Jeremiah 42:1-22 "Be Careful What You Ask For"

[Music] it's turn together in Jeremiah's prophecy to chapter 42 Jeremiah 42 Jeremiah 42 where God's Word reads as follows then all the commanders of the forces and Joe hain in the son of Korea and jezzin I of the son of Hoshi ayah and all the people from the least to the greatest came near and said to Jeremiah the Prophet that our plea for mercy come before you and pray to the Lord your God for us for all this remnant because as we are left with but a few as your eyes see us that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go and the thing that we should do Jeremiah the Prophet said to them I have heard you behold I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request and whatever the Lord answers you I will tell you I will keep nothing back from you then they said to Jeremiah may the Lord be true and faith of true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord your God sends you to us whether it is good or bad we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God at the end of 10 days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah then he summoned jo-jo hainan the son of Korea and all the commanders of the forces who were with him and all the people from the least to the greatest and said to them thus says the Lord the God of Israel to whom you sent me to present your plea for mercy before him if you will remain in this land then I will build you up and not pull you down I will plant you and not pluck you up for i relent of the disaster that i did to you do not fear the king of Babylon of whom you are afraid do not fear him declares the Lord for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand I will grant you mercy that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land but if you say we will not remain in this land disobeying the voice of the Lord your God and saying no we will go to the land of Egypt where we shall want not where we shall not see war or hear the sound of the trumpet or be hungry for bread and we will dwell there then hear the word of the Lord oh remnant of Judah thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel if you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there then the sword that you shall that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt and there you shall die all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword by famine and by pestilence they shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I will bring upon them for thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel as my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt you shall become an execration a horror a curse and a taunt you shall see this place no more the Lord has said to you O remnant of Judah do not go to Egypt know for a certainty that I have warned you this day that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives for you sent to the Lord your God saying pray for us to the Lord our God and whatever the Lord our God says declare to us and we will do it and I have this day declared it to you but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God and anything that he sent me to tell you now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword by famine and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live so far the reading from God's Word this evening I mean he add its blessing to our arts when I was a boy I was fascinated with buttermilk buttermilk was a fascinating drink for me my parents would drink it in a glass and as they would drink it I don't know if you've ever seen anybody drink buttermilk but it would leave lines in the cup there would be lines along the edge of the of the cup and and I was desperate to have some and so I would I would entreat my mother on a regular occasion if they had buttermilk in the fridge I would I would long to have some buttermilk I would pester her and ask her over over and over again and so one day my mom let me have some buttermilk and what looked like an amazing drink to me did not translate into an amazing drink as I tasted the buttermilk I didn't like how it tasted it was sour and it was a big cup of sour thick milk and I and I would have spit it out if my mom wouldn't have gotten me in trouble for it but I didn't and I was forced to drink this buttermilk that had asked for what we always should be careful what we asked for and here Israel asks for God's direction for how they are to make decisions for the future and what we see in this chapter is is that God gives them this just this direction and and their response to the flavor of his instruction is the same as my response to the flavor of the buttermilk they don't want it they would like to spit it out and and so we see in this chapter a great contrast if God gives you a command as a follower of the Lord as a follower of Christ beyond that in the New Testament that we should follow the instructions from the Lord this chapter in essence teaches us that if you love God you will keep his Commandments and so to learn that lesson this evening we'll see a good request made in verses 1 through 6 we're gonna see a clear command in verses 7 through 17 and then we're gonna see a dark future in verses 18 through 22 so this chapter teaches us that if you love God you will keep his Commandments we're gonna see a good request a clear command and a dark future so we're going to begin by looking at a good request the opening of this chapter seems fairly encouraging the rescued remnant they we know from chapter 41 and verse 17 that they had stayed in Gareth Kim Ham they were near Bethlehem they had made plans or at least had intentions of going down to Egypt but here at the beginning of this chapter under the protection of johanan a military leader they summoned Jeremiah to plead God's mercy and to ask the Prophet to seek a word from the Lord so the remnant of Israel on the run from after rescuing the remnant from Ishmael