WWUTT 2374 The Prophet Weeps for His People (Jeremiah 8:18-9:11)

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet because he wept for his people.

00:06

He hated to see their rebellion against God, and in that rebellion they would go to their destruction.

00:13

When We Understand the Text. This is

00:25

When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature

00:33

New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

00:39

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gate. Thank you, Becky, and greetings, everyone. We come back to our study of the book of Jeremiah, and we still have a portion of Chapter 8 to finish up.

00:49

We'll get into Chapter 9 a little bit today as well. God has promised destruction upon Judah for their treachery, for their rebellion.

00:58

They have not worshipped the true God. They've gone after false gods and have lived in the ways of the pagans.

01:04

They're filled with sexual immorality, adultery, murder, strife, they steal, and many other such sins.

01:12

They will say, Peace, peace, when there is no peace, for God's wrath is upon them.

01:18

And because the people will not repent, Jeremiah knows they are deserving of the judgment that is coming upon them, but his heart is still filled with such anguish and sorrow over this.

01:30

So the portion that we're going to be reading today, Jeremiah weeps for his people, and I'll begin reading in Chapter 8, verse 18, and go through Chapter 9, verse 3.

01:41

Hear the word of the Lord. My joy is gone. Grief is upon me.

01:48

My heart is sick within me. Behold the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land.

01:57

Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her king not in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with their foreign idols?

02:09

The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

02:15

For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded. I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.

02:23

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

02:33

Oh, that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

02:43

Oh, that I had in the desert a traveler's lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them, for they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men.

02:56

They bend their tongue like a bow. Falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land, for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the

03:09

Lord. Now at the beginning of our study of the book of Jeremiah, I had mentioned that Jeremiah is commonly known as the weeping prophet.

03:18

That might be something that you remember about Jeremiah as well. And you know the apostle

03:23

Paul is sometimes likened to the prophet Jeremiah. In fact, there are several authors in the

03:30

New Testament that sometimes, if you're reading through a particular commentary, you might see that an author of the

03:35

New Testament would be compared to an author of the old. Like John, for example, seems to reference

03:41

Ezekiel a lot. Matthew likes Daniel. The apostle Paul seems to imitate some of the words and even behaviors of the prophet

03:50

Jeremiah. Consider at the start of Romans chapter nine, when the apostle

03:56

Paul has been talking about how the Jewish people have not believed in and worshiped

04:03

Christ as the promised Messiah. He's the one that had been prophesied about in the

04:09

Old Testament. And even at one point, the apostle Paul didn't believe it, and he was an enemy of the church.

04:14

He would round up Christians and have them persecuted. So at one point, even the apostle Paul did not believe that.

04:20

But now having become a Christian and having become an ambassador of the gospel, yet he sees so many

04:26

Jewish people reject the gospel. You were the ones to whom the oracles of God were entrusted, he says to them.

04:33

That was back in Romans chapter three. And yet they do not believe the message of the kingdom is bound up in Christ Jesus.

04:42

They're looking for another Messiah there. They're waiting for somebody else. And because they don't believe that Jesus is the

04:49

Christ, will they stand before God condemned? These are people that would go to hell, even though God had given the scriptures to them and it was to them that the

05:00

Messiah came. That's the way it's it starts out in John one to his own people. They did not receive him.

05:06

But to all who did receive him, who call upon his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

05:12

So at the start of Romans nine, the apostle Paul says the following, I am speaking the truth in Christ.

05:20

I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

05:32

Sounds similar to what Jeremiah is saying in these verses, right? Paul goes on, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.

05:46

They are Israelites and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises to them belong, the patriarchs and from their race according to the flesh is the

05:58

Christ. Who is God overall blessed forever.

06:04

Amen. And then Paul will go on to make the argument that it's not as though the word of God has failed just because the

06:12

Jewish people to whom the word of God had been given did not come to believe that Jesus is the

06:19

Christ. But I read that portion so that you hear Paul's anguish in that verse for his own people is the same sort of anguish that Jeremiah demonstrates here.

06:29

He's the weeping prophet. He's called that way because of what we have in Jeremiah nine, one, oh, that my head were waters and my eyes were, were a fountain of tears.

06:38

But it's not just as if Jeremiah went everywhere crying, he weeps for his people, but he also preaches repentance to his people, desires that they would turn from their sin and live.

06:53

And so Jeremiah's grief is expressed here starting in chapter eight, verse 18. My joy is gone and grief is upon me.

07:02

My heart is sick within me. Have you ever felt that kind of longing for someone else that you would say that your, your heart is sick within you?

