“Broken Promises”
Jeremiah 11
Intro: Today is a very special day in my life. 7 years ago today, I stood at the front of a church, and looked back the aisle at a young girl from my church who walked forward, took my hand, and committed the rest of her life to live as my wife. It’s a very sentimental moment in my life. Ronda and I have three videos of that service, and we have watched each often.
What would you think if I told you today I was getting a divorce? Some of you probably might believe that Ronda was finally coming to her senses. But what if I stood here before you and told you I’ve been having an affair? What if I told you I could care less whether I stay married or not? What are the thoughts that rush through your mind?
I realize that this is a sensitive matter. I know there are some in this church who have experienced the pain of divorce. But I also know that there are some who have been a part of this church, and even in the short time since I have been here, they have decided they were tired of living with their spouse. In fact, more than one, has decided they no longer wished to be married to their husband.
Unfaithfulness is a great tragedy. It has terrible consequences. But that is not just the truth about marriages, but also in our spiritual lives. Jeremiah is a book about unfaithfulness. Jeremiah uses many visual images to show the people their sinfulness in being unfaithful to their God. Let’s look at Jeremiah 11 to see a vivid picture of how God viewed the people.
Read 11:1-17
I. Israel’s Commitment to God
A. The Jews were “married” to the LORD - they were to be faithful
God had bound himself in a covenant relationship with the Jews. He had set them apart as a people special to himself. He had sealed the relationship through “covenants” with the people.
##When we got married, Ronda and I made promises to each other about our faithfulness.
The Jews also made “covenants” with the Lord.
Ex. 19 - Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: `You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the LORD had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, "We will do everything the LORD has said." So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD.
Many priests and kings renew this covenant - David, Jehoida, Hezekiah, Josiah - The people time and time again renewed their vows to be faithful to the LORD.
The people were responsible for their part: obedience 11:4
God was responsible for his part: relationship - 4 “my people” & rewards 5 “land”
As Jeremiah is reminded of this relationship, he affirms that it is a good relationship -
5 “Amen” - [let it be so]
B. The Jews had adulterous affairs
Jeremiah gives us very vivid pictures of the unfaithfulness of Israel. Just as in a marriage, the thought of one partner having an affair is a terrible thought; yet, think about someone who has multiple affairs with multiple partners. There really is no commitment to the marriage.
This is the picture that Jeremiah gives of Israel.
He compares her to a wild donkey in heat, eager to mate with any donkeys that pass by. 2:23-24
He compares her to prostitutes willing to defile themselves under any shady tree they come to 2:20
11:9-10 The people had broken their promises to their God.
11:13 - Not only did they go into idolatry, but they were consumed with it. They had more idols than streets in the town.
C. God, the faithful partner, brings judgment for the nation’s unfaithfulness
11:8 - As a result of their idolatry, God’s judgment comes
11:10 - The northern kingdom of Israel had been destroyed for their idolatry. Judah, the southern kingdom was spared due to a godly King, Hezekiah. But God will bring judgment now for the continued idolatry of the south.
11:11-12 God will not spare the people this time
11:14 - Jeremiah is not even to pray for the people, for God does not wish to help them
11:15 - Even their sacrifices cannot help the people. God is fed up with their unfaithfulness.
11:17 - The nation was chosen by God, but rejected for idolatry, unfaithfulness.
God also uses similar analogies for us today.
II. We are to be committed to our God
God uses the same marriage analogy for us today.
2 Cor. 11:2 - I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Eph. 5:25 - Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
A. We need to remember our commitments
What do you think Ronda would say if she came home one night and found me with another woman, and when she walked in I said, “Oh, honey, I forgot I was married.”
Yet, so often we expect God to believe that we simply forgot or commitment to him.
If God has given you salvation, if he has given you a new life and a new inner man, he wants you to be different.
2 Cor 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
God wants us to turn from the sinfulness that controlled us before salvation.
Rom 6:11 - In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
So what happens when we mess up?
B. We need to quickly repent of unfaithfulness
God is a God of forgiveness. He loves to forgive us.
God’s mercy and love and compassion would not have kept him from punishing his people, but their repentance could have saved them.
13:14-17 If only they would have repented of their sinfulness.
We have already pointed out that just the superficial religion of the people could not save them.
Look at 14:11-12 - Just the outward religion of the people could do not good.
What God desires is heart obedience.
C. In the same way as the Jews, we face punishment for our unfaithfulness
Heb. 12:5 - "My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
D. But there are also blessings for obedience
The Jews were told in Ex. 20 -Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’
So we are told in 1 Peter 2 - But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
The Jews were told in Deuteronomy 5 - Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.
1 Peter 3 tells us "Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.
God has such rich blessings for us, if only we would live so we could receive them.
Eph 3 tell us God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
1 Cor. 2:9 - But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
Concl: The people of Israel had a choice to make. Deut. 30:15 - See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
We have a choice to make too!
Will we be faithful in our “marriage” to the LORD??
Have we forgotten our vows? Ronda & I have ours on the wall so we will always be reminded of our commitment. As Christians, we are reminded when we read God’s word of our commitment to God. Let’s be faithful
