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Contents

• The Call of Jeremiah
• From Devotion to Disaster
• One Nation Under Judgment
• Swimming Upstream … Standing Alone
• In the Potter’s Faithful Hand
• Four Prophecies of Judgment
• The Promise of a Future and a Hope
• The New Covenant
• Wrong Reactions to the Word of God
• The Tragic Fall of Jerusalem
• On the Wrong Side of History
• The Final Prophecies of Jeremiah

The Call of Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1

John McCutchen, the famous illustrator, drew a cartoon for the one-hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. The drawing shows two men standing on the edge of a snow-covered forest in Kentucky on a cold February morning in 1809. [One man] asks, “What’s the news around here?” The other man answers, “Nothing much. Oh, there’s a new baby over at Tom Lincoln’s. That’s all. Nothing ever happens around here.”[1]

The truth is, in the light of history, incredibly important things often begin to unfold with the cry of some newborn baby. The births of Isaac, Samuel, John the Baptist, and most importantly, Jesus Christ each set the stage for a brand-new chapter in God’s plan for the ages.

Well, an Old Testament priest and his wife experienced the birth of a baby boy who was going to become the mouthpiece for God during a critical time in Israel’s history.

The baby’s name was Jeremiah. In the first verse of the book that bears his name, we are told that Jeremiah is “the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.” Anathoth was a city northeast of Jerusalem that had been given to the descendants of Aaron back in Joshua 21. God’s prophets in the Old Testament are called from various backgrounds; Jeremiah would have been following his father’s footsteps in becoming a priest.

We read here in verse 2:

The word of the Lord came [to him] in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 

Jeremiah is actually going to serve the Lord during the reigns of five different kings, preaching to the nation for more than forty years. And it will be a tough assignment. Listen, he is nicknamed “the weeping prophet” for a reason: he will shed many tears over the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, the burning of the glorious temple of Solomon, and the captivity of God’s people.

In fact, at one point, Jeremiah is thrown into an empty cistern and left to die. Why? Because he delivered the truth and lived for God. Maybe you are not having the best time of your life right now. Perhaps you are under tremendous pressure, and all you are doing is the right thing. I want you to be encouraged as we set sail through the life and times of Jeremiah.

Here in chapter 1, we are given the call of Jeremiah to be God’s prophet—and God calls him by giving him some rather stunning news here in verse 5:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,and before you were born, I consecrated you;I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Now the truths revealed in this verse could fill an entire book, and they have application to each one of us.

God says to Jeremiah, “I formed you in the womb.” The Hebrew verb here for “formed” means to fashion, to shape—literally, to mold like a potter crafts a clay jar.

Jeremiah was the creative handiwork of God; every strength Jeremiah had and every weakness—every ability and every disability—had been woven into him by the hand of His Creator. Beloved, that is true of you, and that is why your fingerprint, your voice, and your face can be used for security clearance today—because there is nobody else like you. You are a designer- made, one-of-a-kind, creation of God.

But notice, God goes back in time here and tells Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”

One author wrote, “Before Jeremiah knew God, God knew Jeremiah.”[2] Before Jeremiah knew anything about God, God knew everything about Jeremiah. Before you and I ever considered that God was important to us, we read here the truth that we were already important to God.[3]

Listen, the truth that we are created by God and important to Him changes the way we view ourselves. We don’t become important to God if we somehow manage to become important to other people. Beloved, the fact that you matter to God is proved by God fashioning you and seeking you and calling you to Himself.

But there is still more here in verse 5. Not only did God form Jeremiah in the womb and know Him even before that, but He also says to His prophet, “Before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

This is amazing! This means life is not a puzzle and you just have to be clever enough to figure out how all the pieces fit together. No, God has always had everything figured out about your life. You are to simply walk with Him as He unfolds it one day at a time.

Now even after all this amazing revelation to Jeremiah, I must tell you, it does not automatically make Jeremiah want to throw a party. He is not all that excited about being commissioned as a prophet to this disobedient nation.

Jeremiah responds to God in verse 6, saying, “I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” The Hebrew word for “youth” can refer to a young adult. Jeremiah is probably around twenty years old at this time. And he’s convinced of two things: number 1, he is not a good preacher—he’s not eloquent—and number 2, he doesn’t have enough on his resume.

Well, here is the Lord’s response in verse 9: “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.” The important issue is not Jeremiah’s resume; the important thing is God’s revelation. God is not handicapped by our handicaps. Don’t get so caught up with your lack of ability that you forget God’s sufficiency. God effectively says here, “Jeremiah, you just go deliver My word.”

Then the Lord gives Jeremiah a preview of his ministry:

“See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,to pluck up and to break down,to destroy and to overthrow,to build and to plant.” (verse 10)

In other words, Jeremiah’s message will bring judgment on those who do not believe and blessing on those who do.

With that, the Lord gives two visions to Jeremiah. In verse 11 Jeremiah sees an almond branch. The almond tree blossoms early and is a sure sign that spring is coming. The idea here is that Jeremiah’s ministry is a signal that God’s promises are soon going to come to pass.[4]

In the second vision, Jeremiah sees a “boiling pot, facing away from the north” (verse 13). This refers to the disaster that is coming from the north—specifically, the Babylonian army, which will come and burn Jerusalem to the ground.

So, here you have it: this is Jeremiah’s call to prophetic ministry. The Lord is sending him to deliver a message that people need to hear. Sadly, most of them will not listen at all. But one day this prophet will stand before God and be rewarded, not because people followed him, but because he followed God and faithfully delivered God’s word.

Here is what Jeremiah understood, and we all need to understand it today: Success in God’s eyes is not measured by how many people listen to you, how many of your sermons get downloaded, or how many people you influence. No, success is accepting the fact that God created you the way you are and gave you a purpose in life that He uniquely designed for you. That purpose might not appear all that impressive today; it might just be another load of laundry or another bushel of corn to harvest or another Sunday school lesson to write. But trust Him and walk with Him and, like Jeremiah, leave the rest up to your Creator—your Redeemer. And just remember, beloved, before God ever formed you in the womb, He knew everything about you.

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From Devotion to Disaster

Jeremiah 2–6

Dr. Harry Ironside pastored a church in Chicago during the early 1900s. As a young man, he was not developing the kind of humility he thought he should have, and he asked an older Christian friend what he should do about it. His friend gave him some rather poor advice. He told him that if he wanted to be humble, he needed to do something humiliating. Like what? Well, he told Ironside to create a sandwich board—that is a large board you wear in the front that is strapped to another board that hangs over your back—and he said, “Write on those boards the message of God’s judgment and the plan of salvation, and then walk through the shopping district in downtown Chicago for an entire day. That will make you humble.”

Well, Ironside followed his friend’s advice, and when he returned to his apartment after a humiliating day of ridicule and laughter, he was exhausted. But as he took off that sandwich board, he found himself thinking, “You know, there’s probably nobody else in Chicago humble enough to do what I just did.”[5]

It only created more pride. Humility is not developed by being humiliated; it is not being jeered at or even thinking poorly of yourself. Humility is when you don’t think of yourself at all. You have simply surrendered to live for God and for others. Humility is the opposite of self-centeredness.

When I think of the prophet Jeremiah, I think of a truly humble man—not because he was humiliated, but because nothing in his life was self-centered. It is as if God told Jeremiah to become a living billboard. His life is a sandwich board, delivering the message of God’s judgment and salvation; and his world is going to do nothing but mock him, jeer him, and ignore him.

Here in Jeremiah chapters 2 through 6, the prophet delivers two messages. The first sermon takes you from Jeremiah chapter 2 all the way through chapter 3 and verse 5; the second sermon goes through the end of chapter 6. The main point of this first sermon is a warning to the nation of Judah. If Jeremiah were wearing a sandwich board, it would read, “The end is near—judgment is coming!”

And here is why: God says in Jeremiah 2:2, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride.” The people are pictured as a newly married bride who then becomes unfaithful to God, her groom. God says this:

My people have committed two evils:they have forsaken me,the fountain of living waters,and hewed out cisterns for themselves,broken cisterns that can hold no water. (verse 13)

God’s people had traded the “living water” of God for the mud puddle of false religion. Beloved, religion will never satisfy your spiritual thirst—that comes only through God’s Son, the Lord Jesus, who says, “Let the one who is thirsty come [to Me]; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17).

Jeremiah goes on to describe the foolishness of their idolatry in verse 27, where the leaders of Judah are pictured saying to a tree, “‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’” In other words, everything evolved—we are all related somehow to a stone or a tree.

