Yahweh’s Delight in Obedience

Posted on July 29, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH | Lesson 6 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Jeremiah 35.1-19 [along with chaper 34]

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT

1/ As we discovered in our last lesson, the over-all ‘book of Jeremiah’ is a compilation of several other ‘booklets’ within the ‘book.’ Our last lesson was taken from the ‘Book of Consolation,’ chapters 30-33, because in that ‘booklet,’ Yahweh repeated and confirmed His promises to reconcile, restore, and renew His people to Himself through the New Covenant. “And they shall be My people, and I will be their God” [ch 32.38].

2/ This, of course, will be accomplished through Christ and His Gospel. Jesus Christ fulfilled all the necessary conditions and secured all the promises of the New Covenant when He poured out His Blood of the New Covenant and proclaimed in victory from His Cross: “It is finished!” [See our comments on this Gospel projection in Jeremiah’s ‘Book of Consolation’ in our last Lesson Notes / Talking Points.]

3/ But now, in this two-chapter ‘booklet,’ chapters 34-35, Yahweh returns once again to their then-present situation. Yahweh will once again make the case that His judgments coming on them in the Babylonian invasion, destruction, and captivity are His holy consequences because of their insistent and persistent disobedience and rebellion again Him.

4/ He will make His irrefutable case by citing two real-life stories that were transpiring contemporaneously in their very day. These two stories were going on as Jeremiah was delivering and recording them, and the people of Judah were witnessing of both of these stories.

5/ We could also call chapters 34-35: The stories of two families. The family in chapter 34 is Yahweh’s family, the people of God, Judah. The family in chapter 35 is the family of the Rechabites. We may not be so familiar with the Rechabites because so little is said of them in the historical Scriptures. In fact, we are told as much or more about the Rechabites here in Jeremiah 35 than in all the other little snippets we can glean from their previous history. But Yahweh brings them to the fore and makes a positive example of them and gives them a glowing recommendation.

6/ The stories of these two families will stand in stark contrast to each other. The family of Judah will witness against themselves as a testimony to their disobedience – not occasional ‘slip up’ disobedience, but their historical, persistent, and insistent disobedience … even to the point of chronic rebellion against Yahweh [see ch 35.12-17]. The family of the Rechabites, on the other hand, will bear a sterling and consistent historical witness to their obedience to their patriarchal father, Jonadab the son of Rechab.

7/ So, let’s re-tell these two stories and juxtapose them as Yahweh gave them to Jeremiah. As we read and learn, I hope that each of us will search our own hearts to see whose family we belong to. And, at the end of the lesson, we’ll summarize and draw together the stark contrasts Yahweh highlights to make His case against Judah.

8/ Also, as we make our way through these two contrasting stories, we can see Yahweh’s delight in simple, faithful, whole-hearted obedience as He expressed it in these words Samuel delivered to the faithless rebel King Saul [1 Samuel 15.22-23]:

And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king.”  

I / ch 34 / The story of faithless, disobedient Judah – the story of Zedekiah      

1/ v 1 /As we begin telling the story of Zedekiah’s rebellion against Yahweh, we need to remember that even though chapter 34 comes BEFORE chapter 35, the events described here happened AFTER the story in chapter 35. [Zedekiah lived and reigned AFTER Jehoiakim.]

2/ Zedekiah was the very last king to reign in Judah before the final Babylonian invasion, destruction, and deportation. In fact, he was the reigning king when the final destruction of Jerusalem took place. You can find Zedekiah’s full story in 2 Kings 24.18 – 25.7. These events would be dated around 589 BC.

3/ Zedekiah reigned for 11 years, and it was during the 9th year of his reign that Nebuchadnezzar began his 2-year siege against Jerusalem before their armies finally breached the city walls and entered Jerusalem to burn it down, massacre masses of the people, and deport multitudes more to captivity in Babylon. So it was during this 2-year siege that the events of Jeremiah 34 took place and Jeremiah delivered Yahweh’s message to Zedekiah.

4/ vv 2-7 / The message that Yahweh delivers to Zedekiah is that in spite of all his efforts to stave off and defend Jerusalem against the eventual conquest of the Babylonians, he will, in fact, be captured by Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon, and the city will be destroyed and burned. See also vv 17-22. However, Zedekiah himself will not murdered or executed during the siege, even though he will suffer the excruciating experience of seeing his sons slaughtered before his eyes and then have his own eyes gouged out [see 2 Kings 25.6-7 & Jeremiah 39.1-7].

5/ vv 8-10 / Here is where Zedekiah’s faithlessness, treachery, and rebellion is clearly demonstrated. When the Babylonians were mounting their siege against Jerusalem, Zedekiah thought he would manipulate and extort Yahweh to deliver them by pretending to be obedient to Yahweh’s law and command. He entered into a covenant with all the people of Jerusalem to obey the stipulation of Yahweh’s covenant that He had delivered in Deuteronomy 15.12-18 / also here, vv 12-14  – that when their fellow Jewish brothers and sisters had been sold into indentured service to them to pay off their debts, they must be set free in the seventh year, regardless of how many previous years of service they had given during their six year pay-back term. Zedekiah and the Jerusalemites set free their indentured servants and vowed not to enslave them again. They obeyed and set them free.

6/ vv 11 / However, just soon after, they reneged on that covenant to ‘obey’ Yahweh when they saw it financially disadvantaged them. But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and brought them into subjection as slaves.

  • We should note also here, that they had this change of mind at a time when the Babylonians had temporarily suspended their siege against Jerusalem because they had to go off and fight against the Egyptians whom Zedekiah had hired to come and ally with them to defend Jerusalem. See vv 21-22 w/ ch 37.5-11 & 44.30.
  • Their temporary manumission clearly an attempt to ‘manipulate’ and ‘extort’ Yahweh with this short-lived pretense of ‘obedience’…as if to say, “Look, Yahweh, we are ‘obeying’ your commandment, so you are obligated to save and deliver us.” However, when it became obvious that Yahweh was not going to be ‘bought off’ by their charade, they decided their ‘obedience’ was worth it, after all.
  • And on top of all that, they had committed the additional mockery of their pretended ‘obedience by making their ‘covenant’ to ‘obey’ Yahweh by cutting a calf in half and walking between the two pieces of the covenant-making sacrifice [see vv 18-19]. This was not only their customary way of making solemn promises and covenants, but this is what Yahweh did when He made His initial covenant with Abraham [see Genesis 15.12-18]. This was so much more than just a merely arrogant, hypocritical gesture – it was a blatant and obscene mockery of Yahweh. When you would make a covenant in this manner, you were saying, ‘If this promise is solemn and binding enough to require the killing of a sacrificial animal, then it is solemn and binding enough for us to keep it!’ This is what we call a ‘fox-hole’ conversion, or like the promises we make to God when we are in dire straits, and we’re willing to say or do anything if only God will ‘bail us out’ of the trouble we’re in … only to renege on and break our promise when the danger is not so ‘clear and present’ [see Ecclesiastes 5.1-7].  

7/ vv 12-16 / Yahweh calls them on their rebellious turn-around of feigned ‘obedience’ and then re-disobeying and rebelling against Him again … citing once again the Deuteronomy 15 commandment they had been disobeying for centuries.

8/ vv 17-22 / Yahweh reiterates His judgments against them because of their persistent, insistent disobedience: He will deliver Jerusalem into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. They will be destroyed and taken into captivity. This, in spite of the brief reprieve they had hoped in when Nebuchadnezzar had temporarily withdrawn from the siege to fight the Egyptians. He’ll be back to finish the job.

II / ch 35.1-11 /  The story of the faithful, obedient Rechabites

1/ Now we come to the centerpiece and comparative standard of these two contrasting stories – the story of the Rechabites.

2/ v 1 / To get the timeline in our minds, we need now to toggle back to a few years earlier during the reign of a previous king, Jehoiakim. He reigned for 11 years:  circa 609-597. During the 4th year of his reign, 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar made his first move against Jerusalem, attacked the city, made them a vassal state, and took some of them captive to Babylonian. This was the first of three deportations. You’ll find this story in 2 Kings 23.36 – 24.4. So what happened in ch 35 here transpired during Jehoiakim’s 4th year of his reign [see ch 25.1; 36.1; 45.1].

3/ Also, since we don’t know that much about the Rechabites, in order to appreciate their story and their sterling example of obedience which Yahweh highlights, we need just a little background on them:

  • Rechabites: they were not Israelites. They were a nomadic tribe who had attached themselves to Israel for centuries and lived among them as ‘resident aliens.’ They were a distinct family clan of people who had retained their ancestral heritage and traditions.
  • Rechab / v 8: He was one of their more ancient forefathers. Rechab goes back to the larger tribe of people known as Kenites: These are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab [1 Chronicles 2.55]. The Kenites, in turn, were descendants of the family of Moses’ father-in-law. And the descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up with the people from Judah … and they went and settled with the people [Judges 1.16]; and Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses… [Judges 4.11]. The only point I’m making here is that the Rechabites had lived among the Israelites as a separate and distinct tribe even from the days of  post-Exodus Moses.
  • Jonadab / vv 6 et. al.: He was one of their more recent, immediate forefathers and head of their family/clan, and the one whose instructions they were so faithfully obeying.  

4/ vv 1-4 / Yahweh instructed Jeremiah to go and fetch this family of Rechabites and bring them into one of the rooms of the Temple. This is what we call a ‘sign-act narrative,’ because the lesson will be delivered and taught in the activity that is performed.

5/ vv 5-10 / The ‘sign-act’ that Jeremiah conducted was to bring in the family of the Rechabites, sit them down in the Temple chamber, set pitchers of wine and cups before them, and command them to drink the wine. They refused. And the reason they refused is because their tribal/clan forefather, Jonadab, had commanded them generations before that they must not drink wine even though it was customary for everyone else to do so. They must abstain, be ‘teetotalers’ for the rest of their days, throughout all their successive generations. Not only that, but they must not build houses or plant and harvest gardens or vineyards. They must commit themselves to this ascetic, nomadic lifestyle and maintain their distinctive, separate family culture and traditions in perpetuity. We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, 9 and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed, 10 but we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done all that Jonadab our father commanded us. They would not disavow and disobey their forefather, Jonadab, and they would not break the covenant promises they had made to obey him! That is the example and lesson Yahweh wanted to deliver to His unfaithful family of Israelites!

6/ v 11 / Just a side-note here: If they had committed themselves to live a nomadic lifestyle, what were they doing in Jerusalem to begin with? They explain their presence in Jerusalem by citing the recent incursions of the Babylonians into the country sides surrounding Jerusalem. An invading army wouldn’t march directly to their target city and attack it. They would invade the country side as they progressed, conquering the outlying cities as they came, and then arrive at their primary target city – in this case, Jerusalem. Jerusalem had become the last refuge and hold-out, but it was soon to be attacked also.   

III / ch 35.12-19 / The principle and message of these two contrasting stories

1/ vv 12-16 /  So now we come to the lesson Yahweh wants Jeremiah to deliver to the people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem … we will summarize the message by drawing the contrasts Yahweh does…

  • The faithful Rechabites obeyed an arbitrary command their father had given them; but Judah had defied and rebelled against the most meaningful and essential command their ‘Father,’ Yahweh had given to them. The family laws the Rechabites had covenanted to obey were not stipulated in Yahweh’s law. Yahweh had not commanded not to drink wine or not to build houses or not to plant and harvest gardens and vineyards – this was an arbitrary command Jonadab had issued to the Rechabites. But they had honored their father and kept his command. On the other hand, Yahweh had commanded Israel to love Him with all their hearts and they had stubbornly, rebelliously, insistently disobeyed and refused to do that one ‘greatest commandment’ thing.
  • The Rechabites received a one-time command that they had dutifully, faithfully, and consistently followed, kept, and obeyed; but the Israelites had received from Yahweh often-repeated commands, even for centuries, that they had chronically, persistently, and insistently rebelled against. Numerous times over centuries, Yahweh had sent His prophets to Israel and Judah, patiently and passionately calling them to repentance, to change their ways, to return to Him and avert the coming judgments He had warned and declared against them [see v 15 – this same pleading warning is made over and over in their history]. Generation after generation refused to obey. ‘But you did not incline your ear or listen to Me.’
  • The Rechabites dutifully honored and obeyed a mere human patriarch; but the Israelites refused to obey their Supreme Father, ‘Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel’ [see vv 13 & 17 especially]. All throughout this ‘sign-act’ message, Yahweh delivers His lesson by contrasting ‘from the lesser to the greater.’ If the lesser had been done [as per the example of the Rechabites], then the greater should have been done also by His covenant people, Israel. Yahweh was their distinctive, exclusive God. He was the Giver of all their covenant promises and blessings they had enjoyed. He was their LORD. He had bound them and they had sworn to obey Him – but they had not.

