Book of Jeremiah - Part 18

So good evening again, everyone, and welcome to the study this evening. We will begin in Jeremiah 31, verse 28. We had come to that point in which Jeremiah is prophesying the advent of the New Covenant.

We need to talk a few minutes about the New Covenant and also the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant was a national covenant. It was for the nation of Israel. It was based on the Ten Commandments and physical blessings were promised if they would obey the terms of the Old Covenant. When they entered into the Old Covenant, they said that they would keep the Old Covenant and they would do it. However, we find that they were not faithful to the Covenant. They broke the Covenant, and finding fault with them, God decided to change the way he was going to deal with man. Of course, this plan was already, in effect, from time and memorial. From the time before anything was physical or spiritual was created. And note that once again. Before anything, either spiritual or physical was created. Evidently, the spiritual creation took place first because we know from Job 38 that when God suspended the earth out into space, that the morning stars, the angels, sang for joy. And then, of course, the physical creation came along later. We read about in Genesis 31. So before anything was created, God and Christ worked out this great plan of salvation. As I said, the Old Covenant is a national covenant for the whole nation. The New Covenant is individual and specific. However, God intends for us to embrace the covenants in both forms, that is, obedience, especially to the spiritual law, and to recognize that the only way that sin can be remitted is through the sacrifice of Christ.

Christianity is the only religion that takes care of, quote, the sin problem, that through the sacrifice of Christ, all sin can be forgiven and removed upon repentance and the exercise of faith in Jesus Christ. The United States has abandoned individual responsibility and placed it on the government. And, of course, when you abandon individual responsibility, and place it on the government, and some are even doing away, attempting to do away with authority in the government, this eventually leads to anarchy. Anarchy leads to revolution, and revolution generally leads to a new form of government. So the United States is in a critical position at the present time, and we need to be aware of the covenants that God has installed and instituted for us, and also be mindful of what is happening in the nation, and to cry loud and spare not.

So the new covenant is an individual covenant with God, and in the millennium it will also become a national covenant. I have heard long-time ministers decades ago say, well, the new covenant has not yet been initiated, but it has not been initiated as a national covenant as of yet, but it has been initiated with the Church of God. We who have repented and exercised faith in the sacrifice of Christ received baptism in the laying on of hands. We have entered into the terms of the new covenant.

The new covenant has components that need to be considered and understood.

The old covenant presented us with a physical type of the new covenant. That is, the elements of the old covenant have a spiritual anti-type.

For example, the promises that were given under the terms of the old covenant were of a physical nature. Under the old covenant they had a priesthood of physical men, a Levitical priesthood. The sacrifices were of animals. The temple was a temple made by hands.

The blessings were more physical than spiritual, and the outcome, of course, was physical blessings. Our outcome is spiritual blessings. The old covenant was a type of marriage between Israel and the Word, the one who became Jesus Christ.

So now we go to Jeremiah 31 and let's read verse 28 and go from there.

We will have more to say about the comparison and contrast between the two covenants.

What book in the Bible is it that compares and contrasts the elements of the old covenant with the elements of the new covenant? Everyone tuned into this study should know the answer. It is the book of Hebrews.

In Jeremiah 31 and 28, it shall come to pass that, like as I have watched over them, to pluck up and to break down and to throw down and to destroy and to afflict. So will I watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. So chapters 30, 31, 32, some degree 33, and some others in the 30s have a lot to say about restoration. We've already talked about restoration a great deal already. In those days, they shall say no more, but fathers have eaten a sour grape and the children's teeth are set on edge. That's the way it is today. The fathers have eaten sour grapes. The children's teeth are set on edge. You know what it says in Isaiah 3. As for my people, women rule over them and children are their oppressors. But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. See, here is individual responsibility. It is not a national covenant, per se. Remember, it's the national covenant. God put Israel away and granted them a bill of divorcement. Under the terms of the new covenant, it is individual responsibility. You can fall from grace. You can commit the unpardonable sin. You can quench the spirit. And after the spirit is quenched, the unpardonable sin has been committed. There is no way back.

Every man that eats the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

So when the restoration takes place, God is not going to put up with the foolishness that we see extend in society today. Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Now, this new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, it will be a national covenant and a spiritual covenant.

Remember, God's great goal is to bring everybody into the Israel of God, into the family of God, into the kingdom of God. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but we must first live in the flesh in order to be in the kingdom of God. Now, about this covenant, verse 32. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they broke, although I was an husband unto them, says the eternal. Now, this is a very important sentence here.

