Israel’s Glorious Future and the God at Hand

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RETURN TO SYLLABUS

JEREMIAH 23
Lesson #24
ISRAEL’S GLORIOUS FUTURE AND THE GOD AT HAND

• Memory verse: Jer 23:6
• Read Jer 23:1-2 God’s Condemnation of Israel’s Government Leaders
  • The pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep: (1)
    • These are not religious leaders but governmental leaders, and specifically the kings.
    • These two verses follow chapter 22 and probably should be part of chapter 22 where we saw God curse King Jeconiah and pronounce judgment on the last four kings that reigned in Judah.
  • Jeremiah will talk about judgment on the religious leaders later.
• Read Jer 23:3-8 God’s Future Prophetic Promises:
  • We see God’s promise to gather his people from the captivity.
  • God promises to provide good kings that will take care of the poor.
    • When will God fulfill this promise for even Jesus said that we will always have the poor among us? (Mat 26:11)
    • This prophecy has not been fulfilled because it refers to the millennial reign of Jesus Christ on earth for 1000 years.
      • In the Millennial Kingdom God will provide a good and just king, Jesus Christ.
      • In the Millennial Kingdom God will provide for the poor as has never been done before in all of man’s history.
  • The Messiah King delivers answers to these prophecies: (5)
    • =1= A righteous branch from David.
      • As we discussed the curse on the lineage of kings from David ending with King Jeconiah, God reminds us that the prophecy of a Messiah king from the line of David is still intact.
      • Remember that Jesus Christ came from David’s other son, Nathan, instead of from Solomon.
      • It is the lineage from Nathan that is the righteous branch of the genealogy of David.
      • The reign of Jesus Christ will fulfill God’s promise to David.
    • =2= A king that will be just and righteous.
      • Jesus Christ is without sin and is able to rule without partiality.
      • Jesus Christ is the only righteous person who ever lived.
      • One of the unique characteristics of the reign of Jesus Christ in the Millennium is complete and perfect justice.
      • Jesus Christ is the contrast to the ungodly kings of Jeremiah’s day. He is the better shepherd for His people.
    • =3= The promise of salvation for the Jews. (6)
      • In the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Jews will know Jesus as their personal savior.
        • The salvation of the Jews on a national basis will occur at the event of the second coming of Jesus Christ in the middle of the battle of Armageddon to prevent the total annihilation of the Jews.
        • Read Zec 12:10-11
      • In the Millennial Kingdom Israel will have a favored nation status above all other nations of the world.
    • =4= The promise of a national return to the Promised Land. (7-8)
      • Jews all around the world for centuries have celebrated the Jewish Passover in remembrance of God’s deliverance from Egypt.
        • For the Jews this has been the greatest deliverance ever. (7)
        • However, in the Millennial Kingdom, God will bring the Jews from every country around the world and return them to the Promised Land. (8)

The land that He will give them will be from the Euphrates River to the Nile River.

This is the land that God promised Abraham that he and his descendents would have every place Abraham put his foot. (Gen 13:15-17)