2/ vv 17-19 / Yahweh re-confirms the consequences for each of their acts of disobedience/obedience:

  • The promised judgments will come upon Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem for their persistent, insistent disobedience and rebellion against Him…
  • The Rechabites will continue to enjoy His covenant blessings toward them by His acceptance of them and engagement in His service because of their exemplary obedience to their fathers.

3/ We will just return here to the 1 Samuel 15.22-23 word from Yahweh I wrote in the Introduction:

And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king.”

So it was with Saul, and so it was with Zedekiah. They wait for Messiah to come who will fulfill the promised blessings of the New Covenant!  

4/ Let’s each of us search our own hearts and lives in the light of this lesson:

Are you a faithless, pretending hypocrite – or a faithful, obedient child and servant of Christ?

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Yahweh’s New Covenant: Reconciliation, Restoration, Renewal

Posted on July 22, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH | Lesson 5 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Jeremiah 31.31-37

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT

1/ The focus of our lesson will be on ch 31.31-37 which is the definitive and clearest proclamation of the New Covenant in the Old Testament. However, we should ‘soar above it’ and put it in its contexts. There are many contexts which we must understand in order to fully appreciate this text.

2/ To begin with, more immediately, chapters 30-33 form a ‘booklet within the book’ of Jeremiah. Jeremiah itself is a ‘book,’ but there are other distinct ‘booklets’ within the larger book. Bible teachers call these chapters ‘The Book of Consolation’ because they contain a distinct series of messages from Yahweh that deal with His promises to reconcile, restore, and renew His covenant with His people. That’s why I’ve chosen to title this lesson as I have. If you go back to the opening chapter of this ‘Book of Consolation,’ ch 30.1-3, you will see this theme clearly announced:

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. 3 For behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.”

3/ This passage is also the most succinct announcement of the two most prominent themes developed in the Book of Jeremiah:

  • Judgment and Salvation
  • Destruction and Deliverance
  • Captivity and Liberation
  • Exile and Return from Exile

These twin themes were given to Jeremiah from Yahweh in ch 1.9-10:

Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

The message of the New Covenant is one of the clearest expressions of the ‘to build and to plant’ mission Yahweh gave to Jeremiah. In fact, in ch 31.27-28, Yahweh repeats this very commission to Jeremiah to remind him of the fullness and completion of His purposes:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. 28 And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the LORD.

5/ To take even a higher up ‘bird’s eye view,’ this ‘booklet,’ chapter, and section is a pivotal announcement which will find its ultimate and climactic fulfillment in Revelation 21.5: And He who was seated on the Throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also He said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ From the beginning of the creation and our fall into sin, when we had broken everything God had created perfectly, God covenanted with Himself to ‘reconcile, restore, and renew’ everything back to a more perfect state than it was even in the original creation / see Romans 8.18-23. He will complete all this redemptive covenant purpose and plan when He unveils it in the New Heaven and New Earth: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. / Revelation 21.1.

6/ AND, looking at it from our perspective, we have to understand that this New Covenant that Yahweh is announcing will find its perfect fulfillment in Jesus Christ and His Gospel. The Hebrews writer quotes this very passage in the longest Old Testament quotation found in the New Testament [Hebrews 8.6-13]:

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

8 For He finds fault with them when He says:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD,
    when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
    and with the house of Judah,
9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
    on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
    and so I showed no concern for them, declares the LORD.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
    after those days, declares the LORD:
I will put my laws into their minds,
    and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
    and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
for they shall all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
    and I will remember their sins no more.”

13 In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

The very fact that the Hebrews writer chooses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to quote the entire passage shows in itself just how pivotal and seminal this Old Testament witness is of Christ who was to come. Jesus Himself clearly understood His exclusive and indispensable role in bringing in this New Covenant and making it effective. And He did so through His substitutionary redemptive death on the Cross. As He said when He instituted the Lord’s Supper at the last Passover meal [Matthew 26.27-29]:

And He took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the[new] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

NOTE also how Jesus referred to His blood of the New Covenant as that redemptive sacrifice that would ‘make all things new’ in ‘that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’

7/ And so, with those contexts in mind, let’s make some notes from this announcement of the New Covenant that Yahweh will make for the salvation of His people.

I /Reconciliation, Restoration, Renewal     

1/ Not only are all these graces found in the New Covenant announcement, they are also interspersed and woven all throughout the Book of Jeremiah, and especially in this ‘Book of Consolation,’ chapters 30-33.

2/ Keep in mind, Jeremiah’s prophecies were delivered before the final destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the final deportation into exile to Babylon. Even at the same time Yahweh was pronouncing judgments and destruction upon Judah for their idolatrous and adulterous rebellions and faithlessness to His Covenant, He was also announcing way ahead of time that He would reconcile, restore, and renew them.

3/ And much of this message is contained in the ‘seventy years’ pronouncements Yahweh had made / see ch 25.1-14 & 29.10-14. He threatened … and then delivered on His threats … that He was going to use Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to punish them for all their disobediences and betrayals of His Covenant He had graciously bestowed on them / there are so many of these ‘cause and effect’ references throughout Jeremiah, but note especially ch 30.12-15.

4/ BUT, He also repeatedly promised that He would reconcile them back to Himself through their confession of their sins and repentance from them; that He would restore them back to His favor and to their land; and that He would renew His Covenant of love, peace, and grace with them.

  • Reconciliation: Yahweh repeatedly couched and phrased His relationship with Israel in terms of love and marriage – which it was / see, for example, Hosea. Or, He would speak of His Covenant with Israel in other familial terms like ‘father and son.’ “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Israel is my firstborn son’” [Exodus 4.22]. And so, here in this ‘Book of Consolation,’ Yahweh employs both familial expressions: ‘…for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn’ [ch 31.9] and, speaking of His New Covenant, ‘Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares Yahweh.’ [ch 31.31]. So when this reconciliation is made through the New Covenant, it will be a reconciliation back to the loving, familial relationships He had established with them from the beginning. Again, these relationships and their reconciliation are more fully drawn out in the Book of Hosea. This reconciliation will be fulfilled in the ultimate relationship: “At that time, declares Yahweh, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people” [ch 31.1, 33 & 30.22].
  • Restoration: Yahweh promises to restore Israel back to their land when He breaks the yoke of their captivity in Babylon, sets them free again [like He did in the Exodus – even better / see ch 16.14-15 & 23.7-8], and returns them to their homeland / see again ch 30.1-3. He will also restore the physical blessings of the covenant such as peace, prosperity, and fruitfulness / see ch 30.8-10, 18-22; 31.5-14, 24.
  • Renewal: This renewal will be accomplished and effected through the New Covenant. As we have said before, this New Covenant which can be kept only by Jesus Christ is the means and power by which God will, in the end, ‘make all things new [renewed].’

II / The New Covenant   

1/ Yahweh Himself will make it. Yahweh’s covenants are made with Himself. They are made with us in that we are recipients of the grace and benefits of His Covenant. But Yahweh doesn’t consult with us, negotiate with us, bargain with us when He makes His Covenants of Grace. See Ephesians 1.1-14.

2/ Yahweh will make His covenant ‘with the house of Israel and the house of Judah’ in the sense that they will be the recipients and benefactors of His Grace. Israel and Judah could not have and would not have kept the New Covenant Yahweh will make with them any more or better than they had kept the one He made with them when He brought out of the land of Egypt, …which they broke. As we shall see, THAT is the preeminent grace of the New Covenant – the very ability, desire, and will to keep it and treasure it. Although the immediate recipients of this New Covenant promise were the returnees from the Babylonian exile [‘the house of Israel and house of Judah’], we know now from our perspective on the coming of Jesus Christ and His Gospel, ‘the house of Israel and the house of Judah’ are the re-constituted ‘Israel’ ‘in Christ.’ See Romans 2.28-29; 9.6-8; 2 Corinthians 5.17; Galatians 6.16; Ephesians 2.11-22; et. al.

3/ Israel broke the first [old] covenant Yahweh had established with them at Sinai and re-confirmed at Moab; and they would have broken this one, too … had it been up to them. Thus, we see Yahweh’s commitment and promise to ‘make a New Covenant’ only with the One who could and would keep it – Jesus Christ. Though Jesus Christ is not specifically named, we know this covenant is made with Him. This is evident by all the references to ‘David’ as their coming King. This can be none other than ‘the Son of David,’ Jesus Christ. For example:

  • ch 23.5-6: Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’
  • ch 30.9: But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
  • ch 33.15-18: In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’ 17 For thus says the LORD: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, 18 and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.

4/ The ultimate grace and blessing of the New Covenant is the putting away of our sins: “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Christ accomplished this by His full, complete, satisfactory, and once-for-all sacrifice of Himself. “It is finished!” When we are justified through His righteousness and born again, made alive, regenerated and renewed by His resurrection – then and only then can we relate to God as intimately and personally as the New Covenant provides.

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall by my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, ‘Know the LORD.’ For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares Yahweh. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.  

5/ This is not to say that no Old Testament believer enjoyed these same graces and benefits. They did. There never has been two ways to be saved: by your works of obedience under the Old Covenant and by grace through faith in Jesus Christ under the New Covenant. There has never been but one salvation, and one way to be saved, and one sacrifice worthy and sufficient enough to put our sins away so that God would remember them no more. Even Old Testament believers were regenerated, born again, and given new spiritual hearts when they trusted Yahweh and believed in the sacrifices He had provided for their sins. But their very faith also was ‘the gift of God’ / Ephesians 2.8-9. But their faith which was granted and credited to them was, in the mind of Yahweh, faith in the Christ He would send in the fullness of time to establish this New Covenant by which all are saved who are saved … whether under the Old Covenant or the New which Christ ratified by His death and resurrection / see Romans 3.24-26 & Hebrews 9.15. Under the Old Covenant, believers’ iniquities were forgiven prospectively; when Christ came and died, their iniquities were forgiven retroactively.

6/ The blessings of the New Covenant are just as sure as the created orders. When Yahweh guarantees the New Covenant will be as secure, fixed, and sure as the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night … if the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, He is promising us that His love and grace will never be canceled. Even these promises anchor the New Covenant in God’s purposes to make even these things new.

Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made;

Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry;

Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.

~Frederick Lehman

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Yahweh’s Plans for His People: Bad News & Good News

Posted on July 15, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH | Lesson 4 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Jeremiah 29.1-23

Program note: Just in case you are following these lesson notes by the lesson number, there have been three weeks of interruption in my postings due to life events I’ve been dealing with. I wasn’t able to compose and post Lesson Notes for those three weeks’ lessons. This is actually the 7th lesson in our current survey/study of Jeremiah, but I am keeping the Lesson Notes consecutive to avoid any further confusion…

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT

Our primary focus for this lesson will be on chapter 29.1-23, but chapter 29 is the culmination of a three-chapter section that begins in chapter 27. So it will be helpful to us – and even essential – in our understanding of the contents of this lesson to at least get a bird’s-eye view of the events and circumstances leading up to chapter 29. So I will try to establish a general timeline and orders of events to help us see where everybody is and why these messages are so meaningful…not only to the immediate recipients, but also in the broader redemptive purposes of God – and especially as they relate to the coming of Christ in the fullness of time and the Gospel. Chapters 30-31 deal extensively with Yahweh’s plans for the immediate restoration of Judah and prophecies of the New Covenant.

