The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 6:16-30 A People Come From the North…Against You, O Daughter of Zion

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Jer 6:16-30  A People Come From The North… Against You, O Daughter Of Zion

[Study Aired April 4, 2021]

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.

It was in our last study that we learned we are not to “abhor an Edomite for he is [our] brother”. Neither are we to “abhor an Egyptian because [we] were strangers in his land”:

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.

The point being made in these admonitions is that we are all of our brother, Edom, before we “come out of [Edom]”, and we were all of Egypt, the world, before we came out of the world and into Edom. Why were we ever in the world or in Edom to begin with? The fact is we are all first in the world, and then we are all in Edom because that is where the Lord Himself placed us for that time:

Ecc 3:1  To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

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

Knowing that to be the Truth, why would we ever want to abhor an Edomite or an Egyptian? The only reason to hate others is the fact that the Lord has made us all first self-righteous, sinful flesh and blood.

Who exactly is “the wicked” whom the Lord has made for Himself? It is “every one [who] is given to covetousness… everyone [who] deals falsely”:

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.

There are no exceptions, and to help us see that fact, this statement is repeated just two chapters later:

Jer 8:10  Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

The New Testament tells us the same thing:

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

We all acknowledge that we are sinners, and we certainly should, but we continue in our sinful, rebellious ways, and that must be burned out of us through “fiery trials” (1Co 3:13, 1Pe 4:12).

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.

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:

Our ‘fiery trials’ are not “some strange thing”.  They are “common to [all] men”:

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Yet as part of being “made… wicked for [our own] day of evil”, this is what we do:

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.

This is the positive use of the word ‘old’, and it refers to “the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jud 1:3) and our “first love” which we have left at this time in our experience (Rev 2:4).

Jud 1:3  Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

These verses, along with many others, indicate that the apostasy of the church was complete before the death of the apostles, and because of our “earthy” composition, we just naturally have no interest in going back to our “first love”. Our actions speak for us… “we will not walk therein… we will not listen.” Like King Saul we will do the easy part of what the Lord tells us to do, but we will not do the parts that will make us unpopular with “the people” (1Sa 15:20-21).

Jer 6:17  Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

King Saul is a type of us. He listened to the people, but he would not listen to or tremble at the word of God. He did what was easy to do, but he sought the approval of men more than the approval of God. All these words will in time apply to all men, but in “this present time” (Rom 8:18) they are not being sent to people without eyes that see and ears that hear. All these admonitions are being addressed at this present time to those who are blessed with eyes that see and ears that can hear (Mat 13:9-15):

Jer 6:18  Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.

“Them” and “what is among them” is speaking of what is within you and me. What is among us is revealed to us in the second and third chapters of Revelation where ‘them’ is again each of us. It is in those two chapters at the very beginning of the book which reveals Jesus Christ within us, where we are shown that the Lord has ordained that to have Himself revealed within us, we must first acknowledge we have had within each of us “them which say they are apostles, and are not“ (Rev 2:2). We must acknowledge that we have lost our first love (Rev 2:4), and we have among us Nicolaitans who love to lord it over the Lord’s flock (Rev 2:6). We have within us and among us those who say they are spiritual Jews, when, in reality, they are the synagogue of Satan (Rev 2:9). We hold fast to the name of Christ, and at the same time we dwell where Satan’s throne is when Christ should be on the throne of our hearts and minds (Rev 2:13).

We serve the Lord, and at the same time we suffer false prophetesses to teach false doctrines which reveal “the depths of Satan as [we] speak” (Rev 2:24). We must acknowledge that we are spiritually dead and are clothed in defiled garments. We learn there are among us those who want to take away the crown of life we have been promised if we endure to the end (Rev 3:11). Finally, we must acknowledge that we are lukewarm Christians whom the Lord will spue out of His mouth if we continue self-righteously thinking that we are “rich and increased with goods, and in need of nothing” when in reality, as lukewarm Christians, we “are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev 3:17).

In other words, it is as Christ had said earlier:

Luk 5:30  But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?
Luk 5:31  And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
Luk 5:32  I came not to call the [self] righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Such is what we are when we are carried away into the captivity of Babylon. It is you and I who are in this whorish church out of which we must come to be the first to be judged. It is only those who are being judged in “this present time” who will be in the blessed and holy first resurrection and rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years and then be used by Christ to bring salvation to all men of all time (Rev 20:1-15).

