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Reading Jeremiah 17:19-27 where God commands Judah to keep His Sabbath and they will be prosperous, or else there will be judgment in their gates. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Through the prophet Jeremiah, God had set before Judah, either obey me or perish. The same thing is said to us now, but we can only find our righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.
Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Jeremiah, we come back to chapter 17 this week. Now, we see an interesting contrast as we continue in chapter 17. We're picking up today in verse 19, Jeremiah is faithful in fulfilling what God has told him to do as God's prophet.
Judah is faithful also in rebelling against whatever God has told Judah to do from the mouth of God's prophet. So Judah faithful in their rebellion, Jeremiah faithful in his obedience. That's what we see the contrast between the two.
As we finish up chapter 17, Jeremiah likewise going to be burdened by the fact that he's facing so much opposition as a prophet of God. At the hands of those whom he cares for, he loves the Jews. He wants them to repent and come back to God, but they continue in their rebellion, worshiping false gods, rejecting the law and ordinances of God, those statutes that he has told them to live by.
And as God had said through the law, through Moses, that if you keep my statutes and commandments, you can remain on the land. If you do not keep them, I will drive you off the land. And that's what's coming soon.
That's what Jeremiah is prophesying before them. So let me come to Jeremiah 17, starting in verse 19, and I'll read through the rest of the chapter. Hear the word of the Lord. Thus said the Lord to me, go and stand in the people's gate by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out and in all the gates of Jerusalem and say, hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and all Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter by these gates, thus says the Lord, take care for the sake of your lives and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem and do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy as I commanded your fathers.
Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck that they might not hear and receive instruction. But if you listen to me, declares the Lord and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it.
Then there shall enter by the gates of this city, kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And this city shall be inhabited forever. And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem from the land of Benjamin, from the Shafila, from the hill country and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord.
But if you do not listen to me to keep the Sabbath day holy and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates and it shall devour the places of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.
Now, the way this particular speech breaks down, it starts in chapter 17, verse 19, and we'll go through to the end of chapter 18. We'll look at chapter 18 next week. So it starts with this address here, preaching against the Sabbath breaking.
You probably noticed that come up quite a bit in verses 19 to 27. There was this call to keep the Sabbath and those who break the Sabbath, this will be the consequence. Then at the start of chapter 18, that chapter is broken into two parts.
First of all, there's the comparison of the spoiled pot. So comparing the Jews to a spoiled pot, which is a pot of refuse, essentially. And then the people will oppose Jeremiah in the latter portion of chapter 18 after he brings this word of the Lord to them.
But again, you heard in this address, if you turn from your wickedness and you keep my Sabbath, in other words, obey the law of God, the Sabbath is singled out. This is supposed to be the one law that sets a picture of keeping the statutes of God.
If you keep the Sabbath, then you're keeping the rest of God's law. So if they will honor God's law and keep it, then he will make them prosperous in the land. He will make kings to come in through your gates again.
There will be many advisors to the king. You will be as prosperous as you were in the days of David. But we know as we go through this account that the Jews won't repent. They will continue in their rebellion, persistently going after false gods and worshiping them and behaving in the ways of the pagans.
And so the destruction that will come upon them will be the exile at the hands of the Babylonians, which will happen within the lifetime of Jeremiah. So let's come back to verse 19 here. Thus said the Lord to me, go and stand in the people's gate by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out and in all the gates of Jerusalem.
Now, we actually don't know how many gates there were in this particular iteration of Jerusalem, if I can use that word. So this was before the Babylonian exile. And when the Babylonians came against Jerusalem, they destroyed its walls.
So what was left of those walls? We don't have any archaeological record of or enough of a record of to be able to count how many gates were there. Now, at the time that Jesus was in Jerusalem, there was something like eight gates, I believe.
At this time, we don't know how many there were in particular. There was likely more gates that were made after Nehemiah came back and rebuilt the walls versus how many gates there were in the walls the first time.
And there are particular names to each gate. So this one being the people's gate, this is the one by which kings will go in and come.
Out.
It would have been nearest to the king's palace, most likely. So hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter by these gates. Thus says the Lord, take care for the sake of your lives and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.
So this is a charge that is being made to the Jews that has life or death consequences. Listen to what I'm saying to you and obey it or it's going to cost you your lives. Now, there are some groups out there, including the Hebrew roots and the Seventh-day Adventists who will use passages like this, like this one in Jeremiah chapter 17, the last half of 17 to say that we are still obligated to keep the Sabbath and that the Sabbath is on Saturday.
