“This Covenant,” meaning the Book of the Law found in the temple by Hilkiah the high priest. The Book of the Law had disappeared. It was found five years after Jeremiah’s call to the prophetic office (See 2 Kings 22:8-23:25).
Hilkiah the high priest was Jeremiah’s father. Yet, God gave His Word for Judah to Jeremiah.
“Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God, that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.’ And I answered and said, ‘So be it, Lord.’” Jeremiah 11:3-5
When I hear “saved from Egypt” and “saved from iron furnace,” I think of saved from hell by faith in Jesus. When I hear, “Obey My voice. Do all I command you. You shall be My people
I will be your God,” I think of “Receive the Holy Spirit” and “discipleship.” When I read, “Land with milk and honey,” I think of eternity with God.”
God delivered them from an iron furnace. It is difficult to break out of an iron container. A furnace is a hot place to be. The fiery furnace of Egypt compares with Revelation’s lake of fire. God promise to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey compares with Revelation’s paradise.
Jeremiah refers to Deuteronomy 27:26 which says, “Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.” The covenant between God and Israel was the Law that He gave to Moses on Mount Sinai.
What was God’s expectation of Israel? “Obey My voice! DO ALL according to that I commanded you.” God gave humanity another opportunity to obey after Adam and Eve failed to obey Him.
What happened after Adam and Eve sinned? In Genesis 3:16, God said to Eve, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Adam’s sin yielded curses.
Judah’s exile from the Promised Land in days of Jeremiah was a curse yielded from breaking covenant with God. The judgments in the Book of Revelation are curses rooted in sin.
The covenant keeper blessings and curses according to Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Revelation:
COVENANT KEEPER BLESSINGS
Leviticus 26:3-12
Seasonal rains
Productive fields
Fruitful trees
Year-round food supplies
Plenty to eat
Safety
Peace
Fearless nights
Removal of evil beasts
Absence of enemy swords
Victory over enemies
5 soldiers chase a 100
100 soldiers chase 10,000
Favor
Population growth
New supplies before old vanish
God’s presence
Identification with God
COVENANT KEEPER BLESSINGS
Leviticus 26:13, Deuteronomy 28:1-13
Freedom from slavery
High above all nations
Blessed in the city
Blessed in the field
Blessed in body
Blessed herds
Blessed flocks
Blessed with bread
Blessed in travels
Blessed over enemies
Blessed barns
Established as God’s people
Respected as God’s people
Plenteous goods
Treasures of heaven
Lend not borrow
The head and not the tail
Above and not beneath
COVENANT BREAKER CURSES
Leviticus 26:16-17
ROUND ONE
Terror
Disease
Fever
Loss of vision
Sadness of heart
Futility
Loss of crops
Loss of wars
Evil oppression
Cowardice
COVENANT BREAKER CURSES
Leviticus 26:19-20
ROUND TWO
Brokenness
Sky hard as iron
Land hard as brass
No return for effort
Fruitless Fields
Fruitless Trees
COVENANT BREAKER CURSES
Leviticus 26:22
ROUND THREE
Children consumed by beasts
Livestock destroyed by beasts
Population diminished
Highways unused
COVENANT BREAKER CURSES
Leviticus 26:24-26
ROUND FOUR
Seven setbacks
Death by sword
Enemy invasions
Epidemics
Prisoner of war camps
Lack of ovens for cooking
Unsatisfied appetites
COVENANT BREAKER CURSES
Leviticus 26:29-39
ROUND FIVE
Children cannibalized
Idols destroyed
Tombs desecrated
God rejects your offerings
Cities destroyed
Barrenness
Loathed by enemies
Displaced among nations
Death by sword (again)
Distant from worship
Faint of heart due to captors
Cowardice (again)
Stumbling
Weak before enemies
Die in foreign lands
Demise due to iniquity
SEVEN SEAL JUDGMENTS
Revelation 6:1–8:5
A conqueror conquers
No peace - bloodshed
Inflation
Sword, hunger, death, beasts kill a quarter of people
Justice for martyrs
Earthquakes, sun dark, moon red, stars fall to the earth
Thundering, lightning, and quaking
SEVEN TRUMPET JUDGMENTS
Revelation 8:7–14:20
Hail, fire mingled with blood, 3rd of trees/grass gone
3rd of sea bloody, 3rd of sea life dies, 3rd of ships destroyed
3rd of water bitter, many people die
3rd of sun, moon, stars dark; 3rd of day/night dark
Torment by locusts 5 months, want to die but cannot
3rd of people killed by a 200,000,000-soldier army
Beast and false prophet arise
SEVEN BOWL JUDGMENTS
Revelation 16:2–21
Sores form on those with mark of the beast
Sea bloody; all sea creatures die
Rivers and springs of water become bloody
Sun scorches like fire
Beast worshippers gnaw their tongues in pain
Kings gather for battle
Thunder, lightning, earthquake, cities collapse
These judgments come forth in waves with pauses between them to give people opportunity to repent and change to avoid the next wave. Revelation 16:9 says, “Men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the Name of God, which has power over these plagues: and they repented not to give Him glory.”
Joshua 8:34 says that after Israel defeated the city of Ai, “Joshua read all the words of the Law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.” A good leader wants his followers to be blessed of the Lord.
“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: hear the words of this covenant and do them.’” Jeremiah 11:6
Jeremiah did what the Lord asked him to do. He offered his voice to proclaim God’s Word.
