The Book of Jeremiah - Part 5

In Jeremiah chapter 6 and 7 and 8, and of course we're starting in 6, there's a continuation back in 2 with regard to Jeremiah's mission of warning the nation. And at the same time, that God is pleading with the northern ten tribes and with Benjamin the Judah, the southern kingdom, he's also pleading with all of the nations to turn to him and to repent.

Time after time in these chapters, we'll see just about every metaphor that you can think of used to describe the evil way that both Israel and especially Judah have gone, and Judah is going during the time of Jeremiah's message to them. So in some cases here this evening, we'll probably move rather quickly because some of this is we have seen it many times in different ways, and it will be throughout the book, it being the fact that God has come to the point that he cannot take it anymore. That is, as we said last time, he would not be God unless he took action. And another thing that you'll be seeing here in the messages in chapters 6 and 7 is the fact that no matter what you do in the outward sense, like holding sacrificial services, doing all kind of things outside the realm of regular worship of God, no matter how faithful you are to offer sacrifice or any other thing, if your heart is not right and if you're not right with God, it is all in vain. And that comes through time after time, and to a large degree in today's world, people have traded form for substance. I've spoken for many years, both at the college and in the churches with regard to you must have, you must place substance over form. Now a certain amount of form is necessary, but the form, the formality, and all of the hocus pocus that goes on with some religious observances that I see both in Judaism and also in Catholicism, just to name two from time to time. I watched the synagogue services from New York City on Friday evening, just just four or five minutes to see what they're doing. And of course, we're more familiar with what the Catholics do in the aspect of form. And of course, some of the Protestant religions have also taken on form with regard to the garments that they may wear and that kind of thing. So here we are in Jeremiah 6 in verse 1, O children of Benjamin. Now Jerusalem was in the territory given to Benjamin. It says that three times in the Bible. In one time, it indicates that Jerusalem was in the territory of Judah, but we're certain in scholars believe in the Jews and so on that Jerusalem was in Benjamin. O children of Benjamin, or you could just be saying, O southern kingdom, Benjamin and Judah, gather yourselves to flee out of the mist of Jerusalem and blow the trumpet in Toccoa. Toccoa was about 10 miles south of Jerusalem and set up a signal of fire, not just a sign, but a signal of fire in Bath-Cabrium. And I mispronounce there, it's Beth-Ha-Kareem. Beth-Ha-Kareem. Beth-Ha-Kareem. Beth, any Hebrew words that has Beth in it, Beth means house, and Beth-El means house of God. So in the house there, it literally means the vineyard house. So set up a sign of fire in Beth-Ha-Kareem. The vineyard house for evil appears out of the north. Of course, that's where the Babylonians and the Chaldeans were located, and great destruction. Verse 2, I have likened the daughter of Zion to a calmly and delicate woman. This verse is somewhat difficult, but what I think Jeremiah is saying here is that they have been reduced to silence, they're easy prey, they have left the worship of God, and just as a delicate woman is easy prey for certain ones, so is the daughter of Zion, Jerusalem, and the people thereof.

Now in verse 3, the shepherds with their flock shall come unto her. Now in this case, metaphorically, the shepherds here are not referring to the shepherds of the shepherds of the flock, which we might think about watching over sheep, has to do with the leadership that is coming to destroy them. The shepherds with their flock shall come unto her, they shall pitch tents against her roundabout, they shall feed everyone in his place.

So what the verse is actually saying, look, the shepherds, the leaders of the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, are coming. They're going to pitch their tents wherever they want to, and they are going to take over the land.

Verse 4, prepare you war, prepare you war. War in ancient times was never undertaken without religious solemnities. You know, before the American Indian would go on the war path, they would do the war dance, go through various rituals. So, especially with the heathen nations, they went through certain rituals to go to war. And of course, any nation before they go to war has to be prepared. But this is more in the religious sense. Prepare you war against her, rise and let us go up at noon. So the time of battle usually is not at noontime. At noontime, you're in the heat of the day. But the conquerors that are coming are so anxious to come. And usually the time that the people in the Middle East seek shelter is at noontime.

