The Message of Jeremiah

Well, over the last two opportunities that I've had to speak here in Kansas City, I've covered some of the information about the book of Isaiah. I can't say I've covered all of it, but at least I covered some of it. I gave you some introductory information and then more so how it is that Isaiah is so extensively quoted in the New Testament. And I know, I hope, that it is inspiring and uplifting to you. And I hope that if you are reading in Isaiah that you can make it make more sense because that's what we want to be able to do. We want it to be useful. We don't want it to be useful. We just don't want to know it's a book in the Old Testament somewhere and we don't know exactly what it's about.

But I have to say that after covering that, and of course in a sense forcing me to study that more and think more about it, that I more deeply appreciate what God did in writing this section of the Bible. And even the more that I look not only at Isaiah but now at Jeremiah as we're going to start doing today and as we will later get into the book of Ezekiel, many times we can think of those three books as the major prophets, which they're called. And certainly they're the larger of the prophet books as far as just numbers of pages. And yet when I look at those, the three different books, you know, there's a vast difference. A vast difference in what God was inspiring these prophets of His who were directed by the Spirit of Christ, it says in Peter, I believe. The Spirit of Christ was guiding them, directing them, inspiring them to either preach or to write down a message.

A message for the people of Israel or Judah then, or a message for us today because we still are an extension of Israel and Judah. And so I hope that that is an appreciation that you are growing in as well because I see so much more about the book of Isaiah.

I don't guess I had studied it in that way before to be able to see so many of the chapters.

So many of the chapters that are talking about what we find revealed only in the first ten verses or so of Revelation 20. See, God was, of course, inspiring the writing of the book of Isaiah back in the 600 before Christ. But He was inspiring John about it.

Probably 100 years after Christ, or at the last part of the first century, 700 years later to write a book of Revelation that really only has become widely distributed in the last few hundred years and clearly not understood at all because when you read Revelation 19 it's very clear who wins. Very clear who is going to be introducing the Kingdom of God and the rule of God on earth. But when you read chapter 20, chapter 20 of Revelation is an outline of the world tomorrow, of the white throne judgment. It even leads into chapter 21 and 22 where we have a new heaven and a new earth. Those are remarkable chapters that God inspired John to write down, actually just trying to scribble down the vision, what it was that He was seeing. So it's fascinating to me to see how much Isaiah is quoted in the New Testament as we went over a couple of weeks ago, but also how he points out where the objects of God's mercy. All of us. If we understand the word of God and if we have a relationship with God that is growing and developing and that is even growing in the beatitudes as our sermonette mentioned. We have to be aware of those, not only attitudes, but the actions that God wants all of us to be living.

So enough for the book of Isaiah. Today I want to talk about Jeremiah. And actually you find Jeremiah, even though it's very close, you go to Isaiah and Jeremiah, they're right close together. They're one following the other in the Old Testament. Yeah, Jeremiah is quite a different message. It has some of the same components, some of the same elements, but it doesn't have the expansive descriptions that Isaiah has of the millennium of the world to come. But it does have a lot of very critical, very important information because as I told you about Isaiah, God told Isaiah, I want you to go and do my job, but they're not going to do it. Their eyes are going to be closed, their ears will not hear. That's what he told Isaiah. In a sense, he told Jeremiah, I want you to do my job. I want you to go do the job and tell people that they need to repent. And if they don't, then they're going to go into exile. They're going to go into captivity. And of course, he was preaching right up to the time when they did go into captivity. And some of what is written in the latter part of it is talking to the exiles. And even, and we might cover this more next time, Daniel was one of those people who went into captivity. As Judah was overtaken, he went into captivity and he was reading the book of Jeremiah. And he was actually learning of, I know how long we're going to be here. Now I know, of course, God had to interpret a number of other dreams for him and help him a lot in many ways. But a little later on in the latter part of the book of Daniel, you see Daniel just saying, I'm reading Jeremiah, I see we're going to be here for 70 years. I know what God has already revealed about us being in captivity.

But the thing that we could certainly say about Jeremiah was that Jeremiah not only was a prophet and primarily to the people of Judah and to the last of the kings of Judah, but he was called by God to perform a very critical and a very important mission. A mission that has something to do with us today. A mission that has to do with the return of Jesus. But Jeremiah had a very difficult job. You would think Isaiah had a difficult job because they said they're not going to listen. But Jeremiah had a difficult job in a sense in a little different way. I don't believe he was told they're not going to pay attention.

