WWUTT 2289 God is Watching Over His Word (Jeremiah 1:11-19)

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Jeremiah was commissioned to deliver a word to Judah. A dreadful word. It was going to be bad news.

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But God told Jeremiah that he would accomplish all his word and no one would conquer him when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word.

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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

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Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Well, being our Old Testament study, we're back in the book of Jeremiah today, and we'll be finishing up chapter one.

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A couple of weeks ago, we did our introduction to the book of Jeremiah, if you need to go back and listen. Just looking at verses one through three in that introductory lesson, where we learned about the time in which these things are taking place, when

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Jeremiah had his prophetic ministry. And it was said there, even in the introduction, that Jeremiah would be ministering at the time of the captivity of Jerusalem.

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So that's the major event that Jeremiah is going to be speaking into. Then you have what we looked at last week in verses four through 10, the

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Lord addressing Jeremiah for the first time, and saying to him, that I formed you in the womb and knew you before you were even conceived.

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Before you were born, I consecrated you. I have set you apart, and I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.

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And he's even said to Jeremiah that you are going to have such authority, you are going to be speaking over nations and kingdoms to pluck up and break down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.

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Because the word that Jeremiah was going to speak was not going to be his word. It was going to be God's word. Everything that we're reading here in chapter one is a setup for the rest of the book.

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So we have the time, the timeframe in which these things take place, verses one through three. We have God telling

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Jeremiah what he's going to do, verses four through 10. And now the word of the Lord is going to come to Jeremiah again in verse 11, and saying to Jeremiah, here's exactly what you're going to go out and prophesy.

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So let me begin there. I'm going to start reading in verse 11 and go through verse 19. Hear the word of the

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Lord. And the word of the Lord came to me saying, Jeremiah, what do you see?

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And I said, I see an almond branch. And the Lord said to me, you have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.

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The word of the Lord came to me a second time saying, what do you see? And I said,

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I see a boiling pot facing away from the North. Then the

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Lord said to me out of the North, disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land for behold,

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I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the North declares the Lord and they shall come and everyone shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem against all its walls, all around and against all the cities of Judah.

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And I will declare my judgment against them for all their evil and forsaking me.

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They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.

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But you dress yourself for work, arise and say to them, everything that I command you do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them.

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And I behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land.

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They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you for I am with you declares the

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Lord to deliver you. And so there we have the finish of what is essentially the setup to the rest of the book of Jeremiah.

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God is going to have Jeremiah speak into this punishment that he is going to bring upon the land.

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He is going to afflict Judah because they have rebelled against God and made offerings to false gods.

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And the way the Lord is going to do that is he's going to bring nations against Judah, another nation against Judah.

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But then that nation is going to face the judgment of God as well. And so some of what

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Jeremiah will prophesy over the course of this book will not just be concerning Judah, but will even be concerning the nations that will come against Judah.

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For God will have his word with them as well. And because of what

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Jeremiah preaches, he will have authority. And again, it's not authority that is his own.

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It's not because he's witty or smart or the son of a high priest, which he was, but because he spoke

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God's word. And so therefore, as it said in verse 18, I will make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah and its officials, because it was the word of God that Jeremiah was given.

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So we come back to verse 11, where it is said, the word of the Lord came to me saying,

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Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see an almond branch.

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And then the Lord said to me, you have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.

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Now, what does an almond branch have to do with God saying, I am watching over my word and I'm going to accomplish everything that I say?

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Well, there's actually some wordplay that's going on here. And if we understood Hebrew, it would make more sense to us.

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I don't understand Hebrew, though. That's okay. Neither do you. Right. So we're going to fumble through this together. But anyway, with regard to the first thing that God says, what do you see,

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Jeremiah? And Jeremiah says, I see an almond branch. We actually start here with something peaceful.

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God is going to give a lot of words of dread to Jeremiah, that he is going to speak to Judah, who is going to come to ruin and destruction.

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And there are going to be times where God will say to Jeremiah, don't pray for this people. Don't ask for them to be delivered.

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Because what I've said I'm going to do to them, I'm going to do. And nothing's going to change my mind. And they're not going to change their hearts.

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And so that's a pretty serious task that Jeremiah is given to basically come and deliver the message of doom to his people, whom he does not want to see destroyed.

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He wants to see them repent and come to God. And here God would even tell him they're not going to.

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And the destruction I'm telling you that you have to warn them of is exactly what is going to come upon them.

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The burden that Jeremiah has of knowing that and delivering that message to the people, knowing they're not going to repent and the destruction is going to come upon them anyway.

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This is part of the reason why he gets referred to as the weeping prophet. Because he is so filled with sorrow, with grief and heartbreak over this people who won't turn from their sin to God.

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He knows God is holy. He knows God is just. And the judgment that God is going to bring upon his people, they certainly deserve it.

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So he has no anger toward God at all. But he's heartbroken for the people who won't turn from their sin.

