By Ben Cole

Audio of Jeremiah (1 hour, 10 min)

Jeremiah: Listen=Hear=Obey

I. Overview

  1. intro
  2. walk through the text
  3. big message
  4. images/pictures
  5. repetition
  6. question about prophecy

II. Intro

  1. Intros that simply state the who, what, where, when, why, how are often boring and unnecessary, in my opinion. Yet, at times, they can be helpful. Today’s teaching marks one of those. So pardon the boring introduction (not!), but here are some bullet point details.
    1. Who
      • Jeremiah, priest who prophesied. I think we can often think a prophet maybe just sits around waiting to hear from God then speaks. But Jeremiah is a priest, meaning he is going about his duties, yet doing so with an ear to listen for God on behalf of the people. (We, too, are priests, my friends.)
      • Jeremiah, the protagonist with one good friend Baruch, is surrounded by a cast of many many who do not listen to God (too many for a short list here).
      • The rulers of Babylon who, though enemies of God’s people, are used by God to serve His purpose of judgment on recalcitrant Judah (Jeremiah 51:5-10)
    2. What
      • Prophecies for not just God’s people in Judah, but for many nations which were connected in some way to this people God chose from long ago
      • Historical account of the fall of Jerusalem
    3. Where
      • Judah and Babylon; in Jerusalem mainly, then on to Babylon. There is a stint of discourse from those who fled to Egypt, but God quickly deals with that (in 2:18-19 we read a snippet to those who wanted to go to Egypt).
    4. When
      • This time period was one when prophecies for centuries came to a head. Things were fulfilled in Jeremiah’s life and ministry that had been spoken of for years. His ministry spanned, at the least, the forty years leading up to the deportation to Babylon. Kings Zedekiah and Jehoiakim of Judah take up most of the stage as rulers, until Nebuchadnezzar takes over and appoints vassal rulers, one of whom gets sabotaged even in the short time he had his appointment.
    5. Why
      • The people of God would not obey! The prophetic ministry was to call them to return to faithful obedience, to justice and righteous living, but they remained disobedient. In fact, no known conversions or obedience are recorded in this book on behalf of Jeremiah’s ministry. There are glimpses of desire to obey when people say the right thing, but they end up not actually following through and obeying.
    6. How
      • Through speaking, through writing, through actions / imagery.

III. Two bigger sections to the book of Jeremiah. Section one comprises the bulk of the LORD’s teaching, message, and heart for His people. That is chapters 1-24. Section two is majorly comprised of time and space examples of living out the prophetic word and testament of Jeremiah and others.

  1. I want to give a pass through the entire book to serve as a full vision from Jeremiah/the LORD (God didn’t make it a ten chapter book, rather a 52 chapter book. So I don’t want to shortchange God here). However, seeing as Jeremiah records a fairly singular message from the LORD, I want to sit in a few specific chapters. This will give us both the larger picture as we fly over and the close up view as we hone in.
  2. Fly by overview of the first and second sections (and as is natural with a fly by of a large book, we have to skip a number of great places; so if you didn’t get a chance to read the whole thing, go back and do it! It’s a fabulous book):
    • Jeremiah 1 – the book starts with his commission and boy does Jeremiah need it; he has hard messages to deliver and no reception his whole life. The LORD declares His purposes over Jeremiah that none will be able to stand against him his whole ministry (vv5-10, 17-19). And since we tend to forget things sometimes, Jeremiah’s commission is repeated in Jeremiah 15:20-21.
    • Jeremiah 2 – call back to first love; there was once a time of intimacy, but had fallen away. God wants them back!
    • Jeremiah 3 – we see God’s heart in sending the prophets with a beautiful/intimate call to repentance
    • Jeremiah 7 – don’t trust in false teachers; obey (see also 8:11-12, 17:14-17)
    • Jeremiah 9:23-24 – boast in the LORD of hesed, justice and righteousness
    • Jeremiah 11 – hear=listen=obey (word study on Hebrew word)
      • The word used is actually “’sm” or a derivative/root similar. Or the transliteration “simu” sometimes.
      • It is the same root word as the word “shema”, the most commonly recited verse in the OT, aptly named “the shema” from the first word in the phrase, hear: “Hear, O Israel…” Many of you in this room can recite the rest of the verse.
    • Jeremiah 17 – cursed/blessed is the one based on trust (v5-8); trust in self is not good and we know this because the heart is desperately wicked (v9-11)
  3. Section two:
    • Jeremiah 25+ is predominately narrative record leading up to and through captivity; most of other prophetic books speak of a time which the book of Jeremiah actually records in live time. We see kings wanting to hear what they want to hear, we see false prophets saying those things for the king and people, and we see Babylon come and destroy Jerusalem and take captive those in the city.
      • Many, obviously, died in Jerusalem. Only a few were left, the weak and dependent ones who could be controlled easily, so that the land wouldn’t completely get overrun. Captivity also happened in Babylon where many were carried off. This is the backdrop to the book of Daniel (read Daniel 1:1-6)
      • Conversely, we see what happened to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 40, which is an interesting note. Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard of Nebuchadnezzar, comes to Jeremiah with insightful clarity, clarity the people themselves did not realize. He says: Jeremiah 40:1-3. What happens to Jeremiah then is that he is given the option to return back to the fugitives left in the land. He goes back with the blessing of Nebuzaradan and with rations, only to find a mutiny among the ranks and the new leaders convince the people that Jeremiah and Baruch are inciting a revolt and that they need to go to Egypt…(Jeremiah 42:19-43:4)
    • Jeremiah 31-33 – the second section of the book is interluded with the BEST few chapters in the OT, one could argue. This is the point! This is massive! It’s the Gospel! It’s the NEW COVENANT!!! We will dive in there in a little bit.

IV. With that as our 30,000 ft. view, let’s dive into a few highlighted chapters to get the sense of what is really happening with boots on the ground for Jeremiah. After these, we will look at the pictures and images used in Jeremiah.

  • A. Jeremiah 2 – vv1-5; vv11-13; a God of intimacy, and tender care (v21)
  • B. Jeremiah 7 – God’s heart, temple sermon. This is the reason God wants His people to listen!
  • C. Jeremiah 10 – false gods contrasted with the LORD Himself. One of the more poignant examples showing that Jeremiah doesn’t mince words. See also Jeremiah 51:17-19.
  • D. Jeremiah 11 – listen/obey discussion. This is the big message: LISTEN/OBEY! Almost with megaphone clarity and volume, we hear Jeremiah driving home this point.
    • Word is used on almost every page throughout the book
    • In conjunction, the phrase “this is the LORD’s declaration”, or some iteration of that, is used a bazillion times in the book. And the LORD declaring something is important only if you are going to listen/hear/obey. God’s words are not things to lightly pass over, but is words to hear and listen and obey!
    • The point is to listen to and obey the LORD’s words!
      • a. Examples of hearing and obey the Word from a father and son: Josiah in II Chronicles 34 who tears his clothes and his heart is on fire contrasted with Jehoiakim in Jeremiah 36 who tears the scroll and puts the words in the fire
  • E. Jeremiah 23 – Messiah/Righteous Branch/Shepherd who raises up shepherds who will actually lead His people and will listen to Him and pass that along to the sheep
  • F. Jeremiah 31 – New Covenant
    • Not like the former covenant (31:32) bc He says “I will” 6x in two verses. God makes clear that He will be the acting force in the salvation and perpetuation of this covenant. He will write in on hearts!
      • a. And this is massively important. For a book that repeatedly shows God’s desire for His people to listen/obey, it was necessary for God to make a way by writing the law on their hearts. They had formerly not been able to, or chosen not to, listen and obey, so God decides to just write it on their heart. What a gracious God!
    • And, to go further, God affirms this covenant is for all time, saying so poetically in such a beautiful way (read vv35-37!!)**
      • a. “I will…faithfully plant them in this land” (32:41 and is one of the repeated phrases throughout the book in regards to both Jeremiah himself as well as the people at large – 1:10, 24:6, 31:28 though it is contrasted in 45:4 with an uproot of those who did not listen)
      • b. But, though the new covenant is not like the former, God still is connected to former covenants bc He is a faithful God who doesn’t let His Word fall (Jeremiah 33:19-26). Part of the covenants is seeing God’s heart expand out to us and reveal itself to His people over time in gradations we could understand.
    • This is beautiful, and won’t stop being beautiful, until the sun and moon no longer need God to lead them in their course through the sky…aka, can’t stop won’t stop!!
    • In Hebrews, we have an even clearer description of why this is the most amazing truth we need to know every day.
      • a. Read Hebrews 10:1-5, 10-18 – thank you JESUS!!!

