Jeremiah 17:1 (NASBSt)
With a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart
And on the horns of their altars,
Jeremiah has been sent to the nation of Israel as the deliverer of some very bad material and messages. The above passage being a strong case and point to that end. He is telling them that their sins are not mere clouds in the sky, passing by and notice ever so briefly. He is telling them that their sins are not being looked over. They are, in fact, being tattooed on their hearts, not in ink but with a diamond pointed stylus ... permanent marker!! The phrase "tablet of the heart" is no doubt a reference to cause them to think of the tablets of the Law written by God's finger on stone through Moses. (Solomon is the only other author in Scripture to use the phrase "tablets of the heart;" no doubt for the same message in Proverbs 3:3 and 7:3. There, however, we are told to write the words of the father (our Divine appointed guide of life) on our hearts.) Jeremiah, on the other hand, is telling them that their sins are permanent and can't simply be washed away. He further causes strife for the average Israelite who hears this but referring to the sins being written permanently on the "horns of the altar." This is a scared place for all the people of God. The horns of the altar were a safe place. They were where the sins of the nation were washed away by the blood of the sacrifice. The priest was to place the blood on the horns of the altar (Exodus 29:12). When Solomon was purifying the kingdom after the death of his father David, Adonijah, fearing Solomon, ran to the temple and took hold of the horns of the altar in hope of deliverance (1 Kings 1:50, 51). For Jeremiah to deliver this bad news about the nation's sins being engraved on both their hearts and on the place they could get absolution, was a double-pronged death warrant. Sin was in their lives to stay and there was NO place to find relief. This is NOT a good message for anyone. Had you only read, however, up to Jeremiah 17 you would have been left with nothing but bad news. That would be like reading on to Romans 3:23 and stopping. But, just like Romans 3:23 makes way for Romans 8:1, so Jeremiah 17 makes way for Jeremiah 31. You can't read Jeremiah 17:1 without also reading Jeremiah 31:33, 34 (and vice versa). Note the good news Jeremiah will finally get to declare:
Jeremiah 31:33-34 (NASBStr)
“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “ I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord, ’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
God did write their sins on their hearts with a diamond stylus. Which is why only He could do the necessary heart transplant and remove the old heart and put a new heart within them. He did so by taking the sins on the horns of the altar and having His Son crucified there. Jesus became the final sacrifice and the ONLY sacrifice that could once for all remove the sin and allow the heart transplant to be done. He gave us His new heart and He took the sins of our old heart. This is the good news of the gospel. Jeremiah did have bad news to deliver. But, he also was delivering the good news of the gospel in 800 B.C. to a nation whose heart had grown hard with sin.
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