Jeremiah: Fourth Sermon, Part 2

Returning to our study of Jeremiah, we see in Jeremiah 11:9 that God speaks of a "conspiracy".  All conspiracies contain an element of secrecy.  Thus, the people in this conspiracy of which the Lord speaks are those who choose to continue to serve other gods, probably in secret resistance to the reforms that King Josiah instituted against pagan practices; resistant even to the point of making secret plans to assassinate the prophet Jeremiah (verses 11:18-19), who is preaching things the people do not want to hear. Thus, this conspiracy has double meaning.

There is a danger, as I have mentioned before, of feeling removed or uninvolved with the sins of Judah, since today most of us do not light candles to idols in a secret back room of our house. But we have to understand how subtle the act of worshipping an idol can be in our own lives. 

I found a very clear description of this from an interesting blog that says:

"Contrary to cultural opinion, possessions or positions or people cannot and will not bring us any closer to a sense of peace, prosperity or security." [ http://bogdankipko.com/why-idolatry-is-infused-with-irony ]

The problem is that in very subtle ways we so often put our trust in "possessions or positions or people" that only the Holy Spirit can reveal to us that we are NOT trusting Jesus, because we will continue to affirm that we ARE trusting Jesus as our hearts continue to deceive us. Whatever we give more of our time, thought, and even our money to, rather than to the Lord, is our idol.

It is because of the seriousness of this idol worship in Judah that the Lord tells Jeremiah NOT to pray for them in verse 11:14.  This is a clear indication of how grieved God is with the people, how angry He is because of their continued rebellion against Him, and for choosing vain and useless idols over the God who gives them their very breath. God declares that He will "not hear them in the time that they cry unto Me..." 

It was these sins of the people of Judah, as well as our own sins, for which Jesus, on the cross, experienced this relentless turning away of God in a time of great need:  "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  In that transcendent moment, Jesus became the sin of all the world, and received the punishment, in our place, of this divine proclamation against such sin.

It is always the idols in our lives that turn us away from God, and Him away from hearing us.  This is why our prayer each and every day should be such as David prayed:

"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

Even in these last days, God's Word through His prophet Zechariah declares that He will not hear the cries of His people Israel until they repent of their iniquity and cry out for help to the Messiah whom they earlier rejected.

In chapter 12, we see the closeness of Jeremiah's relationship with the Lord; so intimate that Jeremiah seems to actually criticize the Lord:

"Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?" (Jeremiah 12:1)

David speaks of this same issue, as does Habakkuk.  It was a difficult thing for the people of God, who strived to walk in righteousness, to reconcile in their minds this prosperity of the wicked.

We have the advantage of the cross of Christ.  We are able to place less importance on the prosperity of the wicked, having been witnesses to the gift of God through Jesus Christ, a gift whose value is priceless to those who have received it.  The treasures of the wicked hold no appeal to those who have the real riches of Jesus.

There is a hint in verse 12:4 of the reason that Judah is eventually led into captivity, and that is of the land mourning, and the "herbs of every field" withering. This refers to the Sabbath years, every seventh year in which God commanded that the land should lay fallow, unworked, to give it rest. We will see later in our study that the years of Judah's captivity are relative to the number of years that the land did not receive its Sabbath rest. This is a powerful statement of God's concern for His creation.  And yet, there are those in society who do not care for the land in the specific way that God commanded, but instead worship the land, rather than worship God.  Another form of idolatry for us to guard against, while yet remaining obedient to God's command. 

There is an interesting analogy in verse 12:9 and that is of "a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her..."

This speaks of a type of mob mentality: a flock of birds wanting to gang up on and attack the bird that is different than they are, the only bird in the flock with spots.  A group always attacks the deviant in its midst, even when, as in the case of Jeremiah, the deviant is the only one going the right way, while the rest of the group all go the wrong way.  Jeremiah is following the Lord, while the world around him is following the idols.  The world is all in agreement, while Jeremiah alone voices his disagreement.  Simple solution to the problem is to remove the deviant from their midst, thus the conspiracy to assassinate Jeremiah.

The question for us is this: are we the deviant in the world?

Or are we one of them?   

Shavuot/Pentecost

Today is what the church calls Pentecost Sunday. 

In Hebrew, it is called Shavuot (which means weeks), a feast day that occurs exactly seven weeks past the Feast of Firstfruits (in other words, seven weeks or 49 days must pass and then on the fiftieth day the Feast of Shavuot is observed); in the Greek of the New Testament it is given the name Pentecost (from pente which means five and koste which means times ten) as it is celebrated exactly fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb - Jesus being the fulfillment of the Feast of Firstfruits when He became the "firstfruits" of life everlasting by the power of Almighty God that raised Him from the dead.  To the Hebrew mindset, Shavuot is the conclusion of the Passover season.

I want to depart from our study of Jeremiah for just a moment to recognize this feast day of the Lord's, for all the feast days belong to the Lord, not to either Jew or Gentile, even though most of the Lord's feast days are now celebrated only by Jews or Jewish believers in Christ, sadly.  The gentile portion of the body of Christ chooses not to really "celebrate" anything other than the Sunday known as Easter [a name which I do not even like to use as its origin comes from that of the pagan goddess Astarte or Ishtar, whom Jeremiah reviles with the facetious name "Queen of Heaven"] and Christmas, a commemoration of the birth of Christ, which is not a feast of the Lord at all.  In Protestant churches throughout America, a Christian nod is given to what is known as Good Friday, the day Christ was crucified which in Hebrew is known as Passover, and another nod is given to Pentecost, but there is very little celebration given to this day.

I wonder why that is, given that the church was in effect born on this very day, and draws its very life from the power of God given to them on this day?

But the gentile church as a whole knows very little about the Feast Day of Shavuot and what it was intended to represent to the people of God, so I want to take a little time to describe what it was meant to be, and how Jesus became the fulfillment of that Feast Day...His feast day.  So, let's turn not to Acts, as you would think, but to the first mentions of the commandment to God's people to observe this feast day:

"And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest,  and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.  Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel." (Exodus 34:22-23)

"And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shall give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God blessed thee." (Deuteronomy 16:10)

The offering for Shavuot consisted of two long, flat, leavened loaves of wheat bread.  This is because the offering to be brought to the temple on this Shavuot Feast was to be the firstfruits of the wheat harvest.  Shavuot occurred in the summer at the time of the wheat harvest, while the Feast of Firstfruits brought an offering of the barley that was harvested in spring.

These two loaves of wheat bread for Shavuot were not burned as other sacrifices to the Lord were burned, but were waved by the priest standing before the altar.  The two loaves were waved forwards and backwards, then up and down (does that remind you of the shape of a cross?). Then they became the festive meal eaten by the priests themselves later in the day.

It is important to note that their were two loaves, not one.  Two. Two loaves joined together to bring an offering of worship to the Lord. An offering of the hands of the people of God, performed by the priest indicating the shape of a cross.

