Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture - Jer 35, 23, 18-20
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: It's good to see you today. Welcome to our journey through Scripture. We're continuing our ⁓ chronological walk through the Bible. My name is Philip Thomas, pastor of Journey here in Elgin, Texas. ⁓ We're right at the end of the ⁓ kingdom of Judah. Remember Israel has already been destroyed. Now Judah is right on the edge. Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar have already come in and basically made them a vassal state, right? They've already kind of taken over, but they haven't just come in and destroyed yet, but they are getting there. And Jeremiah is one of the main prophets at this time, and he continues to tell the people and warn them of what is coming and the people just hating for it, and they don't want to listen. But he continues to share the message that God has given him. And so we're going to read today, we're going to look at Jeremiah, chapters 35. And then we're going to be in chapter 23 and 18 through 20. So Jeremiah 35, then chapter 23, then 18 through 20. All right. So Jeremiah 35. So Nebuchadnezzar now has kind of swept through most of the land of Judah. And he's... started to take control. ⁓ But there is this one family that's kind of an interesting family. It's the Reckobites. ⁓ And in Jeremiah chapter 35, we see this family, and God tells Jeremiah ⁓ to go to the house of the Reckobites and speak to them and bring them to the house of the Lord into one of the chambers and give them wine to drink. All right. So this is interesting. This is kind of an example, God uses examples that turn into messages for Jeremiah. So Jeremiah goes to this small group of people, brings them to the house of the Lord, and offers them wine to drink. Nothing completely out of the ordinary on that. ⁓ However, it says that, so they brought them in, they're in chapter 35, says, then I sat before the sons of the house of the reccobites bowls full of wine and cups. And I said to them, drink wine. But they said, we will drink no wine for Junadab, the son of Reqab, our father, commanded us saying, you shall drink no wine, nor your sons forever. You shall not build a house, nor sow seed, plant vineyard, or have any of these, but all your days you shall dwell in tents. So basically they are going to be nomads. ⁓ says, when it came to pass, the Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to the land. We said, let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and for fear of the army of the Syrians. So now we dwell at Jerusalem. So this is a nomadic family that has been pushed out and pushed into Judah. And now they're all the way to Jerusalem ⁓ and they are standing firm for what they believe. And then you continue. Verse 12 says, then came the word of the Lord to Jeremiah saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, will you not receive instruction to obey my word? Says the Lord, the word of ⁓ Johnadab and the sons of Rechab, which he commanded his sons not to drink wine or perform for to this day they drink none and obey their father's commands. But although I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, you did not obey me. I have also sent to you all my servants, the prophets, rising up early, sending them saying, turn now everyone from its evil way, amend your doings, and do not go after other gods and serve them. Then you will dwell in the land which I have given you and your fathers, but you have not inclined your ear nor obeyed me. Surely the sons of Jonadab, the sons of Rechab, have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them, but this people has not obeyed." me." Right? So he's using this example of this people that frankly, the people of Israel, the people of Judah, would probably look on with a little bit of skepticism, saying, who are these outsiders? Why are they coming in and being part of ⁓ this place? Why are they even here in the temple? And God uses them as an example of people who listened and who followed and how the men of Judah how they have refused to listen and follow God. Then he says, verse 17, therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts, behold, I will bring on Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the doom I have pronounced against them. I have called to them, but they have not answered. And then Jeremiah to the house of the Reckobites says to the Lord of hosts, because you have obeyed the commandments of... Johnadab your father and kept all his precepts and had done according to all that he has commanded you. Therefore the Lord hosts the God of Israel says, ⁓ Johnadab the son of Rekeb shall not lack a man to stand before me forever." So God welcomes them into the land. They are commended for their faithfulness. ⁓ This is an interesting kind of juxtaposition, right? ⁓ How the people of God, ⁓ The people of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, ⁓ Solomon, they have turned their back and will not listen to God. But here's this random group of people who are being faithful and they will not even drink wine because of what their father had commanded them. And so it's just ⁓ a contrast to the faithfulness of the people. And obviously, it's definitely a slap into the face of the people of Judah. So then you have Jeremiah 23, ⁓ starts talking about false prophets. And you also get some lamenting from Jeremiah. We see a lot of that through Jeremiah. He's called to do something and he's never recognized really for it. In fact, people continue to not hear what he has to say. So Jeremiah chapter 23 talks about some false prophets. says, My heart within me is broken because of the prophets. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man and like a man whom wine has overcome. Because of the Lord and because of His holy words, for the land is full of adulterers. For because of a curse, the land mourns, the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil and their might is not right. For both prophet and priest are profane. Yes, in my house I have found their wickedness, says the Lord. Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery ways. In the darkness they shall be driven on and fall in them, for I will bring disaster on them the year of their punishment, says the Lord." Right? So even the prophets and the priests have been given over to the spirit of the age, right? They are now following their own ways, not following God's way. Verse 15 says that, therefore the Lord says, Behold, I will feed them with wormwood and make them drink the water of Gal. And from the prophets of Jerusalem, profaneness has gone out into all the land." And then God says, do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesied to you. They make you worthless. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord. They continually say to those who despise me, the Lord has said, you shall have peace. And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, no evil shall come upon you." Right? So they are just giving these uplifting messages that everything's going to be okay. Just go follow the dictates of your own heart. Everything will be fine. But yet they are not speaking the words of God. It says verse 21, I have not sent these prophets yet they ran. I have not spoken to them yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel and had caused my people to hear my words, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. So basically the prophets and the priests, what they are preaching is not getting the people to turn from their evil ways, which is the sign that they are false prophets, right? They are not calling out the evil ways of the people. ⁓ This is actually a passage that as I was reading really ⁓ jumps out to me as someone who is called to be a pastor. I'm not a prophet. I don't believe God is giving me visions of the future, but I believe God has called me to share His message and the truth that we find in Scripture. And this is a terrifying passage because we live in a day where within the church there are very different views of what is true. And that scares me to death that I may be ⁓ teaching or preaching things that are pushing people away from God. And that is obviously not the desire of my heart. And it's something that I think I have to continually to check myself with scripture. And what does scripture tell me? Not what does my own, sometimes my own heart tell me. Right? That's one the says, says, ⁓ and to everyone who walks according to the dictates of their own heart, that says no evil shall come upon you. You know, I have to follow what God has laid before us and the truth that we find in scripture. and the, the societal view of life is changing drastically. ⁓ and it's easy for us to get caught into just going along, ⁓ with with what society says is now right and wrong, even if it contradicts what scripture says. you know, we may not find out until we receive that judgment whenever we're standing before Christ. ⁓ But I think we are at that place where there's definitely false prophets. You know, there would be, there are some... people who consider themselves Christians and believe in God that would consider me a false prophet because of the things that I preach, ⁓ that it may be leading people astray. And that is something I take very seriously. ⁓ And I think we all need to make sure we're paying attention to who we're listening to and that we check that with the words of Scripture constantly because we are in a time where there are many false prophets. Continue on. ⁓ I thought an interesting one. You get into verse 30. says, Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words, every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets who use their tongues and say, he says, behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, says the Lord, and tell them and cause my people to err by their lies and their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them. Therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the Lord. ⁓ It talks about oracles, those who you're, know, the people that you are listening to, who you are listening to. Verse 36, it says, and the oracle of the Lord, you shall mention no more. For every man's word will be his oracle. For you have perverted the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. Right, that the words of the Lord have been perverted. It's a rough time that Jeremiah is in. So in Jeremiah, then we get to chapters 18 through 20, starting in verse 18 of chapter 18, Jeremiah says, or then they said, so the people said, Let us devise plans against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us attack him with tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words." they see him as the false prophet, right? And so Jeremiah is dealing with that, that the priest and the prophets that are associated with Jerusalem see him as the false prophet. And he's struggling, and this is pretty rough, what he wishes upon them. He says, give heed to me, O Lord, listen to the voice of those who contend with me, shall evil be repaid for good, for they have dug a pit for my life. Remember that I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away from your wrath from them. Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, pour out their blood by the force of the sore. Let their wives becomes widows and bereaved of their children." he, Jeremiah at this point, he's done with them. He's sick of it. He's tired of it. ⁓ He is not wishing ⁓ well upon his enemies. Then chapter 19. God tells him to use another ⁓ analogy or a metaphor, and he goes to the valley of the Son of Hinnom, and he brings some of the elders and the priest, which this is by the entry to the Potts Herd Gate. This is actually kind of the ⁓ sewer. This is where refuse and things like that were taken and dumped out. All right, so this is a nasty part of the city. ⁓ And verse four says, he starts preaching. It says, because they have forsaken me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense ⁓ in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of innocence. This is probably the area where child sacrifice had been performed. They have also built the high places to bail, to burn their sons with fire, for burnt offerings to bail, which I did not command or speak. So he's speaking all of this, condemning those acts. And then in verse 10, says, So just a really powerful display. He's breaking a vessel of things that normally would be carrying refuse and things like that. and said, the people now you are like this vessel that cannot be put back together. So needless to say, the elders and the priest probably did not like that. And so you go into chapter 20 and you have Paschor, who is ⁓ the priest, who is also the chief governor in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. So he stuck Jeremiah in stocks ⁓ and basically put him in overnight, put him in the stocks. Then the next day, Jeremiah said to him, the Lord has not called your name, Paschor, but Magor Misabibi. And that means fear on every side. He says, For thus says the Lord, Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends, and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them into captive." to Babylon and slay them with the sword. So he puts Jeremiah in the stocks, and as soon as he lets him out, Jeremiah says, ⁓ God's going to call you fear on every side and is going to remind of the terror that is coming to the people because of you. Man, Jeremiah, he doesn't relent. Verse seven kind of just talks about Jeremiah's unpopular ministry. It says, Lord, you induced me and I was persuaded you were stronger than I and I have prevailed. Jeremiah's just, he moves from understanding to frustration to not understanding. He's just all over the place. He says, but the Lord is with me as a mighty awesome one. Therefore my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail. This is verse 11. They will be greatly ashamed for they will not prosper. Their everlasting confusion will not be forgotten. But O Lord of hosts, you who test the righteous and see the mind and heart, let me see your vengeance on them for I have pleaded my cause before you. Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord for he has delivered the life of the poor from the hands of the evildoers." So right there, he's kind of has this upbeat, he's recognizing, and then he goes right into, curse be the day in which I was born. Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me, right? So Jeremiah is definitely struggling, which shows his humanness, but yet he remains faithful to God, even though what he is doing is not bringing him joy, right? He is doing this because he is choosing to be faithful to God. And it's a tough message, but Jeremiah is doing what he knows God is calling to do. He knows it's the right thing to do, but yet... He's still miserable. I encourage you to always do what God has called you to do. It's not always going to make your life easier. It's not always going to make your life better. Sometimes it may cause misery, especially whenever following God starts running against society. And in fact, We're going to see a lot more of that. And I think it's important that we learn from Jeremiah. We're going to have those days where we're like Jeremiah. We're just like, okay, I'm done with this, but we choose to be faithful and to remain faithful to him each and every day. All right. We're going to read 2 Kings 24. The last part of it will be Jeremiah 22 and 13. We'll read a little bit. in 2 Chronicles 36, because this is basically the transition to the fall of Judah. Babylon is going to be coming in and taking, and basically the exile begins. And then we will read Jeremiah 24. So again, that's Jeremiah...2 Kings 24, Jeremiah 22 and 13 and 24. And then 2 Chronicles 36. All right, so we will see you.