Jer 35:1-19 The Obedience of the Rechabites

[Study Aired April 10, 2022]

Jer 35:1  The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,
Jer 35:2  Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.
Jer 35:3  Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites;
Jer 35:4  And I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door:
Jer 35:5  And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine.
Jer 35:6  But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever:
Jer 35:7  Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers.
Jer 35:8  Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he hath charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters;
Jer 35:9  Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:
Jer 35:10  But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.
Jer 35:11  But it came to pass, when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians: so we dwell at Jerusalem.
Jer 35:12  Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 35:13  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the LORD.
Jer 35:14  The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father’s commandment: notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto me.
Jer 35:15  I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me.
Jer 35:16  Because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them; but this people hath not hearkened unto me:
Jer 35:17  Therefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them: because I have spoken unto them, but they have not heard; and I have called unto them, but they have not answered.
Jer 35:18  And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he hath commanded you:
Jer 35:19  Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.

Our study today takes us back over eleven years to the time of King Jehoiakim, the son of King Josiah, and contrasts the obedience of the sons of Rechab to the commandments and precepts of their patriarch, to the disobedience of Judah and Jerusalem to the commandments and precepts or the Lord who had supernaturally delivered them from the bondage of Egypt:

Jer 35:1  The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,
Jer 35:2  Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.

The Lord places great value on us keeping our word. He puts so much value on it that even if we commit ourselves to a situation which will cost us dearly, He will bless us simply because we gave our word and kept it even to our own hurt. This is the mind of the Lord concerning what we are to do under such adverse circumstances:

Psa 15:4  In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

“A vile person is condemned; but… them that fear the Lord… sweareth to his own hurt, and changes not”. The Lord speaks to us through contrasts. A person who swears to his own hurt and changes not is contrasted with “a vile person” who swears to his own hurt then changes his mind rather than absorb the loss or the pain of keeping his word. “A vile person” who does not keep his word is a self-centered, always self-righteous person who will always justify the need to tell a blatant lie. We self-righteously call our lies ‘white lies’. We reason that we had to tell a lie, therefore it is ‘a white lie’, and if we had kept our word or if we had told the truth, it might have been worse and it might even have cost us our lives and who in this world wants to die???

Exo 20:19  And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

The death of our old man should be the goal of every one of us so our new man can increase in us as John the Baptist told his disciples:

Joh 3:30  He [Christ, the new man within us] must increase, but I must decrease.
Joh 3:31  He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.

It is not natural for us to see Christ as coming from heaven. It is certainly not natural to see Christ within us as coming from heaven. We all just naturally prefer hearing a sermon with smooth words to hearing the judgment of the Word of God upon our self-righteous old man.

Isa 30:8  Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
Isa 30:9  That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
Isa 30:10  Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

‘Smooth things [are] deceits’ and that is what we all just naturally prefer to hear from those who minister to us.

That is why this chapter concerning events that took place well over eleven years earlier is being brought up at this juncture in this prophecy of Jeremiah. In our previous chapter, in the last year or two of the reign of King Zedekiah, who was the last king of Judah, Jerusalem and Judah were being besieged by the king of Babylon. Under the pressure of such severe judgment, which judgment was prophesied to come upon them by the prophet Jeremiah, the people of Judah and Jerusalem went into “the house of the Lord” and made a covenant with the Lord to let their Hebrew servants and handmaids go free, and as long as the siege endured they actually kept their word and granted their Hebrew servants their liberty, as we read in the previous chapter about the siege of Jerusalem under King Zedekiah by King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon:

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.

The people of Judah and Jerusalem had given their word while under the siege to let their bondservants go free. However, immediately after the siege was lifted because the Lord had sent the king of Egypt to help Judah fight against the king of Babylon, the people of Judah and Jerusalem no longer felt the need to keep their word to those servants, and they demanded that they continue serving them, and went back on their oath and brought their Hebrew servants back into bondage.

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.

All of this is an actual historic fact which happened to Judah and Jerusalem, and it all “Happened to them and it is written for our admonition…”:

1Co 10:6 Now these things became types of us, for us not to be lusters after evil things,

1Co 10:11 Now all this befalls them typically. Yet it was written for our admonition, to whom the consummations of the eons have attained. (CLV)

This whole story of the fidelity of the Rechabites, contrasting their fidelity to the commandment of their father with the infidelity of Judah and Jerusalem to the commandments of the Lord, is a type of each of us. We all agree to serve the Lord when He puts a heavy trial upon us, but as soon as the trial is resolved and our lives return to their normal state, we immediately and conveniently forget the covenant we made with the Lord to submit to His Words, represented by the covenant Judah made with the Lord to let their Hebrew servants, their own brothers and sisters, go free. The “Hebrew servants” represent each of us whom the Lord Himself has moved heaven and earth to deliver from the heavy oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

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.

Mat 5:37  But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

When we grant liberty to our Hebrew servant, we are typically being set free from our own bondage. That bondage is our own righteousness “which is of the law”:

Php 3:4  Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Php 3:5  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

“The righteousness which is of the law [is] mine own righteousness which is of the law.” “Mine own righteousness” will rob me of my salvation “if [I] trust in [my] own righteousness, and commit iniquity” as opposed to “the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ”:

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.
Eze 33:14  Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
Eze 33:15  If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity [“trust in his own righeouness” (vs 13)]; he shall surely live, he shall not die.

The Lord delivers us from the bondage of our own self-righteousness, and we still struggle to give Him the credit for all we do, good or evil. Nevertheless, that is what the scriptures teach consistently:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15  And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Isa 45:6  That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

I have emboldened all the evil which the Lord is working in the kingdom within us because every verse quoted is telling us what the Lord is working within each of us. We have all sold our brother into the slavery of the self-righteous sins of this world. We are all King Saul who is sent an evil spirit from the Lord. We are the wicked whom the Lord has created for our own day of evil. It is the Lord who hardens our hearts so He can make us err from His ways. We are the city in which the Lord has worked so much evil.

Place any of these verses outside of yourself and you have self-righteously attempted to reprove, contend with, and condemn the Lord for His sovereign position:

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that  reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

None of these things surprise our Lord because He is the One conducting all the affairs of this age:

Dan 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

The Lord was not unaware of what would happen when He sent the armies of Egypt to help Judah to fight against the king of Babylon. He knew what He had “written in [their] book, even the days He had ordained for [them] before there were any of them”:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

Jer 35:3  Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites;
Jer 35:4  And I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door:
Jer 35:5  And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine.
Jer 35:6 But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever:
Jer 35:7  Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers.
Jer 35:8  Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he hath charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters;
Jer 35:9  Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:
Jer 35:10  But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

These Rechabites typify those who live by the faith of Jesus Christ as typified by all the Old Testament principles named in Hebrews 11:

Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

The Rechabites lived the lives of ‘strangers and pilgrims on the earth’, and they are commended of the Lord for being faithful to their father Jonadab’s covenant to live that kind of life.

Jer 35:11  But it came to pass, when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians: so we dwell at Jerusalem.

