The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 2:1-9 You Defiled My Land, Yet I Will Plead with You

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Jer 2:1-9 You Defiled My Land, Yet I Will Plead with You

[Study Aired December 20, 2020]

Jer 2:1  Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 2:2  Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
Jer 2:3  Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.
Jer 2:4  Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:
Jer 2:5  Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
Jer 2:6  Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?
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.

One principle we must remember as we go through this study is that Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4 both establish that when the scriptures speak of our children, our fathers, our city, or our country, they are really speaking of and to you and to me. Therefore, whenever we read:

Jer 2:1  Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 2:2  Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
Jer 2:3  Israel was holiness unto the LORDand the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.

All those words apply to you and me. We really are “the apple of [the Lord’s] eye”, and any who touch us to harm and devour us “evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord.”

Deu 32:9  For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
Deu 32:10  He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Deu 32:11  As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
Deu 32:12  So the Lord alone did lead them, and there was no strange god with him.

However, when the Lord causes us to want to be like the nations around us, then He will judge us by using those wicked nations and doctrines to judge us and bring us to see that we have lost our first love, we have placed ourselves under the oppressive doctrine of the Nicolaitans, we have Satan’s throne in our very midst, and we are spiritually dead while thinking we are rich and increased with goods. It is the Lord Himself who sends us plagues and evil spirits to us to cause us to err from His ways and harden our hearts from His fear:

Lev 14:34  When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession;

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15  And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Only after He has sent evil spirits to ‘make us to err from [His] ways, and harden our heart from [His] fear’, if He loves us as His bride in this present time (Rom 8:18), then we will suffer with the world, and we will be judged in this age, and be brought to see our “wretched… miserable… poor… blind and naked spiritual condition. Until He does so, we are completely blind to our “wretched and miserable” state:

Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. [“To die shall you be dying” (Gen 2:17 CLV)]
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?

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:

It is our being judged by a loving Father that is the subject of this prophecy of Jeremiah:

Jer 2:4 Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:
Jer 2:5 Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

‘Our fathers’ typify us ourselves. That is a rhetorical question if ever there was one. You and I are the “house of Jacob and the house of Israel”, and it behooves us to remember what Job said when He, too, was being questioned by the Lord:

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?

It is not advisable to contend with and reprove God. It is much better to simply say:

Jer 2:6 …Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?

However, the Truth for every man is that we are all designed by our Creator to ‘lose our first love’ (Rev 2:4) and become unfaithful to Him and begin loving “another Jesus”:

2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

This is what we choose to do to our own spiritual Husband… “not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected [us to this vanity] in hope”:

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,

The Lord is in the process of creating every one of His creatures “in His image”:

Gen 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them. (CLV)

The process of judgment by which the Lord is dragging us to Himself requires that He first causes us to ‘err from His ways and harden our hearts from His judgments’:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy waysand hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Those who possess the keys to the kingdom of God know and see that the very fact that mankind was formed of the dust of the earth on ‘the sixth day’ reveals the temporal and incomplete state of the Lord’s creation of all of mankind “in His image”.  Let’s read it again as inspired of the holy spirit for our edification:

Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanitynot willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

Gen 1:27 …creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them.

Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

“Very good” is not a synonym for ‘complete’. Six is the Lord’s number which signifies that which is not yet complete. Seven is His number which signifies that which is being completed, and we are being completed only after we are given to begin to “enter into His rest”:

Heb 4:1  Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Heb 4:2  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Heb 4:3  For we which have believed [aorist tense] do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished [aorist tense] from the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:4  For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Heb 4:5  And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Heb 4:6  Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Heb 4:7  Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Heb 4:8  For if Jesus [Greek: ‘Joshua’] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Paul is not teaching anything that is not founded in the Old Testament scriptures, which had already revealed that Israel had not yet “entered into the Lord’s rest”:

Psa 95:7  For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.  Today, if you will hear His voice,
Psa 95:8  do not harden your heart as in the day of strife, as in the day of testing in the wilderness.
Psa 95:9  When your fathers tried Me, they tested Me and they saw My work.
Psa 95:10  For forty years I was disgusted with this generation; and I said, They are a people who err in heart; and, They do not know My ways,
Psa 95:11  to whom I swore in My anger, They shall not enter into My rest.

Physical Israel considered the promised land to be “His rest”, and they thought they had ‘entered into’ His rest. The Truth was and is that all the priests and all the people continued to die, generation after generation, but there is no death in the Lord’s true ‘rest’. Nevertheless, this is how the religious world feels toward us until this very day:

2Co 2:14  Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
2Co 2:15  For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
2Co 2:16  To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?

The judgments of this prophecy of Jeremiah are the work of the Lord who is even now “creating… mankind in His image”. He continues to reveal the details of His judgments by which He is creating us in His image:

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.

Exactly when does the Lord begin bringing us into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof? We know that the Lord first comes to us while we are still in Egypt, signifying while we are still in this world following all its ways.

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

If Christ waited until we were out of sin to come to us and give us life, then we would never be given life because we are His workmanship, even while we are yet “dead in [our] sins” (Pro 16:4 and Isa 63:17).

