Jeremiah and the Exiles, Pt. 6 (GCBI 107.01)

I want to take a few moments and in 30 and 31 talk about one of the major features of the book it's probably the single thing you will most remember about this book when it's done I personally think the game-changing passage is an important one that we looked at already but even though I think 29 is the game-changer 31 is something that comes into New Testament theology in a strong way what is the new covenant God is going to make an access agreement with Israel and it's a very unique one it can't be very unique it's unique okay here's the important thing it's third chapter 31 has right next to that Isaiah 59 those are the two places the term new covenant comes from and then I'm going back to 30 to walk you into it okay now a covenant is an agreement offer by somebody to give privileges to somebody else in a land covenant like an access agreement maybe it comes with conditions maybe not if I give you a conditional covenant it means you can only access my property between 6 and 9 o'clock or whatever if I give you an unlimited access to the property as long as you follow my path that I've given you that access agreement becomes my covenant with you the new cat the new covenant is an access agreement for a permanent relationship with God based on the specifics he outlines in the Covenant and it's different than the Old Covenant in the respect that the New Covenant has features that once you're in you become permanently part of in the Old Covenant there were many other stipulations that are different than the New Covenant I'm talking around it let me let me get to it this is going to be a renewed opportunity for the Jewish people to get to know God in a new and different way in a more intimate way and the problem is when we talk about the New Covenant we got all kinds of churches named the New Covenant Church they forgot that this was a Jewish thing fact what happens is when Jesus said this is the New Covenant in my blood they didn't recognize that he was in a room full of Jewish men they thought well they're all Christians they're not Christians they were Jews at the time and in fact they're followers of Jesus Christ and and that distinction becomes incredibly important but at the moment which he gives it he's talking about something that's going to happen to Israel how do I know that well because in the beginning of the book of Acts the last question the disciples ask is is it now that you're going to restore Israel Acts chapter one is after the Gospels after the resurrection so clearly the disciples thought when he was talking about the New Covenant and he was talking about the rest he was talking about Jewish things the restoration of Israel now the issue for us is you get to chapter 30 and this is a rather discouraging time in the Bible Jeremiah but chapter 30 is an encouragement in the midst of a discouraging time and the idea here he says in verse 3 of chapter 30 behold the days are coming when you always see that as one of those signs by Jeremiah he's talking about later days or prophetic days behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel and Judah stop right there he's in the thigh he's in the 600's or the late 500s and that writing the words Israel and Judah but Israel has been gone since 7 22 21 they are long gone long forgotten in terms of their exact point of where they are and he says I'm going to erect again recover again not just the southern kingdom but the Northern Kingdom as well that's going to be a major feature you're going to see in Ezekiel 34 and 37 you're going to see particularly in chapter 37 where both the household of Israel and the household of Judah together will be recovered now here's what he says he says that in verse 3 that Israel Judah would be covered and in verse nine if you kept reading down at verse nine that they would again get their king and that the king was guaranteed it says they shall serve the Lord their God and David their King I'd underline that so they'll get not only a return to the land they'll get a king in the land they'll get the opportunity to serve the Lord meaning they'll have God's heart in the land and then in verse 11 it reminds you that that they were in foreign lands awaiting a return it says I am with you declares the Lord to save you for I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you only I will not destroy you completely but I will chasten you justly and will by no means leave you unpunished you're not going to get off the hook but I'm going to bring you back and I'm not going to destroy your engine I'm going to destroy a lot of nations but not you I'm going to bring you back you're going to have your king you're going to have a heart for me you're going to have a the land again you're going to have Israel and Judah your long-lost cousins and brothers are going to be brought in from all over and then he says all the way down in verse 22 you will be my people and I will be your God so you're going to have in addition to those things you're going to have a right heart before me now remember at the time this is being written these people are heading for captivity in captivity this is I know I know you've been through the breaking of your temple the breaking of your kingdom but I have a future for you now that's the encouragement by chapter 31 the Prophet shares God's heart for Israel he reminds them that God has loved them with an everlasting love listen to the beginning in verse 3 the Lord appeared front