Jer 15:10-21  I Will Cause The Enemy to Entreat Thee Well in the Time of Evil and in the Time of Affliction…

[Study Aired August 15, 2021]

Jer 15:10  Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.
Jer 15:11  The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
Jer 15:12  Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?
Jer 15:13  Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.
Jer 15:14  And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.
Jer 15:15  O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.
Jer 15:16  Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
Jer 15:17  I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.
Jer 15:18  Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
Jer 15:19  Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.
Jer 15:20  And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
Jer 15:21  And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.

As we study the words of the prophets, we must keep in mind that “these things happened to them, [but] they were written for our admonition [because it is we] upon whom the ends of the ages have come”:

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

Jeremiah typifies the Lord’s elect who are “born again” of “Jerusalem above, the mother of us all” (Gal 4:26). It is this ‘mother’ to whom he refers when he says:

Jer 15:10  Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.

The ‘mother’ whose ‘son’ is “a man of strife and a man of contention… cursed [by every] man” is our new mother, spiritual “New Jerusalem”.

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children [The self-righteous “great whore” of Rev 17-18].
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

We must first be born of a harlot before we can be “born again [of] Jerusalem which is above…”

Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Our first ‘mother’ is a harlot whom the Lord is in the process of destroying. The Lord had the prophet Hosea marry a harlot and bear children by that harlot just to tell us that our first spiritual mother is a spiritual whore, who is not faithful to Christ and His doctrine.

Hos 1:2  The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.
Hos 1:3  So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
Hos 1:4  And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
Hos 1:5  And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

“The bow of Israel” here is Israel’s weapon for her defense, but our rejected ‘Israel’s bow is her own rebellious self-righteousness, and Jeremiah will mention later in our study what the Lord will do to Israel for her rebellion against Him.

Jeremiah’s complaint to his ‘mother’ is exactly what Christ tells us is the lot of all who are faithful to Him and to His doctrine:

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

“Jerusalem above” is our new “mother” who births us again for the very purpose of being hated of all men for Christ’s name’s sake, and for being obedient to Him and to His doctrine:

Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

As children of “Jerusalem above” we must expect to be “hated of all men”. Yet as this study will reveal, the fact remains that God’s elect really are “the apple of His eye”, and it is not advisable for our old man to touch the Lord’s anointed to do them harm. King David acknowledged this solemn Truth even while his own life was being threatened by the Lord’s rejected anointed, King Saul:

1Sa 24:1  And it came to pass, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.
1Sa 24:2  Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats.
1Sa 24:3  And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet: and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave.
1Sa 24:4  And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the LORD said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily.
1Sa 24:5  And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.
1Sa 24:6  And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.
1Sa 24:7  So David stayed his servants with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way.
1Sa 24:10  Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered thee to day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee: but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the LORD’S anointed.

David, for our admonition, was given a second opportunity to disobey the Lord and kill the Lord’s rejected anointed, and again he feared God more than he feared his own men who he reminded:

1Sa 26:11  The LORD forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’S anointed: but, I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his bolster, and the cruse of water, and let us go.
1Sa 26:23  The LORD render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness: for the LORD delivered thee into my hand to day, but I would not stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’S anointed.

Notice that the Lord’s elect acknowledge that “the man of sin” is ordained and “anointed” of the Lord. As such there is no animus proceeding from the Lord’s accepted anointed towards the Lord’s rejected anointed. Our flesh wants to hate our old man, but our new man knows that the dominion of our flesh is a necessary evil for a time, and he willingly and humbly acknowledges this fact.

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

This Truth is demonstrated for us when Jacob bowed himself seven times to Esau, calling him “My lord Esau”:

Gen 32:3  And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
Gen 32:4  And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now:
Gen 33:3  And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

We do well to acknowledge that the flesh has no power to be anything of itself but go into death and corruption. To think we do anything at all to save ourselves is nothing less than denying that the Lord makes us wicked for our own day of evil, that He creates both good and evil, and we were made subject to vanity. The Lord will have none of it:

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

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.

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.

As evil as the wild beast within us is, it is not in the purview of our flesh to change itself, and as Jacob and his entire family demonstrate we must “bow down” to the Truth that the Lord Himself has made us all “subject to vanity”:

Gen 33:1  And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids.
Gen 33:2  And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost.
Gen 33:3  And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
Gen 33:4  And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.
Gen 33:5  And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.
Gen 33:6  Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.
Gen 33:7  And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves: and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

The fact that “Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept” is an example of the truth of the second verse of our study today:

Jer 15:11  The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

Esau, the twin brother of the Lord’s accepted anointed, knew that he was destined to be supplanted and replaced by the Lord’s accepted anointed, just as King Saul was made to know that King David was destined to replace and supplant him, and these words make that fact clear:

Gen 27:35  And he [Isaac] said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.
Gen 27:36  And he [Esau] said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? For he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?
Gen 27:37  And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?
Gen 27:38  And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

Twin brothers have much more in common than do the earlier half-brothers Ishmael and Isaac. It is much easier to distinguish between an anointed and an unanointed, between Isaac and Ishmael respectively than it is to distinguish between two twin brothers who are both anointed; one being the accepted anointed and the other being the rejected anointed:

1Sa 10:1  Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his [Saul’s] head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the LORD hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?

