Journey Through the Old Testament Jeremiah Lesson #78 Jeremiah Predicts Judah s Downfall For Wednesday, March 1, 2017 -- Jeremiah 1-38 Born only a few miles north of Jerusalem around 640 B.C., Jeremiah grew up the son of a priest in the village of Anathoth. He had the sad and lonely job of warning the people of Judah that disaster was about to come on them. Later he would be a witness to the destruction of Jerusalem. His story takes us through the last 40 years of Judah as a kingdom and the last five kings of Judah. Call of Jeremiah. Sometime early in his life (some think his early twenties), Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet. This was the 13 th year that Josiah had been king of Judah. God told Jeremiah, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah objected, I cannot speak; for I am just a youth, but God told him not to use that as an excuse -- He would be with him. Sometimes we feel too young or like we don t know enough yet to do much for the Lord, but remember He will be with you if you do your best to serve Him. Jeremiahexplained, Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant. In chapter 16 Jeremiah is told not to marry and have children because of the terrible things that would happen to the land. Jeremiah would prophecy during 18 more years of the reign of good king Josiah. As we remember, Josiah was a very righteous king and tried to get Judah to do right. But after Josiah s death, the people and the future kings returned to their sinful ways. 2 Chronicles 35:25 says, And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah. Jeremiah could see that without Josiah, Judah would go away from God once more. Josiah would be the last righteous king in Judah. God s Unfaithful People. What is the most important thing that anyone can have? Wisdom? Power? Money? Some in Judah had those things. Unfortunately they did not have a right relationship with God. So here is something God told them: Let not the wise man boast about how smart he is, neither let the powerful man boast about his might, let not the rich man boast in his money; But if anyone is going to boast, then let them boast about this: That they understand and know Me, that I am the Lord who shows mercy, justice and righteousness in the earth; For those are the kind of things I delight in. (Jeremiah 9: 22-23). Much of what Jeremiah says is about how Judah had forgotten about Jehovah God and was unfaithful to Him. God said that the idol worshippers of the nations around them were more faithful to their false god s than Israel was to the true God: Hath a nation changed its gods, Which are no gods? But My people hath changed its glory for that which does not profit (2: 11). The Lord warned Judah that they were running after things which would not be good for them. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, that can hold no water. A cistern was a hole in the ground men dug to collect water when it
rained. Once water stands in a cistern for a few days bugs (like mosquitoes) lay their eggs in it, slime starts to grow in it, and it isn t very good to drink. On top of that, their cisterns weren t always good at holding the water. It would leak out and get muddy. The people could drink from God s Word which was like a beautiful clear stream of water. But instead they chose to drink from the ways of the world which was like drinking filthy cistern water, The Lord said that very few righteousness people were left in Jerusalem: Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executes judgment, that seeks truth. If so I will pardon this city. (Jeremiah 5:1) If the Lord could find even one really good man, He would be willing to spare the city. Jeremiah called upon Judah to return back to the the old paths (Jer. 6:16), the ways that God had taught in the Law: Thus says the Lord, Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it. Nothing Jeremiah or any other faithful prophet could say or do seemed to help. Is there no balm in Gilead? [Balm was a type of medicine.] Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? Jeremiah wondered, Was there nothing that could be done to change these people s hearts? Jeremiah says that their sins had gotten so bad, and the people s consciences so messed up that they could no longer blush (8:12). When we get embarrassed, we blush (our face turns a little red). Judah was doing terrible things, but was not ashamed or embarrassed about their wicked ways. This condition of God s people made Jeremiah very sad: 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! Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. (Jer. 9:1-2) Jeremiah has been called the weeping prophet because of passages like this. People often have a way of thinking they are right even when they are wrong. Judah was like that they wanted to believe that they acceptable before God even thought they were committing some horrible sins. Jeremiah warns them, The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? Sometimes when people do bad things, they won t admit it to themselves they kind of lie to their own hearts. We should remember what God said, I the Lord search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds (17: 9-10). We aren t right just because we think we are right God is our judge and knows what we are really like. Destruction Was Coming. Much of what Jeremiah tells Judah is like a last minute warning for them to repent. God appointed him to go to his fellow Jews, and tell them that they would be judged if they did not repent of their sin and turn back to the Lord. Jeremiah's task was hard because most of the Jews did not want to hear this message. Still, for the next twenty-four years, Jeremiah would preach in Jerusalem and throughout Judah, saying: God says that if you do not repent of your sins and obey Him, He will allow the Babylon army to come to Jerusalem and destroy both the city and the temple! And they will take you as captives to a faraway land! The Lord said that captivity in a foreign land was a fitting punishment. As you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours. The hour was late and