He was just persecuted for doing his job. He was persecuted for saying what God told him to say. And of course he received, as we'll cover here, at least in brief, a very simple way. He received a good amount of retribution because he was a servant that God was working through at that time. We actually see a number of strengths that Jeremiah has. And I want to start off with just a little introductory and background information. You see strengths that Jeremiah had that include faith in God, devotion to prayer, faithfulness in fulfilling his calling, and actually courage. Courage in the face of hostility. And I think that that is an important aspect for us to think about because we don't know what we're going to face as we go forward. We don't know what we're going to run into as we do the work that God has commissioned us to do. We don't know what we're going to face as we continue to do that, but Jeremiah went through all of that. He was actually, whenever you read through the book of Jeremiah, you need to realize that in many ways a lot of what's recorded were a bunch of sermons. Sermons that he gave and that were recorded by his secretary.

Baruch was a secretary that Jeremiah used. Actually, Jeremiah was given words from God and he would speak these to the people or maybe he would write them down or he would have Baruch write them down for him and be able to give them either to the king or to the people. And I think it's also interesting. Actually, you can look at chapter 36 and chapter 45. I'm not going to turn to those and read those to you. But they mention Baruch. They mention him as the secretary to Jeremiah. And so you don't see that with most of the other prophets, but you do see that with him. So I don't know whether he was just a better preacher than writer or how it came about that he had a secretary to write down those things. Sometimes they were destroyed and Baruch had to write them again. And so there was clearly a reason why that was working out. Also, you see in the book of Jeremiah that Zepaniah, the prophet, is mentioned several times. And he was prophesying in Judah at about this same time, prior to the fall and of the last few kings in the house of Judah. And Zepaniah, whenever you read Zepaniah, that's a little bit easier. That's about three pages. And so you only have three chapters there. But when you read that, you see he was predicting the world tomorrow. He was predicting a time that would come that certainly they did not see at that time. They did not see as they later, after 70 years, came back.

They were yet, it was yet to be. And of course it's amazing to see that when you realize that this was written down by God through Zepaniah many, many centuries even before Jesus would come to the earth. So let's look in Jeremiah chapter 1. We'll start and go through some at least preliminary information here about Jeremiah. It says in verse 1, The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priest who were in Anonoth, and the land of Benjamin. The words of Jeremiah, to whom the word of the Lord came, in the days of King Josiah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. He also came in the days of King Jehoiach until the end of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month. And so this was, again, mentioning several of the kings through Josiah down to Zedekiah. Zedekiah was the final king in Judah. And so he was taken into captivity and his eyes were put out, his children, some of them were killed in front of him. And so they were obviously dealing with a ruthless enemy. That's what we find even described on our televisions today, ruthless enemies of others. And yet in verse 4 it says, the word of the Lord came to me. And in verse 5 he says before, and God speaking, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you and I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations. Now clearly, in verse 5, which Jeremiah in a very unique situation, we only have a few other people where it points out, the Bible points out, that God was dealing with them, directing that they be born, directing that they come for a purpose. You clearly see that with Jesus, obviously. God was sending his son and he told Mary what to expect. If we take a look at Luke chapter 1, you find all of this. You also find John the Baptist in Luke 1, verse 13 and 14, having been prepared by God before his birth, telling Zachariah, you're going to have a son, you're going to name him John, he's going to have an important job. And even the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1.15 says that God prepared me for this service.

Now, he certainly didn't look to be prepared very well up until 30 years old or so, because he was out killing the church. That is clearly even his own admission. I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I was destroying those of the way, as he described it, I believe in Acts 9. And so, he was out killing the church. He was out killing the church. He was out killing the church. Paul said, though, in Galatians 1.15, that God had sent me, he has intended for me to, as he drew me to Jesus Christ, as he revealed to me his son, he wanted me to proclaim the good news, the message of the kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ, he wanted me to give that to the Gentiles. See, all of these were pretty important issues.

