The Ambassador Group

Jeremiah

00. Jeremiah: Introduction

01. Jeremiah: The Prophetic Calling of Jeremiah

02. Jeremiah: The Crisis Within and Without

03. Jeremiah: The Last Five Kings of Judah

04. Jeremiah: Rebuke and Retribution

05. Jeremiah: More Woes for the Prophet

06. Jeremiah: Symbolic Acts

07. Jeremiah: The Crisis Continues

08. Jeremiah: Josiah’s Reforms

09. Jeremiah: Jeremiah’s Yoke

10. Jeremiah: The Destruction of Jerusalem

11. Jeremiah: The Covenant

12. Jeremiah: Back to Egypt

13. Jeremiah: Lessons from Jeremiah

Welcome to another in-depth exploration of the Book of Jeremiah.

Edited for audio and produced by the Ambassador Group.

Exploration 4 Rebuke and Retribution Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.

Save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.

Jeremiah Chapter 17, Verse 14, New King James Version Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 9 in the English Standard Version tells us, What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

This is especially true when it comes to the lives and work of God's prophets, who were often called to deliver words of warning and rebuke to those who should have known better.

Those seeking to be faithful to their calling, the prophets for the most part faced fervent opposition, even retribution, often from the spiritual leaders, those who should have been the first to listen to them.

No wonder Jesus said, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

In this exploration, we will start to look at the trials of Jeremiah, whose ministry seemed to consist of nothing but rebuke and rebuke and retribution.

He giving the rebuke, the leaders giving him retribution.

The 2 Ways From the earliest chapters of Genesis to the last chapters of Revelation, the Bible presents to us only 2 options on how to live.

We either follow the Lord with all our heart and soul, or we don't.

As Jesus said, in words that many have found troubling, he that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.

This is a powerfully unambiguous statement about spiritual realities greater than what appears to the naked eye or than what common sense would seem to tell us.

It's the great controversy theme at its most basic level.

And yet, in 1 sense, Jesus isn't saying anything new or radical.

Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 5 through 10 in the New Living Translation are headlined with the words, Wisdom from the Lord.

This is what the Lord says, Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.

They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future.

They will live in the barren wilderness in an uninhabited salty land.

But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

They are like trees planted along a river bank with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought, their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.

But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives.

I give all people their due rewards according to what their actions deserve.

What crucial spiritual principles did you hear in these verses, especially in light of the great controversy between Christ and Satan.

The immediate context of these words probably reflects Judah's political dalliances and the Lord wanted them to understand that their only help was in God, not in political or military powers, a point that they would later learn, but only after it was far too late.

Though the Lord can and does use other people to help us, in the end we must always put our trust only in Him.

We can never know for sure the motives of others.

We can always know God's intentions for us.

With good reason, Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9 warns about the deceitfulness of the human heart.

The Hebrew text says that the heart is more deceitful than everything.

The horrific physical effects of sin, as bad as they are, aren't as bad as the moral and spiritual effects.

The problem is, because our hearts are already so deceitful, we can't fully know just how bad they really are.

Jeremiah was soon to see for himself how very bad human intentions can be.

How can you learn to trust in the Lord more than you have before?

What are the ways that you can step out in faith right now and do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Certainly, Jeremiah's task was not going to be easy.

Maybe some people might find perverse pleasure in pointing out people's sins, but most would find it to be very unappealing work, especially because of the reactions their words would provoke.

Though some, when they hear the words of rebuke, might repent and reform, that's usually not the case, especially when the rebuke itself is very pointed and strong.

And indeed, as with all the prophets, the words of Jeremiah were just that, pointed and strong.

Let's listen to Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 1-4.

What were some of the warnings that Jeremiah gave to the people?

Judah's Sin and Punishment The sin of Judah is inscribed with an iron chisel, engraved with a diamond point on their stony hearts and on the corners of their altars.

Even their children go to worship at their pagan altars and Asherah poles, beneath every green tree and on every high hill.

So I will hand over my holy mountain, along with all your wealth and treasures and your pagan shrines, as plunder to your enemies.

The wonderful possession I have reserved for you will slip from your hands.

I will tell your enemies to take you as captives to a foreign land, for my anger blazes like a fire that will burn forever." The imagery of the sin engraved on the heart is especially powerful.

The idea isn't just that the sin is written there as with a pen, but that it is engraved there, etched in with a tool.

This all becomes even more powerful when 1 remembers the words of the Lord to Judah's ancestors written in Deuteronomy 30.10, in the New International Version.

If you obey the Lord your God and keep His commands and decrees that are written in this book of the law, and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Let's compare those words with Psalm 40 8 and Jeremiah 31 33.

Psalms 40 8, I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.

Jeremiah 31 33 But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days, says the Lord.

I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts.

I will be their God, and they will be my people." It was out of their hearts that they were to love God and obey His law.

Now, instead, their sin, the violation of that law, is etched in their hearts.

Let none who claim to be the depositaries of God's law flatter themselves that the Chapter 3, verse 4 from the exercise of divine justice.

Let none refuse to be reproved for evil, nor charge the servants of God with being too zealous in endeavoring to cleanse the camp from evil doing.

A sin-hating God calls upon those who claim to keep his law to depart from all iniquity.

White in her book entitled, Prophets and Kings, on page 416.

What does that image say about just how deep and intense the work of purifying our hearts is?

♪♪ ♪♪ The Warning to Jeremiah And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

John 3 19 The sad story of Jeremiah is that the opposition he faced came from the very ones that, through him, the Lord was trying to save.

The Lord wanted to spare them the disaster that was sure to come.

The problem, though, is that people often don't want to hear what they need to hear because it cuts against their sinful and corrupt desires.

What does some of the imagery remind you of?

Then the Lord told me about the plots my enemies were making against me.

I was like a lamb being led to the slaughter.

I had no idea they were planning to kill me.

Let's destroy this man and all his words, they said.

Let's cut him down so his name will be forgotten forever.

O Lord of heaven's armies, you make righteous judgments, and you examine the deepest thoughts and secrets.

Let me see your vengeance against them, for I have committed my cause to you.

This is what the Lord says about the men of Anathoth who wanted me dead.

They had said, we will kill you if you do not stop prophesying in the Lord's name.

So this is what the Lord of Heaven's armies says about them.

Their young men will die in battle, and their boys and girls will starve to death.

Not 1 of these plotters from Anathoth will survive, for I will bring disaster upon them when their time of punishment comes.

Though in ancient Israel those who falsely prophesied in the name of the Lord could face death, in this case there was no indication that the men of Anathoth thought Jeremiah was speaking falsely.

Instead, it seemed that they just wanted him silenced.

Series

Jeremiah

04. Jeremiah: Rebuke and Retribution

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