time was running out as was expressed in one of the saddest passages of the Bible - The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved (8:20). A farmer can t wait until the end of the summer to start planting. The time when you should be harvesting your crop is too late to start planning a crop. Judah was getting so near the end and their hearts were so hardened, it was too late for them to be spared. Jeremiah explained that the best they could do was to be ready to surrender to the Babylonian army when it came. Many in Judah did not like for Jeremiah to say things like that. They wrongly believed that God would never let Judah or the Temple be destroyed. When Jeremiah said that their destruction was coming, they looked at him like he was a traitor, like he wanted Judah to fall. That wasn t true, Jeremiah wished it didn t have to happen, but God kept telling him it would happen. False Security. Part of the reason that the people were so sure that Jerusalem wouldn t be destroyed was because some prophets said that it wouldn t. Some prophets said Jeremiah was wrong, but these were false prophets who lied to the people. Jeremiah 7:1-11 says, This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Stand at the gate of the Lord's house and there proclaim this message: Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord! [They thought that God would never judge Jerusalem because His temple was there!]" If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave to your forefathers for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. Can you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before Me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe" safe to do all these detestable things? Is this house become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, says the Lord. False prophets would make the people feel better by telling them what they wanted to hear. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. (Jeremiah 6:14) Jer. 23:16,21-22 says, This is what the Lord Almighty says: Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds! The Potter and the Clay. One of the most vivid and familiar illustrations in Jeremiah is that of the potter and the clay. It shows that God was God and had the right to do with His people whatever He wanted to do. If Judah was messed up, God had the right to make another vessel. Later Jeremiah was told to take an earthen vessel from the potters house and smash it before the eyes of the elders of Israel and tell them Even so will I break this people, as one breaks a potter s vessel, that cannot be made whole again (19:1,11). Paul uses this illustration in Romans 9:19-24 which shows us even more about what Jeremiah meant. God is God; He has the right to reshape what He wants in His people. He is the Potter and we are the clay. If God chose to remove those who were
unfaithful in Israel and add those who were obedient to the gospel among the Gentiles, then God had that right. The clay doesn t have the right to disagree with the Potter s decision. Babylon Invades. By the time Jeremiah 25 was written, Nebuchadnezzar had become the king of Babylon (about 606 BC). During this year, his armies came and attacked Judah and took some of the Jews into captivity. Men like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were led off to Babylon, and some of the vessels of the temple are carried away. But Jeremiah would watch as further invasions took place. Jeremiah is Treated Badly. Jeremiah was rejected by the people of his home town, by his family, by most of the priests, and by the government officials. Almost no one agreed with his prophecies. He was lied about and beaten (Jer. 37:12-15). He was arrested and put in prison. One time he was even put in the bottom of a cistern that the water had drained out of. It was muddy in the bottom and Jeremiah sank into the mud Jeremiah s Manuscript is Burned by King Johoiakim. Jeremiah had a man named Baruch who wrote down all his messages. Baruch would then take them and read them to the people. These prophecies were also taken and read to King Johoiakim. When the king heard some of what Jeremiah had prophesied, he took a knife and cut it up and threw it into the fire. But you can t destroy God s Word. The Lord gave those messages to Jeremiah again to write down (Jer. 36:27-32). Jeremiah became so frustrated at times because he could not get Judah to wake up and return to the Lord. There were times when he decided to not say anything else: If I say, I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name, there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. (20:9). The New Testament Teaches Us Predictions About the Coming of Christ. In this section of Jeremiah we notice two important predictions of the coming of Jesus. Ark of the Covenant No Longer Important (3:16). This certainly implies a time when the significance of the earthly Holy Place of the Temple would come to an end. The book of Hebrews chapters 8-10 explains a great deal about how this was true under the New Covenant. A King, the Descendant of David (23:5,6; 33:15-17). A righteous heir shall arise from the lineage of David and become the true King. In those days Judah and Israel can be saved in His name. This looks to the rule of Jesus, the son of David.
A New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34). In spite of all the sad things Jeremiah predicted, one of his greatest prophesies foretold of the happy day when God would begin a New Covenant with Israel where He would forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. All of God s people would truly know their God. The New Testament book of Hebrews quotes from Jeremiah s words and shows how God brought about this New Covenant with the blood of Christ (Heb. 8:6-13; 9:11-15). Hebrews makes clear that the New Covenant is a better covenant (Heb. 7:19,22; 8:6; 9:23). Bible Quiz 1. Who was king when Jeremiah first began to prophesy? (Jer. 1:1-2) 2. What excuse did Jeremiah give to God about why he could not be a prophet? (Jer. 1:6) How did God answer Jeremiah s excuse? (Jer. 1:7) 3. Jeremiah 6:16 called on Judah to look for what kind of paths? 4. What did God want Jeremiah to look for in Jerusalem? (Jer. 5:1) 5. Even though the people of Judah were committing terrible sins, they were not ashamed and could not b. (Jer. 8:12) 6. When the false prophets spoke, their words didn t come from God but from where? (Jer. 23:16) 7. What did King Johoiakim do to a scroll of Jeremiah s prophecies? (Jer. 36:22,23)