Book of Jeremiah, chapter 14. We’re going to look at that this evening. We’re continuing to study the prophet Jeremiah who is called by God to speak to Israel and warn them during the reigns of Josiah’s son, during the end of Josiah’s reign actually, and then during the reign of Josiah’s son.
When Josiah’s sons came to rule, remember they were not their father. They did not love the Lord. They did not follow and do what the Lord’s will was.
And it resulted in what God had been telling the nation of Judah would happen to them. They would be left in captivity. However, God in His grace and mercy gave them ample opportunity to repent and to turn back.
Often times God does that for us and He desires that we would repent and that we would have fellowship with Him and seek His forgiveness and seek to walk in His ways and in His power instead of the ways of the world. Well, what was happening is, first the kings and then those that were the princes of Israel and then the pastors and the priests and the false prophets that were in the land began to have influence on the people. And the people,
many of whom really did not truly repent even as Josiah repented and called the priests to repent, and many of the priests did, and the Levites to repent, many of them did.
But the people, many of them as you remember had kept their idols in their homes and out of sight, out of mind. But now the Josiah’s sons who embraced the world’s philosophies and trusted in kingdoms around them instead of God, the people also began to rebel against the Lord. Chapter 14 begins out with some historical accounts of what was happening in Judah at this particular time.
One of the things that you see that the Lord often does is brings climate problems upon a nation or problems with disease or insects or other things that would come against a nation. Israel was an agrarian culture. They did not have manufacturing and all of the things that we have in America.
And so when things would happen with climate or with insects or things that would destroy their crops or cause their crops to fail, it had a great, great impact on them. And God is using this. If you go to the book of Joel, you see that in the book of Joel the Lord uses grasshoppers.
And it talks about the locust invasions and how God used those to come against the nation of Israel that they would turn back to Him. Here He is using the climate. And He causes a drought.
And let’s just begin by reading chapter 14, verse 1. And it says,
The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.
And the dearth means the drought, the fact that there was no rain in the land. We know that under Elijah’s prophecy in the northern kingdom of Israel, it was very evident that God controlled the weather.
He caused the weather to rain and then He caused it to dry. And even in the northern kingdom of Israel, He showed God His power. God showed His power to the people.
And He caused a drought to come. And then also when Elijah prayed, the rain came, if you remember, when we were on Mount Carmel. So God can and is in control of the weather.
In some of the Psalms it talks about how the Lord is the one that causes the weather to be used for His glory and His purposes. And the rain and the thunder and the lightning controlling the oceans, controlling the heavens and everything that we see is controlled by the Lord. Well, the Lord is causing drought to come on Israel.
And the drought is a judgment. One of the things that was mentioned earlier tonight is to pray for our president that he would not do things that would be against Israel in decisions he makes and things he encourages other nations to do. There’s a couple of baconigs who have done a lot of studying of climate catastrophes and things that have happened in the United States when former presidents have come against Israel, specifically dealing with the land.
The land is God’s land and God has deeded it to Israel, but it’s only productive when they’re in the land. And the land is theirs to be used, but when they rebel against Him, He takes it away from them. And one of the things that they were saying is that when our presidents have spoken against Israel, there have been some major catastrophes in our country and a lot of doing some of the major hurricanes in the south where at the same time that former presidents declared things to divide the land of Israel, give some of it to the Arabs and some to the Jews and to take land from the Jews and not be supportive of the Jews and things would happen
.
And so we see that God is in control of the weather and He uses it really to bring a judgment. He’s bringing a judgment against Israel, I mean against Judah specifically at this time because of their absolute rebellion against Him and their unwillingness to listen to Jeremiah even though the Lord knew that they would not. Now let’s continue with verse 2. Judah mourneth and the gates thereof languish.
They are black unto the ground and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. The people are in great distress. The plants are dying.
Their crops are failing. And they’re having drought all around and they’re distraught. But the amazing thing is you would think that people would repent and call on the Lord, but they don’t.
And oftentimes we see that. When people, God will bring a catastrophe into our lives at times to bring us to Him and that we would call on Him and realize we’re not in control of anything. And He’s showing the nation of Judah, you’re not in control.
You think that you can do what you want, you can worship these gods that are false gods, but they can do nothing for you. Go and pray to them and see if they’ll bring rain. They can’t.
And so we see on in verse 3, And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters. They came to the pits and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty.
They were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads. The parents sent their children to go and find water. It also shows you that things are kind of upside down.
