JEREMIAH 11 - Covenant is broken; plot against Jeremiah

NOTES BY VERSE

Note: each ** comment in this document is listed in numerical order according to the verse(s) from this chapter

** We cannot love God perfectly in this life, but we are to have desire to do so

• We will be able to love God perfectly one day in Heaven

• If we have been saved, we will want to love the Lord with everything we have and obey Him  <M130>

Mark 12:30 NIV

[30] Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'

Jeremiah 11:4 NIV

[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.

Jeremiah 24:7 NIV

[7] I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 NIV

[26] I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. [27] And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Colossians 3:7-10 NIV

[7] You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. [8] But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. [9] Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices [10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Romans 6:1-2,5-6,11 NIV

[1] What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? [2] By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? [5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. [6] For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--- [11] In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

** There are times God instructs us to stop praying for people who refuse to heed warning about their sinful behavior and give up pagan practices  <H87>

Jeremiah 7:16 NIV

[16] “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.

Jeremiah 11:14 NIV

[14] “Do not pray for this people or offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.

Matthew 7:6 NIV

[6] “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Matthew 10:14-15 NIV

[14] If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. [15] Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

** The Jerusalem Principle applies when a nation reaches a point of no return and the Lord determines that its destruction will not be postponed. This happened to the city of Jerusalem and the Southern Kingdom of Judah about 2700 years ago during the time of the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah. Three times Jeremiah was told to stop praying for the people of Judah.

Jeremiah 7:16 NIV

[16] “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.

Jeremiah 14:11-12 NIV

[11] Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people. [12] Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague.”

Jeremiah 16:5-7 NIV

[5] For this is what the Lord says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,” declares the Lord. [6] “Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut themselves or shave their head for the dead. [7] No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead---not even for a father or a mother---nor will anyone give them a drink to console them.

After Jeremiah received his instructions to quit praying for the people of Judah, he forewarned them of their impending judgment. The people were captured and transported into Babylonian captivity where they remained for seventy years. Their homeland sat desolated during that period.  <S198>

Jeremiah 11:14 NIV

[14] “Do not pray for this people or offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.

** God abides by His covenant to the ‘letter of the law’ and expects us to do the same; we are cursed if we do not follow the agreement but blessed when we do

Jeremiah 11:1-5 NIV

[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.”

Jeremiah 11:7-8 NIV

[7] From the time I brought your ancestors up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, “Obey me.” [8] But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep. ' ”

Jeremiah 11:10-11 NIV

[10] They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both Israel and Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors. [11] Therefore this is what the Lord says: 'I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.

** It is useless to call on god-like idols because they do not hear and cannot help in times of disaster

Jeremiah 11:12-13 NIV

[12] The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes. [13] You, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.'

** While the prophet Jeremiah’s life had been innocent and unsuspecting, his own townsmen of Anathoth were conspiring to crush him and bury his work and name in oblivion; the sufferings of the prophet present to us, in this matter, a parallel to those of the Christ  <B20>

Jeremiah 11:19 NIV

[19] I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.”

** Expect persecution for telling the truth, as the people of Anathoth were ready to kill Jeremiah for warning and prophesying to them

Jeremiah 11:21-23 NIV

[21] Therefore this is what the Lord says about the people of Anathoth who are threatening to kill you, saying, “Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord or you will die by our hands”--- [22] therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. [23] Not even a remnant will be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment. ”