Jeremiah – Some Lessons For Today

Feature 2 –December 2015 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem
by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
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JEREMIAH
Some Lessons For Today

“For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” —Jeremiah 2:13 KJV

Jeremiah lived at the close of the kingdom of Judah. His first prophecies were during the reign of the godly king Josiah (1:2) and his last came from the land of Egypt after Nebuchadnezzer had conquered Jerusalem (Jer. 44-51). He saw the spiritual decline from Josiah’s time through to the wicked reigns of his sons Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Zedekiah and his grandson, Jeconiah (1:3, 24:1).

Jeremiah was given the task of exposing the fallen condition of God’s people and calling them back to the LORD. It was not easy, but the Lord makes no mistakes in the vessels He chooses to use or the tasks which He assigns to them. He desired a servant who would share in His own sorrow over the disobedient and unrepentant character of His people.

Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet, no doubt based on passages in the book of Lamentations and Jeremiah 9:1, which says, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” In this Jeremiah gave us just a faint picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself wept over the unrepentant city of Jerusalem when He walked in this world (see Luke 19:41).

Jeremiah’s First Message
A prophet in Scripture is someone who has the mind of God and a message to share with His people. Sometimes the message was about the future, as when Jeremiah prophesied about Israel and the new covenant in chapters 30-31, but often the prophets spoke about the present. Many of the messages Jeremiah gave to the people were a plea from the LORD for them to return to Him. They had fallen into idolatry, and even in the revival during the reign of godly king Josiah, the majority of the people had only returned outwardly, not in heart (Jer. 3:6,10).

Jeremiah’s first message, found in chapter 2, was a very touching appeal by the LORD to His people that sets the tone for the remainder of the book. While written over 2,500 years ago, there is much that we can apply to ourselves today. It reminds us of the letter to Ephesus in Revelation 2 where, while the Lord had much to commend about the saints there, He pointed to their hearts and said, “Thou hast left Thy first love” (v.4). He called on them to repent, to remember from where they had fallen and to return. In a similar way, the LORD pleaded with His people in Jeremiah 2, telling them that they have forgotten Him (v.32).

It is easy for us to say that we would never forget the Lord. But we must ask ourselves, “How much have we thought of Him today? Have we sought His help and counsel in daily duties and decisions?” The LORD reminded His people of the days when they came out of Egypt and He spoke of the response of their “first love” for Him, calling it the “love of thine espousals” (v.2). There was a freshness and reality in their affection for Him then. He also told them that at that time “Israel was holiness unto the LORD” (v.3). They were separated from the world, and separated to Him.

So too for us, even if we have forgotten, the Lord remembers the love in our hearts for Him when we were first saved or after He had brought us through some trial. He remembers when this world did not have the hold upon us that it perhaps has now. His call to Judah in Jeremiah 2 and to Ephesus in Revelation 2 was to return to Him. The message to us today is the same.

The Potter’s House
Several times Jeremiah was called to perform or witness an action to reinforce the words which the LORD gave him. We would like to consider three of these beginning with the potter’s house where the LORD told Jeremiah to go. “Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel” (Jer. 18:3-6).

Jeremiah obediently went and watched the potter performing a work on the wheels. Then the vessel he was working on was marred in his hands. Rather than throw the vessel away, the potter remade it into another as seemed good to him to make. Then the LORD gave a word through Jeremiah: Could He not do the same with His people Israel? If they would only turn from their evil He would turn from the judgment decreed against them. The LORD would still have mercy on them and make them into another vessel – a vessel of honor for Himself.

Can we apply this lesson today? I believe so. Our lives have been marred by sin, but when we come to the Lord Jesus, as ruined sinners to the almighty Savior, He does not throw us away. When He saves us, we are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). This is new creation. “If any man be in Christ, He is a new [creation]; old things are past away; behold all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). He makes us into new vessels for Himself so we might do the good works He has planned for us.

The Marred Girdle
Jeremiah 13:11 says, “For as a girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto Me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith Jehovah; that they might be unto Me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear” (JND). In this chapter the LORD instructed Jeremiah to wear a girdle (a fabric belt wrapped around a robe) and then remove it and place it near the Euphrates. After some time Jeremiah retrieved the girdle, finding it marred and good for nothing.

The LORD used this as an illustration of what had happened to His people Israel. He had caused them to cleave to Him as a girdle cleaves to the loins of a man. He had faithfully cared for them from the time He brought them out of Egypt until that day. His desire was that they would have been a people for His praise and glory. Sadly, the LORD had to state of them, “they would not hear” His voice and instead were walking “after the imagination of their heart” – even after “other gods to serve and worship them” (v.10). As a result they had become like a marred girdle which is unfit for its intended purpose and good for nothing.

In Acts 11:23 Barnabas exhorted the new believers in Antioch that with purpose of heart they should “cleave unto the Lord” (KJV). It is still the Lord’s desire that His people, including the Church, cleave to Him and be for His praise and glory. What does it mean to cleave to Him? It means to hear and obey His voice through His Word and to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16), occupied with Christ rather than the imagination of our own hearts, keeping ourselves from idols or anything that would displace Christ from His rightful place (1 Jn. 5:21). As those who have been made a new creation in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:10), may we cleave to Him with purpose of heart and be vessels of honor (2 Tim. 2:21) for His praise and glory, until He comes.

