Birthpangs Proceed New Birth - Jeremiah 6

Jeremiah 6:1: “O, you children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa and set up a signal-fire in Beth Haccerem; for disaster appears out of the north, and great destruction.”

The tribe of Benjamin resided in the Southern Kingdom with Judah. The Lord warns them to flee from Jerusalem because disaster, the Babylonian army, is coming from the north.

Jeremiah 6:2: “I have likened the daughter of Zion to a lovely and delicate woman.”

She was neither ready, nor fit to meet the challenges that her enemies would bring against her.

Jeremiah 6:3: “The shepherds with their flocks shall come to her. They shall pitch their tents against her all around. Each one shall pasture in his own place.”

The shepherds are the Babylonians. They shall pitch their tents around Jerusalem before they attack it.

In 2 Kings 24:10, it is written, “At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.”

Jeremiah 6:4-6: “Prepare war against her. Arise and let us go up at noon. Woe to us, for the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are lengthening. Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces. For thus has the Lord of hosts said: cut down trees and build a mound against Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished. She is full of oppression in her midst.”

The Jeremiah 6:4-6 prophecy occurred when according to 2 Chronicles 36:19, the Babylonian army “burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its fortified buildings with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles.”

Jeremiah 6:7: “As a fountain wells up with water, so she wells up with her wickedness. Violence and plundering are heard in her. Before Me continually are grief and wounds.”

Proverbs 25:26: “A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring.”

Jerusalem was a cesspool of filth. Her odor was foul. She was raised up for God’s glory but brought Him shame. She killed His prophets.

Rather than redeem the lost, she oppressed them. Rather than comfort hurting souls, she exasperated them. Her abuse was overflowing wastewater. Unpleasant to control.

Isaiah 57:20: “The wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud.”

Proverbs 13:14: “The law of the wise is a fountain of LIFE, to turn one away from the snares of DEATH.”

Jeremiah 6:8: “Be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest My soul depart from you. Lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited.”

Professionals coached by others become outstanding. Jerusalem’s people rejected the coaching of His prophets.

Jeremiah 6:9: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: they shall thoroughly glean as a vine the remnant of Israel; as a grape-gatherer, put your hand back into the branches.”

“They” refers to the armies of Babylon that God sent against the remnant of Israel to carry them away into exile. They gleaned Jerusalem of its inhabitants.

Babylon’s gleaning of Jerusalem’s “grapes” in the days of Jeremiah relates to scenes in Revelation 14:6-11, 14-20.

Before the grape harvest in Revelation, an angel preaches the Gospel. Another angel predicts Babylon’s demise. A third angel warns beast worshippers that they will be tormented. Then, comes the two grape harvests: one by the Son of Man, and the other by an angel.

The first grape harvest is the rapture which is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “The Lord… will descend from heaven… we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together… in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord.”

The second grape harvest ends with the grapes in the winepress of God’s wrath, and with blood as deep as horse bridles for a space of 184 miles. This winepress represents God’s judgment on those who rejected Christ. Christ is the only Savior from sin.

Jeremiah 6:10: “To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed. Behold, the Word of the Lord is a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.”

In Acts 7:56-59, Stephen saw heaven opened and Jesus standing with God. He told his accusers about it. They stopped their ears and stoned him.

By God’s grace and Spirit, negative responses did not quench Jeremiah’s zeal to rescue his listeners. God’s love for them poured through him.

In John 7:7, Jesus said to His brothers, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.”

Jeremiah 6:11: “I am full of the fury of the Lord. I am weary of holding it in. I will pour it out on the children outside, and on the assembly of young men together. For even the husband shall be taken with the wife, the aged with him who is full of days.”

In Acts 4:20, truth flowed out unabated from the apostles despite the efforts of people to silence them. They declared, “We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Previously, God told Jeremiah that if he found one righteous person, He would forgive the people. Jeremiah made a comprehensive quest. But, alas, there was none righteous, no not one.

Jeremiah 6:13-14: “From their least even to their greatest, everyone is given to covetousness. From the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have also healed the hurt of my people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.”

The spiritual leaders of Isreal were deceiving the people for the sake of money. They did not want Jeremiah to mess with their cash cow by telling the people the truth.

In Luke 16:13-14, Jesus confronted a similar attitude among the religious leaders in His day. After Jesus stated, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him.”

Jeremiah 6:15: “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed. Nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall. At the time I punish them, they shall be cast down says the Lord.”

In Philippians 3:19, Paul wrote of people whose “destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.”

The exile could have been avoided if they had done as the Lord told them to do in Deuteronomy 6:7, “You shall teach them [God’s commandments] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”

Jeremiah 6:16: “Thus says the Lord, stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it. Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”

In Colossians 2:6, Paul urged Christians, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”

Jeremiah 6:17-19: “Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’ Therefore, hear you, nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth! Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people—the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not heeded My words nor My law but rejected it.”

