VANTAGE POINT: JEREMIAH

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1 INTRODUCTION Everyone of us is a living story Our lives, our experiences, our encounters with God all tell a story Collectively, we are part of a greater story referred to as God s Story or HIS-Story history the story of God s interactions with man. Sometimes God illustrates HIS-Story through out lives by using our lives as a living parable In Jeremiah s case, God forbids Jeremiah from participating in three normal activities: Marriage, Mourning the Dead and attending feasts. Jeremiah 16:1 4 (NKJV) 16 The word of the LORD also came to me, saying, 2 You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. 3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land: 4 They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth. In Judaism, all Jewish men were expected to marry by age 20 In fact, if you didn t marry or refused to get married the rabbit pronounced a curse on you. But God forbids Jeremiah from getting married and having kids because of the impending invasion from Babylon So every time he was asked you re a great looking man, you d make a great husband how come you re not married? He had a chance to share God s message of the coming judgment Jeremiah 16:5 8 (NKJV) 5 For thus says the LORD: Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people, says the LORD, lovingkindness and mercies. 6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. 7 Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their

2 mother. 8 Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. The Jewish people were experts at mourning But Jeremiah was forbidden to attend funerals or weddings or the feasts associated with them because God had removed His peace and comfort from the nation By not attending, Jeremiah would be asked why weren t you there Jeremiah would have an open door to share God s Word with them Jeremiah 16:10 13 (NKJV) 10 And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God? 11 then you shall say to them, Because your fathers have forsaken Me, says the LORD; they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. 12 And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. 13 Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor. Jeremiah s generation was so Biblically illiterate that they did not know the terms of the Covenant with God that was being violated They were led astray by false prophets who did not know God The false prophets didn t confront their idolatry They were given a false assurance that God would never abandon them The false prophets didn t remind the people of their Covenant with God But despite their sins against God, God remembers mercy Jeremiah 16:14 15 (NKJV) 14 Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, 15 but, The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them. For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers. God gives the people a message of hope one day you will return

3 So great will be this deliverance from Babylon that it will be remembered as being a 2 nd Exodus Jeremiah not only sees this day coming, but begins worshipping the Lord for it that is faith Jeremiah 16:19 21 (NKJV) 19 O LORD, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things. 20 Will a man make gods for himself, Which are not gods? 21 Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know My hand and My might; And they shall know that My name is the LORD. There is a story about President Coolidge visiting church one Sunday. He came home and his wife asked, what did the preacher preach about? Calvin answered sin. What did he say about it? Mrs. Coolidge asked. Calvin responded, He was against it. Jeremiah names 6 sins that God was against First idolatry Jeremiah 17:2 3 (NKJV) 2 While their children remember Their altars and their wooden images By the green trees on the high hills. 3 O My mountain in the field, I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures, And your high places of sin within all your borders. The Jews adopted the idols of the nations around them They built altars to the various gods in the high places and placed obscene symbols of the goddess Asherah the goddess of fertility Because of this the land was defiled Second Unbelief Jeremiah 17:5 8 (NKJV) 5 Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD. 6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. 7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD. 8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads

4 out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit. Israel trusted in their political allies instead of trusting in the Lord They thought that an alliance with Egypt would protect them from Babylon, until Babylon conquered Egypt Whenever we trust in our own power, our own strength, our own wisdom or expertise we are living out of unbelief Jeremiah compares this to living in a wasteland, but faith is like living in a fruitful orchard How do you know you re living out of unbelief? Listen to your speech. Third Greed Jeremiah 17:11 (NKJV) 11 As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, So is he who gets riches, but not by right; It will leave him in the midst of his days, And at his end he will be a fool. Money was a god to them and they were willing to compromise to get it God calls that person a fool who seeks to get rich the wrong way The ends never justifies the means Fourth Forsaking the Lord Jeremiah 17:12 13 (NKJV) 12 A glorious high throne from the beginning Is the place of our sanctuary. 13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You shall be ashamed. Those who depart from Me Shall be written in the earth, Because they have forsaken the LORD, The fountain of living waters. The Jews considered the ark of the covenant God s throne But God says that even if the temple was destroyed, His throne will endure forever because God isn t enthroned on the work of man s hands God is enthroned on the praises of His people God has never forsaken His people, but Judah had forsaken Him and for this was facing judgment Fifth Rejecting God s Servant

5 Jeremiah 17:15 (NKJV) 15 Indeed they say to me, Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come now! They were harassing and mocking Jeremiah Jeremiah prays for God to vindicate Him Jeremiah 17:18 (NKJV) 18 Let them be ashamed who persecute me, But do not let me be put to shame; Let them be dismayed, But do not let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of doom, And destroy them with double destruction! There are times when we will want to defend our ourselves when we are persecuted When we do, it shows two things first, we don t believe that we are God s man Second, we don t believe that God is big enough to defend God s man Sixth Forsaking The Sabbath Jeremiah 17:21 23 (NKJV) 21 Thus says the LORD: Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 22 nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. 23 But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction. Everything we see in the Old Testament is a shadow or a picture of the relationship we are to have with Jesus The Sabbath was to be a day for the people to rest and enjoy the Lord However, the people were so materialistic, so devoted to the things of the world that they continually disregarded God s command and treated the Sabbath like any other day God didn t want them to have a mechanical obedience to the Sabbath God wanted them to have a desire to enjoy their relationship with God So important is keeping the Sabbath to God that He says this Jeremiah 17:27 (NKJV)

