"You are my hammer and weapon of war ..." (Je 51:20 ESV)

What was Babylon?
The biggest authority on the planet.
The unstoppable effort of Nebuchadnezzar.
The world dominating power of the 5th Century BCE.

What was Babylon?
“You are my hammer and weapon of war:
with you I break nations in pieces;
with you I destroy kingdoms"

Jeremiah 51:20 (ESV) says that Babylon was God's hammer.


Think about what this means: If there is a world dominating power ruling the globe, God's using it as his hammer. World dominating powers are tools to God. They are not the product of their own effort or will. They are not a demonstration of the power of mankind. There are merely God's tools.

There haven't even been any since then.
God's Kingdom has dominated the world since the fall of the Roman empire. That's comforting to know.

New project

My wife forwarded this to me. Looks like I have a new project:

A careful study of the book of Proverbs identifies nine major themes of the book:

1) The principle of the tongue and the truth
2) The principle of hard work
3) The principle of self-control and avoiding temptation
4) The principle of conflict resolution and getting along with others
5) The principle of fearing God
6) The principle of receiving reproof and respecting authority
7) The principle of trusting God
8) The principle of humility
9) The principle of a virtuous spouse

"You are telling a lie ..." (Je 43:2 ESV)

Poor Jeremiah.
The people are desperate for help, but only because they're desperate. They are interested in God's answers, but only because they have no other alternatives.
They say "Let our plea for mercy come before you, and pray to the LORD your God for us, for all this remnant—because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us—that the LORD your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do. ... Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God." (Je 42:2-6 ESV), but they don't "Bear fruits in keeping with repentance" (Lk 3:8 ESV).

The answer God gives them is interesting.
He says, "If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you." (Je 42:10 ESV). God had punished Judah because they were Horrible! Yet, he was sorrowful for what had to happen. It's what every son hears his father say right before a whipping: "This hurts me more than it hurts you".

Did the Israelites have any respect for the honest and open offer God made?
No.
Did the Israelites realize what God was offering to them?
No.
Had God made a poor decision when "whipped" the Israelites with the Babylonians?
No, and this story makes that obvious.

How did the Israelites respond to God's offer? "Azariah the son of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah and all the insolent men said to Jeremiah, You are telling a lie. The LORD our God did not send you to say, Do not go to Egypt to live there, but Baruch the son of Neriah has set you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon." (Je 43:2-3 ESV). They knew that they could not deny God, so they merely denied that this was a message from God.

I think it's cowardly to dismiss God's word because of how it is delivered: Preachers, books, lessons, translations, etc. God has provided enough information for us to "test the spirits to see whether they are from God" (1Jn 4:1 ESV). But if you're bent on dismissing God's commands (Hell Bent), you will be desperate for an "out".

Listen quietly to God's word. Honestly consider that the creator of our universe deserves this attention. Respect what he has instructed you to do and do it. Don't be a coward and back out.

"So Saul had laid an oath on the people ..." (1Sa 14:24 ESV)

When young men become husbands they have leadership immediately thrust upon them:
"But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God." (1Co 11:3 ESV)

"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior." (Ep 5:22 ESV)

Sadly many young men will become leaders long before they understand what it means to lead. Just look at the story of Saul. Though his performance in 1 Samuel 11 demonstrates that he would make an excellent judge (after the model of the book of Judges), we see that he fails in his attempts to lead as the nation's king. I want to look at two moments of Saul's leadership in chapter 14:

"And the men of Israel had been hard pressed that day, so Saul had laid an oath on the people, saying, “Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my enemies.” So none of the people had tasted food." (1Sa 14:24 ESV)

"And Saul said, “Come here, all you leaders of the people, and know and see how this sin has arisen today. For l as the Lord lives who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.” But there was not a man among all the people who answered him." (1Sa 14:38-39 ESV)

Saul is a cowboy shooting from the hip.

Caught within a situation he makes a decision way too fast. People say that, "Leaders make decisions for other people." Is that what Godly leaders do? Are New Testament elders "masters" over the people they lead, or are they shepherds who lead by example?

It was pointed out to me this week that even the rule a mother has over her house is stronger than that of elders with the flock. 1 Timothy 5:14 "manage a household"

Young men, leadership does not only mean standing up and making decisions! It means you are seeking after God's will.

I was confused for a while too. I thought, "I need to make some decisions so that I can be a leader! I'm going to decide where we eat for dinner tonight no matter what!"

That's not how you lead. Leadership draw people to accept your rule by your example and wisdom.

"Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and a your hearers." 1 Timothy 4:11-16 ESV

"Then I said, 'These are only the poor; they have no sense ...'" (Je 5:4 ESV)

Jeremiah had quite a bourgeois reaction to the moral and spiritual situation in Judah. It's the sort of reaction we often mimic ourselves. Either it's the "liberal elite" or the "lazy" and "selfish people on welfare" that are morally bankrupt.

