Jeremiah's Seventh Sermon, Part 2

The second half of Jeremiah 16 describes the amazing promise of God towards His people:

"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt." (16:14) 

In other words, that miracle, as great as it was, will be eclipsed by what the Lord is going to do next as the Deliverer of those who trust in Him!  Here is what He promises He will do, prefaced by that which the people will proclaim as His new and greater miracle:

"The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from all the land of the north, and form all the lands whither He had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers." (16:15) 

This is the ultimate and final return of God's chosen people, Israel, back to the land that He gave to their ancestors beginning with Abraham.  This is the miracle that has brought about the establishment of the State of Israel, but that is not all that the miracle entails.  There is so much more.

"Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.  For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes." (16:16)

This is the miracle that we have witnessed in our own times: that of a nation of people returning home from all the ends of the earth to which they had been scattered (aka the "diaspora"), as the scripture says, by the hand of God. The same hand of a holy and righteous God that drove them away from His presence, is the same hand that loves them enough and is compassionate enough, to bring them home again, and thus glorify His Name and declare to the whole earth just who He is! We are all to see and understand that the very existence of the State of Israel is no coincidence; this is the orchestration of a mighty and sovereign God who will fulfill ALL of His promises to His people, to all those who trust in Him! 

Who are these "fishers" but their own brethren, the disciples of Jesus Christ and all who follow Him?  The ones that Christ declared He would make "fishers of men"?  First to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles.  Paul even says that the Lord will cast aside the Jews for a certain length of time, and will instead draw Gentiles unto Him, in order to make the Jews jealous:

"O Lord, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our father have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there in no profit.  Shall a man make gods unto himself and they are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might: and they shall know that my name is THE LORD." (16:19-21)

Then who are the "hunters"? Could there be 144,000 of them perhaps? God has further plans for this people who have turned from Him, most of which have still not returned to Him, even though they have returned to their homelands given to them by this gracious God.  His plan requires that they be in Israel, for it is from Israel, under great duress, that they will as a nation once again turn towards God and call out to their Messiah for deliverance!  All of which will be enabled by the prior faithful testimony of 144,000 witnesses that are to come 12,000 each from the 12 tribes of Judah!  The Word declares that these witnesses will preach to the nation of Israel so that they will know that their Messiah was the one they rejected more than two thousand years ago.  They will know Jesus, the Messiah, or as they will call Him in their native tongue, Yeshua HaMashiach!  They will cry out to Him, and He will answer!  What a miraculous thing, after two thousand years of determined rejection, to now recognize Jesus as their Messiah!

The second part of the seventh sermon of Jeremiah to the people of Judah is in effect a declaration or a detailing of their sins, so that there can be no doubt, to future generations at least, the reasons why Judah was punished:

- worshipping at the altars (pagan shrines) in the groves of green trees upon the high hills (17:2)
- departing from the Lord  and trusting in man instead (17:5)
- not keeping holy the Sabbath day (17:21-27)

It is in fact, their refusal to observe the Sabbath, especially the Sabbath year, known as the Shemitah, rebelling against the very command of God written and preserved in scripture, that determined the length of Judah's captivity for those who were not killed but taken captive into Babylon. This people determined to not take God's Word at face value, and to instead, do what they thought best, most likely following upon unquestioned traditions of their fathers and the fathers before them.  Much as we Christians do still today.  Here is why I say that.

I have a comment regarding the Sabbath, and it is one that I have preached for many years on my blogs: the Sabbath is a day that GOD has declared HOLY.  It is THE day that God has called HIS holy day for on it He rested from His work of creation.  It is the day which, if we observe it, is our witness to the world around us of the fact of our Creator God's very existence, and that our sovereign God did in fact create the universe and all that is in it in SIX days and rested on the SEVENTH.  It is NOT and never has been a JEWISH holy day.  It is a GOD holy day.

We, the people of this great and awesome God, turned away from Sabbath observance in the third century A.D.  It was done by order of Constantine, the Roman emperor who thought he could worship the one true God, while continuing to worship other gods, such as the "sun" god, and thus he, Constantine, changed the Sabbath from Saturday worship to "sun"-day worship.  Even though the Sabbath (seventh day) is declared in God's word to be HIS HOLY DAY, we treat Sunday as His holy day instead.  And thus, because of our own unquestioning continuance of our forefathers traditions, we have lost the power of the 7th day/Sabbath witness of God as Creator of heaven and earth. 