to him from afar saying I have loved you with an everlasting love therefore I have drawn you with loving-kindness who is he talking to humanity the church who's he talking to look at verse 1 and tell me who that people are Israel so he says I have a future for Israel you will again be my people I've loved you with an everlasting love I know there's some great songs that are that people use and co-opt these things to the church but they were written originally does that mean God doesn't love you in everlasting love now of course he does but don't steal their verses unless you want to fill their problems okay it's what I'm saying watch very closely in 31 because in the beginning he says don't be concerned with being cast aside I again verse 4 I will build you and you will be rebuilt that's going to happen now I know that all of you accept that and I don't see anybody giving me a hard time about that but in the midst of the encouragement is God specifies exactly what he had in mind for the reconstruction of the land of their fathers he promised to sow the land with their children and their grandchildren and restore the places look down at verses 17 to 28 in chapter 31 17 to 28 you get down to 17 and it says there is hope for your future I don't think he could be more clear there is hope for your future your children will return to their own territory right the word land okay they're coming back to the land I have surely heard Ephraim that would be of course talking about the northern northern kingdom grieving you have chase and chastise me and I was chastised like an untrained calf bring me back that I may be restored for you are the Lord my God so I've heard even from your cousin's they've been gone for 200 years often captivity uh you know or 120 years off in captivity I have heard from them and I'm going to bring them back verse 19 after I turned back I repented and after I was instructed i smote on my thigh I was ashamed humiliated because the I bore the reproach of my youth is if I'm my dear son is he a delightful child indeed as often as I've spoken against him I certainly still remember him therefore my heart yearns for him I will surely have mercy on declares Lord the Northern Kingdom may have been taken away the Assyrians may have taken them away in 722 but I'm going to bring them back yes I chases them yes they were chastised but I always loved them and I never lost track of them the Ten Lost Tribes are not lost to God he knows exactly where they are he's going to bring them back and then it says in verse 21 set up for yourself Road Mark's place for yourself guideposts direct your mind to be the highway direct your mind to the highway did the way by which you went return o virgin of Israel returned to the easier cities and he's obviously talking about the land the New Covenant has to do with an access agreement that has to do with Israel and with Judah and a return and the land and an inheritance becoming permanently the people of God you will be my people that's what the New Covenant context is and what's interesting is he comes down to it and look at verse 27 because this is where we pick it up line by line the whole days are coming declares the Lord what is that normally denote in Jeremiah and times when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man with a seed of Beast what does that mean I will make you prolific you will be like rabbits there will be lots more of you as I have watched over them to pluck up break down overthrow destroy and bring disaster so I will watch over them to build and to plant I took you apart I knocked you down now I will build you up and I will restore you in those days they will not say again the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge but everyone will die for his own iniquity each man who eats the sour grapes his teeth will be set on edge that person's sound positive but it is here's what he's saying there's coming a day when I will stop thanking you for what your fathers did wrong when if I take it out on you it's because you did it you ate it you tasted it it's not going to be about other people in the test there's coming a day what I will individually judge what has heretofore been collective you've been collectively punished for your father's the day is coming when I won't do that anymore individuals will receive me individuals will come to me and I will I will forgive them as individuals for their own sin verse 31 behold days are coming declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant underline new covenant and then circle with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah every Bible study you will be in for the rest of your adult life people will say the new covenant is for the church this is the third time I've read Israel and Judah in just a few verses he couldn't be more clear the new covenant he's talking about isn't to the church primarily it will affect the church it will come up in new church speech but it is the ending landing agreement to bring his Rael back and be their people once and for all today we would call that the Millennial Kingdom the New Covenant is the permanence of all of them coming they look on him whom they have pierced they bow their knee they accept him Romans 11 all Israel will be saved and they will go into a kingdom where he will sit on a throne the New Covenant is why do you need a thousand year period why this millennium because God's not done checking off all the boxes of what he promised to do with through