December 02, 2020

 Jeremiah 20

Jeremiah and Pashhur

Jeremiah 21

God Rejects Zedekiah's Request

Jeremiah 22

Judgement Against Wicked Kings

Jeremiah 23

The Righteous Branch

Lying Prophet-Most of the time people lie about malicious things or their goal is to deceive people into siding with them. Or they want something from people. In this chapter we see another type of liar or a person who engages in lies.  The lying prophets were speaking good things to bad people. They were telling the people God is going to bless you. However God was not happy with them in that moment and he did not like them telling the people he would not do anything about it. God calls them lying prophets. He was going to deal with them. 

False Prophecy-Saying something is going to happen that God never said is going to happen.

We cannot make things happen.

We cannot think things into existence.

We cannot make our will come to pass against another person.

Jeremiah 24

The Baskets of Figs

The Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord, 

One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.

Then the Lord said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?

Figs, I answered. "The good ones are very good, but the bad ones are so bad they cannot be eaten. 

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says" Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a hear to know me, that I am the Lord. 

But like the bad figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten, says the Lord, so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt. I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a curse and an object of ridicule, whenever I banish them. I will send the sword, famine, and plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave to them and their ancestors. 

Jeremiah 25

Seventy Years of Captivity

The Cup of God's Wrath

Jeremiah 26

Jeremiah Threatened with Death

Jeremiah 27

Judah to Serve Nebuchadnezzar

Jeremiah 28

The False Prophet Hananiah

The false prophet broke the yoke off Jeremiah and he told the people just like this God is going to break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar off your neck. (He didn't say a bad thing but it was not the will of God and he made things worse on the people)

"Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, "Listen, Hanaiah! The Lord had not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. Therefore this is what the Lord says: I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord. In the seventh month of that same year, Hananiah the prophet died.

Jeremiah 29

A Letter to the Exiles

The Message to Shemaiah

Shemaiah was also a prophet who persuaded the people to trust in lies and God punished him too. He promised him that he would never see the good things he would do for his people. 

Jeremiah 30

Restoration of Israel

God promises to help his people.

Jeremiah 31

 “At that time,” declares the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”

 This is what the Lord says:

“The people who survive the sword

    will find favor in the wilderness;

    I will come to give rest to Israel.”

 The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love;

    I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

 I will build you up again,

The lying prophets were bad because God wanted to bless his people but he also desired for them to changed. It was not a season of fruitfulness it was a season of pruning. The false prophets hindered people. They wanted things to stay the same and they wanted the people the same. How can God work on them? How can he mold them like the potter did the clay when there is someone saying Oh God is going to ignore injustice.  Peace is coming no matter what you do. Even a child knows consequences. Even a bird knows to avoid smoke by flying in the opposite direction. A dog understands danger and turns and runs the other way. If we see things going a certain way we should take cover. God loves people he also hates injustice and wickedness.

• How can the people change if there is no truth and honesty?
• How can they get to better place with God if they never understand him.
• God is the potter and he can make us or break us.

    and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt.

Again you will take up your timbrels

    and go out to dance with the joyful.

 Again you will plant vineyards

    on the hills of Samaria;

the farmers will plant them

    and enjoy their fruit.

 There will be a day when watchmen cry out

    on the hills of Ephraim,

‘Come, let us go up to Zion,

    to the Lord our God.’”

 This is what the Lord says:

“Sing with joy for Jacob;

    shout for the foremost of the nations.

Make your praises heard, and say,

    ‘Lord, save your people,

    the remnant of Israel.’

 See, I will bring them from the land of the north

    and gather them from the ends of the earth.

Among them will be the blind and the lame,

    expectant mothers and women in labor;

    a great throng will return.

 They will come with weeping;

    they will pray as I bring them back.

I will lead them beside streams of water

    on a level path where they will not stumble,

because I am Israel’s father,

    and Ephraim is my firstborn son.

 “Hear the word of the Lord, you nations;

    proclaim it in distant coastlands:

‘He who scattered Israel will gather them

    and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’

 For the Lord will deliver Jacob

    and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.

 They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;

    they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord—

the grain, the new wine and the olive oil,

    the young of the flocks and herds.

They will be like a well-watered garden,

    and they will sorrow no more.

 Then young women will dance and be glad,

    young men and old as well.

I will turn their mourning into gladness;

    I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

 I will satisfy the priests with abundance,

    and my people will be filled with my bounty,”

declares the Lord.

 This is what the Lord says:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,

    mourning and great weeping,

Rachel weeping for her children

    and refusing to be comforted,

    because they are no more.”

 This is what the Lord says:

“Restrain your voice from weeping

    and your eyes from tears,

for your work will be rewarded,”

declares the Lord.

    “They will return from the land of the enemy.

 So there is hope for your descendants,”

declares the Lord.

    “Your children will return to their own land.

 “I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning:

    ‘You disciplined me like an unruly calf,

    and I have been disciplined.

Restore me, and I will return,

    because you are the Lord my God.

 After I strayed,

    I repented;

after I came to understand,

    I beat my breast.

I was ashamed and humiliated

    because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

 Is not Ephraim my dear son,

    the child in whom I delight?

Though I often speak against him,

    I still remember him.

Therefore my heart yearns for him;

    I have great compassion for him,”

declares the Lord.

“Set up road signs;

    put up guideposts.

Take note of the highway,

    the road that you take.

Return, Virgin Israel,

    return to your towns.

 How long will you wander,

    unfaithful Daughter Israel?

The Lord will create a new thing on earth—

    the woman will return to[b] the man.”

 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity, the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The Lord bless you, you prosperous city, you sacred mountain.’  People will live together in Judah and all its towns—farmers and those who move about with their flocks.  I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”

 At this I awoke and looked around. 

My sleep had been pleasant to me.

• Jeremiah had a great sleep this day
• When things are good with God even sleep is pleasant
• When things are bad with God, there is no peace, no sleeping, no goodness. You can feel peace and it sure feels good.
• When things are bad the animals are mad.
• But when God spirit is around there is peace, love, joy, happiness, when evil is present there is darkness and it is gross and horrid. 

 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals.  Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord.  “In those days people will no longer say,

‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,

    and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.

 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,

    “when I will make a new covenant

with the people of Israel

    and with the people of Judah.

 It will not be like the covenant

    I made with their ancestors

when I took them by the hand

    to lead them out of Egypt,

because they broke my covenant,

    though I was a husband to them,”

declares the Lord.

 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel

    after that time,” declares the Lord.

“I will put my law in their minds

    and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God,

    and they will be my people.

 No longer will they teach their neighbor,

    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’

because they will all know me,

    from the least of them to the greatest,”

declares the Lord.

“For I will forgive their wickedness

    and will remember their sins no more.”

 This is what the Lord says,

he who appoints the sun

    to shine by day,

who decrees the moon and stars

    to shine by night,

who stirs up the sea

    so that its waves roar—

    the Lord Almighty is his name:

 “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,”

    declares the Lord,

“will Israel ever cease

    being a nation before me.”

 This is what the Lord says:

“Only if the heavens above can be measured

    and the foundations of the earth below be searched out

will I reject all the descendants of Israel

    because of all they have done,”

declares the Lord.

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.  The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah.  The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.”

Jeremiah chapter 31 is a very long chapter 

Jeremiah is also one of the longest books in the bible. 

A lying person can speak good or bad things. A liar speaks things that do not line up with what God is saying in that moment. I think Jeremiah had a tough job! 

Have a great day!