167: Jim Styles - Jeremiah's Struggle with God

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Welcome to Good Christadelphian Talks. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. And I'm Brian. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week, with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to listen to.

2. 0:33

   And now, let's talk more about this week's talk. This week's class is called Jeremiah's Struggle with God. It's the third in a series by Brother Jim Stiles on Jeremiah that he gives at the Brant County Study Weekend in 2013. I loved this class. This was a suggestion from a listener, so thank you to that person.

3. 1:06

   But I really, really enjoyed this class. It was—I did not listen to it with my Bible in front of me, but I think that may have been more helpful, because Uncle Jim jumps around the first kind of 20 chapters of Jeremiah to lay out the struggle that Jeremiah had with God and with the message that God was giving Jeremiah to share.

4. 1:30

   And Jim applies this lesson and kind of this study to us and our struggle with God and the message we've been given, but also how we communicate with each other, because he highlights—Jim highlights—that God is very patient with Jeremiah and consistent, but understanding. So I thought it was really excellent with definitely a great study, but also a good life and ecclesial application.

5. 1:57

   So I'm very excited to share it. Like I said, this would be one I would suggest that if you have the time to sit down with your Bible in front of you as you're listening to it, but if you're on the go, as I was when I was listening to this class, it's still really great.

6. 2:13

   Jim goes to my same ecclesia, so I get the pleasure of listening to him a lot, but I think he does a really good job, and this is kind of a classic example of his style as well. So I'm happy to share it. And like I said, this was a suggestion. Please, please send us your suggestions.

7. 2:27

   It's a huge help to Chris and Brian and I. And here is Jim Stiles on Jeremiah's struggle with God. Actually, when I was studying Jeremiah and getting into the book, this is one of the first sections that really interested me. Besides the friends that Jeremiah had, my greatest trouble was trying to make sense out of the first 20 chapters.

8. 2:49

   I really couldn't make sense out of it. It was like all those chapters, they seemed to go from one to the next. And I didn't find reading them a chapter a day in the daily readings, I didn't find that real helpful myself. Because a week goes by and I couldn't remember what was there back before.

9. 3:03

   So I really did find in this section it was a lot better to just like read it through as one book. Like read 20 chapters at once and just like try to figure out, take notes and color stuff and see what in the world was going on. And what came out of that was the personal struggle that Jeremiah was having with God's message.

10. 3:21

    And that was a bit of a surprise. I didn't really go into it thinking that that was the case. So we ended up the last class with looking at how important it is of coming to know God. And that really is what eternal life is all about. That you come to have the quality of life that God has and that you learn to live like him.

11. 3:38

    That's what he's really after. When you go back and look at, well, why would anybody turn to idols? Why would people do that? Why would they go back to idolatry when they had all the things offered to them that Jeremiah and Josiah and Hilkiah and all the different people were offering? Well, the reason they like idols when you start to categorize things and look at it, well, it's the same reason people like idolatrous worship today.

12. 4:00

    You know, the idols can't really see what you're doing. So they figure, well, you can leave the temple, go home, and nobody really knows what goes on or where you went or how you talked to somebody, how you treated them, what kind of deceit and lying that went on. You don't get any guilt feelings if it's just idolatry.

13. 4:18

    I think that's one of the things people really love today. Christadelphians, when we're understanding our God and we see the angels around us all the time, what happens is the level of guilt goes up because we realize how often we fall short. And we realize that we make mistakes and the levels of guilt are there.

14. 4:35

    If you're worshiping idols, there's really no need to change because the idols don't really see you. And so you can just continue your kind of lifestyle. And of course, in today's day and age, we love instant happiness. And that's what idols would give you. They allow you to enjoy the pleasures of sin.

15. 4:51

    And that's what idolatrous worship would give these people. And of course, they're fun. They're exciting. The worship they would have with idols would be a lot more fun and exciting than a Christadelphian meeting would be to many people. Although I tend to find a lot of Bible classes fun and exciting myself. Sometimes that isn't the case.

16. 5:08

    We're like we're fighting what our nature would want to do. And we're trying to get through and understand what God is after. So when you look at things that are out there today and you realize, well, you know, we've got these kind of problems in our day and age today. These are the idols we have to fight.

17. 5:20

    These are the things that we've got to look at and realize that, wow, these are just momentary pleasures of sin. And instead, what we need to do is get involved in our families and our ecclesias at turning people to God, witnessing to our friends and our neighbors and telling them about what we stand for rather than getting involved in those sins and those mistakes that people made.

18. 5:41

    So the good news that God had in Jeremiah is that even though the people had gone through a wrong pathway and they were going into their idolatrous worship and they were making all those mistakes, what God predicts in the book of Jeremiah is that there will be a day in which sin will not reign.

19. 5:59

    God is going to change them. And he talks about in Jeremiah 24 at verse 6 that he will eventually set his eyes on them for good and bring them back to the land. After they've been carried away, he's going to bring them back. He's going to build them. He's going to not pull them down.

20. 6:14

    He's going to plant them and not pluck them up. But it takes faith to believe that while you're going through it. This is what the people were being called on at this time to believe. They were going to go through a radical change of lifestyle, carried off as captives to Babylon, and they were somehow going to have to believe that through all of this, watching many of their loved ones killed, people cut off and weren't going to make it up to Babylon, families separated, people scattered, that in all of this, God had a good intent that this was his way of saving a remnant alive.

21. 6:46

    Because the plan was that eventually he would bring them back and that he would give them a heart to know him. He really would circumcise the four skins of their hearts. The problem is, brothers and sisters and young people, the medicine that it takes to do that is strong stuff. And really, if God laid out for us ahead of time for your whole life and told you all the things he was going to have to do to conform you to the image of his son, we'd look at all that and we'd say, I'm not sure it's worth it.

22. 7:14

    Honestly, we would. I think a lot of us would. When you look at your whole, when you stand back and you look at your life of all the things that it took, it would be very easy to look at what it took to change me. And ahead of time, we would analyze that and wonder, wow, you count the costs and you look at, wow, that's a lot to ask to go to.

23. 7:33

    Imagine if Jeremiah had been told ahead of time all the things that were going to happen to him. He thinks he's going to be, you know, bronze walls and iron pillars and God's going to save me and protect me. And as it plays out, that isn't what happens. He goes through all kinds of trouble as every believer does.

24. 7:47

    So God brings it into our lives slowly as we can handle it in order for us to like slowly learn to trust him. But I think in the end, what happens at the end of your life is that although you can look back at all those events, you can also look back and realize, wow, that's what it took to save me.

25. 8:04

    That's how hard my heart is. That's how difficult it is to change us. And so he did it for my good because he's trying to let me one day share his holiness and really allow that eternal life become a kind of life that you live forever with his family. So that's the plan is that God is going to change the hearts one day.

26. 8:25

    You find again in Jeremiah 31, you know, all those passages that we quote to our friends and our neighbors about the restoration of Israel. And you wonder, like, what are they all doing there in Jeremiah? That was the good news. This is going to be worth it. God's plan to take the people up to Babylon is going to be worth it because one day you're going to see the results of this.

27. 8:44

    You're going to see how this really, this plan that he had really did work. And he was able to save a remnant so he didn't have to destroy them all and regrow the remnant back in the land of Israel. But in order to do that, he had to wipe out all their friends, all the stuff they had, all their past cultural experiences that they had developed in Manasseh's time.

