Making sense of prophecy.

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How do we make sense of prophecy?
Difficult to understand. Filled with metaphors.
We don’t often read it for devotions.
Know it mainly through bumper sticker theology.
Hab 1:5 - “For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.”
Jer 29:11 - “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and nor for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
How do we make sense?
Dr. Dennis Tucker
What does it say about God?
What does it say about man?
What does it say about the relationship between God and man?
Today we are looking broadly at Jeremiah 3-6. What theme do we see when we study the text?
Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem.

Big Idea: God’s justice has a purpose.

Foolish people turn from God.

4:22
I am reminded of Ps 14:1 - the fool says in his heart there is no God.
Israel knew God and turned from him. This led to not knowing Him.
They turned to idolatry. Foolish idolatry.
Isaiah 44 talks about this.
Idols have to be carried. But God carries his people (Is 46:3)

Foolish people reject the Law.

6:19
Following the law would have kept them in righteousness.
Instead no one is righteous 5:1
Jeremiah 5:1 ESV
Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her.
Speaks to corporate sin.
For one man, God would have pardoned Jerusalem.

Foolish people have eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear.

Vs 5:21
Turn a blind eye and turn a deaf ear
Turn away from injustice. The care of widows and orphans.
Not understanding // No longer fear the Lord (5:22)

The longer your turn the harder your heart.

Jer 5:23-24
What is the heart? Discussed this on Wednesday night.
The heart is the inner man, the will, the mind. It is the source of understanding and volition.
Makes a person responsible for their lack of love and compassion
In 5:23 God accuses Israel of having stubborn and rebellious heart. Turned away from God.
The heart is a deceitful thing. It turns us away from God. It is selfish and tuned to fulfilling our own wants and desires.
Listen to Jeremiahs words in Chapter 17
Jeremiah 17:9–10 ESV
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
The longer you turn, the harder the heart. God will not be inactive.

God disciplines the rebellious heart.

Jer 4:6-8
God has judged Israel and is sending Babylon as an instrument of discipline.
You might say, “This is cruel. Why is God so harsh? Why destroy the city?”
Remember the covenant.
The people signed on the line.
Student loans…College…Contract
Israel was without excuse.
Jeremiah 4:18 ESV
Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart.”
Jeremiah 5:27–28 ESV
Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and rich; they have grown fat and sleek. They know no bounds in deeds of evil; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
I want to remind you: Big Idea: God’s justice has a purpose.

A transformed heart is the goal.

Jer 4:4
Jeremiah uses covenant language. Circumcision is applied in a different way.
Circumcision was an outward sign or reminder to the covenant relationship between God and Israel.
“I will be your God and you will be my people.”
We wear symbols that represent relationship. Cross // Ring
These symbols are inadequate unless there is a corresponding personal commitment.

Repentance toward God is symbolized by a circumcised heart.

Cut away the rebellious, wayward, selfish desires and have a wholehearted devotion to God.
Read Deut 10:12-17
Remember we read that the heart is sick. What can we do? This is where God intervenes. We need His help.
Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, 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 the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be 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 the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
When God has transformed the heart, then he will restore the people. Jeremiah is actually filled with hope.

What do we learn about man?

The heart is wicked // prone to wander // turn away from God.
We need a circumcised heart. Cut away the rebellious nature.

What do we learn about God?

He is not inactive. // He uses discipline to turn people. // For Israel, discipline was extreme but not without merit. // God is the agent for our changed heart.

What do we learn about the relationship between God and man?

God desires things to be right. // We can’t make them right so God has to intervene. // For us, He sent Jesus.
Leave you with another text. Faithfulness of God to restore Israel.
Deut 30:1-10
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