"The Road to Captivity", Part 4; A Study in Jeremiah, Chapters 16-21
ZADOK PUBLICATIONS - Dr. C. R. OLIVER
September 1, 2009
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Introduction: We continue in the book of Jeremiah and the theme: The Road to Captivity. Our study of Jeremiah is cogent in that Judah and Jerusalem represent any nation or citizenry who have attracted the attention of God to bring judgment. Their maneuvering and repeated self-delusion stand as witness to the righteousness of God in punishing His people. If what they did brought captivity, then it must be assumed that any nation or body of people who do similarly will incur the same. Once more we explore the wondrous aspects of God's judgment and mercy. September 1, 2009 "The Road to Captivity", Part 4 A Study in Jeremiah, Chapters 16-21 CHAPTER SIXTEEN: SITUATIONS OF SOVEREIGNTY Word to Jeremiah: Not In THIS place: Many discussions have raged around the fact that Jeremiah was "forbidden to marry." He was only forbidden to marry "in this place." There may have been other places, times and circumstances which might not come under this prohibition.Jeremiah 16:1-3 The word of the LORD also came to me, saying, 'You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.' Why was the prophet cautioned on this matter? If he had married and had a family, he would have fallen under the curse God was about to bring on the families of the area. God didn't want Jeremiah to participate in this judgment. A quick look into Jeremiah 16:3, 4, would reveal the judgment on those families that had forgotten God. Here, association would have been tantamount to participation in judgment! This is often the case, "Beware with whom you associate!" The seal was set for the "forsakers" and those who companioned with them. (Children and their parents would both be affected; they were to go unlamented. They would be made to look like and treated as refuge. They would die by famine, pestilence and sword with their corpses lying unburied and thereby becoming prey for birds of carrion.)1. Their sons and daughters would die gruesome deaths. The prophet was told not to enter either of two houses: the house of mourning or the house of feasting. He was not to lament these families, mourn their deaths nor was he to participate in their present revelries. The house of mourning had not been established yet, for it would appear after the houses of feasting were abandoned! Hedonism's "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die," would have been the appropriate banner over them. God had already taken away His peace from this people (16:8). (In any nation where this occurs, captivity is the determined result. Note: we are not talking about a diminution of certain activities, restriction of some freedoms or reduction of choices due to less favorable conditions-we are discussing chains, torture and death.) Knowing this truth pressed down on Jeremiah. He was instructed to tell the people these facts and offer quantified responses to their inquiries. They asked: One answer covered all three questions: "Because your fathers have forsaken Me" and you "have done worse than your fathers," said the Lord. How were these "FORSAKERS" to be characterized? The fathers were pictured as those who "walked after, served and worshiped 'other gods.'" They did not keep God's Law. Power and wealth were two of their "other gods." Pleasure and societal acceptance were twin aspects of their "other gods."1. Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster? The generations that followed them were acculturated by these fathers; the new generation walked after their own imaginations and their collective punishment blended into one potion, "I will cast you out of this land (16:13)." Currently, in many places on the earth, nations are bulging with new populations (exacerbated by tremendous in-migration) all the while grappling with infrastructure expansion which is fast becoming untenable. All these factors have one effect: the loss of wealth by the native-born citizenry, coupled with the transfer and loss of their lands. Freedom is taken away with each descending decision. Captivity becomes but a step away! Paying Double: What if today, all the iniquity of the nations abruptly stopped? A marker placed which read, "God will repay double for all the known sin and iniquity of these nations done up to this point." What would the severity of payment be? Who could establish the amount or degree of sorrow and pain those nation's misdeeds had caused Him? What measure would be used to determine the time when the double payment was complete or the measure finished?Jeremiah16:18 Only God would be able to make those approximations. He