V. Walking through pictures and through the repetitions

  • A. Pictures: word pictures or physical actions that serve as a visual image for the people. I am a mental image kind of guy; you can ask my wife, but I really like analogies and imaging things so there is a way to see something. I use little stories or images all the time. Jeremiah is used by the LORD to do the same thing. It’s kind of like a big version of show and tell 🙂
    • Jeremiah 1 – boiling pot, almond tree: confirms Jeremiah’s commission and God’s heart for His people
    • Jeremiah 13 – dirty undies! (This was, understandably, one of the most frequently requested stories to be read in the Cole home by my brother and I when we were in upper elementary and in middle school…go figure.) This shows the griminess of being apart from God’s design and not listening to Him.
    • Jeremiah 17 – the blessed one who trusts the LORD is like a tree planted by water (Psalm 1, Ezekiel 47, Revelation 22)
    • Jeremiah 18 – potter and clay: teaching that God is in control and does what He pleases
    • Jeremiah 19 – broken jar: example of destruction – total so it’s no longer usable or valuable
      • a. Potsherd gate – like the story of Job, we know that he took potsherds to scrape off his boils. There was no good use for them anymore, except to come into contact with a wasting disease.
    • Jeremiah 24 – basket of figs, good and bad figs: thus are those who listen and those who do not (repeated in Jeremiah 29:17)
    • Jeremiah 24 – the cup of God’s wrath
    • Jeremiah 27,28 – yoke of the LORD: false prophet tried to run with an analogy which God ended up flipping back on Hananiah’s head to prove that God’s words were more powerful and the ones that endured, even if Hananiah was a false prophet
    • Jeremiah 32 – purchase of field to show returning one day to God’s land: this one is special to our family as God has used it for us in our prayer times. Essentially, it’s God’s good promise that He will bring His people back to the good land again.
    • Jeremiah 35 – flashback to faithfulness from Rechabites (circa 609-598 B.C. — followed by reign of Zedekiah who reigned 597-586 B.C.)
    • Jeremiah 43 – the stones in mortar, which God will use Babylon to destroy
    • Jeremiah 51 – the scroll thrown in the river is like Babylon to be thrown into the river
  • B. Repetition – we learn a lot from repetition. The LORD means something when He repeats it
    • “this is the LORD’s declaration” or “the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah” or “thus says the LORD” – in its many forms, this phrase is stated every few paragraphs. God is seriously conveying that His words are what carry importance. Though others may say this / that, “this is the word from the LORD” and He won’t share His authority with any
    • “listen” – about 4x a chapter, this is the main thrust of Jeremiah’s message. And as we already saw, this word is not a different word in Hebrew from the one we see translated as hear, and also not a different Hebrew word from the one we see translated as obey. To listen is to obey, in God’s definition.
    • “righteous, justice, lovingkindness” – one or all of these occur throughout the book commonly (Jeremiah 22:3; 23;5). God is a God who desires, yea who delights in these things (Jeremiah 9:24)

VI. One big question from book of Jeremiah: how do we discern true prophecy

  • A. Jeremiah 23:23-40 – the Word is greater than a dream
  • B. Jeremiah 17:5-10 – in what are we trusting when we listen for God’s prophetic revelation
  • C. Jeremiah 9:23-24 – does it come from and lead to hesed, justice, righteousness
    • The false prophets of Jeremiah’s day are paralleled in many ways by the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. Both were, actually, clinging to what they thought was God’s truth and His Word. However, they were doing so for their preference, and presupposition that they were fine just because they were chosen, regardless of obedience or not.
      • a. In the three tests above, they may have passed test 1. Potentially. But then when it came to test 2, they would not be trusting in God, but in their own understanding and ability to carry it out. And finally in point 3, it certainly did not lead them to more hesed, more justice, or more righteousness
  • D. Jeremiah 8:8-12 – says of them that they are greedy for gain, superficial, and that they do not even know how to blush
    • We, too, do not blush at the things of the world anymore. Are we conditioned by the world to accept its truth, or is the world conditioned by us to know the One Truth?

VII. What do we do with any words the LORD gives us?

  • A. For Jeremiah, before the LORD gave him any testimony to share with others, God gave Him one to know for Himself. It was between Jeremiah and the LORD before it went anywhere else (reference his commissioning with the LORD in chapter 1). Also true of Moses (reference Exodus 3,4) and of Peter (c.f. Matthew 16:17-19) Paul (c.f. Acts 9). This could be a place of prayer with you and the LORD, that you might know your call/commission, something to hang your hat on. A few good places to start in the word for some ubiquitous commissions applicable to all of us are:
    • Matthew 28:18-20 with the reminder that when we go making disciples, He will be with us always to the end of the age
    • Philippians 1:6 – “for I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
    • Ephesians 6 – armor of God, covered in Him and in the Gospel and in the Word of God
    • II Corinthians 3:4-6 – we are not adequate to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant!
    • Romans 8 – for those who love God, all things work out for good and nothing in all of creation will separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus!
    • John 15 – abide in Me and I will abide in you. Too much to say, so I’ll leave it at that.
  • B. Test it. Test it with the above metrics which are truths solely from the book of Jeremiah.
    • Another way, perhaps more memorable, is to test using the acronym TEST.
      • a. Toward Christ – does it point toward Christ
      • b. Edify – does it edify/build you and the Body on the foundation Rock in the LORD
      • c. Scriptural – test it with the written Word of God
      • d. Together – do it with others who also know the LORD and faithfully discern His Word
  • C. Action in the LORD. I found a note in my old Bible as I was preparing to teach Jeremiah with only one single question on the entire page. “How do we know if it’s the Spirit talking to us? The Spirit propels us to action.” said the note, and I would add “to righteous action in justice and love.” It’s that simple refrain from Jeremiah: listen and obey the LORD.

VIII. Conclusion

  • A. Listen and obey to the LORD’s declaration for our everyday lives. And in order to listen and obey well, we need to:
  1. know the Word
  2. trust in the LORD to help us understand and carry out the LORD’s call for us
  3. go toward more hesed, more justice, more righteousness, etc
  • B. Celebrate the Gospel of the New Covenant!
  1. This is our life blood (quite literally) Romans 9:22-24
  2. TRULY!! Do this first in our own homes. I do not do this well and am asking for your help in accountability and also beg you to do it, or start it for the first time, now in your homes!
  3. And do it together in other homes. I return to Hebrews 10:19-25. We draw near to the throne of God with confidence to enter the holy place! And we do it together, v25.

Transcript of Jeremiah (Generated from MS Slack)

