NOTE: For anyone that is following along with this study.  We would love to hear your thoughts and comments about it.  For Robin and I, these chapters are just review, so we haven't said much, but we would love to hear YOUR thoughts.  After we get through the review chapters I think the plan is to slow down and only do ONE chapter a day.  Anyway, we would love to hear from you. 

Chapter 11:

God tells Jeremiah to speak to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, saying that they're cursed unless they remember the covenant they made with God when he led them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land—namely to be obedient to all of God's instructions.

So far, people have failed to live up to the covenant, despite God's warnings and calls for obedience.

Judah will cry out to the false gods they've been worshipping, but it'll be no use.

God says not to bother praying for the people. He'll see right through any last-minute repentance.

Judah used to be like a fruitful olive tree, but now God's going to burn it down.

Jeremiah says that people conspired to kill him.

At first he had no idea that they were plotting against him, but God clued him in and destroyed Jeremiah's would-be killers.

These conspirators were the people of Anatoth, whom God says he will annihilate: the young men will be killed by the sword, and the rest will starve to death. He's got Jeremiah's back.

Chapter 12:

Even though Jeremiah knows that God's in the right, he says that he personally wants to air some grievances.

He asks why the wicked have been doing so well without being punished.

He asks God to kill the wicked and relieve the people's suffering.

God answers that if Jeremiah is tired from dealing with these wicked people, he's like someone who has been exhausted from racing with foot-runners. So how can he compete when racing with horses (i.e. with really wicked opponents)?

Jeremiah shouldn't even trust his own family.

God says that he's forsaken Israel, even though they're still totally his favorite people.

But since the people of Israel apparently hate God now, he's leaving them to the wild animals.

Evil shepherds (metaphorically speaking) have trampled down the vineyard that God had planted in Judah and Jerusalem. They've ruined the land.

God isn't just going to punish Judah, but all the neighbors who've led them astray.

Then God will have compassion on the people of these different neighboring nations and Judah, and will let them return.