28. 9:05

    He had to just take it all away, take you up to Babylon where you can't have any of that. And then I can bring you back and regrow you in the land. And that's what it was going to take so that the least from the greatest of them to the least of them, they were all going to know him because he planned to forgive their iniquity.

29. 9:20

    What a wonderful God. It's an amazing plan. And this is where trust comes into play. If we trust God, we'll realize that through the experiences of life and the reading of the Bible, that yes, he's right. Whatever he brings into our life, he's right. This is really what we all need because his plan is in the end to save us forever.

30. 9:42

    And this is what it takes to become a member of his family. You see, again, in Jeremiah 9, when he passes, we often quote, thus says the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom and let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor the rich man in glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord executing loving kindness, or exercising loving kindness and judgment and righteousness in the earth.

31. 10:08

    For in these I delight, says the Lord. And this is what he's after in us, is that we come to delight in the fact that we understand and know him, so that in turn we can learn to live like him and trust him for whatever he does. So what a great privilege that all of us have.

32. 10:23

    You think about it. All of you that are here have an unbelievable privilege that other people of this world, the 7 billion people on this planet, all those people that are alive today, and very few have been called to God's family in his election. But you have. You've been all given an opportunity that other people don't have.

33. 10:45

    And your opportunity is to be part of his family forever. And so we learn to thank God for his kindness that he's shown to us. We learn to appreciate the wonderful opportunity that we have of living in his family. And our goal then is to do whatever it takes to learn to know him and Jesus Christ, that we might learn about his eternal life, his kind of life that will let us live forever.

34. 11:08

    And we do that by reading the word. We do that by prayer. We do that by meditating on the events of our lives. We do that by coming out to Bible classes, to going to Sunday school, to our CYCs. All those things are the mechanisms by which we can come to know him.

35. 11:23

    But don't ever let the mechanisms become the focus. The goal is coming to know him and living like him. And don't ever take it for granted because really of all the people of this planet, very few have been given this opportunity. You are a privileged people, a special people in God's eyes. And it's a wonderful opportunity that we have.

36. 11:43

    Now, in the first 20 chapters or so of Jeremiah, there really is an amazing struggle that's going on in Jeremiah's mind. And when people first hear about this, sometimes they have a hesitation about believing this could really happen with a prophet. But if you think about it with prophets, you've seen this before.

37. 12:00

    You remember when Habakkuk, for example, talks to God in the first chapter of Habakkuk, and he says to God, he says, look, the people are really wicked. Things aren't going well. What are you going to do about it? That's what he asked God. What are you going to do about it? They're your people.

38. 12:17

    And God says to Habakkuk, oh, don't worry. I'm going to take care of it. I'm going to bring a nation down from the north and wipe them out. And Habakkuk looks at God like, wait a minute. You can't do that. You can't do that. You say, you're people. You're too pure to behold evil.

39. 12:35

    You can't do that kind of thing. And God says, yeah, that's what it's going to take to change these people. And it's an interesting interaction you get there with Habakkuk. And if you've never looked at that before that way, and really pick up a modern version and read it, and you see this is what's going on.

40. 12:50

    These prophets, when they finally hear what God is going to do, their really immediate reaction is, it's like, what? You can't do that. These are your people. These are my friends. You can't wipe them out like that. And God says, yeah, that's what it's going to take to change the people. So remember Habakkuk stands on his watch like, you know, he's going to stand on his watch and see what happens.

41. 13:11

    Oh, look at Jonah. Look how Jonah fought with God on his message. These were good, righteous prophets. And they couldn't understand God's plan. So if you're ever in that circumstance in life where God brings an event into your life, and your immediate reaction in your head is, you can't do that to me.

42. 13:32

    You can't do that to my family. You know, this isn't fair. You're in good company because a lot of God's prophets felt like that. And what God does is he takes the time to patiently work with us and help us understand his perspective. Isn't that interesting about God? And you're going to see that in these chapters of Jeremiah.

43. 13:52

    I find that fascinating. God doesn't come at a prophet and say, come on, just shape up, ship up, you know, be glad I was willing to work with you and get your act together and let's go. He doesn't treat people like that. Angels don't treat people like that either. Angels are extremely patient and kind and loving when they talk to people.

44. 14:10

    They go, look at how they dealt with Lot. They didn't just walk into Lot's house and say, come on, get up, let's go, get out of here. And if you don't leave, we're going to wipe you out too. They take them by the hand and they lead them out of Sodom. This is the kind of compassion that our God and his family have.

45. 14:26

    And this is our time to practice that, brethren and sisters, and how we treat each other. This is what it's all about and living in God's family. So you're going to see this in the early chapters of Jeremiah. But the key to getting it is to learn how to read Jeremiah. So in Jeremiah, when you look at his struggle, what happens is that we're going to look at how God led Jeremiah to see the depths of the spiritual wickedness of the people.

46. 14:49

    And that was God's goal. It's not like God's going to change on his plan. He's going to win Jeremiah over eventually to see that God's right. So you watch how he patiently does that and slowly lets Jeremiah realize the strength of the medicine it was really going to take to save these people.

47. 15:04

    But the key is learning how to read Jeremiah 2 to 20. And if you don't read it that way, you sort of do it in the readings and totally miss what was actually happening in the book. So the key words you want to look for is you've got to figure out, all right, in the first 20 chapters or so, who's actually talking?

48. 15:20

    That's one of the keys is who's speaking. I've got to admit, when I read a King James Bible, I don't get it. I don't see it in there at all. In the modern versions, it's actually much easier to see. Some of them actually put quotation marks in there to help you realize what's happening when you're going back and forth between the dialogue.

49. 15:37

    That actually helps me a lot, you know, because at least it was a way to get started. So what you want to look for is when you see key words like we and us and weeping and wailing and lamenting, those are key words you want to look for because then you know that's Jeremiah.

50. 15:52

    God's not weeping and wailing and lamenting. God's got his mind made up. He knows what he's going to do. So when God's speaking, you look for phrases like, thus says the Lord, or the Lord has said, or something like that. Or you can cheat in some of the modern versions and just look for the quotation marks and see where they started and where they ended.

51. 16:10

    One of the problems you'll write into is that they both use words, they both, Jeremiah and God, they both use the words me, I, and the daughter of my people, which originally I thought that was going to be a key phrase and it'd be easy to distinguish. But it's not. They both use that phrase about the people, the daughter of my people.

52. 16:30

    They both felt that way about the community. And so that's a problem. You just got to be careful and look for the other ways to distinguish them. Some of the themes to look for, this is the key, is to catch on to the themes. So anytime you have somebody crying and lamenting about the destruction of Judah, that's Jeremiah.

53. 16:48

    Anytime you find somebody begging for mercy and that you won't destroy, that's Jeremiah. Anytime you see somebody coming in and saying, yeah, but look at what the people are doing, that's God. He sees it very clearly and he tries to win Jeremiah over. Or anytime you see things like talking about why Judah and Jerusalem need to be destroyed, that's going to be God speaking.

54. 17:12

    And the two of them are going to have a little challenging dialogue as you go through these chapters where God tries to answer the problem. It's not that God set out that way. God simply said to Jeremiah, Jeremiah, go say this. And he tells Jeremiah what to say. And then Jeremiah says, wait a minute.