0:01: Go for it.
0:03: An overview of the book, we’re gonna end the teaching.
0:05: We’re gonna have an intro.
0:06: We’re gonna walk through the text.
0:07: We’re gonna see the big message.
0:09: We’re gonna do images and pictures slash show and tell.
0:12: We’re gonna do repetition and hit on those, and then we’re gonna have a few questions that the the book brought up.
0:20: So I’m flying by, and then I’m gonna fly a little lower and give you a little more, and then we’re gonna dive in deeper just to kind of really understand.
0:26: Intros that simply state the who, what, where, when, why, and how are often boring and unnecessary, at least to me.
0:34: So Brian often asks me to do that.
0:35: I’m like, no, that’s kind of boring.
0:36: But at times it can be helpful, and today’s teaching is kind of one of those.
0:40: So I actually will do a who, what, where, when, why, and how to a point.
0:43: Pardon the boring slash not boring introduction.
0:47: Here are some who, what, where’s and whys and hows.
0:50: Jeremiah was a priest who prophesized, and I think often we can think a prophet maybe sits up in his upstairs bedroom with a bottle of wine and bread here ready for communion at any moment and just waits for the Lord to talk.
1:05: Jeremiah is a priest, so he’s actually continually going about priestly duties, and yet he’s doing so with an ear to listen for what God has to say on behalf of the people.
1:17: Side note slash main point to any of you but here, we too that follow the Lord are priests going about daily duties that the Lord has called us to do.
1:26: should also have an ear open for what the Lord has to say for us and for the people.
1:31: Jeremiah is doing that in his role.
1:34: Jeremiah then also is the protagonist, but has one other good buddy, Baruch, like any good protagonist.
1:40: He is surrounded by a cast though of many others who do not listen to God.
1:45: And so there’s too many to list there for a shortlist in an intro.
1:50: and then also I would include the who is the rulers of Babylon, who, though enemies of God’s people are used by God to serve his purpose of judgment on the recalcitrant Judah.
2:01: You can look at chapter 51 5 through 10 to kind of read the Lord Himsel says, I’m using these people, and he says it multiple times throughout, but reference that there.
2:13: Who what?
2:14: What is his prophecies, not just for God’s people in Judah, but for many nations which were connected in some way to God’s people from long ago, else on the what isn’t it?
2:23: It’s also in a historical account of the fall of Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon.
2:30: Where it’s in Judah and in Babylon, and Jerusalem maybe, and then on to Babylon, there’s a stint, however, of discourse for those who fled to Egypt.
2:39: But God quickly deals with that.
2:41: I think I’m gonna read Diddy there chapter 2, verse 18 and 19.
2:46: But he says, now what are you doing on the road to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile?
2:52: Or what are you doing on the road to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?
2:56: You see, when Babylon was coming, many of them wanted to go to.
3:00: The big brother over here who might be able to protect them.
3:03: God says, what are you doing?
3:05: Your own wickedness will correct you, and your apostases will reprove you.
3:10: Know, therefore, and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord Yahweh, your God, and the dread of me is not in you, declares the Lord of hosts, the Lord God of hosts, Just a quick aside there, people often talk about the fear of the Lord.
3:28: And how it’s Reduced to nothing but nothing than just like a respect.
3:34: This verse for me kind of tips the cap that it, it’s more than just like a, oh, I love the Lord and it’s we’re cool and I respect him, but like the dread of me is not in you, he says.
3:43: So leave that to the side.
3:45: But so where it’s happening Judah, Babylon and Scoshi bit here in Egypt slash Assyria.
3:52: he also indicts other nations.
3:54: It’s not just the people, and we saw in the book of Amos.
3:57: The judgments on other nations as the prophet was talking, it was this building up to a judgment on Israel and Judah, and they were like, yeah, go get him, go get him, go get them, go get him.
4:06: Yeah, take down to Syria, take down Egypt, take down he goes on the list.
4:10: And then the Lord kind of circles it down like Israel and Judah, and they’re like, OK, it’s the point being God doesn’t show partiality or permissiveness in sin there or here.
4:21: So the prophecies that Jeremiah says there also apply here to God doesn’t want sin anywhere.
4:28: And in his commission, chapter 1 verse 5, he says, I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
4:33: Again, verse 10, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms.
4:37: So it affirms Jeremiah’s kind of role as like this prophet to the nations as well.
4:42: and we see the nations actually kind of listen to him.
4:44: It’s not just the people.
4:45: We’ll see that in latter chapters 40, I think chapter 40 or 44 or something like that.
4:50: , so who, where, when this time period was one when the prophecies for centuries before are coming to a head.
4:58: They’re coming to a fulfillment.
5:00: Things that were fulfilled in Jeremiah’s life and ministry that had been spoken of for years.
5:05: So his ministry spanned at least For the 40 years leading up to the deportation to Babylon and then in some in that exile.
5:15: it’s during the kings of Zea and Jehoiakim taking kind of the main stage, but Nebuchadnezzar also appoints other vassal rulers, one of whom would get sabotaged even though he was barely appointed.
5:28: Just crazy, but The way of the world, who are aware when, why, why this is massive, the Lord repeats why over and over again.
5:37: He’s not sure I’m telling the people why he is appointing this judgment.
5:42: In fact, it’s Nearly every other page.
5:46: , and why it’s the people of God would not obey.
5:51: The prophetic ministry was to call them to return to faithful obedience, to return to justice, to return to love, to righteous living.
5:59: They’re reminded over and again of their disobedience.
6:02: , so Jeremiah, in spite of having no known conversions, no known obediences recorded in this book, keeps preaching the same message.
6:13: there’s a few glimpses of good things, but they get hacked and they just don’t obey.
6:19: So, that’s why.
6:21: Why they don’t listen and they don’t obey.
6:23: Who will where, when, why, and how, how did Jeremiah do what he did through speaking, through writing, and through action slash imagery slash show and tell.
6:32: So there are 2 bigger sections of the book of Jeremiah.
6:35: Section 1.
6:36: , comprises the bulk of the Lord’s teaching and his message in his heart for the people.
6:43: That’s chapters 1 to 24.
6:44: Section 2 is majorly comprised of time and space examples of living out that prophetic word.
6:50: So I want to give a pass through the entire book to serve as a vision from Jeremiah.
6:58: Like I said, we did way super high, and then I’m gonna kind of go fly over like this.
7:03: To do the, the big pass over the whole book because God didn’t make a 10 chapter book.
7:07: He made a 52 chapter book, and I don’t want to just reduce it to something and it wasn’t there.
7:11: I don’t want to shortchange God.
7:12: So we’re gonna at least kind of give the flyover.
7:14: However, then I also want to Because Jeremiah does mostly a singular message over and over and over again, I, I want to sit in a couple of different places so we can actually understand that message.
7:25: So flying over and sitting and hopefully will give us a larger picture, a better picture of the close up, the large view of what’s going on.
7:31: So the fly by overview of the first in section, sections, naturally we have to skip some things.
7:37: Go read it on your own, right?
7:40: Then you can get deeper.
7:42: So I would fly by Jeremiah one.
7:45: These are some main teaching chapters and points.
7:47: , the book starts with his commission and like I said, boy, does he need it.
7:52: He has hard messages to deliver and basically no reception his entire life.
7:57: The Lord declares, however, in chapter one, his purposes over Jeremiah, that none will be able to stand against him for his whole ministry.
8:04: I’m gonna read verses 5 through 10 and Somebody else can read verses 17 through 19.
8:14: 5 to 10.
8:15: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you.
8:19: I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
8:22: Then I said, alas, Lord God, behold, I do not know how to speak because I am a youth.
8:28: But the Lord said to me, do not say I am a youth, because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak.
8:36: Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.
8:42: Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
8:47: See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.
8:56: This commission is huge, and we see it in many other places in Scripture, right?
8:59: And Isaiah, I mean, the, the, the, the coal touching his mouth, that’s huge.
9:03: Moses complains of being a youth, and God says, you know, you’re gonna go anyway.
9:06: Jeremiah takes this and is super faithful.
9:10: It’s remarkable, the clarity, the singular-mindedness with which Jeremiah walks out a super difficult life.
9:21: Dive into that all you want, but if you need an account of somebody who’s faithful to say hard things no matter what, to live out the life, to literally walk with a yoke around town, an ox and yoke on your head, just to show a sign from the Lord to the people.
9:36: OK, Jeremiah is your man.
9:38: He’s like the whole way through super faithful.
9:41: If you’re looking for a boy name, if you’re pregnant, Jeremiah, I’m telling you, it’s a great one.
9:44: , Jeremiah 2, the most recent birth was Benjamin, so that’s a great name too.
9:51: I just have to say that’s great.
9:53: anybody want to read 17 through 19?
9:56: Jacob.
9:56: , but you dress yourself for work, arise and say to them, everything that I command you.
10:02: Do not be dismayed by them lest I dismay you before them.
10:06: And I behold, I make you this day a forfeited city and An iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land.
10:21: They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.
10:27: He says that both times, I am with you.
10:29: And then he, as if he needed it again.
10:32: Well, he did, he definitely needs it again, because we tend to forget things.
10:34: Jeremiah’s commission is repeated in chapter 15.
10:37: Again, the Lord’s saying, I’m with you.
10:39: I’ve set you up as a fortified city.
10:40: You are not gonna be taken down, So chapter one, we’re gonna fly again, fly by this stuff, but Jeremiah needs this.
10:47: He needs that commission because for the next 40 years, he’s gonna be lambasted with oppression.
10:54: OK, Jeremiah 2.
10:55: It’s a call back to the first love, and unfortunately are flying by.
10:59: We’re gonna come back and read a little bit more here, but there was once a time of intimacy and love, but I had fallen away.
11:05: God says, I want you back.
11:09: Jeremiah 3, we see God’s heart in sending the prophets.
11:13: He uses this beautiful intimate call to repentance, again flying by.
11:17: Love it.
11:18: You’re getting the picture in some ways already.
11:20: The Lord wants them back, and he’s wooing them back to repentance, and he’s sending the prophets with a huge heart for returning.
11:29: All the prophets say that, like, return, return, return, it’s in every one of them.
11:33: But here again, we see that.
11:34: Jeremiah 7, don’t trust in the false teachers, rather, obey.
11:40: And and 7 is is paralleled by chapter 8, verse 11 and 12, and chapter 1714 to 17.
11:48: We’re flying.
11:49: Jeremiah 9, I will.
11:52: Hop off for a second and read this.
