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The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 10:14-25 It is not in Man That Walks to Direct His Steps

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Jer 10:14-25  It Is Not in Man That Walks to Direct His Steps

[Study Aired June 6, 2021]

Jer 10:14  Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
Jer 10:15  They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Jer 10:16  The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.
Jer 10:17  Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.
Jer 10:18  For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.
Jer 10:19  Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.
Jer 10:20  My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
Jer 10:21  For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
Jer 10:22  Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.
Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Jer 10:24  O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
Jer 10:25  Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

The title of this study is taken from the words of verse 23. We will come to see just how revolutionary it is to tell mankind that his will is not really his will. Such a doctrine was extremely unpopular both then and now. First we will continue where we left off with the Lord proclaiming the Truth of verse 23 in these words from our last study:

Jer 10:10  But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
Jer 10:11  Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
Jer 10:12  He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
Jer 10:13  When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

The Lord said all that just to contrast Himself with who we are as “corruptible flesh and blood” (1Co 15:50).

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

So, we continue to learn about the judgment of the Lord upon the corruptible kingdom of our old man:

Jer 10:14  Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
Jer 10:15  They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

I was surprised to learn that the word translated as “brutish” here is most often translated as ‘burn’, ‘kindled’ or ‘put away’.

Here are the various ways this Hebrew word is translated in the King James Version of the scriptures:

Notice that all the verses listed for the two words ‘put’ and ‘away’ are all the same verses with a couple of exceptions. That is because they are all two English words being translated from one Hebrew word, in this case the Hebrew word ‘ba’ar’. In the context of this statement, what we are being told is, “Every man [has put away the Lord] in his knowledge.”  The positive application is to “put evil away from the midst of thee”:

Deu 13:5  And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn  you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

The word ‘evil’ is translated from the Hebrew word ‘rah’ and the words ‘put’ and ‘away’ are translated from the one Hebrew word ‘ba’ar’. That phrase appears over ten times. The most common translation for this Hebrew word ‘baar’ is ‘burn’ or ‘burned’, as the burning of wood. This Hebrew word appears three times here in Jeremiah 10. It first appeared in verse 8 of this chapter:

Jer 10:7  Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.
Jer 10:8  But they are altogether brutish [H1197: ‘ba’ar’] and foolish: the stock [Hebrew: ‛êts, wood] is a doctrine of vanities.

Lev 6:12  And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn [H1197 ‘ba’ar’] wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings.

The offering of Christ is burned upon the ‘wood’ of our corruptible flesh, which the Lord is in the process of ‘putting away’. In the negative context of this study, what we are being told is that “every man [has put away the Lord] in his knowledge”.

Physical idols are “falsehoods”. “Every founders… molten image” typifies every false prophet and his false doctrines. As we have established, physical idols in the Old Testament typify spiritual “idols of the heart” (Eze 14:1-9) which are false, lying doctrines of men which come between ourselves and Christ as “the stumbling block of [our] iniquity” until we are dragged out of ‘Babylon the great’ by the holy spirit:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me  [G1670: ‘helkuo’, ‘drag’ against one’s will (Rom 7:15: Rom 9:16)] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,  Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

There is a great honor being bestowed upon every man who is being dragged out of Babylon and into “Jerusalem above, the mother of us all” (Gal 4:26). Jeremiah informs us of the blessings of that honor:

Jer 10:16  The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.

Our “portion” or inheritance is in the Lord. He alone “is the former of all things”. We are His inheritance, and He is our inheritance, our ‘portion’:

Deu 32:9  For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

The statement, “Israel is the rod of His inheritance” is the Old Testament foundation for these New Testament revelations:

Eph 1:17  That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Eph 1:19  And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

What a wonderful revelation! His inheritance is “in [us]”, and we are also informed that we have obtained “an inheritance… in [Him]”:

Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
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:

Our inheritance is in Him, and it is all being done “after the counsel of His own will”, but it entails the judgment and the daily dying of our old man before we can receive our inheritance in Him:

Jer 10:17  Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.
Jer 10:18  For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.

2nd Samuel 22 and Psalms 18 make clear to whom “the fortress” refers. It refers to the Lord’s people, you and me, as the Lord’s wayward, rebellious people:

2Sa 22:2  And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;

Psa 18:2  The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

Like all of us, King David lost his first love and had to be judged and chastened and scourged to be brought back to the Lord with a whole heart as Jeremiah confirms:

Jer 10:19  Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.

What exactly is it that we must bear? It is our own judgment which is even now come upon the house, the “tabernacle” of God (1Pe 4:17):

Jer 10:20  My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

The “great whore” of Revelation 17 and 18 is the Lord’s own house. This great harlot is the seven churches of Asia who “all forsook” the apostle Paul and whose sins are exposed in Revelation two and three:

2Ti 1:15  This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

[Here is the link to the spiritual significance of the number seven:  The Number Seven]

“All they which are in Asia” would include “the seven churches of Asia” (Rev 2:1). ‘Seven’ indicates that the apostasy of the Lord’s wife was already complete when Paul penned 2nd Timothy. The apostate, Diotrephes was so well established before the death of the apostle John that he was able to cast the Lord’s true followers out of the very church established by the apostles of our Lord:

3Jn 1:9  I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
3Jn 1:10  Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.

