In Perek bet, the main thing trying to be avoided is destruction. Hashem does not want destruction. He had never left the people-the people had left him. Bnei Yisrael are abandoning the Brit that was made with Hashem at Har Sinai. Bnei Yisrael is forgetting Hashem. They have begun to worship the Baal. Their relationship with Hashem has turned into one of self-greed. They used Hashem for everything personal. Bnei Yisrael has left Hashem to Egypt-as a midah cneged midah punishment Egypt will break their heads. Bnei Yisrael refuse to listen to the navi and they think that they are innocent and are doing nothing wrong. Their sins will never be washed away since they refuse to admit that they have done anything wrong. In this perek there is a connection of Bnei Yisrael's relationship with G-d to the relationship of a marriage-a marriage acn be broken. Yirmyahu wanted to get them to realize that they should be in service to Hashem. If Bnei Yisrael would just do Teshuva they can avoid punishment. If they would return to Hashem the relationship will be repaired.
In perek Gimmel, it says again that Bnei Yisrael had abandoned Hashem. Hashem is still willing to take the people back. In this perek Yirmiyahu's mission is to get the people to realize that Hashem wants them back.To get Hashem back, the people must first do Teshuva, but their Teshuva must be sincere. The message in this perek is that the Teshuva that the people had done was not enough and it was not authentic. Even if they are not worshiping Avodah Zara, the nature of the relationship is like the ba'al. It was self-centered instead of doing things that were in service of Hashem.
In perek Daled, it says that if Bnei Yisrael were to do Teshuva properly, they can stop the destruction from coming. The destruction is happening because the people had bad behaviors in society, it's not just becasue of their worship. There were many false prophets that were predicting peace, but when Yirmiyahu came in and said that there will be destruction the people didn't believe him because there were so many falsse prophets telling them otherwise. Here a question arises to me. Should the people be punished for the actions of the false prophets? Bavel was Hashem's tool that was coming as a reaction to the people's sins. Now it has come ttime that thhere is no more chances for Bnei Yisrael-they must repent now or they will be destroyed. If they do not repent destruction will come and it will be horrible and painful. There will always be a remnant.
In perek Hay, The people are still sinning and they still won't recognize Hashem or realizing that they are doing something wrong. The society is so corrupt. The people are taking advantage of the orhans and the poor. They are still listening to the false prophets. They are committing adultery. They are worshiping Avodah Zara and they are swearing in the name of G-d when they are lying to make their lie more believable. A foreign nation is going to come, attack, and ruin the city-they will not be completely destroyed. Their punishment is a midah cneged Midah-just as they served foreign gods, they will now serve foreign nations. The exile is about to happen. Before things can get better they need to be exiled. There is a lack of Tzedek and Mishpat. The people refuse to follow in the ways of Hashem. A nation from the north is going to come and destroy the city.
In perek Zayin, Yirmiyahu is still giving Bnei Yisrael a chance to change. There is a description of how and what will happen after destruction. If Bnei Yisrael doesn't change their ways, they will no longer be able to dwell in that land-they will be exiled. Hashem tells Yirmiyahu to convince the people to not listen to the false prophets-the false prophets had told Bnei Yisrael that the Beit Hamikdash will never be destroyed and Bavel won't attack. The people had believed that if there was a Beit Hamikdash there would still be hope for them. They applied other nation's beliefs here because they believed that other nation's gods would never destory their temple. There was a huge lack of Tzedek and Mishpat. The people were stealing, murdering swearing falsely, and worshiping Avodah Zara. The people were bringing useless Korbanot. Everything that is happy will turn into something dark.
In mussar we had lessons on stubbornness. The question was-was there ever a time where you had your opinion but you realized that you needed to let go of your stubbornness and open up to other people's opinions? I think this really applies to Bnei Yisrael. They were so stubborn and refused to let themselves listen to Yirmiyahu or return to Hashem. All they had to do was listen. Just allow themselves to listen to other people's opinions-stop being so stubborn! if they were to just do that, it would have saved them from so much trouble. Though a question is still sticking in my mind-was it more of a fault to the false prophets or to Bnei Yisrael for listening to the false prophets? How could they know for sure which prophet was real or false?
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