Jer 23:23-26 Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? (24) Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD. (25) I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. (26) How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
In contrast to the deceit of the false prophets, we see the predictions concerning the One Who is truly Righteous. In Isaiah (11:1) the emphasis on the Branch was the righteousness of His life. Here the emphasis is the righteousness of His judgement and rule.
Jer 23:5-6 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. (6) In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The sign of the figs in chapter 24 relates well how God deals with His people in the time of this captivity. Amongst them are good figs, which He plans to return to the land, to lead back to Himself - and there are bad figs such as the kings, who continually reject God and break his Covenants, and go against His prophecies, and the bad figs will delivered over to be consumed.
We see this happening again and again. Though the kings must know that Jeremiah is clearly a prophet of the Lord, their own pride and their animosity towards God means that they keep rejecting the messages - casting them into the fire, throwing Jeremiah into a pit, seeking to kill him, and generally ignoring him and God.
On the other hand, the people taken away to captivity are told that they will return eventually, but in the meantime they should:
Jer 29:5-7 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; (6) Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. (7) And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
Jer 25:6 And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.
Basically - they should live in such a way to be a blessing to those around them, while keeping themselves pure from the idolatry they live amongst. The last verse is part of that they did not listen to before the captivity, but I am sure we can agree that the message is still relevant to them now. Also very relevant to us today to consider the amalgamation of these two thoughts - the idols today are not in temples per se, but there are many this that are the equivalent of the physical idols that are the object of man's desires, glory, and pursuit instead of God, and it is easy to have our motivations influenced towards serving idols rather than God.
In terms of covenants, we see a number broken or amended. Consistently the break happens first with the people, not God - and He responds to the breaches of covenant with much long-suffering. In terms of the Davidic covenant to have a man seated on the throne always, and a Levite serving always before Him, the captivity seems to have broken the blessings in this covenant because of the rebellion and disobedience of the people, but God shows in the end of the chapter that He will restore the rule of David over Israel (through Christ, Who also becomes our Great High Priest, superseding the Levitical order).
There is a specific covenant in the later days before people are taken away to Babylon that is quite shocking in the deliberate flouting of the principles of God. An edict from the king (prompted by Jeremiah) decreed that the Hebrew bond-servants should be freed. They freed them fine, but then deliberately pursued the servants and took them back again! (chapter 34). As we consider the situation though, it provokes thoughts of how often I also am tempted to or end up following the letter of the command 'worming out' of the principle behind it.
In contrast to these broken covenants, we see the people of Rechabites who have remained in obedience to an ordinance from their ancestor that they not drink wine or live in fixed houses. Unlike the people of Israel, they kept it faithfully, and received that great blessing that
Jer 35:19 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.
How great a promise that is! It also makes us think though, about how it is often seems easier for people to keep covenants and promises when they are secular - motivated by things other than God. Perhaps it is because there is more antagonism towards the thing of God, perhaps due to spiritual adversity (the demons do not mind how you don't serve God, things similar are fine to them, so long as it not for God). But this is not an excuse for complacency, nor an ode to fatalism, but should rather inspire us to seek God for strength in obeying Him - He will give generously anything we lack if we ask Him (James 1:4) - and will not allow temptation greater than we can bear. After all, isn't serving our Saviour and Righteous King the greatest motivation of all - how honoured we are to serve Him!
In the latter part of Jeremiah, we see the debacle once both kings have been taken away and only a governor for Babylon is left. The first governor seems fine, but is naive to some extent and gets assassinated. The guy who assassinates him is cruel and plays favourites, and is then fought and defeated by the guy who warned the first governor about the potential assassination. Hmm... looks like he might be a bit better?... no, the people ask Jeremiah for advice and then again reject the message of God and travel down to Egypt to be enslaved there rather than be 'enslaved' by Babylon, when God had promised Babylon would leave them alone if they stayed in the land quietly. Trying to fix problems in our own strength always seems to come unstuck doesn't it! Many times the short term easy option leads to much more hardship later.
Finally we see that God does not just focus on Israel - He may have used the surrounding nations to punish Israel, but He has not forgotten their errors either. The judgement may be long in coming, but He is a just God and the judgement does come!
Shall we end with a beginning this time: The beginning of Jeremiah's prayer to the Lord after he bought the land from his cousin as a sign from God that the people would return to the land:
Jer 32:17-19 Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: (18) Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name, (19) Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:
Amen, a good way to sum up this section!
No comments:
Post a Comment