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of [our] works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

After Christ comes to us, we, the Lord’s Israel, must first endure a symbolic forty years of wondering in the wilderness, where we “ten times” rebel against Him and His ways:

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
Num 14:23  Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

It is our old man who rebels and tempts the Lord “ten times” and “cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1Co 15:50). When Moses wrote these words, Israel had already been given the law. They had been given the priesthood, and they had been instructed in how to approach the Lord. They had been sanctified and prepared to occupy the land. Nevertheless, our flesh is hesitant to depend entirely upon the Word of the Lord, and we want to first see for ourselves if we think we can take the land:

Deu 1:19  And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadeshbarnea.
Deu 1:20  And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God doth give unto us.
Deu 1:21  Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.
Deu 1:22  And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.
Deu 1:23  And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe:
Deu 1:24  And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out.
Deu 1:25  And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us.
Deu 1:26  Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God:
Deu 1:27  And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
Deu 1:28  Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.
Deu 1:29  Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.
Deu 1:30  The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;
Deu 1:31  And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.

Just a few months earlier, while yet at Mount Sinai, the Lord had sanctified the people and had proclaimed them to be “…a nation of priest and an holy nation”:

Exo 19:6  And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Exo 19:7  And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.
Exo 19:8  And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.
Exo 19:9  And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD.
Exo 19:10  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,
Exo 19:11  And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.

By the Lord’s own design, to show us how unworthy of the kingdom of heaven our flesh is, the “kingdom of priests” proved to be just a shadow of the true “kings and priests” of:

Rev 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
Rev 1:5  And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Again, the antitype of the “kingdom of priests”… the four and twenty elders and the four beasts around the throne of God reveal to us who they themselves are and who they signify:

Rev 5:6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
Rev 5:7  And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
Rev 5:8  And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Rev 5:9  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Rev 5:10  And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

As newborn “carnal babes in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4) we, too, are the priests of whom the Lord declares:

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.

That is what we do as carnal babes in Christ, who think we have been baptized in the spirit and yet have no clue of the fact that it is we who “cannot receive the things of the spirit for [the things of the spirit] are foolishness unto [us]” at that stage of our walk.

1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

As with so many things in scripture, the same symbol has both a positive and a negative signification. Coming out of Egypt in one sense signifies our coming out of sin. In a more mature sense, coming out of Egypt signifies that we are nothing more than “carnal babes in Christ” who are not yet even aware that we must yet pass from Egypt into forty years of rebellion in the wilderness, followed by years of warring against the giants we find to be occupying our promised land. After warring against the giants in our land, in the end we are forced to acknowledge that we cannot fight this fight on our own, and we begin being overcome of those giants. Only after we have been overcome by our own lack of knowledge and strength, and by our own weaknesses and passions, then by the Lord’s sovereign mercy, we are carried away captive into Babylon for seventy years. The Lord does not let His elect return to Egypt, but He does make them to be carried away into the lies and slavery of Babylon for a symbolic seventy years:

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2  As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.
Hos 11:3  I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.
Hos 11:4  I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.
Hos 11:5  He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian [Babylon] shall be his king, because they refused to return.

It is here in Babylon where we begin to complete our preparation to receive “the redemption of the purchased possession.” It is here in Babylon that we are brought to our wits’ end and begin to be delivered from slavery to all false and lying doctrines of men:

Mic 4:10  Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.
Mic 4:11  Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.
Mic 4:12  But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
Mic 4:13  Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn [a rod of] iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.

The whole world is waiting for “the daughter of Zion” to be given a rod of iron to rule the kingdoms of this world as one single “kingdom of our God”:

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption [Greek: G2506, uihothesia, sonship], whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christif so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

All the suffering of the judgments of this prophecy of Jeremiah are not worthy to be compared to the glory which will be revealed in us if we are granted to endure that suffering to the end of this age:

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.

The “manifest sons of God” are also called “the Lamb’s bride”, and Paul even tells us:

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.

We as “a chaste virgin to Christ” are therefore the “virgins” who make up “the Lamb’s bride”:

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.
Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

In Revelation 19 we are told:

Rev 19:6  And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Rev 19:9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

The ‘blessing’ of being “called to the marriage supper of the Lamb“ is the very same blessing upon those who are given “part in the first resurrection” because the first resurrection and the marriage supper of the Lamb are both the same one event:

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
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.

It is the next chapter of Revelation where we are called both “the New Jerusalem” and “the Lamb’s wife”:

Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Rev 21:4  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Rev 21:5  And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
Rev 21:6  And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
Rev 21:7  He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Rev 21:8  But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

This “New Jerusalem” is also called “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”:

Rev 21:9  And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
Rev 21:10  And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
Rev 21:11  Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

Notice very closely that Romans 8:18 says, “the suffering of this present time.” It does not mention the suffering of the Old Testament prophets and patriarchs. They are not being considered in “this present time”. Neither is the suffering of those who are “cast alive into the lake of fire” considered to be “the sufferings of this present time”.

For this glorious reason Jeremiah declares:

Jer 2:9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead.

“Your children’s children” are those who are the children of their Father Christ and “His generation”. The holy spirit poses the rhetorical question:

Isa 53:8  He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Act 8:33  In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.

Here are those who will “declare His generation:

Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

It is not one modern-day Christian in a million who is given to believe or understand:

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

It is “Jerusalem above” who will “declare His generation”. Though we are few in number in this age, we will become the ‘mother… the Lamb’s bride” who will be the mother of all men of all time who will come up at the great white throne to be judged of their mother, the Lord’s elect of this present time, who will “fill Him who fills all in all”:

Eph 1:22  And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23  Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

That is our study for today. Here are the verses we hope to cover next Sunday:

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?
Jer 2:15  The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.
Jer 2:16  Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head.
Jer 2:17  Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?
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, to drink the waters of the river?
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, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

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