Now, watch how Jesus fulfills this Feast Day, and by fulfilling, I do not at all mean that Jesus caused the celebration of it to cease, but that He brought it into its full purpose, the purpose for which it had been intended from its very first origin at Mt. Sinai.  That is what is to be celebrated even now today.

We begin at Luke: 24:44:

"And He said unto them, 'These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.  Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  And ye are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.'  And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.  And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen." (Luke 24:44-53)

I underlined the portion of scripture above that, to me, begins to indicate the meaning of the two loaves of bread...all nations, beginning at Jerusalem...not only for those in Jerusalem, but for all nations.  Two loaves of bread raised up in worship to God, an expansion of the people of God, no longer Jewish only (the disciples), but also now including the Gentiles; one in Jesus Christ, one in Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus, the Messiah).

It was by the power from God (the Holy Spirit) that two people groups, now joined by their belief in Jesus Christ, would become one.  It began with Jewish followers of Christ, but now includes both Jewish and Gentile followers of Christ.  The Gentiles (the group to which I belong) became a part of the "people of God" on Pentecost, on Shavuot, through the power of the Holy Spirit, by the preaching of repentance to all nations, by Jewish disciples of Christ.  What were the people of God called?  Israel.  At Pentecost, the people of God separated unto Him (the church) became one people called Israel. Israel was no longer a physical identity, but a spiritual one; no longer requiring physical circumcision, but circumcision of the heart only. Does that mean Jewish believers disappeared and are no more?  No, not any more than Gentile believers lost their identity.  But the identity of both developed into something even better; their identity became the "church" or the "bride of Christ."

As a result, the Jewish believers have no need to join with our Gentile church, they are the church, just as much as we Gentile believers are the church, the joining of the two was done by God on the Day of Pentecost over two thousand years ago...two loaves of bread that became one in Jesus, united in the power of the Holy Spirit.    Instead, I often hear pastors say that Jewish believers are welcome to join "their" church. I have always felt that was a little bit of putting the cart before the horse.  The horse that pulls the cart is the Jewish believers in Christ; the cart that follows behind, but is one with the horse now, is the Gentile believers in Christ.  If anyone "joined" a church, it was, and still should be, the Gentiles that "joined."  That was what Paul's metaphor of "grafting in" was all about.  Gentile believers in Christ became one with Jewish believers in Christ...the Jewish believers leading the way...until both are completely "united" under the new identity of the bride of Christ.

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto be both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth....these [the disciples of Jesus] all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren...and when the day of Pentecost [Shavuot] was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place [in Jerusalem].  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.  And there appeared unto them, cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance....the multitude came together and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.  And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Gallileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?  And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?  Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. 

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.  But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit unto all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy: and I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, fire, and vapour of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Acts 1:8-2:21)

Two loaves of bread, representing Jew and Gentile, waved before the altar of God, with hands raised in Spirit-filled worship in the symbol of the cross; two people become one as living sacrifices, anointed by God in the power of His Holy Spirit, united together by the blood of Jesus that washed away their sins, appointed to bring into the kingdom of God those that would be saved (both Jew and Gentile) in the last days.

This is what we, Jewish and Gentile believers in Christ, should be celebrating today on the Feast of Shavuot.

I think it is worth celebrating....

Jeremiah: Fourth Sermon, Part 1

Jeremiah 11:1 through 12:17 covers what is considered to be the fourth sermon of Jeremiah, the prophet of God.

In verse 11:5 the Lord speaks of the promise to Judah's fathers to provide for them "a land flowing with milk and honey."  The promise was conditional, however, upon the Israelites obeying God.  The Lord longed to bless His people with such a land, but they continued to walk in such disobedience that He had no choice but to infer upon them, not the promised blessings of His Word, but rather the promised curses for their disobedience.  He is reminding them of the promises, both of life or of death, that He spoke to the Israelites...promises that can be found in several places in Deuteronomy.

For example, Deuteronomy 28:1-14 lists the blessings that will follow obedience to the Lord, while Deuteronomy 28:15-68 lists the curses that will come through disobedience to the Lord.

Read Deuteronomy 28 in full when you can, and let me know if any of it reminds you of our nation.  I can't help but see America in it, and I can't help but tremble at what is to come if our nation does not repent of its prideful neglect and ingratitude towards God and all that HE blessed us with as a new nation; blessings that continue today, yet will soon, I fear, come to a quick and devastating end in this Shemitah year.

The word "covenant" is used often in Deuteronomy and even several times here in Jeremiah 11.  I believe that we believers in Christ think that we can "excuse" ourselves from the penalty of the curses because the "covenant" of which the Lord speaks here is one of the Old Testament, not the New Testament covenant of forgiveness in Christ.  But why, then, would our nation be at "risk" at all if we have not covenanted with God and broken Hi covenant just as Israel and then Judah did?

The truth is that our nation has covenanted with God, as a nation.  This covenant was proclaimed by our leaders, those who represent our nation, and just as a bad leader can cause bad things to happen to the nation of which he is a leader, so also can godly leaders covenant with God on behalf of the nation that they represent to cause blessings to fall on that nation.

So, when, you might ask, did we covenant with God as a nation?

Well it wasn't in 1776, the date that we consider the birth of our nation. It was actually on April 30, 1789, the date that the nation's first president, George Washington, was inaugurated. 

Just as King Solomon stood at the dedication of the temple, and proclaimed that the blessings of God would fall on the nation of Israel with their disobedience to God, and also, prophetically, that the curses of God would fall on the nation if they should go away from God, so too, our nation's first inaugurated President proclaimed similar blessings or curses on our nation, dependent entirely upon our acknowledgment of and gratitude towards God (blessings), and that any nation foolish enough to turn away from God should expect His protection and blessings to cease (curses).

The President's inaugural address was heralded on April 23, 1789, a few day prior to his speech, by The New York Daily Advisor with these words:

"On the morning of the day on which our illustrious President will be invested with his office, the bells will ring at nine o'clock, when the people may go up to the house of God and in a solemn manner commit the new government, with its important train of consequences, to the holy protection and blessing of the Most High.  An early hour is prudently fixed for this peculiar act of devotion and is designed wholly for prayer."  [See posting on July 22, 2010 at this site:  http://davidbartonwallbuilders.typepad.com/blog/ ]

In the first ever presidential address, hear our first inaugurated President's words concerning Almighty God:

"Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence....since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained..."
 [ See the entire address at: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/wash1.asp ]

Now, follow with me just a bit further. 

When Israel as a nation was judged, the symbol of that nation's government or leaders, the symbol of the commitment of the national leaders to God, i.e., the temple, was the first thing to be destroyed, then the people were carried off.  It is as though the judgment began at the national place of dedication or commitment or covenant to God; such covenant being proclaimed on behalf of the nation by the nation's leaders.

