Jeremiah 19:1

Jeremiah 19:1 says,  Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;  Jeremiah was told to go and get a potter's bottle and the elderly people and priests.  They should have know more about what God actually said for the people to do if they were to be obedient to Him.  Matthew Henry says that they would more likely be willing to follow a man who said he was a prophet of God than the younger ones were.  Verse two adds, And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,  God told Jeremiah to take these ancients, or elders, and the bottle to a particular place, the valley of the son of Hinnom.  I believe that God will direct us to where He wants us to be.  Verse three declares, And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants  of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.  Jeremiah was to tell the people the word of God, and that word was not good.  God was to bring judgment on the people of Judah because of their sin.  There is coming a time when everyone will be held accountable for their sins, and those who have not listened to God's word and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord will be sent away to everlasting punishment, but none will have an excuse for doing failing to do so.  This is God's message that we must present today.  Verse four states, Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;  God told Jeremiah to tell the people of Judah why this was happening.  They had forsaken God and began to worship other gods.  Verse five adds, They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:  The people of Judah had even gone so far as to offer their sons as sacrifices to Baal, burning them on the altars of Baal.  We today have sacrificed many children on the altar of convenience and pleasure, and one day God will hold us accountable.  Verse six proclaims. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.  God said that the day was coming that instead of being called the valley of peace that the place that they were at would be called the valley of slaughter.  We may believe that we are at peace in the world today, but if we are not following God's word and will then when judgment day comes, all of our works will come to nothing.  Verse seven adds, And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.  God said that the coming destruction would be complete and totally devastating.  So will the everlasting defeat of everyone who does not follow God through faith in Jesus Christ.  Verse eight continues, And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.  God said that after the fall of Judah that people would marvel at the destruction.  Verse nine concludes, And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.  Those in the city would resort to eating their sons and daughters due to a lack of food.  There is no end to the evil things that people will do in order to hang on to this earthly existence, but it is our soul that we should be concerned with.