They go out early with the flocks, and then they try to get them in the shade in the noontime, and bring them back out again as the sun begins to wane toward sunset somewhere around two, three o'clock. So, but in this case, they are so anxious. That is, the conquerors that they are going to come at noontime, woe unto us, for the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. Arise and let us go and let us go by night. They're also so anxious that they would be willing to go at night and let us destroy her palaces. So once again, showing the verses four and five, showing how anxious that the enemies are, those from the north, the Chaldeans and the Babylonians are to destroy her palaces. In verse six, for thus as the Lord of hosts says, hew you down trees. So it is rather hew her trees down for the simple purpose of clearing the approaches and cast a mount against Jerusalem. So laying the land bare, nothing to impede them, cast a mount against Jerusalem. This the city to be visited. She is holy.

She is holy oppression in the midst of her. In verse seven, so these verses that we have read so far showing in metaphoric language how anxious the enemy is to come and destroy, attack Benjamin Judah as a fountain cast out her water so she catches out her wickedness. She cast out her wickedness.

Violence and spoil is heard in her before me continually is grief and wounds.

Of course, God has looked for any sign of good things in her and he has not found any. Be you instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you, lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited. So once again, here it is.

This word, be you instructed, or this phrase, has the meaning of be you chastised. Learn the lesson which chastisement is intended to teach you. Be you chastised, learn the lesson, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you, lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited.

God does not willingly leave his people, but they are going to be torn from the land and to go into captivity. And of course, he restores them, he promises them, he will not make an utter end to them.

You know, with regard to be you instructed, be you chastised, learn the lesson which chastisement is intended to teach. Oftentimes, we are chastised over and over again, and somehow it seems that we don't get it. And sometimes we may say, well, what would it take? What would it take? Sometimes I have back when I used to do radio broadcast and challenge the people, what would it take for you to believe what I'm saying here today? What would it take? Here are the plain words of God from the Scripture. This past Sunday, I had a funeral. I conducted a funeral, officiated a funeral for one of our elderly members, age 100, who died from the after-affection, I would say, of COVID. He had COVID, which then led to pneumonia and complications. In it, I made clear that no one has ascended into heaven, that at the resurrection, those who are dead in the grave will be caught up first. Then after I was through, the funeral director got up and said, when you come out here, you can talk to this man. But before you leave, look up and talk, because that's where he is. And so it doesn't matter, it seems, that what you say, how plainly, how clearly you say it, when people have been thoroughly conditioned to their point of view, and mainly they are conditioned to their point of view emotionally. So after the funeral is over, she came by to thank me and say a few words which were nice. And I said, apparently you didn't hear the scriptures I read. And she said, oh, what was that? And I said, they are in their graves until the resurrection. Jeremiah 6.9, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine. Israel was instructed not to clean the corners of the field, to leave a remnant for the poor who might go in and pick the remnant, and thus be able to sustain themselves. But here, God is saying the enemy is going to thoroughly glean the remnant, just like you would glean a vine. You pick every last grape off of it. Turn back your hand as a great gatherer into the baskets. To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear and behold their ear is uncircumcised. And that, what I just said, the little story there about the encounter with the funeral director, gives a place to what I was just talking about with regard to an uncircumcised ear. The ears of the people of the nation are not circumcised to hear. They don't want to hear, and so they turn away, even when they hear the plain truth, preach to them, they are uncircumcised with their ears and are not ready to hear.

I lost my place there. What?

Verse 10.

I lost my place there for just a moment. Verse 10. To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear, behold their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken. They won't really listen. Behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach. They have no delight in it. So with what has happened today, and has already happened in our nation, we have a nation that is split basically 50-50 with regard to certain morals and spiritual principles, and the Gulf will be increased after today with regard to many things. And the moral high ground will be in the hands now of the ruling party. By the moral high ground, that means that they will point to what has happened today and other events, and then in addition to that, having control of both houses, both the Senate and Congress, they will have the moral high ground politically, and also with the media. And then the educational institutions already have taken their position. So once again, the challenge is going to be even greater for those who are trying to raise children in the age in which we are living. Now verse 11, therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord. I am worried with holding in. I will pour it out upon the children abroad and upon the assembly of young men, together, for even the husband with the wife shall be taken the aged with him that is full of days. And one of the things about warfare, and especially warfare in that time, that the enemy came and they did not spare anyone. That aged really literally means the decrepit old man from the children to the decrepit old man. All are going to be taken. No one is to be spared. Of course, many of them were taken into captivity alive, and many did die.