55. 17:27

    I can't say that. Or, you know, he talks to God and says, this isn't right. You know, you've let this go on. You fooled us. And that's how he talks because he really feels like he got to see. So we'll start out with the easy ones because that's where you always want to get started in life.

56. 17:42

    And we'll see how we do. All right. But for those of you that are going to sit there and say, oh, that was easy. Don't worry. They're going to get harder. So it gets challenging sometimes to figure out what's going on. So you look in Jeremiah 4, for example. So you've read this over.

57. 17:57

    We read it today. All right. So you read through Jeremiah 4 and you see the first six verses or so. If you'll return to me, says the Lord. So you see that says the Lord. You start coloring that. You start looking for that. Because then you know clearly who's actually speaking. So then we know who the me is and the eyes and stuff like that.

58. 18:15

    You see it again in verse 3. Thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem. So this is the Lord speaking. Break up your fallow ground and do not sow among them thorns. And circumcise yourselves to the Lord. This was all a message that was supposed to be proclaimed by Jeremiah.

59. 18:32

    And so on. And you see it on like verse 6. Take refuge. Do not delay. For I will bring disaster from the north and great destruction. The lions come from the thicket. In verse 7. And the destroyer of the nations is on his way. For this, clothe yourself with sackcloth and lament and wail.

60. 18:47

    For the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us. So there's that us word right there. And verse 9. Then it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord. So there's another changeover, says the Lord. That the heart of the king shall perish in the hearts of the princes.

61. 19:02

    And the priests shall be astonished. And the prophets shall wonder. And then we have in verse 10. Then I said, our Lord God. Now, isn't that interesting? See, God has given a prophecy to Jeremiah. And if you follow through what happens here in Jeremiah 2, 3, 4, 5 in this section. Jeremiah 2 and 3.

62. 19:19

    You remember when we looked at those passages? We're all about what Israel has done. Look what Israel has done. It's all about Israel. Israel's done this. I divorced them. But I'm willing to take them back if they return. It's all about the northern kingdom. And Jeremiah's listening to that. Okay. Israel. Yep. Yep.

63. 19:37

    They were bad. They got taken away by the Assyrians. And then in chapter 4, you start watching carefully. There's a word change. And he talks about how, yeah, for all of that treacherous sister Judah. Judah hasn't learned anything. Right? And then in Jeremiah 4, you see a lot about Judah and Jerusalem. And chapter 4, those first, what, nine verses or so, when God says how he's going to come and a destroyer of nations is going to come on Judah and Jerusalem.

64. 20:07

    Jeremiah is listening to that. And you can imagine his eyes are going wide open. And it's like, what? On Judah and Jerusalem? And so in verse 10, look at what he does. Yes. He responds, then I said, our Lord God, surely you have greatly deceived this people in Jerusalem, saying you will have peace.

65. 20:29

    Whereas the sword reaches to the heart. Yeah, that's not what you've been saying. You've been saying peace. You've been saying peace. And now you tell us that a destroyer is going to come down and wipe out Judah and Jerusalem? And Jeremiah is in shock. This isn't what he expected at all. Now, how did that happen?

66. 20:47

    How could he ever figure that God had been saying peace? Now, what you discover through the book of Jeremiah is the number of times that the false prophets are mentioned. And we already looked at one of them where they said peace, peace. Peace. And Jeremiah had been hearing through all these prophets as he grew up.

67. 21:05

    He'd been hearing a consistent message that God is going to send peace. Yeah, maybe you think the Egyptians down there are going to cause trouble for us right now, but it's okay. God's going to send peace to all of you, and you're going to have peace. And Jeremiah had been hearing this, and it was a problem trying to figure out about these prophets.

68. 21:23

    He thought so many prophets were saying this, it must be right. He had been fooled by the false prophets, by the message of the day, and it got to him as well. And so he challenges God and says, God, this isn't what you've been saying. You deceived everybody. You've been saying peace. And in the end, that's not really what's happening.

69. 21:42

    So that's one of the first places you see that. Now, you look at that, and see, that one's not too hard to figure out, is it? Because you can watch the differences in the flow. You can go on down to, like, verse 12, and you can see, all right, for all of these, a wind too strong for these will come for me.

70. 21:56

    Now I will also speak judgment against them. And I think most of you can probably figure out what this actually is, because the words are pretty clear. But what you want to do, you know, if you're one of those coloring people, I love to color my Bible, is you get out coloring pencils, and you get a pencil for Jeremiah, you get a color for him, a color for God, a color for the voice of the people, and you just watch the flow that's going through here as you get the voice of the people popping in, the voice of Jeremiah, and you also get the message that's coming from God.

71. 22:26

    So just to give you some examples of how the false prophets were speaking at this time, look at Jeremiah 6, when God said that their houses would be turned over to others. Down in verse 13, because from the least of them, even to the greatest of them, everyone's given to covetousness, from prophet even to priest, everyone deals falsely, they have healed the hurt of my people slightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace.

72. 22:49

    And the people had been gladly fooled. But that's not the only place it shows up. Look again in Jeremiah 8. Therefore, I'll give their wives to others, their fields, to those who will inherit them. Sound familiar? Just like chapter 6. Because in verse 11, they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace.

73. 23:10

    This was the common message of the false prophets back then. Jeremiah 23. Thus says the Lord of hosts, don't listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless. They make you these worthless ideas that they have. They speak a vision in their own hearts, something that they're just seeing and making up themselves, not from the mouth of the Lord.

74. 23:32

    They continually say to those who despise me, the Lord has said, you shall have peace. What a nice message, right? Everything's going to be okay. You're all going to have peace. Everything's going to be wonderful. And this is what the false prophets were saying. This was the dominant message of the spiritual leaders of the people at that time.

75. 23:53

    And Jeremiah had been swept away by it too. He really didn't understand what was coming on Judah. Look at that. You're going to have peace. And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, oh, no evil's going to come on you. And they gave a nice sounding message to those people.

76. 24:10

    And they fooled the people. And they had a lot, to a lot extent, they had fooled Jeremiah as well. Look at Ezekiel 13. You get the same thing. Ezekiel's dealing with the same issue up in where he is with the captives. This is in the sixth year of Zedekiah. So we're much further down the line at this point, but it's the same old problem.

77. 24:28

    Oh, Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts. In verse 4, you've not gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel to stand in battle on the day of the Lord. They have envisioned futility and false divination saying, thus says the Lord. Well, they really weren't giving God's message.

78. 24:45

    They were just making it up. The Lord has not sent them, yet they hope that the word may be confirmed. So they make up a message and they're hoping. Sure, they're predicting peace, hoping that they're going to get it. But it really wasn't the word of God. So in verse 10, he says, because indeed, because they have seduced my people saying peace when there is no peace.

79. 25:05

    So there was a consistent problem that Jeremiah had to deal with, with the false prophets. Jeremiah on one hand is saying an evil is going to break out from the north and come down and burn like a fire that no one could quench. And the false prophets would go and tell the people, forget Jeremiah.

80. 25:19

    God loves you. He's going to take care of you. We're going to have peace. We're the people. We have Jerusalem. We have the ark. We have the covenants. We have all the things. We have the priests. We have it all. And Jeremiah must be wrong. And this is what he had to fight with.

