Jeremiah 25

 Jeremiah chapter 25

Let’s pray…

Last week, Pastor Shane finished up chapter 23 and then all of chapter 24.  In a very real sense though chapter 25 goes along with chapter 24. Remember that parable given in chapter 24 by Jeremiah and oh by the way, the chapters in the book of Jeremiah are not laid out in strictly chronological order they’re kind of laid out by the lesson being taught.  So these chapters are grouped by the message.

But chapter 24, had a parable, an allegory where these two baskets of figs represented two groups of people of Israel. The good figs represented the people who willingly submitted to the  invasion and to being taken captive, and exiled to Babylon.  The bad figs were representative of the people who fought against the invasion and resisted the captivity and being carried away to Babylon (what would happen to them? Destroyed).    It’s a little bit counterintuitive, but I think there is an important lesson to be learned by that parable. That is the good figs; those who submitted and complied were representative of being humble and repentant (i.e. submitting to God’s discipline and his chastening).  The bad figs represented those who are prideful and arrogant and hard hearted and not willing to submit to God’s will, and in God’s correction. This is a lesson to us.

Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 5 says that you should know in your heart that as a man chastens or disciplines his son so the Lord your God disciplines you.

This is one area, where Samuel looked ahead to Jesus was an example to us: 2 Samuel chapter 7, verses 13 and 14 says he shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son if he commits an equity I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.  

Obviously, Jesus never did anything to deserve chastening or correction but again he was an example of willingly submitting to God.  Jesus was a stand in for us in that he received the discipline and the chastening that we deserved

Proverbs chapter 3 verse 11 my son do not despise the chastening of the Lord nor detest his correction

First Corinthians chapter 11, verse 32, but when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world

And, Hebrews chapter 12 verses 5 through 11 (NASB95) 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; 6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Lastly, by way of review and setting the context for our chapter tonight; historically we are in a section of Jeremiah where his ministry is happening during the last four Kings of Judah. And to recount them there was Jehoahaz (also known as shallum), there was Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin (also known as Jeconiah), and the final king of Judah was Zedekiah.

None of these guys were righteous, but one of them, Jehoiachin, was especially wicked. Remember the prophecy about him that said not a man of his lineage would sit on the throne ever. There are some interesting genealogical twists that God used to bring Messiah into the world… for that reference the different genealogies listed in the gospel Matthew versus the one in Luke.

Jeremiah 25

Prophecy of the Captivity

Jeremiah 25:1-38 (NASB95) 1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. 

So Jeremiah is 23 years into his ministry.  23 years in itself, doing anything is quite an accomplishment but Jeremiah is really only halfway through his prophetic ministry. Jeremiah was faithful to God‘s call and he endured much persecution and resistance, even from his own brothers, his own friends, his own neighbors. Can you imagine 23 years and not having any fruit to speak of to show for those 23 years?

For us 2 Timothy 4:2 (NASB95)

preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

I believe the lesson for us is to do the very same thing as Jeremiah. Preach the word; bring the word into your conversations. The response is not your responsibility. I was telling someone how I preached the gospel on the street corners in various cities nearby and they said well how many people do you think you’ve saved and I had to say none. And it’s not that I haven’t seen anyone come to the Lord, it’s that I, in and of myself, do not save anyone. My preaching doesn’t save anyone. The Bible says the gospel is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. So regardless of the response, whether good, bad or indifferent we need to be faithful in our situations, in our lives to share the message of the Gospel and preach the word rebuke, reprove, exhort in Jesus name and let the chips fall where they may.

There really is a difference between a person who has truly been converted, transformed by the spirit of God, born again versus someone who just attends Church. If you’ve been changed by the Lord Jesus Christ, you have new life, you have eternal life and you wanna tell someone. When I first committed my life to the Lord, I went back to the church I had attended before coming to the Lord and I was on fire for the Lord and I wanted to share various scriptures with people, and that was all well and good and I didn’t receive any pushback to that but what I felt like was the church group that I was attending was not much more than a social gathering. I kind of felt like the desire of most of the people there was hey what’s the next party? What’s the next event? What’s the next fun thing we’re gonna do?

It’s not always comfortable. It certainly is not easy. Persecution will come. Resistance will be given. You will be ignored.  You will not be popular.

Matthew 16:24-26 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 

Jeremiah was faithful!

4 “And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear, 5 saying, ‘Turn now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell on the land which the LORD has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever; 6 and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm.’ 7 “Yet you have not listened to Me,” declares the LORD, “in order that you might provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm. 8 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. 

All because the people of Judah did not listen. We all know there’s a big difference between hearing and listening. Listening implies paying attention. If you pay attention, you will heed the message. You will follow up; you will obey. But the people of Judah wouldn’t.  Do you ever just tune someone out? I’m not proud of it, but I can do that.