In ‘this present time’ it is only the few elect who have been given eyes that see and ears that hear these words and understand that we must expect to have to suffer in this present time. There is no judgment without suffering, and there is no judging without acknowledging our sins and transgressions, and for that reason:

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.

Yes, that is exactly what each of us have done if indeed “judgment is upon the house of God” within us (1Pe 4:17).

Reaping “the fruit of [our own] thoughts” in this age is not a bad thing. It is really the best thing that can happen to any man. We have established beyond any doubt that no one gets to the tree of life without going through the fiery sword which turns every way guarding the way of the tree of life (Gen 3:24). We have shown that ‘fire will try the works of every man’ (1Co 3:13-15) and that ‘no one can enter into Christ until the seven plagues of the seven angels had been poured out in our lives’ (Rev 15:8).

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.

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

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.

Since there is no way around the fiery sword guarding the Tree of Life, and since every man’s works are being tried by that fiery sword and no one is able to enter into the temple in heaven until the seven plagues of the Lord’s wrath are fulfilled in the life of every man, the Lord poses this question:

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.

This verse is not denying that ‘cane is sweet’. Neither is the Lord denying that we sacrifice many wonderful works to Him. What He is telling us is that those very works are themselves filthy rags in His sight when we think they are our own works:

Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

We will all reap what we have sown (Gal 6:7). Forgiveness mollifies but does not nullify judgment. The Lord’s words “cannot be broken”, and He will perform them:

Isa 45:23  I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

Isa 55:11  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

We are the Lord’s witnesses, and as such this is our witness:

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.

Isa 49:2  And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;

Isa 51:16  And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

Isa 59:21  As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouthnor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.

As the Lord’s witnesses to His words, we are modern day Isaiah and Jeremiah, and these words apply to each of us:

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.

These are the Lord’s words to us. His word first devours our own old man and his entire kingdom of false doctrines for the ages:

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.

The ‘stumbling blocks” are the truths of our Lord’s doctrines.  The ‘fathers, sons, neighbor and his friend’ are all parts of the kingdom of our old man who was “made to be taken and destroyed”:

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;

Just as Moses himself was an Egyptian before he became the Lord’s vessel for delivering His people, Israel, we, too, are ‘Pharaoh’ before we become Moses with the commission of being “saviors in Zion”:

Heb 11:24  By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
Heb 11:27  By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

The destruction of our carnal-minded and rebellious old man is the fruit of our judgment in this age. It is for us as John the Baptist told his disciples:

Joh 3:30  He must increase, but I must decrease.

Paul said the same of his own old man:

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

“Dying daily” is a ‘daily’ process. It is the process of being judged, and it continues for as long as we are in these “earthy… vessels of clay”. However, the process of being judged is taking place only in those who are made aware that the Lord came to judge our sins:

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this worldthat they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth [You remain spiritually blind].

Just like these blind Pharisees of John 9, we all at first believe Christ came only to ‘die for us’ and to ‘forgive our sins’. The doctrine of “reading, hearing, and keeping” (Rev 1:3) the judgments of the seals, trumpets and vials is utter heresy in the eyes of most Christians. Yet it is right here for all who have been given eyes to see:

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.

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.

The ninth chapter of John tells us the story of the healing of a man who was born blind from birth. Christ gave the man his sight but did not immediately reveal Himself to this man, and because this man refused to denounce his Healer as a sinner, he was cast out of the synagogue. Being blind from birth typifies mankind as a whole because:

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

Therefore, those who do not discern that they are being judged for their sins are blinded to the fact they are reaping what they have sown. They are groaning and travailing, yet they are not being judged in this present time. They suffer the pains of being judged, but they are not aware of the necessity of acknowledging their sins and for that reason they do not benefit from the groaning and travailing of the birth process they are enduring:

Isa 42:25  Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

“[The Lord] hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.” What we are being told here is the same thing Paul tells us in:

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 adoptionto wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

As a type of the Lord’s elect, Job reveals that “even we ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the spirit” live for many months unaware that we are reaping what we have sown.

