Bad Situation in Israel Then - Jeremiah 9

Jeremiah 9:14 "But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:" See also Gal. 1:14

Israel is at a point, at this time in history, when a generation has grown up away from God and have taught their children evil ways. This chapter tries to explain the difference in the ways of evil and the way it ought to be but the prophet is in distress.

v1 "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain; of the daughter of my people! v2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men."

Did you ever want to just run away? I have. There have been many times that I would like to have gone to a mountain cabin someplace and lived out my life. I don't know that one could escape the evil in the world even there.

Here the prophet is telling them that they should not trust anyone:

v4 "Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders."

Even now, in our country, it is getting so things are nothing like it use to be. It use to be that a neighbor felt an obligation to his neighbor. It was a given that property lines were respected and that help was always available in hard times. Now we hardly know our neighbor is in trouble.

v5 "They will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity."

It is a time for mourning. He tells them to go get professional women to mourn for things are going to get really bad. It is time to cry.

v11 "And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant."

Gold is refined in the fire. There is no other way to get the impurities out. So, it has become in Israel. It will take much trouble to turn them in this time. After telling the things that are going on the scripture asks this question:

v9 "Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?"

Society has basically broken down. No one can trust anyone. They have forsaken the LORD and gone to idols.

Here is what you should do:

v24 "But let him that glories, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the LORD."

Loving-kindness is what the LORD would like to shed on Israel and all his people but when that fails there must be some action to turn His people back to him.
Presious post

"They" Job 24

Job 24:1 "Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?"

Why as in "Y". Job states the fact that the Almighty (God) sees all, so those who know God ought to know that.

Here is a verse for our day.

v2"Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof."

In our day, this could encompass changing history to eliminate the role God and Christianity had in the development of our nations and all nations for that matter. Take away the landmarks and the truth in history and future generations will believe the half-truth that is left. Few will do difficult research to find the whole truth.

From here we have many verses with the term "They". It refers in some cases to those who are out for number one at the expense of the helpless. In other verses it refers to the victims.

The bad guys:

v4 "They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together."

The needy:

v8 "They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter."

Nowadays, it is often alleys and concrete staircases and tunnels but the picture is the same. Many people are without help and are hungry.

v12 "Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them."

My large print Bible shows a reference to Ecclesiastes 8:11 for the last part of the verse:

v11 "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."

It is not God who causes these troubles for people but those of the darkness who turn from the light and conduct their evil in darkness.

v13 "They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof."

Job could have preached this sermon today and it would be current.

v16 "In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light."

Like the vampires in the old black and white movies. The evildoers settle their evil deeds before the morning and scurry off to hide.

v17 "For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death."

Evildoers will have their day in judgment. It seems often that they will go on forever but their day will come.

v24 "They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low, they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn."

Back on the farm we would sit for hours shucking corn and brushing away the husk. We used a big butcher's knife. The very first thing we did was take a whack at the top couple of inches of the ear of corn where it is brownish and good for nothing. The knife swiftly went almost through with practice and then the top was bent over and pulled down to the other end and discarded in a swift easy motion.

Job as given us the plight of the needy and the tactics of the evildoers, then he lays out a challenge: Prove me wrong if you can. v25 "And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?"

Philippians 2:14-15 "Do all things without murmurings and disputings; That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, with out rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;"

Job preaches on the needy and the evil who cause their plight.

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