Shall we turn now to Jeremiah 16.
Now you remember that Jeremiah was just a
young man when God called him to this
prophetic ministry.
And so in chapter 16, the word of
the Lord came unto me saying, Thou shalt
not take a wife, neither shalt thou have
sons or daughters in this place.
So Jeremiah is commanded by God not to
marry.
And the reason for the commandment not to
marry or not to have children was to
be a sign to the people of the
terrible times that were coming.
They were going to really be facing hard
times.
And it was no time to be having
children because if you have children, they're going
to die of starvation.
They're going to be killed in the siege.
It's just not a time to be having
children or to be getting married.
And also it was to be a sign,
his bachelorhood was to be a sign unto
the people.
Now it is interesting that God spoke to
Hosea and told him to marry.
And God directed him concerning his marriage.
And with Hosea, his marriage was to be
a sign unto the people.
With Isaiah, he was to name his children
as signs to the people.
And so their names meant certain things that
were again assigned to the people.
So with Jeremiah, God called him to bachelorhood.
For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons
and the daughters that are born in this
place, concerning their mothers that bear them, concerning
the fathers that begat them in this land,
they shall die of grief, the deaths.
They shall not be lamented.
Neither will they be buried, but they will
be as dung upon the face of the
earth and they shall be consumed by the
sword and by the famine and their carcasses
shall be meat for the fowls of heaven
and for the beast of the earth.
For thus saith the Lord, enter not into
the house of mourning, neither go to lament
nor bemoan them, for I have taken away
my peace from this people, saith the Lord,
even loving kindness and mercies.
Both the great and the small shall die
in this land.
They shall not be buried.
Neither shall men lament for them, nor cut
themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.
Now in Israel they have customs when a
family member dies, you're not to shave for
30 days.
And then when you shave, you take the
hair that has grown in that 30 days
and offer it unto the Lord as sort
of a sacrifice.
But it was a sign, it is a
sign of mourning.
And even to the present day, the Jews
observe this sign of mourning at a death.
So the shaving was after the 30 days
that they had died.
But he's saying there's not going to be
any kind of a memorial or cutting of
your shaving of yourself or whatever for those
who have died.
Neither shall men tear themselves for them in
mourning.
And of course, these people sought to show
their great love for the deceased.
And the more wailing that went on in
the house indicated to everybody how much you
love them.
So when someone died that was very close
to you, you wanted everybody to know how
deeply you love them.
And so you would hire wailers to come
into your house.
And there were professionals that could really wail.
And they would come in and go through
this wailing process.
And of course, you would join in with
them.
And there was this lamenting the wailing that
they did for the dead.
And so he's saying that that's not going
to even be going on.
The tearing of themselves or this mourning to
comfort them for the dead.
Neither shall men give them the cup of
consolation to drink for their father or for
their mother.
So don't get married.
Don't have children because the people that are
here, the children that are now being born
are going to suffer fearful, awful deaths as
their bodies won't even be buried.
There'll be no one around to mourn their
deaths.
And he's just telling of the hard, hard
times that are coming.
And because of that, as a sign to
the people, he was not to marry nor
to have children.
Now the Lord gave him a second commandment
in verse eight.
Thou shalt not also go into the house
of feasting to sit with them to eat
and to drink.
Now, of course, the feast were great occasions
and, um, it was really their, their, they
didn't have television, radios and movie theaters.
And so their entertainment was at these feasts
and these feasts would be great occasions, not
only of dining, but also of entertainment.
And so there was great laughter as, as
you had all kinds of entertainment during these
feasts and all, and they were just times
of, of entertainment and celebration.
But the prophet is told not to go
to these feasts.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, behold, I will cause to
cease out of this place in your eyes.
And in your days, the voice of merriment
and the voice of gladness and the voice
of the bridegroom and the voice of the
bride during your time, during this generation, these
things are all going to cease in this
land.
So as a sign to the people that
the end has come, don't go into the
house of feasting.
Don't join in that merriment and it shall
come to pass when thou shalt show this
people all these words and they shall say
unto thee, why has the Lord pronounced all
this great evil against us?
Or what is our iniquity?
Or what is our sin that we have
committed against the Lord, our God?
Then shalt thou say unto them, because your
fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and
have walked after other gods and have served
them and have worshiped them and have forsaken
me and not kept my law.
But you have done worse than your fathers.
For behold, you walk everyone after the imagination
of his evil heart that they may not
hearken unto me.
So there was anarchy.
Everyone was following the imagination of his own
evil heart.
God's law was forsaken and thus the judgments
of God were coming upon them.
Now, the Jew was immensely proud of his
heritage.
They were always talking about our fathers and
Jesus brings out the fact how they are
always saying, well, our fathers and in the
days of our fathers.
So you remember when Stephen was called in
before the Sanhedrin as he started to sort
of rehearse for them their, what they felt,
illustrious history.
