Call to Commitment

 

Chapter 15

 A limitation to intercession

1.      Then the LORD said to me, "Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. 

 2.      And it shall be, if they say to you, 'Where should we go?' then you shall tell them, 'Thus says the LORD: "Such as are for death, to death; And such as are for the sword, to the sword; And such as are for the famine, to the famine; And such as are for the captivity, to the captivity." ' 

 3.       "And I will appoint over them four forms of destruction," says the LORD: "the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 

 4.      I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem. 

 5.      "For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing? 

 In chapter 14, we noted three ways, in which the Lord responds to prayer. The first and most important is a response, which brings positive results. The second response is one that we see applied from time to time in the Bible. When people insist on having their own way, God will eventually give them that,  which they have demanded, but it is to their own misfortune. The third response was the one that Jeremiah experienced in the last chapter… a refusal to even hear his prayer. This chapter begins by emphasizing that refusal.

 Jeremiah must be somewhat relieved to know that he is not the only one, whose prayer is rejected. He has company among some of the most reputable and powerful intercessors (1). The first is Moses. We often recognize, and rightly so, his wonderful intercession for Israel, when God threatened to eliminate the race.  Even so, I think sometimes we underestimate the scope of Moses prayer ministry. His intercessory prayers were set in motion in Egypt, long before that period in the wilderness. Beginning in Exodus 8:8, whenever Pharaoh asked for relief, Moses cried to the Lord and He answered. There is a recurrence in 8:28-30, 9:27-33, and in 10:16-18.

 Samuel was a continuous intercessor for the people of Israel.  After the people wanted to follow the nations around them by asking for a king to reign over them, the Lord consented, but manifested His anger. The people recognized their sin and begged Samuel to pray for them. Samuel answered, “Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you” (1 S.12:23).  

   Chapter 14

 The Lord describes a terrible drought

 1.      The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts. 

 2.      "Judah mourns, And her gates languish; They mourn for the land, And the cry of Jerusalem has gone up. 

 3.      Their nobles have sent their lads for water; They went to the cisterns and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty; They were ashamed and confounded And covered their heads. 

 4.      Because the ground is parched, For there was no rain in the land, The plowmen were ashamed; They covered their heads. 

 5.      Yes, the deer also gave birth in the field, But left because there was no grass. 

 6.      And the wild donkeys stood in the desolate heights; They sniffed at the wind   

            like jackals; Their eyes failed because there was no grass." 

 There is much that we can learn about prayer, the most important is to know that God is a prayer-answering God, Who glorifies His name by responding to the prayers of His people. One of two ladies, Sarah A Cooke (one of two who spoke to D. L. Moody about the Baptism in the Spirit), was at a Chicago train depot, witnessing to the travelers. She came across a couple on their way to Oberlin, Ohio. Learning that the crippled husband had been a member of Charles Finney´s church in Oberlin, she asked if he could recall, personally, any incidents from the ministry of Finney.

 The man began: “We had been long without rain. All vegetation was drying up; everything looked parched. In the prayer preceding the sermon, on Sabbath, Mr. Finney began to pour out his full heart to God for rain: ‘Lord, the cattle in the fields are lowing for water; there will be no food for them for winter, unless thou sendest rain. The harvest will fail - no food for man - unless Thou sendest rain. The little squirrels in the woods are panting for rain.’ The service proceeded, the text was chosen, and for about half an hour Mr. Finney preached, when the rain began to dash against the windows,” That story was published in a book in 1893. God specializes in answering prayer.

 

 I am not satisfied that the NKJV, which I normally use in my studies, closely portrays the analogy, used by the Lord in this chapter. I will turn to the American Standard Version, just this time.

Chapter 13

  1.      Thus saith Jehovah unto me, Go, and buy thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins and  put it not in water.   

 2.      So I bought a girdle according to the word of Jehovah, and put it upon my loins. 

 3.      And the word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying, 

 4.      Take the girdle that thou hast bought, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock. 

 5.      So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Jehovah commanded me. 

 6.      And it came to pass after many days, that Jehovah said unto me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. 