81. 25:35

    In this case, this is what he was contending with at that time. So that was the easy one. So now we're on to level two. All right, Jeremiah six. So you've got to read carefully in Jeremiah six. Verse six. For thus has the Lord of hosts said. So there's your key. This is what God has said.

82. 25:54

    Cut down trees, build a mound against Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished. She's full of oppression in her midst. As a fountain wells up with water, so she wells up with her wickedness. Violence and plundering are hurt in her. Before me continually are grief and wounds. Be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you, lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited.

83. 26:17

    For thus says the Lord of hosts, they shall thoroughly glean as a vine, the remnant of Israel. And as a grape gatherer, put your hand back into the branches. To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Indeed, their ear is uncircumcised and they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them.

84. 26:34

    They have no delight in it. So you look at that and you say, all right, how are we going to put all that together? Well, I think most of you could probably see that the beginning part was all from God. God says, here's what you're going to say. And he tells Jeremiah, go out and tell them this, cut down the trees, build a mound against Jerusalem.

85. 26:53

    The city is going to be punished. And you can see in verse 9, thus says the Lord, they're going to thoroughly glean as a vine, the remnant of Israel. So Jeremiah comes back in verse 10. Now you notice how the New King James doesn't put quotes on verse 10. This is why you can cheat with the modern versions.

86. 27:08

    And somebody's actually done some of the work for you and helped you out. Not that they're always right, but at least they give you some hints. He comes back and he says to God, he says, well, to whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Indeed, their ear is uncircumcised and they cannot give heed.

87. 27:24

    And behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them and they have no delight in it. This is how Jeremiah felt about giving this message. In fact, what's really interesting is that in this prophet's record, in Jeremiah, like up to this point, chapter 6, really even up to chapters 13, 14, 15, there are plenty of places where God says, Jeremiah, go say this.

88. 27:45

    And usually what you find in a prophet is a record that says, all right, then the prophet went and said it. Which it says later on about Jeremiah when you get to the chapters in the 20s. But there's no record in these chapters that Jeremiah actually went and gave the prophecies. There's actually indications that Jeremiah didn't want to do it.

89. 28:01

    But he wasn't really sure that this was the message he wanted to deliver or that this is the message that should go out. Like maybe God wasn't quite right about this. Or maybe this isn't what I should do. Or in this case, he's challenging God to, well, who should I say this to?

90. 28:15

    You know, nobody really wants to listen to this. Who am I supposed to go talk to? Because the word of the Lord is a reproach to them and they don't even have any delight in it. So in verse 11, God says, Therefore, I am full of the fury of the Lord. I am weary of holding it in.

91. 28:32

    So you wonder, well, who said that? And then, I will pour it out on the children outside and on the assembly of young men together. For even the husband shall be taken with the wife and the aged with him who is full of days. And their houses will be turned over to others and their fields and their wives together.

92. 28:48

    For I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord. Oh, there, we're saved, says the Lord. So now we got a phrase in there that helps us know at least who's saying this. This fits the theme of God coming in and saying, I'm going to destroy them.

93. 29:01

    Because from the least of them, even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness and so on. So who said verse 11? That's an interesting one, isn't it? Did you realize of the change in speaker in verse 11? See, when we're doing our readings, if you're just reading through them, not really thinking sometimes, you don't even notice in a verse that you can have a change in the speaker.

94. 29:23

    And what happens in this case is that Jeremiah 11, verse 11, is Jeremiah. Jeremiah, after all these things God has told him to say, he comes back and he says, look at this, there's nobody who wants to listen to this. Nobody really wants to hear my message. Therefore, I'm full of the fury of the Lord.

95. 29:41

    And I'm really tired of holding it in. It may be that he hasn't even said it yet because he's been holding on to this. And he doesn't want to hold it in. He's bottled up inside because nobody wants to hear his message. So God comes to him and says, well, you may not want to say it, but I'm going to pour it out.

96. 29:57

    I'll pour it out on the children outside and on the assembly of the young men together. Then if you're not careful, you don't even notice the change in the speaker. But they're different perspectives. One of them is holding in and the other one's ready to pour out. And this is what's happening in these early chapters of Jeremiah.

97. 30:14

    The two of them are really that far apart. God's on one level and Jeremiah's on a whole other page. And you watch what's going on in these chapters as God slowly wins him over. I found it really fascinating to watch. So you get up to Jeremiah 8 and you say, all right, Jeremiah 8 verse 18.

98. 30:32

    For I would comfort myself in sorrow. My heart is faint in me. Listen, the voice, the cry of the daughter of my people from a far country. Do you hear it? Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images with foreign idols?

99. 30:51

    The harvest has passed. Summer's ended. We're not saved. For the hurt of the daughter of my people, I'm hurt. I'm mourning. Astonishment has taken hold of me. Is there no bomb in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then? Is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people? Ooh, this one's a little challenging.

100. 31:11

     So we got three different people in here. Hmm. Did you find them all? See, maybe you're good at this. So who says verse 18? Ha! Who's going to be comforting themselves in sorrow? And their heart is faint in me. See, that's Jeremiah. Listen, the voice, the cry of the daughter of my people from a far country.

101. 31:34

     Jeremiah said, I hear the Jews up there from the far country up in Babylon. And they're up there crying out, what's the deal? Isn't the Lord down there in Zion anymore? What happened? How can this be? We're up here in captivity. Isn't that our king in there? What's the problem? How come we haven't gotten back yet?

102. 31:50

     You know, we're still up here. Don't forget about us. And God says, why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images? With foreign idols. That's God's response. It's consistent all the way through. He doesn't change on this at all. So they yell out, the harvest has passed. The summer's done it.

103. 32:07

     We're still not saved. What's the deal? And Jeremiah comes in, he says, he's crying for the hurt of the daughter of my people. I'm hurt. I'm mourning. Astonishment has taken hold of me. He's in shock. This is what God is going to do to the people. And this is what they're going to go through.

104. 32:22

     Is there no balm in Gilead? No physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people? See, I got to admit, I read over this for years without realizing this is what's actually happening in Jeremiah. Look at Jeremiah 9, verse 1. Oh, that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

105. 32:44

     And we do our readings. We keep going. Oh, that I had a wilderness and a lodging place for the travelers, that I might leave my people and go from them, for they're all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And like their bow, they bent their tongues for lies and they're not valiant for the truth on earth.

106. 32:58

     They proceed from evil to evil and they do not know me, says the Lord. Who is good he put in there, says the Lord. So at least we know that says the Lord is that part. Who starts out in verse 1? Who's going to be weeping and crying the fountain of tears for the daughter of God's people?

107. 33:15

     Who's doing this? See, that's Jeremiah. Do you realize what was going on there? You watch what's happening. He's crying. He can't believe God's going to do this to his people. And he's like telling you, this is how I really feel. I don't want to have to say this. And he leaves this on record for his people.

108. 33:32

     Chapter 20, he finally spells it out and says, look it, I'm going to say it from now on, but I want you all to know I didn't really want to have to deliver this message. This isn't really what I wanted to say. I didn't really want to tell you all this bad news, but this is it.