He got caught up as he was rehearsing
their history with the whole hypocrisy of the
thing for remembering their history.
He remembered how they had treated the prophets
of God.
Now here's Jeremiah and he's saying, hey, this
is all happening to you because your fathers
have forsaken God.
They are worshiping these other gods, but you
are even worse than your fathers.
Everyone is doing after the imagination of his
own wicked heart.
And for this cause, God is pronouncing this
judgment that is coming.
Now their reaction to Jeremiah was to put
him in prison when he brought this message
to them.
So as Stephen is rehearsing to the Sanhedrin,
who, you know, our fathers and you remember
Jesus and talking with them, they said, they
were kept talking about our fathers and Jesus
said, look, if Abraham was your father, then
you believe in me.
For Abraham rejoiced to see my day and
he saw it.
And they were arguing with Jesus about that.
And they said, we have, you know, Abraham
was our father.
Jesus said, you're of your father, the devil
and his works are the works that you're
doing.
Well, Stephen got carried away and he said,
which of the prophets have you not stoned?
And he started really laying on them what
their fathers had done, that they weren't these
glorious illustrious kind of men of faith, that
they had actually turned away from God and
reminded them of that fact.
Therefore, God said, will I cast you out
of this land into a land that you
know not neither ye nor your fathers, and
there you will serve other gods day and
night where I will not show you favor.
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
that it shall no more be said, the
Lord liveth that brought up the children of
Israel out of the land of Egypt, but
the Lord liveth that brought up the children
of Israel from the land of the north
and from the lands, whether he had driven
them, and I will bring them again into
their land that I gave to their fathers.
Now he's speaking about this dark period of
history that they're facing.
During your time, the land is going to
be laid desolate.
During your time, you're going to be carried
away captive because of your evil in turning
against God.
It's all going to happen in your time.
And yet, though he is pronouncing this judgment,
he goes ahead and speaks of that glorious
day when God will gather them back again
into the land.
After the 70-year captivity, the Lord will
bring them back into the land, and the
day will come when they'll say, the God
who brought us out of our captivity, rather
than the God who brought our fathers out
of Egypt, they'll sign about God who brought
us back from the captivity and put us
back in the land.
Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith
the Lord, and they shall fish them.
And after will I send for many hunters,
and they shall hunt them from every mountain,
from every hill, and out of the holes
of the rocks.
For my eyes are upon all their ways,
and they are not hid from my face,
neither is their iniquity hid from my eyes.
And first I will recompense their iniquity and
their sin double, because they have defiled my
land, and they have filled mine inheritance with
the carcasses of the detestable and abominable things.
Jeremiah cried out in response to what God
had said, O Lord, my strength and my
fortress and my refuge in the day of
affliction.
The Gentiles shall come unto thee from the
ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely
our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things
wherein there is no profit.
Shall a man make gods unto himself, and
they are no gods?
Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them
to know, and I will cause them to
know mine hand and my might, and they
shall know that my name is Jehovah.
So Jeremiah cries out, it's almost as a
psalm.
In fact, there are psalms, the Lord is
my strength, my refuge, my fortress.
And he is perhaps thinking of that psalm
when he cries out, O Lord, my strength,
my fortress, my refuge in the day of
affliction.
And then the prophecy of the Gentiles coming
from the ends of the earth.
And Paul makes mention of the prophecies concerning
the Gentile salvation in the book to the
Romans.
Chapter 17, the sin of Judah is written
with a pen of iron and with a
point of a diamond.
Interesting that they were using diamonds for pens
in those days, isn't it?
Diamonds set in iron.
It is graven upon the table of their
heart and upon the horns of your altars.
Whilst their children remember their altars and their
groves by the green trees and upon the
high hills.
O my mountains in the field, I will
give thy substance and all thy treasures to
the spoil and thy high places for sin
throughout all thy borders.
And thou, even thyself shall discontinue from thine
heritage that I gave thee, and I will
cause thee to serve thine enemies in the
land which thou knowest not.
For ye have kindled a fire in my
anger, which shall burn forever.
Thus saith the Lord, cursed be the man
that trust in man and makes flesh his
arm and whose heart departs from the Lord.
And so God pronounces the curse upon those
that would trust in an alliance in Egypt
to deliver them from this Babylonian invasion.
Cursed be the man who puts his trust
in man and makes the flesh his arm
who has departed from the Lord that is
from trusting in the Lord.
For he shall be like the heath in
the desert.
He shall not see when good comes, but
shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
in the salt land and not inhabited.
In contrast to the cursed, be the man
blessed is the man that trusteth in the
Lord and whose hope the Lord is or
is the Lord.
For he shall be as a tree planted
by the waters that spreads out her roots
by the river and shall not see when
the heat comes, but her leaves shall be
green and shall not worry in the year
of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
So the cursing upon those that would trust
in man in the arm of flesh and
not the Lord, but the blessing upon those
that would trust in the Lord.