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This is the kind of ministry that Jeremiah is being given. And again, he's been appointed to this from birth.

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It's not like God was taking volunteers. I need some candidates to step up.

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Let's have an application process. Somebody interviewing for a job. Submit your resumes.

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Let me find the best person available for this task. That wasn't the way that God chose a prophet.

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He chose a prophet by his own will. Even before they were born, they're consecrated and set aside to do this work.

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And so God has chosen Jeremiah for this. He doesn't step up and volunteer. And in this work that Jeremiah was being given to do, it was going to be hard.

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And he was going to be exposed to a lot of things. The insight into the mind of God and what the

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Lord was going to do. It was going to break Jeremiah's heart. It would be a very, very difficult ministry.

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I think I said this last week, but it frustrates me whenever I will see apostles or prophets, so -called modern -day apostles and prophets, who will jump into these positions and claim that they hold that office.

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You don't ever go through anything like an apostle or prophet went through in the Bible. I have never seen even one of these guys filled with dread or heartbreak or anything like that over the things that they have been shown by God because they haven't actually been shown these things by God.

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Modern prophets are very largely positive. And you'll even hear them say that. I was in charismatic churches for 10 years.

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I heard this all the time. When we go out and prophesy, we don't go speaking news of dread and gloom and stuff that's going to make people sorrowful or sighing or depressed.

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We need to be speaking happy thoughts. We need to be encouraging. That's what the ministry of prophecy is supposed to be today in the year of our

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Lord, Anno Domini. We need to be more positive in the prophecy that God gives to us and that we share.

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That has never been the mark of a prophet of God in the Bible anywhere, that you're only going to speak positive, affirming, encouraging things.

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It sounds like K -love. It's the K -love prophets. They're all positive and encouraging.

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Jeremiah is being given a word of dread. And yet the very first thing that God asked

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Jeremiah, what does he see? He says an almond branch. I think I said olive branch earlier.

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I may have. That's kind of a, you know, you've heard the expression olive branch.

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So I think that just kind of came out of me automatically. But no, the text is specifically that I see an almond branch, an almond branch, especially in a season when almonds are blooming, has a lot of pink flowers on it.

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Like it's the sign of spring when you see almonds blooming on the branch. And so Jeremiah actually sees something very encouraging at first, even though a lot of the word of God that's going to come to him will be what

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Jeremiah is going to perceive as a lot of bad news. Yet this is the first vision that he's given.

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And the Lord's saying, you have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.

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Now, like I said, there's a little wordplay going on here. But before I get to the wordplay portion, let me explain here that God is saying,

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Jeremiah, this is all ultimately going to come out really, really well in the end.

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So this is the way he's starting Jeremiah's ministry. You see a branch budding as in springtime.

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There's going to be beauty and flourishing. It is going to happen. My word will be accomplished.

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And this is ultimately what it's going to bring about so that Jeremiah will not forget this, though he's going to have to be the deliverer of a lot of bad news.

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So there's the first aspect of understanding the Lord's explanation of the almond branch.

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But like I said, there's a little wordplay here. And this is where my expertise just is not well, it's not there at all.

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I don't have expertise in Hebrew at all. But apparently, the name for almond is similar to the name

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Watcher. And for whatever reason, in English, it's really impossible to kind of capture this and remain absolutely accurate to the translation, the translation disciplines that we we use whenever we move something from Hebrew into English, it's going to lose something in translation.

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Of course, we're used to that, right? That's something that we have to keep in mind whenever we're reading aspects of Scripture, we're reading something in English that was originally written in Hebrew.

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So something is lost. But there is there's a similarity in the word almond and the similarity of the word watching so that a

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Hebrew who hears this and Jeremiah certainly who hears this is comforted or touched by the brilliance of it.

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So you've seen well for I am watching over my word to perform it almost like I am almonding over my word, which is not a verb.

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Like I said, I wasn't going to explain this well, but it's the best that I can do with my limited knowledge of Hebrew and then also with the lack of similarity in the translation.

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So this is this is the way that the Lord begins the prophecy that he is showing to Jeremiah.

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The next part, though, verse 13, the word of the Lord came to me a second time saying, what do you see?

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And I said, I see a boiling pot facing away from the north.

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It's an odd thing for Jeremiah to see. Now, note that Jeremiah doesn't even he doesn't see something that looks like a boiling pot, a boiling pot.

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It's not like he's describing some sort of conflict. And the best way that he can come up with describing that conflict is like a boiling pot.

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That's not what's going on here. He's literally seeing a boiling pot. It's a boiling pot facing away from the north.

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OK, so then the Lord said to me, explaining what it is that I'm seeing. Verse 14 out of the north.

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Disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. Now, quite literally, it's translated out of the north.

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Evil shall be let loose upon the inhabitants of the land. But the more the more modern translations tend to use a softer word like disaster.