You might think people today are smarter than that. Not really. People believe to this day that they are the result of an explosion of stars out there in the universe. I once heard a scientist say, “You ought to feel good about yourself because you’re the result of an explosion of stars—you are made of stardust.” That is no different than the people of Jeremiah’s day saying to a rock, “You gave me birth.”

Whenever people reject the creator God, they are going to assume their origin came from a rock or a tree or Mother Earth or some star out there. They are even going to say to a “rock,” “You gave me birth.”

Here in chapter 3, the people are described, not just as unfaithful spouses, but as spiritual prostitutes who have polluted the land with their immorality. Verse 5 describes them as doing “all the evil that [they] could.”

Judah should know better; they saw what happened to the ten tribes in the north—the kingdom of Israel. They saw Israel taken into captivity. But that didn’t seem to matter to them.

Now even though Judah has abandoned God, God will not abandon Judah forever. He gives them this promise: “I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding” (verse 15).

This promise is partially fulfilled in every generation, by the way—even to this day. In fact, this is the verse we have chosen for our seminary—Shepherds Seminary—as we train Bible expositors and pastors and church leaders. We want to be involved in God’s promise to provide shepherds for His people in every nation.

But Jeremiah’s generation wants nothing to do with godly shepherds. And so, Jeremiah walks through the shopping district of Jerusalem, so to speak, with a sandwich board that reads, “The end is near—judgment is coming!”

God speaks through Jeremiah here in verses 6-7 of chapter 4:

“I bring disaster from the north, and great destruction. . . . a destroyer of nations has set out . . . your cities will be ruins without inhabitant.”

Now this destroyer of nations is Babylon, and there is no escaping the Babylonian army. Jeremiah is not smiling or laughing or gloating as he delivers this message of judgment. In verse 19 he says, “My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!” He is weeping. Indeed, he has become known as the “weeping prophet.”

Jeremiah makes it clear why God will arrive in judgment. He boldly lists a number of Judah’s sins here in chapter 5. He says of the people, they do not seek for justice or truth (verse 1); they “swear falsely” (verse 2); and they refuse correction and do not repent (verse 3). Verse 12 says that in their arrogance, they proclaim, “He [God] will do nothing; no disaster will come upon us.” 

They are saying, “God is not going to do anything to us. We will not face judgment. God is not going to judge anybody.” Doesn’t that sound like people today? And like the nation of Judah, so many people today are in for a shocking surprise when they finally meet God.

Jeremiah now preaches in chapter 6 about the certainty of Jerusalem’s destruction. There is vivid, poetic language here that gives the details of what is coming. Verse 6 says the Babylonians will cut down trees and build siege ramps against the city of Jerusalem, “the city that must be punished.”

Judgment will fall upon everyone—young and old alike are all guilty (verses 11-13). The Lord says here in verse 19, “They have not paid attention to my words.”

Don’t miss this important point: judgment does not come until God has exhausted every effort to bring them to repentance. He has sent them prophets to warn them; He has waited patiently for centuries for them to respond. But they have misinterpreted His patience as freedom to continue in their sin.

What about you today, my friend? Has God been patient with you? That you are reading this right now is one more evidence of His patience, His invitation, and His warning to you. I am not a prophet, but you can consider me the prophet Jeremiah in your life today. God is warning you again today. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.”

You can avoid the judgment of God when you meet Him one day, by accepting the gift of salvation through His Son, the Lord Jesus. The Bible says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). Call out to Him today—He’s listening. Ask the Lord Jesus to forgive you and save you and become your Shepherd today.

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One Nation Under Judgment

Jeremiah 7–10

If you’ve ever wondered why your testimony as a Christian—your words, your efforts, your example—do not seem to make an impact for the Lord on those around you, well, I want to encourage you with the testimony and life of Jeremiah.

His world would not listen to him. Judah was rushing toward self-destruction and ultimately God’s judgment, and Jeremiah did everything he could to stop this national train wreck.

The truth is, God did not give Jeremiah any false sense of optimism about his nation, Judah. However, there would be individuals here and there who would listen to his message and repent. This is why we find Jeremiah appealing to individuals to repent while at the same time he is delivering a message of coming judgment on the nation.

By the way, God has not given the church today a commission to reach nations; the Great Commission from the Lord is to go and make disciples from within every nation. As I often say, God has not called us to save America; He has called us to take the gospel to Americans—and to French people and Africans and Asians and everyone else. Of course, if enough individuals believe, it might turn a nation around, like it did in Nineveh through the preaching of the prophet Jonah.

Now here in chapters 7 through 10 of Jeremiah, we have a single sermon. It is often called the “temple sermon.” Chapter 26 refers to the same sermon, and I need to mention here that the sermons or prophecies of Jeremiah are not arranged chronologically but topically and thematically.

Jeremiah’s sermon could be entitled, “One Nation under Judgment,” describing the fate of Judah and any nation that rejects God.

The first point Jeremiah makes concerns the people’s misplaced trust. Chapter 7 begins with the Lord instructing Jeremiah to stand at the gate of the temple and speak to those coming to worship the Lord. The prophet makes it clear here in verses 3-4 that there is very little real worship taking place:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’”

Apparently, the people are coming to worship and quoting this phrase, “This is the temple of the Lord.” They are repeating it over and over, using it like some sort of good-luck charm, as if the mere presence of the Lord’s temple will protect them. Well, the temple is not a good-luck charm; without repentance and true worship, it is just another building.

In fact, God offers the proof of this in verse 12:

“Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.”

Shiloh was the place where the ark of the covenant resided for over 300 years. Shiloh was where Eli served and little Samuel grew up. But the ark’s presence did not save Shiloh. I have stood there at Shiloh and looked around at the hills where the tribes of Israel had once worshiped. Pieces of clay pots are still scattered about, thousands of years after the people celebrated Passover there. But today, it is a barren place; there is no magic—no mystical, spiritual presence, so to speak—in that place.

God is telling His people here, through Jeremiah, “You can go on looking toward the temple all you want, but it will not help you. Your hope cannot be in a place; it has to be in a person—and that person is the true and living God.”

Now Jeremiah says in the next few verses that the people are also trusting in the wrong deity. Verse 18 says, “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven.”

More than likely the queen of heaven mentioned here is the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess Ishtar. We know from history that people made cakes for Ishtar, whom they called the queen of heaven.

I must tell you, if I were God, I would make sure those cakes were burned to a crisp every time an Israelite tried to bake one. In fact, I would probably set their stoves on fire. But God patiently warns them instead.

The second point in Jeremiah’s sermon concerns the rejection of God’s law. This is the focus as chapter 8 begins. The Lord says in verse 6, “Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.” The nation is so far removed from the Word of God that God says through Jeremiah in verse 7, “My people know not the rules [or the law] of the Lord.”

But don’t try to tell them that. The people claim they are making the right decisions; they say here in verse 8, “We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us.” They claim they are doing the right thing! The truth is, their religious leaders have twisted the Word of God. As Jeremiah records here in verse 8, “The lying pen of the scribes has made [God’s Word] into a lie.”

Isn’t that typical? False religious leaders have this amazing ability to take God’s Word and turn it upside down and twist it inside out in order to deny what it says and even make people comfortable with their sin. Over the years I have had unmarried couples tell me God was just fine with them living together—why, what they were doing made perfect sense.

The people of Judah are claiming God’s approval, but God says in verse 9 they have “rejected the word of the Lord.” Consequently, judgment is coming. Verses 16-17 vividly describe the coming Babylonian invaders:

“At the sound of the neighing of their stallionsthe whole land quakes.They come and devour the land and all that fills it,the city and those who dwell in it. . . . I am sending among you serpents . . . that cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you,” declares the Lord.”

Defeat, destruction, and death are soon coming. But let me tell you, through it all there is still this invitation from the Lord:

“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

In other words, knowing and following God rescues you from God’s judgment. Living for yourself—trusting in your wisdom, strength, or wealth—ultimately brings God’s judgment.

Now chapter 10 focuses on the sin of idolatry and makes it crystal clear that it is utter foolishness. God says in verse 11, “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.” He says in verse 14, “There is no breath in them,” and in verse 15, “They are worthless, a work of delusion.”

You can make all the cakes in the world and bring them to these gods and goddesses; you can call Ishtar the queen of heaven all you want, but she is made out of wood and decorated with silver and gold. She and all other man-made gods are lifeless. There is no breath in them. They cannot walk or talk, and they certainly cannot hear your prayers.

