Jer 12:10-17  I Will Bring Every Man to His Heritage

[Study Aired July 4, 2021]

Jer 12:10  Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
Jer 12:11  They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.
Jer 12:12  The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.
Jer 12:13  They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
Jer 12:14  Thus saith the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.
Jer 12:15  And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
Jer 12:16  And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.
Jer 12:17  But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the LORD.

Let’s begin this study by including the last verse of our last study:

Jer 12:9  Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour [“my people”].

King Saul was the Lord’s anointed, His “heritage”. He was also the Lord’s rejected anointed. King Saul was anointed by Samuel, who was the same prophet who anointed King David to replace King Saul, the Lord’s ‘rejected anointed’ who feared and reverenced the people more than God:

1Sa 15:26  And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.

King Saul typifies our self-righteous anointed old man. He had done much of what the Lord had told him to do. He went to war against the people the Lord had sent him to destroy, and he had destroyed every man, woman and child except the king. He had been instructed to destroy everything that breathed but the people wanted to keep the best of the cattle and herds, and King Saul acquiesced to the desires of the people instead of insisting on being obedient to the invisible God. You and I do the same thing when we keep days, months, times and years to please our families and friends. Christ’s example of breaking the weekly sabbath and not keeping the annual holy days is not as influential upon us as is the pressure of appealing to the desires of our families and friends to fit in with society and ignore Christ’s example and the solemn warning of the apostle Paul:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

What are “the weak and beggarly elements [to which we] desire again to be in bondage?”

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.

Those are not my words. Those are the inspired words of the holy spirit. They are telling us that if we continue in our ‘weak in the faith… esteeming one day above another’ ways, the labor of the Lord in our lives will be “in vain”, as it was in the life of King Saul, the Lord’s “rejected… anointed”, who feared what the people thought of him more than what the invisible God thought of him. King Saul was willing to do “many wonderful works” in the name of the Lord, but he was not given to fear the Lord more than men. That was just asking too much of his weak faith.

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
Rom 14:2  For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
Rom 14:3  Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
Rom 14:4  Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
Rom 14:5  One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

“Let every man be persuaded in his own mind” is simply an admonition to “receive [and] bear with [the] weak in the faith” with the view of coming to be of “one mouth and one mind”, that being a mature mind which is not ‘weak in the faith’:

Rom 15:1  We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Rom 15:2  Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
Rom 15:3  For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
Rom 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Rom 15:5  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
Rom 15:6  That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 15:7  Wherefore receive ye one another[even “he that is weak in the faith”], as Christ also received us to the glory of God.

Christ received us while we were still keeping days, months, times and years, and we must do as He did. However, Christ did not fear His family or friends and did not become weak in the faith to please His family, friends, or the society of His day. He was very patient with his carnal disciples, but He rebuked them when they attempted to bring Him down to their weak level. He refused to become a “speckled bird” just to accommodate his “yet carnal… babes in Christ” disciples:

Mar 8:31  And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Mar 8:32  And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.
Mar 8:33  But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.
Mar 8:34  And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Mar 8:35  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
Mar 8:36  For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Mar 8:37  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Mar 8:38  Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Four times in four verses we are told that we are all “carnal babes in Christ… weak in the faith” before we are “strong in the faith”. A bird may be completely white with just one or two black spots, and it is still “a speckled bird”, a “carnal babe in Christ”, which is rejected by the Lord:

Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

2Pe 3:14  Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

Being “without spot” is the opposite of being the speckled bird of Jeremiah 12:9. This “speckled bird” is ‘speckled’ for the very reason that her prophets and pastors are not given to fear the Lord more than the Lord’s spiritually immature, carnal children.

This is why the Lord likens His people to “a speckled bird”:

Jer 12:10  Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
Jer 12:11  They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.

Here is the New Testament version of this statement here in Jeremiah 12:

Mat 26:56  But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.

1Ti 1:18  This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
1Ti 1:19  Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:20  Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

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

2Ti 2:14  Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
2Ti 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2Ti 2:16  But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
2Ti 2:17  And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 2:18  Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

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.

The name ‘Hymenaeus’ means “the god of weddings”. We have all forsaken our Lord in favor of being wed to “another Jesus” who wants his birthday kept on December 25^th. We have been “trodden underfoot” by pastors who do not “lay to heart” the fact that they are making us all spiritually “desolate” by pandering to the people just as King Saul did.

Hymenaeus and Alexander, Phygellus and Hermogenes, and Philetus and Diotrephes one and all wanted the preeminence among the people, and just as with King Saul, the people gave them that desired preeminence. So we see the church which Jesus and His apostles gave their lives for has forsaken them to follow after men who are willing to speak smooth deceits instead of the fiery words of Christ.

