The Broken Covenant

As members of a society, people are bound to each other by legal contracts and personal relationships.

A contract prevents a tenant from breaking a lease, right?

And it gives the power to the owner the option of pursuing legal action if the tenant were to break the lease, right?

A contract protects a company, right, that provides services that ensures that it gets paid by its clients.

And a contract likewise binds the citizens to their government so that breaking certain laws can get them jailed.

A contract is legal but not necessarily personal, right?

You can be a legal citizen of the United States, for example, but be highly unpatriotic and feel no relationship to it.

So on the one hand, our lives are governed by contracts.

On the other hand, our lives are governed by relationships.

A relationship is what keeps you going back to the same barber over and over again for a bad haircut, right?

A relationship makes you call a group of friends to go out to movies together, right?

A relationship makes you go out on dates with someone.

A relationship is personal but not necessarily legal.

Relationships are not legally enforced like contracts.

Then there's the third category, the divinely instituted covenants.

A covenant is something that God ordains and sanctions, and it is enduring and legally binding like a contract,

but it's also intimately personal and affectionate like a relationship.

A marriage, for example, is a covenant.

It's entered into before God and is binding for life, yet it is also voluntary and relational.

It's characterized by love and affection.

Similarly, the church is formed around the covenant.

Throughout Scripture, God describes his relationship with his people as a covenant.

And because a covenant is both legal and personal, breaking it is all the more wicked and wrong.

It makes you a lawbreaker and a promisebreaker.

It makes you a rebel and a renegade.

So Judah had repeatedly violated their covenant with God.

And so in Jeremiah 11 through 13, which is our passage for today,

we see both the legal and personal consequences of their sins.

And through it, we learn that God is righteous to punish sinners,

yet gracious to restore them through Jesus Christ.

That's the main point of this passage.

That God is righteous to punish sinners, yet gracious to restore them through Jesus Christ.

First, we're going to see the disregarded promise in chapter 11, verses 1 to 17.

And then we'll see a disillusioned prophet in chapter 11, verse 18 to chapter 12, verse 17.

And then lastly, we'll see the damaged pride of Judah in chapter 13.

God first recounts the covenant that he had entered into with Judah in verses 2 to 5 of chapter 11.

Follow along with me in your Bibles.

It says in chapter 11, verses 2 to 5,

Hear the words of this covenant and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel.

Cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant that I commanded your fathers

when I brought them out of the land of Egypt from the iron furnace, saying,

Listen to my voice and do all that I command you.

So shall you be my people, and I will be your God,

that I may confirm the oath that I swore to your fathers,

to give them a land flowing with milk and honey as at this day.

Then I answered, So be it, Lord.

There is a threefold repetition of the word hear and listen in these verses.

First, in verse 2, God commands the people of Judah to hear the words of this covenant now.

And then in verse 3, God confirms the oath that their forefathers had made

by saying, Cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant that I command your fathers

when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.

And then he says, Listen to my voice and do all that I command you.

So God's reminding them of the covenant that they made with him after being rescued out of Egypt.

It's a covenant that God's people made through Moses on Mount Sinai.

And that the heart of that covenant, the main obligation and command was to listen to the Lord,

to hear him, because Judah was his special exclusive possession.

But they did not hear the words of this covenant or do them.

God says in verses 7 to 8,

I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt,

warning them persistently even to this day, saying, Obey my voice.

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, obey is the same Hebrew word as hear or listen.

So you did not obey or incline their ear.

Yet they did not obey or incline their ear.

But everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart.

Therefore, I brought upon them all the words of this covenant,

which I commanded them to do.

But they did not.

You can see kind of how the punishment fits the offense.

Because they did not hear the commands of the covenant.

Now they will bear the curses of the covenant.

The covenant that did not keep will come upon them and punish them.

And their stubbornness in doing evil is described in verse 9,

metaphorically as a conspiracy, right?

It's a form of mutiny, a treason.

They conspired against their gracious master who had given them every blessing that they enjoy.

They rebelled against their benevolent king who had taken care of them

and has been unwaveringly and steadfastly committed to them.

Yet instead of following him, they turned against God.

And it says in verse 10 that they turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers.

