Jeremiah

Jeremiah Chapter 16

• Jeremiah 16:1 The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
• 2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.
• 3 For thus saith the LORD 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;

God was telling Jeremiah not to bother taking a wife and bearing children in this place because of the coming judgment. I can imagine the reaction of us in the United States if someone preached to us the same message. Our reaction would be to say that God doesn't cut people off. God is not like that. God loves everybody.

Its true God loves everybody which is why He sent Jesus to show us how to get back to Him (God). We have to realize though that after sending preachers and prophets to warn and warn and warn, time and time again, but people refuse and keep refusing. Sometimes evil people will kill the preachers and prophets, which they did back then. There comes a time when God has to stop the evil or else new generations will rise up and be worse than the older ones were.

In the coming years, believe it or not according to Revelations, it will be worse than in Jeremiah's day. Why is this? Because this time it wasn't just the Jewish people who reject the law of God but the whole world who rejects the gospel of Jesus Christ.

After all the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, His crucifixion, his burial and his resurrection to give eternal life to all who believe in Him, if we reject that, there is no more that God can do to save us. That was the only way and if we ignore Him we will be lost in hell forever.

I remember a story I read about a man who saw a storm coming and saw helpless birds exposed to the storm and wondered how he could get the birds to come safely into his barn. The only way would have been to become a bird and go tell them.

God sent His Son to become one of us to give us the message of repentance and eternal life. Some (not all) of His own people would not hear. They even had him crucified. Of course that crucifixion was necessary in order for him to pay the price for our sins. Our sins crucified Jesus, not the Jews. Anyway, if mankind keeps rejecting this good way of salvation eventually judgment will come just as in the days of Jeremiah and the days of salvation will end.

Now is the time, now is the day of salvation. Now is the time to repent of sins and turn to God by believing in what Jesus did for us on the cross.

• Jeremiah 16:4 They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
• 5 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 lovingkindness and mercies.

This is what happens when a nation of people continually reject God. God cannot allow sin to continue or suffering will continue. One day it will all be destroyed by fire. If we come to Jesus to escape the judgment of sin, we will be saved but sin will be destroyed. It cannot continue.

• Jeremiah 16:6 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:

This happened then and will happen again at the battle of Armageddon.

• Jeremiah 16:7 Neither shall men tear themselves for them in 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.

There will not even be those who will mourn for these people.

• Jeremiah 16:8 Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

He tells Jeremiah not to try to comfort the people for their loss.

• Jeremiah 16:9 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 mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

Jeremiah was to warn and preach. He was not to eat and drink with the people who were facing judgment.

• Jeremiah 16:10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath 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?

The people will ask God, "What have we done that is so bad?"

• Jeremiah 16:11 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 worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

This is so plain. They worshipped other gods that they were forbidden by the law of God to worship. God gave them and would have given them so much but they preferred to worship gods that did not even exist. This led to the other sins of adultery, fornication, and even sacrificing their own children to these other gods.

Suffering, sorrow and disease increases when a nation chooses to sin and turn away from God. The children suffer for one. When we forsake God, we start to sin. When sin starts, it gets worse and worse with every generation. This is because there is a wicked one called Satan. When we cut God out of our lives, Satan walks in uninvited. He becomes our master. We become a slave to sin. 

In our nation the unborn children are the ones suffering in this present time because of sin. Don't think for one minute that it is not painful for an unborn baby to be burnt by saline solution and aborted. Of course it hurts. Surgical abortion hurts also. I've seen pictures of these abortions. The babies look awful. This has got to be the worse sin imaginable for a civilized county like the United States which should know better.

We are supposed to be civilized, yet because a woman demands a right to choose. (I'm a woman myself so I can say what I want here.) A woman demands a right to choose and chooses to allow a doctor (if you choose to call them that) to kill her little baby. God has been merciful so far to us but how long will that last? To further prove my point, abortion in the beginning back in the 70s usually was for the 1st trimester. Later they allowed abortions for later trimesters, then up until time for it to be born, and now sadly some states allow the baby that is born alive to just die and some are harvested for body parts. Fetal tissue is used in vaccines. Shame, shame on abortion clinics that do this evil.

As in the days of Jeremiah so is today. They didn't listen and today even the some in our own country are not listening. They prefer to believe God loves them the way they are and will not bring any judgment. Okay but that is not what the bible says. That is not what the book of Revelation says. Even Jesus said:

• Luke 13:1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 
• 2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? 
• 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 
• 4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? 
• 5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

We would love to picture God as just full of mercy and love. He is all that but true love also stands for justice, fairness and judgment for those that refuse to change and stop hurting innocent people.

• Jeremiah 16:12 And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:

This is why we need to hear the word of God preached continually and the bible read every day. If we don't hear from God we will begin to walk after our own imaginations. We will begin to do what is right in our own eyes. The trouble with that is that we all come from so many backgrounds and standards of living that we all are different. The nations with the most prosperity are the nations that had godly influence. Sooner or later though if they do not continue living godly, they will lose all that.

Why do you think the United States has been so great so far?  It is because of those that believe in God. If God's hand of protection leaves us, we would not be so great. If we reject God and God's right to change our lives according to His word, we will eventually be without God's protection. Man's ways are not God's ways and eventually man's ways become evil. We need to learn of God's ways.

Man's ways are selfish and self-centered. That makes only the rich and powerful in control while everyone else suffers. Remember the days of slavery. Someone suffered.

The answer is God and from God comes love and compassion. Love does not abort babies, love does not enslave fellow human beings, love does not kill those who disagree with you, love does not steal from a neighbor, whether it is material goods or your neighbor's spouse. Love does not despise Democrats if you are a Republican or Republicans if you are a Democrat. Love does not hate the sexually impure but it will cause us to warn them of the danger and confusion it causes in society.

If we do anything contrary to God's divine order and use our bodies in a way God did not design them to be used, it will bring consequences, mentally, physically and spiritually. Society then becomes reprobate in their minds. Mental illness increases and many are without common sense. It gets worse and worse. Some kids are so confused they do not know which gender they are.

Sexual sin is an abomination in the sight of God. Read the first chapter of Romans. Love warns but does not hate. Love is to tell the truth.

• Jeremiah 16:13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.

This is why Israel lost their nation and were scattered all over the world.

• Jeremiah 16:14 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;
• 15 But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

Part of this started being fulfilled in 1948.

• Jeremiah 16:16 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, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
• 17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
• 18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.
• 19 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.
• 20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
• 21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

God is so good. Even though Israel sinned and was cast out in the time of Jeremiah and later after their rejection of the Messiah whom we now know as Jesus, God still remembers His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Israel will be saved and reunited with God after the coming tribulation period that is to come upon the earth in the future. Read Daniel and Revelation for more on this. Israel will discover that the Messiah that their forefathers had crucified is the very Messiah prophesied by Moses the prophet many years before. Israel will finally recognize the one they pierced.

• Zechariah 13:6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

The prints of nails in the hand of Jesus the Messiah.

• Revevlation 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

We will one day be able to see the nail prints in the hands of Jesus.

• Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
• 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
• 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
• 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
• 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
• 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
• 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
• 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
• 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
• 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
• 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
• 12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

I can't add much more to Isaiah 53. Jesus is the one spoken about here. None other but Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel, the savior of the world. DC

Study of Jeremiah 17