alone could determine when the cup of wrath was fully drained. At this hour though, there are ministers and prophets projecting their views of what will occur, but where is the clear, clean prophetic word of a Jeremiah who left nothing to the imagination? Since it is God who determines the boundaries, He seized the moment to declare His act of grace. In spite of the punishment, the Lord promised Judah and Benjamin's return (16:15), but did He include all of Israel? Was this to be an end-time return? Did this signal the 1948 return and the subsequent establishment and repopulation of the modern State of Israel? Did He not say, "From all the lands where He had driven them?"For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers. Jeremiah's personal vision expanded, and he poured out his own commentary: (Note: Heathen nations (Gentiles*) shall come to YOU.)Jeremiah 16:19-20 Where were these nations to come? Not to territorial Israel, but to the Lord*OT: 1471 gowy (go'-ee); rarely (shortened) goy (go'-ee); apparently from the same root as OT: 1465 (in the sense of massing); a foreign nation; hence, a Gentile; also (figuratively) a troop of animals, or a flight of locusts: One thing was for sure, there would be a time FOR the Gentiles. At that time, they would be well acquainted with three (3) things: His Hand, His Might and His Name (16:21). Notice God said, "This once." Thus, God opened the door to the heathen Babylonians through true Israel. One must remember the passage in chapter twelve. Now, Jeremiah does not link the Gentiles (heathen) to learning the ways of Judah and Benjamin. His revelation about the Gentiles was they will know Him for themselves. They will be given "the Name," and they themselves will understand the power of His Hand and His Might. This prophecy was given 500 years before Christ. The Gentiles would know Him without catalyst, Talmud or culture. They would know HIM by His Name! Before Simon's sheet came down, before Paul opened the gate wide for their ingathering, before the Disciples scattered abroad to witness to them-their day was spoken of by Jeremiah!Jeremiah 12:15-17 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: BETTER JEREMIAH THAN ZEDEKIAH Judah's heart was like a rock. It took a diamond pointed pen of iron just to write on it. Like an engraving, not the soft flow of a poet's pen or the gentle cursives of a learned man or the flowing ease of the hand given to Moses' tablets, this was a hard-pointed, digging instrument. Each word had to be wedged into hearts of stone by the hand of God. The engravings stood witness against them when they approached their altars. Their sins were written on the horns of the altar. Their offspring also were affected by seeing their parents and their countrymen bowing before idols and eventually offering children as sacrifices. In the minds of the children of Judah was the incongruity between hearing their parents identify themselves as the "the people of God" while seeing them lighting candles at pagan shrines. Tell me if it isn't so today! One must remember that Judah stood in the same position as the church stands today. They were God's profligate people!Jeremiah 17:1-2 God stepped into the scene and brought judgment: God declared that He would take away Judah's wealth, their treasures and their favorite places of sin (strange combination?). Then He said, "even yourself shall let go of your heritage." This statement was very cryptic and most interesting. Remember when Ahab approached Naboth while coveting his vineyard? Naboth would not give or sell to him because it was his inheritance. Since Judah would not be able to maintain or protect their heritage-they would just let it go. Is that not the compromise worldwide? God's people at this moment are slowly "letting their heritage" go.Jeremiah 17:3-4 Let it slide! How grievous that must have been for them; how gut-wrenching to see all that one had worked for, treasured and gathered, disappear, along with their inheritance. Is this not happening now? Is this the cup that must be swallowed by God's people before they satisfy judgment? Something was added to the ingredients of the wine of wrath-something very insidious, it was the fire of God's anger. Forever is a long time! Two fires had been kindled through their heinous behavior. First, the fire of wrath on the part of the Almighty, then quite another kind of fire kindled in the heart of Jeremiah.Jeremiah 17:4 For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever. Speaking from a flaming anger, God laid down some steadfast rules: He issued a curse and a blessing and decried Judah to choose. (The teachings of leftist, Saul Alinsky, purported a society run by government