Who are you listening to today? Are they pointing you to the true and living God? Who are you following today? Let me tell you, there is no queen of heaven, but there is a King of heaven. Jeremiah says back here in verse 10, “The Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King.”

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Swimming Upstream … Standing Alone

Jeremiah 11–15

My missionary parents always encouraged my brothers and me to stand for the truth, even if it meant standing alone. They often repeated the parable that any dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream, against the current.

That has never been easy. And if you are a Christian, there is probably something going on in your life right now that requires you to swim upstream. You have discovered by now that following the Lord is not always easy. Beloved, He never promised you smooth sailing, but He did promise you a safe landing—and strength along the way.

As for the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord is about to lead him into a storm with high winds and rough water. He is going to face angry and hateful people, physical threats, and discomfort. He reminds me of George Whitefield, who preached during the great revivals of the 1700s. Thousands would gather to hear him, and it was not unusual for people to become so angry with his message they would take rotten eggs or even rocks and throw them at him, sometimes knocking Whitefield down. There were times when he feared for his life.

I can tell you, beloved, that after pastoring now for several decades, I have never once had anybody throw something at me while I preached. I’ve never had anybody throw a rotten egg or a rock at me—maybe that is why my ministry is not nearly as effective as George Whitefield’s! I have had people walk out on me, and I have received a lot of angry letters, but I have never faced an angry mob. Well, Jeremiah’s ministry is going to experience all of that and much more.

The Lord called Jeremiah to swim against the current of his culture, and he will suffer physical threats, ridicule, and hatred from the very people he loves.

Now, beginning here in chapter 11, the Lord speaks to Jeremiah in verses 2-4:

“Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenantthat I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

The timing of this message probably coincided with King Josiah rediscovering the Book of the Law of Moses.[6] This discovery led Josiah to institute reforms to bring the nation back to obeying the covenant with God. Sadly, his attempts did not bring genuine revival.

Jeremiah’s preaching didn’t either. In fact, the Lord tells Jeremiah here in verse 10:

“They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant.”

As a result, God says in verse 11, “I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen.” 

At this point, we get a glimpse of what it meant for Jeremiah to swim upstream. There is now a plot against his life (verse 19). This must have hurt him deeply because we are told in verse 21 that the people of Anathoth, his hometown, are part of the plot. These are Jeremiah’s people. He should have been a hometown hero, but they hate him instead. Maybe you are facing something similar today—perhaps your parents, your children, or your childhood friends want nothing to do with you because you are a follower of God.

Well, Jeremiah is hurt by all of this, and he speaks to the Lord here in the first verse of chapter 12: 

Righteous are you, O Lord, when I complain to you . . . Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? 

Maybe you are wondering the same thing: Why do wicked people seem to have it better in life than you, when you are the one serving the Lord? Well, in essence, God tells Jeremiah that the two of them are working on different timetables. God’s calendar is different from Jeremiah’s.

The nineteenth-century hymn writer and pastor Phillips Brooks was once visited by a friend who found Brooks pacing around his study. The friend asked him what the trouble was, and Brooks said, “The trouble is that I am in a hurry, and God is not!”

Well, even the great prophet Jeremiah is having to learn what everyone of us has to learn—how to wait for God.

Here in the final verses of chapter 12, Jeremiah is given a vision far into the future when God gathers a repentant and restored nation to their promised land. This looks to the future millennial kingdom when Jesus rules and reigns from the land of Israel.

In chapter 13, Jeremiah begins preaching messages through object lessons—and this, no doubt, grabs the attention of his audience.

God tells Jeremiah in verse 1, “Go out and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist.” A loincloth was an undergarment worn next to the skin. Jeremiah wears it for a while, and then God tells him to go out and bury it in the dirt under some rocks. Jeremiah obeys, and then many days later, the Lord tells him to retrieve it. Jeremiah digs it up and then writes, “The loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing” (verse 7).

That garment was a symbol of the nation; the Lord spells it out here in verse 10:

“This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart . . . shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.”

The Lord adds in verse 23, “Can the Ethiopian change [the color of] his skin or the leopard his spots?” In other words, the people are so entrenched in idolatry that nothing is going to change their minds and their hearts.

The rest of chapter 13 and all of chapter 14 give us details of God’s judgment. God takes special note of the so-called prophets. They have been running around telling the people that God is not going to do anything about their idolatry. The essence of their false prophecies is recorded in Jeremiah 14:13: “You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.” 

But God makes it clear what they are doing: 

“The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying . . . the deceit of their own minds.” (verse 14)

Let me tell you, beloved, false prophets are still in business today. They are making up things in their own minds and doing it in God’s name. But God has not spoken to them and is not speaking through them. Their visions are created in their own self-deceived minds as they lead people astray.

Can you imagine being Jeremiah here? Talk about swimming upstream—he is the only prophet telling the people the truth. And what a heartbreak it is for him—he is preaching to people, knowing they have rejected God for the last time. 

What about you? Are you rejecting God’s invitation? This could be God’s final call to you—I don’t know the mind of God—but do not risk your eternal future. If your heart is pricked and your conscience troubled, that is a good thing. The door is still open; walk through it. Give your heart and your life to Jesus Christ right now. Put your faith in Him. Do it now, before the judgment of God on your life becomes irreversible.

And if you are a believer today, become a little more like Jeremiah. Be faithful to share God’s Word, even if people reject your message, even if somebody throws something at you. You may not have to dodge a rock, but you will likely have to endure some unkind words. Just continue swimming upstream as you faithfully follow the Word of God.

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In the Potter’s Faithful Hand

Jeremiah 16–20

These next few chapters in the book of Jeremiah are like riding a roller-coaster. Jeremiah is about to deliver some powerful lessons to his nation; he is also going to experience some pretty raw emotions along the way. This will be no bed of roses for Jeremiah.

For one thing, as chapter 16 opens, the Lord tells Jeremiah that he is not to get married and have any children. His life will be a living illustration for the nation, for God is going to judge the nation in exile, and they will lose their families. This command from God to Jeremiah that he is not to marry will be a blessing in the long run, because Jeremiah will be spared the future grief of losing his wife and children in the coming devastation.

The Lord has more instructions for Jeremiah in verses 8-9:

“You shall notgo into the house of feasting . . . For thus says . . . the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.”

There will be no wedding receptions or weekend barbecues or concerts in the park. The sounds of laughter and happiness will cease when the people are taken away into captivity.

And if they question why such judgment is coming, Jeremiah is to give them the answer from the Lord here in verse 12: they are “stubborn . . . refusing to listen to [the Lord].”

Now amazingly, in the midst of this horrible picture, the Lord gives some reassuring words of hope. This judgment is not going to be the end of them. God looks far out into the future of this nation and declares in verse 15, “I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.” This points prophetically to the Messiah’s future kingdom on earth. 

Now in spite of the fact that judgment on Judah is irreversible during the days of Jeremiah, there is a personal invitation here to individuals. The Lord says in Jeremiah 17:5. “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” But note the contrast in verses 7-8: “Blessed is the man . . . whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water.”

So, why would anybody choose to turn away from the Lord as the people of Judah did? Why would anybody trust themselves instead of the Lord?

Well, the answer is right here in verse 9: “The heart is deceitful above all things,and desperately sick [wicked];who can understand it?” The truth is, our sinful nature would rather trust in how we think and how we feel than in the word of the Lord.

Our hearts are deceitful, Jeremiah says. We can convince ourselves that we are right even when we are wrong; we can justify anything. We say to ourselves things like this:

• I’m not proud and arrogant; I’m just self-confident.
• I’m not an angry person; I just wear my emotions on my sleeve.
• I’m not a gossip; I just speak my mind.
• I’m not materialistic; I just have good taste in things.
• I’m not immoral; I’m just being free to be who I am. If I’m happy, then I must be right!

Well, the Bible tells us who we really are; and happy or not, our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. My friend, you ought to look in the mirror and tell that person you see there, “You are not to be trusted.” How we view ourselves and the choices we make in life must be determined by the Word of God.

Now in chapters 18 and 19, we find Jeremiah presenting two object lessons, both involving pottery. I have read that there are more than thirty words in the Hebrew vocabulary that relate to pottery. The manufacture of pottery was a major industry in the Near East during the days of Jeremiah. He has passed by the potter’s workshop many times during his lifetime. But this time, God sends him down there to take a closer look.[7]

Chapter 18 begins this way:

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:“Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.” (verses 1-4)

The Lord makes His application crystal clear here as Jeremiah preaches it to his nation, in verse 6:

“O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? . . . like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.”

