Jeremiah

Jeremiah Chapter 15

• Jeremiah 15:1 Then said the LORD unto 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 forth.

It is a sad situation when even Moses and Samuel could not intervene on the behalf of these people. They had gone so far in their sin and idolatry that it disgusted God. It is so hard to get it through to people that sin grieves the heart of God. Sin separates us from our God. Sin hurts us. Sin destroys. Sin kills. When we choose to remain in sin and ignore the way out of sin, we hurt not only ourselves but our family, our friends and the generations that come after us who are influenced by our wrong choices.

Sin is catching. It is as a disease. It keeps going on and on unless it is stopped by the power of God. Only the blood of Jesus is able to deliver us from sin. Before Jesus came they could be delivered from sin by repenting and turning toward God. They might not have understood that God was going to bring a perfect sacrifice for sins but turning to God at that time in repentance would have saved them.

They refused though to listen to God and walk in the law of God. The reason God allowed Israel to take over the land of Canaan from the inhabitants that were there before them was because the sin of the earlier inhabitants had gotten so great that God had to stop them.

Remember Abraham dwelled in that land and was promised the land would be his and his descendants. Yet God didn't allow Abraham to take over the land yet. This is because the iniquity of the inhabitants of that land was not yet full. They had not yet gotten to the place where there was no hope for repentance. Years later they did get to that place so God sent Israel into the land and allowed them to overcome the wicked nations and drive them out.

Now we see from the prophet Jeremiah that Israel and then Judah had followed after the sins of the nations around them. They were more guilty that the other nations because they had the law given by God to Moses. They should have known better.

• Jeremiah 15:2 And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.

This is just what happened to Israel and then Judah. Some died by disease, some were killed by the enemies, some died by starvation, some were led into captivity.

• Jeremiah 15:3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and 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 that which he did in Jerusalem.

The king was the ringleader and the others followed his wicked ways. It is possible for us to come apart from the lifestyles and choices of the majority. We do not have to follow bad leadership. God saved Noah and his family because they were different from the surrounding inhabitants of the earth at that time.

Noah believed in God. Remember to believe in God means more than just to believe a God exists somewhere. To believe in God means to trust in Him. To believe in God means to listen to what He has to say. We can't say we believe in God and ignore every teaching in the word of God. We can't say we have faith and do not have the respect of the word.

• Jeremiah 15:5 For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?

The nations around Judah that they were following after couldn't have cared less when they were destroyed as a nation.

This same thing is true today. If we choose to follow after the ways of the world instead of the ways of God, the worldly crowd couldn't care less about us. We can die and they don't care. We follow after vain persons and vain things and they do not care what happens to us. No one really cares about us except God whom many forsake to follow the other ones. Yet the one who cares is the one ignored the most. Go figure. Satan certainly does not care whether we live or die.

• Jeremiah 15:6 Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.

God was tired of changing his mind and holding back judgment.

I believe we live in a day when God is holding back judgment. He is showing the United States much mercy that we do not deserve. I know He must grieve over our sin, our abortion, the loss of respect for marriage, we have confusion over gender identity, men wanting to marry men, women wanting to marry women causing total confusion and minds have become reprobate just as the 1st chapter of Romans describes in detail.

We have the blatant ignoring of God's word, His word being thrown out of schools, yet all kinds of occult teachings accepted.

How about the oppression of the elderly? Do you think that God does not see how the elderly people who have worked hard for years and their tax money is spent to support the schools, fire and police, get old and cannot make as much money and cannot pay the increasing property tax. Therefore the state can take their land that they worked so hard to pay for and they have to go to retirement homes and lose their homes because of back taxes. It is not right. They did their part to build the schools, its time to give them relief from taxes. Yet the young do not see this. They keep building bigger and fancier school systems and raising taxes that those of fixed income cannot pay.

We want big fancy stuff and don't care who is hurt. We cheat in business so that we can get more and more. Even Christians buy and sell the gospel, charge a yearly license fee in order for churches to be able to sing their songs. Christianity has become a big business. We ignore the verse:

• Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

I realize copyrights are used sometimes just to keep people from stealing material and then claiming it is their creation. I understand that part but giving should be freewill.

• Jeremiah 15:7 And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.

They refused to return or change their ways. They ignored God's ways.

• Jeremiah 15:8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.
• 9 She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.
• 10 Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.
• 11 The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

Jeremiah was feeling abandoned and ill treated because he was speaking truth yet everyone hated him for it. God comforted him and promised to take care of him.

This was fulfilled later and recorded in Jeremiah 39:

• Jeremiah 39:11 Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying, 
• Jer 39:12 Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee.

Jeremiah stayed faithful even though he was discouraged many times.

• Jeremiah 15:12 Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?
• 13 Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.
• 14 And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.
• 15 O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.
• 16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
• 17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.
• 18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
• 19 Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.
• 20 And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
• 21 And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.

God promised that He would be with Jeremiah and deliver Him out of the hand of those that hate him. He told him not to fear or be afraid.

All servants of God must choose to obey God rather than man. To please men may bring satisfaction now but in the long run all will be hurt. If a man of God refuses to speak what God tells him to speak then the hearers will be lost forever and the speaker will be held accountable. If the speaker chooses rather to obey God rather than please men, he may suffer disapproval or even persecution but in the long run souls will be saved and his or her own souls will not be guilty of the blood of any lost soul.

Here is the promise to all who obey God. God has prepared a place:

• Isaiah 64:4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

This verse is repeated in the New Testament:

• 1Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

We must remember also that this book of Jeremiah is a prophesy of the coming judgment upon Israel for their backsliding but in the latter days we know from other prophesies that Israel will be restored as a nation. I need to keep reminding us of that fact so that we do not boast against Israel and cause anti semitism.  DC

Study of Jeremiah 16