August 11: Jeremiah 14-17

August 11, Jeremiah 14-17

Jeremiah 14 God’s Word has come to Jeremiah about the coming attack of Babylon and drought on Judah. It will be horrible. They will still not turn to God. Why, you may ask?

“Thus says the Lord concerning this people:

“They have loved to wander thus;

    they have not restrained their feet;

therefore the Lord does not accept them;

    now he will remember their iniquity

    and punish their sins.”

The people of Israel & Judah want their sin and they did not want God. So, God is going to give them over to their sins and they will be punished for them. Jeremiah is warned again to not even pray for them. God is not listening to their fasting, sacrifices or offerings. Their hearts are far from God, even in their actions. 

Then we learn that there was lying prophets. These prophets were telling the people what they wanted to hear and filling their minds with lies. “Sword and famine shall not come upon this land: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed… For I will pour out their evil upon them.” Those that are against God - God is against. God will be bringing pestilence on them and their land. We see that Jeremiah has faith and the people do not. Can their false gods bring them rain in this horrible drought? Nope…

Jeremiah 15 God’s judgement is coming and He has had enough. Judah’s leaders were sinful and wanting nothing to do with God, and the people followed. God is the one who will be bringing the Judgments and the hardships. God was against them. It is God doing it. God was rebuking His people. It will not be a pretty sight. An army you can take on, but God? All they had to do was repent…

Jeremiah complains again to God - this was some extremely hard information to take in and to share. Jeremiah wants to be spared from what is coming because Judah’s sins have finally caught up to her. Jeremiah did not indulge in their sinning. God challenged Jeremiah again to stay close and never leave Him and God will save him.

Jeremiah 16 God told Jeremiah to not take a wife or have kids in this time, because those kids would end up dying anyway with what was coming. When all the death comes, do not mourn - there will be so much death there will be nobody to even bury the dead.

Why has the Lord done this? ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ Then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’ The people are reaping what they have sewn. 

God does offer them hope for the future because He still cares for them, but God is a God of Justice and sin needs to be dealt with. Remember I have told you that God often times will use discipline to bring us back to Him (like a parent). The people refuse to repent. Who is God and how powerful is He? “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.”

Jeremiah 17 Judah’s sins are before the Lord and were before the world. False gods. False worship. God was angry. Do not trust in man who is untrustworthy, instead put your trust in Yahweh. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh! Put your trust in Yahweh not in man because “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it…” God is not like that, but we are. God understands and sees everything.

Jeremiah is on God’s team and has placed his trust and alliance with God.

God calls them to remember the Sabbath and obey the statutes of it. If they do this for God, He will will bless them forever. If they do not, they will be devoured.

To sum it all up: 

• Do not listen to men that tell you what you want to hear - even if they are in positions of authority. If what they are saying goes against God, they are not for God but against God. 
• Often times, the sins of the leaders leads to sins of the people.
• Do not refuse to repent - if you have sinned against our Holy God - admit it, grieve over it, return to God and be freed. 
• What is free will? It is the ability to choose to sin or not. We can repent! We can choose to live a life of holiness and purity. We must turn to the God who can save us and believe in Him!