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:
Isa 30:11  Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

At first we all ignore the example of our Lord, and we refuse to give His church ‘[His] whole counsel’ and we “speak unto [them] smooth things”, the things they want to hear, and we encourage ourselves and the Lord’s people to do what we want to do rather than “declare unto [them] all the counsel of God”. That is what King Saul, the Lord’s rejected anointed did. That is the spirit of Hymenaeus, who wants to wed us to “another Jesus”:

Act 20:27  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Act 20:29  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Act 20:31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

“Another gospel” requires “another Jesus”, and Paul was dealing with this same adulterous spirit of Hymenaeus when writing to the churches of Galatia:

Gal 1:6  I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Gal 1:7  Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Gal 1:8  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Gal 1:9  As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

When we reject the Lord as our husband, we are automatically “accursed”, and we are being spiritually “spoiled” by the Lord’s adversaries who inadvertently become His “sword” by which He chastens and scourges us:

Jer 12:12  The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.
Jer 12:13  They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

It is the Lord Himself and His Word that raises the storms of our lives which drag us to Himself. These fiery trials are “His goodness [and] His wonderful works to the children of men [you and me]” which bring us to repentance.

Psa 107:20  He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Psa 107:21  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:22  And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Psa 107:23  They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
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!

Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

We simply do not come to repentance without first being brought to our “wits’ end”. That is the inward meaning of “the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.” “The land” is our physical body with all its Philistines and giants which mercilessly rule over and oppress us. Those oppressors are sent to us by the Lord Himself to show us what is in our ‘land’ and to burn it out of us.

“The sword of the Lord has both a positive and a negative application. In the positive sense, the Lord’s sword is “the Word of God:

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

While ‘the Word of God’ certainly helps us to try the spirits and discern false doctrines coming out of the mouths of false prophets in our midst, the primary meaning of “the Word of God… as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”, is that Christ and His Word help us to see what is within ourselves.

It is also at the Lord’s word that His ‘sword’ becomes wicked men whom He sends to chasten and scourge us:

Lev 26:25  And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

It is the Word of God which convicts us of our own hate-filled and vengeful thoughts and desires against our fellow man. We know that no man can do anything the Lord does not cause him to do. Yet when the Lord sends someone to show us how little we really believe that He is working all things after the counsel of His own will, that is exactly what we discover. So often we discover that we cannot yet “run with footmen” much less ‘men on horses or the swelling of Jordan’.

Psa 17:11  They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;
Psa 17:12  Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

“The wicked” who are the Lord’s sword, fail to realize that they also are merely a tool of the Lord who is “working all things… yea, even the wicked… after the counsel of His own will”:

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

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:

Inwardly we think that our hate-filled, vengeful rebellion against the Lord’s words is being blessed, and we think we are in His service when the truth is that the exact opposite is true:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

These words are the same refrain of the self-righteous whore of Revelation 18:

Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

This is the spirit which the Lord is in the process of burning out of His elect. As we read in Psalms 17, He uses “wicked men” as His sword to chasten and punish His elect. He always then punishes those wicked men for their own wickedness. Inwardly our “evil neighbors” are all the evil passions of our old man. Outwardly our evil neighbors are those whom the Lord uses to tempt us and to try our patience and demonstrate to us just how wicked our own old man really is. In either case, both inwardly and outwardly the enemies of Christ must be banished and destroyed:

Jer 12:14  Thus saith the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.

The Lord uses Babylon to chasten and punish us for our infidelity to Him and to His doctrines. Then He punishes Babylon, and as He punishes Babylon, He drags us out of her.

Jer 25:11  And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Jer 25:12  And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

Jer 29:10  For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

“Return to this place” is returning to our “first love”, whom we left when we were carried away by lying false doctrines into Babylon:

Rev 2:3  And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

It was the Lord Himself who placed us as captives in Babylon “for [our] good”:

Jer 24:1  The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
Jer 24:2  One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
Jer 24:3  Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
Jer 24:4  Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 24:5  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.

As the Lord’s elect, we are “predestinated” to that position with Him. We are His “firstfruits, [His] good figs]”. Both the good and bad figs are from the Lord’s fig tree. We are all “evil… figs” before we are dragged to the Lord and are made to become His “good figs”.

