Refuseniks have a ministry: A study in Jeremiah 6

 Truth and Consequences:     

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Lesson Six (of 52): Refuseniks have a ministry

  INTRODUCTION

I mean no disrespect to those Russian-speaking Jewish people who in 1973 were refused permission to emigrate from the former Soviet Union. The term ‘refusenik’ was first coined then and was applied to those Jewish people. Later on in the 20^th century, the term ‘refusenik’ was associated more widely with people who refuse or decline something. The specific gave way to the general and that’s normal as languages morph. That’s the way the word is used in these days.

Today my lesson (and the lesson I see in Jeremiah chapter 6) is one of refusal and honestly, a refusal that is so deeply held that God shakes his head in sadness and in the fullness of his own disappointment with our Jewish people. 

For those on YouTube if you haven’t yet read today’s chapter, please pause your playback, read Jeremiah chapter 6 and then re-join us. Thanks.

Truth. That’s what God wanted to speak and what Jeremiah continued to proclaim to a refusenik people. Consequences—that’s what Jeremiah sees coming and which he begs his people to avoid. The longing, the aching, those are what brings sadness to the prophet and to each of us who today reads these words. And our goal in 21^st Century Australia is to help the many to love truth, no matter the cost. 

I sat with a Jewish man the other day over coffee and shared the truth with him about social consequences to some misinformation that continues to have its way in the news media and sadly in his mind. It may be the last time I see him, which I suppose is true of each time we see anyone, as no one is promised tomorrow, but also because of his health which is diminishing, and his religious cultural stand on the vaccine available to him which he refuses. When religion mingles with culture, it's a fascinating study, and in this case, I urged my mate to ready himself for consequences. 

This is not a statement of politics which in the US where I am visiting just now is a huge factor in anything COVID or health related. I have views, to be sure, but I’m listening to the advice of Jeremiah and how he would speak to a waiting public. What are the consequences of x or y or z? Follow information to the natural conclusion and this will help you in determining decisions you have to make.

Let’s dig into this chapter and hear, really hear, what God is saying to our people.

1. 1. God initiates the war on Judah (.1-5)

Verse one: The theme of sudden destruction is repeated. Mention Port Arthur to a Tasmanian; mention Lindt in Martin Place to a Sydney sider; mention Columbine to an American and the image of savagery and violence comes immediately to mind. That’s what Jeremiah does with Tekoa and Beth-hakerem. Both cities were very nearby, within a few miles from Jerusalem, and is partly literary, partly geographical. Tekoa, which had once been the home of Amos, was about twelve miles south of Jerusalem, bordering the great wilderness area that extended east, down into the great depression and the shores of the Dead Sea. 

Facing a foe from the north, citizens of Jerusalem might be expected to flee south to Tekoa, and from there eastwards into the comparative safety of the wilderness.

Rehoboam had fortified the city in his day.

Of note is the play on words. Tekoa has as its root T’kiah, or the trumpet sound of the ram’s horn. A warning device used by the Jewish people, thus a signal hill would be perfect for this place of fleeing.

Also there is the Davidic reference to Tekoa: The woman of Tekoa is an unnamed figure in the Bible.  She appears in 2 Samuel 14, after Absalom was banished following his murder of Amnon, his brother.  Joab sends for the Tekoite woman and she tells a story to David to elicit his sympathy and obtain his favourable judgment. The unnamed woman says that her son killed his brother, and now the rest of the family wants to kill him. When David decides that her son should be spared, the Tekoite woman turns the tables on David and tells him that he should do the same for his son Absalom.

In a way seeing Tekoa here in Jeremiah 6 tells me that a place of refuge is also a place of conviction of our sin, especially the harsh mistreatment of others. It’s a place of calling us to reconciliation. 

There are two possibilities for Beth Hakerem, and each helps us. One, it could be Ain Karim, about three miles west of Jerusalem. They have found remains there of what could be the signal fires referred to by Jeremiah.