I / ch 29.1-3 / Jeremiah writes a letter from Yahweh to Jewish exiles in Babylon    

1/ Jeremiah is still in Jerusalem. But a sizable contingent of the Jewish people has been carried captive to Babylon. It will help us to remember that these deportations and ‘Babylonian captivity’ didn’t happen in one ‘fell swoop.’ There were three significant deportations to Babylon over a twenty-year span:

[1] The first deportation occurred under the reign of King Jehoiakim in 605 BC (2 Kings 23.36-24.4 / see also Daniel 1.1-2);

[2] The second deportation was in 598 BC during the three-month reign of King Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24.8-17);

[3] The third and final deportation occurred in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, 585 BC, when the Babylonians destroyed and desolated Jerusalem and the Temple (2 Kings 24.18 – 25.21).

2/ So when Jeremiah writes this Jeremiah 29 letter, he was writing to those Jews who had been taken captive to Babylon during the second deportation reference above. And the third and final deportation and destruction of Jerusalem had not yet occurred.

3/ Jeremiah dates and times this letter ‘in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah…in the fifth month of the fourth year…’ / see Jeremiah 27.1 & 28.1. This would be in 594 BC, four years after the second deportation and about seven years before the third and final deportation and destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.  

II / ch 29.4-7 / “Settle in…make yourselves at home…you’re going to be there a while…”   

1/ Yahweh’s instructions to the Jewish exiles in Babylon can be summed up in this simple message:

“Settle in…make yourselves at home…you’re going to be there a while! This is going to be your ‘new normal’ for years to come!” Yahweh keeps His own clock, calendar, and schedule. He knows what He is doing and what He’s going to do – and when He will do it. He knows where He is going and where He is taking us. We need to remember this at all times. We seldom or never know precisely why things are happening to us. We don’t know the reasons, whys, or wherefores of the events and timings of those events in our lives. What we do need to know is: what does God instruct me to do today…at this time…in this event…in these circumstances? We must learn to trust God’s purposes, will, timing, and wisdom. We must trust and rest in His undying love for us, His faithful mercies toward us, and His unfailing purposes to always do us good for His Glory! see, remember, and trust Romans 8.28!

2/ So here’s the life-plan Yahweh prescribed for them during this exile in this foreign land:

  • ‘Build houses and live in them’ ‘Make yourselves at home.’ This is not going to be just a temporary visit or stay-over. Babylon is not a ‘rest stop’ before you begin your soon return trip back home to Jerusalem. This is going to be your home for the next several years – seventy years in fact [more on that later…]
  • ‘Plant gardens and eat their produce’ This, too, directs their attention and plans for many seasons to come. They must make provisions for their long-term stay.
  • ‘Take wives and have sons and daughters’ Make and continue your plans to marry and have families.
  • ‘Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters’ Do you see where Yahweh is going with these instructions? He’s foreseeing them being in Babylon for generations! We’re looking at three generations at least…themselves, their children, their grandchildren.
  • ‘Multiply there, and do not decrease’ This is the same creation mandate God gave the human race from the beginning / see Genesis 1.28. NOTE: we are also beginning to see Yahweh’s plans He has for their being in Babylon. He has taken them there to prepare them for returning them to their homeland. He is planning a New Exodus. Their population has been decimated by these invasions and massacres of their enemies because of their insistent and persistent rebellions against Him. But He has plans to redeem them from this bondage and captivity also just like He did from Egypt / see chs 16.14-15 & 23.7-8. BUT, in the meantime, Yahweh will bless them by making them grow and increase in numbers – re-populating His covenant people and nation – even in the very midst of their enemy captors / see Exodus 1.7. And so, Yahweh’s plans for sending them to Babylon are at least three-fold: punitive, preservative, restorative.
  • ‘But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare’ This word that is translated ‘welfare’ three times in this verse is the common Hebrew word ‘shalom’ or ‘peace.’ ‘Shalom’ is the ultimate blessing of Yahweh [see Numbers 6.22-27 & Romans 5.1-11, et. al.]. But God’s ‘shalom/peace’ is not merely the absence of war, conflict, or trouble. Because they were experiencing all of these even while Yahweh was blessing them with ‘shalom’ in Babylon. Rather, God’s ‘shalom/peace’ is ‘well-being, wholeness, completeness, welfare’ which is found being in a right relationship with God through His mercy, grace, and covenant. Yahweh’s plan for sending them to Babylon for seventy years was to cleanse them from their idolatries and rebellions, bring them to confession of their sins and repentance from them, and restore them to a loving and obedient relationship with Himself. They were also to seek the ‘shalom’ of the cities in which they lived by bearing faithful witness to Yahweh [just like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah did during their times in the courts of Babylon] by praying to Yahweh on its behalf. Just like we find in our own times … when the cities and societies in which we are living are doing well and living in peace, we share in that benefit. When civil and social unrest, chaos, and troubles come, we suffer the communal consequences along with everyone else.     

III / ch 29.8-9 / Conflicts and contradictory promises of the lying false prophets

1/ Following up on this instruction and Divine prescription for ‘shalom/peace,’ Yahweh then immediately issues another dire warning to the exiles in Babylon not to listen to, take heed, and certainly not to trust in and follow the counter/contradictory promises they were hearing from the lying false prophets who were among them. These lying false prophets had been opposing and contradicting Yahweh’s messages through Jeremiah from the beginning / see chs 2.8, 26-27; 5.30-31; 14.13-16; 23.9-40; 26.11; 27.9-18; et. al. When Jeremiah would deliver Yahweh’s messages of the coming destruction by the Babylonians, the lying false prophets would contradict him and say, ‘Yahweh would never do that or let that happen to us!’ When Jeremiah would warn them from Yahweh of the times of war, famine, and disease [see ch 29.17], the false prophets would contradict Jeremiah by promising ‘Peace [shalom], peace,’ when there is no peace / chs 6.14 & 8.11. Contrast these last soothing promises from these lying false prophets with what Yahweh has just told the exiles in Babylon: that they would find their ‘shalom/peace’ only by faithfully seeking, serving, and praying to Him there in the land of their captivity.

2/ When Jeremiah would call the people to repentance and to forsake their faithlessness and sins against Yahweh, the lying prophets would re-assure the rebellious people that they really didn’t have to change any of their ways – Yahweh was obligated by His covenant faithfulness to protect and preserve them.

3/ In fact, the conflict got so personal and heated that in ch 27.1-2, Yahweh instructed Jeremiah to make a neck-yoke and place it around his neck to symbolize the coming bondage and captivity. One of the lying false prophets, Hananiah, violently ripped the neck-yoke from Jeremiah’s neck and broke it in the presence of the people to symbolize Yahweh’s intentions to reverse the on-going captivity and bring back all the captives who had already been taken to Babylon: Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 I will also bring back to this place Jeconiah [Jehoiachin] the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, declares the LORD, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon / ch 28.1-10. It’s like Yahweh was telling the exiles ‘Settle in and make yourselves at home…you’re going to be there for seventy years’ and the lying false prophets were giving the contradictory message ‘Don’t bother to unpack your bags … you’ll be coming back within two years.’  The upshot of this blasphemy against Yahweh and violence to Yahweh’s true prophet, Yahweh struck him dead within two months  / ch 28.17.

4/ Yahweh will pick up these warnings and condemnations again more fully in vv 15-32, and name names in doing so … but for now He’s trying to get the exiles’ attention so they won’t be distracted, diverted, and deceived by the constant cacophony they were hearing from these lying false prophets.  

IV / ch 29.10-14 / ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares Yahweh’

1/ How many times have we all heard, seen, or read the words of v 11 quoted as a kind of unconditional, ‘blanket blessing’ that God gives to everyone. “As of the end of 2018, Bible Gateway identified this verse as the year’s most frequently read on its website. Moreover, as Christianity Today observed, ‘Not only was Jeremiah 29.11 the most popular verse of the year [2018] on Bible Gateway, it also claimed the YouVersion top spot in the developed West (Australia, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom) and the Global South (Dhana, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates), spanning demographics in a way that other verses didn’t.’” / From Jerry Hwang, ESV Expository Commentary.

2/ Everybody wants to claim it, everybody wants it to be true for them – regardless of how they’re living or what the contextual conditions or interpretations of the words are. Everybody wants to think and obligate God to plan only ‘good’ things for them and promise them that He desires and plans only to give them the life and things they want and enjoy.

3/ It was then – and it is now – the ‘go-to’ verse for all the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’ teachings and philosophies. The lying false prophets, both back in Jerusalem and here in Babylon, were deceiving the people of Judah into believing that Yahweh’s purposes and plans for them would not allow ‘bad’ things to happen to them … regardless of their faith in Him, relationship with Him, or lifestyle and conduct in His Presence. “The siren song of prosperity theology beckons thus within the believer’s heart: ‘God is all-powerful, so He can do anything He wants. God is all-loving, so He wants to give me what I want. Since what I want is security, health, and wealth, God is able and willing to give these things to me as long as I have faith’” [Jerry Hwang, ibid].

4/ However, what we must do to be true to the Scriptures and what Yahweh is promising is look at the specific plans He has for Judah:

  • For thus says Yahweh, When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. This is a promise Jeremiah first reveals in ch 25.8-12. Yahweh had warned them of the coming destruction by Babylon and had also promised He would restore back to Jerusalem at a later time, but in these contexts, He specifies the seventy-year duration of the captivity. When Daniel was in Babylon during the entire seventy-year duration, he was so confident of Yahweh’s faithfulness, that when he knew the seventy years were coming to fulfillment, he began fasting and praying to know how Yahweh would keep His promise / see Daniel 9.1-2.
  • For I know the plans I have for you, declares Yahweh, plans for welfare [shalom], and not for evil [harm], to give you a future and a hope. This shalom,future, and a hope were faithfully fulfilled by Yahweh when He restored them to Jerusalem by the decree of Cyrus.
  • Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares Yahweh, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and call the places where I have driven you, declares Yahweh, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. The indispensable condition Yahweh places upon them is that they must repent of the sins and rebellions that necessitated His sending them to Babylon in the first place, and return to Him with the exclusive, unqualified love He required from them in the beginning, and pray to Him with worship and service. They had ‘returned’ to Him in previous crises, and He delivered them time and again, but those prayers and reformations had been only ‘in pretense’ / see ch 3.10. Our repentance must be sincere, genuine, and with our whole hearts. This is God’s standing call to all of us in every generation, in every circumstance / Isaiah 55.6-9. And it finds its ultimate fulfillment in our faith in Jesus Christ and our redemption in Him.

V / ch 29.15-23 / Curses on the lying false prophets

1/ vv 15-19 / Jeremiah’s letter from Yahweh continues as Yahweh now directs His judgments personally and more specifically toward the lying false prophets. These false prophets were exiles themselves and were working to establish their standing and exert their deceptive influence among the other exiles. Because you have said, “Yahweh has raised up prophets for us in Babylon.” These false prophets in Babylon were actually sending messages back to Jerusalem and those who hadn’t yet been deported to Babylon, telling them that the prophesied judgments from Yahweh through Jeremiah would not be happening. Yahweh simply says: Oh, yes, it will!