So, if George Washington proclaimed America, in a sense, to be a nation that acknowledges God, at a place in which he was surrounded by representatives of the newly established government (including senate, congress, etc.), then, if judgment were to fall we might expect that judgment to fall first on that national symbol of commitment of the nation to God. 

Now, don't go thinking that means Washington D.C. in any form or shape, because the government of our country was not established in Washington D.C.  The proclamation by our first inauguarated President was not spoken in Washington, D.C.  In fact, to my knowledge, George Washington never set foot inside Washington D.C.

The New York Daily Advisor clearly stated that the inaugural speech was to be given by the President, surrounded by the government representatives of senate, congress, etc., in the "house of God."  This particular newspaper reported it, because the establishment of our government, and the location of the church of this first inaugural address, was none other than New York City, the capitol of our nation at that time.  [See David Burton Wallbuilder's blog again.]

The church was St. Paul's Chapel which still exists within a block or two of Wall Street.

And the large section of land that, at that time (according to the author of The Harbinger),was owned exclusively by St. Paul's Chapel, was later divided and sold to become the plot of land upon which the Twin Towers were built.

Ground that is now known as "Ground Zero."

Do you think that was just a very bad coincidence?  That the land upon which our nation covenanted with God to be guided by Him, was, 212 years later, the same land that was attacked on 9/11 by America's enemies...who just happen to be descendants of ancient Assyria? 

Or could that have been the beginning of judgment on a nation who, for all intents and purposes,  has excluded the Almighty God it once gratefully acknowledged; the God to whom it now turns its collective backs? 

Could it be also that God's Word which we declare to be "living" was recorded for our benefit, and the benefit of every nation ever to exist, in order that we might know what to expect, fully and completely, when we turn as a nation against God?

[If you need further convincing, read Jonathan Cahn's book The Harbinger.  It was in his book that I found this information for the first time a couple of years ago; information which I verified at the websites shown in this blog, although there are many additional websites that confirm this information as well.]

Jeremiah: The Valley of Hinnom

Here is some information that I think is important concerning something mentioned in a prior scripture passage called the "valley of Hinnom" (Jeremiah 7:32).

The following information comes from bible dictionaries and compiled on Blue Letter Bible's website [www.blueletterbible.org].  For those of you who are not yet using Blue Letter Bible's website, I encourage you to check it out.  It provides very easy cross-referencing, more study aids than I can contain on my shelves, and wonderful daily devotionals that will bless you.

Easton's Bible Dictionary:
Hinnom:
A deep, narrow ravine separating Mount Zion from the so-called "Hill of Evil Counsel." It took its name from "some ancient hero, the son of Hinnom." It is first mentioned in Jos 15:8. It had been the place where the idolatrous Jews burned their children alive to Moloch and Baal. A particular part of the valley was called Tophet, or the "fire-stove," where the children were burned. After the Exile, in order to show their abhorrence of the locality, the Jews made this valley the receptacle of the offal of the city, for the destruction of which a fire was, as is supposed, kept constantly burning there.

The Jews associated with this valley these two ideas, (1) that of the sufferings of the victims that had there been sacrificed; and (2) that of filth and corruption. It became thus to the popular mind a symbol of the abode of the wicked hereafter. It came to signify hell as the place of the wicked. "It might be shown by infinite examples that the Jews expressed hell, or the place of the damned, by this word. The word Gehenna [the Greek contraction of Hinnom] was never used in the time of Christ in any other sense than to denote the place of future punishment." About this fact there can be no question. In this sense the word is used eleven times in our Lord's discourses (Mat 23:33; Luk 12:5; Mat 5:22, etc.).

Smith's Bible Dictionary:

Hinnom:

(lamentation) Valley of, otherwise called "the valley of the son" or "children of Hinnom," a deep and narrow ravine, with steep, rocky sides, to the south and west of Jerusalem, separating Mount Zion to the north from the "hill of evil counsel," and the sloping rocky plateau of the "plain of Rephaim" to the south. The earliest mention of the valley of Hinnom is in Joshua 15:8; 18:16 where the boundary line between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin is described as passing along the bed of the ravine. On the southern brow, overlooking the valley at its eastern extremity Solomon erected high places for Molech (1 Kings 11:7) whose horrid rites were revived from time to time in the same vicinity the later idolatrous kings. Ahaz and Manasseh made their children "pass through the fire" in this valley (2 Kings 16:3; 2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6) and the fiendish custom of infant sacrifice to the fire‐gods seems to have been kept up in Tophet, which was another name for this place. To put an end to these abominations the place was polluted by Josiah, who renders it ceremonially unclean by spreading over it human bones and other corruptions (2 Kings 23:10; 23:13-14; 2 Chronicles 34:4, 5) from which time it appears to have become the common cesspool of the city, into which sewage was conducted, to be carried off by the waters of the Kidron. From its ceremonial defilement, and from the detested and abominable fire of Molech, if not from the supposed ever‐burning funeral piles, the later Jews applied the name of this valley-Ge Hinnom, Gehenna (land of Hinnom)- to denote the place of eternal torment. In this sense the word is used by our Lord (Matthew 5:29; 10:28; 23:15; Mark 9:43; Luke 12:5). 

Jeremiah: Third Sermon

This third sermon of Jeremiah's begins in verse 7:1 and ends in 10:25.

In verse 7:6, we come immediately back to the subject of shedding "innocent blood" which is timely because I earlier stated that this innocent blood was clearly that of the prophets who had been killed by an unrepentant people. But I believe this passage, and possibly the earlier one as well, as GW stated (see comments under Jeremiah: First Sermon), speaks also of the blood of children sacrificed to either Baal or Molech, in that it is immediately followed with the words: "neither walk after other gods to your hurt." Verse 7:31 further confirms:

"And they have built the high places of Tophet [remember the groves of trees in high places used for pagan god worship?], which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart."

The worship of these two gods specifically required babies to be sacrificed on their altars.  These practices were abominable to God.  They should be abominable to us as well, in this modern age of easy abortions.