The Son of God, preparing the way for the Son of God, Paul being apostle to the Gentiles, not only to the house of Israel, as the others were sent, but here Jeremiah. Jeremiah is stated to be formed in the womb, or before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I consecrated you. God is working out a plan. He can do that. However, he chooses to do it, whatever he wishes to do, his drawing us to be a part of the church and the work of God today is by his design. I think we can learn some of that by looking at how it was that Jeremiah was drawn by God. And actually he says I'm going to appoint you to be a prophet, not only to Judah, because that's primarily who he was speaking to, the people of Judah who remained after Israel had already been in captivity for 70 to 100 years. He says I'm going to cause you to be a prophet to the nations. You're going to deal with other nations and other kingdoms. And in verse 6 Jeremiah said, Oh Lord, look, I'm just a kid.

I am only a boy. And yet the Lord said, and I guess this should be a mention to all of you who are younger, those of you who are young children here, God can work with us.

He can help us even as we are younger. He was clearly, I think Jeremiah was a little older teenager probably at this point. And yet he can work with people, actually many of you. I can certainly look back and think on my life I was 17 years old, 16 or 17, when God started to intervene in my thinking. And he can do, he can make something out of nothing.

He just can't. And so Jeremiah said, Lord, truly I don't know what to speak. I'm only a boy. And the Lord said, don't worry about it. Don't say, I'm only a boy, for you shall go to all whom I send you and you shall speak whatever I command you. And so he told Jeremiah, you know, you just need to do the job. I'll tell you what to speak. I'll give you the words. You pass them on. And in verse 8 he said, don't even be afraid of that. Don't be afraid of those that you are going to preach to, for I am with you. Now, Jeremiah must have thought on those words many, many, many a time. Whenever he was in prison, whenever he was in the dungeon or the cistern, whenever he had been, you know, rebuked and whenever he was being persecuted for what he was yet to do or what he had done and what, you know, they didn't like to hear the message that he had to say. And so, you know, they were very hostile toward what Jeremiah had to do. He says, don't be afraid of them. I am with you to deliver you. And so I remind you that he was preaching to the kings and the people of Judah and Israel had already gone into captivity a hundred years before. And yet, whenever we read about Israel being directly stated, we can look at this in chapter 2, verse 4. Again, Israel had already been sent into captivity. They were in captivity at the time when Jeremiah would say this. But it says in chapter 2, verse 4, Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob. It's not only Judah, but the house of Israel and all the families of the house of Israel. Again, I'm not going through all of the information.

I'm just pointing out how that this was not only for that time. But this had a dual application that would be applicable to the house of Israel, to the people of Israel and Judah today.

Let's back up, actually, as he said in chapter 8. I'm right here.

I'm with you, and I will help you. If we drop down to verse 17 of chapter 1, this is chapter 1, verse 17, he says, But you gird up your loins, stand up, and tell them everything that I command you. Don't break down before them, or I will break you before them. And I for my part have made you today at fortified city. Down in verse 19, They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you.

I think Jeremiah would have to be very encouraged by some of these statements that God was making to him, as he was calling and drawing him. And actually, I think it's exciting to see what he says in verse 9. Jeremiah 1, verse 9. Because even though Jeremiah was a man who was going to have a job that would be difficult and would require courage and faith in God, and ultimately even facing what might appear to be death at times, although I don't see that he died, I don't see that recorded, I know he did die, but I don't see directly how he died. I see that he was in perilous situations numerous times. But verse 9, it says, and the Lord put out his hand, and he touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, now I have put my words in your mouth. See, that's a statement that I try to remember, one that I want to keep in mind. If I'm going to serve God and try to speak the words of God, then I want to remember that God's the one who has to put them there. And I think for any of us who do any speaking, not only here in church, but for any of us, as we interact with others, we want the words of God to be in our mouth, in our life, in our heart. I think that they're in our heart, and if they're in our mind, then they can be in our mouth because God can use us as his servants. So those are kind of introductory things that we read here in the first chapter. I will come back to one verse that obviously I'm skipping. You may notice, well, why didn't he read that verse? But I'll read it later.