2/ vv 20-23 / There were two lying false prophets in particular: Ahab and Zedekiah [different than the kings by the same names]. They were blaspheming Yahweh by claiming to be sent by Him and speaking in His Name. Yahweh pronounces curses and judgments on them by warning the exiles not to believe them. He had not sent them, and they were not speaking His words. Yahweh foretells their fellow exiles that He will demonstrate His sovereignty, the Holiness of His Name, and the veracity of His Word by having Nebuchadnezzar execute them by burning them alive [‘roasted in the fire,’ v 22] for daring to prophesy lies in His Name / see Deuteronomy 18.20-22. If the people will not put them to death, Yahweh will have Nebuchadnezzar do it. Whereas this Ahab and Zedekiah aspired to make names and reputations for themselves as Yahweh’s true prophets and His spokesmen to the people, Yahweh denounces them and says instead their names will go down in history as illustrious curses: “Because of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: ‘The LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,’ 23 because they have done an outrageous thing in Israel, they have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and they have spoken in my Name lying words that I did not command them. I am the One who knows, and I am witness, declares the LORD.”   

“Believe in Yahweh your God, and you will be established; believe His prophets, and you will succeed!” 2 Chronicles 20.20

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OTD, 1976 | “Someone like no one else came along and made life into something that would never be the same!”

Posted on June 17, 2023 by PastorDave

[Pic from our 40th Anniversary bash our kids threw for us]

Forty-nine years ago today, Debbie and I were married. She has been my faithful wife, companion, lover, friend, ministry partner, the Sweet Mother of our children, and wonderful ‘Grandy’ to our now five-year-old granddaughter — my ‘Dove’ [Song of Solomon 2.14].

So I bought a card to give her. The cover simply says “Our Love Story,” and it reads inside:

“Once upon a time, on a day that looked like any other day, someone like no one else came along and made life into something that would never be the same. That’s you. That’s my life. That’s why you’ll always be the only one for me. Happy Anniversary”

I have often told the story of that day … ‘Once upon a time, on a day that looked like any other day, someone like no one else came along and made life into something that would never be the same’  – the first time ever I saw her face!

I was a young, up-and-coming, preacher in our fellowship of churches. I was still living in Winston Salem NC at that time–and in Bible College. Debbie’s father was pastor of a church here in Lexington KY. Their church hosted an annual Spring Missionary Bible Conference in early April of every year. It was one of the biggest annual events among our associating churches at that time.

He had called my Father and asked him to come and preach at the Missions Conference that April. Dad couldn’t fulfill the invitation, but he counter-responded: “Would you consider inviting my son to come in my place?” and he told him about me. Debbie’s Dad answered, “Well, it’s customary for us to invite pastors of churches who are supporting our missionary partners, and your son is not in that position – but, tell you what, we are also hosting a Youth Conference in February before the Spring Conference. I’d like to invite him to come and preach for us in that Conference instead.” For I was a youth, after all – only 22 years old – and a preacher.

So, he did invite me, and I did go. Made my first airplane flight also on that occasion from Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston Salem to Bluegrass Airport here. In a prop plane. That was exciting [still have a ‘Delta’ napkin they served with the in-flight snack I kept as a souvenir of my ‘maiden’ air-flight] — but I had no idea what more exciting encounter ‘future grace’ was just waiting to reveal…

I didn’t know Pastor and Mrs. Hamilton had a daughter! But, they did. Her name was Debbie, and she was a senior in high school. And also, little did I know that Debbie’s Mom was sick and had been laid up in the bed for a few days before my arrival – and that’s where she still was when her Dad brought me to their home where I would be staying.

Debbie was housekeeping for her Mom, and when we walked in the front door, Debbie came out of the laundry room and walked through the living room carrying an armload of clean towels she had just taken out of the dryer. Her Dad greeted her, and introduced us: “Debbie, this is Dave Parks. Dave, this is Debbie, our daughter!”

I think I may have blurted out something like, “Oh, hey, Debbie. Pleased to meet you” or some such thing. I just know that I was suddenly seized with an epiphany of ‘star-struck’-ness! I have always said: I don’t know if it was the proverbial ‘love at first sight,’ but I sure was impressed!

I’ve been a lover of English literature poetry since reading it during High School days [a passion I would soon discover Debbie shared with me], and I was familiar with some of the lines of William Wordsworth’s poem:

“She was a Phantom of delight / When first she gleamed upon my sight; /

A lovely Apparition, sent / To be a moment’s ornament…”

There are several more lines to this adoring tribute to that beautiful ‘perfect Woman’ who first caught Wordsworth’s eye and captured his heart. But it is with these first lines that I have always remembered that first sight of my Dove who would become my wife three years later.

So, Debbie, thank you for that ‘first gleaming on my sight’ and ‘gracing that first moment’s ornament’ … and for fulfilling all my prayers, hopes, and dreams for that ‘perfect Woman’ for the past 49 years!

I sure do love you – today more than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow … forever and a day!

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The Temple Sermon: ‘This is the Temple of Yahweh, the Temple of Yahweh, the Temple of Yahweh’

Posted on June 17, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH | Lesson 3 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Jeremiah 7.1-20

INTRODUCTION & MAKING THE CONNECTIONS

1/ When our autistic son, Jonathan, was probably 13-14 years old, he became displeased at some of the home’s rules we required him to observe. In his disordered ways of perceiving and thinking about things, he really could not understand and comprehend they were for his own good. So, one Sunday afternoon, he decided to escape. He was already used to walking everywhere he went. And he would walk long distances to occupy and entertain himself. And one-half mile from our home is a Kroger. He had been there many times. He had seen at this Kroger one of those yellow signs with embracing arms on it designating a ‘Safe Place.’ Anyone who was suffering from abuse of any kind could seek and find deliverance at a ‘Safe Place.’ So, on this Sunday afternoon, he walked himself to Kroger and turned himself in to the ‘Safe Place.’ Dutifully, they called Social Services, and they came, picked him up, and took him downtown Lexington. So here I am, downstairs in my study, preparing to preach that Sunday evening, totally unaware of what was going on, and I get a call from Social Services. “Mr. Parks?” “Yes, this is he.” “Mr. Parks, we have your son, Jonathan, here. He has turned himself into the Kroger ‘Safe Place,’ and he is here now.” Well, I could tell that the nice, courteous Social Services officer was addressing me respectfully, and that he had already figured out that Jonathan had not, in fact, been abused. So I called the Social Services officer by name, and said “I expect you have observed that Jonathan has a neurological disorder, and he doesn’t perceive and comprehend the difference between household rules and abuse. He has not been abused. I’m on my way there now, and I will pick him up and bring him back home with me.” And that was that. There was no objection from the Social Services officer. He did observe and see. And I might add, that Jonathan also was traumatized by what he had done. We have remembered and talked about that incident several times since then. Jonathan understands now what he did not understand then. But the bottom line was … and is: Seeking out a ‘Safe Place’ is no deliverance from having to abide by the rules of the home.

2/ ‘The Temple Sermon.’ Chapter 7 of Jeremiah is a pivotal marker in the book of Jeremiah. Bible scholars and teachers have come to call this word from Yahweh that came to Jeremiah ‘The Temple Sermon.’ [1] It was delivered at the main entrance to the Temple; and [2] the message focuses on their abuse of Yahweh’s Temple and His plans to destroy it.

3/ They were under the mistaken illusion that their beloved ‘Temple of Yahweh’ would be a ‘safe place’ from the holy wrath of a violated God. Yahweh is still trying to disabuse them of that foolish notion. Except, not like our Jonathan, they NOT will see or accept the proffered rebuke and correction. Their ‘safe place’ will be destroyed … and they along with it. / see vv 27-28

I / vv 1-4 / “This is the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh!”  

1/ v 1 / This is a new message that Yahweh gives Jeremiah to deliver / see ch 1.4; 2.1; 3.6.

2/ v 2 / Yahweh directs Jeremiah to go and Stand in the gate of Yahweh’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship Yahweh.’ It would be like Jesus commanding a prophet to come and stand as a greeter at the main entrance door of our church and proclaim this message to every one of us who is entering for a worship service. This is how God insists that His worship be conducted by those of us who are entering to worship Him. “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” / John 4.23-24.  

3/ The purpose for this specific and strategic direction is because Yahweh wants to get the attention of all those who were hypocritically and insultingly pretending to worship Yahweh … yet all the while leaving their superficial exercises and activities of ‘worship’ only to go and pursue their own wicked and rebellious self-willed ways.

4/ v 3 / Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. The first instruction Yahweh gives the ‘worshipers’ through Jeremiah is that they must confess all their rebellious and idolatrous conduct and lifestyles, repent of them, and return to love Him with all their hearts – according to the First and Greatest Commandment He had given them centuries before when He first brought them out of slavery and bondage in Egypt. He will have more to say about this as He repeats it again through this message; but that is His opening keynote and theme.

5/ v 4 / Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh.’ This Temple Sermon chapter and message pivots around this mantra that the idolatrous people of Judah were chanting under the inspiration and leadership of the false prophets they were listening to and following.

  • This mantra was intended to assure them that Yahweh wouldn’t allow anything bad to happen to them or their temple because it was ‘The temple of Yahweh.’ They were mistaken.
  • But they had convinced themselves that the ‘Temple of Yahweh’ was for them a talisman or ‘good luck charm’ just by virtue of its being there and being called by His Name. They were wrong.
  • Yahweh had promised through Moses, Solomon, and all the prophets that His blessing upon their temple and their very remaining in the Land He had given them was not unconditional; rather it was conditioned upon their faithfulness to Him, their Covenant God.

6/ False prophets. There is another expanded message in ch 23.9-40 similar to this one against the false prophets who had deceived them into believing there would be guaranteed ‘Peace, peace’ when there is no peace / see ch 6.13-15 & 8.11-12.

7/ ALSO, this same false security in their safety and the safety of their temple cycles back around during the ministry of Jesus. Note v 11: Has this house, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Where have we heard that also? It is quoted by Jesus in Matthew 21.13, Mark 11.17, and Luke 19.46. Under the exact same circumstances. Their Temple was marked for destruction again by the upcoming Roman invaders because of their rebellious disregard for Yahweh, whose House and Temple it was. But they were willfully oblivious to their danger they had brought on themselves at that time also.

II / vv 5-7 / ‘If you truly amend your ways and your deeds…’  

1/ vv 5-6 / For the second time, Yahweh repeats this: the only spiritual and moral prescription that can truly save them from the coming destruction that is coming upon them, their city, and their beloved Temple.

2/ Here are some of the social injustices and spiritual idolatries Yahweh convicts them of committing:

  • if you truly execute justice with one another / God requires us to treat our neighbors with fairness, justice, and equity / see Micah 6.6-8
  • if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow / see Exodus 22.21-24. These three classes of people were to be protected and treated fairly. Yahweh repeated it often. Israel was always to remember that they, too, had been these classes of people in Egypt; but Yahweh had redeemed them. We must treat all others, especially the weakest and most defenseless, with the same mercy and grace God has treated us.
  • or shed innocent blood in this place / Especially under the previous reign of King Manasseh, Judah had even adopted the practice of sacrificing their infant children to the god Molech of the Ammonites / see 2 Kings 23.10. There was a history even previous to this, going even back to Solomon [1 Kings 11.7] where Molech was enshrined in Jerusalem … which eventually led to the ultimate abomination of child sacrifice. Yahweh had specifically warned them not to go after Molech and the murderous rites of worship associated with him / see Leviticus 18.21.  
  • and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm / see ch 2.20-27 / Judah had stubbornly, insolently told Yahweh they were addicted to their ‘other gods,’ and they would not give them up.

3/ We must never presume upon the grace of God – to think that if we just perform occasional and convenient religious works and attend worship services when we feel like it and maintain a respectable religious appearance, that God will be obligated to bless us. And certainly not if we ‘practice’ a religious front but then go back home to engage in a lifestyle that is sinful, wicked, and in transgression of holiness. God sees and knows. God demands, desires, and deserves the full-hearted love and commitment of our whole lives. We must repent of ‘thinking that occasional dwelling in a holy place can cancel out a pattern of unholy deeds’ / Jerry Hwang, ESV Expository Commentary.

