After Jeremiah stood in the temple and delivered to the people the Word of the Lord, he wept...
Jeremiah 9:1: “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!”
I don’t shed tears often, but on two occasions I found myself weeping profusely after someone I loved dearly rejected my effort to share God’s Word with them. I so wanted them to receive the Lord into their life.
Paul grieved for the Spirit-resistant Israelites. In Romans 9:2-3, he wrote, “I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh.”
In Galatian 4:19, Paul wrote, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” Paul agonized in prayer for the souls of people.
Jeremiah 9:2: “Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.”
Strangers at a lodge were more apt to listen to him than his own people.
Jeremiah 9:3: “Like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me, says the Lord.”
Jesus was valiant for truth. In John 18:37, He said to Pilate, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
We need to beware of liars. In 2 Timothy 3:3, Paul wrote, “Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
In 2 Corinthians 4:4, it is written, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine unto them.” “The god of this world” refers to Satan. In John 8:44, “The devil is a liar and the father of it.”
Jeremiah 9:4: “Everyone take heed to his neighbor, and do not trust any brother. For every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanderers.”
A breakdown of public trust is a telltale sign of a society’s demise. In Matthew 24:10-12, Jesus described how people in the last days of Jerusalem will offend, betray and hate one another. False prophets will rise up and deceive many. The love of many will grow cold due to lawlessness.
Jeremiah 9:5: “Everyone will deceive his neighbor and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves to commit iniquity.”
Romans 3:13 speaks of poison of asps under their lips. Satan’s thoughts and words are like viper venom. We absolutely need a cure lest we perish.
The sinful nature is comparable to snake venom. In Romans 5:12, it is written, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
In Psalm 58:3-4, it is written, “The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. They are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear.”
One cure for a snake’s bite is an antivenin made from sheep blood. When bitten by a viper, the sheep’s blood releases powerful antibodies that overcomes the venom. The sheep’s antibodies can be injected into human snake bite victims to save them.
Jesus is our antivenin to overcome the deadly side effects of sin, namely, death.
Jeremiah 9:6: “Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit. Through deceit they refuse to know Me says the Lord.”
In Psalm 55:23, God’s Word says, “Deceitful men shall not live out half their days.” Lies destroy people. Truth saves people. Proverbs 12:19: “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.”
Jeremiah 9:7: “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will refine them and try them. For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?”
The purging of falsehood from us is a great blessing, and even better when God moves us by His Spirit to do it because we love Him and want more of Him.
In Isaiah 1:25, the Lord says, “I will turn My hand against you, and thoroughly purge away your dross, and remove all your impurities.” In 1 Peter 4:12, Peter wrote, “Beloved, do not 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 9:8: “Their tongue is an arrow shot out. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lies in wait.”
In Matthew 26:48, Jesus was betrayed by one who kissed Him. Judas Iscariot told the guards, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One. Seize Him!”
Jeremiah 9:9: “Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord. “Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”
In Revelation 21:8, we read, “All liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Jeremiah 9:10-11: “I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, and for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that no one can pass through; nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled; they are gone. I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.”
Adam’s sin negatively impacted his environment. Jerusalem’s sin negatively impacted theirs. The empire that disregards God’s warnings to repent... falls. It doesn’t matter what technology or military hardware they have. No one has ever fought against God and won.
The end times empire of man shall fall. Revelation 18:2: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.”
In Revelation 2:16, Jesus warned those involved with idolatry and adultery, “Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.”
Jeremiah 9:12: “Who is the wise man who may understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?”
The Law was forsaken. God’s voice was not obeyed. A wise person understands that negative behavior negatively impacts the environment. Thus, he aligns his life with the Word of God.
Jeremiah 9:13-15: “And the Lord said, because they have forsaken My Law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.”
Gall and wormwood are very bitter. Gall was the poppy from which came the juice called opium. Morphine, codeine, and other alkaloids are extracted from opium. Wormwood was a green shrub which was used to produce very bitter medicine. Wormwood is an antiseptic and antispasmodic used to treat indigestion and fever.
Wormwood and gall were mixed in sour wine (vinegar) to give to those who were dying. During the crucifixion, Jesus Christ was offered a drink of vinegar mixed with gall and myrrh.
The judgments of God on sin in Jeremiah are reflected in the Book of Revelation. Wormwood and gall symbolize the abominations in the cup of Prostitute Babylon. Wormwood is the demonic brew of Prostitute Babylon.
Jeremiah 9:16: “I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”
They were displaced by a conquering army!
