Jeremiah 4:19-31

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're going to finish up Jeremiah chapter 4. What's the answer, or is there any answer to Jeremiah's lament here of God's judgment? Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. What a joy it is to serve you. What a blessing it is to get to be in your Word this morning. God, we pray that you would please help us, help us to understand your Word, help us to apply it to our lives. You are a good God, wonderful in all your ways. Please, Lord, teach us, teach us to think after you and to live after your words. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Here we go, Jeremiah chapter 4, beginning at verse 19.
O my soul, my soul, I am pained in my very heart. My heart makes a noise in me. I cannot hold my peace because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried, for the whole land is plundered. Suddenly my tents are plundered and my curtains in a moment. How long will I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?
For my people are foolish. They have not known me. They are silly children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form and void, and the heavens, they had no light.
I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. I beheld that indeed there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled. I beheld that indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of Jehovah by his fierce anger. For thus says Jehovah, the whole land shall be desolate, yet I will not make a full end, for this shall The earth mourn, and the heavens above be black, because I have spoken.
I have purposed and will not relent, nor will I turn back from it. The whole city shall flee from the noise of the horsemen and bowmen. They shall go into the thickets and climb up on the rocks. Every city shall be forsaken, and not a man shall dwell in it.
And when you are plundered, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, though you adorn yourselves with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint and vein, will you make yourself fair? Your lovers will despise you. They will seek your life.
For I have heard a voice of a woman in labor. The anguish as of her who brings forth her first child. The voice of the daughter, Zion, bewailing herself. She spreads her hand, saying, Woe is me now, for my soul is weary because of murderers. Well, that ends that portion. It just ends there. What is Jeremiah talking about? Well, God is judging the people for their sins. That's what we had looked at before. O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you? And now there's the refrain again from Jeremiah. My soul, O my soul.
Jeremiah is calling out to the Lord here. And notice though, right? There's this fear of the destruction, the war that's coming and Jeremiah knows there's nothing that can stop it. But why is it happening? Verse 22, for my people are foolish. They have not known me. They are silly children and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil. But to do good, they have no knowledge.
Now this is interesting, right? I say it's interesting because one of the things that happens somewhat regularly are all these very sophisticated type of phishing and different scams that will come across. One that actually got me not too long ago. And I just think often, man, if you would use all your smarts and all the technological genius that you have that you've employed in this scam and you would just use it for good, You would make a good, honest living. But there's a way to be wise for wickedness. Crafting, knowing the ways of this world. Bingo will use it for evil.
The Lord says He sees them. He sees them like this. He says you can dress up pretty, you can look beautiful, you can try to make yourself adorned and look attractive, but at the end of the day, I see you, and I know you." He looks upon Judah, and he knows their sins. God's not a fool. He's not going to be mocked. He doesn't judge the outward appearance, but he knows the hearts of men. And so this is what he's getting at here.
So he says the whole world's going to be desolate. And yet, there's a faint hint here. Yet I will not make a full end. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black, because I have spoken. I have purposed and will not relent, nor will I turn back from it. there is going to be judgment. Horrible judgment. The sky is going to look as if it turned black and the sound of the horsemen is going to scare the life out of people. And yet, He's not going to utterly destroy all of His people. He's going to leave a remnant. He's going to leave a small portion of His people. He's not going to utterly forsake His covenant.
I was thinking about this and wrestling with this this morning. And there's a way in which we can treat our Heavenly Father, either like a fool who doesn't see us, like a tyrant who's punishing us for no reason, or like an abusive father who just gets angry and just lashes out at us for no reason. None of those are the way that God's actually treating with His people here. You know, we're just a couple years away from when we had gone through Deuteronomy, where the Lord Himself had talked about how he was going to treat the people if they forsook his covenant.
He was their covenant God. He was the one who loved them, who cared for them, who redeemed them. He's been patient with them by this point for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, slow to wrath. And yet even here, as the people are committing spiritual adultery, he's still saying, I'm going to leave a remnant. It's not going to be utterly destroyed. He sees their sin and yet has mercy on them. I think that's how we think about this passage here.
That's not an abuse of God's character. We ought not to let God's mercy lead us to be lazy about our sanctification. We ought to grieve and hate our sin in our hearts and turn from it, turn from death unto God. This isn't saying that somehow we turn antinomian against the law, or thinking that we can just sin that grace might abound. May it never be. We ought to take our sin seriously. If there's anything Jeremiah and Lamentations teaches us, it's that God takes sin seriously, and so ought we.
And yet, for some reason, He's still gracious. For some reason, He doesn't just forsake His covenant. Even with this church today, sometimes I scratch my head and I'm like, man, I don't know why God wouldn't just leave us to ourselves. Because He's gracious and merciful, long-suffering and abounding in love and kindness, goodness and truth. So He's a God who takes it seriously.
He's telling him, telling Jeremiah, and Jeremiah is lamenting because there's doom for the nation. Judgment's going to come. What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I really like verse 22. I think verse 22 is a good summary of the chapter, but maybe somebody would want 30 or 31. or maybe something else, you can feel free to let me know if you're on YouTube or Facebook or something, you can let me know down in the comments what you think is the best one. Seek Calling.
Jeremiah is this amazing book that teaches us not to take the Lord for granted, not to just assume upon the Lord's grace, but to walk in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Not out of a slavish fear, but a reverence, knowing that He is holy, so we ought also likewise to be holy. And that's going to be a constant refrain for us, right? God is true in His warnings.
He does judge us for sin. And even in this life, even for Christians, there may be earthly consequences for our sins. You may not like that. You may think, well, Brian, hold on, that doesn't sound like a very gracious God. No. He still chastises us as children, as a good and loving Heavenly Father disciplining us. And it may not seem pleasant at the time, and yet He's doing it for our good.
The question is, will we listen? Will we heed the warnings? Will we actually listen to places like the middle of the Book of Hebrews and see what apostasy looks like. And so reverence God and so distrust our own hearts that we call out to Him to forgive us of our sins and to make us faithful to follow Him. Let's pray.
God, we thank you that there was a day in which the sky went black. And it was not just that day in which Babylon put up the siege ramp and lit the fires. And the sound of the horsemen was terrifying. But Lord, there was a day in which the sky went black and a more terrible sound arose from a different mountain, or from the same mountain. When our Lord and Savior cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
We thank You that our King died for us, that we might live to You. God, please give us Your Spirit. Thank You for demonstrating Your love and Your covenant faithfulness to us. Teach us to walk in Your ways. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. May God bless you. May you walk in the joy of Jesus Christ. And may you serve the Lord and be holy as He is holy. I'll see you next time. Bye.