Jeremiah 17:5-14  Blessing, Cursing and the Deceitful Heart

By Bob DeWaay

This class continues the discussion on Jeremiah 17, including verses 9-10 about the deceitful heart and the fact that only God knows the heart. Any belief or program that requires Christians to know what only God knows will fail. We can know what God has revealed, but cannot gain information about the human heart by personal revelations or through people who claim to have revelation knowledge. We review the previous week’s material on blessing and cursing as well. Jeremiah 17:14 says only God can save.

Israel persecuted Jeremiah for preaching the truth. We also cover Jeremiah 2:13 which speaks of rejecting the only source of living waters, and making cisterns that cannot hold water. Ironically, in Jeremiah 38:6 we find out that those who refused to listen through Jeremiah into an empty cistern. Jeremiah 44:16, 17 speaks of those who turned to the “queen of heaven” rather than God because they got better results! This applies to those who think they can find spiritual well-being by looking for the best “results” judged by their own desired outcome.