Now verse 12, and their houses shall be turned unto others with their fields and wives together. That was one of the things in the ancient world that when the conquerors came, they oftentimes took the women in to be a part of their harem, and so many of the wives were taken by the conquerors.

So take the fields of wives together, for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord. Verse 13, for from the least of them, even unto the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness. You know, in the New Testament in John, it says that covetousness is idolatry. So to covet something to the point that it is in sin becomes an idol.

Covetousness is idolatry. And from the prophet even unto the priest, everyone deals falsely. So there was no one spared with regard to the leadership of the land, and after the death, especially of Josiah, then it was given wholly unto those who were not who were not the true worshipers of God. I lost my place again by hitting the wrong thing.

Go to 13.

Yeah, I found, for from the least of them, even unto the greatest of them, everyone given to covetousness from the prophet, even unto the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly. Now, what that has to do with is the fact that the prophets of the day described Pharisees of the day mainly was described as the Pharisaical party had not yet arisen at that time, but the scribes were there. What that is saying is that the false prophets have said, peace, peace, when there is no peace. And so the people trusted in them, and so they were slightly healed, as we see in the next phrase there. We'll read the whole verse. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No. They were not at all ashamed. Neither could they blush. Therefore, they shall fall among them that fall at the time that I visit upon them they shall cast down, says the Lord.

Now verse 16.

Thus says the Lord, Stand you in the way, and see and ask, for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein. And of course, that speaks to many of the things that are happening both on the world scene. Sometimes it rears and it's ahead in the church. And people say, oh, this is, they used to say, oh, this is the 20th century. You need to get with the times. Or they'd say, now, oh, this is the 21st century. You need to get with the times. You're way behind. Don't you know what God is saying here? There was a time in which you were prosperous and blessed. And it was because of, quote, the old way, because you walk in the way that God had prescribed for them. So they were asked to go back to the old way, but they said, we will not walk therein. Also, I said, watchman, over you, saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet. The sound of the trumpet. The sound of the trumpet was the signal for many different things, but one thing is for flight, is and preparation. In Amos 3 and verse 6, shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it? So set the watchmen over you, saying, hearken, listen to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we will not hearken. They didn't even listen, lest hearken and do something about it. Therefore, hear you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth, behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearken unto my words, but rejected it.

The fruit of their thoughts.

I know that one of the main ways that we can send in our mind without doing the actual act of whatever it is, is by evil thoughts of the mind. And as we have said so often that thought is the precursor of action. Action is a precursor of habit. Habit is a precursor of character. You become what you think and what you do, time after time. And then that becomes who you are, what you are. Now verse 20. To what purpose comes there to me? Incense from Sheba. You know, Sheba was a territory in probably in Ethiopia, what we would call modern Ethiopia. Remember the queen of Sheba came up to visit Solomon to view all the grandeur and splendor of Solomon's kingdom. And she said after viewing all of it, only the half has been told. So there was incense from Sheba to what purpose comes. So now here we get into these what I would call superfluous things that you can burn incense, you can pray, you can offer sacrifice, you can do all kind of things, as this verse will say. But if the heart is not right, if it's not in a state of contrition and submission, it will profit nothing. I want you to look at Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66, in verse 1, Thus says the Lord, the heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool, where is the house that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest? This is Isaiah 66, verse 2, For all these things have mine hand made, and all these things have been, says the Lord, but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word. No amount of incense, no matter of sacrifice, no matter how much sacrifice, if the heart is not right, to this man will I look, who is poor and contrite of spirit, trembles at my word. So bring incense to me from Chiba, and the sweet cane from a far country.

I don't know for those of you who did not grow up in the South, we used to have sugar cane on our place. My grandpa had a cane meal, they called it, in which he squeezed out the juice and cooked it down to molasses.

And sugar cane is really sweet, especially certain kinds. So you can have incense, you can have sweetness, and then your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me. So God says, I'm looking at the heart, I read it from Isaiah 66. Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them. The neighbor in his range shall perish, once again showing the completeness of the destruction that is going to come, which no one is going to be spared. Rulership, priesthood, common folk, anybody else.

Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, nobody will be spared. Verse 22.