Sunday is not the Sabbath day. That's a day that was created by the Roman Catholics and anybody who ever follows after that is in rebellion and God's judgment will come against you. The way that the Seventh-day Adventists interpret that worship on Sunday is the mark of the.
Beast.
And so at the very end, at the last judgment, God is going to judge you basically on whether or not you kept the Sabbath. And so the Sabbath keeping is essential. If you're not worshiping on Saturday, then you bear the mark of the beast.
Now, the complication with that from the Seventh-day Adventists is that not every Saturday in the entire world is on the same day. There are countries in the world that don't even honor a seven-day work week.
So how would you know on which day in particular is that Sabbath? That's the Sabbath day and that's the one that we need to be keeping in particular. Instead, we are instructed that we set apart one day in seven and give it in honor to the Lord.
So as the Apostle Paul talks about in Romans 14, whatever day that happens to be, worship heartily unto the Lord, devote it to God, and do not quarrel over opinions. So some are going to argue that our day of worship must be Saturday and some are going to argue that the day of worship must be Sunday.
In this particular instance, this is of that covenant that God had made with Judah, the laws that he had set that were Sabbath laws, which have since been fulfilled in Christ, as said in Colossians 2, let no one pass judgment on you with regards to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
So we're not judging one another based on what day of worship that they choose. At this time in the covenant that God had made with Judah and what they were obligated to keep as occupants of his land, this is God's land, he gave it to them.
So as occupants of this land, they're supposed to keep these Sabbaths. And the Sabbath was not just one day a week. There were Sabbath years. There was the year of Jubilee. So Sabbath applied in more ways than one.
It was more than just that day, that one day in seven that was supposed to be devoted to the Lord. But this is how God was going to test the Jews to see their faithfulness to him and to his statutes. The one law that's singled out doesn't mean that this is the only one that they have to.
Keep.
But the one that singled out here in this address that comes from Jeremiah is the Sabbath. If you are going to be attentive to God's law, you got to keep the Sabbath. And if they're not keeping the Sabbath, they're not going to keep attention to anything else in God's law.
Now, as we've seen, if you can remember back to going through 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, it was very, very rare that Judah or Israel, even either kingdom, it was rare that either one of them were keeping the Sabbaths or were even keeping the laws that were written.
Remember that when Josiah came upon the law and had it read in his presence, he tore his robes, realizing we're not doing any of this. So it was a very rare occasion in the history of Israel and Judah that they were actually keeping the Sabbaths and following those laws.
So this is the charge that God is bringing against Judah. And it's to convict their hearts to recognize that we've not even been keeping the Sabbath day, let alone all these other laws that God has set upon us to keep in worship and in obedience to him.
Do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath, God says, verse 22, or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy as I commanded your fathers. Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffen their neck that they may not hear and receive instruction.
So, again, this goes way back. There are many generations over the course of Judah's occupation of this land in which they were not keeping the Sabbath day. So continuing on verse 24, this is where God says, if you obey, here's what you will.
Receive.
But if you listen to me, declares the Lord and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, then there shall enter by the gates of this city, kings and princes who sit on the throne of David riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall be inhabited forever.
So the prosperity of the days of David would be given upon Jerusalem and Judah again, if they were to keep God's law, particularly concerning the Sabbath. Now, once again, in Colossians chapter two, we are told, let no one disqualify you.
Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. Here's verse 17. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Ultimately, even the Sabbath was pointing to Christ, who is our Sabbath rest. Remember that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And it's just a few verses later in Matthew chapter 12, where he says that I am the Lord of the Sabbath.
So in Christ, we have our Sabbath rest. We rest from our labors, our work, our keeping of the law. None of those things would bring us righteousness. We gain righteousness by putting our faith and trust in Christ, who lived perfectly for us, who died on the cross as that sacrifice for our sins, for God draws attention to giving sacrifices here in this section as well.
Christ is our Passover lamb. He has been sacrificed and the blood of his sacrifice applied to us so that when God looks at us, he sees us righteous. We've been forgiven, cleansed by the blood of the lamb, and in Christ Jesus, we have entrance into that holy dwelling where God lives and we fellowship with God.
God dwells with us, his Holy Spirit that is living within us. So Christ is our Sabbath rest. Now, we still should be giving one day unto the Lord that we would worship and gather with the saints, the Lord's day, as we call it, which is Sunday.
