God Keeps His Covenant - Jeremiah 32-26

Jeremiah 32:36-41 (ESV)

They Shall Be My People; I Will Be Their God

“Now therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence’: Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

As Jeremiah records these words from God he is held captive by the king. Why?

Jeremiah 32:3 (ESV)

For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it;

Jeremiah’s prophecy is the equivalent of someone today telling their nation they are going to be taken captive by another nation. It was not a populist message.  Jeremiah was the lone person saying all this.  So King Zedekiah canceled him by putting him in prison.  But that did not keep Jeremiah from speaking the truth.   Most of the truth was along the same lines that Zedekiah feared; that God was going to punish them all.   

However, the above lines are one of the few in the book where Jeremiah outlines God’s favor on Israel.   In fact, in the previous chapter God even instructed Jeremiah to buy land from his cousin.   He bought the land and put the deed in a jar.   This was a vivid picture to the king and Israel that God was still going to be faithful to His convent and bless Israel.  There would be a remnant that God would bless.   

God had made a covenant with David and nothing was going to break that covenant.  Note:

Jeremiah 33:19-22 (ESV)

The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Thus says the LORD: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me.”

God was going to put this covenant into the hearts of Israel.   He did that when Jesus, His Son, died on the cross.  God fulfilled the covenant with David through His Son, Jesus.  He has placed faithfulness into the hearts of those who believe in Jesus by giving us the Spirit of God.  God fulfilled His covenant in no way the nation thought it would be fulfilled.  God fulfilled His covenant in our hearts.  

We Can Know God - Job 37

Job 37:23 (NASBStr)

“The Almighty — we cannot find Him;

He is exalted in power

And He will not do violence to justice and abundant righteousness.

To grasp the above statement by Elihu we need to recall something he would have heard Job utter a few chapters earlier in the book:

Job 23:3 (NASBStr)

“Oh that I knew where I might find Him,

That I might come to His seat!

It might be wise to look later in time and in Scripture at what Paul utters to young Pastor Timothy, as well:

1 Timothy 6:15-16 (NASBStr)

which He will bring about at the proper time —He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

Or, how about Moses:

Deuteronomy 29:29 (NASBStr)

“ The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.

Elihu is coming to an end of his treatment and talk to Job.  Job has, as we see, earlier, actually wondered how he might "find" God.    Elihu seems to have a contradiction between the first lines of this verse (we cannot find Him) and the second and third line (HE IS ...).   How can Elihu state in one breath we can't find God and then in another a definitive piece of knowledge about Him?  The answer is that there is much, much we can't and don't know about God.  We can't find Him like we find the sun, a cloud, or rain (what Elihu has been describing in this chapter as evidence of God).  But, there are some things we DO know about God because God has chosen to revel them to us.   Note Psalm 19:1; Psalm 139; Romans 1:18-19 as examples were we are told that creation reveals the character of God.   Enough, according to Paul, that we should know to worship Him.  We don't know everything or even much about God in the sense of comparing what we do know to who God is.   But, what we do know is that He is just and righteous in all that He does.  We can and should behold God as knowing Him, but not knowing all we can about Him.   Each day we see more of His grace and mercy and love.   Paul said it best here:

Romans 11:33 (NASBStr)

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

God Sustains Us - Psalms 54-46

Psalms 55:23 (ESV)

But you, O God, will cast them down

into the pit of destruction;

men of blood and treachery

shall not live out half their days.

But I will trust in you.

Before we address this verse let’s look at the context of Psalm 55.   The psalm starts out with this heading:

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.

A Maskil was a Hebrew literary tool like a poem or musical score.  Since it reads with stringed instruments we can assume this was a liturgy of some sort.  Perhaps people sang it as they went to worship.   

This Maskill contains several references to someone who is frustrating or actually persecuting David.   You can imagine the tone of the song as it is sung.  This is not a victory march it sounds more like a funeral drige.  

Whoever is the subject of David’s pain is not a stranger to him.  Note what he writes early in the lines of the song:

Psalms 55:12-13 (ESV)

For it is not an enemy who taunts me—

then I could bear it;

it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—

then I could hide from him.

But it is you, a man, my equal,

my companion, my familiar friend.

Psalms 55:20-21 (ESV)

My companion stretched out his hand against his friends;

he violated his covenant.

His speech was smooth as butter,

yet war was in his heart;

his words were softer than oil,

yet they were drawn swords.

This is a companion, a familiar friend.   Now put that thought into the context of the above verse.  David is claiming victory over this challenge in his life.  He ends the entire song by praising God that God will cast down these men of blood and treachery.   

David does not seem to mind that these previous companions will be struck down by God.   He, in fact, knows that God will sustain him through this.  Look at the previous verse David wrote:

Psalms 55:22 (ESV)

Cast your burden on the LORD,

and he will sustain you;

he will never permit

the righteous to be moved.

David believes that his righteousness will sustain him as God works through this challenge.  Regarding those who are hurting him, he believes that God will cast them down. 

