“Jehovah Speaks to Jeremiah” 

Jer 1:1-3   The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.  It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.  NKJV 

    1. Introduction—Jeremiah prophesied
 
    1. In an age of decadence.
    2. To a stubborn and disobedient people.
    3. God persistently and continually spoke.
 
    1. Brief History of the Kingdom of Judah.
 
    1. More than 55 years earlier Hezekiah had reigned and Isaiah was a prophet to these people.
    2. Manasseh—Amon.
    3. Josiah—13th year of his reign Jeremiah began
    4. Jeremiah prophesied for 18 years during Josiah’s reign
    5. Jehoahaz (3 months); Jehoiakim (11 years);

       Jehoiachin (3 months); Zedekiah (11) years.  

    1. Who were these people?
 
    1. Paul’s letter to the Romans—What advantage has the Jew—privileges, position, favor of Jehovah.
    2. The adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law, the service, the promises, the fathers, the Christ.
    3. The adoption—Divine election

       The glory—Divine presence

          The covenants—Divine fellowship

       The law—Divine instruction

       The service—Divine mediation

       The promises—Divine intention

       The fathers—Divine history

       The Christ—Divine prophecy for the world.

   
 

    1. The Depth of the Degradation
 

      Jer 2:13 "My people have committed a compound sin: they've walked out on me, the fountain of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns—cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves. (THE MESSAGE).  

    She forgot God and swiftly ran resolutely from God, and out toward the darkness until the Chaldeans captured her city and she became a people scattered and in slavery. 

    1. Yet the word of Jehovah came insistently and persistently. 

       Speaks of the faithfulness of God amidst the unfaithfulness of His people. 

    “Rising Early”—11 times used by Jeremiah.  Means to incline; to incline the shoulder to load a burden—beasts of burden; early hours of the morning, rising early, bending the shoulder to the burden, and starting!

      1. God came to His people “Rising Early.”
      1. 3 times in speaking to them.
      2. 6 times in sending to them.
      3. Once in protesting to them.
      4. Once in teaching them, by discipline, by goading them.
 

This gives us a picture of the attitude of God; His people rushing away from Him, forsaking Him, forgetting Him; but He, never forgetting them; rising early, bending His shoulder to the burden, and hastening to speak, to send, to protest, to teach.  

God is faithful even in times of the darkest night.

This prophesies by God were preserved for us so that we can see that God continues to speak in the midst of the darkness.  “The light shines in the darkness; and the darkness cannot extinguish that light.” 

    1. Purpose of the Word of Jehovah coming to Jeremiah
 

    Jer 1:10 "See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant."

    1. I have appointed you over the nations and over the kingdoms.
    2. To do what?
      1. To pluck up—to tear away—to uproot something growing. 
      1. To break down—to raze to the ground—that which has been erected. 
      2. To destroy that plant uprooted must be left to perish.
      3. To overthrow—to be broken in pieces, to grind to powder that which has been broken down.
    1. For what purpose?  To build and to plant—or to rebuild and to replant. 

This is always the twofold activity of the Word of God.  The Word of God is for the plucking up and destruction of the plants which are not of God’s own planting.  The Word of God is for the breaking down and the overthrowing of the buildings of which He has not laid the foundations.  But the Word of God is not for ultimate overthrow and destruction.  It is for construction; it is for planting according to His will, and for the building according to His line and His plummet. 

    1. Lessons to be learned
    1. A great history is a grave responsibility.
    1. If Judah, the last remnant of the Hebrew national life, had the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the service, the promises, the fathers, and the Christ; then their responsibility was all the graver.
    2. Any nation, any church, any individual that has a great history has a grave responsibility.
    3. For a people to boast in the glory of the past, and to deny the secret that made the past, is to perish.
    4. To forget and to forsake the fountain of living waters, Jehovah, is to perish.
    5. The word of Jehovah persistently heard and disobeyed, ceases to appeal.
 

God still continues to speak, and it is the Word of God that is the only thing that is not void of power in the dark of night to a lost people.  The Word of God roots up that which God has not planted and left to die.  The Word of God tears down the things that He has not built and grinds it to pieces.  And the Word of God has also the power to replant his trees of life bearing His fruit in its season, and to build His church, His city, and His Kingdom.   

Unlike these Judeans who heard the Word of God speak through the prophet Jeremiah and did not heed the warnings, let us hear the Word of God, know when the Word of God speaks, that we may submit and obey His beckoning call.   
 

INVITATION TIME