Jer 36:1-16 When They Heard All The Words, They Were Afraid

[Study Aired April 17, 2022]

Jer 36:1  And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 36:2  Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.
Jer 36:3  It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
Jer 36:4  Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.
Jer 36:5  And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD:
Jer 36:6  Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD’S house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.
Jer 36:7  It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people.
Jer 36:8  And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD’S house.
Jer 36:9  And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.
Jer 36:10  Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD’S house, in the ears of all the people.
Jer 36:11  When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the LORD,
Jer 36:12  Then he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber: and, lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.
Jer 36:13  Then Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.
Jer 36:14  Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thine hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came unto them.
Jer 36:15  And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.
Jer 36:16  Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and other, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words.

To give this 36^th chapter and the preceding 35^th chapter the impact the holy spirit intends them to have, we must remember that these two chapters are set in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, at least eleven years earlier that the events of chapter 34, which took in the reign of King Zedekiah and concerned the giving of liberty to their Hebrew slaves to procure the Lord’s favor against the king of Babylon.  As soon as the siege was lifted, the people of Judah and Jerusalem broke their covenant with the Lord to let their Hebrew slaves go free. These two chapters contrast the fidelity of the Rechabites to the covenant they made with their patriarch, Jonadab, to live the life of a stranger and pilgrim while living in the promised land, and to drink no wine, their fidelity is being contrasted with the infidelity of Israel in breaking their covenant with their God to set their Hebrew servants free.

Chapters 35 and 36 are inserted into the story of Judah and Jerusalem being under siege from Babylon in the days of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah to demonstrate to us just how fickle and unfaithful we are to our covenant with the Lord. We all seek His favor while under siege by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, whom the Lord uses for the very purpose of showing us our infidelity to Him and the covenant we make with Him. Judah and Jerusalem agreed to set their Hebrew servants free as commanded by Moses, and when the Lord sent the King of Egypt to help Zedekiah the King of Judah, the siege was lifted and the people of Judah and Jerusalem immediately forgot their covenant with the Lord and put their Hebrew servants back under their bondage. In doing so, they were perverting the covenant they had with the Lord into their own self-righteousness and to the agreement they had made with the king of Egypt.

This 36^th chapter of Jeremiah is set in the 4^th year of King Jehoiakim, and it is also designed to show us just how little we think of the Lord’s judgments, and how little we believe that we will be made to give an accounting of our self-righteous rebellion against the Lord and His prophets.

This is how little King Jehoiakim thought of the words of the Lord given to him and his people by the certified prophet of the Lord. It is all being reviewed before the people of Judah and Jerusalem in the middle of the siege of King Nebuchadnezzar who Jeremiah had prophesied to come against Jerusalem eleven years earlier:

Jer 36:1  And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 36:2  Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.

Jeremiah’s prophecy commenced in the 13^th year of Josiah’s 31-year reign:

2Ki 22:1  Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.

Jer 1:1  The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
Jer 1:2  To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

Both Jehoiakim and Zedekiah were sons of Josiah, and they both reigned for eleven years with an eight-month reign of Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin, also known as Jechoniah, separating their two eleven-year reigns. The events of this chapter being in “the fourth year of Jehoiakim” means there were seven more years remaining of the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim, followed by the eight months of Jehoiachin’s reign, followed by nine years into the eleven-year reign of Zedekiah when King Zedekiah and Judah covenanted with the Lord to release their Hebrew slaves. Therefore, the events of this chapter which took place in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, were at least 16 years and 8 months earlier than the time of the siege under King Zedekiah. The warning of the Lord’s impending judgment is the same now as it was then. Instead of repentance there was anger against the Lord for His judgments:

Pro 19:19  A man of great wrath [each of us] shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.
Pro 19:20  Hear counsel, and receive instruction [We are so instructed because we do not do so], that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.

Jehoiakim had been besieged and was taken captive to Babylon, yet there was no change of heart in the king or in the people. As soon as the siege was lifted, they forsook the covenant they had made with the Lord:

Jer 34:8  This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;
Jer 34:9  That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.
Jer 34:10  Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.
Jer 34:11  But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

It is all being done for our benefit and our admonition and to let us know how stubborn we just naturally are and how longsuffering the Lord is with us:

Jer 36:3  It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

This is exactly what will eventually be done by the Lord as He Himself reveals to us in these incredibly comforting words:

Jer 33:1  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, [Under King Zedekiah]
Jer 33:2  Thus saith the LORD the maker thereof, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD is his name;
Jer 33:3  Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

What we just naturally “knowest not” is that all the Lord’s chastening and scourging in our lives is the fiery trials which He has determined are essential to our deliverance from our unfaithful, rebellious and self-righteous ways.

Jer 33:4  For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword;
Jer 33:5  They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, [the ‘men’ whose doctrines operate as the soldiers of our old man] whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city.
Jer 33:6  Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.
Jer 33:7  And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.
Jer 33:8  And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.
Jer 33:9  And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.

