Jer 4:1-9 – Break Up Your Fallow Ground, and Sow Not Among Thorns

[Study Aired February 21, 2021]

Jer 4:1  If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.
Jer 4:2  And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
Jer 4:3  For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
Jer 4:4  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
Jer 4:5  Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities.
Jer 4:6  Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
Jer 4:7  The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
Jer 4:8  For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
Jer 4:9  And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.

The title of this study comes from verse 3 and is in effect an admonition to “occupy till I come”. That is what Christ told His disciples in this parable:

Luk 19:11  And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.
Luk 19:12  He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
Luk 19:13  And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.

The opposite of “occupy till I come” is to leave your ground “fallow”. It is “hiding your talent in the ground, and doing nothing with it:

Mat 25:24  Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
Mat 25:25  And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

The opposite of fallow ground and the way we ‘occupy and break up our fallow ground’ is “return[ing] unto… the Lord… in truth, in judgment and in righteousness, and seeking first the kingdom of God’. Returning to the Lord means that we are seeking Him and His kingdom before anything and everything else.

That is the admonition we are given here in Jeremiah 4:

Jer 4:1  If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.
Jer 4:2  And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
Jer 4:3  For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

These three verses taken alone might lead us to believe we can simply repent of our sins and thereby avoid the fiery judgments of the wrath of God. However, Jeremiah goes on to make clear that is not the case:

Jer 4:7  The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

We will discuss this verse more when we get to it, but suffice it to say “no man can enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels is fulfilled”:

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Our next verse here in Jeremiah reveals that the ritual of circumcision was but a type of the spiritual circumcision of the heart:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

The Old Testament covenant the Lord made with Abraham was over 400 years prior to His covenant with Israel to keep the law of Moses. It was a covenant to ritually circumcise all the males in Abraham’s house. It was prior to the law of Moses and was a mere symbol of spiritual circumcision which would come only after the law brought us to Christ. This spiritual application is revealed here in Jeremiah even though it was not given them to see that physical circumcision was just a shadow of the coming spiritual reality:

Jer 4:4  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

Removing the foreskins of our hearts is breaking up our fallow ground. Spiritual circumcision is the reality which is symbolized by physical circumcision and has the same meaning as physical water baptism. Both symbolize being washed and putting off the filthiness of our corruptible flesh. Notice how the outward physical symbols of the Old Testament and the law of Moses are being replaced with the inward spiritual realities of “the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2) in the New Testament:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Gal 6:2  Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

When the Lord finally gives the apostles the understanding that they are no longer under the law of Moses, it is also revealed that the only ‘water’ that will wash us clean of our sins is “the washing of water by the word”.

So, we need to know how does our believing Christ and His words cleanse us? How does His word cleanse and purify us? The answer is that it does so through physical and mental pain, symbolized by the fiery trials we endure when “judgment begins at the house of God”:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

“Fiery trials… [are] to try us”. There is no way to get to the tree of life but to go through the “flaming [fiery] sword [“trials”] which keeps the way [of] the tree of life”:

Gen 3:24  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

The “flaming sword… turns every way” because it is ever vigilant to burn out of us every false doctrine which is contrary to “the way, the Truth and the Life” which is Christ and His doctrines:

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

If this statement is true, then Christ is symbolized by both the tree of life and by the flaming sword which guards the way of the Tree of Life.

The entire prophecy of Jeremiah is all about this fiery process of being purified by fire, which Paul tells us we are enduring at this very moment if we are Christ’s:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the [fiery] 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 redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph 1:14)].

Peter told us “judgment must begin at the house of God”, but Paul tells us that in time judgment is coming to “every man” and it is described in fiery words:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

In our next chapter Jeremiah gives us the Biblical meaning of the symbolism of ‘fire’. This is the meaning, whether it is speaking of “My words in your mouth” or “hell (Gehenna) fire”:

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Mat 5:21  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
Mat 5:22  But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell [Greek: Gehenna] fire.

This entire prophecy of Jeremiah is addressed primarily to the Lord’s elect and concerns their ‘fiery’ judgment for all their sins and iniquities.

The words “sow not among the thorns” admonish us that the fiery words of Christ will devour our old man with all of His rebellious, lying, false doctrines.

Isa 10:17  And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;

Isa 27:4  Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.

