IS THERE A WORD FROM THE LORD? (JEREMIAH 37:1-21)

 

IS THERE A WORD FROM THE LORD?

BIBLE PASSAGE: JEREMIAH 37:1-21

Picture taken from Google

Lesson Prepared by: Krisha of Solomon’s Wisdom FB page

Lesson ideas taken from: sermons.pastorlife.com/

OCTOBER 17, 2021

MEMORY VERSE

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

1 THESSALONIANS 2:13

 

INTRODUCTION:

What will be your feeling when the family have communication problems? I mean you and the family don’t talk a lot (ask some questions to the audience if possible)? If that happens, all of you will begin to be distant to each other. I remember my mother; when mother calls me, I always try to ask so many things in order for her to speak. I do that because if I don’t we both quiet on video call because she doesn’t talk a lot too. Communicating to video calling needs talking and it urges you to talk more.  I believe relationship becomes stronger in communicating.

 

How about our relationship with the Lord? Let me ask this, “Have you heard or felt God spoke to you recently?” We know God speaks in different ways: in situations, brethren or Christian friends and most especially reading His word through preaching and personal devotions but have we asked ourselves, is there a word from the Lord in today’s preaching? Are our hearts and minds open for that?

If you notice in the book of Jeremiah, you can always read the words, “Then the word came to Jeremiah.” Where we can find them” Jeremiah 1:4 “Then the word of the Lord came unto me saying,…”, Jeremiah 1:11, 2:1, 3:6, 7:1, 10:1, 11:1, 14:1,15:1,16:1, 18:1, 19:1, 21:1, 22:124:4, 25:1, 26:1, 27:1, 32:1, 6, 26, 33:1, 34:1, 35:1, 36:1, 37:6, 38:1, 40:1, 42:7, 46:1, 47:1 and 50:1. It’s almost found in all chapters. What makes sense with this? Jeremiah’s life was full of God speaking to him. How about us? Have we desired to have the words come to us? Let me say again, “Have you heard or felt God spoke to you recently?” Is there a word from the Lord?

LESSON OUTLINE:

1.     GOD HAD A WORD FOR THE PEOPLE OF JEREMIAH’S DAY

 

a.   God often gave Jeremiah a word for his people. We have seen and read from the previous lessons how God spoke to Jeremiah for his chosen people.

ü  The initial message announced the coming judgment upon a rebellious, but religious people. The first message after the Lord called Jeremiah was a warning of impending judgment: “Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it” (Jer. 1:11-12).

The almond tree was an early sign of spring. Here, it is a warning of judgment that is now at hand. Let’s give focus to the last lines of these verses.  “I will hasten My word to perform it” or “I watch over My word to accomplish it.” Circumstance may prevent my accomplishing what I set out to do but God can, and will, always accomplish what He proposes to do.

ü  The second message was even more shocking. “And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north. Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.” (Jer 1:11-15).

 

There was a boiling pot, tilted from the north (from which the mighty Babylonian army would march) toward the south (toward Jerusalem). We will see that what God proposes, God accomplishes. He says, “for I watch over My word to accomplish it.” This does not say that people will always like what God has today. Nor does it say people will believe it. It does say that He will watch over his word to accomplish it. The people to whom Jeremiah delivered the word from the Lord did not want to hear it. They did not like it. Their king did not like it. Leaders of Judah did not like it. The priests and prophets did not like it. They often tried to silence Jeremiah, but they could not prevent the Lord from fulfilling His promise.

 

ü  There was a word from the Lord about their rebellion against Him.

“Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?” (Jer 2:4-5).

“Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jer 2:11-13).

ü  The Lord had a word for an apostate nation.

“Why do you bring a case against Me? All of you have rebelled against Me. [This is] the Lord’s declaration. I have struck down your children in vain; they would not accept discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a ravaging lion. [Evil] generation, pay attention to the word of the Lord! Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of dense darkness? Why do My people claim: We will go where we want; we will no longer come to You?” (Jer 2:29-31).

ü  The Lord had a word of warning against hiding behind religion.

“This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your deeds, and I will allow you to live in this place. Do not trust deceitful words, chanting: This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. Instead, if you really change your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another, if you no longer oppress the alien, the fatherless, and the widow and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves, I will allow you to live in this place, the land I gave to your ancestors forever and ever. [But] look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help” (Jer 7:3-8).

 

b.   The Word of the Lord Came Even in the Final Hour before Judgement

 

1) Jeremiah gives us the historical setting. “Zedekiah son of Josiah reigned as king in the land of Judah in place of Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made him king. He and his officers and the people of the land did not obey the words of the Lord that He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet” (37:1-2).