So we still should do that. Just because we understand that Christ has fulfilled these things, that the substance belongs to Christ, these were a shadow of the things to come, all pointing to Christ, who is our rest.
Though he has fulfilled these things, we still give unto the Lord that day that we gather with his saints and worship him. As said in Hebrews 10, let us not neglect to meet together as is the habit of some, but all the more as we see the day of the Lord drawing near.
So if we were to keep the Sabbath, if we were to do that, our keeping of the Sabbath is not going to bring God's blessing upon us, as the Jews are instructed to do so here. We must keep Christ. We must turn to him for our rest, for our mercy and grace, and it's in him that we rest in God and are given the eternal treasure and reward that he promises for all those in Christ Jesus.
So keeping the Sabbath now in the new covenant would not be enough for us. Christ is the one who has fulfilled the law perfectly, and it's in him that we find our rest. Again, that's not to say that we don't have to keep a day that we give unto the Lord.
We still should do that, but it is not for us to keep this particular day that God had implemented upon his people, for that day hasn't even been consistent for over 2 ,000.
Years.
So we wouldn't even know exactly what day of the week that would be anyway.
All right.
That aside, continuing on. So we have this promise that was given that just as David was prosperous, so will you be forever if you keep my statutes. Verse 26. People will come from the cities of Judah, from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shefilah, from the hill country and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord.
Now, we know what ends up happening is that the temple of God gets torn down when Babylon comes in and lays siege to Jerusalem. So that place where God dwelled, he's no longer there. He actually departs.
He takes his presence from the temple before Babylon comes against it. And even when the temple is rebuilt by Nehemiah, the presence of God never comes back into.
The temple.
It's never as it was when Solomon built it and the presence of God came down into the temple as fire from heaven. We don't ever see that happen again, even when the temple is rebuilt. So it's never the same after that.
And all of this, again, is meant to point to Christ who comes and fulfills this. Christ is our access into the presence of God. He is our sacrificial lamb that has made us right with God and atoned for our sins, for all those who believe in him.
So then verse 40, or sorry, verse 27, but if you do not listen to me to keep the Sabbath day holy and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates.
And that is a reference to judgment. There's not peace in the gates. There's not entrance through those gates. There is instead fire as God will bring judgment upon Jerusalem and burn it and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.
Even those royal places where the kings dwell to whom you looked for your prosperity and safety, they won't even be there. The kings will be taken out. The princes will be driven away. You will not have those leaders that have protected you from the enemies in the past.
And so this being the sign that God's judgment would be upon them when those enemies, those foreign invaders would come against Jerusalem and seize it. Now, my friends, we too must keep the commandments of God.
Even though we were unable to attain righteousness by keeping God's commands. Now we have been given the righteousness of Christ so that we can keep his commands in a holy way that is worshipful unto the Lord.
Jesus said to his own disciples, John 14, 15, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments. So now if we love God, we should keep his commands. Now, there are commandments that have been repurposed in another way.
Like, for example, we don't keep the Passover. The Passover has is not an ordinance that has been given to us to keep. So we don't have to keep the laws of the Passover. But Christ had repurposed that Passover meal for something else, a memorial meal, which we know to be communion, the Lord's table.
So we continue to practice that. And it's not once a year. You can practice the Lord's table every week as we do in my church. But we do those things in remembrance of the one who gave his body and gave his blood to be a sacrifice for us.
As the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, whenever you eat of this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So we eat and drink in remembrance as he instructed us to do.
We baptize because that's what Jesus told us to do. We love one another. That's what he told us to do. So there are commands of God we keep because we love Jesus and we demonstrate our love for him and that we obey his word.
But our obedience is not what saves us. Christ saves us. And now being saved, we demonstrate or confirm our calling and election the way Peter puts it in 2 Peter 1. We affirm that we confirm it through the righteousness that we live in now having been made children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
So let us walk in such a way, pursue holiness, put off sin and every weight which so easily entangles as we read about in Hebrews 12 and run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read here today, and I pray that it does convict us to walk in those ways that are righteous before you. Let us put off all sin. Let us stay away from all the ways of the world that that seek to entice us and draw us away from God.
Let us beware of the schemes of Satan, the different things that he might try to do to distract us from the way. And let us hold fast to Christ and focus on him and walk in righteousness and uprightness before you.
If there is conviction of sin upon our hearts, may we turn from those things, confess our sins and turn to Christ who forgives our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Lift us up and keep us pure for that great day.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.