there on the run from the Chaldeans or so they think anyways and they turned to the prophet of the Lord and they asked him to discern God's will for their future plans and many of the things that they say and the opening of this chapter actually line up and it seemed very good so if for example if if you look in verse 2 they recognize that the Lord has pronounced disaster against this place so they acknowledge great weakness on their own part and then in verse 3 there they recognize that the Lord is in charge of of all these things and and and so they come and ask that that the Prophet would seek God's face and show which way they should go it's almost like we're transported back to the glory days of of Israel's Kingdom in 1st and 2nd Samuel while David was King but also before David was King you see a repeated appeal by David for a word from the Lord to give him direction about the decisions that he was going to make so he's always sending his seer or his prophet to inquire of the Lord for him whether or not he should attack this city or not whether he should pursue this an enemy or not whether he should entrust himself to this city or this group of people or not and that was Israel in its prime Israel under its most godly King King David because to inquire of the Lord as David so frequently did it and even as the remnant is doing here to inquire of the Lord is to acknowledge the Lord's prerogative to give instruction if you go and ask the Lord to to give you a command you're acknowledging his prerogative his right to give instruction and direction to your life and so Jeremiah and verse 4 he he yields to their request he does he does what they they ask of him and he will ask and what ever the Lord says he will report that back to the people of Israel and the people of Israel this remnant goes beyond even there's just the initial question when when Jeremiah says that whatever the Lord says we're going to bring it back to you and I'll I'll tell you what he said that the people respond with an oath that they will surely obey they will surely obey the word of the Lord now we have seen the people of Israel do something like this before if you're in the book of Joshua near the end of Joshua's life when he when he sets before the people of Israel two paths there's the path of disobedience there's the path of obedience the people of say to Josh with the Lord our God we will serve and his voice we will obey so when you look at the response of the people of Israel to Jeremiah they actually say the same thing the Prophet will bring the word of the Lord and they say in verse 6 that whether it's good or bad they will obey the voice of the Lord another language is appropriate and their claims are right no matter what God directs we will do it that should be their attitude that should be what comes out of their mouths all of God's commands are to be followed in and Johannine and the people are saying we intend to go to Egypt but if God tells us to do that we will gladly do that and if God tells us that we should do something else we will do that as well the the whole opening scene is filled with the right words their lips are saying the right things so they pray to the Lord they recognize his gracious mercy is great his merciful care over them they ask for his direction it seems like they desire to live in obedience to the Lord because of their dependence on him and because of their relationship with him and it's right to call on the Lord it's it's right to obey Him because he saved you it's it's right to obey Him because of his mercy because you love him all of these things are our right things to say and express with our lips and and they're also right to pursue in you know the Apostle John's right this idea is is especially clear in in his gospel in John 14 verse 15 he says very clearly if Jesus says very clearly if you love me you will keep my Commandments if you know what I direct you to do you will keep my Commandments in other words and and so Joe hainan is asking for God's commandments the people are asking for God to make clear what it is that they should do so that they can follow after him that's their their their stated desire it's their express commitment to obey the commandments of the Lord in John's first letter he he repeats what he said in his gospel that loving God means keeping his Commandments and and we will do well to imitate johanan up to this point at least in what he said he he is saying all the right things he is he is in the Old Testament living out that New Testament principle love for God is obedience to His commandments not that though obedience to God's commandments was any different in the Old Testament but in the Christian life especially love for God is is expressed it's expressed and the amazing thing is that our love for God should be deepened as New Testament Christians because we have seen the fullness of the plan of redemption worked out in in the life of Christ and so in a sense in the Christian life are our love for God has worked out in the same way as it's worked out in the in the Old Testaments we have a clearer understanding but in the Old and New Testaments obedience is an expression of the the love of God now a common response to a Christian who would say that obedience is an expression of your love for God a common response to that is the cry of course of of legalism but obedience is not legalism precise obedience to God is not legalism this is often the response to God's commandments to be precise in your obedience will certainly elicit the claims from somebody else that you are be legalistic and there was a group of people in church history the Puritans of course who are renowned for their precision in in obeying God's law and one time one of the Puritan ministers was criticized by a fellow of a different mindset that because of his great precision and his zeal for the precision in his obedience that that he was legalized and this