Jeremiah 12:1,2b-3a,5

Jeremiah 12 centres around a question asked by Jeremiah to God, which God then answers.

‘Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead with You;
Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?...
…You are near in their mouth
But far from their mind.’ (Jeremiah 12:1,2b)

Have you ever felt like this? I know I have. Note first however, that Jeremiah recognizes God’s righteousness first up. He takes this as a given. He knows whatever God does is right. He is merely trying to understand it.

It is sometimes baffling to us how wicked people can be so successful, happy, prosperous and all the rest of it. Why does God allow it? It is often our desire for the LORD to do to them what they deserve. It is our ‘desire for justice’.

Even worse, so many people have God close in their mouth, but far from their mind. They talk about God, talk about religious things, sing Christian songs, go to a Christian school perhaps. But their mind, and their heart, is so far away from God. And yet, as Christians, we say with Jeremiah

‘But You, O LORD, know me;
You have seen me,
And You have tested my heart toward You.’ (Jeremiah 12:3a)

Our heart is true towards God, we have been tested and tried, and remain faithful. And where is our reward? Is our reward more trials? For sometimes it seems that there is no reward, and all the prosperity, success and happiness goes to those who the LORD doesn’t know.

So what is God’s answer to this? Surely at this moment you have started forming your own answer based on previous experience (as have I), but I think you’ll find God’s answer a little different than you might expect:

‘If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you,
Then how can you contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace,
In which you trusted, they wearied you,
Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?’ (Jeremiah 12:5)

I think what God is saying is: ‘if you are having trouble with this little problem, then how are you to contend with those who are really against you?’ This is not meant to be a problem for us! And I daresay we set our sights too low when we are having trouble with this question. For prosperity and success on this earth to us is meaningless. Mere trash. To be troubled by the fact that those who disobey God obtain trash should be a silly idea to us. If we are troubled by this small thing, then how are we to contend with life’s real challenges, which God sets before us in love? Let’s set our sights much higher than the petty things of this world.

Jeremiah 11:20

Jeremiah 11 contains two passages, the first being in line with the previous chapters, but perhaps a little more specific: it is about the covenant which God set up with Israel in the days when they were emancipated from Egypt, and which they had broken. The second passage is a summarized recount of the first recorded threat on Jeremiah’s life, by the men of Anathoth.

Jeremiah thus far has spoken almost solely about the coming judgment of God on Israel due to their disobedience and rejection of His covenant. Primarily through idolatry, or expressed through idolatry, and most distastefully in hypocrisy, the Israelites have been utterly judged and found guilty. Now God reminds the Israelites of the specific covenant that He gave them,

‘ “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant which I commanded your fathers…‘Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God,’ that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as it is this day”.’ (Jeremiah 11:3b-5a)

It was an impossible covenant. To do all that God commands, as you would all agree, is just an impossibility with our feeble wills and feeble bodies. And so why did God make that covenant? First of all, God could not have made a different covenant. God could not compromise. He couldn’t say to them – ‘as long as you keep My commandments most of the time, and do a whole lot of good things to make up for the times where you go wrong, I will be your God.’ God is a God of truth, and compromise is not an option. Only perfection can satisfy God. Secondly, God made the covenant out of love. Although the covenant was impossible for the Israelites to keep their end of, it was this very thing that God intended – so that they would be led to His doorstep in humility and brokenness, realising that they could not keep it. It would teach them to rely on God for their strength, rather than trust in their own ‘moral strength’. Note that this was the conditional covenant, whereas the unconditional covenant, given to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, stated Israel to be God’s people regardless of their sin.

Thus, when God first summarises the sin of the Israelites in Jeremiah, He does not give a list of all their specific wrongdoings, and where they had disobeyed His voice. Rather, the two sins were ‘They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.’ (Jeremiah 2:13) Their sins, on God’s account, were not those directly against the covenant, but that they had completely rejected Him. This, of course, resulted in many wrongdoings, which are developed throughout the chapters between chapter 2 and 11.