The other possibility for this village is found at the tell at Ramat Rahel, about two miles south of Jerusalem.  Here, Jehoiakim built a fortress/palace (perhaps alluded to in Jer. 22:13–19), of which the remains have been excavated and again signal fires were lit.

Alarm! Trumpet! WARNING! Jeremiah is clearly announcing danger ahead, Will Robinson, and we should not be dismissive of those warnings. Like the writer of Hebrews says, “See to it that you do not dismiss him who is speaking.” (Heb. 12.25) Or in light of our word of the day, “Don’t be a refusenik!”

What is the warning about? Verse one: EVIL is coming from the north. That evil is none other than Babylon. 

A word about God’s use of the nations and judgment. 

When we as Jewish people walk away from the Lord and live counter to his plans, he must punish us. Judgment must begin with the House of God. (1 Peter 4.17) And God uses other nations to bring that judgment on us. It’s not the stock market; it’s not the toothaches alone that God uses; it’s nations. Then, don’t miss this, God will subsequently judge the nation that brings that mis-treatment on us. It’s a fascinating situation. We sin; God judges by bringing destruction on Israel from a foreign nation, then God judges the foreign nation for mistreating Israel. It may not be immediate, but be assured; it will come.

So we see in 1290 when England evicted all the Jewish people at York. Less than 60 years later, the Black Death ravaged London and Europe. In 1492 all Jewish people were thrown out of Spain and a few years later out of Iberia, and by 1588, the Spanish Armada, the ruling naval force of the world was summarily defeated and Spain never again held world domination. Follow the mistreatment of Jews in a country, and you will subsequently find death and devastation. More on this as we carry on in this book.

Back to our text.

The comely and dainty one, that’s the tender way God speaks of his people, will nevertheless be stricken. A war is coming. Verse one: Great destruction. Verse two: Damiti. Cut off. DEAD!

Verse three: the wagons are circling, but that’s not going to be enough.

Verse four: Prepare, KADDISH( Consecrate) a war. In other words, this is God’s call to Babylon. As I said, God uses the enemies of the Jews to bring judgment to us. It’s a holy operation!

Here in Tennessee, we had tornadoes come though the region last Shabbat, and we were alerted with SMSes and sirens, even television and radio announcements. Back in Bible days, Jewish people had three methods of sending information. They were all used here: 1) trumpet signals, 2) signal fires, 3) up close, watchmen on the walls of a city. Clearly, God initiated the battle and notified us of his intention.

1. 2. God sends the Babylonians (.6-15)

It’s odd to think the Lord would use the enemies of the Jewish people to bring judgment on us. But you have to know this is love; real fatherly love to make his people listen to him. 

He tells the Babylonians why and how to bring the victory home. It’s as if the coach in heaven shares with the coach of the Babylonians the playbook of Judah. Whatever we were planning, however we were living, it’s as if the enemy knew our plans before we enacted them. 

Verse six says to cut down trees and use them as ramp to lay siege to Jerusalem.  That’s how to win. Also march in at midday, when no one would expect. 

Why is God sending the enemy? Judah is filled with injustice labelled violence, destruction, oppression and wickedness. The more I think about God’s desire, he has shown you, and what does the Lord require of you? To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6.8) Judah was not living in that way. We lived for ourselves, and not for others. And certainly without care for God’s interests.  Look at his summary of shame in verse 15, “They were not even ashamed at all; they did not even know how to blush.”

Verse 22 tells us this is a ‘great nation’, but cruel and have no mercy (v. 23)

Look back and see the main reason…it is that Judah was not listening (v. 10) When God is trying to get our attention and to have us change our ways, yes, you could enter into compliance and agreement with his ways. Yes, you could write books about what God said and even go on television and start a podcast to announce it. But honestly, what does God want? He wants you. He wants you and he to be in relationship. Listening is about being near each other. It’s more personal than reading what is written. A person can read something written thousands of miles and thousands of years away. But listening in those days? That’s about being near and attentive. It’s giving yourself to the speaker. 

1. 3. The reason repeated (.16-.23)

There is no secret about Judah’s sin, or rather sins, as those have been listed from the opening words. In verses 16-23, again, the Lord shares his own heart. 

