Jeremiah Chapter 17 "Trust, True and False." This Bible
Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's
transcription/ location is provided by http://www.theseason.org This seventeenth chapter is not symbolic, but is the literal sin of the tribe of Judah. Though all of the tribes fell into this sin, here Jeremiah is addressing only the house of Judah. It is also a type of what shall happen in the time of the end, in our generation, and a lesson that we should take to heart. Jeremiah 17:1 "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;" The "Pen of iron" is another way of saying a "chisel". You use this pen to etch your message in stone so that the message remains firm. The message that is etched in their hearts and on their altars marks the guilt that cannot be removed. It is there to stay, and it is brought into their beliefs through their traditions. God is head of the family, and He doesn't like to be treated as a second class citizen, through the distorting of His Hly Word. Jeremiah 17:2 "Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills." These traditions of pagan worship have gone on so long that the children are not familiar with the temple and the laws of God. The only things that the children can remember are the pagan signs, and the heathen forms of worship. Today we can relate this to passover, where upon passover most of the Christian world can only remember Easter, which is a pagan feast day, and the bunnies, eggs, and early morning sunrise services that face the sun where the men face the east, just as the heathen did three thousand years ago. Jeremiah 17:3 "O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders." "My mountain" is Jerusalem, where God loved so much that He married that location, as recorded in Ezekiel 16. God is telling the House of Judah that He is going to let the city be sacked, and the nation be destroyed from border to border. In the futuristic sense, this is when the false Messiah appears in Jerusalem, claiming to be the Messiah in the very near future. When we get to Jeremiah 24 we will see the part of the parable of the fig tree that Christ said we should learn. That parable telling us that there are two baskets of figs, one bad and one good. It seems that people today only want to hear about the good. The reason we are to learn about this, is because the knowledge prepares us for the deception that will cover the whole earth. Jeremiah 17:4 "And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever." We understand from the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:22 where God's fire will come up, and destroy those that are against Him. The fire of His glory will not harm those that are in Him, and with Him. That fire is the comforter, which we call the Holy Spirit. "For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains." Though that fire burns the enemy, it warms the hearts of those that love God, it is the presence of the Son and the Spirit of God. It makes it very uncomfortable for those that are of Satan. Now with this having been said, we now see where man is concerned. This will get into both the history of Judah and the prophecy dealing with the end times. Though it was future to them, to us it is past history. Jeremiah 17:5 "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD." God is warning us, Don't listen to man. Don't put your faith in man, but get into our Father's Word for our power and authority in the direction of our lives. It is important that we understand the meaning of the words "man" as it is used here. "cursed is that man" in the Strong's Hebrew dictionary # 1397 which is the strong flesh man, which is also what the "giants" were called. He is cursed because he put his strength in "man" and in this case # 120 in the Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, which refers to mankind at large. We are not to put our trust into the super leaders of the Church, but in God only. In the futuristic sense when the fallen angels are cast out onto the earth, they will look kind and gentle, but will be as destructive as a lion spiritually speaking. God is saying "cursed is the man that follows man."; any man including those fallen angels, and that also includes the traditions of any man. Those that follow the Word of God are not cursed but are blessed by God. Jeremiah 17:6 "For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited." God is telling you that when you listen to man, and follow his words, you are simply not going to have anything. The money that you do have will pass right through your hand, and you will not be able to hang on to it and be blessed. The "heath" bush is in the family of the Jupiter tree, a little stub of a tree that grows in the desert, and every time it gets a little growth on it, the mountain goats comes along and crops it off. The "heath" bush never does get a start to form to full growth, because of where it is, because the goats keep feeding off its greens whenever they start to grow. God is warning us that this is going to be the way it is, when you turn your trust to man, rather then his Words. Every time you think you are going to get ahead, the mountain goats [those Kenites] are going to come along and crop off your green stuff, your money and wealth. It is not an accident that those things happen to you. It is alright to like someone, but anytime you put your faith in a man, then you will see the trouble coming. It is your duty to study and check out the teachers, and to not accept their word until you have checked it out for yourself. Learn to study and use the tools of the Word in your studies. Those tools include a Strong's Numbered Concordance. Numbered to the Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. A Companion Bible is also necessary for its notes and it's thorough 198 appendix, including the references to the Massoretic