Thus says the Lord, Behold, a people comes from the North Country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth. Once again, calling, identifying where the nation is coming from. It is from the Chaldean, Chaldeans, and the Babylonians. They shall lay hold on bow and spear. They are cruel and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses set in a ray as men of war against you, O daughter of Zion. We have heard the fame thereof of our hands. Wax people had taken hold of us, and pain as of a woman in surveil. So there were those who were dreading and fearful of what is going to take place.

You know, a woman in surveil is filled with anxiety and also with pain. Now verse 25. Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way. You are an easy target when you go out into the field. For the sword and the enemy and fear is on every side.

O daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth and wallow yourself in ashes. Of course, that was the garment, what people were told to do in times of distress and trouble, fasting and putting on sackcloth and ashes. Make your morning as for an only sun, most bitter lamentation. So it's saying you need to do this as if you had lost your only sun. For the spoiler shall come upon us. Verse 27.

I've set for you a tower and a fortress.

I've set for you a tower and a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way.

I've set for you a tower and a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way.

This is using the language of an assayer. An assayer is one who determines whether or not the ore you bring in is precious metal or whether it is fool's gold or iron ore or whatever it is. So it's using a metaphor from metallurgy.

God confirms the prophet in his office, and the latter sums up the description of the reprobate people on whom he is trying to work with. In other words, I've set you for an assayer.

I am determining whether or not you are with it or whether or not you're not, that you may know and try their way. God is going to sit and try the way of his people, and he has done that through the ages. So you may miss this here, this metaphor. This word tower is spelled B-A-C-H-O-N, bakom, and it means an assayer of metals. I've set you for an assayer of metals and a fortress among my people that you may know and try their way.

So we are being tried and tested, as Peter says. Peter uses a similar metaphor in 1 Peter chapter 1, and we want to turn there right now. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 6, Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaven as through manifold or many temptations or trials, that to try your faith being much more precious than of gold, that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found with praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

So God is trying them in the assayer's fire, as it were. Verse 28, They are all grievous, revolting, walking with slanderers, they are brass and iron. See, brass and iron are very hard metals. It's hard to do anything with brass and iron. They are not malleable. It's one of the baser and harder metals.

They are all corruptors. The billows are burned. The billows, you know, are pumping air into the fire. The lead is consumed of the fire.

So what is this?

The revolters are so cantankerous and so determined to do what they want to do, that nothing it saves will stop them. The billows are burned. The lead is consumed of the fire. Usually lead is left after the other is burned, but this fire is so hot that it even melts the lead. The founder melts in vain, for the wicked are not plucked away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them. So once again, you see metaphor after metaphor from just about anything you want to name, from agriculture to the forest to the metals, with regard to describing the wickedness of Judah at that time. Of course, I would think that the world has far surpassed the wickedness of Judah at that time. One of the things about the ancient world was that they did not have the mass communication that we have today, almost instantaneous communication, liven in color, from any point on earth, and at the same time with the communication, they did not have the transportation. They were not able to get from one point to the other very quickly. So in today's world, the many prophecies are talked about when it says all the world kind of thing, today all the world can be quickly communicated with. Of course, we know there are exceptions in some areas, but the major cities of the earth and even some of the more moderately sized cities are fully equipped. One of the goals of I've heard of the new administration is to make it possible for every American citizen to have broadband in their homes within a short period of time. Of course, now so many students, both in higher education and in high school, middle school, and grammar school, and even kindergarten, are online doing their lessons online. Now we'll go to chapter seven.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.

The gate that is spoken of here was probably in the middle court. There were many gates leading into the temple. There were gates for, there was even the outer court for the Gentiles. There was a gate for the women, a gate for the men, and a gate for the priests, and so on.

We went to Jerusalem in 1989, and went to the Wailing Wall. And even at the Wailing Wall, which is as close as the Jews could get at that time legally to the temple mountain, still pretty much the same today, there was a rope that divided the men and children from the men. The men were closest to the tunnels that went under the temple, and the women and children were beyond that.

So there were a lot of gates to the temple court. Jeremiah took a position where probably everybody could hear him. So stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, and enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

So time after time, he gives them latitude, opportunity. I will permit you to, the implication is, if you will amend your ways, if you will repent, I will permit you to still dwell here and will not remove you. Time after time in Jeremiah, I'm reading now from Jeremiah 18 verse 11. Now therefore go to speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you. Return you now everyone from evil, from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

Now I'm reading Jeremiah 26.13. Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will repent. That means he will change his mind of the evil that he has pronounced against you. So in Jeremiah 7.3 it is saying, if you'll repent, amend your ways, then you can still dwell in this place. Now verse 4.

