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Scripture Reading: Jer. 15:10-21; Jer. 16; Jer. 17:1-27
In this message we will continue to consider Jehovah's further commission to Jeremiah and His further statement of Judah's sins.
This further statement of Judah's (as Israel's) sins is in 16:10—17:27.
In 16:10-18 we have a record of Israel's inquiry concerning their sins that caused Jehovah's visitation in the great evil against them, and Jehovah's answer to them. The people would ask why Jehovah has pronounced great evil against them, and they would ask what was their iniquity and what was their sin against Jehovah. When they inquired in this way, Jeremiah was to tell them that their fathers forsook Him and went after other gods and that they have done more evil than their fathers. Therefore, Jehovah would cast them far away from this land into a land which they have not known (vv. 10-13).
In answering the inquiry of the people, Jehovah also made a promise to them regarding their restoration. "Therefore behold, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when it will no longer be said, As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but, As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of the north and from every land where He had driven them; for I will bring them back to their own land, which I gave to their fathers" (vv. 14-15). Jehovah would do this after He had recompensed double for their iniquity and their sin, because they had profaned His land and their abominations had filled His inheritance (v. 18).
The conversation in these verses is very human. The people inquired of God in a human way, and He responded also in a human way. In His response, He explained the reason for the great evil, the calamities, that had come upon them, and He promised to bring them back to the land. He would even send "fishermen" to catch them and "hunters" to hunt for them in order to gather them and restore them.
Verses 19 through 21 speak of Jeremiah's praise to Jehovah and of Jehovah's acknowledgement of his praise. In his praise Jeremiah said, "O Jehovah, my strength and my stronghold, / My refuge in the day of distress; / To You the nations come / From the ends of the earth and say, / Surely our fathers inherited falsehood / And vanity, in which there is no profit. / Shall a man make gods for himself, / Though they are no gods?" (vv. 19-20). As Jeremiah praised Jehovah, he spoke to Him in a very human way. In His acknowledgement of Jeremiah's praise, Jehovah said, "Therefore behold, I am causing them to know; / At this time I will cause them to know / My hand and My might, / And they will know that My name is Jehovah" (v. 21). Jehovah's speaking here was also quite human. The conversation recorded in these verses is much like a conversation between two human beings.
In 17:1-4 we have a word about Judah's sin and its consequence. Judah's sin is written with an iron pen. With the point of a diamond, it is engraved on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of their altars. God will give their wealth and treasures as spoil, and they themselves will let go of their inheritance. Jehovah will cause them to serve their enemies in a land which they do not know, for they have kindled a fire in His anger which will burn forever.
Jeremiah 17:5-8 is a word about the curse of trusting in man and the blessing of trusting in Jehovah. Concerning the blessing of trusting in Jehovah, verses 7 and 8 say, "Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah / And whose trust Jehovah is./And he will be like a tree planted by water, / Which sends out its roots by a stream, / And will not be afraid when heat comes; / For its leaves remain flourishing, / And it will not be anxious in the year of drought / And will not cease to bear fruit."
These verses can be understood in two different ways — according to the natural understanding and according to God's economy. According to the natural understanding, these verses seem to indicate only that if we trust in God, we will be blessed, mainly in a material way. However, the revelation here includes much more than this. According to God's economy, the one who trusts in God is like a tree planted by water, signifying God as the fountain of living waters (2:13a). The tree grows beside the river by absorbing all the riches of the water into it. This is a picture of God's dispensing. In order to receive the divine dispensing, we as the trees must absorb God as the water.
The thought here is the same as that in 1 Corinthians 3:6, where Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth." The watering is for the tree's absorbing, and the absorbing is the receiving of God's dispensing. The tree grows with God as the Supplier and the supply. The supply is the riches of the supplying God dispensed into us as the plants so that we may grow into God's measure. Eventually, the plants and God, God and the plants, are one, having the same element, essence, constitution, and appearance.