III / vv 8-15 / ‘…as I did to Shiloh…’

1/ v 8 / Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Yahweh returns again to their infatuation and loyalty they gave to their false prophets. Their false prophets were countering Jeremiah with promises that nothing bad would ever happen to ‘The Temple of Yahweh, the Temple of Yahweh, the Temple of Yahweh’ because Yahweh would never let anything bad happen to His Temple … regardless of how they lived their lives otherwise.

2/ vv 9-11 / Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My Name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ – only to go on doing all these abominations? We can be sure that the false prophets were reminding them of how Yahweh had saved Jerusalem and their Temple back when the Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrians / see 2 Kings 16-20 & Isaiah 36-37. AND how King Josiah, just a few years ago at that time, ‘cleansed’ the Temple from all the idolatrous abominations that were enshrined and practiced in it / 2 Kings 22-23. But those reforms had been immediately revoked with Josiah’s son and successor, Jehoiakim / see the parallel chapter to this one in ch 26.1-6. It was unthinkable that Yahweh would not deliver them now.

3/ v 12 / Go now to My place that was in Shiloh, where I made My Name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of My people Israel. So what is Shiloh, and what happened at Shiloh?

  • Shiloh was where the Ark of the Covenant [where Yahweh said He would dwell with His people] was established and housed immediately after the people of Israel came into the Promised Land. This goes all the way back to the days of Eli and Samuel / see 1 Samuel 2.12 – ch 4.
  • Except that Eli was old and feeble, and his sons were serving as priests. But they were wicked, unbelieving, and committed all sorts of desecrations against Yahweh’s laws of sacrifices [I Samuel 2.17] and immoral debaucheries with the women of Israel [1 Samuel 2.22].
  • Eli would not confront and remove them. Yahweh was displeased. He would not permit this to continue.
  • In chapter 4, the Philistines attacked the Israelites, and Yahweh delivered Israel over to their hands in a great slaughter.
  • Somebody had a brilliant idea: And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, ‘Why has Yahweh defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh here from Shiloh, that it [Yahweh] may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies [1 Samuel 4.3]. Exactly the same thing the people of Judah were saying in Jeremiah’s day.
  • Never mind, that the people in Eli’s day were living in rebellion against Yahweh just like they were in Jeremiah’s day. ‘Yahweh is obligated to save us just by the presence of our religious exercises in His Name’ [or so they thought].
  • Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phineas, brought the Ark of the Covenant to the camp of the Israelites as a ‘good luck charm’ to work its ‘magic’ just by its presence. Do not be deceived; God is not mocked.
  • The Philistines attacked again, slaughtered them some more – including Hophni and Phineas – and captured the Ark of the Covenant. Just kidnapped it and took it back to the house of their own gods.
  • If you know the story, or if you’ll read it, Yahweh defended Himself admirably. But Shiloh was defeated and humiliated … and a few years later, was completely destroyed and desolated.

4/ vv 13-15 / [back to Jeremiah…] Now, Yahweh reminds them of this story and says: And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim [the Northern Kingdom Israel – just 100 years earlier].

5/ God’s past mercies and deliverances are no guarantee of His present and future similar deliverances if we are in rebellion against Him and not living up to the responsibility that His grace commits us to fulfill.

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”

IV / vv 16-20 / “As for you, do not pray for this people…”

1/ v 16 / “As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. This ought to terrify us – that God would ever command His servant NOT to pray for those over whom the prophet’s heart broke and wept. The judgment of Yahweh had been held at bay and restrained up until now precisely because Jeremiah had been weeping and praying for them!

2/ We must never disrespect or disregard the saving effect our Pastors’ prayers and faithful teaching has on our spiritual instruction and leading us into sanctification.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. / Hebrews 13.17

3/ vv 17-18 / Why would Yahweh forbid Jeremiah to pray and intercede for them any longer? When Jeremiah would protest and still attempt to pray for them, Yahweh responds: Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? It was because the people were defiantly, obstinately, and brazenly refusing to truly worship Yahweh … even though they were going through the motions of ‘worshiping’ Him, thinking it would appease Him, turn Him from any threats of wrath He may make against them, and obligate Him to deliver them from the looming, foreboding threats of the Babylonians.

4/ But all the while, they were engaging in ‘family worship’ alright – The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough … except that the whole family was engaged to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke Me to anger. They were doing all this to Yahweh’s very Face. As He says back in v 11, Behold, I Myself have seen it, declares Yahweh.

5/ vv 19-20 / They have now reached the point of no return. Is it I whom they provoke? declares the LORD. Is it not themselves, to their own shame? 20 Therefore thus says the LORD God: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.”

THE ONLY ‘SAFE PLACE’ GOD PROVIDES IS IN OUR FAITH IN HIM!

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Mary Fern Childers – A brief personal tribute to my friend

Posted on June 11, 2023 by PastorDave

MARY FERN CHILDERS

MEMORIAL SERVICE | 10 JUNE 2023

SCRIPTURE READING & MY BRIEF PERSONAL TRIBUTE

The first time I saw and met Mary Fern was the first Sunday morning I walked into our Sunday School class as their new teacher. That was in January 2018. We had been here at our church only six months and I knew only a few of our folks. But, there was a teacher vacancy, and our pastors asked me if I would be willing to serve them as their teacher. And I said “Sure, I’d love to!”  

And so, I walked into the class that Sunday morning not knowing any of them, introduced myself, and they introduced themselves. And that’s how I met Mary Fern. She was sitting in her usual seat, over at the end of the second row to my right. She met me and introduced herself with that sweet, vibrant smile of hers – full of warmth, friendliness, and grace … full of life and love. Mary Fern smiled and laughed with her whole face. And she would look the same way every time I met her from then on … even in the most recent years when she resided at the assisted-living care facility. Even when she was losing some of her memory faculties, she never lost that smile and warm, gracious, joy of the Lord.

And then, Mary Fern would pray sometimes in our class time. She would pray for me, for the Lord’s blessing on His Word, and for others. She prayed to the Lord the same ways she would talk with us – as one would talk with her friend. Mary Fern had a distinctive intimacy with the Lord. She was always reverent, but intimate. As we have reminisced about her since her going to be with Jesus whom she loves, some have said, “She would pray the prettiest prayers.” And she did. But the ‘prettiness’ of her prayer was not the ‘prettiness’ of her words – that she was flowery or eloquent. It was the beauty of the spirit with which she prayed – it was the ‘inner ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price’ [1 Peter 3.4]. It was the ways she told the Father and Jesus that she loved Him. It was the personal, genuine, authentic ways she would say, “I love you, Jesus” and thank her Lord for all the ways He loves her.

As Peter says, “Whom having not seen, ye love…” [1 Peter 1.8]. And now she sees Him – and loves Him more perfectly! And she sees and knows His love more perfectly, too!

Over the five+ years Mary Fern and I shared our fellowship and service in our church together, she became my dear friend, a faithful and avid student of the Word in our Sunday School class, a fervent prayer warrior on my behalf, and a constant encourager to me. I thank God He brought our lives together.

And so, to honor her faith in Christ, her strong and gentle spirit, her Spirit-filled character – and especially to express the honor and praise her children and family want to give her – they have requested that I read Proverbs 31.10-31…

10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.

12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

14 She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth food to her household, and a portion to her maidens.

16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

17 She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.

18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.

19 She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.

20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.

23 Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.

24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth garments unto the merchant.

25 Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.

26 She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.

28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.

29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.

30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.

31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.

Her obituary: https://clarklegacycenter.com/tribute/details/319241/Mary-Childers/obituary.html#tribute-start

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Yahweh litigates His case against Israel

Posted on June 10, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH | Lesson 2

Read Jeremiah 2.1-37

INTRODUCTION & MAKING THE CONNECTIONS

1/ Go back to ch 1.9-10. Yahweh had called, commissioned, and sent the youth prophet Jeremiah with a six-fold charge: pluck up, break down, destroy, and overthrow. Also to build and plant – but they will come later in Yahweh’s covenant promises to bring Judah back from the 70-year captivity in Babylon [chs 25 & 30] and finally in the Messianic New Covenant to be fulfilled in Christ [ch 31].

2/ But for now, it is all about the rising threats and impending judgments that would come on them from the invading Babylonians to the north [see ch 1.13-16].

3/ I have called this lesson Yahweh Litigates His Case Against Israel because that is precisely what this first message is that He sends Jeremiah to deliver. It is both an ‘opening statement’ and a ‘summary statement’ to declare to them what His grounds are for sending these judgments that are coming on them / see v 35b.

4/ He will make His case with explicit and irrefutable details about their chronic and historical rebellions against Him. I will point out the specific evidences of His case He presents against them in the various sections of chapter 2.

5/ We have seen Yahweh use this format before in our previous studies from Micah and Amos / see especially Micah 1.2 & Isaiah 1.2.

6/ And another of our previous studies from Hosea was a specific, more detailed drawing out of His charges against them in verse 2: I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride…

7/ Chapter 2 is a lengthy chapter, 37 verses. So all I can do is give you summaries of the various sections and how they connect and weave together as Yahweh Litigates His Case Against Israel.

8/ BTW, I am also calling this lesson ‘…Against Israel’ even though the specific audience of this message was ‘in the hearing of Jerusalem,’ that is, the southern Kingdom of Judah. The northern Kingdom of Israel is already in captivity in Assyria from 100 years before [722 BC]. But Yahweh is still addressing them also. See v 4: Hear the word of Yahweh, O house of Jacob [Judah], and all the clans of the house of Israel. Yahweh still maintains His covenant promises to both kingdoms. In fact, there is a remarkable passage in ch 3.6-14 where Yahweh stingingly rebukes Judah for not learning from Israel’s fate and repenting when they witnessed it … and He continues to call Israel back to repentance.

9/ ALSO, we need to point out that everything Yahweh will charge Judah and Israel with committing has been done so openly, so brazenly, so egregiously … that the whole world knew! Yahweh appeals to the very heavens to corroborate His witness against Israel, as in v 12: Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares Yahweh! / Again, see Yahweh’s appeal to the heavens and earth to certify the truth of everything He’s charging in Isaiah 1.2.

I / vv 1-3 / The Two Grounds for Yahweh’s Case Against Israel

1/ Yahweh had established a two-fold covenant relationship with Israel when He redeemed them from Egypt’s bondage and slavery in the Exodus. He had faithfully fulfilled His commitments to them and had kept all His promises – Israel had egregiously and faithlessly violated them all.

  • MARRIAGE: Yahweh had lovingly married Israel to Himself as His bride and wife / see Ezekiel 16 & the Book of Hosea. They had forsaken Yahweh and gone after other ‘lovers,’ – the gods of all the other nations around them / see v 25: by their own admission.
  • THE LAND: Yahweh had granted to Israel the Promised Land. It was His Land. He would dwell with them there in their inheritance / see Numbers 35.34: You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I Yahweh dwell in the midst of the people of Israel. And yet, they did just that! See this chapter, v 7. He would plant them there as His choice ‘vine,’ and they would give Him the firstfruits of His harvest in their love, faithfulness, worship, obedience, and service. See vv 6-7 & Psalm 80.8-14. And yet what ‘fiorstfruits’ did they return to Yahweh? See v 21: Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?

2/ All of these charges, accusations, and indictments will be presented and well-documented … not only by the records of their transgressions, but as we shall see, by their own stubborn and insolent blasphemies back at Yahweh. / Also, see my note of application at the end…

II / vv 4-8 / In His own defense: “What wrong did your fathers find in Me…?”

1/  Yahweh needs no defense, but He presents it anyway. Israel had no grounds or just cause for their faithlessness / vv 4-5

2/ Instead of faithfully ‘seeking’ Yahweh to know His will, ways, and pleasure, none of them said, Where is Yahweh? that they might follow Him.

