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.

117 - The Weeping Prophet

Jeremiah 1-5

We have looked at bits and pieces of the Book of Isaiah and now we will have a look at the Book of Jeremiah, which is the second of the major prophets. 

The following dates are approximations only.

• Isaiah's time of ministry was 735-709 BCE
• Jeremiah's time of ministry was 605-535 BCE
• Ezekiel's time of ministry was 593-545 BCE
• Daniel's time of ministry was 605-536 BCE

We are told exactly when Jeremiah started and when he finished preaching in Judah. From the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, king of Judah, (chronologically this fits into 2 Kings 22), until the exiling of Jerusalem to Babylon.  Jeremiah 1:2-3; see also 2 Kings 25.

Destruction Is Coming

Jeremiah was a priest, a native of Anathoth, in the tribe of Benjamin. He was called to the prophetic office when very young, about seventy years after the death of Isaiah, and exercised it for about forty years with great faithfulness, till the sins of the Jewish nation came to their full measure and destruction followed.  At the time of his calling, Jeremiah said, Alas, Lord Jehovah! Behold, I do not know to speak; for I am a boy. Jeremiah 1:6.

Jehovah asked: Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a rod, a dry stick, of an almond tree. 1:11.  Matthew Henry suggests that this stick represents chastisement.   In place of that phrase the Targum has, and I said, a king hastening to do evil I see.  That is, to say the least, an interesting variation.

The second time, The Lord asked, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot; and its face is from the face of the north. And Jehovah said to me, Out of the north, Babylon, an evil will be set loose on all the inhabitants of the land of Judah. 1:13-14.  The cauldron was seething and it was about to boil over into Jerusalem; it did in 606 BCE when Babylon captured Judah.

Again the Lord spoke, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, So says Jehovah, I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothals, when you went after Me in the wilderness. 2:2.  What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me. 2:5

Now, look at my people, the North Americans, they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, to hew out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.  

This statement can be seen from several viewpoints: 

1. They have forsaken the path of righteousness and are living for pleasure and moral depravity, 

2. They are still living the religious life but their religion is dead.  Examples of this are: 

• the Pharisees with whom Christ had to deal; 
• The Roman Catholic church without any living waters; simply dead routine.
• most of the long-established religions which grew out of the Reformation, they have no vitality;  Even though they will make a show of being religious, their religion won't be real. 2 Ti 3:5 Contemporary English Version. 
• or the newly developed churches which have a lot of artificial hype but very little down to earth love for Jehovah.    

Some say that there are two Gods in the Bible; the God of the Old Testament, who is mean and judgmental, and the God of the New Testament, who is forgiving.  

Those who believe that, are admitting that they have ignored the books of prophecy in the Old Testament.  For example, in Jeremiah chapter 3 alone, five times Jehovah uses words such as, But you play the harlot (in the spiritual realm) with many lovers; yet come back to Me. 3:1,  after she had done all these things, I said, Turn to Me! 3:7,  Return, O backsliding Israel, ... and I will not cause My anger to fall on you; for I am merciful, says Jehovah, and I will not keep anger forever. 3:12.

Jehovah Yearns For Restitution

Jehovah's heart is bleeding for those nations which were His, but have turned their back on Him.  He wants them to repent, but they refuse.  He says, Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have sinned against Jehovah your God. 3:13,  Then Turn, O backsliding sons, ... for I am married to you; Jehovah loves his people as a good husband loves his wife. 3:22.   Return, O backsliding sons, and I will heal your backslidings. 3:14.

When an issue arises, in our courthouses, we are quick to say, "all we want is justice".  We demand that from our judges.  Why then would we expect less than that from Jehovah, who is a just God?  If nations do not call on Him for forgiveness and change their lifestyle, justice demands punishment.  

When Jehovah punishes, He does not play games; He says, lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn so that none can put it out; because of the evil of your doings. 4:4.   In Judah's case, in 606 BCE, that fire came from Babylon.  Will North America's destruction also come from the same part of the world?

