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The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 14:1-12  I Will Consume Them by the Sword and by the Famine and by the Pestilence

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Jer 14:1-12  I Will Consume Them by the Sword and by the Famine and by the Pestilence

[Study Aired July 25, 2021]

Jer 14:1  The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.
Jer 14:2  Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
Jer 14:3  And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
Jer 14:4  Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.
Jer 14:5  Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
Jer 14:6  And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.
Jer 14:7  O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.
Jer 14:8  O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?
Jer 14:9  Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O LORD, art  in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.
Jer 14:10  Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
Jer 14:11  Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
Jer 14:12  When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

The first verse of this study identifies these as the Lord’s words, insuring the certainty of the message He has given Jeremiah to give to us:

Jer 14:1  The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.

“The[se] word[s] of the Lord…concerning the dearth” are as sure as the rising of the sun. At the time this word of the Lord came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth, it was a literal drought which would afflict all of Judah, all of His people. All these physical experiences of Israel are spiritual “types of us”:

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

This ‘dearth’ comes upon us because of our self-righteous thoughts which lead us to believe that we are the source of anything, good or evil, when The Truth is:

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.

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.

We just naturally serve ourselves as our own king, and this is the curse upon us while we are in that state of mind:

1Sa 8:18  And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.

The Lord has ordained that He will use our self-righteousness and our sins as the occasion He is seeking to trouble us and then to condemn and destroy the carnal-minded kingdom of our old man within our members:

Psa 50:15  And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt  glorify me.

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.

Our carnal mind is totally unaware of this Truth:

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is  enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Here is the Greek word translated ‘enmity’ along with its definition:

If we do not harbor deep-seated “hatred” toward the Lord and His ways, we will fear Him and be obedient to His words, and we will believe that we can do nothing but what He makes us “both to will and to do”:

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

We are not just naturally in possession of this knowledge, but we are just naturally in possession of the law of sin in our members and a mind that just naturally possesses deep hatred toward God and His commandments.

Obedience to God and His words is associated with that which is the exact opposite of a dearth:

Lev 26:3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
Lev 26:4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
Lev 26:5 And your threshing [wheat harvest] shall reach unto the vintage [grape harvest], and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
Lev 26:6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

“Rain in due season” is the exact opposite of a ‘dearth’, a drought. Here is the Hebrew word which is translated as ‘dearth’ in this first verse:

This Hebrew word appears only one other time in the Old Testament, and that one other time is in this same prophecy of Jeremiah:

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 cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought [H1226: ‘botstsoreth’, dearth], neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

It is we who as the Lord’s own chosen people have turned our backs on Him and have turned instead to the false doctrines of our own imaginations, and we must endure this dearth because this ‘dearth’ is integral to the destruction of our old man.

The Lord has ordained that the destruction of our own old man must come by ‘the sword’ and by famine [dearth] and by pestilence (vs 12).

Jer 14:2  Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
Jer 14:3  And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.

The phrase “black unto the ground” is simply an expression of extreme grief and mourning in scripture. Because of his self-righteous pride, the Lord took all of Job’s great riches away from him. Then he killed his seven sons and three daughters. Finally, the Lord afflicted Job with boils from head to toe. Here is how Job described the mourning he endured when the Lord was judging his self-righteousness by afflicting him in so many extreme ways:

Job 30:30  My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.
Job 30:31  My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

That is the necessary pain of the judgment of our doomed, rebellious, self-righteous, carnal-minded old man.

We simply do not have it in our flesh to deeply repent of our rebellious desire to please ourselves without first being judged by the Lord’s fiery words. The death of our old man as he is being consumed by the flaming sword which guards the way of the Tree of Life, brings extreme grief to our flesh and to the rebellious, self-righteous mind of our old man.

As Paul and all the prophets have made so clear, the burning out of the “wood, hay and stubble” that is our old man is common to all men, but this process of being judged and having this stubbornness burned out of us “begins… at the house of God”:

1Co 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
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.
1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

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?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

It is these ‘fiery words’ which ‘chaps’ our ground, meaning the heart and mind of our rebellious carnal mind:

Jer 14:4  Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.

Now let’s see what this word ‘chapt’ means in this verse. Here is the Hebrew word which is translated as ‘’chapt”:

Of the 48 entries for this word, look at how it is most commonly translated:

This is what Job, a type of the Lord’s elect, had to endure to begin the dying process of his pride and self-righteousness:

Job 7:13  When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;
Job 7:14  Then thou scarest [H2865: ‘chathath’, dismayed, discouraged, terrorized] me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:

This chastening is brought upon us by restraining His ‘rain’ from our ‘land’ and bringing a spiritual ‘drought’ upon us. No part of our life is unaffected by this drought:

Jer 14:5  Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
Jer 14:6  And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.

