Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon Jeremiah 31:27-34 "A New Covenant"
Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church
September 22, 2019
This is my final sermon in a series called Jeremiah – Prophet to the Nations. Jeremiah was called by God to call God's people to read and obey God's law. This was part of a covenant that God had established with his people. God promised to bless his people with an economic system based on private property owned in perpetuity by families in what was called the “Promised Land.” In exchange for this land, God required obedience to his law.
But political leaders failed in upholding their end of the covenant by refusing to have people read and obey God's word. And the covenant was broken.
In 587BC the Empire of Babylon took their land and destroyed Jerusalem and their political system. The people were taken into exile for a generation or two. But Jeremiah, the Prophet to the Nations, had some good news for them. We will get to this, but first, let's pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
When Moses descended from Mt. Horeb with the Ten Commandments, he announced to the people of God the terms of the covenant, contract, promise between them and God. Here is what he said.
Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
And so it was the responsibility of family leaders to ensure that God's word would be read and obeyed generation to generation. Moses put it this way.
24 The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”
Kings and governmental officials, tribal and city elders, priests and prophets were all to work together to ensure that each generation read and obeyed God's word. And God promised to bless his people.
Deuteronomy 7:12 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. 13 He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and olive oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you. 14 You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young. 15 The Lord will keep you free from every disease.
But this didn't happen. The King, the elders, the priests, and prophets all turned from God and stopped reading and obeying his law. Listen to this about King Manasseh.
2 Kings 21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. 4 He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my Name.” 5 In the two courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. 6 He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.
With that, the Book of God's Law was sent to storage. No one read it. No one did what it said. And God was very angry.
12 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 13 I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
But God gave them one more chance when King Josiah sent his officials to the temple on an accounting matter and this happened.
2 Kings 22:8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. 9 Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: “Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the Lord and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple.” 10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.
2 Kings 22:11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. 12 He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: 13 “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”
And that’s when God raised up a Prophet to the Nations named Jeremiah who told them to read the Book of the Law and do what it says if you want to continue to receive the blessing God promised in the covenant.
Jeremiah 11:1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Listen to the terms of this covenant and tell them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem. 3 Tell them that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Cursed is the one who does not obey the terms of this covenant— 4 the terms I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.’ I said, ‘Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. 5 Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey’—the land you possess today.”
I answered, “Amen, Lord.”
And with that Jeremiah proclaimed to the people of Jerusalem and Judah that they were to return to God. They were to read his law and obey it. But the people refused. They mocked Jeremiah calling him a madman and put him in jail. With the covenant broken and his prophet ignored, God decided to remove his people from the land and end the political system that was set up to ensure that his Word would be read and obeyed. God used Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon to accomplish this task. He destroyed Jerusalem. And God's people found themselves in exile. Then God sent Jeremiah to proclaim his good news to the people he loved.
Jeremiah 31:27 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord.
And with that God comforted his people with the promise that they would return to their homes and farms. They would rebuild what the Babylonians had destroyed. After a generation in exile, God was unwilling to punish a new generation for the sins of their fathers. God put it this way.
29 “In those days people will no longer say,
‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
The new generation being born in Babylon would return to their ancestral homes and farms and restart. But there would be a change. The returning exiles would return not to the old covenant their ancestors had with God, but to a new covenant. The old covenant had broken down because the King, elders, priests, and prophets had all failed to have people read and obey God's law. This political and religious system had come to an end because it was no longer useful to God. And God needed a new way to ensure that his people would read and obey his law. So God decided to do two things. The first was to forgive and forget their sin. No longer would God punish them for what they had done in the past. Only what they did from now on would be important. And the second thing God did was to put his Holy Spirit in their hearts so that they would want to read and obey his law. The Holy Spirit would take the place of Kings, and elders, and priests and prophets. The Holy Spirit would encourage people to read the law and do what it says. Here is how Jeremiah put it.
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to[d] them,[e]”
declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
God has promised to send his Holy Spirit to shape us into people who want to read and obey his law. And God has promised to all who receive this Holy Spirit that their sins will be forgiven. This covenant was fulfilled on the night when Jesus was betrayed when at dinner he lifted up a cup and said:
Luke 22:20 “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
For all who believe in Jesus and make Him the Lord of their lives God promises to forgive your sins and to give you the Holy Spirit to begin your transformation to new life. No longer do we need a King, or an Elder, or a Priest or Prophet to tell us to read the Bible and do what it says. That system is over. God's Holy Spirit, in us, forms us into a community called the church and brings us together in worship, prayer, and Bible study. The Holy Spirit uses what we do here in church to shape us, as a potter shapes a lump of clay, into the image of God. Through this process, we become more and more like Jesus Christ. We are the people of the new covenant. Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, we accept you as the Lord of our lives. We ask you to fill us with your Spirit. We pledge to cooperate with that Spirit by reading the Bible and doing what it says. We thank you for the love of the Father that we have received. And we promise to love and serve you and to love our neighbor. Amen.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Sermon Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 Private Property
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 Private Property
Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church
September 15, 2019
This is my fourth sermon in my series entitled “Jeremiah - Prophet to the Nations”. Jeremiah was called to his important work by God before he was even born, predestined as the Prophet to the Nations. He warned the nations not to rely on false gods and material things, because in the long run, all these things would prove to be unreliable. He told the nations of the world that God created then and holds them in His hands just as potter holds a lump of clay.