This topic can be summed up in the words from the Book of Jeremiah: And it will be, when you shall say, Why does Jehovah our God do all these things to us? Then You shall answer them, Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours. 5:19.

116. The Proper Way to Fast

Isaiah 55-58

Come To Christ and Live

In chapters 52+53 we studied the idea that Christ is the redeemer who died for the sinful human race. Isaiah continues that thought by inviting sinners to accept Jehovah's gift of redemption: Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat. 55:1.

Jehovah keeps calling the prodigal people to repent of their sins, to change their wicked lifestyle, and if they do, He is always willing to forgive the past.   Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Jehovah, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. Seek Jehovah while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. 55:7+6. 

Christ said, But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14

Very importantly, this salvation, procured by Christ, is not only for the Jews.  So says Jehovah to those who take hold of My covenant; even to them will I give within My house and within My walls a hand and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off; 

It is also for all other ethnic groups - the sons of the stranger, who join themselves to Jehovah to serve Him, and to love the name of Jehovah, to be His servants. 56:5-6.

Your Life Is A Sham

In this context, the context of a new life in Christ, the first instruction given is, Keep judgment and do justice. 56:1.

Isaiah also lashes out against those who are guilty of idolatry.  

The Europeans and the Americans (North and South) are so very, very guilty of this sin. This idolatry includes crucifixes hanging on the walls of homes and church buildings; or the cross hanging from the neck; this so-called Christians do in spite of the fact that the second commandment very clearly says, You shall not make to yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow yourself down to them. Exodus 20:4-5.

When we visited Japan we saw idols in every home we entered; it is part of their religious background. Perhaps "their God" did not forbid it. But how did that practice ever get so prevalent among Christians?  This is another area in which the church, over the centuries, has gone contrary to biblical teaching.

Far too many parents are so busy worshipping the "almighty dollar" and the pleasures it can buy that they could honestly be accused of killing the little sons. 57:5.  Certainly, they do not murder them physically, but they kill them psychologically; the children are deprived of the chance of growing up knowing what a loving home is.  That is idolatry to the god of pleasure on the part of the parents.

In the next scene Isaiah comes down really hard on his listeners; 

Mockingly he speaks of them as being very religious. 

• You seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, in your superfluous daily devotions.
• You pretend that you are a nation that did righteousness, and one who did not forget the ordinance of their God.  You speak as though you follow what the Bible teaches.
• They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in drawing near to God, on Sunday mornings in church they pretend they want to hear what the Bible teaches.
• You say, Why have we fasted, and You, Lord, do not see?
• Why have we afflicted our soul, and You take no knowledge?  Lord, You don't even notice when we "pretend" to be in deep emotional prayer.
  

Jehovah answers:

• Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and crush all your laborers. So, you fast and pray, but still, you crush your workers psychologically.
• Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You fast to boost your superego so that you feel more holy, and then you think it is alright to argue with or even physically fight others or maybe even abuse women.
• You shall not fast as you do today, to make your voice to be heard on high, it is all a sham and I detest it.

Jehovah continues,  Is it such a fast that I have chosen?
  
Is not this the fast that I have chosen?  This is how to fast:

• To loose the bands of wickedness, help young people take the right path before they get into drugs or join wicked gangs.
• to undo the heavy burdens, help some neighbour, or even a stranger carry a heavy load.
• to let the oppressed ones go free, and that you break every yoke? Help set those free who are bound by unhealthy and dangerous habits; help them break their yoke.
• break your bread to the hungry, share what you have with the needy.
• you should bring home the wandering poor?  Could you maybe share your home with some homeless person?  Maybe help sponsor an immigrant?
• When will you see, the naked and cover him; will it ever happen, that you will share your clothing with the destitute?
• and when will you ... not hide yourself from your own flesh? Your children and grandchildren need financial help to finish their education and you act like you don't even know them.
  
  When you change your lifestyle Then shall your light break out as the dawn, and your health shall spring out quickly; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Jehovah shall gather you. Then you shall call, and Jehovah shall answer. 58:2-9.  

What a blessed promise that is!