11:54: Actually, Shana there, would you be able to read Jeremiah 9, the last two were 23 and 24?
12:00: It’s a boast in the Lord and of has said or loving kindness, of righteousness and of justice.
12:10: So verse 23 23 and 24 chapter 9.
12:14: Thus says the Lord.
12:15: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom.
12:18: Let not the mighty man boast in his might.
12:20: Let not the rich man boast in his riches.
12:22: But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth.
12:33: For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.
12:37: Cool, I’m gonna point out a couple of things there.
12:38: One, he starts his phrase with thus says the Lord, and he ends that same sentence with declares the Lord.
12:44: It’s a huge point in Jeremiah.
12:46: He’s like, thus says the Lord, and he declares, like, in the same sense, he reiterates himself redundantly.
12:51: And says, thus says the Lord, declareth the Lord.
12:54: So he say a thing and declare a thing, the whole book through that like, this is what the Lord is saying, and it’s why it’s important because his words matter, and he’s not gonna share his words with anybody else.
13:04: So, how do we get toward the drive of what is the Lord saying?
13:08: Jeremiah’s point is that.
13:10: So what are we boasting in?
13:14: Loving kindness, justice and righteousness.
13:18: The Lord who exercises that also is the one who delights in that.
13:23: Cool.
13:24: Jeremiah 11.
13:26: No, 10’s cool, but all right.
13:28: Jeremiah 11.
13:31: We’re gonna do a mini Hebrew word study here, we’re gonna kind of come back and dive a little deeper in because again we’re flying, but.
13:37: The word here equals the word, listen, equals the word obey.
13:42: It is not a different word.
13:44: It is spelled comma SM or S I M U Simu, obviously, in Hebrew, it’s a lot of this and that, but The words or Simu.
13:56: It’s the same derivative as the word shama, the SM there, the same word.
14:02: Which is the most commonly recited verse in the Old Testament.
14:05: It’s aptly named the Shama because of the first word here.
14:12: Hear, O Israel, the Lord, and many of you guys can fill that in.
14:15: Anybody wanna give it a go?
14:16: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God.
14:18: The Lord is one.
14:19: Yes.
14:20: So, and then he goes on to say, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
14:26: Love your neighbor as yourself.
14:28: So the Shama that is recited so many times is, here, O Israel, AKA listen, O Israel, AKA obey, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
14:40: Love the Lord your God with all your soul, heart, soul, mind and strength.
14:43: Love your neighbors yourself.
14:45: So you look, you you kind of like bob through, am I gonna really jump in there more?
14:49: OK.
14:50: Yeah, we’ll jump in later.
14:51: I’m fine, sorry.
14:52: Jeremiah 17, cursed is the one slash blessed is the one based on trust.
14:58: , Jeremiah 17.
15:01: Thus says the Lord, you guys, have you heard that before?
15:04: Thus sayeth the Lord, declaring the Lord and thus says the Lord, Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord, for he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant.
15:24: Conversely, Blessed is the man whose trust, who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord, repeated there again, for he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream, and will not fear when the heat comes, but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought, nor cease to yield fruit.
15:46: Jeremiah 17 is that beautiful like, all right, where are you putting your trust?
15:49: We’re gonna come back to that a couple of times.
15:50: Because why, why is that trust thing matter?
15:53: Because verse 9, the heart is deceitful more than anything else, more than all else and is desperately sick.
16:00: Who can understand it?
16:02: So trust in itself is not good, and we know this why?
16:05: Because the heart is deceitful.
16:07: and he says, I, the Lord, test the heart, search the heart.
16:10: I test the mind even to give each man according to his ways, according to the result of his deeds as a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid.
16:17: So is he who makes a fortune but unjustly.
16:19: There’s a part of justice he wants.
16:21: In the midst of his days, it will forsake him, and in the end, he will be a fool.
16:26: So that’s what I’ll highlight from the first section, chapter one is teaching the heart of God parts.
16:31: Chapter 25 on is kind of section 2, and it’s predominantly a narrative record.
16:38: It leads up to and through the captivity.
16:41: Most of the other prophetic books speak of the time which Jeremiah actually records in live times.
16:46: We see kings wanting to hear what they want to hear.
16:49: We see false prophets saying those things that kings want to hear and that people want to hear, and we see Babylon come, destroy Jerusalem, take cap in the city.
16:57: So this historical narrative part, obviously many die.
17:02: Because of the fighting and and the captivity and all that, only a few were left in the land, those that were weak and dependent, who could be controlled easily.
17:12: They were left so that the land wouldn’t be overrun, so that grapes could be pruned so that harvest could still happen, but they were the weak that again would be controlled.
17:22: So those in captivity,, it happened in Babylon as well, to some that were carried off.
17:30: We’re gonna read, the first few verses of the book of Daniel.
17:34: This is where Daniel, the backdrop in the book of Daniel is what we’re seeing right now.
17:40: This captivity happening through the book of Jeremiah in Jerusalem.
17:43: That’s the backdrop for what’s happening here in Daniel.
17:45: We jump in and Daniel 1, and we’re going to read 6 verses here.
17:49: If anybody’s there, they can read it.
17:51: I’m also there and I can 1 through 6.
17:54: In the 3rd year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.
18:02: And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the vessels of the house of God, and he brought them to the land of Sinar, to the house of his God, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his God.
18:14: Then the king commanded Ashinnaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish of good.
18:24: and skillful in all wisdom endowed with knowledge, understanding, understanding learning and competent to stand in the king’s palace and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.
18:35: The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank.
18:41: They were to be educated for 3 years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king.
18:46: Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Meshael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah.
18:51: , verse 72, he just gives them new names.
18:54: I didn’t, but Beltahazzar, and the chief of the eunuchs gave them names.
18:59: Daniel, he called Belta Shazzar.
19:01: Hananiah, he called Shadrack, Misha, he called Mehek, and Azariah, he called Abednego.
19:08: Sorry, I was gonna say to bed you go because that’s how it was.
19:11: Shadrack Mehek and to bed you go.
19:13: That’s how I learned it.
19:15: Conversely, we see what happened in Jeremiah.
19:18: So that’s time and space happening in Babylon.
19:22: Jeremiah back in and out of.
19:25: The Lord’s land in Babylon.
19:26: Jeremiah chapter 40.
19:29: There’s an interesting note here, even before we jump in, we’re going to see all the indictments of God’s people.
19:34: We’re going to see.
19:36: An indictment, not from the Lord Himself, but from Nebuw Aradon, the captain of the guard of Nebuchadnezzar, comes to Jeremiah with this insightful clarity, the clarity that the people themselves didn’t even realize.
19:46: He says,, Now, the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord after, so the, the part we’re gonna read right now is actually the words Nebuwaradan.
19:59: So after Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had released him from, when Nebu Zaradan had taken him bound in chains.
20:09: All the exiles of Jerusalem and Judea who were being exiled in Babylon.
20:13: Now, the captain of the bodyguard had taken Jeremiah and said, so these are the words of Nebuzaradon, OK?
20:19: The Lord Yahweh, your God, promised this calamity against this place, and the Lord Yahweh has brought it on and done just as he promised, because you people sinned against the Lord and did not listen to his voice.
20:31: Therefore, this thing has happened to you.
20:34: He has the clarity that none of the rest of them were able to pick up.
20:39: He’s able to point out, like, this is the singular reason, and this is the book of Jeremiah, the entirety of the book of Jeremiah points to this exact thing.
20:45: You guys were exiled because you did not listen to the Lord Yahweh, your God.
20:49: He’s like, essentially saying, I’m just doing the work of the Lord your God.
20:53: I’m only here to do what he told me to do and what he’s motioning me to do.
20:57: This is nuts to me like the clarity from this guy, And then Jeremiah himself then is given the option from Nebuzaradan to return.
21:08: He goes back with the fugitives in the land with the blessing of the captain of the garden of his, and he goes with rations.
21:14: , he goes there only to find a mutiny among the ranks, and the new leaders convince the people that Jeremiah and his other protagonist, Buddy Baruch are inciting a revolt, and they need to go back to Egypt.
21:26: Enter Jeremiah 42 and read that through Jeremiah 43.
21:32: OK.
21:33: The second section of this book is interluded, 25 and on, with potentially the best few chapters in the Old Testament, some could argue.
21:42: I mean, it parallels everything else that you’d love about all the gospel parts of Leviticus and the gospel parts of Genesis and like all these pointing for the law dude around me, what’s it pointing forward toward Jesus?
21:55: Well, this is it.
21:56: This is the point.
21:57: It’s massive.
21:57: It’s the gospel.
21:58: It’s the new covenant here.
21:59: So chapter 31 to 33, we’re gonna dive into in a little bit.
22:04: But like I said, Zoom zoom.
22:08: With that as our 30 30,000 ft view, let’s dive into a few highlighted chapters to get the sense of what’s really happening with boots on the ground for Jeremiah.
22:18: , after these, we’ll look at some pictures and images used in Jeremiah.
22:23: So chapter 2, Jeremiah Capilo dose.
22:28: I’m gonna have people read things, so raise your hand if you have any willingness to read some of Jeremiah 2.
22:34: Jesse, you’re gonna do 1 through 5.
22:37: And 1111 through 13.
22:40: Can you read Jeremiah chapter 2, 11 through 13?
22:43: Love it.
22:44: Thank you.
22:45: So, this is again, God’s heart of intimacy, his tender care, calling them back.
22:50: It’s personally applicable as much as it is corporately.
22:53: So this is a book to the corporate, the whole, but I, this for me, this was my chapter of the year, a couple of years ago, and I just read it over and over and over again and it like it’s called a wake back up, hit me over and again.
23:06: And so it’s, it’s personally applicable to read as we read it, like you’ll just, and it like the whole chapter is like blue and pink and yellow for me, but.
23:13: , verse 1 through 5.
23:18: The word of the Lord came to me.
23:19: The word of the Lord.
23:20: He’s said that a couple times already, hasn’t he?
23:22: Saying, go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, thus says the Lord.
23:28: I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness in a land not so.
23:36: Israel was holy to the Lord, the first roots of his harvest.
23:39: Pause, everybody, it’s all good, right?
23:42: And then, even though it’s mid verse for you, you might not catch the transition.
23:45: Transition being all who ate of it incurred guilt.
23:50: Disaster came upon them, declares the Lord.