The parents aren’t taking responsibility for their children, but rather expecting the children to meet and serve them. But when they would send them to the places normally where you would find water, there wasn’t any water there. It’s interesting that a human body can live 14 to 20 days without any food, but we can only live 7 days without water.
And water is a serious commodity. When there is none,
we’re in trouble. The human body consists of a large percentage of it is water.
And if you don’t have water, you begin to break down and dehydrate. Your brains don’t function properly. Your bodies don’t function.
And eventually you’ll die of dehydration. And the nation of Israel is facing this problem. There wasn’t the water that the land needed.
Because the ground is chapped, for there was no rain in the earth. And the plowmen were ashamed and they covered their heads. They couldn’t grow their crops.
And it means chapped. I remember a few years ago when I was on the farm. We had a couple of years where there wasn’t a lot of rain.
And the ground became very dry and cracked. And the soil that would normally be, if you grab it, it would be plush and ready for crops, was now hard and brittle. And nothing would grow in it, because there was just nothing to cause the plants to sprout, because there wasn’t any rain.
And this was happening in Israel, in Judah and Israel throughout the whole land. Yea, the mind also calved, the hind also calved in the field and forsook it because there was no grass. The animals were even leaving their little ones because they didn’t have grass and they didn’t have the milk to feed them.
And so the wild animals were actually beginning to die. The young ones were the wild animals. There wasn’t any grass, there wasn’t any grain, there wasn’t any water.
And the wild asses did stand in the high places. They snuffed up the wind like dragons. Their eyes did fail because there was no grass.
And so you saw, you could see the animals smelling the air, trying to smell water, trying to smell a place where there was food and there was nothing. And if you go to the nation of Israel, Israel is really a semi-arid land. Since God has brought the Jews back to Israel, like he said he would, and is doing with the Jewish nation like he said he would, brought them back as bones, as Ezekiel said, and is beginning to put the flesh on the bones, and when they breathe life into the flesh, we see that the land is coming alive.
Just as he said, when they would come back, the land would once again flow with milk and honey. And it is. But not only this time, but many other times when Israel would rebel against God, his judgment would come in the form of the land not producing for the people, because that was part of the chastisement and judgments when they had on Mount Gerizim, and the evil spoke the blessings and the cursings, part of the cursings, where if you walk in rebellion against me, the land will not be productive and you will be taken from the land.
And this is what is happening here. This is the precursor of the nation of Judah being taken out of the nation of Judah. Just as Jeremiah said they would be.
And they don’t see it, and they don’t listen. And we’re going to see that this is going to be the trend all the way until the day that Nebuchadnezzar has a third invasion and invades Jerusalem and tears it down. They’re still going to deny that God is really going to desert them in judgment and cause them to be taken away and that they can do what they want to do.
And the thing is, we cannot do what we want to do. We need to walk in obedience to the Lord.
Verse 7, Jeremiah is speaking and he says,
7 O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.
8 O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?
9 Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.
10 Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the Lord doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
11 Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
13 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.
14 Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
I’ve talked to you before about the difference between remorse and repentance. The mission of Judah is becoming very remorseful because God isn’t blessing them. He’s not bringing rain.
He’s not bringing crops. Later on we’re going to see the beginning of their enemies coming against them is going to start to happen. All these things are occurring and the people are very remorseful.
They’re sad. They send their children out to get water. They come back with their heads covered.
The farmers go out to plant. They come back with their heads covered. They’re ashamed.
They’re ashamed, but they’re not repentant. They’re ashamed of what’s happening, but they’re not repentant. I think in the United States sometimes that’s our condition.
We’ve become ashamed, but we’re not repentant. We want God to, Lord, bless us, bring us back to what we had 30 years ago when it wasn’t so awful in our country and there wasn’t all these awful things happening. But do I really want to repent and turn from my sins? Do I really want to set aside my gods? Do I really want to set aside the things that are offensive and an abomination to you? Because if I don’t, then I’m just remorseful because of what’s happening to me, but I’m really not desiring to change.
And that was Israel and Judah. And Jeremiah is seeing it. He’s crying out to the Lord and says, You’ve always been there for us.
Verse 9,
9 Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.
But the thing is, if you’re called by the name of the Lord, it doesn’t matter if you’re not willing to follow the shepherd that’s called you.
Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The sheep know my voice. All right, at this particular time, Judah wasn’t listening to the call of the Lord.
He placed it on Jeremiah’s lips. He placed it on Ezekiel’s lips. He placed it on other prophets’ lips that were true prophets.