Those who trust in man and the arm
of flesh will be dried, withered, dead, uninhabited.
Those that trust in the Lord will be
like a tree planted by the waters that
doesn't even know when summer comes because of
the freshness that it draws out from that
water.
Now, verse nine, the heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
God's talking about your heart and my heart.
Socrates cried, man know thyself, but
who really does know himself?
The scripture says thou, O Lord, searches the
heart and the reins.
God knows my heart better than I know
it.
God knows what deception is there, and it
is easy for us to become deceived.
It's easy for us to follow a vain
philosophy.
It's easy for us to take that adage,
the end justifies the means, and so our
means become perverse, crooked.
Paul the Apostle talks about those who say,
well, our lies bring glory to God, so
God shouldn't judge us for lying.
Or those who would say, well, if I
sin, I'm only proving that God is telling
the truth when He said all have sinned,
so how can God judge me for proving
Him to be speaking the truth?
I'm only helping prove the truth of God's
Word, so God really can't judge me because
I'm only proving what He said is true.
And Paul speaks out against the perversity of
such kind of logic and how God will
judge all.
Now, there are those who, in the name
of the Lord, are doing crooked and perverse
things, and if you talk to them about
it, challenge them, they would be shocked, they
would be disturbed.
My brother, you know, you're judging me.
Well, the Bible says judge righteous judgment.
I think that we've been put off a
long time because we are afraid of people
saying, well, you're judging, you know.
The Bible says by their fruit she shall
know them, and it is wrong to use
deceit and lies and gimmicks to
try to extract funds from the people of
God in order to support your program.
I don't care how righteous or good your
program may be.
My wife told me not to get into
this tonight.
It's right here in the scripture.
It just came along.
I cannot understand men advertising their fasting and
prayer when Jesus said, when you fast, anoint
your face, wash yourself, that you might look
cheerful and all, that you don't appear unto
men to fast, and your father, which sees
in secret, he'll reward you.
And when you pray, don't go out on
the street corner, but go into your closet
and shut the door.
And when some guy sends letters out all
over the country saying, I'm going to spend
some time fasting and praying, send me your
request with your $50 check, because I want
to pray for you too.
Something's wrong.
Desperately wrong.
The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
But God declares, I, the Lord, search the
heart.
I try the reigns, that is the motivations,
even to give every man according to his
ways.
Now, Jesus tells us that we are to
be careful that we don't do our righteousness
before men to be seen of men, because
we have a reward.
Now, Jesus plainly warns us about that.
There is a way that I can do
my righteousness so that people see me and
they say, oh my, isn't he spiritual?
And we've got to watch out for this
because it is such a deceiving, terrible thing.
My old pride and my old flesh wants
people to think that I am a spiritual
man of God.
I like people when I walk by to
whisper, oh, isn't he spiritual?
Oh, my flesh just really enjoys that.
And so it's easy for me to get
little spiritual affectations that my
mind isn't really necessarily upon God.
As I stand there, you lift your head
upward and close your eyes because that looks
more spiritual.
I wonder if people are seeing me now.
Surely they'll know, you know, I'm very spiritual.
I hope they're watching.
And then if you go up on your
tiptoes, it even looks a little more, you
know, spiritual.
But my mind, what am I thinking?
Am I thinking, I hope they're watching.
I hope they see.
I hope they notice.
I hope they realize how spiritual I am.
God said, look, I'm searching the heart.
I'm trying the motives.
Now the Bible tells us that one day
all of our works are going to be
judged by fire.
And much of what we have done is
going to go poof.
It's going to go up in smoke.
Wait a minute, Lord, did I not prophesy
in thy name?
Didn't I work miracles in your name?
Didn't I, you know, heal the sick in
your name?
Lord, I, the Lord, search the heart.
I try the rains.
All of your works are wood, hay, and
stubble.
They were done to be seen of men.
They were done for your own glory and
to spread abroad in your own name.
You named your chapels and your universities and
all after your own name.
Sad.
What a day of awakening is going to
be.
The heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked.
Now, David, realizing this, realizing that he didn't
even know his own heart because of the
deceitfulness of the heart, said, thou, O Lord,
has searched me and you know me.
You know my thoughts in their origins.
Such knowledge, he said, is too great for
me.
I cannot attain it.
I cannot really attain the true knowledge of
myself.
But then he said, search me, O God,
and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts and see
if there be some way of wickedness in
me and lead me in your way eternal.
Now, the man who understands and knows that
his heart is deceitful and desperately wicked is
the man who will join David's prayer and
say, O God, you search my heart.
You try me.
And God, if there's something there that is
wrong, is displeasing to you, reveal it to
me, Lord.
I don't want to be deceived.
I don't want to be deceiving myself.
I don't want to stand before God and
suddenly find all that I've done wiped out
in a puff of smoke as the fire
consumes all of that work of wood, hay,
and stubble.