Well, the people don’t like the message that God is in charge. So just like the nations of our world today, they decide to silence the messenger. Verse 18 records their words:

“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah . . . let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

They are going to mock Jeremiah; they will try to shame him into silence. The world is doing that to this day. They are saying, “Let’s silence the messenger because he is interrupting our party. We love our sin, and we don’t want to hear about consequences; we don’t want to hear that God is in charge. We want to live for the moment, for the weekend, for the next sinful pleasure.” You see, people of the world don’t think about their morality in light of their mortality and what that will mean one day.

In chapter 19, Jeremiah presents another object lesson. He takes a flask made of pottery, and he invites civil and religious leaders to join him in the Valley of Hinnom, where the people were practicing idolatry and even child sacrifice. Jeremiah smashes the flask and says in verse 11:

“Thus says the Lord . . . So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended.”

In other words, judgment is now irreversible.

Jeremiah then goes to the temple and repeats his message. Only this time, here in chapter 20, the temple security arrest him, and a leading priest named Pashur has Jeremiah beaten and imprisoned overnight. In verse 6, Jeremiah prophesies to Pashur that he will die in Babylonian captivity because of his rebellion against God.

Now this is a fearless prophet of God. Courage is one thing Jeremiah certainly has! But although Jeremiah’s public ministry is fearless, he is now personally discouraged. He says to the Lord in verse 7, “I have become a laughingstock . . . everyone mocks me.” He even reaches the point down in verse 18 that he wishes he had never been born to see such “toil and sorrow.” Jeremiah didn’t appear to be bothered by it, but he was indeed personally crushed by the nation’s rejection of his ministry.

Beloved, Jeremiah was not some super saint who lived above normal feelings and emotions. In fact, the more you get to know him, the more you can identify with him. He trusted the Lord, but he did not understand the Lord at times. Now that he has been rejected and persecuted, he has become discouraged and feels defeated.

This is a good time to remember—as Jeremiah will—that God is the Potter and you are the clay. Even when you don’t understand, He is in control; even when you get discouraged or you fail, you are still in the Potter’s hands. He is fashioning your life, ultimately into the vessel He planned all along.

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Four Prophecies of Judgment

Jeremiah 21–25

Jeremiah chapters 21 through 25 continue a very unpopular message to the nation of Judah. Jeremiah will deliver four prophecies of judgment in these chapters. And the first one, in chapter 21, is directed against the last four kings of Judah.

We have already met these kings in our Wisdom Journey, but we need to bring them back out on stage for a few moments. After godly King Josiah died, his son Jehoahaz became king. He is known here in the book of Jeremiah by the name Shallum.

Jehoahaz, or Shallum, reigns for three months before being replaced by his brother, Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim reigns in Judah for eleven years before the Babylonian army arrives in Jerusalem and takes the vessels from the temple. They also deport a number of captives back to Babylon, one of them being a young man named Daniel.

The next ruler of Judah is Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin. He reigns for only three months. He is also known as Jeconiah or Coniah. During his reign Nebuchadnezzar comes back to Jerusalem and takes him captive, along with others, including a prophet by the name of Ezekiel.

The final king of Judah is Zedekiah. His reign lasts eleven years and ends with the final fall and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

Now the first part of this prophecy here in chapter 21 takes place during Zedekiah’s reign. It is a shocking prophecy that God is actually going to help the Babylonians fight against Jerusalem and, as verse 6 says, “strike down the inhabitants of this city.”

Jeremiah goes on to tell the people, “He who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans [Babylonians] . . . shall live” (verse 9). In other words, their only option is to wave the white flag and surrender to Nebuchadnezzar. This prophecy will be used to label Jeremiah as a traitor to his people.

Now down in chapter 22, in verse 11, Shallum, or Jehoahaz, has been taken in captivity to Babylon, and Jeremiah prophesies that the king will never see his homeland again.

Next is King Jehoiakim of whom Jeremiah prophesies in verse 19, “With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried.” No one is going to care when this king dies, and nobody is coming to the funeral. It will be like somebody’s old donkey finally fell over and died.

Now you can understand why Jeremiah was not the favorite prophet around town.

Next, we are told here in verse 30 that Coniah, or Jehoiachin, is going to die without having any children. He will not produce an heir to the throne; in fact, the next and last king of Judah will be his uncle, Zedekiah. 

In chapter 23, God describes all these godless kings of Judah as worthless shepherds. Verse 1 says, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” 

But in the midst of these dark days without godly leaders, the Lord points to a future hope. Listen to this promise God gives them:

I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more. (verses 3-4)

This promise is related to the future regathering of Israel and the reign of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, in His coming kingdom.

And if there is any doubt who this Good Shepherd is, God removes it in verses 5-6: 

“I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely . . . in his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which He will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”

Beloved, this future King is, without a doubt, the Messiah, the Son of David, King Jesus. Even His title here, referring to Him as Lord, reveals His deity. 

In the rest of chapter 23, Jeremiah turns from the kings to prophesy against the false prophets. God does not pull any punches here with these fake prophets. They have been opposing Jeremiah this whole time, and they have been popular because they have prophesied peace and victory. But God sees through it all and says here in verse 21, “I did not send [these] prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.”

And let me tell you, beloved, to this very day the most popular voices are not necessarily speaking God’s word. Oh, they might have a following, and they might have their dreams and visions; but listen to what God says here in verse 28: “Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.”

Now Jeremiah’s third prophecy, here in chapter 24, is specifically against King Zedekiah. Jeremiah is given a true vision from God of two baskets of figs. One basket is filled with good figs, representing some of the Jewish captives already in Babylon; the Lord says in verse 7, “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and . . . they shall return to me with their whole heart.” God is going to bring some of them back from Babylon, but the ultimate promise here looks out into the future when the Jewish people are in their land and the kingdom of Christ begins on earth.

The other basket in Jeremiah’s vision contains bad figs that “cannot be eaten,” according to verse 8. This represents Zedekiah and all his officials and those left in Jerusalem who continue to defy God.

And with that we have in chapter 25 the fourth and final prophecy in this section of Jeremiah, and this one is directed against the people of Judah. Despite repeated warnings, these people cling to their idolatry and their immorality.

Babylon is going to serve as the discipline of God. Verse 11 says, “This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” Punishment is inevitable, but it will not last forever. In fact, years later, Daniel will read Jeremiah’s prophecy and realize that Judah’s seventy-year exile in Babylon is coming to an end (Daniel 9:2).

And what about these Babylonians? After all, while they are God’s instrument of judgment upon Judah, they are no better than Judah spiritually or morally; they are wicked and idolatrous. Well, God has a promise for them here in verse 12: 

“After seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation . . . for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.”

There is a point to be made here, beloved. God can use wicked leaders and wicked nations to advance His plans on Planet Earth. But they will still be held accountable to God. 

The Lord tells Jeremiah in verse 15, “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.” By this symbol, the Lord promises His future judgment upon all the ungodly nations that rise up against God’s chosen people.

We have covered a lot of material today, but here is a principle I want to leave with you: the judgment of God might not take place immediately, but it certainly will arrive eventually. Where are you today, my friend? God will judge sin and the sinner in that final judgment described in Revelation 20. Your only hope is found in the death and resurrection of Christ. He died to pay for your sins so you can be forgiven. Today, right where you are, repent of your sin, place your faith in Jesus Christ, and ask Him to save you. No matter what you have done, no matter where you are, the Bible promises that if you call on the name of the Lord, He will hear you, and you will be saved from the wrath of God. (Romans 10:13).

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The Promise of a Future and a Hope

Jeremiah 26–29

For eighteen years, the prophet Jeremiah has stepped into the pulpit there in Judah, so to speak, and preached the word of God. For eighteen years, without fail, he has obeyed his commission from God to speak whatever the Lord commanded him (Jeremiah 1:7). And the response has been exactly what God told him it would be: “They will fight against you” (1:19).

Beloved, dedicating your life to following the Lord means facing opposition in the world. Jesus told His disciples the world would hate them (John 15:18-19), and the apostle Paul warned the church that all who seek to live godly lives in Christ will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12). Your life did not get easier when you became a Christian; in many ways, it got a little harder. The opposition to Jeremiah is only going to increase, and he hasn’t even reached the mid-point of his lengthy ministry yet.

