Sin always has a payday

 Jeremiah 33:4-12

Sin always has a payday, and we, like the people of Judah have a problem with the word “All.”  God has a requirement, and it is found in Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  And it is also found in Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27, and it was Jesus telling us to do so.  What is not said is you shall love the LORD your God when you are in the temple, at church, all can be replaced with the word entirely, and anything less than all has no value.

Often, when addressing the area of God’s righteousness, we want to see God’s mercy, His everlasting love, but not His anger, not His discipline.  Could it be that we fully understand it is mercy, not justice we are in need of?  I bet you, like me and like the people of Judah have an understanding of how the “All” is often missing in our daily lives.  In verses 4-5, the people and the King’s desire is to save Jerusalem, even to the point of tearing down the king’s house for the stone to plug holes in the wall.  But as often is the case, we will not listen when God sends preachers, and others to warn us of the coming disaster of our sins, and now the city is going to be filled with the corpses of Judah’s citizens.

If you are a dad, let me ask you this question; did you ever enjoy punishing your child for being rebellious, and we who sin have no understanding of the pain it brings to a Holy God.  The Babylonian’s are going to carry off the brightest and those who have talents, even the king and his court.  And God in His mercy is going to bring healing to those who are left, and to those who are carried off at a time in the future.  It does not seem to be the seventy years when Cyrus allows them to return or even 1948 when Israel once more became a nation.  

No, it seems this is talking about a time yet to happen, so listen to verses 8-12, “I will purify them from all the wrongs they have committed against Me, and I will forgive all the wrongs they have committed against Me, rebelling against Me. This city will bear on My behalf a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I will do for them. They will tremble with awe because of all the good and all the peace I will bring about for them.

“This is what the Lord says: In this place, which you say is a ruin, without man or beast—that is, in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets that are a desolation without man, without inhabitant, and without beast—there will be heard again a sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride, and the voice of those saying,

Praise the Lord of Hosts, for the Lord, is good; His faithful love endures forever

as they bring thank offerings to the temple of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as in former times, says the Lord.“This is what the Lord of Hosts says: In this desolate place—without man or beast—and in all its cities there will once more be a grazing land where shepherds may rest flocks.”

A new covenant is established, and the Messiah has consummated what we call the last days, it is an everlasting covenant.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

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Taking Ownership of what is Taught

Jeremiah 33:1-3

“The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard: “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

I have no doubt I’ve heard this sermon many times in my 74 years that we have been apart of hearing teaching, and I bet it is the same with many of you.  But listening to a sermon or sitting in class where the subject is being discussed and taking ownership of it are very different things.  Neither you nor I would ever get on a plane that we believed would not reach its destination.  We would not enter a business deal with a person who we knew would not fulfill the commitment they promised, would we? 

Most of us have made statements like; God is good, all the time, God is a promise keeper, all the time, God cannot lie, God is faithful, yet often our prayers are not in keeping with these words.  Does that trouble you as much as it does me, at the writing of this paper to grasp that I’m not close to being the person Jeremiah was?

Jeremiah is in the prison of the king of Judah, and it seems all is lost, for God has spoken to Jeremiah about what He in His anger against the sins of His people is going to do, and it is all coming to a head.  We are not being imprisoned by the king's guards, but have we been taken captive by the culture we live in?  Do we have no understanding of the impossibility of keeping one foot in the world and the other in the kingdom of our Christ? 

When we come to the understanding of our need, yes we all have needs; we want a quick fix that is our culture.  But it's not going to happen for we are a double-minded people; we have no hunger or thirst for the righteousness that requires us to stop trying to appease a Holy God with our foolish efforts.  Jesus is clear in Matthew 5:6, first we come to an understanding that we have broken lives and take our broken life to the LORD and leave it for Him to fix.  That’s a first step, agreement with the Father that we are broken, and the world's super glue does not work.  Ask for a God-given hunger and thirst for righteousness, and receive what Jesus has promised, the peace only He can give.

It is my understanding that is what God is asking His children to do; “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Impossible to Obey

Jeremiah 32:16-44

Obedience without questions is very common in the military for one is trained to follow orders.  But is it not a very different thing in your home with children, often we have been asked why, and what about in your business life?  How does that play out in your walk of obedience to Christ?

