PROPHETIC MESSAGES Lesson # 6
JEREMIAH 2:1-13
ACCUSATIONS
I. Introduction:
Q When was the last time someone seriously accused you of something at work or church or in another public situation?
Q How did you feel?
Q Did it matter whether you were guilty or not? Why?
Note: Today we are going to look at part of the sermon recorded in chapter 2 of the book of Jeremiah. It is a tough driving sermon. As we study this see if you can picture yourself delivering such a speech.
II. Jeremiah’s Call To Remembrance: Reflect on Your Beginning. Jeremiah 2:1-4.
>>>> Have someone read Jeremiah 2:1-3.
The word of the Lord came to me: “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: “This is what the Lord says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,’ declares the Lord.
Q Where does Jeremiah’s sermon come from?
An = Not himself, but from God. It is addressed to Jerusalem but as we go on you will see that Jerusalem represents the whole Israelite nation. This is a sermon to a group. For confirmation of this, see Jeremiah 2:4.
>>>>Hear the word of the Lord, you descendants of Jacob, all you clans of Israel.
Note: Notice these oracles are not addressed to pagan nations but to Israel the believing community of that day. These oracles are addressed to believers or in today’s terms to the Christian church.
Q What does the Lord remember in verse 2 about Israel? Why would this be so important?
An = This will be a key motif all through this long chapter. God remembers their earlier devotion as a nation when times were rough.
Q At the end of verse 2 where is Israel said to have “followed” the Lord?
An = In the wilderness or uncultivated lands after the nation left Egypt with Moses.
Note: The key phrase we will need to remember is “following”. A wife “followed” after her husband. In the ancient world the woman “followed” but that was not without its compensations. The woman’s devotion brought reciprocation.
Q Do American ministers often claim that the United States started out as an obedient Christian nation, even in the tough times of the nation’s early beginning?
Q How special was Israel because she “followed” the Lord according to 2:3?
An = Israel was holy to the Lord and if anyone touched her they were severely punished. Israel was quodesh; she was holy. Quodesh means you are sanctified, the word literally means “set apart”, special. Anyone who harmed Israel who was the apple of His eye was in big trouble.
Note: Men have learned through the ages, that if they want their wives to follow after them then they need to treat their wives as special.
Q What are first fruits and why is Israel called that?
An = First fruits were the very beginning of the harvest and a small, very small portion was dedicated to the Lord at the beginning of harvest and given to God. It represented to the Israelite that he understood that the entire crop belonged to the Lord and that God was letting him use it. So the dedication of the first fruits sanctified the whole as it was understood to be as a gift from God.
Q What other type of first fruit can there be besides crops?
An = The Lord was to have the first pick of Israelite sons. They were His. Israelites were to understand that the giving of the first-born to the Lord was to help them understand that all their greatest wealth, their children, belonged to God.
Q How important is the first born?
An = It is very special. This can be applied today in two ways. 1) We often want our first born to be special in a worldly way: be a doctor, dentist, lawyer, or successful in business. Many wealthier Americans do not want their first born to be a minister. There is more prestige in having a child that is successful in a high paid profession rather than making the wages that a minister makes. 2) Israel as a people were to be “holy” to the Lord as His special instrument of revelation. Our churches are to be the first fruits of all those whom the Lord would like to call unto Himself.
Q Was America to be holy to the Lord and be first fruits so as to bless other nations by our obedience to His principles found in the Bible?
III. The First Indictment: Flowing Fullness Left for Stagnant Leakage. Jeremiah 2: 4-13
Q In a courtroom setting how does the prosecution begin building their case? How do they actually start presenting evidence?
An = They usually begin by asking questions either of witnesses or of the guilty party themselves. The prosecution makes inquiries. As you will soon see many of Jeremiah’s sermons partake of a legal literary form. God is bringing Israel to court in these sermons.
III. Taking Israel to the Courts of the Universe.
>>>> Have someone read Jeremiah 2:5.
