Sermon Central
Jeremiah 5
Jerusalem’s Godlessness
And look now and take note.
And seek in her open squares,
If you can find a man,
If there is one who does justice, who seeks truth,
Then I will pardon her.
Surely they swear falsely.”
You have smitten them,
But they did not weaken;
You have consumed them,
But they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
They have refused to repent.
They are foolish;
For they do not know the way of the LORD
Or the ordinance of their God.
And will speak to them,
For they know the way of the LORD
And the ordinance of their God.”
But they too, with one accord, have broken the yoke
And burst the bonds.
A wolf of the deserts will destroy them,
A leopard is watching their cities.
Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces,
Because their transgressions are many,
Their apostasies are numerous.
Your sons have forsaken Me
And sworn by those who are not gods.
When I had fed them to the full,
They committed adultery
And trooped to the harlot’s house.
Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
“And on a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?
But do not execute a complete destruction;
Strip away her branches,
For they are not the LORD’S.
Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” declares the LORD.
And said, “Not He;
Misfortune will not come on us,
And we will not see sword or famine.
And the word is not in them.
Thus it will be done to them!”
“Because you have spoken this word,
Behold, I am making My words in your mouth fire
And this people wood, and it will consume them.
“It is an enduring nation,
It is an ancient nation,
A nation whose language you do not know,
Nor can you understand what they say.
All of them are mighty men.
They will devour your sons and your daughters;
They will devour your flocks and your herds;
They will devour your vines and your fig trees;
They will demolish with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust.
18“Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make you a complete destruction.
19It shall come about when they say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
And proclaim it in Judah, saying,
Who have eyes but do not see;
Who have ears but do not hear.
‘Do you not tremble in My presence?
For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
An eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it.
Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail;
Though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.
They have turned aside and departed.
“Let us now fear the LORD our God,
Who gives rain in its season,
Both the autumn rain and the spring rain,
Who keeps for us
The appointed weeks of the harvest.”
And your sins have withheld good from you.
They watch like fowlers lying in wait;
They set a trap,
They catch men.
So their houses are full of deceit;
Therefore they have become great and rich.
They also excel in deeds of wickedness;
They do not plead the cause,
The cause of the orphan, that they may prosper;
And they do not defend the rights of the poor.
‘On a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?’
Has happened in the land:
And the priests rule on their own authority;
And My people love it so!
But what will you do at the end of it?