These Rechabites who are faithful to their covenant with their patriarch Jonadab to live as pilgrims in the promised land and to refrain from drinking wine and keeping that covenant even when tempted by the Lord’s certified prophet Jeremiah to drink wine, typify the Lord’s elect who are faithful to the covenant they have made with the Lord. In contrast to this spirit Christ poses this question to you and me:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

The Lord knows that He Himself has made us all to err from His ways. He knows that He made us wicked first to endure our own day of evil, yet He poses this question to us, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say?” He gives us the knowledge of the benefits of being obedient to Him, and then He contrasts those blessings with the curses which come upon us as “the wicked” who He first made us to be for our own “day of evil”:

Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

What the Lord does not tell us right here is that He first gives every man “an experience of evil, [and He then brings every man] to his wits’ end”. What the Lord does not tell us right here is that all men must first “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”, including these words:

Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

The scriptures reveal that we all call Christ “Lord, Lord” and do not the things He says, and we build our houses on the earth without Christ as our foundation before we hear and do His Words and build our house on Him as the Rock of our foundation:

Psa 107:25  For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Therefore, because the Lord Himself is orchestrating all we do, good and evil, these next verses are referring to our old man who is being brought to his wits’ end before he can be brought to his desired haven:

Jer 35:12  Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 35:13  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the LORD.
Jer 35:14  The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father’s commandment: notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto me.
Jer 35:15  I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me.
Jer 35:16  Because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them; but this people hath not hearkened unto me:
Jer 35:17  Therefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them: because I have spoken unto them, but they have not heard; and I have called unto them, but they have not answered.
Jer 35:18  And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he hath commanded you:
Jer 35:19  Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.

These obedient Rechabites typify the Lord’s faithful elect who “tremble at [His] Words”:

Isa 66:1 thus saith the lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest?
Isa 66:2 for all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Before we do what the Lord says, and before we are given to “tremble at [His] Word”, the Lord always first provides Himself “an occasion” to destroy our old man and all the self-righteous pride of His kingdom.

Jdg 14:4  But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

As Samson later demonstrated, it is the Lord’s own elect who first after being cleaned return to their own wallow in the mire. It is instructive that the Proper Names Bible renders this verse in these words:

Jdg 14:4 but his father and his mother knew not that it was of the lord, that he sought an occasion against the (wallowing) for at that time the (wallowing) had dominion over (he will rule with god)

Only “then”, after returning to our wallowing in the mire, after bringing us to our wits’ end, does He bring us to our desire haven. That method of operating is the “means” the Lord has “devised [by which] His banished be not expelled from Him”:

2Sa 14:14  For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

“God so loved the world” is not in contradiction to the admonition to us to “Love not the world”. The Lord, and the Lord alone, is able to ‘gather up ‘the world as a “new heavens and a new earth”. He certainly is not in the process of ‘gathering up again’ our disobedient, self-righteous, old first man Adam.

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

At this time, we are in “corruptible, marred, vessels of clay”, and while in this state this is what the Lord Himself, through this same apostle John, admonishes us:

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

After healing the man who had been infirm for thirty-eight years, this is what Christ told Him and what He is telling us:

Joh 5:14  Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

Because the Lord loves us, “a worse thing” is in the aorist tense and is ‘coming unto us’ when we return to ‘our own vomit or our wallow in the mire’. The very fact Christ admonished the infirm man ‘sin no more’ was done because He knew that was exactly what would take place in that man’s life and in our lives. When we think that Israel was incredibly forgetful and disrespectful and just plain stupid for accusing the Lord of bringing them into the wilderness to slay them with thirst after a mere three days without water, try going three days without water and see how grateful you feel. All of Israel’s rebellions typify us:

1Co 10:6 Now these things became types of us, for us not to be lusters after evil things, (CLV)

We are not the spiritual giants we might think we are when the flesh acts like flesh, and the fiery trials of life are sent to try our faith:

1Co 10:7  according as they also lust. Nor yet be becoming idolaters, according as some of them, even as it is written, “Seated are the people to eat and drink, and they rise to sport.
1Co 10:8  Nor yet may we be committing prostitution, according as some of them commit prostitution, and fall in one day twenty-three thousand.
1Co 10:9  Nor yet may we be putting the Lord on trial, according as some of them put Him on trial, and perished by serpents.
1Co 10:10  Nor yet be murmuring even as some of them murmur, and perished by the exterminator.
1Co 10:11  Now all this befalls them typically. Yet it was written for our admonition, to whom the consummations of the eons have attained.
1Co 10:12  So that, let him who is supposing he stands beware that he should not be falling. (CLV)

If we think we are ‘standing’ in our own strength, we are “falling”, and we aren’t even aware of our own iniquity. The Lord wants us to know that we ‘stand’ only in Him and He is the only sovereign:

Isa 45:5  I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa 45:6  That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

The Lord wants us to know that He is working both the good and the evil “after the counsel of His own will” having devised means to bring even His banished to Himself (2Sa 14:14) thereby saving all men of all time:

Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isa 45:8  Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

The Lord wants us to know that all the days of our lives were determined to be as they are “before there were any of them”:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

The Lord even wants us to know that our sins are not really our sins at all. Rather, our sins are His work in our lives, hardening our hearts against His fear… after the counsel of His own will:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

He even anticipated our natural reaction to being informed of all of this:

Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

When facing the far superior numbers of troops of the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, and Syrians united to fight against Judah and Jerusalem, King Jehoshaphat prayed this prayer to which Paul refers when he asks, “Who has resisted His will?”

2Ch 20:4  And Judah was gathered to inquire of Jehovah; also they came in to seek Jehovah from all the cities of Judah.
2Ch 20:5  And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of Jehovah, at the front of the new court,
2Ch 20:6  and said, O Jehovah, the God of our fathers, are not You the God in Heaven? Yea, You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is power and might; and there is none able to withstand You.

As little as it appeals to our flesh, this is the answer Paul was inspired of the holy spirit to give us to his rhetorical question, “Why does He yet find fault [when it is He who is working all things after the counsel of His own will]?”

Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24  Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

The Lord wants us to know that we have no right to be questioning our Creator, asking Him “Why have you made me thus?” He does go on to explain that the Potter is making one vessel to honor and another to dishonor. Then, lest any of us think that because we are the vessel made unto honor, therefore ‘enduring with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction’ has nothing to do with the vessels made unto dishonor, the Lord informs us that both vessels come from “the same lump”. Another way of making this statement would be to tell us that our new man comes out of the same lump from which our old man was made. This same apostle was inspired to inform us that all men are “sown in corruption [and] dishonor”:

1Co 15:42  So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
1Co 15:43  It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

The revelation “That was not first which is spiritual but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual” lets us know that the Lord makes both the vessel of honor and the vessel of dishonor of “the same lump”. The scripture is not referring to one individual versus another individual. Rather, the reference is to our old man, a “vessel… unto dishonor”, versus our “new man… [a] vessel unto honor… Christ in us… this treasure in earthen vessels… of the same lump”. All these references to being a vessel made unto honor reveal that we are one and all first the old man, first an earthen vessel, first a corruptible vessel of clay before “of the same lump” being “made unto honor”.

Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

That is part of the hidden wisdom found throughout scripture. Our old man is decreasing daily as our new man increases. Those two men are the basic subject of every story in scripture. That includes this story of the Rechabites who remained faithful to the covenant they had made with their father, Jonadab, the son of Rechab who had commanded them, saying, “Ye shall drink no wine.” Abstaining from wine is not the point being made. Fidelity to the Lord and our covenant with Him which He is working in us is the point being made by this story:

Jer 35:18  And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he hath commanded you:
Jer 35:19  Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.

These faithful Rechabites typify all who are given to repent of their self-righteous rebellion and disobedience and return to the Lord. They typify the “few… chosen” while Judah and Jerusalem in this story typify our self-righteous, rebellious old man who is still refusing to repent of his transgressions and his iniquity.

There are “great and precious promises given to our new man which make any suffering endured in this present time unworthy of being compared to the glory that is to be revealed in us:

2Pe 1:3  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
2Pe 1:4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

This world doesn’t know it, but the fact is that all men of all time are awaiting the appearing of our Lord when He will make manifest to all men those who are His obedient sons in this age.

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
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 waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Jer 19:1-15  I Will Bring Evil Upon This Place That Will Make The Ears Tingle

[Study Aired October 3, 2021]

Jer 19:1  Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
Jer 19:2  And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
Jer 19:3  And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
Jer 19:4  Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
Jer 19:5  They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:
Jer 19:6  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
Jer 19:7  And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
Jer 19:8  And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
Jer 19:9  And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
Jer 19:10  Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
Jer 19:11  And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
Jer 19:12  Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
Jer 19:13  And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
Jer 19:14  Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house; and said to all the people,
Jer 19:15  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

The Lord is very clear that the “evil in the city” comes at His hand and with His “foreknowledge”. Here are just two of many examples given in scripture:

Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Amo 3:7  Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28  For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

What Amos 3:7 is saying is that the Lord always reveals His judgments to His servants the prophets. The “evil in the city”, regardless of its apparent cause, is the fruit of our sins, and the fruit of our sins is the result of being made of dust, being “marred in the Potter’s hand”.

Pro 26:2  As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

“The first man Adam” was “made to be taken and destroyed” by the judgment of the Lord.

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that  might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

‘Babylon’ is the Biblical symbol for the Lord’s apostate people, and in that sense this 19^th chapter of Jeremiah introduces the Lord’s fiery judgments upon that corrupt, rebellious, apostate system which has deceived the whole world. The Lord uses a very graphic depiction of what He is doing to that hypocritical system within us and what He will do to Babylon when He appears to rule the kingdoms of the world:

Jer 19:1  Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;

As we saw in the previous chapter, the “potter’s earthen vessel” is all mankind who are “marred in the Potter’s hand”. The point the Lord is making is that the clay and the pot are in the Potter’s hand, and this clay has absolutely nothing to do with what the Potter is doing with the clay that is in His hand:

Jer 18:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2  Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jer 18:3  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made 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.

There is no room for the Babylonian false doctrine of “free moral agency” in the symbolism of clay in the hand of a Potter. In this 19^th chapter we are being shown what the Lord intends to do to the “the vessel of clay [which] was marred in the hand of The Potter”, and the Lord is demonstrating the purpose for which He created this “marred… vessel of clay”. Jeremiah is instructed to “get a potter’s earthen bottle [and take along] the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests” and go to the valley of Tophet with these witnesses to hear the words of the Lord concerning the judgment He is bringing upon His apostate people.

Jer 19:2  And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,

“The valley of the son of Hinnom” is called ‘Tophet’ earlier in this prophecy:

Jer 7:31  And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
Jer 7:32  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.
Jer 7:33  And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.
Jer 7:34  Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

This entire chapter is really just repeating what the Lord told Jeremiah in chapter 7. This same message concerning the judgment upon the apostate sins of His people… that would be each of us… was repeated earlier in:

Isa 30:33  For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

Look at those words! “Tophet is ordained of old”. What is Tophet’s ordained function? For God’s (“the king’s”) preordained judgment of our old man. If we take the words “the king” to be our rebellious old man who sits in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God, the message is the same. Taken either way, the message is the same. It is “ordained of old” by the Lord… “made deep and large” to consume all the ‘wood, hay and stubble’ that is our flesh. The fire and brimstone, which kindles the consuming of all the wood, hay, and stubble of our flesh, is “the breath of the Lord”, His “inspired…God breathed” Word.

Here is the meaning of the name ‘Tophet’:

H8613

– Original: תּפתּה
– Transliteration: Tophteh
– Phonetic: tof-teh’
– Definition: Tophet = place of fire

1. a place in the southeast end of the valley of the son of Hinnom south of Jerusalem
2. same as 8612

– Origin: probably a form of H8612
– TWOT entry: None
– Part(s) of speech: Proper Name Location
– Strong’s: Probably a form of H8612; Tophteh a place of cremation: – Tophet.

This is what we see when we look up H8612:

H8612
תֹּפֶת
tôpheth
to’-feth
The same as H8611; Topheth, a place near Jerusalem: – Tophet, Topheth.
Total KJV occurrences: 9

This Hebrew name appears in three different forms all meaning the same thing… “a place of burning”.

The Hebrew word for ‘breath’ here in Isaiah 30:33 is:

H5397
נְשָׁמָה
neshâmâh
nesh-aw-maw’
From H5395; a puff, that is, wind, angry or vital breath, divine inspiration,  intellect or (concretely) an animal: – blast, (that) breath (-eth), inspiration, soul, spirit.

This word is not ‘ruach’, the Hebrew word for spirit, yet we are told in Psalms 18 that this ‘neshamah’ comes “of the breath (Hebrew: ‘ruach’, spirit) of Thy nostrils”:

Psa 18:15  Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast [H5397: ‘neshamah’, physical “breath of life” (Gen 2:7)] of the breath [H7307: ruach, spirit] of thy nostrils.

This is what “the breath of His nostrils “discovers” to be our judgment:

Jer 19:3  And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.

These are the same words the Lord used to describe the effect of His judgment upon the house of Eli the priest many years earlier:

1Sa 3:11  And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle.
1Sa 3:12  In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end.
1Sa 3:13  For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.

Then the Lord reiterates the list of our sins:

Jer 19:4  Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
19:5  They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it;  neither came it into my mind:

This is the second time the Lord has made this statement… “neither came it into my mind”. Here is the first time earlier in this same prophecy of Jeremiah:

Jer 7:31  And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

This statement, like many others in scripture, appears to our natural mind to make the scriptures contradict themselves. If indeed it is God who “works all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11) how can He then tell us “neither came it into my mind… to burn their sons… and their daughters… with fire for a burnt offering unto Baal”?

The answer is the same in every case where the scriptures appear to contradict themselves. The Lord had to give Himself an adversary, a ‘Satan’, in order to have an evil foil against which to contrast the goodness of His heart and His intentions for all of mankind. He must let us know He is sovereign and full of mercy even as He works all the evil in this world “after the counsel of His own will”:

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

‘The sum of the Lord’s words’ (Psa 119:160 ASV), reveals that everything, including every “power… and principality” were created by and consist only in Christ:

Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

This sovereignty of Christ extends to “the fruit of [our] lips” which comes from “the abundance of [our] heart”:

Isa 57:19  I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.

