Cursed be the Man That Trusteth in Man

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RETURN TO SYLLABUS

JEREMIAH 17
Lesson #18
CURSED BE THE MAN THAT TRUSTETH IN MAN

• Memory Verse: Jer 17:9
• As the religious atmosphere deteriorated in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, so did the political atmosphere.
  • This principle of the connection between the spiritual and the political is exemplified to a fine degree in the book of Jeremiah and especially in this chapter.
  • In the United States where we are told today that religion and government must be separate, we are not used to this perspective that one affects the other on the national scene and the international scene.
    • The founding fathers, however, knew that there was not a single instance in history where civil liberty was lost and religious liberty was preserved. They understood these lessons in Jeremiah.
    • The two are inseparable, civil liberty and religious liberty. If you have one, you will have the other.
  • In God’s perspective, and through the Bible, everything is related one with another.
    • We see that the believer in Jesus Christ must submit his life totally to the Lord, to mature spiritually, to follow Christ, and to serve God en every area of his life. The Christian life is not simply to attend church on Sunday, and maybe on Wednesday. We are not to put our faith in little compartments to open up and use as is comfortable to us.
    • The Israelites went through the physical motions of worship, but their hearts were far from God serving idols and foreign gods. When destruction and slavery came upon them, they did not understand that it was the result of their spiritual condition.
      • The same is true today.
      • If you were to say to a person on the street that our current drought is God’s warning of coming judgment, he would probably laugh at you and think you were some religious nut.
• Read Jer 17:1-4
  • The people cannot ask, “What sin have we committed?”
    • Their sins are written before God with an iron pen that has a diamond point.
      • Their sins are written on their stony hearts
      • Their sins are written on the horns of the altar of sacrifice.
        • The horns of the altar of sacrifice represented God’s mercy.
        • A guilty man could cling to the horns of the altar to beg for mercy and God would hear him as the blood of the animal sacrifice was applied to the horns of the altar.
    • In other words, their sins are deeply engraved before God. Time will not wear away the engraving so that they cannot be read or seen. (Deu 32:34) Only forgiveness of sin by the blood of Jesus Christ makes sin disappear.
  • The prophet, Jeremiah, has been telling them their sins from the beginning, but they have not listened.
    • Therefore, the treasures of Solomon’s beautiful golden temple will be taken by the Babylonian army. (3)
    • The Israelites will serve the Babylonians as slaves in a distant land. (4)
• Read Jer 17:5-11
  • “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.”(5)
    • God is supposed to be the nation’s arm on which we lean.
    • Read Isa 33:2
  • When problems grow in society or in a nation to monumental proportions, human nature looks to the government and specifically to one leader to solve them.
    • Case #1:
      • This was true of the Israelites in the book of Jeremiah.
      • However, because they were not looking to God for solutions, their government leaders continued to be evil men that had no answers. Their leaders only perpetuated and even hastened the path to destruction.
    • Case #2:
      • This is true in the United States today. The problems are enormous and multi-faceted. Still people are looking for the government to solve them. Specifically they look to one man, the president, to solve them.
      • However, as long as we look to man to solve them, we will not see a resolution because of Jer 17:9.
    • Case #3:
      • In the future period of the tribulation that is yet to come over this world, people will look to one man, the antichrist, to solve the world’s problems.
      • And we know how that ends….the battle of Armageddon will be the result.
  • Why is it that we must not look to one man to solve society’s problems?
    • Jeremiah tells us that to look to man to solve the problems is like trusting in the “heath in the desert”. (6)
      • The heath was a dry, worthless shrub without water in the desert.
      • A national leader without God is like walking through the desert without water.
    • Why do you think verse 9 was important to the founders of America?
      • Verse 9 tells us. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
      • In reality, when the founding fathers of America considered the establishment of a government for this new nation, this verse was very important to them. There were those who wanted to make George Washington a king.
        • The founding fathers understood God’s perspective of man.

Man’s heart is wicked because man is born with a nature prone to sin.

Man’s sinful nature is inherited from Adam and Eve. Human nature left to its own devices always slides into evil, lust, pride, and selfishness or self importance.

Therefore, we cannot trust one man to maintain a righteous government without God.

• • • • • Therefore, the founding fathers devised a government with the separation of powers: the Executive branch of government, the Legislative branch of government, and the Judicial branch of government. These three branches of government were designed to have checks and balances so that one man would not control everything.

“In proportion as the general effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation, in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom, and approximate the miseries of complete despotism.” Quote from Jedidah Morse, leading educator and political activist in the American Revolution.

“Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them.” Quote from Jedidah Morse.

“There is not one instance in history where civil liberty was lost and religious liberty was preserved in its entirety.” Quote from John Witherspoon, American founding father.

“Let me conclude by advising all men to look into their own hearts, which they will find to be ‘deceitful above all things and desperately wicked’. (Jer 17:9) Quote by John Adams, founding father of America.

