Jeremiah 2 & 3

 

Jeremiah Chapter 2

Remember, Jeremiah lived and ministered about 627 years before Christ.   Jeremiah is categorized as a‘Major Prophet', meaning the sheer volume of the content of his writings was greater than those of the minor prophets.  Jeremiah was called, early in life, to serve during King Josiah of Judah's 13th reigning year in 627 B.C. At the time of his calling he was young (possibly 20 years old) and initially protested to God that his youth prohibited him from doing his will. He was not allowed to have a wife or children (Jeremiah 1:1 - 2, 4 - 6, 16:2).

Jeremiah's ministry lasted through the rest of Josiah's reign and the reigns of the Kingdom of Judah's last four rulers (Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah). He wrote the books of Lamentations, Psalm 89 and the last part of 2nd Kings.

Let’s pray…

Let’s read the chapter…

 V 1 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 

What makes this book any different from the Book of Mormon or the Bhagavad-gita?

“The Word of the LORD” - how do we know Jeremiah heard from God?

• What Jeremiah recorded is consistent with the rest of the Bible 
• By way of prophecy is what Jeremiah says, 100% accurate ( Deuteronomy 18:22 “When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.  
• Prophecy is to be tested 1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.)

V 2-3 “Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, “I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, The love of your betrothals, Your following after Me in the wilderness, Through a land not sown. 3 “Israel was holy to the LORD, The first of His harvest. All who ate of it became guilty; Evil came upon them,” declares the LORD.’” 

The Lord tells Jeremiah to go. In other words, Jeremiah can’t just phone it in. He has to personally get up, put on his shoes and go the 3 miles from his hometown of Anathoth to Jerusalem.

Any examples where God called you to some endeavor outside of your home town?

Jeremiah has this heartfelt yet difficult, confrontational message to convey to the Jewish people in Jerusalem.  God is saying remember how our relationship started, remember how it was based on love and devotion. Remember how you followed me through the wilderness.  And when it says “through a land, not sown”, it’s talking about the trek the Israelites made through the wilderness when they came out of Egypt and how the desert was not a land that would have provided food and drink for them and yet God provided food and water and protection for them.

Israel was to be but the first fruit of the produce of the Lord. In other words, they were just the first of God’s endeavors to reach the nations. Israel was to be holy, and I like to think of holy as WHOLLY completely, totally, without reservation, devoted to the Lord.

In verse 3 it says, “All who ate of it”, other translations use the word ‘devoured’, instead of the word ‘ate’, so anyone that would come with evil intent and try to harm, or destroy, loot Israel would have been dealt with by the Lord. This is true to this very day.

V 4-8 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the LORD, “What injustice did your fathers find in Me, That they went far from Me And walked after emptiness and became empty? 6 “They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who led us through the wilderness, Through a land of deserts and of pits, Through a land of drought and of deep darkness, Through a land that no one crossed And where no man dwelt?’ 7 “I brought you into the fruitful land To eat its fruit and its good things. But you came and defiled My land, And My inheritance you made an abomination. 8 “The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ And those who handle the law did not know Me; The rulers also transgressed against Me, And the prophets prophesied by Baal And walked after things that did not profit. 

In earthly relationships, you might be able to say someone let you down or someone left you high-and-dry that you felt betrayed and that caused a rift that led to adultery.  But God is saying what have I done? I did nothing to cause you to walk away from me and go after worthless, empty idols. Which is spiritual adultery. The concept of adultery has to do with pollution. Something that ought to be pure has been tainted, even poisoned.

The question has been raised. Why do you think people turn from the living God to idols?

• Maybe it’s about expediency.  Maybe it’s just easier.
• Maybe it’s a promise of prosperity. You will have good fortune if you just do obedience to this idol. kind of like the lottery or slot machines.   They make these promises.   It’s always just out of reach, next time, next time, next time.
• Maybe it’s about wanting to do things my way.  The true and living God requires we be accountable to him. He brings moral requirements to the conversation.   Idols don’t talk back.
• Some people get mad at God because He allowed something bad to happen to them. So they turn to an idol.
• One thing is that the true and living God is invisible. He is Spirit. It simply requires faith to know Him. Colossians 1:15 (NASB95) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

V 9-13 “Therefore I will yet contend with you,” declares the LORD, “And with your sons’ sons I will contend. 10 “For cross to the coastlands of Kittim (which is Cyprus) and see, And send to Kedar (Arabia)  and observe closely And see if there has been such a thing as this! 11 “Has a nation changed gods When they were not gods? But My people have changed their glory For that which does not profit. 12 “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, And shudder, be very desolate,” declares the LORD. 13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water. 