07:12

I've had that before. Now I'm not old enough yet. My children are not old enough to have experienced that one of my children would become rebellious.

07:23

I certainly hope that would never be the case. And I pray for them all the time that they would grow to know the

07:29

Lord, their God, that they would follow Jesus Christ and so be saved. I pray that for my children.

07:35

So while I've not experienced a rebellious child, maybe you've experienced something like that. And you felt that kind of grief for someone else.

07:43

I've felt that kind of grief for my own siblings. I have five brothers and sisters and none of them are walking with the

07:50

Lord and it grieves my heart. So to see the, the path that they've chosen when they heard the gospel, they grew up with it.

08:00

Just like Paul lamented over the Jews to whom the word of God had been given. You had the word of God and you didn't see that Jesus was the fulfillment of all those prophecies that had been made about our coming

08:12

Messiah. And so it is with my own siblings. The gospel was preached to you. It was taught around the dining room table at family devotions, and yet they've chosen the way that they've gone.

08:24

And I, I've wept, I've wept for my siblings that they would turn from their sin to the

08:29

Lord Christ. So I understand this, this grief of my heart is sick within me.

08:35

Behold the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land.

08:44

Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?

08:49

So that's the cry that's coming from the people. That's the cry that's coming from Judah.

08:55

They're asking God, where are you? And what is the Lord's response? He says, why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with their foreign idols?

09:10

So they ask, is the Lord not with us? And the, and God's response is,

09:15

I am not with you because you are not with me. You provoked me to anger by worshiping false gods.

09:23

You have gone after the gods of the pagans around you, and you have adopted the practices, the immorality that they are steeped in.

09:35

And so the people respond in verse 20, the harvest is passed. The summer is ended and we are not saved.

09:44

Now that's the reason why. It is the condition of their heart to go after these false gods because they are not saved.

09:54

Right? You understand that we as Christians, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are saved.

10:01

We're forgiven our sin. We have everlasting life with God forever in glory.

10:07

We walk in the righteousness of Christ that we've been clothed in, at least we should. And all of this is evidence of the salvation that we have in Christ.

10:15

We are saved, but those who are not saved will not exhibit the righteousness of Christ because they've not been clothed in it.

10:24

They won't demonstrate the grace of God because God's grace has not been given to them. They are not saved. They don't have the love of God to show others.

10:33

And so it is with Judah, Judah, they are not followers of God. They are not saved.

10:40

And so what is the fruit that results from the fact that they have not been saved? All of this wickedness, all of this treachery, the worshiping of false gods, the practices and the attitudes and the behaviors of the pagans around them.

10:55

The harvest is passed. The summer has ended. We are not saved. And verse 21, for the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded.

11:05

This is Jeremiah talking, I mourn and dismay has taken hold on me.

11:12

Verse 22, is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?

11:18

Is there no one who can save? Is there no one who can treat this people of their wicked illness, the evil that permeates every part of them?

11:31

Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? And as I had read previously already, chapter nine, verse one, oh, that my head were waters in my eyes, a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

11:52

Now, it could be that Jeremiah is weeping for those who have been victims of the injustice that has happened in the land because this people does not seek after God.

12:03

But most likely what he's weeping for is knowing that judgment is coming upon them. So he's weeping in the present as if this judgment has already befallen them.

12:13

Verse two, oh, that I had in the desert, a traveler's lodging place that I might leave my people and go away from them for they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men.

12:27

I can relate to that as well. There have been friends even that I have given so much of myself to hoping that they would repent and they don't repent.

12:38

They just keep going back to the same evils over and over and over again. I was I was even engaged to a woman that was like this.

12:45

And as much as I tried to to draw her to the the righteousness of Christ, it wasn't working.

12:52

I was being drawn further and further into evil and I had to get away from her.

12:58

And it was heartbreaking. It was heart wrenching. But I finally just had to cut the relationship off as if I could run away into the desert and take up a lodging place there that I could get away from those who were who were doing all of these wicked sins.

13:13

It just continued to break my heart. I couldn't be a part of it anymore. I couldn't witness it anymore. Friends or family or whoever it might be.

13:22

Verse three, they bend their tongue like a bow. Falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land, for they proceed from evil to evil and they do not know me, declares the

13:34

Lord. It's kind of like what's said in in Romans chapter one. They are inventors of evil.

13:40

They almost find new ways that they can rebel. This rebellion is not enough.

13:45

What other evils can I come up with? And they do not know me, declares

13:50

God. We've seen previously that they will call upon the name of the Lord. They will say that they're followers of Yahweh.