Refused to hear my words.

And this is how they broke the covenant that I made with their fathers.

That's what God says here in verse 10.

Therefore, he says in verses 11 to 14, he pronounces disaster on them.

And he tells them that he will not listen to them.

Just as they have not listened to him or obeyed him, he will no longer listen to them.

In addition to that, he tells Jeremiah, his prophet and representative, to not pray for them

because if he prays for them, he will not listen when they call to him in time of trouble.

So again, their punishment fits the crime.

Those who refuse to listen to God will not be listened to by the Lord.

Then as God continues his verdict in verses 16 to 17,

he interestingly refers to himself in the third person as the Lord.

So look at the verses 16 to 17.

That's a literary device called eleism where the speaker refers to himself in the third person

in order to create a sense of distance from the hearers or the readers and a sense of dignity.

So that's kind of to convey the fact that this is a personage that's not supposed to be dealt with lightly,

that he is grand, that he is of dignity.

That's, for example, how in the Gallic Wars written by Julius Caesar,

he refers to himself consistently in the third person.

The he, the Julius Caesar, right?

William Shakespeare also uses this device to refer to multiple characters

and he makes them refer to themselves in the third person.

Of course, when a man does this, he's being conceited and self-important, right?

But God is justified when he does this because he's the one being in the universe

who is glorious and deserves to be glorified.

And so he says this,

Do you feel that kind of distance and dignity, right, from that third person usage, right?

Because by using the third person, there's a sense of finality about what God is doing.

The Lord has decided this and there's nothing you can do about it.

And then at the end of verse 7, when describing their specific against the Lord,

God returns to the first person to convey just how personal their sins are toward him.

He says,

They provoked me to anger by making offerings to Baal, right?

When a wife catches her husband committing adultery or looking at pornography,

it doesn't matter how much he insists, saying,

This is nothing personal.

This is just my lust, my addiction.

It's me.

Don't worry about it.

It doesn't have anything to do with you.

It doesn't reflect on how beautiful you are or how desirable you are.

It doesn't matter how much the husband says that.

The offense is personal.

And in a real way, it affects the wife.

In the same way, every sin committed against God is deeply personal.

Judah can't say,

Oh God, it's nothing personal.

We brought you offerings in the temple too.

We just need to make sure that we bring offerings to Baal also

to make sure that our lands are fruitful and that our families are fertile.

Nonsense.

Idolatry is always personal.

And God says,

You provoked me to anger by making offerings to Baal.

And God's punishment is just and fair.

And that's conveyed by the repetition of the Hebrew word that means evil.

You see the words, the words consumed, disaster, evil in verses 16 to 17.

They're all actually variations, the same Hebrew word that means evil.

So if you were to translate that to show that, it will be like,

You will be consumed by evil, for the Lord has decreed evil against you

because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done.

As they have done, it will be done to them, not more, not less.

Evil will befall evildoers.

Divine justice is exact and exacting.

God is righteous to punish sinners.

And that's the first point, the broken covenant.

And because of Judah's disregarded promise, right,

they disregarded the promise that they made to the Lord,

we see a portrait of a disillusioned prophet in the following verses

who has to announce God's judgment.

As God's representative, Jeremiah, whether he likes it or not,

he encounters the same refusal and rejection that God faces

and experiences from his own people.

And so Jeremiah says in verses 18 to 20 of chapter 11,

The Lord made it known to me, and I knew.

Then you showed me their deeds, but I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.

I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying,

Let us destroy the tree with its fruit.

Let us cut him off from the land of the living,

that his name be remembered no more.

But O Lord of hosts who judges righteously,

who tests the heart and the mind,

let me see your vengeance upon them,

for to you have I committed my cause.

So some people had apparently devised schemes against Jeremiah.

They didn't want to hear any more of Jeremiah's message of doom and judgment,

and they decided that the best way to silence him is to kill him

by destroying the tree with its fruit.

And especially since Jeremiah was unmarried and childless,

this would ensure that he is cut off from the land of the living

and his name be remembered no more.

It would put an end to Jeremiah and his prophetic ministry once and for all.