Yet, even in these sins, our merciful God was still seeking repentance from the people, rather than just wiping them out as He had once done with the flood.  Judgment only comes from lack of repentance. Judgment is not the same as consequences. There are always consequences to be paid when we sin, God's divine law wouldn't be just if there were no consequences, but the wrath-filled judgment of God is not at all the same as the consequences of our actions.  Two totally separate concepts. God's calling is sure.  Once He has called us to follow Him, no matter what we have done before or after that calling, as long as true repentance follows, meaning we have turned from those past sins never to visit them again, then we are able to walk in confidence with the Lord, as He uses us then to minister to others who might be heading into (or coming out of) those same types of sin.  It is only when we willingly continue in sin and do not even want to repent that we are in danger of God's wrath...His patience is long, but limited...it does have an end. That is why we are to turn from sin as soon as we recognize it as sin.  "NOW is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Hypocrisy is the subject of verses 7:8 through 8:3, as seen in just these few first verses:

"Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.  Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations.  Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord." (Jeremiah 7:8-7-11)

Even today, there are those in whom this hypocrisy can be found; people who trust that performing the ritual of going to church (as one example) makes them pleasing to God, even if the rest of the week they walk in willful disobedience to His Word. God is not pleased with ritual, only with obedience:

"For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: But this thing commanded I them, saying "Obey my voice, and I will be your God and ye shall be my people, and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well for you." (Jeremiah 7:22-24)

Then there is Jeremiah's lament for his nation and its people:

"When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.....I am black, astonishment hath taken hold of me.  Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered.? Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people." (Jeremiah 8:18-9:1)

This is both a lament and a prophetic utterance, for the "balm of Gilead" is a name given to Jesus, who is also known as the Great Physician.

I want to focus for a moment on Jeremiah 9:13-14:

"And the Lord saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; but have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them."

This is the biggest sin I see happening in our nation "walk(ing) after the imagination of their own heart."  The human heart has an immense capacity to rationalize in order to get what it wants. At some time or another, each of us has experienced this most likely.  I certainly have. I was shocked after the fact to realize just how well I convinced myself to do something I thought I would never in a million years do.  And it all seemed perfectly logical at the time!  It made perfect sense!  Because I shut my ears to the voice of God, temporarily.  And deception fell like a veil over my eyes.  I didn't not receive sight again until my sin had caused great damage to my own spirit, to my walk, to those I loved.  We have a huge capacity to rationalize.

BUT, having been there myself, allows me to have compassion for those who are also blinded and deaf to their own sin.  God was merciful and pulled me out of the darkness of my sin.  Society around us is walking in such deception, deception that seems perfectly logical to them, deception that came about from the desire of their own hearts. In other words, they wanted this sin so badly deep down inside, that rationalization came easy.  We have all fallen for it at one time or another.

For us to walk up to someone so greatly deceived and begin preaching to them in terminology they don't even comprehend is less than helpful, it is toxic.  We KNOW the right way, but how do we get THEM to go the right way, when they are enjoying the wrong way so much?  As we also once did. [I keep coming back to our own sins, because we must never forget that from which we have been saved ourselves!  That knowledge keeps us loving the unloveable; without that knowledge we would not be able to love at all.  We would be self-righteous hypocrites such as the nation of Judah had become.]

So, how do we get the deceived, the spiritually blind and deaf, to go the right way, the way of the Lord?  The way of blessing! Give me your thoughts, or your experiences of what turned you around from sin if you can. You don't have to name the sin, just tell us what brought you around.  Think of the worst sin, perhaps, of your lifetime, because most likely the worst sin had the most profound revealing of that sin as well.

Moving on, we come to another interesting verse:

"For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not." (Jeremiah 10:3-4)

Doesn't that sound a little like a Christmas tree?  Perhaps some religions outlaw Christmas trees because of this verse, not sure really.  I myself, when I first read it, thought it was condemning Christmas trees.  But further down in the same passage it clearly identifies these trees that are decked out in silver and gold are being handled and treated as gods...carried about...but unable to speak:

"They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go [walk or move on their own].  Be not afraid of them: for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good."  (Jeremiah 10:5)  In other words, they are worthless, empty, lifeless things that man has formed out of a tree.  And the pagans worship them, and cry out to them for help.  It is pretty silly isn't it, yet the Israelites did the same thing with a golden calf they formed out of their own melted jewelry.  Amazing how our deceived minds can think at times, so stupidly, yet believing ourselves to be so smart...certainly smarter than God. Amazing deception.

So, there is a summary of the highlights, in my opinion at least, of things we can learn from Jeremiah's third sermon. Tell me if there are other things that you have learned from this section of the Word.

And be sure to give me your thoughts, if you are willing, on that question I asked above.  I think it will be helpful to all the readers of this blog.  We are, after all, seeking God, and His ways, and encouraging one another along the Way.

Jeremiah: A Little Background Info

I think it will be helpful for us to depart from Jeremiah's sermons for a few moments, and gain a little more historical perspective to help us distinguish between two separate and distinct captivities: the first having happened approximately 100 years prior to Jeremiah's ministry, and the second to happen soon in our study of the Book of Jeremiah.

So, let's begin by identifying these two captivities as either the Assyrian captivity or the Babylonian captivity.

The Babylonian captivity, as we will begin to call it in our current study, is the captivity of Judah by the Babylonians.  Because we will be getting into that in more detail in our study, I do not want to focus on it here.  Let's instead review the circumstances of the Assyrian captivity, as all history teaches us something about the present period of time, which as pertains to our study, means that time frame which was "present" tense to Jeremiah.

Prior to the Assyrian captivity, David's kingdom of Israel became divided after the death of his son and heir, Solomon.  I found an excellent page on the internet that describes the details of that division so much better than I could, and I find it to be an easy read, though very, very long, so if you have time this weekend, or over the next week even, go to:

https://bible.org/seriespage/21-great-divorce-kingdom-divided-1-kings-12-2-chronicles-10

I will borrow one scripture reference from the link above:

After Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the other construction projects he had planned, the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, in the same way he had appeared to him at Gibeon. The Lord said to him, “I have answered your prayer and your request for help that you made to me. I have consecrated this temple you built by making it my permanent home; I will be constantly present there.  You must serve me with integrity and sincerity, just as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations.  Then I will allow your dynasty to rule over Israel permanently, just as I promised your father David, ‘You will not fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ “But if you or your sons ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, and decide to serve and worship other gods,  then I will remove Israel from the land I have given them, I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence, and Israel will be mocked and ridiculed among all the nations.  This temple will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by it will be shocked and will hiss out their scorn, saying, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’  Others will then answer, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who led their ancestors out of Egypt. They embraced other gods whom they worshiped and served. That is why the Lord has brought all this disaster down on them’” (1 Kings 9:1-9)

God being true to His Word, this passage of scripture above describes, in very simple and accurate details, the reason that Israel was carried away captive.

But as God always does, a remnant of ancient Israel, known as the nation of Judah, remained. 

The Assyrian captivity lasted as long as there was an Assyrian empire. When Babylon conquers the Assyrian empire, Israel is too scattered to ever unite again (until the 1900s at least.)  They become known as the "ten lost tribes of Israel."

[The ruins of the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh - the graveyard of the Assyrian empire - are located beneath two mounds of earth in the city of Mosul, Iraq.  I find it very interesting, with our earth having a land mass of 57,000,000 square miles, that the sworn enemy of both modern day Israel and the United States of America is occupying the same exact land that was home to the ancient enemy of Israel; the same enemy that God used for judgment against Israel.]

The Babylonian captivity, on the other hand, has an even more specific cause than the Assyrian captivity and will come with a captivity time limit as well.