• • • • Periodically in history God has returned His people to the Promised Land in part. For example:
        • =1= God brought them back to the Promised Land out of Egypt.
        • =2= God brought them back to the Promised Land after the Babylonian captivity.
        • =3= God brought them back to the Promised Land after World War II when Israel became a nation in 1948.
        • However there has never been a total return to the Promised Land. That will occur in the Millennial Kingdom.
      • In the Millennial Kingdom, Jesus Christ will fulfill all the promises that God made to Abraham and this includes the land.
• Read Jer 23:9-14 God’s Condemnation of the Israel’s Religious Leaders
  • Jeremiah is concerned about the large number of false prophets that tell the people that destruction is not coming.
    • He says his heart is broken because of this evil deception. (9)
      • Their false doctrine that they said came from God disturbed him.
      • Their hypocritical lives of sin and corruption that they denied when everyone knew it existed.
    • His heart is broken because all the people followed this deception without question.
    • His heart is broken because even the land itself is suffering because of the idolatry of the people.
      • God is permitting a drought that saps the nation’s economic strength.(10)
      • God is withholding His blessings so their economy is beginning to fail.
  • Jeremiah is concerned about the large number of corrupt priests that teach the people to sin by example.
    • Jeremiah mentions the priests of Samaria.
      • When the Northern Kingdom of Israel divided from the Southern Kingdom of Judah in a civil war after the death of King Solomon, the people in the Northern Kingdom lost access to the temple and Jerusalem where they were supposed to worship God.
      • Instead the priests of Samaria established their own religion for the Northern Kingdom. This was an idolatrous religion that worshipped Baal. (13)
    • At least the kings of Judah said they worshipped the true God Jehovah, but in reality the priests did not know God or worship Him. They walked in lies instead of in the truth.(14)
• Read Jer 23:15-32 God’s judgment on the false prophets and corrupt priests:
  • “I will feed them wormwood and make them drink the water of gall…” (15)
    • The word wormwood means = bitterness.
    • Gall was a poisonous substance from hemlock or the opium poppy.
  • “I am a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? (23)
    • In the same way as today, the people of Judah thought God was far away and paid no attention to what they did.
      • They may believe in their mind that there is a God, but they think God is not near them to see what they do.
      • They may even think that someday there will be a judgment, but they will worry about that when the time comes.
    • God is everywhere according to verse 24. He fills the heavens and the earth. There is nothing that excludes the presence of God.
      • This concept is more fully developed in the New Testament, for the Old Testament believer thought that God was only in the Promised Land, and more specifically in the temple in Jerusalem.
      • However, like here in Jeremiah, periodically through the Old Testament we see this concept of the universality of God briefly stated. David, for example knew that God was everywhere and expressed it in some of the Psalms.
  • “Is not my word like as a fire? Saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? (29)
    • The false prophets and corrupt leaders they diminished the authority of God’s Word and weakened the efficiency of God’s Word.
    • What does it mean that God’s word is like a fire?
      • Read 2Tim 3:16
      • Notice it says that God’s word is good for reproof, for correction, and for instruction.
        • Fire performs the following functions depending on the material on which it lands:

Fire hardens clay but softens wax.

Fire purifies by bringing the dross to the surface of a melted metal.

Fire is a purifying element and is used in this way in Jer 23:29.

God’s word corrects our doctrine and our actions. It shows us what we are to believe and how we are supposed to live correctly with God.

• • • What does it mean that God’s word is like a hammer that breaks a rock?
      • Read Rom 9:33 (1Pet 2:8)
      • Jesus is the Word of God. (Joh 1:14 Rev 19:13)
        • It is over Him that the world stumbles.
        • For the non-believer, that rock will eventually destroy them, all ungodly nations and people.
        • Read Mat 21:44 (Dan 2:44-45)
        • If man’s hardened heart is not softened by the fire of God’s Word, he will be crushed by the hammer of His Word.
  • Through the corrupt priests and false prophets, we see that Satan’s deceptions fall into two categories:
    • =1= To make people forget the God Jehovah by replacing God with other gods. (27)
      • The corrupt priests replaced the worship of Jehovah with the worship of idols.
      • These idols were brought into the Temple in Jerusalem for worship.
      • This is what all other religions do, they replace the worship of Jehovah God with a counterfeit.
    • =2= To misrepresent the character and works of God.
      • This is what the false prophets did.
      • They said that God would never punish His people.
        • That deception presents man with the idea that God is not just and that he requires righteousness.
        • That deception presents man with the idea that God does not punish sin, rebellion, and disobedience.
• Read Jer 23:33-40 God’s judgment on the common people
  • The people made a habit of speaking about the Word of God in scorn and derision.
  • The people called the Word of God “a burden”. (33)
    • For them it was a burden to read the Word.
    • For them it was a burden to hear the Word spoken by Jeremiah.
  • The true burden of the people (the non-believer) will be their own rebellious words.
    • The unbeliever will one day give an answer to God for what they spoke in derision of God and His Word.
    • God will make the unbeliever accountable for every thought and word.
      • Read Mat 12:36-37
      • Read Rom 2:16
      • Read Ecc 12:14
      • Read Joh 12:48

HOMEWORK
Jeremiah 24

• Application of Jer 23
  • Pray and let the Holy Spirit speak to you before you write your answers to the following questions:
    • How do you treat God’s messengers?
    • How do you speak about God’s messengers?
    • How do you feel about reading God’s Word on a daily basis?
• Preparation for Jer 24
  • Read Jer 24:1-10
    • What do the good figs represent?
    • What promises are given to the good figs?
    • What do the bad figs represent?
    • What promises are given to the bad figs?
    • What is the relationship between Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree (Mat 21:18-21) and Jer 24?
• Memory Verse: Jam 2:18