Call to Commitment

 

Wesley on father's tomb

Chapter 26

 

God is patiently compassionate 

 1.      In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of  Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD, saying, 

 2.      "Thus says the LORD: 'Stand in the court of the LORD's house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD's house, all the words that I command you to speak to them. Do not diminish a word. 

 3.      Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings.' 

 4.      And you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: "If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, 

 5.      to heed the words of My servants the prophets whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them (but you have not heeded), 

 6.      then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth." ' " 

7.      So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. 

 Do you get confused, as I do, over the last kings of Judah? One reason for confusion is because of similar names, each beginning with “Jeho”. Another reason is because two of their reigns were for only three months and the other two were both 11 years long. Let’s try to end the confusion here, giving a brief summary of each of them. 

 

Chapter 25 

 

  Twenty-three years of warning

 

Ruins of Babylon today

1.  The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 

      2.   which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: 

       3.   "From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the LORD has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. 

 4.      And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. 

 5.      They said, 'Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. 

 6.      Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.' 

 7.      Yet you have not listened to Me," says the LORD, "that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. 

 8.      "Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Because you have not heard My words, 

 9.      behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,' says the LORD, 'and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 

 A prophet must speak, when the word of the Lord comes to him, and only when His word comes. It came, addressed to all the people of Judah, when Jehoiakim was in the fourth year of his 11-year reign. His brother, Jehoahaz, was the people’s choice, but Pharaoh Necho removed him, after only three months, and put Jehoiakim on Jerusalem’s throne. Nebuchadnezzar was emperor over powerful Babylon. 

  

 

                             Chapter 24

Very Good and Very Bad Figs

      1.   The LORD showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 

       2.    One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 

 3.      Then the LORD said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" And I said, "Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad." 

 4.      Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 

 5.      "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. 

 6.      For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 

 7.      Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart. 

 8.      'And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad'—surely thus says the LORD—'so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. 

 9.      I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. 

 10.  And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.' " 

 The apostle Paul, who used so many valuable principles from the Old Testament in forming New Testament doctrine said, “The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops” (2 T.2:6). This is true in terms of spiritual things, received from the word of God, as well as the natural. The prophet, preacher or teacher of biblical truth must first hear from the Lord, in order to deliver the message to the people.