and to Israel and so that thousand years is it essential to get it done here's here's the bottom line it's not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them into the land into the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt my covenant which they broke although I was a husband to them declares the Lord the new covenant will be permanent but not have domicile conditions it won't be you're not going to get cast out of the land anymore this is a permanent land access covenant once you get in it you're in it you're going to be in it forever but this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days again highlight that it's with Israel so that when you're in the Bible study and they say it's about the church you can say then why does he keep saying Israel why does he keep saying Judah why does he keep saying restore to them to the land why is he saying he's going to call them back to live because new covenant the way it's talked about in Christianity is I'll just put new hearts in people that's great but that's not what it says in the Bible here's what he says I will put my law within them and on their heart I will write it and I will be their God and they will be my people this is a promise he's picked up earlier in the book this is not the first time you've read it in Jeremiah and it's always been related to the Jewish people there's never been a time in Jeremiah where he said by the way I'm going to make easy opie of my people now that mystery will be uncovered that Gentiles will come to faith but not here that's not what he's saying here here's what he says this is the covenant which I will declare they will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother saying know the Lord for they will all know me right next to that Romans 11:26 they will all all Israel will be saved Romans 11:26 right next to verse 34 they will all be saved and it says from the least to the greatest of them declares the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more that is eternal salvation in the Bible when God says I will remember your sin no more your eternally taking care of justified declared righteous thus says the Lord who gives the Sun for light by day who fixes the order of the moon and the stars for light by night who stirs up the sea so that it's waves roar the Lord of Hosts is his name the lord of the armies fault if this fixed order departs from before me declares the Lord then the offspring of Israel will also cease if I lose control of the Sun Moon and stars then I will lose control of my promise to Israel you're supposed to read it the other way I won't ever lose control of Sun Moon and stars so I'll never go bad on this offer thus says the Lord verse 37 if the heavens can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below then I will be cast off and I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done declares the Lord it's supposed to be an absurdity you're not going to measure heaven it's not going to happen I'm reliable on this promise I will save my people verse 38 behold the days are coming declares the Lord when the city will be rebuilt for the Lord from the tower of Han and El to the corner gate the measuring line will go out farther straight ahead to the hill of Caribe then it will go on to go on and the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the apse a schism all the fields as far as the brook Kedron and the corner of the horse gate toward these will be Allah will be holy to the Lord it will not be plucked up or overthrown any more forever so the ending promises they'll be in Jerusalem the walls will be there and it will never be overthrown again ever from the time of the salvation of the Jewish people with the coming of the Son of man in the clouds when they look on him whom they appears until eternity there will be peace among that people there will be a disruption in some part of the earth but not with them they will be as people now here's my point my point is that what went wrong with the way the new covenants been taught if you were to mark next to chapter 30 31 Isaiah 59 verses 18 to 21 someone turned there and read 59 18 to 21 to the coast lamps will make represent so they will hear the name of the award from the West and doors and the rising of the Sun where he will come like a Russian spring which the winds of the war drives every Demers of a reasonable time to die animals who turn from the transgression and Jacob displays Lord as for me this is my family wisdom says the Lord my spirit looking upon you in my work which I've put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth more from your mouth of your offspring nor from the mouth of your offerings offerings of the Lord from now and forever so he says in Isaiah 59 that I'm going to I'm going to declare across the nations draw people back I'm going to re-establish the people there and that will be a permanent establishment this isn't the return after Babylon because they don't have the heart of God this isn't the return after Babylon because Israel didn't return yet to this day the northern tribe never came back so this is still understood literally to be a future prophecy if you're a literalist and I am so here's the bottom line for one thing people forget that was a covenant with Israel and so they named their churches after it because they think it's just I'm just going to put a new heart within you and if you watch the way the songs refer to these passages they drop all mention of Israel