We’ll see in a moment there were many false prophets as well. But the thing is, the people wouldn’t listen, and they didn’t respond to the call of the Lord. And so the shepherd said, Okay, we’ll let you see what happens.
I remember a number of years ago, my wife and I, our youngest daughter, when she was little, she liked to run. And she would run, and sometimes we’d call her and she’d just keep running. She was a runner.
And I remember we took this vacation one time, and she was about three years old. And we got to the motel, and she took off running down the hallway. And so I said, Let’s just see what’s going to happen.
And so we stayed around the corner where she couldn’t see us. And I was watching her, so no one could open the door and grab her. I said, Let’s just see how long it’s going to take before she realizes Mom and Dad aren’t there, and she quits running.
And then later she didn’t quit running. She was going all the way to the end of the hallway, and she would have kept finding somewhere else to run to. I finally had to go and retrieve her.
And then later on, when we took an airplane flight, we had to buy a little harness to put on her, because otherwise she would have been running through the airport. And people thought we were terrible, because we had harnessed our daughter. But she was a runner, and she wouldn’t listen.
And that was the nation of Judah. They were running from God. They wouldn’t listen.
And He’s calling to them, but they wouldn’t listen. Come back, but they wouldn’t listen. And so now He’s doing things to try and get their attention, but they’re not listening.
And He says, Blessed are the Lord unto this people. Blessed have they loved to wander. They have not retained their feet.
Therefore the Lord doth not accept them. The Lord will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins. There’s going to be consequences.
I’m going to remember your sins. I’m going to judge your sins, because you’re not responding. You’re not repenting.
You’re not turning back to me. Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people, nor their good. Now, does this ever happen before in Israel, to Israel? The answer is yes, during the time that Moses was carrying the people through the desert.
Remember, there came a time that the people, they loved to mumble and grumble with Moses. There was this constant undertone of mumbling and grumbling and murmuring against Moses. And really, it was against God.
And, one time the Lord said, told Moses, I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough of the mumbling and grumbling. I’m going to take this people and I’ll raise up another people through you.
And Moses pled on their behalf that the Lord wouldn’t do that, because he said, your name will be disgraced amongst the heathen, amongst the nations. Because they’ll say that you just brought this people out of Egypt into the wilderness to kill them. And he said, don’t do that.
And he said, don’t raise up, I’m not worthy of having a people raised up. These are your people, work in their hearts. The Lord is telling Jeremiah not to pray for the people for the very reason that the Lord said to Moses, I’m going to raise up another people, because of their hearts.
Their hearts were, they were stone-hearted, stiff-necked people who would not turn to God, even though they were having drought, even though their crops were failing, even though they couldn’t find water, even though all the circumstances around them were becoming worse and worse by the day. Yet they would not listen. And God’s calling them, but they won’t listen.
And so he said, okay, it’s coming a day, I’ll just let them have their way. I’ll let them run. And we’ll see how far they get.
And when they fast, I will not hear their cry. And when they offer burnt offering and oblation, I will not accept them, but I will consume them by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence. So he’s going to bring these three areas into their life.
He’s going to bring the sword, which is their enemies are going to come and attack them. He’s going to bring famine because of the lack of water, drought, and the crops won’t grow. And he’s going to bring pestilence, which is disease and also various forms of other things that will cause illness to them because of their lack of trust in him.
Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, the prophets say unto them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.
So Jeremiah is telling God, Isn’t that what the prophets are telling them? It’s not what Jeremiah is telling them. It’s not what Elijah is telling them.But the false prophets are telling them the exact opposite of the lie. They’re saying, Oh, none of what Jeremiah is telling you is going to happen. None of what God says is going to happen.
God’s going to bring peace. He’s going to bring prosperity. I remember I told you on Sunday in Sunday morning service that Francis Schaeffer said that one of the great temptations that we were facing in America was we would give up truth for peace and prosperity.
Just give us peace and prosperity and we’ll abandon truth. And that’s where Israel was. We want peace and prosperity.
Just tell us we’ll have that. But we don’t really want truth. We don’t want to know God.
We don’t want to know the truth of God. We don’t want to follow God. But we want peace and prosperity.
And so the false prophets would say, Peace and prosperity is coming. There’s been a lot of really false prophets that I believe have been raised up in the church in the day in which we live. I’ve listened to some of these people.
They get on the Internet and they talk about, they prophesy about how all these wonderful things are going to happen. And they say that this is going to happen and that’s going to happen. And it’s going to happen by such and such a time.