Jesus said, you've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you and ordained you that you should
be my disciples, that you should bring forth
fruit and that your fruit should remain.
That's what I want, remaining fruit.
And so God help us.
He's searching our hearts.
He's tries the rain and he's going to
give to every man according to his ways.
What's in my heart?
Why did I do it?
That's what's going to be judged.
God is going to give to him according
to the fruit of his doings.
Now, as a partridge sits on eggs and
doesn't hatch them, so is he that gets
riches not by right, but by wrong means.
He is accumulating wealth.
He shall leave them in the midst of
his days and at his end he shall
be a fool.
A glorious high throne from the beginning is
the place of our sanctuary.
That place of our sanctuary is God's glorious
high throne.
O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that
forsake thee shall be ashamed and they that
depart from me shall be written in the
earth because they have forsaken the Lord.
The fountain of living waters takes us back
to the first cry of God against Israel
in that they have committed two evils.
They have forsaken me, the fountain of living
waters and hewed out for themselves cisterns that
can hold no water.
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be
healed.
Save me and I shall be saved for
thou art my praise.
Behold, they say unto me, where is the
word of the Lord?
Let it come now.
As for me, I have not hastened from
being a pastor to follow thee.
Neither have I desired the woeful day, thou
knowest that.
That which came out of my lips was
right before thee.
He's not rejoicing in the things that he
is saying.
Be not a terror unto me, thou art
my hope in the day of evil.
Let them be confounded that persecute me, but
let not me be confounded.
Let them be dismayed, but let me not
be dismayed.
Bring upon them the day of evil.
Destroy them with double destruction.
Now the Lord spoke to him concerning the
gates where the king went in and went
out and he said, now go down to
the gate and when the king comes in,
give him this message.
Thus saith the Lord unto me, go and
stand in the gate of the children of
the people where the kings of Judah come
in and by which way they go out
and in all of the gates of Jerusalem
and say unto them, hear ye the word
of the Lord, ye kings of Judah and
all Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
that enter in by these gates.
Thus saith the Lord, take heed to yourselves
and bear no burden on the Sabbath day,
nor bring it in by the gates of
Jerusalem.
Neither carry forth a burden out of your
houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye
any work, but howl ye the Sabbath day
as I have commanded your fathers.
But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear.
Now that is their fathers obeyed not.
I told your fathers not to do this,
God is saying, but they didn't obey me.
Neither did they incline their ear, but they
made their neck stiff that they might not
hear nor receive instruction.
And it shall come to pass if you
diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord to
bring in no burden through the gates of
this city on the Sabbath day, but howl
the Sabbath day to do no work therein.
Then shall there enter into the gates of
this city, kings and princes sitting on the
throne of David, riding in chariots on horses
and they and their princes and the men
of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in
this city shall remain forever.
God is still holding out the opportunity of
salvation and hope to them.
Even at this late stage of their backsliding,
even when the judgment is hanging over their
head, even when Babylon is marching to destroy
this place, God is still holding out to
them a hope.
Just turn to me, just obey me.
And the gates here, the kings and the
princes will be passing through forever.
You'll never be destroyed or put out of
the land.
God's mercies just are so extensive.
They're right up until a moment.
A person dies.
God extends his mercy.
Oh, how merciful is our God.
And they shall come from the cities of
Judah and from the places about Jerusalem and
from the land of Benjamin and from the
plain and from the mountains and from the
South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices and meal
offerings and incense and bringing sacrifices of praise
unto the house of the Lord.
It can happen.
It can happen to you.
Just turn back to me, just obey my
commandments.
But if you will not hearken unto me
to hallow the Sabbath day and not to
bear a burden, even entering in at the
gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then
will I kindle a fire in the gates
thereof and it shall devour the palaces of
Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched.
Now in chapter 18, the word which came
to Jeremiah from the Lord saying arise and
go down to the potter's house and there
I will cause thee to hear my words.
Then I went down to the potter's house
and behold, he brought a work on the
wheels and the vessel that he made of
clay was marred in the hand of the
potter.
So he made it again.
Another vessel has seemed good to the potter
to make.
Then the word of the Lord came unto
me saying, O house of Israel, cannot I
do with you as this potter saith the
Lord?
Behold, as the clay is in the potter's
hand, so are ye in my hand, O
house of Israel.
Here again, as with Isaiah, the figure of
the potter in the clay showing God's awesome
sovereignty over man's destiny, God can make of
you whatever he pleases.
And as Paul the Apostle said in Romans
9, who art thou, O man, who says
unto the Lord, why hast thou made me
thus?
Hath not the potter the power over the
clay to make of it whatever kind of
a vessel he desires?
In those chapters 9, 10 and 11 of
Romans where Paul speaks of this awesome sovereignty
of God over man, he uses the same
figure of the potter in the clay.
Now with Jeremiah, it is interesting.
God said, go down to the potter's house
and I'm going to speak to you there.