for the "combined good" of the people. This would be a government of men where other men trade their liberty for some form of security. "Our Government" was the phrase most used in my visit to China, the world's foremost communist regime. The Bible says a curse lies upon "the man who trusts in man," for they are made to resemble a "shrub in the desert.")Jeremiah 17:5 Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD. There is an alternative to the curse, however; it is the blessing which flows from heaven to the "man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord." He resembles a "tree planted by the waters." This man will not fear in the time of drought. (Deeply rooted in the flow from the throne of God (Ezekiel 46) and radiating the example of Philippians 4: 6, 7, this man is not numbered with those who have wicked hearts.)Jeremiah 17:8 While man searches for the face of God, God searches the heart and mind of man. God found Judah to be like a partridge that sits on her eggs which would never hatch. A peculiar exchange then took place between Jeremiah and the Lord. Jeremiah said:Jeremiah 17:10 The Lord strengthened Jeremiah's observational abilities. Instead of accepting shame as an end, God said that His judgment didn't end with shame, but oblivion. (Write in the dirt and see how quickly it vanishes.)Jeremiah 17:12-13 Jeremiah humbly separated himself from those who would depart from the Most High. He defined his faith:Jeremiah 17:13 (Notice what Jeremiah's attitude was toward his distracters.)Jeremiah 17:14-18 (In modern church parlance, Jeremiah would have been rebuked and told to follow the path of forgiveness and love. He would have been reprimanded for calling for the destruction of his persecutors. He would have been reminded that Jesus said, "Forgive those that spitefully use you." It has been fifty years since I first heard those kinds of admonitions wrapped in soft tones from a pulpit now rendered dark and ineffective.)Let them be ashamed who persecute me, But do not let me be put to shame; Let them be dismayed, But do not let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of doom, and destroy them with double destruction! There was honesty and purity in Jeremiah's heart and God already knew it. The Lord didn't comment, He just told faithful Jeremiah to go and do something-stand in the gates of Jerusalem. (Even to this day, that is a large order.) He didn't hesitate; he obeyed. Obedience is better than sacrifice! All strata of society entered and exited those gates. The prophet was to address them all. Whether King or pauper, one message fit all. In essence, the Lord required two basic things, a return to hallowing the Sabbath and obeying His voice. God declared that if they would hearken and do those two things, He would restore them… if not, Jerusalem's response was characteristic:Jeremiah 17:27-18:1 O Church, your gates have heard a similar message to that of Jerusalem. You have been told to return to a hallowed Sabbath and obeying His voice. Your response has been that of Jerusalem; you have answered with louder music, explain away sermons and increase of human activity. I weep for you. Fast upon you is coming Jerusalem's judgment. Soon there will be not gates to enter!Jeremiah 17:23 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: A TRIP TO THE POTTER Jeremiah was told to go to the Potter's house and he would hear the word of the Lord. (How often God requires obedience to His leadership before the real message can come. One has to be at the place called "there," before the message can be heard.*) *Oliver, C.R., En Punto, Zadok Publications, 2001. "Fashioned (specially crafted) disaster" was planned for the nation. An intervening message preceded it. (The intervening message was a message of hope, based on repentance, not a change of governmental administration.) Here was an instant waiting for an incident: there must be repentance or there must be disaster! To eclipse that "instance" meant certain punishment. (O nations of the world, don't think there are weeks, months, and years to "think about it.")Jeremiah 18:6-10 Judah's answer was the wrong answer. Their internal judgment was impaired.Jeremiah 18:11 Jehovah retorted, "Why would anyone walk away from clear, refreshing, living water to search for something different." (Change for change sake.) Is CHANGE an end in itself?Jeremiah 18:12 For those urging CHANGE, it might be better to return to that which does not change. It might do well for them to seek the Highway of Holiness and the ancient paths established by the Lord. The Lord gave Judah this disastrous promise:Jeremiah 18:15 What was Judah's answer? Kill the prophet! Slay the bearer of truth! Stop