• Home
  • Studies
  • The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 20:1-18  I Will Make Thee a Terror to Thyself

The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 20:1-18  I Will Make Thee a Terror to Thyself

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Jer 20:1-18  I Will Make Thee a Terror to Thyself

[Study Aired October 10, 2021]

Jer 20:1  Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
Jer 20:2  Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.
Jer 20:3  And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib.
Jer 20:4  For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.
Jer 20:5  Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.
Jer 20:6  And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.
Jer 20:7  O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
Jer 20:8  For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.
Jer 20:9  Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
Jer 20:10  For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
Jer 20:11  But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
Jer 20:12  But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.
Jer 20:13  Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
Jer 20:14  Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
Jer 20:15  Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.
Jer 20:16  And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide;
Jer 20:17  Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
Jer 20:18  Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

In this chapter of Jeremiah, we will see that both Pashur, and Jeremiah experience “fear on every side”, and, Lord willing, we will come to see why this must be.

When we know we are being disobedient and we continue in that disobedience, it is a time of great torment in our lives. We know the Lord’s judgments are inevitable, and there is “terror on every side”. As Jeremiah told us earlier:

Jer 2:19  Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter [it’s “fire and brimstone” (Rev 14:10)], that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

Our own wickedness, as we will see, makes us a terror to ourselves.

When I was in the third grade in Canton, Ohio, I hated school and would do anything to get to stay home. We lived close to the school and walked the few blocks to school. One day it had rained, and my brother and I deliberately fell down in a mud puddle and went back home and lied to my mother and told her we had accidentally fallen in the mud puddle. Of course, she saw right through that lie and gave us both a paddling and sent us back to school in our muddy clothes with a note to the teacher explaining what we had done. The worst part was Mom assuring us we would get a whipping again when Dad got home from work that night. Dad’s whippings were always much worse than mom’s, and as much as I hated school, I dreaded going home after school for fear of what I knew was coming my way. It was pure torment and I had brought it on myself. That was not an isolated incident. I was simply not capable of doing what I knew I was supposed to do.

That childish story is exactly what it is like to know you are being disobedient to the Lord. We know the Lord’s judgment lies ahead, and we are tormented with that knowledge, just as Joseph’s brothers were tormented with the knowledge of what they had done to their brother:

Gen 42:15  Hereby ye shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.
Gen 42:16  Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies.
Gen 42:17  And he put them all together into ward three days.
Gen 42:18  And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God:
Gen 42:19  If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
Gen 42:20  But bring your youngest brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so.
Gen 42:21  And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
Gen 42:22  And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? Therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
Gen 42:23  And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
Gen 42:24  And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.

“They knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.” That story typifies us being “tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb” spoken of in:

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

To whom are these words addressed? Verse 12 tells us to whom the Lord is speaking here:

Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

The words here in Revelation and the words in Jeremiah are all addressed in “this present time” only to those who have been given eyes that see and ears that hear, and who know that it is they who must “read, hear, and keep those things written therein”:

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.

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Up until this 20th chapter, Jeremiah has been prophesying of the impending judgment of Judah and Jerusalem without being overtly persecuted. Christ Himself for a while was permitted to preach the good news of the coming kingdom of God unimpeded at the beginning of His ministry:

Mat 4:23  And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
Mat 4:24  And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
Mat 4:25  And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from  beyond Jordan.

The time has now come that the powers that be have had enough of being told about the Lord’s impending judgment upon them for their stubborn rebellious infidelity against Him and His Words. Both Jeremiah and Pashur are within us. Inwardly we just become “weary in well doing” (2Th 3:13), and in our weakness we give in to the ever-present “cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches” and the rebellion of our flesh to the words of Christ. We tire of being told:

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 10:34  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.

That ‘enemy’ is Pashur within us, warring against Jeremiah within us.

