Jer 6:1-15 The Shepherds… Pitch Their Tents Against [Jerusalem]

[Study Aired March 28, 2021]

Jer 6:1  O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.
Jer 6:2  I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.
Jer 6:3  The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.
Jer 6:4  Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.
Jer 6:5  Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.
Jer 6:6  For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
Jer 6:7  As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.
Jer 6:8  Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.
Jer 6:9  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall throughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back thine hand as a grapegatherer into the baskets.
Jer 6:10  To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
Jer 6:11  Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.
Jer 6:12  And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.
Jer 6:13  For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
Jer 6:14  They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
Jer 6:15  Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

Benjamin, Tekoa, and Bethaccerem are all tribes and cities of the southern kingdom of Judah with its capital city of Jerusalem.

Jer 6:1  O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.

“The trumpet” and “a sign of fire” are both symbols of the impending judgment of which the Lord has been warning His people for many decades prior to the actual invasion of Judah and Jerusalem. Over seventy years earlier the prophet Isaiah had warned:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isa 1:22  Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
Isa 1:23  Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
Isa 1:24  Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

The Lord warns us of our sins for decades before He judges us and brings us face to face with how we all reprove, correct, and condemn Him for His ways, while simultaneously playing the part of a self-righteous harlot (Job 40:1-8). “The faithful city” means ‘the once faithful city’ is now become a spiritual harlot who is anything but faithful. Just as Gamaliel warned the Sanhedrin against punishing Christ’s witnesses, His apostles, the Lord still to this very day uses Babylon’s own prophets to warn Babylon that they may find themselves warring against God Himself:

Act 5:34  Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;
Act 5:35  And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take      heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.
Act 5:36  For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.
Act 5:37  After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.
Act 5:38  And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:
Act 5:39  But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

The Lord uses this world and Babylon to bring us to where He can begin judging us. That is why we are told:

Deu 23:7  Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land.

As we mature with the mind of Christ, we are given to appreciate both our time in Babylon, symbolized by “an Edomite… your brother” and “an Egyptian”, symbolizing the world into which the Lord brought us.

Jeremiah continues with this theme of the infidelity of the Lord’s wife and her impending judgment:

Jer 6:2  I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.

Every harlot was first an untested, untried virgin, and every spiritual virgin must come to see herself as having become a self-righteous harlot, full of the false doctrines of her lovers.

Jer 6:3  The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

Our spiritual ‘lovers’ are first false prophets who utterly and maliciously hate the doctrines of our true Husband, Christ. Throughout scripture, whether in Eden or in Noah’s day or in the days of the patriarchs or the judges or the kings, the Lord always caused men to err from His ways, hardened their hearts and then judged their sinful flesh and blood as unworthy to inherit the kingdom of God.

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.

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God [because the] Lord has… made us to err from [His] ways, and hardened out hearts from His fear, and the wages of sin is death.” The Lord has “made [us] wicked” (Pro 16:4), “given [us all] an experience of evil” (Ecc 1:13) by “making [us, by His design] of the earth, earthy… [and] corruptible:

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

Why is all of this as it is? The answer is made clear in nature itself. Every larva is an earthbound worm before it becomes a flying insect. So it also is with mankind:

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

The scriptures liken us all to a worm as “we… bear the image of the earthy”:

Job 17:14  I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

Job 25:6  How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?

Psa 22:6  But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

The reason why mankind is living in sinful flesh and blood is that the creation process is not yet completed. God is still in the process of ‘creating man 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 number six signifies the incomplete state of mankind who was created on the sixth day along with all the other beasts, and the scripture makes clear that without Christ in us, we are mere beasts:

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

The scriptures also make truly clear that mankind will not be completed until he enters into the Lord’s rest on the seventh day. The seventh day signifies entering into Christ and dying to our old man and all his works:

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 4:10  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 (into Christ), lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

The Truth of the scriptures is that flesh and blood never was intended to inherit the kingdom of God:

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

As nature itself demonstrates, our “flesh and blood” bodies, like the larvae of a fly or the caterpillar of a butterfly, are nothing more than belly-crawling worms which must die and be “dissolved” before they can be transformed into the flying insects which they were intended from the beginning to become.

What this all means is that our old man was doomed to destruction by God’s design from the very beginning in Eden. The “woe” and dying, and destruction of our old man is the dissolving process through which our new man is being perfected.

Jer 6:4  Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.
Jer 6:5  Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.