Today we will look at the economic system God gave the nations of the world. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
The economic system that was developed by God and given to us is based on the principle of ownership of private property by families. The Promised Land was given to Israelite families. Each family was given its own inheritance. And a family could never lose its land. Land could be mortgaged, but all mortgages were forgiven every seven years. Land could be sold, but all sales contracts were voided every fifty years. The land was given to families generation to generation forever. This was God’s economic plan.
And this plan was part of a covenant between God and his people. God gave families land so that they would love and serve Him and be a blessing to others. This is the foundation of biblical law.
Deuteronomy 4:39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40 Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.
But the people in Jeremiah’s day had abandoned this covenant. They no longer kept their end of the contract. They didn’t use the land to love and serve the Lord. They worshiped other God. They didn’t use the land to bless others. And so now with the contract broken God was about to take the land away. Let’s pick up the story in Jeremiah 32.
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. 2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah,
So, the Babylonians have arrived at the gates of Jerusalem. The people have fled from their homes and farms to receive protection from the wall of the city. The gates are closed. The Judean army is stationed at the top of the wall to keep the Babylonians from coming over. They hope there is enough water in the cistern, but as we know it is cracked and leaking. They started out with enough food, but with a whole growing season trampled under the boots of Babylonian soldiers shortages will start soon. The situation is bleak. Jeremiah is in jail.
With the Babylonian army surrounding the city, and the Judean homes and farms under their control, it appears that the God-given economic system of private property owned by families is coming to an end. God has taken the land away from the families and has given it to the Babylonians. The covenant between God and his people has been broken. God provided his people with land, but they did not use it to love and serve the Lord and bless others. And so God removed them from the land, sending them to exile in Babylon.
The covenant between God and his people seems to be finished. And if this is the case then what happens next could not have been expected.
6 Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came to me: 7 Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.”
What did God just say? This is really odd. Jeremiah was just told by God that his uncle wants to sell his farm to him. He is selling the land to a member of his family thus keeping the land in the family. This is all part of the covenant between God and his people. But that covenant is over. What is going on?
With the Babylonians literally at the door that economic system is over. The King of Babylon now owns Hanamel farm. It is obvious why Hanamel wants to sell it. It is worthless, but if he can convince his cousin Jeremiah to buy it, then at least he will have some cash. But no one in his right mind would ever make a deal like this. Why would anyone purchase a farm that a powerful enemy now possesses? But that is exactly what Jeremiah does.
8 Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.
9 And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. 11 Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; 12 and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard.
13 In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, 14 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. 15 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.
With that God’s Prophet to the Nations proclaimed some really good news. The biblical economic system of private property, land belonging to families, would not come to a permanent end. Yes, the Babylonians have taken the land. Yes, families will be removed from the land and taken into exile. This is because they have forgotten the covenant and their responsibility to love and serve God and to love and bless their neighbors. But after a generation in exile, the covenant between God and his people will be restored and families will return to their land.
Our nation was established by its founders on the biblical principle of private ownership of property. The philosopher John Locke said in his book, The Two Treatises of Civil Government:
“The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions… (and) when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as he can, to preserve the rest of mankind, and may not, unless it be to do justice on an offender, take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb, or goods of another.”
According to Locke, all people have a God-given right to life, liberty, and property. The purpose of Government is not to own, take away or use our property. The purpose of government is to preserve our biblical right to own personal property. Thomas Jefferson put it this way in the Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
With that America was established on the biblical principle of privately owned property. And according to Jeremiah, the Prophet to the Nations, God has given us the right to private property. This right is permanent, but it is also conditional on us using our property to love and serve God and to bless others.
Today in our nation there are many people who want to hold onto private property but have forgotten the covenant with God. Like the people of Jeremiah’s day, they no longer love and serve the Lord. They are no longer a blessing to others. And so they run the risk of having their property taken away and given to others.
There are other people in our nation who believe in the communal ownership of property. They believe that the Government should own property and use it for its own purposes and our benefit. But this is the opposite of the biblical economic system that was instituted by our founders. The purpose of government is not to take our property but to preserve our God-given right to own personal property. So, like Jeremiah, I urge you to continue the covenant we have with God by using your property to love and serve the Lord and to bless all of God’s children. The good news is that if you do this, God will continue to bless you with private property. Let’s pray.