text. Jeremiah 17:7 "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is." This is the opposite of verse six. Here, blessed is the man that puts his faith in the Lord. This separates the man that is to be blessed, from the man that will be cursed. The cursed man is looking to man and his traditions, and here the man is looking only to the Word of God, and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, and placing his hope of salvation in God. Jeremiah 17:8 "For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." When you look to the Lord for your help, then you will be like a tree that is full and strong, deep rooted near a live flowing stream. God is comparing the two men, one with his trust in man to the little heath bush. The other that puts his trust in God as a strong mature tree. In a spiritual sense the river is the the Spirit of God, and that is where the waters flow from into the root system of the strong tree that this man that trusted in God. When you draw your strength from God's Word and not from men, you will always be successful in your spiritual life, and produce the fruit to have seeds to plant seeds of truth, even when there is a drought for the truth. When you have the knowledge of the truth in your heart [mind], then God will bless you, and use it through you. Learn to be able to discern whether words spoken by men are from them, or given in God's Word by the Spirit of God. Psalms 1:1 "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." Psalms 1:2 "But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night." Psalms 1:3 "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." God will provide the fruit when you need it, this is God's promise to bless you when you meditate on God's Word, and put your trust in Him. Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Psalms 1:4 "he ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away." Psalms 1:5 "Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." Psams 1:6 "For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish." These people who do depend on man for their survival become cursed because man will let them down. They depend on man to provide the fruit in their life, and not God, and in the time of drought the fruit stops coming. We see factories closing and industries drying up to where the high paychecks are being reduced to a simple handout wage, and those that do not have their faith in God dry up as the heath tree in the desert. In the financial climate of today even rising interest rates and taxes can crop of the top of your tree and cause the fruit to cease in hard times. Are you starting to see what God is saying through Jeremiah? It is so much easier to be blessed then to be cursed when we do things God's Way. Jeremiah 17:10 "I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." God is saying, I know what is inside of you, I read your mind and I search you out right to the core. God knows what you think and the intent of your heart and He rewards those according to the fruit of your doings. He knows the secret motives behind what you do, and it is from those motives He rewards each individual. If you are doing the Father's work, you are going to get the blessings for that work, and to do evil works will also be rewarded in ways deserving of those works. Jeremiah 17:11 "As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool." The wealth that you achieve during the early part of your life that is made by cheating and stealing will slip through your hand as fast as you get it. Then when you get old, you just won't have it. God will take riches that are made by ill-gotten gains from you as fast as you make it. Then in your old age you will not be able to care for yourself. When you look back from those elder years you will see the foolishnes that you played on yourself. This goes right to the moral issue, rather then the spiritual side. The partridge is a bird that likes to steal eggs of other birds. She mixes all sorts of eggs with her own, and tries to play mother to every kind of bird's eggs. Though she means well, she is still stealing eggs, and she will care for them until they hatch. The only problem is that the duck chicks will not stick with her, and reward her as their mother. The point is that every egg that she steals that is of another species unlike her own, will leave her as soon as the work is over. She will never enjoy the fruits of her labor, nor have true possession of what is not rightfully hers. fool - 5036 nabal (naw-bawl'); from 5034; stupid; wicked (especially impious): KJV-- fool (-ish, -ish man, -ish woman), vile person. The word "fool" as used in this verse, is "Nabal" in the Hebrew. He is a person that prophesied after the fact. You know the type, "I should of... I could have...I would have.." He is the one that is an expert with the money that he no longer has. He is a prophet that looks back rather then forward. Isn't that pretty much what the modern day fool is? This fool has made his money by ripping off an honest person that has put their trust in him, and taking from him what he is not entitled to. Those dollars and wealth from ill-gotten gain will be taken from you by God. Those are not the kinds of riches that come from God's blessings upon you for doing it God's way. Those blessings that come from doing it God's way are to be enjoyed by the person receiving the blessing. There is a pay day coming for every living soul, and no one is going to get away with anything. God knows the very intent of your mind when you think up that scheme, or plot, but a wise person understands that we are to receive the proper rewards for exactly what we do. Jeremiah 17:12 "A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary." The "glorious high throne" that was from the beginning of all ages is the one that our Heavenly Father sits on and judges all men according