SNBS Jeremiah 3
Notes
Transcript
The Call to Repentance
12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, “ ‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord.
14 Return, O faithless children, declares the Lord; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
Jeremiah used the word turn (or return) more than any other prophet. God’s call, through this prophet, was for His people to return to Him! After salvation, has God ever called you to do the same?
Before we get to the call to repentance, God says in v.22 “I will heal your faithlessness.” Otherwise written “I will cure you of backsliding.”
Can God’s grace overrule law?
9 I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.
v.12 When God forgives His anger subsides. He is not longer angry at the one He has forgiven. SO, in the absence of anger, His favor is extended to the forgiven. Once we are forgiven, and God’s favor rests on us, how do we forgive ourselves?
v.13 For forgiveness to be extended, guilt has to be acknowledged. Like we said this morning, we have to admit He is right and we are wrong. What keeps us from admitting wrong?
v.14 master, husband, word play on baal. He brings into play the marriage-like bond established in the covenant at Sinai
15 “ ‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again.
17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.
v.15 God begins to speak of the time after judgement. His statement is conditional. After repentance. Hints at the remnant. God’s restoration is always full/complete. We may not be restored to prior earthly position, but our position with Him is.
v. 16-17 He promises to grow and bless His children and to give them His presence.
22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
This call to repentance/return carries all the way through 4:4.
Break up the fallow ground
Circumcise your hearts