Jeremiah - Lesson 32B

• Chapters 1-23 Review:

  • The LORD called Jeremiah as a prophet to the nations during the last five kings of Judah.

  • The LORD’s warning to His people is to stop worshipping false gods or He will judge them by destruction and exile using a nation from the North, Babylon.

    • The judgment will include the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem.

    • The people are to repent from their evil ways; the leaders are specifically called out for their rejection of the LORD’s covenant and the shedding of innocent blood; the false prophets are called out for misleading the people to believe the LORD would not bring judgment on them.

  • Jeremiah is reviled by the leaders and the people of Judah, but the LORD will protect him.

  • The LORD promises there will not be a complete destruction of His people, as He will provide a Messiah and will bring His people back into the Promised Land in a future time, never to be removed.

    • The words of the LORD are always fulfilled as He is sovereign over His creation.

• Chapters 24-29 Review:

  • Good figs are used to represent the Jews who go into exile and will ultimately be those who become the Jews brought back into the land at a future time. The bad figs represent those who rebel against the judgment the LORD has brought on them through Nebuchadnezzar to last for seventy years.

    • Hypocrisy and false teaching and prophecy plague the LORD’s people justifying the LORD’s judgment on them.

    • Jeremiah continues to experience persecution for bringing the LORD’s truth to His people (like planning to stay for a long time in Babylon) and calling out false prophets. Some of the false prophets are dealt with immediately.

• Chapter 30 Review:

  • The LORD speaks of a future for Judah and Israel that includes first a time of Jacob’s distress followed by a time of regathering and fortunes in the Promised Land. This is an overview of the Tribulation for Israel followed by the Millennial Kingdom ruled by the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

• Chapter 31 introduction

  • The LORD directs words of future promises to His people, beginning with regathering them to their land, ransoming them, and their joy-filled life with Him.

    • Prophecies are given regarding the pain of bereaved Rachel when the Messiah is born.

    • Prophecies regarding the physical regathering of Ephraim (Israel) are given.

    • Prophecies of the Messiah being both deity and man are given.

    • Prophecy of a New Covenant for all Israel in the future with a law put on their heart, not like the Mosaic covenant that was broken but the New Covenant will be kept by all Israel.

  • The LORD will never cease from honoring His people Israel.

• Chapter 32 Jeremiah fulfills his obligation to redeem land from his relative because of the word of the LORD. Jeremiah prays to the LORD acknowledging His sovereign power over His people and the guilt of those people before Him.

Jer. 32:26 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,
Jer. 32:27 “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?”
Jer. 32:28 Therefore thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am about to give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it.
Jer. 32:29 “The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will enter and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses where people have offered incense to Baal on their roofs and poured out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.
Jer. 32:30 “Indeed the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have been doing only evil in My sight from their youth; for the sons of Israel have been only provoking Me to anger by the work of their hands,” declares the LORD.
Jer. 32:31 “Indeed this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My wrath from the day that they built it, even to this day, so that it should be removed from before My face,
Jer. 32:32 because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah which they have done to provoke Me to anger — they, their kings, their leaders, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Jer. 32:33 “They have turned their back to Me and not their face; though I taught them, teaching again and again, they would not listen and receive instruction.
Jer. 32:34 “But they put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.
Jer. 32:35 “They built the high places of Baal that are in the valley of Ben-hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I had not commanded them nor had it entered My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

• Verse 26 The word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah after He has prayed to Him.

• Verse 27 The LORD defines Himself as the God of all flesh.

  • Because He is the God of all flesh the LORD asks a rhetorical question, “is anything too difficult for Me?”

  • Jeremiah already acknowledged nothing is too difficult for the LORD in his prayer.

Jer. 32:17 ‘Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You,

• Verse 28 The LORD demonstrates how He is God of all the flesh by giving Jerusalem into the hands of the Chaldeans and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

  • Jeremiah is to bring this message to the people so they understand this situation is not by chance but is from the LORD.

    • It is not by the power of the Chaldeans or King Nebuchadnezzar.

  • The city of Jerusalem is going to be given over to these powers because it is God’s will and it is only through His power the city of Jerusalem is going to be given over.