Mat 12:34  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

The Lord Himself ‘makes us to err from His ways’ so He can judge us and drag us through that fiery judgment to Himself:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

The Lord sends evil spirits to incite our rebellion against Him and His ways, so He can tell us, “neither came it into My mind… to burn [our] sons unto Baal”.

Here are a couple more examples of how the Lord is orchestrating all things after the counsel of His own will:

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15  And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.

1Ki 22:23  Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

Knowing it is all of God does not make it any less of a fiery trial requiring the Lord’s judgments upon us:

Jer 19:6  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
Jer 19:7  And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
Jer 19:8  And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
Jer 19:9  And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

The sword is the Word, and the Word is “the sword of our enemy” just as the Lord was Job’s enemy when Job ignorantly made this self-righteous statement:

Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job 27:7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

This was Job’s iniquity which brought these fiery words of the Lord down upon him:

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Here is how the Lord inspired Jeremiah to describe what God did to Job. Here is what the Lord is doing to each of us:

Jer 19:10  Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
Jer 19:11  And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
Jer 19:12  Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
Jer 19:13  And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.

This ‘burning of incense unto the host of heaven’ is the keeping and observing of the traditions of all the men about us in this world and in this present society. This is what the Lord says to us concerning our strong desire to be accepted by this world by keeping its traditions:

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32  What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

But we do ‘add to’ and ‘diminish from’ the Words of the Lord to make them conform to the idols of our hearts. So, the Lord sends Jeremiah back to the capital of Judah to reaffirm His impending judgments upon us and all our ‘towns’… all the idols of our hearts.

Jer 19:14  Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house; and said to all the people,
Jer 19:15  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

Again, it is simply undeniable that when the Lord says, ‘because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words”, “they” do so because:

Exo 7:3  And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

Joh 12:40  He [the Lord] hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

It is natural that we all react to this knowledge with the question: “Why have you made me thus?”

Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

We just naturally despise the Lord’s answer to this question:

Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction [our old man]:
Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy [our new man], which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24  Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Rom 9:25  As he saith also in Osee [Hosea], I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
Rom 9:26  And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
Rom 9:27  Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

Outwardly Israel is physical Israel. Inwardly ‘Israel’ is spiritual religion in opposition to Christ and His Truth. The doctrines of outward ‘Israel’ are “as the sand of the sea”, whereas the Truths of Christ are comparatively few. Truth stands firm in itself, whereas lies require more lies to bolster the original lies. That is why the curses of Deuteronomy 28 are almost four times more numerous than the blessings.

That chapter has 68 verses in it. The first 14 verses give us the blessings for obedience to the Lord. The remaining 54 verses give us the curses which come upon us for being disobedient to the Lord.

Rom 9:28  For he will finish the work, and cut  it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
Rom 9:29  And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
Rom 9:31  But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness [Physical Israel, “the son of the bondwoman” (Gal 4:25-26)].

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Rom 9:32  Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
Rom 9:33  As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

“Jerusalem above” signifies “the mind… of Christ” within “the children of the freewoman”.

Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Php 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

“The son of the bondwoman” is our own flesh and blood which “cannot inherit the kingdom of God”:

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

Our own old man, and the same carnal mind of others, will always hate and persecute our new man, “Christ in [us] the hope of glory”.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
Col 1:25  Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

That is our study for today, and these are our verses for our next study:

Jer 20:1  Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
Jer 20:2  Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.
Jer 20:3  And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib.
Jer 20:4  For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.
Jer 20:5  Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.
Jer 20:6  And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.
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.
Jer 20:10  For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
Jer 20:11  But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
Jer 20:12  But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.
Jer 20:13  Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
Jer 20:14  Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
Jer 20:15  Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.
Jer 20:16  And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide;
Jer 20:17  Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
Jer 20:18  Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Jer 18:1-12  The Vessel Made of Clay was Marred in the Hand of the Potter

[Study Aired September 19, 2021]

Jer 18:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2  Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jer 18:3  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made 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.
Jer 18:7  At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
Jer 18:8  If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
Jer 18:9  And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
Jer 18:10  If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
Jer 18:11  Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
Jer 18:12  And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

The last chapter contained the oft quoted ninth verse:

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Our study today reveals clearly why we have all been given a deceitful heart. As is always the case, the Lord makes us to know that we have nothing to do with what He is doing, other than doing the things He causes us to do. In our study today, Lord willing, He is going to cause us to understand that when we “Hear [His] words” we do so only because He “caused [us] to hear [His] words”.

Jer 18:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2  Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jer 18:3  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

“The Potter’s house” is the ‘house’ of the Master Potter. It is the Lord’s temple (1Co 3:16). The Master Potter makes no mistakes. As we just learned in our last study, “the first man Adam” was created on the sixth day, and the Lord deliberately made the first Adam of ‘clay’. Both the number ‘six’ and the composition of ‘clay’ cry out to all those who are “caused to hear” that we are incomplete and made of corruptible clay in the form of ‘corruptible… flesh and blood’, which was never intended to “inherit the kingdom of God”:

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

All the thousands of sermons by all the thousands of false prophets to the contrary will not make a creature which was formed on the sixth day anything more than a beast, a creature made of flesh and blood which can never inherit the kingdom of God. Repeatedly using the phrase “immortal soul” will not place that phrase anywhere in scripture. It simply is not there, but this is in scripture concerning what happens to us at the time of the resurrection and not before that time:

1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

As the rules of Hebrew grammar demonstrate, the process of creating mankind in His image is not yet complete:

Gen 1:27  So God created [Hebrew Qal stem… ‘is creating’] man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

A “very good” tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a “very good… crooked serpent”, and a “very good… vessel of clay” in the form of “corruptible… flesh and blood”, are not, and were never intended by the Creator to be “the new man which after God is [being] created in righteousness and true holiness”.

Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created [Greek: aorist tense… ‘is being created] in righteousness and true holiness.

This is what “the vessel that He made of clay” is designed to show us of ourselves in our present unfinished condition:

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19  For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath [Hebrew: ‘ruach’, spirit]; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [“the vessel of clay”] is vanity.

Sadly, for most nominal ‘Christians’ church doctrine will always trump scripture, and most ‘Christians’ will continue to believe that man was given an “immortal soul”, a phrase found nowhere in all of scripture because that doctrine is a lying spirit which has ‘gone out into the world to deceive many’:

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits [doctrines] whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

When we try that spirit which teaches us that the phrase “very good” means spiritually perfected, we discover that Hebrew and Greek tenses are completely ignored in most of our English translations so false church doctrines can continue to be foisted off on all those who have not yet been given “eyes that see nor ears that hear” (Mat 13:9-15):

Gen 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. [Hebrew reads ‘creates He them’, the Qal stem]

Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Mat 13:9  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

The two verbs in Genesis 1:31, the verbs ‘saw’ and ‘made’, are both in the Qal Stem, which equates to the Greek aorist tense. What this tells us is that the process of ‘seeing’ and ‘making’ is ongoing and unfinished. Six “is the number of mankind” (Rev 13:18) because mankind is unfinished, as his creation on the sixth day indicates. Mankind must “enter into His rest” to be completed, and Christ is our ‘rest’:

Mat 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Mat 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Heb 4:1  Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Heb 4:2  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Heb 4:3  For we which have believed do enter into rest [into Christ], as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:4  For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Heb 4:5  And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Heb 4:6  Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in [“Entered not” into Christ] because of unbelief:
Heb 4:7  Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Heb 4:8  For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest [Christ, our rest, our sabbath] to the people of God.
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief [in Christ].

