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The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 4:21-31 The Whole Land Shall be Desolate – Yet Will I not Make a Full End

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Jer 4:21-31 The Whole Land Shall be Desolate – Yet Will I Not Make a Full End

[Study Aired March 7, 2021]

Jer 4:21  How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
Jer 4:22  For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Jer 4:23  I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Jer 4:24  I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
Jer 4:25  I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
Jer 4:26  I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
Jer 4:27  For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
Jer 4:28  For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
Jer 4:29  The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
Jer 4:30  And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.
Jer 4:31  For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

Jer 4:21  How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

Outwardly Jeremiah is a prophecy of the impending Babylonian invasion and conquering of Judah and Jerusalem for rejecting their God and rebelling against His ways. “How long shall I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet” can be taken to be speaking of the standard and trumpet of the watchmen, warning the Lord’s people of their coming judgment. The standard and trumpet can also apply to the standard of the invading Babylonians and their trumpets which call their troops to begin the invasion and destruction of the Lord’s people for their sins and transgressions against their own Lord. Both scenarios bring about the same intended end – the judgment of the Lord’s rebellious people.

Jer 4:22  For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

This is the condition of humankind by nature. No man yet ever had to be instructed in how to lie, cheat or steal. Simply being placed into the proper situation to be tempted to lie, we of ourselves all succumb under enough pressure to do so. It is so easy to rationalize how it is much better to lie than to tell the truth. The same applies to cheating and stealing. In our self-righteousness we have no trouble at all telling ourselves that it is much better to cheat than to fail. Stealing is just as easy for our old man. He simply tells himself how much good he can do for himself and perhaps even for others if He just takes a little unearned substance or undeserved credit for how the Lord works. Because lightning does not immediately descend from heaven and strike us dead for our sins and transgressions, it very soon gets to the point that we do not even bother to rationalize our sins.

Ecc 8:11  Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily” we just shamelessly pursue and satisfy our own deceitful lusts. As Jeremiah reveals just a few chapters later:

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The great motivational speakers of this world universally tell us to “follow your heart” while Christ warns us against being so foolish as to do so. Our heart is deceitful and wicked, and our Lord “searches” our hearts.

Rev 2:20  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
Rev 2:21  And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
Rev 2:22  Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
Rev 2:23  And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

An unrepentant, lascivious, stubborn heart is the meaning of our next verse:

Jer 4:23  I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

The ‘earth’ is clearly a reference to the Lord’s own chosen people who have turned away from Him to commit spiritual fornication with the ways of our flesh. The twenty-second chapter of Jeremiah is addressed specifically to the king and the people of Judah, the Lord’s own people:

Jer 22:1  Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

Then the Lord, speaking to this same audience says:

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

“The earth… was without form and void” is just another way of saying “the earth… and the heavens… have no light” because they have no knowledge of their God. They have turned their back on Him and have committed spiritual fornication against Him.

The Lord has been very merciful and has not speedily executed His sentence against all the evil we have committed against Him. We have heaped up to ourselves the Lord’s wrath against the day of His wrath.

Yes, it is true:

Ecc 8:11  Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

This is also true:

Ecc 11:9  Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes:  but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

The Lord does not change. He is still the same in the New Testament. The longer we refuse to repent, the more fuel we are storing up for His fiery judgments within us.

Rom 2:2  But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
Rom 2:3  And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
Rom 2:5  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
Rom 2:6  Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

That is the message of this prophecy of Jeremiah:

Jer 4:24  I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
Jer 4:25  I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
Jer 4:26  I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

It is the mountains and hills, the very foundations of all the false doctrines within us, which tremble at the Lord’s presence and at the knowledge of His mind and His doctrines. The ‘man and the birds of the heavens’ of verse 25 are also the symbols of our old man and all his false doctrines, respectively. We, and all our lying false doctrines, flee at the presence of the Lord and His Truth. His Truth is called “fire in [the] mouth” of His prophets (Jer 5:14), and the fire consumes our old man and his entire kingdom.

Outwardly “at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger” refers to the coming of the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to destroy and burn down the cities of Judah and the city of Jerusalem for rejecting their own God.

