Immanuel Sermon Audio
Jeremiah (24:66)
All right, find Jeremiah in your Bible pretty close to the middle, Jeremiah. If somebody were to look you in the eye and call you a "quizzling," would you know what they were talking about? You are a "quizzling." Anybody know? You are a "quizzling." Anybody? Anybody want to? Oh, not "quizzling" with a "Z." Close, though. Quizz-quizzling. How about "quizzling"? You are a "quizzling." Q-U-I-S-L-I-N-G. Yeah, pretty close, pretty close. There's a man named who put a picture up of this guy, Vidkin Quizzling. That is Vidkin on the left. He was a Norwegian and he was the founder of the Socialist Party in Norway back in 1933. I'm sure you all remember that. About six years after he founded the Socialist Party in Norway, he met with, you can see a picture over on the right, Adolf Hitler, and he encouraged Hitler. Remember, Quizzling was Norwegian. He encouraged Hitler to invade Norway. You should come to Norway and you should invade our country. Four months after that meeting, he did, and he just walked into the country and bad things happened, as you can imagine. Germany gained air bases and naval bases that were strategic for fighting the Brits when they took over Norway. There were a lot of atrocities committed, and right in the middle of it, with Hitler marching in, was Vidkin Quizzling, encouraging Hitler, counseling Hitler, giving him advice along the way. 1945, Norway was liberated, and Vidkin Quizzling was arrested and put on trial and convicted of treason and executed. After that, in Norway especially, but also in Europe, his name became synonymous with traitor. Quizzling. In the United States, we don't call people quizzling, but maybe we call them Benedict Arnold. What we mean is, you're a traitor. You have betrayed us. And if you're over on the continent, especially if you're in Norway, they would call you a Quizzling. What does that have to do with Jeremiah? Poor Jeremiah, he didn't really deserve this label, but his own people thought he was a traitor. That was his reputation in his day in Judah, was you are a traitor. You have betrayed your people and you're pulling for the bad guys. You're rooting for the bad guys, and we're going to see how he developed that reputation tonight. So, we're going through books of the Bible. One book at a time, we were in Jeremiah. Last week, we looked at Isaiah, which was the first of the major prophets. Tonight, we look at Jeremiah, which is the second of the major prophets. I told you last week that these are not major because they're more important than the minor prophets. They're major in the sense that the books tend to be longer than the minor prophets. And next week, we'll look at lamentations. Lamentations is a bit of an exception to that. Jeremiah wrote lamentations, and it's a pretty short book, but that'll be for next week. So, Jeremiah, like Isaiah, Jeremiah was a prophet, and he was a prophet in the southern kingdom of Judah, right? So, if you go back in the history of Israel, let's put that up. History of Israel. I think I'm skipping one on you maybe, but the conquest, that's what Joshua, period of the judges, the monarchy, Saul, then David, then Solomon, then the divided kingdom. That's when we had northern kingdom, southern kingdom, Israel in the north Judah in the south. Then there's a period of rebellion, and then God sends his people out of the Promised Land. He sends them into exile. He brought them in. He sends them out, and then he brings them back. We've talked about the return in Nehemiah and Ezra. So, old Jeremiah is right here in the period of rebellion, and then he is unfortunate enough to witness the exile, and to be around when Babylon finally comes and conquers Judah and hauls God's people out of the Promised Land. And so, when we look at this book, it's always a challenge to take a giant book like Jeremiah, and to break it down in one evening, and try to make some kind of sense of it. And so, what we're gonna do is, I'm gonna tell you a few things about Jeremiah, and then we're gonna take away some big lessons, and then we'll call it good on these 52 chapters in Jeremiah. So, here's what you need to know about Jeremiah in his ministry as a prophet. Okay, number one, he is known as the weeping prophet. Now, I already told you, he was known as a whistling, or as a traitor. That was in his own day amongst his own people. They thought of him as a traitor. Today, when we look back on Jeremiah, and we think about the man that he was in the ministry that God gave him, Bible scholars call him the weeping prophet. And the reason he's called the weeping prophet is that he suffered a lot, and he suffered because he did what God told him to do. He obeyed God, and he was faithful to God. He had some low points in his life. I don't want you to leave thinking he was a perfect man. He wasn't. But generally speaking, he obeyed the Lord, and he trusted the Lord, and he suffered for that. And anytime somebody tries to feed you a load of health and wealth prosperity gospel, you just ask them to fit that with the book of Jeremiah. How can you squeeze what you're telling me into the book of Jeremiah? You can't do it. It doesn't make sense. He was a man who suffered, so he's the weeping prophet. He came from a priestly family. This is the second thing there on your outline. Came from a priestly family in Benjamin, and he ministered during the time of Josiah, Jehoiachim, and Zedekiah. All of that, if you have your Bible, we'll just read these three verses. It says, "The words of Jeremiah, son of Hylkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. Came also during the days of Jehoiachim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, till the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month." So let me just put up this genealogy. I know that's really small. I know some of you are just laughing at me right now thinking that's just mean. I can't read that. I can't make sense of that. But deal with it. Trust me, up at the top on the right is Saul, and this is sort of the genealogy, the breakdown of all of the kings of Israel and Judah. And so up at the top they're all together, Saul, then David, then Solomon, and then it splits. And the green names down the right are Judah, that's Rehoboam, then over on the left, the red names are Israel, that's Jeroboam. And you can see that Jeremiah is all the way down at the bottom of that list. Doesn't really matter if you can see the names. You just see, there's a bunch of names, a bunch of kings, and Jeremiah comes in the very last three guys who ruled in Judah. This is the very end of the line. Israel has already come and gone, right? Jeroboam split off the northern kingdom of Israel. Those guys are long gone, already taken into exile. Judah's been hanging around. There's a few more kings. We talked about Isaiah last week. Isaiah is just a little bit further up that list. But here's Jeremiah, and he comes right at the very end. This is the end of the story of Judah. And so in the introduction, you meet Jeremiah and you learn some of these kings who were on the throne when he ministered. Here's the third thing you need to know about Jeremiah. He was predestined to be a prophet. We're not going to argue about that word a lot. Some people get upset about that word. You just can't avoid it when you read the verses we're about to read. Jeremiah 1 verse 4, "The word of the Lord came to me saying before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Then I said, "Ah, Lord God, behold, I don't know how to speak, for I'm only a youth. But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say I'm only a youth, for to all to whom I send you, you shall go. And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. Then the Lord put his hand, put out his hand, and touch my mouth. And the Lord said to me, 'Behold, I put my words in your mouth. I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and overthrow, to build up in the plant.'" There you go. He was in God's plan, before he was created in the womb, set apart to be a prophet. That was God's plan for his life. Number four, "He preached a message of wrath and judgment." That's what he went around talking to people about. God is angry with your sin and judgment is about to fall on you. Message of wrath and judgment. Look at chapter six. And we're going to read a lot of these passages, but we're going to read them quick. Jeremiah 6, 1 to 30, "Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem, blow the trumpet into Coa. Raise a signal on Beth Hecarim for disaster looms out of the north in great destruction. The lovely and delicately bread I will destroy, the daughter of Zion. Shepherds with their flock shall come against her. They shall pitch their tents around her. They shall pasture each in his place. Prepare war against her. Arise and let us attack at noon. Woe to us for the day declines, the shadows of evening lengthen. Arise, let us attack by night and destroy her palaces. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, cut down her trees, cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem. This is the city that must be punished. There is nothing but oppression within her. As a well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps fresh her evil. Violence and destruction are heard within her sickness and wounds are ever before me. Be warned of Jerusalem lest I turn from you and discuss lest I make you a desolation and uninhabited land. Thus says the Lord of Hosts and on and on it goes. You can keep reading in that chapter but you get the idea. God is the one saying these things through Jeremiah and the message is I'm angry with you because of your sin and I'm about to destroy you. That's what he preached over and over and over and over again and that's why people thought of him as a traitor. This would be like somebody walking around our country saying God is angry with this country, he hates this country, he's about to destroy this country and that's all they ever say. There would be some people who could not listen to that message for what it is and who would step back and say well some you don't love the United States or you're not patriotic, you don't love your country. Do you want bad things to happen to us? Why don't you try to be positive in your message? Why do you have to be so negative all the time? Aren't there some good people here? Can't you find the silver lining? That was Jeremiah and in response to all of that he just walked around and said more of chapter 6 verse 1 to 30. "You're bad people, God is really angry with you and you're about to be destroyed, you're about to be punished." So it was a message of wrath and judgment. Number five, he took no pleasure in the fulfillment of his prophecies. I don't want you to get the view of Jeremiah, he's just hellfire and brimstone and he's just laughing at everyone, like some sort of sadistic maniac, just enjoying it all. He didn't enjoy it. Look at Jeremiah 8.21. "For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded. I mourn. dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm and gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? Oh that my head were waters and my eyes were a fountain of tears that I might weep a day and a night for the slain of the daughter of my people. It's poetic language but what he's saying is I'm heartbroken over this. I don't like this, I don't want this to happen, but this is the message God has given me in telling it to you and knowing that this is what's going to happen, it literally breaks my heart. I could cry all day long about this. So he didn't, he did not take pleasure in the fulfillment of his prophecies. Number six, his personal life was filled with loneliness and suffering. Loneliness and suffering. Look at Jeremiah 16. Because of what was coming, remember God knew what his plan was through Jeremiah 4 Judah, he knew the carnage and we'll talk next week about some of that carnage, but he knew the carnage that was about to come on his people. He kept Jeremiah lonely, he did not let him marry, didn't let him have kids and told him how he should respond to some of these disasters. So look at Jeremiah 16, 1 to 9. The word of the Lord came to me, you shall not take a wife nor show you have sons or daughters in this place. Thus says the Lord concerning sons and daughters who were born in this place, concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land, they shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine and their dead body shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. That's why he told Jeremiah not to get married and have kids. Because this is what's going to happen to a lot of the folks here. So don't get married, don't have kids. Thus says the Lord to Jeremiah, do not enter the house of mourning or go to lament or grieve for them. For I've taken away my peace from this people. My steadfast love and mercy declares the Lord. Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried. No one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them. No one shall break bread for the mourner to comfort him for the dead nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father and mother. Do not go into the house of feasting to sit with them and eat and drink. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold I will silence in this place before 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. So look, you kind of feel bad for Jeremiah. God says here's what I'm about to do to these people. They have no idea, Jeremiah, that it's coming. They're eating, they're drinking, they're partying, they act like disaster is not going to come upon them. They're not going to listen to you, they don't believe me. They're just living it up. You don't get to go do that. Don't go to the parties, don't have fun, don't do any of that stuff. And Jeremiah, well what am I supposed to do? Just look miserable and cry and mourn all day. That's what he wanted to do. We just read that in the previous passage. God says no. You don't act sad about it. Don't be throwing a pity party. Don't walk around moping and whining and feeling sorry for yourself and don't walk around feeling sorry for the people. Don't be happy. Don't be sad. Just go tell these people that they're wicked people and that they're about to be destroyed. That's your job. That's a tough call on his life. And I wouldn't say God is calling you to do that but I would pull out of that passage and step back and say God may at some point call you to do something that's really difficult. That other people look at and say why would God be asking you to do that? It may not make any sense to other people and that may be exactly what God wants you to do. It may not be easy, may not be pleasant but that may be what God wants you to do. So think about that. Number seven, I already mentioned this but Jeremiah was persecuted because of his obedience. This is about as close as we're going to get to Jeremiah the bull frog in this passage right here. You can look at chapter 26 for yourself a lynch mob. He preaches and people want a killing. That's the gist of that passage. Chapter 37, he preaches. They beat him up. They throw him in prison. There you go. Look at Jeremiah 38, 1 to 6. Some funny names in here. So I've told you this before. When you see funny names in the Bible, you just act like you know how to say it. Then everybody thinks you're highly intelligent, okay? Shephatiah, the son of Matin, Gedaliah, the son of Pacher, Jukul, the son of Shelamiah and Pacher, the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah was saying to all the people. Notice there's a quote. So this is what Jeremiah was saying. "Thus says the Lord, He who stays in this city shall die by the sword by famine and pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans or the Babylonians will live. He'll have his life as a prize of war and live. Thus says the Lord, this city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and be taken." So do you see why they thought he was a traitor? He walks around town, Babylon's right outside the gates and he says, "Just give up, wave the white flag, walk out there and surrender to that pagan king and he's going to let you live. If you stay in here and fight bravely, you're going to die." This is like the opposite of the Alamo, right? This is David Crockett at the Alamo saying, "Let's just go over to Santa Ana. Let's just join His kingdom, submit to Him and be a part of of what He's doing. We just stay here, we're going to die." We look at guys who don't do that and we say, "Your heroes, you fought bravely." And Jeremiah did the opposite because that's what