Are the shepherds preparing war “at noon” or are they “going up by night” to destroy the palaces of the people of God? Hosea answers this question calling the shepherds “the prophet, [and] priest”. We fall “in the day, and the prophet also shall fall in the night”:

Hos 4:5  Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.
Hos 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

As “Jerusalem above is the mother of us all”, so also is physical Jerusalem the ‘mother’ of the nation of Judah, and she is still the typical ‘mother’ of all Babylonian Christians. All efforts to the contrary, her judgment is already decreed and will be carried out by the Lord. The efforts of all the united churches of Babylon to “stand with Israel” does not make His rejected anointed any more acceptable to the Lord than was King Saul:

1Sa 15:20  And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
1Sa 15:21  But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
1Sa 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
1Sa 15:24  And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words:  because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
1Sa 15:25  Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
1Sa 15:26  And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.
1Sa 15:27  And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.
1Sa 15:28  And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.

We cannot blatantly disobey the Lord, spit in His face, and then tell Him we did so to let Him know how much we love and respect Him. Such a person is the Lord’s rejected anointed. “The Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

Inwardly we are experiencing that judgment now, in this present time, and as such we are not being rejected because we ‘acknowledge our iniquities and transgressions’:

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.

Insincere ‘repentance’ always attempts to justify itself:

1Sa 15:20  And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD [partially], and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
1Sa 15:21  But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.

Outward Jerusalem is simply groaning and travailing in pain together with us, in this present time, but with none of the benefits of being judged spiritually at this time:

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.

So “ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the spirit” groan within ourselves [because] “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God”, and that judgment is indeed a “fiery trial”:

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 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

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?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Our judgment is decreed, and the Lord will not go back on His own Words:

Jer 6:6  For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
Jer 6:7  As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.

Our rebellion begins while we are still in the promised land and while we serve as shepherds who lead the Lord’s people away from His ways. Our self-righteous life of blinded, defiant ‘Christians’ who were all along serving “another Jesus”, had us casting out [our] wickedness” while violently denying the doctrines of Christ. Inwardly we should all see ourselves as Job came to see himself, as “vile [and as] chief… of… sinners”:

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.

1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Such an attitude does not just naturally manifest in our self-righteous old man, and we are not “easy to be entreated” when we are blatantly teaching and living lives in direct contradiction to the life and words of our Lord:

Jer 6:8  Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.

Jas 3:17  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

In this context, “Jerusalem” is the great whore of Revelation 17-18. She cannot be instructed simply because she “cannot hear [the Lord’s] words”. Here are the Lord’s words to our rebellious old man while we are yet in our old harlot mother, ‘Jerusalem’:

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Our old man is our carnal-minded, rebellious flesh and blood which “cannot enter the kingdom of heaven” and was “made to be taken and destroyed:

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter:

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

We are all “natural brute beasts” before Christ comes to His temple and begins to judge us and to take our old man and destroy him daily with the brightness of His coming:

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

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

2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

When Christ is finished purifying His house, it will be a very thorough house cleaning, a purifying of our heavens:

Job 15:15  Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens [His saints] are not clean in his sight.

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens [“His saints”, Job 15:15] should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves [“His saints”, Job 15:15] with better sacrifices than these.

This is what the Lord is doing with us, as His firstfruits, at this very moment:

Jer 6:9  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall throughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back thine hand as a grapegatherer into the baskets.

This verse is addressed first and primarily to “the remnant of Israel”, the Lord’s elect. It is you and I who must first be judged by the Lord’s fiery wrath against our carnal-minded old man. Being the first to endure that judgment is “the patience of the saints, the keeping of the commandments, and the faith of Jesus”:

Rev 14:6  And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

There is a ‘death’ which is “blessed” and there is a “second death” which is “cursed”. One ‘death’ precedes the other, but both ‘deaths’ are the fruit of enduring the same fiery words of the judgments of our Lord. The “few” who are granted to be judged first are blessed and holy, and the rest are “Ye cursed”:

Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Joh 5:27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [Greek: krisis, judgment].

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 [Had already endured the fire and brimstone judgment of Christ], 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.

Anything the Lord does is done thoroughly. However, He makes it abundantly clear that it is very few who are given to be purified first in “this present time”, in ‘this age’:

Jer 6:10  To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

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

This “many are called but few are chosen” doctrine pervades scripture. Few indeed are given to even acknowledge their own iniquity and to see or hear the words of our Lord:

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.