Minister turned to his critic and and his response was well I serve a precise God to be precise in your obedience so far as that his obedience to the Lord God Almighty is not legalism it's simply obedience to the God of heaven to seek to know the will of God isn't is an obligation of all his people and that's in fact one of the reasons why we should be daily studying the Word of God for ourselves but we should be eager to know who God is in the first place and in the second place we should be eager to know what duties he asks of us what duties he requires of us in that study that study of the duties that the Lord asks of us is not legalistic it's not legalistic to seek to obey the Lord God you know what that is to seek after the commandments of God to seek to obey God precisely there's not legalism its holiness its pursuing godliness and that is at the outside at least of of johannah's requests he he desires to know precisely what God would have him do where the people of Israel should go should they go to Egypt or should they not go to Egypt a command from the Lord to direct their behavior that's what Joe hainan is asking for at the outset and so Joe hainan makes a makes a good start but we're going to see the clear command that comes to Jeremiah from the Lord so Jeremiah agrees to inquire of the Lord he he agrees to inquire so that he can give this direction to the people and God in His grace give a very clear answer for Jeremiah to communicate back to Johannine it takes 10 days but God gives a clearer picture of his instruction he doesn't keep it a secret so the people of Israel it says in our passage repeatedly from the smallest to the greatest they cannot feign ignorance they can't pretend that they didn't know what the command of God was and so Jeremiah after these 10 days of Posse he declares God's Word to the people there's no mistake to be made this is the word of the Lord and all the people hear it and as Jeremiah begins to give this instruction in verse 9 Jeremiah opens his announcement with thus says the Lord the God of Israel and this makes it very clear jeremiah isn't communicating his own preference he's not talking about what might practically be the most expedient he's not talking about any of those things he is communicating to the people of God the commandments of God the very thing that they had asked for direction for where they should go and what they should do he is setting before them being a spokesman for the Lord as the prophet of the Lord so Jeremiah he is he is he is in a sense well he should in a sense be relied upon he has had a long track record of of speaking in the name of the Lord and the things that he have spoken in the name of the Lord have all come to pass so Jeremiah in a sense has proved himself a prophet from the Lord and Jeremiah is reminding the people even as he begins his answer you are the ones who sent me you are the one who asked me to come and give you what the Lord said now why would Jeremiah give this this preamble why would Jeremiah want to qualify as he begins to say the word of the Lord remind them by the way you guys asked me to communicate that whatever God said to you and and now here I am well the reason Jeremiah does that is because the instruction from the Lord is the opposite of what joe hainan and the people had planned in verse 17 of chapter 41 we see that that joe hainan the people were intending to go to Egypt because of the Chaldeans and what is God's commandment to the people of Israel went by the mouth of of Jeremiah in verse 10 his instruction is that they stay in the land not fleeing to Egypt not fleeing from the Chaldeans but to stay in the land and to their trust in the Lord and so Jeremiah gets their attention he reminds them that they were sent there and and then he gives the instruction of the Lord Jeremiah wants them to pay attention and and and as he gets their attention he gives the instructions from the Lord using the two motivations that the Lord usually gives to his people for obedience to him and the first motivation that God gives to us in his word to obey Him the first motivation is is positive this is how the Lord will bless you if you obey his commandment you see it for example in the in the Ten Commandments in the in the second commandment specifically when it it speaks of of not making graven images it says that God will show steadfast love to thousands who love me and keep my Commandments or in the fifth commandment when when God is instructing children to obey their parents he says honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you so God in some cases gives us positive blessing for obedience and he presents it to us God's not hiding it from us he presents it to us that if we obey Him if we walk in obedience to him that we will be blessed and and here in Jeremiah's answer he provides a number of blessings that the Lord will give if only the people of Judah will obey Him in verse 10 it says that the Lord will build them up in verse 10 it also says that the Lord will plant them in verse 11 it says that the Lord will save them that the Lord will deliver them in verse 12 it says that the Lord will grant them mercy and then verse 12 it says that they will be allowed to stay in the land if only they live in obedience to him that is the A+ positive motivation for obedience to the Lord's command and and of course these the command of the Lord contradicts the leaders and it contradicts the fears of the leaders of the people who are afraid that the Chaldeans will come and bring judgment against them and God saying no obey me and I will protect you from the Chaldeans they they they fear reprisal but God promises the blessings of safety and stability to the people of Judah and the other way so that's the positive way that God motivates is the other way that God motivates us is negatively God also motivates us to obedience through threatenings and through warnings so for example