He went down to the potter's house.
He saw him as he was working a
work on the wheels.
So the three objects, the potter, the wheel,
the clay, speak of God's dealing and working
with man.
The clay, a common worthless material in its
native state, and yet a material that has
a potential of great value and utility according
to the skill of the potter.
The potter, his total control over the clay
to make of it whatever he desires.
God's awesome power over our lives.
The wheels, the circumstances of our lives by
which God molds and shapes us.
Now, in this case, as he watched the
potter, the vessel was marred in the hands
of the potter.
He was making this vessel on the wheel,
but suddenly the vessel took a wrong shape.
It maybe had a hard lump in the
clay or something.
The vessel was marred.
And so the potter just took and crumbled
the clay again, or compacted it again, and
then made of it a vessel as was
good unto him to make.
And God spoke and said, is not Israel,
the nation Israel, like clay in my hands?
And though Israel had been marred, yet God
would remake them.
He would work in them again, a new
work.
The vessel had been marred, but not to
be discarded.
God would work yet again in making them
that which he desires and intended them to
be.
At what instant I shall speak concerning a
nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up
and to pull down and to destroy it.
Now you remember in chapter one, when God
called Jeremiah, he said, I have called you
over the nations.
I've called you in his ministry was to
pluck up, to pull down and to destroy.
Now that's quite a ministry to be called
to uproot things, Jeremiah, plug them up, destroy
them.
You see, there comes a time when the
system gets so corrupt.
There's, there's no renewing it.
There's no reformation possible.
It's gone too far.
So before you can rebuild and plant and
rebuild, you've got to just get rid of
everything that is there.
And that is what God is saying.
They've gotten so bad.
We're just going to have to get rid
of it, go back to zero, and then
we'll start all over again.
But you've got to tear down, root out,
destroy that which exists.
So he brings him back to the first
calling in chapter one.
At what instant I shall speak concerning a
nation and concerning a kingdom, verse nine, to
build and to plant.
So in verse seven, he speaks of the
plucking up, pulling down, destroying.
Now, if that nation against whom I have
pronounced, turn from their evil and repent of
that which I thought to do unto them.
And at what instant I shall speak concerning
a nation, concerning a kingdom, to build and
to plant it.
If you do evil in my sight, that
it not obey my voice, then I will
repent of the good wherewith I said I
would benefit them.
Now, therefore, go and speak to the men
of Judah and say to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, behold, I
frame evil against you and devise a device
against you.
Return you now everyone from his evil way
and make your ways and your doings good.
And they said, There is no hope, but
we will walk after our own devices and
we will everyone do the imagination of his
evil heart.
So they would not listen to Jeremiah.
They said, There's no hope.
You know, we're all going to go for
it at this point.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord, asking now among
the heathen who has heard such things.
The Virgin of Israel has done a very
horrible thing.
Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon
from the rock of the field?
There shall the cold flowing waters that come
from another place be forsaken.
That beautiful crystal clear snow water that comes
out of the ground at the base of
the mountains there in Lebanon.
Will a man leave that beautiful crystal snow
water?
Because my people have forgotten me, they have
burned incense to vanity.
This is forsaken me, that fountain of living
water.
They have forgotten me.
They've burned incense to vanity.
They have caused them to stumble in their
ways from the ancient past to walk in
the paths in a way not cast up
to make their land desolate and a perpetual
hissing.
Everyone that passes by shall be astonished and
wag his head.
I will scatter them as with an east
wind before the enemy.
I will show them my back and not
my face in the day of their calamity.
Then said they, when Jeremiah delivered this message
to them, and then they responded, saying, Come,
let us devise devices against Jeremiah, for the
law shall not perish from the priest nor
counsel from the wise nor the word from
the prophet.
Come, let us smite him with the tongue
and let us not give heed to any
of his words.
And so Jeremiah said, Give heed to me,
O Lord, and hearken to the voice of
them that contend with me.
Shall evil be recompensed for good?
For they have digged a pit for my
soul.
Remember that I stood before thee to speak
good for them and to turn away thy
wrath from them.
Now here Jeremiah said, I've been interceding, I've
been praying for them, and now they're devising
to do me in, God.
Remember how good I was, Lord, and remember
how evil they are.
Therefore, deliver up their children to the famine
and pour out their blood by the force
of the sword and let their wives be
bereaved of their children and be widows and
let their men be put to death.
Let the young men be slain by the
sword in battle.
In other words, I'm not going to intercede
for him anymore, God.
Go ahead and, you know, give it to
him.
Let a cry be heard.
He was a melancholy, no doubt, if you've
done any personality type of analysis, a great
melancholy, and it will show up even more
forcibly as we move on into chapter 20.
We see the melancholy at his classic height.
Verse 23, Lord, you know all of their
counsel against me to slay me.
Forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their
sin from thy sight, but let them be
overthrown before they deal thus with them in
the time of thine anger.
So, the prophet is really upset with him.
