The commentary in today's reading from the Chronological Bible includes this.  "The Sabbath has been honored mostly in the breach for many years and God now wants it to be observed".

A better statement would be "God has always wanted it to be observed."

The people acknowledged that the Sabbath was there but they did nothing about it.  They didn't follow the requirement of the law.  Observing the Sabbath includes the Feast and Festival Days as well as the seventh day of the week.  One way of honoring and observing the Sabbath day today is to take time to stop, slow down, and remember what Jesus has done for us.  For one thing, “The sorrows for the appointed feasts I will remove from you; they are a burden and a reproach to you.  Zephaniah 3:18.  Before the cross they had many intricate details, requirements, and sacrifices, including cleansing ceremonies that had to be done when honoring the feast days.  After the cross we only have to remember what Jesus did to fulfill the feast days.  This is what it means to take the sorrows of the appointed feasts away.  We no longer have the need for the many details and cleansing ceremonies or sacrifices.  Jesus took care of that.  This is what we need to remember and observe during the God-ordained Holy Days (feast and festivals).

Jeremiah 18:2-4
"Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

Jeremiah’s message from the potter was a bit different from Phil’s message. The message Phil received was; No matter how marred you are, how useless and inadequate you may feel- or even how blind you are – God shapes what you are into a shape that is pleasing to Him.  Changing one shape into another shape requires pressure, sometimes it's not so pleasant. 

As we read Jeremiah 18 - Lesson of the Potter - we thought how the lesson applied to us today in the U.S. There are consequences for our actions as a country. There are consequences for our actions as a church, the body of Christ. But there are also consequences for us as individuals within that country and church.   Scripture says, "So turn from your evil ways, each ONE of you, and reform your ways and your actions." This goes right along with 2 Chronicles 7:14 and the many lessons we have learned from that verse.  God continually reminds the people if they will repent, then He will listen and not inflict the disaster He had planned. If the people then and now would only do what God asked them to do they would be blessed and not cursed.

In Chapter 18:19-23 Jeremiah speaks some harsh words against his accusers.  Is he angry because the people rejected him or is he angry because they have rejected God's message through him?  Jesus put those kinds of things in proper perspective.

John 15:18
If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 

In Jeremiah 19 God sends a message for Topheth.  We find out about this place Topheth in another book.

2 Kings 23:10  
And he (King Josiah) defiled Topheth, in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, so that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. 

The people were doing detestable things in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, things that God says "did not enter my mind" because they were so vile and detestable to Him.  

Jeremiah 20:7 O Lord, you deceived me...

How can a perfect God deceive anyone?  This verse is an excellent example of the importance of looking at the Hebrew word that was translated into the English word "deceive".  There are several definitions of the Hebrew word.  One definition is "deceive" but another definition is "persuade". Knowing the character of God, we know that the word deceive is not the correct word to use there. 

Jeremiah 20:9
But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

If God’s Word is in our heart like a fire, we should not be able to hold it in. 

Jeremiah again in today’s reading feels self-pity and betrayal, even curses the day he was born, and yet he praises God. The people of Jeremiah's day conspired against him saying, "...let's attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says."

Jeremiah obeyed God no matter what the people were doing to him or saying about him. He continued to warn the people of what was about to happen. Good example for us wouldn’t you say?