  • Conversely it was only by God’s will Jerusalem had not been given over to others in the past.

• Verse 29 The LORD refers to the events on the ground as He gives prophecy of what is about to happen.

  • He says the Chaldeans are currently fighting against the city of Jerusalem.

  • The LORD says they will ultimately enter the city and they will set the city on fire and burn it.

  • What will burn in the city will be the houses where the people offered incense to Baal on their roofs.

    • This picture of the brazen defiance of the people to worship these other gods out in the open before the LORD demonstrates the hardness of the heart of this people.

  • The people also poured out drink offerings to other gods.

    • These were to be His people and the LORD says they did these things to provoke Him to anger.

• Verse 30 The LORD now speaks about His people being the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah.

  • They all have been doing only evil in His sight from their youth.

  • This would be the people individually from their youth but this would also be as a nation from their youth.

  • The second generation after Joshua brought the people into the land left the LORD.

Judg. 2:8 Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of one hundred and ten.
Judg. 2:9 And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
Judg. 2:10 All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.
Judg. 2:11 Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals,
Judg. 2:12 and they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the LORD to anger.
Judg. 2:13 So they forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.

• Verse 10 Second generation did not know the LORD.

  • Verse 11 The sons of Israel served the Baals.

  • Jer. 32: 30 This evil was demonstrated in the work of their hands.

    • They embraced the worship of other gods.

    • They built the altars.

    • They made the cakes and the drink offerings.

    • They made the incense.

    • They made the sacrifices.

    • This now is seen on every rooftop of the houses in Jerusalem.

• Verse 31 The LORD is now declaring the city of Jerusalem has been a provocation of His anger and wrath from the day they built it, continuing to the current day.

  • The result is Jerusalem needs to be removed from before His face.

  • The LORD will not look away; instead, He is going to remove them.

  • The LORD says this provocation was from the day they built the city.

    • The first mention of the time when the sons of Israel were to take Jerusalem was when they entered the land. Josh. 15:63, Judges 1;8, 21.

Josh. 15:63 Now as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the sons of Judah could not drive them out; so the Jebusites live with the sons of Judah at Jerusalem until this day.

Judg. 1:8 Then the sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire.

Judg. 1:21 But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

• The Jebusites cause problems in Jerusalem for King David.

2Sam. 5:5 At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.
2Sam. 5:6 Now the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, and they said to David, “You shall not come in here, but the blind and lame will turn you away”; thinking, “David cannot enter here.”
2Sam. 5:7 Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David.

2Sam. 5:13 Meanwhile David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David.

• David rules from the city of Jerusalem and one of the first things he does is to take multiple wives from Jerusalem.

  • The LORD said this city had been a provocation for His wrath from the beginning.

  • Solomon knew what the LORD established for His people to remain in the land given to them.

1Kings 9:6 “But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,
1Kings 9:7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

• Solomon with this knowledge still did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.

1Kings 11:4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
1Kings 11:5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites.
1Kings 11:6 Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done.
1Kings 11:7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon.
1Kings 11:8 Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
1Kings 11:9 Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,
1Kings 11:10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD had commanded.
1Kings 11:11 So the LORD said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.
1Kings 11:12 “Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
1Kings 11:13 “However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”

• Verse 4 Solomon marries multiple wives.

  • Verse 5 Solomon went after the Ashtoreth and Milcom; he worshipped them.

  • Verse 6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD.

  • Verse 7 Solomon built a high place for Chemosh and for Molech.

  • Verse 9 The LORD is angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD.

  • Verse 10 The LORD had commanded Solomon not to go after other gods, but he did not observe what the LORD had commanded.

  • Verse 13 The LORD is going to give one tribe to a son for the sake of David and the sake of Jerusalem.    

  • Solomon introduced the worship of false gods to Israel through what was done in Jerusalem.

• Jer. 32:31 This is what the LORD is referring to when He says, “This city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My wrath from the day that they built it.”

  • Jerusalem continued to be a haven for the worship of false gods and this is why the city needs to be removed from before the LORD’s face.

• Verse 32 The LORD again identifies it is the evil done by His people that provoked Him to anger; all the people and their leaders.

• Verse 33 The LORD describes His people as turning their back to Him and not their faces.