The name ‘Pashur’ means ‘liberation’, and that is exactly what our self-righteous flesh tells us it is giving us when we succumb to it and become weary of being obedient to the Lord’s words:

2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

Pashur typifies our own flesh which becomes weary in well doing. I did not say that Pashur became weary in well doing. What I am saying is that he typifies our own flesh and even the flesh of Jeremiah who is also a type of us. We all experience times when we tire of having to live out “the patience and faith of the saints”:

Rev 13:10  He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever [the time required to burn out our old man]: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Jeremiah himself is overcome and is in bondage at the hands of Pashur. This, too, is a work of the Lord:

Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.

We must be brought to our wits’ end before we cry out to the Lord:

Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.

The Lord brings Jeremiah to his wits’ end:

Jer 20:1  Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
Jer 20:2  Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

This struggle between Jeremiah and Pashur typifies the inward struggle within each of us between the flesh and the spirit:

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.

Here is Strong’s definition of the Hebrew word translated as ‘smote’:

This is the same Hebrew word used to tell us what a man of similar social standing as Pashur did to Micaiah when Micaiah revealed that the Lord had put “a lying spirit in the mouth of all” of King Ahab’s prophets:

1Ki 22:24  But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee?

As a “living sacrifice” (Rom 12:1) you and I experience this kind of retribution in an ongoing, recurring fashion every time the Lord sends a divisive spirit into our fellowship which suddenly disagrees with the Biblical doctrine of submitting to the consensus of a multitude of counselors.

Pro 11:14  Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Pro 15:22  Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.

Pro 24:6  For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.

The only reason any of us are not overcome of the deceptions of the adversary is that the Lord simply hasn’t written it in our book to be deceived.

Mat 24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Here is how Strong’s defines the Hebrew word which is translated ‘stocks’ in Jeremiah 20:2-3:

This word is used in conjunction with the Hebrew word for ‘house’ in:

2Ch 16:10  Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison [H4115: stocks, prison] house [H1004: ‘bayith’]; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time.

The Hebrew word translated ‘house’ is:

Being put in stocks appears to be the same thing that was done to the apostle Paul and his fellow laborer, Silas, when they were imprisoned in Philippi:

Act 16:23  And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
Act 16:24  Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

Being imprisoned takes away our liberty. The liberty you and I have been given is the liberty to believe and do the things the Lord has commanded us to do (Luk 6:46). The adversary wants nothing more than to neutralize Christ and His message. That is what being in ‘stocks’ accomplishes for the time we are bound by these ‘stocks’. Our own weaknesses and passions serve as our stocks when they reveal our half-hearted service to the Lord. The adversary wants us to believe that we can serve God and still claim to be His servant.

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

We convince ourselves that we are free to serve the Lord and we are in good shape spiritually and physically, even as we deny Christ out of our fear of losing our standing with the world in this age:

Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
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:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten:  be zealous therefore, and repent.

It is humiliating when the Lord must use the rulers of this world to reprimand His elect, but if we are His, then that is exactly what He will do as is demonstrated at least three times in scriptures when Abraham denied his own wife before Pharaoh and Abimelech, and when his son Isaac did the exact same thing before Abimelech:

Gen 12:19  Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I [Pharaoh] might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.

Gen 20:2  And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

Gen 20:9  Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.

Gen 26:9  And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.
Gen 26:10  And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

These things happened to Abraham and Isaac, and they were written for our admonition:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [Greek: ‘tupos’, “types of us” (vs 6)]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

The Lord will do what it takes to show us what is still within us. If we are His, He will give us an earthquake to deliver us from our sinful ‘stocks’ and drag us to Himself:

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

We simply are not equipped of our own flesh to deliver ourselves from our own hypocrisy:

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

Our ‘stocks’ are often our own old man whose doom is certain (1Co 15:50) as Jeremiah tells Pashur. Pashur is a type of our own self-righteous old man:

Jer 20:3  And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib.

This is how Strong’s defines Jeremiah’s new name for Pashur:

Jer 20:4  For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.
Jer 20:5  Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.
Jer 20:6  And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.

Jeremiah had already made this prophesy in a more general sense in:

Jer 6:25  Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side [Hebrew: ‘magor min sabib’]

It is very instructive to note that the word for fear in this verse is:

The words for “is on every side is “min sabiyb”. There is no Hebrew for the word ‘is’. That word is added in the King James Version. When this statement is turned into a name it becomes ‘Magormissabib’, “fear on every side”, Jeremiah’s new name for Pashur, an Old Testament type of our tormented, tortured old man.