Because I want to point out a little more about Jeremiah's message. He actually preaches more about repentance. This is his second point, I guess, of the ones that I want to make today, I hope about four or five. He was preached more about repentance, or at least what we see recorded is that he was pleading. I think I mentioned to you Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet because at times he's just crying. He tried to cause people to respond, try to get them up out of their chair and move. That's what he was wanting them to do, is wanting them to hear what he had to say and then heed. And yet you see this written in a number of different ways. If we turn to chapter 3, and in a sense, the message that he had after a while initially it started off with, if you need to change, you need to obey, otherwise you're going to go into captivity. Of course, that makes sense. If they were disobeying, then they were going to reap the penalty of that disobedience.

But after a while, his message changed to, well, you're going to go into captivity. It's already a done deal. You need to be in submission to the King of Babylon, and then God will make it go better for you. You will be helped. You will be encouraged. So again, they didn't like that message either. We don't want to be in submission, or we don't want to go into captivity, and we certainly don't want to be yielding ourselves to the King of Babylon.

Not that they were to forsake God, but that if they would simply comply with some of the requests that Babylon would make of them, and as they eventually did, they were down in their own community. They were pretty much allowed to function in the way that they would like, although they were under the supervision of the King of Babylon. Clearly, as you read through the book of Daniel, you see tremendous favor was given to not only Daniel and his friends, but others who were directly in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. So they were clearly favored. They did have to ask for some different food. That was one thing that Daniel did that's written down. But God told them through Jeremiah, if you were cooperative, that things would go better for you. He ultimately was going to say, and I'll bring you back. But of course, he didn't say that until about chapter 20 here of Jeremiah. He didn't say that you're going to be there for 70 years, and then I'll bring you back. He didn't say that to them.

So let's look at how it is that Jeremiah pleads for them to repent. Pleads for them to turn to God, to change from the way they were. Here in chapter 3, starting in verse 6, it says, The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah, and so King Josiah was one of the better kings in Judah. He had a great reformation that occurred during his rule. Have you seen what she did? So here he's talking about Israel who has gone into captivity. Have you seen what she did? That faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high tree and every green tree and played the harlot? And I thought after she had done all this that she would return, but she didn't return to me, and her false sister Judah even saw it. And in verse 8, she saw that for all the adultries of Israel, I sent her away with a decree of divorce, and yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the harlot because she took her hordom so lightly. She polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree, stone and tree being what they made idols out of, whether it was out of a stone of some type or out of wood. And he says, yeah, in verse 10, for all of this, her false sister Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense. See, sometimes they'd say the right words, but their hearts were far from God. And of course, I think most of us are pretty familiar with probably one of the memory verses that we would think of out of the book of Jeremiah. In 17.9 talks about the deceitful heart. The deceitful heart that all of mankind has, but certainly Judah had that deceitful heart. And in verse 11, the Lord said to me, faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah.

So go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, return! Faithless Israel says the Lord, I will not look on you in anger. I will be merciful. God's mercies are new every morning. That's a part of what we learned in Lamentations. Lamentations 3, 22, I believe, are free. God's mercies are new every morning. It goes on to say, I will not be angry forever.

Verse 13, only acknowledge your guilt that you have rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree and have not obeyed my voice. Return! In verse 14, O faithless children, for I am your master and I will take you one from a city and two from a family. I will bring you to Zion. And I will give you shepherds after my own heart and will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Here he was predicting something that was actually not only going to happen whenever they returned, but even begins to be a prediction of what will be in the end time. Because in verse 17, at that time Jerusalem will be called the throne of the Lord. And all nations shall gather to it in the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they will no longer stubbornly follow their own evil will. And so here he's predicting the world to come. He's predicting the kingdom of God on earth. But of course he is pleading with them. If we drop down to chapter 4, if you return, O Israel, says the Lord, if you return to me, if you remove your abomination from my presence, if you do not waver, and if you swear as the Lord lives in truth and in justice and in uprightness, these nations shall be blessed by him, and by him they shall boast. For thus says the Lord, of the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, break up your foul ground. Do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord. Remove the foreskin of your heart, O people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