23:53: Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob and all the clans of the house of Israel.
23:58: Thus says the Lord, What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and went after worthlessness and became worthless?
24:08: They walked after emptiness and became empty.
24:10: They walked after worthlessness and became worthless themselves.
24:14: Again, you’re gonna hear a lot of thus say a thing and a lot of declare a thing in here.
24:18: It’s just the main point.
24:19: Hear the word of the Lord, I just declared it and thus says the Lord, he just says that like, every, every verse.
24:25: All right.
24:25: Are we ready for verse 11 to 13?
24:28: Has the nation ever changed its gods?
24:33: Yet they are not gods at all in parentheses, but my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols.
24:43: Be appalled at this, you heaven.
24:47: Heavenscra yeah heaven and shudder with great horror.
24:52: My people have committed two sins.
24:54: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water.
24:59: And they had dug their own.
25:02: Cisterns Broken cisterns that can hold water.
25:08: Yeah, they are seeking the life of water without seeking the lifegiver of the water.
25:16: They’re trying to to hold their container and themselves and really God is the holder of containers, and he is the unlimited source of that and We see that skewed.
25:30: Did I pronounce it right, cisterns, yes, ma’am.
25:33: It’s a well-ish.
25:36: It’s a vat of water in the ground.
25:37: I’ve actually been inside of the cistern.
25:41: Big one, little one, big one.
25:42: I mean you could actually stands.
25:44: I’m just picturing you crawling through later Jeremiah wasn’t unfortunately, so a muddy one, yeah, it was like it was like a room about this size like maybe from the edge of the.
25:56: The block, the, the brick there or the stone?
26:00: And completely smooth all the way around it it could contain water and they used it for like.
26:07: Holding water for the dry season.
26:10: Yeah, we have, we have them above ground now in tanks up in the air and they say village of whatever.
26:16: So that’s, that’s our, that’s our sister in there, the holder of water.
26:19: But this big advertisement village of Holland or City of Honor, whatever it says.
26:24: Like the Lord is like, you guys can have your own cisterns, but you’re, you’re relying on that.
26:30: And we, we upgraded from the in-ground cisterns to the upground cisterns.
26:33: So now we rely on our own water apart from the Lord, and we got our own gas piped into, OK, I don’t need to digress there, but let us not rely on our broken cisterns.
26:42: He is a fountain of living water, people, fountain of living water.
26:48: OK, sweet, yes, I can, all right.
26:52: Jeremiah chapter 7.
26:54: We’re going to jump to 7.
26:56: , we’re gonna read verse 1 through, again, raise your hand if you want to read any of this.
27:00: We’re gonna read 1 through 11 and 22 through 28.
27:05: OK, 1 through 1122 through 28.
27:08: All right, 1 through 11.
27:12: The word that came to Jeremiah chapter and before we go, I’m gonna kind of highlight little things here.
27:18: Chapter 2, the main point is come back and obey.
27:21: Come back and obey is what we see in chapter, chapter 2.
27:26: Go ahead.
27:26: The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, stand in the gate of the Lord’s house and proclaim there this word and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord.
27:39: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.
27:46: Do not trust in these deceptive words.
27:49: This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.
27:54: For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
28:16: Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.
28:21: Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to bow, and go after other guys that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name and say, we are delivered, only to go on doing all these abominations.
28:39: Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?
28:43: Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.
28:49: So the call back to following the Lord.
28:52: Is a call of total surrender.
28:55: Including what they thought, they thought the way to God was through the temple, and he was asking them to leave all of that.
29:03: God was not going to lead them into and through more false worship and false prophecy, but he was leading them away from all of that as a discipline and hopefully also as a way of hitting the reset button.
29:15: So they’re like the temple of the Lord, that’s not gonna be destroyed.
29:18: The Lord told us to build it.
29:20: He’s there, it’s the presence of God.
29:22: Like, it’s not gonna be gone.
29:23: And the Lord says, that’s actually not my you guys are making this false worship thing happen in these buildings and structures.
29:31: That’s not it.
29:32: I’m not calling you to more false worship people.
29:35: I’m actually gonna call you out of that.
29:36: And so the book of Jeremiah will see.
29:38: Jeremiah tells them, You actually need to go to Babylon.
29:43: You need to surrender to them.
29:45: And so the obedience of the Lord was actually to leave the land of Israel, to leave where the temple was.
29:52: God said, step away from all that.
29:55: That the, the obedience to the Lord, the listening to the Lord included stepping away from their areas of false worship, because he didn’t want to deal with that anymore, and he was hopefully gonna hit the reset button and they come back, well, low and we know he just decimated the temples, Make your own applications there for today about not needing to go back to false worship and and all that it’s going to entail there.
30:17: But he says, come back to me.
30:19: I don’t want your, this house of robbers den of thieves thing.
30:22: They’re, you’re kinda, you’re kind of confused.
30:23: I don’t know if you guys have heard of, what was the name?
30:25: Jesus, is that his name?
30:27: I think he said that again.
30:28: Some are like, oh yeah, the house of the Lord was became this den of robbers.
30:33: So, With all the baggage of the previous statements, not just petty theft, right, all of those massive like indictments in the Hebrew word is like murderers like killers den of robbers is mostly like wow, thank you.
30:53: So yeah, will you steal Myrtle and commit adultery and swear falsely and offer sacrifices?
30:57: Verse 9, as Jesse says, and we are reminded of there that word actually is, is more like murderer.
31:06: Cool, violent criminal.
31:08: Cool, thanks.
31:10: Good point, Josh.
31:13: 22 to 28.
31:16: For I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.
31:25: This is what I command to them, saying, obey my voice and I will be your God, and you shall be my evil, and walk in all the ways that I commanded you that it may be well with you.
31:37: If you did not obey or incline your ear to follow the counsel.
31:43: And the dictates of their evil hearts and went backward and not forward.
31:48: Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have Eden sent to you all my servants, the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them, yet they did not obey me.
32:02: this stiffened their neck.
32:05: They did worse than their fathers.
32:07: Therefore, you shall speak in all these words to them, but they will not obey you.
32:13: You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.
32:18: So you shall say to them, this is your nation.
32:21: This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord, their God, nor receive correction.
32:27: Truth has perished and has been cut off in their mouth.
32:30: Yeah, we see Nebus of radon say that.
32:32: This is the nation that did not obey, did not listen.
32:35: So like any other nations are actually able to, to see that same point.
32:39: , so, God’s, this is the, the point here is God’s heart, the teaching point here on chapter 2 was come back and obey.
32:48: The teaching point on 7 is God’s is really essentially God’s heart on why, because he wants their welfare.
32:53: He says that it may be well with you.
32:55: I want you to obey.
32:55: I want you to listen, that it may be well.
32:57: This is, these are good things, these are for your good.
32:59: , chapter 10.
33:03: False gods are contrasted with the Lord Himself.
33:06: This is one of the more poignant examples showing that Jeremiah does not mince words.
33:10: He’s clear to say exactly what God says.
33:15: might sound kind of like a A boss move here, but it’s actually probably super.
33:22: tenuous for him to stand up in front of his people, let alone to be a priest, probably standing in front of other priests telling them this, right?
33:30: , Reference also Jeremiah 51:17 to 19.
33:35: Somebody wants to turn to chapter 51, 1719, they can.
33:38: We’ll read, I’ll hit that in a little bit.
33:39: Jesse, please do that.
33:40: OK.
33:41: So, chapter 10, verse 6 through 8.
33:44: There is none like you, oh Lord, you are great and great is your name in might.
33:51: Who would not fear you, O king of the nations?
33:53: Indeed, it is your due, for among all the nation among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you.
34:02: There’s gotta be a song in there.
34:03: It’s so pretty.
34:04: And then this is where the song ends and not pretty, but they are altogether stupid and foolish and their derision of delusion.
34:12: Their idol is wood.
34:14: So that’s, that didn’t make it our songbook because it’s a little aggressive.
34:19: Chapter 14 to 16.
34:21: Every man is stupid, devoid of knowledge.
34:24: Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his molten images are deceitful, and there’s no breath in them at all.
34:31: Duh, hello, why are you guys worshiping something that has no breath?
34:35: They are worthless, a work of mockery.
34:37: In the time of their punishment, they will perish.
34:39: The portion of Jacob, God calls him, that’s his name.
34:42: He says Jacob’s portion, that’s his title in this moment.
34:45: The portion of Jacob.
34:47: He says, I am Jacob’s portion.
34:48: That is awesome.
34:50: The Jacob’s portion is not like these for the maker of all, he titles himself differently in the next paragraph there the next line.
34:58: He’s both Jacob’s portion and also the maker of Jacob.
35:01: I love it.
35:02: And Israel is the tribe of his inheritance, so he is both Jacob’s portion and He is also the inheritance of Jacob.
35:12: So he is their portion and their portion is him and it’s, it’s beautiful.
35:17: the Lord of hosts is his name.
35:19: OK.
35:20: Again, chapter 10 verse 21, for the shepherds have become stupid and have not sought the Lord.
35:27: Therefore, they have not prospered and all their flock is scattered.
35:29: OK.
35:30: So I read this as a kid and I was like, gap.
35:33: You can’t say stupid.
35:34: That’s an S word, like, oh no, we’re not allowed to do that.
35:37: And Jeremiah’s like, no, literally, I’m not playing around here, people.
35:40: This is so stupid.
35:41: Why are you pretending something you literally made is God.
35:46: You’re more powerful than it, you actually created it.
35:49: You’re more creative than it, you’re smarter than it.
35:50: You’re more you’re pretending that’s, this is so stupid people, he says stupid.
35:55: All right.
35:56: So, the point of that chapter is it’s stupid to obey slash follow other gods.
36:02: we’re, we’re catching a, a, a, a theme here.
36:04: Everything has to do with obeying and listening to the Lord.
36:06: Come back and obey, Jeremiah 2.
36:08: God’s heart on why we obey chapter 7.
36:10: It’s stupid to obey slash follow other gods, chapter 10.
36:14: OK, Jeremiah 11.
36:16: This entire chapter is a listen slash obey discussion.
36:21: so I’m gonna read, just kinda jog through verse 234678, 10, all include the word shama, Simu, that derivative of that same apostrophe SM.
36:36: All of The these all, it’s all the same word.