But as they were scheming this, God alerted Jeremiah of this,

and we could see how surprised Jeremiah was,

because he says in verse 19,

but I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.

I did not know it was against me they devised schemes.

Jeremiah, as a prophet for the people,

he loved the people of Judah.

He sincerely believed that he was serving them

by announcing God's impending judgment

and calling them to repentance.

And yet, unbeknownst to him,

these very people for whom Jeremiah labored tirelessly

were plotting to kill him.

Jeremiah was like a gentle lamb,

which, though it's being led to the slaughter,

neither protests nor resists,

because it is completely unaware of what is happening.

Then, in verses 21 to 23,

Jeremiah gives us more details about this scheme.

And it's surprising.

Verse 21,

Therefore, thus says the Lord,

concerning the men of Anathoth,

who seek your life,

and say,

Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord,

or you will die by our hand.

Shockingly,

the people who plotted to kill Jeremiah

were the men of Anathoth,

Jeremiah's hometown,

the village he came from.

They had apparently threatened him,

If you prophesy in the name of the Lord,

you will die by our hand.

But the Lord hears of this,

and it's not Jeremiah that will die,

but they,

because God intervenes on behalf of his servants.

He says,

Behold, I will punish them.

The young men shall die by the sword.

Their sons and their daughters shall die by famine,

and none of them shall be left.

For I will bring disaster upon the men of Anathoth,

the ear of their punishment.

The men who told Jeremiah that he would die by their hands

will instead die by the Lord's hand.

This may seem shocking to us,

but in the ancient Near East,

much like the modern Middle East,

and much of Asia really,

has a shame culture.

And bringing shame upon one's own family or tribe

is considered a capital offense.

And sometimes members of the same family

in the ancient Near East

would send members of their own household

out to avenge the honor of the family

by killing off the offending member.

And that seems to be what is happening here

is that Jeremiah was notorious

throughout all the land

for his message of judgment,

his prophetic ministry.

And this unpopular message

brought great shame

on his own hometown of Anathoth.

And these men decided

that they better kill him

and make do good on the threat

that they had made to him.

And can you imagine

how Jeremiah was feeling?

I mean, obviously,

this is the very foundation

of ancient society,

that village,

that community,

that family.

And he's basically being cut out

from that very fabric society

that was holding that community together.

He's losing everything.

He has no support,

no community,

no fallback plan.

And Jeremiah is so disillusioned by this,

he complains to God

in chapter 12,

verses 1 to 4.

Righteous are you, O Lord,

when I complain to you.

Yet I would plead my case before you.

Why does the way of the wicked prosper?

Why do all who are treacherous thrive?

You plant them,

and they take root.

They grow and produce fruit.

You are near in their mouth

and far from their heart.

But you,

you, O Lord,

know me.

You see me

and test my heart toward you.

Pull them out like sheep

for the slaughter

and set them apart

for the day of slaughter.

How long will the land mourn

and the grass of every field wither?

For the evil of those who dwell in it,

the beasts and the birds are swept away

because they said,

he will not see our latter end.

If you recall what I read earlier,

chapter 11,

verses 18 to 23,

and then kind of put that side by side

with chapter 12,

verses 1 to 4,

they mirror each other.

There's a lot of parallels

between those passages.

And they together reveal

the mixed emotions

that Jeremiah is feeling.

Because in 11, 19,

Jeremiah said,

I was like a gentle lamb

led to the slaughter.

But then in chapter 12,

verse 3,

he says,

pull them out like sheep

for the slaughter.

Right?

He's being led to the slaughter

like a gentle lamb,

but he said,

they're the ones

who should be slaughtered,

not me.

And then in chapter 11,

verse 20,

Jeremiah said to God,

I commit my cause to you.

But to the Lord

who tests the heart

and the mind.

But then in chapter 12,

verses 1 to 3,

he cries out,

yet I would plead my case

before you.

O Lord,

you know me,

you see me,

and test my heart

toward you.

Right?

So you, Lord,

see my heart,

test my heart,

so now I ask you

to test my heart

and come to my aid.

And then again,

in chapter 11,

verse 19,

Jeremiah said that

these men of Anathos

schemed among themselves,

saying,

let us destroy the tree

with its fruit.