Chapter 26 of Jeremiah takes us back to the reign of Jehoiakim. Here in verse 2, the Lord speaks to Jeremiah again:

“Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah . . . all the words that I command you to speak to them; do not hold back a word.” 

Once again, Jeremiah does exactly what the Lord says.

There is still some hope the people might yet repent. But Jeremiah warns them if they don’t, God is going to destroy their beautiful temple. They are not to think their temple is some kind of good-luck charm that will protect them from God’s judgment. The temple is no guarantee of safety.

And here is the response to his sermon:

When Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die!” (verse 8)

I have had people angry with me after I’ve preached a sermon. I have had several people over the years contact my office and demand I stop preaching about them, although I never named them or had them in mind—evidently the shoe fit, so to speak. But I have never had people try to kill me after a sermon . . . at least not yet.

I remember visiting the chapel in England where John Wesley preached. The guide told us that on one occasion he preached against the evils of slavery, and the congregation erupted and broke apart many of the pews there in the sanctuary. John Wesley escaped through the choir loft.

Well, Jeremiah is put on trial here, and the priests and prophets are ready to put him to death. He steps into the witness stand there in the courtroom and declares here in verse 15: 

“Know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words.”

Some older men there in this courtroom scene remind the people that the prophet Micah was not put to death for his unpopular message; so, they had better be careful not to harm Jeremiah. Consequently, Jeremiah’s life is spared.

In chapter 27, Jeremiah delivers a prophecy at the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign. Remember, Zedekiah is the last king in Judah before Babylon arrives to take the nation into exile. Zedekiah has called political leaders from several surrounding countries to plan a revolt against Babylon. Jeremiah shows up and delivers one of those action sermons where he literally plays out what is going to happen.

The Lord has Jeremiah make a wooden yoke like those used to tie teams of oxen together, and Jeremiah puts this yoke on his own neck and shoulders.

He then speaks to Zedekiah and these other leaders in verse 8:

“If any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, declares the Lord.”

In other words, Judah’s exile in Babylon is the will of God—it is God’s judgment on Judah for their rebellion. They are to willingly put their necks under the yoke of Babylon.

Jeremiah repeats the prophecy to Zedekiah in verse 12: “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people and live.”

Then, a false prophet named Hananiah steps forward to oppose Jeremiah and his message. Chapter 28 records the false teaching of this man. Hananiah goes over and takes hold of that wooden yoke Jeremiah had made, and he breaks it apart. He effectively tells the people, “Jeremiah is lying; Babylon’s yoke of oppression will soon be broken.”

Jeremiah responds that this wooden yoke will be replaced by an iron yoke, and nobody will be able to break that one apart. With that, Jeremiah delivers a personal prophecy to this false prophet here in verse 16:

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord.’”

And two months later, the word of the Lord through Jeremiah comes to pass, and Hananiah dies. Now that should get the attention of King Zedekiah and all the other false prophets, but it doesn’t.

Here in chapter 29, the opposition to Jeremiah grows even stronger. False prophets who have already been deported to Babylon are telling the people their exile will not last long, and they will be going back to Jerusalem in no time at all.

So, Jeremiah sends a letter to Babylon, telling the exiles the exact opposite. Note what he writes here in verses 5-7:

“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters . . . seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf.”

Beloved, this is godly advice for every believer in every nation to this day. This is where God has appointed you. Serve as good citizens, and obey the authorities so long as they do not demand that you violate God’s law. Settle down, plant fruit trees, beautify your home, and work well at your job. God has not abandoned you. Babylon is not your permanent home, but do not try to destroy it. Instead, pray for it; pray for the people as you live among them, as you wait for the Lord.

Verse 11 is a promise that there is a better day coming. The Lord says to the exiles through Jeremiah, “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” 

The Lord has wonderful plans for their future. In the meantime, they are to serve the Lord right where He has assigned them—even there in the land of Babylon. 

Now this chapter ends with more opposition to Jeremiah. This time the false prophet’s name is Shemaiah. He sends a letter back to Judah, telling the priests and the people to rebuke Jeremiah for writing a letter telling the exiles to settle down in Babylon. Essentially, he says, “You all need to rebuke Jeremiah for such a ridiculous, pessimistic message.” But Shemaiah is wrong, and Jeremiah is right. 

As you deliver to your world today the truth of God’s Word, you might be ignored, rejected, ridiculed, and maybe even persecuted. But let me tell you, they are wrong, and you are right. And in the end, God will have the last word.

In the meantime, remember beloved, even as you live in Babylon today, God has plans for you—plans for your welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. And what a future we will have with our Lord one day.

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The New Covenant

Jeremiah 30–33

Bible scholars have called these next four chapters in Jeremiah, “The Book of Consolation.” Here in chapters 30–33, the Lord is going to amplify His promise given just a few verses earlier in chapter 29: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).[8]

Up to this point, Jeremiah’s predominant message has been that God will judge His idolatrous and unrepentant people. The coming devastation of Jerusalem by the Babylonians is now irreversible. But there is still a future for this nation.

And Jeremiah has two futures in view here—one is a near-future restoration of the nation, and the other is a distant-future restoration of Israel when Christ returns to earth as the victorious Messiah-King. And that distant-future restoration is in view here in Jeremiah 30, where God says, “Days are coming . . . when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah” (verse 3).

Now that has not happened yet, has it? The truth is, there is more trouble ahead as God describes here in verse 7 “a time of distress for Jacob.” This is a reference to the coming tribulation that will last for seven years. This time of distress and tribulation will follow the rapture of the church (1 Thessalonians 4). The rapture is that moment when Jesus Christ takes away—literally snatches away—His church from the earth.

When the book of Revelation details this time of tribulation on earth following the rapture, the church is not mentioned. And that is because the tribulation is not meant to purify the church; it is God’s means to lead Israel to repentance and prepare them to receive their soon-coming Messiah.

The tribulation is a time of national revival of the Jewish people. The Lord talks about something in verse 18 that has not yet happened:

“Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacoband have compassion on his dwellings;the city shall be rebuilt.”

In chapter 31, the restored conditions of future Israel are described further. God says in verse 4, “I will build you, and you shall be built,” and in verse 5, “You shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria . . . and shall enjoy the fruit.”

People today who say God is finished with Israel and the church has taken Israel’s place—well, I don’t think they are reading the same Old Testament I am reading here. These promises are literal and real, and they will be fulfilled one day.

Israel and Judah will be reunited; verse 10 tells us the Lord will regather His scattered people. And in verse 13 He says, “I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.” So, there is the clear promise of a physical restoration of the united nation of Israel. But that’s just the beginning of these days of future glory, according to God’s promise.

There will also be a spiritual restoration of the people. This promise centers around the new covenant. Listen to the Lord’s words in verses 31-34:

“Behold, the days are coming . . . when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke . . .For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days . . . I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts . . . they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest . . . I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Here are the covenant promises: First, the nation that divided after the death of King Solomon will be reunited. Second, this covenant will not be broken. Third, this new covenant will not be an external law like the Mosaic covenant but an internal law, written on their hearts. And fourth, it will be made with the nation of Israel as they repent and place their faith in the Lord, as their Messiah.

Now in the New Testament we have details of the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. His death is the basis for this new covenant. At the Last Supper, Jesus said, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20).

But Jeremiah says that this covenant is for Israel. So, how do we as Christians relate to it? Well, we participate in the spiritual blessings of the new covenant, for we receive forgiveness and eternal life through the substitutionary death of Christ. This covenant applies spiritually to everyone who trusts in Him for salvation.

But understand that there are still these prophecies of a restored Israel, which will be fulfilled when the nation will, as individuals, turn in faith to Christ at His second coming. Then, as the apostle Paul writes in Romans 11:26, “All Israel will be saved.”

God is not done with Israel. Indeed, He has plans for Israel—plans to give them a future and a hope in Christ.

Now this promise of a future spiritual restoration for Israel is followed by divine assurance. An eternal covenant requires an eternal people. The Lord promises here in Jeremiah 31:40 that He will restore the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, and that city “shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”

Now Jeremiah presents one of those action sermons again. God tells him to go out and buy a piece of land. So, he buys the land, even knowing that Babylon is about to conquer the land. What is he doing? He is prophetically promising that one day, God’s chosen people will return to their land again.

And that has not fully happened yet, beloved. Yes, Israel became a nation once again in 1948, and the Jewish people are living in the land, but there are as many Jewish people living in America as in Israel today. Listen, the prophecies of Israel’s return to the land are fulfilled during the tribulation period; that’s when the Jewish people will be moved by God to literally flock back to Israel, from all around the world, as the Lord prepares them for His second coming.