the mouth of the agent of the Lord. That is always the answer the world has to offer those who contradict their plans and roadblock their devices. Whether government or religious hierarchy, the translation is the same: "Death to the Deliverer." (How dare he bring any message other than "what we want to hear." )Jeremiah 18:17-18 Notice, however, Jeremiah was the one spiritual man who stood in the gap, plead for deliverance, called for mercy in behalf of Judah and all Israel. Now he calls for the heaviest of judgment and an unrelenting Hand from heaven. ( Is there ever a time for such pronouncement today?) (How many saints know Jeremiah prophesied the exact words God gave him and though he knew it was unpopular with the King, and all his subjects, he did what God said to do and was persecuted for it? Is that possible today? How many also know that God didn't change His message and that Jeremiah continued to tell it? [Moreover, this moment might be the place to say that the man of God-having the heart of God-can ( and must) call for curses upon those God has cursed.])Jeremiah 18:19-23 CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE POTSHERD POSTULATE God told Jeremiah to go back to the potter's house and get an earthen flask, then go to the Potsherd Gate in Jerusalem. He was to take some of the elders and some of the priests with him. Jeremiah would make the choices of which ones would accompany him. (How he chose the representatives, we are not told. But a question arises, "knowing his past words, who would volunteer?") When he got to the gate with the elders and priests (representing government and religion), he was to give the following message: This message would never qualify for a modern Sabbath sermon topic. (Have you ever heard it preached? Can you remember when this or some similar text was used in a modern pulpit?) Was this message popular? Oh, No!Jeremiah 19:3 Jeremiah was to break the potter's clay flask in the presence of all the representatives of government and religion and say these words: Having delivered this unpopular and unacceptable message, Jeremiah continued, by standing in the court yard of the Temple and proclaiming:Jeremiah 19:11-13 Alas, stiffened necks were not peculiar to Judah and 500 BC.Jeremiah 19:15 CHAPER TWENTY: PASHUR'S PREDESTINATION Pashhur was the chief priest who heard the message of Jeremiah. His response to the prophet's adverse words was to smite Jeremiah and send him to prison. He had Jeremiah locked up and in stocks. (It is necessary, at this point, to understand a basic concept among all religious hierarchy, bar none. Simply stated, "The greatest resistance the true man of God will ever encounter will be from the clergy and other religious leaders." This includes all of the fivefold ministries as well. Experience will bear out that abuse and physical trauma are not outside the range of religious despots whether from a Pope or a superintendent of the Sunday School.) The next day, before Pashhur could speak a sentence, Jeremiah poured it on. Of course, this message qualified Jeremiah for an accusation of treason. The King and all his governmental officials, in lock step with the High Priest and all the realm's prophets, were telling the people they would not be carried away or suffer loss. They lied. (Anytime there is a collusive message coming from government and organized religion, BEWARE!)Jeremiah 20:3-6 (Note: What made this message so onerous to Pashhur was the fact he would be alive to see it. He would "be there" when all these words came to pass. He would also never escape.) Jeremiah's life was under so much pressure, he bared his soul to God in an eleven verse litany. He began by telling God that he had no choice in these matters, for he was "induced"† by God. Then, he revealed the social and governmental pressure he felt. (This kind of pressure does not contribute to one going shopping or any other place in the public. It also does not inspire one to continue doing the things that bring these kinds of responses from friends and family. Remember, Jeremiah had no intimate human companionship at this time.) Jeremiah entertained the thought of abandoning his calling, but the word of God was a fire inside his bones and he had no choice but to continue. (Here is the separation between "professional" clergy and the anointed of God. Here, no seminary or bible school can offer council.)Jeremiah 20:7 Social networking failed at this point. Peer pressure in its highest form exhibited itself like a standard raised against the battle of the Lord.Jeremiah 20:9 InducedJeremiah 20:10 Ah, that wonderful power of persuasion! (Note: I remember vividly preaching in Central America, when the pastor of the