But then in chapter 12,

verse 2,

Jeremiah complains,

you plant them

and they take root

and they grow

and produce fruit.

These evil men

who plot to cut me off

and destroy all my fruit,

they're the ones

who should be cut off

and without fruit.

But you, Lord,

plant them.

You make them take root

and they grow

and bear fruit.

What in the world, God?

These perils highlight

the paradox

that Jeremiah

is experiencing

and dealing with.

Lord, look at

what's happening here.

Do you realize

that I am the one

that's on your team?

I am the one

that's faithful to you

and I'm the one

that's here languishing

while these men

with murderous intents

are thriving.

Here am I

about to be killed

for your sake

while these killers

live on.

Are you even

seeing this, Lord?

That's the classic

problem of evil,

isn't it?

If you really are good,

God,

why is there evil

in this world?

If you really are just,

God,

why is there injustice

in the world?

It's okay to wrestle

with that kind of question

as long as you're

wrestling sincerely

and in faith

in the same way

Jeremiah is.

Notice how he

wrestles with this.

He does not

ask this question

to God

from a place

of presumption

and pride,

but he asks

this question to God

from a place

of faith-seeking

understanding.

Look at chapter 12,

verse 1.

Righteous are you,

O Lord,

when I complain to you,

yet I would plead

my case before you.

Jeremiah is not saying,

God,

you are wrong

and I am right,

so you are either

a wicked God

or you do not exist

at all.

Right?

That's the attitude

of many people

who use the problem

of evil

as an objection

against God.

But Jeremiah

doesn't do that.

He says,

I know you are

righteous, O Lord.

I know you are

in the right.

I don't question

or challenge

that you are in the right,

but Lord,

I don't understand it.

I believe you, Lord,

but now help me

to see.

It's faith

seeking understanding.

That's the place

upon which we are

to wrestle with God

and ask the sincere

questions we have.

And God's response

in verses 5 to 6

is surprising

and fascinating.

He says,

If you have raced

with men on foot

and they have wearied you,

how will you compete

with horses?

And if in a safe land

you are so trusting,

what will you do

in the thicket

of the Jordan?

For even your brothers

and the house

of your father,

even they have dealt

treacherously with you.

They are in full cry

after you.

Do not believe them,

do they speak

friendly words

to you?

The word trusting,

there's a second

less common definition

of that Hebrew word

and it means

falling or stumbling.

That's probably

the better translation

of that.

That's in fact

how the New International

Version translates it.

Verse 5,

it says,

If you stumble

in safe country,

how will you manage

in the thickets

by the Jordan?

So basically,

God's making an argument

from the lesser

to the greater.

God's saying,

If you can't even

compete with men,

how will you race horses?

If you can't even manage

in your safe homeland,

how will you manage

in the thickets

in the Jordan?

The thickets of the Jordan

were known to be treacherous,

difficult to navigate,

and lions were known

to dwell there.

And so basically,

God's saying that

things are going to get

even harder, Jeremiah.

God doesn't backpedal

and try to justify

himself to Jeremiah

because he doesn't need to.

He is God

and he's in the right

and it is his

sovereign prerogative

to do what he wishes.

But so instead,

he tries to enlarge

Jeremiah's perspective.

You think the persecution

that you're facing now

is evil?

You think that your

current suffering

is intense?

There's more in store.

You are ruffled

by the little plot

of your own villagers.

What will you do

when the entire

Babylonian empire

invades Judah

and threatens you?

What will you do

when you are exiled

out of Judah

among the pagan nations?

What will you do

when you are dealing

not with treacherous villagers

but with a hostile

foreign army?

Seems a little bit

harsh, right?

But it's actually

a very helpful

perspective to have

because often

when we are suffering,

we get tunnel vision,

don't we?

We fixate

on our own sufferings

and we let them,

our own sufferings,

dominate our thoughts

and feelings.

We become self-focused

and lose perspective

so that our relatively

small problems

loom large

in our minds

and feel like

the biggest problems

in the whole wide world.

And when that happens,

we wallow in self-pity

and lose the ability

to be concerned

for others.