Remember Jeremiah is a believer of God, a prophet, so like you and I followers of God, he has come to this understanding found in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  So before Jeremiah ask the question, he does a review of God’s greatness to Israel and Judah, but it’s not to inform God, but to remind him of whose he is and to whom he is addressing the question.

The Question: “Yet you, O Lord GOD, have said to me, “Buy the field for money and get witnesses”—though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.”  Jeremiah in verses 26-35 is going back over the information God has given him, and the reason for what is going to take place, but to this point there is nothing more than God telling him to buy the field, and we find in Scripture that, “the just will walk by faith.”  Faith is confidence in the object of what one has put faith in, or as my dear friend Carroll Ray Jr. often said; “it is acting like Jesus tells the truth.”  So one’s actions are in agreement with the words of Jesus, or His commands, that is what Jeremiah is doing.

Often we make a poor decision especially in the area of investments, and it bugs us, and it seems it is also troubling Jeremiah over the purchase of the field God has instructed him to buy.  So in verses 36-44, the LORD is saying; Jeremiah it was a good use of your money, trust Me.  And then God shares six promises with him; #1, He is going to gather His people from the lands where they were driven.  # 2. They will live in safety under God’s protection, # 3. The LORD declares they will be my people and I will be their God.  # 4. He is going to give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever.  # 5. God promised an everlasting covenant with them, and # 6. And that they will be His delight and they will be planted in this land in faithfulness, so Jeremiah’s investment in doing what God has instructed is a sure thing. 

As a follower of Christ it is essential we grasp what Jesus is telling us in John 15:5, without abiding in Christ it is impossible to obey when His ways just do not add up to our understanding.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

A Boy's Calling

Jeremiah 32:1-15

One must remember Jeremiah was just a young boy when God called him into the prophecy business.  Being a prophet of God is not a natural calling your job is to tell self-centered people, kings, leaders, and even the people you have grown up around what God is saying to them.  How tough is that job, I cannot imagine what that would be like, can you?  Have you returned to a high school reunion after 40 years of not seeing people, they do not want to know about what you have become, they talk as if you are still a teenager in High School, doing the same foolishness of your youth?

Can you understand Jeremiah’s predicament he is a prisoner of King Zedekiah of Judah, and held in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king.  Now a lot is happening on the outside of the walls of Jerusalem, a Chaldean army has setup siege mounds and is about to enter the city and do great harm.

If you are wondering how did a man of God get into this mess, the Lord arranged it, and though the message was not heard at this time it would be at a later date, and it still is.  The message that brought about Jeremiah’s imprisonment was directed to the king.  “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it; Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. And he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the Lord. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’?”

What happens when God does not make sense?  For the nominal prophet or church person, they begin to use reason and not obedience, and they will never proclaim what God has said.  But Jeremiah was not that kind of prophet when God spoke he not only listened, he was a compared to a recording; “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel.”  In a land that was at any time going to fall into the hands of the king of Babylon, God tells Jeremiah to buy his uncle’s land in Anathoth.  Now using sound mind or common sense one would say, I’m not sure where that is coming from, but there is no way God is telling me to pay real money for a land that is about to be taken away.

But God, how I’ve learned to cherish those words, for this was such a moment in the life of Jeremiah.  For Jeremiah knew something many of us have yet to grasp, one who does not abide in the LORD will never be obedient to His voice, or His word.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

The trip of a lifetime

Jeremiah 31:31-40

Do you enjoy looking forward to a great vacation, the trip of a lifetime, if so you are going to enjoy this paper?  The trip planner is God and it is not going to happen tomorrow, or the next day or month, not even years, it’s what you would refer to as in the future.  The Lord declares - “Then I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them”—the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”

Maybe some of you have struggled with books like Hosea in the Bible, where God instructs Hosea; “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”  Hosea did not have a chance of Gomer his wife being faithful, but one would have hoped she would, once she understood what Hosea had done for her.  But like Israel, and like so many of us in the Church we have turned from the One who extended grace to run after other loves, loves that could not fulfill our needs.

This new covenant is going to take place with the house of Israel after those days.  This trip has not happened at this time, but it is a done deal from heavens view, but on earth, it is still future, and no man knows the actual timeline.  But the old covenant was written on a stone tablet that was external, and God is promising the new covenant will be internal, written on the hearts of His people.