109. 33:44

     This is the word of Yahweh. And after he says that in verse 1, this is God who comes back and says, Oh, that I had a wilderness and a lodging place for travelers, that I might leave my people and go from them, because they're all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And like their bow, they bent their tongues for lies.

110. 34:02

     They're not valiant for the truth on earth, for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the Lord. Now you'll notice the New King James there, they missed the quotes. They started them at the beginning of verse 3. But I think when you follow the consistency going through, the fellow who's looking for the lodging place and the wilderness to leave the people, that's not Jeremiah.

111. 34:20

     He's weeping for his people. He cares about his people, and God's ready to leave them. I'm ready to divorce them and send them away, because they're just a bunch of liars, adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And that's how carefully you've got to read this prophecy to understand what God is working with with Jeremiah.

112. 34:37

     I mean, the fun part about it is God doesn't give up on Jeremiah. He doesn't write him off and say, well, because you just won't do what I said, you don't buy into what I have to say, forget you, I'll find another prophet. That isn't what God does. He patiently works with Jeremiah, slowly helps him see it, wins him over to his point of view, and in the end he's got a prophet ready to go to the nations.

113. 34:58

     He's got a champion like the Apostle Paul, who's going to go out and deliver the message, and he's going to hold to the truth, no matter what comes. And this is how patient God is with these people. So when you go back and look at the basic game plan there, what's happening is that a couple of chapters are mainly about the first two, two and three are about Israel's destruction by the Assyrians, and Jeremiah can accept that, no problem.

114. 35:18

     Chapter two mentions Judah's sin, but there's no clear punishment there. In chapter two, verse 18, he just sort of read over that they're going to come together out of the north against Judah. But by the time you get to chapter four, and it's very clear that this destruction will come on Judah and Jerusalem, that's when Jeremiah busted out with, you know, God, you've deceived us, saying there would be peace.

115. 35:38

     And his initial reaction is to blame God, and he feels like he's been deceived, like he's been tricked in a sense, because it's almost like that's not what we expected. So that's Jeremiah's initial reaction. But again, I think it's really fun to see that God doesn't just knock them over, wipe them out, you know, just chew them out.

116. 35:57

     Instead, he patiently works with Jeremiah to help him understand. And Jeremiah is willing to learn. It's not like he's unteachable, but he just doesn't get it. So he's okay with Israel's condemnation, but he's certainly not okay with Judah's condemnation. So anyway, we looked at most of that stuff from back before. He just couldn't buy into the idea that Judah was going to be destroyed.

117. 36:18

     So what Jeremiah tries to do is the same thing you would try to do. If you heard this is what's coming on your family, your ecclesia, your friends, what you try to do is get involved and intervene. And this is what Jeremiah does in these chapters. So he realizes that the people refuse to respond, because God put out the challenge.

118. 36:36

     All right, Jeremiah, you go through Jerusalem and go through its streets, and you find somebody who really does the truth. Find somebody who lives like me. And Jeremiah tries to go through, and he realizes, wow, the people are really not really trying to live like you. They really aren't doing that, God. And then he thinks, well, maybe that's just like the rich people.

119. 36:55

     Maybe it's just the low people. I'll go try the other class. And he goes and he looks at them, and he finds out, well, all those classes, none of the people really want to do things God's way. So what happens is he's holding in the anger of the Lord. He's holding it in, and he doesn't want to let it out.

120. 37:11

     And you find in chapter 6, he puts on sackcloth. He laments, and he wails. In chapter 8, he finally figures, all right, we're going to solve this problem. I'll call for an assembly of the people. And you find, like, in chapter 8, verse 14, he decides, all right, what are we doing sitting still?

121. 37:27

     This is what's going to happen. What we need to do is, look, let's assemble ourselves. Let's enter into the fortified cities, and let's be silent there, and let's meditate and talk to God. And maybe we can pull off another reformation, like back in Hezekiah's time. Maybe we can do something to change the will of God so that it won't happen.

122. 37:45

     And that's what he's hoping for, because we've sinned against the Lord. And that's Jeremiah's attempt, at least, at that point, to try to change the people. That's really what he tries to do, and maybe he did make some success. He goes on in chapter 8, and he ends up, when those things fail, and he's not able to make a major impact on the people, you find in chapter 18, like, look, he says it down at verse 18, I would comfort myself in sorrow.

123. 38:07

     My heart is faint within me. Listen, the voice, the cry of the daughter of my people. And he goes through that whole incident, and he starts taking up weeping and wailing, realizing that the people haven't changed. And he doesn't want to deliver the message. And that's when God says, well, you know, I wish I had a lodging place in the wilderness to go away from these people, because they're all just a bunch of adulterers and liars and deceitful.

124. 38:29

     And that's what, they're committed to this kind of way of life, and I can't change them. So in chapter 9 at verse 12, as this progresses, just so you can see how this is flowing, in fact, actually another good one to look at on this back and forth, look in chapter 9 at verse 10, how Jeremiah, after he hears what God is going to do, Jeremiah's response to God in chapters 8 and 9 is, well, I'll take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and for the inhabitants of the wilderness of lamentation, because they're burned up, so that no one can pass through them.

125. 39:00

     No man can hear the voice of the cattle, both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled. They're gone. He sees the vision and realizes, this is what God's going to do. I'm going to take up weeping and wailing for the people. Look what God says in verse 11. I'll make Jerusalem a heap of ruins and a den of jackals.

126. 39:17

     I'll make the cities of Judah desolate without inhabitants. Do you realize how that's switching back and forth, where there's Jeremiah saying what he's going to do, and God comes in and says, I haven't changed. I've still got the same game plan. I'm still going to wipe the people out. And so in verse 12, what Jeremiah comes back with to God and says, all right, who's the wise men that may understand this?

127. 39:39

     Who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness that no one can pass through? See, he goes to God and says, look it, where are the wise men you sent us? Where are the prophets that have been telling us all this?

128. 39:53

     Where are the people? It's almost like laying it back on God. Why didn't you tell us all this? Where are the people that are supposed to educate the community and help us all understand? And that's a natural reaction that a lot of us would have. It's like you put it back in God's hands and say, hey, Moses, these are your people.

129. 40:10

     What are you doing to change them? And the Lord just continues on in verse 13, because they've forsaken my law, which I set before them. They've not obeyed my voice nor walked according to it. Instead, they just do all their own things. So this is how God works with this situation, and he's trying to win Jeremiah over.

130. 40:29

     So we looked at Jeremiah 9 right there, but what Jeremiah does then is he's still pleading that God will make some changes. He's still hoping that God will change his mind. And so you can find, for example, in chapter 9, down at verse 18, where he begs the women of the land. It's actually down in like verse 20, where he talks about the women.

131. 40:50

     Yet hear the word of the Lord, O women, and let your ear be received the word of the Lord. Teach your daughters wailing at everyone, her neighbor, a lamentation. So it actually starts back up at verse 17. Consider a call for the mourning women. So now he starts appealing to specific groups. He goes after the women and said, all right, maybe the women can make a difference.

132. 41:11

     So you women, teach your daughters how to wail and lament and change. And he's hoping that something will change and that the women will change at this point. And God still consistently just says, nope, the people aren't changing. So in chapter 10, what Jeremiah does is he now tries to educate the people.

