Truth and Consequences:
INTRODUCTION
Last week we began this full-year study of the book of Jeremiah. And the YouTube activity is already in gear; thanks to those of you who are joining our class after we record and post the lecture part of it. And thanks to each of you who is here live in the Zoom room and will participate in the Q and A when we are halfway finished. This is lively and I appreciate each of you.
For those watching this study on YouTube, please pause your playback of this class, read chapter one of Jeremiah and rejoin us, thanks.
Today’s lesson: A lousy exchange or two
In today’s lesson, the prophet uses more imagery than an ambrosia salad to help Israel see her sins and the resultant problems. These 10 images are as follows: an unfaithful wife, broken cisterns, a lost slave, a mule-like stubborn animal, a corrupt vine, a defiled body, an animal in heat, a captured criminal, children who refuse discipline, and an unbroken prisoner of war. That is an enormous amount of imagery, and if you cannot find yourself in any of those, buckle your seatbelt, there’s much more to come in the book. Live in truth or else there will be consequences. Let’s jump right into it.
Verse one to 3: God says, I looked back over your history and you were my delight. The nations which warred with you lost and lost badly. Think of Og and Sihon from the lands east of the Jordan. Think of the people of Jericho, or any number of battle locations. They all lost and their losses are perpetual. Anyone who messes with the Almighty loses. That’s the fact, Jack.
Friends, as I give you this lecture today, I’m in Nashville Tennessee. All around the state, in fact, all over the South are noted locations with history from either the Civil War (the War between the States) in the mid-19th century or the Revolutionary War against Mother England in the 18th century. You can hardly go 30 minutes from one site until you happen on another. And each of those roadside monuments is there for a few reasons, but one of those is like the words in our text. Look back and see when a victory happened and learn the lesson. Or look back and see when a defeat happened and learn the lesson. History is not only a sore subject for some of you who are sitting your HSC or who just finished it, but also a teacher itself. History informs us. History is one of our best teachers. If we are good students.
Historical failings (.4-8)
The next section, verse 4-8. God asks a good question. What did I ever do to you? That is, to your fathers, your priests, your teachers, your prophets… those who led the religion after Moses and Joshua. Why did they defile my land? Why didn’t they seek God? Twice God asks, “Why didn’t they say ‘Where is the Lord?’” this idea of the lost God is tangible in our history at various times. The old bumper sticker asked a similar question, “If you are far from God, who moved?” In other words, God is available and reachable. He longs to be in relationship with us; if we will only seek him. Listen to others who have highlighted this longing.
Deut. 4:29 “But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.
And again
2Chr. 15:2 and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the LORD is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
And the prophets made this clear as well:
Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.
And again
Hosea 10:12 Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD until He comes to rain righteousness on you.
King David led the singers with these two citations from the Psalms:
Psa. 27:4 One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple.
Psa. 34:4 I sought the LORD, and He answered me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
The testimony of Moses, David and the prophets is the same… seek the Lord while he may be found. And your life will be better. Don’t seek God and you will be lost. How simple can God make it for us.
I’m not sure how you get around in the city where you live. Perhaps your family has lived there for generations, and you don’t need any assistance in finding the library or the route to the farmer’s market. But if you are like most people in the 21st Century, you have either recently moved or they are building new roads and tunnels and bringing in new shops and restaurants that were not extant 5 years ago. And if you are like most of us, you are now learning how to ask your Google assistant or Siri or the map app on your phone how to find your way to a certain location.
This is tough for some ‘on their own’ people. Some make jokes about the Children of Israel being lost in the wilderness for 40 years because, being led by Moses, an 80-year-old man, they wouldn’t stop and ask directions. I get that. I remember in 2003, when my family was on holiday in Europe, and dismissing my son’s clear directions from the back seat as I was driving the family in Austria, and he was reading the map. I knew better even though I’d never visited Vienna, and thus made us backtrack a long way out of our way by my disregard. The worst was not listening to my son. I’m still sorry about that episode in my life.
So here we have the righteous of the ages trying to get through to the people of Judah and Israel and to help us get it right, and we say, “No thanks… I’ve got this… I know where I’m going” And we don’t know! And God shakes his head.
The unfaithful wife in verse 2 goes the wrong direction. That’s image #1. Craigie says this in his commentary:
“The later expansions of the theme of love, both in this chapter and elsewhere in Jeremiah, will make it clear that love and marriage are more than metaphors in v 2. The essence of the Sinai covenant had been a relationship of love between God and Israel, but that relationship had implications for both religion and politics. With respect to religion, a nation that loved God could not practice love for other gods, for example, the fertility cults whose worship was permeated with sexual activity. And with respect to politics, a nation bound in contract to the Lord could not also join itself by treaty to other nations as its lord and master. The divine memory was of pure love, before the religious and political perversions of love had arisen in later times to spoil the continuing relationship.”
Verses 9-13: Two Great Evils
God declares his intention. He’s upset. He wants us to learn, and for our children and grandchildren to learn. Look around and see if there is any testimony in public which agrees with the disregarding Israelites. Nope... no one. Then God calls the heavens to testify. They must observe the goings-on and the heavens are now shaking their head, too.
Verse 13 is the one to underline in your study today. The Two Great Evils committed by the Jewish people in this section. One—turning away from God. Dismissing God. Considering God to be unworthy of our attention. Firing God from our work force. Declaring to God he is ‘the weakest link’ and kicking him off the Survivor Island. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. You are unnecessary.
Do any of these statements to the Almighty bother you? If you are a believer, they should sound as bad as the scratch of fingernails on a chalkboard. They are the sound of a dentist’s instrument warming up right next to your ear, before the novocaine has worked its magic on your awaiting gums. An awful sound. The screech screams against everything we have learned and known about the Living God.