Our false doctrines teach us that we can come just as we are, but they say little of being judged for what we are (Jer 3:13). Our false doctrines teach us that the Lord did not make us wicked for our own day of evil (Pro 16:4). Our false doctrines teach us that we need not suffer or die because Christ suffered and died in our place. It is all lies and falsehoods.

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.

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

Php 1:29  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

As long as the Lord blinds us with these lying spirits, we “groan and travail” but without the benefits of being judged, because we are not given to understand and “receive the things of the spirit” (1Co 2:14-15).

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.

This nation which will take us away into captivity is “spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, [and] Babylon… the mother of harlots and abominations of the world”:

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

These verses in Jeremiah 6 and Ezekiel 9, along with all the stories of all the invasions of Israel and Judah which came out of the north, reveal that ‘the north’ symbolizes the Lord’s impending judgment:

Eze 9:1  He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
Eze 9:2  And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.
Eze 9:3  And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side;
Eze 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
Eze 9:5  And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:
Eze 9:6  Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.
Eze 9:7  And he [the Lord] said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.

The ‘old and young’ typify our oldest and our youngest false doctrines all of which must be destroyed and burned out of us “with the brightness of His coming”:

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:

It is our rebellious, stubborn, carnal-minded old man who will be given no quarter and who “cannot inherit the kingdom of God” because he is just an incomplete phase of the life cycle of the completed spiritual body we were originally designed to become. It is this unfinished part of our experience which must be destroyed like the cocoon of a butterfly or the shell out of which a bird hatches. Our judgment is the Lord’s brooding over us as a hen broods over her fertilized eggs, heating them with such precision that the egg is miraculously transformed into a bird which through a great struggle is strengthened to fly in the heavens of the earth. Our daily judgment is the dying of the caterpillar which is dissolved, and through that dissolution and then through the great struggling of breaking out of that cocoon, miraculously emerges as a beautiful butterfly which, like the bird, is strengthened to mount up to the heavens.

When this struggle is taking place, it appears completely hopeless and impossible that life can come out of death, and yet that is exactly what happens. The egg and the caterpillar are both destroyed and replaced by a creature which is far superior to its original form.

While we watch this process taking place, this is how we feel:

Eze 9:8  And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! Wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
Eze 9:9  Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
Eze 9:10  And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.
Eze 9:11  And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.

The prophecy of Jeremiah 6 and Ezekiel 9 are identical inasmuch as they both reveal the mind of the Lord towards the self-centered, self-destructive nature of our old man and the unrelenting resolution of the Lord to destroy that phase of our experience. Outwardly both Jeremiah and Ezekiel are speaking of the invading armies of physical Babylon, and those ‘armies’ in both prophecies typify all the false doctrines which carry us away into that ‘city’, the religions of that great whore who, through her false, lying doctrines, rules over all the kings of our earth. This is what those doctrines do to us:

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.

The “daughter of Zion” is the Lord’s elect who have come to understand that they must be the first to endure the judgments of God as they are so vividly described in Revelation 14:7-12. These ‘horsemen’ who come against the “daughter of Zion” are so thick upon the earth that they are likened to locusts which are so numerous that they darken the air and blot out the light of the sun. They symbolize all the false doctrines of Babylon. These locusts are also “like unto horses prepared for battle… against thee, O daughter of Zion”, and they are given the number of two hundred million:

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; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

Rev 9:7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

Rev 9:16  And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

Nevertheless, the fruit of those false, lying doctrines is known, and if we are blessed to be judged in this present time, we will be put through fiery trials which will bring us to acknowledge that lying false doctrines carried us away into Babylon where we have sinned and transgressed against our Lord. That is the meaning of our next verses:

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.

The only way we can come to see that the pains we endure are birthing pains is when we are brought to repentance for our sins and we are looking behind ourselves at what the Lord has worked and is working in our lives:

Rev 1:12  And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
Rev 1:13  And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

At this point we may be completely unaware of what is taking place, but the fact is we are on our way out of Babylon. The fiery words of Christ have shined upon all the false doctrines in our lives, and we have no choice but to acknowledge that our self-righteous Babylonian life has been a life of rebellion against our Lord and His doctrines. The Lord is dragging us out of Babylon, and He will not be denied:

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.
Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

This “double… cup” is our “groaning and travailing in pain” judgment, and we are blessed above all men if it takes place in “this present time”:

Isa 40:1  Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
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.

