The Forgotten, the Forsaken

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RETURN TO SYLLABUS

JEREMIAH 2
Lesson #03
THE FORGOTTEN, THE FORSAKEN, AND THE TRANSGRESSED GOD

• Memory Verse: Jer 2:9
• Jeremiah’s messages in time:

Jeremiah’s Messages	Time Frame	Events at the Time
	First year of King Josiah’s reign. (639-609 BC)	King Josiah was 8 years old.
Jeremiah begins his ministry at about age 20.	In the 8th year of King Josiah’s reign.	When Josiah was 16 years old he began to seek a closer walk with God. Led by God, he began to destroy the pagan temples and idols.
Jeremiah 2-6	During the first 5 years of Jeremiah’s ministry.	Before finding the Book of the Law in the temple.
Jeremiah 7-9	In the 18th year of King Josiah, when the king was 26 years old.	They found the Book of Law in the temple while cleaning the temple.
Jeremiah 10-12		After finding the Book of the Law in the temple, there began a period of reform and revival.

• • Read 2Chr 34:1-8 for the background to Jeremiah’s first message.
    • When King Josiah was 16 years old he began to seek a deeper relationship with God, but he did not know the Word of God.
      • There were probably only two copies of the Word of God in all of Jerusalem. One copy for the high priest and one copy for the king.
      • But after evil King Manasseh, no one knew what had happened to the copy for the king.
    • When King Josiah was 16 years old he began to get rid of the “high places” and the “groves” and the influence of the pagan priests.
      • What were these “high places” and “groves”?
        • These were the places of idol worship. The people had constructed pagan temples on the mountain tops so as to be closer to god.
        • They planted these temples with beautiful gardens that the Bible calls “groves”.
        • The gardens and temples contained many types of idols.
      • Josiah had the bones of the dead pagan priests burned on their own altars before destroying the pagan altars.
    • When King Josiah was 16 years old, Jeremiah began his ministry.
• Read Jer 2:1-9 Jeremiah’s Message (Jer 2:1-3:5) THE FORGOTTEN GOD
  • The pleading of God who has been forgotten, forsaken, and transgressed.
    • God pleads that His people remember when God married them in the wilderness. (2) His relationship with them was like a spring honeymoon filled with sweet love.
    • God protected His people through the wilderness wanderings and brought them into the Promised Land.
  • God remembers them. Why can’t they remember God?
    • In the United States, we can relate to this message.
      • God miraculously brought the Pilgrims to this country with the Word of God.
      • They established this nation on the principles of the Word of God.
      • Through hardship and hard work, God prospered this nation because they sought God and acknowledged God in society and in the government.
      • But now we have forgotten our heritage and “made it an abomination.” (7)
    • Modern Israel can also relate to this message.
      • God miraculously brought them back to the Promised Land in 1948 after centuries of wandering in the world from 70 AD to 1948.
      • God established them as a nation giving them victory over the Arab nations around them.
      • Through hardship and hard work, God prospered them, but they did not seek God and did not acknowledge God in their society or in their government.
      • They, too, have forgotten their heritage and “made it an abomination.” (7)
    • “Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.” (4)
      • God calls all of the Israelites to hear His word.
        • The Israelites from the Northern Kingdom were already captives in Assyria.
        • However, the message is universal no matter in what condition people find themselves.
      • Notice that God calls them, “house of Jacob”.
        • Whenever, the Israelites were in rebellion against God, this is what He calls them.
        • It reminds us of the story of Jacob who was a deceiver and an opportunist in constant rebellion against those in authority over him until God finally got his attention.
    • What phrase does God continually say about His people?
      • Notice that the phrase, “Where is the Lord?” is mentioned in verse 6 and verse 8.
      • In other words, they did not even remember their history and what God did for them in the past.
      • Therefore, they are so forgetful that they did not remember who to call upon for deliverance in the present.
      • But in God’s mercy, He says he will still plead with His people. (9) He does not give up on them.
  • Because of their forgetfulness of God and His blessings, they defiled the land God gave them. (7)
    • When God talks about defilement of the land, He refers to the sins that they committed.
      • They brought in pagan gods to replace the one true God.
      • They did not cleanse the land of the Canaanites that God told them to destroy. The enemy in their midst brought in worldly compromise as well as pagan worship.
    • We do not think about how sin defiles the whole land.
      • The consequences of sin produce spiritual death in a society.
      • The consequences of sin produce physical death to the planet.
      • Read Rom 8:21-22
        • The world talks a lot about “global warming”, “climate change”, “pollution”, and the “destruction of the planet”.
        • The Bible was the first to talk about what man is doing to this planet and it starts with sin and ends with the event of the second coming of Jesus Christ. He will redeem all things.
      • The root of the problem is the church.
        • God’s judgment begins with spiritual people who know better. That is Israel in the Old Testament and the church in the New Testament.
        • Revival begins first with the people of God, then revival works its way outward to society in general.
      • No nation has ever fallen but that first it fell spiritually. This is the message of Jeremiah.
        • God puts the primary responsibility for a decadent society on the priests. (8)
        • Then God puts responsibility on the prophets in society. (8)
        • The fall of a nation follows this path:

=1= First there occurs a spiritual apostasy (or falling away from the truth). This makes a spiritual vacuum.

