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.
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.
2 comments:
I noticed the similarity between Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed the in the belly I knew thee….” And Psalm 139:13 “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.” How God speak about creating us and how we are all wonderfully made.
I had a question about Jeremiah 2:34 “Also in they skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents; I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.” Is this a reference to either abortions or child scarifies? It appears the later is possible. If they turned from God to worship foreign gods, then part of that worship would likely include human sacrifice. In my research, I am getting conflicting answers and wondered what you might have found.
I am so glad to begin these studies with you again. I have missed them as I learned so much from them. GW
Thank you for bringing us a confirming scripture passage from Psalms....God's word is always confirmed by two or three witnesses...David was the first witness that God's word is true, Jeremiah is the second. Regarding the passage about the blood on the skirts, verse 30 of that same chapter speaks of prophets of God. I think if you read that and then read verse 34 in context, you will see that it is the blood of prophets killed by the sword that is on the skirts of this people who have prostituted themselves before God, although I have to admit at my first reading I thought as you did, but the second reading showed me the line about the prophets. Isaiah was killed by the people by being sawn in half. Jewish tradition says that Jeremiah was stoned to death in Egypt. The unrepentant people always wanted to kills God's messenger, I suppose because they knew they couldn't get to God. Thank for the encouraging words, G, and thanks for still being here!
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