Jeremiah
17:1-27
Definition of faith and the human heart
Halley has, “Their
downfall [is] inevitable. Yet the promise is flung out again and again that if
only they would turn to God, Jerusalem would remain forever (24-25). Verses 1-4, again God defines the sins of
Judah, and that they have kindled God’s anger, as he says, forever in verse
4. Verses 5-10, J. Vernon
McGee says “It might be well for us to put that up as a motto today. Sometimes we think we can depend on certain
men or on certain political parties to work out the problems of the world [or
our nation]. You and I are cursed people
if we put our trust in men and what men can do. This is the day to trust God.” Verses 5-8 shows the fruits of a man not having faith in God as opposed
to a man having faith in God, explains the spiritual quality of faith and its rewards. Verse 9 is the classic definition of what the
human heart is like in this world of Satan, often quoted by astute
pastors. It echoes of Paul’s classic
statement in Romans 3:9-18 which starts out “There is none righteous, no not
one…” Verse 10, God is the one who
searches the hearts of men, with payback to each for his own ways. God is in the job of searching the hearts of
men and women. Those that show a genuine
love for God and the things of God are the ones God reveals himself to, and
draws to himself. I love what J. Vernon
McGee says about verse 9, “Sometimes we who are ministers use the expression,
‘Give your heart to the Lord.’ Well,
what would God want with that old, dirty, filthy heart of yours or mine? He doesn’t want it. The heart is deceitful. He wants to give you a new heart.” Cf. Jeremiah 31:31-34.
Verses 11-13 are sort of like a few proverbs
the LORD gives us through Jeremiah. Verses 14-18 contain a prayer from Jeremiah
to the LORD. Then verses 19-27 contain a serious warning to Judah about
doing any work on God’s Holy Sabbath-day (which for the uninformed falls on
Saturday, sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday night) for those believers
who observe it. I always say, for those
who observe it, they should observe it according to the dictates and
requirements of actual Scripture, and for those who exercise what they believe
are their freedoms in Christ to observe another day of worship (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/romans/romans12-14_2.htm),
there are no such requirements, as they see it.
“The sin of
Judah is written with a pen of iron;
with the point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars, while
their children remember their altars and their wooden images by the green trees
on the high hills. O my mountain in the
field, I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures, and your high places of sin within all
your borders. And you, even yourself,
shall let go of your heritage which I gave you; and I will cause you to serve
your enemies in the land which you do not know; for you have kindled a fire in
my anger which shall burn forever.”
The Fruits of Men’s Hearts, Who Do You Trust In, Man or God?
“Thus says the LORD: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs
from the LORD. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the
wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope
is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the
waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat
comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of
drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.”
What the human heart is truly like
Verses 9-10, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can
know it? I, the LORD search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the
fruit of his doings.”
A few proverbs from the LORD
“As the partridge that broods but does not
hatch, so is he who gets riches, but
not by right; it will leave him in the midst of his days. And at his end he will be a fool. A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O LORD, the hope of
Israel, all who forsake you shall be ashamed. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth [ie, ashes to
ashes and dust to dust], because they
have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of
living waters.”
Jeremiah’s Prayer to the LORD
Verses 14-18,
“Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved,
for you are my praise. Indeed they say to me, ‘Where is the word of the LORD? Let is come now!’ As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows you, nor have I desired the woeful day [he doesn’t want the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem to
come, until it’s absolutely necessary, in the hopes they will change]; you know what came out of my lips; it was
right there before you. Do not be a
terror to me; you are my hope in the
day of doom. Let them be ashamed who
persecute me, but do not let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of doom, and destroy them with double
destruction!’
Hallow the Sabbath Day
Verses 19-27,
“Thus the LORD said to me: ‘Go and stand in the gate of the children of
the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and
in all the gates of Jerusalem; and say to them, Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah,
and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these
gates. Thus says the LORD: ‘Take heed to
yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; nor
carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but
hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers [cf. Exodus 20:8-11]. But they did not obey nor incline their ear,
but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive
instruction. And it shall be, if you
heed me carefully,’ says the LORD, to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the
Sabbath day, but to hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, then shall
enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David,
riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by men of
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah
and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the
lowland, from the mountains and from the South, bringing offerings and
sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing sacrifices of praise to the
house of the LORD. But if you will
not heed me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when
entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire
in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be
quenched.’”
