LESSONS FROM JEREMIAH – PART 27 – A SERIES OF IFS SO THAT THE LORD MIGHT BLESS HIS PEOPLE SO THEY COULD POSSESS THEIR LAND
PART 27 - Jeremiah 7:3-7
CHAPTER 7
In our study last time we considered Jeremiah’s message given in the gate of the temple. Judah was challenged to amend its ways and cease trusting the lying words of the false prophets and the rulers. The section we were looking at was Jeremiah 7:3-7 but we only got verses 3 and 4 done. Today we continue from that point.
{{Jeremiah 7:3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “AMEND YOUR WAYS and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.
Jeremiah 7:4 “DO NOT TRUST IN DECEPTIVE WORDS, saying, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD,’
Jeremiah 7:5 for if you truly amend your ways and your deeds; if you truly practise justice between a man and his neighbour;
Jeremiah 7:6 if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place; nor walk after other gods to your own ruin,
Jeremiah 7:7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.”}}
VERSE 5
In the next two verses, 5 and 6, there are 5 conditions with which God confronts Judah. Each of the phrases could all begin with “If”. I don’t believe this is all that was at stake; the whole sum of Judah’s sin, and these 5 matters actually embrace a lot of issues, but these 5 are divided into social matters and man’s relationship with God. The first one strikes at the heart of national insincerity, and note the inclusion of the word “truly” –
(1) – THE FIRST IF. “for IF you truly AMEND your ways and your deeds”. Society was corrupt and just to acknowledge that fact is not enough. It required a national repentance along the lines of what Jonah saw in Assyria. A number of observers can easily point to the corruption today found in Australia, the USA, Britain and in all levels of the United Nations and the Criminal Court of Justice. They can point to the corruption in high areas of government and business, legal and environment in general, and all the other ills of injustice, lying and cheating that go on, but for any real change to happen, there must be a national and international desire to amend our ways, that is, a national/world repentance and adoption of righteousness.
It will never happen though. The serious error of Dominion Theology wants to bring heaven down to earth, but the world is corrupt and it can not reform itself. We know the outcome in Israel/Samaria and in Judah – both unrepentant, and both consumed in judgement. The current world likewise in on the brink with the Tribulation judgement almost on this wicked world. The indications of the last days in 2Timothy 3:1-13 are that things keep declining until God says, “Enough,” as He did in the flood.
God never strikes like a wasp does if you come close to the wasp nest, strike without warning. He gives warning after warning until these alarms are utterly rejected by irresolute hearts incapable of repentance. The world today is almost there. I am amazed how in just 4 years in the USA evil is dominating almost the whole political scene. It’s not just that nation – it is everywhere, but it has been so marked in the USA, particularly in California and New York.
(2) - THE SECOND IF. This contains the significant word – “truly” which is a test of sincerity. “IF you truly practise JUSTICE between a man and his neighbour”. Justice was severely lacking. Micah, a contemporary of Jeremiah, knew the came thing – {{Micah 3:9-10 “Now hear this, heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, WHO ABHOR JUSTICE and TWIST EVERYTHING THAT IS STRAIGHT; who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with violent injustice.”}} That is really laying it on the line, saying it without a glossy coating. It was a nation that hated justice and those who suffered were the poor and the unrepresented and the “decent” people. How descriptive even in our own day.
He wrote passionately against the injustice of his own people – {{Micah 6:8 - “He has told you, O man, what is good, and what does the LORD require of you but to DO JUSTICE, to LOVE KINDNESS, and to WALK HUMBLY with your God?” Micah 3:1-3 - I said, “Hear now, heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, IS IT NOT FOR YOU TO KNOW JUSTICE? You who hate good and love evil, who tear off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones, and who eat the flesh of my people, strip off their skin from them, break their bones, and chop them up as for the pot, and as meat in a kettle.”}} The phrase “between a man and his neighbour” is a term meaning “for everyone,” “all people”. Micah is so infuriated with the injustice he saw everywhere that he used quite direct language in highlighting all this.
As I add this in May 2024 there are trials going on in the USA against Donald Trump. All I will say about this is that District Attorneys and the judge hearing the trial, BEFORE the hearings even, publicly stated they had made up their minds and would find Trump guilty no matter what. What sort of justice is that? It is blatantly perverted. Are we any better than the times of Micah and Jeremiah? I think not!
VERSE 6
(3) – THE THIRD IF. “if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow”. The third one concerns social oppression, and they must not discriminate within the commonwealth of Israel, specifically for them, Judah. The aliens were visitors or temporarily residents, ones having no legal status, and they specially needed commendation to the kindness of those around them. Harshness to foreigners was strongly denounced in the Law given to Moses. This injunction is found here – {{Leviticus 19:34 “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself FOR YOU WERE ALIENS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. I am the LORD your God.”}}
There was another command given to the Israelites about aliens/strangers – {{Leviticus 23:22 “When you reap the harvest of your land moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor gather the gleaning of your harvest. You are to leave them for the needy AND THE ALIEN. I am the LORD your God.”}} That is the way God operates in kindness and compassion for the good of human interaction. That was a far cry from the present dealings and extreme meanness and scouring every cent from people that operates now with the tech companies especially Apple and Adobe and Google. Greed dominates.
There are a few references to “alien” in the NASB in the New Testament but I want to mention this one – {{Hebrews 11:9-10 “By faith HE LIVED AS AN ALIEN IN THE LAND OF PROMISE, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise, for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”}} We follow Abraham in this way for the true Christian is an alien/stranger in this world looking for the promises of God that will come our way one day, and looking for that heavenly city. The true Christian does not fit into this world for the world is more and more isolated from God. Never compromise your position in Jesus Christ for you are not to be conformed to this world; not to be a Demas who forsook Paul for the present world; not to be one who is ashamed of the Lord at His coming.
