wind too [d]strong for [e]this—will come [f]at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them.”

I understood that this scorching wind refers to the evil from the north in verse 6, i.e., Babylon.
The Lord is showing the coming destruction to Judah but still, there is hope:

14 Wash your heart from evil, Jerusalem,
So that you may be saved.
How long will your wicked thoughts
Lodge within you?

...

18 Your ways and your deeds
Have [h]brought these things upon you.
This is your evil. How bitter!
How it has touched your heart!”

The prophet laments the coming destruction given that Judah has no understanding:

21 How long must I see the flag
And hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 “For My people are foolish,
They do not know Me;
They are foolish children
And have no understanding.
They are skillful at doing evil,
But they do not know how to do good.”

23 I looked at the earth, and behold, it was a [m]formless and desolate emptiness;
And to the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,
And all the hills jolted back and forth.
25 I looked, and behold, there was no human,
And all the birds of the sky had fled.
26 I looked, and behold, [n]the fruitful land was a wilderness,
And all its cities were pulled down
Before the Lord, before His fierce anger.

Judah sought alliances with Egypt and Assyria (her lovers) in vain:

30 And you, desolate one, what will you do?
Although you dress in scarlet,
Although you adorn yourself with jewelry of gold,
Although you enlarge your eyes with makeup,
In vain you make yourself beautiful.
Your [p]lovers despise you;
They seek your life.  

31 For I heard a voice cry as of a woman in labor,
The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child.
The voice of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
Stretching out her [q]hands, saying,
“Ah, woe to me, for [r]I faint before murderers.”

Jeremiah 3: I will heal your faithlessness.

 In Jeremiah 3 we read:

1 God [a]says, “If a husband divorces his wife
And she leaves him
And becomes another man’s wife,
Will he return to her again?
Would that land not be completely defiled?
But you are a prostitute with many [b]lovers;
Yet you turn to Me,” declares the Lord.

No man would openly receive a wife that had sexual relation with other men because she humiliated her husband. If she pretends that nothing happened she is behaving like a prostitute. The reconciliation should begin with repentance that would manifest in words and actions. The Lord says that Israel and Judah behaves like a prostitute because they worshiped false gods.

3 Therefore the showers have been withheld,
And there has been no spring rain.
Yet you had a prostitute’s [c]forehead;
You refused to be ashamed.

The sin lead to lack of rain, but Israel and Judah refused to be ashamed, even worse, Judah asks the Lord:

4 ... Will He be angry forever,
Or keep His anger to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken
And have done evil things,
And you have [d]had your own way.”

Despite all this, the Lord wants the reconciliation:

12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say,
‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord;
‘I will not [h]look at you in anger.
For I am gracious,’ declares the Lord;
‘I will not be angry forever.
13 Only [i]acknowledge your wrongdoing,
That you have revolted against the Lord your God,
And have scattered your [j]favors to the strangers under every leafy tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the Lord.
14 ‘Return, you faithless sons,’ declares the Lord;
‘For I am a master to you,
And I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
And bring you to Zion.’


The Lord promisses prosperity after the reconciliation:

15 “Then I will give you shepherds [k]after My own heart, who will feed you knowledge and understanding. 16 And it shall be in those days when you become numerous and are fruitful in the land,” declares the Lord, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor miss it, nor will it be made again. 17 At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the Lord,’ and all the nations will assemble at it, at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord; and they will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

...

21 A voice is heard on the bare heights,
The weeping, the pleading of the sons of Israel.
Because they have perverted their way,
They have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 “Return, you faithless sons,
I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to You;
For You are the Lord our God.
23 Certainly the hills are a deception,
[m]Commotion on the mountains.
Certainly in the Lord our God
Is the salvation of Israel.

The Lord wants the reconciliation. In v22 the Lord says "I will heal your faithlessness". The one who receives the message says: "“Behold, we come to You;
For You are the Lord our God.".

Jeremiah 2: bulding broken cisterns that do not hold water

 In Jeremiah 2, we read that the Lord treated well Israel, but it abandoned the trust in the Lord.

5 This is what the Lord says:

“What injustice did your fathers find in Me,
That they went far from Me,
And walked after emptiness and became empty?

They don't remember what the Lord has done for them. They forget that they belong to a history much greater than the their own histories:

6 They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord
Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt,
Who led us through the wilderness,
Through a land of deserts and of pits,
Through a land of drought and of [b]deep darkness,
Through a land that no one crossed
And where no person lived?’

They felt in idolatry:

6 They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord
Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt,
Who led us through the wilderness,
Through a land of deserts and of pits,
Through a land of drought and of [b]deep darkness,
Through a land that no one crossed
And where no person lived?’

They commited two sins:

13 “For My people have committed two evils:
1) They have abandoned Me, The fountain of living waters,
2) To carve out for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That do not hold water.


Have I exchanged the God-made food that really satisfies provided by men-made drugs that only enslave me?


14-17 “Isn’t Israel a valued servant,
    born into a family with place and position?
So how did she end up a piece of meat
    fought over by snarling and roaring lions?

Am I a valued servant of the Lord?

It is really possible that I sin a lot, departed from the Lord and yet, see myself as a Good seeker man:

23-24 “How dare you tell me, ‘I’m not stained by sin.
    I’ve never chased after the Baal sex gods’!
Well, look at the tracks you’ve left behind in the valley.
    How do you account for what is written in the desert dust—
Tracks of a camel in heat, running this way and that,
    tracks of a wild donkey in rut,
Sniffing the wind for the slightest scent of sex.

The Lord loves me and wants to restore me:

25 “Slow down. Take a deep breath. What’s the hurry?
    Why wear yourself out? Just what are you after anyway?

However, my flesh is inclined to keep in sin:

25 ...
But you say, ‘I can’t help it.
    I’m addicted to alien gods. I can’t quit.’

Lord, keep changing my ways so that I please you, so that I serve you.