to their works and deeds. That thrown is where we go to for forgiveness for those sins that we commit, and aour only access to that throne is in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God. The price that was paid for your right to approach that throne was the very blood of Jesus as He hung on the cross. A "sanctuary" is an hallowed and holy place that we give reverence to. The throne of God is the place of repentance, and Jesus is the only way to the Father. It is not some building, or small room that we go to to utter some words, but we must talk directly to the Father in private and He will forgive us of all our sins. Jeremiah 17:13 "O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters." We want our tree planted in the Father, who is the "Fountain of living waters." When you roots are grounded in Him, and you draw from that fountain, which is the Word of God, it will never fail you. Jeremiah 17:14 "Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise." Man and his traditions and religious forms can't save you, for our only hope of salvation comes through the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only way, the truth and the light that leads man to salvation, and eternal life. That is a sure thing my friend. Jeremiah 17:15 "Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now." This is Jeremiah speaking and telling God what the people are asking him. It is say, if what you are say is true then make it happen now. Friend, if you wonder if God is real, don't tempt him to force His judgment up you in your state of doubt, because God will do just that. You will get hit with trials that you are not prepared for. Stand by and watch it come. This is what the people were saying to Jeremiah when he was telling them that the king of Babylon was coming upon them to take them captive. They just didn't believe what Jeremiah was saying. Jeremiah 17:16 "As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee." Jeremiah is telling God, I have always been a true pastor of Your Word and I have passed it on exactly as you have instructed me to. Jeremiah is not looking to the day that God will pour His wrath out on the House of Judah, and Jerusalem. In other words, "you know Lord that I have taught Your Word honestly and the best that I could." Jeremiah 17:17 "Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil." Jeremiah is stating that God is not a terror to him, as He will be to those that have forsaken the Lord. Jeremiah knows that God's fire does not burn His own children that have their faith and hope in Him. Jeremiah 17:18 "Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction." Don't worry, if you are trying to live for God, and study His Word, He will not let you be deceived when the false Christ comes to the earth to reign over the one world religious system. When you place the truth of His Word in your mind, the Spirit of God will bring that Word back to your memory when the time comes. Those that refuse to take the time to study God's Word, but rely on the false preachers to do their interpretation for them, will be deceived. That is what happened in Jeremiah's day, and that was a type of what is going to happen in our generation. The double destruction that will come upon those that disregard God's Word, was promised by God back in Jeremiah 16:18; "And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things." They continued doing their traditions and idolatrious acts over and over and they did it willfully, and not even trying to do it God's way, as recorded in His Word. How precious is the Word of God. It is the only rock that we can place the foundation of our life on, and find hope and peace of mind. Jeremiah 17:19 "Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;" God is telling Jeremiah to go to the gate where all the proclamations to the people and to their leaders were usually made. Jeremiah 17:20 "And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:" You tell every one that enters through those gates and tell them this: Jeremiah 17:21 "Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;" The "sabbath day" was made for man, not for God. Hebrews 4 tells us that when Christ died on the cross, and when we believe in Jesus Christ He becomes our sabbath, or rest. in verse 8: "For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day." If Jesus changed the day of rest from the seventh to another day, don't you think that He would have spoken of the change? The reason that He did not, is that all days are our sabbath when we believe in Christ and repent of our sins. Jesus Christ became our rest, and that is what "sabbath" means in the Hebrew tongue. Many people don't know that the days of the week are named after mythology, and "Saturday" is named after the planet "Saturn" which is Satan's planet. They allow mythology to dictate their days and forms of worship, as to when and how to worship God. We read in Colossians 2 that many of these things were nailed to the cross with Christ. Friend there is no other rest then the rest we find in Jesus Christ. Take the time to read the entire chapter very carefully. Upon Christ's death, He became many things to us, and the rest or sabbath is just one of them. It is far more easier to be blessed today, then it was in Jeremiah's day, for through the blood of Christ we can go directly to the throne of God, through the name and belief in Jesus Christ. There was not such a thing as repentance, that is simply to talk to the Father, but there had to be a price to be paid through the priest, and so on, but today that is all of the past. Those things and forms of blood sacrifices are done away with because Christ paid the price for once and all times for the sins of those that will believe on Him, and repent to the Father in Jesus name. I Corinthians 5:7 "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:" Christ is our passover, which is something that we are to respect and keep. He became the lamb that was killed and his blood was shed for the sins of those that believe on his name. I Corinthians 5:8 "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Christ is our Passover, He is our day continually, seven days a week, not one. Jeremiah 17:22 "Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers." Christ is our rest today, and He did not change the law and conditions, but some of the customs He did. "Sabbath" means rest, and Christ became our rest. However in Colossians 2 we see that there is nothing wrong with doing the Father's work on that day that is necessary. Colossians 2:16-17 "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:[16] "Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.