Every farmer knows that a ‘hind’, a female deer, and a ‘wild ass’ are capable of surviving on much less provender or foliage than domestic cattle. What we are being told is that even these hearty wild beasts are being decimated within us by the Lord’s ‘chastening and scourging’ of our pride and self-righteousness.

There is no way to avoid being dragged to see what we are, and it is a most miserable experience because we simply cannot believe we are that wicked. Remember what the Lord told us earlier in this prophecy:

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

Our ‘iniquity’ is our “own [self-]righteousness”:

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 [Trusting in our own righteousness].

Taking credit for anything, our righteousness or our sins, is the act of “scattering [our] ways to strangers” because our old man is definitely a stranger to Christ.

If we are blessed to do so, we will plead with the Lord:

Jer 14:7  O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.

“Do thou it for thy name’s sake” signifies that we realize that we must first suffer this dearth “for His name’s sake” because, through our hypocritical self-righteousness, we have brought a reproach upon His name:

Rom 2:21  Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
Rom 2:22  Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
Rom 2:23  Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
Rom 2:24  For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.

If we are “bound to the altar with cords” then the Lord will convict us of our self-righteous hypocrisy and we will, even as we struggle, cry out to Him:

Jer 14:8  O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?
Jer 14:9  Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O LORD  art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.

Oh yes, the Lord is more than able to save us. Indeed, that is exactly what He is in the process of doing “for [His] name’s sake”.

Psa 50:15  And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

It takes His chastening grace for us to “forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts”. It takes all seven plagues to bring us “to [ourselves]”. The seven last plagues culminate in “an earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth”, and that is what is required to get our attention. It also requires a drought, a “dearth”, a famine of the Word of God in our lives to bring us to the point of seeing just how sinful this clay vessel is and how badly we need to be given dominion over it.

Amo 8:11  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

Luk 15:14  And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
Luk 15:15  And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
Luk 15:16  And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
Luk 15:17  And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

Rev 16:17  And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18  And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

I well remember commenting to a friend many years ago, shortly after coming out of the Worldwide Church Of God, that I felt as if I was on a spiritual plateau, going nowhere. What I called a ‘plateau’ was, in reality, “a famine… of the hearing the words of the Lord”. From that point the Lord “made me to err from his ways and hardened my heart from His fear, and in His time, He brought me to my wits’ end.

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.

Our heavenly Father is a loving Father, but His love in no way conflicts with His justice.  Being a God of love necessitates being a just God, and that is why we are told:

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

Even as we are being brought to our wits’ end and we are being chastened, it comes to us because we must all reap double what we have sown while we were in Babylon. However, the reward of judgment in this present time is more than worth the shame and suffering of that judgment:

Isa 61:7  For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.

Gal 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Gal 6:8  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

To those who do not know the mind of Christ, these words sound as if they are telling us that all we have to do is to choose to sow to the spirit and resist the temptation to sow to our flesh. That is the great lie of the great false doctrine of ‘free moral agency’. That false doctrine makes a lie of these words of Truth:

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

That is the message of scripture from Genesis to Revelation. It is God who ‘is working all things 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:

We are turned away from our own Husband when we seek to impose our will upon Him. When we attempt to impose our will upon our Lord, He refers to this as ‘loving to wander’, and like Cain we will not be accepted. Rather the Lord will “remember our iniquity and visit our sins… for our own good”.

Jer 14:10  Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
Jer 14:11  Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
Jer 14:12  When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

It is the Lord’s own Word, ‘His sword’, which has already pronounced judgment upon us through a famine of His Word, and by pestilence, which typifies all the “diseases of Egypt”:

Exo 15:26  And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

The “diseases of Egypt” typify all the false doctrines afflicting the kingdom of Babylon and the kingdom of our old man who has been under the rule of this great harlot for so long. We turned our back on the Lord and His Word, and as the Corinthian fornicator, who typifies every one of us when we ‘lose our first love’, the Lord also turns His back on us and does not hear our prayers or the prayers of others who may be praying for us.