Jeremiah 9:17: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for skillful wailing women, that they may come.”
What is a wailing woman? She is a woman whom God has chosen to come before Him and cry out for those who are wounded. The people of Jerusalem needed to learn how to grieve because they were about to incur major losses. Singer Sarah Groves testified of how God led her to write songs to help people process grief. She compared her work to that of the wailing women. Grieving a loss is a part of the healing process.
The Lord can turn mourning into rejoicing, but He uses grief to bring about newness in us.
Jeremiah 9:18: “Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run with tears, and our eyelids gush with water.”
In Luke 19:41, Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He grieved for the Jerusalemites in advance of the deprivation that was about to happen to them due to their rejection of God’s Word.
Jeremiah 9:19: “For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are plundered! We are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because we have been cast out of our dwellings.’”
In Lamentations 5:2, Jeremiah lamented, “Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to aliens.”
Jeremiah 9:20-21: “Hear the Word of the Lord, O women, let your ear receive the Word of His mouth, teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor a lamentation. For death has come through our windows, has entered our palaces, to kill off the children—no longer to be outside! And the young men—no longer on the streets!”
Egypt experienced the angel of death passing through their homes after they abused people and forced them to kill their sons.
Jeremiah 9:22: “Speak, ‘Thus says the Lord: even the carcasses of men shall fall as refuse on the open field, like cuttings after the harvester, and no one shall gather them.’”
The hyphen on a gravestone represents all the moments between birth and death. The hyphen’s legacy is defined by how that life was lived—through relationships, actions, and impact. May your hyphen yield great glory to God!
Jeremiah 9:23-24: “Thus says the Lord: let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord.”
In John 17:3, Jesus declared, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Christ wants us to enjoy the blessing of knowing God in a personal way.
In Luke 10:22, Jesus declared, “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” The ultimate goal of every believer is to know the Lord well.
Jeremiah 9:25-26: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised. Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.”
God will punish the uncircumcised and uncircumcised in heart because they both refuse to give their hearts to God.
In Philippians 3:5, Paul wrote, “For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort.”
Prophet, apostle and Jesus have wept at times because they had the antivenin to save their poisoned listeners from the lies of the devil, but their listeners refused to receive the antidote. What more could be done for them?
Jeremiah 9:1: “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!”
I don’t shed tears often, but on two occasions I found myself weeping profusely after someone I loved dearly rejected my effort to share God’s Word with them. I so wanted them to receive the Lord into their life.
Paul grieved for the Spirit-resistant Israelites. In Romans 9:2-3, he wrote, “I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh.”
In Galatian 4:19, Paul wrote, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” Paul agonized in prayer for the souls of people.
Jeremiah 9:2: “Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.”
Strangers at a lodge were more apt to listen to him than his own people.
Jeremiah 9:3: “Like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me, says the Lord.”
Jesus was valiant for truth. In John 18:37, He said to Pilate, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
We need to beware of liars. In 2 Timothy 3:3, Paul wrote, “Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
In 2 Corinthians 4:4, it is written, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine unto them.” “The god of this world” refers to Satan. In John 8:44, “The devil is a liar and the father of it.”
Jeremiah 9:4: “Everyone take heed to his neighbor, and do not trust any brother. For every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanderers.”
A breakdown of public trust is a telltale sign of a society’s demise. In Matthew 24:10-12, Jesus described how people in the last days of Jerusalem will offend, betray and hate one another. False prophets will rise up and deceive many. The love of many will grow cold due to lawlessness.
Jeremiah 9:5: “Everyone will deceive his neighbor and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves to commit iniquity.”
Romans 3:13 speaks of poison of asps under their lips. Satan’s thoughts and words are like viper venom. We absolutely need a cure lest we perish.
The sinful nature is comparable to snake venom. In Romans 5:12, it is written, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
In Psalm 58:3-4, it is written, “The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. They are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear.”
One cure for a snake’s bite is an antivenin made from sheep blood. When bitten by a viper, the sheep’s blood releases powerful antibodies that overcomes the venom. The sheep’s antibodies can be injected into human snake bite victims to save them.
Jesus is our antivenin to overcome the deadly side effects of sin, namely, death.
Jeremiah 9:6: “Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit. Through deceit they refuse to know Me says the Lord.”
In Psalm 55:23, God’s Word says, “Deceitful men shall not live out half their days.” Lies destroy people. Truth saves people. Proverbs 12:19: “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.”
Jeremiah 9:7: “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will refine them and try them. For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?”
