Israel's Covenantal Adultery Part 2

ReCap

Last week we talked about God reminding Israel who they were, when He took them out of Egypt and rescused His bride from slavery yet they chose to worship false god’s and thus commit covenental adultery.

God called them to repentance but they refused so He warned them through Jeremiah that if they would not turn back that judgement would come from the north.

Chapter 5:1-31 - The people are not willing to repent, and the consequences.

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.

God as He often does want to relent from His anger and provides a way out but the people are faithless. Just as Abraham tried to do for Sodom before their destruction.

Jeremiah 5:4–5 ESV

Then I said, “These are only the poor; they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God. I will go to the great and will speak to them, for they know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God.” But they all alike had broken the yoke; they had burst the bonds.

Jeremiah says, maybe this is because of the poor, those who are uneducated in the Laws of God, who do not know how to do justice. I will go to the great, those who have been educated in God;s laws, they must know. But he found that they are all evildoers and covenant breakers.

Jeremiah 5:19 ESV

And when your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’ ”

There is a consequence for not obeying His commandment, and this is it.

Jeremiah 5:30–31 ESV

An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?

The people love to hear the false prophets, they will not listen to the true prophet of God and they will pay the price. 6:1-30 - God has rejected his people

Jeremiah 6:6 ESV

For thus says the Lord of hosts: “Cut down her trees; cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem. This is the city that must be punished; there is nothing but oppression within her.

This is God speaking, notice that He is the one directing Babylon

Jeremiah 6:10 ESV

To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it.

Earlier in Jeremaih 4:4 , God asks Israel circumcise their hearts, here it talks about an uncircumcised ear. The idea behind circumcision and many of the commandments that God gave Israel is for them to be set apart and different from the surrounding nations. Their heart should desire different things.

Their ears should be listening for different things, they hearing should search for truth not for things that sound pleasing

2 Timothy 4:3 ESV

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

Jeremiah 6:13 ESV

“For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

Nothing has changed, it is still the same today in our country, businesses, schools and churches. People are greedy for unjust gain.

Jeremiah 6:22–23 ESV

Thus says the Lord: “Behold, a people is coming from the north country, a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth. They lay hold on bow and javelin; they are cruel and have no mercy; the sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride on horses, set in array as a man for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion!”

False Religion and an Idolatrous People

Chapter 7:1 - 10:25

7: 1 - 8:3 Judah takes comfort in the temple while breaking God’s commandment.

7: 1 - 8:3 - Judah (the southern Kingdom) take comfort in the temple while breaking God’s commandment.

Jeremiah 7:3–4 ESV

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

1-7 : These verse show that people trust in the temple to save them.

8- 15 - They offer sacrifices to Baal and other gods and then come to the temple.

Jeremiah 7:16 ESV

“As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you.

16-20 : God will no longer hear Jeremiah’s prayer on behalf of the people, called intercessory prayer because it intercedes.

Jeremiah 7:31 ESV

And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.

God’s chosen people are sacrificing their children to false god’s.

Little

8:4 - 17 - Rejecting the Torah

8: 18 - 9:9 - living deceitfully

9:10 - 26: grieving the prophet

10:1 - 16: engaging in idolatry

10:17 - 25: Exile awaits these rebels of God

Closing Message:Fear the Lord, do not neglect His warnings in your individual life.