or Judah all the way through 2nd no covenant in Scripture ever bulldoze 2 covenant before it Paul's going to make this argument when God gave a later covenant he didn't bulldoze the earlier one when God says to Abraham this is a covenant it's built on top of the Covenant to Noah in other words when God said I let me make a covenant with Abraham you don't have to start worrying when it starts raining because the Noah covenant was bulldozed away because now there's the Abrahamic every covenant builds on the covenant before us and Psalm 89 verses 19 to 29 say that the covenant with Israel will last forever Romans 11 verses 11 to 32 say that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable to Israel that's why both the Hebrew Scriptures and Christian scriptures have said it very clearly God isn't done with Israel he's not as long as I'm God as long as I run heaven he says I'm going to keep a special relationship with his people and it seems that some people just change Israel to church and they keep right on reading and that's fine it's just wrong if that were true God could simply cross out one group and go with another and a lot of churches honestly believe that in a supersessionism going to replacement the idea that well Israel got so bad that God traded them for the church here's the problem if you looked at the church so the Apostle Paul was a Jew and he grew up following Judaism and here's the thing and when he got to Romans 11:1 he said I'm an Israelite God has not cast away his people and the rest of the chapter is clear that God has a future to fulfill to the sons of Abraham through Isaac through Jacob and it's not an allegory some people are saying well it's all allegorical of a future time when God says I have an everlasting love for Israel but he really doesn't mean Jews he means somebody else who isn't Jewish then that's not really fair the whole thing breaks down because now nothing is as it says if he keeps saying household of Israel household of Judah household with Israel household of Judah how can it not be the household of Israel household of Judah but I have been on buses in Israel with people that would fight vehemently that that's not what it means it means the church and I would look at him and say why is he wasting words household of Israel household of Judah household of visit and why is it encouraging to people going into exile that I'm going to bring back people they're not exactly you there's somebody who has somebody's heart sort of like you and you should be encouraged that I'm going to do what my kids are going to die in exile and you're going to bring somebody back to the land oh but the land just meant Church I'm going to bring them back to like the church well then they didn't fall away from the church they walked in the first time what are you talking about and so it becomes sketchier and sketchier and sketchier the disciples understood it this way Peter Peter preached it this way at the first revival campaign in Acts chapter 3 verses 10 to 26 at Pentecost people people were told by Peter that the death of Jesus was to renew the covenants of God with Israel that's what he said and I got to tell you it wasn't a church meeting it was at the Jewish temple at the time so am i saying that the new covenant would not include non-jews no I'm not saying that I'm saying Jeremiah didn't know that I'm saying that there is something about the New Covenant that God introduced another piece to that the New Testament revealed that the Old Testament never saw and this is it in 2nd Corinthians Paul says 2nd Corinthians 2 verse 4 says actually if you look all the way through chapter 2 2nd Corinthians 2 he's very careful to say he's a minister of the New Covenant and he's writing to Corinth and they're Gentiles and he says that the New Covenant symbol is the change of heart the transformation of heart that's the symbol of it in principle but not in letter he said the letter of the New Covenant is when God changes Israel the principle is seen in Jesse God changes the heart of a Gentile on his way to making Jews jealous in Romans 10 and 11 on his way to drawing them back to the land on his way in Ezekiel 37 on his way to bringing about a tremendous upheaval in the nations and judgment on his way to breaking through the clouds and replacing their heart in other words instead of God's going to save Israel and then Gentiles it's God's going to save Gentile gentle gentle gentle gentle gentle Israel there the point of the prophecy you're a beneficiary of it you get the New Covenant in transformation but not in covenant itself the new covenant isn't written to the church you're not in the New Covenant in that way but the principle of life change is there so the point of the original agreement was with Jewish people to draw them to a renewed relationship with God as a non-jew I have a temporary benefit to be allowed to join the benefits of the agreement for a time I'm able to step in and to the Trent life transformation part of it and that's going to be the for running shuttering that an earthquake is coming and when that earthquake comes they will look on him whom they have pierced and they will all know me if we remove the Jewish people from the promise and substitute them for the church as many people do then God never completed his promises to the Jewish people Israel never got regathered the northern kingdom was lost and never came back they never got the land promises and when you read Jeremiah 31 or Isaiah 59 they