Jer 16:1-12 [Our] Carcases Shall Be Meat for the Fowls of Heaven

[Study Aired August 21, 2021]

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 16:12  And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:

In this chapter, Jeremiah is told not to take a wife “in this place” because any wife married [or] children born in this place… this land… “shall die of grievous deaths… [and] they shall be as dung upon 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 16:1  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.

Jeremiah was commanded to refrain from getting married “for our admonition”. Everything that happened to him was for the purpose of teaching us how we are to have the mind of God:

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

If we are being admonished by Jeremiah not to marry, what does that tell us? Before we answer this question, we must notice that there is a qualification to this commandment. That qualification is “in this place… in this land”. “This place [and] this land” means that while we are apostate Israel and Judah ‘You shall not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.’ These words of Jeremiah are just the less mature Old Testament way of saying ‘come out of her my people…’:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
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.

Let’s always remember that every word of God is Christ-centered. Of Him, through Him, and to Him are all things:

Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Christ is the ‘new man’ in the Lord’s elect. However, if we are to understand the meaning of this command to refrain from marrying and having children in ‘this place’ we must acknowledge that before Christ can be in the new man, there must first be an old man who is seduced and is joined to a harlot:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Every single religious human being is an “inhabitant of the earth” (Jer 22:29).

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

However, it is given to very few to “hear the word of the Lord” in “this present time”:

Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

The ‘call’ has gone out to all men, and billions have responded to that ‘call’. However, very few are chosen to endure to the end being divided from family and friends and being hated of all men.

Israel’s and Judah’s hearts and minds, as types of our hearts and minds, were in Babylon long before they were carried away to that land. Babylon, symbolizing the religions of this world, is the ‘place’ in which we are commanded not to marry and have children. Any children conceived in “this place” will “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.”

The ‘sword’ which will consume them is these very Words of God coming out of Jeremiah’s mouth and through his pen. The famine that will consume them is their rejection of the Words of the Lord.

Just as the death and destruction of the giants in our land are nourishment for our new man, so our apostate old man is becoming the “dung upon the earth and… meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.” In this scenario “the fouls of heaven, and beasts of the earth” are the positive application of these words, and they represent our new man who is nourished and strengthened by the utter death and destruction of the kingdom of our old man.

The fowls of the air are also nourished and strengthened by the decomposition and dissolution of all the false doctrines we believed while we were so prominent and established in all the lies of our Babylonian harlot wife, the wife we have while we are in “this place”. In this prophecy those lies and false doctrines are typified by ‘dung’, which must decompose to become nourishment for our new man.

This is Paul’s estimation and the value he placed upon all the qualifications he had achieved while striving to excel in keeping the law of Moses and being prominent in the church of his day:

Php 3:4  Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Php 3:5  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

This is what the spirit calls the church which “glories in the flesh” and strive to please “the people” (1Sa 15:15-21), and follows the dictates of this world rather than the dictates of “the Creator” as did King Saul:

1Sa 15:15  And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
1Sa 15:16  Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
1Sa 15:17  And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
1Sa 15:18  And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
1Sa 15:19  Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
1Sa 15:20  And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
1Sa 15:21  But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
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.

When we take lightly the words of the Lord, because we fear “the people”, our families and our friends, the Lord considers that “rebellion… and stubbornness [which are to Him the equivalent of] “witchcraft… iniquity, and idolatry”.

It all amounts to spiritual adultery against Christ, whom we say is our husband.

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

In Revelation 17 the “gold and precious stones and pearls” are all the scriptures which we have twisted and “wrested” to cover our own idols of our hearts (Eze 14:1-9) in our attempts to please men. We simply cannot “please men” and remain faithful to our spiritual ‘husband’, Christ:

Gal 1:10  For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

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.
2Pe 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2Pe 3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness .
2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Peter considered Paul’s epistle’s as much ‘scripture’ as any of “the other scriptures” and he, through the holy spirit, condemned those who treated them lightly as King Saul did, and He condemned those who “wrested” Paul’s epistles to make them fit around the idols of their heart.