2) They did not obey the Lord but still wanted Jeremiah to pray for them. “Nevertheless, King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, requesting, ‘Please pray to the Lord our God for us!” I wonder how many people today ask the pastor to pray for them but have no plans to obey the Lord. They do not know the words of Samuel, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”

3). The people look to an ancient enemy for their salvation. “Jeremiah was going about his daily tasks among the people, for they had not [yet] put him into the prison. Pharaoh’s army had left Egypt, and when the Chaldeans, who were besieging Jerusalem, heard the report, they withdrew from Jerusalem” (37:4-5). A smaller Babylonian force left Jerusalem ahead of the Egyptian army, and once again, Judah looked somewhere other than to the Lord for relief. Nations today look to political alliances for their security. Countries are looking everywhere for allies. We are looking to treaties with nations that have not proved themselves worthy of our trust. When will we learn to look to God?

4) “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet” once again (vs 6): “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:

“This is what you will say to Judah’s king, who is sending you to inquire of Me: Watch: Pharaoh’s army, which has come out to help you, is going to return to its own land of Egypt. The Chaldeans will then return and fight against this city. They will capture it and burn it down. This is what the Lord says: Don’t deceive yourselves by saying: The Chaldeans will leave us for good, for they will not leave. Indeed, if you were to strike down the entire Chaldean army that is fighting with you, and there remained among them only the badly wounded men, each in his tent, they would get up and burn this city down” (37:7-10).

5) They didn’t like the message, so they imprisoned the messenger.

“When the Chaldean army withdrew from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army, Jeremiah [started to] leave Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to claim his portion there among the people. But when he was at the Benjamin Gate, an officer of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah's son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah, and he apprehended Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans” (38:11-14a).

6) Jeremiah was beaten and thrown into a dungeon.

“[That’s] a lie,” Jeremiah replied. “I am not deserting to the Chaldeans!” Irijah would not listen to him but apprehended Jeremiah and took him to the officials. The officials were angry at Jeremiah and beat him and placed him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for it had been made into a prison. So Jeremiah went into a cell in the dungeon and stayed there many days” (37:14b-16).

7) Next, King Zedekiah asks Jeremiah, “Is there a word from the Lord?” How ironic. They have been trying to shut him up for years, and now the king wants to know, “Is there a word from the Lord?” It is also interesting that Zedekiah does not ask this before the leaders of the nation, but “in his house privately” the king asked him, “Is there a word from the Lord?”

8) There is a word from the Lord! ““There is,” Jeremiah responded, and he continued, “You will be handed over to the king of Babylon” (vs 17). There was very definitely a word from the Lord, but it is a word the king would never have heard if the kings and people had listened to the word of the Lord which Jeremiah had been proclaiming all along.

Israelites. No, we do not have Jeremiah to deliver the “Thus saith the word of the Lord.” We don’t need that. We have something far greater. We have the completed Bible. We have the Holy Spirit. God had thousands of preachers who are preaching the Gospel without compromise across this land. Of course, there are those who are still prophesying
lies. There are ministers today who are deceiving the people. There are spineless preachers today who seem more interested in the approval of the people than the clear Word of God for this age. They say what people want to hear. They avoid what might offend the people: sin, judgment, repentance, and hell (assuming they even believe in hell). Let me assure you, the Lord knows what is going on in America and He has a word for us today.

Is there a word from the Lord? Yes! Is it a clear word, or has the Lord entrusted it only to a few chosen television preachers who call themselves prophets? Do we have to wait for some tel-evangelist to get “a word of knowledge” from the Lord? Let me assure you, His Word is not obscure, hidden, or clouded.

 

 

2.  THERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A WORD FROM THE LORD.

A. There Was Always a Word from God in Bible Times.

1) Adam: Is there a word from God? There is! “And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die” (Gen 2:16-17). Adam heard the word from the Lord but did not obey Him, and death has reigned like a tyrant ever since, with the only hope for any person being the One who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

2) Noah: Is there a word from the Lord? There is! Once again, the word from the Lord is earth shaking, and in this case, earth soaking!

“When the Lord saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe off the face of the earth: man, whom I created, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen 6:5-8).

3) Abraham: Is there a word from the Lord? There is!

“The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:1-3).

With these words, the Lord entered a covenant relationship with Abraham fulfillment is found in Jesus Christ. The genealogy of Jesus in the first chapter of Matthew certifies that Jesus is the Seed of Abraham.

4) Moses: Is there a word from the Lord? There is!

“Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of My people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I know about their sufferings. I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the territory of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. The Israelites’ cry for help has come to Me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt” (Ex 3:7-10).