Jeremiah 17:7 and 8 are not concerned merely with such a shallow matter as trusting in God to receive material blessings. Actually these verses refer to God's economy carried out by His dispensing. God is the living water to be dispensed into our being in order to become our very constituent. We all need to see the crucial significance of absorbing God as the living water that we may be constituted with His element and essence.
Jeremiah 17:9-11 is concerned with the deceitful and incurable heart of man and with the searching, test, and reward of Jehovah. "The heart is deceitful above all things / And it is incurable; / Who can know it? / I, Jehovah, search the heart / And test the inward parts, / Even to give to each one according to his ways, / According to the fruit of his doings. / As a partridge broods over what she has not laid, / A man makes riches but not rightly; / In the midst of his days they will leave him, / And at his end he will be a fool." Even this word regarding the deceitful and incurable heart of man is related to God's economy with His dispensing. Yes, man's heart is corrupt and deceitful; its condition is incurable. Nevertheless, even such a heart can be a tablet upon which God writes His law. Concerning this, Jehovah says, "I will put My law within them and write it upon their hearts" (31:33). This reveals that God has a way to put Himself into man. Once He has come into man, God will spread from man's spirit into his heart. This is God's way, according to His economy, to deal with the heart of fallen man.
In 17:12-18 we have Jeremiah's trusting prayer to Jehovah. Jeremiah began his prayer by saying, "A throne of glory set on high from the beginning / Is the place of our sanctuary. / You are the hope of Israel, O Jehovah; / All who forsake You will be put to shame" (vv. 12-13a). Verse 13b goes on to say that those who turn away from Jehovah will be written in the earth because they forsook Him, the fountain of living waters. Then Jeremiah continues his prayer, saying, "Heal me, O Jehovah, and I will be healed; / Save me and I will be saved, / For You are my praise. / Behold, they say to me, / Where is the word of Jehovah? / Let it come now! / But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You, / And I have not desired a day of disaster. / You know that what came out of my lips / Was before Your face. / Do not become a terror to me; / You are my refuge in an evil day. / Let those who persecute me be put to shame, but as for me, do not let me be put to shame; / Let them be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed. / Bring upon them an evil day, / And break them with a double destruction" (vv. 14-18). We need to understand this trusting prayer according to God's economy and dispensing. In order to interpret this prayer correctly, we need to receive God, the speaking and dispensing One, into us.
In 17:19-27 we have Jehovah's warning concerning the keeping of His Sabbath. God told Jeremiah to go and stand in the gates of Jerusalem and tell all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter through these gates that they should take heed to their souls and bear no burden on the Sabbath day. On the Sabbath they were not to bring anything through the gates of Jerusalem; they were not to bring out any burden from their houses; and they were not to do any work (vv. 19-22). They were told to sanctify the Sabbath day, as Jehovah had commanded their fathers, who did not listen to Him or incline their ear. If the present inhabitants listened to Jehovah and sanctified the Sabbath day, then the kings and princes who sit on the throne of David would come through the gates of the city, and the city would be inhabited forever (vv. 24-25). However, if they did not listen to Jehovah and sanctify the Sabbath day, then He would kindle a fire in the gates of the city, and the fire would devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not be extinguished (v. 27).
The Sabbath signifies that God has done everything, completed everything, and prepared everything and that man must stop all his work. Working on the Sabbath is profane. To work on the Sabbath is an insult to God and to what He has accomplished. Instead of working in such a way, we should take in God as our enjoyment, drinking of Him as the fountain of living waters. To sanctify God's Sabbath is to stop our work and to take what God has done for us.
The New Testament also is mainly of these two aspects: to receive God as the living water for our enjoyment (John 4:14; 7:38) and to stop our work. God has accomplished everything, and He is ready for us to enter into His eternal enjoyment in the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem we will not work; we will only drink, praise, enjoy, and rejoice. This is God's economy.
In 16:10—17:27 God gave a further statement concerning Judah's sins. How marvelous it is that even in such a portion of the Word we can see something regarding God's economy.