Jeremiah
18:1-23
Jeremiah 18:1-11,
“There are three basic things: the potter, the wheel, and the clay. In the Bible on four different occasions this
analogy of the potter and the clay is used to express our relationship to God. He is the Master Potter; my life is the
clay. This picture speaks to us of the
sovereignty of God over our lives, the ability of God to make of us whatever he
desires. Clay in its natural form is
almost worthless because it is common. But yet the potter, through his skill, can take worthless clay and make
it into a vessel of beauty. He can make
it into a vessel that can be used. Our
lives in their natural state are almost worthless. [As you grow older, toward old age, you will
all realize how decrepit and worthless our physical bodies, composed of
physical matter are. It is the second
law of entropy in physics that all matter decays from a higher form of worth
and/or energy level to a lower one. Our
bodies do the same exact thing, as you’ll discover, if you haven’t already
done.] There is only one life. It will soon be passed; only what you do for
Christ will last. The wheel is the
instrument with which the potter fashions the clay. It is under his control, and he uses it to
form the clay into whatever shape he wants for it. And thus the wheel represents the
circumstances in our lives that God uses to mold and shape us. God uses circumstances [in our family,
immediate surroundings, and this evil world] to mold our character. [i.e. look at the circumstances of this evil
world God used to mold the character of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshak and Abed-Nego
in captivity in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Empire.] In this Jeremiah passage, the vessel was
marred in the hands of the potter as Jeremiah was watching it. The thing that strikes me about this is God’s
patience. Though there is the failure
and the vessel becomes marred in the hands of the potter, he does not give up. He will start over and remold and reshape it
until it becomes a vessel that pleases him. Here in this picture, we see the beautiful patience of God by which he
works with us and in us as he is forming and shaping us into the image of Jesus
Christ. Paul said, “But we all, with
unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of
the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). So God is
working in you to conform you into the image of Christ, patiently and lovingly. How I appreciate and thank the Potter for his
mercy and his patience with which he has worked in my life.” [quoted from Pastor Chuck Smith’s “The Word
For Today Bible”, NKJV, p. 978] J. Vernon McGee has this to say about God the
Master Potter, “…the clay on the wheel down at the potter’s house to which
Jeremiah takes us has no will. I
do! That clay cannot cooperate with the
potter [but in pottery, the potter can make clay more “cooperative” if it is
too dry or hard, by adding water, which in the Bible is symbolic of the Holy
Spirit]. That clay cannot cooperate with
the potter. I can! I quoted the Genesis account of the creation
of man for a purpose---God created man in his own likeness. He took man physically out of the dust of the
ground; he made man. Then he breathed
into his breathing-places the spirit of life, and man became a living
soul. Man today has a free will, and he
can exercise it. That clay has no
will. But you and I do have a will; we
can cooperate with the Potter. Now I
want to ask the Potter a question. What’s your purpose in putting me on the potter’s wheel? Why do you bear down on me? Why do you do this? I’m not being irreverent, but I am like the
little gingerbread boy, I talk back. Why, O Potter, do you do this? What are you after? Well, I go
back to the potter’s house. Follow me
now very carefully. I do not discover
the purpose, but I learn something more important than the purpose for my
life. I learn that the potter has
a purpose, which is more important to know. I watch the potter there. He is
serious. He means business. He’s not playing with clay. This is his work. He is giving his time, his talents, his
ability to working with the clay. Notice
again in verses 3-4: “Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he
wrought 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, as seemed good to the potter to make it.” My friend, this is not a cat-and-mouse
operation. This is not the potter’s
avocation. It is his vocation. It is not his hobby. This is not something with which he is
amusing himself. He knows what he is
doing. This tells me that God is not
playing with me today. He is not
experimenting with us. He has
purpose. And, friend, that comforts
me. This is the second great principle
we see here: the Potter has a purpose
(THRU THE BIBLE, Vol. III, p. 385)” as Pastor Chuck Smith has already explained
to us. Who really is the Potter, let’s
get the big picture. “Nowhere, I repeat,
nowhere will you find such a graphic picture of the sovereignty of God than in
this [illustration of the potter]. Man,
the clay upon the potter’s wheel, and God, the Potter. You won’t find anything quite like this. And our contemporary generation resists it
because this is the day of the rights of man. We are hearing a great deal today about freedom, and every group is
insisting upon its freedom---freedom to protest, freedom to do what it
chooses. We seem to have forgotten about
the rights of God. Today men will permit
a racketeering gangster to plead the fifth amendment because we must protect
his rights. God has incontestable
authority. His will is inexorable, it is inflexible, and it will prevail. He has irresistible ability to form and
fashion this universe to suit himself. He can form this little earth on which we live to suit himself [as prior
creations and climatic conditions to suit them have been clearly seen. See http://www.unityinchrist.com/dinosaurs/dinosaurs.htm ]. And, my friend, you, an individual,
and I, an individual, can be nothing but clay in his hands. He has power to carry through his will and he
answers to no one. He has no board of
directors. He has no voters to whom he
must respond. He has absolute
authority. His is God. You and I live in a universe that is running
to please God. And the rebellion of
little man down here on this speck of dust that we live on is a “tempest in a
teapot!” Our little earth, as we see in
the pictures taken from the moon, is just a speck in the infinity of
space. And, my friend, God rides
triumphantly in his own chariot [turn to Ezekiel 1:1-28 and read this
description of what amounts to a portable throne of Yahweh, his “chariot” so to
speak. Read it in the NKJV for
clarity.] [THRU THE BIBLE, Vol. III, p.
384] Verses 12-17, God’s warning is rejected. Halley says, “A very apt illustration of God’s power to alter the destiny
of a nation. Jeremiah used it as the
basis for another appeal to the wicked nation [of Judah] to amend its
ways. But in vain.” Verses 18-23, Jeremiah is persecuted.
