1 Early in the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came from the LORD: 2 “This is what the LORD says: Stand in the courtyard of the LORD’s house and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of the LORD. Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word. 3 Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done. 4 Say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, 5 and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), 6 then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth.’”My Understanding: God told Jeremiah to stand in the courtyard of the LORD’s house and speak to all the people who came to worship in the house of the LORD. So, the people to whom Jeremiah was to speak were worshipers of Almighty God. These were believers in God. Today they would be those who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, who collectively comprise the church. He was to speak in the house of the Lord. Today, the house of the Lord is in the hearts of those who are true believers in Jesus Christ, so this would be wherever believers in Jesus Christ gather together, as we now have God living within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, and we worship God in spirit and in truth.
7 The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD. 8 But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, “You must die! 9 Why do you prophesy in the LORD’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?” And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.
10 When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went up from the royal palace to the house of the LORD and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD’s house. 11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!”
12 Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. 13 Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. 14 As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right. 15 Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”
Jeremiah received God’s words directly from God, and he was the word of God to the people. Today we have the written word of God, the Holy Bible, which is God’s divinely God-breathed word to the people of the church and to the world. Yet, God also uses human messengers to bring forth that word in ways that are practical, understandable, and applicable to our lives today, and they are his servants and messengers, too. God is speaking today through many of his messengers to the church in many of the same ways in which God had Jeremiah speak to God’s people of his day. Today’s messengers of God are applying the Biblical principles set forth by God himself in the OT, and as continued in the NT, to the spiritual condition of today’s church, and are calling God’s people to repentance.
As I read this passage of scripture and the message which Jeremiah was to give to the people, there were several key words that stood out to me that repeat themselves over and over again all throughout scripture, in one form or another:
• Listen – pay attention; take note; heed; follow
• Turn – repent; change directions, in this case, in the opposite direction
• Relent – to not do what you said you would do, usually out of forgiveness
• Follow – obey; respect; abide by; adhere to; go by; pursue; pattern yourself after
• Commands – orders; instructions; guidelines; directives
• The Word – All Scripture is God-breathed, living and active and still speaks to us
• Messengers – envoys; heralds; proclaimers; criers; representatives; ambassadors
• Reform – remodel; rearrange; renovate; restructure; amend; change; revise
• Ways and actions – deeds; attitudes; behaviors; habits; practices
• Obey – submit; follow; conform
• Judgment – ruling; verdict; sentence; punishment; discipline; correction
The people were to listen to God’s words in the sense of heeding what he said, not in just hearing audibly his words. John 10:27-28 says (Jesus speaking): “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” Notice the direct connection between the word “listen” and the word “follow.” To truly listen to God is to follow him and to adhere to what he is saying. James 1:22-25 says: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.” True listening is accompanied by doing.
The people were also, in response to what they heard from God, to turn (repent) from their sins (evil ways). In other words, they were to go in the opposite direction of what they had been going. They were supposed to be followers of God, yet they were following after their own selfish and evil desires, they were following after other “gods”, they had forsaken God in truth and in practice, many were giving lip service only, and they were living in spiritual adultery against God. So, he was calling them to turn from their sins and to listen, follow and obey him and his commandments. In order for them to turn from sin, they had to turn to God. This is what it means to be reformed. We can’t just stop sinning. We have to become someone or something else (See Eph. 4). We have to be remodeled in conformity to God’s pattern for our lives instead of to the world’s pattern for our lives. And, we have to change our ways and our actions to ways and actions in line with God’s holy word.
God told the people of Jeremiah’s day that if they did not repent of their evil ways, he was going to bring his hand of divine judgment against them. Yet, if they repented and they turned from their sins and they followed, obeyed, and conformed to God’s plan for their lives, he would relent and would not bring against them the judgments he had planned. A lot of people think that this is just OT teaching and that this does not apply to us today. Yet, I Corinthians 11, in the instructions given to us on communion, we are told that if we judge ourselves (examine ourselves and repent of sin) we will not come under God’s judgment.
I Peter 4:17 states that it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God. Peter was speaking of God’s discipline upon his children in order to purify them. In Hebrews 12 we learn that God disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. And, in Revelation 3, in the letter to the church in Laodicea, God warns that those he loves he rebukes and disciplines, so they should be earnest and repent. And, in most of the letters to the churches in Revelation God promised or warned of some kind of judgment (divine discipline) if the people did not repent – turn from their sins, reform their ways, and follow the Lord Jesus Christ in obedience and surrender to his will for their lives.
The church of today here in the USA, in particular, is in great need of revival. The world and its pattern of how to behave have crept into the church, and the church has adopted its ways, actions and methods, so that the church is barely distinguishable from the world, if at all. Many Christians do all or many of the same things the people of the world do. There is not much difference between believers and non-believers. The church does not stand out in stark contrast to the world anymore. It blends in with the world and its culture, thinking it is reaching the people of the world for Christ, but worldly means and methods only draw people to more of the world, and to what their human flesh craves and desires. Many Christians today are not that much different than God’s people in Jeremiah’s day. They are caught up in their sins, their idolatry and are living in spiritual adultery against God. God is calling them to repent of (turn from) their sins, reform their ways, obey God’s commands, and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ with their lives in full surrender and obedience.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, but you know that you are not living your life in full surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, that you are living a double life, that your worship of God is shallow or non-existent, and/or that God is speaking to you, and you have heard him speak, but you are not listening and you are not heeding his voice, then I pray today that you will listen, that you will obey, that you will turn from your sins and that you will be spiritually renovated (revived) in your hearts and minds today. Give Jesus your hearts!
Send a Revival / An Original Work / June 25, 2011
Send a revival to this nation, Lord, I pray.
Bring us to our knees, Lord, humbly today.
Teach us to daily walk in your footsteps.
Guide us in your truth, and may we find rest.
Send a revival to this nation, Lord, I pray.
Bring us to our knees, Lord, humbly today.
Be our desire and our hearts’ pure devotion, Lord.
Make us a people who walk close to you.
Change our hearts to conform to your likeness.
May we love others who are in distress.
Be our desire and our hearts’ pure devotion, Lord.
Make us a people who walk close to you.
Teach us to be an example of your love, Lord.
May we serve others as though serving you.
Keep us in fellowship with you, I pray.
May we obey you in all things today.
Teach us to be an example of your love, Lord.
May we serve others as though serving you.
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