Lord God, we thank you for the blessing of private property. Help us to use our property to love and serve you by blessing others. Help us to always remember and obey the terms of this covenant. This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Sermon Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 Private Property
Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church
September 15, 2019
This is my fourth sermon in my series entitled “Jeremiah - Prophet to the Nations”. Jeremiah was called to his important work by God before he was even born, predestined as the Prophet to the Nations. He warned the nations not to rely on false gods and material things, because in the long run, all these things would prove to be unreliable. He told the nations of the world that God created then and holds them in His hands just as potter holds a lump of clay.
Today we will look at the economic system God gave the nations of the world. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
The economic system that was developed by God and given to us is based on the principle of ownership of private property by families. The Promised Land was given to Israelite families. Each family was given its own inheritance. And a family could never lose its land. Land could be mortgaged, but all mortgages were forgiven every seven years. Land could be sold, but all sales contracts were voided every fifty years. The land was given to families generation to generation forever. This was God’s economic plan.
And this plan was part of a covenant between God and his people. God gave families land so that they would love and serve Him and be a blessing to others. This is the foundation of biblical law.
Deuteronomy 4:39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40 Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.
But the people in Jeremiah’s day had abandoned this covenant. They no longer kept their end of the contract. They didn’t use the land to love and serve the Lord. They worshiped other God. They didn’t use the land to bless others. And so now with the contract broken God was about to take the land away. Let’s pick up the story in Jeremiah 32.
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. 2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah,
So, the Babylonians have arrived at the gates of Jerusalem. The people have fled from their homes and farms to receive protection from the wall of the city. The gates are closed. The Judean army is stationed at the top of the wall to keep the Babylonians from coming over. They hope there is enough water in the cistern, but as we know it is cracked and leaking. They started out with enough food, but with a whole growing season trampled under the boots of Babylonian soldiers shortages will start soon. The situation is bleak. Jeremiah is in jail.
With the Babylonian army surrounding the city, and the Judean homes and farms under their control, it appears that the God-given economic system of private property owned by families is coming to an end. God has taken the land away from the families and has given it to the Babylonians. The covenant between God and his people has been broken. God provided his people with land, but they did not use it to love and serve the Lord and bless others. And so God removed them from the land, sending them to exile in Babylon.
The covenant between God and his people seems to be finished. And if this is the case then what happens next could not have been expected.
6 Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came to me: 7 Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.”
What did God just say? This is really odd. Jeremiah was just told by God that his uncle wants to sell his farm to him. He is selling the land to a member of his family thus keeping the land in the family. This is all part of the covenant between God and his people. But that covenant is over. What is going on?
With the Babylonians literally at the door that economic system is over. The King of Babylon now owns Hanamel farm. It is obvious why Hanamel wants to sell it. It is worthless, but if he can convince his cousin Jeremiah to buy it, then at least he will have some cash. But no one in his right mind would ever make a deal like this. Why would anyone purchase a farm that a powerful enemy now possesses? But that is exactly what Jeremiah does.
8 Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.
9 And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. 11 Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; 12 and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard.
13 In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, 14 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. 15 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.
With that God’s Prophet to the Nations proclaimed some really good news. The biblical economic system of private property, land belonging to families, would not come to a permanent end. Yes, the Babylonians have taken the land. Yes, families will be removed from the land and taken into exile. This is because they have forgotten the covenant and their responsibility to love and serve God and to love and bless their neighbors. But after a generation in exile, the covenant between God and his people will be restored and families will return to their land.
Our nation was established by its founders on the biblical principle of private ownership of property. The philosopher John Locke said in his book, The Two Treatises of Civil Government:
“The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions… (and) when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as he can, to preserve the rest of mankind, and may not, unless it be to do justice on an offender, take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb, or goods of another.”
According to Locke, all people have a God-given right to life, liberty, and property. The purpose of Government is not to own, take away or use our property. The purpose of government is to preserve our biblical right to own personal property. Thomas Jefferson put it this way in the Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
With that America was established on the biblical principle of privately owned property. And according to Jeremiah, the Prophet to the Nations, God has given us the right to private property. This right is permanent, but it is also conditional on us using our property to love and serve God and to bless others.
Today in our nation there are many people who want to hold onto private property but have forgotten the covenant with God. Like the people of Jeremiah’s day, they no longer love and serve the Lord. They are no longer a blessing to others. And so they run the risk of having their property taken away and given to others.
There are other people in our nation who believe in the communal ownership of property. They believe that the Government should own property and use it for its own purposes and our benefit. But this is the opposite of the biblical economic system that was instituted by our founders. The purpose of government is not to take our property but to preserve our God-given right to own personal property. So, like Jeremiah, I urge you to continue the covenant we have with God by using your property to love and serve the Lord and to bless all of God’s children. The good news is that if you do this, God will continue to bless you with private property. Let’s pray.