It clearly says, I was an husband unto them, says the eternal. In one sense, one could say, similar to, let's use the analogy of the creation, we can say that God is, God the Father is the Creator. But when we read John 1 and when we read Colossians 3, 14 through 17, Colossians 1 verses 14 through 17, we see that God created all things through Christ.

Now, Christ was the one who was literally married to Israel, and this ties in with the law as well as we shall see with regard to making a new covenant.

Try to keep that in your mind with regard to making a new covenant.

God says that he is a husband unto them. So, who was married to Israel? Was it God the Father? Or is it the one who became Jesus Christ?

According to Jewish tradition, Israel entered into the old covenant, or which can be called a marriage covenant, at Sinai on the day of Pentecost in the third month of their journey toward the Promised Land. Before they entered into that covenant, God had spoken to them the Ten Commandments, and then Moses also received the statues and the judgments.

It's revealed in the scripture that Christ is in the husband role to the Church.

And the Church is going to marry Jesus Christ. Right now, the Church is espoused to Jesus Christ.

If you look at... let's turn to... Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 1. 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 1.

Here we'll see in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 1 that we are espoused to Christ.

Would you, God, you could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a church.

A spouse to Christ.

So right now we are a spouse to Christ. In Revelation 19, we see a description of the marriage ceremony, so we know that a marriage is going to ensue at the beginning of the millennium. So let's go to Revelation chapter 19, and we will start in verse 5.

In Revelation 19.

And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all you servants, and you that fear him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, even the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord God, omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. We know that Jesus Christ is the Lamb, and we are a spouse to Jesus Christ, and when we are resurrected as spirit beings born of the spirit, there's going to be this marriage ceremony. So in light manner, as we have just read here from verse 30, it says that I am a husband to you. I was a husband unto them, says the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. Now, the significance of this cannot be overstated. It is one of the most significant events and one of the most significant changes in the history of the world and in the history of religion, because here, basically, the Jews have been under this old covenant, even though some look for a Messiah and yearn for the day that Messiah would come, most of them rejected Jesus Christ, and they did not understand remotely that they were going to, that it was no longer necessary to be circumcised in order to be a part of the congregation of Israel. You know, and even on the day of Pentecost, they still did not understand that Jesus Christ had died for all peoples, and all peoples could be grafted into the natural olive tree, and that all peoples can be a part of the Israel of God. Now we want to go to Romans chapter 7, and we see the law about marriage, and I'm not going to get involved in the DNR dispute tonight if there is a dispute by some, but reading what the Scripture says here. Remember what I said that under the terms of the Old Covenant, there was a marriage. We just talked about that, and God said that He was, one who became the Word, was marriage to them, was a husband to them. You know, and in, I guess you could say in another way, you could say God the Father, if we use the analogy of creation, because He created things through Christ. But Jesus Christ was the one who physically dealt with Israel, who conversed with them, the one that they saw. Remember, Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father. So we're in Romans 7, I hope, Romans chapter 7. No, you're not, brethren. I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he lives. For the woman that has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives, but if the husband be dead, she is lived from the law of her husband.

Of course, we know there are things that allow for a separation and for divorce, but that is not the point of this at the present time. God put away Israel because of her gross sins, her spiritual harlotry, her committing adultery spiritually with a nation drowned about, and even physical adultery as well. So then, if while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she should be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from the law, so that she is no longer an adulteress, though she be married to another man. So, who died for our sins? Which entity of the God family, as it existed at that time and exists today, died on the stake? It was not God, the Father. It was Jesus Christ. So, in the book of Hebrews, if you'll go now to Hebrews chapter 9, this is one of the more difficult passages in the Bible, and we're going to look at it at this time. We're going to see how the Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the law to the absolute last jot and tittle, the very quote, letter of the law. So, in the book of Hebrews, we find or clarifies what was required for the dissolution of the Old Covenant marriage relationship. So, we're reading now from Hebrews 9 chapter 9 verse 15.

And for this cause, Christ is a mediator of the New Covenant. It should be covenant instead of testament. The Greek word for testament is diathakei, and it means covenant, that by means of death, a covenant is an agreement between two parties, and it is based on certain conditions.

