So, hello, everyone. Again, this is a welcome to the Christian Bible Study Ministry podcast, and we are today going into chapter 2 of Jeremiah. Our study of the book of Jeremiah, and do pray, as always, that this episode will bless you and somehow or another encourage you in your walk with Jesus. And if you are, of course, if you are not a Christian, then I pray that somehow maybe the good Lord's spirit will touch you and you will have a chance to be saved. Before we get into the program, there is always something that I like to say and that that is that I know that, especially right now, you know, with some news that I got today, There is a person that used to work with my mother over at one of the stores here that has passed away. And honestly, it hits hard, you know, and it's something that is difficult to think about, you know. But I have faith that they knew Jesus, and so they are in the same place that my mother is, you know. So, and that plus all the other people who are grieving, you know, that's something that I pray about every day. There's a lot of people family and friends who have lost people and their families recently so that's again i know firsthand the burden that grief is it's not pleasant and of course you know there's other things going on too you know people might have financial problems and other things that are weighing weighing them down excuse me so i do pray that. Whoever in the world is listening to this podcast that you will have some kind of blessing from God, you know, whether it be money, a kind word, or a good report from a doctor or whatever, you know, because the Lord knows we need these things. And so I'm just going to end the beginning of the program with that. And we're going to talk about Jeremiah, you know, as a refresher, Jeremiah was sent by the good lord to preach to the israelites who had abandoned their covenant and so jeremiah was promised by god in chapter one he said that. Jeremiah was not to worry about anything because the king or no one else would be able to harm him while he was preaching because the Lord wanted this message to be preached. And this was 50 years before the Babylonian invasion. So they had plenty of time to listen to Jeremiah's message and to accept it or reject it. And unfortunately, we will see they did in fact reject that message. So we're going to go into chapter two now so hold on just a second y'all bear with me please okay here we go so again we have we will see that in chapter two god will recall israel's early love and devotion when they were freed from egypt they followed him in the wilderness and they were set apart as holy and belonged uniquely to him you know this is why god gave them these rules to follow that the ten commandments and the other you know all 639 commandments total so and israel unfortunately had a tendency to wander from this so we're going to read the first few verses of chapter two moreover the word of the lord came to me saying go and cry in the ears of jerusalem saying thus saith the lord i remember thee the kindness of thy youth the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown israel was holiness unto the lord and the first fruits of his increase all that devour him shall offend evil shall come upon them saith the lord the lord says hey anybody who comes after his own chosen people in this case the nation of israel they will cause great offense. And evil shall come upon them. It doesn't specify specifically what kind of evil. It just says evil. So it could be anything. And that evil can be very bad. And I believe we have seen in history that anybody who has gone after the Jewish people has suffered horribly for it. And there's too many examples for me to go into there on that. So, you know, we are going to go now to the next several verses. Where we see that God asks, what did he do wrong to deserve their abandonment? You know, God says, rhetorically speaking, what did he do to deserve Israel abandoning the covenant? The people followed their worthless idols, you know, their Asherah poles, their Baal idols and Ashtoreths and whatever other kind of idols that they had there. They forgot God and their leaders failed spiritually. The leaders were probably some of the very first people to turn in their hearts from God. They were in charge of the temple. They were in charge of teaching the law to the people. And they failed. They failed in their sacred duty. Verse 4. Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord What iniquity have your fathers found in me That they are gone far from me And have walked after vanity And are become vain. This is where we see God As asking the people What fault did he have That they chose to turn from him He had blessed them with freedom He freed them from 400 years Of bondage in Egypt, Freedom from the last Freedom from beatings Freedom from murder uh, And yet, they rebelled against him. Why, God asked, did they turn? Verse 6, neither said they, Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through and where no man dwelt? They didn't ask that question because they didn't have to. The Lord was there. With a pillar of fire in the sky. And then before that, the pillar of fire that blocked the path of Pharaoh's army. He led them through a barren wilderness. Hot, dry desert. Water in a few places here and there. Oasises, you know. Things look bleak in the desert, and yet he led them