Hebrews 4:1-11 is the completion of the process of the creation of mankind. No one is complete until he has entered into Christ and confesses that he can do nothing of himself:

Here are those two verses in Genesis 1 in a much more accurate translation:

Gen 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them. (CLV)

Gen 1:31 And seeing is the Elohim all that He had made [Same Qal stem as the verb ‘seeing’ and should read ‘is making’], and, behold, it is very good. And coming is it to be evening and coming to be morning, the sixth day. (CLV)

The Concordant version renders ‘seeing’ in the Qal stem, but it misses the fact that the phrase “had made” is also in the Qal stem and should have been translated as ‘all that He is making’. In other words, the creation is at this very moment an ongoing process which requires this “experience of evil” in this “vessel that He made of clay” before we can enter into Christ, “enter into His rest” on the seventh day, the day of completion and perfection, the day of rest from  our works:

Joh 15:4  Abide in me, [our rest, our sabbath] and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Notice that the Concordant translators who miss the Qal stem in translating ‘had made’ in Gen 1:31 catch the Qal stem in translating:

Jer 18:4 and marred is the vessel that he is making, as clay in the hand of the potter, and he has turned and he makes it another vessel, as it was right in the eyes of the potter to make. (CLV)

We should begin to get the message of the book of Job and all the rest of scripture. The message of all scripture is about two men – the old man and the new man. However, it is about how the old man must begin to die before the new man can begin to enter into Christ, our “sabbath”, our “rest”. When we are being brought into that rest, we begin to see and understand that even our “experience of evil” is of the Lord, and that we have no more to do with our sins than we have with our good works.

Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

That is right! If there is “evil in the city… the Lord hath done it” (Isa 45:7)

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.
Jer 18:7  At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;

“Clay… in The Potter’s hand” is as basic as the Lord’s work with mankind can be explained. The clay has no say at all about what the Potter will make of it. The hand of a puppeteer can be concealed, but the hand of a potter must be seen as He shapes the clay “after the counsel of His own will”. “As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in mine hand…” is not an endorsement of the lie of ‘free will’. Rather it is the exact opposite. “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it” is not an endorsement of free will. It is the exact opposite. To clarify this fact, and to make the Potter’s hand even more apparent, we are very plainly told:

Exo 4:21  And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

The Biblical definition of a ‘hardened heart’ is a heart which cannot obey the words of the Lord.

Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Does the Lord’s use of the word ‘if’ indicate that you and I have been given a will that is free from His influence?

Jer 18:8  If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
Jer 18:9  And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
Jer 18:10  If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

In our innate desire to be the captain of our own fate we latch on to verses like these and tell ourselves that these verses prove that we have the ability, through our own fabled ‘free will’, to change the Lord’s mind. We must never forget that ‘key to the kingdom’ which teaches us that Truth is never to be found in just one verse or one section of scripture, rather:

Psa 119:160  The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances  endureth for ever.

Therefore, it behooves us to read on, and come to see that even though the Lord offers us the opportunity to repent, He already knows that we will at first reject Him and His offer to accept our repentance. If anyone doubts that the Lord already knows what mankind will do just read the next couple of verses:

Jer 18:11  Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
Jer 18:12  And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

Does that sound as if the Lord has any doubt about what we will do? These two verses confirm the message of verse 4:

Jer 18:4  And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Yes, indeed, the Lord admonishes us to “return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good”, and with the same breath He tells us “Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you”, followed by a description of that “evil device” He has devised against our old man. That device is to prepare the heart of our old man to say, “There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.”

Where does the heart of our old man get such a thought:

Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

Then the Lord goes on to tell us plainly that His sovereignty extends to our own wicked man:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

When you and I, or anyone else, sin and do wickedly, why do we do so? If God is sovereign over all things, then He must inform us that it is He who facilitates the most wicked of all acts, including the death of His own Son, and that is exactly what He does. It simply cannot be made more clear:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28  For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

He even admits to being the “one lawgiver” which includes giving us “the law of sin… which is in [our] members”:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Whence comes this “sin that dwells within [our] members”?

Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

How did that happen? How did this “law of sin” come to be in our members? Let us “let God be true and every man a liar” and believe these words of God:

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

That is exactly what the Sovereign God is in the process of doing. He is in the process of destroying our old man, who by His design is first “marred in [His] hand”, and through that dissolution of our old man He is saving our new man, just as the worm of a caterpillar is dissolved and comes out of the death of a cocoon as a beautiful butterfly no longer bound to crawl on its belly. It can now mount up to the heavens on beautiful wings, confirming that:

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

What we are being told is that “the law of sin and death” is part and parcel an integral part of being made of the dust of the ground, being “the… marred… vessel made of clay… in the Potter’s hand”:

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

What we are being told is that the new vessel… “another vessel”, the Potter is making, is dominated by “another law” other than “the law of sin”. That new law, “the law of my mind”, in that new man is “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus”:

What is the meaning of the word ‘marred’? Exactly what is it about ‘the vessel of clay’ that makes it “marred” and unacceptable to the Potter?

Here is Strong’s definition of the Hebrew word translated as “marred”:

H7843
שָׁחַת
shâchath
shaw-khath’
A primitive root; to decay, that is, (causatively) ruin (literally or figuratively): – batter, cast off, corrupt (-er, thing), destroy (-er, -uction), lose, mar, perish, spill, spoiler, X utterly, waste (-r).

‘Shachath’ is the same word translated as ‘corrupt’ when it first appears in:

Gen 6:11  The earth also was corrupt [H7843: ‘shachath’] before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

It appears twice in the next verse:

Gen 6:12  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt [‘shachath’]; for all flesh had corrupted  [‘shachath’] his way upon the earth.

Notice how the translators have rendered this same word in the very next verse:

Gen 6:13  And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy [‘shachath’] them with the earth.