More on that later.  Hope that helps.

See you Monday!

Jeremiah: Second Sermon, Part 2

In Jeremiah 4:6, we hear God saying "I will bring evil from the north, and great destruction."  Our sovereign God will use vessels of honor (His prophets) and vessels of dishonor (our enemies),in order to accomplish His purposes in us.  His instrument in this case will be Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and his armies. In Ezekiel 38 it is the Scythians [aka Eurasian or Russian] who will come from the north (even farther north), an event which is still to happen in our own lifetime. [And probably soon, given that this, the Shemitah or Sabbath year, will end on September 15, 2015, a year of shaking and "letting fall", a turning point. "The mystery of the Shemitah ordains that an economic and financial transformation take place in the seventh year." -The Mystery of the Shemitah, Jonathan Cahn, p. 96.]  For the land of Judah, the end of its Shemitah year in 586 B.C. brought with it the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

In 4:19, we see the pain that Jeremiah actually feels for his people.  In 4:23 through 26,we see the vision of desolation that Jeremiah sees coming.  The desolation is so great, that Jeremiah uses the same words used in Genesis 1 that describe the earth before the Spirit of God moved over it.  This is an interesting parallel, as God seems to indicate that He will pull His Spirit out of Judah completely, (although we know that the Holy Spirit remains with God's prophet, Jeremiah) and thus the land will become as desolate as it was before creation itself.  The Spirit of God gives life, without the Spirit there is only death:

"A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse.  Even a full wind from those places shall come unto Me: now also will I give sentence against them." (Jeremiah 4:11-12)

The Hebrew word for "wind" here  is ruach, which can also mean "spirit."  The Spirit will return to God.

And yet, there is always that heart-felt pleading from God, that longing to see His people saved: "O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved.  How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? (Jer. 4:14)

But always, God loves us too much to allow us to spiritually prosper in disobedience:

"Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in His season, He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.  Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you." (Jer. 5:24-25)

Finally, we come to the end of this particular sermon.  Chapter six is the sounding of alarms, the sounding of trumpets:

"O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction." (Jeremiah 6:1)

The name Tekoa actually means "a sound as though from a trumpet" and was the home of another prophet of God, Amos. Bethhaccerem means "house of the vineyard".

"For thus hath the Lord of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her." (Jer. 6:6)  Interesting that God instructs trees and stone, the very objects of their false worship, to be destroyed or used against Jerusalem in its coming destruction. The Lord is always appropriate in His method of judgment against unrepentant sin.

Then comes a scripture verse which we have heard many times: "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, where there is no peace." (Jer. 6:14)

This speaks of the false prophets of the time, who in Jer. 5:13 are described as having a different kind of wind, one that is not of the Holy Spirit, but is "empty, or of no consequence": "and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them."

And then the final warning of this sermon:

"Thus saith the Lord, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised form the sides of the earth.  They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, o daughter of Zion. We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.  Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.  O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us." (Jer. 6:22-26)

The people are told (paraphrased) to hide in their homes and weep because it will not be safe out on the streets, not that even their hiding will keep them safe.  This is the opposite of what the followers of Jesus are told to do when they see Jerusalem besieged by the Romans in 70 A.D.  They were told to flee to the hills, not even hanging around home long enough to bring a change of clothing or anything from their houses.  That is because death and destruction occurred inside the walls of Jerusalem as the siege continue for more than a year, and people starved to death, unable to escape the walls without being killed. But this which Judah faces, is utter desolation.  In the words of Jeremiah, intense terror will fill the hearts of the people of Judah when this enemy descends upon them as the instrument of God's judgment for their disobedience.  It doesn't sound all that much different than the terrorists we face today. How have we sat in our own homes and wept at the carnage left in the wake of modern-day terrorists, such as we all experienced on 9/11.  What more may come our way and are we prepared for it? Spiritually prepared that is, for there is no other preparation that will save us. If God is for us, who can be against us?

In the person of Jeremiah, we find the nation's most caring patriot; one who is in great pain and distress as he understands the devastation that is coming.  He does not compromise the reason for this devastation, he continues to bring home time and time again that the unrepentant sins of the people will bring this to pass. He never lets go of the moral issue, and the fact that judgment is inevitable, yet his weeping exhibits his care for them individually and collectively, while his grief reveals his anguish at what is about to happen.

It is not inappropriate for us to be Jeremiahs in our own time, and to weep for our own country, America, for there is a poignant parallel between Israel and America: our root of this country, its discovery, initial charter, and foundations were clearly given by God and acknowledged by its population.  But we are truly living in the post-Christian era in America.  It is not inappropriate for us to care for our country and to weep for it as well, all the while understanding what is to come, as Billy Graham so succinctly stated:  "If God does not judge America, then He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorra."

Our country is in great peril today and anyone who does not understand that is truly and spiritually blind.  We are in peril morally.  We are in peril economically.  We are in peril militarily.  But most of all, we are in peril spiritually.

Jeremiah 6:13 declares the condition of our own society today: "For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness..."

Our society today has highly engineered covetousness.  The idols in our own times are vastly more attractive, seductive and entangling than the ones in Jeremiah's day.  Evil has gown more efficient in achieving its goal to deceive and destroy multitudes.  God has been displaced in our society by vain things.  And Revelation tells us that when judgment comes, the people will still cry out to the rocks to hide them, rather than cry out to God even then, for they will be (they are already) blinded and deceived, becoming as dead as the things they worshipped (see Rev. 6:15-16).

And yet...

...just as Jeremiah gives instances of hope, so do we have a confident hope that as we remain hidden in Christ, no matter what befalls us, we are safe, if not in this world, then certainly in eternity, and that is much more important than this fleeting life here.  For those of us who trust in Jesus, and who remain repentant and humble of heart, the refiner's fire will produce silver that is purged and cleansed; never will we be called "reprobate silver" - the dregs of impurity that are cast out of silver and thrown away (Jer. 6:30)  Silver never melts away completely in the fire.  It is merely purged and refined until it begins to reflect the face of the Refiner Himself.

Even for our own nation, there is hope: that the nation will turn back to God and see the fury of God mitigated in this land. But a change must come first. I quote Jonathan Cahn once more here:

"Without God, there is no true security or safety for America.  Without His hand of protection, no matter how many systems of defense the nation employs, they will fail just as they did on 9/11.  America cannot defy the God of its keeping and expect that protection to continue. 'Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.' (Ps. 127:1)"

We can begin that turning back of a nation towards God with His glory reflected in us, for all the world to see and be drawn to, as Jesus in us will draw all men unto Himself. Let us not be the subject of Jeremiah's message: an unrepentant humanity that becomes like the false gods they worship.

Let us set aside the vain idols of our society. Let us worship Jesus Christ, and become like Him.

