Jer 18:13-23 Let Us Not Give Heed to Any of His Words

[Study Aired September 26, 2021]

Jer 18:13  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
Jer 18:14  Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? Or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
Jer 18:15  Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
Jer 18:16  To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
Jer 18:17  I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
Jer 18:18  Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
Jer 18:19  Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
Jer 18:20  Shall evil be recompensed for good? For they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.
Jer 18:21  Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
Jer 18:22  Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
Jer 18:23  Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

Whenever our study begins with the word ‘therefore’ we must review the last verses of our last study:

Jer 18:11  Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
Jer 18:12  And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

That is the ‘therefore’ that provokes the Lord to ask:

Jer 18:13  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.

The Lord catches us in our open adultery and tells us of our adulterous ways. Then He admonishes us with great patience to “return” to Him, but we refuse to do so. “Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things” is the same message the holy spirit is dealing with in the church at Corinth, when the apostle Paul admonishes us:

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.

Leaving the Lord, our spiritually legal husband, to worship our flesh and the great red dragon, is the equivalent of leaving pure life-giving waters to drink from a sewer. The fact that we do this provokes the Lord to ask:

Jer 18:14  Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?

These words are addressed to each of us because we just naturally take our spiritual husband’s love for granted, and we just naturally use the knowledge of His sovereignty to turn His grace into lasciviousness so we can continue to please our flesh and continue in our sins and our false doctrines. These actions place us in the spiritual position of ‘worshiping the dragon who empowers the beast’ which we all are by nature (Ecc 3:18, Rev 13:4).

The waters from the melting snow in Lebanon flow down and refresh the Lord’s people. Just as the Lord’s wife “spoils the Egyptians” (Exo 3:22), and inherits ‘cities they did not build, and vineyards they did not plant’ (Jos 24:13). Lebanon is not Israel, but Lebanon also belongs to the Lord, and He uses the snow of the mountains of Lebanon as He sees fit, to refresh His people, and yet they turn from Him to other gods.

The message here is the same as in the previous chapters:

Jer 2:7  And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.
Jer 2:8  The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
Jer 2:9  Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead.
Jer 2:10  For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.
Jer 2:11  Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
Jer 2:12  Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
Jer 2:13  For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Jer 2:14  Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled?

The question the Lord is asking us is why are we forsaking pure, clean, cool, refreshing waters to drink from the muddy waters of “Sihor”, the Nile, in Egypt or the Euphrates in Babylon? Why do we change the Truth in His Word, for the lies of Egypt and Babylon?

Psa 137:1  By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Psa 137:2  We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
Psa 137:3  For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

Jer 2:18  And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria [Babylon], to drink the waters of the river?

Jer 17:13  O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth [as opposed to “in heaven” (Luk 10:20)], because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

Christ tells us that “fountains of living waters” is speaking of Him, and He tells us just how precious His ‘waters’ are:

Joh 4:13  Jesus answered and said unto her,  Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
Joh 4:14  But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Like Esau we place no value on things that are in the distant future. Rather we live for the moment to please our flesh, and we forget the promise of “water springing up into everlasting life”.

It is much easier to do all the things that cause us to be accepted by family, friends, and the society we live in, than it is to be faithful to the Lord and be divided from that comfortable position in this world. We find it easy to forget what our calling entails:

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.
Mat 10:23  But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
Mat 10:24  The disciple is not above his  master, nor the servant above his lord.
Mat 10:25  It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36  And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Mat 10:40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

Notice just how redundant the holy spirit is in repeating over and over again how we, the Lord’s own people, have turned away from Him in our desire to do what we want to do. Our flesh just naturally hates being told what to do. That is especially true because those commandments are contrary to our natural mind and our natural inclinations:

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.
Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot  please God.

