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Jeremiah 13:1
God Had Made Up His Mind
Outline:
I. \\#Jer 1:1-19\\ Jeremiah’s Calling
II. \\#2:1-37\\ God’s Case Against Judah
III. \\#3:1-25\\ Israel’s Three Time Zones
IV. \\#4:1-6:30\\ Sins and Judgments
V. \\#7:1-\\ Some Specific Messages
A. \\#Jer 7:1-34\\ A Message to the Religious
B. \\#Jer 8:1-22\\ A Message to the Continuous Backslider
C. \\#Jer 9:1-10:25\\ A Message to the Believer
D. \\#Jer 11:1-12:6\\ A Message About Jeremiah
E. \\#Jer 12:7-17\\ A Message to the Pastors
1. \\#Jer 12:7-9\\ An Astonishing Statement
2. \\#Jer 12:10-13\\ A Horrendous Failure
3. \\#Jer 12:14-17\\ A Strange Invitation
F. \\#Jer 13:1-7\\ A Message of Ruin
This chapter is a chapter of pictures or parables. There is the
parable of a ruined girdle \\#1-11\\, of busted bottles \\#12-14\\,
of a dark pathway \\#15-17\\, and of a scattered kingdom \\#18-27\\.
The sad thing is that all of these pictures are of the same nation,
Israel, and the same judgment, what the Babylonians are going to do
to them.
I. \\#Jer 13:1-7\\ A Message of A Ruined Girdle
A. God is comparing this girdle to the nation of Israel.
1. The Jews wore two girdles, an inner and an outer one.
2. The inner girdle was an undergarment. It was the most
personal and private garment in the Jew’s wardrobe.
3. This is what Jeremiah was being commanded to wear.
4. The girdle was symbolic of the nation of Israel.
a. \\#11\\ The personalness of this garment reflects how
close God and Israel could have been. No other
garment was closer to the skin.
b. \\#1\\ Jeremiah’s garment was not to be washed for
Israel would not repent that their sins might
be washed away.
B. After being worn, the garment was to be hid in the rocks
of the Euphrates River.
1. The Euphrates River is 500 miles as the crow flies
from Jerusalem and as a caravan would travel, it was
800 miles away.
2. Babylon, the capital city of the nation that God would
bring against Israel, was along this river.
3. By placing the garment there, God was telling the Jews
what nation would destroy them.
a This is not the first time that had been revealed.
b. \\#Mi 4:10\\ revealed it and Isaiah (a contemporary)
often spoke of Babylon.
c. Jeremiah won’t give Babylon’s name until \\#Jer 20:4\\
but from that point on, he will repeatedly make
mention of them.
4. Because of the sheer distance of the journey, some
have wondered if this was a dream.
a. It is possible.
b. However, travel between these lands was possible
during these days although the travel time would
be measured in months.
C. What I find interesting is that even after the girdle was
retrieved from Babylon, it was still dirty and ruined.
1. God seems to be saying that the deportation to Babylon
was not going to help the overall condition of the
Jewish nation.
2. While the remnant did return from the Babylonian
captivity with a desire to serve God, it was
short-lived (i.e. 50 to 75 years).
3. Their regathering was little more than a reprieve to
get the Jews back into the land where they would be
exiles again for a longer and harder time.
4. That is much of what I think is going on today.
a. God has brought the Jews into the land so that the
anti-Christ can step onto the scene and he will begin
the worst persecution the Jews have ever known.
b. Today, the Jews still reject Jesus and are lost.
c. Hence, they are not in a place to be blessed;
rather they are in a place to be cursed.
D. So because of Israel’s determination to reject God, God will
judge Israel.
1. \\#Jer 13:14\\ God will dash them together like filled
bottles.
a. \\#Jer 13:13\\ God speaks of one of Israel’s sins
being drunkenness.
b. Alcohol and drugs may be today’s social entertainment
but God still calls it sin and judges entire nations
because of it.
2. \\#Jer 13:19\\ God will carry entire cities, literally
every body in them, into captivity.
3. \\#Jer 13:24\\ God will scatter whoever is left to the
winds.
II. Even though some things are the same, some things changed.
A. Jeremiah and God have a conversation about and to Israel.
1. \\#Jer 13:15-17\\
a. Jeremiah is speaking TO the nation, but God is
involved in it too.
b. Jeremiah tells Judah to repent and give glory to God.
c. \\#17\\ And if they will not, he will weep from them.
d. This message appears to be more of Jeremiah’s heart
than God’s.
(1) We have seen that God has already determined
Judah is to be destroyed.
(2) I am not certain that God is giving them any
more opportunities to repent.
(3) First scripture:
Jer 13:14 And I will dash them one against
another, even the fathers and the sons together,
saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor
have mercy, but destroy them.
(a) Just before Jeremiah starts to please for
Judah to repent, God tells Jeremiah that He
will now show any mercy.
(b) I suspect that Jeremiah’s plea came as a
direct results of hearing God say that.
(c) Jeremiah knew that Judah would not survive
without mercy and so he instantly sought
after it.
(4) Second scripture:
Jer 14:10 Thus saith the LORD unto this people,
Thus have they loved to wander, they have not
refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth
not accept them; he will now remember their
iniquity, and visit their sins.
11 Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for
this people for their good.
12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry;
and when they offer burnt offering and an
oblation, I will not accept them: but I will
consume them by the sword, and by the famine,
and by the pestilence.
(a) God tells Jeremiah for the third time not to
pray for this people \\#Jer 7:16, 11:14\\.