I can't help but wonder how much the loss of this powerful statement of faith has contributed to the now common place belief in evolution that the world has chosen over the belief in a Creator God who made the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh?

Jeremiah's Seventh Sermon, Part 1

The 16th chapter of Jeremiah begins with a description of the horrifying and devastating judgment that will soon come upon the people of Judah:

"For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land: they shall die of grievous deaths...they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth...they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth." (16:3-4)

"Both the great and the small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them." (16:6)

"Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride." (16:9)

As a physical sign before the people of the Lord's coming judgment, His servant Jeremiah is not allowed to marry, nor to have children. Thus, Jeremiah, in a sense is already experiencing the effects of this judgment in his own life. What we are not told is whether or not Jeremiah already had a potential wife chosen for himself, or if he had hopes, as most people do, of having a home and family, only to be told by the Lord that he could have neither. If so, it is no wonder that he was called the "weeping prophet."  And yet, he remained obedient and faithful to God!

The people of Judah understood then what was to come, even as they doggedly refuse to acknowledge their sin, as evidenced by the words the Lord says they will speak to Jeremiah after his proclamation of God's judgment:

"And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?"

This passage shows the blindness of heart in the people, the greatness of the deception in which they lived that they were unable to see their own evil towards God. Deception that allowed them to respond to the one true and almighty GOD Himself with words that, in effect, said: "What have we done to deserve such punishment? We have done nothing!" In effect, showing God to be unjust, blaming Him, for their own wickedness!

To which God has Jeremiah reply:

"Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; and ye have done worse than your fathers, for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me: therefore I will cast you out of this land unto a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers, and there shall ye serve other gods day and night: where I will not shew you favor." (16:11-13)

Mind you, Jeremiah has been preaching to them for a very long time now; he is more than halfway through the time period that the Lord has allowed for the people to hear His words and turn from their evil ways.  But they are no more aware of their sin now than they were when Jeremiah began.  God, omniscient that He is, knew, even as He brought His servant to preach to them, that they would not turn, knew that even Jeremiah's intercession in their behalf, could not change such hardhearted a people as they were.  Yet, for His Name's sake, He would be gracious to hold back His wrath for a period of time, so that the survivors of this judgment (such as Jeremiah and Daniel) could look back and know that His love caused Him to do all that was possible to bring the people back to Himself before bringing such terrible judgment upon them.

The reason God sites as the cause of the judgment to fall is that men "walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart."  In fact, this phrase is reiterated a total of 7 times in the book of Jeremiah [3:17; 7:24, 11:8, 13:10, 16:12, 18:12, 23:17]. SEVEN TIMES! We know that seven is the number of God, the number of perfection; perhaps indicating to us the perfection or "rightness"  of God's judgment upon evil men.

Walking after the imaginations of our own evil hearts is a malady afflicting all off mankind: from the creation of man in the garden, to this very day and beyond.  Scripture is filled with examples throughout the past generations of man and to be seen in future generations as well, until the Lord returns, of man doing his own thing, while fully rejecting God:

Judges 21:25: "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes."

"For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away..." (Matthew 24:38)

"And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die." (Isaiah 22:12-13)

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put biter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own sight!" (Isaiah 5:20-21)

Are we modern-day people not just such people?  Are we not all wiser than ever before because of the knowledge we can easily gain from the internet?  Do we find ourselves calling out to God for His wisdom, or do we trust more in our own educated, independent thinking?  Isn't society around us, that which calls evil good, and good evil, just an extension of ourselves and our modern-day thinking?  We have become gods in our own sight, according to the evil imaginations of our own deceived hearts.

And the deception that allows us to walk in such evil imagination is so great, that only God Himself, in human form, called by the name of Jesus, could deliver us from this great bondage that seeks to drive us all towards the wrath of a holy God. 