36:39: And I read it through and almost every one of them is different.
36:41: It says heed, it says, listen, it says obey, it says here.
36:44: So, it says, Shama, the words of this covenant and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and say to them, thus sayeth the Lord, the God of Israel.
36:53: Cursed is a man who does not shama Simu, the words of this covenant, which I commanded your forefathers in the day that it brought them out of the land of Egypt from the iron furnace saying, Simu to my voice.
37:04: Now you guys are probably listening.
37:05: It already says a couple of different words.
37:06: It says, listen, heed and probably obey already at this point.
37:08: We’re gonna keep going.
37:10: And do all according that I command you, so you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
37:14: Beautiful.
37:14: That’s why his heart is there.
37:15: I want to be your God and you want to be my people.
37:17: In order to confirm, confirm the oath which I swore to you our forefathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.
37:25: Then I said, Amen, O Lord, Jeremiah.
37:27: And then the Lord said to me, proclaim all these words in the cities and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Simu, the words of this covenant, and do them.
37:36: For I solemnly warned your forefathers in the day that I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, warning them, persistently, saying, Simu to my voice, they, they, yet they did not seemu or incline their ear, but walked each one in the stubbornness of his own heart.
37:50: Therefore, I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.
37:55: Then the Lord said to me, a conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
38:00: They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestors who refused to seemu my words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them.
38:08: So he goes, I mean, I’m saying the word I’m probably butchering it, but the Hebrew word there is heed slash listen slash obey slash here, to listen is to hear is to obey to God, not a different word.
38:22: If you’re a parent in this room, that’s your hope as well.
38:26: You don’t just speak words so the kids hear them.
38:30: Or so they can just listen from a distance.
38:33: You say things for the purpose of their welfare and the welfare of the home, so obedience happens.
38:42: To listen is to hear, is to obey to the Lord.
38:45: It’s not a different word.
38:46: So he says, here, O Israel, and what is his law, by the way?
38:49: Back to the Shama.
38:50: Love the Lord your God while your hearts own mind and strength.
38:52: Love your neighbors yourself.
38:54: That is this the central point of why he’s saying, Here, listen and obey me so that love abounds among everybody, right?
39:02: So this is the big message of Jeremiah, it’s.
39:06: Listen and obey and almost with megaphone clarity and volume, we hear Jeremiah driving this point home.
39:11: It’s on every basically every page of this book and in conjunction, the phrase, this is the Lord’s declaration or some iteration of that is used a bazillion times in the book.
39:21: And the Lord is declaring something.
39:22: That’s only important if you’re going to listen and hear and obey.
39:25: If the Lord is declaring and you’re not doing any of those.
39:29: You’re missing it.
39:30: And that’s why the book of Jeremiah exists.
39:34: God’s words are not things to lightly pass over, but are words to hear and listen and obey.
39:39: The point.
39:41: Listen to and obey God’s words.
39:43: , cool little, maybe not cool.
39:48: A glaring, a pointed observation is a father and a son.
39:55: Josiah, who was the first maybe 1520 years of Jeremiah’s ministry, which is cool, Josiah loved the Lord, loved the word, loved the reform was all about it.
40:06: He and Jeremiah are like in tandem, like, yes, this needs to be spoken.
40:10: So Jeremiah gets the 1st 15 years of his life with support from the king, not life, for of ministry.
40:17: And then that probably helped propel him toward the final 25, 30 years of just.
40:23: Obliteration So the example of Josiah in 2 Chronicles 34 is he is already starting this reform, this like, let’s do the good things.
40:35: Let’s let’s do what the Lord wants us to do.
40:37: And then he’s like, All right, that temple looks pretty rough.
40:39: Let’s repair the temple of the Lord because that’s a pretty special place for us.
40:42: Let’s do that.
40:43: And then he sends the people to go do that.
40:44: And then the money for the repairs is actually in the temple itself, it’s in the spot, go go get it.
40:50: Well, in the getting of the funds to do it, they find the scroll.
40:55: And they read the scroll, Josiah’s response is to tear his clothes to be complete in complete agony, and his heart is is burned on fire with the words of the Lord.
41:06: He’s like, got this, and he stands up and he reads it out to all the people.
41:10: , and part of his reform is to pulverize to chalk all the idols, and also to institute the feasts again, which is sweet.
41:20: He’s like about this stuff.
41:23: We named River’s middle name is Josiah.
41:25: We want him to pulverize to chalk all the idols in our own life and in his and the people around him.
41:30: OK, That’s Josiah, Josiah’s son Jehoiakim.
41:35: In chapter 36, he’s sitting in it it’s the 9th month.
41:39: It’s cold.
41:40: He’s sitting in his portico.
41:42: He’s got a fire going and Jeremiah Baruch orate and write the word of the Lord, essentially chapter 1 through 35, probably at this point.
41:53: And there are 4, I think 4, maybe 5 priests that Baruch reads this to, and it’s like, hey, this is what the Lord is saying, you should probably tell the people this kind of this is important.
42:02: So Jeremiah is like live like these are words that were just written down.
42:08: It’s fresh, the ink isn’t barely dried.
42:09: They read it to the priests.
42:11: And those priests are like, all right, Baruch, Jeremiah, you go hide.
42:15: We’re gonna go read this to Jehoiakim.
42:18: It’s not gonna go very well.
42:19: I’m betting.
42:20: Just go hide.
42:21: So they go read it to Jehoiakim, and Jehoiakim.
42:25: They’re begging him not to, as he, as they’re reading it, they’re begging him not to.
42:28: He just takes his knife, cuts it, throws it in the fire.
42:31: They keep reading, cuts it, throws it in the fire, cuts it.
42:34: So the contrast, Josiah tears his clothes in agony and his heart is burning on fire.
42:41: His son Jehoiakim, tears the scroll of God and throws it in the fire.
42:46: One listens and heeds the voice of the Lord and is commended for his whole life.
42:50: One.
42:52: Odiates, hates, despises the word of God enough to throw it in the fire, Two contrasts we can take from that what we, what we need to be the ones that hear and let our hearts be rendered.
43:06: Return to the Lord, Joel, rend your hearts and not your garments.
43:10: Like just render our hearts and like get our hearts on fire.
43:14: OK.
43:15: Jeremiah 31.
43:17: The new covenant.
43:19: This is big, cool, amazing, awesome stuff here.
43:23: We’re gonna read chapter 31, 1 through 6.
43:25: , anybody want to say OK, 1 to 6.
43:35: You got it.
43:35: You’re on it right now.
43:36: 1 through 6.
43:37: I’ve got a couple others to read as well.
43:38: declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.
43:43: Thus says the Lord, the people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness when Israel sought for rest.
43:50: The Lord Again, God’s heart here verse 3.
43:53: God, the Lord appeared to him from far away.
43:55: I have loved you with an everlasting love.
43:58: Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you.
44:01: Again, I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel.
44:05: Again, you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
44:11: Again, you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria.
44:15: The planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit, for there shall be a day when watchmen will call in the hill country of Ereum.
44:23: Arise and let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God.
44:29: That’s God’s heart in the whole book, that’s why he’s doing it all right.
44:35: We can and and we know that.
44:40: Judas ate the meal too with the Lord.
44:43: He’s got a big heart for everybody, everybody’s included to the table, So, what, why is it cool that the Lord is writing this on their hearts?
44:51: I’m stepping ahead.
44:52: I gotta read a couple of verses here.
44:53: 27 to 34.
44:55: Behold, days are coming, declareth the Lord, when I will sow.
45:00: The house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beasts, it will come about that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, and to destroy, and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord.
45:16: In those days, they will not say again, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
45:21: But this is one of the beautiful things about the new covenant.
45:24: It allows that individuality.
45:26: We are in a Western culture are already very individualistic to them.
45:30: This is a foreign concept, but everyone will die for his own iniquity.
45:34: Each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
45:38: Part of the beauty of a new covenant is God’s pursuing individual people, individual hearts.
45:41: He’s writing it on their hearts, and if they respond, there’s an individual relationship.
45:45: See corporately, yes, but also individually, God is pursuing that.
45:50: He’s got sons, not grandsons.
45:54: Well I said But the sons have sons and the sons have sons, and Paul begets Timothy and Timothy begets.
46:01: An entire city of Ephesus.
46:03: But yes, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their forefathers in a day.
46:13: I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
46:15: My covenant, which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord.
46:19: But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.
46:23: I will put my law within them, and I will, and on their heart, I will write it, and I will be their God and they will be my people.
46:32: Yeah, they shall not teach each man again his neighbor, and each man his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me.
46:39: From the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.
46:45: 6 times in that little section there, he says, I will.
46:48: It’s not like the former covenant where there was this, in some ways the human participation destroyed it.
46:53: He says, I will be the faithful one.
46:56: I will be the one as the acting force of salvation and perpetuation.
47:00: I will write on their hearts.
47:02: It’s this active I will of God that leads to the passive, they shall, in verse 34, like that only is happening because of the active I wills of God.
47:12: , and this is massively important for a book that repeatedly shows God’s desire for his people to listen and obey.
47:19: It was necessary for God to make a way by writing the law on their hearts.
47:23: They had proven that just if the Lord didn’t write it on their hearts, they weren’t gonna be able to keep up and obey it.
47:28: So he says, you know what?
47:30: Though you formerly were not able to, you chose not to, to listen and obey.
47:34: God is like, I’m gonna write it on your hearts.
47:36: I’m gonna be that acting one to do it.
47:39: it’s just a demonstration of a gracious God.
47:42: A gracious father, a gracious lover.
47:45: So the new covenant is a demonstration from God that a rebellious child is still a child.
47:50: And a wayward sheep is still in the care of the shepherd.
47:55: So that’s cool, Jeremiah, great way to write it for them.
47:58: , but.
48:01: 2 Corinthians 3:3, is that apply to us?
48:05: Is that just back in the Old Testament?
48:07: Is that also for the new, like, what carries over to us from that?