Here is how this word is variously translated in the King James Version:

H7843
שׁחת
shâchath
Total KJV Occurrences: 146
destroy, 68
Gen_6:13, Gen_6:17, Gen_9:11, Gen_9:15, Gen_18:28 (2), Gen_18:31-32 (2), Num_32:13-15 (4), Deu_4:31, Deu_9:26, Deu_10:10,
Deu_20:19-20 (2), Jos_22:33, Jdg_6:5, 1Sa_23:10, 1Sa_26:9, 1Sa_26:15, 2Sa_1:14,
2Sa_14:11, 2Sa_20:20, 2Sa_24:16,
2Ki_8:19, 2Ki_13:23, 2Ki_18:25 (2),
1Ch_21:15, 2Ch_12:7, 2Ch_12:12,
2Ch_21:7, 2Ch_25:16, 2Ch_35:21,
Psa_106:23, Isa_36:9-10 (3), Isa_51:13, Isa_65:8 (2),
Isa_65:25, Jer_5:10, Jer_6:5,
Jer_11:19, Jer_13:14, Jer_15:3,
Jer_15:6, Jer_36:29, Jer_48:18,
Jer_49:9, Jer_51:11, Jer_51:20,
Lam_2:8, Eze_5:16, Eze_9:8,
Eze_22:30, Eze_26:4, Eze_30:11,
Eze_43:3, Dan_9:24-26 (4), Hos_11:9, Mal_3:11
destroyed, 22
Gen_13:10, Gen_19:29, Jdg_6:4,
Jdg_20:21, Jdg_20:25, Jdg_20:35,
Jdg_20:42, 2Sa_11:1,
2Sa_24:16, 2Ki_19:12, 1Ch_21:15,
2Ch_24:23,
2Ch_34:11, 2Ch_36:19, Psa_78:38,
Psa_78:45, Isa_14:20, Isa_37:12,
Jer_12:10, Lam_2:5-6 (2), Hos_13:9
corrupt, 11
Gen_6:11-12 (2), Deu_4:16, Deu_4:25, Deu_31:29,
Psa_53:1 (2), Pro_25:26, Eze_20:44,
Eze_23:11, Mal_1:14
corrupted, 11
Gen_6:12, Exo_8:24, Exo_32:7,
Deu_9:12, Deu_32:5, Jdg_2:19,
Eze_16:47, Eze_28:17, Hos_9:9,
Mal_2:7-8 (2)
destroying, 5
1Ch_21:12, 1Ch_21:15, Jer_2:30,
Jer_51:1, Eze_20:17
mar, 4
Lev_19:27, Rth_4:6, 1Sa_6:5,
Jer_13:9
destroyer, 3
Pro_28:23-24 (2), Jer_4:7
marred, 3
Jer_13:7 (2), Jer_18:4, Nah_2:2
corrupters, 2
Isa_1:4, Jer_6:28
destroyeth, 2
Pro_6:32, Pro_11:9
spoilers, 2
1Sa_13:17, 1Sa_14:15
waster, 2
Pro_18:9, Isa_54:16
battered, 1
2Sa_20:15
cast, 1
Amo_1:11
corrupting, 1
Dan_11:17
corruptly, 1
2Ch_27:2
destroyers, 1
Jer_22:7
destroyest, 1
Jer_51:25
destruction, 1
2Ch_26:16
lose, 1
Pro_23:8
perish, 1
Exo_21:26
spilled, 1
Gen_38:9
wasted, 1
1Ch_20:1

This is the same word used back in chapter 13 in reference to the linen girdle which Jeremiah buried in the banks of the Euphrates River:

Jer 13:6  And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there.
Jer 13:7  Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred [‘shachath’], it was profitable for nothing.

The linen girdle was ‘ruined and destroyed’ because it was made of a corruptible composition. Destruction, corruption, and ruin are the thought behind this Hebrew word ‘shachath’.

Why would the Lord first make man of such a corruptible composition? If “the first man Adam”, ‘the vessel of clay’, (1Co 15:45) was marred (‘shachath’) in the Potter’s hand, then he was made of a corrupting composition which was deliberately designed to lead him into his own destruction “in the Potter’s hand”, just as the scriptures reveal:

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

All the great sermons to the contrary, “the first man Adam” was not spiritual first. Rather:

1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy [“The first man Adam… of the dust of the ground… the vessel that He made of clay…”], such are they also that are earthy [“flesh and blood… corruption”]: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; [Pray tell, why cannot flesh and blood inherit the kingdom of God?] …neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

What the Lord says must be “first” will be ‘first’. That which the Lord declares is “not first” will not be first. If we cannot accept those qualifying words, then we simply do not yet know Christ or His Father (Joh 17:3).

If we fail to see the order in which the Lord is completing and perfecting His creation, we can and we will miss the spiritual message in all those verses of scripture which qualify that order in which the Lord is working to bring about the salvation of all.

The previous chapter of Jeremiah, chapter 17, revealed to us that we are cursed with a deceitful heart which we should never, ever trust:

Jer 17:5  Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
Jer 17:6  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Jer 17:7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer 17:8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat [or “thief”] cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

Chapter 18 confirms that a “deceitful heart” is simply a natural heart which is “marred… in the hand of the Potter”, and that this “marred” corruptible composition is the device which the Lord has devised against the kingdom of our old man to destroy it.

All these words of God are simply the fire which tries and burns up the wood, hay, and stubble of the works of our old man. These words are the judgment which begins when our “first man Adam” begins to die and begins to be judged. It is all designed to take place “first”, and it is all integral to the salvation of all men. This is the sequence of events which the Lord desires, and what the Lord desires He is doing:

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.

1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13  Every man‘s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Heb 9:28  So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

The word ‘appointed’ is in the present tense. The judgment which begins after we begin to “die” is in the aorist tense, and is now on the house 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?

The works of our old man are being burned up yet we ourselves, our “new man… shall be saved”. Being given a deceitful heart (Jer 17:9), and being “marred in the hand of the Potter” (Jer 18:4) are just the necessary corruptible beginnings of the Lord’s process of salvation for “every man” (1Co 3:13-15).

That completes our study for today. These are our verses for our next study:

Jer 18:13  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
Jer 18:14  Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
Jer 18:15  Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
Jer 18:16  To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
Jer 18:17  I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
Jer 18:18  Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
Jer 18:19  Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
Jer 18:20  Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.
Jer 18:21  Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
Jer 18:22  Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
Jer 18:23  Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

Hi Mike,

Hope you are doing well, I’ve been trying to understand something and really could use your help.

In Daniel 2, we read of Daniel interpreting the king’s dream:

Dan 2:41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay
Dan 2:42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
Dan 2:43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

Now I understand Nebuchadnezzer is a type and shadow of our carnal old man, but why is his kingdom “divided” and what is this “mingling with the seed of men” that Daniel speaks about?

I searched around your site but didn’t see where you addressed these questions directly.

Thanks,​ Mike,​ for helping me with this.​ Wishing you well.

Your brother,

C​____​

Hi C____,

Thank you for your question. You ask:

In Daniel 2, we read of Daniel interpreting the king’s dream:

Dan 2:41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay
Dan 2:42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
Dan 2:43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

Now I understand Nebuchadnezzer is a type and shadow of our carnal old man, but why is his kingdom “divided” and what is this “mingling with the seed of men” that Daniel speaks about?” (End Quote)

The short answer to your question about iron being mixed with clay is that the iron, in this case, symbolizes spiritually the Word of God which will “break in pieces and subdue all things”, and the clay spiritually is the lies of mankind which are being mixed with the Truth of the Word of God by all the religions of this world, and abused by this world to subdue all men.  But the two do not mix and will not endure.

Dan 2:40  And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

Before we get into the spiritual significance of this dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, we must remember that the word of God, like the pillar of fire at the Red Sea, is light to the Lord’s people, and at the same time it is darkness to His enemies. That Pillar of fire is Christ and His words, which this world cannot receive or understand:

Exo 14:19  And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:
Exo 14:20  And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

In other words, the Word of God always has both a positive and a negative application. It is all positive to our new man, while at the same time, it is the death and destruction of our rebellious old man.

That principle applies to every part of this dream, including Nebuchadnezzar himself, as well as the ‘feet’, the ‘ten toes’ and the ‘iron’ and ‘clay’. Nebuchadnezzar begins as a type of our old man, but in the end, after spending seven years eating literal grass like an ox, he repents of his self-righteous pride, and then he typifies our new man who acknowledges that he is indeed nothing more than a beast:

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19  For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Dan 4:34  And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:
Dan 4:35  And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
Dan 4:36  At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellers and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.
Dan 4:37  Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.

“I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me” typifies our own resurrection from the dead which we are living now in “earnest” as a pledge of “the redemption of the purchased possession”, which is given to all who are blessed to have a part in the “wedding supper of the Lamb” (Rev 19 – also known as “the first resurrection”:

Rev 19:9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest [Greek: pledge, down payment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction and humiliation in chapter four typifies his and our own humiliation and the destruction of the kingdom of our old man, which is built upon spiritual “iron mixed with miry clay”.

Mankind, in and of Himself, “has no preeminence above a beast”. In other words, mankind in and of himself is nothing more than “miry clay”.

Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

His Creator has plans for mankind which He does not have for beasts, and our Creator died for us as part of that creation process as He continues to “make man in His image”. The Lord ceasing from His works typifies our ceasing from our own sinful works, as we are by His hand, being “conformed to the image of His Son”:

Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Spiritually, the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream symbolizes all who are in Adam. Physically and dispensationally the body parts below the head are not Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom, but are kingdoms which will come after his kingdom:

Dan 2:38  And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine [Nebuchadnezzar’s] hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
Dan 2:39  And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
Dan 2:40  And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

The kingdom that conquered the kingdom of Babylon was the Persian empire of Cyrus the great, and his kingdom was in turn conquered by the Greek empire of Alexander the great, whose kingdom was divided among his four generals, and eventually those kingdoms were overshadowed or conquered by the Roman empire, which would become the fourth world-ruling empire.

This “iron” Roman Empire, and the end time kingdom of “iron mixed with miry clay”, are the negative application of ‘iron’. Here is the positive application of “iron [which] breaks in pieces and subdues all things”:

Rev 19:11  And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
Rev 19:12  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
Rev 19:13  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
Rev 19:14  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
Rev 19:15  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

“The sword of His mouth” and the “rod of iron” are both types of “the word of His mouth” with which He will “break in pieces and subdue all things” to Himself:

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

Rev 19:20  And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Rev 19:21  And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

The “fire burning with brimstone” of “the lake of fire” is the same as “the sword… which… proceeds out of His mouth”, and both are His fiery words with which He will “rule the nations with a rod of iron”:

Psa 2:9  Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

Rev 19:15  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Deu 33:2  And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Clearly the Word of God is symbolized in scripture as both ‘iron’ and ‘fire’. In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream the symbolism of ‘iron’ is mixed with the symbolism of ‘miry clay’, and we are told:

 Dan 2:43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

You asked: “…what is this “mingling with the seed of men” that Daniel speaks about?” (End Quote). I have shown that the inward application is the mingling of the Words of God with the lies of mankind, so clearly demonstrated in the fact that so-called Christians the world over observe pagan holidays and call them Christian holidays in direct contradiction to all of these verses of scripture:

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

Yet leading Christian ministers will get on international television and tell those in their charge, “We know these days have pagan origins, but we have ‘Christianized’ them”. In other words, “We are going to follow the ways of the pagans and ‘do so unto the Lord [our] God’. We don’t care what the Lord says about how we should worship Him.”

These words of warning from the holy spirit in the New Testament are water off a duck’s back to the average so-called ‘Christian’:

Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

The pressures of society and family to conform to “the traditions of men” are far more feared by most Christians than are these words of God. The name of God is mixed with pagan doctrines of Santa Claus and the Ishtar bunny. That is about as clear a spiritual example of mixing spiritual iron with spiritual clay as one can have. It lasts just exactly as long as it is preordained to last, and then it will be destroyed by the ‘stone cut out of the mountain without hands’, just another symbol for Christ and His ‘iron… fiery’ Word.

Col 2:6  As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
Col 2:7  Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Col 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. The “Christ” Paul speaks of here did not “observe days, months, times or years” [Gal 4:10]:

Mat 12:1  At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
Mat 12:2  But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
Mat 12:3  But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
Mat 12:4  How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?
Mat 12:5  Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
Mat 12:6  But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
Mat 12:7  But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
Mat 12:8  For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

Joh 5:16  And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
Joh 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 
Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

Christ broke the most sacred day of the law of Moses, and that is the Christ Paul refers to when he tells us:

Col 2:6  As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

If the Lord gives us the strength to “so walk in Him”, then we, too, “shall be hated of all men”, because like Him we are far more concerned with being obedient to our Lord and His Father than we are to a society which observes pagan holidays and keeps the traditions of men in direct rebellion against Him and His ‘iron’ words which will “break in pieces and subdue” every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God:

Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Being “hated of all men for [Christ’s] name’s sake” is the destruction of the entire image of Daniel 2. It is the progressive death of our old man as the ‘stone cut out without hands’ gradually grows and becomes the kingdom of God within us, as it destroys all the nations within us which exalt themselves above the knowledge of God:

2Co 10:4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
2Co 10:6  And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

“The good seed [of the parable of the wheat and the tares] are the children of the kingdom” who speak the words of truth of the kingdom of God:

Mat 13:36  Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
Mat 13:37  He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

“The children of the wicked” are all the adherents to all the religions which exalt themselves above the knowledge of God.

The outward dispensational fulfillment of all these verses will be fulfilled in us only “when [our] obedience is fulfilled [and we have] endured to the end… being hated of all men [in] this present time.” Outwardly and physically “they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men” was being done by Nebuchadnezzar who, along with the Assyrians whom he led, were the pioneers in transplanting vast number of immigrant populations to destroy any sense of patriotism in those they conquered:

2Ki 17:23  Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
2Ki 17:24  And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.

Dan 2:43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, Israelite nor Gentile, male nor female, bond nor free, and there is certainly no ethnic nor color of skin differences. In Christ we can trust each other not to kill, commit adultery, nor steal from each other. However, it is foolish indeed to expect any of those virtues from “the seed of men, the seed of the wicked one”. In the same manner, it is foolish to “mingle… the seed of men”, and then expect them to just get along and love each other when Christ has not yet set up His kingdom within the hearts of every one of them.

I hope this has answered your question. If you still have a question, let me hear from you.

I am including the links to the two-part studies on the metal ‘iron’. I encourage you to read all the studies on all the metals of scripture. The positive and negative applications of all the metals, numbers, colors, and beasts have all been spiritually explained in great detail over the years. As you are given the time to do so, please check them all out.

Metals – Iron, Part 1

Spiritual Significance of Metals – Iron, Part 2

Your brother in Christ,

Mike

Psa 119:65 TETH. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word.
Psa 119:66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments.
Psa 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.
Psa 119:68 Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.
Psa 119:69 The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.
Psa 119:70 Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law.
Psa 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
Psa 119:72 The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.

