Cage Full of Birds

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RETURN TO SYLLABUS

JEREMIAH 05
Lesson #06
THE CAGE FULL OF BIRDS: THE SINS OF JUDAH

• Memory Verse: 2Chr 7:14
• Read Jer 5:1-19
  • God tells Jeremiah to run through the city and the countryside looking for at least one person that knows what justice and truth are. (1)
    • This verse reminds us of the story of Abraham pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah.
    • Read Gen 18:20-33
      • Notice that Abraham pleaded with God to find at least ten people and God would spare Sodom and Gomorrah.
      • What if Abraham had pleaded for one person to be found in those cities? But Abraham stopped pleading at ten people.
        • He assumed there must be at least ten righteous people.
        • Abraham misjudged his own culture.
  • The situation in Judah is evidently worse than the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah. God would spare Judah if there was just one righteous person?
    • But what about King Josiah and Jeremiah himself? Would they not be considered righteous?
    • God’s instruction to Jeremiah is to find an ordinary person…a common man that represents his culture in a positive light.
      • What sin did Jeremiah find in Judah? Spiritual Dishonesty.
        • They said that God lived, but they did not know God personally. (2)
        • They did not judge correctly their spiritual condition in God’s sight. (3-4)
        • Even the leaders and those in authority who knew the truth, did not live according to God’s truth. (5)
      • What were the sins in Sodom and Gomorrah that are repeated in Judah?
        • The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were dishonest spiritually in not acknowledging God for who He is.
        • When they first did not acknowledge God, they gave themselves to idolatry. With idolatry came sexual sins in Sodom and Gomorrah.(Gen 13:12-13)

Sexual sin manifested itself in Sodom and Gomorrah in the sin of homosexuality. The homosexual men of the city desired a sexual relationship with the angels that visited Lot.

Sexual sin in Sodom and Gomorrah manifested itself in the sin of promiscuity. Lot offered his own daughters to those depraved men.

• • • • • Jeremiah mentions sexual sin in Judah. (8)

It manifested itself in adultery. (2)

It is interesting to notice that to this point in the book of Jeremiah, the prophet has talked about spiritual adultery. Remember that spiritual adultery is idolatry with the worship of other gods.

Now we see that spiritual adultery eventually leads to actual sexual immorality.

Read Rom 1:21-29a

The book of Romans directly links spiritual adultery or idolatry to sexual immorality in a culture that does not first acknowledge God as the supreme authority.

• • • • What are the primary categories of sin in modern culture today?
        • The sin of unbelief is the greatest sin from which all other sins follow.

When a society does not acknowledge God, the sin of unbelief leads man to replace God with any number and type of idols.

From the spiritual condition of unbelief flow the inevitable sexual sins of this modern age.

• • • • • The sexual sin of today:

It is manifested in our society as the tolerance of homosexuality.

It is manifested in the breakdown of the definition of marriage between a man and a woman and the marriage of homosexuals and lesbians.

It is manifested in rampant divorce in our society among non-believers and equally among Christians.

It is manifested in our society as people live together without the benefit of marriage and think nothing of it.

• • • • • Sexual sins today are called “the new morality”. According to the Bible this is not new.
  • Therefore, the abundance of sexual sins in society points to the initial step of unbelief. We see this link distinctly stated in Jer 5:7-8.
    • “..Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods…they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.” (7)
  • The results in society:
    • God will remove His protection. (9-10)
    • An enemy will come to destroy them. (6)
      • The lion, the wolf, and the leopard,
      • Israel’s various enemies will take a part of their blessings that God gave them.
  • The inevitable rationalization of Judah that we see today: (12)
    • People will say that God would not send destruction on His own people.
    • People will say that nothing bad is going to happen to us.
    • People will say that no enemy or natural disaster is great enough to destroy us.
    • People will say that we always have the prophets of doom but it amounts to nothing.
  • The nation from afar: (15-19)
    • This was the rise of the Assyrian Empire that destroyed the Northern Kingdom and took the people captive.
    • “…Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”(19)
      • One of the purposes for the Babylonian Captivity was to break the spiritual power of idolatry in the land of Israel.
      • As God permitted Assyria to invade the Northern Kingdom, God will permit Babylon to invade the Southern Kingdom.
    • Jeremiah is to warn the Southern Kingdom that they will suffer the same fate as the Northern Kingdom. (20)
• Read Jer 5:20-31
  • When Jesus spoke parables that referenced the failures of the religious leadership of the Pharisees and Sadducees, he used the same phrasing as in verse 21. (Mark 8:18)
    • “…which have eye and see not; which have ears and hear not.” (21)
    • Because the leaders did not fear God, (22) they had a hardened heart of rebellion. (23)
    • They did not equate the lack of rain and poor harvest to God’s judgment. (24)
      • “The former rain” and “the latter rain”.
      • Israel’s agricultural economy relied upon both the former rains that came in the fall after the planting of crops and the latter rains that came in the spring just before harvest.
        • God is in control of weather conditions that directly relate to a nation’s economy.
        • When a society acknowledges God, He gives them abundance. (25)
  • The cage full of birds: (27)
    • Read Rev 18:2
    • The Bible uses this picturesque description to indicate that evil is collected and stored. It may have a beautiful appearance. They may sing an enticing song.
    • All the evil in the world is collected and stored until the end time when the Antichrist is in power ruling the world. But when that evil kingdom is destroyed at the event of Christ’s second coming, Christ will destroy this cage of evil birds.
    • Judah is contributing to the cage full of birds. (27-28)
  • The wonderful and horrible thing: (30-31)
    • The wonderful thing is that God is in control and warns the people through good prophets like Jeremiah that judgment is coming, but that God will not permit a total annihilation of the Jews.
    • The horrible thing is that there are false prophets and corrupt priests among the Israelites that force God to discipline his people strongly by permitting the Babylonian destruction.
• Summary:
  • “Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?’
  • Notice that God repeats this phrase twice in this chapter, in verse 9 and verse 29, but God promises that He will not put an end to His people, the Jews.

HOMEWORK
Jeremiah 6

• Application of Jeremiah 5
  • When you watch the news concerning government leaders:
    • Do you pray for those in authority over us? (Rom 13)
    • Do you pay special attention to leaders that have moral integrity so that you remember who they are?
  • When you vote, do you choose leaders….
    • …that have moral integrity?
    • …that lead clean lives as best you can determine?
    • …that have a Biblical perspective of life and issues?
    • ….that echo a Biblical belief regarding marriage, abortion, homosexuality, capital punishment, and sexual promiscuity?
• Preparation for Jeremiah 6
  • Read Jer 6:1-30
    • What are “uncircumcised ears”? (10)
• Memory Verse: Jeremiah 6:16