We must learn to be obedient to these words:

1Co 5:1  It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife [the church, Act 20:30].
1Co 5:2  And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
1Co 5:3  For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
1Co 5:4  In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5  To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1Co 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
1Co 5:7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

As counterintuitive as it is to our flesh, its own destruction is the best thing any of us will ever come to know. “The destruction of the flesh” is the Lord’s goal for every man because, all false doctrines to the contrary, this is the Truth:

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

In this same chapter we are also told:

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.

Christ made clear there is no such thing as “a spiritual body of eternal flesh”:

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Yes, indeed, a resurrected spiritual body can appear as “flesh and bone”, but that is not its composition:

Luk 24:39  Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

This event was done because of the lack of faith by the disciples. When Christ was finished making His point that He was indeed resurrected from the dead, He then led them out of Jerusalem “as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them…”

Luk 24:51  And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

When we “present our bodies a living sacrifice” (Rom 12:1), “die daily” (1Co 15:31), and we begin to be “crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20), it is at that point that we are beginning to be judged, and we are beginning to enter into His rest (Heb 4:1-4).

Until we are given spiritual eyes which are capable of ‘seeing’ that neither our own works, nor the works of others, are really our own works or their own works, we are still spiritually blind, and we are turning our backs on our spiritual husband. We are one and all “made to err from [His] ways, and our hearts are hardened from [His] fear” (Isa 63:17). Indeed, we are to “judge those that are within”, but we are never to judge those that are outward in this present time:

1Co 5:9  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
1Co 5:10  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
1Co 5:11  But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
1Co 5:12  For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
1Co 5:13  But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

These prophecies all concern that which is “within”, be it within me or within the body of Christ. Even as we “judge them that are within”, we must never attempt to force feed “strong meat” to a weak brother who as yet is capable of eating only herbs:

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 [weak in the faith] esteemeth one day above another: another [“We… that are strong”, Rom 15:1] esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind [“Bear with… him that is weak in the faith”].
Rom 14:6  He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

It is iniquity and self-righteousness when we attempt to make a weak brother eat our strong meat. Judging them that are within has to do with overt rebellion as King Saul rebelled against the very plain words of the Lord. “Do not ye judge them that are within” refers to overt fornication. It has no application to a weak brother who simply has not yet come to see the necessity of going on to perfection. He is grateful for the herbs and the milk of the Word which he has been given. He is a “carnal… babe in Christ” who is not yet capable of digesting the “strong meat” of the Word:

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?

Paul is admonishing us against factionalizing Christ, but he is not casting out the “carnal… babes”, rather he is bearing with them in hopes of bringing them to maturity.

Attempting to admonish anyone who is not “within” the body of Christ is not even under consideration in any scripture. It is the Lord who is ruling in the kingdoms of this world, and we must never make the mistake of attempting to “make straight that which He has made crooked”. We must be vigilant never to attempt to make strong that which the Lord has made “weak in the faith”. The Lord will strengthen both the strong and the weak, and He will do so on His own schedule.

Ecc 7:13  Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?

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.

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye [“We… that are strong” (Rom 15:1)], but not to doubtful disputations.

Let us gently admonish “him that is weak in the faith”, and Paul did in 1st Corinthians 3:1-4 and as he does here in:

Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk [“eats herbs”] is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

It is “strong meat” to realize that these words:

Jer 14:11  Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
Jer 14:12  When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

These words are addressed to you and me. This “the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord”:

1Co 5:5  To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

If the Lord had not turned us over to Satan for the destruction of our flesh, if He had not refused to hear our prayers and had not consumed us by the sword and by famine and by pestilence, then we would never have been brought to our wits’ end and made to cry out to our heavenly Father to deliver us from our own destructive ways.

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. [Our “punishment”]
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!

This is what the Lord is doing, and we are blessed to know Him and to be given His mind:

Amo 3:1  Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
Amo 3:2  You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

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

The punishment, the chastening and scourging of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us:

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.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

This world doesn’t know it, but they are all waiting for the Lord to reveal to them those who are His “very elect”. Those elect will be the saviors of this world:

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

That is our study for today. I pray the Lord will give us all to wait on Him to save both us and this world. We are growing at His pace and on His schedule, and the same is true for all the rest of this world.

Here are our verses for next week:

Jer 14:13  Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.
Jer 14:14  Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
Jer 14:15  Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
Jer 14:16  And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.
Jer 14:17  Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.
Jer 14:18  If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.
Jer 14:19  Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!
Jer 14:20  We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.
Jer 14:21  Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.
Jer 14:22  Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.

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