48:13: That bit in Jeremiah.
48:16: And you, this is 2 Corinthians 3:3, and you show that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
48:32: OK.
48:33: Awesome, right?
48:34: It’s sweet stuff.
48:35: And we see in Ezekiel 36, I will put a new, I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you.
48:41: I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
48:45: I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues that.
48:48: will be careful to observe my ordinances.
48:50: OK, there’s that parallel there, Old Testament, Jeremiah and Ezekiel to talk about the Lord writing on his hearts, and then how much of the New Testament talks about the spirit in dwelling us and the Spirit being the one, the Spirit writing on our hearts.
49:03: It, it carries over, friends.
49:05: We, we get that same blessing, the new covenant blessing.
49:09: So we’ve got our little tip tips here about listening, obeying why and, and coming back and listen and obey.
49:15: it’s stupid to not obey.
49:17: We must have the law written on our hearts to truly listen here and obey.
49:21: And so he furthers that beautiful reality confirming verse 35 to 37.
49:26: Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar.
49:35: The name, the the Lord of hosts is his name.
49:38: And he goes, If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then the offspring of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before me forever.
49:46: Thus says the Lord, if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth stretched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all they have done.
49:55: Can we measure it?
49:57: No, does it end?
49:59: No.
50:01: Hm.
50:04: 31, 35 to 37.
50:08: Chapter 31, yeah, I jumped back there, sorry, if we weren’t already there.
50:11: , So, it says God’s words, it’s not like verse 32, 3132.
50:19: It’s not like the former covenants, he says.
50:22: And though it’s not like the former covenants, God is still connected to the former covenants because he’s a faithful God who does not let his words fall.
50:29: So he continues that saga, but part of the covenant is to expand God’s heart for us and reveal to his people over time in gradations.
50:37: So those earlier covenants aren’t for naught, and he doesn’t let his words fall.
50:42: He continues his faithfulness, but the new covenant is just that step up, that step up, and we see Jesus written all over it, right?
50:48: We see the, the new covenant in my blood.
50:50: I, we’re gonna talk, we’re gonna yeah.
50:51: OK, sweet.
50:53: in Hebrews chapter 10, we jump in and I got Switch swords here for a sec.
51:00: I ran out in Matthew.
51:04: Broken half, oops.
51:06: , chapter 10 in Hebrews 1 through 5.
51:11: For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.
51:22: Otherwise, they would not have ceased to be offered, but they have.
51:27: Because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have consciousness of sins.
51:32: But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins year by year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
51:39: Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, sacrifice an offering you have not desired, but a body you have.
51:45: cared for me.
51:46: So he’s not in those perpetual sacrifices that the Lord actually wants.
51:49: What does he want?
51:50: He wants perpetual freedom and love and obedience and listening.
51:53: And we know that from the book of Jeremiah.
51:55: Verse 10 chapter 1010 of Hebrews.
51:57: By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
52:04: Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time, but the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
52:11: But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, I’m shouting inside of myself.
52:16: Like, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet, for by One offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
52:27: And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us for after saying that, and he goes on to say some things.
52:31: The Holy Spirit is testifying inside of us that reality that Jesus is the one time fulfillment of the covenant, a new covenant, that blood that covers it all, the blood of bulls and goats can’t, but the blood of Jesus can.
52:43: That one time sacrifice.
52:46: This new.
52:48: Add to his time, I think this is worth to say those things that you’re skipping over, verse 16 is his direct quotation, Jeremiah 30.
52:54: , 31 and 32, so he says he literally doubles down in verse 16 and verse 17.
53:03: He says, Don’t you know this is the covenant I made.
53:07: I will remember their sins in the lost is no more.
53:09: So he’s bringing it together.
53:10: It’s not just you bringing it.
53:11: It’s the writer of Hebrews, God speaking and saying this covenant is this covenant.
53:16: Yes, yes, thank you.
53:19: Love it.
53:20: That double down.
53:21: Sweet.
53:22: Thank you, Brian.
53:22: Thank you.
53:23: Obviously that’s why I put it in there, but I didn’t tell you why, so I love it.
53:25: OK, so now we’re gonna go to show and tell.
53:27: I was an elementary teacher for a while.
53:29: We’re literally doing show and tell here.
53:31: Sorry for the sorry for the recorded version of you people.
53:34: You can’t see this, but this is Jeremiah one, and I’m gonna fly through some of these cause we are, oh.
53:40: This is a boiling pot, and he uses a boiling pot to confirm Jeremiah’s commission, and there’s a testimony in our family and mine personally, for those who are interested, you can ask me about the boiling pot.
53:51: So Jeremiah one, I’m, I’m gonna go through a bunch of these because it was important to.
53:57: Jeremiah, you can ask my wife.
53:59: I’m very much a visual analogous type of person.
54:03: I use analogies all the time.
54:04: I love them.
54:05: They’re actually very helpful.
54:06: We talk about our family in terms of basketball teams and and movements of scores, and like, that’s how we talk in our family to make sense of things.
54:12: So I like when Jeremiah does that.
54:13: He’s making sense of things by, OK, boiling pot.
54:15: The Lord uses a boiling pot and an almond tree to confirm the Lord.
54:19: So Jeremiah 13.
54:20: , The Lord says, go therefore to Meyer and buy a pair of whitey tighties.
54:30: And this understandably for.
54:35: For my family, my, we had two boys.
54:38: It’s the Hebrew, the Hebrew interpretation is.
54:40: It’s fruit of the Haines.
54:42: So he says, go there for the Mayer and buy yourself a linen waistband and put it around your waist, but do not put it in the water.
54:50: And then wear it around and then go bury it by the Euphrates River and then dig it up and hold it up in front of everybody, OK?
54:57: You see these not whitey tidies anymore, soiled by a number of different.
55:01: Things and thanks for not giving us a serious visual.
55:05: Yeah, I thought about it.
55:07: I’ll I’ll buy some new ones and I’ll return them.
55:08: I don’t use them.
55:09: Anyway, so there’s a, there’s some, the visual.
55:12: Jeremiah goes like Whitey tights, but they’re not white anymore.
55:15: They’re worthless.
55:16: They’re, they’re ripped, they’re torn, they’re dirty.
55:18: Like, what is this?
55:19: What, what value is this anymore?
55:22: It is worthless, he says.
55:23: Therefore, thus are the people who do not listen to the Lord, worthless.
55:27: You are like, A pair of dirty underwear is what the Lord says.
55:31: That was the most requested when we were reading Bible time at home.
55:34: My brother and I would request that one from my dad all the time, but it showed the griminess of being apart from God.
55:40: We cannot be separate from God.
55:43: OK, Jeremiah 17, we already read it.
55:45: Blessed is the one, the tree by the water.
55:46: I didn’t bring one.
55:47: I don’t have a tree with me, but I know Brian had a river and a tree that it will perpetually be.
55:52: , at all points, that tree is going to be blessed.
55:55: Why?
55:55: Because it’s by the water.
55:56: And then what they call a bush in, in the desert, dead, right?
56:02: Dead.
56:03: So Jeremiah 18, potter and clay.
56:06: Am I not the potter, and can I not shake the clay how I want to?
56:10: And then it, it kind of gets disheveled or disfigured.
56:14: He takes it off, pounds it down, does it again, puts it back on the wheel, and he makes what he wants.
56:18: Why?
56:19: Because the potter does with the clay what he wants to do.
56:21: I therefore, the Lord do with you what I want to do.
56:23: If I need to reshape you for my purposes, I’m gonna do it.
56:26: And we know in the New Testament, the body of Christ, it’s not a shameful thing to be those small body parts.
56:32: In fact, they get a lot of honor many times.
56:34: So we know even in the body of Christ, different.
56:36: In 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, yes ma’am, he’s doing that while we’re following his will, correct?
56:43: Yes, he also.
56:45: Does that with Babylon sometimes.
56:47: Babylon being the fist, and so even when we’re not obeying his will, he does what he wants with it, disobedient people and it’s not what we want, that’s also the Pottery.
57:08: Yes, one has an intentionality.
57:08: Yes, that is, yes, no, Potter Clay, love it, and thank you, good, good reiteration.
57:13: , because the potter has good purposes.
57:15: The clay doesn’t have a brain.
57:17: And friends, I’m sorry to say you are the play in this scenario.
57:21: Don’t try and out bring God and tell him what you need to do.
57:25: He’s the one that has the purposes.
57:27: Cool.
57:28: And then OK, now this is broken in 1 1000 pieces.
57:32: What do you do with broken jars?
57:34: They’re worthless.
57:35: Thus are the worthless people who do not listen, right?
57:40: I got like 3 minutes here.
57:40: You get a little extra.
57:42: That’s great, So broken jar, worthless.
57:46: Jeremiah 24.
57:49: Beautiful, good, delicious, sun-dried, organic figs.
57:52: Those are the ones who listen to the Lord and everybody’s had a good piece of fruit.
57:56: Pick your flavor, whatever your favorite fruit is.
57:59: Like, who wants one actually right now while I’m talking.
58:03: OK, boom, boom.
58:07: I’m yeah, pass it around.
58:08: These are, if you enjoy this flavorful, good fig, praise God.
58:14: That’s the one who listens to the Lord.
58:16: Now, I didn’t bring a bag of rotten figs for you.
58:18: Eat.
58:19: You’re welcome.hus is the one who you think you’re biting fruit and into it you bite mold, you’ve all done that, or even worse, you find half of an, an apple with half of what’s worse than finding a worm in your apple?
58:31: Finding half a worm in your apple because you already ate the other half, right?
58:34: So you’ve all experienced that bad, right?
58:37: But here’s this good, the good figs, pick your favorite fruit fruit.
58:41: This is wonderful.
58:42: It’s beautiful, right?
58:44: The good figs are good, the bad figs are bad.
58:46: Those are the people that listen to the Lord.
58:48: So Jeremiah 25, the cup, very healthy.
58:54: It’s straight from Jesus himself.
58:57: The cup of God’s wrath, Jeremiah 25, he uses that as an example.
59:03: I’m gonna read this a sco just because it gives us a little bit of the Lord’s heart and Jesus’ heart as he’s praying in the garden.
59:09: but We, we see that we are the grapes of rats.
59:13: We never take the bath.
59:14: That’s always in my heart when I read about that.
59:17: Jeremiah 25:17 to 15 to 17.
59:20: Picture Jesus in the garden praying for the cup to pass him, right?
59:26: This is what Jesus is praying, I’m, I’m sure.
59:28: For thus thus the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me, Take this cup of wine, of wrath from my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.
59:39: OK, all the, the cup that entails wrath for all the nations is the cup Jesus I think is referencing in the garden.
59:47: Let this cup pass, but if not, your will be done.