This complete and total apostasy is a theme that runs throughout the prophecies of both Isaiah and Jeremiah:

Jer 10:21  For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.

This is the third time in this one chapter where the word ‘brutish’ is used. It may appear to be speaking of some bad pastors, but you and I were ‘bad pastors’ when we once subscribed to all the false doctrines of the great whore.

“The pastors” are the leaders of the Lord’s people. This situation is prophesied of in Isaiah 3:1:

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

The ‘brutish pastors’ do not believe that “the Lord… hath taken away from [His people] the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water” because they are the very Nicolaitan leaders who constitute these “seven women” of the first verse of the next chapter of Isaiah:

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women [“The seven churches of Asia… all they which are in Asia”] shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

Any woman who does not want her husband’s food or His clothing is not a faithful wife, and the Lord will not be party to such an arrangement. His definition of His love is to “chasten us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts” and to avenge Himself of our rebellious disrespect. He accomplishes this through wicked and evil men:

Jer 10:22  Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.

The Hebrew word translated as ‘bruit’ is ‘shemuah’, and this is how it is translated elsewhere in the Old Testament:

It obviously means “rumor, tidings, report, news” and is speaking of  the impending chastening coming upon us.

This is a repetition of what Jeremiah said in chapter 9:

Jer 9:11  And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
Jer 9:12  Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?
Jer 9:13  And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;

When we turn our backs on our Lord and receive the doctrines of the great whore, we are actually receiving the doctrines of the great red dragon:

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat [Greek: ‘thronos’ throne], and great authority.

As the natural wild beasts we all are by nature, we gladly receive the doctrines of the dragon, and it is those doctrines which become his ‘den’, his dwelling place within us.

This is the prophesied event that would come upon the Lord’s own people when they turn their backs on their own spiritual husband:

Deu 32:34  Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
Deu 32:35  To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
Deu 32:36  For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
Deu 32:37  And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,

The book of Job demonstrates that Satan is nothing more than the Lord’s “hand” (Job 1:11-12 and 2:5-6). That being so, the Sabeans and Chaldeans were the Lord’s own sword sent by Satan, as the Lord’s hand, to try Job and reveal to Job just how self-righteous he was (Job 1:15-17 and Job 27:5-6). King David was familiar with these verses of Job and made this statement:

Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
Psa 17:14  From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

“The wicked” are the Lord’s sword and His hand which He uses to bring trials upon His elect in this present time to humble and purify us in preparation for His service as His “saviors” of all the rest of mankind. It will be ‘through our mercy that all others will receive mercy’:

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.

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Our next verse gives the lie to the false doctrine of free will and because the Lord has given the brutish pastors eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear, He has also blinded them from being able to see or hear this fact:

Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Jeremiah had the books of Moses, Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Isaiah to read and meditate upon. Those books all proclaim the total sovereignty of God and the fact that mankind is mere clay in the Lord’s hand, as Jeremiah clearly states in:

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.

The doctrine of the total sovereignty of God is foundational to every book of scripture. All scripture teaches that God has made all things for Himself and that He is in the process of humbling all men intending from before the beginning of the world, to drag all men to Himself.

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

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: ‘helkuo’, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
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:

It is because the Lord has given us an experience of evil to humble us by it that we are made to cry out to Him:

Jer 10:24  O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

“With judgment [and] not in [His] anger” is how the Lord always expresses His anger and His wrath, because even His wrath and His anger are “created for Himself” and for the plan and purpose He is executing. That includes the most egregious sin of all time, the death of His Son:

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

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.
Act 4:29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,

Jeremiah was made to know that the Lord’s anger and His wrath are never out of control, but are always measured to accomplish the changes He is working in His creatures. It bears repeating what we were just told:

Jer 10:19 Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.

These words reveal that the Lord’s wrath is always measured and is always for our good, and it is never out of His control. This verse also applies to that wrath which we are told “fills up the wrath of God”:

Rev 15:1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

Filling up these plagues is the entrance into the temple of God. Filling up these “seven last plagues” in our own lives is passing through the fiery sword which guards the way of the Tree of Life, and we will never know life eternal without passing through the ‘fire’ of that “fiery sword” which is the Word of God.

Enduring the fiery experience of the seven last plagues is called “the patience of the saints [who] keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Rev 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

The blessing of God is only on those who read, hear, and keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book” including chapters 14-16; the seven last plagues:

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
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.

Rev 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

“Truly this is a grief and [we] must bear it” (Jer 10:19)

The Lord drags us to Himself by bringing us low through great trials which cause the most stubborn carnal mind to ask, “Lord, what would you have me do?” Saul of Tarsus, who by the Lord’s chastening grace came to be the apostle Paul, is a perfect example of just how persuasive the Lord can be and is:

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
Act 9:2  And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
Act 9:3  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
Act 9:4  And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 9:5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Act 9:6  And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

Just like Joseph’s ten brothers who wanted him dead, but instead ended up bowing down to Joseph, Saul of Tarsus was given a similar experience of bowing down to the very man he was persecuting.