Trust you not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. And that's one of the main things that people tend to do. They use, quote, human reasoning. They make God over in their own image, and they say, Oh, God wouldn't destroy this place because this is where he has placed his name. This place is where he has placed his name, the place where we come to worship. So he wouldn't destroy this place because of that. So they trusted in the material more than they did in God. On the other hand, God is saying, you better amend your ways, you better repent. But they said, on the other hand, oh, he's not going to do anything because the temple of God is here. For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, and of course that introduces one of the main things that I've talked about for 40 years, and that is judgment, mercy, and faith, it is one of the great themes that runs throughout the Bible. We're not going to spend a lot of time on it tonight. I think we're familiar with Matthew 23, 23, which says that you pay tithes of mint, anise, and coming, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone. That is judgment, mercy, and faith.

Judgment, mercy, and faith is one of the great, well, it is the key for people living together in peace. It is the key to being reconciled to God. It is the key to being reconciled to your mate, to your neighbor, to your brethren, to anyone you want to name your neighbor, because here's how it works. See, the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. So, judgment stems from law. Mercy stems from law, and faith stems from law. So, you judge yourself, saying, I have sinned when you go before God, and He's faithful and just to forgive you, and He will extend His mercy if you've repented. Then He says, go walk in faith. Or, as He told the woman caught in adultery in John 8, go and sin no more. The same process with your mate or your neighbor, go and say, I've done wrong, or it seems I've done you wrong. What's the problem? You make a judgment. You ask for mercy. It may be extended on both sides. And then, go walk in faith. Go and sin no more. The same thing with a neighbor, and so, it goes. So, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt. And they just couldn't get it through their head that they, when walking after other gods, they weren't hurting God in the ultimate sense other than He was grieved at their sin. So, you could look at that as a hurt upon God. But the ultimate hurt would be to them, because if they didn't amend their ways, then they would be then they would be either killed or taken into captivity.

Then, once again, this promise in verse 7, then then will I cause you to dwell in this place in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever, hearkening back to the Abrahamic covenant in which God had promised them all of the land between the two rivers, between the great river of the Nile, in this case not just between Tigers and Euphrates, but from Tigers, Euphrates, all the way down to the great river of Egypt, the Nile, which by the way that Israel, even in the United Kingdom, much less in the divided kingdom, never occupied that total expanse of land that was promised to Abraham.

Then I'll cause you to dwell in this place in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Of course, the day is coming in which that will be the case. They will dwell in all of that land. Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense unto Baal? Walk after other gods whom you know not, and come and stand before me in this house? I mean, what's the point? You see, it says in Galatians 2 and verse 17, God is not the minister of sin.

You know, in Romans 3 it talks about being justified by faith alone, but if you understand what is involved totally by faith, you cannot say that you have faith without obedience. Similar to what it says in James, show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works. Or I'll show you my faith by my obedience. So they would do all of these things and then come and call upon the name of God and say, we are delivered to do all of these abominations.

Verse 11, is this house which is called by my name become a den of thieves, of robbers in your eyes? Remember when Jesus began his earthly ministry there in Jerusalem? After he did that miracle of turning the wine, turning the water into wine and cana onto Jerusalem and found there those money changers in the temple, he says, my house will become a den of thieves and he casts them out.

He made a whip of cords and chased them out of God's house. Will you make my house a den of thieves? Behold, even I have seen it, says the Lord. Everybody else sees it. Of course God sees it. But go ye now into my place which was in Shiloh. So Shiloh was a place where the tabernacle was pitched when Israel came into the Promised Land.

Shiloh was in Ephraim. Ephraim was for a long time the leading tribe in all of Israel. So go to Shiloh where I set my name at first and see what I did to it for your wickedness of my people Israel. And of course the northern ten tribes had already gone into captivity when Jeremiah was prophesied.

And now because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I spoke unto you rising up early speaking, but you heard not, and I call, but you answer not. Therefore I will do unto this house which is called by my name wherein you trust, remember that phrase back earlier where it says the house of the Lord, the house of the Lord, the house of the Lord, show him by repeating it three times, I'll just complete trust that no way that God is going to do anything here because this is where he placed his name.