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I think one of the reasons why this is just a theory, but because we don't want to confuse people into thinking that evil is being attributed to God.

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God is the one who is saying that he is bringing this upon the land. So if out of the north, evil shall be let loose upon the inhabitants of the land.

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What does that mean? Does that mean God is doing something evil? No, of course not. The Chaldeans are going to do the evil act against the

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Jews. All of this is by the Lord's hand, but it is not as if God is doing anything evil.

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So I think for the sake of alleviating confusion, some translations tend to use the word disaster, but it's more literally evil here.

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And in the English standard version, it does have a footnote and we're down at the bottom.

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It will say or evil out of the out of the north. Evil will come. Now, what is this that the

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Lord is talking about going on in verse 15? For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the

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Lord, and they shall come and everyone shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah.

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Well, this is going to be the Chaldeans. So Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar leading the

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Babylonians that will come against Jerusalem. And there's some more wordplay that's going on here, as a matter of fact, because boiling pot sounds like Chaldean.

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It's it's cauldron in English or the closest English equivalent anyway would be cauldron.

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So I see a cauldron that represents the Chaldeans. So even there is something kind of punny, just like we had with the almond branch.

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The Lord is so brilliant, isn't he? In the way that he words these things and has

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Jeremiah communicate this to the people. So it's a boiling pot. It's a boiling cauldron.

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And it's not that all these nations coalesce with one another. We're all going to team up and come against the come against the

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Jews. But that Babylon is going to consume them all so that everything gets absorbed into this nation that's going to sweep upon Judah and especially

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Jerusalem. Now, the wild thing about this prophecy at the time that it's being given is that Babylon has not yet shed the yoke of Assyria off of itself.

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They're still under a serious thumb. So it's going to happen that Babylon is going to rise up and consume

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Assyria, the Assyrians. So God is telling Jeremiah that's going to happen before it even happens.

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And that in itself would have been a mind -blowing event in the eyes of the people of the

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Middle East at this particular time to see the Chaldeans who are under the rule of the Assyrians and the

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Assyrians looking like that they were unstoppable. And yet the Babylonians shed the yoke of Assyria, meaning that they're no longer under their control and then begin to sweep south in taking over the land, including

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Jerusalem. This is going to fill the hearts of the people with fear because we didn't think anybody could defeat the

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Assyrians if they could defeat the Assyrians who is there to stop them. Even the Assyrians could not destroy

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Jerusalem. They tried and they couldn't do it. The best they could do was get Lachish, which was the second most powerful city in Judah at that time.

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But they couldn't get Jerusalem. And that, of course, was by the hand of God that he prevented the

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Assyrians. If you'll remember, 186 ,000 Assyrians just died mysteriously overnight because the angel of the

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Lord came upon them and wiped out that many troops so that they could not take Jerusalem.

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But here the Babylonians are going to sweep south and they are going to do it. They are going to accomplish what the

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Assyrians could not. And so, verse 16, I will declare my judgments against them for all their evil in forsaking me, talking about Judah.

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They have made offerings to other gods and worship the works of their own hands. So the

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Lord is explaining here's why this is going to happen. But you, now addressing

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Jeremiah, dress yourself for work. And another way of understanding that is gird up your loins.

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You've heard that before. Dress for battle. The Lord, when he addresses Job, dress for action like a man.

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Stand up like a man. I'm going to question you. You're going to answer me. He's saying, gird up your loins. So this is what a soldier did to ready himself for combat.

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So you dress yourself for work. Arise and say to them everything that I command you.

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Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. So even though God has set

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Jeremiah apart for this, he has given Jeremiah a warning. You're going to do everything that I say to you, and you're going to trust me or else you're going to fall with them.

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And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land.

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So the Babylonians are going to succeed in overthrowing Jerusalem, but the people to whom

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I'm sending you that you're going to speak and they're not going to receive your word, they will not be able to take you out.

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The Babylonians are going to take out Jerusalem. The people are not going to be able to resist you. Verse 19, they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the

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Lord, to deliver you. Now, my friends, we have the promise that is given to us in scripture as well, that the world will not prevail over us.

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If we are in Christ, then no one has power or authority over us, not even death itself.

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And we read about this in Romans chapter 8. What shall we say to these things?

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Romans 8, 31. If God is for us, who can be against us?

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Verse 38, for I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our

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Lord. And that's if we trust God's word and all the promises that are given to us in it through Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for us, who rose again from the dead, so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

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The world will hate us. They will come against us. They will not overthrow us. Our eternity is secure with Christ.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here today. And I pray that as we take these things to heart, we would indeed trust your word.

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There are words of dread in this word for those who need to hear it, that they in their sin and rebellion against God are coming to destruction, but you have a word of good news for them, that by faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, they will be forgiven their sin and have everlasting life with God.

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So may we be courageous to declare that word in this present age, shining as lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation.

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It's in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen. This has been When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast, or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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And let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.