Case of the Speckled Bird

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RETURN TO SYLLABUS

JEREMIAH 12
Lesson #13
THE CASE OF THE SPECKLED BIRD

Memory Verse: Rom 11:32
Because of the plot against Jeremiah’s life in the last chapter, he had to leave his hometown of Anathoth.
The historical events at the time:
- Around this time, King Josiah made a foolish decision and went to join the battle with the Egyptian army of Pharaoh-nechoh in the Plain of Meggido against an Assyrian army. The king was fatally wounded.
  - Jeremiah mourned the death of his king.
    - King Josiah was his friend and protector.
    - With the death of King Josiah, the reformation and revival under King Josiah cooled.
  - With the death of King Josiah, the nation slid further away from God.
  - Read 2Chr 35:25
- The next king was Jehoahaz but he reigned only three months.
  - Pharaoh-nechoh of Egypt exerted his power and political pressure over Judah by installing Jehoiakim to the throne in Judah to replace Jehoahaz that Pharaoh could not control.
  - Read 2Kin 23:29-36
- King Jehoiakim was a puppet ruler under the thumb of Egypt.
  - He was forced to pay tribute to Egypt.
  - When Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated Pharaoh-nechoh, Jehoiakim became a puppet ruler under the thumb of Babylon.
  - After three years Jehoiakim rebelled against Babylon and the heavy tribute Israel was paying.
    - Jeremiah counseled against this rebellion, but the kings of Judah had stopped listening to Jeremiah with the death of King Josiah.
    - This rebellion was the final excuse for Babylon to conquer the Southern Kingdom of Judah and to destroy it totally, taking the inhabitants into slavery.
Natural human reaction:
- When the current situation gets worse, it is human nature for the good people to begin to question God.
  - Why does God permits evil to continue to have victory?
  - Why do the good people seem to have more hardship than the evil people?
- These same questions occur periodically through the Old Testament. Even David asked God these same questions.
  - Read Psa 37:35
  - We are going to see what answers the Bible can give us to these questions.
Read Jer 12:1-4
- Jeremiah’s questions:
  - =1= Why does the way of the wicked prosper? (1)
    - Jeremiah wanted God to remove more of the blessings from His people because while the name of God was in their mouth their heart was far from God. Jeremiah says to God, “Just kill them.”(2)
      - God prospered them because He is a loving God but permitted the continuance of their sins so as to fill up the measure of their iniquity.
      - In other words, God permits things to go along as usual, until the perfect timing of God occurs so that all will see the end result of evil.
      - Meanwhile, God permitted a severe drought at the end of King Josiah’s reign and the beginning of King Jehoiakim’s. (Jer 3:3 Jer 8:13 Jer 9:10, 12 Jer 14)
    - Because God gives man free will, He must permit man to discover that choosing evil is not as glamorous as it first appears. (Jos 24:15)
    - Evil may prosper for a time, but eventually evil will reap its evil reward. (Rev 22:12)
    - Man sees only a short span of time in another person’s life. He does not see the final judgment.
    - God sees beyond the circumstances that any one person can see. (Rom 11:33)
  - =2= Why are the evil people so happy? (1)
    - Man sees only the surface of a person’s life, not the depths of the heart. (1Sam 16:7)
    - Only God sees the heart of man and knows the depth of man’s evil. (Jer 17:9)
    - Happiness is based solely on one’s surrounding conditions. The evil person does not have an abounding joy. (Psa 16:11)
  - =3= Why doesn’t God judge the wicked? (3)
    - God will eventually judge the wicked.
    - The Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ will be the judgment of non-believers.
    - Read Rev 20:12
  - =4= Why does the rest of the country have to suffer because of the wicked? (4)
    - We are all part of this fallen world. (Rom 8:22) Rain falls on the just and the unjust. (Mat 5:45)
    - We all share in the consequences of the original sin of Adam and Eve. (Rom 5:18-19)
    - God promised believers that He would be with us as we pass through the problems of this world. That is a promise the wicked do not have. (Mat 28:20)
- “Righteous art thou, O Lord…” (1)
  - Notice that the answer to all of Jeremiah’s questions comes before he even asks the first question.
    - God is a just God.
    - Therefore, God will do the right thing.
    - Therefore, no one is getting away with anything.
    - The believer must live by faith in the righteousness of a God that will make all things right in the end.
    - God is the almighty God who knows what He is doing because He has all knowledge and supreme control. He knows the end from the beginning, while we do not.
  - While we may not have all the answers to our questions because we are so limited in our wisdom, we can trust God who does have all the answers.
Read Jer 12:5-17
- God’s answer to Jeremiah: (5)
  - Because Jeremiah gets tired of all the evil he sees in his society, it is like running alongside other runners.
  - What will Jeremiah do when the evil gets even worse and he has to run alongside horses?
  - If Jeremiah is worried living in the Promised Land with a measure of peace, what will he do when the floods of armies come and there is no peace?
    - Every generation thinks they are living in the worst times possible.
    - However, the Bible clearly tells us that everything will continually get worse until Jesus comes at the event of the second coming. Our problem is we do not know how much worse things will get before God finally says it is enough.
  - God tells Jeremiah that he is a speckled bird. What does the speckled bird represent? What is the message here?
    - Every human wants to be accepted and valued by other people around him. That is human nature.
      - However, Jeremiah has enemies that want to kill him because he is different.
      - Other birds around him see that he is different from them.