=2= Then occurs a moral degradation in society.

=3= Then occurs a political anarchy with a breakdown in the basic structures of law in society.

• Read Jer 2:10-28 THE FORSAKEN GOD
  • “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.” (11)
    • Not only did Israel forget God, but by changing over to another god, they forsook the one true God.
    • Israel’s problem was always the sin of spiritual adultery.
      • Notice God starts the message with his wedding with Israel when He married Israel in the wilderness.
      • Now he says they have committed spiritual adultery by their worship of idols.
    • They have committed two sins: (13)
      • =1= They have forsaken the true God that gives them the fountain of living water of eternal life.
      • =2= They have made their own gods by making idols that profit nothing.
        • He says their new gods are like cisterns that hold no water. (13)
        • The New Testament gives us the same analogy to false teachers and false prophets.
        • Read 2Pet 2:15, 17
        • Read Jude 1:11-12
        • Notice that both of these passages mention following after Balaam.

The way of Balaam: (Num 22-25)

When Balaam could not curse Israel that God had blessed, the prophet, Balaam, was paid to give Israel’s enemy the secret of Israel’s weakness.

Israel’s weakness was intermarriage with pagan people and the pagan gods that came with intermarriage.

This was Israel’s downfall that took monstrous proportions with King Solomon and all of his foreign wives and concubines.

These foreign women brought with them their pagan gods and idols.

• • • God asks them what He did wrong to have a people as stubborn and disobedient as Israel. (5)
      • Of course, this is a rhetorical question for God did nothing wrong.
        • God’s mercy is based in unconditional love
        • God’s mercy is long suffering.
      • While the failures of Israel are great, they only point to the merciful character of Almighty God.
  • The consequence of forgetting God:
    • God permitted the destruction of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria when they were delivered into captivity. (16-18)
    • “Thine own wickedness shall correct thee…” (19)
      • They brought the destruction upon themselves when they forsook God. (17)
      • God uses the consequences of man’s own evil to punish him for his sins.
      • God had to remove them from the land in order to cleanse the land of the idols and pagan temples in the “high places”. (20)
  • “…but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.” (27)
    • It has always been true of Israel that when she is in bondage about to be annihilated, she always returns to call on God’s help.
    • God has always responded in mercy and love. This same cycle is repeated in the book of Judges.
    • The phrase, “time of their trouble” speaks specifically of the coming Tribulation period of 7 years in the future when the Antichrist will be about to annihilate them, that they will call on God and recognize Jesus Christ as their savior.
• Read Jer 2:29-37 THE TRANSGRESSED GOD
  • “…ye all have transgressed against me, saith the Lord.” (29)
    • The Israelites killed their own prophets. (30)
    • Because they disliked the message, they killed the messengers of God.
    • Jeremiah knew this history but had the courage to give them the message. He suffered the same fate as the other prophets.
  • The Rationalization: “…because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me.”(35)
    • All of Israel was guilty before God. The Southern Kingdom saw the destruction of the Northern Kingdom but said, “It will not happen here.”
    • History proves them wrong. The Southern Kingdom was totally destroyed by Babylon and the people taken captive.
    • We hear the same rationale today. America is blessed, it cannot happen here.
  • The Israelites in the Southern Kingdom tried to make peace pacts with Assyria and Egypt to ally against the rise of Babylon. (36)
    • God gives us His prophecy. To put your trust in joining with evil empires to fight against a greater evil will not prosper. (37)
    • These efforts by the Southern Kingdom did not prosper and prophecy was fulfilled when the Southern Kingdom fell.
      • We have the same philosophy of expediency today in the political/governmental arenas of this world.
      • For example:
        • “Trust in the government to solve all our problems.”
        • “We just need to get along with Communist China, Communist Cuba, Communist North Korea, and Communist Russia, and Communist Venezuela so we can work with them.”
        • “We need to appease the Islamic countries to make this world safe for us.”
        • “The enemy of our enemy needs to be our friend even though he too is an enemy.”
• Summary and Application:
  • When a nation forgets God, they eventually forsake Him and replace God with idols of one type or another.
  • What kinds of idols?
    • The traditional physical kinds of idols linked to other gods that replace God with someone else.
    • The spiritual idols that replace God with something else.
  • What are the spiritual idols of today? (Anything that replaces God)
    • Money, power, self determination, government, etc.
    • Humanism that elevates man and his ideas to the level of God, and says, “My truth is truth for me.”

HOMEWORK
Jeremiah 3

• Application of Jer 2
  • If judgment and spiritual revival begin with the house of God, what is it in your life that the Holy Spirit is convicting you to repent? What areas of your life does God want to cleanse and make more holy?
• Preparation for Jer 3
  • Read Jer 3:1-25
    • Find a good definition for “backsliding”.
    • How many times is the word, “backsliding” used in this chapter in the King James Bible?
      • (If you do not have a King James Bible, count the number of times in your version of the Bible and we will compare it in class.)
    • Why does God call Judah “treacherous Judah”?
• Memory verse: Jer 3:22