Jeremiah: Second Sermon, Part 1

The second sermon of Jeremiah is found in the scripture passage Jeremiah 3:6-6:30.  This is quite a long passage, so I will have to hit only the highlights, but I encourage you to read the entire scripture passage prior to reading this post.

In this warning to the people, the Lord through Jeremiah reminds the people that they had the perfect example given to them of what NOT to do, yet they did it anyway, and it is worse for them because they had no excuse since they chose to sin even after having seen Israel's unrepentance and the subsequent destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel (Jer. 3:6-10).

The Lord follows that warning with a plea to repent (3:11-4:4), a prediction of the judgment that will come from the north (4:5-31), a review of  Judah's list of sins (5:1-31), and ends with the imagery of the near future destruction of their own beloved Jerusalem (6:1-30). This breakdown should help you with the overview of the sermon.

Now for some important details.

Many times throughout Jeremiah, we will be told that the people of God worshipped at altars in groves of trees and in high mountainous places (see 3:43).  More specifically, we are told that they cried out to the trees and the rocks, and just as they worship these empty, useless (vain) idols, they themselves become empty and useless (vain). Israel was forbidden from placing any altars to God near any tree grove, or in high mountainous places.  That didn't stop them, sadly, and the people became as useless (vain) as the things they worshipped. 

This puts me in mind of the number of people today who consider themselves noble for worshipping the Lord outdoors.  They believe that admiring God's earth, and caring for it to the extreme, is pleasing to God as a form of worship of Him, even as they neglect what He has told them to do concerning worship. God is  not pleased.

As I have often said before, God has told us how to worship Him, and where to worship Him, and also where not to worship Him.  Any other way besides what He has instructed is not God worship, it is simply disobedience and will be judged.  In fact, if we are not obedient first, before we attempt to praise and worship Him, we have failed already.  He tells us that He does not want rituals, but obedience! 

There is a perfect analogy, I think, to help us understand what the Father wants from His children, and that is the analogy of a manipulative teenager who is told by his Dad to go clean his room.  The teen doesn't want to clean his room, so instead goes to clean Dad's garage, even though his father has told him numerous times to stay out of the garage.  How pleased will the Dad be to find that the teen has done what the teen thinks will please his dad, instead of just doing what Dad asked? Now consider how pleased God is when we don't do what He asks, but instead we imagine that all sorts of other things (that we prefer to do) will be found pleasing to Him instead of just doing as He says.

Israel was judged for their worship of vain idols, and yet Judah, who witnessed all of it, including Israel's captivity and the destruction of its cities, was not really seeing or hearing at all: "Their ear is uncircumcised" (6:10).  They are a "foolish people, and without understanding, which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not." (5:21)   Like most of us when our hearts get hardened towards God, we have the unique ability to rationalize and call it all good, rather than submit to God in God's way.

Another interesting point is found in 3:16:

"And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done anymore."

Recall that the ark of the covenant was the mercy seat of God, it was the place upon which God's shekinah glory rested, and then suddenly, during the judgment of Israel, specifically during Jeremiah's time, the ark disappeared. The movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, was instrumental in promoting the mystery of the lost ark to the imaginations of its movie-going crowds.  Jewish tradition also says that perhaps Jeremiah himself hid it, in Egypt, in a cave.  But God is clearly saying here that they will not see it ever again, so no matter how much it is sought, it will not be found.  Not here on earth.  You see, it is in heaven, even now, I believe:

"And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail." (Rev. 11:19)

The reason the ark will not be found here on earth is because it is no longer needed.  Jesus is the mercy seat of God.  Jesus is the shekinah glory of God.  Jesus is God.  It is Jesus that we are to seek diligently with all of our hearts. It is Jesus who takes away our sins that once could be taken away only one time a year and then only in the Holy of Holies that contained the ark. And once we find Christ, we are to worship Him.  Worship of Jesus will not produce vain actions on our part, for Christ is not vain.  Just as we can worship idols and become like that which we worship, so also, will we become like Christ as we worship Him.

Now let's look at verse 4:1: "If thou will return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not be removed" [taken captive]. It was the neglect of God and the worship of false idols that caused Israel (and Judah) to be sent away into a land that worshipped false idols.  They were no longer free to worship the true God.
Sin's captivity has not changed.  God allows us to become sin's captive, no matter what our sin is, as long as we remain unrepentant of that sin.  We become its captive, at first willingly, and later unwillingly, but unable to do anything about it without the grace and mercy of God choosing to allow us to be released and set free.  We have only the opportunity to avoid sin's captivity, if we repent BEFORE captivity arrives. 

Now, I am not talking here about eternal salvation or the loss of.  Israel was not eternally held captive.  Israel was released in God's own time, and began to serve Him once more, or will with their whole hearts after the tribulation.  What I am talking about is the danger that we will be held captive to sin against our will if we risk not repenting in time.  Then, it is only God's grace, mercy and His timing that will set us free again.  And I believe He will, if we cry out to Him during our captivity to sin.  But it just might not arrive as quickly as we would like.  This is the danger we face.

We will finish the second half of this second sermon, tomorrow.

Jeremiah: First Sermon

The first sermon of Jeremiah is found in Jeremiah 2:1 through 3:5.

The year that Jeremiah's ministry begins is 626 BC, the 13th year of the reign of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king at the age of 8.  So, Josiah is, at the time of this first sermon, approximately 21 years old.  Josiah was an excellent king, righteous before God, who reigned for a total of 31 years before he was slain in battle (2 Kings chapters 21 through 26 and 2 Chronicles 35:20-24). Sadly, Josiah's death was a misjudgment on his part as God even warned Josiah, through the lips of the enemy, not to go to this battle, but Josiah would not stay back, forging ahead with his men into battle and to his own death.

Because of Josiah's obedience to the Lord, God deliberately holds back the judgment against Judah until King Josiah has gone on to be with his fathers. And even then, He holds back a bit longer, until four more kings have ascended Judah's throne during Jeremiah's ministry: Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and the final one during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and captivity of the nation of Judah was Zekediah.  None of these final four kings were righteous before God.

Here is the bit of difficulty to be found in reading this first sermon: even though the kingdom of Israel has long been split into two kingdoms (recall if you will: Israel became the northern half, Judah, including Jerusalem, became the southern half), the Israel that the Lord refers to in this first sermon is the "remnant" of Israel that is living in Judah.  The other Israel, the northern kingdom, at the time of Jeremiah's first sermon, had been taken captive a full century before Jeremiah begins his ministry, and it is as though, in this scripture section, God does not consider that kingdom of Israel to be Israel any longer....for now Israel is only the "remnant"...Israel is Judah.  Confused yet?  In fact, the only thing left of the northern kingdom once known as Israel, are a few Jews who escaped being carried away, but who intermarried with people having an Assyrian background to form the people known as Samaritans (aka half-Jews).

So, in this first sermon, particularly, when you see Israel, think Judah.  Took me quite some time and the study of a few commentaries to get that. Told you this would not be an easy study.