It says, don't continue to cling to your evil ways. This is the tone that you see throughout when you read through the book of Jeremiah. Again, he's preaching this repentance in almost every one of the sermons, every one of the interactions he is pleading with them to turn back to God. Let's jump on over to chapter 22. At this point, he's already in chapter 20. He says they're going to go into the nation of Babylon. But in chapter 22, you have a whole section here. Verse 2, hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, sitting on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord, you need to act with justice and act with righteousness and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed and do not wrong or do no wrong or violence to the alien or orphan or widow or shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed obey this word, then through the gates of this house shall enter kings who sit on the throne of David riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. But in verse 5, he says, If you will not heed these words, I swear to myself or by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. So that was Jeremiah's pleading. And of course, this was God pleading with the people of Judah. Just trust me. Just have faith in my leadership, in my rule. Let's look at one other verse here. Well, one or two here. Chapter 25. Chapter 25 is actually where he predicts they're going to fall to Babylon. Verse 8, Because you've not obeyed my words, I'm going to send for all the tribes of the north, even King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, I will bring him or them against this land, and against the inhabitants I will utterly destroy them and make them an object of horror and hissing and everlasting disgrace. In verse 11, this whole land shall become a ruin in a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and the nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their own iniquity, says the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste. So this was, of course, what happened to Judah. Israel, again, had gone into captivity to Assyria, but Judah was now going to be overtaken from the north from Babylon. And they were going to be in captivity, and that, of course, is what you read in the latter part of this, and even through the book of Daniel, that captivity is ongoing. He is a captive. He is one in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. And yet, as I mentioned, Daniel could read in the book of Jeremiah, he even says. So in chapter 9, verse 2, I'm reading the book of Jeremiah, and I see how long we're going to be here. I guess he could figure out how long they had been there. He could determine how long he had been there anyway. And he knew what to expect, but he also pleaded with God to hear, to listen, to forgive, and to act. That's what Daniel's plead was in Daniel chapter 9. Let's look in chapter 26 here.

Chapter 26, again, the pleading that Jeremiah would give in calling the people to repentance.

Verse 2, chapter 26, Thus says the Lord, stand in the court of the Lord's house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the Lord. Speak to them all the words that I command you. Do not hold back a word. It may be that they will listen, all of them, and will turn from their evil ways, that I may change my mind about the disaster that I intend to bring on them because of their evil doings. You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, if you will not listen to me, to walk in my law, that I have sent before you, and to heed the words of my servants the prophets whom I send you urgently, though you have not heeded, and I will make this house like Shiloh, I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.

Again, just examples of Jeremiah's pleading and calling for repentance, even as God calls for repentance today to those who will hear. Those who will seek God are going to come to understand repentance very intimately. And, of course, brethren, that should involve each and every one of us. Every one of us, because in many ways that's the only answer.

Maybe you shouldn't say that. That is the only answer. It is the only answer to come to understand the value and the importance of repentance.

The third thing I want to mention is simply that Jeremiah was persecuted for his devotion to the calling that God had given him. God had revealed to Jeremiah that Jerusalem was going to fall, and the people were going to go into captivity. That punishment was inevitable, and he preached that they should submit, and they would receive mercy. That's what he was telling them. And yet, that was not a welcome message from the kings or from the people.

It was certainly not an easy job. He actually needed a lot of encouragement. You see a couple of different sections here in Jeremiah where he's complaining to God about, you know, well, they're not listening, they're causing trouble for me. God said, don't worry about it. I'm still with you. Even though you're in distress, even though you are being punished, I'm still with you. So, don't worry about that.

If we consider the fact, even as we're reading here in Jeremiah 26, verses 2-6, how it was that he wanted them to heed. If we drop on down, though, you see what the outcome was.

Let's start reading in verse 7, the priests and the prophets. And all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking, all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, and then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, you need to die.

You shall die. Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord that we're going to become like Shiloh, that we're going to fall into captivity like Israel did? Why are you saying that? And all the people gathered around Jeremiah. In verse 10, when the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of the Lord. They took their seat in the entry of the new gate. And in verse 11, the priest and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, this man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied about this city, as everyone has heard in our own lives. See, that was the type of discouraging threats that Jeremiah would face as he did the work that clearly God was doing through him. He was simply passing on the words from God. He said they ought to turn. They ought to acknowledge the law. They ought to obey in every way they should turn to God. And yet, of course, that was not something that they did. He suffered rejection and ridicule, hostility, persecution, to even one of our Beatitudes, this blessed are those who were persecuted for righteousness' sake. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. See, that's applicable to us today, and clearly a part of what we can learn from Jeremiah's role as a servant of God. In chapter 37, you probably are familiar with this section of Jeremiah being stuck in a well. He being down in the bottom of the cistern where he couldn't get out and where it was, I guess, didn't have water in it, it said, but it said it had a lot of mud. So he was down, maybe sunk down to his waist in mud, muck and mire, and creeping critters all around. I don't know what might have been in the well. And yet, you see that he was put down there. He actually was rescued from that if you read through the first part of chapter 38. But he's in this muddy cistern.

