Jeremiah

Jeremiah Chapter 9

• Jeremiah 9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

How Jeremiah cared for these people. It broke his heart to see this destruction come. He did not get pleasure out of the fact that what he prophesied was coming to pass. He did not have the "See I told you so," attitude. He had a true pastor's heart for his people.

I'm in tears this morning also thinking about the religions or nations today that kill people they don't even know because they are of a certain nationality or a certain religion different from the one they believe in. I realize that in the book of Joshua we see God sending Israel to destroy nations but it wasn't because their religion was different, it was because their idolatrous religions caused them to sacrifice their own children to the idols. Much evil was going on that harmed innocent children. 

God gives nations a chance to repent and He does wait, but sooner or later He sends His judgment. So those who kill the innocent will reap justice. He who lives by the sword will die by the sword according to the word of God. 

• Revelation 13:10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. 

We see here though that God allowed this judgment on Judah because they did not repent but continued in the evil of idolatry.

• Jeremiah 9:2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

This is a natural desire if we disagree with the sin that is going on around us and are continually grieved. If we have tried to warn and testify and they fail to hear, it is natural to want to get away from it and rest. In fact, we would have to leave eventually or else be swallowed up in the sin ourselves as we saw when reading the story in Genesis of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The family of Lot was being swallowed up with the evil surrounding them. We are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. This means to be in constant fellowship with them after they have continually rejected the message of the gospel and live in gross sin that could harm their own children.

• Jeremiah 9:3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.

Those that do evil continually with no sign of repenting from the evil do not know the Lord. Those that would rather hear lies than truth, and follow after evil do not know the Lord. I don't care if they were baptized, go to church and give money to charities, if they do evil, they do not know the Lord.

• Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 
• 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 
• 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 
• 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
• 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 
• 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 
• 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

To mentally believe is not true religion, but to live by what we believe makes is a reality.

• Jeremiah 9:4 Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
• 5 And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

They had gotten so deceptive and slanderous that they were not to be trusted.

Although we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, if they are given to these things, we are not to trust in them. We are to trust in God alone. We are also to take heed lest we become deceivers, liars and slanderers. By staying in constant prayer and mediation of the word, we will avoid these abominations.

• Jeremiah 9:6 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.

Deception is the very opposite of a child of God. We are to be open and honest without having anything to be ashamed of. This can only be done by being filled with God's spirit and walking in the Spirit. We obtain this type of walk by first receiving the Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts by turning from sin and receiving Him as our savior.

• Jeremiah 9:7 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?
• 8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.

We must avoid this even as Christians. If we do these things, we must seek God for strength to overcome. To be one way to a person's face and speak evil of him behind his back is a trait that God hates. If we do not have the nerve to be honest with a person when we see them face to face, then we must keep silent behind their backs.

• James 4:11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

We see that God wants us to walk in love and speak truth. To speak evil of each other is evil.

• Jeremiah 9:9 Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

These and any sins that we have not confessed and forsaken shall be judged. To visit in many cases simply means to bring judgment, not visit the way we think of visiting

• 1John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 
• 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 
• 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 
• 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

True religion is to be sorry for sin and desire to live pleasing to God trusting in His grace and mercy.

• Jeremiah 9:10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.
• 11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.

One day all sin will be put down and destroyed. That is the whole reason for the bible to be written. God made a way for us to escape the coming judgment upon all mankind and all sin. Just as the warnings of Jeremiah came to pass, it will come to pass.

Every prophecy in the book of Revelation, every prophecy given by the anointed of God either has already come to pass or will come to pass in the future. It will be fulfilled. There is a way of escape though if we accept God's plan for our salvation. Some prophecies have a double meaning or repeats in a pattern until the final fulfillment.

If we reject the power of Jesus to save us from sin then there is no other way to be saved. We will suffer eternal death in hell if we do not come to Jesus Christ for salvation. He paid a big price for our salvation and if we reject it, there is no hope for us. None.

• Jeremiah 9:12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?
• 13 And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;

By giving the law, God showed us the seriousness of sin and its consequences.

When Israel forsook God's law, they suffered. God then sent them a Messiah to deliver and show them the way of salvation. Through Jesus Christ God showed them that they needed to repent of sins and turn to His Son Jesus. Jesus would baptize them in the Holy Spirit so that they would have the strength to overcome sin and live righteously.

Jesus paid the supreme sacrifice for sins that the blood of animal sacrifices could not do. Animal sacrifices pointed to the one that was to come but it could not take away their sins. Only by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross would there by power to save from sin. This power though is only given to those who believe. If we do not believe in the Son, Jesus Christ and His death, burial and resurrection from the dead, then that sacrifice for sins does not count for those who do not believe.

This is a gift of God. A free gift available to everyone. Great or small, rich or poor, every skin color, every age. All we have to do is receive this.

• Jeremiah 9:14 But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:

Our own imaginations and doing what is right in our own eyes is the way to destruction, not life.

• Jeremiah 9:15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
• 16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

This is why the Jews lost their homeland and were scattered all over the face of the earth. They now have their homeland back because it will fulfill prophecy in the latter days. However, most that live there still have not recognized their Messiah. More suffering is to come for them in order to show them that the Messiah they rejected is truly the one who came to save them over 2000 years ago.

According to bible prophecy they will eventually see this. There are many Jews coming to Christ in these latter days. For any Jew or Gentile that reads this message, you don't have to wait a day longer. You can receive this Messiah, Jesus Christ immediately. 

• Jeremiah 9:17 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:
• 18 And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
• 19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.
• 20 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation.
• 21 For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.
• 22 Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.

If we have lost out with God, there is nothing to rejoice over. That would be a time of great mourning and weeping.

• Jeremiah 9:23 Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

Being rich, wise and mighty is nothing to gloat or be proud about.

• Jeremiah 9:24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.

If we know the Lord, that is something to rejoice over. That is why people who love God are constantly praising God both with song and with their voices. This is our joy and song. This is our glory. Nothing else really matters.

• Jeremiah 9:25 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;
  26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

To be uncircumcised here doesn't mean in the physical sense but within the inner person. Our attitude toward God is what matters. It doesn't matter whether we are Jews or Gentiles, if we sin and do not receive God's plan for us to be free from sin, we will be judged alike. All will come before the judgment of God. This will come to pass. God made a way of escape though for those who desire it. That is why He sent Jesus Christ. DC

Study of Jeremiah 10