#1051 Jeremiah 5 Part 1 Tempered Steel

 

Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,

look and take note!

Search her squares to see

if you can find a man,

one who does justice

and seeks truth,

that I may pardon her.

2 Though they say, “As the Lord lives,”

yet they swear falsely.

3 O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?

You have struck them down,

but they felt no anguish;

you have consumed them,

but they refused to take correction.

They have made their faces harder than rock;

they have refused to repent.

4 Then I said, “These are only the poor;

they have no sense;

for they do not know the way of the Lord,

the justice of their God.

5 I will go to the great

and will speak to them,

for they know the way of the Lord,

the justice of their God.”

But they all alike had broken the yoke;

they had burst the bonds.

6 Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down;

a wolf from the desert shall devastate them.

A leopard is watching their cities;

everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,

because their transgressions are many,

their apostasies are great.

7 “How can I pardon you?

Your children have forsaken me

and have sworn by those who are no gods.

When I fed them to the full,

they committed adultery

and trooped to the houses of whores.

8 They were well-fed, lusty stallions,

each neighing for his neighbor's wife.

9 Shall I not punish them for these things?

declares the Lord;

and shall I not avenge myself

on a nation such as this?

10 “Go up through her vine rows and destroy,

but make not a full end;

strip away her branches,

for they are not the Lord's.

11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah

have been utterly treacherous to me,

declares the Lord.

12 They have spoken falsely of the Lord

and have said, ‘He will do nothing;

no disaster will come upon us,

nor shall we see sword or famine.

13 The prophets will become wind;

the word is not in them.

Thus shall it be done to them!’”

The Lord Proclaims Judgment

14 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:

“Because you have spoken this word,

behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire,

and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.

15 Behold, I am bringing against you

a nation from afar, O house of Israel,

declares the Lord.

It is an enduring nation;

it is an ancient nation,

a nation whose language you do not know,

nor can you understand what they say.

16 Their quiver is like an open tomb;

they are all mighty warriors.

17 They shall eat up your harvest and your food;

they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;

they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;

they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;

your fortified cities in which you trust

they shall beat down with the sword.”

18 “But even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not make a full end of you. 19 And when your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”

20 Declare this in the house of Jacob;

proclaim it in Judah:

21 “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,

who have eyes, but see not,

who have ears, but hear not.

22 Do you not fear me? declares the Lord.

Do you not tremble before me?

I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,

a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;

though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;

though they roar, they cannot pass over it.

23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;

they have turned aside and gone away.

24 They do not say in their hearts,

‘Let us fear the Lord our God,

who gives the rain in its season,

the autumn rain and the spring rain,

and keeps for us

the weeks appointed for the harvest.’

25 Your iniquities have turned these away,

and your sins have kept good from you.

26 For wicked men are found among my people;

they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.[a]

They set a trap;

they catch men.

27 Like a cage full of birds,

their houses are full of deceit;

therefore they have become great and rich;

28 they have grown fat and sleek.

They know no bounds in deeds of evil;

they judge not with justice

the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,

and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

29 Shall I not punish them for these things?

declares the Lord,

and shall I not avenge myself

on a nation such as this?”

30 An appalling and horrible thing

has happened in the land:

31 the prophets prophesy falsely,

and the priests rule at their direction;

my people love to have it so,

but what will you do when the end comes? Jeremiah 5 ESV

Jeremiah 5: 1-13 Jerusalem Refused to Repent

1-3. If you can find a man - This reminds me of Abraham's intercession with God on behalf of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham started with 50, but ended with 10, which could not be found, not even among those who escaped the cities judgment. Oh, what is it that we believed, how do we have so much hope for ourselves, yet cannot pray for others? Now He is asking for just one, that does justice and seeks truth, so that He may pardon the city on behalf of that man. Now I have heard a pastor say, within the last 3 years, a man that I respect, that God will not punish the United States like some other countries because there are so many believers here. He went further to explain that he didn't think we would lose our religious liberties and come under much persecution as the church. I love that man, but I don't agree with him. There are Christians far more tested and mature than myself that everyday suffer persecution in places like China. The fact of the matter is, that there is none righteous not even one, and my righteousness, what is necessary for me to be made right with God, must come from another. It was a kindness that God removed Lot, and the only righteousness Lot knew was to confront the culture about their sin, but his wife looked back in longing for this damned place. Lest she be disappointed, not wishing to flee the wrath that was to come, not heading the voice of the messengers, saying, "do not look back", she was turned to a pillar of salt, to remain where her heart stayed. No one repents when they think themselves righteous already.  