Those words of the Lord to King Zedekiah back in chapter 33 give us the comfort and encouragement we must have to endure the fiery trials that bring us to our wits’ end before the Lord will bring us to our desired haven of rest in Him (Psa 107:21-31).

Before the Lord can give us His rest, we must first be hated of all men and of the leaders of the Lord’s own people, and be brought to our wits’ end, as was Jeremiah:

Jer 12:6  For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee; yea, they have called a multitude after thee: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto thee.

Jer 20:7  O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
Jer 20:8  For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.
Jer 20:9  Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

Just as the Lord was so hated by the leaders of “Jewry” that He could not go up to Jerusalem for a season, so it was with Jeremiah. Nevertheless the Lord’s Word was not ‘shut up’:

Jer 36:4  Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.
Jer 36:5  And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD:

We are not told why Jeremiah could not go to the house of the Lord in the days of King Jehoiakim, but it was not because he was in prison as he was under King Zedekiah. We know this is so because we are told later in this same chapter:

Jer 36:26  But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the LORD hid them.

Nevertheless, we are told that Jeremiah was “shut up [and could] not go into the house of the Lord” at that time, but nothing can restrain the Lord’s words.

Paul himself was in prison when he wrote these words:

2Ti 2:9  Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.

Jer 36:6  Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD’S house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.
Jer 36:7  It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people.

The most unpopular thing on this earth is the wrath of God. The lack of appreciation for the wrath of God comes from the marred condition of our “vessel of clay” and its corruptible composition.

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made [Hebrew: is making] of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made [Hebrew: is making] it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jer 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood [earthen vessel of clay] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

The plan and purpose of God is not depending on anything we do on our own. The will of God does not depend upon, nor does He struggle against, our fabled “free will”. A will that is free from the sovereign hand of God is a mere illusion of our minds. Such an illusion the scriptures call “strong delusion”:

2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The Lord’s words will not be silenced:

Jer 36:8  And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD’S house.
Jer 36:9  And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.

Here is this ninth verse in the Proper Names Bible:

Jer 36:9 and it came to pass in the fifth year of (Jehovah establishes – Jehoiakim) the son of (sustained by Jehovah – Josiah) king of (praised – Judah), in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the lord to all the people in (founded in peace – Jerusalem), and to all the people that came from the cities of (praised – Judah) unto (founded in peace – Jerusalem).

I am reading the meaning of each of these names because the exact opposite of their intended definition is what is actually taking place at this time of the Lord’s judgment upon His people. Jehoiakim at this time is not being ‘established by the Lord’. Instead, he is being dethroned by the Lord and is carried away captive to Babylon. Judah at this stage, is doing nothing for which to be ‘praised’, and Jerusalem is certainly not at ‘peace’. Both are being besieged by the king of Babylon.

King Josiah himself was sustained by the Lord until he was no longer ‘sustained by Jehovah’. Instead, He died in battle because “he hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God”, which is what we are told:

2Ch 35:20  After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.
2Ch 35:21  But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not.
2Ch 35:22  Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
2Ch 35:23  And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.
2Ch 35:24  His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
2Ch 35:25  And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.

King Josiah, whose name means ‘established by Jehovah’, had not inquired of the Lord before going to battle against the king of Egypt, and the Lord refused to establish Josiah’s presumptuous ways.

It is instructive that this happened after King Josiah “had prepared the temple”. He had become self-confident and failed to enquire of the Lord before going to battle against the King of Egypt.

2Ch 35:20  After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.

This ‘fast’ proclaimed by King Jehoiakim, at which Baruch was to read the words from the mouth of Jeremiah, is not the day of Atonement, which is the tenth day of the seventh month. This is an additional fast which Jehoiakim called in an attempt to earn the Lord’s favor absent of any acknowledgment of Jeremiah as the Lord’s certified prophet. King Jehoiakim was not calling on the people to acknowledge their transgression. This fast was called without any repentance for their disobedience and their self-righteous idols of their hearts. This is all written for our admonition to tell us we cannot just lean to our own understanding, ignore the Lord’s words by His prophets, and continue in our sins and expect the Lord to answer our cries for His help in our time of trouble. It was at this point the Lord had Baruch, via “the mouth of Jeremiah”, give His people a piece of His mind concerning their presumptuous, self-righteous, rebellious and adulterous ways:

Jer 36:10  Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD’S house, in the ears of all the people.

“All the people” means all the people who were there to hear the words Baruch read from the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet. It was enough people to share what they had heard with their families and friends who were not there. It was enough that it all got back to the king, and it was enough to be considered as a witness against the whole nation.

Jer 36:11  When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the LORD,
Jer 36:12  Then he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber: and, lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.