So by answering

Jeremiah in this manner,

God jolts Jeremiah

out of his self-focus

and self-pity.

And then,

in verses 7 to 13,

God reminds Jeremiah

that he will

be wicked

in the land.

When it comes to God,

justice delayed

is not justice denied

because his judgments

and his timing

are perfect.

God says this

in verses 7 to 13,

I have forsaken my house,

I have abandoned

my heritage,

I have given

the beloved of my soul

into the hands

of her enemies.

My heritage

has become to me

like a lion

in the forest.

She has lifted up

her voice against me,

therefore I hate her.

Is my heritage to me

like a hyena's lair?

Are the birds of prey

against her all around?

Go, assemble

all the wild beasts,

bring them to devour.

Many shepherds

have destroyed my vineyard,

they have trampled

down my portion,

they have made

my pleasant portion

a desolate wilderness.

They have made

a desolation,

desolate it mourns to me.

The whole land

is made desolate

but no man

lays it to heart.

The nouns

that God uses here

to describe Judah

are intimate

and personal, right?

He calls them

my house,

my dwelling place,

my family,

my home.

Then three times

he calls them

my heritage,

meaning that Judah

is his inheritance

and special possession.

twice he calls them

my portion

and once he calls it

my vineyard.

But then when you take

these affectionate nouns,

terms,

and you pair them

with the verbs

that are used,

there is this stark contrast

because God says

he has forsaken them,

abandoned them,

given them over

to their enemies

and hated them.

These jarring images,

these pairings,

convey the fact

that it pains God

to punish his people.

Much like a father

who hates having

to discipline his son

but does so out of love

in order to correct

and teach him,

God cherishes his people

yet he must forsake them.

He is for them

yet he must oppose them.

God loves them

yet he must treat them

with hatred.

Judah has become

a hyena's lair

and the birds of prey

are circling above them

all around.

The hyenas

already have a reputation

for being scavengers,

especially the type of hyenas

that live in the Middle East,

the striped hyenas.

But then on top of that,

the birds of prey,

vultures,

are also hovering over them

to consume whatever is left.

So this really is an image,

a very grim image

of complete death

and devastation.

And it's so bad.

Four times

in verses 10 to 11 alone,

Judah is described

as desolate,

desolate,

desolate,

desolation.

The shepherds

who represent the rulers

have destroyed Judah,

have reduced it

to a wasteland.

But

God will not discipline

his people forever.

And verses 14 to 17

offer a glimmer of hope

and I'll expand on this later

but for now

I'll just read it

and go by it.

Read verses 14 to 17

of chapter 12 with me.

Thus says the Lord

concerning all my evil neighbors

who touched the heritage

that I have given my people

Israel to inherit.

Behold,

I will pluck them up

from their land.

I will pluck up

the house of Judah

from among them.

And after I pluck them up,

I will again

have compassion on them.

And I will bring them again

each to his heritage

and each to his land.

And it shall come to pass

if they will diligently

learn the ways

of my people

to swear by my name

as the Lord lives,

even as they taught

my people to swear by Baal.

Then they shall be built up

in the midst of my people.

But if any nation

will not listen,

then I will utterly

pluck it up

and destroy it,

declares the Lord.

All those neighboring nations

who have violated

God's heritage

too will be punished

by God

for their wickedness.

And God will

eventually pluck out

his people

from their lands,

from their exile

and restore them

to their heritage.

And even though

God's punishment

of Judah is severe,

his intention

we see here

is not to destroy

them completely

but to discipline them

and restore them.

So God promises

I will again

have compassion on them

and I will bring them again

each to his heritage

and each to his own land.

But not only,

this is not limited

to God's people

because he will,

not only will he

save his own people

at that point

in time in the future,

he will also offer

salvation to those

from the foreign nations

who forsake their idols

and diligently learn

the ways of God's people.

But nations

that refuse to listen

will be utterly

plucked up

and destroyed.

So we saw here

the picture,

the profile

of a broken,

a disillusioned prophet.

And now finally

in the last chapter

we see

the damaged pride

of Judah.

Why is God doing this?

In chapter 13

verses 1 to 12,

God commands Jeremiah

to perform

a symbolic act,

a prophetic act

that will represent

the damaged pride

of Judah.

