Jeremiah, Part 1 (Return To Me)
Program 27 – Shattered Peace
Has your peace just been shattered like a glass that drops out of your hand, falls on the floor, and goes into all these little pieces? And you reach down to try and pick them up, and you get cut and you bleed and you’re hurting? News came from somewhere, a message from someone and all of a sudden your peace is gone. What are you going to do?
Oh Precious One, do you know what I wish I could do? I wish I could just walk over to you, reach out and take your precious face in my hands and reach out up dry your tears. And say, “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” But I want you to know that your wound, your hurt has been filtered through God’s sovereign fingers of love. He is training you. He is going to make you stronger. I know you can’t believe it now, but He is going to make you stronger as a result of what you’re going through. It is not without purpose.
God has a plan and He is going to use it, and He is going to take your pain. He’s going to take your hurt and He’s going to use it as a platform for future ministry. You may not be able to understand that now, you may just want to shut me off right now—don’t. Listen, because we’re in a very important portion of Jeremiah right now.
We’re in a portion where he is going to talk about the people. He’s going to tell us what’s happening to them. But what I want us to do is, I want us to watch the spokesman for God. I want us to watch Jeremiah. Yes, we’re doing chapter 13, 14 and 15 of Jeremiah, but the foundation for this, the springboard for this, is Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 5, “„If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out…,‟” they’ve worn you out, “„…then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace….‟” (Jeremiah 12:5)
In other words, if this trial, this hurt, this pain, this shattering of your peace causes you to fall down so that you cannot get up, then “…[what are you going to] do in the thicket of the Jordan?” (Jeremiah 12:5) Don’t fall down in a land of peace. Now as I told you in yesterday’s program, I told you: “Hey, it was a time of peace.” And because it was a time of peace, we know that Josiah was ruling. We know that Josiah is the one who turned the nation around and they made a covenant to follow God. And God told Josiah, [I am not bringing war in your days. I am not bringing evil against you in your days. I am not bringing judgment in your days because you’ve returned to Me, because you’ve repented, because you are clinging to Me, because you want to be obedient to Me, but it is coming.] (PARAPHRASE, 2 Kings 22:19-20) So when we look at Jeremiah chapter 12, we know that it is the days of Josiah, but we also know that the horses are coming and Jeremiah is going to have to compete with the horses. It’s not going to be a land of peace. He is going to find himself, so to speak, in the thicket of the Jordan.
So let’s go back to 2 Kings chapter 23. Now this is where I told you that we would return to as we brought yesterday’s program to a close. And remember now, what is happened is Pharaoh Neco is going up, he is leaving Egypt, he is going up to make war against Assyria. On the way up, Josiah feels like he’s got to go and stop Pharaoh Neco. He goes out, and and it doesn’t say so in 2 King 22, but it tells us in another passage that when he goes out, Pharaoh Neco says, “Hey, don’t come against me. This is not of God.” (See 2 Chronicles 35:21) But Josiah doesn’t listen and so Pharaoh Neco kills him. It shattered, it dropped, it broke, the peace is over, the peace is gone.
Watch what happens, it says that, “…When Pharaoh Neco saw him…,” and I’m in 2 Kings 23 verse 26, “…he killed him…,” the “him” is Josiah, “…at Meggido. His servants drove his body in a chariot from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in [the] place of his father.” (2 Kings 23:29-30)
So we come to the second king that is going to rule during the days of Jeremiah. Josiah is from 640 to 609 B.C. Now who comes on the scene is Jehoahaz, but he is only going to reign three months. Now just think about this because Josiah has been ruling for 31 years. For 31 years, they have virtually had peace for 31 years. There’s been, more or less, a sense of revival during Josiah’s time. From the time of the 18th year of the reign of Josiah, when the Word of God is found in the House of God, Jeremiah has already been prophesying. He’s been on the scene five years before this, but now it’s like what’s happening when a nation all of sudden has a ruler then the ruler is gone, then another ruler, then another ruler. People don’t know what’s going on. So the peace is gone.