church did not agree with the messages the Lord gave me. You see, it was exactly 5 min. to eleven a.m. Sunday morning, just as I was leaving the pastor's study and while opening the door to the sanctuary, that the Lord said, "preach on I John." I argued with the Lord-by saying, "I have not prepared I John." "I have" was all the answer He gave. I preached a chapter a service. By Tuesday, it was plain to me why the Lord had chosen this route. Also on Tuesday a.m., a general meeting was called by my peers and sponsors to persuade me to change my message in the hope that the pastor would be ameliorated and that no conflict reflect on their ministry. I refused. My closest friend and associate of many years said, "Be reasonable, Oliver." Sorry, but none of them understood this situation. I offered little explanation other than "The Lord said so." [One thing must be noted here: "The Lord said so," means nothing among clergy or civil authority. It has been a phrase so misused in the past, that it has little weight except as an excuse or a road block to further discussion.] Within the week, a great turmoil arose from my preaching. The pastor was found to be a ring leader of a dissenter group causing division between the missionaries and the native local pastors. He was discovered to be a communist sympathizer and a ring leader in socialist activity. Not only was he a professor of pastoral theology at the Baptist seminary, but a lecturer at the University. [Argue as one will about arbitrage, there is no determination as strong as the Lord's.]) But God! If Pashhur was to "see" the things of evil come to pass, Jeremiah wanted to "see" vengeance upon those who condemned him.Jeremiah 20:11 Psychoanalysis of Jeremiah's uttering might attempt to prove his instability and mental derangement. His change from despair to joy then back to self-deprecation would be considered, "suspicious" behavior, worthy of perhaps "serious observation." (So much for modern analysis.) Note the mood swings:Jeremiah 20:12 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: GUESS WHO'S COMING?(1) Jeremiah 20:13-15 Irony has its place. Ironically, the King of Judah commissioned two religious leaders to go and inquire about a "word from the Lord." Although the "establishment" disdained the prophet, they knew he possessed the only truth available. I wonder what the atmosphere was like when the entourage of Pashhur and his associates arrived? These emissaries from the King perhaps thought the message of Jeremiah might include the blessing of God and His intervention in their affairs as He did in the days of Egypt or when they were under attack by the Assyrians. What they heard chilled them to the bone. God WAS going to intervene---it would be to fight against them.Jeremiah 21:1 Wait one minute here! This is Jerusalem. This is Judah. This is Your people. God what are you doing? It did not stop there. The Lord declared their defeat and their captivity. Jeremiah gave them two choices:Jeremiah 21:5-7 (Note: There are complete studies available about "corn, wine and oil" as opposed to "sword, famine and pestilence." These are opposing groupings and represent, wherever they are shown in their respective orders, as representing "blessing" or "the curse." Throughout the Old Testament references are made of these groupings for those meanings.)(1) Resist and die in the city by sword, famine and pestilence brought by the Lord. Next, our God is a consuming fire! Finally, Jeremiah directed his attention to the King himself. He prophesied regarding the House of David with two-fold words: repent and do something worthy of repentance or face the fire of God's fury. (Compensation, as an act of contrition, was characteristic of the revivals under Chas. Finney in the early to mid 1800's. He often called for retribution of funds taken illegally, whether scammed or stolen. Finney openly advised that sin demanded a payment from the individual to show evidence of contrition. Today, the ministry glibly promises-"you owe nothing-He has paid it all." I wonder why there is no evidenced revival today as compared to then?)Jeremiah 21:10 Twice, fire is mentioned in the following passage, which concludes this chapter. (Remember this was addressed to the King and the House of David.) Without evidence of repentance by overt action, Fire would fall. Fire would fall, on the smart mouth making multiple confessions by saying, "We are God's children, and they won't come down on us or enter our houses. After all, we have our weapons ready and our military is resourceful and our King knows what to do." Really now?Jeremiah 21:12-14 Until Next month, Dr. Cosby R. Oliver, PhD. |
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