Jeremiah is told by God to find someone "who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her [Jerusalem]" (Je 5:1 ESV). Instead, Jeremiah sees what God has known all along: "They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent." (Je 5:3 ESV).

It is here Jeremiah steps into the trap we often step into:
Then I said, These are only the poor;
they have no sense;
for they do not know the way of the LORD,
the justice of their God.
I will go to the great
and will speak to them,
for they know the way of the LORD,
the justice of their God.
But they all alike had broken the yoke;
they had burst the bonds. Jeremiah 5:4-5 ESV.

Why did he assume that the problem of sin was associated with a economic or social position? We often make assumptions like that. We shouldn't assume that the rich, the powerful and those with authority are any better or worse than someone else. Sin attaches itself to everyone, ourselves included.

Jeremiah hoped that if he climbed up the echelons of society he would find a purified reverence for God. He didn't find that at all. Note that he didn't necessarily find the opposite either.

"Seek the LORD while he may be found ..." Is 55:6 (ESV)

In Isaiah 55 God calls to the needy, offers supplies and asks us why we keep ourselves busy with useless and worthless things.

Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me ... Isaiah 55:1-3 (ESV)

God calls out with what we need and wonders why we get caught up in aimlessness. After all, he made us and designed our world, why wouldn't he know what's best? This same call for support is offered as an "everlasting covenant" (Is 55:3 ESV) to those of us who are unresisting enough to enjoy what he has to offer.

Offering to help a people cast aside, God says:
Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; ... let the wicked forsake his way ...let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
Isaiah 55:6-8 (ESV)

I've usually heard Is 55:8 used to say: Don't do things your way, you're only human and God knows best.
Though that is a true idea, I think that in this chapter God is saying: Anyone can come back. Anyone can get what I'm offering.

Kind of makes me think of Luke 15.

"And shall you be delivered?" Is 37:11 (ESV)

The king of Assyria was laying siege to Judah having conquered the Northern kingdom of Israel. Sennacherib, as a spokesman for the Assyrian king declares to King Hezekiah, the Priests and all the people of Jerusalem the impending destruction Assyria had planned for them.

The major argument Sennacherib was "Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, The LORD will surely deliver us. ..." (Is 36:15 ESV).

He offered them an 'out': "... thus says the king of Assyria: 'Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.'" Isaiah 36:16-17 (ESV)

He says, "Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD ... Make your peace with me"
He means: "Don't put up with the difficulties of the LORD ... take it easy with us"

God's way, though it proved to be advantageous in hindsight, was really tough! The people had to listen to Sennacherib & Assyria berate their God, their King and themselves. They had to listen to a man tell them they'd eat their own filth and starve. They had to deal with angry family members who were tired of suffering. They had to deal with their own nagging suspicions that God was letting them be punished (why not, God had already condemned Israel to the Assyrians?)

Holding on to God's word
Holding on to God's ways
Holding on to God's will will be a difficult thing to do.

It means hurting family and ourselves. It means going hungry and enduring pain. It means we will be unhappy.

But it only means we'll be unhappy here. I need to remember that "this world is not my home".

(maybe I'll write a conclusion to this 'sermon' later)

"No one considers ..." Isaiah 44:19 (ESV)

In Isaiah 44 God points out the irony of idol worship with funny results:

"He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, 'Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!' And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, 'Deliver me, for you are my god!'

"They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, 'Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?'"
Isaiah 44:14-19 (ESV)

I always laugh at the way God presents the senseless behavior of those who have "worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator" (Ro 1:25 ESV).

"Their horses are flesh, and not spirit" Is 31:3 (ESV)

In Isaiah 31 God tells his people that he would be able help his people while others would not be able to. It's clear that God wanted to save and protect his people but was upset when they ran to other people.


"Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and rely on horses ...
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
or consult the LORD! ...

The Egyptians are man, and not God,
and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the LORD stretches out his hand,
the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,
and they will all perish together." Isaiah 31:1-3 (ESV)


I found it interesting that God compared himself with the Egyptians with the words flesh & spirit. A worldly defense was something they could count, touch, see and invest in. The spiritual defense was more intangible. Untrusting minds have a hard time with intangible things.

God concludes the chapter by pointing out exactly how Assyria would fall:
"And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;
and a sword, not of man, shall devour him" Isaiah 31:8 (ESV)

"My beloved had a vineyard ..." Is 5:1 (ESV)

What did God do for Israel? (Is 5:1-2 ESV)

"Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes."

What was God's reaction to Israel? (Is 5:3-4 ESV)

"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
What more was there to do for my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?"

God was upset because all of his careful work for Israel seemed useless. This is a big in the story of God's people.

This passage in Isaiah makes Jesus' parable in Matthew 21:33-44 even more interesting.

"When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them." (Mt 21:45 ESV)