Can God do something like this on such a global scale? Jeremiah says here in chapter 32, “Ah, Lord God! It is you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you” (verse 17).

In chapter 33 the Lord reaffirms the new covenant promise that the hearts of the people will be changed. In verse 8 He repeats His promise, “I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion.”

And so, Jeremiah records the Lord’s invitation here in verse 3, where God says, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (NASB).

Let me tell you something, beloved: no matter how hopeless something might look, no matter how difficult your situation might seem today, if God can orchestrate centuries of world events, He can orchestrate the events in your life. If He can forgive a nation of idolaters when they finally come to repentance, He can forgive you. If God will keep His promises to Israel, over a period of thousands of years, He will keep His promises to you.

And His promises to you remain the same—to give you a future and hope in your Messiah. You have been included in His new covenant by trusting in Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection.

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Wrong Reactions to the Word of God

Jeremiah 34–36

Have you upset anybody lately simply because you believe the Bible is the final authority from God Himself?

Not long ago a middle-aged couple visited The Shepherd’s Church, where I have pastored now for many years. That Sunday they noticed the words on the face of my pulpit that read, “Sola Scriptura,” which means “Scripture alone.” In other words, the Bible is the final authority for life.

Well, they made an appointment to see me. He had been the teacher of his Sunday school class for thirty-five years. When we met in my office, he began by telling me how troubled he was—how shocked he was—when he saw those words on my pulpit: Sola Scriptura. I asked him, “What was so shocking about it?” He said, “Well, I didn’t think anybody believed that anymore.” He went on to tell me I was taking the Bible way too seriously—that Jesus was nothing more than a good rabbi, certainly not the Son of God.

This is the kind of reaction to the word of God the prophet Jeremiah is receiving from the nation of Judah. They think Jeremiah is taking God’s word far too seriously, and they want nothing to do with his prophecies.

Although the events recorded in chapters 34 through 36 of Jeremiah all took place before the fall of Jerusalem, these chapters are not arranged chronologically. They are placed here together to emphasize the theme running through these chapters—namely, the people’s reaction to the word of God.

Here in chapter 34, Judah’s last king, Zedekiah, is on the throne. The Babylonian army is conquering one city after another. Verse 7 tells us that only the cities of Lachish, Azekah, and Jerusalem remain free, but they will all fall soon enough.

Jeremiah’s message to King Zedekiah is not a happy one. Zedekiah is not going to put a verse from Jeremiah on his coffee mug to make him feel good in the morning. The Lord’s message to him is given in verses 2-3:

“Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.You shall not escape from his hand but shall surely be captured.”

You certainly do not want to read that over coffee in the morning! So, what Zedekiah does here is attempt to twist the message of God’s word.

We read in verses 8-9:

King Zedekiah . . . made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them,that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves.

What does that mean? Well, the Old Testament outlawed the abduction of people to sell as slaves to someone else (Exodus 21:16). But the law did permit what we would call indentured servanthood, where someone could sell himself to another in order to pay off his debts. However, the law of Moses demanded that this service must come to an end every seventh year (see Exodus 21:1-2; Deuteronomy 15:12-15). That way, Israelites would not become enslaved to one another. However, they have ignored this requirement, and Zedekiah now is trying to straighten it all out.

The problem is that Zedekiah is ignoring the real issue and trying to manipulate God into granting him favor. He is also pretty clever because he wants all these freed slaves to help him defend the city.

Now we are told later (see chapter 37) that the Babylonians suddenly leave Jerusalem to confront an Egyptian threat. Jerusalem is given temporary relief here. But what do they do? Verse 11 tells us:

They turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and brought them into subjection. 

They decide they do not need God’s help after all, so they return to violating the law of God.

Well, Jeremiah delivers the news to them that the Babylonians are going to return and take the city and burn it to the ground. He adds that everybody who broke this covenant with God and re-enslaved Israelites will face special judgment. Jeremiah states here in verse 20, “Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds . . . and the beasts.” They are not going to put that one on their coffee mug either.

It’s one thing to talk about them, but we too can fall into the rap of trying to manipulate God—trying to bribe Him with our actions and promises when we need His deliverance. That reminds me of the two fellows who had been shipwrecked. They are floating out there in the ocean on a piece of wood, and one of them begins to pray, “Lord, if You deliver me, I will stop stealing from my company, I will stop cheating on my taxes, I will never miss a church service again, I will—” and his friend hollers out, “Hold on! I think I see land.”

These people in Jerusalem are not serious with God. They just want God to bail them out.

In Jeremiah 35, we see another reaction. Here they simply ignore God’s word. The scene shifts back a dozen years to the reign of King Jehoiakim.

A clan known as the Rechabites move into Jerusalem seeking safety. The Lord tells Jeremiah to go out to these people and offer them wine to drink. He does so, but the Rechabites refuse his offer. They explain to Jeremiah here in verses 6-7:

“We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, ‘You shall not drink wine . . . you shall not build a house . . . but you shall live in tents all your days.’”

In obedience to the command of their patriarch, Jonadab, they are committed to living as nomads and abstaining from anything fermented. Now understand that Jonadab lived some 200 years earlier (see 2 Kings 10:15).

The Rechabites’ rejection of Jeremiah’s offer was intended by God as a stunning rebuke to the nation of Judah. The Rechabites had been faithful to the command of an ancestor for over 200 years, but Judah continually ignored the commands of God.

Now in chapter 36 we find another reaction to God’s word. King Jehoiakim is going to try to destroy the word of God. The Lord tells Jeremiah here in verse 4 to dictate prophecies to his friend Baruch. Baruch writes them all down on a scroll and then reads them aloud in the temple.

Royal officials hear Baruch, and in verse 16 we are told, “They turned one to another in fear.” They want the king to hear Jeremiah’s words, but they wisely tell Baruch—and Jeremiah—to go hide while they read this scroll to the king. Verses 22-23 tell us what happens next:

The king was sitting in the winter house, and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him. As Jehudi [an official] read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire . . . until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire. 

So, God instructs Jeremiah to dictate another scroll, but this time a prophecy of judgment against the king is included: he will have no descendants establishing a dynasty on the throne, and his own body will not even be buried after he dies.

Beloved, it’s a sad day—a dangerous day—when people ignore God’s Word or, as we see today, twist God’s Word around and upside down to make it say that something evil is good or that something good is evil. Of course, some simply wish the Bible did not exist at all, and some even try to destroy it.

I am reminded of Voltaire, the French philosopher from the 1700s who hated Christianity. On one occasion he predicted the Bible would fade into oblivion within 100 years of his death. It was not long after Voltaire died that the Geneva Bible Society purchased his home and turned it into a print shop to produce Bibles. Listen, God’s Word is established. In fact, God will have the last word.

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The Tragic Fall of Jerusalem

Jeremiah 37–39

Tragedy has been defined as the difference between what could have been and what actually happened. When you think about this definition of tragedy, it certainly applies to the nation of Judah and its last king—Zedekiah.

You can’t help but think of what could have been if he and his people had only listened to God’s repeated warnings through the prophet Jeremiah. But what could have been was not what happened—what actually happened, then, was indeed a tragedy.

Now as we come to the closing days of Judah, described here in Jeremiah 37–39, three different scenes are presented.

In this first scene, we see a king who refuses to listen. Zedekiah was the son of Josiah, Judah’s last godly king, but Zedekiah is nothing like his father. Just imagine these words being written on your tombstone:

Neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet. (Jeremiah 37:2)

The king’s attitude is, “I’m not going to listen to the word of God.” Now despite that attitude, Zedekiah sends a message over to Jeremiah in verse 3, saying, “Please pray for us to the Lord our God.” In other words, “I’m not going to listen to God, but I hope God will listen to me.”

I have had many people throughout my years of ministry who want nothing of God’s Word; but when they get into a jam, they want God to pay attention to them. God isn’t a fire alarm; He’s not waiting around for your emergency call so He can show up.

Now we know historically that the Babylonian army had surrounded Jerusalem to starve the people into surrendering. Zedekiah had already asked Egypt to help him against the Babylonians. So, when the Babylonians leave Jerusalem to confront the Egyptians, this is the moment when Zedekiah asks Jeremiah to pray. The king is hoping the Egyptians will defeat the Babylonians, so he is saying, “Jeremiah, you need to pray that God will make this happen.”

