August 16: Jeremiah 33-34

August 16, Jeremiah 33-34

Jeremiah 32 Again, God has told Jeremiah to do something tangible while the king of Babylon was attacking Judah. Jeremiah was currently in jail for prophesying that Babylon would take the city. God told Jeremiah to go and buy his cousins land. After that, his cousin comes to him and tells him to buy his land and Jeremiah knew that the Lord wanted him to do it. So he bought the field. He was what was called a kinsmen redeemer - if you were hard up for money, you would sell your land to a family member so that it stayed in the family… Jeremiah buying the land was to illustrate “ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.” God is very intentional in everything He does - nothing is by chance when you the Sovereignty of God as the orchestrator.

Jeremiah was a bit frustrated and went to God in prayer about it. He confessed that God was all powerful and mighty and is the one behind all the disasters coming onto His people and Jeremiah was confused that he just bought land even though the Babylonians were coming in to take it over. God replied that nothing was too hard for Him. God would be giving the land to the Chaldeans (Babylonians). They will take the city over and burn it because “The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal 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 in my sight from their youth…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…They have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction…” Self-inflicted pain hurts. They had been warned many times over and still desired to be unfaithful to God. 

Even with all of this, a day will come when God will gather all His people again and bring them back. God said, “ 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 may not turn from me.  I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.” God will restore them & their fortunes. 

Jeremiah 33 Here God reminds them (and us) that He always keeps His promises. What does God tell Jeremiah (and us)? “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” This was directed at Jeremiah contextually, however the implications are also for us. We are to call to God and He promises to answer us and He will reveal hidden things.

God has hidden His face from the Israelites because of their sin. However, a time is coming when God will heal them and bring them back. He will cleanse them and make them prosperous again. 

God tells us through Jeremiah that a day is coming when He will send a righteous branch of David to restore and that my friends is none other than Jesus Christ who came about 2,000 years ago and did exactly that! Jesus was not sent to set up an earthly kingdom (which will come) but rather Jesus came to set up access for an eternal Kingdom. God sustains all things and set up the order of Creation and He will restore His people!

Jeremiah 34 We learn here that God is faithful and Judah is unfaithful and disobedient. The next 11 chapters or so we learn about God’s judgment on Judah because of their infidelity against Him to other gods. 

God tells Jeremiah to the King of Judah, Zedekiah, and tell him “Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. You shall not escape from his hand but shall surely be captured and delivered into his hand. You shall see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face. And you shall go to Babylon. Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the Lord concerning you: ‘You shall not die by the sword…” Pry not exactly what any King wants to hear, but Jeremiah was to be obedient. So, Jeremiah told Zedekiah. Zedekiah then declared and made a covenant with the people to let all their Hebrew slaves go free and everyone obeyed! “And they obeyed, all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again. They obeyed and set them free. But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and brought them into subjection as slaves.”  Their obedience didn't last very long, even though they made a covenant! This angered God because He had charged His people to set their slaves free every 7th year (remember Exodus 20…). They recently repented of their sins and then sinned again even greater because they had covenanted with God. They lied to God and their slaves and this greatly angered God and confirmed the judgement that was coming their way. Judah will be burned down and they will all be exiled. 

To sum it all up: 

• God is intentional and Sovereign. Everything He does has purpose that fulfills His mighty plan for all the earth. We are a part of that, a small one, but nonetheless a part of it. That is why we are to be obedient. God is not calling you and I to disobey but to obey so that we can be a part of bringing God’s glory to all mankind. 
• God reveals hidden things… He can do this because He knows the future and guides it! God is not mute as some would say. God is just as alive today as He was in Jeremiah’s time. Rejoice in the fact that God is alive and well!
• Do not take your covenants lightly. If you say you are going to do something, then do it. Be a man or woman of your word.