I guess we get back up to chapter 37. Chapter 37 points out that the officials, verse 15, were so enraged at Jeremiah that they beat him and imprisoned him in the house of the Secretary of the General of the State of Washington that it had been made of prison. So he had been imprisoned. He was then later put in a well. He was rescued for that or out of that. And yet, what I point out about that is simply that even though he faced that kind of disappointment, I'm sure he had to be disappointed that he was going through some of these things from his own people. And yet again, God said, I'll be with you. And he was. He was still with Jeremiah. So point number, what am I on? Three? Or four? What is it? Three? Three, four? Four? Okay. I've got it written down as four, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it doesn't make any difference. I've got two more points. So the next point I want to make is to go back to the one verse that we didn't discuss in chapter one. Because it says everything to do with the fact that God is carrying out a purpose on earth. And he is carrying out or going to fulfill his plan. And when need be, he will work through people, no matter how difficult it might seem. And certainly with Jeremiah, it seems that he suffered a lot and he had a difficult task, as Isaiah did as well. And yet here in Jeremiah one, he said in verse nine, he touched his mouth and said, my words are in your mouth.

But in verse ten, he says, See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy and to overthrow and to build and to plant. Here he was giving Jeremiah even initially a glimpse of what he was ultimately going to be required to do.

Even though he was going to be watching his people go into captivity, even though he was going to suffer in part by their nation being overthrown, he actually had. And you actually see these type of words pluck up and pull down and destroy and overthrow and build and plant. You see that scattered throughout the book of Jeremiah. You see it in chapter 18 and 24 and 31 and 42. See, those same type of verses or that type of wording is used in numerous different places. We can look at chapter 31. See, what was God going to do through a servant that he had known before he was born?

And he was going to ensure that this servant would be available to do the job that he would ultimately do. And this would deal with overthrowing the nations or plucking up and then moving and building and planting in another location. Here in chapter 31, down in verse 28, he was going to be able to start talking about, you know, is Ephraim, my dear son, excuse me, I'm sorry, I was up earlier here, or I was on the wrong page altogether.

Chapter 31, 28, oh, here we go. Verse 27, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans, with the seed of animals. And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. Here he is mentioning that even though he's allowing his people to go into captivity, there was a throne there, a throne from the greatest king in Israel, David, that God had made a covenant with David, that your throne would be maintained.

Here is people are going into captivity. How is that throne going to be maintained? And actually, what we see, and again, I don't intend to go into this extensively because it would take too long, but you can read about how it is that God used Jeremiah to take some of the daughters of Zenekiah and ultimately to plant the throne, to plant a kingdom or a ruling throne over ultimately into the land of Ephraim, what we would know of as England today.

Again, I'm not going to try to even go through all of that, but you see what I just read in chapter 31. If we look at Jeremiah 45, Jeremiah 45, you actually see this whole chapter is written about Baruch, and you see some of the story here whenever you read through these chapters. This is the word the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baruch, his servant. When he wrote these words in a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiachim, thus says the Lord, God of Israel, to you, O Baruch, woe is me, and even if you say, woe is me, the Lord has added sorrow to my pain, I'm weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.

That's what Baruch could feel in the same way Jeremiah could feel that. But he says this, in verse 4, thus you shall say to him, to Baruch, thus says the Lord, I am going to break down what I have built, and I'm going to pluck up what I have planted, and that is a whole land. And you, don't worry about maintaining or seeking great things, don't worry about your life, don't seek them, or I'm going to bring disaster upon all flesh, I will give you your life, even though you will be a prize of war in every place to which you go.

Again, this was a matter that Baruch, Jeremiah, and Baruch were going to be, they weren't going to go into captivity there to Babylon as all the rest of the nation was, they were going to be taken to Egypt. They were going to go to Egypt, and they were going to go with the king's daughters. Let's take a look at chapter 43 here, we back up a page or so. Actually, Jeremiah even warns them in this encounter that you shouldn't go to Egypt. He told them, I don't think he ought to, and this was some of the remnant of the people, as others were being taken off to the north to Babylon, the Egypt was to the south from where the land of Jerusalem is, and the end of Israel.