God is saying, I want to argue with you.  Come let us reason together. God says, go out to the islands or go down to the Arabian Peninsula, and see if the people of those lands ever did what you have done . Has anyone ever turned from following their gods? Those pagan people are more faithful to their false gods than you are to the true and living God. You have exchanged the worship of the true and living God for false, dead idols. There are two sources of idols and idolatry I want us to understand:

• an idol represents the thoughts, attitudes and desires of the worshiper.  We can create an idol in our mind. Literally a figment of our imagination.
• An idol may be just made out of stone, metal or wood, but it may have a real, actual spiritual entity dwelling in the sculpture or image.     1 Corinthians 10:19-20 What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.

This comparison here of an idol to a broken cistern is really profound and kinda the main point of this section.  You can drink water out of a cistern. A Cistern is basically a carved out reservoir in the rock to hold rainwater .You can get potable water from a cistern. It’s not gonna be the best water ever. Might not taste good. At some point, it goes bad and you might even get sick from it. Sometimes these reservoirs can crack and spring a leak, so when you really need it, there is no water.

You really want to go to the source for water. You wanna go to a mountain stream where the snow has just melted and the water flows down a stream through the rocks through the sand so the water gets filtered and cleaned. That is fresh, clear, clean water. It is refreshing. And it brings life. True life.

John 4:7-26 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” 16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

V 14-19 “Is Israel a slave? Or is he a homeborn servant? Why has he become a prey? 15 “The young lions have roared at him, They have roared loudly. And they have made his land a waste; His cities have been destroyed, without inhabitant. 16 “Also the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes Have shaved the crown of your head. 17 “Have you not done this to yourself By your forsaking the LORD your God When He led you in the way? 18 “But now what are you doing on the road to Egypt, To drink the waters of the Nile? Or what are you doing on the road to Assyria, To drink the waters of the Euphrates? 19 “Your own wickedness will correct you, And your apostasies will reprove you; Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter For you to forsake the LORD your God, And the dread of Me is not in you,” declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 

God actually brought Israel out of slavery. God took them from bondage and brought them to a land that was to be their own so that they could have freedom. And yet they submitted themselves to slavery of another kind, spiritual slavery, bondage to sin. If you look at the book of judges, there was this repetition of the people falling into sin, the land, and the nation being conquered by another people group where they would be submitted into slavery, and then God would send a rescuer a deliverer.

Does God treat us like slaves?

John 15:12-17 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 This I command you, that you love one another.

Israel was the only nation of all the nations to receive God’s word to hear the oracles of God, and to be given the law of God. This was to be their crown, and yet their crown was shaven by the inhabitants from these Egyptian cities of Memphis and Tahpanhes.

When it says, “the dread of me is not in you”, in verse 19, I feel like we can be guilty of that. At least I can be guilty of that and that is of being so comfortable, so familiar, so buddy buddy with God that I lose that sense of his majesty and power and greatness and holiness.

V 20-25 “For long ago I broke your yoke And tore off your bonds; But you said, ‘I will not serve!’ For on every high hill And under every green tree You have lain down as a harlot. 21 “Yet I planted you a choice vine, A completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before Me Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine? 22 “Although you wash yourself with lye And use much soap, The stain of your iniquity is before Me,” declares the Lord GOD. 23 “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley! Know what you have done! You are a swift young camel entangling her ways, 24 A wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness, That sniffs the wind in her passion. In the time of her heat who can turn her away? All who seek her will not become weary; In her month they will find her. 25 “Keep your feet from being unshod And your throat from thirst; But you said, ‘It is hopeless! No! For I have loved strangers, And after them I will walk.’ 

God uses three strong images to describe the sin and shame of Israel. They were like a prostitute, like a weed, and like someone so dirty that no lye or soap could make them clean. All I can say is the people then, as now, pursued sin with such reckless abandon that it is appalling and astonishing. Do we ever turn from God to the slavery of sin?

Galatians 5:1 (NASB95) It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Further descriptions of Israel’s apostasy.