Only Jesus, by the sacrifice of His own spotless sin-free life, could break the chains of such deception in us. Jesus is the grace of God given to us. We are as foolish and hardhearted as the people of Judah, if we will not recognize God's goodness to us in this period of grace and repent from our own ways before the grace period is finished!

The earth itself and all who are in it are in just such a period of grace, for the bible (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12) declares that the day will come when the power of the Holy Spirit that is currently restraining evil, will be removed from the earth, leaving evil to destroy all that remains, by design of a sovereign and holy God who will bring judgment to those who continue to reject His great gift of grace: His Son Jesus, our Savior, our Deliverer!

"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation...?" (Hebrews 2:1-3)

Jeremiah's Sixth Sermon, Part 2

In this last passage of scripture from Jeremiah's sixth sermon, we find Jeremiah grumbling before the Lord.  Then we see the Lord basically telling him to stand up and be a man; to stop his whining, to repent of it, and, if he will turn away from his complaining, then the Lord will take care of him even in the midst of the coming judgment.

Please don't take exception to my paraphrasing that the Lord is telling Jeremiah to buck up and deal with the problem at hand.  The fact is that the Lord often speaks to us with a certain amount of "tough love", especially when we are feeling sorry for ourselves.  He is our Father, after all, and what father would not say that if the times warranted it?  There are times for compassion, and there are times for toughness, aka truth. The truth here is that feeling sorry for ourselves is just sin. Yes, we are human, and yes, sometimes we like to just wallow in self-pity.

The truth also is that it isn't always about us.  Especially when we have been given an assignment from God; there is no time for self-pity.  There is work to be done...God's work...and we are to be willing vessels without complaint.

I am thankful that we have our brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage us to go on, as Paul was thankful for those who remembered him in prayer and supported him as best they could during his ministry, especially those times spent in jail.  We all have times such as Paul and Jeremiah, where it is difficult to go on, and sometimes, in our humanness, we grumble a bit.  Yet, at all times we are thankful to be used of God for His glory.  I believe it is just the flesh in us that grumbles, while the Holy Spirit in us keeps moving us forward.  The best we can do at those times is just as Jeremiah did...voice it honestly before the Lord, for He knows our hearts already anyway...we can hide nothing from Him.  And then face up to the music, the mild rebuke from the Lord, and pick ourselves up by His power and encouragement and by the hope that He gives, and move on in the battle.

This discourse between Jeremiah and the Lord picks up at chapter 15, verse10:

Jeremiah cries out: "Woe is me, my mother, that thou has borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth!" Words reminiscent of Job's suffering (Job 3:1). "I have neither lent on usury [charging interest], nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of then doth curse me."

To which the Lord replied: "Truly, it will be well with thy remnant; truly I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction."

Can you hear the compassion the Lord has upon Jeremiah; can you hear how much the Lord understands our fears and anxieties and helps us through them with promises of great hope?  His first response to Jeremiah is not one of rebuke, but of tender encouragement for Jeremiah's concerns.  It isn't until Jeremiah persists in his self-pity that the Lord issues the tough love rebuke.  And even then, it is the words by which Jeremiah begins to accuse the Lord that brings forth this rebuke.

Jeremiah goes on: "Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable; which refuseth to be healed? Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?"

This is where we sin; when our self-pity becomes bigger than our God.  When out of our suffering we forget ourselves, and forget that this is GOD to whom we are speaking.  Much as a child who, now that he has his parent's attention, becomes overly emboldened and a bit cocky to his parent...and then gulps back his fear as he realizes he went a bit too far that time!  This realization strikes him right about the time his parent puts the child back in his proper place with a quick cold rebuke.  The child is not always aware that it is out of love that the parent brinks this rebuke and that it is for the sake of the child rather than for the parent.  So it is with us and our Father God.  So it was with Jeremiah and the Lord.

"Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return [repent], then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee: return not thou unto them. [In other words, don't become as these evil people have become before me...let them become as you are, obedient, but do not let yourself become disobedient as they are.]  And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible."

God makes this promise to Jeremiah, that even though he must be included in this evil to come, he will be protected to a great degree in the midst of the evil.  We will see further in this study exactly what the Lord does to bring His promise to pass for Jeremiah's sake.

