epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Friday, January 18, 2008

Jeremiah 11

A prophet cannot count on much honor in His hometown. There are probably many possible reasons for that, including the idea that familiarity can breed contempt. That may be especially true with someone who claims to speak for God. Jesus was not treated with the greatest respect in Nazareth, and Jeremiah faced significant opposition in his hometown of Anathoth.

God’s message is bigger than any man’s hometown. While it extends to the entire world, during the days of the Old Testament the Word of God was especially spoken to the people of Israel and Judah. This message first came to them, at least in written form, in the Ten Commandments. This was the moral heart of what we call the Sinai Covenant, that covenant that God made with His people through Moses when they were in the wilderness of Sinai on the way to the Promised Land.

A covenant is a deal. In the Bible, the covenants that God makes with His people are of two kinds. The first is a promissory covenant as God made with Abraham. This kind of covenant, also called an oath or a promise, emphasizes the fact that God will provide the obedience necessary in order to keep the deal in force. The second kind of covenant is a law covenant as God made through Moses. This covenant emphasizes the requirement of obedience upon the people of God. When the Sinai Covenant (emphasizing the obedience of God’s people) came, it did not overrule the promise covenant to Abraham. God still would keep His promise to bring great blessing upon His elect people, but if His nation refused to obey His moral demands in His Law, then they would have to face the sanctions that were a part of the Sinai Covenant. The ultimate sanction would be the loss of the land, as the people were sent into exile, as God had warned them through Moses so many years before. Nothing can change God’s commitment to bless His elect that He especially announced through Abraham, even when His curse would come upon the nation because of their disobedience to the Law given through Moses.

One of the jobs of the prophets was to announce God’s determination that decisive disobedience that would lead to exile. Jeremiah does this in many places. Here Jeremiah makes that case with particular reference to the covenant. Remember that in these Biblical deals, God is the Lord of the covenant. He has set the terms of this arrangement. It is the place of His people to hear the arrangement and to follow the stipulations of the covenant. This they did not do. Instead they walked in the stubbornness of their evil hearts. They worshipped other gods, and they offered sacrifices on other altars, and by these things and many other acts of disobedience they brought disaster upon themselves from which they could not escape. Here God announces through Jeremiah that even though they may cry to Him, He will not listen any more. The time for the sanction of the Sinai Covenant has at long last arrived. God is slow to anger, but eventually His justice is accomplished.

There was a day when the olive tree of the nation of Israel was green and full of life. Then the Lord would hear the cries of His people for help, and He would accept their offerings to Him. But now they offer the blood of animals to some false god. They are dry, dead olive branches, only suitable for burning and destruction.

If this is true of the people as a whole, it is especially true of the men of Jeremiah’s hometown. They have opposed the prophet with secret plots. God has revealed these to Jeremiah. With no sense that they themselves are a dry tree, they want to cut down Jeremiah to destroy the tree with its fruit. God’s prophet is the tree they want to destroy, so that He will have no lasting impact in their town. They would love it if Jeremiah’s name would never again be remembered.

But God will not allow that to happen. He will destroy those who stand against His prophet. None of them will be left. Yet when the final prophet came, the Lord of the covenant and the Son of God, he was put to death on the tree. He was cut off from the land of the living. We deserved the ultimate exile, cast out of any right to the kingdom of heaven because of our violation of the Law of God. Yet He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that the promise of God to Abraham could be fulfilled.

By the law of the covenant, we are dead men. By the promise of the covenant, we have eternal life. The only way this blessing could be secured would be through the Lord of the covenant Himself coming to take the curse of the covenant for us. This He has done. Our situation is wonderfully secure in Him. Shall we then continue in sin? No way! We will hear the Word of the Lord who loved us. We will believe in Him, and follow after Him by the provision of His great presence with us. This is the way for us receive the blessings of the promise, and grow in heartfelt obedience to God in thankful appreciation for the riches of His grace.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home