Watch and listen carefully. This is why combining the prophets with the history in Kings and Chronicles is so important. And so it said, “Jehoahaz…,” verse 31, “…was twenty-three years old when he became king,…he reigned three months in Jerusalem…his mother‟s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. He did evil in the sight of the LORD….” (2 Kings 23:31-32) You go from a good king to a bad king. You go from a good president to a bad president. You go, you go down the moral ladder. And this is what’s happening here. “Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem….” (2 Kings 23:33) So who is reigning now? It’s Pharaoh Neco.
Egypt is in power over the southern Kingdom. Not only that, but he imposes on the land a fine of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold. So now the taxes are going up. Now there is a new debt in the country. And so it says, “Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in…place of Josiah….” (2 Kings 23:34)
Now, who is Eliakim? Another name for Eliakim is Jehoiakim. So in 609, after three months of Jehoahaz reigning, in 609 Jehoiakim comes to the throne. Now he’s going to rule until 597, because what he’s going to go from is peace to chaos, and you’re going to see it. He’s saying to Jeremiah, [Don’t stumble, don’t fall down in a land of peace because how are you going to compete with the horses in the thicket of the Jordan?] (PARAPHRASE, Jeremiah 12:5) So it says, “[He] made the son of Josiah…in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away and brought him to Egypt, and he died there. [And] Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land in order to give the money at the command of Pharaoh….” (2 Kings 23:34-35) He’s paying off a debt and he’s getting it out of the skins of the people. It says, “…He exacted the silver and [the] gold from the people of the land, each according to his valuation, to give…to Pharaoh Neco.” (2 Kings 23:35)
In other words, the king determined who was going to give what. Does this sound a little familiar to you? A little déjà vu? Then it says, and “Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother‟s name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah [Pedaiah Pedaiah]…,” excuse me, “…of Rumah. He did evil in the sight of the LORD….” (2 Kings 23:36-37) Second bad king, this one is going to reign longer. And then it says this: “In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years….” (2 Kings 24:1)
Hey, now you’ve got the evil from the north that Jeremiah has been warning the people about. That God has been warning the people about through Jeremiah. What’s happened? The peace is gone. The cavalry is coming. The horsemen are coming. All of a sudden the peace is shattered. And He is saying, [Jeremiah, don’t you dare fall down in the land of peace. Don’t you weary yourselves with these footmen because I’m telling you the horses are coming and you’ve got to be strong enough to compete with the horses.] (PARAPHRASE, Jeremiah 12:5)
Beloved, I don’t know if your peace was shattered when you lost your home. I don’t know if your peace was shattered when you lost your job. I don’t know if your peace was shattered when you lost a loved one. I don’t know and I’m so sorry, but I want you to know you can make it. I’ll tell you how when you come back.
When the glass shatters, when the peace is gone, in a million little pieces, what are you going to do? You need to cling. You say, “Cling to whom?” There is only one to cling to and that’s to God. So we come to Jeremiah chapter 13 and he opens with this awesome, awesome illustration.