Like Joseph’s brothers, and like me in my third grade lies, we become a terror to ourselves, because we are afraid of the judgment we know is in our future. It is sheer terror, and we are powerless to deliver ourselves from the terror we have brought upon ourselves. The name of our old man is Magormissabib, ‘terror on every side’, and the Lord will give our old man no quarter.

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

Now we must carefully consider the change of tone in Jeremiah’s next words:

Jer 20:7  O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
Jer 20:8  For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.
Jer 20:9  Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
Jer 20:10  For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side [Hebrew: ‘magor min sabib’]. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

Here we have Jeremiah himself experiencing the “fear on every side”, the exact same Hebrew words used as Pashur’s new name… ‘Magor-mi-Sabib’. However, now Jeremiah is applying these same words to himself because all who knew him are now saying… “Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him”.

Jeremiah, who typifies our new man, is “the eighth [who] is of the seven and goes into perdition. It is through that perdition that our new man is given “the redemption of the purchased possession”.

Rev 17:11  And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

Unlike Pashur, Jeremiah is given life through the fiery trial of experiencing “fear on every side”.

Jer 20:11  But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
Jer 20:12  But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.
Jer 20:13  Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.

So, Jeremiah is given to know that he will be delivered from those who seek to “take [their] revenge on [him]”. He is also given to know that it will only be through “fear on every side”. Jeremiah is made to face the fact that he, of himself, is no better than Pashur, who hates Jeremiah, and would prefer to see Jeremiah dead. It becomes such a fiery trial that Jeremiah becomes ‘weary in well doing’. Jeremiah typifies each of us as a self-righteous ‘Job’ whose trials were so heavy and unbearable that he begins to reprove and contend with his Maker, using many of the same words Job used. Immediately after rejoicing in the knowledge that his trials were all for his good (Rom 8:28), Jeremiah gave this lament.

Jer 20:14  Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
Jer 20:15  Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.
Jer 20:16  And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide;
Jer 20:17  Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
Jer 20:18  Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Compare these words of Jeremiah, with these words of Job:

Job 3:1  After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
Job 3:2  And Job spake, and said,
Job 3:3  Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
Job 3:4  Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
Job 3:5  Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Job 3:6  As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
Job 3:7  Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.
Job 3:8  Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
Job 3:9  Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:
Job 3:10  Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
Job 3:11  Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

Those are two very similar laments, both coming from men who have known the Lord and who are weary of bearing up under His ways.

Why are we twice told:

Gal 6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

2Th 3:13  But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.

The reason we are twice admonished “be not weary in well doing” is because that is exactly what we just naturally do. Just like Jeremiah, the Lord sends an evil spirit to tell us that life would be so much easier if we would just stop speaking the Truths of His Word:

Jer 20:8  For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.

We need to all be aware of the adversary’s devices. Notice that it is immediately after being assured of the Lord’s faithfulness that Jeremiah’s tone changes and he despairs of all the weight the Lord has placed upon him. The adversary knows that we are most vulnerable when we have just experienced a time of victory and we feel we can take a break from always being diligent, sober, and vigilant.

That was what happened to Job whom the Lord had hedged from any severe trials for a time. When he least expected it, the Lord showed Job what was still in him.

King David stayed behind when he should have been in the battle. He had just defeated both Syria and Ammon and it was when he felt secure enough to let others do his fighting for him that he was seduced by the adversary and committed adultery with the wife of one of his captains.

Elijah had just called down fire from heaven to burn up his sacrifice in the presence of all the prophets of Baal who he then destroyed with the sword when he fled to a cave to hide from Jezebel.

We are all most vulnerable when we think we stand secure:

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.
1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Our own trials come upon us after a time of success when we think we are secure and we let down our guard. The Lord has ordained it to be so.