V 26-37 “As the thief is shamed when he is discovered, So the house of Israel is shamed; They, their kings, their princes And their priests and their prophets, 27 Who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ And to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to Me, And not their face; But in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise and save us.’ 28 “But where are your gods Which you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you In the time of your trouble; For according to the number of your cities Are your gods, O Judah. 29 “Why do you contend with Me? You have all transgressed against Me,” declares the LORD. 30 “In vain I have struck your sons; They accepted no chastening. Your sword has devoured your prophets Like a destroying lion. 31 “O generation, heed the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, Or a land of thick darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam; We will no longer come to You’? 32 “Can a virgin forget her ornaments, Or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me Days without number. 33 “How well you prepare your way To seek love! Therefore even the wicked women You have taught your ways. 34 “Also on your skirts is found The lifeblood of the innocent poor; You did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things, 35 Yet you said, ‘I am innocent; Surely His anger is turned away from me.’ Behold, I will enter into judgment with you Because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’ 36 “Why do you go around so much Changing your way? Also, you will be put to shame by Egypt As you were put to shame by Assyria. 37 “From this place also you will go out With your hands on your head; For the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, And you will not prosper with them.”

I’m not going to hit this subject hard again, but the people of Israel had fallen so deep into the Baal worship that they participated in the evil, heinous practice of child sacrifice, when it says, “Also on your skirts is found The lifeblood of the innocent poor”.  This goes on in our country and our world. This should horrify us.

Jeremiah 3

God withdraws His blessing from Israel

V1-5 God says, “If a husband divorces his wife And she goes from him And belongs to another man, Will he still return to her? Will not that land be completely polluted?
But you are a harlot with many lovers; Yet you turn to Me,” declares the Lord. 2 “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see; Where have you not been violated? By the roads you have sat for them Like an Arab in the desert, And you have polluted a land
With your harlotry and with your wickedness. 3 “Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no spring rain. Yet you had a harlot’s forehead;
You refused to be ashamed. 4 “Have you not just now called to Me, ‘My Father, You are the friend of my youth? 5 ‘Will He be angry forever? Will He be indignant to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken And have done evil things, And you have had your way.”

As always, there’s a glimmer of hope, “will He be angry forever?”, “Will He be indignant to the end?”.   But in the meantime, things do not go well for a nation that rejects God and goes after idols. That can go for a nation as a whole or each one of us individually.   We know that following God does not guarantee us a life of comfort or prosperity.

Israel’s failure should have provided an object lesson that kept Judah from going down the same path.

V 6-10 Then the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. 7 I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. 9 Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. 10 Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the Lord.

Judah did not learn from Israel’s rebellion and subsequent chastisement.   I want to encourage us to try to learn our lesson before we have to go down the road of failure and heartbreak.

God Invites Repentance

V 11-25 And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say,

‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord;
‘I will not look upon you in anger.
For I am gracious,’ declares the Lord;
‘I will not be angry forever.
13 ‘Only acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against the Lord your God
And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the Lord.
14 ‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the Lord;
‘For I am a master to you,
And I will take you one from a city and two from a family,
And I will bring you to Zion.’

*** 15 “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding. 16 It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the Lord, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again. 17 At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the Lord,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord; nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

***

Here is an encouraging, forward looking prophecy not only of the messiah and the millennium, but of the church age specifically.  This tells how God would commission pastors and evangelists to be instrumental in building the church.

19 “Then I said,

‘How I would set you among My sons
And give you a pleasant land,
The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’
And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My Father,
And not turn away from following Me.’

Another forward looking prophecy about how we as the church would address God as our Father.  The Jews didn’t so much think of God in those terms.

20 “Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover,
So you have dealt treacherously with Me,
O house of Israel,” declares the Lord.

21 A voice is heard on the bare heights,
The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel;
Because they have perverted their way,
They have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 “Return, O faithless sons,
I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to You;
For You are the Lord our God.
23 “Surely, the hills are a deception,
A tumult on the mountains.
Surely in the Lord our God
Is the salvation of Israel.

24 “But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

With regards to repentance…

2 Corinthians 7:10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. 

Can I say, it is okay to just be honest and transparent (first) with God and then with each other about our weaknesses, failures and even our outright willful wrongs.   It’s okay to just tell each other we’re sorry.   What if we’ve really blown it with each other?   Say you’re sorry.   What if we’ve really let God down and done the thing we’ve said, “oh, I will never do that again LORD”.   Just turn to Him in humility and say, I am so sorry LORD, thank you for the forgiveness you provided on the cross.  

Romans 5:8 God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

If you’ve been wronged by someone, you better be open to forgiving them.  It isn’t natural.  It only comes by God’s Spirit working in your heart.   But you must forgive.

Matthew 6:12-15 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]

14 For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

But to wrap this up, I want to exhort us from 1 John 5:19-21

1 John 5:19-21 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.