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

If you think that because you have been aware of the Truth for some time that your flesh is now subject to the law of God, then you are in for a rude awakening. It is true that if we “walk in the spirit we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh”:

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

It is also true that “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” is in the King James Version of the scriptures:

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

What tense do you suppose that statement is? Yes, of course, it just happens to be in the aorist tense and should read “the law of the spirit frees me from the law of sin and death”. Both the John Mitchell Version and the CLV correctly put this statement in the continuing aorist tense:

Rom 8:2   For the law of the spirit of The Life within Christ Jesus [or: For the Law of Life’s spirit, within Christ Jesus; or: For the Spirit’s law of life within Christ Jesus] frees you [sets you free] away from the Law of the Sin [the Failure; the Miss] and of the Death. (JMV)

Rom 8:2 for the spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus frees you from the law of sin and death. (CLV)

We are being supported by the spirit to overcome our flesh, but we must never ever think that we need not be diligent, vigilant, sober, and alert to the pulls of our flesh, and the power the Lord has given the adversary to try our faith, and make us forget who we are in Christ:

Jer 18:15  Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;

After listing all His accomplishments and all of his degrees bestowed upon him by men, Paul counts it all “loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ”:

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,
Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:11  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Then He gives us the mindset which will never forget the Lord and who we are in the Lord. Here is the mind of Christ concerning how we are to think in order to “endure to the end”:

Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

‘Attained… apprehend and apprehended’ are all in the aorist tense and ‘being perfect [and] thus minded’ are in the present tense within the understanding that ‘perfection’ is a process that is taking place within the aorist tense. Perfection in the flesh was beyond even Christ’s abilities:

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day [being resurrected] I shall be perfected.

When we “stumble in [our] ways” we are being disobedient to His established Truth. To “cast up” a ‘way’ and a ‘path’ is to properly prepare that ‘path’ and that ‘way’ by building up what is right and proper and by removing every rebellious stumbling block which is not right or proper:

Isa 57:13  When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;
Isa 57:14  And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people.
Isa 57:15  For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity [‘inhabits the future’ (CLV)], whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

‘Putting our trust in the Lord’ means that we love Him, and we fear to disobey or disappoint Him. Love is obedience:

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.

“Know[ing] that we love the children of God” comes only through being obedient to Him and His doctrines. We should not claim we know Christ if we will not be obedient to His commandments.

This is how Christ wants us to show that we love Him:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

“The high and holy place where the Lord dwells” (Isa 57:15) is in the heavens of our minds, which are at this very moment being purified and prepared for His habitation:

Heb 9:22  And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

The “purify[ing] of [our] heavens” is the “daily… dying” (1Co 15:31) of our old man who is the subject of our next verses in the form of plural pronouns:

Jer 18:16  To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
Jer 18:17  I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

‘Their’ and ‘them’ is the rebellious, ignorant, carnal mind we are all born with, and which must be made “desolate… in the day of [our] calamity”, which is really the best day of our  lives.

Until that day arrives we are all just unrepentant, self-righteous, Job (Job 26:5-7 and the entire 29^th chapter), and this is what we do to those who attempt to expose our self-righteousness:

Jer 18:18  Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

Once again, the plural ‘they’ is hiding from the world the fact that this verse is addressed individually to every person who reads it. This is what we all say of those who bring Him and His Truth to us. Those who bring The Truth to us are simply those who came before us and who, like Job, came to realize just how “vile” they are:

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

The answer to the Lord’s rhetorical question… “Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?” is, “Yes, that is exactly what we all do” before we come to see just how ‘vile’ we really are as verse 18 reveals when we maintain: “for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite [Jeremiah, as a type of “the Lord and His Christ”] with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.”

We are “the souls under the altar” of the fifth seal:

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:

“The altar” signifies the cross upon which we all present our bodies as a “daily dying… living sacrifice” (1Co 15:31 and Rom 12:1).

As verse 18 demonstrates, it was Jeremiah’s ‘words’ “…the words of God and…  the testimony [he] held” which ‘they’ (you and I… our old man] hated so much.

Rev 6:10  And they [our new man] 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?

Let’s look at verse 18 once more:

Jer 18:18  Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

These words reflect the self-righteous spirit of Job before the Lord Himself came and confronted this most heinous self-righteous spirit, which is manifested in these words of Job:

Job 27:1  Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Job 27:2  As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
Job 27:3  All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
Job 27:4  My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
Job 27:5  God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job 27:7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

Job had not yet learned the wisdom of these inspired words:

Pro 27:2  Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.

As we saw earlier in Job 40, Job was granted to see that his “enemy” was the Lord Himself, as the Lord ‘judged him out of his own mouth’ (Luk 19:22) for referring the Lord, who had “risen up against” Job “as the wicked… as the unrighteous”. That is no way to speak of the Lord, not even in ignorance.

