Planting of the Green Olive Tree

RETURN TO SYLLABUS

JEREMIAH 11
Lesson #12
THE PLANTING OF THE GREEN OLIVE TREE

• Memory Verse: Jeremiah 11:3 or John 14:15
• When they found the book of the Law hidden in the temple, the Israelites had no idea about the laws of God that they were violating.
  • They did not know their history with God when God chose them from among the nations.
  • They did not know that God had married them in the wilderness after He delivered them from Egypt.
  • They did not know the covenant God made with Moses that was supposed to guide their lives.
    • What was it like to live in ignorance?
      • Ignorance is not bliss.
      • Ignorance means you are wandering without direction.
    • Does ignorance mean you are not accountable? No.
      • We have a secular legal saying, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”
      • Ignorance does not change the law or nullify it.
      • Ignorance only means you have a greater chance of breaking the law without knowing it.
• Jeremiah’s job was to call their attention to the laws of God that they were violating. That is the theme of Jeremiah 11.
• Read Jer 11:1-5 The conditional Covenant with Moses
  • The blessings and cursings of the Law
    • When God gave the covenant of Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, it was a conditional covenant. All other covenants that God made with man were unconditional.
      • A conditional covenant is one where both parties are pledged to fulfill their part of the covenant.
      • If one party fails to fulfill his part, the other party is free of the commitment.
        • Of course, God is always faithful to do all that He says He will do.
        • Man, on the other hand, may have good intentions but he is weak and never does what he says he will do.
      • God said to Israel in this covenant, IF you will do this, I will do that. Therefore, If Israel fulfills their part of the covenant, God will fulfill his part. The “IF” statement is the condition in this covenant.
    • We can easily see this condition of the Mosaic Covenant in detail in Deu 28.
      • Read Deu 28:1-2
        • From verse 3-14 are a list of blessings that God will do for His faithful people.
        • From verse 15-68 are a list of cursings that God will permit to come upon His rebellious people if they do not fulfill their part of the covenant. Notice that the list of cursings is much longer than the list of blessings.
      • Read Deu 28:49-50
        • God promises an enemy invasion IF they do not keep the covenant of Law made with Moses.
        • The curses of this conditional covenant are the basis of Jeremiah’s prophecies and of all the other messages by the prophets of God who were supposed to remind the people of their commitment to this covenant.(5)
  • Disobedient Israel must bear their failure to live up to the Covenant with Moses.
    • Built into the Law of Moses are blessings and cursings. If man keeps the Law of Moses, God will bless him. However, the curse is that man cannot keep the Law of Moses perfectly 100% of the time every day of his life. Because man is weak and because the cursings are longer than the blessings, man is doomed to live under curses in his life.
    • Read Gal 3:9-14
      • Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law in the Mosaic Covenant when he lived a perfect life without sin.
      • Jesus Christ ended the Mosaic Covenant at the crucifixion when spiritually he nailed the curses of the Law to cross.
    • Since God knew ahead of time the Israelites would not live up to their part of the covenant, why did God give them the Law of Moses?
      • To demonstrate to them in a very practical way that they could not keep the law. (Gal 3:10)
      • To bring them to their knees in humility so they would turn to God for mercy.
      • To bring them to Christ, so they would receive Him as their savior. (Gal 3:19, 23-25)
• Read Jer 11:6-8
  • “…Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.” (6)
    • Jeremiah is commanded to read the covenant in the streets of Jerusalem.
    • However, the people did not listen to him. (8)
    • Therefore, God will bring the list of curses from Deu 28 upon them.
  • Read Deu 28:16-25
• Read Jer 11:9-15
  • A revealed conspiracy of the ages to break the covenant
    • God told Jeremiah about a conspiracy that his fellow citizens were plotting against his life. (9)
    • This is the same type of conspiracy that has continued in Israel for centuries.
      • Other prophets before Jeremiah had experienced the same rejection and death…a plot to kill the messenger because they did not like the message they brought. (10)
      • God considers the plot to kill the prophets as a plot against God and his covenant.
        • God identifies himself with those He calls to preach His word. They are God’s mouthpiece.
        • Therefore, a rejection of those God has called is a rejection of God and a conspiracy against the covenant God established.
  • The people’s response:
    • The people do not hear God’s message, so God will not hear the people when they pray. (11)
    • God says they should pray to their idols for they are as many as the number of cities in Israel or the as many as the number of streets in Jerusalem. (13)
  • Why is Jeremiah told not to pray for his people? (14)
    • Remember that we talked about a nation or a person crossing some spiritual line in their slide into unbelief and sin.
