Jeremiah 18:18-23

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're gonna talk about the great ol' easy life of Jeremiah. Yay! Just kidding, he ain't got an easy life. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's word. Okay, fine, you lost my game. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word, and God, we pray that you would please help us, help us, Lord, to Read it to understand it, and we pray that your Holy Spirit would apply it to our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, here we go.
Jeremiah chapter 18, 18 through 23. I'll read the first paragraph, and then you can read the last part of it, okay? Then they said, Come, let us devise plans against Jeremiah. For the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. Sounds pretty good, huh?
Wait, how far am I supposed to read? You can just read those four verses or five verses. Give heed to me, O God. Lord, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me. Shall evil be repaid for good? For they have dug a pit for my life. Remember that I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.
Therefore, deliver up their children to the famine and pour out their blood. By the force of the sword, let their wives become widows and bereaved of their children. Let their men be put to death, their young men be slain by the sword in battle. Let a cry be heard from their houses.
Wait when you bring a troop suddenly upon them, for they have dug a pit to take me and hidden snares for my feet. Yet Lord, you know all their counsel, which is against me to slay me. Provide no atonement for their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from your sight, but let them be overthrown before you. Deal thus with them in the time of your anger.
Okay, so we got two things. The first part, what it's about, and the second part, what it's about. So we're going to do our ABCs, right? A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So A, what's this about? That first part, verse 18, what's that about?
They're like, ooh, we aren't gonna listen to him. We're just gonna attack him with our tongues. And then the next one is like, Jeremiah's like, listen to me, O Lord. And he has like a really nice prayer for these people, like God bless them and prosper them, make their lives good. No, it's an imprecatory prayer. Do you know what that means, imprecatory? Let them die and their families die. Could you imagine praying that prayer? No. Yeah, I couldn't imagine praying that prayer either. But we find this type of prayer in David's prayers. We find this type of prayer here in Jeremiah. And it's one of those things that a lot of Christians even wrestle with, right?
Because what does Jesus say about our enemies? Pray for those who persecute you. Pray for them and bless them. Don't curse them. And here we find Jeremiah doing, calling down God's curses upon them. Is there any way to reconcile that? Do we just say, well, they were fallible people and God could understand why they would feel that way? Is it is it just saying this is what Jeremiah did versus.
This is what we should do the difference between saying historical truth and Trying to give us a pattern What do you think or should we pray prayers like this no I Mean for like Is there ever any time for Christians to ever pray any prayers like this?
There's a time for everything. You may need a little something for the tickle in your throat. No. There's coffee available for you. No. It's like the elixir. Whatever, whatever. Oh, okay, you do. It's cold by now though. Whatever. No more tickle though. Oh! Yeah, so I have a mentor.
He's with the Lord now, but his name is Ken Smith. And Ken would tell me that he had a list of names of five different men who were really, really powerful in American culture and politics. And they were men who were actively trying to destroy the church, actively trying to destroy Christian values, actively trying to destroy the family. And so he would pray two things for those people every day.
God. Either let them be killed or let them... Oh, you do have something bad in your throat. Yeah. So not let them be killed. He would say, number one, Lord, convert them. Change their hearts and bring them to yourself. But if that's not your will, if that was not the Lord's will for their lives, then if God was not going to convert them and make them his own, then stop them at any means possible.
And I think it's important to recognize here that These are supposed to be priests and prophets. These are supposed to be the people who have the law, and yet they're fighting against it. This is like, it would be like if people in the church or plotting to kill their pastor, or plotting to try to tear down his reputation, or plot his demise because they love their sin. So it's not just the people outside in the world, it's actually people who are saying that they are God's people, and actively engaging in idolatry, actively engaging in twisting God's words. So it's even more, what Jeremiah is dealing with is something even more ugly, more heinous, than just like, oh this person who's not in the church doesn't claim to be one of God's people. It is even more wicked than that.
So, what do you think is the best verse to summarize this section? 20 Okay, you think first 20? Yeah, I think verse 20 is fine. I Have verse 23 underlined Yet Lord, you know all their counsel which is against me to slay me provide no atonement for their iniquity nor blot out their sin From your sight, but let them be overthrown before you deal thus with them in the time of your anger So it's essentially saying don't let them get off scot-free This is I think similar to when John in first John says there is a sin that leads to death I do not say to pray for that. So, he's saying, God, they don't believe you, they don't love you, they won't turn to you. Don't cover over that type of disbelieving, unrepentant, unpardonable sin. So, why don't we just go ahead and pray.
You ready? Father, we thank you so much for the blessing it is that we've gotten to spend time in your Word. And Lord, we do pray that you would Either convert or stop the mouth of your enemies But we know that even when hardship and toil and torment comes persecution happens even to your church We know that you are still sovereign and you are using that just like you use the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon Lord you use it for your glory. You have a purpose and a plan So God we pray that we trust you and we pray that we would be filled with your Holy Spirit that we could bless and pray for and not curse those who are our enemies. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to walk in your ways. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the peace that comes from Jesus Christ alone. And we'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.