133. 41:28

     He tries to do what he was hoping the wise men would do. And he goes into this chapter about the idols. And you wonder, why does he get into this? Well, what he tries to do is argue the case of, get away from your idols. These idols, they're not alive. They're not living.

134. 41:40

     They don't hear you. They can't do anything to your life. And he attempts to show them that their idols were dead. But Yahweh, your God, he's alive. He hears you. He's aware of what's going on in your life. And he's trying to re-educate his community and bring them around. You can imagine Jeremiah's panicking at this point.

135. 41:58

     He knows what's coming. And he's trying to change the people before it happens, hoping that he can do like Micah. And he can change the people like Micah did with Hezekiah. You get to chapter 10, down at verses 19 and 20. You can see that he's very discouraged at this point. And he realizes that they're going to have to endure some punishments.

136. 42:17

     Because as he says in verse 21, the shepherds have become dull-hearted and they've not sought the Lord. Therefore, they will not prosper and all their flocks will be scattered. You see back up in verse 19, he talks about how, woe is me for my hurt, my wound is severe, but I say this is truly an infirmity and I must bear it.

137. 42:35

     And he realizes that some of these things are necessary. And he's willing to accept the fact that God should bring some things into their life, some destruction, some kind of chastening, but not this utter destruction that God talks about as coming down from the north. And then in chapter 10, down at verse 23, this is a common passage that we use.

138. 42:55

     We quote this all the time, sometimes not realizing the context. But he says, Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It's not in man who walks to direct his own steps. You know, Oh Lord, correct me, but with justice, not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

139. 43:09

     So he's saying, Look God, don't blame the people that much. You see what he's arguing here? It's not in their way to correct it. Look at them, they're like sheep without a shepherd. It's not really within them to make these corrections. What you really want to do is, verse 25, pour out your fury on the Gentiles.

140. 43:31

     Get down. Get the Gentiles who do not know you, but not on Jews, not on your city, Jerusalem, because, you know, we really, we've had a problem. We need help. We need better teachers and prophets and priests. You know, it's not in a way of man, it's not in himself to know. We need help for this.

141. 43:50

     But if you're angry, make your anger on the Gentiles, but not on your people. Don't do it on the families who you have, but do it on the families who don't call on your name. Devour them instead. And that's where Jeremiah's at, at this point. So, did you figure out, as you're reading through Jeremiah, how does God actually, in the end, finally get him to see it?

142. 44:12

     You ever wondered this? I found this fascinating, because it's so true in Jeremiah, and it's so true in our lives today. You ever noticed how God finally got Jeremiah to see the issue? Anybody ever pick it up? It's, it's, it's, it's really, it's, it's so cool to see this in the life of a prophet, because it's so true to our day as well.

143. 44:33

     See, all of us, we all have blinders on, and ecclesial life, and family life. We really don't see our own lives as they really are. We don't see our families the way they are, they really are sometimes. We're biased to our families. We don't see our ecclesias the way they really are, because there's biases for and against people.

144. 44:51

     And so, Jeremiah has a bias against this. He doesn't really buy into God's plan yet, but God's going to open his eyes, and watch what he does. In chapter 11 is where this comes out, and it's just, it's so fun to watch what he's going to do. He uses the experiences of life to let Jeremiah understand.

145. 45:11

     And this is what angels do in our lives all the time. So in chapter 11, verses 1 to 8, he deals with the fact that, look it, God established a covenant with the Jews out of Egypt, and God's covenant wasn't all the sacrifices. It wasn't all the offerings and the feast days. The covenant was, die with Christ to sin.

146. 45:32

     Obey my voice. Do my will. That's all he ever wanted, was live and do my will. Live eternal life. That's what he wanted. Live like that. And so that's what he tried to do. But in chapter 11, verses 9 and 10, in that section there, he goes into the fact, the Lord said to me, look, there's a conspiracy.

147. 45:52

     All right? Because they tried this covenant, and now there's a conspiracy in the land. It's found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They've turned their back, and they've gone back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. And they've gone back, and my covenant, which I made with their fathers, they don't respect it.

148. 46:10

     They've broken it, and they're not keeping the covenant at all. So God tells Jeremiah, here's the real situation. So in verse 14, look at this. Do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to me because of their trouble.

149. 46:29

     See, once the fire breaks up, once the woman's labor pains start, God's not going to hear anymore. You had your opportunities? Change before the end begins. Once it starts, it's too late. And that's the warning that God sends through Jeremiah. That's going to be too late. Don't wait until the end. And so he argues the case in verse 15.

150. 46:52

     This is God. What has my beloved to do in my house? Like, what right does she have to be there? In my house, having done lewd deeds with many, and the holy flesh has passed from you. When you do evil, you rejoice. This is how you live. Why should I let those people continuously come into my temple, Jeremiah?

151. 47:14

     What right does my beloved have in my house anymore? This is why he's willing to divorce them and send them away. And this is how God feels about his house. So what God does with Jeremiah to finally get him to see the point is he brings it into Jeremiah's life. See what God's doing.

152. 47:31

     Say, look, I've got a wife, my community, my woman, and I've done all these things for my wife and she doesn't appreciate it at all. She doesn't respond to me. She's not respecting our marriage covenant at all. She's not doing all that. So I am going to send her away. And Jeremiah's saying, oh no, you can't do that.

153. 47:47

     He's arguing, you can't do that. It's not that bad. It's not like that. And Jeremiah can't see it. So what God does at the end of chapter 11 is look at what he does. He brings in at the end of chapter 11 and he says, all right, Jeremiah, I'll let you see what it's really like.

154. 48:04

     Now the Lord gave me knowledge of it and I know for you showed me their doings. Oh, see, he's going to let Jeremiah open a window and see what God is going through. But I was like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter. I did not know that they had devised schemes against me saying, let us destroy the tree with its fruit.

155. 48:24

     Let us cut them off from the land of the living that his name may be remembered no more. Oh boy, there's no better way to have the blinders taken off and to see an issue clearly, brothers and sisters, than to have angels bring that issue right into your family and make you face it head on.

156. 48:44

     I mean, let's face it. If you were an angel, and try to get somebody to see something, what better way is there to bring it right in front of you where you face it every day and you realize what God is going through? And they did this to Jeremiah. Look at what happened in verse 21.

157. 49:00

     Therefore, says the Lord, concerning the men of Anathoth, Anathoth's his hometown. That's where his family lived. These are the people he grew up with, his friends. And the men of Anathoth, your family, your friends, just like my bride, God says, they seek your life. They say, don't prophesy in the name of the Lord, lest you die by our hand.

158. 49:23

     Therefore, says the Lord of hosts, I will punish them and young men shall die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters shall die by famine and there should be no remnant of them. For I will bring catastrophe on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their punishment. See how that worked?

159. 49:39

     See back in verse 20, this is what Jeremiah asked for. But you, but O Lord of hosts, you who judge righteously, testing the mind and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them. See, Jeremiah has a new perspective. When God brings his friends, the men of Anathoth, his family members, and shows Jeremiah, see what they really want to do to you, Jeremiah?

160. 50:03

     They want to grab you. They want to kill you. This is how they feel about you. This is what your family does. This is what these people back in Anathoth want to do to you. And Jeremiah says, oh my goodness, let me, let God take vengeance on them for me. And then God just turns around and he says to Jeremiah, you see, Jeremiah, you see how it works?