through that. So no, they didn't ask the question, where is the God of our fathers? Because they had no need to ask the question. They knew that he was there by the sheer fact that they were still alive in the desert and that they had even been allowed out of Egypt was proof of his presence and his power. Verse seven. And I brought you into a plentiful country, the land of Canaan to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof. But when he entered, he defiled my land and made mine heritage and abomination. When they got into Canaan. They came into contact with all these other people their idols their human sacrifices and other things the prostitution the sexual immorality there they were contaminated or rather they let themselves be contaminated instead of driving out all the people of canaan that the lord told them to they failed and they suffered for it god delivered on his promise he led them into a land that was extremely productive and fertile the land of milk and hunting it grew plentiful fruit and it had a lot of goodness in it and yet they still turned from him spiritually, verse 8 the priest said not where is the lord and they that handle the law knew me not the pastors also transgressed against me and the prophet and they and the prophets prophesied by bail and walked after things that do not profit you remember the story of bail the prophets of Baal, Elisha, or Elisha, I can't remember which were off the top of my head. These prophets were being stupid. They were cutting themselves, hollering and screaming and dancing around, thinking that that would get their God's attention. And yet all God's person had to do was basically, I guess, just kind of look up, you know, when the offering was consumed. And so were the prophets, consumed by fire. God doesn't need you to cut yourself up. and act stupid he can do whatever he wants to do without even you thinking about it, and yet these people this is what the people of israel had turned to they had turned to idols, the bales the asherahs the ashtaroths and i'm sure there's some other names there too you know, why did the people do this it is simply the evil of the human heart so israel exchanged the true god Yahweh. Adonai they exchanged the true gods or idols they abandoned the fountain of living waters you remember when jesus talked to the woman at the whale he said whoever drinks from this well will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water i shall give them shall have life eternal living water, instead of living water the people chose something that was broken first nine wherefore i will plead yet i will yet plead with you saith the lord and with your children's children not while i plead, he's already saying the lord's going to give them time here for pass over the isles of chitim and see and send them to ketar and consider diligently and see if there be such a thing, hath a nation changed their gods which are not which are yet no gods but my people have changed their glory for that which stood out which doth not profit the people of israel had exchanged their worship of the true god for worship of something that was meaningless that had no profit the idols couldn't move they couldn't eat they couldn't talk there were demonic influences behind it but the idols themselves had no power and it was i believe these verses are telling us that even among amongst the people around them there had no there had been no such thing because Because the people around them had no worship of the true God. So they were worshiping the same thing that they always had. People of Israel, however, had knowledge and worship of the true God, and they turned from that. God is saying here in his word through Jeremiah that that was unheard of. Verse 12, be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and huge amount of cisterns, broken scissors, that can hold no water. Again, this is reiterating here. The people of Israel were working with something that was broke. It could not work, did not work, and will never work. Why would you want to turn away from living water? and to a cistern that can hold no water i would rather have the living water, i don't know about y'all but i don't like being thirsty it's not very comfortable so, this should have been very very apparent and abundantly clear to the people of israel they lived in the desert it's hot and it's dry why would you want to abandon living water, it's not a very wise decision at all they went after something that was broken that couldn't whole water see those idols and all that these you know they can't hold the holy spirit, they cannot hold the holy spirit and neither could the people neither could human beings until jesus christ died but yet their faith the faith of the people the people who believed in and followed the lord their faith was accredited to them as righteousness just like they had the holy spirit in a sense and they turned from that israel brought trouble on themselves by doing this. Israel's suffering came from abandoning God, not God abandoning them. They abandoned God. And four nations came in, Babylon, Assyria, the Philistines, and they oppressed them because they turned away from him. Verse 14, is Israel a servant? Is he a home-born slave? Why is he spoiled? The young lions roared upon him and yelled, and they made his land waste. His cities are burned without inhabitants. this is very