Heard again that they're plotting to get him
and all, and this time he's had it.
God, just take care of him.
Do whatever you want.
Wipe him out.
I'm not going to pray for them any
longer.
How different this is from Moses.
You remember Moses as he interceded.
Oh God, you know, forgive their sin and
if not, blot, I pray thee, my name
out of thy book of remembrances.
I have a hard time identifying with Moses.
I find a very easy time identifying with
Jeremiah.
You know, I come to my car and
I find someone's ripped off something from my
car.
Well, I pray, God, you know, get them,
smite them, Lord.
Let them fall and break their legs, you
know, and just really do them in, Lord,
you know.
I have no mercy for thieves and people
that go around ripping people off.
It just really upsets me.
Let the angel of the Lord pursue them,
you know, and just give them a bad
time, Lord.
So, I would classify more with Jeremiah than
I would Moses.
Thus saith the Lord, go and get a
potter's earthen bottle.
Take one of the bottles that the potter
has made.
Clay bottles.
And take the old men of the people
and of the priest and go forth into
the valley of the son of Hinnom, which
is by the entry of the east gate
and proclaim there the words that I shall
tell thee.
Now, the valley of Hinnom runs along the
south side of the city of Jerusalem and
joins the Kidron Valley right down at the
base of the hill of Ophel, which was
the city of David.
And as you're standing on Mount Zion, as
you look down into the valley to the
south, you're looking down into the valley of
Hinnom.
And this is where the children of Israel
had done so much of their pagan worship
of the gods of the Canaanites and the
people who inhabited the land before they came
in.
And so, he is to go into this
valley where all of these pagan rites were
done by the people with this clay jar
from the potter's house.
So, call the ancient priest and the old
men and gather them into the valley and
I'll give you my word there.
I'll tell you what to speak.
And say, hear ye the word of the
Lord, O kings of Judah inhabitants of Jerusalem,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God
of Israel, behold, I will bring evil upon
this place.
The witch whosoever hears it, his ears will
tingle because they have forsaken me.
The reason why the judgment's coming.
They've forsaken me and estranged this place and
have burned incense in it unto other gods
whom neither they nor their fathers have known,
nor the kings of Judah.
And they have filled this place with the
blood of innocence.
They have built also the high places of
bell altars to bell to burn their sons
with fire for burnt offerings.
Now, if you go over to Israel in
the history in the Museum of Natural History,
they have a collection in there of these
little representations of the God bell.
And they are many of them made of
iron.
Some of them are made of stone.
And as you look at them, their hands
are always pointed upwards with their palms in.
And they are little figurines that look somewhat
human with little arms out like this and
hands pointed up.
Now, what they would do there in the
Valley of Hinnom is that they would set
these little iron representations of the God bell
in the fire until they were glowing red
hot.
And then they would take their live little
babies and place them in the glowing red
hot arms of the little God bell and
burn them to death as they would dance
around and worship bell.
Now, this is the thing God is crying
out against.
These are the horrible things that God's people
were doing.
These were the horrible sacrileges that they were
guilty of.
And so God says, they built also the
high places to bell to burn their sons
with fire for burnt offerings unto bell, which
I commanded not nor spoke, neither did it
ever come into my mind.
Oh, God would never think of having a
person make a life sacrifice of a child
unto him.
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
that this place shall no more be called
Tophet nor the Valley of the son of
Hinnom, but the Valley of slaughter.
For I will make void the council of
Judah and Jerusalem in this place.
And I will cause them here in this
valley to fall by the sword before their
enemies and by the hands of them that
seek their lives and their carcasses will I
give to be meat for the fowls of
the heaven and for the beast of the
earth.
And I will make this city desolate and
a hissing.
Everyone that passes thereby shall be astonished and
hiss because of all of the plagues.
And I will cause them to eat the
flesh of their sons and the flesh of
their daughters.
And they shall eat everyone, the flesh of
his friend in the siege because of the
straightness were with their enemies and they that
seek their lives shall straighten them.
Then shall thou break the bottle in the
sight of the men that go with you.
After you pronounce this, just break that clay
bottle in their sight and say unto them,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, even so
will I break this people and this city
as one breaks a potter's vessel that cannot
be made whole again and they shall bury
them in Tophet until there is no place
to bury.
Thus will I do unto this place, saith
the Lord and to the inhabitants thereof and
even make this city as Tophet.
And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses
of the kings of Judah shall be defiled
as the place of Tophet because of all
of the houses upon whose roofs they have
burned incense to the host of heaven and
have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
So Jeremiah came from Tophet, whether the Lord
had sent him to prophesy.
And he stood in the court of the
Lord's house and said to the people, thus
saith the Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel, behold, I will bring upon this city
and upon all of our towns, all of
the evil that I've pronounced against it, because
they have hardened their necks, that they might
not hear my words.
And so the people were just refusing to
listen to the warnings of God.