Meanwhile, we take encouragement from this: that if we repent, and we remain upright and trusting of the Lord and His goodness, we have that hope as well of being spared the worst of what is to come.  The rain falls on the just and the unjust, but in all things God is sovereign and He will decide what we are to bear and what we will be spared from bearing.

This is our confident hope in Him: that as Jesus Christ is our covering, as well as our strength, we will receive mercy from the Lord in times of need.  We see it in small ways in our lives every day as financial needs are somehow met at the eleventh hour, as serious health issues become less scary as we walk through them with the Lord and are often completely healed of them as well, as the burden of our fears for our wayward children are left at the cross of Christ with this confident hope that He loves them even more than we do, and thus He will see that they are kept safe until HE brings them to repentance, as only He can do.

It is seeing these hopes realized in the small things, that prepares us to hope confidently when in the midst of the greater battles yet to come.

Jeremiah's Sixth Sermon, Part 1

Chapters 14 and 15 are considered to be Jeremiah's sixth sermon. Here, Jeremiah is given the prophetic word from the Lord about a coming drought of epic proportions, what my King James version calls a "dearth."  And, of course, if there is no water, there will soon be no food; famine must follow closely behind, bringing death as well.

As you read this next passage of scripture, try to imagine the horror Jeremiah must have felt to hear these words of severe judgment against his people, affecting even the beasts of the field that inhabited the land of Judah, being spoken to him straight from the mouth of almighty God:

" Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. 

And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.

Because the ground is chaff, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads. 

Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. 

And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass." (Jeremiah 14:2-6)

It is no wonder, then, that Jeremiah immediately begins to intercede and plead with the Lord for mercy, even while acknowledging the sins of his people.  Three times in the remainder of the 14th chapter, Jeremiah pleads with the Lord. And three times God refuses to change His mind about His coming judgment against Judah.  These verses are very self-explanatory, needing no further commentary from me. 

But as you read them, please read them not only with unrepentant Judah in mind, but with the unrepentant United States of America in mind as well.  When you read about horrendous coming judgment upon the unrepentant people individually, consider if those horrifying judgments were being spoken to us as a people who once belonged solely to God, but have turned from Him.  As you read about false prophets, speaking only a positive word, consider yourself, as I do myself: are we so intent on being "positive" that we do not want to speak the "harsh" words that the Holy Spirit might be leading us to speak concerning coming judgment in our own time and in our own land?  Will proclaiming peace when there is no peace, in God's eyes at least, bring about the salvation for the multitudes who are leading their lives as they see fit with no regard for this fearful and holy God who must bring such judgment to those who will not heed Him?  Are we definitely being led by the Spirit of God at all times when we speak or are we just speaking what we want to hear and believe no matter how contrary it appears to be to the Word of God?

For me, these passages bring me great pause to consider my own actions, both as part of a people group, and as an individual.  Have I repented of all that I need to repent of?  Have I spoken what God wanted me to speak, versus what I wanted to hear spoken?  Have I taken an easy way out of proclaiming peace, versus the enduring the misery and rejection that would come of speaking God's words of coming judgment as Jeremiah did? Am I leading the life God wants me to lead, versus going my own way and doing what feels good to me?

Consider all of this as you read the conversation that went on between Jeremiah and God, as Jeremiah pleads for a change of heart from the Lord on behalf of Judah:

Jeremiah: "O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee...yet thou O lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not."

The Lord: "Pray not for this people for their good.  When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence." (Jeremiah 14:11-12)

Jeremiah: "Ah, Lord God! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place."

The Lord:   "The prophets prophesy lies in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land.  By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. And the people shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters, for I will pour this wickedness upon them. Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them: 'Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow."

Jeremiah: "Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? Hath thy soul loathed Zion? Why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, and there is no good: and for the time of healing, and behold trouble! We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us."

The Lord: "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.  And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? Then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the Lord: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity....for who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem?...thou hast forsaken Me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land: I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their wicked ways."

Does the new covenant in Jesus Christ do away with judgments such as these toward a disobedient people, even if that disobedient person is a believer in Christ? Or did Christ come to show us that through Him we don't have to live lives of disobedience to the Lord; that we don't have to fear these judgments, not because our holy God has changed His ways, but because we have changed our disobedient ways into obedience through the strength of Christ?  How does a person change their ways, and escape such judgment, without Christ?  And what are we doing to help them come to know Christ and thus escape such judgment?