Well, here we go.

"Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord: I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown." (Jeremiah 2:2)

This actually is not speaking of a lost "first love" of the people for God, similar to that for which the church of Ephesus in the Book of Revelation is rebuked.  This is actually God fondly recalling HIS love of Israel in their "youth", i.e., the early days of His love for them, when HE led them in the wilderness, not actually when they "followed" Him.  The attitudes, if you will recall, of the Israelites in the wilderness, did not display a "following", so much as a "being led" of which they had little choice in such a vast wilderness. Their attitudes often portrayed their displeasure in having to follow God.

The fond recollection then turns into what sounds like sarcasm, alluding to the insult God surely felt at the betrayal of those He so greatly loved:

"What iniquity have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?" (Jer. 2:5)

"Vanity" is explained in verse 8 as "walking after things that do not profit."  As they walked after vain gods (unprofitable gods), they themselves became vain (unprofitable) as well. The list of those who were not profitable includes prophets, but these were not God's prophets.  These were false prophets who did not speak God's words to the people.

Now, rather than go verse by verse and begin to sound like a commentary, I am going to assume that you had time to read this sermon for yourself and sp I just want to just highlight a few points.

In much of the remaining scriptures of this sermon, God compares unrepentant Israel to a rampant unbridled lust-filled prostitute; a prostitute who doesn't even have the sense to be ashamed of the blood splattered all over the front of her dress (of the prophets of God whom she has killed), but is ashamed only of being caught, much as a thief might be: unrepentant, but unhappy only because he has been caught and stopped cold in his crime spree tracks. Such is how the Lord describes unrepentant Israel.

And in verse 22 God says this:

"For though thou wash thee with nitre [a strong cleansing agent], and take thee much sope, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God."

The Old Covenant's Mosaic law, instituted by God Himself, demanded that sin could only be atoned for by the blood of an animal sacrifice.  But with the coming of the New Covenant, the blood which God provides for such washing away of sin is that of His own Son, Jesus Christ.  That blood alone can cause God to forget our sins, our iniquities, against Him.  The blood of Jesus alone is God's prescribed cleansing agent. Don't let us think for one moment that there is anything else that we can do to remove sin's penalty from our lives, for to do so would be to trample under foot the very gift of God in Jesus Christ.

Then in verse 32: "Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number."

It sounds to me as though God is saying that He expected Israel to wear Him as their identity: as a bride wears her bridal gown to proclaim that she is a bride, or as a woman wears her adornments to draw attention to her beauty.

Do we wear Christ as our identity?  Dow we wear Him in such a way that we proclaim to the world that we are His? Or are we ashamed of our identity in Him?

Finally, in chapter 3, verse 3, God declares that because of Israel's unrepentance, He has withheld the latter rain.

Now, we should all understand what latter rain signifies.  Revival.  Spiritual revival. No latter rain equals no Holy Spirit to come alongside and teach and comfort us. 

Because David acknowledged his own sin, he cried out in fearful anguish to the Lord in Psalm 51:11 "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me."  David knew the price sin could cost him, but God was merciful because David at least recognized and acknowledged that he had sinned.  The Holy Spirit was not taken away from David.

But Judah is nowhere close to David's attitude   They weren't even smart enough to be fearful of God, as David was.

Jeremiah's message to Judah in the first sermon is as it will be in all twelve sermons: one of certain doom to come for unrepentant hearts. What is there for us to learn from this sermon, that perhaps Judah did not learn?

The second sermon begins at 3:6 and ends at 6:30.  Try to read in preparation if you can.

Jeremiah: 12 Sermons

Jeremiah is a difficult book to follow chronologically, as the chapters are not necessarily chronological.  It is also difficult to study in that a portion of it is prophetic in nature. For this reason, we will not concern ourselves with the chronology as much as we will concern ourselves with the message of Jeremiah.

The writing of Jeremiah, in contrast to Isaiah, is not as eloquent and lofty as Isaiah, but is instead direct and to the point, expressing almost continually a deep anguish of soul, which, as previously mentioned, provided him with the nickname of "the weeping prophet."

The person of Jeremiah is thought, by most biblical scholars, to be the most deeply spiritual person of the Old Testament. We will get to know Jeremiah much more personally than any other prophet, as this book is almost an autobiography of Jeremiah.  We will find Jeremiah to be uncompromising, both with himself as well as with his nation, Judah.

The book of Jeremiah is quoted over 50 times in the New Testament, with more than half of those in the book of Revelation alone.

Jeremiah was in the Lord's service for forty-five years.  During that period of time, yet prior to the fall of Jerusalem, twelve sermons (or warnings) were preached to the nation of Judah by Jeremiah. 

My Bible breaks down these sermons so that it is easy for me to see where one sermon begins and ends and another begins again. Hope yours does too, but if not, you will see the division of sermons by my postings as I will post notes daily regarding each sermon and its relevant scripture, and will provide the number of the sermon in the post's title.

When we have studied all twelve sermons, we will then learn of the conflict that Jeremiah's messages from God brought to him from 1) the nation of Judah, 2) the false prophets, 3) Hananiah, 4) Shemaiah.

These conflicts will be followed by the speaking of God's promises of future restoration.  But then the judgment, as God had before ordained and declared to be coming, arrives swiftly and surely.  We will see Jerusalem's fall to the Babylonians in three phases: the period just before the fall, during the fall, and after the fall.

And all of this will still only get us through chapter 45. There are 52 chapters in the Book of Jeremiah. The remaining chapters are prophetic, and repetitive of Jerusalem's fall. Jeremiah is the longest book of the Bible, and thus quite an undertaking in terms of bible study.

Please be sure to read the chapters relevant to the appropriate sermon before reading that day's post regarding the sermon, if at all possible. And, as always, post questions, thoughts or other comments at the end of the day's post whenever it suits you to do so. I usually respond pretty quickly whenever a question is asked. All comments and responses are to be found at the bottom of each day's post.

Finally, I want to add one last warning of my own: because so much of this book is a strong message being sent from God to a hard-hearted people who have been negligent of God ("my people have forgotten me days without number" Jer. 2:32b), and because many of us have at some time or another, perhaps even recently, also been forgetful and negligent of God, please do not let the enemy attack you in this regard.  Remember, that the message is always strongest to those who are unrepentant, who have not yet even acknowledged that they have turned from God, and remember also that the Lord continually, it seems, offers hope if they will only repent.  Certainly, if there are readers of this blog who have not yet acknowledged their neglect of God, then I pray that this book will help lead you to repentance and forgiveness which is freely given by God.  But most of you, I believe, would not even be reading this blog if you were not already cognizant of your sin of negligence against God, and repentant of it already...thus you find yourselves here studying the Word of God.  You are here because the Spirit of the Lord has drawn you and will keep you.

