Jeremiah 14

 

1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning words of the famines. 2 Judah mourns, and its gates languish; they are black to the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up. 3 Their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. 4 Because the ground is chapped, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed; they covered their heads.

 

  • Famine is a small suffering compared to spending eternity in the lake of fire which is where mankind will be if they don’t return to their Creator.
  • If mankind will stay close to their Creator, their lives and the whole earth will be blessed.
  • II Kings 8:1 Then Elisha spoke to the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go you and your household, and stay wherever you can stay: for the LORD has called for a famine; and it will come on the land seven years.
  • Zechariah 14:17 And it will be, that whoever will not come up of all the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them will be no rain.

 

The Lord is our hope in time of trouble

 

5 Yes, the doe calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. 6 And the wild asses stood in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes failed, because there was no grass. 7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for your name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you. 8 O the hope of Israel, our savior in time of trouble, why should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night? 9 Why should you be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not leave us.

 

  • In the midst of a drought that they brought on themselves, God was with them.

 

10 This is what the LORD says to this people, They have loved to wander, they have not restrained their feet, therefore the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. 11 Then the LORD said to me, Do not pray for this people for their good. 12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

 

  • 1John 5:16 If any man sees his brother sin a sin that is not unto death, he will ask, and he will give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he is to pray for it.

 

13 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets say to them, You will not see the sword, nor will you have famine; but I will give you peace of truth in this place. 14 Then the LORD said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I did not send them, I did not command them or speak to them: they prophesy to you a false vision and worthless divination, and the deceit of their heart. 15 Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I did not send them, yet they say, Sword and famine will not be in this land; By sword and famine those prophets will be consumed. 16 And the people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they will have no one to bury them, them, their wives, or their sons or their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.

 

His eyes run down with tears

 

17 Therefore say this word to them; Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not stop: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow. 18 If I go forth into the field, then behold, the slain with the sword! And if I enter into the city, then behold those that are sick with famine! Yes! Both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they do not know.

 

  • Remember verse 9, He is in the midst of us.

 

19 Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble! 20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against you. 21 Do not abhor us, for your name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, do not break your covenant with us. 22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, O LORD our God? Therefore we will wait on you: for you have made all these things.

 

  • Psalm 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
  • Psalm 37:34 Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.

 

 

                                             Jeremiah 15

 

The Lord appointed four kinds of judgment for those who followed evil

 

1 Then the LORD said to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go. 2 And it will come to pass, if they say to you, Where will we go? Then you tell them, This is what the LORD says; Those that are for death, to death; and those that are for the sword, to the sword; and those that are for the famine, to the famine; and those that are for the captivity, to the captivity. 3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, says the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. 4 And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

 

  • Manesseh and the people murdered many helpless, innocent children and part of their evil worship of false gods.
  • They refused to turn from their evil ways back to God and be forgiven.
  • Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn, turn from your evil ways; why will you die, O house of Israel?

 

5 For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Or who will mourn for you? Who will go aside to ask how you are doing?  6 You have forsaken me, says the LORD, you have gone backward: therefore I will stretch out my hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with repenting. 7 And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children/whatever is dear, I will destroy my people, since they do not return from their ways. 8 Their widows have increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought on them, against the mother of the young men, a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall on it suddenly, and terrors on the city. 9 She that has borne seven languishes: she has given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them I will deliver to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD. 10 Cries of grief to me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, or men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them curses me.

 

  • God always tells us why.

 

God will make it well for His remnant

 

11 The LORD said, Truly it will be well with your remnant; truly I will cause the enemy to treat you well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. 12 Will iron break the northern iron and the steel? 13 I will give your substance and your treasures to be plunder without price, for all your sins, even in all your borders. 14 And I will make you to pass with your enemies into a land that you do not know: for a fire is kindled in my anger, that will burn upon you. 15 O LORD, you know: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; do not take me away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered rebuke.

 

His word is the joy and rejoicing of our hearts

 

16 Your words were found, and I ate them; and your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, O LORD God of hosts. 17 I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, or rejoice; I sat alone because of your hand: for you have filled me with indignation. 18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you be like a liar to me, and like waters that fail? 19 Therefore this is what the Lord says, If you return, then I will bring you again, and you will stand before me: and if you take out the precious from the vile, you will be as my mouth: let them return unto you; but you do not return to them. 20 And I will make you to this people a fenced brass wall: and they will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you: for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says the LORD. 21 And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.

 

  • 1Peter 1:18 you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your empty life received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot:

 

                                            Jeremiah 16

 

1 The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 You are not to take a wife, you are not to have sons or daughters in this place. 3 For this is what the Lord says concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land; 4 They will die grievous deaths; they will not be lamented; neither will they be buried; but they will be as dung on the face of the earth: and they will be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcasses will be food for the fowls of heaven, and for the animals of the earth.

 

  • The Lord protected Jeremiah from heartache by not allowing him to have a family in this place at this time.
  • Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn, turn from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?

 

The Lord takes away His peace, His loving kindness, and His mercies from those who follow evil

 

5 The Lord says this, Do not enter into the house of mourning or go to lament or mourn for them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the LORD, even love and compassion. 6 Both the great and the small will die in this land: they will not be buried, neither will men lament for them or cut themselves or make themselves bald for them: 7 Neither will men break bread for those in mourning, to comfort themselves for the dead; neither will men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. 8 Also do not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

 

He causes joy to cease where evil is followed

 

9 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel says this; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.10 And it will come to pass, when you show this people all these words, and they will say to you, Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God? 11 Then you say to them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; 12 And you have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, every one of you walks after the imagination of his evil heart, so that they do not listen to me:

 

  • Our minds and hearts devise all sorts of things.
  • The only way we know what is right according to God is to look in His book.
  • He has been very clear with us.

 

13 Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favor. 14 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it will no longer be said, The LORD lives, that brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 15 But, The LORD lives, that brought the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands where he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

 

  • He cast them out so that they would return to Him for He is life.
  • Deuteronomy 30:1-3 And it will come to pass, when all these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse, that I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations, where the LORD your God has driven you, 2 And return to the LORD your God, and obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul; 3 That then the LORD your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the nations, where the LORD your God has scattered you.
  • John 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.

 

16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, says the LORD, and they will fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 17 For my eyes are on all their ways: they are not hidden from my face, neither is their iniquity hidden from my eyes. 18 And first, I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled my inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.

 

  • This tells us plainly why God gave them back double for their sin…they defiled His land.
  • Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

 

19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles will come to you from the ends of the earth, and will say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things in which there is no profit. 20 Can a man make gods for himself, and they are not gods? 21 So behold, I will, this once, cause them to know, I will cause them to know my hand and my power; and they will know that my name is The LORD.

 

  • We can’t make sunlight or air. How would we make God?
  • If you made it, it isn’t God. It can’t do anything.
  • God can do everything.
  • He made you.
  • The word LORD is JHWH. It means intense, eternal self-existence. He sustains all other things.
  • Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
  • Psalm 83:18 That men may know that you, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, are the most high over all the earth.

 

 

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SUMMARY: Jeremiah 14-16

 

  • The Lord is our hope in time of trouble
  • His eyes run down with tears
  • The Lord appointed four kinds of judgment for the idolaters
  • God will make it well for His remnant
  • His word is the joy and rejoicing of our hearts
  • The Lord takes away His peace, His loving kindness, and His mercies from those who follow evil
  • He causes joy to cease where evil is followed