This is what the Lord says: What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.
Q What does the Lord ask Israel?
An = What was wrong with the Lord that they left Him for something empty. Notice they “strayed” from the Lord, not “followed” God.
Q What did they follow?
An = They were far from the Lord and followed after the empty idols. In Hebrew the word for “idol” is not present but rather the word for “emptiness” is there. In other words, they followed after emptiness and became empty.
Note: Jeremiah is saying it does not profit to disobey and abandon the Lord. The two themes will reverberate all through the chapter: forsaking God does not profit. In a real sense verse 5 is the summary of the chapter.
>>>> Have someone read Jeremiah 2:6-7
They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’ I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable.
Q What question did Israel not ask in these two verses?
An = “Where is the Lord”. They did not ask about the God who made them what they were. He brought them out of oppression (Egyptian slavery) and through the wilderness and gave them their land.
Note: In Hebrew there is a play on the word “come” (b’x) in verse 7. The Lord “brought” Israel to a fruitful and rich land and Israel “came” and defiled the land they “came” in to. They ruined their own inheritance from the Lord. God gave them beauty and they made it ugly.
Note: When Christians turn from God it is not just a “matter of preference” but a “forsaking of the Lord who has a right to our obedience”. Christians who turn from the Lord have committed a “legal fault”.
>>>> Have someone read Jeremiah 2:8.
The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who deal with the law did not know me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.
Q Who else does not ask for the Lord according to Jeremiah?
An = All classes of the community’s leadership: The priests, the princes and the prophets.
Q Is that true of today? Is that true of our society?
An = It could be said that our politicians, clergy and “insightful ones” do not seek God. The prophets, those who say they know the truth and propagate their ideas (like Television, the Movies, Song Writers of today), do they encourage us to see the Lord or to see what does not profit.
Note: Our two themes have surfaced again. Israel’s leaders do not seek the Lord (they forsook Him) and they “follow” what does not profit. The Hebrew in verse 8 does not say “idols” but “not profit”. The NIV is not a very good translation to use when reading the prophets and their play on words.
>>>> Have someone read Jeremiah 2:9-11.
‘Therefore I bring charges against you again,’ declares the Lord. And I will bring charges against your children’s children. Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this; Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols.
Note: A very important word in prophetic literature is being used in verse 9. Older translations translate it “contend”, NIV translates it as “bring charges against”. The word is riv and means a public confrontation delivered at court with evidence. The Lord is formally bringing charges.
Q What is the Lord asking in verses 10 and 11?
An = Have you ever seen a nation change its gods. He points to Kittim (Cyprus or the Western coast lands of the Mediterranean Sea) and to Kedar (land locked Arabic tribes in the East).
Q Are our two themes of forsaking and no profit present again?
An = Yes, they are present and creatively so. Instead of saying Israel forsook the Lord Jeremiah uses “changes gods” and again the word in Hebrew “not profit” is present at the end of verse 11.
IV Sunnary of the Charges Against Israel.
>>>> Have someone read Jeremiah 2:12-13.
Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord. “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
Q Why does Jeremiah address the heavens?
An = They are the poetic jury. God is saying that Nature, or the very foundations of Creation recognize that what Israel is doing is wrong.
Q Are our two themes present in verse 13?
An = Yes, they are again. Again they are creatively presented. The Lord is the fountain of living waters and vain substitutes are not only like stagnant water but water that leaks away. This is a colorful and dramatic metaphor.
Q Why is the Lord called the “fountain of living waters”?
An = Two reasons: 1) Israel would not even be a people if it wasn’t for God and 2) the Lord is author of creation. Without God creating the world no one would be around. He is not only the world’s origin but its sustainer. When He decides to quit sustaining this corrupt world will end.
Q Does this sermon fit our community today?
Q What are America’s idols today?
V. Next Week: Read Jeremiah 2:14-19 and Psalm 8