We feed the Lord’s flock even as we “look to ourselves” and we warn the Lord’s flock of what we see as the warnings of scripture themselves. Nevertheless, the Lord has determined “there must be heresies among you”:

1Co 11:19  For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

Jeremiah tells us that Pashur “prophesied lies”, and therefore Pashur was prophesying heresies.

Jer 20:6  And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.

The apostle Paul truthfully prophesied that grievous wolves would arise from our very midst. It happened to the apostles, and it was written for our admonition:

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

Job, Jeremiah, the apostle Paul, and the apostle John in the book of Revelation are all telling us the same thing. That message is that the 144,000 elect who will rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years, as well as the “great multitude which no man can number”, and who do not rule and reign with Christ, must both “come up through much tribulation and wash their robes white in the blood of the lamb.”

Notice how much we have in common with those who will be “hurt of the second death”:

Rev 7:1  And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
Rev 7:2  And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
Rev 7:3  Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Rev 7:4  And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Rev 7:9  After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
Rev 7:10  And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
Rev 7:11  And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 7:12  Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
Rev 7:13  And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
Rev 7:14  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

This same group of 144,000 are later called “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”:

Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

These “firstfruits… [must] groan and travail in pain together” with all the rest of mankind, who are all “bearing the heat of the day”. However “the lord of the vineyard… the good man of the house” has determined in advance that the ‘groaning [of] this present time produces the Lord’s judgments within those few who are paid first in earnest (Eph 1:14 in “this present time” (Eph 2:6), whereas all others must wait to get their ‘penny’, their days wages, life eternal, until after the firstfruits are rewarded in the “blessed and holy… first resurrection”. It is they, and they alone, who “live and reign with Christ a thousand years” on this earth, before the rest of mankind will be given life eternal:

Mat 20:8  So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
Mat 20:9  And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny [eternal life].
Mat 20:10  But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny [eternal life].
Mat 20:11  And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
Mat 20:12  Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
Mat 20:13  But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
Mat 20:14  Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
Mat 20:15  Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
Mat 20:16  So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called [to work in the Lord’s vineyard], but few chosen [to be paid first].

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

“We who have the firstfruits of the spirit… groan within ourselves, waiting for… the redemption of our body”. The Truth of the Word of God is that we are intended to endure the very same fiery words that will save all men. Only by those words will we develop “the patience of the saints and the faith of Jesus Christ”:

Rev 13:10  He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity [of “every thought”]: he that killeth with the sword [of the Word of God] must be killed with the sword [of the Word of God]. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

This “patience and faith of the saints” is elaborated upon in the very next chapter, and this is what going into captivity and being killed with the sword entails:

Rev 14:6  And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. [That is the very definition of ‘Magor min Sabib’, “fear on every side”]

What is the product of this “magor-min- sabib”, this “torment with fire and brimstone… day and night in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb”???

Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

Why must the Lord’s “very elect” endure “morgamissabib”? Why must the Lord’s elect endure “fear on every side”? The reason we must do so is for the same reason our Lord had to do so, because we, too, are “saviors” who must “fill up in [our] bodies that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ for His body’s sake which is the church”.

To what end must we do so? We must do so to the same end that our Lord had to do so because “as He is so are we in this world”:

Heb 2:17  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

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.

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

The scapegoat and the second bird are both as integral to the process of salvation as is “the Lord’s goat” and “the first bird”, and we are that scapegoat, and we are that second bird who bear with Christ “all their iniquities”, and fill up in our bodies that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ, for His body’s sake, which is the church”:

Lev 16:22  And the [scape]goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

Lev 14:53  But he shall let go the living [second] bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house: and it shall be clean.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

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

Jer 21:1  The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,
Jer 21:2  Enquire, I pray thee, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.
Jer 21:3  Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah:
Jer 21:4  Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.
Jer 21:5  And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.
Jer 21:6  And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.
Jer 21:7  And afterward, saith the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.
Jer 21:8  And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.
Jer 21:9  He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.
Jer 21:10  For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
Jer 21:11  And touching the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear ye the word of the LORD;
Jer 21:12  O house of David, thus saith the LORD; Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
Jer 21:13  Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the LORD; which say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?
Jer 21:14  But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the LORD: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it.

Other related posts