important here you know israel was ruined first of all they were ruined because of the rebellion but they were externally ruined by babylon and what does verse 15 say say the young lions lion was the symbol of babylon and warred upon him and yelled and they made his land waste his cities are burned without inhabitant when babylon invaded israel i think it was in 586 bc they expelled most of the inhabitants the jews were largely taken to babylon the babylonian empire and this lasted for decades it lasted for decades so yes the lion was a symbol of babylon babylon came in and wrecked the country took the people off to exile, Israel was spoiled They were made slaves To the Babylonian empire They were made servants. And also Verse 16 Also the children of Noth And Tehapans have broken the crown Of thy head, And so Knopf and Tahaphanes, I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, through my research, these were two cities in Egypt. So Egypt also played a role in betraying Israel too. So that tells me that the Israelites probably had tried to place some of their trust in the might of Egypt. Egypt betrayed them. And so they were betrayed from the south and ruined from the north. Knopf, by the way, is the ancient capital of lower Egypt, which was Memphis. Just want to throw that in there. So yes, we see Israel got into quite a bit of trouble. Hast thou not procured, verse 17, hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way? So hey, Jeremiah is saying, you're going to bring this on yourself, Because you have forsaken the order of God He led you out of Egypt And you've done this You've betrayed him As punishment, Israel was going to bring this on themselves The ruin from the Babylonian Empire And the betrayal by Egypt Verse 18 And now what hast. Thou to do in the way of egypt to drink the waters of sihor or what hast thou to do in the way of assyria to drink the waters of the river and so and so what god is asking them here is why are you trusting in egypt and the assyrians for these things that you should be trusting in me for they were spiritually and they they had spiritual infidelity they were in essence adulterers they were spiritual adulterers and so egypt nor assyria was going to be able to help them And honestly, why would they, I guess? So this is what happens when we stop putting our trust in God to handle our problems and to bless us and give us water and everything that we need. And we turn to things that are not eternal. We turn to things that are spiritually corrupt. We turn to things that are evil. God is not going to let it slide forever. He will wake you up in some manner. He will definitely wake you up. Verse 18, excuse me, verse 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backsliding shall reprove thee. Know therefore and see that this is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts. In other words, he's saying that all the stuff that they're going to do and that's going to happen to them, they were going to be smarting really bad from this, and they would learn a lesson here. It would teach them not to do the things that they have done, the spiritual rebellion, abandoning the covenant. And they're going to know that it is a horrible thing and that it's going to be bitter. Sin is like this. When we do stuff that we want, you know, say, for instance, if somebody commits adultery on their spouse, you know, and they don't stop, they keep on doing this stuff, eventually some bad consequences are going to happen, especially if they have kids. Kids get caught up in a divorce and they see the horrible and the the person who committed the adultery they see the horrible harm that it's done to their family and that's how it hurt their kids, and it can't be undone but they can still learn and not do these things again. Israel have lost the fear of the lord and here it says say if the lord god of hosts you know hey the lord is the commander of an entire army and armies of heaven you know and the people still lost their fear of him but he's warning them that i'm not going to let the he says i'm not i'm not going to let this go forever he would rather warn people give people plenty of warning, so that when calamity does come they will have had plenty of time to repent. Going on to the next part here. Israel, long ago, rejected God and turned to widespread idolatry. Their sin could not be washed away. We're going to read a few verses here. For of old time I have broken thy yoke and burst thy bands, and thou saidst I will not transgress, when upon every high hill and on every green tree thou wanderest playing the harlot. Yet i have planted the noble vine holy a right seed how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me for for though thou washed i for excuse me for though thou wash thee with nitre and take thee much soap yet that iniquity is marked before me saith the lord their sin was so deep and had gone for so long that it couldn't be corrected as far as consequences you know they were you know god was still giving them time to repent but he was warning them that the time was going to come to where he was going to have to deal with it israel had promised god that they weren't going to go do these things that they were going to follow him but god says. That it seems like upon every high hill and under every green tree that thou wanderest playing the harlot so everywhere they went they