But wait, like the late-night infomercial, there’s more. The second evil God declares is that the cisterns we have stocked up in the place of Deity are broken and won’t sustain us at all. We exchanged the good stuff of the fountain of living water for a parched desert supply that is out-of-supply. Yikes, this is really dumb. D-u-m dumb.
The Apostle Paul wrote of this in the book of Romans in a similar shake-my-head evaluation:
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honour Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonoured among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 1)
Paul goes on to say more about what their exchange will give them, but for our purposes, the observation here is that once you abandon, or using Jeremiah’s word Forsake, God, you are destined for loss and impurity, to death in every form.
Verses 14-19: Smell the coffee!
Wake up and smell the coffee oh Israel! You aren’t designed to be shaved. You aren’t supposed to seek for support from Egypt or Assyria. Your foreign alliances will not help you. You aren’t a slave people any longer—you are supposed to be the head and not the tail. (Deut. 28:13) “The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully.”
Let your own wickedness and your apostasies correct you. Learn from your mistakes. There is still time to turn around and look at me. I’ll save you. That’s my history. That’s my love for you, Israel.
Verses 20-28: Like an animal in heat
God again asks, pleads, begs Israel to reconsider. He says, “I helped you out of the biggest jam you had ever experienced. You begged me to help and I helped. Now look what you have done in reply. You lay down like a prostitute at a Kings Cross brothel. You took what you could get and you thought that was love. It was not love. It was emptiness. You turned to idols and vain things. Things that built you up, but they were lies and vanity.
You thought it good to clean up at times, and although you took massive long showers with the best soap from Johnson and Johnson, you are still filthy and outside the camp. Then you excuse yourself and say, ‘oh well, I’m actually a good catch.’ We are so used to hearing the advertising about how good we are that we start believing our own publicity. But look, then you exchange again. You say, “I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals” when you really have done so. You are defiled. You are broken. You are deluded. You think the world owes you. You are entitled. You are privileged and yet, you are at the bottom of the ladder’s lowest rung.
The animal first shown is the stubborn unruly one who won’t wear a yoke. Then Jeremiah calls us a vine that is out-of-whack. It’s not operational. A vine that is all leaf and no fruit—what a waste! Then again in verse 22, we are the shmutzik religionist who is trying to clean up but cannot, no matter what ritual we attempt.
Jeremiah goes on, saying, you will be abused and misused like an animal in heat. You are unable to stay away from the affections and lures of the enemy. The idols you worship will fail you, but you are stuck.
He uses the image of a captured criminal who alleges his innocence, insisting on it, even though he’s caught red-handed.
In verse 27 we will try prayer as a last resort, but what’s the point of that? You turned your back to God and then you want God to welcome you back. What relationship do you have with others that informs you in this regard? This is presumption and not faith. This is outrageous selfishness and smug pride. Where are your real gods, you know, the ones you really believe in? Go to them, if you think they will help.
Verse 29 and following: You are not innocent
God begs the answer. Please, tell me, why are you fighting me? Verse 29. I think of a high school group of kids whose first football practice is this week, and they are going up against the Tennessee Titans or the premiers and Grand Final champions in League or AFL. It’s a useless proposition. You aren’t going to win. Why are you fighting?
He says that we have all sinned. No one has escaped this judgment. In the US just now are three criminal cases that seem to have captured national attention. (https://www.npr.org/2021/11/03/1052079375/racism-is-a-common-thread-in-3-high-profile-trials-in-different-parts-of-the-u-s) One in Kenosha Wisconsin with a then-17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse arming himself with a gun, a major weapon, the AR-15 and attending a rally, no doubt intent on harming some others. Kyle killed two men and wounded another badly. He declared his innocence based on a self-defense plea.
Similarly another murder case against father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael along with William "Roddie" Byron. The white men are accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a black man jogging in their neighbourhood. The third concerns the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in 2017 which ended in violence with the killing of Heather Heyer. In opening statements in the civil case last week against the organizers, one defendant dropped racial slurs and referenced Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" in a federal courtroom.
Judgment is coming. No one is innocent says the Lord. But Israel replies of her innocence. Even though there is a stack of evidence (verse 35) on her skirt and in the testimony of others. It’s a continual ‘shake-my-head’ moment and God regrets trying to get our attention. He has disciplined us and our children. He has sent warnings, but our refusal to listen has caused him to give up.
We are like children who refuse discipline, even if we need it. Another shake-my-head situation, you know?
Verse 35, you claim innocence, but reality bites. Egypt won’t help. Assyrian will not be available to you.
Even verse 36 we have our hands on our heads like prisoners of war, marching in an attempt to gain international recognition and security, but in the end, we are walking contrary to the plans of God.
What is God saying through all this? There are 10 consequences today that are listed. We are a long way from done, too. So live in truth. Live in harmony with the Almighty. Live righteous lives. When you are wrong, quickly admit wrong. When God brings things to the light in your life which are out-of-bounds, agree with God. Don’t turn your face from or your back towards him. Agree with the Almighty. One, that’s smart. Two, that’s his advice. Three--- it works!
What will you do with this information today?
CONCLUSION
God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life.
PRAYER
Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up.
We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 3, and until then Shabbat shalom!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Craigie, Peter; Kelley, Page; Drinkard, Joel. Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah. 1991.
Weirsbe, Warren. Be Decisive. David Cook Publishers, Colorado Springs 1991.
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ACTUAL TEXT
Chapter 2: Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,2 “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.’”
4 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.
.9 “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 and see and send to Kedar 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.
.14 “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.
20 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.’ 26 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.”
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