He says to Jeremiah

in verse 1,

chapter 13,

go and buy

a linen loincloth

and put it around

your waist

and do not dip it

in water.

Linen loincloth

that is never

dipped in water

means that it's

never been washed.

It's clean

and it's dry,

it's brand new.

And even if,

because even if

it's just one wash,

when you wash linen

you could tell right away,

right, it's not brand new.

And so he wants,

God wants to make sure

that Jeremiah purchases

and wear something

that is brand new.

And the Old Testament

prophets traditionally

wore these kind of

coarse cloths

and a coarse tunic

and they wore

kind of a cloak

made of hair over it,

kind of a rough,

kind of wild looking

really attire.

And because of that,

and because the linen

loincloth

was a priestly garment,

for example,

it says in Leviticus 16,

that priests are supposed

to put on a linen coat,

a linen undergarment,

a linen sash,

and a linen turban.

Everything was linen.

So they're like,

they look rich

and they look like

they're part of the nobility,

right,

unlike the prophets.

So for a prominent

and recognizable prophet

like Jeremiah

to put on

a priestly garment

made of linen

would have stuck out

like a sore thumb

among the people

in their community.

So they would have

recognized him,

it would have been

kind of a spectacle

to behold.

Man, what is this guy doing?

He's in his right mind.

He's wearing a priestly tunic.

And then verse 3,

at a later time,

it says the word of God

came to him again.

The word of God

came to Jeremiah

a second time.

And this time,

God says in verse 4,

take the lowing cloth

that you have bought,

which is around your waist,

and arise,

go to the Euphrates,

and hide it there

in a cleft of the rock.

The Euphrates River

was about 350 miles

northeast of Anathos,

Jeremiah's hometown.

So a round trip

in those days

would have taken

about three months.

So Jeremiah's

extended disappearance

certainly would have

attracted the attention

of the men of Anathoth,

especially because

they were already annoyed

by his constant preaching

about judgment.

And because the linen

lowing cloth

had been an object

of community gossip,

and he was so out of place,

when he returned

after three months

of disappearance

without the lowing cloth,

that would have also

been a talking point,

and people would have

been aware of it.

Then in verses 6-7 says,

After many days

the Lord said to me,

Arise, go to the Euphrates,

and take from there

the lowing cloth

that I commanded you

to hide there.

Then I went to the Euphrates

and dug,

and I took the lowing cloth

from the place

where I had hidden it.

And behold,

the lowing cloth

was spoiled.

It was good for nothing.

And then God explains

what all this was about

in verses 9-11.

Thus says the Lord,

Even so will I spoil

the pride of Judah

and the great pride

of Jerusalem.

This evil people

who refuse to hear my words,

who stubbornly follow

their own heart

and have gone after

other gods to serve them

and worship them,

they shall be like

this lowing cloth

which is good for nothing.

For as the lowing cloth

clings to the waist

of a man,

so I made the whole

house of Israel

and the whole house

of Judah cling to me,

declares the Lord,

that they might be

for me a people,

a name,

a praise,

and a glory,

but they would not listen.

When God first made

his covenant

with his people

in Exodus 19-6,

he told them

that you shall be

a kingdom of priests

and the priesthood

and the temple

were the points

of pride

for Judah and Israel

and so the priestly

linen garment,

the loincloth

that Jeremiah placed

around his waist

represent God's people.

They were supposed

to cling to him,

to belong to him,

and to represent

his name,

a people,

and for his praise

and glory,

but they refused

to listen to him.

And also,

both the Assyrian Empire

and the Babylonian Empire

are in the direction

of the Euphrates River.

So the Euphrates

represents the corrupting

influence and idolatry

of these nations.

Having spent too much time

with the nations,

Judah,

the new,

fresh,

and clean linen

loincloth,

bought specially

for God himself,

has been ruined,

spoiled,

good for nothing.

Then,

in verses 12 to 14,

God repurposes

a popular saying

that was probably

thrown about in parties.

Every jar shall be

filled with wine.

It sounds like something

that the host of a party

would say, right?

Or a guest

that loves to drink

would say,

let's party it up,

fill all the glass,

let no glass be empty.