  • The people did not seek or inquire after Him / vv 6-7
  • The priests did not seek or inquire after Him / v 8. They were the ones charged with ‘handling the Law’ and teaching it to the people.
  • The shepherds [pastors] did not seek or inquire after Him / v 8 [cp 3.15]
  • The prophets did not seek or inquire after Him / v 8  

III / vv 9-19 / The absurdity and senselessness of Israel’s faithlessness and infidelity

1/ Yahweh announces His ‘suit’ against Israel with this word ‘contend.’ This word means ‘to hold an argument’ or ‘to plead.’ When Yahweh declares, ‘I still contend with you,’ He means to let them know He is still open for their repentance. In this next section, He will show Israel that they had proven themselves to be both absurd and senseless in all their faithlessness toward Him.

2/ vv 10-11 / No other nation had ever ‘shopped around’ among the other nations around them to find gods other than their own chosen, preferred, patron gods … and abandoned their own gods for others. Yahweh was the ‘glory’ of Israel by His very Presence, but Israel had abandoned and forsaken Him for that which does not profit. That is absurd and senseless!

3/ Israel had committed two evils – both absurd, senseless, and egregious: [1] they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, [2] and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Water was their most prized and essential staple. Yahweh had been to Israel the fountain of living waters, all they could ever need or desire. Yet, they forsook Yahweh and ‘hewed out their own cisterns – thinking to be independently self-sustaining from Yahweh – only to find that their self-made, self-found sources and supplies of help and assistance could hold no water.

4/ v 14 / Israel was not a ‘slave’ – they were Yahweh’s ‘firstborn son’ / see Exodus 4.22. The very name Israel was the name Yahweh had given Jacob [see v 4], meaning prince with God / see Genesis 32.27-28.

5/ v 15 / Yet, the very nations Israel had committed spiritual and physical adultery with turned on them, abused them, and even eventually invaded and enslaved them.

6/ vv 16-19 / Memphis and Tahpanes were cities in Egypt / see ch 44.1-14. At least for the previous century, when the neighboring nations had threatened them, instead of appealing to Yahweh for His covenant protections, they had gone to Egypt and even Assyria to seek friendships and protective military and financial alliances / see Hosea 7.11 & Isaiah 30.1-5; 31.1-3. As it applies to us, see James 4.3-4.

7/ Israel’s absurdity and senselessness of seeking protection from their alliances with those nations who were their worst, most inveterate, cruelest, and most abusive enemies is summed up in v 17: Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking Yahweh your God, when He led you in the way? and v 19: Your evil will chastise you, and your apostacy will reprove you. 

IV / vv 20-28 / ‘In your own words’: Yahweh turns Israel’s own words against them – they become the chief witnesses for the ‘prosecution’ against themselves

1/ This is an ingenious argument and rebuttal that Yahweh brings against Israel – He repeats back and throws back in their faces all the belligerent, hateful, and rebellious statements they have made to Him over the centuries He’s been seeking to call and woo them back to Himself [see again Hosea]. In effect, He cites their own ‘confessions of un-faith,’ making them witnesses against themselves in their own words!

2/ There is a series of five of such ‘confessions of un-faith’:

  • v 20: …but you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yahweh had broken their yoke of bondage and burst the bonds with which Egypt had enslaved them … He had planted them like a choice vine and of pure seed in the Promised Land. But when they got into the land, immediately they began their idolatrous and adulterous worship of the false gods of the Canaanites around them. They had turned degenerate and become a wild vine / see v 3 and Isaiah 5.1-7.  
  • v 23: How can you say, ‘I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals’? After declaring them unclean and ‘the stain of your guilt is still before Me…,’ Israel has the brazen, lying audacity and gall to retort that they are NOT unclean and that they have NOT gone after the Baals. In truth, they had been worshipping the false gods of the nations around them from the days of Joshua / see Joshua 24 & Judges 2.11-13.
  • v 25: But you said, ‘It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go.’ In follow up to their previous blatant denial of their idolatry, Yahweh reminds that they had relentlessly pursued and chased after the neighboring nations’ gods like a wild animal in heat – seeking gratification for their spiritual lusts. To which Israel replied: We can’t help ourselves. We love them, and we’ll continue to pursue them!”  
  • v 27: ‘…who say to a tree, “You are my father,” and to a stone, “You gave me birth”’ This ‘wood’ and ‘tree,’ of course, are the dead materials their dead ‘gods’ are made from. And yet they – all of them – will be shamed by their trust in their trees and stone they are worshipping. Their shame will like that of a thief when he is caught red-handed with the stolen property in his hands. Look at how proudly they are expressing their disdain for Yahweh, who is, in truth, their ‘Father’ and who ‘gave them birth.’ And they are doing this to His Face … intentionally! ‘For they have turned their back to Me, and not their face.’
  • v 27: ‘But in the time of their trouble they say, “Arise and save us!”’ And yet … when they fall into their trouble from the patrons of the very gods they are worshipping, they will expect Yahweh to deliver and save them! In the words of Proverbs 1.28-30: Then they will call upon Me, but I will not answer; they will seek Me diligently but will not find Me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of Yahweh, would have none of My counsel and despised all My reproof. Yahweh will turn them over to be saved by the ‘gods’ they have loved: But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.

V / vv 29-37 / ‘Your objections are overruled!’ Israel’s counter-suit/complaint is dismissed

1/ v 29 / The reason I’m calling this section what I am is that Yahweh repeats the same word for ‘contend’ that He introduced for Himself in v 9. His contentions, arguments, or ‘suit’ against them was well-grounded in all the evidences He has presenting. What Israel is doing here is raising objections to all that Yahweh has witnessed and testified against them. They are trying to file a ‘counter-suit’ against Yahweh, accusing Him of being unjust, unfair, or filing false charges against them. Contrarily, “‘Why do you contend with Me? You all have transgressed against Me,’ declares Yahweh.” In other words, ‘You are not the wronged party here…I am!” / See also v 4.

2/ v 30 / They had stubbornly refused to be corrected by Yahweh’s loving discipline. ‘You refused to be corrected by my disciplinary actions toward you!’

3/ v 31 / They had ungratefully abandoned the very One who had redeemed them, delivered them, and provided for them throughout all their history. ‘I have not been a deceiving and dangerous wilderness to you – I am the One who led you through your wilderness journeys and provided for you everything you needed. And yet, here you are declaring your independence from Me: “We are free, we will come no more to You!”’

4/ v 32 / They had shown their disdain for Yahweh by forgetting their very bridal attire on the day of their marriage ceremony. That is unthinkable! ‘Can a virgin forget…? A virgin does not forget her bridal ornaments, and a bride does not forget her wedding-day attire! And yet, My people have forgotten Me more days than can be numbered!’ Back in the late 60s and early 70s, when we were much younger, we had a slang expression we used to show our disdain for someone: we would say, “Forget you!” which meant, “You’re not worth my even remembering you exist!” Which is precisely what they wanted Yahweh to know what they thought of Him!

5/ v 33 / They had become so expert, so well-versed and practiced, so ‘professional’ in their debaucheries that they even became ‘teachers’ to the more pagan nations than they how to conduct their illicit and immoral activities. How well you direct your course to seek love! So that even to wicked women you have taught your ways. I had one of my elderly caregiving recipients to his doctor recently. One of the nurses in the lab had a name tag that read above her name, “Preceptor.” When I asked her what that title meant, she informed me that she had been trained to teach others how to do the procedures she performs. I looked it up on the internet, and in the medical field, their principles and how to conduct their practices are called ‘precepts,’ just like in the Bible. So, one who can teach their ‘precepts’ is called a ‘preceptor.’ Israel had moved beyond being merely ‘practitioners’ of their debaucheries to being ‘preceptors’ of their wicked ways.

6/ vv 34-35 / Adding to their spiritual idolatries and sexual perversions, they also engaged in numerous activities of social injustice. They were fabricating charges of stealing from them against the already-poor and taking them to court to extort yet more of what little they already had. Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor; you did not find them breaking in. Yet in spite of all these things [see all the above] you say, ‘I am innocent; surely His anger has turned away from me.’ And then the hammer of Yahweh’s justice falls – He pounds His holy gavel on the Heavenly Judge’s bench – Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’

7/ vv 36-37 / And then Yahweh returns once again to their betrayals of Him – abandoning Him, not seeking Him, not trusting Him, not repenting of all their transgressions, not appealing to Him to get glory to Himself by saving them from their enemies as He had promised to do [see v 3] – by turning them over to the murderous invasions of the very ones they had gone to seek alliances against those who were threatening them / see again vv 16-18 and III, 6/. And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? [BTW, both of these former super-powers of the world had just been defeated and conquered by the rising Babylon which was now the most ‘clear and present danger’ for Judah…]

8/ They will end up being betrayed by the very enemies to whom they had appealed for assistance. How much you go about, changing your way! You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria. From it too you will come away with your hands on your head, for Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will not prosper by them.

AND NOW – TO US!

AND…we must take these same admonitions and warnings to our own hearts. Jesus Christ has brought us into these very same New Covenant relationships with Himself through His Gospel. We must faithfully fulfill them to Him. As Paul wrote:

‘For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one Husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ’ / 2 Corinthians 11.2.

And, ‘Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God’ / Romans 7.4.

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Yahweh Prepares His Prophet

Posted on June 3, 2023 by PastorDave

JEREMIAH | Lesson 1 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Jeremiah 1.1-19

INTRODUCTION: JEREMIAH

1/ We will begin a new course of study with this lesson. It will carry us through the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah and The Book of Lamentations – which has also been ascribed to Jeremiah as its human author.

2/ However, even though the Book of Jeremiah does contain messages that Jeremiah delivered from Yahweh, Jeremiah himself declares from the outset that ‘The words of Jeremiah’ [v 1] are actually ‘the word of Yahweh’ which He ‘put in’ Jeremiah’s mouth to deliver from Him [vv 2, 4, 9, 11, 13 – and on throughout the book]. Jeremiah will repeat this source of his words as ‘the word of Yahweh came to me’ [or similar wording] over fifty times in these messages.

3/ By word count, Jeremiah is the lengthiest book in the Bible. And so, obviously, we won’t be able to give any sort of detailed account of the book, but what we hope to do is cover the thematic sweep of the Book by delivering representative lessons from the flow of the book’s development.

4/ Jeremiah is both oratorical in that he delivers Yahweh’s messages to Judah and to all the surrounding nations; and it is also autobiographical in that Jeremiah [or the scribes who wrote down his words for him] describe many of the grievous persecutions and abuses he suffered at the hands of those he was trying to warn of Yahweh’s coming judgments against them.

5/ So, as we get started here in Jeremiah, let’s keep in mind what the purpose of the book is: Yahweh gives these words to Jeremiah to deliver to the people of Judah and all the other nations…

  • to call them back to repentance from their chronic, historical, and rebellious disobedience against Yahweh;
  • to call them back to faith, dependence, and worship of Yahweh;
  • to warn them of the impending punishment that Yahweh will bring upon them, especially with the rise of the Babylonian Empire as the reigning super-power in the region;
  • to declare Yahweh’s sovereignty over ALL the nations of the earth – ALL of their affairs and movements;
  • and to promise them that He will keep His covenant promises in the Messiah who was to come by making the New Covenant.

These are at least the main and most prominent themes we will discover and point out as we make our way through the coming lessons.

6/ We should note also here at the outset that Jeremiah is known as ‘the weeping prophet’ because of his broken-heartedness over what Yahweh had called him to declare [see especially ch 9 & Lamentations]. 7/ We should also maintain the constant awareness that Jeremiah’s tears were also Yahweh’s grief and tears because He must do what He will do. In this way, Jeremiah also pre-figures the heart of Jesus Christ Himself as He weeps over the same Jerusalem when He came / see Luke 19.41-44.