played the harlot not just upon the mountains or not just in the trees but everywhere they played a harlot god gave them a good tree and yet somehow or another they turned into something that was strange a degenerate plant and for some reason you know when i read the word nitro here i'm thinking of lie that's probably not what that is but you know basically god said no matter how much soap that they were to use they were not going to be able to wash that sin away god could see it plain as day. It was an offense going to the next few verses here the people denied their guilt despite obvious idolatry so god controls them quite frankly to wild and uncontrollable animals which that really is what a rebellious christian is that is what a lost person is and it's to an extent i say to an extent because the lost person is dead spiritually so you know a christian is a christian who is out of step with god who is backslidden they're kind of like uncontrollable animals they've lost their way verse 23 how can't thou say i am not polluted i have not gone after balaam see the way in the valley know what thou hast done and thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways a wild ass used to be in the wilderness that snuff up the wind at her pleasure and in her occasion who can turn her away all they that seek her will not weary themselves in her. Month they shall find her withhold thy foot from being unshod and thy throat from thirst but thou saidest there is no hope no for i have loved strangers and after them i will go basically this is saying that the people were denying their sin and yet they had no they were not able to not they were not able to not to deny it because they were guilty they were saying they had not gone after these idols and yet they had jeremiah tells them to look around to see what they have done. They were doing these things without care. He says they were a swift, a swift drama dairy traversing her ways. They're going about business at full swing. Another, their, their rebellion was in full swing. So Israel verse 25 was saying, there's no hope. We love strangers. And after them, I will go while I go. So it's like, they're saying, Hey, you know, why stop what we're doing? We go now to verse 26 and we see that shame is coming all leaders will be ashamed they're going to be in trouble they'll cry to god but he tells them to call on their idols instead that they have trusted in as the thief is ashamed when he is found so as the house of israel ashamed they their kings their princess and their priests and their prophets. And honestly one thing that just popped in my mind here is the thief on the cross you know i know this is not a this is not tied to that but it did cross through my mind the thief on the cross repented when he realized that he had met god at his death contrast between him and the, people of israel in the time of jeremiah by and large the people of israel did not listen Amen. I'm sure that the thief on the cross felt shame towards himself when he knew that he knew that Jesus Christ, the man next to him, was perfect and flawless and did not deserve to die. And he placed his total, complete faith in him. And as a result of that, he went to paradise. Verse 27, saying to a stock, thou art my father into a stone and thou has brought me forth for they have turned their back unto me. And not their face, but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise and save us. But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? Let them arise, that they can save thee in the time of thy trouble, for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. So the people of Judah had numerous gods, false gods that they worshipped, and the Lord said, Hey, you want to follow that? Get them to come save you. That's pretty harsh. instead of receiving the mercy of god they are receiving his wrath or will be receiving his wrath and nothing was going to be able to stop it when it started god was going to use his wrath their time in babylon in exile to break them to teach them verse 29 we're going to start with verse 29 and so even after this discipline occurred the people still refused correction And they rejected God. Wherefore will you plead with me? Ye all have transgressed against me, saith the Lord In vain have I spitt in your children They received no correction Your own sword hath devoured your prophets Like a destroying lion, O generation, see ye the word of the Lord Have I been a wilderness unto Israel A land of darkness? Wherefore say my people We are lords, we will come no more unto thee. Rejected god they rejected his discipline you know and the it's kind of like a child being disciplined by the parents saying oh that didn't hurt you know and they just keep on they insist on doing things their own way and god says you know was i wilderness to you did i not give you water and food in the desert why have you turned from me the people say we are lords we will come no more unto thee. Remember what satan said to adam or to eve in the garden of eden he said when you eat of this tree the knowledge of good and evil you will be like gods you will have, knowledge of good and evil satan was a liar and these people had brought into that lie, in a way they said we are lords we're going to do what we want to do you don't tell us what to do we're going to do what we want to do. We're not going to come to you anymore. And that is pretty much what Satan, I believe, had told Eve what would happen. That if they eat that fruit, then they would be like gods. He lied to them, of course. Human beings are not gods. We all know this. It is moral and spiritual degeneration. It is sin to tell God that you are not going to do what he wants you to do. Verses 32 through 33, we see that Israel's forgetfulness is unnatural. They had no reason to forget God because God had done so much for them. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. Why tremmest thou thy way to seek love? Therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways? You know, they were people who were adorned with all the trappings of righteousness you know they had the temple they had, the you know they had the commandments god had shown them basically face to almost face to face this power they had seen it with their own eyes the parting of the red sea the the plagues in egypt the almighty power of god and yet they still rebelled against him and refused to listen, they were so bad that they even taught people around them how to be wicked that's bad. 34 through 35 everybody can see their sin and yet they said we did no wrong. It's kind of like a you know person who's convicted of a serious crime you know like murder or whatever you know and they say hey we didn't do it even though the evidence is plainly before everybody you know and so verse 34 also in thy skirt also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents i have not found it by secret and search but upon all these yet thou sayest because i am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me behold i will plead with thee because thou sayest i have not sinned they were saying god we didn't do it let us go don't punish us god told them that he had found the blood of the innocent people on them so they were murdering people you know i'm sure there was probably human there was human sacrifice involved in that you know and they were saying but we didn't do it we didn't do what they say but god said it's right there in front of you in front of everybody you are guilty and so finally this these last few couple of verses here 36 to 37 basically judah put their trust in foreign nations like egypt and assyria and we see what happened they failed and god I chose to discipline them, to turn them away from that, and they would be ashamed of what they had done. 36 why gaddest thou about so much to change that way thou also shalt be ashamed of egypt as thou were ashamed of assyria yay though thou shalt go forth from him and thine hands upon my head for the lord hath rejected thy confidences and thou shalt not prosper in them yeah they were going to go up go away from the land their hands were going to be on top of their heads and they were going to be carted off to babylon where they would stay for many years jerusalem would remain desolate basically until the return and you know and they were in babylon for decades. The confidence that the israel place in egypt and assyria would be they would find that it was badly misplaced they were going to be marched out of their homes to a faraway land with their hands on top of their head so we could see at the end of this part of our study that god remembers the good stuff we do he's not going to forget it we are the ones who cause trouble for ourselves when we choose to turn and abandon what we're supposed to be doing and that idolatry leads to a place of emptiness and bad things judgment the things that we do wrong when we wind up in that backsliding condition backsliding condition it the sin is persistent it's visible in it and we deny it for a time. It could be years, depending on the person, you know? And so trusting anything other than God leads to shame and disaster. And it's going to hurt, you know, when we come to the realization that we've, whether we realize it or not, we've been placing our trust in something that we shouldn't have. So that, you know, these are things that we need to ponder, people. Remember what Peter said, you know, Peter said something along the lines of taking care, you know, and stand, you know, stand firm in our walk lest we slip and lose our secure footing. That's what it's talking about here. And it's talking about people who slip and stay down, you know, and they have trouble getting back up. So I pray that this program has been a blessing to you all. I know this is one of the longest podcast episodes I've ever done, but I hope that I certainly hope that it was worth it and that you all find it to be a blessing. You know, again, if there's anybody out there who is listening to this program and they don't know Jesus Christ, I pray right now that that they would open up the door to their hearts, you know, and let him in. Dear lord i pray that if there's anybody listening to this who doesn't know you i pray that they would that they would know that this is the time the moment to come to you and open up your their hearts and minds to you and accept you accept christ as their the only way of salvation if there's anybody here who is listening to this who is a christian and who has not fallen the right path you know so to speak i pray that this will be the time to where they could But at the very least, start to have your spirit work on them to pull them back to where they're supposed to be. And I pray these things in Jesus' name, Lord. Amen.
