LESSONS FROM JEREMIAH – PART 14 – THE LION OF BABYLON WAS ABOUT TO POUNCE – FAITHLESS KING AND RULERS
PART 14 - Jeremiah 4:3-9
CHAPTER 4
[A]. PLOUGH FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND CIRCUMCISE EVIL HEARTS TOWARDS CONVICTION AND REPENTANCE
{{Jeremiah 4:3-4 Thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “BREAK UP your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. CIRCUMCISE yourselves to the LORD and REMOVE the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest My wrath goes forth like fire and burns with none to quench it, BECAUSE OF THE EVIL OF YOUR DEEDS.”}}
Here is another example of the sudden time shift common to the prophets. Jeremiah skips straight from the future blessing for Israel into a severe warning for the inhabitants of Judah. The end of these verses states the problem, and that was evil deeds. Both those verses are built on the problem of evil deeds. That was the reality, and God provided the solution, but the solution lay with the sinners, not with the Lord.
The Lord has assigned everything in place, the promise of forgiveness and restoration, and the outflowing of His blessing, which we know, from all the prophets, means their land is blessed in rainfall and harvest. They would be protected from their enemies. HOWEVER there must be the recognition of their sin and the realisation of the perverseness of that sin, the evil deeds that resulted from their departure from the Lord.
There would be no starting point for anyone unless man realised the evil of his ways. That has been the starting point throughout all of man’s existence from Adam onwards. Without that realisation and conviction, the need for trust in God is meaningless. Conviction through the Holy Spirit always points to the solution. It is at that next point where man makes the decision and it is twofold. He can either accept the solution provided by God, or he can reject that and go his own way and get only deeper into sin and hardness of heart.
In these verses God laid out the record to them very clearly, and there was no mistaking the warning contained herein. If they did not turn from their evil ways then most assuredly, the wrath of God would fall on them like an unquenchable fire. We know when it finally did come on Jerusalem, it was a firestorm from Babylon. Once the judgement from God came, no one could find relief. It was fully matured. The people of Judah were given their chance over and over again, but in this case Jeremiah speaks clearly to them through the words of God.
It is quite interesting that the men are addressed in these verses, as the men were held responsible for the outcome. Men were given headship and that existed in the priestly order in the nation, in governmental leadership, and in families. It was the men who should be leading the people to God, not away from God. It is noteworthy that in so many churches today it is not men who are taking the leadership, but women, partly because of the feminist dictates of this era, but mainly because men have abnegated their roles which is grossly lamentable, because they are answerable to God for that. Men were ordained by God for the leadership among the saints as quite clearly shown through the 12 tribal leaders and the 12 disciples and the appointment of elders and deacons. Men who don’t take their role are a disgrace and it is basically because they are not spiritual men. It is a disgrace to the Church of the living God.
These people in apostasy were asked, firstly, to break up the fallow ground. There can be no planting or sowing before the soil has been prepared. Breaking up the fallow ground requires ploughs and harrows, even disc ploughs as I was taught to use on a farm. This step can not be omitted or there will be no useful outcome. Of course the Lord was speaking of the heart and soul of man. The old nature must be ploughed, and the ground made receptive for the acceptance of the good seed, which in our case, is the word of God.
These men of Judah and Jerusalem had to use the plough of the Holy Spirit to break up their hardness and dryness and their resistance to the word of the Lord, to produce a tenderness of unbroken spirit so that the seed could take root. Only then could they accept the seed as the word of God so that it might grow into righteousness and justice.
Now the next comment is important because they were told not to sow in the thorny places. That would be of no use because the word would be overcome and become unproductive. Too many times, when it seemed that Israel was on the right track through the ministry of the prophets, they accepted the seed with thorns, or they settled in thorny places when receiving the word, that is, they did not do it sincerely. I think it was that way in Josiah’s time. The king followed the Lord implicitly but the people paid lip service; they hugged their thorny ground. God is very clear – the ground must be broken up, and the seed sown in good ground. Having one without the other is worthless.
