First Sermon - Jeremiah 2

Jeremiah 2:2 "Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown."

Israel was a young nation when they were in the wilderness. It compares to the way the United States was back in the discovery days. It seemed much like a wilderness to our forefathers. We met sometimes hostile forces and relied on the Lord to get us through.

Israel is reminded that, back then, they relied on the Lord and sought to do his commandments.

v3 "Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase; all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD."

My note: "I remember when you were young and loved me."

So what happened to change your mind.

v5 "Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have y our fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?"

Israel is established. It is plain to see that it was the Lord who established them. We as a nation seem to be established in the world. We have risen to be the most powerful nation. Why is it that now we turn away from God?

v6 "Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?"

Israel did not follow a well travelled trail to Canaan. They were given food and water where there was none. The Lord guided them by day and night.

My note: "What did I do to change your mind? Why did you no longer seek me?"

The Lord provided:

v7 "And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination."

What have we done to our country? Is it not similar to what Israel did to theirs? We have changed the landscape. We have let our morals slip and there is violence on every hand.

Even the leaders of Israel no longer sought the Lord. You'd think the leaders would be wise enough to remember why they have had success.

v8 "The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not; the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that do not profit."

We know that there was much idol worship. Things made by the hand of man were worshipped as gods. Children were killed in the name of worship and to appease.

Yet in the face of all this, the Lord still loves Israel and still pleads with them.

v9 "Wherefore, I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead."

Then Jeremiah and the Lord lay out the situation in simple terms.

v13 "For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."

Of all the nations, Israel has forsaken their God. The other nations held on to theirs. It was a strange thing, even by earthly standards for a nation to forsake their God.

v11 "Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit."

He goes on with other comparisons to show how ridiculous it was for Israel to forsake the Lord. The message is one of hurt of the heart for Israel. It is like a devoted man when a wife gets ready to leave him for another or the other way around. He( or she) cannot understand. He has taken care of her. Provided. Yet she goes to another. God is trying to get Israel to see that there is hurt down the road if they continue with their present course of forsaking Him.

v37 "Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head; for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them."

You have a false confidence in yourself and your ways. There is trouble ahead. I would, that our nation turn back to God.