If you are in the priest or preacher business, you are going to be out of work, if you are a teacher of Scripture, you no longer are employed, for everyone from the least to the greatest will know the Lord.  And God has declared: “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”  It is imperative that one understands that God who is all knowing and sees all is making a choice not to recall, not to remember their sins or ours.  It is also important for all who are in Christ to understand this truth, and to know that it is not the Holy Spirit that is bringing up past sins that you have confessed, it is the one Jesus calls the thief.

In verses 35-37, God is reminding Israel of His creation and that in Him all things hold together.  It is clear that man does not have the ability to affect God’s cosmos, and that this promise cannot change, Israel will not cease existing.

The remainder of the chapter has more meaning to a Jewish person than a Gentile, in that it deals with their history, and also the connection of the consummation of history.  A day that will change the world, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and Jesus’ return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

A Full Understanding

Jeremiah 31:15-20

President George W. Bush, had this to say about sins of his youth: “young and irresponsible” when he was “young and irresponsible.”  Wow, that was I, it matters not what the rules of my authorities were, I seemed to set my goal to break them without being caught.  I was never in open rebellion; it was deceptive, rebellion, I wanted to experience the no no’s, without my parent's knowledge.

How did that workout, not all that well, many bought lessons, many scars and bad memories of my rebellious heart?  That might sum up the people of Israel returning home, with great joy, and a deep sadness for the sins of rebelling against the Lord.  Jeremiah depicts Rachel as the mother of or the embodiment of all Israel mothers.  She was the wife of Jacob and is referred to as the mother of all ten northern tribes of Israel.  Herod killed all the male children who were two years and under this was the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophesy found in Matthew 2:17-18.  The children sent to other nations, and God is proclaiming they will return, so quit weeping.  The example is they will come back as Jacob and Rachel did after serving her dad, his Uncle Laban, and all of their children with them.

And as the people went out of captivity they fully understood the shame they had brought on the name of God, and like me, and I hope like you, they repented of being a rebel.  I must remind myself often that the Christ life is on going, I often break fellowship with the Father who gave His only Son for a rascal like me.  But it is fellowship, not our relationship, I’m the King's child, He is my Father, and His grace is greater than my sins.  I often show up like the prodigal son, looking for help, to find my Father running to restore our fellowship!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

A Family Reunion

 Jeremiah 31:7-14

How I looked forward to our family reunions as a child, it was our big trip of the year going to Lake Worth, Texas, and sleeping on a blanket on the floor with all my cousins.   We cared not that there was only one bathroom, or that our parents were doing the same thing in a home that was designed for five people, and our number was many times that for once again we were together.  

Can you grasp the magnitude, the joy of what God is revealing to the people of Judah?  They are not just having a family reunion; they are returning home after years of being dispersed all over the world.  And this is the kicker, the God who loved them too much to allow them to ignore the covenants they entered into is the same God who loved them too much to enable them to stay in captivity.

I would be willing to bet the farm that they were even more excited about their family reunion than my cousins and I were.  They came back with rejoicing but also with a desire to please Yahweh and they did this but also with weeping over the sins that lead them into captivity. 

It was evident at this time, and yes they had years to come to an understanding of what they had done, and the grace that was being shown by the Lord to restore what God took from them.  I’m not sure we who go by the title Christian have any understanding of the covenants we have broken, or of the grace extended from our Lord to us.

I read this in HCSB page1286 in verse 6; “The assumption is that the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem.  Ephraim, standing for the ten northern tribes of Israel will again go up to Zion to worship.”  The book of Jeremiah covers a timeline of about 140 years, roughly from 640 to 580 B.C.  But the timetable for Cyrus allowing the people to return to Judah is around 538, and New Temple is dedicated about 515 B.C.

The pagan world has seen our attempt, our many talented programs to draw them to Christ, but they are looking for something more than our skillful act.  What they are missing is what Jesus has promised, that we can do greater action than He.  We can enter into His power, but that will never happen to people who do not hunger and do not thirst for righteousness.  We are much like an alcoholic who cannot get well until he admits he is an alcoholic.  

Likewise, the Christian will never hunger or thirst for the Father, until we understand our need.  We are a mess, and we act more as a Pharisee than a follower of Christ.  Is it not time to own up to our inability to be the hands and feet of Jesus without being needed, without having as our deepest desire to thirst and hunger for a deeper relationship with Jesus?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice