The Lord says I Will Utter My Judgments

Book of Jeremiah [CSB Translation]
The Lord says I will utter my judgments

God describes several reasons to Jeremiah in Chapters 1 and 2 as to why he is pronouncing judgment.

1. Forgotten the Lord
2. Vanity
3. Pursued useless causes and worship their works
4. Idolatry

Jeremiah 1:16 “I will pronounce my judgments against them for all the evil they did when they abandoned me to burn incense to other gods and to worship the works of their own hands.

Many in the church have built their own empires and elevate the work of human hands, not what God has made.

Jeremiah 2:5: This is what the Lord says: What fault did your fathers find in me that they went so far from me, followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves?

They walk after vanity and became vain.

Jeremiah 2:6-8: They stopped asking, “Where is the Lord who brought us from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, through a land of drought and darkness, a land no one traveled through and where no one lived?”7 I brought you to a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but after you entered, you defiled my land; you made my inheritance detestable. 8 The priests quit asking, “Where is the Lord?” The experts in the law no longer knew me, and the rulers rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.

This is what the fallen man does. He enters into a land, a fertile land filled with good things, bountiful and fruitful and prospering. Then they defile the land. They set up their own laws and government, they rebel against God, they cast out his laws and ways. The prophets and leaders follow Baal, useless idols. Man takes the glory and worships the work of their own hands.

Jeremiah 2: 13: For my people have committed a double evil:

1. They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and
2. Dug cisterns for themselves—cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.

Apostasy

The people have become slaves again. Drawn into compromises and alliances that were not of God.

Jeremiah 2:19: Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Recognize how evil and bitter it is for you to abandon the Lord your God and to have no fear of me. This is the declaration of the Lord God of Armies.

Jeremiah 2:20(b): You insisted, “I will not serve!” On every high hill and under every green tree you lay down like a prostitute.

Jeremiah 2:23(a)  How can you protest, “I am not defiled; I have not followed the Baals”?

Jeremiah 2:26-27: Like the shame of a thief when he is caught, so the house of Israel has been put to shame. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets 27 say to a tree, “You are my father,” and to a stone, “You gave birth to me.” For they have turned their back to me and not their face, yet in their time of disaster they beg, “Rise up and save us!

Depravity

Jeremiah 5:3(b) They made their faces harder than rock, and they refused to return. [they refused discipline]

Coming Judgment

Jeremiah 5:20-31 “Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah, saying: 21 Hear this, you foolish and senseless people. They have eyes, but they don’t see. They have ears, but they don’t hear. 22 Do you not fear me? This is the Lord’s declaration. Do you not tremble before me, the one who set the sand as the boundary of the sea, an enduring barrier that it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot pass over it. 23 But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and have gone away. 24 They have not said to themselves, ‘Let’s fear the Lord our God, who gives the seasonal rains, both autumn and spring, who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the harvest.’ 25 Your guilty acts have diverted these things from you. Your sins have withheld my bounty from you, 26 for wicked men live among my people. They watch like hunters lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men. 27 Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have grown powerful and rich. 28 They have become fat and sleek. They have also excelled in evil matters. They have not taken up cases, such as the case of the fatherless, so they might prosper, and they have not defended the rights of the needy. 29 Should I not punish them for these things? This is the Lord’s declaration. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this? 30 An appalling, horrible thing has taken place in the land. 31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it like this. But what will you do at the end of it?

Wrath

Jeremiah 6:9-11:  This is what the Lord of Armies says: Glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as a vine. Pass your hand once more like a grape gatherer over the branches. 10 Who can I speak to and give such a warning that they will listen? Look, their ear is uncircumcised, so they cannot pay attention. See, the word of the Lord has become contemptible to them—they find no pleasure in it. 11 But I am full of the Lord’s wrath; I am tired of holding it back. Pour it out on the children in the street, on the gathering of young men as well. For both husband and wife will be captured, the old with the very old.

Jeremiah 6:13-14  For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is making profit dishonestly. From prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. 14 They have treated my people’s brokenness superficially, claiming, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.

Jeremiah 9: 12-14 Who is the person wise enough to understand this? Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through? 13 The Lord said, “It is because they abandoned my instruction, which I set before them, and did not obey my voice or walk according to it. 14 Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and followed the Baals as their fathers taught them.”

Boast in the Lord

Jeremiah 9:23-24 “‘This is what the Lord says: The wise person should not boast in his wisdom; the strong should not boast in his strength; the wealthy should not boast in his wealth. 24 But the one who boasts should boast in this: that he understands and knows me— that I am the Lord, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. This is the Lord’s declaration.

Jeremiah 14: 10 This is what the Lord says concerning these people: Truly they love to wander; they never rest their feet. So the Lord does not accept them.

False Prophets to Be Punished

Jeremiah 14: 11-14  Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of these people. 12 If they fast, I will not hear their cry of despair. If they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. Rather, I will finish them off by sword, famine, and plague.” 13 And I replied, “Oh no, Lord God! The prophets are telling them, ‘You won’t see sword or suffer famine. I will certainly give you lasting peace in this place.’”14 But the Lord said to me, “These prophets are prophesying a lie in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, worthless divination, the deceit of their own minds.