In verse 4, the men of Judah and Jerusalem are addressed again. This emphasis is important because it is urgent on them, and they must heed the word or they will be swept away. In the first example to them, God used a farming image and this time, he uses a covenant image. Circumcision is the sign of the covenant given to Abraham as a sign that the world is cut off from him and that he is bound to the Lord God. {{Genesis 17:9-11 God said further to Abraham, “Now as for you, YOU SHALL KEEP MY COVENANT, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised - and YOU SHALL BE CIRCUMCISED in the flesh of your foreskin, and IT SHALL BE THE SIGN OF THE COVENANT BETWEEN ME AND YOU.”}}
Israel was to be a circumcised nation, meaning, it was not just the physical circumcision that was being spoken of, but their separation as a nation, set apart to Jehovah. Circumcision has come to mean through the Bible, a covenant sign with God, a cutting off of the world, a cutting off of the flesh (old nature) and its desires, and a spiritual separation to God. God used this example quite pertinently to the Jews through the prophet, but Stephen also used the imagery to the Jews who shortly after murdered him {{Acts 7:51-52 “You men who are stiff-necked, AND UNCIRCUMCISED IN HEART, and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? and they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.”}}
For the ones Jeremiah was addressing, the foreskin of the heart, meant to eliminate by cutting off, all the practice of idolatry and the dishonest, corrupt behaviour and practices the nation operated under, such as bribes and injustice to the poor, and so many more. They had their warning.
[B]. TEMPORARY REFUGE IN DEVASTATING TIMES BUT THE DOOR OPENS TO DESTRUCTION
{{Jeremiah 4:5-7 Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, “BLOW THE TRUMPET in the land. Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.’ Lift up a standard toward Zion. SEEK REFUGE. Do not stand still, for I am bringing evil from the north, and great destruction. A LION HAS GONE UP FROM HIS THICKET, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has gone out from his place to make your land a waste. YOUR CITIES WILL BE RUINS without inhabitant.”}}
In our lives when a disaster is imminent, such as a hurricane or cyclone or tornado or volcanic eruption or tsunami, the alarm or siren is sounded and the people should know how to react. They are to seek refuge. I will never forget when I was in Leone, one of the villages of American Samoa just one week or two after the devastating tsunami hit the region in 2009. We were taken around by a wonderful native lady who lost some cousins in that disaster and on one occasion passed a funeral of one of them as she slowly drove us along the devastated street at Leone.
The story she told us was that the tsunami siren did go off and that meant the people should immediately run higher into the hills, but most thought it was a practice and stayed put. When the sea came rushing in it was too late.
Nothing could be clearer here than the fact sheet given to the people of Judah. I can’t help notice that nothing is said about repentance or turning to the Lord in what Jeremiah wrote. It will be each man for himself because the nation was too hardened, too resolute to repent, so now Jeremiah instructs them as to the only feasible path to take but it would only be temporary because Babylon would overthrow even the fortified cities. These were the ones with walls and some protection but nothing will stand in the way of the Babylonian tsunami.
The trumpet blasts are to gather the people for instruction but the situation is grim. He tells them to gather themselves and flee into the fortified cities, and maybe a few of these would be spared, but no one wandering around outside will escape. Looking to Zion may be of assistance if that is accompanied by a genuine repentance - lift up the standard – rally to it. What was sad is that they were rallying to their own failure. That is all they have to show and claim as their own - their failure. As for Zion, a name generally meaning Jerusalem, that was so sinful no help would come from there. Even the Temple priests and the palace people were so evil they had Jeremiah locked up. It might sound fatalistic but there was no hope for them. They had entered too far into the depths of sin.
When the destruction did come, I wonder how many of them truly repented in Babylon, or among those who were the leftovers in the land. We know from later chapters that barely a few repented. There would be plenty of remorse, “If only we had listened to the prophets; if only we had turned from our evil ways,” but it was all too late. Remorse is not repentance. A swindler shows remorse when he is exposed, but if the law had not caught up with him, he would have continued merrily on with no thought of repentance. Politicians are great at that playacting. They have perfected the art. A politician is caught out badly and begins apologizing and saying how he let the people down. All baloney. He is going through the motions. The person was caught and shams remorse. If he or she was not caught the person would still be offending.
