When God Turns Away

Judges! Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. Nathan just asked, what are we doing again? It's a whole bunch of J's. So, Jeremiah, Joshua, or no, we did Joshua before. But we're going to do first, second, third, John, and the book of James. So we've been doing a whole bunch of J's. So, right now we are in Jeremiah.
This is going to be the longest of all of them. So, I want to have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll see what God has for us in His Word today. Nathan's in slurping mood today. You had tea instead of coffee. Yep. All right, let's pray. God, thank you so much for this day.
You know, in our home, it has been somewhat of a rough start, late start today, but we thank you for your word and we pray that we would understand it, that your Holy Spirit would please teach us what we have in front of us, that the word would be alive to us and would instruct us in Jesus' name, amen.
Jeremiah chapter 14 we'll just kind of go paragraph by paragraph and we'll talk about what this is about and then we'll summarize all of it about what was it about later so the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts what's a drought a drought is not a good time when rains are coming.
Fields aren't growing. Yeah, so no rain, no fields, no food. Judah mourns and her gates languish. They mourn for the land and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up. Their nobles have sent their lads for water. They went to the cisterns and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty. They were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads, because the ground is parched. For there was no rain in the land. The plowmen were ashamed. They covered their heads. Yes, the deer also gave birth in the field, but left because there was no grass. And the wild donkeys stood in the desolate heights. They sniffed at the wind like jackals. Their eyes failed because there was no grass. Quite a vivid picture of the drought.
Oh Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for your name's sake. For our backslidings are many. We have sinned against you. Oh, the hope of Israel, his savior in time of trouble. Why should you be like a stranger in the land and like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night? Why should you be like a man astonished, like a mighty one who cannot save?
Yet you, O Lord, are in our midst, and we are called by your name. Do not leave us." All right, so what's he saying there? Where has the Lord gone? Yeah, right in the midst of this drought, he's crying out to God, like, don't leave us, don't forsake us, right, remember us. And so Jeremiah is, he acknowledges their backslidings, for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against you. But yet you're still our hope in times of trouble. Right, don't leave us, don't forsake us, God.
Thus says the Lord to his people. Thus they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does not accept them. He will remember their iniquity now and punish their sins." What's that saying? They haven't been true to the law. Yeah, but not being true to the law is not being true to who? God. Yeah. So he's chastising them here, right?
I'll let you read these next few big paragraphs. Then the Lord said to me, Do not pray for these people, for they are good only fast. I will not hear their cry. And when they offer broad offering and great offering, I will not accept them, but I will consume them by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. Whoa. What's he say there? Stunning his face on this generation. Slowly he's turning his face from this generation. He's turning his face from the generation.
I do not pray for them God's already set his face determined to do judgment Go ahead with the next one Then I said I fraud yard behold the prophets say to them you shall not see the sword nor shall you have famine but I will I will give you a short piece in this place and And then the Lord said to me, the prophecy lies in my name. The prophet's prophecy lies in my name. The prophets prophesy lies in my name.
I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them. They prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing in the seat of their heart. Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, whom I do not send, and who say, sword and famine shall not be in this land. By sword and fan those prophets shall be consumed, and the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword.
They will have no one to bury them. them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them. Therefore, you shall say to them this." Well, let's go ahead and stop there. So what's the Lord say about these? He says, Lord, the prophets are saying it's going to go okay. What's the Lord respond to that?
Yeah, they're basically, they're false guys. They don't know what they're talking about. Yeah, it makes them liars, right? Yeah, they're liars. They're saying whatever's coming out of their own heart, but what's really going to happen? He's going to send Feynman to those guys first. Yeah.
Therefore ye shall say this word to them, let my eyes flow with tears night and day, and let them not cease. For the virgin daughter of my people has broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow. If I go out to the field, then behold those slain with the sword. And if I enter the city, then behold those sick from famine. Yes, both prophet and priest go about in a land they do not know.
Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul loathed the Zions? Why have you stricken us, so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but there was no good. And for the time of healing, there was trouble. We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You.
Do not abhor us for Your name's sake. Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory. Remember, do not break Your covenant with us. Are there any among the idols of the nation that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are You not He, O Lord our God? Therefore we will wait for you since you have made all these Well kind of Lord's lamenting in verses 17 through 18, but then what about 19 through 22 the people wanting yeah, no, I don't know if it's Jeremiah or if it's the people Plural right.