He says in Jeremiah chapter 13, verse 1, “Thus the LORD said to me, „Go and buy yourself a linen waistband and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.‟ So [I went and] I bought the waistband in accordance with the word of the LORD and [I] put it around my waist.” (Jeremiah 13:1-2) A linen waistband; linen was what the priests wore. They could only wear linen. They wore it close to their bodies. And he says, “Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying, „Take the waistband that you…bought, which is around your waist, and [I want you to] arise, [I want you to] go to the Euphrates….‟” (Jeremiah 13:3-4) And there He says, [I want you to hide it there. And then I went to the Euphrates and I dug. I dug.] (PARAPHRASE, Jeremiah 13: 4-5)
Now you say, “Hey, the Euphrates is a long ways away. That’s going to take a little while to get to the Euphrates.” Yes, and there is debate because others say it was Parah, a place that was close to Anathoth. Where it was really doesn’t matter. It only matters that Jeremiah took off that linen waistband and he dug and he put it down in the rocks. And this is what happens, look at what he says. “So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD…commanded me. After many days the LORD said to me, „Arise, go to the Euphrates….‟” (Jeremiah 13:5-6) He says and dig, “…And I took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it; and lo, [I looked at] the waistband… [and] it was totally [totally] worthless.” (Jeremiah 13:7)
He couldn’t wear it; it was full of holes, it was worthless. You want to underline the word, “worthless.” It had no value whatsoever. Now why all this? Why this action? Why “go get yourself a waistband”? Why “put it around your waist and wear it for a while”? Why “take it off and go to the Euphrates and bury it, dig it, put it in the rocks, and get it out” only to have it absolutely worthless? Because He wanted to give a visual picture to Jeremiah about the people. Listen to what he says, “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, „Thus says the LORD, “Just so will I destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.”‟” (Jeremiah 13:8-9)
“Pride” is a keyword because God resists the proud. God, it says, “If I’m going to draw near to you, you’ve got to humble yourself.” That’s what Josiah did. When the Word of God was found in the House of God then what Josiah did is Josiah humbled himself before God. (See 2 Kings 22:8-11) But He’s saying, “I want you to do this with this waistband because I want you to let people see, and I want you to know, that this waistband, this ruined waistband is a picture of the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem that I am going to take and make totally worthless.”
What did you have pride in? Let me ask you a question. Were you competing with the things of this world? Did you buy a house that you really couldn’t afford? And you thought that you were making a good investment? Was that your goal? Was that your dream? What’s happened to it now? So many times we try to live above our means. I mean, we think “After all, we deserve it.” After all, I’ve turned on Christian television. And when I turn on Christian television I’ve heard them say over and over and over again— I heard one preacher say, “Listen, if you’re going to drive a rattle trap of a car, don’t park it in our church parking lot. God doesn’t want you living like that. God wants you to live prosperous.”
He said to them, another one, “Go out and go in your neighborhood, in the neighborhood you want to live in, look for a house and claim it in the name of Jesus. Hey! You’re King’s kids. You’ve got to dress like King’s kids. You’ve got to have everything that the King’s kids have so that you can show what it’s like to belong to God.” Na-ah, because our God’s name is Jesus Christ, He’s the Son of God. He and the Father are one. [He who was rich became poor for us.] (PARAPHRASE, 2 Corinthians 8:9)
Yeah, you say “that we might become rich.” Yes, not financially rich, but spiritually rich. He suffered; you and I are going to suffer. You see it over and over again not only in the Gospels, not only in the Book of Acts, but you see it in the lives of the church as they go on. God does not call us to teach prosperity to the nations, financial prosperity. And so, here he is saying this, “„“…I [am going to] destroy the pride of Judah…[I am going to destroy] the…pride of Jerusalem. This wicked people, [who refuse] who refuse to listen to My Words....”‟” He says, “This is what I’m going to do.” “„“…Who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them…to bow down [before] them, let them be just like this waistband [this waistband, this waistband that] is totally [totally] worthless.”‟” (Jeremiah 13:9-10)
Pride is worthless; pride will keep you from God. And so he gives this parable, this visual picture, of what God is going to do with pride. What have these people done? They have turned from God.
Watch what he says, let me read it to you again, ’cause I want you to get it. “„“For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole [house] of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,” [says] the LORD, “that they might be for Me a people, for renown…,‟” he says, “„“…for praise, and for glory; but they did not listen.”‟” (Jeremiah 13:11)
He says, “My intention was not a ruined waistband, my intention was a beautiful waistband that would cling to me like the waistband clings to the waist of a man.” I wanted to make you Judah, I wanted to make you Jerusalem, I wanted to make you Israel, a people for praise, for renown, for glory and you would not listen to me.
A glass shattered, but God’s there. We’ll look at it more in our next program.
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