These are the same ‘princes’ who rescued Jeremiah from the priests and from the prophets back in chapter 26 which is set at the same time during the reign of King Jehoiakim:

Jer 26:11  Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.
Jer 26:12  Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard.
Jer 26:13  Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.
Jer 26:14 As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you.
Jer 26:15  But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.
Jer 26:16  Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.

All of this occurred fifteen or sixteen years before the siege of Jerusalem under King Zedekiah. It is all being rehearsed in chapters 35 and 36 to show us just how quickly we all just naturally do what is convenient, rather than what is the principled thing to do. It is so easy under certain circumstances for all of us to conveniently forget and ignore our own covenant with the Lord and do what is the easiest most physically profitable thing to do. Judah and Jerusalem hypocritically went back on their covenant to give liberty to their Hebrew servants after the Lord lifted the Babylonian siege, and the Lord is informing us of what happens when we do that to Him:

Jer 36:13  Then Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.
Jer 36:14  Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thine hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came unto them.

The Lord patiently warns us time and again of the fruit of our ways and of His chastening wrath against our rebellious, self-righteous old man. He is so patient that when He lifts His siege against us, we tend to think He will never deal with or punish us for our infidelity. These are His own words:

Mat 24:45  Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
Mat 24:46  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
Mat 24:47  Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
Mat 24:48  But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
Mat 24:49  And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
Mat 24:50  The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
Mat 24:51  And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The Lord inspired Peter to give us the same message in these words:

2Pe 3:3  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2Pe 3:4  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
2Pe 3:5  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
2Pe 3:6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2Pe 3:7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

That is the essence of all the warnings the Lord gave Israel and Samaria, and Judah and Jerusalem for many decades before He took them out of their inheritance. That is the message of the words of Jeremiah to the leaders and the people of His day, and that is the exact same message for us today:

Jer 36:15  And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.
Jer 36:16  Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and other, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king [Jehoiakim] of all these words.

Here is how the Lord begins this prophecy of Jeremiah concerning you and me, His own, blinded, and apostate people:

Jer 1:1  The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: [Remember for a future study that Jeremiah is from Anathoth in Benjamin]
Jer 1:2  To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
Jer 1:3  It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
Jer 1:4  Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 1:5  Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Jer 1:6  Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
Jer 1:7  But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
Jer 1:8  Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
Jer 1:9  Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
Jer 1:10  See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
Jer 1:11  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
Jer 1:12  Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
Jer 1:13  And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.
Jer 1:14  Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
Jer 1:15  For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
Jer 1:16  And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. [False doctrines]
Jer 1:17  Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
Jer 1:18  For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. [Inwardly and outwardly]
Jer 1:19  And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.

This promise is repeated in the epistle to the Romans:

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is what we are told about our old man in the next chapter of Jeremiah:

Jer 2:26  As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,

‘Ashamed when [we] are found’ refers to being afraid of being exposed for our lying false doctrines which demonstrate our infidelity to our Lord and His doctrines, and having our self-righteous hypocrisy exposed for all to see.

We are all at first believers in the lies of their own hearts. We all first justify our weakness and our hypocrisy.

Chapter 35, contrasting the faithfulness of the Rechabites against the infidelity of Judah and Jerusalem, and chapter 36, revealing the rebellion of our old man against the impending judgments of the Lord, are inserted at this point in the reign of King Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, to remind us of the character and composition of these “corruptible… vessels of clay” (Jer 18:4, 1Co 15:50).

That hypocritical, self-righteous spirit of rebellion is within every one of us, and that is what we have now rejected. We are still rejecting that spirit daily only because we have been granted faith that the day is coming when all those lies which were within us will be revealed for what they are. It is faith in the Truth that today is our present day of judgment which strengthens us to endure to the end of this age in great anticipation of the incomparable rewards of being faithful to the Lord and His doctrines.

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature [all men of all time] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Here is just how critical faith in the Lord’s word is to our salvation:

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. [Our gift from God]

I thank and praise the Lord for the faith He has placed within each of you and in me. I am persuaded that He will keep each of us faithful until the end of our struggles and that He will finish the work He has begun in these vessels of clay.

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

Psa 118:27  God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light [The Truth, which is]: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.

Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The princes who saved Jeremiah are like Jonathan, the son of King Saul, a prince who helped to save David. The Lord hides us from evil until the storm passes, and He has placed His assets in the right position to preserve us and keep us safe even in the most adverse circumstances. Our faith will be tried, and it is that ‘trial of [our] faith” which makes it so precious to our Lord:

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

May all the ‘princes’ within each of us be afraid of the sure judgments of our Lord:

Jer 36:16  Now it came to pass, when they [the princes] had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and other, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words.

Next week we will see that Jehoiakim, the symbol of the man of sin within us, does not fear the Word of the Lord, which assures us of His impending judgments upon our rebellious kingdom within and without.