And then such and such a time comes and it doesn’t happen. That is a false prophet. If they lived during the Old Testament times, the Bible tells us they would have been taken out in stone.
Because if one of your prophecies did not come true, it didn’t matter if the other 99 did. If you were wrong on one, you were a false prophet. And these people in the church today, many of them, they’re wrong 50% of the time.
Actually, Jeanne Dixon, who used to be an occultic person, and she would be a seiyan, looking to supposedly have these visions from these spirit guides that would tell her prophecies into the future. She had a higher rate of success than many of the so-called prophets in the church today. Because they’re not prophets.
They’re false prophets. And exactly telling people what they want to hear. Telling people what they think they want to know.
And then they are gaining money by doing it. Send us your dollars, because we need to help support our ministry because we’re telling people what they want to hear. That’s the false prophets that were there in Judah at the time of Jeremiah.
And he says, they’re telling him exactly what they want to hear. Then said I, Ah, Lord God, the prophets say unto them, ye shall not see the sword. That’s right, the UN can be invaded.
Well, was that true? No, they were invaded three times by Babylon. Plus, prior to that, there were other nations that came across them. Neither shall ye have famine.
No, they’re in the midst of a famine right now. And how are they not having famine? They can’t even find water to drink. And the wild animals are dying because of the lack of water and the lack of vegetation.
But I will give you assured peace in this place. Well, are you going to have peace? Well, you’ll have peace all right when you’re taken out of the land and there’s nobody left in the land. The land will be at rest, although it’s going to be unprofitable as God will cause it not to produce.
Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets may prophesy lies in my name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them. They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination.
Now look at the word there, divination. That is coming from Satan, not God. That’s divination.
They’re prophesying unto you a lie. Where do lies come from? Satan. He is the father of lies.
So they’re prophesying unto you divinations. And a thing of naught and the deceit of their own hearts. The deceit of their hearts.
They want something to be. These false prophets are very much like people who come into the church and name it, and plenty of people that said, you know, God will give it to you if you just visualize it. The Lord’s got to do it.
You ever heard people say that? That’s divination. That’s not of God. That’s me speaking things into being and God doesn’t say that.
I’m to do that at all. I’m to bring my concerns before the Lord and seek the Lord’s will and God will do His will, not mine. And these people, the prophets were doing that which was in their hearts.
We’re not supposed to do that which is in our heart, but we’re supposed to seek the will and the purposes of God. And especially if you’re a prophet of the Lord, you should be seeking the will of God and not your own. So these men were wicked men.
Evil men. Men that were given their insights by Satan, not by God, and leading the people into further, further away from the Lord. Therefore, let’s say to the Lord concerning the prophets.
The prophets lie in my name and I sent them not. Yet they say, sword and famine shall not be in this land. By sword and famine shall these prophets be consumed.
He’s saying, I’m going to show how great a prophet they are. The very thing that they say will never come is going to be that, their own destruction. They will be some of the first to die by the sword.
They will experience famine because they say, in my name, it’s never coming when I have already set things in motion to have it come because of the hardness of my people’s hearts. Then he goes on. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword and shall have none to bury them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness upon them.
And one of the things that you see as we’ve been going through looking at the kings, remember the good kings were buried in Jerusalem with the other kings, their fathers. The bad kings were buried outside Jerusalem, not with the kings of Judah. And so we see that these people, they don’t have nobody to bury them.
They’re so wicked that their own children will be dead as well. And it’s a judgment of God. And he says, Therefore, thou shalt say this word unto them.
Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease. For the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow. Now who’s the virgin daughter of my people? He’s speaking of the city of Jerusalem.
And he’s speaking of the fact that there’s a great breach in the whole belief system of the nation of Israel. Where is the belief system of Israel focused? And where is the center of their worship? It’s Jerusalem and the temple. The people have been given the temple, and that’s where they bring their sacrifices and offerings.
God says, I’m not accepting your offerings and your sacrifices. David saw this problem when he said in one of his psalms that the Lord is not pleased with sacrifices and offerings, but he wants a broken and contrite heart. Why does God want a broken and contrite heart?
The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.
2 Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
3 And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
4 Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.
5 Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
6 And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.
7 O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.
8 O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?
9 Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.
10 Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the Lord doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
11 Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
13 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.
14 Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
15 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.
17 Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.
18 If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.
19 Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!
20 We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.
21 Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.
22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Lord our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.
Jer 14:1-22