NOW THE ORPHANS AND WIDOWS
The other two groups were orphans and widows, ones not covered in those days by modern social security, and was a constant theme of the prophets, and mentioned in the New Testament. All three are combined in this passage – {{Exodus 22:21-24 “You shall not wrong a STRANGER or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any WIDOW or ORPHAN. If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry, and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.”}} God has such a special care for the oppressed of society more so in this greedy, extortionist world in which we live.
When a church is honestly seeking the welfare of strangers, widows and orphans, it is doing a good work and will be commended by God. Of course the first responsibility lies with those who are in the calling of believers. Our church fellowship supports The Barnabas Fund and The Voice of the Martyrs, organisations that support widows and orphans among other things, in several nations.
(4) – THE FOURTH IF. The fourth of these warnings does not begin with “if” but it is clearly related to verse 7, as all 5 are, and in context can definitely be an “if”. This fourth one says, “and do not shed innocent blood in this place”. This concerns murder, and murder is a vile crime in God’s sight. In fact when Noah emerged from the ark and made his sacrifice, God gave to him what is known as the Noahic Covenant and in that, a simple framework of righteousness was laid out. Part of it are these verses – {{Genesis 9:5-6 “Surely I WILL REQUIRE your lifeblood - from every beast I will require it, and from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed for in the image of God He made man.”}}
Because man is made in the image of God, then any unauthorised destruction of life is murder. This crime is wicked and therefore incurs the strongest penalty and the reason is given – man created in the image of God. Murder destroys man’s comprehension of the image of God which is fixed in each human being. Therefore, God would declare one murder is equated with one life, that being the value of a human life. That is what the Noah verses mean.
I think we must take note that the death penalty God set for murder right back there in Genesis has never been revoked in the Bible. Modern man thinks he is above the death penalty in a so-called civilised western world and equates one man’s life with a picnic in jail for 14 years or so, and paroled after 10 years if the murderer behaves himself in jail. People say the death penalty for deliberate murder is cruel and unjust. That is a whole travesty in understanding the biblical principle for the death penalty. Murder is not the only aspect of skewed justice we have in our justice system.
The death penalty can be upheld in the New Testament and when Paul spoke about the sword in Romans, the sword was never used as a reprimand. The scourging whip was. {{Romans 14:1-4 “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. . . . for he is God’s servant for your good, but if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, or he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”}}
Christians can get very irate about the death penalty, but if they oppose it, they must show its opposition from the bible, and the verses dealing with not avenging ourselves and forgiving our enemies, etc., just don’t apply. They are two different issues.
There is another aspect of shedding innocent blood that gets overlooked in the emotive matter of murder and that is abortion. Abortion is the murder of a human life and rates the same way as murder of a born life does. It is a big issue I don’t want to do right now but it is still murder.
(5) – THE FIFTH IF. We come to the last one, which was like water off a duck’s back when it came to Judah’s behaviour. “nor walk after other gods to your own ruin,” The Jews were so steeped in idolatry that Hosea could say, “Israel is joined to idols” like a superglue bond. Israel and Judah in their existence, walked after heathen gods more than they ever walked after God. Modern man worships his gods also. You see them every week in Melbourne sitting in football stands passionate about their football religion, more than most Christians show any feeling in a church. 100 000 people screaming! It would be fantastic to see 100 000 people sitting in those stands eagerly desiring to know about God and praising the Saviour. It all rings true about the last days when Paul said, “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” This an apply to any sport or celebrity.
There are so many “walking after other gods” such as the idolising of celebrities, the god of money, the god of fame, of power, of pleasure and just so many of them. When God made the following statement it encompassed a wider range than gods made of wood and stone – {{Deuteronomy 5:7 “You shall have no other gods before Me,”}}. It meant anything that replaced God on His throne.
VERSE 7
{{Jeremiah 7:7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.”}}
The last verse in this section, verse 7, can only happen when the 5 conditions are in place, but only when sincerity, repentance and saving trust are operating. Only when the nation did that, then the clauses of verse 7 would transpire. There are two outcomes in verse 7. The first is that God would let the Jews continue to dwell in their land (“this place” could refer more to the Temple in Jerusalem, but it is wider in application).
The second is a covenant promise with Abraham that will be realised, which is ownership of the land forever. That is confirmed by these verses – {{Genesis 13:14-15 and the LORD said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land which you see I will GIVE IT TO YOU AND TO YOUR DESCENDANTS FOREVER.”}}
That part of the covenant was later followed by this next part that the nations of the world today are trying to abolish with the so-called “Two State Solution” on Israel's land – {{Genesis 17:7-8 “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for AN EVERLASTING POSSESSION, and I will be their God.”}}
Because of Israel's sin over and over, the two aspects of that land covenant are not operating. They were cast out of their land by Assyria in Samaria, and by Babylon in Judah. Today the Jews are living on the land in disbelief. However in a time to come both aspects of verse Jeremiah 7:7 will happen when Israel is gloriously restored. The promised guarantee of the land is not dependent on Israel's behaviour in the land. It was given to Abraham. The land is not in question. It never will be in question.
Living in the land is another matter. There is coming a day in Israel's restoration when it will occupy the land that was given by a covenant of God, and that is from the Nile River to the River Euphrates. In the Millennium, that will be Israel's land. Amal Clooney can rave all she wants to in her hatred for Israel, and Hamas and Iran can fume like satanic chimneys, but it will make no difference, because when Clooney and Iran and Hamas are all gone, Israel will have its land forever. Verse 7 is very exact – “forever and ever”. Let no one try to undermine that. How can “forever and ever” promised by God, not mean exactly that? Only a demonic hate for Israel would change that promise.