1Sa 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

1Sa 15:28  And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou [His accepted anointed].

1Sa 16:13  Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him [David] in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

1Samuel 24 and 29 reveal that King Saul, the Old Testament type of the Lord’s rejected anointed, Babylon, knows who the Lord’s accepted anointed is, and it torments him and them to know that we are destined to supplant them, as Esau understood that Jacob would supplant him. Our rejected anointed  knows he is to be supplanted by our new man, our accepted anointed:

Mat 21:45  And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

When we say, “We see” what we are saying is that we prefer our false doctrines and “smooth things” to His fiery words. Our old man identifies with the Lord’s rejected anointed, and our rejected anointed identifies with this world and is at war with Christ and His Christ who twice tell us:

1Ch 16:22  Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

Psa 105:15  Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

The Lord, through humbling fiery trials and by giving His elect eyes that see and ears that hear, has given His elect the strength to do as David did. David had already been anointed to replace King Saul by the same prophet who anointed King Saul, but he feared the Lord’s words concerning His anointed.

King Saul typifies the beast within us who comes up out of the earth and is anointed for the purpose of being taken and destroyed:

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts [our self-righteous “man of sin… in the temple of God” (2Th 2:3-4)] made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

If the Lord is in the process of taking and destroying our own “man of sin [in] this present time” (Rom 8:18), He will preserve and protect us through every trial. He provides Pharaoh’s own daughter and Saul’s own son to protect and preserve His elect when it seems His elect about to be destroyed by the powers that be, and by the Lord’s rejected anointed in times of great stress and great tribulations.

As the Lord’s elect, we must endure the “great tribulation” which is also spoken of as “much tribulation”:

Mat 24:21  For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

When we are enduring our own “great tribulation” it is indeed “much tribulation”, and while we are enduring “much tribulation” it seems, from our fleshly perspective, to last a lifetime, and we along with all the prophets cry out:

Jer 15:10  Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.

This verse is part of the foundation for this statement made by our Lord concerning “His anointed”:

Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Now look at what the Lord has to say about His anointed:

Jer 15:11  The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

This is what happened when Esau met Jacob while Jacob was returning to the Lord from Laban and company from ‘Babylon’.

Notice how abruptly the Lord goes from speaking of our new man to speaking of our old man:

Jer 15:12  Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?
Jer 15:13  Thy substance and thy treasures [of the kingdom of our old man] will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.
Jer 15:14  And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.

The question to us is, “Can your self-righteous, rebellious ‘steel’ break the ‘steel’ of those I am sending to administer judgment upon you?”

The mention of “the north” lets us know that it is the Lord’s judgment which is under discussion:

Eze 9:1  He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
Eze 9:2  And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate,  which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.

These next verses are the foundation for the words from the mouths of “the souls under the altar” in:

Jer 15:15  O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.
Jer 15:16  Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
Jer 15:17  I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.
Jer 15:18  Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?

Verse 18 here is Jeremiah’s version of these words of King David. They both felt forsaken of the Lord in their own appointed time:

Psa 22:1  To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

Being ‘as Christ in this world’, we live out these words in the New Testament. We are not calling the Lord a liar, but like Christ Himself, we do feel that He has turned His back upon us and has forsaken us:

Mat 27:46  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

We are spiritual martyrs who are spiritually “slain… killed… [and] beheaded for the word of our testimony” and because the Lord’s words were “the joy and rejoicing of [our] heart”. Yet it seems at a certain point, when we are “at [our] wits’ end” (Psa 107:27), that the Lord has forsaken us:

Rev 6:9  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
Rev 6:10  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
Rev 6:11  And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

In Revelation 20 we read of this same group of people but under different far more favorable circumstances:

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Jer 15:19  Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.

Being ‘slain’ and being ‘beheaded’ are two different forms of murder, and this is the ‘slaying,’ and the ‘beheading’ to which we are more commonly submitted:

1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

These are extremely sober words of warning to each of us because it is so easy for the Lord to give the adversary the ability to allow a spirit bitterness to spring up against a brother or a sister whom the Lord has placed in our midst to show us just how much our flesh is still corruptible flesh. It is sobering when the Lord reminds us of how weak our flesh is from time to time.  So, we are very solemnly warned:

Heb 12:14  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Heb 12:16  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

A root of bitterness has “defiled… many”, and taken them out of the body, family, house, and temple of the Lord. If and when this “root of bitterness” takes hold of us, we are essentially placing the responsibility of a brother or sister’s offense upon them, and we are bitter toward them, instead of remembering that it is the Lord who is working “all things after the counsel of His own will”. These next verses should help us to look within when a spirit of bitterness attempts to set up house within our “temple of God”:

Psa 119:164  Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.
Psa 119:165  Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

The Lord is not judging this world at this present time. It is us He is judging now, and the sin and self-righteousness which is still within us, and that is where our focus must be.  If we truly believe the Lord is judging us in this present time, then “nothing will offend [us]”, because we know that all things are being worked 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:

We are told “all things are for your sakes”, and “all things” includes “the day of evil” (Pro 16:4). We are all predestined to experience our own personal “day of evil”, and that “day of evil” is custom made for our own “wicked… man of sin”. These things are all an integral part of the “all things [which] are for [our] sakes:

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

It is through our spirit of gratitude for the Lord’s chastening spirit… “through the thanksgiving of many” for our trials, that God is glorified.