We will finish the 15h chapter on the next posting.

Jeremiah: Fifth Sermon

The 13th chapter of Jeremiah is filled with the use of the use of the words "pride" and "darkness."  It describes two tangible signs that God provides the people of Judah in order to try to shake them out of their prideful sin.  But still they will not hear; they will not repent.

Through two strong analogies, the first being a girdle that is buried and then unearthed in a deplorable condition, and the second being wine bottles that are filled with the source of drunkenness, God warns the people that their lives are in His hands alone and that this should be a fearful place to be: sinners in the hands of a HOLY and angry God, angered by their continued rebellion against His goodness toward them.  Yet the people will neither heed and repent, nor will they fear.

Regarding the analogy of the girdle, verses 13:1 through 13:11: when the description of  "loins" is used biblically it denotes a sort of strength or security perhaps.  The "girdle" protects the loins, the lower back, the hips, which once destroyed, one cannot stand without.  The girdle also carried the sword by which one protected himself (see 2 Samuel 20:8).  Perhaps these following two verses will illuminate further:

"Bless the Lord, His substance, and accept the work of His hands: smite through the loins of them that rise against Him, and of them that hate Him that they rise not again."  Deuteronomy 33:11

"Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake." Psalm 69:23

God is declaring that He is putting the protection of His name and His glory into the people of Israel first, and then Judah. They were the belt or girdle that He joined to Himself.  But they did not glorify the Name that they were called by, they did not bring praise to His Name.

Thus, by using the sign of a damaged and useless girdle, He is telling Judah that as they dishonored His name, so will they be dishonored and cast aside.  They have become of no use to Him.  And even as the Lord's own loins have been exposed and unprotected by this useless girdle called Judah, so Judah will receive the judgment of being exposed and unprotected as they are cast aside. They will no longer have the Lord to cleave to, because He will no longer cleave to them.

"This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing. For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear."

Verses 13:12-14 describe the second sign: "every bottle filled with wine."

When Jeremiah speaks these words, the people mock him in great pride saying, "Do we  not certainly know...?"

But of course, they have no idea what they are talking about, because the word of God through Jeremiah is pointing to a soon coming great judgment:

"I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, [speaking of false prophets here] and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the Lord: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.  Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken."

Here the key word is drunkenness.  If we look at how that word is used in other scriptures, we will understand better what the Lord means with this analogy of every person being filled with that which produces great drunkenness:

"And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:" (Deut. 29:19) 

 

To be drunk is to be insensible, or deceived, is it not? Perhaps to see something that is not really even there.  To lie to one's self. A deception, I believe.

 

"Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria." Ezekiel 23:33

 

Drunkenness produces "astonishment," being caught off guard as the protective instincts are no longer serving that person.

 

"And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares." Luke 21:34

 

Drunkenness makes one "unaware" of the danger looming before them.  Again it is a form of deception, of a lie that all is well, when it is not.

 

All of this points to the coming "darkness" of which Jeremiah 13:16 warns:

"Give glory to the Lord your God, before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness."

 

The final consequence of remaining unrepentant in sin is a darkness caused by God Himself that will fall on those who will not heed the word of the Lord.  This consequence occurs even today with those who remain unrepentant of their sins, for God's divine principles never cease to perform that which His Word declares must happen regarding man willful sin.

This particular darkness in Jeremiah 13:16 is a judicial darkness, a judgment from God on those in Judah who continue to "enjoy" sin's pleasures, who refuse to repent, who love sin more than they love God. This is further described in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12:

"...and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

 

Jeremiah is telling them to repent before God sends this darkness upon them from which they cannot recover.  (Perhaps the "gross darkness" mentioned in Jeremiah 13:16 is that of hell itself, as the judicial darkness appears to have the potential of becoming a deeper, possibly permanent, darkness for those still unrepentant hearts?)