Let every jar

be filled with wine.

But,

God twisted around,

he tells Jeremiah to say,

when people respond,

do we not indeed know

that every jar

will be filled with wine?

Of course.

But then God says,

in verses 13 to 14,

then you shall say to them,

thus says the Lord,

behold,

I will fill

with drunkenness

all the inhabitants

of this land.

The kings who sit

on David's throne,

the priests,

the prophets,

and all the inhabitants

of Jerusalem.

And I will dash them

one against another,

fathers and sons together,

declares the Lord.

I will not pity

or spare

or have compassion

that I should not

destroy them.

It's a shocking twist

of the image

of merriment and partying.

Instead of being

full of cheers,

these people of Judah

will be filled

with drunkenness.

Instead of the clinking

and toasting

of wine glasses,

they will be shattering

and dashing.

God says,

I will not pity

or spare

or have compassion

that I should not

destroy them.

So having proclaimed

God's judgment

with these vivid images,

Jeremiah finally pleads

with his fellow countrymen

in verses 15 to 17.

Hear and give ear.

Be not proud

for the Lord has spoken.

Give glory to the Lord,

your God,

before he brings darkness,

before your feet stumble

on the twilight mountains.

And while you look for light,

he turns it into gloom.

And makes it deep darkness.

But if you will not listen,

my soul will weep in secret

for your pride.

My eyes will weep bitterly

and run down with tears

because the Lord's flock

has been taken captive.

The command to hear

or listen again

is repeated twice

in this passage.

And each time,

it's used in conjunction

with the word pride,

which is repeated

side by side.

Verse 15 says,

Hear and give ear.

Be not proud.

And verse 17 says,

But if you will not listen,

my soul will weep

in secret for your pride.

If the people do not listen,

then Jeremiah will weep

because of their stubborn pride.

This repetition reveals the fact

that it is pride

that prevents people

from listening to God.

It's not because

they can't hear him.

It's because of their pride.

They are like travelers

on the mountains

who are lighthearted

and lightfooted

until suddenly

the light begins to fade

and they lose their way.

Prideful people think

that they know best

so they don't solicit

others' opinions

and they don't listen.

Prideful people think

they can do no wrong

so they do not listen

when they are corrected

or challenged.

In this manner,

the people of Judah

were proud

and refused

to listen to God.

Judah was proud

of its identity,

proud of its heritage,

proud of its knowledge

and this is precisely

why God said earlier

in verse 9,

even so will I spoil

the pride of Judah

and the great pride

of Jerusalem.

Why is this judgment

happening?

Why are these nations

coming to invade Judah?

Because their pride

must be broken down

so that they can finally

hear the Lord

and be the people

that He intended them to be.

God's judgment

will leave Judah

with the damaged pride

like the ruined

loincloth.

And then He mentions

the exile,

how they'll be captive

and then in verse 23,

He mentions

how incorrigible they are.

They're so stubborn,

they cannot be changed.

Verse 23,

He says,

Can the Ethiopian

change his skin

or the leopard

his spots?

Then also,

you can do good

who are accustomed

to do evil.

The answer to the rhetorical

question is no.

Right?

A black man cannot

become a white man

nor vice versa.

A leopard cannot erase

its spotted skin.

If this were possible,

then Judah could change

and do good too.

But as it is,

it's not possible.

So Judah,

which is accustomed

to do evil,

cannot change.

They are beyond

correction.

So God Himself,

He says,

will expose

their shameful sins.

He says in verses 26 to 27,

I myself will lift up

your skirts over your face

and your shame

will be seen.

I have seen

your abominations,

your adulteries

and names,

your lewd whorings

on the hills

in the fields.

Woe to you,

O Jerusalem!

How long will it be

before you are made clean?

God describes

their idolatry

as adultery

and whoring.

Judah had so thoroughly

and repeatedly

broken their covenant

with God.

God had to enforce

the terms of the covenant

by bringing the stipulated

punishments that were there.

And it's important

that we recognize

this heinous nature

of sin

and that's how we have

all sinned against God too.

We are all adulterers.

God has been a kind,

devoted husband to us.