This is where the temple is. Therefore will I do unto this house which is called by my name wherein you trust and unto the place which I gave to you and your fathers as I've done to Shiloh. So look at Shiloh. See what happened there. I can do the same thing here, and I will cast you out of my sight as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

Now in this case, and I told you this before, Ephraim was the leading tribe in Israel for a long time. They were superior in numbers and power.

They were the leaders, especially the ten tribes, and oftentimes Ephraim, here's my point, Ephraim is used generically for the whole ten tribes. So the whole seed of Ephraim, that means all of the Northern Kingdom. And I will cast you out of my sight as I have cast out all of your brethren, even the whole Northern Kingdom is literally what it's saying.

Therefore, pray not you for this people. I neither lift up, neither lift up, cry nor pray for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear you. There comes a point in which God will not hear a prayer for the wicked. And so we need to be very careful that we understand with regard to prayer. Now God tells us to pray and He gives the example of the importunist widow who time after time came and finally they said, okay, because you've come so often, I'm giving in. But we pray according to God's will. And at this point in time in the history of Judah, God's will was that He was going to punish them and that they should surrender to their enemies and take heed to Jeremiah's warning, of course, which they resisted and called Jeremiah a traitor. Verse 17, See not what they do in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem.

The children gather wood and the fire and their fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough. May cakes to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods that may provoke me to anger. Notice that the queen of heaven.

These cakes were made of honey, fine flour, and a round flat shape to resemble the disk of the moon to which they were offered. What I'm covering here now is very important. It gives great insight to what people don't like to talk about with regard to how far into Pravity both Israel and Judah descended. They descended into burning their children in the fire. They descended into temple prostitution, but not the way we think of prostitution today.

The Phoenicians call the moon Astras or Astarte, the wife of Baal or Moloch, the king of heaven. The male and female pair of deities symbolize the generative powers of nature. In other words, they were the fertility from which life came, hence arose the introduction of prostitution in the worship. Some of those sects required that before a virgin was married, she would have to visit the temple, have sex with the priest in the temple, and then she was eligible to be married. They plunged into such deep depravity that it was practically unspeakable. The Babylonians worship Astaroth as Mileyta, and Mileyta really means generative. On Monday, and Monday is named after Moon Day. It indicates the former prevalence of moon worship. I'm reading Isaiah 65.11. But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for the troop, and that furnish the drink offering under that number. So they did many things to provoke God, and set up elaborate feasts and tables, even descending into their children passing through the fire, and what we've just discussed here. Verse 19, do they provoke me to anger, says the Lord. Do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? Look, all sin is against God, and all sin is against oneself. Because, why is that? Because the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So, all sin, yes, is against God. All sin is also against self. In some cases, sin is also against God, and against others. Verse 20, Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, my anger and my fury, shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, upon beast, upon the trees of the field, upon the fruit of the ground, and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched. In other words, the land will be laid waste, it will be barren when the enemy comes through.

Thus says the Lord of Hosts, verse 21, The God of Israel, put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. Yeah, go ahead and do that.

Oh, they were they were diligent to offer sacrifice, to offer incense, to have the form of religion, but their hearts were far away. Go ahead and do that. Verse 22, For I speak not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. Now this verse, Jeremiah 7.22, is often quoted, it used to be, so much, you don't hear it much anymore in this context in the church, but back in the 60s and the 70s, this verse was very often quoted with regard to Galatians 3, where it talks about the law added. You might want to turn to, or not might want to, I'm asking you to turn to Galatians chapter 3.

We'll read into this from verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the nations through Christ. See, the promise in Genesis 12.3 was that through the seed of Abraham, all nations would be blessed. Now some people have basically limited this to the physical side of things, as the Jews are so wont to do today. But the fulfillment of this is spiritual, and all nations are blessed through Christ, as we shall see.

That the blessings of Abraham might come on the nations through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Brother and I speak after the manner of man, though it be but a man's covenant, but if it be confirmed, no man dissanals our answer to him. Now to Abraham and his seed, where the promise is made, he said not to seeds as of many, but as of one, one seed, and to your seed, which is Christ. And this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law covenant. See, the law covenant was confirmed at Sinai.

