118. The Dross is Not Burned away

Jeremiah 6-10

Preach Peace or Be Ignored

Jeremiah is getting frustrated.  He has preached and preached, begging his people to repent of their sinful ways, but they refuse to listen.  So he says, Therefore I am full of the fury of Jehovah;

I am weary with holding in; You refuse to listen so I will pour it (my message) out on the children in the street, and on the circle of young men together.  at least they are not so set in their sinful habits, maybe they will listen. 6:11.

For everyone from the least of them (the goat herder)  even to the greatest of them (the bank manager) cuts off a profit, they will take what they say is their share; and from the prophet even to the priest (from the preacher to the priest), everyone deals falsely.  They tell us things that are not biblical and preach things that are not true.

They have also healed the hurt of the daughter of my people (the Jewish nation) slightly, saying, Peace, peace.  It makes us feel good when the preachers say, the enemy will never seriously attack North America, our forces are looking after us; but inwardly we know that there is no peace. 6:13-14.

Why does frankincense come to Me from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country?  The most expensive incense and the sweetest smelling sugar cane have no meaning to Me.  Large gifts to the church or beautifully sung solos are of no value unless you live a holy life!

Your burnt offerings are not pleasing, nor your sacrifices sweet to Me. 6:20    You can be as religious as all getup, but your empty Sunday morning lip service is not pleasing ... to Me; 

Change Your Lifestyle

• but if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings (change your lifestyle), 
• if you completely do judgment (pursue justice) between a man and his neighbor; 
• if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, 
• and do not shed innocent blood in this place, 
• nor walk after other gods (e.g. greed and lust) to your hurt; 

then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever. Jeremiah told the people that this is Jehovah's conditional promise to them.  However, rather than listening to Jeremiah they gathered to themselves prophets who preached peace and safety without any conditions.  This sounds exactly like those preachers who preach nothing except "God is love".  There is another aspect to Jehovah's personality.

Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot do any good. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, ... and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name?  This all sound so contemporary, doesn't it?

You claim that We are delivered to do all these abominations? 7:5-10.  Even though they did not say these words to The Lord, their actions spoke their meaning loud and clear. Lord, You delivered us from the Egyptians, the Philistines, the Moabites and the Assyrians so that we could keep on committing all these sins.

                  

Then, Jeremiah changes from simple preaching to using the illustration of a smelting furnace which was used for melting silver so that the dross (impurities) could be removed.  With that illustration, he is pointing out the hard-heartedness of his people. 

He says, I have warned you so long and so passionately that the bellows are burned, Which Kimchi interprets of the mouth and throat of the prophet, which, through reproving the people, were dried up, and become raucous and hoarse. Gills Commentary. 

the lead is melted by the fire; The lead, which was then used in refining silver, as quicksilver is now, is consumed of the fire, and has not done its work. Matthew Henry.   All the warnings Jeremiah gave are wasted like the lead in the fire, for the wicked are not plucked away; the dross has still not been removed; the refiner (Jehovah) melts in vain.

We can see Jehovah's heart is broken and Jeremiah is weeping when they hear the nations calling Israel, Reprobate silver; the dross which has no good metal in it to be separated, the mass being all dross. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown.   It was all just dross, like the hearts of the Israelites in Jeremiah's time; as the hearts of the North Americans now.

Why did the nations ridicule Israel this way?  because Jehovah has rejected them. 6:29-30.

If You Don't 

Jehovah will call His people to repent only for a while, but if they keep on rejecting Him, He will reject them too.  Behold, the noise of the rumor has come, and a great commotion out of the north country (Babylon), to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a den of jackals.10:22.  North America has already tasted what terrorists can do, but still, our leaders would rather cheat and lie than try to turn their nation toward a holy lifestyle.

For the customs of the people are vain; for one cuts a tree out of the forest with the axe, the work of the hands of the workman. They adorn it with silver and with gold. 10:3-4.   Devout Christians in Brazil do not "do" Christmas trees because it is a heathen practice.  

Oh, how I wish that the Christians of North America would shake their Roman Catholic heritage.