What neither Saul of Tarsus nor Jeremiah understood at that time was that physical Israel was merely a type of spiritual Israel. Paul put it like this in:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in thespirit, and  not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Christ was the first to reveal that physical Israel was just a type and a shadow of the true “Israel of God”.

Gal 6:15  Certainly, it doesn’t matter whether a person is circumcised or not. Rather, what matters is being a new creation.
Gal 6:16  Peace and mercy will come to rest on all those who conform to this principle. They are the Israel of God.

Bringing that revelation to His own people almost cost Christ His life at His very first recorded message to the people of His own hometown:

Luk 4:16  And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Luk 4:17  And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luk 4:20  And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
Luk 4:21  And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Luk 4:22  And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
Luk 4:23  And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
Luk 4:24  And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
Luk 4:25  But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
Luk 4:26  But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
Luk 4:27  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
Luk 4:28  And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
Luk 4:29  And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
Luk 4:30  But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

It is blasphemous to a physical Jew to tell him that God is as much a God of the Gentiles as He is of the Jews. All religious Jews believe only the letter of these words:

Deu 7:6  For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

Here are the first two verses of Deuteronomy 7:

Deu 7:1  When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
Deu 7:2  And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

When Moses wrote those words at that time, they had nothing more than an outward letter for letter meaning, but the holy spirit reveals in the New Testament that “the letter kills, but the spirit gives life”:

2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
2Co 3:7  But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2Co 3:8  How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
2Co 3:9  For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
2Co 3:10  For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

Christ tells us that His words are not to be understood letter for letter, but rather His words are spirit and must therefore be understood spiritually:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh [the letter] profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

This statement by Christ is the basis for Paul’s statement, ”Not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (2Co 3:6).

Christ was prophesied to be ‘like Moses’:

Deu 18:18  I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

“Like unto thee” means that Christ would be a reformer as Moses was. It was through Moses that tabernacle worship with its priesthood and attendant daily offerings was introduced. Christ also introduced “the time of reformation”:

Heb 9:10  Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

Reformers always face great resistance to their reforms. That is why both Moses and Christ were first rejected by the Lord’s own people. That is why the Lord’s own people first rejected hearing His voice:

Exo 14:10  And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.
Exo 14:11  And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Exo 14:12  Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

Just a few weeks after the Lord used Moses to lead Israel through the Red Sea, the Lord attempted to speak directly to the people, but He was again rejected with these words:

Exo 20:18  And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
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 smoking mountain typifies our physical, carnal life of rebellion against our Lord. The thundering, lightnings, and trumpets all typify the judgments of the Lord against our ‘mountain’, and we simply cannot at first appreciate what the Lord is doing. Only Moses, typifying Christ in us, can approach the smoking, burning, dying ‘mountain’.

So, the revelation of “the things of the spirit” and the fact that all of this happened to them and it is written for our admonition”, the admonition of physical Gentiles like Naaman the Syrian and the widow of Serepta, was not revealed to the physical nation of Israel at that time.

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [Greek: tupos, types of us]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

As we just read, the revelation that “he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly” was rejected by the nation of Israel when Christ revealed it to the people of His hometown of Nazareth. He and His message of “the things of the spirit” were so unpopular with the people of His hometown of Nazareth that they attempted to murder Him for even suggesting that the gospel would go to the Gentiles.

1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

We are all just as guilty of first rejecting our Lord as were the people of Nazareth. So it is by the Lord’s design that “every man’s works shall be tried by fire”, and the fire will try every man’s works of what sort it is”:

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.

Paul is addressing these words to what the people of Nazareth would consider to be heathen Corinthians, but the Truth of Christ’s reformation is:

Gal 3:29  And if ye be Christ’s, then  are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

If we have been baptized into Christ, we are Abraham’s seed, because Abraham himself was but a type of the true “father of the faithful”. Just as Christ is “the true bread from heaven” He is also ‘the true Father of the faithful’. It is our own rebellious “old man” and any others who are not “in Christ” who are now counted as spiritual heathens.

That is the spiritual application of the last verse of this chapter:

Jer 10:25  Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

The Lord’s “fury” and His wrath are not just for the purpose of venting His anger with our sins. Whether it is in “this present time” or at the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death, the Lord’s wrath is His judgment upon the rebellious, carnal kingdom of our old man, and this is what His judgments produce within “every man”:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

This is where we are. We are “in the way of [His] judgments… waiting for His judgments to burn away all the “wood, hay, and stubble” within the kingdom of our old man and establish Christ as our new King. “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God…”:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

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?

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

Jer 11:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 11:2  Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
Jer 11:3  And say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant,
Jer 11:4  Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:
Jer 11:5  That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.
Jer 11:6  Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.
Jer 11:7  For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.
Jer 11:8  Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.
Jer 11:9  And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Jer 11:10  They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.
Jer 11:11  Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.
Jer 11:12. Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

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