For the redemption of the transgression that were under the first covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a covenant is, there must also be a necessity, the death of the covenant maker. And we're going to read this from vines in just a moment to make it clearer. It is not a will. Jesus Christ has not made a will. He has made a covenant. God and Christ have made a covenant with believers, but it was necessary that the covenant maker die for the covenant to be enacted. Just like the old covenant was ratified by the blood of bulls and goats, the New Covenant is ratified by the death of Jesus Christ. So in order for the covenant to be enacted, there had to be the death of the covenant maker, translated here as testator. For a covenant is of force after men are dead. Otherwise, it is of no strength at all while the covenant maker lives. So as long as Jesus Christ lived, you cannot have remission of sin through the blood of Jesus Christ because he had not given his life's blood and life on the stage. Some might want to be a testator. Some might want to argue that Paul's reference to a testator implies that Christ was the testator of a will. But Vine's expository dictionary of biblical words refutes that interpretation, and we know that interpretation is wrong just by the fact that we had to have a covenant maker. The covenant maker had to die. The covenant maker had to be worthy to be counted worthy to die for the sins of the world, and no one less than the Son of God would qualify to do that. So here's what I'm quoting now from Vine's expository dictionary. Quote, while the terminology in Hebrews 9, 16, and 17 gives the appearance of being appropriate to the circumstances of making a will, there is excellent reason for adhering to the meaning covenant making. The rendering the death of the testator would make Christ a testator, which he was not. He did not die simply that the terms of a testamentary disposition might be fulfilled for the errors. In other words, he didn't die just so people could inherit certain things. Here, he who is the mediator of the new covenant, verse 15, is himself the victim whose death was necessary. It was necessary that Christ give his life's blood and die for the sins of the world. The idea of making a will destroys the argument because all covenants are ratified by blood. We must render somewhat literally the following, or we may render. So here's how Vine renders that verse, where a covenant is a death that's necessary to be brought in of the one covenanting. So God in Christ entered into this covenant with Israel, and Jesus Christ died, the husband, the one that was married to Israel. For a covenant over dead ones is sure, since never has it forced when the one covenanting lives. So as long as Christ was alive, the covenant could not be fulfilled because it's through the blood of Christ that the covenant is ratified and that sins can be forgiven. So here we see that Paul uses a play on words to convey a dual message. One, the old covenant marriage relationship was dissolved. Jesus Christ died on the stake.

His death wrought redemption, buying back power from sin and death, and the promise of eternal inheritance for believers. Remember, Romans 8, 17 says that we are inheritors of God and join heirs with Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Christ is now free to marry the Israel of God, the Church of God, under the terms of the new covenant. Thus, the law of God is perfectly fulfilled through his life, death, and resurrection. This is one of the most beautiful verses and understandings that one can possess. So when we pause at the end here, you might want to ask questions about that.

So we can conclude that Jesus Christ was the one that was married to Israel under the term of the old covenant, but God the Father was overseeing the whole thing. Now we look at Ephesians chapter 5, where a lot of misunderstanding takes place with a lot of people, and it's worth reading this time after time in Ephesians chapter 5. Verse 21 says, Semiticing yourselves one to another in the fear of God, wives submit yourselves to your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, the church is subject unto Christ as the church is subject to Christ. So let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

Husbands love your wives, even as Christ has loved the church and gave himself for it.

We just covered that by the terms of giving his life and ratifying the new covenant through his life's blood, that he might sanctify it, set it apart, cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word. Now remember what it says about the Word in John 6.63. The words I speak, they are spirit in their life. If we adhere to the Word and do what they say, we are washed with that spiritual water of the Word, that he might present unto himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without temple, without blemish. So ought men to love their wives, even as their own bodies.

He that loves his wife loves himself. Why is that true? Because it says in Genesis 3 that the twain, the two, man and wife, shall become one flesh. So they are flesh one of another, just as in the spiritual sense, the church, we are flesh one of another. Or if you want to use spirit, we are spirit one of another. Therefore, we are joined together by the same spirit.

Whereas men, or no man yet ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it even as the Lord the body. So when we misuse, mistreat our wives, we're actually mistreating ourselves. When we mistreat a member of the body of Christ, we're actually mistreating ourselves.

Because we are damaging the very body. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and be joined unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, it can apply to physical marriage. Let one of you, in particular, so love his wife, even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. So, brethren, we see that this new covenant is a weighty matter.

You could imagine yourself being an orthodox Jew during that period of time when Jesus Christ came on the scene with his apostles, and preaching the kingdom of God, and saying that he must die for the sins of the world. And then when the apostle Paul and the other apostles took this message to the whole world, what an uproar it caused. We know about the conference in Acts 15, where they came to consider the matter, whether or not circumstances were required to enter into the terms of the old covenant. There was a mighty change in their direction and in their thinking. Sometimes we have a very difficult time in grasping and appreciating vast differences between the old and new covenants in the spiritual sense, and yet in some ways they're very much alike. Now, this great change was so great that it split the Jewish nation with the majority remaining loyal to the old covenant, and that fact remains true to this day.