59:49: They shall drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.
59:54: This is what Jesus is thinking about.
59:56: Then I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me to drink it.
1:00:00: OK and he keeps going on.
1:00:02: OK, the flyby, again, I’m, I’m running out of time here, is the cup of the Lord’s wrath.
1:00:09: Bad for those who don’t listen.
1:00:11: Jeremiah 27 to 29.
1:00:13: Luke, can you go around the corner and get my show and tell around that version by the the entry to the garage door, go down the hallway to the right.
1:00:22: well, it’s, yeah.
1:00:24: So the yoke of the Lord is a false prophet who who tried to run away from the Lord, and he, he says.
1:00:32: The, the Lord’s yoke is not that we’re gonna break the yoke.
1:00:35: The Lord doesn’t have a yoke for us.
1:00:36: And the Lord is like, no, I have a yoke for you.
1:00:38: Jeremiah literally wears a yoke around, he wears an ox and yoke around his head.
1:00:45: we’re not gonna make Brian put it on unless he wants to.
1:00:47: But Jeremiah walks around town with that on his head.
1:00:51: He, he, he walks around.
1:00:52: Why?
1:00:52: To demonstrate, this is the, the yoke of bondage that you guys are putting yourself in for those who don’t listen to the Lord.
1:00:59: And what happens to the oxen?
1:01:01: They go in there and then they get hooked up to this, and then they pull.
1:01:04: So they’re pulling against resistance to the ground, they’re tilling the ground.
1:01:08: but this right here is an example of wear that around your neck for 5 minutes and just see how, see how many chiropractors you can talk yourself into, like, that just won’t sound very, doesn’t feel good, right?
1:01:18: So, the yoke of the Lord.
1:01:21: Is, misly translated easy, I think, I think it’s bearable is a better translation, but the Lord, it says the yoke is bearable, my burden is light and easy, or understandable and bearable.
1:01:35: The yoke of the Lord, but they’re, they’re not listening to the Lord’s yoke, even though it’s good for them.
1:01:39: They want, they end up having a better heart yoke.
1:01:42: OK, we’ll go on to that later, whatever.
1:01:43: Jeremiah 32.
1:01:45: A deed.
1:01:46: This is a deed for my house right here, and the property, whatever.
1:01:50: flashback to faithfulness.
1:01:52: He goes back about 250 years to talk about the recobites in chapter 35.
1:01:57: They were told not to buy houses, not to drink wine, not that it’s bad for everybody, but for them that was.
1:02:03: So this is the sleeping pad on the tent.
1:02:06: So I, this is show and tell.
1:02:08: They were obedient to the Lord, the recobites, they were obedient to their forefathers.
1:02:12: Even though Israel is not obedient to God himself, so he does a show and tell, Hey, you see this tent that the recobites are using?
1:02:19: OK, stones and mortar.
1:02:23: And a scroll thrown in the river is like Babylon useless.
1:02:27: OK, those are the, that’s the show and tell.
1:02:29: We see in the repetition, the Lord’s Declaration.
1:02:31: We see listen, we see righteousness.
1:02:34: So there’s a couple of big questions that come from the book of Jeremiah.
1:02:39: I will reference maybe one of them and then try and pull out some conclusions.
1:02:43: , I’ll reference a couple of them.
1:02:47: Will God punish as well as bless His people, see all of the minor prophets, if you won’t need an answer for that.
1:02:53: Does God oscillate willy-nilly between, Romans Romans 9:22 to 24.
1:03:02: Does God oscillate willy-nilly between blessing and cursing?
1:03:05: I love it.
1:03:06: He says, but what if God, although willing to demonstrate his power and make his wrath known, endured with much patience, vessels of wrath, destined for wrath, to give them mercy.
1:03:17: , go ahead.
1:03:19: You can just read it quick.
1:03:20: Like God desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destructions in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.
1:03:42: So there’s a mercy of God, even though.
1:03:46: He’s willing to demonstrate his wrath and his, and there’s this mercy perpetually over and over and over and over.
1:03:51: I woke up early and sent my prophets, he says, I like that analogy, or that imagery the Lord says.
1:03:56: He sent it over again, and then he finally he’s like, no, you guys can’t keep walking in this.
1:04:00: OK, One big question from Jeremiah, how do we discern true prophecy?
1:04:06: There’s false prophets that come.
1:04:08: We all kind of run into a lot of these things.
1:04:10: Chapter 27 through 29, go read that.
1:04:12: It’s a saga between Jeremiah and Henaniah.
1:04:16: You can read that in your own time, and I will give you just a quick couple of bullet points here.
1:04:22: This just in strictly in Jeremiah, these are extracted truths on how to discern true prophecy, again, 27 to 29 helps.
1:04:28: But Jeremiah 23, 23 through 40.
1:04:32: , I’ll just highlight a couple of things here.
1:04:36: He says 28.
1:04:37: The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has my word speak my word in truth.
1:04:44: What does straw have in common with grain, declares the Lord.
1:04:47: It’s not my word like a fire, declares the Lord, and I like a hammer which shatters the rock.
1:04:51: OK, straw and grain, like, one has a use, but one is far more usable, grain and straw, like grain, you’re actually gonna eat straw you don’t eat, you just like, it, it absorbs your cow’s stuff out there.
1:05:02: So there’s a greater difference between the value, like the word and a dream from the Lord.
1:05:08: Maybe usable only if it like confirms with the other one and it goes toward a purpose.
1:05:13: So yes, listen to the Lord, but what does he say?
1:05:15: The word has this greater value.
1:05:18: So when we’re listening and discerning the voice of the Lord, the word has a great value.
1:05:23: Chapter 17.
1:05:24: What are we trusting in?
1:05:25: Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, not himself, right?
1:05:28: Not who trusts in mankind.
1:05:30: So another way to test it is like, what are you trusting in here in discerning and in understanding and carrying out this?
1:05:35: What are you trusting in?
1:05:37: So then Jeremiah 9, we read that as well earlier, let him who boast boasts in this, that he knows the Lord who is a God of loving kindness, justice and truth.
1:05:46: In these things I delight.
1:05:49: Not I just do them, I delight in them.
1:05:51: So the three tests that are big, I, I thought were, from Jeremiah is the word, you test things you hear that you discern with the Lord, with the word, with where is your trust, and with action.
1:06:02: Like, our God is a God of action of loving kindness, justice and truth.
1:06:06: Do these things propel you toward loving kindness, justice and truth of the Lord?
1:06:11: Is it the truth of the Lord?
1:06:12: And we can have a lot of false justices out there.
1:06:14: You can, you can hear a lot of those things that people are championing these causes of this, this cause of justice, but it’s not grounded in the truth.
1:06:21: Loving kindness, justice and truth all married together is part of what the Lord calls us to.
1:06:24: So word, trust and action are good ways to discern.
1:06:28: At least in this book of Jeremiah.
1:06:31: Jeremiah 8 little ditty about greedy for personal gain and comfort.
1:06:34: That’s a side that’s in our test, like, am I gaining from this?
1:06:37: Is it from my own greed and my own gain?
1:06:39: OK.
1:06:39: So what do we do with the words that the Lord gives us?
1:06:43: Jeremiah himself gets a commission from the Lord, that might be a good place to start for you.
1:06:49: Before you even try and take words and give them to somebody else, Jeremiah received from the Lord before any words went to anybody else, the Lord gave him words for himself.
1:06:58: You gotta have something, a place to hang your hat, a a rock to sit on, stand on, you gotta have somewhere to land.
1:07:05: And so Jeremiah gets that, as does Moses, as does Paul, as does Peter, as does so many of these men.
1:07:12: So if you need a place for that, there’s some sweeping, ubiquitous, applicable to all ones, I can give you a list, but Matthew 28, go and make disciples, and as you’re doing it, I will be with you.
1:07:22: Philippians 1:6, he began a good work, you will perfect it.
1:07:25: Armor of God, Ephesians 6, carried around.
1:07:27: 2 Corinthians 3, you’re not adequate on yourself.
1:07:29: God gives you the adequacy gonna do it.
1:07:31: Romans 8, if you love God, all things are gonna work out for good, and you will not be overtaken.
1:07:35: , John 15, abide in me and I will abide in you.
1:07:39: So many good things there, right?
1:07:41: Dive in if you need more, ask the Lord Himself, ask someone else.
1:07:44: There’s so many places we can land that we have that call already given to us in Scripture.
1:07:49: So take that, and then what do we do as we’re trying to apply the words we get from the Lord?
1:07:53: Test it.
1:07:54: You can use the acronym test.
1:07:55: Does it point you toward Christ?
1:07:57: Is it edify you?
1:07:58: Is it scriptural?
1:07:59: And do you do it together with the body of Christ, other people who test it with you.
1:08:03: There’s just a cute little way to test TEST something.
1:08:06: And then does it point you to action in the word?
1:08:08: we already said that action in the Lord.
1:08:11: I found a note in my old Bible as I was preparing to teach Jeremiah that had one single question on the whole page, and it said, how do we know if it’s a spirit talking to us?
1:08:21: The spirit propels us to action.
1:08:23: I would add to that note that I wrote to righteous action in justice and love, but the spirit propels us to action.
1:08:30: So if like.
1:08:33: The Pharisees, for example, they had this perceived knowledge of the word, but they didn’t live out God’s righteous justice action and and Jesus indicts them for that.
1:08:43: So as we’re trying to hear and discern the word of the Lord, what do we do?
1:08:46: We listen and obey.
1:08:47: How do we do that?
1:08:48: We, we need to know the word.
1:08:49: We need to trust the Lord.
1:08:50: We need to go toward more love, justice, and righteousness of Him in the world.
1:08:54: We need to do that.
1:08:55: We need to celebrate the gospel of the new covenant.
1:08:57: This is our lifeblood.
1:08:59: The book of Jeremiah is about Shama, Simu, hear and listen and obey that with a high point of the new covenant.
1:09:05: What’s the beautiful thing there?
1:09:07: is he writes on our heart, the new covenant, our ability to hear, listen and obey.
1:09:13: So truly do this in your own homes first.
1:09:15: I need help with that.
1:09:17: Sometimes I’m on and off with it.
1:09:19: Do it in your own home first and then do it together.
1:09:22: Do it with God’s people.
1:09:23: Back to Hebrews 10 here.
1:09:25: Following, I stopped off there for a second so that I could come back and read this as a way to say do it in your own home, but do it together, 19 through.
1:09:35: 25 here, he says, Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is his flesh, new covenant, what’s up?
1:09:48: Since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart of full assurance of faith, having a heart sprinkled clean from an evil.
1:09:56: And our bodies washed with pure water.
1:09:58: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promise is faithful.
1:10:03: And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and to good deeds that love, righteousness justice that Jeremiah talked about, says it again here, not forsaking our own assembly together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more to see today drawing near.
1:10:19: Do it in your home, do it with other people.
1:10:20: Listen here.
1:10:21: Listen is to hear is to obey.
1:10:24: That’s the word Jeremiah.
1:10:26: Thank you, brother.
1:10:28: Yeah.