When Jeremiah delivered stinging messages like this, people did not just say, “He’s a prophet —it
must be true.” Verse 31 notes that there were many “prophets” in Jerusalem, and most of them
said Jeremiah was wrong. This posed, and poses, an important question: how do we discern God’s
authentic voice, and decide how to respond to it?

• Jeremiah sharply rebuked Judah for following other gods, and for failing to defend “the just case of the poor.” Do you see any linkage between the two issues—ways in which your choice of “gods” shapes the values by which you live your life? To what extent did Jesus follow Jeremiah’s path in ministry? In what ways did Jesus do things differently?
• Jeremiah warned that Judah’s turning from God meant they couldn’t depend on God’s
  protection from the Babylonians. His message was not what they wanted to hear. How open are you to honestly identifying and facing areas in which your values and actions are different from God’s? How do you bring them into closer alignment?