Paul says, because you Jews, this is the last chapter of Acts, have rejected for Gospel, I'm going to turn now to the Gentiles. Of course, that's not to say that many of the church that make up the church and that made up the church in Paul's day were Jews, but a lot were Gentiles. Messianic Judaism attempts to bridge the gap between those who rejected Christ by proclaiming the historical Jesus as the Messiah, and of course Jesus is a Messiah. If they have accepted the Orthodox Protestant view of the salvation process, they believe in, and most do, not all, most believe in, a mortal soul that you go to heaven or hell, and so they've accepted the Orthodox Protestant view. But they don't have the truth, I guess we would say that you need to have. By having an immortal soul and going to heaven view, they don't understand what God is doing in the ultimate sense with humankind.

They attempt to mimic the physical traditions of the Jews, practice under the terms of the O Covenant, as if practicing the physical tradition of the Jews will make them more holy. And the Bible responds to this in Romans 10. So I want us to go to Romans 10 and verse 1. What I'm telling you here tonight right now is one of the most important things that you can ever learn, because it is going to become more and more an issue in the Church of God and in Christianity as a whole as time goes on. There are more and more of the Hebrew roots people, more and more of the messianic Jews, and there are other names that they come under. But listen to what the Bible has to say. Believe the Bible. If you believe in the Bible, do what it says. You will be right. You will be right. In Romans 10, verse 1, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Of course, the Jews were so jealous, so zealous, that they killed Jesus Christ, the Prince of Life, the very one who could save them from their sins. And some will say, oh no, the Romans killed him. Well, the Jews turned Jesus over to the Romans to be crucified. Were they being ignorant of God's righteousness? Notice that ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves out of the righteousness of God. The only way that you can submit yourselves to the righteousness of God is to, once again, understand the plan of salvation, what God and Christ are doing, to repent of sins, be baptized, have faith in the sacrifice of Christ, be baptized, receive the laying on of hands, and live in subjection to God and Christ and the Word of God.

Now look at verse 4. For Christ is the end—and a lot of people use this word to say the end of the law for righteousness.

By that, this word end in the Greek is telos. It means the result or outcome.

For Christ is the result or outcome of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.

In one place in the Bible, Psalm 119 verse 172, I believe it is, or 165 says, all your commandments are righteousness. So there's no way that God is going to do away with righteousness by doing away with His commandments. Where Moses describes the righteousness, which is of the law, that the man which does those things shall live by them. But the righteousness, which is of faith, speaks on this wise, say not in your heart who shall ascend into heaven.

That is to bring Christ down from above. Christ is ever present now.

One of the great differences between the Old and New Covenant, of course, and the law is that today God has written His law on our inward parts. So we continue here in Jeremiah chapter 31.

We're reading 33. 3133. But this will be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people.

Many of you have heard and have understood what I have said many times, that through conversion, you can have a new content, a new knowing within. That's what the new covenant provides, the Spirit of God will write the law of God on your inward parts and give you a new conscience. Now this new conscience does not take away personal responsibility.

Personal responsibility remains till the day you die. That is, you have to make a choice of whether or not you're going to do it. The fact that God's Spirit is in you and God writes his laws on your inward parts. Of course, you have to put those laws, he doesn't axiomatically zot them in.

That's why we read and study the Bible. That's why we have Bible studies and sermons and fellowship and everything that constitutes a Christian way of life. This new conscience might be that which guides your life in every fashion, but it is a learning process as well as a supernatural process.

The Spirit of God, of course, is supernatural, and it is the Spirit of power. But we have to decide that we're going to exercise, because when that tug comes, you remember in 1 Thessalonians 5, 21, it says, "...quench not the Spirit." So if you quench the Spirit and you don't obey that tug, it is saying you ought to do such and such. In James, the last couple verses there, it says, "...for him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is a sin." See, there are ways to sin that do not constitute the direct violation or breaking of one of God's laws.

You can sin by your thoughts, and you can sin by quenching the Spirit, not doing what the Spirit lays on your heart to do. That's probably the greatest sins that we have as people. Continuing now in Jeremiah 31-34, "...and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the Lord, for I will forgive their lawlessness and iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Remember from Psalm 103 what it says about removing sin?