6 27 But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched. When we refuse to keep the Sabbath to give God His day We are basically saying that we do not want to enjoy God s Presence Now in Chapter 18 we see the story of the Potter and the Clay Basically it is a picture of God s Sovereignty with regards to man s created purpose Jeremiah 18:1 10 (NKJV) 18 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: 2 Arise and go down to the potter s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words. 3 Then I went down to the potter s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 6 O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? says the LORD. Look, as the clay is in the potter s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! 7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, 8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it. It is believed that this event took place during the reign of Jehoiakim, the king who burned Jeremiah s prophetic scrolls Now, the making of pottery was a major industry in the Near East It was a common thing to see, but this time God had a special message for Jeremiah and this message would land him in jail As he is watching the potter make a beautiful vessel He watches the clay take shape, but as it s being shaped the clay resists the potters hand and it becomes deformed, marred So the potter breaks the vessel down, kneads it, and makes it into another beautiful vessel

7 It s a picture of Israel resisting the potter s hand, damaging their own lives and God s willingness to take the damaged clay and make a new vessel one that is good in the potter s eyes Jeremiah 18:15 17 (NKJV) 15 Because My people have forgotten Me, They have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in pathways and not on a highway, 16 To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And shake his head. 17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back and not the face In the day of their calamity. Isaiah talks about walking on the clear and safe highway of holiness in Isaiah 35:8 But Judah decided to abandon the safe path of walking according to God s Word and as a result, they are choosing ruin for the land, exile for the people and judgment from God. No failure in our lives need be fatal or final, but our actions will have consequences and it was Jeremiah s assignment to tell Judah what those consequences would be and for this Jeremiah is persecuted Jeremiah 18:18 (NKJV) 18 Then they said, Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. (Vs ) Jeremiah cries out to the Lord Jeremiah 18:23 (NKJV) 23 Yet, LORD, You know all their counsel Which is against me, to slay me. Provide no atonement for their iniquity, Nor blot out their sin from Your sight; But let them be overthrown before You. Deal thus with them In the time of Your anger. This is the 5 th of Jeremiah s private laments and his words seem harsh Something we need to realize is Jeremiah, like Elijah, was a man subject to like passions as we are according to James 5:17

8 He felt the pain of rejection, He wanted to be liked, not hated He was angry against those who opposed him, but his anger was righteous not unrighteous what was the difference? The difference is this Unrighteous anger takes matters into its own hands and seeks to destroy the offender, while righteous anger turns the matter over to God and seeks to help the offended. It s not wrong to be angry about something that is done unjustly It is wrong to take matters into your own hand instead of letting God deal with the situation Jeremiah 19:1 3 (NKJV) 19 Thus says the LORD: Go and get a potter s earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2 And go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, 3 and say, Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle. The East Gate was the Potsherd Gate where the potters worked and the broken pottery was thrown It overlooked the Valley of the Son of Hinnom also known as Gehenna This valley was the center for idol worship, but Josiah desecrated it by making it a garbage dump It was here that children were being sacrificed to idols and so God says that after the Babylonian invasion it will be known as The Valley Of Slaughter The siege will be so bad and food in such short supply that the people will turn to cannibalism and eat their sons and daughters to stay alive Jeremiah 19:10 13 (NKJV) 10 Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts: Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter s vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury. 12 Thus I will do to this place, says the LORD, and to its

9 inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods. Tophet means a fire pit, a hearth and it was here that the children were burned alive God says that Judah is beyond discipline, beyond prayer and beyond repair Their hearts were so hardened against God that all hope was gone The breaking of the flask was symbolic of their total defeat as a nation Jeremiah 19:14 15 (NKJV) 14 Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord s house and said to all the people, 15 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words. God sends Jeremiah to stand at the gates of the temple and declare to the people that judgment is coming Jeremiah 20:1 2 (NKJV) 20 Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2 Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD. Pashur was assistant to the high priest and the chief security officer for the temple he didn t like what Jeremiah was saying So he had Jeremiah arrested, beaten and put into stocks This was all done publicly to humiliate Jeremiah but this was only the first of several instances of persecution that would come While Jeremiah is in stocks, God comes to Him and give him a message for Pashur God says to tell Pashur that His name is changed to Magor-Missabib which means terror on every side.

10 Jeremiah used this phrase to describe what would happen to Jerusalem when the Babylonian army moved in But in vs. 4 Jeremiah identifies Babylon as the invader by name Jeremiah 20:4 6 (NKJV) 4 For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword. 5 Moreover I will deliver all the wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its precious things; all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them, and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. You shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and be buried there, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies. (Vs. 7-18) is the last of Jeremiah s laments and it is a roller coaster ride of emotion he goes from 1 extreme to the next listen Jeremiah 20:13 14 (NKJV) 13 Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! For He has delivered the life of the poor From the hand of evildoers. 14 Cursed be the day in which I was born! Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me! In vs. 11 he says Jeremiah 20:11 (NKJV) 11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail. They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper. Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten. But he ends the chapter with Jeremiah 20:18 (NKJV) 18 Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, That my days should be consumed with shame? All of us have times of discouragement when we feel like quitting But it s in the crucible of suffering when we learn to rise above our feelings and circumstances and see the greatness and wisdom of God Remember it s always too soon to quit