We live in a world where God is more often being completely ignored rather than denied. People plunge head long into vices. Justice and standards are breaking down as God has been replaced by money, sex and human ego. Many have gone beyond the bounds that God set. Not only do the nations ignore God but for the most part they mock God. People have no fear of God. See Romans 3:18. This has filtered its way into the Church. However, God will not be mocked and we stand on the edge of an eternal night. We face the prospect of divine judgment.

Jeremiah faced a similar time. The nation of Israel had been specifically chosen and blessed by God. They had rejected God and now God is going to judge them. See Jeremiah 5:22-23. The work of God is evident in creation as He controls the elements but the nation had lost their understanding of God. They had lost their awe for God. The sea knows its bounds but the people have gone beyond the boundary. The nation is teetering at the cliff of an apocalypse and Jeremiah brings words of warning to Israel that judgment is coming because of their sinful lifestyle. There had been reform under Josiah but it was based on his charismatic personality. When he died the reform died out. Our current society is too celebrity conscious. We follow personalities rather than following God. Following famous people is unlikely to lead to any lasting revival.

Notice how the ministry of Jeremiah to an apostate nation panned out.

1 – Things got worse

Jeremiah preached for 42 years but things only got worse! True revival leads to righteous living among God’s people. What we see today does not suggest revival in many “Christian” countries:-

• Divorce
• Break-up of homes
• No commitment to care for children
• Materialism
• Gluttony
• Obsession with fame

Jeremiah shows us how to live as a Christian in a doomed world. It must have felt to Jeremiah that he was being unsuccessful in his ministry. God encourages Jeremiah.

2 – A divine mandate (vs. 4-10)

We are called out of an immoral society and to preach judgment. We have been way too soft on this. We don’t want to offend anyone in the name of love. Jeremiah preaches a strong message but yet cries more than anyone else in the Bible. He had a deep love for people. God lets Jeremiah know he is carrying out God’s mission for his life.

• He was prepared by God (vs. 4-5) – Jeremiah’s live was prepared by God before he was even conceived for this ministry of being a prophet. God works in eternity past to prepare his man for a crisis. Jeremiah had to realise early on in his ministry that he was special to God’s purposes. Jeremiah knew that he was separate from the corrupt society and he followed his divine call. We are all made for a ministry for God. Esther was made Queen for a purpose from God. We don’t realise that God sets things in motion long before they happen. The whole of Israel should have been a witness to the other nations. Instead they were conducting themselves like the other nations. They had broken down the walls of distinction between them.
• The provision of God (vs. 6-8) – Jeremiah did not thing he had the credentials to do the job. He thought that maybe God had the wrong guy. He was young, around thirty years of age. Jeremiah didn’t have to worry as God would speak through him. It worries about his looks, personality or whatever. God would be his wisdom and strength. There was no need to be afraid. Almighty God will be with Jeremiah. During the next forty years the nation got worse and worse but Jeremiah was a successful servant for God.
• The power of God (vs. 9-10) – Jeremiah was God’s man to speak to all the nations and he will lift them up and tear them down. He was given the power in his mouth and his words were devastating. He could root up and plant. The messenger of God has power no matter what backwater place they may have come from.

3 – A direct message (vs. 11-16)

He spoke directly to the issues of his day. He went right to the core of the matter. See Jeremiah 14:7. To preach about sin is seen as being negative rather positive. God’s word is in exact opposition to that. Jeremiah spoke to the sins of his day. He told them they were sinful people and had wicked hearts. What sort of sins was bringing God’s judgment?

• Denying God and inventing false religion. See Jeremiah 2:13. Any religion invented by man is like a cistern made by man – except it is a broken cistern that holds no waters and is in an affront to the God who was the fountain of all living water. We have a generation filled with broken cisterns. There’s religion all over every place. And everybody’s afraid to speak against it. There is only one true religion and way to one true God. Men have invented many false gods and religions.
• Corrupt leadership. See Jeremiah 5:13. The people didn’t even trust the leaders. They were windbags – full of hot air. The prophets are hypocrites and the priests can be bribed and that’s the way the people love it. There are false leaders. They never speak the truth and they take bribes. Sound familiar? Look a long time in our society to find somebody who really tells you the unmitigated, unadulterated, open complete truth. I mean if people who lead in this country would just for one time say what is true it would surely straighten out a lot of things. People take bribes and they tell lies. And even the prophets are nothing but windbags, preaching is a whole lot of platitudes, positive thinking, possibility thinking, make me feel good, watered down sermons and on and on and on.
• Perversion of marriage. See Jeremiah 3:1. There was no place in the whole land that wasn’t touched by sexual vice. The land was totally polluted because people were messing up their marriages and playing the harlot. The family unit was in disarray. Sound familiar? Marriage is not for experimenting. “Swinging” is another name for adultery.
• General wickedness. See Jeremiah 3:24 & 5:12 & 11:8-10. They were literally like pigs wallowing in shame. See if you can find anybody that gives you real justice. Find somebody who doesn’t swear falsely. Everybody lies, everybody’s unfair. People don’t keep their promises. They abandon their vows. They break their word. Is there anyone who dares to act differently from the crowd? To follow the narrow way rather than the broad way?

They have unfaithfulness, wickedness, fouled up families, spiritual adultery, physical harlotry, sexual evil, rotten leadership, corrupted priests and prophets. You have this during Jeremiah’s time and we have the same today. How does God feel about it? Jeremiah is to illustrate it by wearing the same shorts for days on end, put them in the cleft of a rock and then come back and get them much later. Jeremiah has to come back and take a look for this dirty, filthy, garment stuck for weeks in the side of a hill, attacked by the sand and the wind and the weather, rotted by the sun. He brings them back and holds them up and lets the people have a good look at them and know that that’s exactly what it’s going to be for them. They’re going to be like a good for nothing rotted putrefied piece of cloth. That was an illustration. They had become rotten. Instead of in their intimacy with God maintaining purity and cleanliness, they had become vile and sorted. And God says take them away to Babylon. We have to preach sin. We have to preach rottenness in human hearts. We have to preach judgment.

4 – Deep mourning (vs. 17-19)

If you don’t preach judgment with tears, you don’t preach it the way God intended it. If you can’t identify with Jesus who knowing He was going to bring judgment in 70 A.D. on the city of Jerusalem, yet sat over its brow and wept tears. See Luke 19:41-44. If you can’t identify with Jeremiah, who could preach judgment like no other Old Testament prophet perhaps and yet have such a heart of compassion for the lost that your eyes run down with tears, then you miss the right mentality. See also Jeremiah 8:18 & 9:1. That’s the heart of the prophet. Looking forward to what was coming to those people who was heart sick. He didn’t preach judgment with an indifferent proud, superiority attitude. Humbly with a broken heart and compassion he preached it. Because they were his people and he loved them. Listen, do you care at all that souls are perishing? Do you care at all? If you cared at all, you would warn and cry. May God help us to preach faithfully. To rebuke a godless people with tears so they hear the message and see our love and in so hearing and seeing are drawn to the one alone who can save them from the terrible future.

Categories: Jeremiah