We all at first think just that way of the Lord and His Christ, and the whole world agrees with us at that time, which causes our new man to cry out to the Lord:

Jer 18:19  Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
Jer 18:20  Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.

We all long for the day when we are given revenge over our old man and his vengeful ways. Again, it is always my own old man who is referred to with a plural pronoun:

Jer 18:21  Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
Jer 18:22  Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
Jer 18:23  Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

“The force of the sword” is the power of the Word of God:

Heb 4:12  For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of both soul and spirit, and of both the joints and the marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It is the Lord Himself who referred to “their men” as evil, lying ‘men’ when He said:

Mat 4:19  And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Mat 10:17  But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;

The apostle Paul admonishes us:

Rom 3:4  God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Unless the name ‘Adam’ is qualified by the words “second man Adam” or “the last Adam”, Adam is always to be understood as “the natural man… the first man Adam… the man of sin” in all of us. So it is with the word ‘man’ or ‘men’. Unless otherwise qualified by phrases like “good man… (Mat 12:35) wise man… (Mat 7:24) new man… (Eph 2:15 and 4:24) or last man… (1Co 15:45)”, the word ‘man’ is always to be understood as “the first man, Adam… the man of sin… the beast… made to be taken and destroyed.”

It was the Lord Himself who told us that ‘men’ and ‘children’ both signify false doctrines:

Mat 13:18  Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
Mat 13:19  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
Mat 13:20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

“Receiving seed” is “hearing the Word”. However, ‘the Word’ is also called “the children of the kingdom”:

Mat 13:36  Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
Mat 13:37  He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
Mat 13:39  The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

The ‘good seed’ are the children of the kingdom and the ‘tares’ are the children of the wicked one. When we read in Jeremiah:

Jer 18:21  Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

That is the desire of “the souls under the altar”. Those ‘souls’ are not intent upon seeing their physical enemies suffer excruciating revenge. Such a spirit will not be given to rule over others. What ‘the souls under the altar’ want to see is the death and destruction of the kingdom of their own old man as well as that same destruction of the “old man” in all men. “Their young men… their children… their wives (false churches), and their blood” are one and all the lies of the adversary within all men. I want my own “old man” to suffer the vengeance of God upon him and his kingdom. I want him and anything about him… everything that breaths (Deu 20:16)… to be completely destroyed “by the sword… of the Word… in battle”.

Jer 18:22  Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
Jer 18:23  Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

‘The troop which comes suddenly upon them’ signifies all the truths which expose the lies by which we have been snared and which we have been living under for so long. These two verses are the fulfilment of what the Lord said He would do in the first part of this same chapter. He does all this because of our stubbornness and our rebellion against Him:

Jer 18:11  Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
Jer 18:12  And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

‘Their… them… and they’ are plural pronouns which are designed to hide from the eyes of those who are not being judged at this time, the fact that all those pronouns refer to the kingdom and the economy of our old man who is the first to be judged in “this present time”:

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.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God [“this present time” (Rom 8:18)]: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

We are “the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem” who have insisted on ‘walking after our own devices and doing the imagination of our own evil heart’. The Lord is mercifully judging us in “this present time” however.

We have nothing to fear because nothing depends upon us. Everything depends only upon Him 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:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

And “all things [are being] worked together for good to them that love God and who are the called according to His purpose”:

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

So, we need not worry about the ship going down. If Christ is in the ship, it will not go down.

Here is that story. It is a story about each of us and the trying of our faith:

Mar 4:35  And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.
Mar 4:36  And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.
Mar 4:37  And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
Mar 4:38  And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
Mar 4:39  And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
Mar 4:40  And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?
Mar 4:41  And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Both “the wind and the sea”, the spirit and the flesh “obey Him”, so we need not fear. It is He who is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure:

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Which “good pleasure” is:

Luk 12:32  Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

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

Jer 19:1  Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
Jer 19:2  And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
Jer 19:3  And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
Jer 19:4  Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
Jer 19:5  They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:
Jer 19:6  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
Jer 19:7  And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
Jer 19:8  And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
Jer 19:9  And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
Jer 19:10  Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
Jer 19:11  And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
Jer 19:12  Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
Jer 19:13  And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
Jer 19:14  Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house; and said to all the people,
Jer 19:15  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.