Psa 119:73 JOD. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.
Psa 119:74 They that fear thee will be glad when they see me; because I have hoped in thy word.
Psa 119:75 I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.
Psa 119:76 Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant.
Psa 119:77 Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.
Psa 119:78 Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.
Psa 119:79 Let those that fear thee turn unto me, and those that have known thy testimonies.
Psa 119:80 Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed.

The last two letters we looked at were “zain” and “cheth” which, along with their accompanying verses, demonstrated how God causes His sanctuary where He abides (cheth – Joh 14:20) to be afflicted (Heb 12:6) and then quickened by His word which He sends to heal us (Act 14:22, Psa 107:20). The eighth is of the seven, and the new man cannot be formed without the complete experience of putting off our flesh, which is impossible without the word of God abiding richly within us.

Rev 17:11  And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Col 3:16  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 

Col 3:17  And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. 

Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. 

The idea of breaking and mending the church so we can have a closer relationship with our Father and Christ is an ongoing theme in the bible reminding us that His strength is made perfect through our weak flesh which learns obedience by the things we suffer (2Co 12:9-10). The intention of these inspired words of Paul “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me ” have the same intent in Psalm 107:31 which reads “Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!”. This verse is centered around a great tempest described at sea where God makes a way where there seems to be none (Isa 43:16) by bringing us to our wits’ end, causing us to trust in Him (by faith and through faith Heb_11:1-40) Who is our desired haven and Who identifies with our suffering in the flesh (8) (Rom 10:17, Mat 13:16, Eph 1:12, Psa 107:30, Heb 5:7-8).

The physical communion that occurred during Christ’s ministry in these verses (Mat 14:19-21, Mat 15:32-38) is a living parable that represents the breaking of bread which must occur in our lives (Heb 10:25) in order to be nourished or quickened by grace through faith (1Co 10:16, Eph 2:8, Joh 6:35, Joh 6:63). God’s power abides in us because we have been granted to sit at the feet of our Lord and break bread, and that thought was only symbolically being fulfilled in these verses: (“about five thousand men” Mat 14:19-21; “four thousand men, beside women and children” Mat 15:32-38). 

In today’s study we will look at the ninth and tenth letters of the Hebrew alphabet “teth” and “jod” and see how they correlate with their verses which explain for us how God uses His judgments in our earth to learn righteousness (Isa 26:9). That righteousness God gives us through Christ (Rev 19:8) is manifested through the church who are being judged today and learning to trust God in our flesh which is being given dominion over sin in this age so we can be one with our Father and Christ. The “jod” in the positive sense of the number 10 represents a right relationship with Christ in the flesh that cannot be obtained unless we go through the symbolic pillars in the temple which are comprised of four and five pillars that lead us to our one high priest, Jesus Christ, who is in the holiest place where we “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (2Ch 3:1, Exo 26:30, Exo 26:34-37, Rev 3:12, Heb 4:16). Coming to God through Christ is an ongoing event in the life of God’s children (Joh 6:44, Eph 3:10, Eph 2:18) as we learn how to “behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1Ti 3:15), and it is through every joint God supplies that we can be one bread and one spirit that make up “the pillar and ground of truth” (Eph 4:16, 1Co 10:17, Rom 12:5). The four and five pillars spoken of that are in the temple of God parallel and correlate with the approximate four and five thousand people that Christ fed in these verses – Mat 14:19-21, Mat 15:32-38.

The masses in Christ’s day were not being judged, just like today, because there was no spiritual stay of bread or water being given (Isa 3:1). They were being physically fed and physically healed, demonstrating what God’s elect will do for the rest of humanity during the time we reign with Christ on earth, and then, when the greater works than these are accomplished through Christ’s body, we will bring life to all of humanity through the death of the old man in the lake of fire by spiritually feeding (Joh 14:12) all those who will then be dragged to Christ in us (Joh 6:44). Those greater works Christ talked about in John 14:12 are not just appointed for those to whom we will minister in the lake of fire by sending His word to heal them, but especially unto the household of faith today who are being saved by the breaking of bread, the communion we share together in Christ today (Gal 6:10, 1Co 10:16).

Knowing who we are (1Co 3:16) and understanding that a shared judgment (9) is upon the body of Christ today in the flesh (1Pe 4:17, 1Pe 4:12, 1Co 12:26), which is feeding us spiritual bread (Num 14:9) is only part of the story. We are also being given to lay up store for the ages to come and to witness the strength of Christ, the power of God, who makes it possible for us to be more than conquerors through Christ, symbolized by the clusters of grapes Joshua and Caleb brought back from the land they spied out and declared that “we are well able to overcome it“.

Num 14:9  Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. 

Num 13:23  And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.

Num 13:30  And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. 

Psa 119:65 TETH. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word.

Everything is “according unto thy word” seeing “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (Joh 1:1-3), and God deals “well with thy servant” when we are given to believe that He has the words of eternal life. We become convinced that nothing can separate us from His love because of God’s spirit within us (Rom 8:38-39, Rom 8:9), and soon we realize there is nowhere else to go when God takes away our blinded eyes, where initially “the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (Joh 6:68, Joh 6:29, Joh 8:31, Psa 119:160, Joh 1:5). John the baptist typifies our flesh which bears witness of Christ when we know Him in the flesh. However, John was pointing to Christ and His Christ in the wilderness, those who have Christ abiding in them in the flesh (Col 1:27). “The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe”. Like John we must ‘lose our first head’ in order to be a true witness, and the least of us who have Christ as our head is greater than John because of our new head, Jesus Christ, who is being witnessed to the world today as our hope of glory within (Col 1:27). We are pointing to Christ within and John was pointing to Christ without (Luk 7:28, Col 1:18, Rom 8:9).

When God deals with us (“Thou hast dealt well with thy servant“) it is another way of saying He sanctifies us with His word (Joh 17:17), and it is through the sanctification process that we come to know God and His Son Jesus Christ, which knowledge is eternal life (Joh 17:3).

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 

Psa 119:66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments.

The context in these verses in James which talk about the symbolic twelve tribes of Israel, who represent God’s elect, gives us some foundational (12) ideas as to what must occur in our lives in order to be that solid foundation God is building, and of whom He says it is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom (Luk 12:32). We are brought to our wits’ end through much tribulation (Act 14:22) for the express purpose of learning “good judgment and knowledge” which is expounded upon in James 1:1-6. Without the “divers temptations”, without the “trying of your faith” that “worketh patience”, we would not be able to come to the point “that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing”. However, if we’re granted to believe and continue in that belief, which will be tried (1Pe 1:7), it will, in time, after you have suffered for a while “make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you“.

Jas 1:1  James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. [Deu 4:27, Mat 26:31, Luk 12:32]
Jas 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 
Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 
Jas 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 
Jas 1:5  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 
Jas 1:6  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 

1Ti 6:6  But godliness with contentment is great gain.[wanting nothing]

Jas 1:12  Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. [Rev 3:11]

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. 
1Pe 5:11 To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.