10 ‘Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

The lesson for me here in this verse verse 10 is don’t take the good times for granted.  Do you ever feel like you get so used to things the way they are that you kind of forget how pleasant things are.  Even work, productive work is a good thing. It should be something that we appreciate. Now I do have to say having been retired for five months. I don’t miss work and I’m not going back, at least not to work in a very stressful , demanding, taxing type of situation. I kinda like hard work, physical work, muscular work. I spent many months last year, digging up my front yard and replacing the lawn.  That was physical work. I lost a little bit of belly fat at that time. I like working out in the garage. I think a lot of you know, but about five years ago I took up blacksmithing and swinging the hammer is very therapeutic. I have my family car that my dad gave me a few years ago that I have been working on as a project.  Working on that car can be stressful. I need to learn to not take it so seriously.

Anyways, all these things were gone; Joy, singing, weddings, productive work.

 11 ‘This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 ‘Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares the LORD, ‘for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation. 13 ‘I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. 14 ‘(For many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them; and I will recompense them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.)’” 15 For thus the LORD, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. 16 “They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.” 

There are various aspects of judgment being spoken about in this section:

1. The timeframe.  70 years from a human perspective is a long time.  It could easily be an entire lifetime.  Remember that Daniel understood from reading this book of Jeremiah, knew that their time in Babylon was almost over.  When you were young and you disobeyed your parents, did you get put on timeout? When I was a kid, it was called restriction.   If I think back and recall all the trouble I got into and all the times I got put on restriction.  I couldn’t go outside and play (I was stuck in my room) and that was for a week or even two weeks at a time. And I remember what I did to get put on restriction. I started out young as a troublemaker.
2. The locality. Babylon. That’s not nearby. The people were taken to a far off land.
3. The severity. It would be a desolation. 
4. The result. It would be as if the people were drunk. What does drunkenness do to you? It controls you. It causes you to be off-balance. It alters your thinking.
5. The reason.  Because of God‘s wrath or anger. We don’t talk about this aspect of God very much. We don’t like to hear the fact that God can be angry. You don’t see too many worship songs written about the wrath of God, but it is an aspect of his character, he is angry about sin.  He hates evil and that brings conviction to me.

17 Then I took the cup from the LORD’S hand and made all the nations to whom the LORD sent me drink it: 18 Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and its kings and its princes, to make them a ruin, a horror, a hissing and a curse, as it is this day; 19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes and all his people; 20 and all the foreign people, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines (even Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod); 21 Edom, Moab and the sons of Ammon; 22 and all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon and the kings of the coastlands which are beyond the sea; 23 and Dedan, Tema, Buz and all who cut the corners of their hair; 24 and all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign people who dwell in the desert; 25 and all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam and all the kings of Media; 26 and all the kings of the north, near and far, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the earth which are upon the face of the ground, and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. 27 “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Drink, be drunk, vomit, fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send among you.”’ 28 “And it will be, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you will say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “You shall surely drink! 29 “For behold, I am beginning to work calamity in this city which is called by My name, and shall you be completely free from punishment? You will not be free from punishment; for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth,” declares the LORD of hosts.’ 30 “Therefore you shall prophesy against them all these words, and you shall say to them, ‘The LORD will roar from on high And utter His voice from His holy habitation; He will roar mightily against His fold. He will shout like those who tread the grapes, Against all the inhabitants of the earth. 31 ‘A clamor has come to the end of the earth, Because the LORD has a controversy with the nations. He is entering into judgment with all flesh; As for the wicked, He has given them to the sword,’ declares the LORD.” 32 Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Behold, evil is going forth From nation to nation, And a great storm is being stirred up From the remotest parts of the earth. 33 “Those slain by the LORD on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be lamented, gathered or buried; they will be like dung on the face of the ground. 34 “Wail, you shepherds, and cry; And wallow in ashes, you masters of the flock; For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions have come, And you will fall like a choice vessel. 35 “Flight will perish from the shepherds, And escape from the masters of the flock. 36 “Hear the sound of the cry of the shepherds, And the wailing of the masters of the flock! For the LORD is destroying their pasture, 37 “And the peaceful folds are made silent Because of the fierce anger of the LORD. 38 “He has left His hiding place like the lion; For their land has become a horror Because of the fierceness of the oppressing sword And because of His fierce anger.”

This judgment that's being pronounced here is yet future.  This is complete and utter judgment to the ends of the Earth that will happen at the end of the tribulation.

Of particular note, though, is the severity of the judgment upon the shepherds, the leaders, the pastors of the church who have gone astray, who have left their first love.  Those who have abandoned the pure milk of the word of God and adopted a message of prosperity, health and wellness. 

I’m going to finish by reading James chapter 3. Let’s take a moment to think about it.

James 3:1Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. 2For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. 3Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. 4Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.5So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.

      See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. 7For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil andfull of deadly poison. 9With it we bless ourLord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God;10from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. 11Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.