Joe 1:6  For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
Joe 1:7  He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

The basket of good figs is just God’s way of telling us that some few will be delivered from out of all the false doctrines of that rebellious and oppressive system which rules over us for a symbolic ‘seventy years’. We are all captives in Babylon until the Lord drags us out of her and her lies. All the contradictions in her doctrines are used of the Lord to bring us all to our wits’ end and make us cry out to the Lord for His mercy. The whole “experience of evil” (Ecc 1:13 CLV) works together for good for those who are given to love God and who are the called according to His purpose in this present time:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
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.

It is verses like these here in Jeremiah 12, as well as all the other prophecies of the Old Testament, which led the apostle Paul to understand the very Biblical doctrine of predestination.

Rom 8:30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

It has all been pre-determined and is “being worked after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11):

Jer 12:15  And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.

As the Lord’s predestined firstfruits, when we return to the Lord, we do so with a whole heart, and we bring forth “good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them”:

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The Greek word translated ‘workmanship’ is:

G4161
ποίημα
poiēma
poy’-ay-mah
From G4160; a product, that is, fabric (literally or figuratively): – thing that is made, workmanship.
Total KJV occurrences: 2

This Greek word is a noun, and it appears just twice in the New Testament. It means “thing that is made”. In other words, we are just what the Lord has made us to be. This noun ‘poiema’, G4161, is derived from its verb G4160, ‘poieo’. This word appears almost 576 times, and here is how Strong’s defines G4160:

G4160
ποιέω
poieō
poy-eh’-o
Apparently a prolonged form of an obsolete primary; to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct): – abide, + agree, appoint, X avenge, + band together, be, bear, + bewray, bring (forth), cast out, cause, commit, + content, continue, deal, + without any delay, (would) do (-ing), execute, exercise, fulfil, gain, give, have, hold, X journeying, keep, + lay wait, + lighten the ship, make, X mean, + none of these things move me, observe, ordain, perform, provide, + have purged, purpose, put, + raising up, X secure, shew, X shoot out, spend, take, tarry, + transgress the law, work, yield. Compare G4238.
Total KJV occurrences: 576

The most common English translation of this word is ‘do, did, and done’. The next most common is ‘made’, just like G4161. The point the holy spirit is making is that we are what the Lord makes us to be, and we do what He makes us to do. We are His making, and we are His doing, yes, even our sins:

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

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.

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?

After making us to ‘err from His ways and making us wicked for our day of evil’ then:

Jer 12:16  And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.
Jer 12:17  But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the LORD.

Under the law of Moses, Israel is here commanded ”to swear by [the Lord’s] name”. We know and appreciate the fact that our Great Reformer changed that commandment:

Mat 5:33  Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
Mat 5:34  But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:
Mat 5:35  Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
Mat 5:36  Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
Mat 5:37  But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Any time the word ‘if’ appears in scripture it is not there because God is wondering what might happen next. When the word ‘if’ appears as in “if they will diligently learn… [or] if they will not obey…” it is there just to let us know that God’s sovereignty does not negate the fact that we must “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling”:

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Our “fear and trembling” at the thought of disappointing our heavenly Father is as much a part of His sovereign work in us as the good fruit is which that fear produces. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” is simply telling us that we are never to take our election for granted. It is true that God does indeed know exactly what we will do tomorrow because He has already written it in our ‘book, even the days ordained for [us] when as yet there were none 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. (ASV)

God has a spiritual ‘book’, a day-by-day plan for each and every man who has ever lived. He has the good and the evil in the life of every man written in advance, for each day in each ‘book’ of every man who has or whoever will live:

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

Philippians 2:12 tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. However, the words “fear and trembling” do not suggest that the outcome is uncertain from God’s perspective. The word ‘if’ is never to be understood as being from God’s perspective. The very next verse in Philippians 2 gives us God’s perspective of why we must “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”, and why we must be spoken to with the word ‘if’:

Php 2:13  For [G1036: ‘gar’, because] it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

As demonstrated earlier, God makes us what we are, and He makes us do what we do. He works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, and it behooves us to get with His program “with fear and trembling”. That is the extent of the sovereignty of God. If we accept the Truth that God has written in His book every day of our lives, then we can possibly find our names in “the book of life”. If we think that we do anything of our own free will, then the beast still sits on the throne of Christ in our heart and in our mind, and our name is not in the book of life.

That is our study for today. We will begin with chapter 13 in our next study:

Jer 13:1  Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.
Jer 13:2  So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins.
Jer 13:3  And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying,
Jer 13:4  Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
Jer 13:5  So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
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, it was profitable for nothing.
Jer 13:8  Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 13:9  Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.
Jer 13:10  This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.
Jer 13:11  For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
Jer 13:12  Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word; Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
Jer 13:13  Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
Jer 13:14  And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.