God Fights Against the Proud

Hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. Last time we were together, Jeremiah had told the Lord that his word was like a fire in his bones, but yet it was hard. People were fighting against him, people were beating him, and he even despaired the day of his birth. So, what's he do about that? Let's go ahead and go into Jeremiah chapter 21, the first 10 verses, and we'll see what Jeremiah does about this word of God that troubles him so much.
Father, we thank You so much that we can come to Your Word. We pray that You would please teach us, that You would instruct us in Your ways, that we would walk in Your paths. You are a good, wonderful, gracious, amazing God. You are perfect. And so please help us to understand Your Word. Please let it soak deeply into our hearts. We pray that we would be like sponges and that You would Please let us be filled with your spirit and taught by your word. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Jeremiah chapter 21, the first 10 verses. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashur, the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Mahaseah, the priest, saying, Please inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, makes war against us. Perhaps Jehovah will deal with us according to all his wonderful works, that the king may go away from us. Then Jeremiah said to them, Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, Thus says Jehovah, God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, who besiege you outside the walls, and I will assemble them in the midst of this city.
I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence. And afterward, says the Lord, I will deliver Zedek, king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them or have pity or mercy. Now you shall say to this people, Thus says Jehovah, Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who remains in this city will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.
But he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him. where I have set my face against this city for adversity and not for good, says Jehovah. It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
What we need to ask ourselves are 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 what is this even about? Well, He's just lamented the day of his birth. He's just said that he tried to shut up God's Word because people were abusing him and mistreating him. And now, what happens? Well, the Word of the Lord comes to him when King Zedekiah sent to him Pasher now that's interesting that he sends to him Pasher because we remember in chapter 20 now Pasher the son of Emmer the priest who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord had put him in the stocks he was the one who had mistreated him and abused him and now the king is sending Pasher to him and Zephaniah the son of Masaiah the priest So he's got Zephaniah and Pasher before him and they're asking, alright, what's the Lord going to do?
The king of Babylon's at the gate, right? Nebuchadnezzar is right there. What's going to happen? And he sends them back a word and it's not the word that Zedekiah is hoping for. Instead, he says, he will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hand and with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans. This is in verse 5, and this is the hard part. It may be Nebuchadnezzar who is leading the army of the Babylonians and the Chaldeans, but it is God himself who is fighting against the city.
The mighty one, right? That's the mighty and awesome one. That's what Jeremiah called him in chapter 20, verse 11. But the Lord is with me as a mighty, awesome one. This mighty and awesome one is now saying to Zedekiah, I am against you. Famine, pestilence, war, sword, all these are going to come. So he says to go to him. Go to him and tell him this, and tell him the only way you're gonna get out of this is if you defect. If you stay in the walls, you're gonna die. If you go outside the walls and you defect, you'll live.
I can't imagine this is going to go over very well, but this is what the Lord says to Jeremiah. So what is this section about? This section is about Jeremiah telling Zedekiah, through the two priests he sends to him, that God himself is fighting against Jerusalem. So, what's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I think verse five, I mean, that's what I have it in my Bible underlined. I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath.
We have to ask ourselves last, seek calling. So what are we called to do? And my mind is immediately brought back to Jesus' words on the Olivet Discourse when he talks about the destruction of Jerusalem. And he tells them they're going to want to flee, but pray that it's not the Sabbath or in the winter. That would be extremely hard, especially for nursing and pregnant women. In the infirm, this is going to be really difficult. And so we need to be ready.
As Christians, I think we need to be ready, recognizing that kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. But are we faithful to the Lord? In the arc of redemptive history, God had told them these curses were going to come. We looked at that in the book of Deuteronomy. If you keep my covenant, here's the blessings. If you break my covenant, here's the curses.
And now all these curses are coming because they've not been faithful to the Lord. Even though they are the seed of Abraham, they are not of the faith of Abraham. They're doing things that God never put into their minds, that the Lord never said for them to do. He's given them opportunity and opportunity and opportunity and opportunity to repent and turn and they won't do it.
And so now the judgment time is coming. And so I think we need to ask ourselves, right, are we, even though we may say we're Christians, even though we may say we are God's people, I know all sorts of people, and this is one of these Midwest things where we live, is you'll ask people, are you a Christian? And they'll say, yeah, I go to church. That's not what I asked. I do love the Lord. Is he your only hope in life and death? When you're confronted with sin, when you're confronted with immorality, when you're confronted with things in His Word, do you harden your heart? Or do you follow Him? Do you repent? But I also think we just need to be ready as Christians to know God can judge. And even when God judges nations that we may be a part of, That's the Lord's prerogative.
He's sovereign. He's the King of Kings. He's the one who raises up nations and tears them down. He's the one who establishes kings and removes their crowns. That's His job. That's His prerogative. That's His right as the King and Master of the Universe.
So even though we can be patriotic, Even though we may be post-millennial or optimistically all male or we might be, you know, let's go and think about the crown rights of Jesus Christ even over the civil magistrate. We need to also recognize though that there's no one nation that is God's perfect nation. His kingdom is not of this world. And so we don't put our hopes in earthly princes. But we trust in Christ. We look forward to His coming. We know He's King of kings and Lord of lords now. And so we follow Him faithfully today.
Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would please help us to trust in you. Give us soft hearts, Lord, when there are things we need to repent of, things that are sinful in our lives, we pray that we would do the manly thing and turn from those sins and live under righteousness, that your Holy Spirit would help us to follow after you and love you. Lord, but we also pray that where we may be too attached at times, we pray that you would give us the wisdom to know the way of escape. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to be after your kingdom. May your kingdom come in your glory. May your will be done, Lord, in earth as it is in heaven. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. May God bless you as you rest in Jesus Christ, as you follow the King of kings and Lord of lords. I'll see you next time. Bye.