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.
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.
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