Lessons From Jeremiah – Part 19 – Judah Is Heading For Big Trouble - And Lying Prophets Series

PERSONAL STUDY AND TEACHING IN JEREMIAH – PART 19 – JUDAH IS HEADING FOR BIG TROUBLE - AND LYING PROPHETS

PART 19 - Jeremiah 5:10-27

CHAPTER 5

[A]. THE VINEYARD STRIPPED OF ITS TREACHEROUS BRANCHES

{{Jeremiah 5:10 “Go up through her vine rows and destroy, but do not execute a complete destruction. STRIP AWAY HER BRANCHES, for they are not the LORD’S, Jeremiah 5:11 for the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously with Me,” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 5:12 They have lied about the LORD and said, “Not He. Misfortune will not come on us, and we will not see sword or famine.” Jeremiah 5:13 THE PROPHETS ARE AS WIND, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.”}}

There is a marked difference in translation of verse 10 in the KJV and the modern translations, with the NASB and the NIV and the ESV very much agreeing on what is above. The KJV speaks of going up against walls and taking away battlements, and older commentators make a case for the campaign against the walls of Jerusalem and taking the city.

Apparently the smallest difference in Hebrew with points, etc (I don’t know Hebrew) can make that difference, so let us look at the verse as it most likely is. The Lord speaks, and the order is to reality, that is, how it must happen and what is to happen. The command is not to Jeremiah for he can not do that, and it is not to the nation for they were utterly corrupt, so that leaves the agency of Babylon to usher in this reality. It is the invading army that will execute what the Lord commands in verse 10.

The prophets often used agricultural examples and illustrations in their messages, for an agrarian people would understand this. The Lord Jesus also used examples from the lives of the people as examples. Israel is the vineyard of the Lord as Isaiah set out in a parable, and so this action in the vineyard is the action that will happen in Judah (it already had in Israel/Samaria). In Isaiah's example in chapter 6 of his Prophecy it is the vineyard Owner in focus. That is the LORD who set the vineyard up beautifully, and tried everything to get the vines to produce excellent grapes but they produced only mutant, corrupt grapes. In the end the vineyard would be uprooted and destroyed. The vineyard is Israel and both Isaiah and Jeremiah preached to a stubborn and unrepentant nation that ignored several centuries of warning until such time God said, “Enough!” and the vineyard was uprooted and burnt. (Yes, but not the entire nation, for destruction would not be complete. A remnant would always be left.)

The command was to go through row after row in the vineyard and destroy the vines. The branches would be cut off, or torn off, leaving just the stocks in the ground. The word for branches can also be tendrils, those young shoots, but as healthy as they may look, they are foreign ones because God says they don’t belong to the Lord. What God will do is remove all the unholy, mutant, godless and idolatrous growth in Judah, stripping it all away just to leave the stock in the ground, the holy stock going back as far as Abraham. The land will have its cleansing.

Commentator Matthew Henry said, [[“Judah's degenerate members are to be removed, but the vine-stock, i.e., the behooving kernel of the nation, is to be left. It is the key-note of the "remnant" which Jeremiah again strikes.”]] The prophet Amos speaks of a remnant in these verses – {{Amos 3:11-12 Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, “An enemy, even one surrounding the land, will pull down your strength from you and your citadels will be looted.” Thus says the LORD, “Just as the shepherd snatches a couple of legs or a piece of an ear from the lion’s mouth, so will the sons of Israel dwelling in Samaria be snatched away - with the corner of a bed and the cover of a couch.}} The picture is of a marauding lion that seizes on a sheep and would devour it completely except the shepherd is able to pull a couple of legs out of the lion’s mouth, or a piece of an ear. So it will be that when the lion of Babylon comes against Judah, a remnant will be spared and even some of them like Daniel will be led through the Ishtar Gate of Babylon with its famed lions adorning the Gate.

God always works through remnants because only a remnant of people in all ages since Adam will believe. The scriptures are full of that principle. It was so obvious that the Lord also spoke of it here – {{Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and many are those who enter by it, for the gate is small and THE WAY IS NARROW THAT LEADS TO LIFE AND FEW ARE THOSE WHO FIND IT.”}}