Jer 14:1-10

This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord, explaining why he was holding back the rain:
2 “Judah wilts; commerce at the city gates grinds to a halt. All the people sit on the ground in mourning, and a great cry rises from Jerusalem. 3 The nobles send servants to get water, but all the wells are dry. The servants return with empty pitchers, confused and desperate, covering their heads in grief. 4 The ground is parched and cracked for lack of rain. The farmers are deeply troubled; they, too, cover their heads. 5 Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn because there is no grass in the field. 6 The wild donkeys stand on the bare hills panting like thirsty jackals. They strain their eyes looking for grass, but there is none to be found.”
7 The people say, “Our wickedness has caught up with us, Lord, but help us for the sake of your own reputation. We have turned away from you and sinned against you again and again. 8 O Hope of Israel, our Savior in times of trouble, why are you like a stranger to us? Why are you like a traveler passing through the land, stopping only for the night? 9 Are you also confused? Is our champion helpless to save us? You are right here among us, Lord.We are known as your people. Please don’t abandon us now!”
10 So this is what the Lord says to his people: “You love to wander far from me and do not restrain yourselves. Therefore, I will no longer accept you as my people. Now I will remember all your wickedness and will punish you for your sins.”

Jeremiah was told by the Lord why there was a drought in the land. But more importantly in this passage was the response of the people. They admitted they had turned away from the Lord and had pursued sinful behavior. It even seems in this text that the people of Israel were taking responsibility for their sins. But not so fast. When you examine the word of God carefully you begin to see why they were taking ownership. They wanted God to end the drought and they were appealing to Him on the basis that they were His people and He should not abandon them. I have been in the ministry a lot of years and I have seen people repent of sins for the benefit of getting something they have wanted. I have also seen them abandon the Lord when they did not get what they thought should happen as a result of their confession. Don’t get caught in that trap! We don’t repent of sin for what it gets us. We repent because we are wrong and our sin has driven a wedge between us and God and that is not acceptable. We repent because we want that relationship restored and we repent inspite of consequences that remain. Don’t repent to gain favor, repent because you truly blew it before the Lord and want His forgiveness and a relationship with Him!

Jer 13:18-27

18 Say to the king and his mother,”Come down from your thrones and sit in the dust, for your glorious crowns will soon be snatched from your heads.” 19 The towns of the Negev will close their gates, and no one will be able to open them. The people of Judah will be taken away as captives. All will be carried into exile.
20 Open up your eyes and see the armies marching down from the north! Where is your flock—your beautiful flock—that he gave you to care for? 21 What will you say when the Lord takes the allies you have cultivated and appoints them as your rulers? Pangs of anguish will grip you, like those of a woman in labor! 22 You may ask yourself, “Why is all this happening to me?” It is because of your many sins! That is why you have been stripped and raped by invading armies. 23 Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you have always done evil.
24 “I will scatter you like chaff that is blown away by the desert winds. 25 This is your allotment, the portion I have assigned to you,”says the Lord, “for you have forgotten me, putting your trust in false gods. 26 I myself will strip you and expose you to shame. 27 I have seen your adultery and lust, and your disgusting idol worship out in the fields and on the hills. What sorrow awaits you, Jerusalem! How long before you are pure?”

Israel was given many opportunities to repent of their sin. You could say that God kept giving them opportunities each and every time the prophets would call them to accountability. But there comes a time when the window of opportunity closes on all of us and those with unrepentant sin will face the consequences. That is the message Jeremiah is springing on Israel. That is the message we need to hear loud and clear also. You may live in unrepentant sin for a season in which you may have opportunity to turn it around and bow your knee to God and ask for forgiveness. But there comes a day and a time when your time is up and you must pay the piper. Don’t play with sin nor ignore it’s presence in or around your life. That would be a mistake. As Jeremiah said, “What sorrow awaits you!”

Jer 13:15-17

15 Listen and pay attention!
Do not be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken.
16 Give glory to the Lord your God
before it is too late.
Acknowledge him before he brings darkness upon you,
causing you to stumble and fall on the darkening mountains.
For then, when you look for light,
you will find only terrible darkness and gloom.
17 And if you still refuse to listen,
I will weep alone because of your pride.
My eyes will overflow with tears,
because the Lord’s flock will be led away into exile.

God says to His people, “listen and pay attention!” When God speaks who is it that would not listen? It would be those who do not think they have to. It would be those who do not believe there is a God. It would be those who think they have listened enough. It would be those who see themselves in control of all they have and all they need. In short, it would be those who proudly exalt their own accomplishments and their own self sufficiency and deny God His rightful place as the Sovreign Lord. They refuse to give Him Glory. They refuse to bow their knee to Him! They are Proud and Arrogant and don’t need Him. The writer of Proverbs rightly has said, “Pride comes before a fall!”

Jer 13:1-14

13 “Then tell them, ‘No, this is what the Lord means: I will fill everyone in this land with drunkenness—from the king sitting on David’s throne to the priests and the prophets, right down to the common people of Jerusalem. 14 I will smash them against each other, even parents against children, says the Lord. I will not let my pity or mercy or compassion keep me from destroying them.’”

The loin cloth is a picture of God’s purpose and plan for Israel. It was worn about the waist and was an intregal part of their wardrobe. God says, “As a loin cloth clings to a man’s waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me!.” In other words, God made us an accessory to His Glory! Think about that! We are an intregal part of the reflection of who God is in a world that has rejected Him. Put that in the context of Paul’s statement in Romans that “all have fallen short of the glory of God!” No wonder God took the loin cloth off and had Jeremiah bury it only to rot and decay. They were not living out the purpose God intended for them, that is, to be a part of His glorious presence in the world. Therefore, God had to put them aside! When we do not live out the purpose God has in mind for us, we become like that loin cloth. We decay and rot! God did not intend for us to live life apart from Him or His glory. If we do the consequences are obvious!