(b) He also tells Jeremiah that He is not
listening when they cry (pray), fast, or
offer their sacrifices.
(c) Friend, there can be no repentance if God is
not listening.
(5) Third scripture:
Jer 15:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Though
Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind
could not be toward this people: cast them out
of my sight, and let them go forth.
(a) This is similar to what Ezekiel, a slightly
later contemporary of Jeremiah, wrote.
Eze 14:14 Though these three men, Noah, Daniel,
and Job, were in it, they should deliver but
their own souls by their righteousness, saith
the Lord GOD.
(b) Between these two, God names five of the
greatest men in the Bible: Job, Noah, Moses,
Samuel, Daniel.
(c) These were men who had power with God, but
God says these men would not change the
results of what was going to happen to the
land of Judah.
(d) That means not their preaching, not their
praying, not their intercessions was going to
help.
(e) If you want to talk about a relationship on a
downhill slope, this is it. It can’t get
much worse.
e. I don’t think Jeremiah was wrong to plead with his
people to repent. I just think it is not going to do
any good. Both Israel and God have determined their
courses.
2. \\#Jer 14:1\\ God had sent a drought into the land.
a. \\#Jer 14:7-9, 20-21\\ In the midst of that, Jeremiah
confesses the nation’s sins and asks God to abide
with them.
b. But God only promises more judgment.
Jer 15:3 And I will appoint over them four
kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and
the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven,
and the beasts of the earth, to devour and
destroy.
4 And I will cause them to be removed into all
kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the
son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which
he did in Jerusalem.
B. From these conversations, there is only one bit of mercy
promised and it is for the remnant who stay in the land.
1. God will make some promises for the captives but that
comes later. Right now, this is to the remnant.
Jer 15:11 The LORD said, Verily it shall be
well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the
enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil
and in the time of affliction.
2. God promises the remnant will be well treated by the
conquering enemy.
Jer 15:19 Therefore thus saith the LORD, If
thou return, then will I bring thee again, and
thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take
forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be
as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but
return not thou unto them.
20 And I will make thee unto this people a
fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against
thee, but they shall not prevail against thee:
for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver
thee, saith the LORD.
21 And I will deliver thee out of the hand of
the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the
hand of the terrible.
3. If the remnant will obey God, God will use them as a tool
during the occupation.
4. There won’t be many survivors and the details of their
response are recorded later in this book.
III. I see some things.
A. God allows man’s freewill to play out.
1. This was God’s people.
2. Israel seemed determined to sin against God and God
seemed determined to let them.
3. The consequences were proclaimed so that man could not
claim ignorance.
4. God did not want those consequences and neither did his
servant, Jeremiah, but the people seemed determined.
5. Pray, witness, work to bring people to repentance but
understand, it is always their individual choice.
6. God has given man a freewill.
B. Only God’s grace can stop (slow down) man’s downward spiral.
1. Freewill seems to always generate a downward spiral.
2. There is no rule that says it has to, but man typically
goes down not up.
a. God said to re-produce and populate the planet. We
choose to abort our children.
b. God said to worship Him and Him only. We choose to
worship everything He made, even ourselves.
c. God said to obey the precepts He gave in the Bible.
We choose to rewrite even the very laws of nature
and existence.
3. This downward spiral tendency is called in theology man’s
total depravity.
a. Man, left to himself, is totally incapable of doing
good or even recognizing God.
b. But then comes grace, i.e. God working in us, through
us, and for us to accomplish His will.
c. These two are in direct conflict together - man’s
depravity versus God’s grace.
d. Let there be no doubt, God could and will defeat sin,
regardless how badly man wants to do it.
e. However, throughout the history of mankind, God
normally allows man’s will to take the upper hand.
(1) Every once in awhile, God steps in to back sin
off. (Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Hezekiah,
the Protestant Reformation, the spiritual
awakening of the 18-19th centuries, the
founding and influence of America).
(2) I don’t suppose anyone knows exactly why.
(3) However, overall, God backs His grace down to
allow man’s freewill and depravity to direct the
affairs of mankind.
4. This overall downward spiral will continue until a
predetermined point.
a. We do not know what or when that point will occur.
b. We do know some things:
(1) God, in His grace, has made certain promises
which center on Israel.
(2) He will not allow sin, the devil, or the world to
destroy them.
(3) When they are about to do so, God will step in.
(4) He will override man’s freewill, deal with sin,
and accomplish His will with Israel.
c. Until then, man (including the nation of Israel) will
continue spiraling downward.
C. Ultimately, there is always a judgment that follows sin and
nothing can stop that judgment.
1. Jeremiah was praying.
2. God said that not even the best that had ever walked on
the earth could stop the coming judgment.
3. That judgment was going to come.
4. Honestly, I think the judgment itself is an act of grace
that puts righteousness back up on the top for awhile.
a. It is like killing a poisonous snake.
b. The world is always a bit better after it is done.
c. When God judges sin, things are just better.
5. As we cannot imagine the joys of heaven, neither can we
imagine the agony of judgment.
D. While all of the decisions are in God’s hands, you and I are
to keep working regardless of what happens.
1. Our instructions are not subject to change.
2. It matters not if God’s grace is advancing against man’s
depravity or if man’s depravity seems to be advancing
against God’s grace.
3. Our commands are to live holy, to walk righteously, and
to share the gospel.
4. Nothing will ever change that.
God has made up His mind and we must make up ours. Will we do what
God has commanded us.
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