Jeremiah 11

Jehovah, Covenant God of the Exodus

Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God: Jeremiah 11:4–5

Jehovah speaks as the God who delivered Israel from Egypt and made a covenant with them. The resurrected Christ told the Nephites that He is the one who gave the law and covenanted with Israel.

• interpreted by 3 Nephi 15:5 — Christ: 'I am he that gave the law, and I am he who covenanted with my people Israel.'
• the same title in Jeremiah 31:33 — The same covenant formula, 'will be their God, and they shall be my people,' in the new covenant.

The LORD who planted the olive tree

The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. Jeremiah 11:16–17

Israel is pictured as an olive tree planted by the LORD of hosts, whose branches are now burned and broken. The same picture grows into Zenos's allegory of the olive tree in Jacob 5, where the Lord of the vineyard labors to save His tree.

How we know: the verse itself names Him

• alluded to by Jacob 5:3 — 'I will liken thee, O house of Israel, like unto a tame olive-tree.'
• alluded to by Romans 11:17 — Branches broken off and grafted into the olive tree.

Lamb brought to the slaughter

But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. Jeremiah 11:19

An innocent Jeremiah is plotted against like a lamb led to slaughter, and his enemies want to 'cut him off from the land of the living.' Isaiah uses almost the same words for the Messiah. Jesus was also plotted against by His own people, as the Lamb of God.

How we know: the verse itself names Him

• alludes to Isaiah 53:7-8 — 'He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter... he was cut off out of the land of the living.'
• the same title in Acts 8:32-35 — Philip teaches that the lamb to the slaughter is Jesus.
• a type of what is in John 11:53 — The leaders 'took counsel together for to put him to death.'

The LORD who tries the heart

But, O LORD of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my cause. Jeremiah 11:20

Persecuted, Jeremiah hands his cause to the LORD, who judges righteously and sees the heart. In Revelation the Son of God says He is the one who searches reins and hearts, and Peter says Christ, when He suffered, committed Himself to Him that judges righteously.

How we know: the verse itself names Him

• alluded to by Revelation 2:18, 23 — The Son of God: 'I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts.'
• alluded to by 1 Peter 2:23 — Christ 'committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.'

Rejected by his hometown

Therefore thus saith the LORD of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that thou die not by our hand: Jeremiah 11:21

Jeremiah's own townsmen of Anathoth try to kill him for prophesying. Jesus was rejected in His hometown of Nazareth, where the people tried to throw Him off a cliff.

• a type of what is in Luke 4:24, 28-30 — 'No prophet is accepted in his own country'; Nazareth tries to cast Jesus down headlong.