The purging of falsehood from us is a great blessing, and even better when God moves us by His Spirit to do it because we love Him and want more of Him.
In Isaiah 1:25, the Lord says, “I will turn My hand against you, and thoroughly purge away your dross, and remove all your impurities.” In 1 Peter 4:12, Peter wrote, “Beloved, do not 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 9:8: “Their tongue is an arrow shot out. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lies in wait.”
In Matthew 26:48, Jesus was betrayed by one who kissed Him. Judas Iscariot told the guards, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One. Seize Him!”
Jeremiah 9:9: “Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord. “Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”
In Revelation 21:8, we read, “All liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Jeremiah 9:10-11: “I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, and for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that no one can pass through; nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled; they are gone. I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.”
Adam’s sin negatively impacted his environment. Jerusalem’s sin negatively impacted theirs. The empire that disregards God’s warnings to repent... falls. It doesn’t matter what technology or military hardware they have. No one has ever fought against God and won.
The end times empire of man shall fall. Revelation 18:2: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.”
In Revelation 2:16, Jesus warned those involved with idolatry and adultery, “Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.”
Jeremiah 9:12: “Who is the wise man who may understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?”
The Law was forsaken. God’s voice was not obeyed. A wise person understands that negative behavior negatively impacts the environment. Thus, he aligns his life with the Word of God.
Jeremiah 9:13-15: “And the Lord said, because they have forsaken My Law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.”
Gall and wormwood are very bitter. Gall was the poppy from which came the juice called opium. Morphine, codeine, and other alkaloids are extracted from opium. Wormwood was a green shrub which was used to produce very bitter medicine. Wormwood is an antiseptic and antispasmodic used to treat indigestion and fever.
Wormwood and gall were mixed in sour wine (vinegar) to give to those who were dying. During the crucifixion, Jesus Christ was offered a drink of vinegar mixed with gall and myrrh.
The judgments of God on sin in Jeremiah are reflected in the Book of Revelation. Wormwood and gall symbolize the abominations in the cup of Prostitute Babylon. Wormwood is the demonic brew of Prostitute Babylon.
Jeremiah 9:16: “I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”
They were displaced by a conquering army!
Jeremiah 9:17: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for skillful wailing women, that they may come.”
What is a wailing woman? She is a woman whom God has chosen to come before Him and cry out for those who are wounded. The people of Jerusalem needed to learn how to grieve because they were about to incur major losses. Singer Sarah Groves testified of how God led her to write songs to help people process grief. She compared her work to that of the wailing women. Grieving a loss is a part of the healing process.
The Lord can turn mourning into rejoicing, but He uses grief to bring about newness in us.
Jeremiah 9:18: “Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run with tears, and our eyelids gush with water.”
In Luke 19:41, Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He grieved for the Jerusalemites in advance of the deprivation that was about to happen to them due to their rejection of God’s Word.
Jeremiah 9:19: “For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are plundered! We are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because we have been cast out of our dwellings.’”
In Lamentations 5:2, Jeremiah lamented, “Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to aliens.”
Jeremiah 9:20-21: “Hear the Word of the Lord, O women, let your ear receive the Word of His mouth, teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor a lamentation. For death has come through our windows, has entered our palaces, to kill off the children—no longer to be outside! And the young men—no longer on the streets!”
Egypt experienced the angel of death passing through their homes after they abused people and forced them to kill their sons.
Jeremiah 9:22: “Speak, ‘Thus says the Lord: even the carcasses of men shall fall as refuse on the open field, like cuttings after the harvester, and no one shall gather them.’”
The hyphen on a gravestone represents all the moments between birth and death. The hyphen’s legacy is defined by how that life was lived—through relationships, actions, and impact. May your hyphen yield great glory to God!
Jeremiah 9:23-24: “Thus says the Lord: let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord.”
In John 17:3, Jesus declared, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Christ wants us to enjoy the blessing of knowing God in a personal way.
In Luke 10:22, Jesus declared, “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” The ultimate goal of every believer is to know the Lord well.
Jeremiah 9:25-26: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised. Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.”
God will punish the uncircumcised and uncircumcised in heart because they both refuse to give their hearts to God.
In Philippians 3:5, Paul wrote, “For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort.”
Prophet, apostle and Jesus have wept at times because they had the antivenin to save their poisoned listeners from the lies of the devil, but their listeners refused to receive the antidote. What more could be done for them?
Attached is a link to a power point version of this article
which I have recorded on my YouTube channel:
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