Jeremiah: Chapters 16-17 — August 16, 2026

Last week Jeremiah called God a stream that runs dry and his own wound incurable. This week God uses that same word of the human heart — "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9) — and then, five verses later, the man with the incurable wound asks to be healed anyway: "Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed" (Jer. 17:14). He even gives God back the name he'd thrown at Him as an accusation, calling Him the fountain of living waters (Jer. 17:13). Chapter 16 is how he got there. God takes away his wife, his funerals, and his feasts, until there's nothing ordinary left to lean on. He isn't being punished. He is being made into the message.