Lord God, we thank you for the blessing of private property. Help us to use our property to love and serve you by blessing others. Help us to always remember and obey the terms of this covenant. This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Sermon Jeremiah 18:1–11 Clay in the Potter’s Hand
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon Jeremiah 18:1–11 Clay in the Potter’s Hand
Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church
September 8, 2019
I am continuing today with my sermon series called Jeremiah: Prophet to the Nations. We have seen so far that Jeremiah was selected by God for this important task before he was born. Likewise, we are predestined to play an important part in God’s plan and purpose for creation. Then we heard as Jeremiah spoke to the nation of Judah that they should not put their faith in things they made like false gods and water cisterns. Things break and often cannot save us when we really need it. Our only real savior is Jesus Christ. And as believers, we can depend on him. Today we will listen as Jeremiah once again talks to the nation of Judah and explains to them the relationship between God and the nations of the world. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Jeremiah 18:1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
The image Jeremiah wants in our minds is that of a potter. Before him is a wheel slowly turning. On the wheel is a lump of clay. As the wheel turns the potter shapes the clay with his hands into a pot. Some potters can quickly mass-produce many pots in a day. But some potters are artists and with great skill bring to life beautiful works of pottery. You may remember the scene when Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze worked clay on a potter’s wheel in the movie Ghost.
As the potter works with the clay it becomes closer and closer to the pot he imagined. He squeezes it and shapes it to make it suitable for its intended purpose. But sometimes the clay is just too difficult to work with. It fights back. It begins to wobble. The pot is ruined, and the potter pushes the clay back into a lump and starts over. With this image in mind of a master potter working with clay and starting over again, let’s go back to Jeremiah.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. 7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 10 and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
So according to Jeremiah the relationship between the nations of the world and God is just like a lump of clay and a master potter. Nations of the world are created by God. They are held in God’s hands. God shapes them according to his will and purpose. And God can destroy them and start over if he has to. The nations of the world are held by God in his hands. God can use them or destroy them at his will. And so with this understood Jeremiah has a message for Judah.
11 “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’
God is trying to shape Judah just as a potter shapes a pot. God wants Judah to repent of its sin. If it does this God will make it into a thing of splendor. But if Judah refuses to turn from their evil ways then God will have no choice but to start over and create a new nation that will achieve his purposes.
So, what it is that Judah has done which has God almost ready to start over? Well, we know from Jeremiah that the nation is not caring for the poor and needy and widows and orphans and aliens as it should. But there is something else that is going on here. And for that let’s turn to the previous chapter of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 17: 19 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and stand at the Gate of the People, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem. 20 Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem who come through these gates. 21 This is what the Lord says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors. 23 Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline.
The nation of Judah is not keeping the Sabbath day holy. People are engaging in the usual commerce bringing merchandise in and out of the city on the Sabbath, and God is angry at this. If they don’t repent and stop working on the Sabbath, God will have no choice but to start all over with a new nation that will keep his law.
27 But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.’”
They better get their act together and stop working on the Sabbath day. This seems to be pretty important to God. Why do you think God is so concerned about the Sabbath?
When the people of God were slaves in Egypt they were forced to work seven days a week. They were prevented from worshiping God. So God sent Moses and Aaron to deliver them from this slavery. They were sent to speak with Pharaoh with these words:
Exodus 5:1 … Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”
God was using Moses and Aaron to shape Egypt for his plan and purpose. But Pharaoh refused and ignored God’s instructions. And his nation was destroyed when his chariots were stuck in the mud on the bottom of the Red Sea when the waters returned and the King and his men all drowned. After the Hebrews were freed from Egypt they worshiped God and received from God his holy law.
Exodus 20: 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The nation of Judah was breaking this law and returning God’s people to slavery by denying them a Sabbath rest and a time to worship their God. This is the sin God was calling them to repent. They were to give their workers a Sabbath rest and a time to worship God. Otherwise, God might have to start over with a new nation.
Thankfully here in New Jersey, we have no problem giving people a Sabbath rest and time to worship every Sunday. No employer in this state would ever think of forcing employees to work Sunday morning and miss church. Or would they? Of course, that is exactly what they do. Employers are doing in this town the same thing that the nation of Judah was doing in Jeremiah’s day. We are forcing Christians to work on Sunday mornings and miss church.
Last week I stopped by a produce stand to buy some peaches. I asked the young lady working there if she went to church. She said that she used to go to church but doesn’t anymore. I asked her why. She said that since she started to work she has had to work every Sunday morning. So she can’t come to church. I handed her my card and told her I was pastor of this church. And I invited her to come here whenever she could.
I have asked many people to come to worship on Sunday mornings. And many tell me the same thing. “I would love to come to church, but I can’t. I have to work.” If you work retail you probably have to work on Sundays. Restaurants and convenience stores are all open today. And some farms have their workers in the fields on Sunday.
There is one exception. Chick-fil-A is closed today. This is what it says on its corporate website.
Q: Why is Chick-fil-A closed on Sunday?