The great destruction from the north is Babylon of course and it was ruthless and destructive. Actually the bible records elsewhere that Babylon would be severely judged by God because it was unmerciful towards Judah. God termed Nebuchadnezzar “My servant” to bring His judgement on Judah but it was cruel and very pitiless. It is God who brings this devastation against Judah in His will. It was Habakkuk who wrote, “In wrath remember mercy,” (Habakkuk 3:2) and God does that, but not Nebuchadnezzar.
The lion will emerge from his place and come roaring and savaging the nations around. We understand the lion hides and crouches but then springs on its prey. When Babylon came the armies sprang suddenly upon the cities of Judah. The lion is one of the special symbols of Babylon and that theme was taken up by Amos as well – {{Amos 3:8 “A lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken. Who can but prophesy?”}} Amos also speaks of the hopelessness of Judah’s situation when it comes – {{Amos 5:18-19 “Alas, you who are longing for the Day of the LORD, for what purpose will the Day of the LORD be to you? It will be darkness and not light - as when a man flees from a lion, and a bear meets him, or goes home, leans his hand against the wall, and a snake bites him.”}} Babylon’s lion was found in all its ancient glory on the Ishtar Gate, and it was through the gates of Babylon the Jewish captives were led. Cities without inhabitants, and the land without crops or produce, will be left behind.
That is the consequence of forsaking the Lord and turning to idolatry and wickedness. Greed seems to be the modus operandi for the behaviour in many in western nations. It is out of control in Australia and all the American multi-nationals and tech companies and all of Silicon Valley feast on greed and extortion like pigs in swill. God notes everything.
[C]. SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS WILL BE APPALLED BUT THEY WERE WARNED
{{Jeremiah 4:8-9 “For this, PUT ON SACKCLOTH. LAMENT and wail, for the FIERCE ANGER OF THE LORD has not turned back from us.” It shall come about in that day,” declares the LORD, “that the heart of the KING and the heart of the PRINCES will fail, and the PRIESTS will be appalled, and the PROPHETS will be astounded.”}}
The verse begins with “For this” and relates to the previous verses about the land becoming a waste under the hand of God. I think the wearing of sackcloth, the lamenting and the wailing is an act urged by Jeremiah before the happening has occurred. It is to signify what is about to happen, and there is no relenting from that point on, for judgement is inevitable. It is possible that the ones who may have listened to Jeremiah and did what came from God as verse 8 says, were a few who may have repented, but largely Jeremiah was ignored.
Jeremiah mentions 4 classes who will be affected and their reactions. The whole demeanour of the king and princes will fail, will be fully undone, torn apart. We know their reactions from the history which is covered later in Jeremiah and the historic books. Is it too harsh to say they deserved all that? After all, Jeremiah had urged on them, the wicked sons of Josiah, to repent and seek God but they scorned the word of God and mistreated the prophet. They were corrupt and had no intention of turning from evil. What they got is what they deserved.
The king was more privileged than all of the residence in Jerusalem. He knew his godly father, Josiah, and he had many messages from Jeremiah, and possibly from Haggai also. Jeremiah was not the sole prophet of the time. I think there were others, maybe in a minor role compared with Jeremiah, but all the faithful men of God spoke to the king or sent him messages. One wonders what caused the heart of this man to have become so darkened and stone-like. When Josiah died his son Jehoahaz reigned for just three months, but the king who was responsible for this entrenched darkness was Josiah’s next son, Jehoiakim.
The priests and prophets (I assume the Baal ones) are appalled and astounded. There was no goodness anywhere in society. Repentance was foreign; God was unknown; goodness was rejected; bribes and wickedness thrived. These priests are grossly wicked for they turned around all the reforms done by Josiah including with the Temple. They desecrated God’s house and were desecrated themselves. The religious ruling classes have rarely been godly in all scripture and world history. In fact they have been traitors to God’s cause. Read the history of the Popes and the priests. Consider the chief priests and rabbis in the time of Jesus who put Him to death.
As for the prophets, they were vile. They stood before the king and told him barefaced lies that their messages were from God. They were deceivers of the worst kind, and the king chose to listen to them, not to Jeremiah. They told the king there would be no invasion and he would be safe and God would deliver the nation. Liars. What about the liars in the churches today who won’t preach on and speak of the judgement to come very soon when the Church is removed and the Tribulation springs on this world like that Babylonian lion we read about. Do not ignore the solemn commission preachers have been given.