Verse 16, we refused to walk in the way of God which would give us rest for our souls. He calls it the ‘good way’, but the refuseniks disregard God. He sends the shofar to warn, and Judah says “We will not listen.” 

לֹ֥א נַקְשִֽׁיב

Verse 19, we refused to listen to God’s words. That’s the crux of the argument as I said earlier. Not listening here, though, is specifically REJECTING the Torah. 

וַיִּמְאֲסוּ־בָֽהּ

Rejecting is refusing. Saying ‘nyet’ to the Almighty is not the way to live. You want the ‘good way’ in 2022? Listen to God and do what he says. You want to survive the uncertainties from COVID and from joblessness? Do not refuse God’s word and reject his Torah. 

Verse 20 shouts the number one stench in God’s nose. Hypocrisy. They bring false worship, incense and prayers, but if not matched with the reality of your humility and justice, it’s religion, and false religion at that. It might look good to outsiders, but it’s horrible. If you speak with friends who don’t yet believe, one of their main objections is that there are so many hypocrites, like Bible preachers who are ungodly outside church. Admit it; you often don’t live up to your own convictions. I admit it of myself. I fall short of God’s standards. 

So what’s the difference between us who are hypocrites and those Judeans in 600 BCE or so? WE ADMIT our sin; they boasted in their sin. We long for God’s word to rule in our lives; they were refuseniks. So maybe we need to adjust the definition of hypocrite to be one who pretends to be good and rejects the notion of pretence. What do you think of that?

Isaiah had decried religious hypocrisy with “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. (1.14) and later Isaiah says of the hypocrites who boast in their external religion “[they] say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you!’ These are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.” (65.5) It’s the stench which is only removed with the humility of admission. Amen?

1. 4. Suffering is real (.24-30)

Finally, verses 24-30 talks of the pain and suffering of the Jewish people, but sometimes pain is not enough to change our minds about ourselves and about God. Verse 24, our hands are limp. Anguish has seized us. Pain like a woman in childbearing. Look, I’ve had three kids, but thankfully my wife actually had them. I have a low pain threshold. 

It’s in verse 26, bitter and a destroyer. 

Verse 28: They are stubbornly rebellious. The words repeat. To amplify.

סָרֵ֣י סֽוֹרְרִ֔ים

In verse 29 we see the operation in metal working where fire is placed under an ore and the dross rises to the surface, but it’s unsuccessful. 

 Christopher Wright says this of the final verse: “[It] must have been chilling when it was first uttered, and even more frightening when it hung over those who sat in exile—the place of experienced rejection.” They are called rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them.” (v.30)

כֶּ֣סֶף נִמְאָ֔ס קָרְא֖וּ לָהֶ֑ם כִּֽי־מָאַ֥ס יְהוָ֖ה בָּהֶֽם׃

Refuseniks have a ministry; they refuse, and God refuses them. That’s not the position you want for yourself or your friends. It’s time to warn our people. It’s time to live right, to love mercy and walk humbly with our God. Admit your sins, don’t refuse Him who is speaking. Listen to Torah and his living word Yeshua. 

The Psalms say it and Yeshua said something about being rejected as recorded in Matt. 21:42  Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’?

Don’t join the Stone rejecters. Don’t be a refusenik against the Lord today. Say ‘yes’ to him. Listen to what he asks, and say ‘yes’. Amen?

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 7. This will be our final class for 2021, and we will meet again after 15 January. Until then, merry Messiahmas, Happy 2022, and for tonight, Shabbat shalom!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnes, Albert, Albert Barnes’ Commentary on the Old Testament, 

Craigie, Peter; Kelley, Page; Drinkard, Joel. Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah.  1991. 

Henry, Matthew, Commentary.

Weirsbe, Warren. Be Decisive. David Cook Publishers, Colorado Springs 1991.

Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.

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ACTUAL TEXT

Jer. 6:1    “Flee for safety, O sons of Benjamin, 

From the midst of Jerusalem! 