in Genesis 2 and verse 17 when when God has placed Adam in the garden he says to him that the day that he eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on that day he will surely die that's a threatening from from the Lord or or in the third commandment when it talks about taking the Lord's name in vain it says the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain another threat about the judgment of God from the Lord Almighty and so that these same kinds of threatenings are made to the people of Judah here in in this chapter in in verse 16 if if Judah doesn't listen the sword will overtake them in verse 16 again famine will follow them in verse 17 the that people will surely die it's the same formula in a sense that God has used throughout all of the Book of Jeremiah he said that they will die by sword by famine and by pestilence how many times have we heard that refrain now in the Book of Jeremiah and so so God God and the one hand promises blessings for obedience and then on the other hand he warns of curses or punishments for for disobedience the Lord makes his commands clear and and then the Lord calls his people to to stay in the promised land in this particular case if they obey he will bless him if they disobey he will he will kill them positive reinforcement to do good negative warnings to prevent the evil now his call to obedience isn't different des is not different for us today that the way his commandment is given maybe in a different form than what the people of Judah received from the mouth of jeremiah there's not a specific word from the Lord through the prophets that was the ways of long ago as we read about in Hebrews 1 verse 1 today though God through his word through scriptures communicates to us the things that we are supposed to do and they are clear we can't claim ignorance about what the things that God asks of us and so the same blessings and curses apply blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience now having established that we want to finally look at the dark future that the Prophet sets before them at the end of the prophecy in verse 18 Jeremiah turns from a discussion about potential blessings and potential curses to what seems to be the fixed judgment of God and it seems beginning in verse 18 he begins to speak very specifically about the condemnation that will belong to the people of Judah he says in verse 18 that my wrath will be poured out he doesn't say my wrath might be poured out my my wrath will be poured out it and in verse 18 he says you shall become an execration there's not a conditional statement he doesn't say you might become an execration you shall become an execration he says in verse 20 you have gone astray at the cost of your lives in verse 21 he says you have not obeyed in verse 22 you shall die by the sword now why is the prophet speaking in this way before they have even left for Egypt I mean they are going to leave for Egypt but they haven't left for Egypt yet well in the first place there is sin in the desires of the heart johanan asks for the word of the Lord but in his art in his heart he's already in Egypt in his heart he has already left behind the commandments of the Lord he's already on his way so desires for sinful things are sinful in and of themselves because it is an expression of a love of sin so in Colossians 3 the Apostle Paul is talking about the change that should take place in the in the heart of the believer when Christ who is your life appears he says in verse four you will also appear with him in glory so because you are joined to Christ because you belong to him because you are in Christ something will be true for you when when Christ is your life your inclinations will change it and and see where he goes with that in verse five he says put to death therefore what is earthly in you sexual immorality impurity passion evil desire evil desire is listed by the Apostle Paul as the things that should be put to death in the heart of the believer and Johan ins heart has an evil desire a desire that is contrary to the Word of God he desires something that God has said you shall not do it and so certainly and in externals were to put these things to death but we're also called to put to death these desires that are not honoring to Gloor honoring to the Lord and so the people of Judah their desire is to flee that's a denial of God's command is an expression of a lack of trust in him and so it is an act of disobedience so their sin in the desires of the heart that's one way that the Prophet Jeremiah could speak as if it already was a failure on the people on the part of the people of Judah but there's a second reason why the Prophet Jeremiah might speak this way to the the people of Israel sin of course and Jeremiah being the mouthpiece of the Lord sin is seen in the internal present in God's sight God can speak with certainty about the future judgment of those who turn away from him that's the case here with Judah as well and we'll see that next week their lips might be saying the right thing they might be asking the Prophet Jeremiah to intercede for them and to find the ways of of the Lord their lips might be saying the right things but their hearts are are far away from the Lord and so the Lord Jesus Christ has a name for that in in Matthew 15 verse 8 he calls that hypocrisy to say something with your lips but not in your heart and that's what your Hainan is doing there they're saying the right things on the outside but the heart is missing behind it their profession is simply an external profession and God knows that the day of their judgement is coming it's not a surprise to God God knows these things from the beginning and so when we come to this this chapter we're reminded that when we ask God to make clear his commands for us that we should be careful when we make clear with our lips that we seek to obey the Lord and then we should be challenged as the people of God