By the way, I am using the term Babylonians, even though the biblical text sometimes refers to them as Chaldeans. Babylonians is the more general term for them. The Chaldeans lived in southern Babylonia. They rose to power and established a dynasty of rulers over the Babylonian Empire; so, Chaldean became a synonym for Babylonian.

Now Jeremiah sends a reply back to King Zedekiah, and it is not what the king wanted to hear:

“Pharaoh’s army that came to help you is about to return to Egypt, to its own land.And the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against this city. They shall capture it and burn it with fire.” (verses 7-8)

The Egyptians will be of no help. They are going to retreat to Egypt, and the Chaldeans will come back and burn Jerusalem to the ground.

Now a second scene develops here with the prophet of God who is now despised. During this time when the Babylonians have withdrawn to fight Egypt, Jeremiah decides to go back to his hometown of Anathoth.

He gets only as far as one of Jerusalem’s gates, where, verse 13 tells us, “A sentry . . . seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ‘You are deserting to the Chaldeans.’” 

But Jeremiah has no intention of deserting—his ministry is to the people of Judah. Note verses 14-15:

Jeremiah said, “It is a lie; I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.” But [the sentry] would not listen to him, and seized Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. And the officials were enraged at Jeremiah, and they beat him and imprisoned him. 

It is interesting to me that King Zedekiah then secretly asks Jeremiah if there is any word from the Lord. What a coward this king is. He knows Jeremiah is a genuine prophet of God, but he will not defend him. Instead, he hopes for some good news from the prophet. Jeremiah responds in verse 17, “You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”

Jeremiah is just not going to stop telling the truth. The other political leaders demand that the king put Jeremiah to death (Jeremiah 38:4). This coward of a king leaves the decision to them, and they put Jeremiah into a cistern, or pit, full of mud and leave him there to starve to death. 

King Zedekiah is like so many religious and political leaders of our day. Rather than take a stand for the truth, they back down and go along with the crowd. They refuse to defend those they know are speaking the truth.

Zedekiah is a weak man, driven by fear. He is afraid of the Babylonians; he is afraid of his political officials; he is afraid of his poll numbers dropping among the population in Jerusalem; and he is superstitiously afraid of God. Frankly, he is afraid to stand on his own two feet—and to stand for the truth. You could say, his feet are firmly planted in mid-air.

Now in all this drama there is one man in Zedekiah’s royal court who is thinking straight. His name is Ebed-melech, and he asks the king to allow him to rescue Jeremiah. The king agrees, and Ebed-melech pulls Jeremiah from that muddy pit and puts him in a safer holding cell. 

And here again, this hypocrite of a king secretly sends for Jeremiah, asking him for another word from God. 

Jeremiah responds in verse 17:

“If you will surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then your life shall be spared, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live.”

Of course, refusing to surrender will bring the opposite result—Jerusalem will be burned and the king’s family will be put to death. Zedekiah’s only response is to tell Jeremiah not to tell the officials of this conversation. He does not heed Jeremiah’s warning. And with that final refusal, tragedy is just around the corner. 

Remember at the outset of our study, we defined tragedy as the difference between what could have happened and what does happen. We can only imagine what could have happened if Zedekiah had only listened.

Chapter 39 brings us to the final and tragic scene, when the day of judgment finally arrives. Like a history textbook, the Bible describes Jerusalem’s fall in a rather straightforward manner. Yet it is easy to imagine the horror of this event. 

The Babylonian siege of Jerusalem lasts about eighteen months before the walls are breached. In verse 4 we’re told, “Zedekiah . . . fled, going out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate.” He and those with him are captured, and Zedekiah’s sons are killed, along with other political leaders. In fact, the very last thing Zedekiah sees is the execution of his sons. Following that, verse 7 records that the Babylonians “put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon.” 

As for Jerusalem, the walls are broken down, and the city is set on fire; many of the remaining Jewish survivors are taken away as captives to Babylon. Only the poor people in the land of Judah are left behind.

Verses 12-14 inform us that Jeremiah is delivered from his prison cell and treated well by the Babylonians, who recognize him as a true prophet of God.

Beloved, you cannot help but think what could have been if only they had listened to the word of God and turned to the Lord in obedience. Let’s learn from this history lesson; let’s make sure we are going to live today without regrets. Let’s obey the Lord so that our lives do not become a tragedy but a triumph as we walk with the Lord today.

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On the Wrong Side of History

Jeremiah 40–44

A well-known author of books on history once advised that we should not brood over what is past, but we should never forget it either.[9] The problem is, the human race has a short memory, and lessons from the past are soon forgotten.

That is what is happening for the people left behind in Judah after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian Empire. As we learned in our last lesson, only the poorest people of the land are left there while all the other people are deported to Babylon.

Here in Jeremiah, chapters 40 through 44, we are given the aftermath of Judah’s defeat; and I must say, just about everybody soon forgets why the nation of Judah was defeated in the first place.

We are told here in chapter 40 that among those left behind is the prophet Jeremiah. It’s interesting that the Babylonian official in charge of the remnant remaining in Judah—a man by the name of Nebuzaradan—gives Jeremiah a choice:

“If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will look after you well, but if it seems wrong to you to come with me to Babylon, do not come. See, the whole land is before you; go wherever you think it good and right to go.”(verse 4)

Verse 6 tells us Jeremiah chooses to stay in Judah, and he goes to Mizpah to live under the newly appointed governor of Judah, a man named Gedaliah. Jeremiah no doubt appreciated the kinship he shared with Gedaliah. They had the same perspective on God’s dealing with Judah; in fact, Gedaliah’s father had saved Jeremiah’s life back in chapter 26.

Gedaliah’s message to the people of Judah is given here in verse 9: “Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.”

To the average man or woman of Judah, this does not sound very patriotic at all—it sounds like treason! Verse 14 tells us a man named Ishmael makes plans to assassinate Gedaliah. Unfortunately, Gedaliah dismisses this as nothing more than a rumor.

In chapter 41, it becomes evident it is not a rumor at all. Ishmael murders Gedaliah and takes captive the remaining people of the city of Mizpah, which apparently includes the prophet Jeremiah. We are about to watch the people of Judah repeat the same mistakes their forefathers had made. They had learned nothing from history and so now launch another rebellion.

Now I don’t know what kind of career path Ishmael thought he was on, but murdering Gedaliah and leading a rebellion against Babylon is effectively rebelling against the will of God. It might look like he is succeeding in his quest for power, but it’s only a matter of time before it all catches up with him.

We are told here in chapter 42 that a leader named Johanan gathers a small force and pursues Ishmael. Johanan is able to rescue the hostages, but Ishmael escapes.

Now Johanan and his little army are afraid the king of Babylon is going to blame them for the death of Gedaliah. So, they decide, against the advice of Jeremiah, to flee to the land of Egypt. Again, they are repeating the mistakes of history, just as their forefathers did when they trusted in Egypt rather than in God.

Let me just say, beloved, that the safest place in all the world to be is in the will of God. And the most dangerous place to be is in disobedience to His will.

Now to their credit, before leaving for Egypt, Johanan and the people of Judah come to Jeremiah. They know what God has said through Jeremiah, but they are wondering if God has changed His mind. So, in verse 2 they ask Jeremiah to inquire of God again.

Jeremiah agrees, and after ten days he delivers God’s answer to them:

“If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up . . . Do not fear the king of Babylon . . . for I am with you.” (verses 10-11)

In other words, if they stay in the land of Judah, which seems dangerous, the Lord will establish them; but if they disobey God and go to Egypt, which seems safer, that will lead to their destruction. In fact, verse 17 promises, “All . . . who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

The Lord cannot be any clearer. But as chapter 43 opens, the people respond by saying to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie.The Lord our God did not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to live there’” (verse 2).

So much for asking God for guidance!

Isn’t this just like people today? Maybe you are teaching a Bible study or pastoring a church, and you are teaching people the truth of God’s Word. And they accuse you of making it all up or misrepresenting God’s Word. Why? Well, just as in Jeremiah’s day, God’s Word does not match their perceptions or preferences, so God must be wrong! And you—His messenger—must be out of touch and on the wrong side of history.

Well, with that defiant spirit, verse 6 tells us the people of Judah take off for Egypt, and they force Jeremiah to go with them. But when they arrive in Egypt, Jeremiah pronounces another prophecy of coming judgment. And this prophecy has an object lesson to go along with it. 

God tells Jeremiah here in verse 9 to bury two large stones beneath the pavement at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace. He is then to prophesy that the Babylonian king will set his throne above these two buried stones. 