This is what we are when we ignore the Lord’s commandments, or “wrest” them in our attempt to please both God and men:

1Co 6:16  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

When we are “joined to an harlot” our ‘father’ and our ‘husband’ is the great red dragon who empowers the beast which we are by nature:

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

When we are coming out of Babylon, we are becoming espoused to Christ as a chaste virgin, and He is also becoming our spiritual ‘Father’:

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

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.

Our next verse speaks of the Lord rejecting “this people”:

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.

“This people… this place” and “this land” are one and the same as our next verses demonstrate:

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.

The Lord has “taken away [His] peace from this [rebellious, apostate, self-righteous] people”. “This people” means the kingdom of our old man. He has no pity and will not mourn the destruction of that kingdom. Rather, He tells us to:

Rev 18:20  Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

Notice how closely our next verse parallels the description of the great whore of Revelation 18:

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.

Here is this same message in:

Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

Clearly “this place” of Jeremiah 16 is the self-righteous whore of Revelation 18, to whom we are all joined, each in our own order.

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?

It is clear that at one time we really were completely unaware of just how far from our True Husband we have become. This is what we truly think of our adulterous ways at this time of our lives:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

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 exactly what the church of Laodicea thought:

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:

Clearly the “great whore” of Revelation 17 and 18 is “the seven churches of Asia” who have “that woman Jezebel, the seat [Greek: ‘thronos’, throne] of Satan, [and] the Nicolaitans” among them.

The seven churches of Asia may be totally unaware they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”, but ignorance is no defense when we have been given the Lord’s commandments in such plain words. King Saul attempted that defense while disobeying the Lord’s commandment, and the Lord was having none of it:

1Sa 15:20  And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

King Saul, a perfect type of our self-righteous old man, is in effect telling the Lord, “Look Lord, I did everything you told me to do except for the strong meat part. I may have been weak in the faith, but you should bear with me. That strong meat isn’t really that important.”

It is not a good strategy to attempt to play mind games with God and refuse to “go on unto perfection” clinging only to those six milk doctrines which appeal even to those who cannot accept the strong meat of the Word of God:

Heb 5:9  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
Heb 5:10  Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
Heb 5:11  Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
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 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.

Paul, using the words “…when for the time ye ought to be teachers” clearly demonstrates that when we “bear with the weak” we do so with the goal in mind of “with one mouth and with one mind glorifying God”:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye [“Ye that are strong”, Rom 15:1], 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 [who are weak (vs 2-3)] that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he [that eats all things] shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

No one with the mind of Christ will force “strong meat” down the spiritual throat of a babe in Christ who eats only spiritual herbs and drinks only spiritual milk.

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.
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.
Rom 14:7  For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
Rom 14:8  For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
Rom 14:9  For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
Rom 14:10  But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Rom 14:11  For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Rom 14:12  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
Rom 14:13  Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
Rom 14:14  I [Paul who is not “weak in the faith, esteemed every day alike, and was spiritually strong in the faith] know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Rom 14:15  But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
Rom 14:16  Let not then your good be evil spoken of:
Rom 14:17  For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Rom 14:18  For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.
Rom 14:19  Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.
Rom 14:20  For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
Rom 14:21  It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
Rom 14:22  Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
Rom 14:23  And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Let us be very careful that we do not cause a weak brother to be “damned if he eats” our strong meat. For him it would be a sin to eat our strong meat, and it would make the weak brother to die.

Num 4:15  And when Aaron and his sons [“We that are strong (Rom 15:1)] have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.