All His thoughts

and actions toward us

have been full of love

and good will.

He has never once

let us down

or cheated on us.

Yet He found us

sleeping with other lovers

brazenly

and repeatedly

like the people of Judah

and like the people of Judah

who presumed that just because

they had the temple

in their midst

that, oh no,

God can't leave us.

His temple is here with us.

In a similar way,

we're like this adulterous wife.

I have this wedding ring.

My husband can never leave me.

And brazenly and repeatedly,

we cheat again and again

and we ignore God's heartfelt call

to return to Him.

That's the true picture of sin

of which we are all guilty.

We have all broken this covenant.

covenant.

So then how can we be restored

to right relationship with God?

How can we mend

this broken covenant?

Actually,

technically speaking,

our situation is even worse than that

because most of us

weren't even part

of the initial covenant

with God

because we're not

ethnic descendants

of Abraham,

Isaac,

and Jacob.

Instead,

we were part of the evil nations

mentioned in chapter 12

verses 14 to 7

that taught Israel and Judah

all their idolatries.

We deserve far worse judgment

than Israel and Judah.

Yet in chapter 12 verse 16,

God extends a lifeline

even to us.

He says,

and He shall come to pass

if they will diligently

learn the ways of My people

to swear by My name

as the Lord lives,

even as they taught

My people to swear by Baal,

then they shall be built up

in the midst of My people.

God promised

that that day will come

when even the people

who were not included

as a part of His covenant

will be invited in

to be included

among God's people.

And that day

came to pass

when the Son of God

became a man

to live among us,

to save us.

When Jesus Christ came

and He lived

a life of perfect obedience

and covenant faithfulness

to God His Father,

and then He died on the cross

not for His own sins,

but for our sins,

for the sins of those people

He came to save.

And then,

when He did not stay dead

in defeat,

but rose victoriously

to give new life

to all those

who would trust in Him,

that's when we have given

this opportunity

to be brought

into the covenant.

Christ is the one

who makes a way

for those who have

broken the covenant

as well as those

who were excluded

from the covenant.

And I'll close

by reading this

from Hebrews 9,

15 to 26.

This is how Christ

fulfilled this.

Therefore,

Christ is the mediator

of a new covenant

so that those

who are called

may receive

the promised

eternal inheritance

since a death

has occurred

that redeems them

from the transgressions

committed under

the first covenant.

Not even the first covenant

was inaugurated

without blood.

For when every commandment

of the law

had been declared

by Moses to all the people,

he took the blood

of calves and goats

with water

and scarlet wool

and hyssop

and sprinkled both

the book itself

and all the people.

Indeed,

under the law

almost everything

is purified with blood

and without the shedding

of blood

there is no forgiveness

of sins.

Thus,

it was necessary

for the copies

of the heavenly things

to be purified

with these rites.

But the heavenly things

themselves

with better sacrifices

than these.

for Christ has entered

not into holy places

made with hands

which are copies

of the true things

but into heaven itself

now to appear

in the presence of God

on our behalf.

Nor was it to offer himself

repeatedly

as the high priest

enters the holy places

every year

with blood not his own

for then he would have

had to suffer repeatedly

since the foundation

of the world

but as it is

he has appeared

once for all

at the end of the ages

to put away sin

by the sacrifice

of himself.

The Old Testament temple

was merely a copy

of heaven

and the sacrifices

of the old covenant

were mere copies

of the ultimate sacrifice

that Christ would make

on the cross.

And so Jesus accomplishes

for us

what Jeremiah

could not accomplish

for Judah.

Jeremiah said

what God said

in chapter 11 verse 15

even sacrificial flesh

can't avert their doom.

What the sacrifice

of animals

could not accomplish

Christ's once

and for all sacrifice

on the cross

accomplishes for us.

Jeremiah was only

threatened with death

to be led like a lamb

to the slaughter

but that same description

is applied to Jesus

in Acts 8 32

because he is

the ultimate

slaughtered lamb

who takes away

the sin

of the world.

we cannot change

ourselves

we cannot save

ourselves

but Christ

has saved us

has died for us

and he's opened up

this new covenant

to all those

who would cling to him.

unfulfilled

to the end