I / vv 1-3 / “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

1/ Famous first line of Charles Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities. But they also describe the times in which Jeremiah prophesied…

2/ ‘It was the best of times’ in that Jeremiah began his prophetic ministry ‘in the thirteenth year of the reign of Judah King Josiah.’ Josiah goes down in the chronicles of the kings of Judah as being the brightest star among them all: Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, nor did any like arise after him / 2 Kings 23.25. This is because Josiah led in the greatest reformation and revival in Judah’s history. You’ll find his history in 2 Kings 22-23 & 2 Chronicles 34-35.

3/ So Jeremiah dates the beginning of his prophetic ministry in 627 BC since Josiah reigned from 640-609 BC.

4/ ‘It was the worst of times’ because the kings who succeeded Josiah completely undid everything Josiah had done, which ultimately led to the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem and the destruction of the city and their Temple. These would be the kings who are named after Josiah: Jehoiakim and finally Zedekiah.

5/ So, Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry continued for at least forty+ years. He began declaring Yahweh’s words ‘in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign’ [627 BC] through ‘until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month’ [587 BC]. See 2 Chronicles 36.11-21 & 2 Kings 24.18 – 25.21 for the details of this year and event.

II / vv 4-5 / “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…” [John 15.16]

1/ These verses will describe Yahweh’s call on Jeremiah’s life and the prophetic commission he received to carry out…

2/ Now the word of Yahweh came to me… meaning that Jeremiah didn’t step forward or volunteer for this prophetic mission. Yahweh came to him and confronted him with His purposes and call He wanted Jeremiah to fulfill at His command.

3/ Yahweh had laid claim to Jeremiah’s life and what he would do with his life from before Jeremiah was even born. God’s purposes are the same for our lives, too / see Romans 8.28-30 & Ephesians 1.1-14, et. al. Jeremiah was not only called, but he was created to serve Yahweh this way.

4/ We must also note that the ‘unborn’ who are being formed in their mothers’ wombs are persons, being ‘formed’ and ‘knitted together’ by the creative powers of God / see Psalm 139.13-16.

5/ Yahweh not only ‘knew’ [chose] Jeremiah for his prophetic ministry from before his birth, but He also ‘consecrated’ him, and ‘appointed’ him for the purpose and mission to which He was now calling him. So all the purpose and activities of Jeremiah’s life were under the Lordship, ownership, and purview of Yahweh’s sovereignty and pleasure. So with everyone of us. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body / 1 Corinthians 6.19-20.  

6/ I appointed you a prophet… A prophet is, first of all, one who forth-tells, that is, speaks for God – says and tells from God what God wants those to whom He sends him to know from Him. A prophet will also fore-tell events that will happen in the future. God gives all the words, and Jeremiah fulfilled both aspects of this calling.

7/ …to the nations. Yahweh declares His absolute sovereignty over ALL nations – to raise them up and bring them down, to change the times and seasons of their power and very existence. This truth will be established and declared all throughout the Book of Jeremiah. It is also established and declared in all the Scriptures, Old and New Testaments. We must remember this in these times in which we live also. Yes, as far as decency and order is concerned, the world seems to be ‘out of control.’ And it is out of our control. But God is in control of ALL things that are happening in ALL the nations!

8/ And, it must be noted here: that even though Judah was the ‘chosen nation,’ they had not lived up to their calling. Judah is actually lumped in with ‘to the nations’ here in Yahweh’s commission to Jeremiah. Yahweh will have scathing messages and reports for Jeremiah to deliver to the other Gentile nations [see especially chapters 46-51], but He will also repeatedly tell Judah that they had acted no differently than the ‘heathen’ and ‘pagan’ nations [see chapters 2-11].

III / vv 6-10 / “…LORD, I can’t…” “Yes, you can – and you will!”

1/ Jeremiah immediately objects and protests. In fact, as we go through this whole book, we will see that Jeremiah repeatedly protests to Yahweh / see, for example, ch 20. Jeremiah was not only ‘the weeping prophet,’ but he was also for his whole ministry ‘the reluctant prophet.’ Jeremiah shoots back to Yahweh, Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth. Jeremiah may have been only in late teens or early twenties when Yahweh laid this claim and call on his life. And this commission means speaking and going against ALL the ‘powers that be’ of his day – both domestic and international. This was a distasteful and dangerous mission Yahweh was calling and sending him to.

2/ I can give you personal testimony to how I agonized in these very words over my own first pastoral calling. I was twenty-two years when my first church called me to pastor them on 4 July 1973. Even though preaching and pastoring was all I have ever wanted to do, and even though I sensed God’s call on my life to preach and pastor, still I was so aware and sensitive to my weaknesses, inabilities, and even incompetencies to undertake such a solemn and weighty responsibility to speak for God and shepherd people. Many, many times, I prayed and cried this same prayer to God – and not only in the beginning of my ministry, but many times since then.  

3/ “The weaknesses of such a minister are the preferred instruments of a powerful God to work out His plan in redeeming His people.” Jerry Whang | ESV Expository Commentary. Isn’t this the lesson that Jesus Christ taught Paul through his own agonies and prayers over his ‘thorn in the flesh’? See 2 Corinthians 12.1-10.

4/ Yahweh responds to Jeremiah, not just forcefully, but sternly, scoldingly, maybe even harshly – with this unmistakable rebuke: ‘Do not say…Do not be afraid…’ Poor Jeremiah had ‘crossed a line’ with his pitiful protest. After Yahweh had assured him that ‘I knew you,” then Jeremiah contradicts Yahweh with ‘I do not know…’ [same word]. Yahweh rebukes Jeremiah’s lack of faith and confidence in Him by telling him: ‘Do not say…Do not be afraid…’ ‘For to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak … for I AM with you to deliver you,’ declares Yahweh. 5/ God not only knows what He is doing when He calls, commissions, and sends us, but He always promises ‘And behold, I AM with you always…’ God will be faithful to supply everything we will need to fulfill the service He gives us to do for Him. “Have you been holding back from a risky, costly course to which you know in your heart God has called you? Hold back no longer. Your God is faithful to you, and adequate for you. You will never need more than He can supply, and what He supplies, both materially and spiritually, will always be enough for the present.” ~J. I. Packer  

6/ Then Yahweh proceeds to visibly [and maybe in some way physically] to give Jeremiah the faith, confidence in Yahweh, and courage he so lacked to commit himself to this calling and mission from Yahweh. Remember: Jeremiah keeps repeating ‘to whom the word of Yahweh came,’ ‘then the word of Yahweh came to me’ … now Yahweh ‘put out His hand and touched my mouth…Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.’ There should be no doubt in Jeremiah’s mind that Yahweh would enable, strengthen, embolden, encourage, and protect him for this mission He was giving and sending him to fulfill.

7/ See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms… We come back again to all ‘the powers that be’ to whom Yahweh was sending Jeremiah – whom Jeremiah must confront with Yahweh’s words. There are six verbs that will characterize Jeremiah’s ministry over the next forty or so years: [1] pluck up; [2] break down; [3] destroy; [4] overthrow; [5] build; [6] plant. These are weighty and powerful ‘job descriptions’ to give a young man – but Yahweh promises Jeremiah that he will fulfill all these activities by the word of Yahweh and because ‘for I AM with you…’

8/ So, what we can call these instructions is ‘The content of this monumental, momentous mission.’ What will follow are two visions which will serve as ‘The confirmation of this monumental, momentous mission.’  Jeremiah will need to carry these confirming and affirming visions with him until the mission has been completed as Yahweh is giving it to him…

IV / vv 11-16 / “…Jeremiah, what do you see?”

1/ vv 11-12 / VISION ONE: AN ALMOND BRANCH. ‘Jeremiah, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see an almond branch.’ Then Yahweh said to me, ‘You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.’ There are two significances here we need to see. One is emblematic, the other is linguistic. They both have to do with Yahweh’s own oversight of His word – to make it happen and come to pass as He says it will.

2/ What is the significance of an almond branch? [1] The almond in that culture was emblematic of the ‘watch’ for spring to come. The almond tree was the very first to bloom and blossom, sometimes as early as January. So it was called ‘the wakeful tree’ because it was ‘watching’ and first ‘awakened’ to the coming of spring. [2] Also [for the linguistic significance], in the Hebrew language, ‘almond’ [shaqed] sounds like ‘watch’ [shoqed]. So this vision of the almond branch would always remind Jeremiah that Yahweh was watching over His own words to make them happen as He had said.

3/ vv 13-15 / VISION TWO: THE OVERTURNED BOILING POT/CAULDRON. The word of Yahweh came to me a second time, saying, ‘What do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.’ So follow the vision now, because this is the way the history of the next few years will develop.

  • Which direction from Jerusalem is this overturned boiling cauldron? It is north.
  • Who is north of Jerusalem? It is the super-power nations and kingdoms that had perennially been antagonists and threats against Israel and Judah.
  • Which direction will this northern kingdom, facing away from the north, spill its boiling contents? Toward the south where Judah and Jerusalem are!

4/ A little over 100 years before [722 BC], Assyria had come down from the north and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and taken them off into captivity. But now, Assyria’s power and dominance was waning. Then, in 605 BC, during the reign of Jehoiakim [remember him from v 3?], Babylon dealt the final crushing blow and defeat to Assyria’s power and became the dominant super-power over the entire ancient Near Eastern world. This was at the famous Battle of Carchemish.

5/ All these developments occurred during the 4th year of Jehoiakim’s reign / see Jeremiah 25. From the time Nebuchadnezzar came to sole power, he set his sights on invading, conquering, and subjugating the whole region of Israel/Judah. This would eventually lead to three separate invasions and, at first, partial deportations of the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem: 605, 598, and 587 BC. This last invasion would be when he destroyed the city of Jerusalem and their Temple – and give occasion to the prophecy and fulfillment of the ’70 years of captivity’ / see Jeremiah 25.8-14.

6/ So this vision of a boiling pot, facing away from the north is a prophecy of the traumas that were coming upon the nation of Judah from Babylon as Yahweh explains in prophetic detail in vv 14-16.

V / vv 17-19 / “But you, dress yourself for work…”

1/ This is Yahweh’s final charge to Jeremiah to ‘arise, and say to them everything that I command you.’ No more time for objecting, protesting, complaining, or whining. He had been called by Yahweh, he had received his clear and specific commission, and now it was time to get to work!

2/ However, Yahweh once again reiterates His promises to strengthen and sustain Jeremiah: Do not be dismayed [discouraged, intimidated] by them, lest I dismay you before them / go back and re-read vv 6-8.

3/ v 18 / Jeremiah himself would become and serve as an emblem of how the beloved city, Jerusalem, would be attacked and assaulted. They would try to arm, reinforce, and fortify themselves against their intruders. They would fight back. And they would fight against Jeremiah for his words he would deliver against them from Yahweh … just like they fought against Yahweh’s words by the prophets who had come before Jeremiah. But, they will fail and fall – Yahweh had said they would.   

4/ But as for Jeremiah, ‘They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I AM with you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘to deliver you.’    

5/ You don’t have to think hard or far to draw distinct similarities between Jeremiah’s commission to the unbelieving culture of his day … and ours in this day. But Christ’s promises are just as sure…

‘And behold, I AM with you always … and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against you!’

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FOLLOWING JESUS: through death into life

Posted on May 27, 2023 by PastorDave

JOHN | Lesson 21 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read John 12.20-33

INTRODUCTION

1/ This lesson will serve two purposes:

[1] it will conclude this summary survey/study of John we’ve been in for the past six months;

[2] and it will serve as a companion lesson and follow up on our last study from John 21, “YOU…Follow Me!”

2/ Both of these last two lessons are intensely personal and autobiographical for me. The John 21 lesson is one that was deeply impressed upon me years ago when I learned that Jesus Christ, as my Lord, Savior, and Master, has absolute and sovereign ownership of me and my life’s service to Him. I learned to see myself and my service as my ‘assignment’ from Him. He only commands me: “YOU…follow Me!” He reserves the right to assign to me the place where He wants me to serve Him, assign to me the roles He wants me to fulfill as I serve Him there, and assign to me the responsibility to be content with His assignments and follow Him by faithfully fulfilling them.