So, what exactly constitutes spiritual ‘herbs’ and spiritual ‘milk’ of the Word? As it turns out, we all at first confuse the milk of the Word with strong meat of the Word. When and if we are confused in this way it is because God Himself has already written it in our books to attempt to convince Him that we have been fully obedient when, in reality, we have not been fully obedient. We have kept only the things that are popular to keep.

the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation. Here are the milk doctrines which we just naturally think of at first as being strong meat:

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection [spiritual maturity]; not laying again the foundation of 1) repentance from dead works, and of 2) faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of 3) the doctrine of baptisms, and of 4) laying on of hands, and of 5) resurrection of the dead, and of 6) eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

King Saul, as a type of each of us, was willing, and even desiring, to go out and fight against an enemy who everyone recognized as an enemy. He was willing, and even desirous, of fighting against outward enemies, but He was not willing to stand up to enemies within his own people, and he chose instead to please them, typifying the enemies within the body of Christ, rather than fear God and keep His commandments to the full regardless of what his family and friends thought of him.

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 16:12  And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:

Walking after the imagination of [our] evil heart” is self-righteously serving the Lord as we see fit. Keeping days, months, times, and years, and ignoring Galatians 1:10 and Colossians 2:8, is the equivalent of bringing back King Agag and the best of the cattle. To us it is no big thing, and Christ and His Christ are simply going overboard and becoming Pharisaical when they make such a big deal over these words:

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 does the holy spirit consider to be the bondage of King Saul and of us as King Saul, who wanted to please his people more than his God. This is what Paul in Romans 14 calls “weak in the faith”:

Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

Col 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

That is the “beggarly elements” and the “bondage” to which the holy spirit refers in Galatian 4:9. How does our desire to please our families and friends to fit in with the world set with the Lord?

These are His inspired words:

Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

That is the fate of us all of us when “for the time [we] ought to be teachers” and we are not yet given to “go on unto perfection”, and we are still given to choose to remain on the ‘milk’ and ‘herbs’ of the Word.

What is the fruit of being given this timid spirit? As we saw in the case of King Saul:

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 [One who is willing to make a big deal out of the words “touch not mine anointed” (1Sa 24:6 and 1Sa 26:9)].

Our spineless old man “cannot inherit the kingdom of God [because] he is more fearful of his fellow man than he is of his God.

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

Here is the fruit of spiritual weakness “when for the time we ought to be teachers” (Heb 5:12), instead of fearing family and friends more than we fear God. This is the fruit that refusing the strong meat of the gospel produces. This is the fruit which is produced by us after the spiritually strong have borne our spiritual weakness for so long and we are yet given to eat only herbs and esteem one day above another. We will repeat the last three verses of Hebrew 5 and the first few verses of Hebrews 6 to get the contrast:

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 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.

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.
Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Heb 6:7  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

By using the words “for the time you ought to be teachers” and Peter’s admonition to “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” we are being admonished against becoming stagnant in our spiritual growth by remaining on spiritual ‘milk’ and spiritual ‘herbs’.

Then we are instructed by the holy spirit that, for those who do “shall fall away” after having been “once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come… it is impossible… If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance.”

This is what the apostle John called “a sin unto death” of which he admonishes us:

1Jn 5:16  If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

The woman caught in the act of adultery and the Corinthian fornicator both sinned a sin that was not unto death. Stubbornly “putting away… faith and a good conscience”, like Hymaenaeus and Alexander, is “a sin unto death”.

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.

Stubbornly teaching the false doctrine that everything is spiritual and inward and that therefore “the resurrection is past already… is a sin unto death”:

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.

We will all ‘marry in this place’ and have spiritual wives and children ‘in this land… each in his own order’. Nevertheless, when we see that it is all a work of the Lord in our lives, to be repented of, then the Lord will destroy our old kingdom and establish His new man and His kingdom within us (Luk 17:20-21). Those who are given to stubbornly cling to the false doctrines of those who marry in “this place” and are not given “place for repentance”, will die grievous deaths in “this land”, because they are given to sin a “sin unto death”:

1Jn 5:16  If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

That is our study for today, and I pray you were edified and encouraged by these words.

Here are our verses for our next study:

Jer 16:13  Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.
Jer 16:14  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
Jer 16:15  But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
Jer 16:16  Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
Jer 16:17  For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
Jer 16:18  And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.
Jer 16:19  O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
Jer 16:20  Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
Jer 16:21  Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.