By His mighty hand, God fulfilled his promise, leading them out of Egypt, through the parted waters of the Red Sea, on dry ground, to Sinai, through the wilderness, across the Jordan, and into Canaan. What God proposes, God performs. What He promises, He accomplishes.

5) Joshua: Is there a word from the Lord. There is! God gave Moses instructions and then told him to write them in the book. Joshua said, everything Moses wrote in the book, we did. Joshua 1:1, “Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying. ⁶ Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” (Joshua 1:1,

6) Samuel: Is there a word from the Lord? There is! However, the Word of the Lord was very precious in that day. Very seldom had God spoken audibly to anyone when the young child heard the voice calling to him, “Samuel, Samuel.” Samuel became the pivotal figure of the era, the one God used to bring about the transition from the Period of the Judges to the Period of the Kings.

7) David: Is there a word from the Lord? There is!

The Lord declares to you,”And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:” (2 Sam 7:11-14).

 

David could have used one of those bumper stickers that reads: I AM NOT PERFECT, JUST FORGIVEN. David was not perfect, but he was the standard by which all other kings would be judged. That emblem on the Israeli flag today is not called the Star of Saul, or the Star of Solomon. It is the Star of David. David was a man after God’s own heart. He sinned and paid a severe price, but can you imagine what the Bible would look like if we cut out all references to David, and all the great Psalms he wrote!

10) Call the roll: Elijah, Isaiah, Amos, Hosea, Malachi, Mary and Joseph, Peter, John, Paul. Is there a word from the Lord? Yes, there is! There has always been a word from the Lord. There has been a word for all occasions.

B. There Is a Word from the Lord for Us Today.

1) There is a word from Genesis for us today. God is the uncaused Cause of all that exists - not the first Cause, but the uncaused Cause. He is the source of your existence, and you are accountable to Him.

2) There is a word from the Lord in Exodus. When Nehemiah confessed the sins of his people, he prayed, “I confess the sins we have committed against You. Both I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted corruptly toward You and have not kept the commands, statutes, and ordinances You gave Your servant Moses” (Neh 1:6-7). If God expected Nehemiah and his generation to keep the “commands, statutes, and ordinances” He gave Moses, what do you think He expects us to do with them? We must go to the Sermon on the Mount to see how Jesus would have us to apply those commands, statutes, and ordinances.

3)There is a negative word from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount just for you and me.

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

 

The first step toward murder is a wrong attitude toward another person. In the words of that great theologian of the last half of the twentieth century, Barney Fife, we must “Nip it in the bud!” (Meaning: suppress or destroy something at an early stage)

Jesus said, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Matt 5:27-28).

If we are going to nip this sin in the bud, we are going to have to stay away from a lot of movies, turn off a lot of Television programs, avoid a lot of modern magazines, books, and music. I am not just talking about magazines we know to be pornographic, either. I had subscribed to Sports Illustrated for a number of year, but when they began publishing the Swimsuit issue I discontinued my subscription. Christians must avoid anything that may lead them into temptation - and they must avoid that which will lead others into temptation.  1 Thessalonians 5:22 has a reminder for all of us, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”

4) There is a positive word from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount just for you and me.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
Blessed are those who mourn, ….” (Matt. 5:3-11).

Is there a word from the Lord about my financial problems? There is a promise from the Lord in Malachi 3:10. Is there a word from the Lord about my attendance in the church? Hebrews 10: 25 has the answer. Is there a word from the Lord about my service in God’s vineyard? 1 Corinthians 15:58 has all the encouragement words. Is there a word from the Lord about my problems? 1 Peter 5:7 and 1 Corinthians 10:13 have all the answers. Is there a word from the Lord about my lifestyle in the world? Matthew 5: 16 is the answer. Is there a word from the Lord, how will I get saved? There is!!! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house; it can be found in Acts 16:31.

 

CONCLUSION:

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe – 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

 

“Ito pa ang lagi naming ipinagpapasalamat sa Diyos: nang ipangaral namin sainyo ang kanyang salita, tinanggap ninyo ito bilang tunay na salita ng Diyos, at hindi ng tao,. Anupat ang bisa nito’y nakikita sa buhay ninyong mga sumasampalataya.”

 

In this verse Paul expresses his unceasing gratitude that the Thessalonian Christians had responded with faith when he preached to them. They accepted what he said as God's Word and not the word of men. Also, they accepted as it is in truth, the Word of GOD. Paul understood that the Word of God had taken hold of their lives and was bearing spiritual fruit. This comment expands on the remarks made by Paul at the start of this letter, when he also referred to his "constant" mention of the Thessalonians in his prayers (1 Thessalonians 1:2).