161. 50:22

     That once your family did that to you and these friends of yours treated you like that, then you realize you want me to take vengeance on them. And God says, what right does my beloved have in my house? See how that all flows together? This is how patient God is with Jeremiah. He finally brings experiences to open up his eyes to an issue that he couldn't see.

162. 50:43

     And I really believe, brothers and sisters, that's exactly what angels do to us today. And it doesn't matter what issue it is, whether it's unity, whether it's divorce and remarriage, whatever it is, drugs, alcohol, all of them, we can so easily stand aside and take a position and have blinders on and not see something, and then all of a sudden angels bring it right into our family, and then we really get a chance to look at the issue.

163. 51:08

     That's the kindness of the angels. That's the patience of our God because he's trying to help us learn. It's wonderful. And really, you wouldn't want it any other way because otherwise we'd go to the grave, not ever seeing the issue. But it's tough. It's hard. Jeremiah is just blown away by this. It's like, wow, this is what they want to do to me?

164. 51:29

     And then after that, he starts to realize that, wow, now I get to see, I'm starting to see what you're talking about. And he's starting to realize that this is how my family wants to treat me, and this is how God sees it with his own family. So it's beginning to sink in with Jeremiah, but it's not there yet.

165. 51:47

     But at least he's starting to realize that this is how God sees it. The problem is, Jeremiah doesn't just instantaneously get it, but he's starting to get it. So this is what God does. He brings these issues to us to make us face them like that and reconsider and meditate and think. So you really think the issues out without the blinders on anymore, because now we have to face it with people we love.

166. 52:10

     And this is his kindness to do that to us. So he finally realized that the men of Anathoth want to kill him. He asked for vengeance of God and he begs people to put away their pride. As you go on through this, you follow in chapter 12 and into 13, he's still trying to work on the community.

167. 52:25

     He wants God to take vengeance on him on the men of Anathoth, but he's still not willing to concede that the whole community is as bad as God said. So God's still working with him. He's still trying to help him see the issues. So in chapter 14, as you go on through, he reminds God in chapter 14, when you get down to verse 7, he talks about, Oh Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for your name's sake.

168. 52:52

     Here we go, right back to Exodus 33. These are your people, God. Do it for your name's sake and save your people. Forgive them. These are your people. Doesn't that sound like Moses? I mean, it's unbelievable how he tries to, you know, put himself into anything he can think back on in the past.

169. 53:08

     What worked in the past? What can we go back to? In fact, you know he's thinking Moses because chapter 15, God finally responds to him at verse 1. Even though Moses and Samuel stood before me, I'm not going to forgive these people. There's no change here. There's no repentance on these people. But this is what Jeremiah is trying to do.

170. 53:24

     He's trying to move into the role of a Moses and a Samuel and intercede on behalf of the nation. So he reminds him in chapter 14 at verse 13, he reminds him that he reminds God in this case, he said, look it, the prophets are misleading the people. You know, you still haven't solved the problem of the false prophets, God.

171. 53:42

     And God simply responds back and says, well, I didn't send them. What's the problem? They weren't for me. There's no evidence. They're not teaching truth. They're not found those things that they say don't come to pass. And this is what you're supposed to do. You have to examine. We have to analyze. We have to study what people say in relation to the scriptures.

172. 54:00

     And God figures the people should have known. They were false prophets. So in chapter 14, verse 19, what he tries to do then is he tries to jump in and be a Moses and a Samuel. You'll notice, those of you that have New King James Bibles, the title there is The People Plead for Mercy.

173. 54:16

     They misread that. They don't understand. That's not the people. This is Jeremiah at this point. This is Jeremiah pleading for mercy. So have you utterly rejected Judah? Your soul loathed Zion. Why have you stricken us? It's to us because he's trying to be the Moses and the Samuel for the people. He's trying to intercede on behalf of the people and save them from their iniquities and their sins.

174. 54:39

     And he says, don't break your covenant with us at the end of verse 21. This is what he's appealing for. And so then God, you can tell by the response that it was Jeremiah. So God says to him in chapter 15 that though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be favorable toward these people.

175. 54:57

     Cast them out of my sight. Let them go forth. Because God's made up his mind. The people have not changed. And this is the response that Jeremiah gets. So what Jeremiah does then is he starts to lament for the people. In chapter 15, he laments that the people really, they're not listening to him.

176. 55:13

     All they want to do is curse him. You go down to like verse 10. Jeremiah says, woe is me. Woe is my mother that you've born me. A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth. I neither have lent for interest. You know, people didn't lend to me for interest.

177. 55:29

     But every one of them curses me. You know, I never took advantage of people. Look at how they treat me because I'm delivering this message. Look what's going on. And he's really frustrated. He's depressed at this time. He's very discouraged. You know, he's lamenting that the people aren't responding to him. And it just, this is how he feels.

178. 55:48

     As you go on through this, they just figure that Jeremiah was a big troublemaker. You know, he just caused trouble on the community. He ends up lamenting at the end of chapter 15. He actually laments that God had let his mission fail. When you look down at like verse 15, 16, remember me and visit me and take vengeance on me for my persecutors.

179. 56:07

     Don't take me away in your long suffering. Know that for your sake I've suffered rebuke. I did this for you, God. Your words were found and I ate them and your word was a joy and a rejoicing. I'm called by your name, O Lord God of hosts. I didn't sit in the assembly of the mockers.

180. 56:21

     I didn't rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand for you have filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable which refuses to be healed? Will you surely be to me like an unreliable stream as waters that fail? Did you realize he said that to God? You're going to be to me like a stream out there that I think is going to be bronze walls and iron pillars.

181. 56:46

     You said all these things and are you going to be like a deceitful stream? Are you going to be like waters that fail? Is that what you're going to do to me after all the things that I did? This is how depressed Jeremiah got. So look what God says to him in verse 19.

182. 57:02

     Now, now the problem isn't the people. Now the problem is Jeremiah. This is as low as Jeremiah ever gets that at least we have in the scriptures. So God says to him, all right, if you return, oh boy, circle that one. This is different. This isn't Israel. This isn't Judah. This is Jeremiah.

183. 57:24

     If you return, then I will bring you back. You shall stand before me. If you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth. Let them return to you, but you shall not return to them. Oh, don't you get in Jeremiah. The people are going to come to you, but you can't go out and become like them.

184. 57:46

     I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall and they will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you. For I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the Lord, and I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked and will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.

185. 58:03

     See, Jeremiah hit this low point. He was so discouraged. He thought it was just like all the things were coming apart. He just felt, it's probably very similar in a sense to where Christ came when he just like, some of the Psalms talk about he just felt he was all in vain and he panicked and he thought he's not going to make it.

186. 58:20

     And Jeremiah hits this low point and God says to him, look at Jeremiah, if you get back on track now, if you turn around and come back and do what I said and deliver my message, then I say again, I will make you fortified bronze walls and they're going to fight against you but they won't prevail and he gives the reassurance of chapter one.

187. 58:42

     So it's just fun to watch those kind of things. I don't know whether you've ever noticed that reading through Jeremiah but there really is a lot of interesting stuff to look there as you're going through those chapters of what God has done with him and you can see why Jeremiah would have felt down, would have felt let down.