Now Pasher, and the name means prosperity all
around.
Now Pasher, the son of Emer, the priest,
who was also the chief governor in the
house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah had
prophesied these things.
Then Pasher smote Jeremiah the prophet and put
him in the stocks that were in the
high gate of Benjamin, which was by the
house of the Lord.
So Jeremiah is now shut up in the
stocks by this fellow whose name means prosperity
all over the place, you know, prosperity all
around.
And he puts, Jeremiah smites him, puts him
in the stocks.
And it came to pass on the morrow
that Pasher brought forth Jeremiah out of the
stocks.
Then said Jeremiah unto him, the Lord hath
not called thy name.
Pasher, God doesn't call you prosperity all about,
but God calls you terror all around.
And so, for thus saith the Lord, behold,
I will make thee a terror to thyself
and to all your friends, and they shall
fall by the sword of their enemies, and
thine eyes shall behold it.
And I will give all Judah into the
hand of the king of Babylon, and he
shall carry them captive unto Babylon, and shall
slay them with a sword.
Moreover, I will deliver all the strength of
this city, and all the labors thereof, and
all of the precious things thereof, and all
of the treasures of the kings of Judah
will I give into the hand of their
enemies, which shall spoil them and take them
and carry them to Babylon.
So Jeremiah really being in the stocks didn't
really quiet him.
He just really prophesies unto Pasher the evil
that is going to come, his own captivity,
and that of his friends, and all of
the treasures carried away to Babylon.
And thou, Pasher, and all that dwell in
your house shall go into captivity, and you
shall come to Babylon, and there you will
die and will be buried there, you and
all your friends to whom you have prophesied
lies.
Now Jeremiah cries out to the Lord, O
Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was
deceived.
Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed.
I am in derision daily.
Everyone mocks me.
For since I spake, I cried out, I
cried violence and spoil, because the word of
the Lord was made a reproach unto me
in a derision daily.
Now he's, he's, he laid it on to
Pasher, but now he's talking to God saying,
God, you know, here I've been prophesying, and
they threw me in jail, you know, and
speaking in your name, and I got put
in stocks.
Lord, you know, what's going on here?
And, and is that any way to treat
your servants, you know, and, and those who
are prophesying in your name?
And, and so he's really upset.
Then said I, I will not make mention
of him, nor speak any more in his
name.
Lord, I'm through.
Here's my resignation.
I'm finished.
You know, I'm thrown in jail and put
in the stocks and all, because I'm speaking
your word.
Are you going to treat me like that?
I'm through, Lord.
I, I've had it.
I'm not going to speak again in your
name, that's all.
You're going to treat me like that.
But his word was in my heart as
a burning fire shut up in my bones,
and I was weary trying to hold it
back, and I could not stay.
Oh, God's word was just burning.
I, I couldn't keep quiet, you know.
It's just something that was there, and God's
word just burning like a fire, and I,
I just, I couldn't, couldn't keep back.
For I heard the defaming of many.
Fear was on every side.
Report, they say, and we will report it.
And all of my friends watched for my
halting.
They said, for a venture, he will be
enticed, and we will prevail against him.
We will take our revenge on him.
But the Lord is with me as a
mighty, terrible one.
Therefore, my persecutors shall stumble.
They're watching for me to stumble, but they're
going to stumble, because the Lord is with
me.
And they shall not prevail.
They shall be greatly ashamed, for they shall
not prosper.
Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
But, O Lord of hosts that tried the
righteous and seized the rains in the hearts,
let me see thy vengeance on them, for
unto thee have I opened my cause.
Sing unto the Lord.
Praise ye the Lord, for he hath delivered
the soul of the poor from the hand
of the evildoers.
So, he laughs again into a worship of
the Lord as he talks to the Lord
about these people that are plotting against him.
And God has said, you remember, I, the
Lord, search the hearts, try the rains.
He says, okay, Lord, search the hearts, try
the rains, and wipe them out, because you
can see what they're doing.
They're evildoers.
So, let me see your vengeance on them.
Sing unto the Lord.
Praise ye the Lord, for he hath delivered
the soul of the poor from the hand
of the evildoers.
Now, as I told you, he's a melancholy,
because he goes from this, praise the Lord,
he's delivered, you know, from the hand of
the evildoers, and foop, right down to the
bottom.
Cursed be the day wherein I was born.
Let not the day wherein my mother bare
me be blessed.
Cursed be the man who brought tidings to
my father, saying, you've had a boy, making
my father very glad.
And let that man be as the cities
which the Lord overthrew and repented not.
And let him hear the cry of the
morning and the shouting at noontide, because he
did not slay me when I was born.
Or that my mother might have been my
grave, my womb, was always in her womb
to be always great with me.
In other words, had she never brought me
forth, had I just been stillborn, died or
something, you know, or still in her womb,
God cursed the day that I ever came
out of the womb and started this whole
routine.