  • They rejected the LORD by not worshiping Him, or turning their faces to Him.

  • This turning away was in spite of His teaching them what they were to do again and again.

  • This was not a one-time instruction; the LORD continued to reach out to His people through His prophets.

  • His people did not listen to receive His instruction.

• Verse 34 The LORD declares the people put their detestable things in His house.

  • His house was defiled because of this.

2Kings 23:4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.

2Kings 23:6 He brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ground it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.
2Kings 23:7 He also broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the LORD, where the women were weaving hangings for the Asherah.

2Kings 23:12 The altars which were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king broke down; and he smashed them there and threw their dust into the brook Kidron.

• These were the things specific to what was removed from the house of the LORD by Josiah.

  • Jer. 32:35 The LORD’s people built high places to Baal in the valley of Ben-hinnom and sacrificed their sons and daughters there, burning them to Molech.

    • This monstrous deed was not something the LORD had ever commanded His people to do nor had it ever entered His mind.

    • This is an abomination to the LORD.

    • This evil caused Judah to sin.

  • These are also listed among the things Josiah tried to cleanse from Judah.

2Kings 23:13 The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.
2Kings 23:14 He broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with human bones.

• These places were used from the time of Solomon to worship these false gods.

  • The LORD gives a summation of why He is bringing the Chaldeans to burn the city with fire.

  • The people pour out worship to the false gods from their roof tops.

  • The city has been an object of provocation to the LORD from the beginning.

  • All the LORD’s people are guilty from the king, priest, prophets and all the people.

    • They defiled the house of the LORD.

    • They sacrificed their children.

    • This rejection and sin had lasted about 820 years and now everything needs to be burned up and removed! (From 1406 BCE (Joshua’s entry) to 586 BCE (final Babylonian exile) is approximately 820 years.)

Jer. 32:36 “Now therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning this city of which you say, ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine and by pestilence.’
Jer. 32:37 “Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My anger, in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety.
Jer. 32:38 “They shall be My people, and I will be their God;
Jer. 32:39 and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.
Jer. 32:40 “I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.
Jer. 32:41 “I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.
Jer. 32:42 “For thus says the LORD, ‘Just as I brought all this great disaster on this people, so I am going to bring on them all the good that I am promising them.
Jer. 32:43 ‘Fields will be bought in this land of which you say, “It is a desolation, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.”
Jer. 32:44 ‘Men will buy fields for money, sign and seal deeds, and call in witnesses in the land of Benjamin, in the environs of Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland and in the cities of the Negev; for I will restore their fortunes,’ declares the LORD.”

• Verse 36 The LORD speaks of the city Jerusalem as the city that is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, famine and pestilence.

  • The LORD began this word to Jeremiah describing Himself as the God of all flesh Jer. 32:27.

Jer. 32:27 “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?”

• The question was if anything was too difficult for Him to accomplish.

  • The LORD first described how and why He is going to remove the people, the city and the temple in verses 28-35 now He moves to the promises for the future.

• Verse 37  The LORD promises to gather them out of all the lands to which He will drive them.

  • The reference to, ‘all the lands He will drive them’ is broader than just Babylon.

  • This future gathering will come from many lands.

    • The LORD is going to bring them back to this place, the same land He will removed them from.

  • When He brings them back they will dwell in safety.

  • It is clear the LORD is taking about a specific people being removed from a specific land and He will bring back that people (His people) to that land.

    • This has not been done yet so we know this is prophetic and future to the time we live in now.

  • These are not promises that move in the future to being fulfilled by the LORD for the church as replacement theologians teach.

    • Real people, real place, future literally fulfilled.

• Verse 38 The second promise is that they shall be His people and He will be there God.

  • This is not been fulfilled yet so again it is prophetic.

  • The Jews are His people but they do not identify as His people, everyone of them; this is what is promised in the future.

  • The LORD is their God but they do not all acknowledge Him as their God, this is speaking of a future time.

Jer. 32:39 and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

• This verse parallels Jer. 31:33-34

Jer. 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

• Jer. 32:39 I will give them one heart heart  – 31:33 on their heart I will write it.

• Jer. 32:39 and one way  – 31:33 I will put My law

• Jer. 32:39 for their own good   – 31:33 I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

  • Now the parallel to Jer. 31:34.