Here is the Biblical symbolism of ‘briers and thorns’:

Eze 2:6 And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns [H5544: sillon/sallon] be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

This same Hebrew word is translated as ‘brier’ (briar) in this verse:

Eze 28:24  And there shall be no more a pricking brier [H5544: sillon, salon] unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn [H6975: qots] all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

In the New Testament the word ‘thorn’ carries the same meaning of false, lying words when Christ says:

Mat 13:22  He also that received seed among the thorns [G173: akantha] is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

Briars and thorns “choke the word” because they are false doctrines and lies which make us to “become unfruitful”.

What the Lord is telling us is that we must stop believing and teaching falsehoods, such as the false doctrine of a substitutionary atonement, or the doctrines which deny His fiery judgments. We should instead be teaching the Truth, which is that “every man’s works shall be… revealed by fire”, and that we are expected of our Lord to “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice… die daily… [and be] crucified with Christ”:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

The verbs of 1^st Corinthians 3:13 are all in the future tense, because Paul is speaking of judgment which awaits “every man” and not just the elect. The other three verses in Romans, 1^st Corinthians 15:31 and Galatian 2:20 are all in the aorist tense because he is speaking of a process which must begin taking place before we can begin to enter into our inheritance within the kingdom of God. This process of judgment must begin within us before we can begin to enter the house of our Husband, the temple of Christ (Rev 15:8).

All the doctrines of Christ have been taken away from the Lord’s harlot wife, His harlot church:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! [Rev 17-18] it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;

Rev 18:24  And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

With this understanding, Jeremiah continues:

Jer 4:5  Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities.
Jer 4:6  Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
Jer 4:7  The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

“The lion is come up from his thicket” is a type of our adversary the devil:

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

The “blow[ing of] the trumpet [and the] evil… and a great destruction [coming] from the north” both symbolize the blowing of the seven trumpets of our judgment which will, in time, “make our spiritual cities desolate” and waste and destroy the kingdom of our rebellious and stubborn old man:

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

Here is the John Mitchell Version of this verse:

1Co 10:11   Now all these things went on progressively stepping together among (to) those folks typically (as examples; figuratively), and it was written with a view toward a placing [of them] into the minds of us: ones unto whom (directed into whom) the ends (conjunctions; or: goals) of the ages have come down to (arrived at) and are now face to face [with us]. (JMV)

Here is our introduction to the seven trumpet judgments, the last of which is the seven bowls which “fill up the wrath of God” upon the great whore within us and upon the entire kingdom of our old man:

Rev 8:1  And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
Rev 8:2  And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
Rev 8:3  And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
Rev 8:4  And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.
Rev 8:5  And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
Rev 8:6  And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

“The destroyer of the Gentiles” is the Gentile king who, as ‘the seed of the serpent’, seeks to devour the ‘seed of the woman’ – the Lord’s elect. Inwardly you and I see this “destroyer” every morning in our mirrors. He is by far the worst enemy you and I will ever meet in this life. He is the “man of sin… standing in the holy place in “the temple… which [we] are”, claiming to be God”:

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin [“the beast” within] be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God [“… which temple ye are…” 1Co 3:16-17], shewing himself that he is God.

Our only hope of defeating this monster is through “the faith of Jesus Christ” and through “the washing of water by the Word”:

Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

“His heel” means our walk… our way of life… our way of life under his influence. “Thy head” is our way of thinking, which in time will “bruise his head” and will dominate our way of life through “the faith of Jesus Christ”. Remember the Lord has just admonished us:

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:14  Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
Jer 3:15  And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

This fourth chapter continues with this same theme as we just read:

Jer 4:4  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

This verse taken by itself deceives us into thinking that if we repent we can avoid being chastened for our sins. The Truth is to be found only in “the sum of [His] words”:

Psa 119:160  The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever. (ASV)

“The sum of [His] words” reveals that the Lord “chastens and scourges every son He receives” (Heb 12:6), and “the fire tries the works of “every man”, and “no man might enter into the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels is fulfilled within our lives (Rev 15:7-8):

1Co 3:13  Every man‘s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man‘s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

This chapter goes on to reveal what “My fury coming forth like fire” means. It means that the trumpet of judgment produces war in our heavens, and that ‘war’ is certain:

Rev 12:7  And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels going forth to war with the dragon; and the dragon warred and his angels;
Rev 12:8  And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him. (ASV)

That ‘war’ and the Lord’s fury are unavoidable “because of the evil of [our] doings”. Our judgment is coming “out of the north” via a Gentile who will be used by the Lord to judge our old man. That “destroyer of the Gentiles” is our old man whose own mouth is used by the Lord to judge us. We are all in a net we have prepared for ourselves, and we are caught in our own net with our own words:

Job 18:8  For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.

