Personal Study And Teaching In Jeremiah – Part 14 – The Lion Of Babylon Was About To Pounce – Faithless King And Rulers Series

PERSONAL STUDY AND TEACHING IN JEREMIAH – PART 14 – THE LION OF BABYLON WAS ABOUT TO POUNCE – FAITHLESS KING AND RULERS

PART 14 - Jeremiah 4:3-9

CHAPTER 4

[A]. PLOUGH FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND CIRCUMCISE EVIL HEARTS TOWARDS CONVICTION AND REPENTANCE

{{Jeremiah 4:3-4 Thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “BREAK UP your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. CIRCUMCISE yourselves to the LORD and REMOVE the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest My wrath goes forth like fire and burns with none to quench it, BECAUSE OF THE EVIL OF YOUR DEEDS.”}}

Here is another example of the sudden time shift common to the prophets. Jeremiah skips straight from the future blessing for Israel into a severe warning for the inhabitants of Judah. The end of these verses states the problem, and that was evil deeds. Both those verses are built on the problem of evil deeds. That was the reality, and God provided the solution, but the solution lay with the sinners, not with the Lord.

The Lord has assigned everything in place, the promise of forgiveness and restoration, and the outflowing of His blessing, which we know, from all the prophets, means their land is blessed in rainfall and harvest. They would be protected from their enemies. HOWEVER there must be the recognition of their sin and the realisation of the perverseness of that sin, the evil deeds that resulted from their departure from the Lord.

There would be no starting point for anyone unless man realised the evil of his ways. That has been the starting point throughout all of man’s existence from Adam onwards. Without that realisation and conviction, the need for trust in God is meaningless. Conviction through the Holy Spirit always points to the solution. It is at that next point where man makes the decision and it is twofold. He can either accept the solution provided by God, or he can reject that and go his own way and get only deeper into sin and hardness of heart.

In these verses God laid out the record to them very clearly, and there was no mistaking the warning contained herein. If they did not turn from their evil ways then most assuredly, the wrath of God would fall on them like an unquenchable fire. We know when it finally did come on Jerusalem, it was a firestorm from Babylon. Once the judgement from God came, no one could find relief. It was fully matured. The people of Judah were given their chance over and over again, but in this case Jeremiah speaks clearly to them through the words of God.

It is quite interesting that the men are addressed in these verses, as the men were held responsible for the outcome. Men were given headship and that existed in the priestly order in the nation, in governmental leadership, and in families. It was the men who should be leading the people to God, not away from God. It is noteworthy that in so many churches today it is not men who are taking the leadership, but women, partly because of the feminist dictates of this era, but mainly because men have abnegated their roles which is grossly lamentable, because they are answerable to God for that. Men were ordained by God for the leadership among the saints as quite clearly shown through the 12 tribal leaders and the 12 disciples and the appointment of elders and deacons. Men who don’t take their role are a disgrace and it is basically because they are not spiritual men. It is a disgrace to the Church of the living God.

These people in apostasy were asked, firstly, to break up the fallow ground. There can be no planting or sowing before the soil has been prepared. Breaking up the fallow ground requires ploughs and harrows, even disc ploughs as I was taught to use on a farm. This step can not be omitted or there will be no useful outcome. Of course the Lord was speaking of the heart and soul of man. The old nature must be ploughed, and the ground made receptive for the acceptance of the good seed, which in our case, is the word of God.

These men of Judah and Jerusalem had to use the plough of the Holy Spirit to break up their hardness and dryness and their resistance to the word of the Lord, to produce a tenderness of unbroken spirit so that the seed could take root. Only then could they accept the seed as the word of God so that it might grow into righteousness and justice.

Now the next comment is important because they were told not to sow in the thorny places. That would be of no use because the word would be overcome and become unproductive. Too many times, when it seemed that Israel was on the right track through the ministry of the prophets, they accepted the seed with thorns, or they settled in thorny places when receiving the word, that is, they did not do it sincerely. I think it was that way in Josiah’s time. The king followed the Lord implicitly but the people paid lip service; they hugged their thorny ground. God is very clear – the ground must be broken up, and the seed sown in good ground. Having one without the other is worthless.