We happen to be living at a time when this prophecy is being fulfilled both inwardly and outwardly for the very same reason. We have all rejected the Lord’s words inwardly, and this world has rejected them and is rejecting them outwardly and reaping the fruits of that rejection.

Jer 4:27  For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

The land shall be desolate, yet the Lord will not make a full end because He has promised in the previous chapter:

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:

One of a city and two of a family is indeed a mere remnant in “this present time” (Rom 8:18) but the Lord will use that ‘remnant’, which has been accumulating for the past two thousand years, as the “saviors” of all the rest of mankind who have ever lived:

Isa 1:9  Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Thankfully there will be a remnant who will fulfill:

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.

Isa 58:1  Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

Before we can become saviors we, too, must first be judged for our sins:

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?

The “earth” is the Lord’s own people, so these words are first for us:

Jer 4:28  For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

The Lord has made all things for Himself, yes even the wicked man within us for the day of evil within us. That ‘day of evil’ begins when we are born:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.

Our heavens above are black, and our experience is evil because of the nature of our earthy composition. In scripture the opposite of ‘heaven’ is not ‘hell’. In scriptural terms the opposite of the heavens is “the earth” from which we are made:

Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Contrary to what the great whore and her daughters teach, we are not spirits having a natural experience. Rather we are natural, dust and clay, earthy creatures having a spiritual experience, as the scriptures plainly state:

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

This is 1 Corinthians 15. It is known as ‘the resurrection chapter’, and this is all being said in hope of a resurrection.

However, our earth has a heavens in which the fowls of our heavens fly:

Gen 1:20  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

We may be totally unaware of it being so, but the fact is that our earth is ruled by the clouds of its heavens:

Job 36:27  For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:
Job 36:28  Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.
Job 36:29  Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?
Job 36:30  Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea.
Job 36:31  For by them [by the clouds] judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance.
Job 36:32  With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt.

This is how we are being judged by our own heavens:

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace;

The English words ‘bottomless pit’ are translated from the Greek words ‘abussos’ G12, ‘deep, sea… bottomless’, and G5421, ‘phrear’, pit, well.

Here is Strong’s definition of this Greek word ‘abussos’:

We must always “try the spirit” of Strong’s definitions with how the holy spirit uses a word. So here is how the holy spirit uses this Greek word ‘abussos’ in the New Testament:

This word is translated as bottomless only two times, not seven times as stated here. This word ‘bottomless’ is only found in the book of Revelation. The other two appearances of this Greek word ‘abussos’ outside of the book of Revelation are:

Luk 8:31  And they [the demons in the Gadarene demoniac] besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep [Greek:  G12 abussos, the sea of Galilee].

Rom 10:7  Or, Who shall descend into the deep [Greek:  G12, abussos]? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

According to Romans 10:7, those in the ‘abussos’ are spiritually dead, as Christ Himself asserted:

Mat 8:21  And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Mat 8:22  But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

Whether the adversary is hedged out (Job 1:10 and Mar 12:1) or is given to attack the Lord’s elect, it is the Lord’s elect the adversary wants most. The adversary knew this demoniac was about to be delivered, and they did not want to return to the uncalled who are the ‘sea’ of mankind (Mat 18:6, Rev 13:1)

Job 1:7  And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. [“Seeking whom he may devour” (1Pe 5:8)].

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

Job 1:8  And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:9  Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10  Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Mar 12:1  And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.

Satan’s domain is in the ‘sea’ of unconverted mankind, but he is keen to expand his dominion into the chosen of God at any opportunity. That is the function of “the adversary… the tempter”.

Mat 18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 18:5  And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
Mat 18:6  But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat [Greek: ‘thronos’ – throne, his kingdom], and great authority.

Satan’s most prized target whom He seeks to devour is the “manchild” (Rev 12:3-4), the Lord’s elect.

Luk 22:28  Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.
Luk 22:29  And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
Luk 22:30  That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child [you and me] as soon as it was born.

Here is Strong’s definition of the Greek word ‘phrear’:

This is where this word appears in the Greek manuscripts:

In John 4 the Samaritan woman tells Christ:

Joh 4:11  The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well [G5421: phrear, the pit] is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

It is interesting to notice that the first two times the phrase ‘bottomless pit’ appears, it is translated from two Greek words, the words ‘abussos‘ and ‘phrear’. The Greek word ‘abussos’ is translated as ‘bottomless’ and is found only in these two verses. Where the word ‘bottomless’ appears in the KJV outside these two verses, it is simply being added by the translators, and does not appear in any Greek manuscript.