Why did I come forth out of the
womb to see the labor and sorrow that
my days should be consumed with shame?
Isn't it amazing how he can go from
just this high, oh, praise the Lord, you
know, he's done glorious things and all.
Cursed be the day I was born.
You know, it's amazing how easily Satan can
rob us of our joy.
How little it takes to rob us of
our joy in the Lord.
You know, I can start thinking about what
the Lord has done and just get so
high.
If I'm thinking about God's goodness and God's
blessing and all that God has done, I
just get rejoicing in the Lord.
I start singing, I make up songs of
praise and love to him, and I just,
you know, I just get carried away.
Oh, Lord, you're so good.
I love you.
It's just unreal, Lord, I can't believe what
you're doing, you know, and I just get
so happy and excited in the Lord and
the things of the Lord.
And I'm going down the street just so
excited worshiping the Lord, and some nut for
no apparent reason throws on his brakes right
in front of me, you know, and I
have to swerve and throw my brakes and,
you know, swing around to miss him.
You idiot, you know.
And from this glorious spiritual high to this
fleshly monster in just such a quick time.
It's amazing how quickly we can go from
these high spiritual plateaus right down into the
depths of despair.
He goes from the praising God right into
the curse of the day I was born.
Be careful, don't let Satan rob your joy
from you.
Realize that he's out to do it.
Be on guard.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
Let your heart rejoice in him.
Bring forth praises unto him for his goodness
and his blessings and his mercy and his
grace.
And when Satan throws these stumbling blocks in
the path to bring you down into the
flesh, don't allow it.
While back going through the market, happy as
can be, rejoicing in the Lord.
He's so good.
He's blessed me so much.
I had a neat thick top sirloin steak
in the basket and I thought, Lord, you've
given me money to purchase this steak.
You know, I'm going to go home and
barbecue.
Oh Lord, you know, you were so good
to me.
I can remember the day when I could
never afford a steak like this.
And now Lord, here I am blessed of
thee.
You're so good to me, Lord.
And I was just going around the store
rejoicing, praising the Lord, came up to the
line, just standing there happy in the Lord,
just waiting my turn, you know, just, oh
Lord, you're so good.
And this little fat guy with a cigar
came crowding into the line right in front
of me, pushed his way in.
And I thought, why you rude little character.
And I was ready to just grab him
by the collar, turn him around and say,
who do you think you are?
Don't you see I'm standing, waiting in line?
You get behind me and that cigar.
I wanted to just push it right down
his throat.
And I was just seething.
And the spirit spoke to me and said,
oh, such great love, such great rejoicing, such
great joy in the Lord, all dissipated over
a stinking cigar.
I said, no way.
I'm not going to lose my joy over
this rude little character.
I'm going to take another swing around the
store.
I didn't have anything more to get, but
I went around the store again, just to,
just to get back in the right frame
of mind.
So that guy would be out of the
store by the time I got back to
the checking stand, you know, I, I know
my limits and I know what I can
handle, but up and down a few more
aisles and getting the perspectives again, back in
the Lord, I came back to the check
stand and he was gone.
And I had a great victory and a
good steak and, and a time of praise,
but oh, how, how easily we can lose
that praising and rejoicing in the Lord.
How quickly Satan can throw a snare out
there and just, and man, I'm trapped.
And, and that consciousness of God, that joy
and rejoicing is taken.
And I feel all of this anger and
bitterness and, and all he, he knows where
to hit us.
He knows how to get us, but let's
not let him do it.
Let's keep the right perspective, take another swing
around the block or around the store or
whatever you have to do in order to
maintain that glorious joy and praise and rejoicing
in him.
Poor Jeremiah, I'll sing unto the Lord, praise
the Lord for he has delivered the soul
of the poor.
Oh, curse would be the day I was
born.
I don't know what happened between those two
verses, but something really came in and wiped
him out, put him down to the bottom
of the barrel.
So we pray.
Father, we thank you for the joy that
we can experience in Christ Jesus.
As we think about the hope that is
ours, that eternal life that
you have given to us by our simply
believing and trusting in him, that inheritance that
is incorruptible and undefiled, that you've reserved in
heaven for us.
You're keeping power Lord, whereby you keep and
strengthen us day by day.
Oh Lord, truly we are blessed, blessed to
live in this land, blessed with freedoms to
worship thee, blessed with thy word that we
might know thee, blessed on every side above
all nations of the earth.
Oh God, help us to remember the blessings,
the good things that you have done.
And may we give praise and thanks unto
you continually for your goodness.
God, keep our hearts in the right place
in Jesus name.
Amen.
May the Lord be with you and bless
you this week.
May he watch over your lives and keep
you in his love.
May you abound in the love of Jesus
Christ.
May there just be that rich flowing forth
in and from your life as God works
in you his perfect work of love and
grace.
May God grant that you have just a
special week of Easter.
Enjoying the goodness and the fullness of God
and his love in Jesus name.