Knowing that all things are for our sakes (2Co 4:15) gives us confidence in these very reassuring and encouraging words of the last two verses of our study today:

Jer 15:20  And I will make thee [you and me] unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
Jer 15:21  And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.

It is no accident that Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel all say the same thing.

Eze 3:1  Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.
Eze 3:2  So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.
Eze 3:3  And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness [Rev 10:10].
Eze 3:4  And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.
Eze 3:5  For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel;
Eze 3:6  Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.
Eze 3:7  But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.
Eze 3:8  Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.
Eze 3:9  As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

Ezekiel 3:3 is the foundation for these words in the book of Revelation:

Rev 10:9  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
Rev 10:10  And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

All the Lord’s prophets have this same experience in common. They rejoice to learn the Truth, but being faithful to that Truth is a bitter pill to swallow. It is the Lord’s people who have turned against Him, and when that takes place the Lord turns against His people, and He is at this very moment in the process of judging us by bringing every conceivable enemy against us until the kingdom of our old man is utterly destroyed:

Isa 6:1  In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Isa 6:2  Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
Isa 6:3  And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
Isa 6:4  And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Isa 6:5  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Isa 6:6  Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
Isa 6:7  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

Just like Jeremiah, Isaiah is sent as a type of each of us, to be a witness against the kingdom of our old man whose self-righteous rebelliousness make him fit right in with the kingdoms of this world:

Isa 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

Jeremiah is following in Isaiah’s footsteps declaring that the Lord will judge and is judging His people and will destroy the kingdom of our rebellious old man within us all:

Isa 6:9  And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isa 6:10  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

Jeremiah makes this same declaration when he tells us in the first verses of this chapter:

Jer 15:1  Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
Jer 15:2  And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.
Jer 15:3  And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.
Jer 15:4  And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

“Manasseh” typifies our own rebellious ‘man of sin’ sitting in the Lord’s temple and demanding that we worship him and do what he demands of us. To which the Lord always replies:

Jer 15:6  Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.

Isaiah said the very same thing concerning how the Lord deals with our carnal-minded old man. He gives him no quarter and shows him no mercy:

Isa 6:11  Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

This 15^th chapter of Jeremiah starts with the Lord declaring His opposition to His own people who have turned their backs to Him. He declares “Therefore will I stretch out my hand against you and will destroy you”.

The Lord’s message to us through Jeremiah, who is prophesying over 70 years after Isaiah’s prophecy, has not changed in the least. Repeatedly, the Lord declares that it is He who is judging His own people first before He will judge the nations of this world:

Notice how the 29^th chapter of Isaiah parallels this 15^th chapter of Jeremiah. Both chapters begin with the Lord declaring that He will first punish and destroy all that offends within His kingdom.

Isa 29:1  Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
Isa 29:2  Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.
Isa 29:3  And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.
Isa 29:4  And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.
Isa 29:5  Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
Isa 29:6  Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire [Jer 5:14, the Lord’s chastening words].
Isa 29:7  And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
Isa 29:8  It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
Isa 29:9  Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
Isa 29:10  For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
Isa 29:11  And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
Isa 29:12  And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
Isa 29:13  Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
Isa 29:14  Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
Isa 29:15  Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
Isa 29:16  Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

To our natural mind it seems impossible, but the Lord is ‘calling light out of darkness’, and He is saving us “few” now to become the saviors of all the rest of mankind at a later resurrection of the dead:

Isa 29:17  Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
Isa 29:18  And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
Isa 29:19  The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 29:20  For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:
Isa 29:21  That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.
Isa 29:22  Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
Isa 29:23  But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.
Isa 29:24  They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.

I hope to have demonstrated in this study that all the words of judgment, which are so dire and destructive to our old man, are the darkness out of which we are called. That is why Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and all the Lords prophets, go from speaking of the destruction of our rebellious old man to the blessing of our obedient new man in the same breath. This method of operating is summed up in these few words:

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.

That is the theme of the prophets, and that is our study for today. We will begin chapter 16 next Sunday if the Lord wills. Rest assured we will come to know our Lord a little better, but it will be through the same Modus Operandi.

Here are the verses for our next study:

Jer 16:1  The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
Jer 16:2  Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.
Jer 16:1  The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
Jer 16:2  Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.
Jer 16:3  For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;
Jer 16:4  They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
Jer 16:5  For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.
Jer 16:6  Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
Jer 16:7  Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
Jer 16:8  Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.
Jer 16:9  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
Jer 16:10  And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?
Jer 16:11  Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
Jer 16:3  For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;
Jer 16:4  They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
Jer 16:5  For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.
Jer 16:6  Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
Jer 16:7  Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
Jer 16:8  Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.
Jer 16:9  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
Jer 16:10  And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?
Jer 16:11  Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;