In chapter 43 verse 1 when Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people and all the words that the Lord had sent them to him, you know, as Uriah said, you're telling a lie. The Lord our God did not send you to us. Do not go to Egypt to settle there, but the Lord has not said, you know, don't go to Egypt, but Baruch is putting that in your head.

See, this was actually an accusation that was against Baruch, it was against Jeremiah, but it was against Baruch as well. And so, in verse 4, Johanna and all the commanders of the forces and the people who did not obey the voice of the Lord to stay in the land of Judah, you know, they actually, they took all the remnant of Judah.

This was actually after many of the people had already been transported off to the north.

They decided that it's going to be safer down in Egypt, even though Jeremiah says don't go.

The forces out of the commanders took the remnant of Judah who had returned to settle in the land of Judah from all the nations to which had been driven. Verse 6, the men, the women, the children, the king's daughters, the princesses, everyone who nebuzarad and the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah. And in verse 7, they came into the land of Egypt, for they simply didn't obey the voice of the Lord. See, Jeremiah was together with the king's daughters. Zedekiah's sons were actually killed, his eyes were put out as he was taken into captivity. But his daughters would maintain a royal line. And ultimately, you know, Jeremiah would be involved in taking that, you know, to where God would place it in Ephraim. If we back up to chapter 33.

Chapter 33 talks about how it is, verse 17, directly, where thus says, Lord David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. Now, this was a prediction that God had stated not only to David, but then throughout the reigns of the other kings of Israel and Judah, God continued to maintain His respect for that promise that He had given to David. So if we jump back up in verse 14, this whole section is one that is certainly yet to be fulfilled. But whenever Jesus Christ returns, maybe we should read that first. It can hold your place there. In Mark, or excuse me, Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. This is what Jesus Christ is going to reestablish whenever He returns. Luke chapter 1, Gabriel, was sent to Mary. Verse 30, don't be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You're going to conceive in your womb and bear a son in verse 31, and you will name Jesus. And He will be great, and He will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His ancestor, David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever of His kingdom. There will never be an end. See, again, God was going to fulfill that. He's yet to fulfill that whenever He sends Jesus back to the earth.

But Jeremiah was involved in maintaining that throne of David. And if we go back to chapter 33 here in Jeremiah, we will read a little bit more about how that was to take place.

Now, the days are coming, surely, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise that I made in the house of Israel, in the house of J. Judah, in birth 15, in those days, and at that time I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David. And he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days, Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called. The Lord is our righteousness.

Obviously this didn't happen whenever the captives were sent back to rebuild the temple, because as they had been in captivity for 70 years in Babylon, they were sent back.

Some were sent back. They had a role, a mission, to rebuild the temple or to revive it. And they had a job to do at that time, which was a job that God wanted them to do. But it didn't fulfill what we see written here. This is yet to happen.

Verse 17 does says, Lord David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of his house of Israel, and the biblical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer offerings, to make great offerings. The word of the Lord, verse 19, came to Jeremiah. Thus says, Lord, if any of you could break my covenant with the day and with the night, so that day and night could not come to an appointed time, only then could my covenant with my servant David be broken, so that he would not have a son to reign on his throne.

See, God had made this covenant with David and with his throne and with his descendants, and that that would continue to remain until ultimately this righteous branch that's mentioned in verse 15 would come. And he would set up the kingdom of God. And we see this a little bit.

You can read on down through here. He's just saying how I am going to fulfill that purpose.

I am going to maintain that throne. And, of course, we have a couple of different booklets that go through extensively information about the United States and Britain in prophecy and how it is that God has chosen to work with a commonwealth of nations and with a great nation here in the end of this age. We have another booklet that you may not have read recently.