Amos describes this judicial judgment of darkness as a famine of His Word:

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." Amos 8:11-12

God has unimaginable patience with us, far beyond what mere humans can give. Yet, He is to be feared as well, for all sin must end sooner or later; best that we end it right away, rather than wait for God to end it in His great wrath! If God withdraws the understanding of His Word from our hearts, as Amos describes, then we have no hope of being saved, for the Word of God carried by the Holy Spirit is what gives us life. Without this we face only eternal and everlasting death.

It always amazes me that we can so easily see the sins of Judah, but we cannot see what pride and vanity of mind we apply to our own lives rather than admit our personal and deep-rooted sins of pride.  It amazes me how few times in our lives, we fall trembling before this almighty, powerful and holy God. What deception lies in our own hearts?

I believe this is the main reason that we are commanded to pray for one another, to plead with God for that dark deception to be removed from each of us, so that our hearts can remain clean before Him.  It is so important to pray for one another....at all possible moments.

Chuck Missler says that the Word of God describes at least three forms of darkness.

Besides the judicial darkness already described above, there is a "natural" darkness.

This is a darkness of ignorance, a darkness of an unregenerate heart, a darkened understanding.  This is us before the Holy Spirit opened our eyes to see and our ears to hear, and drew us to Christ. Who prayed for us that we might be able to see?  Surely, there was someone somewhere, if even a stranger, who, on their knees, pleaded for the the Holy Spirit to bring the light into sin-darkened lives such as ours.

It is of this natural darkness that Paul speaks in Ephesians 4:17-18:

"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart..."

Often, people with this darkness in them are able to see God as Creator, but not as Redeemer. Without the Redeemer who is the bridge between man and God, they cannot reach God, even if they might think He exists.  There is no relationship with the Father without the Son. Yet, Paul says the existence of God is testified to by the works of His hands, in other words, by all of creation that surrounds us (Romans 1:20).

But we cannot understand redemption without the living Word of God found only in Jesus, and without the Holy Spirit to plant faith as a seed in our hearts in order that we might believe in Him.  And without that relationship with Jesus there is no relationship between us and the Father.  It is in the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we must be clothed, in a sense, before we enter into the presence of so holy a God as ours. We need Jesus to know God.  The Word of God declares that there is no other way!

There is a third darkness: one that is deliberate or chosen.

 John 3:19-20 describes it as:

"...the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."

This is when people know they are doing evil, but choose to continue in it willfully.  They prefer the darkness to hide the evil in their lives; they refuse to come to the light and to be held accountable.  There is great pride involved and the pride wins out. They do not want to change.

 

We are to know and recognize our Creator God, and we are to know and recognize that our Redeemer, our Savior, IS GOD.  He is the Word of God made flesh: Jesus Christ.  (John 1).

It is His great love for each and every man created, that led Him to give His life on the cross for us.  Such great love we have never experienced before Him!  How great then, is our rejection, when we refuse to acknowledge what He has done for us?  How great must God's anger be towards us who would dare to reject such a gift from almighty God Himself: the gift of His only-begotten Son's life? What great pride and delusion must we be filled with to not see this?

Jesus arrived in our world the first time, in fleshly form, in humility, in what might be described by the world as a position of low birth, and in poverty.  Yet multitudes were drawn to Him, the very Word of God made flesh, as He presented to the world the love of God and the very real hope of life everlasting for those who would but trust in Him.

But when Jesus returns, Revelation 19:11-16 tells us the manner of His second coming:

"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

After this final battle scene, Jesus will then judge the living and the dead, granting everlasting life with Him to those who trusted in Him, not because of their great deeds, or their might, for we can never EARN such a gift: but simply because they TRUSTED in Him.  They trusted their lives to Him, by putting their lives every moment of every day in HIS hands.

But to those who reject Him, continually, willfully, pridefully, He assigns them in His righteous and holy judgment to be thrown into the everlasting lake of fire, along with Satan and his dark angels.  Such a terrible, unimaginable place of horror and pain, yet God makes sure everyone knows this...everyone will hear His Word, before being judged. 

The choice is ours alone.

Will we choose the love that Jesus has given us and everlasting life in His presence, or will we reject His goodness to us, and choose everlasting darkness and eternal suffering?

Here is what God wants us to choose:

"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live."  Deuteronomy 30:19