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.

 

 

Chapter 23, Part II

 

 

  Self-appointed prophets walking in their hearts’ deceit

21.  "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 

 22.  But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words, Then they would have turned them from their evil way And from the evil of their doings. 

 23.   "Am I a God near at hand," says the LORD, "And not a God afar off? 

 24.    Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?" says the LORD; "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" says the LORD. 

 25.  "I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, 'I have dreamed, I have dreamed!' 

 26.    How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, 

 27.    who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal. 

 28.  "The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?" says the LORD. 

 29.    "Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD, "And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 

 30.  "Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," says the LORD, "who steal My words every one from his neighbor. 

 31.  Behold, I am against the prophets," says the LORD, "who use their tongues and say, 'He says.' 

 32.  Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams," says the LORD, "and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all," says the LORD.

 Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and John to be fishers of men (Mk.1:16-20). He spent an entire night in prayer before choosing the twelve as apostles (Lk.6:12-13). Later, he appointed 70 others, whom He sent out two by two (Lk.10:1). Paul often tells that he was called to be an apostle. Every prophet was called of God and kings and priests were anointed. At the beginning of this book, we read of Jeremiah’s calling: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (Jer.1:5). Divine calling is essential to genuine ministry.

 

Chapter 23, Part I

  A King of Righteousness is coming

1.      "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!" says the LORD. 

2.      Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: "You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings," says the LORD. 

       3.      "But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 

4.      I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking," says the LORD. 

 5.      "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. 

 6.      In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

 7.      "Therefore, behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "that they shall no longer say, 'As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,' 

 8.      but, 'As the LORD lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.' And they shall dwell in their own land." 

The Lord has always seen Israel as a flock of sheep in need of care and those, who are charged with their wellbeing, are called shepherds. We have the same terminology in the New Testament and they are also called elders and overseers (which is the meaning of bishops) in the church and Peter, himself an elder, urges them to fulfill their office: “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lord over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (1 P.5:2-3).