I'll remove your sins as far as the east is from the west. They're in opposite directions. That's infinity, and it says, I will remember them no more. We remember them, but we should not remember them, and God says, I will remember them no more. Another place in the Psalm says, if God should mark iniquities, who would be able to stand? If every time you sin, you paid the price for sin, no person would be able to stand. Verse 35, thus says the Lord, which gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and stars for a light by night, which divides the sea when the waves thereof roar, the Lord of hosts is his name.

And what God is doing here, he builds a case of surety, the promises that God makes. I'm going to restore you, and as sure as these events take place, which you might call natural law, I'm going to do this. Verse 36, if those ordinances depart from before me, you know, light and day, sunrise, sunset, if those ordinances depart from before me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.

In other words, God says, you can count on me, I will keep my word. Thus says the Lord, if heaven above can be measured. I was listening the other night to a person talking about, he was combating refuting evolution. How many hundreds of galaxies, not stars, in fact, I'm pretty sure he said thousands of galaxies that exist in the universe.

Galaxies are a galaxy where, in the Milky Way, there are so many other galaxies and so many hundreds of light years away from it. We can't even, we can't even imagine the vastness of the universe. And it says, if heaven above can be measured, and the foundation of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord.

Well, you can't measure the heavens, and you can't understand everything that's beneath the earth. So once again, God is saying, look, what I have promised, what I said I would do, I'm going to do. Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord, and the tower of Hananiel unto the gate of the corner, and the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it, upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath, and the whole valley of dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields under the brook of Kidra, under the corner of the house of the horse gate toward the east, shall be wholly unto the Lord.

It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down any more, or ever. So he promises a new covenant, and he promises that he's going to restore them, and he says as sure as sunrise, sunset, and other promises that we might call natural law, that as sure as they are, that's how sure his promises are. Now, chapter 32, the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah.

Zedekiah was the last king of Judah, which was the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar. Now, Nebuchadnezzar began sending forces under the captain of the Babylonian forces, was a general called Nebuchadnezzardan. The Nebuchadnezzardan and the Babylonians had already started ravaging Jerusalem and Judah, and during the days of Zedekiah, Jeremiah was put in prison. So the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar, verse 2, for then the king Babylon's army be seized Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house.

Strange place to have a prison, but so would be in Zedekiah's house, his prison was.

For Zedekiah, king of Judah, had shut him up, saying, Wherefore did you prophesy and say, Thus I saith the Lord, Behold, I will give this city in the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it. And Zedekiah, the king of Judah, shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered in the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, his eyes shall behold his eyes. Or eventually Zedekiah's eyes were put out. So once again, God is saying, I'm going to bring it to pass. Do you think that putting Jeremiah in prison is going to stop the prophecies? And Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Behold, Adamiel, the son of Shalom, your uncle shall come. So that would make Hanamiel Jeremiah's first cousin. I don't think they had the same titles we have today at that time.

Behold, Hanamiel, the son of Shalom, your uncle shall come unto you, saying, By you my field that is an anathoth. Remember Jeremiah was from anathoth, that was his home area. For the right of redemption is your right to mine. The right of redemption, if it goes into some kind of receivership, you can rescue it and buy it back. So Hanamiel, my uncle's son, his first cousin, came to the end court of the prison, according the word of the Lord, and said unto me, By my field I pray you that as an anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin, for the right inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours, buy for yourself, then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. Of course, it's, I might say, or you might say, it's a strange way to communicate to Jeremiah through Hanamiel, continuing verse 9.

And I bought the field of Hanamiel, my uncle's son, my first cousin, that was an anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. And I subscribed the evidence and sealed it, and took the witnesses and weighed him the money and the balances. So here's what we call today the closing, where you go to the title company and you close the deal, you seal it and you get the deed. I took the evidence of the purchase, the deed, that was sealed according to the law, and custom that was open. It's amazing how far back the sale of property goes and how it was recorded, and how you had proof of your purchase thereof. And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch, the son of Nariah, the son of Masiah, in the sight of Hanamiel, my uncle's son, and in the presence of the witness, and then subscribed the book of the purchase. In other words, those who wrote it down in the courthouse before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison. And I charged Baruch before them, saying, Thus says the Lord of Host, the God of Israel, take these evidences, take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open, and put them in the earthen vessels, that they may continue many days. Of course, in earthen vessels will claim, keep it for a long, long time. For thus says the Lord of Host, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. In other words, you're going to get it back when I restore. And now when I had delivered the evidence, the purchase unto Baruch, the son of Nariah, prayed unto the Lord, saying, Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase, I prayed unto the Lord, saying, So here's Jeremiah's prayer.