      • Israel has evidently crossed that spiritual line.
      • We do not know when a nation or a person has crossed that line unless the Lord says, “Don’t pray for them.”
        • Then why did God send Jeremiah to prophesy to them?
        • God in His mercy and love does not want any nation or person to perish.
        • God always sends a warning before sending judgment so that man might know the reason for the judgment.
    • The people were doing animal sacrifices (“holy flesh”) but it was a religious ritual without faith, and without repentance for sin, and not pleasing to God. (15)
      • God desires obedience.
      • Because the people did not want to hear about obedience and repentance, Jeremiah is told not to pray for them.
• Read Jer 11:16-23 The Green Olive Tree
  • The olive tree represents the whole nation of Israel, while the green olive tree represents those of Israel that are pure of heart eager to do God’s will so as to produce fruit.
    • Read Psa 52:8
    • Read Rom 11:17
      • Israel had become a wild olive tree in rebellion against God instead of a green olive tree.
      • Read Jude 1:12
        • Israel is twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
        • They lost the land twice…in 586 BC with the Babylonian Captivity and in 70 AD with the Roman Dispersion.
  • The blessings of God on Israel, the olive tree.
    • God planted the Israelites in their own land. (17)
    • He gave the land originally to Abraham. But they left it for lack of faith to go to Egypt under Joseph.
    • God gave them the land again when he brought them out of Egypt under Moses, and He helped them to conquer the Promised Land under Joshua.
      • Notice the prophecy in Jer 11:16 that the olive branches would be broken.
        • The first fulfillment of this prophecy was in 586 BC when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took the people captive to Babylon for 70 years.
        • The second fulfillment of this prophecy was in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and ended the nation of Israel to disperse the people.
      • Now we can see from Romans 11:17 that God permitted the destruction of the nation of Israel so that the Gentiles might be grafted into the olive tree of Israel.
  • Jeremiah identifies himself with the green olive tree in verse 19.
    • His own people that are part of the olive tree are determined to destroy the tree of their inheritance along with killing Jeremiah. In an attempt to destroy Jeremiah, they are destroying themselves and their heritage with God.
    • Jeremiah can hardly believe what God showed him about this conspiracy.
      • He went home to his city after preaching in Jerusalem not knowing he was in danger.(18-19)
      • The evil assassins were men from his home town of Anathoth. Anathoth was a city of priests.
      • The assassins offered him his life if he would refrain from speaking God’s messages.
      • They were determined to kill the prophet and his message. (the tree and the fruit vs. 19)
  • God’s vengeance against the men of Anathoth
    • Jeremiah prays against the conspirators that evil will come upon them.
      • We must remember that in this New Testament age, we are not to pray evil upon our enemies as they did in the Old Testament. Jesus said we are to pray for our enemies.
      • Under the Old Testament economy of God, this prayer of Jeremiah was perfectly legitimate. It is a prayer that God will be victorious over Satan and his demons who are behind all evil doings.
    • Vengeance belongs to God and not to man. God’s justice is a terror to the wicked but a comfort to the godly.
    • The revelation of the plot against Jeremiah’s life is the way God protects Jeremiah’s life at that time.
      • God is not finished with Jeremiah.
      • He has more of God’s messages to give to the people.
    • Because of their evil plot, God will make sure the assassins die by the sword when the Babylonians come, and their children will die in a famine.
    • There will be no descendents from them that will survive.
• Application: What is the best way to demonstrate your love for God?
  • In this New Testament Age, we have a better covenant than the conditional covenant with Moses.
  • We have the unconditional New Covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ.
    • Even though the people of Jeremiah’s day were doing some of the religious practices that God told them to do, God was not pleased because they were empty ritual.
    • God desires a repentant heart.
    • God desires faith. (Heb 11:6)
    • God desires love.
    • God desires obedience to the Holy Spirit who guides you internally.

HOMEWORK
Jeremiah 12

• Application of Jer 11
  • Thank God that you live under a better unconditional covenant that depends on God’s faithfulness and not yours.
    • Whether in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, God desires obedience.
    • Rate your level of obedience to God on a scale of 1 to 10. (Ten being 100% obedient)
    • In what specific things does God want you to be obedient that you have either failed or neglected?
• Preparation for Jer 12
  • Read Jer 12:1-17
    • What do you think the speckled bird represents?
    • Why will God eventually have compassion on the Israelites after all they have done against God?
• Memory Verse: Rom 11:32