“The word which
came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: ‘Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and
there I will cause you to hear my words.’ Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making
something at the wheel. And the vessel
that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again
into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?’ says the LORD. ‘Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel! The
instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to
pull down, and to destroy it, if that
nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the
disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to
build and to plant it, if it does
evil in my sight so that it does not obey my voice, then I will relent
concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.’ Now there, speak to the men of Judah and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I am
fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and
make your ways and your doings good.’” Comment: Now how
does this apply to believers in Yeshua, Jesus, now in today’s day and age. The answer to that question should be
obvious. The inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem were Yahweh’s physical
children, they received blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience,
in accordance to the Torah Laws found recorded in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy
28. If you as a believer are asking God
for something, and you are in a pattern of disobedience, backsliding, do you
think you’re going to receive the blessings you’re petitioning the Lord for? I suspect the pattern of how the Lord dealt
with the houses of Israel and Judah is quite similar to the template he uses
for us. Are you faithfully following the
road of sanctification the Lord has laid out before you, or are you in
rebellion to it? (See http://www.unityinchrist.com/whatisgrace/whatisgraceintro.htm for a lot of resources giving you a full treatment of this important
subject.) Is the Lord “fashioning a
disaster” for those in this part of the “Church Age”, for those who are “disobedient”? Jesus, the former Yahweh, says “I change not,
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” What was good for them is good for us, just in case you think having the
indwelling Holy Spirit gives you any special dispensation or cuts you any slack
ancient Israel and Judah weren’t cut. (To see what the Lord could be “fashioning” see http://www.unityinchrist.com/revelation/revelation3-1-22.html and http://www.unityinchrist.com/revelation/revelation4-10.html.) These are very scary times we’re
coming into, best to be spiritually prepared for those times. Next, verses 12 through 17. Now here’s a question many raise, ‘If Israel
and Judah were only receiving physical blessings for obedience, and they for
the most part did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit, were Israel and Judah
‘marred in the Potter’s hands’? When
will the LORD refashion them into vessels
of honor? Does he have a plan for
that?’ The Body of Christ has many
different answers to those questions, or they duck the issue entirely. See http://www.unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm to see this myriad of differing answers, and a link to a potentially true
answer at the end of that set of documents.
God’s Warning Rejected
“And they said,
‘That is hopeless! So we will walk
according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates [Hebrew: stubbornness] of his
evil heart.’ Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Ask now among the
Gentiles, who has heard such things? The
virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon, which
comes from the rock of the field? Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters? Because my people have forsaken me, they have
burned incense to worthless idols. And
they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, from the ancient paths, to walk in pathways and not on a highway,
to make their land desolate and a
perpetual hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and shake his
head. I will scatter them as with an
east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back and not the face in the
day of their calamity.’”
Jeremiah is persecuted
Verses 18-23,
“Then they said, ‘Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law
shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from
the prophet. Come and let us attack him
with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.’ Give heed to me, O LORD, and listen to the
voice of those who contend with me! Shall evil be repaid for good? For they have dug a pit for my life. Remember that I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away
your wrath from them. Therefore deliver
up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; let their wives become widows and bereaved of their
children. Let their men be put to death,
their young men be slain by the sword
in battle. Let a cry be heard from their
houses, when you bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have dug a pit to
take me, and hidden snares for my feet. Yet, LORD, you know all their counsel which is against me, to slay me. Provide no atonement for their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from
your sight; but let them be overthrown before you. Deal thus with them in the time of your anger.”
Jeremiah
19:1-15
This short
chapter gets to the heart of what God hates about Judah’s worship of idols, and
centers on one particular form of worship, Baal worship, and where it was
taking place. Log onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/kings/1.html and scroll to the paragraph title “King
Ahab, son of Omri rules in Israel” and read through that paragraph. It explains the horrible practice of Baal
worship, which Jeremiah shows is still going on, but now in Judah. It is the very reason God caused the ten
tribed House of Israel to be driven from its homeland just north of the land of
Judah.
“Thus says the LORD: ‘Go and get a
potter’s earthen flask, and take some
of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. And go out to the Valley of the Son of
Hinnom, which is by the entry of the
Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, and say, Hear
the word of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring such a
catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle. Because they have forsaken me and made this
an alien place, because they have burned
incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of
Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents
(they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did
not command or speak, nor did it come into my mind), therefore behold, the
days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the
Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. And I will make void the counsel of Judah and
Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before
their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I
will give as meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth. I will make this city desolate and a hissing;
everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of its
plagues. And I will cause them to eat
the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall
eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which
their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.’” That was
what God told Jeremiah to say to those whom he brought to the Valley of the Son
of Hinnom with this earthen flask. Yahweh instructs Jeremiah what to do next. Verses
10-12, “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,
and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: Even so I will break this people and this city,
as one breaks a potter’s vessel,
which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no
place to bury. Thus I will do to this
place,’ says the LORD, ‘and to its inhabitants, and make this city like
Tophet. And the houses of Jerusalem and
the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet,
because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the
host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’ [See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tophet and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Carthage.] Then Jeremiah goes to the Temple and makes a
similar proclamation. verses 14-15,
“Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of
the LORD’s house and said to all the people, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of
Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom
that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks that
they might not hear my words.’”
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