13:57

They will put their trust in the temple of God because they know that God dwells there with them.

14:02

So here is God among us. But the Lord has said they don't actually know me.

14:09

And the Lord does not know them either. Let's go on.

14:14

We haven't read this far yet, but we'll we'll at least get to let's see. Verse 11 is how far we're going to go.

14:20

So in the next section, verse four in verses four through six, we see how everyone deceives his neighbor.

14:27

No one speaks the truth. So verse four, let everyone beware of his neighbor and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

14:41

Do you know people like that? Maybe even coworkers or you got to work with them, but you can't ever trust them.

14:47

You can't ever believe anything it is that they say. Verse five, everyone deceives his neighbor and no one speaks the truth.

14:54

They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves committing iniquity.

15:02

They sin so much that they wear themselves out doing it. Verse six, heaping oppression upon oppression and deceit upon deceit.

15:11

They refuse to know me, declares the Lord. So as previously where he said in verse three, they do not know me here.

15:19

They refuse to know me. Given the opportunity, they don't even want to.

15:25

I'd have to leave my sin behind. They are so in love with their sin. They refuse to know

15:31

God because they know the two are incompatible. They can't dine at the table of demons and also at the table of the

15:37

Lord, as the apostle Paul talks about. First Corinthians 10, I think is where that is. And so they love the darkness instead.

15:44

They would rather go to the darkness. They love the pleasures that they find there and find no pleasure in God, which is the really demented part of this.

15:56

Verse seven, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, I will refine them and test them.

16:03

For what else can I do because of my people? Their tongue is a deadly arrow.

16:10

It speaks deceitfully with his mouth. Each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart, he plans an ambush for him.

16:21

So he might speak flattering things to earn the trust or in the favor of a neighbor.

16:27

But meanwhile, it's flattery because he wants an inside track.

16:32

There's something that my neighbor has that I want. I'm going to flatter him so that I get close, but he's really planning to double cross.

16:42

He's going to turn on him at a moment's notice when the opportunity arises so that this person can get from his neighbor what he desires.

16:50

They don't act neighborly toward each other. They don't act brotherly toward one another. They're using each other for their own selfish game.

16:58

Verse six, shall I not punish them for these things, declares the Lord, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?

17:08

If you've ever felt betrayed by a friend, if you felt used by somebody else.

17:15

Well, as the apostle Paul talks about in Romans chapter 12, do not take vengeance into your own hands.

17:22

Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. So submit yourself to God, trust in his will.

17:29

Don't try to repay evil for evil, but rather repay evil with good.

17:36

The Lord, who is the ultimate judge, will sort all these things out in the end.

17:42

We need to trust in him and trust in his way. Verse 10,

17:48

I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard.

18:01

Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled and are gone. And that is because Jeremiah is seeing the aftermath of the

18:11

Babylonians who have swept through and have killed the people of Judah, taken the rest of them captive and have exiled them into another land.

18:21

Verse 11, I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, declares the Lord, a lair of jackals, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.

18:36

So we saw this also when we were in Jeremiah, or sorry, this is Jeremiah. When we were in Isaiah, we saw how the land would become a haunt of jackals.

18:47

There's nothing else living there that's just wild scavenger beasts that are sweeping the land.

18:55

But the Lord is one who can make plentiful again. And even those that we know who are not walking with the

19:02

Lord, they're walking in rebellion, they're currently under the wrath of God, not in his love. If there is anyone who can rescue them out of that place and bring them to a place of habitation with God, it's

19:18

God himself. And so let us continue to pray for those whom we love who do not love

19:26

God, that God would break their hearts, that in a time of desperation, they would recognize their wickedness and their need for God, their need for a savior and turn to the

19:39

Lord Jesus Christ and live. We must not give up on those we love, continue in prayer that they may know

19:46

God, that they may know the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, rose again from the dead.

19:53

Whoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. Heavenly Father, we're thankful for what we have read here.

20:01

As we read about in the New Testament, what was written about in former days was written for our instruction that through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

20:11

And we read about these things as well, that we might be warned not to fall into this kind of apostasy that's being demonstrated among this

20:19

Jewish people, those who are so close to God and to his word. And yet they did not believe it.

20:24

They would rather go after their sin. May that be a warning to us that we would not fall into this sin and away from God who saves us, but clinging all the more to Christ Jesus, who will save his elect, who will deliver us up into your eternal kingdom.

20:45

So we are warned that we would not fall into sin, but may we also hope for those who are walking in sin, that they would turn from their sin to the

20:54

Lord Jesus Christ and live. Thank you for your mercy and grace.