God told him to do. He tells all the people, "Go out there, give up, surrender, raise the white flag." So they thought this guy was a traitor. Verse four, "Then the officials said to the king," all those guys we read about in verse one, "let this man be put to death for he's weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in the city and the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people but their harm." King Zedekiah said, "Behold, he's in your hands for the king can do nothing against you." So they took Jeremiah and cast him in to the cistern of Mount Kiah, the king's son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes and there was no water in the cistern, but only mud. And I guess here's your bullfrog, he sank in the mud. There you go. So at other times they put him in prison, at other times they beat him up, at other times they wanted to string him up and hang him. This time for whatever reason somebody gets the idea, let's put him in the cistern. Lower him down there, he can't get out and just leave him down there to rot. So that happened to him because he obeyed the Lord. He was persecuted because of his obedience. Okay, so there's Jeremiah. That's what you need to know about Jeremiah. Here's what you need to know about the book, three lessons. The first lesson is that sin is ugly and there are always consequences. And I'm just going to warn you, if you are easily offended, you might want to plug your ears when we read these passages, honestly. Sin is ugly. When I say sin is ugly and when we read these verses, it's the biggest understatement I could ever say. You pick the adjective, the superlative word that would replace ugly. But when you read these verses in Jeremiah, you just get a picture of sin that is horrifying. And it's different than the way we think about sin. We all have this tendency to rationalize sin and to pretend like it's not that bad. It is that bad. And you see that in Jeremiah. So look at chapter 1 verse 16 right out of the gate. I will declare my judgments against them for all their evil and for saking me. They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands. The thing that's interesting here is when you read about Zedekiah and all these these last few wicked kings, they would not have said we are forsaking the Lord. They still very much believed in the Lord. They just added a bunch of other little g-gods alongside the Lord. And to them it really wasn't subtracting Yahweh. It was just sort of bringing a few more things into the tent. In Jeremiah's take on it, God's take on it is, no, no, no. This is not addition, this is subtraction. When you add these other gods, what you're really doing is forsaking the Lord in your evil. You're not just bad. You're not just sort of not as good as you could be. You are evil. Okay? Now it gets worse. Look at chapter 2 verse 20. "Long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds." This is God saying, "I brought you out of slavery in Egypt." Your slaves I brought you out long ago. "But you said I will not serve." Yes on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore. Yet I planted you like a choice vine, holy of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? Though you washed yourself with lion, use much soap. The stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord. How can you say I am not unclean? I've not gone after the bales. Look at your way in the valley. Know what you have done. A restless young camel running here and there, a wild donkey used to the wilderness in her heat sniffing the wind. This is God describing his people. Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves. In her month they will find her. Keep your feet from going on shot and your throat from thirst. But you said it's hopeless. I have loved foreigners and after them I will go. As a thief is shamed when caught so the house of Israel shall be shamed. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, their prophets, who say to a tree you are my father and they say to a stone you gave me birth, for they have turned their back to me and not their face. But in their time of trouble, what do they say? Arise, save us. Where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise if they can save you. In your time of trouble for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah, on and on it goes. Look at chapter 3, verse 1 to 5. If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers and would you return to me, declares the Lord? Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see where have you not been ravished? By the wayside you sat waiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You polluted the land with your vile hoardom. Therefore, the showers have been withheld, the spring rain has not come, yet you have the forehead of a whore you refuse to be ashamed. Have you not just now called to me? My father, you are the friend of my youth. Will he be angry forever? Will he not be indignant to the end? Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could. Okay? You can go on and on throughout Jeremiah. If you look at the verses I gave you, we just stopped in chapter three. Chapter one, chapter two, chapter three. You see it in every chapter of Jeremiah, this idea right here. Sin is ugly and it always has consequences. And Jeremiah describes it with language that, let's be honest, it is not Sunday morning appropriate. It is not kids in the room type conversation. What does that mean? Well, you don't want to explain that. That's how disturbing it is. And God, in looking at what his people have done to them, says this is the only way I can get the point across to you to describe it like this. Sin is ugly, it always has consequences. Secondly, this goes right along with it. God will punish sin. God will punish sin. The whole book is about God punishing the sin of his people. And Jeremiah is saying, Babylon is going to come and this is punishment from God for your boredom. This is God's judgment on you. But look at the very end of the book. It's interesting. Jeremiah 51, 51, 7, and 8. Remember, God is using Babylon to punish his people. Jeremiah 51, 7. Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, making all the earth drunk in the nation's drink of her wine. Therefore the nations went mad. Poetic language saying, Babylon has just flattened kingdoms. And they're a cup in God's hand. God is using them. Look at verse 8. Suddenly, Babylon has fallen and been broken, wail for her, take balm for her pain. Perhaps she may be healed. And the rest of this chapter, 51, you go all the way to the end. Look at verse 58. This is the summary of everything between what we just skipped. Jeremiah 51, 58, "Thus says the Lord of host, the broad wall of Babylon will be leveled to the ground, and her high gate shall be burned with fire. The peoples labor for nothing and the nations weary themselves only for me." What God is saying is this. Jeremiah, right now I'm using Babylon to punish Judah. They're going to flatten Jerusalem. They're going to send the people into exile. It's going to be bad. Next weekend, limitations will talk about how bad it was. It's going to be really bad. All that happened. And then God turned around at the end of it. And even though it was part of his plan to use Babylon, he looks at Babylon and he says, "You're still guilty for what you did to these people. Now I'm going to destroy you because of your wickedness." And you see in the end, it's not just Israel, but it's any of the kingdoms of the earth. It's any family. It's any individual. It's any church. God will punish sin. Mark it down. Count it as certain. Okay? Here's the last idea. We're going to talk about this for a couple of minutes, but we're going to go fast. So get ready. God's people find hope in his promises. Even in the midst of all this hell fire and brimstone. There's hope in God's promises. And I want you to find Jeremiah 32. We're going to read most of this. And we're going to read it quick. Jeremiah 32. We're going to read to verse 15. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the 10th year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar. That time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem. Jeremiah, the prophet, was shut up in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah. So we're in Jerusalem. Jeremiah is in prison for his preaching. And Babylon is lobbing bombs, as it were, into the city ready to flatten Jerusalem. Okay? Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him. Jeremiah is saying, why do you prophesy and say thus says the Lord behold, I'm giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall capture it. Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but he shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. And he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him to clear the Lord. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed. That's what Jeremiah was saying to Zedekiah. Zedekiah didn't like it, so he threw him in jail. Jeremiah said, the word of the Lord came to me, behold, Hannibal the son of Shalom, your uncle, will come to you and say, buy my field that is at Anathoth for the right of redemption by purchase is yours. Remember Jeremiah is in prison, and God tells him, somebody's going to come to you and offer you a real estate transaction. Babylon is destroying the city, and you're in jail, and somebody is going to ask you to buy a piece of property. Hannibal, my cousin, came in the court of the garden in accordance with the word of the Lord, and he said to me, buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin for the right of possession and redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. Now, if you're Jeremiah, what are you thinking right now? Probably not the time to invest in land in Jerusalem. For one, you're in jail. For another thing, Babylon is about to own the land, and your relative comes, and he thinks so highly of your intelligence that he thinks you will want to buy this field at this time. Buy the field. It's yours by right of redemption, and God had told him to do this. So verse 9 says, I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamo, my cousin. I weighed out the money to him, 17 shekels of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, weighed the money on the scales. Then I took the sealed deed of purchase containing the terms and conditions in the open copy, gave the deed of purchase to Baruch, the son of Nariah, son of Mahasiah, in the presence of Hanamo, my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. I charged Baruch. This was Jeremiah's buddy, in their presence, saying, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase in this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel that may last for a long time." 4 verse 15 is really important. "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land." So he buys it, even though Babylon's about to own it. It's not going to be his very much longer. He's in jail. He's not even going to get to enjoy it for the brief time that it's his. But he buys it and he says, "You put the deed and you stow it away so that it will last a long time because God has told me that land and houses and vineyards will be bought here one day." Look at verse 16. Jeremiah is still a little bit confused. So after I'd given the deed of purchase to Baruch, the son of Nariah, I prayed to the Lord. Now, listen, God told him to do something. He did it even though it didn't make sense. Then he prayed about it. Do you see the order there? He didn't say, "Hey, God, give me some answers before I do this. Make it all clear to me. Explain what's going on here. I need to understand the wise and the winds and the house and all the..." He just did it. He obeyed. Didn't make a lot of sense, but he did it. Then he comes back and he prays, "O Lord God, it is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power, by your outstretched arm." You remember singing that song in church? Jeremiah wrote it. "You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them. O great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts, great in counsel and mighty indeed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children a man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. You have shown signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and to this day in Israel among all mankind you have made a name for yourself as of this day. You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders with a strong hand and an outstretched arm in great terror and you gave them this land which you swore to their fathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey and they entered it, took possession of it, but they did not obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all your commandment to them, therefore you've made this disaster come upon them. Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it because the sword, famine, pestilence, the city's given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has come to pass and behold you see it. Yet, here's his question. Do you see how much he just prayed before he asked the question? There's a lot of prayer. Now he gets to the point. Yet, O Lord God, you said to me, buy the field for money and get witnesses. Even though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans. God tells him to do something crazy. He does it. Then he prays about it. But when he prays about it, he doesn't just say, God, this is really stupid. What is going on here? He rehearses a lot of facts about God. Look at that prayer, verse 17. You're the Creator. Verse 18. You're faithful. Verse 19. You're the judge. Verse 21, 22. 20, 21, 22. You're the Redeemer. You brought us out of Egypt. Verse 23. He confesses sin. Verse 24. He says that God has made promises about judgment and it's all coming to pass. And then at the end of all of this stuff, acknowledging God is God, he finally says, why did I buy the field? I don't understand. I just wasted that money. It's not going to be mine anyways. And here's the explanation. Starting in verse 26. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Behold, I am the Lord. The God of all flesh is anything too hard for me. Therefore, thus says the Lord. Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it. The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come and set the city on fire and burn it. With the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to bail and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods to provoke me to anger for the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil on my sight from their youth. Children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands declares the Lord. This city has aroused my anger and wrath from the day it was built to this day so that I will remove it from my sight because of all the evil the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger. Their kings and their officials, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned to me their back and not their face and though I've taught them persistently they have not listened to receive instruction, set up abominations and the house that is called by my name to defile it. They built the high places of bail and the valley of the Son of Hinnom to offer their sons and daughters to molek, though I did not command them nor did it enter into my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin. Now therefore thus says the Lord the God of Israel concerning this city which you say it's given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, famine and pestilence. Behold here it comes this is the answer. I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger, in my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place and I will make them dwell in safety. They will be my people and I will be their God. I will give them one heart in one way that they may fear me forever for their own good and for the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they will not turn for me. I will rejoice in doing them good and I will plant them in this land the land you just bought. You're coming back here in faithfulness with all my heart and soul. Lucas put up, go backwards for me to the slide that has the history of Israel. Okay Jeremiah is right here on the exile. They're about to go. Babylon is blowing the city up as he's praying this prayer. He doesn't know that there's one more word out there and he says I don't understand why you want me to buy a piece of real estate. We're about to be hauled out of here in chains and what God is saying at the end of this chapter