Matthew 26:26-30
Jesus Says it All!

10-26-08

Jer 12:14-17

14 Now this is what the Lord says: “I will uproot from their land all the evil nations reaching out for the possession I gave my people Israel. And I will uproot Judah from among them. 15 But afterward I will return and have compassion on all of them. I will bring them home to their own lands again, each nation to its own possession. 16 And if these nations truly learn the ways of my people, and if they learn to swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives’ (just as they taught my people to swear by the name of Baal), then they will be given a place among my people. 17 But any nation who refuses to obey me will be uprooted and destroyed. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

God is Amazing. This is a promise of mercy and grace to all the nations of the earth. It doesn’t have to end for Israel or for the nations that have overtaken them. There is still time for all to repent and turn to the Lord. God wants to be compassionate toward them all. It’s the same with all of us. When we turn away from the things of the Lord we run the risk of consequences in our relationship with Him. But He is willing to show us compassion as we turn to Him again! God is not out to get us! He is looking for our hearts to turn toward Him so that He can forgive us and restore us to a right relationship with Him. If there is sin in your life that you need to deal with then turn your heart toward the Lord and find mercy! Have a great week!

Jer 12:7-13

7 “I have abandoned my people, my special possession. I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies. 8 My chosen people have roared at me like a lion of the forest, so I have treated them with contempt. 9 My chosen people act like speckled vultures, but they themselves are surrounded by vultures. Bring on the wild animals to pick their corpses clean!
10 “Many rulers have ravaged my vineyard, trampling down the vine sand turning all its beauty into a barren wilderness. 11 They have made it an empty wasteland; I hear its mournful cry. The whole land is desolate, and no one even cares. 12 On all the bare hilltops, destroying armies can be seen. The sword of the Lord devours people from one end of the nation to the other. No one will escape! 13 My people have planted wheat but are harvesting thorns. They have worn themselves out, but it has done them no good. They will harvest a crop of shame because of the fierce anger of the Lord.”

What happens when you do not listen and respond to truth? The answer is right before your very eyes in this text. You become blinded by the lies and cannot see the impending danger on the horizon. Then it happens, all hell breaks loose, bad things happen and those who had ignored the truth find themselves wondering “what have we done?” That is what the Lord means by harvesting a crop of shame. You always harvest something! In Galatians it tells us “You will always harvest what you plant! (Galatians 6:7)” When you are willing to ignore the truth to get what you want, the only possible harvest will be “shame on you!” Don’t let the truth go unnoticed! Pay attention to what is really happening around you and ferret out truth or you may find yourself woefully regretful for your ignorance. And remember, you don’t get to say “I didn’t know what I was doing?” That in itself would be enough to unleash the fierce anger of the Lord!

Jer 12:5-6

5 “If racing against mere men makes you tired,
how will you race against horses?
If you stumble and fall on open ground,
what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan?
6 Even your brothers, members of your own family,
have turned against you.
They plot and raise complaints against you.
Do not trust them,
no matter how pleasantly they speak.

Having concluded that evil people will get theirs someday the Lord now reminds Jeremiah to stay the course. I want you to see in this passage that the Lord understands how hard it is sometimes to do the right things when those people around you are not appreciative and even down right nasty. In this case, the Lord encourages Jeremiah to be tougher and more determined to follow the Lord than ever! We can usually understand when enemies who are not are friends do bad things to us. We expect that will happen in life! But it is extremely difficult when our own family and those closest to us join evil and turn against us. That is what kills us emotionally! The Lord tells Jeremiah not to trust even his family in these difficult days. Put yourselves in his shoes. How would that make you feel? I know people who have been slammed by family members and made to look as though they were the bad apples in the bunch when in fact it was the family who had plotted and turned against them. Make no mistake about it! God’s word to Jeremiah tells him what to do when this happens. Do not trust you family, no matter “how pleasantly they speak.” In other words, don’t give in to evil no matter what the source of evil is in your life. You must keep standing against it! Even when the source of evil comes from your family!

Jer 12:1-4
1 Lord, you always give me justice
when I bring a case before you.
So let me bring you this complaint:
Why are the wicked so prosperous?
Why are evil people so happy?
2 You have planted them,
and they have taken root and prospered.
Your name is on their lips,
but you are far from their hearts.
3 But as for me, Lord, you know my heart.
You see me and test my thoughts.
Drag these people away like sheep to be butchered!
Set them aside to be slaughtered!

4 How long must this land mourn?
Even the grass in the fields has withered.
The wild animals and birds have disappeared
because of the evil in the land.
For the people have said,
“The Lord doesn’t see what’s ahead for us!”

I have to admit it! I have been praying this prayer this week and I probably will not stop until after the elections in this country. All of us are disturbed when people get away with deception and good people get pushed over. All of us fall back onto these kinds of prayers when we see that happening in our world. “Where are you God and Why don’t you do something about this injustice?” We know God to be just and the only one who is qualified to answer the question and we also know the wicked will not get away with what they seem to have gotten away with for the moment. But still we ask out of frustration and the desire to have relief. It’s not a bad thing to raise the question. It really means we are aware of the depth of sin and the brokeness of humanity and long for the salvation that only God can bring our way. It’s a natural thing for those who truly seek the grace of God and want Justice to prevail. I would be very worried if we just accepted evil as though it were a part of life we can’t control. God hates injustice and so should we! So Pray away, ask the question, and expect God to bring about justice! There will be no questions like these in the end!

Matthew 26:14-30
The Problem with Judas!

10-19-08