Jeremiah 17 Footnotes

17:10 Many passages of Scripture teach that God judges people by their deeds, while others indicate that he judges people by their motives. There is no inconsistency, as this verse points out, because one’s “heart” and “actions” are closely connected. Other passages clearly teach that God evaluates people based on their hearts (1Sm 16:7; 1Kg 8:39; Lk 16:15), but actions reveal what is in people’s hearts (1Sm 2:3; Mt 7:15-16; 12:33-35; 15:18-19; Jms 2:18). Whether one is judged by inward motivation or outward acts makes no difference. What a person actually does reveals where their heart lies (Mt 21:28-31).

17:21-24 Here the Lord called for observance of the Sabbath restriction on work and promised blessings if the people would keep the commandment. Their observance would be evidence that they were listening to the Lord and obeying him. The first-century Pharisees observed the Sabbath restrictions in detail, yet Jesus did not commend them in this because their motivation was hypocritical. They were observing the minutiae of the law not because they wanted to obey God—though they may have thought they did—but because they wanted to separate themselves from sinners and non-Jews (the term Pharisee was probably derived from a word meaning “separated”). In this passage, God was not calling for works of the law of the Pharisaic type; he was asking the people to listen to him. Observing the Sabbath is an indicator of a right relationship with God. The Judeans’ ancestors were not condemned for their Sabbath practices but because they refused to accept the Lord’s instruction and discipline (v. 23; cp. 26:4). That is, they did not have a right relationship with God.