[17]" Jeremiah 17:23 "But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction." God has given us sets of commands that are set up for us to practice obedience to Him. If one is disobedient in small things, it shows their nature to be disobedient also in the greater things. These people would not hearken to any of the commands of the Lord, but sought after their own traditions and customs of men. Jeremiah 17:24 "And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;" There was an incident that took place here, and anytime you are trading with strangers you allow other thoughts and doctrines into the city, and the minds of the people, on the very day that is set aside for the Father. Jeremiah 17:25 " Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever." God is telling the people through Jeremiah that if you will follow His commands, and do it His way, then the city will remain forever. This is also a prophecy to the future, and the Millennium age. Jeremiah 17:26 "And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD." This is the promise of God to the people, and it did not come to pass because this stiff necked people refused to listen to God, and did not obey any of these commands of God. In the flesh body man always falls, but the promise is still good for the future. In the Millennium age man will not be in the flesh body, but in the spiritual or soul body, and the commands will be kept, all of them. As far as these burnt offerings are concerned, God said in Isaiah 56:7 "Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people." Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices are their love for the Heavenly Father, and his Son Jesus Christ. It pleases the Father when you show and tell Him of your love for Him. When you do tell Him of your love for Him, He blesses you. Christ became the sacrifices and burnt offerings, and when we accept them by faith as the covering for our sins, that shows our love for God. However in Jeremiah's day, to have the love and blessings of God it became of utmost importance to follow each of the commands of God, and keep the burnt offerings and sacrifices required then for the covering for sin, as required by God. Jeremiah 17:27 "But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." We know from the historical past that the House of Judah were stiff-necked and did not keep the sabbaths and the commands of God, and king Nebuchadnezzar came upon the city of Jerusalem and the land of Judaea and destroyed it. Judah went into captivity in Babylon for seventy years, and the stiff-necked people that rejected the ways of the Father died off in captivity. We will read of this later, in the book of Jeremiah, in detail. Looking forward to the future, when the false messiah comes to this place in Jerusalem, Jesus Himself said in Matthew 24:1, 2 when the disciples marvelled at the beauty of the Temple of Jerusalem. "And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and His disciples came to Him for to shew Him the buildings of the temple." [1] "And Jesus said unto them, "See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." [2] Some feel this came to pass in 70 A.D., However it did not. Much of the walls of that temple are still left standing today in Jerusalem, and it has become a tourist trap of Jerusalem today. It is also the center of prayer worship of the Jewish believer today. When Jesus comes at the sounding of the seventh trump, He will cleanse this place for the new Millennium temple. This will be after Satan, the false Messiah stands there claiming to be God. Jesus spoke of that time when he quoted from Daniel 9:27 in Matthew 24:15 "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)" The speaking of the "abomination of desolation", which should read "the abomination of the desolator". Satan is the desolator, and the abomination is when he stands in Jerusalem claiming to be God, the Messiah and the world will believe him. This is spoken of in II Thessalonians 2:3 "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;" Satan is the man of sin, called the "son of perdition". The coming of Jesus Christ shall not happen until after Satan has come to earth as the Antichrist, the false messiah. II Thessalonians 2:4 "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." Since the fall of Satan, he has always opposed God, and again, Satan must have the seat in the place in Jerusalem where Jesus will sit in the Millennium age, and declare himself to be God. This must happen before Jesus will come to bring destruction to the evil rudiments of this earth age, and end Satan's rule. We read in the Millennium chapters of Ezekiel 40-48 of sacrifices and offerings, but those sacrifices and offerings will still be love. As sacrifices became the sacrifices for one and all times, then love became man's part to give unto the Heavenly Father without condition. It is called "Charity", the giving of something with nothing expected in return.
Home .~ Plough .~ Seeds .~ Vine .~ Potter .~ Seasons .~ Sonshine .~ Rain .~ Field |