Now blow a trumpet in Tekoa 

And raise a signal over Beth-haccerem; 

For evil looks down from the north, 

And a great destruction.

²  “The comely and dainty one, the daughter of Zion, I will cut off.

³  “Shepherds and their flocks will come to her, 

They will pitch their tents ¹around her, 

They will pasture each in his ²place.

⁴  “^1aPrepare war against her; 

Arise, and let us ²attack at noon. 

Woe to us, for the day declines, 

For the shadows of the evening lengthen!

⁵  “Arise, and let us ¹attack by night 

And destroy her palaces!”

⁶  For thus says the LORD of hosts, 

“Cut down her trees 

And cast up a siege against Jerusalem. 

This is the city to be punished, 

In whose midst there is only oppression.

⁷  “As a well keeps its waters fresh, 

So she ¹keeps fresh her wickedness. 

Violence and destruction are heard in her; 

Sickness and wounds are ever before Me.

⁸  “Be warned, O Jerusalem, 

Or I shall be alienated from you, 

And make you a desolation, 

A land not inhabited.”

Jer. 6:9    Thus says the LORD of hosts, 

“They will thoroughly glean as the vine the remnant of Israel; 

Pass your hand again like a grape gatherer 

Over the branches.”

¹⁰  To whom shall I speak and give warning 

That they may hear? 

Behold, their ears are ¹closed 

And they cannot listen. 

Behold, the word of the LORD has become a reproach to them; 

They have no delight in it.

¹¹  But I am ^aull of the wrath of the LORD; 

I am weary with holding it in. 

“Pour it out on the children in the street 

And on the ¹gathering of young men together; 

For both husband and wife shall be taken, 

The aged ²and the very old.

¹²  “Their houses shall be turned over to others, 

Their fields and their wives together; 

For I will stretch out My hand 

Against the inhabitants of the land,” declares the LORD.

¹³  “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, 

Everyone is greedy for gain, 

And from the prophet even to the priest 

Everyone ¹deals falsely.

¹⁴  “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, 

Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ 

But there is no peace.

¹⁵  “Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? 

They were not even ashamed at all; 

They did not even know how to blush. 

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; 

At the time that I punish them, 

They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.

Jer. 6:16    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 will find rest for your souls. 

But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

¹⁷  “And I set watchmen over you, saying, 

‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ 

But they said, ‘We will not listen.’

¹⁸  “Therefore hear, O nations, 

And know, O congregation, what is among them.

¹⁹  “Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people, 

The fruit of their ¹plans, 

Because they have not listened to My words, 

And as for My law, they have rejected it also.

²⁰  “For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba 

And the sweet cane from a distant land? 

Your burnt offerings are not acceptable 

And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”

²¹  Therefore, thus says the LORD, 

“Behold, I am ¹laying stumbling blocks before this people. 

And they will stumble against them, 

Fathers and sons together; 

Neighbor and friend will perish.”

Jer. 6:22    Thus says the LORD, 

“Behold, a people is coming from the north land, 

And a great nation will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth.

²³  “They seize bow and spear; 

They are cruel and have no mercy; 

Their voice roars like the sea, 

And they ride on horses, 

Arrayed as a man for the battle 

Against you, O daughter of Zion!”

²⁴  We have heard the report of it; 

Our hands are limp. 

Anguish has seized us, 

Pain as of a woman in childbirth.

²⁵  Do not go out into the field 

And do not walk on the road, 

For the enemy has a sword, 

Terror is on every side.

²⁶  O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth 

And roll in ashes; 

Mourn as for an only son, 

A lamentation most bitter. 

For suddenly the destroyer 

Will come upon us.

Jer. 6:27    “I have made you an assayer and a tester among My people, 

That you may know and assay their way.”

²⁸  All of them are stubbornly rebellious, 

Going about as a talebearer. 

They are bronze and iron; 

They, all of them, are corrupt.

²⁹  The bellows blow fiercely, 

The lead is consumed by the fire; 

In vain the refining goes on, 

But the wicked are not separated.

³⁰  They call them rejected silver, 

Because the LORD has rejected them.