The Purchase Of The Field
We read this about the third object lesson: “And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it” (Jer. 32:6-7).

In Jeremiah 30-31 we have the wonderful prophecy of the future restoration of Israel and Judah – in other words, of all twelve tribes descended from Jacob (30:3). The new covenant (31:31-34) will officially be confirmed with restored Israel when the Lord returns to this earth to reign (Rom. 11:26-27). They previously had been under the old covenant, made at Mt. Sinai, which depended on their faithfulness. When they miserably failed they were dispersed into captivity in Assyria, Babylon and ultimately throughout the world.

The new covenant will be entirely unconditional and only depend on God’s faithfulness (32:41). Under the old covenant Israel said “we will” obey (Ex. 19:8). Under the new covenant the LORD says “I will” bless them. In Jeremiah 30-32 the LORD stated “I will” over 40 times. All but a few of these refer to what He is going to do in future blessing for His earthly people Israel in sovereign grace.

The future restoration of the nation of Israel, while it does not directly affect those of us who are part of the Church today, should be a great encouragement to us. Our God is faithful. If He promises something He will fulfill it. Peter tells us of those who scoff at the thought of the coming again of the Lord (2 Pet. 3:3-4). But the Lord Jesus has promised to come (Jn. 14:2-3; 1 Th. 4:16-18; Rev. 22:20). He is coming soon no matter what scoffers may say.

Is Anything Too Hard For The Lord?
In order to illustrate His own faithfulness as well as to prove Jeremiah’s faith in what the LORD had given him to say, the LORD had Jeremiah purchase a field from his cousin Hanameel (Jer. 32). The LORD arranged everything, clearly showing that this was His will, and Jeremiah faithfully fulfilled the transaction to purchase the field. However, when he was again alone with the LORD, Jeremiah poured out his heart to Him. For us too, while we must always be obedient to the Word of God, it is wonderful that we can also pour out our hearts to Him. Another example is Ananias in Acts 9:10-16.

Jeremiah began by stating his confidence in the LORD: “There is nothing too hard for Thee” (Jer. 32:17). However, the circumstances looked impossible. The Babylonians, who had overrun the land, surrounded Jerusalem. From man’s view, it was unlikely that Jeremiah would ever be able to take possession of this property – he could not even leave the city! Why would the LORD want him to do this?

In the remainder of the chapter the LORD gave a wonderful message of encouragement that beautifully illustrates His faithfulness and ways with His people both then and now. In His government, where His people reap what they sow (Gal. 6:7), He would have to discipline His people who had sinned against Him. However, in His grace, when the discipline had done its needed work in their hearts, He would restore them to Himself. I will do this “with My whole heart and with My whole soul,” says the LORD (Jer. 32:41). There was a partial fulfillment of this when a small remnant of Judah returned to Jerusalem from Babylon, but we believe that this looks ahead to the time when both Israel and Judah will be established in their land, see their Messiah, repent and turn to Him. The land Jeremiah purchased will one day be free from every enemy, even those who threaten today, and the children of Israel will dwell in peace and rest in their inheritance.

Although the new covenant will officially be made with restored Israel and Judah, the basis of the new covenant is grace – the same principle on which our God and Father deals with us now. “Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21). Under grace our God acts according to His own heart rather than what is in our hearts. He can do so in righteousness (grace reigns through righteousness, not in opposition to it) because of the finished work of the Lord Jesus on the cross, where all the questions of our failure in responsibility have been settled forever.

Now He freely bestows on us the blessings that we could never have earned through our own works. We are blessed – not “we will be blessed if we obey” – “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). Some of these blessings are eternal life, sonship, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and a purged conscience (see Romans 6:23, Ephesians 1:3-14 and Hebrews 10:1-14). Even the practical blessings of our life are the result of the grace of God, for what do we have that we could really say we deserved or had earned by our own goodness?

Some object to such teaching of the grace of God saying that it leads to careless living. But the Word of God assures us that grace is “teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world” (Ti. 2:12). If we understand that the grace of God has been made available to us at such a great cost, the blood of His own dear Son, then this grace will humble us and make us eager learners in its school, that our lives might please the “God of all grace” (1 Pet. 5:10).

Summary
We have seen that Jeremiah was called by the LORD as one who would share in His own heart towards His people. The essence of Jeremiah’s ministry was to call the people back to the LORD, to return to their first love. We considered:

• The potter’s house – we were ruined by sin, but are made new by Him,
• The marred girdle – the Lord calls us to cleave to Him, and as we do we will honor Him in our lives, and
• The purchase of the field – God’s faithfulness to His promises and the principle of grace with which He acts toward us today and soon will to His restored earthly people Israel.

“This is the true grace of God in which ye stand” (1 Pet. 5:12).

By Kevin Quartell