• • • Jeremiah tells us that to trust in man is like a partridge sitting on eggs that do not hatch. (11)
      • Remember the difference between a statesman and a politician?
      • The politician is in government for his own gain. He is the partridge sitting on his treasured eggs. But the eggs do not hatch to bring good to the people he serves. In the end he is a fool because his wealth is temporary, his power fleeting, and his judgment devastating.
  • The believer’s hope is in the Lord (7-8) (Psa 1:1-3)
    • The believer trusting the Lord is provided for in times of trouble.
    • He drinks from the well of eternal life.
    • He does not worry about what trouble may come.
    • His life continues to produce fruit for God.
• Read Jer 17:12-18
  • “A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.” (12)
    • God made his throne on earth in Jerusalem. Because of that fact, many thought God would not permit the destruction of Jerusalem.
    • Surely God would not permit his throne on earth to be destroyed, “From where would God then rule on earth?”
      • The Bible tells us that when Christ returns to earth the second time, He will rule from Jerusalem for 1000 years in what we call the Millennial Kingdom.
      • Obviously, what God destroys He can restore by the power of His hand.
  • Those that depart from Jeremiah depart from God, and those that listen to Jeremiah listen to God. (13)
    • Only those that listen to God will discover that He is a hope and a comfort in the midst of trouble for those that know God.(17)
    • Again we see the prophet not only identified very personally with his people but we see that Jeremiah identifies himself with God and God with him. Why is that?
      • Jeremiah has a life totally committed to God.
      • While Jeremiah originally was hesitant and did not want this job (16), he has deepened his relationship with God so that now he is totally committed.
        • We can see this change in Jeremiah in verse 14 where he asks God to heal him and save him.
        • To be this intimate with God brings peace and joy no matter the circumstances and persecutions.

Notice that people were mocking and saying to him, “If this is the word of God, where is the fulfillment of it?” (15)

In times of this kind of mocking and persecution, the believer’s only place of peace and joy is his intimate fellowship with God.(17-18)

Jeremiah desired comfort in serving God.

Jeremiah desired courage in bringing God’s messages.

• Read Jer 17:19-27 Keep the Sabbath
  • God told Jeremiah to go to the gates of the city, specifically the gate kings used to go in and out of Jerusalem, as well as all the other gates and tell everyone to keep the Sabbath.
  • In other words, the prophet would need courage to preach not only to the common people but to those in high authority.
    • However, no one listened to Jeremiah.
    • Therefore because they did not listen, God would permit the city of Jerusalem to be burned totally with no one left in the city to put out the fire. (27)
  • The prophetic double fulfillment of the Promise: Conditional and Unconditional
    • The Conditional Promise of the Covenant:
      • God told them that IF they kept the Sabbath, He would restore the lineage of the kings descended from Judah and they would reign forever. (25)
      • That is the conditional promise to the people of Jeremiah’s day under the conditional covenant of Moses.
    • The Unconditional Promise:
      • The glorious restoration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel with people coming into the city from around the world to give praise to God with sacrifices in a restored temple.
      • This is the unconditional aspect of the promise. How do we know it is unconditional?
        • Jeremiah told us they did not listen and did not keep the Sabbath.
        • History tells us that the Babylonians came and totally destroyed the temple and Jerusalem en 586 BC.
        • However, this prophecy will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ.
        • Read Zec 14:2-7, 16-21
• Summary and orientation to the rest of prophecy:
  • If you have not yet noticed that the prophecies of Jeremiah about the coming destruction of the temple, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the end of the nation of Israel that were fulfilled by the Babylonians in 586 BC were only the first fulfillment of prophecy.
  • The second fulfillment would come in 70 AD with the Roman destruction of the temple, Jerusalem, and the end of the nation of Israel.
  • There is a third fulfillment that is still to come. If prophecy is fulfilled twice, why is there a third fulfillment?
    • Here is the prophetic rule: When a prophecy is repeated again after the first fulfillment has come to pass, there must still be two fulfillments of the repeated prophecy.
    • Read Mat 24:8-22
      • Notice that Jesus tells us a lot of the same kind of destruction that Jeremiah told us even to the mention of the Sabbath.
      • The first fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy occurred in 70 AD which is the second fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy.
      • The second fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy will occur at the end of the tribulation period at the Battle of Armageddon according to Zec 14.
  • Therefore, in all history Israel will see three terrible events of catastrophic destruction of the temple, the city of Jerusalem, and the nation before they turn to God and accept Christ as their Messiah. Then God will gloriously fulfill his promises to bless them abundantly and make them a favored nation in the millennial kingdom of Christ.
• Application:
  • In light of the three fulfillments God warns Israel not to trust in one man to solve the problems of the world. Because the Jews will not heed this warning, they will trust in the Antichrist of the tribulation period that ends in the Battle of Armageddon and the third fulfillment.
  • Man in general is warned not to trust in one man to solve world problems because, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

HOMEWORK
Jeremiah 18

• Application of Jer 17
  • How often do you look at the news and wish we had one man at the head of the government that could solve all the nation’s problems?
  • How often have you listened to a political speech and marveled at the answers that person has for the problems of the world? But have you noticed that even when that person is in charge, the problems don’t get solved?
  • Now we know why. Only Christ will solve them when He comes again.
  • Pray and repent of looking to man for answers. Begin to look to Christ for the answers.
• Preparation for Jer 18
  • Read Jer 18:1-23
    • What do you think is the meaning of the message of the potter and the clay?
• Memory Verse: Rom 9:21