A: Our founder, Truett Cathy, made the decision to close on Sundays in 1946 when he opened his first restaurant in Hapeville, Georgia. He has often shared that his decision was as much practical as spiritual. He believes that all franchised Chick-fil-A® Operators and Restaurant employees should have an opportunity to rest, spend time with family and friends, and worship if they choose to do so. That's why all Chick-fil-A Restaurants are closed on Sundays. It's part of our recipe for success.
One employer knows what God wants. There may be others. I call on the business community of New Jersey to repent and give their employees Sunday off so they may rest, enjoy their families and worship God. The promise of God is that if we do this we will be blessed. But we risk God’s wrath if we continue to ignore his command to give employees Sunday off so they may go to church for worship. Here is the promise to the business community from God through Jeremiah, his prophet to the nations.
Jeremiah 17: 24 But if you are careful to obey me, declares the Lord, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it, 25 then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. 26 People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord.
If the businesses of New Jersey repent and give their employees Sundays off then God will bless them with more visitors, more sales, and more profits than they ever thought possible. Obeying God’s Sabbath law would be the best business decision they could ever make. Failure to obey God may result in loss of business and bankruptcy. I urge you to tell the owners of the businesses here in this area that God wants their employees to have Sunday mornings off. God wants their workers to worship him in churches and that will bring us greater prosperity if it happens. Let’s pray.
Father in heaven we confess that we enable the businesses of our city to stay open on Sunday mornings. We repent of this sin and will tell the stores, restaurants and hotel owners in this city that if they obey God and give their employees Sunday morning off then God will bless them with greater profits. We pray this in the name of your son our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sermon Jeremiah 18:1–11 Clay in the Potter’s Hand
Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church
September 8, 2019
I am continuing today with my sermon series called Jeremiah: Prophet to the Nations. We have seen so far that Jeremiah was selected by God for this important task before he was born. Likewise, we are predestined to play an important part in God’s plan and purpose for creation. Then we heard as Jeremiah spoke to the nation of Judah that they should not put their faith in things they made like false gods and water cisterns. Things break and often cannot save us when we really need it. Our only real savior is Jesus Christ. And as believers, we can depend on him. Today we will listen as Jeremiah once again talks to the nation of Judah and explains to them the relationship between God and the nations of the world. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Jeremiah 18:1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
The image Jeremiah wants in our minds is that of a potter. Before him is a wheel slowly turning. On the wheel is a lump of clay. As the wheel turns the potter shapes the clay with his hands into a pot. Some potters can quickly mass-produce many pots in a day. But some potters are artists and with great skill bring to life beautiful works of pottery. You may remember the scene when Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze worked clay on a potter’s wheel in the movie Ghost.
As the potter works with the clay it becomes closer and closer to the pot he imagined. He squeezes it and shapes it to make it suitable for its intended purpose. But sometimes the clay is just too difficult to work with. It fights back. It begins to wobble. The pot is ruined, and the potter pushes the clay back into a lump and starts over. With this image in mind of a master potter working with clay and starting over again, let’s go back to Jeremiah.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. 7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 10 and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
So according to Jeremiah the relationship between the nations of the world and God is just like a lump of clay and a master potter. Nations of the world are created by God. They are held in God’s hands. God shapes them according to his will and purpose. And God can destroy them and start over if he has to. The nations of the world are held by God in his hands. God can use them or destroy them at his will. And so with this understood Jeremiah has a message for Judah.
11 “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’
God is trying to shape Judah just as a potter shapes a pot. God wants Judah to repent of its sin. If it does this God will make it into a thing of splendor. But if Judah refuses to turn from their evil ways then God will have no choice but to start over and create a new nation that will achieve his purposes.
So, what it is that Judah has done which has God almost ready to start over? Well, we know from Jeremiah that the nation is not caring for the poor and needy and widows and orphans and aliens as it should. But there is something else that is going on here. And for that let’s turn to the previous chapter of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 17: 19 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and stand at the Gate of the People, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem. 20 Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem who come through these gates. 21 This is what the Lord says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors. 23 Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline.
The nation of Judah is not keeping the Sabbath day holy. People are engaging in the usual commerce bringing merchandise in and out of the city on the Sabbath, and God is angry at this. If they don’t repent and stop working on the Sabbath, God will have no choice but to start all over with a new nation that will keep his law.
27 But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.’”
They better get their act together and stop working on the Sabbath day. This seems to be pretty important to God. Why do you think God is so concerned about the Sabbath?
When the people of God were slaves in Egypt they were forced to work seven days a week. They were prevented from worshiping God. So God sent Moses and Aaron to deliver them from this slavery. They were sent to speak with Pharaoh with these words:
Exodus 5:1 … Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”
God was using Moses and Aaron to shape Egypt for his plan and purpose. But Pharaoh refused and ignored God’s instructions. And his nation was destroyed when his chariots were stuck in the mud on the bottom of the Red Sea when the waters returned and the King and his men all drowned. After the Hebrews were freed from Egypt they worshiped God and received from God his holy law.