3/ THIS lesson also is very personal to me. In fact, this is the text and the substance of the message I preached on 21 May 2017 as I announced to the church I formerly pastored that I would be resigning as pastor the next Lord’s Day. Yes, I gave them a full one-week’s notice that the next Lord’s Day would fulfill the ministry of the past 35 years Debbie and I had served there. It was so short notice because the events of the previous few months had escalated and accelerated quickly. As 2 Chronicles 29.36 says about the haste with which the Judah king Hezekiah cleansed the Temple and restored the sacrifices and worship services, “…for the thing came about suddenly.” So did my resignation.

4/ But the message that I wanted to deliver that day – and the same message I want to communicate now in this lesson – is that wherever Jesus leads us and ‘plants’ us as we follow Him, we must be willing to simply follow Him, ‘die’ in that place and service by giving Him our all, and serve Him faithfully there … leaving to Him the bearing of whatever fruit He is willing to give.

5/ We believed we had followed Jesus to where we were then … and we trusted Him to lead us to where He wanted us to go and serve Him on His next assignment. At that time, we had no idea where that next assignment was or what our roles of service would be. But, we were committed to FOLLOWING JESUS. And that is why we are here where we are now.

“My LORD knows the way through the wilderness…all I have to do is FOLLOW!”

“He leadeth me! O blessed thought! O word with heavenly comfort fraught! What e’er I do, where e’er I be…still ‘tis God’s hand that leadeth me!”

6/ So I want to re-offer this message with personal applications for each one of us to commit and continue the living and giving of our lives to FOLLOWING JESUS: through death into life.   

I / v 24 / A PARABLE TO LEARN [a PARABLE about FOLLOWING]

v 24 / Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Death is the only way to spiritual life, fruitfulness, pleasing God, and ultimate, final Glory!

1/ When Jesus employs this short parable in verse 24, He is actually using it to illustrate two examples of FOLLOWING – His and ours:

[1]  First of all – this parable is His own personal testimony of FOLLOWING His own Father’s will and instructions to come to our earth – be planted in death in our earth by dying on His Cross – and then being raised again in resurrection to save us from our sins.

2/ If He had just come and lived a perfectly sinless life of obedience to His Father – but had not died – He would have just remained alone in His sinlessness. Just like the natural grain seed, before it can germinate and bear fruit, it must be planted in the ground…and ‘die.’ But it is in the ‘dying’ that it brings forth fruit, much fruit, more fruit!

3/ But, the Father had sent Him here to us – and commanded Him – to die on the Cross as punishment for our sins. Jesus says in verse 23, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” This “hour” – this event had been appointed to Him by His Father [see also John 17.1-4]. He had FOLLOWED His Father’s will to come from Heaven’s Glory to our earth and take upon Himself the form of a Servant and the likeness of man [see Hebrews 10.5-10]. And the time has come for Him to FOLLOW His Father’s will and wishes to His Cross. Philippians 2.8 He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross

4/ And so – He FOLLOWED the Father’s commands and will and purpose –and FOLLOWED the Father’s will all the way to the Cross. He will explain this parable as it applies to His FOLLOWING in

verses 27 & 32-33: (v 27) “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour … (vv 32-33) And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

5/ And so, this grain of wheat seed that falls into the ground and dies is, first of all, Jesus Himself dying on His Cross – to bear the guilt of our sins upon Himself – to be punished for the guilt of our sins – and then to be raised again from death to show that our sins had been actually forgiven and taken away.

6/ This “much fruit” that He bears is all of us whom He saves when we believe upon Him for the forgiveness of our sins – and the free gift of eternal life And, He did this to FOLLOW His Father’s will and commandment. 

II / v 25 / A PRIORITY TO APPLY TO OUR LIVES

1/ But, there is also another reason why Jesus employed this parable.

[2] This parable also illustrates how He is calling each of us to FOLLOW Him and give Him the service of our lives. He is calling each one of us to FOLLOW Him and be willing to be ‘planted’ and ‘die’ – give our lives in service to Him wherever He wants to plant us to live for Him and serve Him.

2/ He explains how we FOLLOW HIM in the very next verse, verse 25:

[read verse 24 again… Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.] verse 25 – Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 

Do you see it? The ‘parable’ illustrates the ‘priority’ He is teaching us to apply to our lives – just as He did to His own Life.

3/ To “love your life” means that you want to keep your life to yourself – and live it the way you want to live it. You are NOT following Jesus Christ – you are following yourself. You are keeping the ‘seed’ of your life to yourself. You are retaining ownership of your own life. You are reserving all the rights to your own life to yourself. “I’ll do it my way!” You don’t want to confess that Jesus is Lord – and give your life to Him to serve Him – and follow Him and obey Him in everything you do.

4/ “Whoever loves his life loses it…” If you insist on keeping your life for yourself – then you will lose it … you will lose your life during this lifetime – and you will lose your life forever separated from God

5/ On the other hand, if you “hate your life” – that means that you don’t consider your life as belonging to you…you turn over the title and ownership of your life to Jesus Christ – to belong to Him, to obey Him, to serve Him. You FOLLOW Jesus. When you do that, Jesus promises you will keep your life to life eternal. Jesus will explain what He means by that … and how you and I need to implement that

III / v 26 / A LIFE-PLAN TO FOLLOW WITH OUR LIVES

So, Jesus gives us three simple rules for living a life worth living: You’ll find them in verse 26… And these three rules are so simple that everyone of us can understand them and apply them to our own personal lives and service – but they will require us to ‘die’ to our own self-centeredness, self-governance, self-will, and self-serving. But, if we do, we will ‘bear much fruit’! Jesus promises that and guarantees it by His own death and resurrection to life again!

1. FOLLOW JESUS: “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me.”

1/ To serve Jesus means that you confess that He is Lord – and Lord of your life, and you obey Him. You read His Word – you commune with Him in prayer – you learn His will…what pleases Him…what He wants from you and for you … you learn from Him what He commands you to do, and you do it. You must FOLLOW JESUS first by believing and trusting in Him to be saved from your sins. Then you continue FOLLOWING JESUS by your daily obeying Him in all things for the rest of your life. See Matthew 11.25-30.

2/ And, in so doing, you FOLLOW JESUS. When you FOLLOW JESUS, you do what He commands you to do. You go where He wants you to go – Jesus gives all life assignments. We just follow…

2. SERVE WHERE JESUS WANTS TO WORK THROUGH YOU

1/ His next words are: “…and where I am, there will My servant be also…” “But, wait…” you say, “I thought Jesus was everywhere!” He is. But, when Jesus says “…and where I am, there will My servant be also…” – He means to say that when we are FOLLOWING HIM, we will be there with Him – wherever He is working through us. This is much of what Jesus was saying in John 5.17 about The Father being with Him where He was … The Father doing His will and works through Jesus.

2/ Yes! Jesus can be everywhere at the same time – but we cannot. We can be in only one place at a time – so we want to be in that place wherever Jesus has led us…and we have followed Him there.

3/ And, we cannot do – not even one thing – on our own. We cannot do anything – except what Jesus Himself is doing through us. He tells us in John 15.5: I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

4/ So, if we are going to do anything in our service to Christ, it must be where He Himself is…living and working through us. And so, we just want to be where Jesus wants us to be…so we can be doing whatever He has given us to do…so He can be working through us…to accomplish what He wants to do through us.

5/ And He promises to do just that! This is the promise that is given to us by the Power of the Holy Spirit and the Blood of the New Covenant. Hebrews 13.20-21: Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

6/ And so, FOLLOW JESUS to be sure you are where He wants you to be – and where He wants to be working through you to do what is pleasing to Him.

7/ This brings every one of us to a point of self-examination: Where are you now? Where has Jesus Christ led you and ‘planted’ you to serve Him? What has He given you, gifted you, equipped you that you can do? Are you willing to ‘die’ and give your life to that service? If it is only in your faithfully attending and worshiping Him studying His Word and fellowshipping with fellow servants, serve Him in doing that. Whatever opportunities Christ gives us to love and serve one another, build up one another, support and encourage one another, do good to one another, take care of one another, minister to one another’s needs – let us each commit and give ourselves to serve Him this way. [See John 13.31-35]

8/ 1 Peter 4.7-11 bears repeating and re-affirming here:

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

9/ I do need to add here, that when Jesus promises ‘…and where I am, there will my servant be also,” He is also promising us that after our life of service here is fulfilled, and we ‘die’ physically from here, that ‘…if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also’ – that is, with Him in the Father’s House, to share His Glory with Him forever! [See John 14.1-3 & 17.24]  

And then, that brings us to the third step in FOLLOWING JESUS…

3. YOU WILL PLEASE THE FATHER WHEN YOU FOLLOW JESUS

1/ Jesus gives this blessing on whoever FOLLOWS Him: “If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him” That is strange language, isn’t it? You mean: “God, our Heavenly Father, will HONOR us when we serve Jesus?” That’s what Jesus says.

2/ How does the Father HONOR us when we serve Jesus? The Father honors us by BEING PLEASED WITH US – He honors us with HIS PLEASURE. The greatest honor our Heavenly Father could ever confer upon any one of us is to say to us:

  • “Well done, good and faithful servant!”
  • “You did good!”
  • “I’m happy with you! Enter into the joy of your Lord! [Matthew 25.21 & 23]”
  • “It wasn’t perfect – but you did what I gave you to do – and you did it the best you could with the gifts I gave you to use!”
  • “You followed Me where I led you to go – you ‘planted’ your life and ‘died’ there – giving it your all!”

3/ You want to please the Father, don’t you? Nobody pleases the Father like His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 8.29: “And He who sent Me is with Me. He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him” Three times, the Father audibly spoke and thundered from Heaven and said: “This is my much-beloved Son – in whom I am well-pleased! HEAR HIM [listen to Him, obey Him, serve Him, FOLLOW HIM!]” See Matthew 3.17; Mark 1.11; Luke 3.22

4/ And so, the Son PERFECTLY pleases the Father, and everyone who follows the Son pleases the Father also. “If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him!”

5/ I want the Father to honor me by just giving me the assurance that He is pleased by my serving His Son, Jesus Christ – and FOLLOWING JESUS where I believe Jesus is leading me – and being where Jesus wants me to be and doing what Jesus wants me to be doing…by His working through me.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” | Jesus Christ, John 12.24

Death is the only way to spiritual life, fruitfulness, pleasing God, and ultimate, final Glory!

“And He said to all, ‘If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’” | Jesus Christ, Luke 9.23

ARE YOU A FOLLOWER OF JESUS CHRIST?

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I used to call them ‘interruptions’

Posted on May 26, 2023 by PastorDave

Interruptions.

We all have them…constantly…every day…of all kinds…

Interruptions to what we are doing and working on at the moment. Interruptions to the agenda of the whole day. Interruptions sometimes to the very direction and course of our lives from then on.

A phone call…a text…an email…a conversation…a ‘chance’ encounter…a medical report…a chronic illness…a debilitating injury…or a life-altering event – didn’t plan for it, didn’t expect it, didn’t see it coming, no way to brace yourself or prepare for it – but there it is, and you have to deal with it.

Our first knee-jerk response is to chafe at it, complain, fret – be annoyed, irritated, impatient…even resentful or rude…

As I say, I used to call them ‘interruptions.’

But over the years I have learned to recognize and appreciate them as “Sovereign impositions and interventions of the Divine purpose, pleasure, and Providence on my personal agenda because God, in His infinite wisdom, knows better than I do that I need to develop and grow in some Godly virtue or Grace through this experience.”

And, it always works out to be ‘far better’ – for His Glory and my good.

Romans 5.1-5 & 8.28

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