Mat 20:16  So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

Mat 22:11  And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
Mat 22:12  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

These verses here in Matthew 22 demonstrate that we are even now sitting with Christ in the kingdom of heaven (Mat 22:1 and Eph 2:6) and in “earnest” (Eph 1:14) are risen with Him (Rom 6:4) and are dining with Him at His “marriage supper” (Rev 19:9). This is not speaking of the first resurrection as the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph 1:14), because there will be no one mistakenly given part in the first resurrection (Rev 20:6). It is in this present time that “many are called, but few are chosen.” It is in “this present time” that we are groaning together with those who are not given a wedding garment:

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 [Those without a wedding garment], 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.

Christ and His Christ are those “pastors [who] feed [us] with knowledge and understanding”, but only if we are given His garments and are given eyes that see and ears that hear:

Mat 13:9  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
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.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

The Lord must give Himself an occasion against the flesh of our old man (Jdg 14:4). He does so by giving us eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear so He can pour out His fury upon the kingdom of our rebellious, self-righteous, carnal-minded, old man:

Jer 6:11  Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

We just naturally read those words and apply them to some really bad people ‘out there somewhere’. However, the scriptures consistently teach that there is no one who is exempt from the fiery judgments of our Lord, and no one can “enter into” His house until His purifying fury has been “poured out upon “every man”:

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.

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.

It is a thorough cleansing and purifying, and it begins at the house of God. It begins with us. No one is exempt from the fiery judgment of the words of our Lord:

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?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

So, these fiery words “must begin at the house of God”:

Jer 6:12  And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.
Jer 6:13  For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

Notice that it does not read, “Everyone but (put your own self-righteous name here).” It simply reads, “For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.”

We cannot “come out of [Babylon]” and say we never partook of her falsehoods, covetousness, and sins and therefore we must not receive of her plagues. The plea to do so in Revelation 18 is a plea for the Lord’s elect to avoid the judgments of the lake of fire, which is the second death. The first ‘judgment, death and resurrection’ took place in chapters 14-16. It is the first judgment, death and resurrection which is called “the patience of the saints [who] keep the commandments and faith of Jesus Christ”:

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

Rev 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 [in “this present time” Rom 8:18-23], 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 [verse 4] 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.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life [at the first resurrection] was cast into the lake of fire.

There are cherubim which turn every way to guard the way of the Tree of Life:

Gen 3:23  Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
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.

These verses in 1Corinthians 3 and in Revelation 15 demonstrate that no one can get to the Tree of Life without going through those fiery swords of the cherubim:

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.

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 false doctrines of the prophets and pastors of the Lord’s apostate wife would have us believe that we are exempt from His judgments. The false doctrines of purgatory, the secret rapture, a place of safety or a blessed area are all false doctrines which teach us that we can in some way avoid the wrath of God upon our rebellious, carnal-minded old man. That false doctrine in its many forms is the message of our next verse:

Jer 6:14  They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

It is our lying false doctrines which “heal… slightly… the hurt of the daughter of my people”. All our faith is in these lies and false doctrines at that stage of our “experience of evil” (Ecc 1:13), but they are still lies and not the Truth. In that ignorance we have no shame and will not acknowledge our iniquity and transgressions:

Jer 6:15  Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

We “cannot… acknowledge our iniquity [or our] transgressions” until after the Lord visits and judges us. The Lord has given us “eyes that cannot see, ears that… cannot hear [His] Word” and we cannot “blush [or be] ashamed” of what we perceive to be comforting truth which slightly heals our hurting. As the story of Samson’s parents reveals, everything that happens to us and to this world, happens right on His schedule… “at that time”:

Jdg 14:1  And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
Jdg 14:2  And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
Jdg 14:3  Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.
Jdg 14:4  But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

The Philistines are the Biblical type of our uncircumcised flesh which dominates us while we live promiscuously in the promised land and claim to be the Lord’s people. They are a deeply religious people whose God was called Dagon, the type of “another Jesus”. The ‘Philistines’ within us are cast off only through our death:

Jdg 16:30  And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.

“At the time I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord.”

That is our study for today, and these are our verses for next week’s study:

Jer 6:16  Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Jer 6:17  Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.
Jer 6:18  Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.
Jer 6:19  Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.
Jer 6:20  To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.
Jer 6:21  Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.
Jer 6:22  Thus saith the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.
Jer 6:23  They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.
Jer 6:24  We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
Jer 6:25  Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.
Jer 6:26 O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.
Jer 6:27 I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.
Jer 6:28  They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.
Jer 6:29  The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.
Jer 6:30  Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.