sound like land promises just remember this if God's commitment to Israel isn't forever in Psalm 89 then that same word forever is what your salvation is held by if forever doesn't work for them don't you bet on it's going to work for you either unless God means what he says unless he will have an everlasting love for the Jewish people even when the veil has been placed over their heart that we talked about in Joel 2 and during this time Paul says it this way in Romans 11 they're enemies for the sake of the gospel but because of their fathers there's a renewal coming the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable in Romans 10 11 so second Corinthians 2 says this such confidence we have through Christ toward God not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves but our adequacy is from God who also made us adequate as servants of the New Covenant not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life he says I'm working in a new covenant ministry with Gentiles and Corinth in spirit not letter why because the letter isn't written to them but the principle is bottom line is verse 6 is the key if you get to 2nd Corinthians 3:6 turn there and mark closely that your servants of the New Covenant not of the letter of the New Covenant what is the letter of the new government not the specification of who it's to but the spirit of it is at work now that's what he's trying to tell you does that make sense so you can come to Jesus Christ and be transformed in your heart because you're a forerunner of what God is about to do to a nation all right here's my point my point is that the New Covenant then is the permanent access of God permits access agreement by God to draw the Jewish people back to the land and then in a subsequent time when we read in Ezekiel 34 to 37 you're going to find out God's going to draw the people there and sometime later change their heart so I believe that they're already being drawn back that persecution is on the rise anti-semitism is alive and well in Europe right now and it ain't doing that much worse I mean it's actually coming right coming on strong in many other countries let me say it that way so let me just say this as anti-semitism rises Jews flee to go back to Israel and if anybody asked me why do you believe in a literal approach to the prophecy it's going to come down to one word Israel because if it weren't for the literality of what I see the actual historicity what I see there I'm not sure you could know that these weren't supposed to be poetic they're not supposed to be poetic God has regathered you have to understand the Jewish people were without their language from the year 70 until the 1800s nobody was speaking Hebrew on the street at all it was revived in the nineteenth century and is now the national language again what you are seeing is a revival of a people that were gone into the nations they never would have come back questions about the New Covenant this is not going to go away you're a whole adult life you will be listening to people say things about the New Covenant that aren't the New Covenant okay all right okay I have only one more passage I want you to see and then I'm going to cut you loose okay I want you to jump now for a minute over to jeremiah 36 and I want you to see that the passage in 36 and I'm looking specifically for 36 to about 39 and I want you to see that the setting of this now on your diagram back here you can see that that there you're still in the period at the end of the captivity statements coming up to the beginning of the the remnant in the land here's what I want you to see look at the story in 36 one in the fourth year of yojoa came the son of Josiah king of Judah this word came to Jeremiah from the from the Lord say take a scroll write on it all the words which I've spoken you concerning Israel and concerning Judah and concerning all the nations from the day I first spoke to you from the days of Josiah even to this day so God instructed him write the Book of Jeremiah that's what he said I want you to write down all the stuff I gave you contemporary in his life this wasn't written by somebody after it was written by him and then it says verse 3 perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them in order that every man will turn from his evil way then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin it's interesting that during the period of the Babylonians this is when writing becomes much more a daily thing it's widely much more widely disseminated we start to find libraries during the end of that learning the rise of the persian period we start to find Scrolls that have been sealed with various blatt not wax clay seals and those clays in rooms where the scrolls caught on fire those clay seals were actually hardened and so we find them when you find a library often what it is is just the clay seals you don't have the scrolls anymore by the way more kids Dead Sea scrolls were found in the last two weeks haven't had any of those around since the 60s and they got into a room and found that there's another labyrinth of caves so the 930 Scrolls that we have of the Dead Sea Scrolls set probably will rise the first one they found was an intact jar with a scroll in it they whisked it away turns out the scroll was blank that somebody had put the scroll the vellum material in there to preserve it now we're going to have some real interesting discussions as to what does that mean there were ideas about the Dead Sea Scrolls being