This reminds us of Joseph in the book of Genesis. (Gen 37:3-4)

His brothers hated him because he had a coat of many colors.

- - - - Because he is different is not a bad thing in God’s estimation.

Remember that being different in looks and in actions was part of the call of being a prophet.

Jeremiah is doing his job well, but humanly speaking he is tired of being different.

However in God’s estimation he is a speckled bird because he is sprinkled with the blood of sacrifice and therefore acceptable to God.

- - - The case of the speckled bird means you are standing with God, washed in the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice.
      - The believer is supposed to be different from the world because he has identified himself with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
      - The prophet, Jeremiah, was to be especially different from others in his society so as to call attention to the messages God gave him.
    - Like Jeremiah, the New Testament believer is supposed to be a speckled bird even though the life of a speckled bird may be hard.
      - Notice that the other birds and animals around him are against him.
      - Jesus said it more perfectly in the book of John.
      - Read Joh 16:33
- God’s promise regarding the “evil neighbors”: (14)
  - God is specifically talking about the people of Moab, Edom, Amon, Egypt, and Assyria that were Israel’s enemies all through their history.
  - This prophecy has been fulfilled as these people did not survive the Babylonian army any better than Israel.
    - However, even when God uses an evil empire of non-believers to punish the Israelites, that evil empire does not survive God’s final punishment.
    - The example is Assyria that took the Northern Kingdom into captivity. They too, fell to the power of the Babylonian Kingdom.
    - Here is the principle: Do not deal falsely with those that God has chosen and anointed because you will answer to God.
    - Read Psa 115:15
- God’s promise to the Jews regarding their return: (15)
  - God chose the Israelites to be His people, and He said He would be their God.
    - We have seen how they subsequently chose other gods and broke their covenant promise to God.
    - However, God did not break His part of the covenant. He is still their God whether they accept Him or not.
  - Therefore, God told the Israelites of Jeremiah’s day that even though He would permit them to go into the Babylonian captivity; He would bring them back one day.
    - God promised He would restore them to their heritage and to their own land.
    - Why will God eventually have compassion on the Israelites after all they have done against God?
      - This is the question with an amazing answer.

Humanly speaking, if we were God, we would give up on a people that for centuries treated us as though we were no better than the dirt under their feet.

That is the difference between our human thinking and God’s thinking.

- - - - Read Psa 33:12
    - In a more perfect way than humans, God considers His promises as sacred. He will not break His word. He considers the Jews His people.
      - God promised the Jews He would restore them to their land.

He fulfilled that promise for the first time 70 years later when he brought them out of the Babylonian captivity back to the Promised Land in the book of Ezra.

He fulfilled that promise for the second time in 1948 when, after almost 2,000 years of dispersion in the world, the Jews were given their own nation with the birth of the nation of Israel.

- - - - God’s unconditional love and mercy are amazing. He does not forget his promises. He will never abandon His people. We can count on it!

HOMEWORK
Jeremiah 13

Application of Jer 12
- How speckled a bird are you?
- Do non-believers around you know that you are a Christian?
- Does your conversation reflect Godly standards as expressed in the Bible?
- In what ways can you make stronger your commitment to be a light and salt in your world?
Preparation for Jer 13
- Read Jer 13:1-27
  - What does the marred girdle represent? (Luke 12:37)
  - What does the wine in the bottle represent?
Memory Verse: Col 3:24