The Lord calls those who walk with Him to look out for those who are not. The Lord said to His prophet in Ezekiel 3:17, “Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a Word from My mouth, warn them from Me.”

We need to heed those who watch over our souls. In Hebrews 13:17, the Lord says, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not as burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

Jeremiah 6:20: “For what purpose to Me comes frankincense from Sheba, and sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet to Me.”

The people of Jerusalem wanted God on their own terms. They burned imported sweet cane to Him. They assumed He liked sugar. Insubordination, however, is not sweet to God. According to Micah 6:8, the Lord requires of us: justice, mercy, and humility

Jeremiah 6:21: “Therefore, thus says the Lord: behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall on them. The neighbor and his friend shall perish.”

The stumbling blocks that God laid before the idolators in Judah was war, pestilence and famine. In Romans 11:3, 9, Paul prayed against those who opposed the Gospel, saying to God, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, and a stumbling block and a retribution to them.” God bore with their crimes for a season but finally answered the prayers of His prophets.

Jeremiah 6:22-23: “Thus says the Lord: Behold, a people comes from the north country, and a great nation will be raised from the farthest parts of the earth. They will lay hold on bow and spear. They are cruel and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea. And they ride on horses, as men of war set in array against you, O daughter of Zion.”

Throughout this chapter, the Lord repeats that the conquerors are coming. They are cruel. They should not expect any mercy from them.

Jeremiah 6:24-25: “We have heard the report of it. Our hands grow feeble. Anguish has taken hold of us, pain as of a woman in labor. Do not go out into the field, nor walk by the way. Because of the sword of the enemy, fear is on every side.”

Anguish! Pain as of a woman in labor! Birth pangs proceed new birth. Judah will experience severe pain (Babylonian captivity) but not long after that, Messiah will come. Messiah will baptize God’s people with fire. The Holy Spirit will empower them to light up the world for God.

Jeremiah 6:26: “O, daughter of my people, dress in sackcloth and roll about in ashes! Make mourning as for an only Son, most bitter lamentation, for the plunderer will suddenly come upon us.”

In Zechariah 12:10, it is written, “They will look on Me whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Me.”

We need to cry out for God’s Son. He is the One who delivers us from the one who plunders our souls.

Jeremiah 6:27: “I have set you as an assayer and a fortress among My people that you may know and test their way.”

Would Jeremiah find any precious metal among them?

An assayer takes raw ore and smelts it in fire and in additives to extract the precious metal from the dross. In John Wesley’s Notes, he wrote, “I have set you as assayer to test their ways” — as refiners do metals. Hereby he is encouraged to reprove them more freely. God will give him prudence to see what is amiss, and undauntedness to oppose it.”

Jeremiah 6:27: “I have set you as… a fortress among My people, that you may know and test their way.”

“Here, God speaks by way of encouragement to the prophet, and tells him, He had made him a fortified tower, that he might be safe, notwithstanding all the attempts against him.”[1]

The Holy Spirit convicts people of their sins through His prophets. Ezekiel 22:2 says, “You, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations.”

Jeremiah 6:28: “They are all stubborn rebels, walking as slanderers. They are bronze and iron, they are all corrupters.”

In Ezekiel 22:18-22, the Lord said to His prophet, “Son of man, the house of Israel is to Me become dross. They are all brass, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace. They are even the dross of silver. As silver is melted amid the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst thereof, and you shall know that I the Lord have poured out My fury upon you.”

Jeremiah 6:29: “The bellows blow fiercely. The lead is consumed by the fire. The smelter refines in vain, for the wicked are not drawn off.”

The Lord says to you in 1 Peter 4:12 not to be “surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.”

Jeremiah 6:30: “People will call them rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them.”

In John 15:2, Jesus said, “Every branch in Me that bears not fruit He takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”

Hosea 9:17says, “My God will cast them away because they have not listened to Him. They will be wanderers among the nations.”

In Psalm 66:10-12, David wrote, “You, O God, have tested us. You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net. You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but You brought us out to rich fulfillment.”

After the tribulation of 70 years in Babylon, the people came back to their homeland with a heart for God. The Books of Nehemiah and Ezra bear witness to this miracle. It was as though Judah had died and resurrected.

In Revelation 8:3-6, God turns the prayers of His saints into fire and calls for judgment on idolators. After seven years of tribulation, the Lord returns.

In 2 Peter 3:13, Peter reminds us that we are waiting for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. We let go of a temporary world to receive an everlasting one.


[1] John Wesley Notes

Attached is a link to a power point version of this article which I have recorded on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/G5Q-Rr2MZ78