 7.      Then I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing. 

 8.      Then the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 

 9.      Thus saith Jehovah, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. 

 10.  This evil people, that refuse to hear my words, that walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is profitable for nothing. 

 11.  For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith Jehovah; that they may be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear. 

 The parable of the girdle

 Paul wrote to Timothy: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 T.3:16). By this we know that the Bible, Old Testament and New, has the anointing of God upon it, but Peter shows that man did not leave his human imprint on the word at all. He attributes the authorship entirely to the Holy Spirit. “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 P.1:21).  Men, then, were simply secretaries, who received dictation from Him.

 Having settled that absolute truth in our hearts, we can move on to the manner, in which the Holy Spirit expresses Himself. There is no literature among the human race that is more intriguing than the divine word. God’s stories are written with the lives of people, played out in real situations. The film industry has sometimes borrowed from it to present their productions. World empires and significant geographical locations play a part in the plots. Poetry and song are often included in the Scripture. There is oneness of purpose and principle throughout the Bible and conformity to them and the consequences of opposition to them could not be weightier. They continue throughout life and into eternity.

  

Capital 12

 1. Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead with You; Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? 

 2.  You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth but far from their mind. 

The unquestionable righteousness of God

 Righteous are you, O Lord. The heart of Jeremiah, just as Paul’s, had settled the issue of the righteousness of God and does not bring it into question. Even in the difficult circumstances of Romans 9, where Paul discerned a human potential for doubting God’s righteousness, he immediately squelched the matter: “(The children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil…) it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated… Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!” (Ro.9:11,13,14). “O man, who are you to reply against God?” (Ro.9:20). God is perfectly righteous and we are not. Let’s get that settled, so that we do not bring it into this question. Paul attempts no explanation in bringing the fact of Jacob and Esau’s case into light. He declares truth. That is the premise of the Bible; it is not an explanation, but a declaration. It does not cater to the mind, but to the heart of man. It does not promote intellectualism, but faith… confidence in the Lord and in His word.

 I find rest in the statement quoted above: Righteous are you, O Lord. Since my understanding is limited… actually very small… I will leave matters in the hands of the One, Who is perfectly righteous, takes every consideration into account and views everything from the standpoint of eternity. I will then simply say, “If God had already decided the fate of Jacob and Esau before birth, then it was perfectly righteous, without a flaw in judgment.” I can trust Him and His righteousness. I have little tolerance for human arrogance, my own and anyone else’s, which rises up, thinking that it understands righteousness better than God does. That is an awful demonstration of hubris!

 

Jeremiah 11

1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 

 2. "Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 

 3. and say to them, 'Thus says the LORD God of Israel: "Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant 

 4. which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, 'Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God,' 

 5. that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them 'a land flowing with milk and honey,' as it is this day." ' " And I answered and said, "So be it, LORD." 

 6. Then the LORD said to me, "Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: 'Hear the words of this covenant and do them. 

 7.  For I earnestly exhorted your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, until this day, rising early and exhorting, saying, "Obey My voice." 

  Mankind’s responsibility

 We observed from the introduction of this book, that Jeremiah was concerned with the message that the Lord gave to him, rather than the chronology. That would cause us to think that his message was applicable to his people at all times. I think that we have tried to see how it applies to us many centuries later under the New Covenant.

 It seems that the Lord gave this portion to Jeremiah early in his ministry, when he was very young. Jeremiah was still among the citizens of Anathoth, his native town, where already he was drawing opposition from them. Anathoth is in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin and God is sending him to Judah and, particularly, to the streets of Jerusalem (6). Also, in agreement to his calling and message, Jeremiah says, “Amen”.

 The message has to do with the Covenant, which God established with His people at Mount Sinai. They agreed then to obey His Covenant with them (Ex.24:3). Recently the Book of the Law was rediscovered at the repair of the temple and had been made public by the good king, Josiah. King Josiah showed deep remorse and attempted to guide his people in repentance. To the best of his ability, he destroyed idolatry, even in the high places, and restored the temple and the Passover, but apparently the people did not follow with their whole heart.