All men will “receive of the Lord’s hand double for all [their] sins”, but those who do so in “this present time” are the “blessed and holy” of the Lord:

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

At this point we are accepting the fact that even our wicked man was made by the Lord for our own day of evil, and that even the blindness in which we lived for so long was itself orchestrated by the Lord using the lying adversary as “[His] hand”:

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 2:4  And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
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.

Once we come to see that Satan’s “power” and Satan’s “hand” is nothing less than an instrument in the hand of the Lord to accomplish His purpose of making us to err from His ways to give Him the occasion He is seeking to judge our flesh as unfit and unable to inherit the kingdom of God, we can begin to enjoy and rejoice in the peace which that knowledge gives us:

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.

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

Joh 14:27  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

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.

Once the Lord reveals to us that He is giving us double for our sins and is judging us through His fiery trials and through the seven vials or His wrath upon the kingdom of our rebellious, stubborn old man, He then sends us to do what His father sent Him to accomplish:

Jer 6:27  I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

That is what the Lord told Isaiah also:

Isa 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

Christ has chosen us to be His ambassadors. He is sending us “as [His] Father sent [Him].”

Joh 20:19  Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
Joh 20:20  And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.
Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Now let us look closely at what the Lord is sending us to proclaim:

Isa 6:9  And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isa 6:10  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
Isa 6:11  Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered,  Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land [our old man] be utterly desolate,
Isa 6:12  And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
Isa 6:13  But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leavesso the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

“The holy seed [is] the substance” of all the Lord is doing, and what the Lord is doing is showing us our sins and the worthlessness of our vessels of clay. Our calling is to proclaim what the Lord has shown us about ourselves. What the Lord has revealed to any who are given to enter His temple is:

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.
Isa 58:2  Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
Isa 58:3  Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
Isa 58:4  Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
Isa 58:5  Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
Isa 58:6  Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Isa 58:7  Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

When we put our own ways ahead of the Lord’s ways and when we turn our back on our fellow body members, “[our] own flesh”, we need not fast and seek the Lord because it will all be in vain.

Jeremiah, as just one more type of who we are, is given the very same commission the Lord gave Isaiah.

I will include verse 27 with these last three verses of this chapter:

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.

It is our reprobate, rebellious old man whom the Lord has rejected. Any of the good works we do, if we think we did them, then they become in that moment “filthy rags” before our Lord:

Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Isa 64:7  And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
Isa 64:8  But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand [Isa 63:17 “…You made us err from your ways…”].

We can do “many wonderful works” for our fellow man, we can even give ourselves to be burned and endure great trials and tribulations in this present time, but if we do not obey the words of our Lord and remain faithful to His doctrines, and if we ‘turn our back to our own flesh’ He will still tell us, “Depart from me ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you.”

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity [ye self-righteous].
Mat 7:24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

1Co 13:3  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

The word ‘charity’ here in 1Corinthians 13:3 is translated from the Greek word:

Notice what this word works in our lives if we truly ‘agape’ our Lord:

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

The love of God is the keeping of His commandments and doing the things He says to do. Christ poses this question to all of us:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.

In summary of this study, we are told that through His judgments we will all receive double at the Lord’s hand for our sins, and if we are blessed to be judged in this present time, then we will be used by the Lord to drag others to Him by proclaiming His judgments to others. If we “love God” we will be obedient to that commission and endure the rejection of this world “for His body’s sake, which is the church” (Col 1:24).

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

That is our study for today. We will be in chapter seven next week. Here are our verses for our next study:

Jer 7:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 7:2  Stand in the gate of the LORD’S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
Jer 7:3  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
Jer 7:4  Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.
Jer 7:5  For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
Jer 7:6  If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
Jer 7:7  Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
Jer 7:8  Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
Jer 7:9  Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
Jer 7:10  And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
Jer 7:11  Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.
Jer 7:12  But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
Jer 7:13  And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;
Jer 7:14  Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
Jer 7:15  And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
Jer 7:16  Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
Jer 7:17  Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

Other related posts