is Jeremiah you're right here in the exile but there's a comma and there's one more thing coming next. This is not a period on the story of my people. It's a comma and what's coming next is I'm going to bring you back and he says some interesting things. I'll be their people. I'll be their God. They'll be my people. I'll give them one heart that they can fear me for the good of their children. I'm going to make an everlasting covenant with them. I'll rejoice in doing good to them. All of these things God is saying I'm going to do things for the people. They're not going to suddenly be great people. I'm just going to be good to them and gracious to them and I'm going to bring them back. And this should have been clicking in Jeremiah's mind because of chapter 31. This is the last passage that we'll look at. Look at Jeremiah 31. Behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. You remember Jesus on the night that he was betrayed when he's having Passover with the disciples and he doesn't start talking about the Passover. What does he say? This drink, this cup is what? It's the new covenant. Jesus is telling his disciples, Jeremiah 31 is about to happen. I'm going to make a new covenant with Israel and Judah. It's not like the one I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt. My covenant that they broke even though I was their husband declares the Lord. But this is the covenant I'm going to make with them in those days. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be my God and they will be my people. No longer they're going to teach their neighbor and their brother saying no the Lord they will all know me from the least to the greatest declares the Lord. I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. What Jesus is saying in Luke 22 for example is the cross does that. The cross is the definitive action where the new covenant is established and you as a new covenant believer God writes the law on your heart and he changes your heart. Jeremiah 32 he gives you one heart a unified heart to follow after God. He's your God. You're his people. He makes an everlasting covenant. He rejoices in doing your good. Jeremiah 31 he forgives your iniquity. He remembers your sin. Jeremiah doesn't exactly understand all the specifics but he understands that look God is about to punish us but then he's going to bring us back and when he brings us back he's going to do something like he's never done before. It's going to be new. All of it points to Jesus and what God wanted Jeremiah to do in buying the land is give a picture to everybody looking and the picture says I believe that God is going to keep his promise. I've been telling you he's going to kick us out but now I'm telling you he's going to bring us back and when he brings us back here's what's going to happen a new covenant not like this old one that we've broke over and over and over and over again but a different kind of covenant a new covenant. I told you we're going to look at one more verse but look over at Lamentations 3 the book after Jeremiah because Jeremiah believed God's promises he had hope and Babylon eventually came in through the gates and tore the walls down and burned the city and raised the temple and killed a lot of people and it was terrible but in the middle of that because he had hope this is what Jeremiah said Lamentations 3 21 this I call to mind and therefore I have here's that word hope I have hope because the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end they are new every morning great is your faithfulness the Lord is my portion says my soul therefore I will hope in him the Lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul who seeks him it is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord in the midst of really really bad days Jeremiah had hope and he prayed that kind of prayer because he believed God's promises that he would bring the people back that he would establish a new covenant and the neatest part for us is we get to look back on all of this and see that God did it right Jeremiah looked back and said God told us he'd kick us out if we rebelled now it's happening and he looked back and saw that we get to look back and say God told him he would bring him back and he did bring him back God told him he would establish a new covenant and he did through Jesus he kept all of those promises and that gives us hope so there you go that's Jeremiah we'll pray and we will move on and share some prayer requests with each other father we thank you for this book we thank you for the reality check that it gives us we know that we live in a time and a place where sin is laughed at and it's minimized and it's explained away and it's rationalized and justified father's not a lot different than Jeremiah's day and so we thank you for the clear reminders about who we are and what our sin is really like in your eyes and we acknowledge that left to ourselves we're hopeless but we thank you for your mercies that are new every day we thank you for your steadfast love we thank you for the new covenant that Jeremiah promised and that Jesus brought into effect and we thank you that you have brought us into an everlasting relationship with you and father you have done all of those things and we're grateful for what you have done for us and what you have done in our lives so we thank you for this book we thank you for the truth that it teaches us we thank you for how it drives us to the cross and points us to Jesus who is ultimately the one that gives us hope and we pray in Jesus name amen.