188. 58:56

     I really think, brothers and sisters, this is on record for all of us because everybody goes through this in life. Everybody does. Don't feel, if you've gone through this, don't feel like you're weird or something and it's like I didn't have enough faith and everybody else is strong and I'm not. Everybody hits circumstances in life where you get discouraged.

189. 59:16

     You get depressed. Things happen. Illnesses, family problems, ecclesial troubles. Everybody goes through this and we think that, wow, this is what God called us to. I really didn't think this was going to happen to me and we all get discouraged. But what we've got to learn from Jeremiah is that trust God. He's got it under control.

190. 59:34

     He knows what he's doing. We've got to come back to God. You read through the Psalms, we come out of those depressions, we turn back to him and we get encouraged by the fact that, yes, other people have gone through this. Other prophets went through something similar to this and as David did, he strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

191. 59:53

     That's what those Psalms are all about. And so, no, this is not unusual. This is normal to feel like that. The thing is, we've got to come out of it. We've got to come through the other side and we've got to move on. And as brethren and sisters and parents, we have to help people move on.

192. 1:00:07

     We have to help people get through this. When somebody's discouraged like this, we don't come to them and say, what's your problem? Get over it. You know, read a few Bible passages and everything will be better. That doesn't help. That isn't how God treated Jeremiah. That isn't what he's doing. He's very kind and patient as he's working with Jeremiah through this.

193. 1:00:27

     And yes, there's a standard to be kept to and he tells Jeremiah, you've got to come back. You've got to return. But he does it in a very nice way and he promises to be with him and help him and he will get him through it. And Jeremiah, he does, he buys into it.

194. 1:00:41

     He actually, this is the turning point in Jeremiah's life. He comes out of this and comes out a stronger person. So it's fun to at least watch that that's what happens. So as you go on through the rest of the chapters in the first 20, you'll see that he realizes in chapter 16 that the Gentiles will one day shame the Jews because Gentiles are going to turn to Yahweh and they're going to embarrass Israel.

195. 1:01:02

     And that's back here in Jeremiah 16. He reflects on his attempt to be faithful and ask God to heal and save him in chapter 17. He asks for God's help which is the right spirit to have when we don't understand why we're going through problems. It's like James saying that if you lack understanding, if you don't know why God is bringing these problems on you, ask God and he'll help you understand.

196. 1:01:26

     Read the scriptures and look for answers. So he says to God in chapter 18, remember I did try to save the people but now the very people I tried to save, you know, they want to kill me. And I think what's happening is Jeremiah is slowly coming out of this and realizing that God doesn't have a choice and in the end he's going to have to destroy his people.

197. 1:01:45

     So what happens at the end of this section in chapter 20 and we'll just finish up there is if you've ever read Jeremiah 20 before, that's the end. This is the end of this section. Jeremiah 20 is when he finally leaves on record for everybody to understand God has swung Jeremiah all around to God's opinion and he now sees it like God and now he's going to go out and deliver God's message just like God says.

198. 1:02:10

     He's bought into God's game plan but what he leaves on record is that this isn't what I really wanted to do. This isn't really the way I wanted it to work out and he even says to God in verse 7, look it, oh Lord, you induced me and I was persuaded. It's like, you deceived me and I got caught into this.

199. 1:02:30

     I really didn't know what I was getting into back in Jeremiah chapter 1 but you're stronger than I and you have prevailed. I'm in derision daily and everybody mocks me for when I spoke I cried out, I shouted, violence and plunder. I said your message. I told them all what's going to happen but because the word of the Lord was made to me a reproach and a derision and then I said, well, I won't make mention of his name anymore.

200. 1:02:54

     I'm not going to speak in his name. This is when he held it in. He tried to like hold it in, you know, but his word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary of holding it back and I couldn't for I heard many mocking on the sides and they were saying, oh, terror on every side and this is what they'd mock him and they'd say, oh, what's the word of the Lord today, Jeremiah?

201. 1:03:14

     What terrible thing is God going to bring on us today? And they'd make fun of him like that. This is what he had to endure. Report it, they say, and we will report it. And all my acquaintances, they watched for my stumbling saying, perhaps he can be induced. Then we will prevail against him and we will take our revenge on him.

202. 1:03:32

     This is what he lived through. But he says, the Lord was with me as a mighty, awesome one and therefore he knows his persecutors will stumble. This whole section, he actually pulls phrase after phrase out of Psalms. It's really fun to watch if you ever go back and look at how he went back to David's Psalms.

203. 1:03:49

     Psalm 31 and different Psalms and he's pulling phrases out of them and building his case of trusting God in the midst of this affliction. And so he ends up in verse 14 and he leaves on record, I want all of you to know, here's how I really feel. Cursed be the day in which I was born.

204. 1:04:06

     Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me. Let the man be cursed who brought the news to my father saying, a male child has been born to you. Making him very glad. And let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew and did not relent. Let him hear the cry in the morning and the shouting at noon because he did not kill me from the womb that my mother might have been my grave and her womb always enlarged with me.

205. 1:04:29

     Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow that my days should be consumed with shame? And that's Jeremiah's record that he leaves on there for everyone to see that when he now has bought into God's game plan, it's frustrating to him but he's going to do it. God has won him over to his side but it's not what he wanted to do.

206. 1:04:50

     It's not the message that he wanted to deliver but now what you're going to see tomorrow when we get a chance to look at chapters 21 on that Jeremiah faithfully delivers the word of the Lord and he understands what God is doing. That God is now going to take the people up to Babylon, he's going to regrow the community and he's going to bring them back and plant them in the land and it took a lot to actually accomplish that.

207. 1:05:13

     But of all things, I just think it's fun to watch that for ourselves today and wonder what lesson is there for us in all of this and I'll tell you, look at how patient God is with the things that he brings into our life. He gives us time to understand. He gives us other events of life so that we can see his way so that we can understand eternal life and what it's really all about so we can learn to trust him.

208. 1:05:35

     He constantly sends his angels out every day to bring events so that we'll get it, so we'll see it when we pray for wisdom so that we can understand and so let's cut each other a lot of slack in that category. We have the same problem as Jeremiah. There's times when we don't see it.

209. 1:05:52

     There's times when we don't understand it and there is for everybody here and so when our brethren and sisters and young people are going through this, let's remember that God is extremely patient with people. He gives them time to learn and understand and doesn't just ring them out and chew them out for not responding right the first way and I think there's some great lessons in there about ecclesial life, ecclesial problems and for parents on how to deal with our children of learning to deal with them the way God deals with us and Jeremiah is a wonderful example of the patience of God and his unbelievable mercy in helping us learn to see life from God's perspective.

210. 1:06:31

     So tomorrow what we'll do is we'll have a look at Jehoiakim in the Sunday school class and then we'll move on and have a look at I think we're going to look at we'll probably look at the Rechabites in the exhortation and then we'll move on the class in the afternoon and have a look at Zedekiah.

211. 1:06:48

     So that's good for now. Thank you very much. Been a great audience today and been a lot of fun. Hope you know Jeremiah a little bit better than you did earlier this morning.

212. 1:07:07

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213. 1:07:25

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214. 1:07:47

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215. 1:08:05

     Thank you for listening God bless and talk to you next week.