So, tomorrow we will begin with Sermon #1 and if you can please read chapter 2:1 through 3:5 which are the scriptures covering Jeremiah's first sermon, before you read the blog post.

Jeremiah: The Call & the Signs

Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."

Then said I, "Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

But the Lord said unto me, "Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." (Jeremiah 1:4-8)

Jeremiah's call was pre-ordained, in other words, Jeremiah was "known" by God and "chosen" by God before he was ever born, before he ever had time to prove whether or not he would be worthy of the call.  But God's choosing of us never has anything to do with worthiness or deservedness.

God chooses us because He can.  Because He is all-knowing, and all-powerful, sovereign GOD.

Somehow, I don't think Jeremiah was the only man that God "knew" before he was even born.  Somehow, I think He "knew" each of us BEFORE we were even in the womb. I think this because God is who He is.

If we could just get that into our heads and keep it there, then what more could we expect out of life than to be so blessed as to have been known by God before we were even born and then to be chosen by Him before we ever proved or disproved our worthiness (because it isn't our strength anyway, it is His).

Maybe we do know this. Maybe our discontent comes not from the lack of this knowledge about our blessings in God, but more from the fear that we will not be found worthy, or the fear that it is all a big lie, or the fear that somehow we have already rejected Him. It is all about fear, isn't it, if we are not too proud to admit it?

No matter what doubts assail us, about either ourselves or the truth of the Lord, if we search, I know that we will find that glimmer in us that says, "Trust! Believe Me! Hold tight to that which you have and stand!"

And so we must.  And so we go on, for His Word is filled with hope for such as us. As long as we breath, there is hope. God's unconditional love for us assures of that hope. But because He provides each breath we breathe, we are to receive Him TODAY while there is still breath, for we have no assurance of the next breath, ever. God is sovereign in that as well.

In Jeremiah's time, the message God sends to His people are both warnings of judgment and promises of hope, if they will just surrender to God's judgment. The judgment is sure because of the sins of the people, but the judgment can be mitigated somewhat by their surrender, by their acknowledgment of the fact that they deserve the judgment, that they brought it on themselves by their rejection of Him.

However, to wave their fists in God's face, and proudly declare, "We will not surrender!" is to invite an even harsher judgment upon themselves, as we will see.

God called Jeremiah to this task that would make him despised, rejected, and lonely. But God also provided signs and assurances to Jeremiah that He was with Him and that the enemy could not prevail against God's chosen servant.

The first sign in Jeremiah 1:11-12 is the branch of an almond tree and indicated God's faithfulness to His Word as an encouragement to Jeremiah. What God promises to us, HE WILL DO!

The second sign in Jeremiah 1:13-16 is of a seething pot, whose face was toward the north, indicative of the fury that would come from a northern nation against Judah, a northern nation that God would call forth in judgment against Judah. This sign was to assure Jeremiah that he would not be speaking about a judgment that would not come, and would be set aside as a false prophet, for judgment WOULD indeed come.

Then the Lord gave Jeremiah the assurance of His own strength and power to sustain Jeremiah:

"Thou therefore, gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee: but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee." (Jeremiah 1:17-19)

The assurances that the Lord gives Jeremiah are very familiar to the believer in Christ as well, are they not? The charge that God gave Jeremiah applies to us as well as the assurance: "Do not be dismayed at their faces."  In other words, do not fear. Trust. Believe me. Hold tight to that which you have and stand!

God's living Word encourages and gives life to us today with all that we have been called to face and endure, just as surely as it did for Jeremiah with all that he had been called to face and endure.  With so much encouragement already in the opening chapter of Jeremiah, be prepared to be blessed as we continue this study.

Jeremiah: Persevering Prophet

OK, now that I have (once more) put sad things behind me and am trying my best to look forward instead of back, I find that I am being led to study Jeremiah.  I have NEVER done an in-depth study of Jeremiah and at the moment I am a little rusty at all things spiritual.  So I hope to get lots of help to fill in any gaps that might appear.

The first chapter of Jeremiah tells us what the Lord's plans are for Jeremiah:

"See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." (Jeremiah 1:10)

 

That is the scripture that pulls me forward into this study.  The Lord pulls us down, when necessary, only to build us up, properly, in His ways, rather than in our own. He does so to individuals and to nations as well.

 

Of course, here He is speaking about nations; nations that His ordained prophet, Jeremiah, will speak either against or for using the very words of God Himself.

 

Things of the flesh must be pulled down to make way for things of the Spirit of God.  We will see this throughout Jeremiah, I suspect. 

 

And much of Jeremiah speaks, prophetically, of things to come, either in Jeremiah's own time, or shortly after, or even as late as today and in the coming years of our own lifetimes.

 

But we will get into all that.  First, a preface.

 

My Bible tells me that part of Jeremiah's ministry coincided, in time frame at least, with Daniel's and Ezekiel's and Zephaniah's and Habakkuk's.  Because we read the bible from book to book, rather than in proper chronological order, we can miss out on the fact that several prophets of God were functioning in their service to the Lord all at the same time, having different ministries and operating in different geographic locations, yet all having one clear recurring message, which I paraphrase here:

 

"Repent or calamity will follow." 

Words revealing the nature of the one true God who, while merciful to man far beyond what we can comprehend at times, is still to be always fearfully respected and obeyed because of His great power in judgment. This is important for us today to remember.

 

Because Jeremiah lived only two miles north of Jerusalem in a town called Anathoth, and because Jerusalem was located in Judah, God's message through Jeremiah was primarily to the nation of Judah. [Remember that at this time, David's kingdom called Israel had been divided into north and south after David's death; north was still called Israel, south, which included Jerusalem, was called Judah.]

 

Here is an excerpt from my Bible pages preceding The Book of Jeremiah that I can relate in some ways to our own nation:

 

"The downhill slide of the nation [Judah] continues virtually unabated through a succession of four godless kings during Jeremiah's ministry. The people wallow in apostasy and idolatry and grow even more treacherous than Israel was before its captivity. They pervert the worship of the true God and give themselves over to spiritual and moral decay. Because they refuse to repent or even listen to God's prophet, the divine cure requires radical surgery. Jeremiah proclaims an approaching avalanche of judgment..." (The King James Open  Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1985.)

 

We will obviously find that Jeremiah's message to the nation of Judah is not well-received, causing Jeremiah both severe persecution and loneliness at the same time, making him want to resign as prophet, and landing him the nickname of "The Weeping Prophet."  No one wept more perhaps than Jeremiah, and no one wanted to "quit"  God's service perhaps more than Jeremiah, yet he persevered to Judah's bitter end.

 

I hope that this study of Jeremiah, and seeing the prophet in all of his suffering and loneliness that at times feels similar to our own, will encourage us to persevere as well, as we hear the words of God as spoken through this prophet in warning to the unrepentant people of God that comprised the greater part of the nation of Judah.