Jeremiah 9:7-11
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Introduction
Introduction
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
7 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, I will refine them and assay them; For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?
Q: How will God refine His people here? Do you think God has ever used suffering to refine you?
Q: What do you think happens if God refines and tests His people but they fail the test? What do you think happens if we don’t pass the test?
8 “Their tongue is a deadly arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for him.
Verses 4-5 speaks about how badly neighbors treated one another. Verse 8 reemphasizes it. We call what’s described in v. 8 as being two-faced.
Q: Is it tempting to be two-faced in our Southern culture? How do we fight against this temptation?
Ultimately no thoughts or intentions of our hearts are hidden from God. He knows if we are being deceptive even when those deceived have no idea. But because God is true, we must always speak and act truthfully. When we don’t, we need refining.
9 “Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares the Lord. “On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself?
Q: Human-to-human we think of vengeance as hot-headed and sinful. What makes the vengeance of God different?
God had made His covenant with His people. His vengeance is rooted in their breaking of the covenant. Our vengeance is often rooted in rage. God’s vengeance is also a demonstration of His perfect justice and only comes at the end of His perfect patience. His vengeance was coming upon Judah because His perfect patience had run out and His perfect justice demanded their sin be punished.
10 “For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, And for the pastures of the wilderness a dirge, Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, And the lowing of the cattle is not heard; Both the birds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone. 11 “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
Q: What picture does this paint of the destructive force of God’s wrath?
Q: How would you respond to this quote, “Judah’s towns would become an awesome waste without inhabitants. The link between national apostasy and natural disasters was held to be a very close one,”?
12 Who is the wise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through? 13 The Lord said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, 14 but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,” 15 therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. 16 “I will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them.”
Q: Why is all this bad falling on Judah?
Q: Why is wisdom required to understand this?
It’s not that wisdom is needed to comprehend it intellectually. The people have understood intellectually the message that Jeremiah has been preaching.
But wisdom is needed to accept the message spiritually. Without wisdom, the people in Judah would never genuinely say, “It is because of our sin that this is happening to us.”
Q: Who are the Baals?
“In theory the head of the Canaanite pantheon was El. Alongside him was his consort Athirat (Asherah). According to Canaanite mythology the offspring of these two deities was Baal, the fertility-god par excellence, who in practice was the active head of the pantheon. In the OT and in other Near Easter texts the name Baal appears as the first element in a number of names of local deities, like Baal-hazor, Baal-peor, Baal-sidon, Baal-lebanon, Baal-haram, Ba’alat-gebal (mistress of Byblos). One interesting example in the OT is Baal-berith, ‘the lord of the covenant’ (Judg. 9:4).”
Judah had essentially broken its covenant with God to make a covenants with false gods.
Q: Any other part of these verses stand out to you in a significant way?
Conclusion
Conclusion
Q: What is the Gospel?
Q: How do we see Jesus or see truths from the Gospel in what we’ve discussed tonight?