But they have refused to take correction - He disciplined them, He let the Assyrians take surrounding cities and come as far as Jerusalem's door. They had wicked rulers and much anxiety at times, but they would not repent. They had a stoic approach to it too, proud of their heritage, yet forgetting that without God they wouldn't be here. They hated His messengers, Elijah was called a troubler, Isaiah was sawn in half, and now Jeremiah is the voice of the true God, but as in every past season they appoint and love their own prophets, the ones that say what they want to hear. 

4-5. They have no sense - Jeremiah thought his message was falling short because the people he was talking to were poor and uneducated. He thought a change of venue would make all the difference, go to the scribes and Pharisees, right, I mean they know the law, they are trained in the Torah. Surely in the wealthier families, who could afford to send their children to school, he would find ears prepared to hear and respond to the message. This was not the case, their hearts were hard, probably harder, for it says, "they know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God." 

25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 26 Brothers, consider the time of your calling: Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.… 1 Corinthians 1: 25-27

6-13. Lion, wolf and leopard - Some see these as only representative of the coming invaders, Babylon as the lion, the wolf some attribute to Babylon's king, or raiders that take advantage of the desolation. Greece has been referred to as a leopard elsewhere, but there are other mentions of relationship between men and actual animals as well. I often ponder it in my kayak, when I see a gator of good proportion, I must admit he has all the necessary tools, and if he were to realize it, I have the hide of big frog, cannot see far into the water, and my kayak would be easy for something of his strength and size to tip. It's like a floating dinner plate, an offering on the water, but he doesn't yet know this. When the cities and military are destroyed here, when the young are taken to Babylon, and much of the remaining population killed, then the land will go feral again.  

…21If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins. 22I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate. 23And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,… Leviticus 26: 21-23

…23I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them. 24They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust. 25Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man.… Deuteronomy 32: 23-25

…28I will send the hornet before you to drive the Hivites and Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. 29I will not drive them out before you in a single year; otherwise the land would become desolate and wild animals would multiply against you. 30Little by little I will drive them out ahead of you, until you become fruitful and possess the land.… Exodus 23: 28-30

Each neighing for his neighbor's wife - Verse 7 starts with their idolatry, as it is often a comparison, adultery, leaving off the true way, forsaking God for things that are not. But in this they also sought whores, and much of the apostate world, the cults, love to bring sexual perversion into their forms of worship, ie temple prostitutes. As it continues though, we can see that their lust was also the fuel for their apostasy. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me, and Thou shalt not commit adultery. Will God be righteous in this? Of course, so He must judge. Shaping our beliefs on our biases of what we want to be true will not make them so. He told the kings, do not take to yourselves a lot of wives, but we see their hearts were divided that way already, and they could not grasp that the 2 become 1 flesh, undivided. The cults read of the patriarchs and the kings doing so, and think it a good thing, that God's blessing is somehow in this, but what terrible students of the Word, look at the destruction in David's house, the falling away of Solomon, the contention between Abraham's wives, between Jacob's and so on. Perverts like Joseph Smith, Jim Jones, and Warren Jeffs, all lead by this neighing. It is pagan, arrogant, but these apostates will go so much further than their worldly counterparts, attaching God's name to it and claiming that they speak on His behalf.

Strip away her branches - Like the fig tree, it is known by it's fruit. Christ has said, "if you love me keep my commandments." They wanted nothing to do with the commandments of God, and refused to repent of not keeping them, but were satisfied with sacrifice, the blood of bulls which He detested.

1“I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard. 2He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.…

…4Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. 5I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned.… John 15: 1-6

He will do nothing, no disaster will come upon us - My God is a god of love they say, my god will not bring justice, he is not concerned with righteousness, my offerings have covered it, and my rituals must deem me holy. Your god is an idol, that you confuse with the God of scripture. You are using those names, that vocabulary, but in vain.

…7You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ”… Matthew 15: 7-9

The prophets will become wind - There are two kinds of prophets that can be fitly dealt with here, those like Jeremiah, who is God's real voice, what he says will be what comes to past, but the people regard him like wind, an empty talker. The others are like wind, here today, gone tomorrow, and what they say is not from God, as stated in the lines above, they declared that there would be no disaster, no sword, no famine. Of the two messages its easy to see which would be preferred, but what matters is which one is true. Now if scripture were really a guide to them, then they could hold the law and the testimony of God up to each of the prophets that spoke, and also look to the devastation of their northern kin for the same sins, but they preferred the prosperity message, no one wants to die to self.