I don't know like What's it called but this thing that people would say? Yeah, well, it's I mean it seems very much like a real song Well real plea right real cry to God so What's this whole section about? Chapter 14 what's this whole section about? I? Think it's about moral famine and drought Okay, so it's about, and that's all it's about, is about brain patterns? No, but it's about the people crying out to God, because they walked away from the Lord, and the Lord turned his face from them, and he told Jeremiah, don't, don't pray for them.
I've already proclaimed judgment, and when judgment has, is coming, it's being done, that people are crying out to God to save them. Yeah, right. I think that there's a couple things here. One is there's this natural consequence for sin that God is judging His people.
Maybe people don't like it when... and I'm not a prophet nor a son of a prophet, so I don't want to say like, oh, this is the absolute reason why God sent this tornado into this town or this hurricane into this area or made that earthquake happen. I can't say that that's why because I'm not a prophet. But sometimes I think in our past in America, when there were famines and there was disasters, people would actually fast and pray and search their hearts if they had been sinning against God, if there were things they needed to repent about. I think sometimes it would still be wise for us to do that on a personal level, very willingly.
I don't think that there's some kooks who will come around and say, oh well God's judging this nation for this particular reason and this is exactly why. And I'm like, you don't know that. You're not a prophet. But it's interesting to me that there's kind of multiple different categories and types of people.
You have true prophets like Jeremiah. And even though he's saying really hard things, he's a true prophet, God has sent him. And then you have false prophets prophesying prosperity. And he's saying, right, this is from the deceit of their own hearts. And yet God laments over his people. And even though God tells Jeremiah not to pray for them, yet Jeremiah cries out to God.
Right? Cries out to God, pleading with him. To not forsake His covenant. To remember. Are you not He? Jehovah, our God? Remember, do not break your covenant. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Do not abhor us. But all of that is for God's sake. So it's just interesting to me that you have the voice of the false prophets and of the true prophets. And you have the voice of God Himself also in this passage.
Alright, what would you underline as the best verse to summarize? I'm gonna say maybe 19 to 22. 19 through 22, that whole section you're going to underline? Yes. Okay. Well, I have a few things underlined in verse 8, but especially verse 9. And then I have verse 14, a lot of that underlined with false prophets. And then, see how much I have underlined from 19 through 22. So maybe something like that. A whole bunch of those.
But I really like the God-centeredness of that section. Okay. Well, let's last seat go to calling. How does this bring us to calling? What are we called to do? How does it lead us to Jesus Christ? What application or hope does this give you in your life? think one of the things is one of the things I you I just have to remember is like Jeremiah still living in this like Jeremiah's not just like away like he's he's not like Isaiah he's still being fed like he's in this drought too like experiencing hardships and even though thinking like just because I didn't do it doesn't mean I'm not going to get punished for it.
It's just a natural consequence that falls on everybody. Yeah, so there's kind of corporate sins. The whole body of Israel is being punished for the vast majority or the heinousness of what's going on in the country. So even Jeremiah is suffering. Sometimes even the righteous suffer with the wicked in this life as corporate consequences.
That happens in all sorts of countries. Dictators are ruling and doing their horrible things and the people suffer because of it. Vice versa, right? You may have a godly ruler, but you might have absolutely horrible, wicked people. And the country may suffer because of that. Or you may have a generally good country, but then you have a horrible group like ISIS in it.
You think of places like Nigeria, and there's just terrorism happening where children are being kidnapped and houses are being burned down, even though there's a ton of Christians in that area. So yeah, there's these challenges sometimes where these sins may not necessarily be ours individually, but yet, Jeremiah is crying out for God's people. Yeah, sometimes that's something for us to wrestle through. I think this helps us show Christ, right?
Because did God utterly forsake His covenant? Did He forget His people? No. No, even though Jerusalem would fall, God would bring that punishment, He didn't forsake His people altogether. Right? But God sent His only begotten Son into the world, even to those who, though He was one of them, they would not receive Him. Right? But He became our propitiation. Even when they, during the first century, were prophesying lies, Christ was still there to save them, those who would believe in Him. So, hey, you ready to pray? Okay.
Lord, we pray that we would take sin seriously. Father, we pray that we would read Your Word. And even when it says unpopular things, that that's what we would believe, and that's what we might speak, even teach and preach others to others. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to turn us away from our sins. Lord, we pray that you would remember us in your mercy and not in your wrath and anger. Please, Lord, remember us in your Son, Jesus Christ, that we might be saved. In Jesus' name, amen. May God bless you. May you rest in Jesus Christ, your hope and your salvation and your life. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye-bye.