You remember that from Exodus 24, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul that it should make the promises of none effect. For the inheritance of the law, it is not bef- What is that word there? What?

It is no more a promise, but God gives it to Abraham by promise.

Wherefore then serves the law. It was added. And see, this is the key connection between Jeremiah 722 and Galatians 3, 19. See, we just read from Jeremiah 722 that when God brought Israel out of Egypt, he did not speak to them concerning the laws of sacrifice and all of that. It was added because of transgression, because of sin, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. So the law added those sacrifices pointed toward the greater sacrifice that was to come through Jesus Christ. So make the connection between Jeremiah 722 and Galatians 3, 19. With this thing, I commanded them. See, in verse 22, he said, I didn't command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices, but it did command them this. But this thing commanded I therein, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. Walk you in all my ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearken not nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels of their imagination of the evil heart, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt, unto this day I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. Now, where did you find in the New Testament Jesus Christ making a similar declaration with regard to sending them the prophets? And what did they do to the prophets?

I'm going to now turn to Matthew 23, which starts off, O ye scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites. But in Matthew 23, Jesus is speaking, and he talks about what they have done through the years with the prophets. Verse 30. This is Matthew 23 30. Matthew 23 30. And say, if you had been in the days of our fathers, if you had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore, be you witnesses unto yourself that you are the children of them which kill the prophets. Fill you up the measure of your fathers, you serpents, you generation of vipers. How can you escape the judgment of Gethinah fire?

Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, wise men, scribes. Some of them you shall kill and crucify. Some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city.

Then it gives the example of Bar-Kiyas in verse 36. Barely I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, stone them which are sent unto you. How often would I have gathered the children together even as a hen gathers their chickens under wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. Where I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth, till you say, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. So God had sent them the prophets daily, rising up early, and speaking to them, verse 26, yet they hearken not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. So we're back in Jeremiah 7. So Jesus Christ confirmed there, of course, that this is what they did to the prophets. Now verse 27, Jeremiah 7, 27. Therefore you shall speak all these words unto them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call unto them, but they will not answer you. But you shall say unto them, This is a nation that obeys not the voice of the Lord, their God, nor receives correction. Truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth.

With the events that we see unfolding every day in our nation, this more and more applies to the time in which we're living, and that's what we're going to be facing. They will not listen. They will harden their hearts. They will have uncircumcised ears. They will cast his words aside. But yet, Jeremiah was commanded to go. Ezekiel was commanded to go. We are commanded to go. Go you therefore and all the world. Make disciples of all nations, teach them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you, and lo, I am with you to the end of the age. We know the Great Commission. Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation. Of course, the hair was the glory of the woman, and they were to cast it away as a lamentation, for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. For the children of Judah have done evil. In my sight says the Lord, they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name to pollute it, and they have built the high places of Tophat, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn the sons and their daughters in the fire. So here we see what I talked to you earlier when I spoke of the fertility rites and the worship of the gods Moloch and Astarte and the fertility part of it.

And they are sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. I never even thought of such a thing.

So you think you're going to placate God by burning your children?

Therefore, behold, the days come, says the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophat, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter, for they shall bury in Tophat till there be no place. And what does this remind you of in the New Testament? It reminds you, or it should, of Revelation 19 when Christ comes again and He destroys the beast's powers, works, and casts the beast and false prophet into the bottomless pit. So let's read just a few things. We're about through here this evening. We'll complete this chapter. We look at Revelation 19.

And Revelation 19 is very similar to the wording that we have here in Jeremiah chapter 7. In Revelation 19, verse 17, I saw an angel standing in the sun, he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together under the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond and small and great. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse. And the beast was taken with him and the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These were both cast alive in the lake burning with fire and brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that set upon the horse which soured proceeded out of his mouth. The sword, by the word of his mouth, he did this, and all the fowls were filled with the flesh. So we see this, and it becomes the valley of slaughter at the end of the age. Verse 33, and the carcasses of this people shall be meat, food for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beast of the earth, and none shall fray them away. Then I will cause the seas from the cities and the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth. It's going to be a very sad time at that time. The voice of mirth, the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, of the bride, for the land shall be desolate. In some of that language, it's very similar to Revelation 18, where the voice of the bride is no longer heard.