Questions for thought:
1. Was there a plan for my life before I was born? If so, am I living up to that plan? If there was a plan, do I think it would have included whatever I have chosen to do with my life?
2. Do people sometimes search for preachers who preach what they want to hear rather than searching for preachers who preach the word whether they like it or not? Will that man-made gospel save?
3. God continues to call people to repentance just as He did Israel. People still say “We will not.” It sometimes seems like nothing happens to those who continue in sin, but based upon the prophecy of Jeremiah how do we know this is not the case?
After the fall of the northern kingdom of Isael whose capital was Samaira around 720 BC, Judah survived until 586 BC when it too was conquered. Jeremiah preached to Judah during the time period of 627 to 587 BC so the book of Jeremiah includes the last days of Judah before her captivity by Babylon. The book of Lamentation contains laments from the period just after the fall and was also written by Jeremiah, so I will be including both in the next few posts.
The book of Jeremiah begins with an introduction to the prophet. We read in 1:1 he was the son of Hilkiah in the land of Benjamin. In verses 2-3 we discover the kings who were reigning during Jeremiah’s time of prophecy were Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah.
In chapter 1 verse 5 we find an interesting statement concerning the plans God made for Jeremiah even before he was born. So God had a plan for Jeremiah. He planned for him to be His prophet and to warn people of what was about to happen. What if Jeremiah had chosen not to follow the plan? We can see in verses 6-10, Jeremiah much like some of those leaders before him tried to get out of his job. He told God he could not speak because he was a child. In verses 7-10 God took away his excuses and told him to get the job done.
Jeremiah was commanded by God to go and preach to the people. This sermon is recorded in chapters 2-4. Here Jeremiah told the people about how they had at one time served God but they had gone after sin. God had brought them out of Egypt to the Promised Land and they had defiled that land. According to 2:8, the priests and leaders of the people had failed God and gone after the prophesies of Baal.
In Jeremiah 2:13 God said His people had committed two evils. They had not only forsaken the fountain of living waters but they had hewn them out broken cisterns that could not hold water. Not only had Israel forsaken the laws given by God, but they had made their own system. God said it didn’t hold water. Is that any different than those who today have forsaken what has been given to us in the Bible and have gone about creating their own ways of worship? God has told us what He wants from us in the way of worship. He has either provided commands or examples as to what we should do. Yet, this very week as I am writing this, there are denominational friends who are observing their own man made holy days with special worship for God. Their special worship includes special songs, prayers, and readings many of which are not even scriptural. Is God pleased with such? God answers that for us in 2:19 where we read: “Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee:”
God continued through Jeremiah’s sermon to condemn Israel for their past. He told them how they had promised to follow Him, but then they continued to return to evil. Throughout the chapter He accused them of saying one thing and doing another. In chapter 3 God likened Israel to a wife who had played the harlot and wanted to return to her husband. Later in chapter 3 Jeremiah was prophesying under King Josiah and he continued the same lament with pleadings to Israel to return to God and allow God to heal their backslidings.
In chapter 4 the pleading to return continues but knowing it would not happen, God has Jeremiah prophesy concerning the destruction that would come upon Judah from the north. But even here in Jeremiah we have a promise of a remnant being saved. In chapter 4 verse 27 God said the whole land would be desolate yet, He would not make a full end. Again, in chapter 5 verse 18 God promised He would not make a full end or completely destroy His people.
At the end of chapter 5 it is written how the prophets prophesied falsely and the priests ruled by their own power rather than by God’s rules. The worse thing though may have been how the people loved to have it just like that. This too is the same as we see today in the religious world. So many times, those claiming to be from God preach a doctrine not to be found in the Bible. Or they just fail to preach what is in the Bible. They leave out the commands concerning assembling, the plan of salvation, marriage and divorce, submission, drinking alcoholic beverages, and lascivious lifestyles and the people flock to those teachers because they love being able to continue in their sin and think God will totally overlook it in the end. According to Jeremiah 6:14 the people may be thinking peace, peace, but we know from the end result of Israel, there was no final peace.
God gave His people a way to overcome their sin. In chapter 6 verse 16 He said to “stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” Rather than going back to the commandments they had been given years earlier, seeking the old paths, and walking in them, the people said, “We will not walk therein.” The same can be said today when the old paths are shown to the religious world and they say: “Those paths are too old fashioned. The gospel needs to change as society changes.” Not according to God.
We will continue to look at Judah’s sins as recorded by Jeremiah next time beginning in Jeremiah 7. In the meantime, is there anything in this lesson for Israel that we can use today as we see a world that has decided to not follow in the paths of God?
Christian Women's Responsibility in Sharing God's Word 