Ah, Lord God, behold, you have made the heaven and the earth by your great power and stretched out arm. There's nothing too hard for you. Of course, it's very difficult at times for us to get through our head. I mean, if God created the vastness of the universe, just creating the universe, much less everything else, that within itself shows he can do whatever he wants to. You show loving kindness unto thousands and recompense the iniquity of the fathers, into the bosom of the children after them, the great and mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is his name.

Similar to the model prayer in one way that Jesus talked about in Matthew 6, say, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Continuing in 19, great in counsel and mighty in work, for your eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. He never slumbers, he never sleeps.

He knows he's aware of who we are, what we are, where we are, what we think, what we do, which has set signs, wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel among other men, and have made you a name, as at this day, and have brought forth your people, Israel, out of the land of Egypt, with signs, with wonders, with a strong hand, with a stretched out arm, and with great terror, and have given them this land, which you did swear to their fathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. And they came in, possessed it, but they obeyed not your voice, neither walked in your law. They have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do. Therefore, you have caused all this evil to come upon them. Behold the mounts, they are coming to the city to take it, the horses, the horsemen, the soldiers. And the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it because of the sword, and a famine, and of the pestilence, and what you have spoken is come to pass, and behold, you see it. And you have said unto me, O Lord God, buy you the field for money and take witnesses, for the city is given in the hand of the Chaldeans. In other words, what was the purpose of that? Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, so here's God's response.

He gave this long prayer after he had bought the land, and he said, what was the purpose of it?

And then, verse 27, Behold, I am the Lord your God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?

Therefore, thus says the Lord, behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, in the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He shall take it the Chaldeans that fight against this city shall come and set fire on the city, and burn it with the houses upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink offerings unto other gods to provoke me to anger. For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from the youth, for the children of Israel only provoke me to anger where the work of their hands says the Lord. Very few righteous people in the history of Israel, and as we've said many times, even going so far as burning their children in the valley of Hennim. For this city has been to me as a provocation of mine anger and a fury from the day that they built it, even of this day, that I should remove it from my face. Now think about this. When Solomon dedicated his the temple he built under the instruction of God and David, that his spirit filled that temple, and it was God's temple. And God is saying, in spite of the fact that my city is here, and my name, and all of the things, my presence is here, because if you're evil, I'm going to give you up for a season, and my face shall be against you. And when God's face is against you, you can pray all you want. He won't answer until there's a change. Because of all the evil of the children of Israel, the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, and the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they have turned unto me the back and not the face, though I taught them rising up early, and teaching them yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. Now, this word harken, once again, doesn't mean just to hear it. I'm afraid at times that we go to Sabbath services, we hear it, but it really doesn't have an impact, and doesn't do what God intended it to do.

This teaching, this instruction, is intended to build your spiritual life, your spiritual strength, your stamina, your will, your faith, your everything spiritual, and to just go and say, oh, I've heard that before, I've heard elements of that before, or whatever. That's not what God intends. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the battle of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Moloch, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind. You can imagine, God never think of that, that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin. And now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof you say it shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword and by the famine, by the pestilence. Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, where I have driven them in mine anger, in in my fury, and in great wrath, and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely in a chapter. And next time we will see that Jerusalem is going to be called the city of righteousness, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, and I will give them one heart in one way, and that they may fear me forever, and for the good of them, and for the children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from, from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in the hearts that they shall not depart from me.

Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land, surely with my whole heart, with my whole soul, for thus says the Lord, like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. And fields should be bought in this land, whereof you say it is desolate without a man or beast, it is given under the hand of the Chaldeans. Men shall buy fields for money and subscribe evidences, and seal them and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, in the places about Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, in the cities of the south, for I will cause this captivity to return, saith the Lord. How wonderful and great are the promises of God, in which He would not be God if He didn't take action against evil, but yet at the same time He is so long suffering and merciful. And He chose Israel out of all the nations, the least of the nations, not because they were the best, in fact, one says they were the worst, and they have behaved the worst. But through God and them responding to Him, which they will eventually do, they will become the model nation of the earth. And what is God doing?

God is wanting the church, He's wanting us to be that model that cities set on a hill, the light of the world, and to let our light shine so that people see our good works, so that more and more people can come under the umbrella of God into the Israel of God, that they may embrace that which God is teaching.