Certainly, I have not looked through it recently. It's just called The Throne in Britain, or The Throne that is in Britain. And it talks about how it is that Jeremiah ultimately took the king's daughters, Dedekiah's daughters, and then transferred, having been plucked up from one place but transferred to another place to, in a sense, locate that throne of David that Christ is going to assume whenever he returns. So, again, this was in fulfillment of some of the divine purpose that God had in mind for Jeremiah before he was even born. God is working out that plan. The last thing we'll mention is just that whenever you read in the book of Jeremiah, he talks about appealing to people to repent. He wants them to change. He tells them you're going to go into captivity, even says you'll come out after 70 years. You find a number of statements here in Jeremiah that deal with returning from captivity, that is one of the returns that is mentioned. But then the second one is to happen here in the end time.

Whenever Christ returns, there will be a regathering of the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

And God's message through Jeremiah contained the wonderful promise of mercy and deliverance.

Now, he offered that if people repented, and Christ is going to bring that whenever he returns for a new age. And it talks about the story of the people of God. We back up here to chapter 23.

There are several verses that we can read that are very clearly written about what is yet to happen.

Here in Jeremiah 23, starting in verse 5, the days are surely coming, says the Lord.

See, that type of a description is written not that that's going to be fulfilled shortly for Judah, but that is yet to be fulfilled. The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David's righteous branch, he shall reign as it came and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which you will be called. The Lord is our righteousness, very similar to what we read before. Therefore, verse 7, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I shall no longer be said, or it shall no longer be said, as the Lord lives, who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt. See, that's what the house of Israel and the house of Judah could always look back on when God drew us out of the land of Egypt. We were enslaved. We were brought out. Jeremiah says here at the time when they would go into captivity to Babylon, days will come in the future when it will no longer be said, as the Lord lives, who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt. But what they'll say in verse 8 is, as the Lord lives, who brought out and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the land of the north, and out of all the lands where he has driven them, then they shall live in their own land.

That again was a reference to what's going to happen as we see in the very beginning of the millennium a restoration of Israel being the people of God. They're going to be restored, even as we see indication that the 12 apostles will be given assignments of working with different of the tribes of the house of Israel. If we turn over to chapter 29, this again is an all-encompassing statement. This is actually a statement that Jeremiah wrote in a letter to people who went into captivity, who went into Babylon, and who were exiles in verse 4.

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. So that's who he was writing to. Verse 10 for thus says, the Lord, only when Babylon's 70 years are completed, will I visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise, and I will bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, the plans for your welfare and not for your harm, to give you a future with hope. And then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. And then when you search for me, you can find me. If you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord.

And I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, I'll bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Again, these prophecies, to some degree, refer to them just coming back and rebuilding the temple or rebuilding the city to a degree. But they more specifically refer to Christ coming into what he will set up when that happens. Here in chapter 30, we have in verse 7 a reference to the time of the trouble of Jacob, the distress that the people of Israel are going to go into. And of course, this is going to happen even in the end of this age, and we see written about in the book of Revelation. Here in chapter 31, probably one of the most prominent verses, one that is clearly quoted in the New Testament in the book of Hebrews chapter 8 and chapter 10, it talks about what all of us can enjoy today and what people are going to be thriving in in the future, where it calls for a new covenant.

In verse 31, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, it will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, the covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws within them. I will write those laws on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall they teach one another or say to one another, know the Lord, for they shall all know me. From the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord. But I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.

See, many of these are verses that we're familiar with out of the book of Jeremiah, but he was writing these under the distress of the nation going into captivity and needing God's help. But as we can see, you know, as we see them applied in the New Testament, they're referring to a time to come. They're referring to the restoration of Israel whenever Jesus intervenes. So hopefully that gives us an introductory beginning here to the book of Jeremiah. We'll try to cover some other things about Jeremiah's message next time. But I hope it can be encouraging to us to realize, as God very much intended for Jeremiah to be his servant, he very much called him to do a job physically and to prepare for a future that is a glorious future that we know of as the installation of the kingdom of God on earth. You know, all of us are in the process of preparing for that same time. You were given an opportunity, we're given a mission, we're given an understanding of how it is that Christ is going to fulfill these prophecies that he actually gave to Jeremiah. And of course, you know, we want to learn the same lessons that Jeremiah did or that the people needed to know that I need to repent, I need to draw close to God, I need to watch world affairs, I need a desire to be counted worthy to escape the things that have come to pass because those things are coming to pass around us at this point. And yet we have a great hope and great encouragement in front of us and we can look forward to that return in a glorious return of Jesus Christ.