Exodus 20: 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The nation of Judah was breaking this law and returning God’s people to slavery by denying them a Sabbath rest and a time to worship their God. This is the sin God was calling them to repent. They were to give their workers a Sabbath rest and a time to worship God. Otherwise, God might have to start over with a new nation.
Thankfully here in New Jersey, we have no problem giving people a Sabbath rest and time to worship every Sunday. No employer in this state would ever think of forcing employees to work Sunday morning and miss church. Or would they? Of course, that is exactly what they do. Employers are doing in this town the same thing that the nation of Judah was doing in Jeremiah’s day. We are forcing Christians to work on Sunday mornings and miss church.
Last week I stopped by a produce stand to buy some peaches. I asked the young lady working there if she went to church. She said that she used to go to church but doesn’t anymore. I asked her why. She said that since she started to work she has had to work every Sunday morning. So she can’t come to church. I handed her my card and told her I was pastor of this church. And I invited her to come here whenever she could.
I have asked many people to come to worship on Sunday mornings. And many tell me the same thing. “I would love to come to church, but I can’t. I have to work.” If you work retail you probably have to work on Sundays. Restaurants and convenience stores are all open today. And some farms have their workers in the fields on Sunday.
There is one exception. Chick-fil-A is closed today. This is what it says on its corporate website.
Q: Why is Chick-fil-A closed on Sunday?
A: Our founder, Truett Cathy, made the decision to close on Sundays in 1946 when he opened his first restaurant in Hapeville, Georgia. He has often shared that his decision was as much practical as spiritual. He believes that all franchised Chick-fil-A® Operators and Restaurant employees should have an opportunity to rest, spend time with family and friends, and worship if they choose to do so. That's why all Chick-fil-A Restaurants are closed on Sundays. It's part of our recipe for success.
One employer knows what God wants. There may be others. I call on the business community of New Jersey to repent and give their employees Sunday off so they may rest, enjoy their families and worship God. The promise of God is that if we do this we will be blessed. But we risk God’s wrath if we continue to ignore his command to give employees Sunday off so they may go to church for worship. Here is the promise to the business community from God through Jeremiah, his prophet to the nations.
Jeremiah 17: 24 But if you are careful to obey me, declares the Lord, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it, 25 then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. 26 People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord.
If the businesses of New Jersey repent and give their employees Sundays off then God will bless them with more visitors, more sales, and more profits than they ever thought possible. Obeying God’s Sabbath law would be the best business decision they could ever make. Failure to obey God may result in loss of business and bankruptcy. I urge you to tell the owners of the businesses here in this area that God wants their employees to have Sunday mornings off. God wants their workers to worship him in churches and that will bring us greater prosperity if it happens. Let’s pray.
Father in heaven we confess that we enable the businesses of our city to stay open on Sunday mornings. We repent of this sin and will tell the stores, restaurants and hotel owners in this city that if they obey God and give their employees Sunday morning off then God will bless them with greater profits. We pray this in the name of your son our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Sermon Jeremiah 2:4-13 Cracked Cisterns
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon Jeremiah 2:4-13 Cracked Cisterns
Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church
September 1, 2019
This is my second sermon in a series I have called, “Jeremiah, Prophet to the Nations”. Last week we heard God’s call to Jeremiah to begin this work. Jeremiah was part of God’s plan from the very beginning. He had been chosen as a prophet before he was born. And so now this teenager with no experience will bring God’s word to the nations of the world. Today, we will look at Jeremiah’s first prophecy from God to the nation of Judah. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
God freed the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. He parted the Red Sea for them to escape, and guided them for forty years in the wilderness. The wilderness is dry, a desert. And shortly after they entered it they experienced their first problem. They ran out of water.
Exodus 15:22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.[f]) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
25 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.
27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.
So God provided his people with what they needed, water. Then, sometime later it happened again.
Exodus 17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”
3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Over and over again for a period of forty years, God provided Israel with everything it needed. Whenever they were threatened with thirst or hunger or war God was always there to save them. God could always be counted on. So after forty years, you would think that the descendants of those people would always remember what God had done for them. But they didn’t. They forgot all about their God. And they even started following their Canaanite neighbors up to the hilltop to worship Baal, the Weather God, who never did anything for anyone. Why would they forget the God who had saved their ancestors? Well, before I try to answer this, let’s listen to what God had to say to them through Jeremiah, his Prophet to the Nations.
Jeremiah 2:4 Hear the word of the LORD, you descendants of Jacob,
all you clans of Israel.
5 This is what the LORD says:
“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
and became worthless themselves.
6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD,
who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
7 I brought you into a fertile land
to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
and made my inheritance detestable.
8 The priests did not ask,
‘Where is the LORD?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
following worthless idols.
9 “Therefore I bring charges against you again,”
declares the LORD.
“And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
10 Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
send to Kedar[a] and observe closely;
see if there has ever been anything like this:
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods?
(Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols.
12 Be appalled at this, you heavens,
and shudder with great horror,”
declares the LORD.
13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
So the Nation of Judah has forsaken God, the spring of living water, to worship the false god Baal. And, they have dug their own cisterns. Cisterns are large cavities in the ground which are used to store rainwater. God has said that the Judeans erred by digging cisterns. He said that cisterns are no better at saving us from thirst that the old fictitious weather god of Canaanites What is so bad about digging cisterns?
Sometime shortly after arriving in the Promised Land, someone made an important discovery. The found out that if iron ore from the ground was placed in a charcoal fire impurities in the iron would burn away and the iron would become soft and malleable. He also figured out that when iron was still hot it could be shaped into just about anything. Farmers came and wanted iron plows so they could cultivate more land. Generals came and wanted iron arrowheads, iron-tipped spears, iron helmets and shields, and iron chariots. Builders came and wanted iron tools to cut limestone into large blocks which could be assembled to build massive palaces and temples. The Iron Age had begun.
Then someone figured out that iron tools could be used to dig a large hole in the limestone underneath his property to store water. He made it bell-shaped to minimize evaporation and pollution. And he filled it by redirecting rainwater into it during the rainy winter season. And he had plenty of water for the whole summer.
Cisterns revolutionized how we store water. Before cisterns, we were dependent on rainfall to fill the streams and rivers and the aquifers under the land. But with cisterns we could have water whenever we wanted. We were in control. And this continues today. All of us can get as much water as we want by simply turning on the tap, or by purchasing a case of water from WAWA. And all of this began three thousand years ago when iron tools were first used to build cisterns.
So why is God warning us about building cisterns? Before cisterns people depended on God for the water they drank. And they worshiped God in gratitude for the water they received. But once they built cisterns they no longer believe that God was needed. They had their own ability to make water available whenever they wanted. They didn’t need a God who provided water for them. So they forgot about God.
So too with us. We have everything we need. We have our health, and good health care if we need it. We have good incomes, and plenty in savings, if we run into trouble. We have insurance and retirement accounts. And we have good social services. We have everything we need. Why would we want any blessings from God? That is why only a small fraction of our population is in church today. People have everything they need. There is nothing they need from God. And they think that they have received no blessings from God for which they would be grateful. So, we won’t see them here this morning.
The Nation of Judah thought the same way. They were in control of things like water. There was nothing they needed from God. So why worship and glorify him? But Jeremiah came with a warning. Their cisterns were broken. There are many small earthquakes in the Middle East. One of these probably damaged the Jerusalem cistern. It was leaking. And it did not have as much water in it as everyone thought. God knew that the time would come when the Babylonians would return and encircle the city. The siege would last months. And Jerusalem did not have enough water in their cracked cistern. They would either perish of thirst or surrender to the Babylonians.
The problem was that they thought that they could depend on themselves to provide for their every need. But they couldn’t. They needed a savior who would provide them with water when they needed it. They needed the God of their ancestors who provided them with water in the wilderness. This was Jeremiah’s message. He warned the nation to return to its God before it was too late.
The same is true for us. We think that we have enough savings and insurance to provide for every need, but we don’t. Maybe, hopefully, we won’t exhaust our resources. But we may. And if that happens we better have strong faith in the only God who provides his people with what they need. That is why it is so important for people to be here, in church. In church we hear the old stories of what God has done in the past. We receive the assurance that God will do for us in the future. And in gratitude for that assurance, we worship God today.
So technology causes us to believe that God is no longer needed. Science will give us everything we need. But God is needed because no matter how much we are prepared for any calamity, all preparation will ultimately fail. We cannot always save ourselves and must trust in the salvation of God. In Jesus Christ, that salvation is assured. So with joy and gratitude today we worship the living God. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we have plans and prepare for whatever may befall us. We have money and good health and everything we need. But we know that whatever we have is not good enough. And so we fall back on the assurance of your salvation. This we pray in our savior’s name. Amen.
Sermon Jeremiah 2:4-13 Cracked Cisterns
Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church
September 1, 2019
This is my second sermon in a series I have called, “Jeremiah, Prophet to the Nations”. Last week we heard God’s call to Jeremiah to begin this work. Jeremiah was part of God’s plan from the very beginning. He had been chosen as a prophet before he was born. And so now this teenager with no experience will bring God’s word to the nations of the world. Today, we will look at Jeremiah’s first prophecy from God to the nation of Judah. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
God freed the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. He parted the Red Sea for them to escape, and guided them for forty years in the wilderness. The wilderness is dry, a desert. And shortly after they entered it they experienced their first problem. They ran out of water.
Exodus 15:22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.[f]) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
25 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.
27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.
So God provided his people with what they needed, water. Then, sometime later it happened again.