Similarly, through chapter 11, the sins that God accuses them of, in betraying the covenant, are sins of turning against God. And this is what we must see sin as. It is a complete revolt against God, and His glory. This is what sin is, and sin is also a symptom of this attitude. As Christians, God has made with us, an unconditional covenant, whereby we are called His children regardless of the sin we have previously committed, or will commit in the future. However, with this covenant comes the conditional covenant which I wrote about a few days ago. This is the covenant where we live in the ‘land of milk and honey’. This is the covenant by which we own what we are. The covenant by which we enjoy the riches of God’s goodness towards us. This is thwarted by our inclination towards evil. And so these words to Jerusalem and Judah are the words we ourselves need to hear. We need to destroy our idols, set our hearts and minds on God, obey His word, study His word so that we can obey it and avoid evil with the greatest of intensity. The words that the prophets spoke to Judah are a beacon to us. Humanity hasn’t changed. Not much. Let them cut to your heart.

The second passage reveals the first attempt on Jeremiah’s life. Again we remind ourselves of the weakness of mortality, but the strength of God, who will keep us. Jeremiah pleads with God:

‘But, O LORD of hosts,
You who judge righteously,
Testing the mind and the heart,
Let me see Your vengeance on them,
For to You I have revealed my cause.’ (Jeremiah 11:20)

God has already promised to defend Jeremiah in the first chapter. But Jeremiah prays this, calling on God’s righteousness to judge those who wrongly accuse him, and seek to kill him. But of course, for Jeremiah, it is not himself that they set themselves against, but God. For it is God who will judge them, righteously, testing their minds and their hearts. What they think, and what they feel. Thus, Jeremiah wants to see God’s vengeance on them, not because he hates them and would love to see them punished, but because he loves justice, and loves God’s righteousness. Do we today take this same view? Or are we too ‘tolerant’ of evil to desire justice for it? Let us ever be aware of God and His holiness, His glory, so that we have the right view of all things, including evil.

Jeremiah 9:23-24

Jeremiah 9 is a chapter of mourning and sorrow. It begins with Jeremiah’s own mourning at his people’s wickedness. God responds by saying that He will ‘refine’ them through judgment. Then God tells Jeremiah to ‘call for the mourning women’ (vs. 17) because the people will be very sorrowful for the judgment that is called upon them.

The main line of accusation is the people’s hypocrisy. Verse 8 says ‘One speaks peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in his heart he lies in wait.’ There are a few references to ‘lying tongues’. We conclude again that hypocrisy is abominable to God. What you speak, you must mean with your heart.

The verses that struck me particularly, mostly due to their complete clarity and forthrightness, were:

‘ Thus says the LORD:
“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the LORD.’ (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

The greatest glory that man can achieve is to know God. For God is the only One that is glorious. Every task undertaken by God on earth has His glory as its purpose. Therefore, as Christians, our goal should be similar, that is, our goal should be to give God as much glory as possible. This can only happen by living the life that He has set forth for us to live. This can only happen by us consciously living for His glory. What more can we glory in? Shall we glory in our own petty wisdom or strength? Or shall we glory in God’s immense awesomeness?

Isaiah 63:3,5b,7

Who is our God? That is an impossible question to answer, but there are many attributes that we can at least start to understand or appreciate. However, usually we find ourselves focusing on one or two attributes or characteristics, which gives a poor description of God. However Isaiah 63 looks at two very different sides of God, and meshes them into one.

The first six verses are almost scary in how angry and punishing God is. For instance verse 3:

‘I have trodden the winepress alone,
And from the peoples no one was with Me.
For I have trodden them in My fury;
Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments,
And I have stained all My robes’ (Isaiah 63:3)

He is talking here about Edom and Bozrah (vs. 1), the enemies of Israel who are His redeemed (vs. 4). But why is God so angry?