I can imagine Pharaoh was not too happy with having to fix his front porch there at the palace, much less with the news that he was not going to be around for very long.

Chapter 44 records another prophecy from Jeremiah to the people of Judah because of their ongoing idolatry. He condemns them for “making offerings to other gods” (verse 8). Particularly in view here are offerings made to the “queen of heaven.”

The worship of this goddess apparently was popular among the women of Judah, who are now living in Egypt. In fact, a large contingent of them show up here in verse 17 to argue with Jeremiah. They tell him that all their needs will be met as long as they offer their worship to the queen of heaven.

Well, let me tell you, the King of heaven—the true King who created heaven and earth—is not impressed. He sends a message back to them through Jeremiah, warning them of further judgment, and then God makes this profound statement in verse 28: “All the remnant of Judah, who came to the land of Egypt to live, shall know whose word will stand, mine or theirs.”

I can’t help but think of another warning, that one day, yet future, the entire unbelieving world will appear before God and discover that the word of man will not stand but the word of God will stand forever.

People today have forgotten the lesson of history. Those who rebel against God and reject His invitation to repent are going to stand before His final judgment. It does not matter how religious you are or how safe you feel in the approval of the world; the word of man will not stand against the word of God. (Revelation 21:11-15)

I hear leaders and people today say, “I don’t want to be on the wrong side of history.” Well, you don’t want to be on the wrong side of God. Let’s learn this lesson well. Let’s not repeat the mistakes of history. Let’s not rebel against the Creator, the King of heaven and earth whose word will stand forever. 

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The Final Prophecies of Jeremiah

Jeremiah 45–52

As we come to the end of our Wisdom Journey through the book of Jeremiah, we are not given any information of the prophet’s final days. More than likely, Jeremiah died in Egypt. And I think it’s rather sad to contemplate this faithful prophet sitting there alone. The people have rejected his message and avoided his influence. He has been the unpopular messenger of doom. But he has also delivered messages of hope for the future restoration of his people, which must have encouraged his heart as he grew older.

In these final chapters of the book of Jeremiah, we find an earlier message to Jeremiah’s friend Baruch repeated, more prophecies against other nations, and a retelling of Jerusalem’s fall.

Chapter 45 takes us back to 605 BC in Jehoiakim’s reign when Baruch is recording on a scroll God’s message to Jeremiah. We journeyed through that event back in chapter 36. That message of divine judgment was emotionally distressing to Baruch. He says here in verse 3, “The Lord has added sorrow to my pain. I am weary with my groaning.”

Now we are given the Lord’s threefold answer to Baruch. First, the Lord says in verse 4, “What I have built I am breaking down.” In other words, God is sovereign over the good times and the bad times. God alone determines when judgment is appropriate.

Second, He tells Baruch not to seek great things for himself. He is to be most concerned about God’s plans, not his. I came across this verse years ago in my early ministry, and it was both convicting and encouraging. The Lord says here in verse 5, “And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not.” I’ve had that verse underlined ever since.

Third, Baruch can rejoice in God’s promise to preserve his life even though disaster is coming.

By the way, beloved, these are timeless truths we need to remember when we are tempted to despair over what’s happening in the world. Our focus should be His will, not ours. Yes, things today might be unsettled, but God has not been unseated. He is in sovereign control.

Jeremiah’s final prophecies concerning the nations begin here in chapter 46. We do not know exactly when all these prophecies were given, but they balance out all the prophecies against Judah. They reveal that Jeremiah was not a traitor to his people at all. He was not just picking on Judah; he had some pretty severe warnings for the surrounding nations as well.

As we look at chapters 46–51, let’s try to get the big picture here of God’s plan. Judgment is pronounced on each of the nations listed here.

God’s first warning is for Egypt. The Egyptians have just suffered defeat at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar in the great battle of Carchemish near the Euphrates River, verse 2 tells us. This took place in 605 BC.

This is just the beginning, though. Years later, Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian army will invade Egypt itself, according to verse 13, and devastate the land.

Do not miss verse 25, which says this is God’s judgment on “Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings.” This judgment will not be permanent, though; verse 26 promises, “Afterward Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old.”

Next to hear the verdict of God’s judgment is the Philistine nation, in chapter 47. This ancient enemy of Israel is going to permanently disappear as a nation.

Next up is the nation of Moab, in chapter 48. Verse 16 says, “The calamity of Moab is near at hand.” And verse 20 adds, “Moab is put to shame . . . Moab is laid waste.” God is going to judge them for opposing Israel in their pride and arrogance (verse 29). But like Egypt, God still has a plan for Moab. We read here in verse 47, “Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares the Lord.”

Next is the nation of Ammon, just north of Moab. They become the object of God’s judgment in chapter 49. Ammon will suffer desolation and exile; but then the Lord promises, “Afterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites” (verse 6).

The nation of Edom, south of the Dead Sea and another enemy of Israel, is also warned of coming judgment. Verse 13 tells us, “All her cities shall be perpetual wastes [a wasteland].”

Damascus, the capital of Syria, is mentioned next. God promises, “I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,and it shall devour the strongholds” (verse 27).

Jeremiah mentions next the cities of Kedar and Hazor. They are out in the Arabian desert, but that will not protect them from God’s judgment. Verse 32 prophesies, “I will bring their calamity from every side of them, declares the Lord.”

Elam, in what today is Iran, will be attacked from all sides, and verse 36 says, “There shall be no nation to which those driven out of Elam shall not come.” The people of Elam will be defeated and scattered. 

The culmination of Jeremiah’s prophecies is found in chapters 50 through 51; the focus here is the judgment of God on Babylon. In fact, this prophecy is really one long poem. The Babylonian Empire God used to punish Judah is going to be punished by God. Verse 3, here in chapter 50, summarizes their coming destruction: 

“Out of the north a nation has come up against her, which shall make her land a desolation, and none shall dwell in it.”

Because Babylon “defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel” (verse 29), they are going to face annihilation. And here is how the Lord is going to make it all happen: 

The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it. (Jeremiah 51:11)

The Medes, along with the Persians, will be God’s tool of judgment to conquer Babylon. That will take place in 539 BC. Daniel 5 gives us Daniel’s eyewitness account of the fall of Babylon.

What is fascinating is that the fall of the Babylonians, the conquerors of Judah, will be the catalyst for the restoration of Judah and all Israel. “I will restore Israel to his pasture,” the Lord says in Jeremiah 50:19. Many scholars believe this is a reference to that coming day when the final Babylon falls, and Israel is regathered to their land.

So, what do we learn from this roll call of nations facing the judgment of God? Well, for one thing, we know for certain that God’s justice cannot be escaped. No matter how long it takes, in God’s time, the godly will eventually be blessed, and those who defy God will one day face His fiery judgment.

Jeremiah 52 acts as a little addendum to the book. Here Jeremiah recounts again the fall of Jerusalem. This expands on chapter 39. And it’s a reminder to the people of God how devastating the destruction of Jerusalem was. The city was destroyed, and the Lord’s temple was destroyed. Imagine, unbelieving idolaters—pagans—were used by God to judge the people of God, who had been living like pagans themselves.

This chapter also sets the stage for Jeremiah’s private journal, the book of Lamentations, which we will begin next time.

So, as we come to the end of Jeremiah, these final chapters remind us again of a powerful truth lived out in Jeremiah’s ministry. God may give us a difficult assignment, as He did Jeremiah; it might be lonely, unpopular, and emotionally distressing at times.

But here is the timeless truth to remember: Our lives and our service are not measured by human approval and applause; when we stand one day before the Lord, the only thing that will matter is receiving the approval and applause of God. So, let’s accept our assignment and live for Him today, in light of that coming day.

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Endnotes

[1] Fred M. Wood and Ross McLaren, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Holman Old Testament Commentary (Holman Reference, 2006), 13.

[2] Eugene Petersen, Run with the Horses (InterVarsity Press, 1983), 37.

[3] Ibid., 38.

[4] Charles H. Dyer, “Jeremiah,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Old Testament, ed. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck (Victor Books, 1985), 1131.

[5] Donald K. Campbell, Daniel: Decoder of Dreams (Victor, 1977), 22.

[6] 2 Kings 22

[7] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive (Victor Books, 1995), 84.

[8] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive (Victor Books, 1995), 127.

[9] Quoted in Reader’s Digest, Quotable Quotes: Wit & Wisdom for Every Occasion (Reader’s Digest Association, 1997), 32.