Exodus 17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”
3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Over and over again for a period of forty years, God provided Israel with everything it needed. Whenever they were threatened with thirst or hunger or war God was always there to save them. God could always be counted on. So after forty years, you would think that the descendants of those people would always remember what God had done for them. But they didn’t. They forgot all about their God. And they even started following their Canaanite neighbors up to the hilltop to worship Baal, the Weather God, who never did anything for anyone. Why would they forget the God who had saved their ancestors? Well, before I try to answer this, let’s listen to what God had to say to them through Jeremiah, his Prophet to the Nations.
Jeremiah 2:4 Hear the word of the LORD, you descendants of Jacob,
all you clans of Israel.
5 This is what the LORD says:
“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
and became worthless themselves.
6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD,
who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
7 I brought you into a fertile land
to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
and made my inheritance detestable.
8 The priests did not ask,
‘Where is the LORD?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
following worthless idols.
9 “Therefore I bring charges against you again,”
declares the LORD.
“And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
10 Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
send to Kedar[a] and observe closely;
see if there has ever been anything like this:
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods?
(Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols.
12 Be appalled at this, you heavens,
and shudder with great horror,”
declares the LORD.
13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
So the Nation of Judah has forsaken God, the spring of living water, to worship the false god Baal. And, they have dug their own cisterns. Cisterns are large cavities in the ground which are used to store rainwater. God has said that the Judeans erred by digging cisterns. He said that cisterns are no better at saving us from thirst that the old fictitious weather god of Canaanites What is so bad about digging cisterns?
Sometime shortly after arriving in the Promised Land, someone made an important discovery. The found out that if iron ore from the ground was placed in a charcoal fire impurities in the iron would burn away and the iron would become soft and malleable. He also figured out that when iron was still hot it could be shaped into just about anything. Farmers came and wanted iron plows so they could cultivate more land. Generals came and wanted iron arrowheads, iron-tipped spears, iron helmets and shields, and iron chariots. Builders came and wanted iron tools to cut limestone into large blocks which could be assembled to build massive palaces and temples. The Iron Age had begun.
Then someone figured out that iron tools could be used to dig a large hole in the limestone underneath his property to store water. He made it bell-shaped to minimize evaporation and pollution. And he filled it by redirecting rainwater into it during the rainy winter season. And he had plenty of water for the whole summer.
Cisterns revolutionized how we store water. Before cisterns, we were dependent on rainfall to fill the streams and rivers and the aquifers under the land. But with cisterns we could have water whenever we wanted. We were in control. And this continues today. All of us can get as much water as we want by simply turning on the tap, or by purchasing a case of water from WAWA. And all of this began three thousand years ago when iron tools were first used to build cisterns.
So why is God warning us about building cisterns? Before cisterns people depended on God for the water they drank. And they worshiped God in gratitude for the water they received. But once they built cisterns they no longer believe that God was needed. They had their own ability to make water available whenever they wanted. They didn’t need a God who provided water for them. So they forgot about God.
So too with us. We have everything we need. We have our health, and good health care if we need it. We have good incomes, and plenty in savings, if we run into trouble. We have insurance and retirement accounts. And we have good social services. We have everything we need. Why would we want any blessings from God? That is why only a small fraction of our population is in church today. People have everything they need. There is nothing they need from God. And they think that they have received no blessings from God for which they would be grateful. So, we won’t see them here this morning.
The Nation of Judah thought the same way. They were in control of things like water. There was nothing they needed from God. So why worship and glorify him? But Jeremiah came with a warning. Their cisterns were broken. There are many small earthquakes in the Middle East. One of these probably damaged the Jerusalem cistern. It was leaking. And it did not have as much water in it as everyone thought. God knew that the time would come when the Babylonians would return and encircle the city. The siege would last months. And Jerusalem did not have enough water in their cracked cistern. They would either perish of thirst or surrender to the Babylonians.
The problem was that they thought that they could depend on themselves to provide for their every need. But they couldn’t. They needed a savior who would provide them with water when they needed it. They needed the God of their ancestors who provided them with water in the wilderness. This was Jeremiah’s message. He warned the nation to return to its God before it was too late.
The same is true for us. We think that we have enough savings and insurance to provide for every need, but we don’t. Maybe, hopefully, we won’t exhaust our resources. But we may. And if that happens we better have strong faith in the only God who provides his people with what they need. That is why it is so important for people to be here, in church. In church we hear the old stories of what God has done in the past. We receive the assurance that God will do for us in the future. And in gratitude for that assurance, we worship God today.
So technology causes us to believe that God is no longer needed. Science will give us everything we need. But God is needed because no matter how much we are prepared for any calamity, all preparation will ultimately fail. We cannot always save ourselves and must trust in the salvation of God. In Jesus Christ, that salvation is assured. So with joy and gratitude today we worship the living God. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we have plans and prepare for whatever may befall us. We have money and good health and everything we need. But we know that whatever we have is not good enough. And so we fall back on the assurance of your salvation. This we pray in our savior’s name. Amen.
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