‘…Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me;
And My own fury, it sustained Me.’ (Isaiah 63:5b)

This is salvation for His redeemed that He is bringing about, by the destruction of the evil that surrounds them. So although this is an angry scene, it is for the salvation of His redeemed. Verse 7 is a complete (and surprising) change of tone:

‘I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD
And the praises of the LORD,
According to all that the Lord has bestowed on us,
And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies,
According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses.’ (Isaiah 63:7)

This is straight after the mention of God treading down the peoples in His anger, spilling their blood and making them drunk in His fury (vs. 6).

You see, God is a merciful God all the time. That is who He is. But God is also a God that hates sin, and is completely just. Losing either one of those attributes loses the other. For in effect, the first 6 verses of this chapter are a complete act of mercy towards Israel, as expressed so lovingly in verse 7. And thus, without justice, there is no mercy.

There is no point in focusing only on the ‘lovingkindnesses’ of our LORD. Because without the severe punishment and application of justice, these lovingkindnesses have no meaning. Neither is there point in dwelling upon the judgment of the LORD, for we have been saved from it! No, it is best that both are remembered and praised, for God is glorious as a whole, in all His attributes, not just those that we find comfortable.

Isaiah 61:3

‘To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.’ (Isaiah 61:3)

These are beautiful words in and of themselves. But it reminds me of what I have to offer to God, and what He has given me through Jesus Christ. All I have to offer is ashes, sadness and a spirit of heaviness. I have nothing, nothing that I can do myself. Nothing that I can call my own. And yet Jesus has given me beauty, garments of praise, the oil of joy! It is His gift to us, so that we can be steadfast (like trees) in righteousness, so that He can be glorified. So that He can be glorified! What a gift! This is why the Gospel is the Good News. Or at least part of the reason.

Let us not take this gift for granted. Because He has given it to us so that we may be called trees of righteousness, so that we may be pillars of goodness in the world.

Isaiah 46:9

‘Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me.’ (Isaiah 46:9)

Isaiah 46 again addresses the issue of idolatry (which has been a common theme for the last few chapters). God talks about the idols being dead, not being able to save anyone because they can’t even talk or move! In fact, when Cyrus came to capture Babylon, the idols were laid across cattle to carry them back to Persia. They couldn’t get themselves off the cattle, or relieve the burden!

But again God says, ‘For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me’. How true these words are! There is none like God. Nothing like God. Who else can create a universe with a word? Who else can know the name of each star in the universe (that’s a trillion trillion – if you could count five of them a second, you’d be counting for about 10 billion years!)? Who else can hold the oceans in his hands? Who else knows how many hairs are on your head? Who else loves you enough to die for you? Who else could live a perfect life to make that possible?

No, there is none like Him. None even close to being marginally like Him. And yet daily we trade Him for worthless things in a failed attempt at immediate satisfaction. It doesn’t make any sense at all, but we all do it. But as long as we see that there is nothing else like God, then it is hard to turn to other things!

So today, try to meditate on the glory of God. That which sets Him apart. His holiness, majesty, love, grace, righteousness, power, sovereignty, wisdom, and everything else!

Isaiah 39:6

Hezekiah has just sung his song of praise to God for keeping him alive for another 15 years. Now, straight after, the Babylonian king sends him letters and a present to ‘congratulate him’. Now, that is fair enough, except that probably he was doing it for his own ends rather than out of sympathy or compassion. But how does Hezekiah respond? He doesn’t give God the glory. He doesn’t tell the king of Babylon how marvelous God is. In fact, instead, he shows the king all the treasures he has! He is boasting in himself! Now, this could have been a ploy to gain Babylon’s trust and hence form an alliance against Assyria. However, this is more sin than the first! Remember Isaiah’s constant previous judgments against seeking to ally with Egypt, because they were trusting in man more than God. So Hezekiah sins by diverting all glory of God’s miracle to himself. Unknowingly, he is only serving Babylon’s purpose. For not too far in the future, they are the world powers, and come to capture Jerusalem. And already, they have knowledge of the lay of the land, the possessions, the buildings, all manner of things useful in war.

‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the LORD’ (Isaiah 39:6)

Let us not sin by failing to give God the glory for all things in life. When we succeed, it is by God’s grace that we do so, and so instead of ‘showing everyone our talents’, should we not simply give glory to God, who gave us those? For if we don’t give God the glory, we are only helping the enemy. We are inviting the enemy to control us, to capture us as the Babylonians did.

Isaiah 19:1b,24-25

Well, well. Chapter 19 is an absolutely amazing chapter. It starts out in the usual fashion for Isaiah. Naming a nation and predicting its destruction. This time the nation is Egypt. There's always been something about Egypt in the Bible. It's a very important nation. The Israelites went there through Joseph and had a good time for a while, before being enslaved for 400 years. Jesus went there as a child to escape Herod. Israel sought alliances with Egypt throughout its history, which God forbade. Egypt always seems to sorta turn up as this escape route i suppose.

At first it symbolized to us, the world. Not that the people back then involved in the events would have noticed that. But now we can look back on it and say that it symbolized the world, and Israel symbolized us as Christians, fleeing the world and entering the wilderness of this life as a Christian before finally making it home to Israel/Heaven.

For some reason, Egypt has always been there as a very important nation.

In the description of destruction and the reason for judgment, Isaiah once again pronounces idolatry as one of the main causes, or at least implies that, as verse one says:

'The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence,
And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.' (Isaiah 19:1b)

Egypt was always famous for its many gods, and in fact, each plague brought about by God through Moses was a direct attack on one of their false gods. In the end, we get the picture that Egypt definitely deserves this judgment, but we see that the destruction isn't total, unlike many of the other chapters. It is merely oppression by another land, and having a foreign king rule over them (though there is a lot of wailing and sorrow at the same time).

And in verse 16 Isaiah turns to the prophecy of 'in that day' which refers to the millennial kingdom still in the future. Egypt will still exist in that day (which seems likely to happen just going on current events), and whats more, 5 cities will be completely saved! From verse 18 to 25 is just an amazing read. We so often think of Egypt as a wicked nation, always in the wrong, with stubborn pharaohs and chariots that chase after Israelites, and lots of false gods etc. But read verses 18 to 25 and it's just beautiful. Of course, this is talking about a time still yet to come, in the millennial reign of Christ, when the world will be much much better to live in. Here's verse 24-25:

'In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria - a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the LORD of hosts shall bless saying, "Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel my inheritance."' (Isaiah 19:24-25)

Does this excite you? It excited me. I know it doesn't even apply to me, but it just shows how gracious and great our God is. He not only is gracious enough to forgive the Egyptians their sins in times to come, but also calls them 'My people'!

Today, let us think about our God and praise Him, just for being who He is. For that is His glory. Glory is in truth. And the truth of who He is is majestic, powerful, gracious, and all those things we love. God is great, and greatly to be praised!

Daniel 4:34-35

Yesterday we focussed on the 'seven times' of Nebuchadnezzar's life as a beast. However, I made the remark that later we would return to another verse:

'And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: For His dominion [is] an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom [is] from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth [are] reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and [among] the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, "What have You done?"' (Daniel 4:34-35)

A glorious statement from a man of much earthly glory. It is a rare thing indeed for someone in such a position of power and authority in the earthly kingdoms to be granted the mercy of seeing God as ever more glorious than themself. I love the words he uses – 'His dominion is an everlasting dominion', ie. Nebuchadnezzar had much dominion over most of the known world, but he had seen that his dominion was short lived, whereas God's would last forever. His kingdom is from generation to generation. I find this just such a thrill to read – it's the real testimony of a person that the world respected, but who gave it up for One who deserves our respect and awe much more.

Today's message is one of encouragement. How glorious is our Lord?! Let us humble ourselves before Him!