Jeremiah Persecuted
Jeremiah 20.7–18
Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • April 7, In the year of our Lord Christ, 2019
- Chaps 2–20 | Prophecies Concerning Judah & Jerusalem
- Chaps 18–20 | Potter’s Clay
- 20.7–18 | Jeremiah Persecuted
- 20.7–10 | Fire in the Bones
7 O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded;
You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.
I am in derision daily;
Everyone mocks me.
8 For when I spoke, I cried out;
I shouted, “Violence and plunder!”
Because the word of the LORD was made to me
A reproach and a derision daily.
9 Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.
10 For I heard many mocking:
“Fear on every side!”
“Report,” they say, “and we will report it!”
All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,
“Perhaps he can be induced;
Then we will prevail against him,
And we will take our revenge on him.”
- Verses 7 and 8 take us back to 1.4–8.
- Why had Jeremiah decided not to speak anymore?
- Because of what he just said in verses 7 and 8
- that he was held in derision daily,
- that everyone mocked him,
- that he was reproached for the word of God.
- Therefore, he decided to stop speaking the word and
- the derision, mocking, and reproach would go away.
- Which is true, it would have.
- Because of what he just said in verses 7 and 8
- However, why did he start speaking again?
- Have you had that experience that when you get filled with the word of God, you have to speak?
- Have you noticed this happen especially when you see evil or you see a person not living as they should?
- Read the Book of Proverbs daily, a chapter corresponding to the day of the month, and you will see what happens.
- For what did his acquaintances hope?
- 20.11–12 | God Supports the Persecuted
11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One.
Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail.
They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.
Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten.
12 But, O LORD of hosts,
You who test the righteous,
And see the mind and heart,
Let me see Your vengeance on them;
For I have pleaded my cause before You.
- What got Jeremiah through the persecution?
- What did he know would happen to his persecutors?
- What did the Lord test?
- What did Jeremiah know that the Lord saw?
- Why did Jeremiah want the Lord’s vengeance on his persecutors?
- 20.13 | Praise the Lord
13 Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD!
For He has delivered the life of the poor
From the hand of evildoers.
- Why did the prophet want to sing praises to the Lord?
- 20.14–18 | Mourning One’s Birth
14 Cursed be the day in which I was born!
Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!
15 Let the man be cursed
Who brought news to my father, saying,
“A male child has been born to you!”
Making him very glad.
16 And let that man be like the cities
Which the LORD overthrew, and did not relent;
Let him hear the cry in the morning
And the shouting at noon,
17 Because he did not kill me from the womb,
That my mother might have been my grave,
And her womb always enlarged with me.
18 Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow,
That my days should be consumed with shame?
- Jeremiah just praised the Lord for delivering him from his persecutors, why then did he curse the day of his birth?
- Although he praised the Lord, and
- although he knew the Lord would deliver him,
- yet, he still experienced persecution.
- It got bad enough that he wished he had not been born.
- What other man in the Bible had the same wish?
- Job
- See Job 3
- Jeremiah just praised the Lord for delivering him from his persecutors, why then did he curse the day of his birth?
- 20.7–10 | Fire in the Bones
- 20.7–18 | Jeremiah Persecuted
The Chaldeans
Jeremiah 21
Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • April 7, In the year of our Lord Christ, 2019
- Chaps 21–33 | Prophecies of Judgment & the Messiah
- Chaps 21–29 | Judgment: Judah & Nations
- Chap 21 | The Chaldeans
- 21.1–2 | Zedekiah Inquires of the Lord
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, 2 “Please inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us.”
- What was King Zedekiah expecting?
- It sounds like he was expecting the Lord
- to do something to take away the Babylonians.
- There is no hint of regard
- for what Jeremiah had already preached and prophesied,
- nor did the king say anything about
- acknowledging the truth of Jeremiah’s word and
- the king said nothing of repentance.
- Why would the Lord do something wonderful for the king when the king would not do anything wonderful for the Lord?
- What was King Zedekiah expecting?
- 21.3–7 | God Answers Zedekiah
3 Then Jeremiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, 4 Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and I will assemble them in the midst of this city. 5 I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. 6 I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence. 7 And afterward,’ says the LORD, ‘I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them, or have pity or mercy.’”
- What did Jeremiah say the Lord would do?
- Where would the Lord allow the Chaldeans to assemble?
- Who would be fighting Jerusalem in addition to the Chaldeans?
- What would happen to Zedekiah and his people?
- How severely would the Chaldeans strike Jerusalem?
- 21.8–10 | A Choice
8 “Now you shall say to this people, Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him. 10 For I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for good,’ says the LORD. ‘It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.’”
- What did the Lord set before Zedekiah and the people?
- He set before them the way of life and the way of death.
- See Deu 30.15, 19.
- What was the way of death in this passage?
- What was the way of life?
- What had God set His face to do?
- What did the Lord set before Zedekiah and the people?
- 21.11–14 | Do Good
11 “And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, 12 O house of David! Thus says the LORD:
Execute judgment in the morning;
And deliver him who is plundered
Out of the hand of the oppressor,
Lest My fury go forth like fire
And burn so that no one can quench it,
Because of the evil of your doings.
13 Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,
And rock of the plain,’ says the LORD,
‘Who say, “Who shall come down against us?
Or who shall enter our dwellings?”
14 But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings,’
Says the LORD;
‘I will kindle a fire in its forest,
And it shall devour all things around it.’”
- What wonderful things did the Lord want to see King Zedekiah do?
- Did the inhabitant of the valley think that anyone could take them?
- Why would the Lord punish them?
- 21.1–2 | Zedekiah Inquires of the Lord
- Chap 21 | The Chaldeans
- Chaps 21–29 | Judgment: Judah & Nations