Job 19:6  Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

Psa 66:11  Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins.

Luk 19:22  And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

When we acknowledge our own iniquity and transgressions, we still must endure our own judgment:

Jer 4:8  For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.

Verse 8 is a foundation for these words in the revelation of Jesus Christ within each of us:

Rev 15:6  And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

The beast giving the seven vials to the seven angels, the temple filling up with smoke, and the entering the temple are one and all in the aorist tense. Greek has a past, present and future tense just as English has all three tenses, plus the aorist tense (not used in English) which can denote all three, a continuance of what was begun. Therefore, when the holy spirit defers to the aorist tense there is a particularly good reason for doing so. That reason is that the words of this prophecy have been being ‘read, being heard, and have been being kept’ for the past two thousand years:

Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation [reading, hearing, and keeping the things written] shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

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.

What this is telling us is that the process of being judged continues when these seven vials are being poured out. These seven vials (bowls) are the seventh trumpet, and this is what we are told of the seventh trump:

Rev 10:7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

Both verbs ‘begin’ and ‘sound’ are in the present tense because both have been ‘presently’ taking place within the lives of the Lord’s elect every day since those words were written, and they are taking place within us even now if we are the Lord’s elect. The fact that the word “begin” is used demonstrates a process is taking place.

Our harlot mother taught us that if we simply accept Christ as our savior, then we are good to go. “Christ died for us so we have no need to die”, so she told us. It is called “the doctrine of substitutionary atonement”, and it is one of the most insidious and lascivious lies of the great whore and her daughters. Nothing could be less truthful when the entire message of the scripture is:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

We are both judged, and we are “saved… by fire”. The Truth of the scriptures is that “No man [is] able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels is fulfilled” in our lives.

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

The Truth of the scriptures is that Christ did not die for us so we would not have to die, rather He died for our sins so we, too, could “be crucified with Him… filling up in our bodies what is behind of His afflictions… for His body’s sake which is the church”:

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:

The word translated as ‘behind’ here in Colossians 1:24 in the King James is:

G5303
ὑστέρημα
husterēma
hoos-ter’-ay-mah
From G5302; a deficit; specifically poverty: – that which is behind, (that which was) lack (-ing), penury, want.

If indeed Christ’s death were in substitution for our death, then why are we instructed to “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice unto God”? If Christ’s death is in substitution for our death, then why must we also “die daily” and be “crucified with Christ”? The obvious answer is that there must be something which is “behind… [lacking] of His afflictions”, as we are explicitly told there in Colossians 1:24.

That is exactly what Christ also told us earlier, hidden from this world in these words:

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Based on these words, it follows that we, too, must be “crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20)… and fill up what is behind of His afflictions for His body’s sake which is the church (Col 1:24).

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

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:

For the benefit of any who doubt that the Greek word ‘husterema’ means “lacking”, here are a couple examples of how this word is used elsewhere in the New Testament:

1Co 16:17  I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for that which was lacking [G5303: husterema, lacking] on your part they have supplied.

2Co 11:9  And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking [G5303: husterema, lacking] to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.

After this process of judgment has begun to take place within us…

Jer 4:9  And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.

“The heart of the king” is the heart and mind of our old man within us. The ‘princes, priests and prophets’ symbolize all the principalities and powers of all the false doctrines within us. All those false doctrines within us have begun to fall, and this is what they are “wondering”:

Rev 18:18  And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!
Rev 18:19  And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

When the knowledge of the sovereign God begins to be made known to us, the Lord’s work within us, from the Lord’s perspective, is “a short work”:

Rom 9:28  For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

That is our study for today. Here are our verses for our next study which will reveal more of our sins and more of the details of our judgment at the hands of our jealous Husband:

Jer 4:10  Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.
Jer 4:11  At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,
Jer 4:12  Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.
Jer 4:13  Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.
Jer 4:14  O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
Jer 4:15  For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.
Jer 4:16  Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
Jer 4:17  As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.
Jer 4:18  Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.
Jer 4:19  My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Jer 4:20  Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.