“I earnestly exhorted your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, until this day, rising early and exhorting, saying, obey My voice.” Jeremiah 11:7
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:3 that “he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.” Twice, the Lord uses the word “exhort” (עוּד) to testify/warn in Jeremiah 11:7. The New Testament word for “exhortation” (παράκλησιν) literally means to call alongside or encourage. The Spirit of the Lord urges us to abide in God.
“Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart; therefore, I will bring upon them all the Words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but which they have not done.” Jeremiah 11:8
The Lord kept His promise that He made to Israel via Moses in Deuteronomy 28:15, “...If you do not obey the Lord your God... all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.” Judges 21:25 says, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
“And the Lord said to me, “A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.’” Jeremiah 11:9
The conspiracy was against God’s Word to disobey it. In Matthew 26:15, Judas conspired against God’s Word when he conspired against Jesus Christ.
The people of Jeremiah’s day formed a deliberate conspiracy against God and His messengers. In Acts 23:12, many men formed a “conspiracy and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.”
“They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers who refused to hear My words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.” Jeremiah 11:10
God’s hope for love from His people was unmet. They would not listen to Him when He was speaking to them. They were having relationships with images of gods. Both the northern and southern tribes of His people broke their marriage covenant with Him.
“Therefore thus says the Lord: behold, I will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape; and though they cry out to Me, I will not listen to them.” Jeremiah 11:11
In Proverbs 29:1 says, “A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.” There is no remedy because the Lord will no longer rescue him.
“Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.” Jeremiah 11:12
Hundreds of years earlier in Judges 10:14, the had Lord said a similar word to them, “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.”
“For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to that shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.” Jeremiah 11:13
They didn’t just commit a little spiritual adultery here and there. They honored all sorts of objects and names, but not God’s. They were failures at loving God which is the first and greatest commandment.
“So do not pray for this people or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble.” Jeremiah 11:14
In 1 Samuel 16:1, the Lord asked Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?” The Lord wanted him to anoint a son of Jesse to be the next king. The Lord had given Israel ample time to repent and to be spared from exile, but that era of grace was over.
In Revelation 2:21-23, Jesus gave a false prophetess “time to repent of her sexual immorality,” but she was unwilling. He cast her and her followers into a bed of suffering. He even threatened to strike her children with death.
“What has My beloved to do in My house, having done lewd deeds with many? And the holy flesh has passed from you. When you do evil, then you rejoice.” Jeremiah 11:15
In Ttitus 1:15, Paul wrote, “To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.”
“The Lord called your name, Green Olive Tree, lovely and of good fruit. With the noise of a great tumult, He has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken.” Jeremiah 11:16
In Psalm 52:8, David referred to himself as a green olive tree in the house of God. God’s fire is kindled against the olive tree in Jeremiah’s day because they produce bad fruit.
In Matthew 3:10, John the Baptist told his listeners, “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
In John 15:6, Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”
They trashed Christ in this life and ended up trashed in the next life.
In John 8:24. Jesus said, “Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
“For the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced doom against you for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke Me to anger in offering incense to Baal.” Jeremiah 11:17
The Lord anticipated faith and love from Israel and Judah. They gave their faith to the false god Baal.
In Psalm 80:8, it is noted, “You removed a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and planted it.” Was there any good fruit?
“Now the Lord gave me knowledge of it, and I know it; for You showed me their doings’” Jeremiah 11:18
The Lord revealed a scheme to Jeremiah. A plot by his neighbors against him. They wanted to destroy him and his fruit. He is the tree. His teaching is the fruit. They wrongly assumed that if they slew God’s messenger that they would thwart God’s Word from coming to pass.
“But I was like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying, ‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.’” Jeremiah 11:19
David caught wind of a plot against him. In 1 Samuel 23:11, he asked the Lord, “’Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down just as Your servant has heard? O Lord God of Israel, I pray, tell Your servant.’ And the Lord said, ‘He will come down.’”
Sometimes I ask God to sabotage saboteurs, conspire against conspirators, deceive deceivers and destroy destroyers. They are against God’s effort to save people.
“But, O Lord of hosts, You who judge righteously, testing the mind and the heart, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You I have revealed my cause.” Jeremiah 11:20
Eternal souls hung in the balance. Kings, princes, priests and false prophets tried to silence Jeremiah, but people needed to hear the Word of the Lord.
In Revelation 18:20, God gives His saints, apostles and prophets the greenlight to rejoice over the kingdom that once persecuted them. “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.”
“Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life, saying, ‘Do not prophesy in the Name of the Lord, lest you die by our hand.’ Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine. And there shall be no remnant of them, for I will bring catastrophe on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their punishment.” Jeremiah 11:21-23
The men of Anathoth were priests. Some of them had doubtlessly served under Jeremiah’s father, Hilkiah the High Priest. But their sins against God and His people were so grave that God promised to punish all of them until not one of them remained. They would die young.
They had persecuted, imprisoned, and threatened to kill Jeremiah, but after Jerusalem fell, Jeremiah stood. They were destroyed and Jeremiah remained alive.
Beloved, some people are very hateful toward God and towards you, God’s messenger, but remember this, “The Lord knows those who are His.” He is able and desirous of preserving you and the message that He has given you. Keep speaking God’s Word. Great will be your reward in heaven, especially when you see some of your listeners there.
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