Jer. 31:34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

• Jer. 32:39 They may fear Me always – 31:34 for they will all know Me

• Jer. 32:39 and for the good of their children after them – 31:34 for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.

  • Verse 40 In this future time the LORD WILL make a covenant with them that is everlasting.

  • This future covenant will be made and the LORD will not turn away from them (as is currently going to happen to Judah, going into exile)

    • The LORD repeats the covenant is to do them good.

    • The reason this future covenant is everlasting is because the LORD will put the fear of Him in their hearts.

    • The fear being put in their hearts is why they will not turn away from Him in this future time (compared to this current time in which they have turned away and worshipped other gods)

• Verse 41 The LORD now defines one of the things He will do for them that is good; that is He will faithfully plant them in this land.

  • This planting of them in the land will be done with all His heart and soul.

  • This is the specific land promise associated with the beginning verses of chapter thirty-two where Jeremiah redeems the land presented to him and seals the deeds for a later time.

  • This is the picture established through Jeremiah of this future promise from the LORD to His people.

• Verse 42 The LORD says just as real as this great disaster He has brought on this people so is the reality of the future when He will fulfill all the promises He has made to His people.

  • This is the hope the LORD brings to His people even as they are going through discipline.

• Verse 43 The current desolation, without man or beast in the land, will be reversed in the future.

  • The land will be desirable.

  • His people will buy fields again in this land.

    • The land is given in the hand of the Chaldeans for now.

    • There will be a day when His people will control the land again.

  • This is a subtle picture of the times of the Gentiles.

  • This time of the Gentiles is ushered in by the LORD turning over control of Jerusalem to the Chaldeans, a Gentile nation.

    • Jerusalem will remain under Gentile influence until the work He is doing with His people is completed.

Luke 21:24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

• Jer. 32:44 The LORD describes details of what the control of the land will be like in this future.

  • His people will buy fields for money.

  • They will sign and seal deeds.

  • They will call in witnesses.

    • In Benjamin, Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, the hill country, lowlands and the Negev.

    • Benjamin may be listed first as the end of the chapter ties back to Jeremiah buying land, that parcel of land happened to be in the area belonging to the tribe of Benjamin.

  • The LORD will restore their fortunes.

    • These promises for the future involve a people with self-determination.

    • They will have a form of monetary exchange.

    • They will have the legal organizations to issue deeds of the land.

    • They will have the authority over the land to call in their own witnesses not seek permission from others.

  • The LORD includes the specifics of the land where these promises will be fulfilled.

    • These are not promises to be spiritualized, they are literal promises concerning a people and a land.

• Jerusalem today is effectively under Gentile dominion.

  • Many embassies are located in Tel Aviv because there are countries and international organizations that do not acknowledge East Jerusalem being under Israeli sovereign control.

  • Muslim influence over the Temple Mount prevent Jews from freely praying there.

  • There is currently Jordanian oversight of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock.

  • There are multiple Christian organization that share control of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

    • The old city is divided into sections with different entities controlling the sections:

    • The Jewish quarter.

    • The Armenian quarter.

    • The Muslim quarter

    • The Christian quarter

• The promises made by the LORD for full Jewish control of the land as given in these scriptures has not been fulfilled yet but the LORD’s promises are always fulfilled in perfection and that is still to be experienced in the future.

  • The LORD has the power to destroy Jerusalem and to rebuild it exactly how He has declared.

  • The LORD displayed great patience with His people in waiting so long to bring judgment on them.

    • This is the same God Paul draws our hearts to, demonstrating patience and long-suffering with us.

1Tim. 1:15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.
1Tim. 1:16 Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.
1Tim. 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

• Verse 15 Christ came to save sinners.

  • Paul testifies he was a sinner.

• Verse 16 The fact that Paul acknowledged his sin was the reason he found mercy.

  • This mercy is demonstrated through the patience of Jesus Christ.

  • The demonstration of this mercy is an example to believers.

• Jesus granted His mercy through patience is the example for believers to follow meaning we are to demonstrate patience as an example of mercy.

  • Patience is the action to be displayed.

  • Mercy is then displayed to others.