Glory in Knowing God

Hey, hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions this morning We are at Jeremiah chapter 9 beginning at verse. Let's see verse 16. No 17 verse 17 Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll see I wonder how people respond to God's declaration of judgment. I'll have some coffee.
We'll pray See if that question is answered Let's pray O God, You are a faithful and good God. You give us Your Word and it is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. And so, Father, we pray that You would please help us to understand Your Word. We pray that we would know how it is to be applied to our lives. We pray that Your Holy Spirit would indeed not let Your Word return void. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Here we go, Jeremiah chapter 9 beginning at verse 17.
And thus says the Lord of hosts, consider and call for the mourning women, mourning as in grieving women. that they may come, and send a skillful wailing women, that they may come. Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run with tears and our eyelids gush with water. For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion. How we are plundered! We are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because we have been cast out of our dwellings.
Yet hear the word of the Lord, O women, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth. Teach your daughters wailing, and let every one her neighbor a lamentation. For death has come through our windows, has entered our palaces, to kill off the children, no longer be outside, and the young men no longer on the streets.
Speak, thus says the Lord. Even the carcass of men shall fall as refuse on the open field, like cuttings after the harvester, and no one shall gather them. Thus says the Lord. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glory glory in this. that He understands and knows me, that I am Jehovah, exercising loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness on the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised. Egyptian, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the furthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. Well, we need to ask our three questions. A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So, A, what is this about? Well, in this first part, verses 17 through 19, we have God doing something that's a little bit odd in our culture.
In Israelite culture, during this time, you would hire professional mourners to come to a graveside, to come and to weep and to wail. And their professional lamentations, their professional wailing, their professional tears would provoke others into this sense of sorrow and serious grieving.
And so, as they are doing this, God is telling them, wail. But what are they to wail for? Well, they're to wail not for the death of someone, But they're wailing for us. They're wailing because we have forsaken the land. We have been cut out of our dwellings. We are greatly ashamed. We are plundered.
This is a prefiguring of the lamentation that was going to come after the fall of Jerusalem. And there's some pretty ugly and serious stuff that happens here. And he says, hear the word of the Lord, O women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth. And they're to teach them this, right? Their wailings to be that death has come through the windows. The children are going to be killed. The young men can't go out on the street.
He says that the men are going to be like when there's combines out where we are and when they harvest the beans. the backside of the beans, the combine blows out all the chaff. And if you're running or walking or riding your bike or something down the road and you go by a combine, they'll often shut down the machine as they see you coming sometimes because they don't want to dust you. Because I mean, it could choke you out. And God is saying here, like the chaff that's just being thrown out, right as they're harvesting, the sickle's going and picking it up and tossing it and there's all sorts of just rubbish getting thrown on the ground.
That's what the lives of men are going to be like. They're going to be like we got a pasture by our house where the cows leave their manure patties. That's what it's going to be like with the dead men. And this isn't just idle things the Lord is saying. We'll eventually someday get to lamentations and Jeremiah says it does actually happen like that. It's a hellish nightmare type scene. And so he says, instruction in verse 24.
If you're wise, don't glory in your wisdom. If you're mighty, don't glory in your might, don't glory in your strength. If you think you're rich, don't glory in your riches. but we should glory in something else. We should glory in that we understand and know God.
But what is the Lord glowing? What is the Lord like? What is He glorying in? What is He delighting? Tzaddik, Mishpatim, Hased, righteousness, judgments, and long-suffering, love and kindness, graciousness. The Lord is exercising love and kindness, judgments and righteousness in the earth. He delights in them. The Lord loves righteousness. The Lord loves covenant mercy. The Lord loves right judgment. That's what He delights in. He says He's punishing. He's punishing all sorts of nations for their sins.
And he calls them uncircumcised, but notice here who he calls uncircumcised. Egypt, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab. Notice in that list in verse 26, I skipped over a name. Judah. He says, Judah, because he knows that they're uncircumcised in their hearts. They may have the covenant sign applied to them physically, but he's saying, through Jeremiah, they don't really know me. They may be physically Israel, but they are not spiritually Israel.
They're far away from me. They aren't glorying in me, they're glorying in their strength, they're glorying in their riches, they're glorying in their wisdom. But not in righteousness. Not in loving kindness. Not in right judgments. Not in me. They're not taking delight in me and what I delight in.
But they're following like Deborah and I talked about last time. They're following in their own hearts, going after the way of the Baals, just as their fathers taught them. So it's a section about God talking about giving a lament for sin. What's the best verse? I have verse 24 underlined all over the place in my Bible. Maybe you would have underlined something else. Feel free to let me know right down in the comments. The last C, calling.
What are we called to do? Do we love? Do we delight in the Lord? Do we delight in His righteousness? Do we delight in His judgments? Do we delight in His lovingkindness? Do we cling to His covenant mercies? Do we see Him as our King of kings, our Lord of lords? And do we seek Him and desire to be faithful citizens of His kingdom?
This is why He redeemed us out of the kingdom of darkness and brought us into His marvelous light. Not to wallow in our sins, but to walk in His ways. To know Him, to delight in Him and to delight in all He delights in. To change our hearts away from the savor of death and become fault and lights in this world. And dying and corrupt generation. So I need to ask you, have you been circumcised in your heart? Have you truly surrendered your life unto the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you trust Him alone for salvation? Do you hope in Him alone? And do you delight to do what He has told you? It's a beautiful thing. And we can do it because He's in us, not perfectly. There is a heavenly kingdom and inheritance in store for us in heaven. There's a light in Him forever. Let's pray.
God, we confess to you we are so often unfaithful servants. Lord, we believe, our belief is so often mingled with disbelief and lack of assurance. Please help us and forgive us. Lord, it's so easy for us to think of ourselves as so wise. and yet you see our folly. Lord, it's so easy to overestimate ourselves and think ourselves as strong, but you know our weakness.
God, please help us. Lord, we pray that you would please teach us to walk in your ways. We pray that we would delight in you always and at all times and all places. Please, Lord, help us walk in your ways and teach us to love you more and more. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. May God bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ, and I'll see you next time. Bye.