attached to one set of caves and one site but now we're finding them in other places there was already 10,000 volunteers that scoured the cliffs but now you've got to have something that's going to be real interesting as we are challenged with some new material so far what they found was the wrappings for Scrolls that is cloth that comes from the same time period about 150 BC so we don't have a lot new scroll material yet but there's going to be a good number I just read it this morning so let's take a look at this it says that Jeremiah called Baruch the son of neriah and sorry and they wrote on a scroll the dictation of Jeremiah all the words that the Lord had spoken to him Jeremiah commanded Burroughs saying I am restricted I cannot go go into the house of the Lord so Jeremiah was under some kind of house arrest couldn't go to the temple but Ruth had to come to him he's dictating these things now what happened to that scroll I told you this story get down to verse 20 it says so they went to the king and the court but they deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elisha of the scribe and they reported all the words of the king the king sent yahoodi to get the scroll and he took it out of the chamber of le chameau described and yehud he read it to the king as well as to all the officials who stood beside the king now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month with a fire burning and the brazier before him when yahoodi had read three or four columns the king cut it with a scribes knife and threw it into the fire that was in the brazier until the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier yet yet the king and all servants who heard all these words were not afraid nor did they read their garments even though Elma Tong and Daliah and gonorrhea pleaded with the King not to burn the scroll he would not listen to them and the king commanded jeremy'll the king's son sir I the son of Azrael and shalt amia the son of AB do do to cease Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the Prophet but the Lord hid him hid them I'm sorry so you see that the first draft of the writing of all of these things was burned so then verse 27 put a box around it then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the King had burned the scroll in the words which Burroughs had written all the dictation of Jeremiah and he told him what to do with it and look down at verse 32 Jeremiah took another scroll gave it to Bruce the son of Neriah and the scribe and he wrote on it all the dictation of Jeremiah the words of the book which which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire and then look at the end and many similar words were added to them in other words we have two agent editions of Jeremiah they're two different lengths jeremiah ends up in egypt he gives us one length the other one is longer but in the scripture it explains why there are two and so you'll go into a classroom and they look at you and say there are two Jeremiah's the Word of God conflicts and there's no it tells you there's going to be two of these they're both going to be called the words of Jeremiah because frankly nobody wants the words of Baruch the hired hand okay so these are going to be collections of what Jeremiah wrote I think because the original design of the book was so badly torn up that you have this kind of scroll that's kind of make shifted together and when you look through Jeremiah one of the reasons it's so hard to study this book is not just the contents but the way the or materials organized the end of this is in verses 11 to 21 of chapter 37 you have an imprisonment verse 11 it happened when the army of the Chaldeans had lifted the siege from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh's army that Jeremiah went from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin in order take possession of some property there and it's while he's there in the middle of 13 they arrested Jeremiah the Prophet and said you were going over to the Chaldeans Jeremiah Jeremiah said a lie I'm not going to the Chaldeans yet he would they would not listen to him and so eventually Jeremiah was brought before officials and it's interesting because he's accused of changing sides he's not changing sides and by chapter 38 he's put down into a cistern one of the things that he had to endure and you see in chapter 38 that he's down in the cistern it says verse 6 then they took Jeremiah cast him into a cistern of up here the king's son which was in the court of the guard house and they let Jeremiah down with ropes now in the sister and there was no water but only mud and Jeremiah sank into the mud I leave you with this phrase from Jeremiah because it really Jeremiah really is the Prophet with that sinking feeling that really it's it's not your imagination it really is and that really summarizes what went on with the book because by the time you get to chapter 39 verse 6 it says the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah blue before his eyes and blinded Zedekiah's eyes Chaldeans also burned with fire the king's palace and the latter part of chapter 39 he is spared but the place comes apart it's that sinking sinking feeling [Music] and [Music] I don't have lovely brain to you [Music]

Channel: One Hour. One Book.

Views: 3,941

Rating: 4.9365077 out of 5

Keywords: GCBI, Dr. Randy Smith, Bible teaching, Bible class, Hebrew, Greek

Id: mqg_wusUpwQ

Length: 37min 18sec (2238 seconds)

Published: Tue May 30 2017