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless [G12: abussos] pit [G5421: phrear].
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless [G12:  abussos] pit [G5421: phrear]; and there arose a smoke out of the pit [G5421: phrear], as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit [G5421: phrear].

Revelation 9:1-2 is the only time those two words are found together. All the rest of the other five appearances of the phrase ‘bottomless pit’ is simply the Greek word ‘phrear’ – pit.

In scripture the word ‘deep’ often means the ‘sea’:

Luk 8:31  And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep [sea].

A better translation of Revelation 9:1-2 would be to replace the phrase ‘bottomless pit’ with the words ‘deep pit’. The sea is the ‘deep pit’ of dying flesh out of which all the Lord’s people are called. That is why Christ says that if we come to Him, we “pass from death unto life”:

Joh 5:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

1Jn 3:14  We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

All of Satan’s attempts to destroy “the man child”, the Lord’s elect, are used by the Lord to chasten and scourge every son He receives, just as he was sent by the Lord to try Job and chasten him for his self-righteousness. Job was chastened of the Lord as a type of those whom the Lord loves in this present time:

Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Job 2:5  But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

This typifies how the Lord deals with us if we are His “very elect”:

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.

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.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

This is what the Lord is doing in this prophecy.

Jer 4:29  The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
Jer 4:30  And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

“The whole city” is all our false doctrines within our Babylonian world where we are being carried away as a captive for our sins which already align with the doctrines of Babylon. Nevertheless, in our darkened and deceived minds we do not recognize our own deceived and blinded condition.

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Joh 6:65  And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

The generation which entered into the promised land came out of the generation whose “carcases fell in the wilderness”. We cannot and must not tell ourselves we are the generation that entered into the promised land, but we have nothing in common either with those whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. Rather, we must remember that “all things are [ours]”, both life and death. Then, and only then, can we understand that it is our own old man who is typified by those whose carcasses died in the wilderness:

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Heb 3:17  But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

“The world” is “the wilderness”, and that is where we find the Lord’s adulterous wife within each of us as we “read… hear… and keep the things written in the book of Revelation (Rev 1:3):

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

This is the same woman who flees into the wilderness in:

Rev 12:1  And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
Rev 12:2  And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Notice, “her child was caught up unto God and to His throne”:

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

The woman herself “fled into the wilderness”, where she is nourished of God for “a thousand two hundred and threescore days”. 1260 days is the same as the forty and two months, 42 x 30=1260, during which the beast rules in our lives.

Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:5  And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months [1260 days].

Here is the birth of this manchild:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Our judgment is the death of our old man, and it is “through death” we are given life:

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

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

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: [“We are…His flesh and…His bone” Eph 5:30]

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Likewise, it is through the death of the harlot Babylon that we become the faithful bride of Christ:

Isa 40:2  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins [Rev 18:6].

Isa 61:7  For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.

The great whore of Revelation 17-18 is backslidden Israel, and the salvation within us comes to us only through her death:

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

It is our birth in Christ which in time destroys our mother Babylon. In that sense Rachel typified Babylon when she died while giving birth to Benjamin, who in the story of Joseph typifies the Lord’s elect:

Gen 35:18  And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.

This is how our study ends:

Jer 4:31  For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

It is only through the curse of death that our blessings all come. Here is the New Testament interpretation of this verse of Jeremiah:

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

The death of our mother Babylon is the birth of Christ within us, the “man child” turning every curse into a blessing for them who love God and are the called according to his purpose:

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

That concludes our study, and it concludes this fourth chapter of Jeremiah. Here are our verses for our next study:

Jer 5:1  Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
Jer 5:2  And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.
Jer 5:3  O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
Jer 5:4  Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
Jer 5:5  I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

Jer 5:6  Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
Jer 5:7  How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
Jer 5:8  They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
Jer 5:9  Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jer 5:10  Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’S.
Jer 5:11  For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.
Jer 5:12  They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
Jer 5:13  And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.

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