to obey the commandments of the Lord if we ask God to give us direction for our lives if we open this book and say to ourselves Lord God show us how we are supposed to live then we should be willing to obey His commandments and Judah asked God for his leading and God gives it to them and and and this is what God says to them here are the things you're supposed to do you're supposed to stay in the land you're supposed to trust me and I will take care of you here are the things that you should not do you should not leave the land and and go into Egypt but the people of Judah have not obeyed God's Word because they do not love God's Word they're there seeking advice in the hopes that the Prophet will confirm their opinion isn't that how we often seek the favor of the Lord - to ask of his commandments hoping that it will confirm what we want to do it's it's it's tempting to approach scripture this way I'm talking to us as Christians now it's tempting for us as Christians to approach God's Word in that way and so I want to ask us tonight is that our approach to Scripture you have something you like to do and then you come across the scripture that says you shouldn't do that or you're reading the scriptures and you find something that God asks of you or that he commands of you they that you had never thought of before now what's your response when you come face-to-face with a commandment of the Lord do you try to find another scripture that says it's okay when you do this and we all do this in that moment you're acting like a hypocrite your profession of faith is is denied by your response by your response to the demands of your savior is your life shaped by Scripture or do you shape scripture to fit your life that's the question that's being asked in this chapter do the commandments of God of the constrain your life recently a prominent reformed organization had an article online that argued that drunkenness was not always a sin that's right you heard me they argued that drunkenness is not always a sin and one of my friends when he found this article he wrote the author of the article and he confronted him with Ephesians 5 verse 18 which says do not get drunk with wine now what was the author's response to that reproof from Scripture well he turned to another scripture he turned to another scripture to look for permission for his position he appealed to the descriptive passages of scripture rather than dealing with God's commandments he he dealt with the passage like Moses or Noah well Noah got drunk with wine or or when Benjamin was at the table at the feast when when he came back into Egypt Joseph gave him five times what he gave to his brothers and and so there must have been drunkenness at that that table as well what has he done in that moment he's looked for position permission for his position in passages that are obscure rather than submitting himself to the clear commandment of Scripture which says do not get drunk with wine you see when a person who is delivered from the guilt of his sin by the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ when he is confronted with the commandments of his Savior he doesn't behave that way or he shouldn't behave that way he shouldn't try to find a way out from obedience to the commandments of God remember what we already saw in John 14 if you love me Jesus says if you love me you will keep my Commandments he doesn't say if you love me you'll try to find a way around my Commandments if you love me you will keep my Commandments and and beyond that in John first John 5 verse 3 after repeating that love for God is demonstrated in obedience to His commandments the Apostle John says for the Christian the commandments of God are not burdensome the commandments of God are not burdensome for the Christian it's not becoming to a Christian to find the minimum that he should do to serve as Savior the Christian embraces serving his Savior with his whole heart because the Savior's whole heart was given to him when you are in Christ you are you're filled with a new desire you're you're filled with a desire as the Apostle Peter articulated you're filled with a desire to be holy as God is holy and so when you're confronted with sin when you are shown a new path to obedience that you had not seen before your response should be simply to follow after Christ when you have no desire for obeying the Lord beloved when you have no desire to obey the Lord it could be that you have no desire for the Lord at all johannah's question in this chapter it's a it's a dangerous one inquire of the Lord for us for his direction because when the answer comes the truthfulness of his profession is made clear because if I know what God says and I refuse to do it I am demonstrating the darkness of my heart I am proving the fickleness of my loyalty to my Savior the love for myself in fact is is made abundantly clear my my heart is exposed in a sense our faithlessness is manifest but when we turn to the Lord and in true repentance the blessings of the presence of God will certain remain honest the harsh punishment that we deserved for our sin will certainly be over - not because of our obedience but because our love for the Savior our faith in Him which leads to our obedience God will dwell among his people he will be our God and we will be his people and he patiently carries us alone and he patiently teaches us what it looks like to be his people from day to day let's pray together

Channel: Cliffwood Presbyterian Church

Views: 1,053

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Cliffwood Presbyterian Church, bible, sermon, reformed theology, family integrated worship, preaching, augusta, presbyterian, Theology (Field Of Study), Religion (TV Genre), Pastor, repentance, Old Testament (Religious Text), rebellion, sin, forgiveness, Prophecy of Jeremiah

Id: eYH9KtaAda0

Length: 34min 5sec (2045 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 15 2019