We probably struggle with past friends and companions who have left us and turned their back upon us.   Our goal should always be restoration.  But God is the one who cares for us. It is not us who are to find vengeance.  It is Him.  

Sin Causes Death - 2 Samuel 10-14

2 Samuel 11:14-21 (ESV)

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”

Sin causes us to do bad things.  Things we would never really think of doing.  David purposely put Uriah in danger for his death, simply to cover up his own sin.  When we sin it takes our mindset into places it should not go.  Sin can cause many problems.   Think of these examples:

1. Sin caused Cain to kill Abel. 

2. Sin caused Moses to kill an Egyptians. 

3. Sin caused Lot to stay in Sodom. 

4. Sin caused Noah to sin after the flood. 

5. Sin caused Absalom to rape Tamar.

6.  Sin caused Ananias and Sapphira to lie about their offering. 

7.  Sin caused men stone Stephen. 

8. Sin caused religious leaders to crucify Jesus. 

9. Sin caused Peter to deny Jesus. 

10. Sin caused Demas to forsake his faith.  

Sin causes us to do wicked things.   James said it this way:

James 1:13-14 (ESV)

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Faith is Demonstrated by Obedience - Exodus 21-24

Exodus 24:3-8 (ESV)

Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

If only what the people said that day would be true for those who came later.   They did not obey the rules that their parents said they would.  Actually, neither did these parents.   Within a few chapters we will read that they did not obey.   Obedience is the first step of a people of faith. It matters not if you say you believe if you have not, next, obeyed.   

Note all these verses on obeying His commands.  This is walking in faith:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (ESV)

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his COMMANDMENTS, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

_______________ 

1.

We’re not to diminish any of his commands:

Matthew 5:19 (ESV)

Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these COMMANDMENTS and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

2.

Keeping his commands produces life

Matthew 19:17 (ESV)

And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the COMMANDMENTS.”

3.

There is a direct relationship between our knowledge of God and our obedience to the commands of God:

1 John 2:3 (ESV)

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his COMMANDMENTS.

4.

Failure to keep his command, demonstrates our heart is full of lies:

1 John 2:4 (ESV)

Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his COMMANDMENTS is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

5.

God brought a new command to love one another when Jesus came to die for us:

1 John 2:7,8  (ESV)

Beloved, I am writing you no new COMMANDMENT, but an old COMMANDMENT that you had from the beginning. The old COMMANDMENT is the word that you have heard.

At the same time, it is a new COMMANDMENT that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

2 John 1:5 (ESV)

And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new COMMANDMENT, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.

John 12:50 (ESV)

And I know that his COMMANDMENT is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

6.

By keeping his commandments, we have confidence in our prayers:

1 John 3:22 (ESV)

and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his COMMANDMENTS and do what pleases him.

7.

We are commanded to believe in Jesus Christ, and to love one another:

1 John 3:23 (ESV)

And this is his COMMANDMENT, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

8.

Our abiding in him is directly proportionate to our obedience to him:

1 John 3:24a (ESV)

Whoever keeps his COMMANDMENTS abides in God, and God in him. …

9.

Whoever keeps his commandments can be assured that the spirit of God is abiding in him:

1 John 3:24b (ESV

Whoever keeps his COMMANDMENTS abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

10.

Loving others is directly proportionate to our keeping God‘s commands:

1 John 5:2 (ESV)

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his COMMANDMENTS.

11.

Keeping Goods commands is not a burden:

1 John 5:3 (ESV)

For this is the love of God, that we keep his COMMANDMENTS. And his COMMANDMENTS are not burdensome.

12.

It is a rejoicing to see those we love, obeying God’s command:

2 John 1:4 (ESV)

I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were COMMANDED by the Father.

13.

Walking in love is defined by walking in and obeying his commands:

2 John 1:6 (ESV)

And this is love, that we walk according to his COMMANDMENTS; this is the COMMANDMENT, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

14.

Obeying God‘s commands by faith produces eternal life:

John 12:50 (ESV)

And I know that his COMMANDMENT is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

15.

If we love, God, we will keep his commandments:

John 14:15 (ESV)

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

“If you love me, you will keep my COMMANDMENTS.

John 14:21 (ESV)

Whoever has my COMMANDMENTS and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

16.

All of God‘s commands can be summed up in loving him, and loving others:

Mark 12:28-31 (ESV)

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which COMMANDMENT is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other COMMANDMENT greater than these.”

Romans 13:9 (ESV)

For the COMMANDMENTS, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other COMMANDMENT, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

17.

Obedience to God‘s commands are better than sacrifice:

1 Samuel 15:22 (ESV)

And Samuel said,

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

as in obeying the voice of the LORD?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

and to listen than the fat of rams.

1 Corinthians 7:19 (ESV)

For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the COMMANDMENTS of God.

18.

Our being in God‘s command brings promises fulfilled:

1 Corinthians 7:19 (ESV)

For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the COMMANDMENTS of God.

19.

Jesus came and kept all of God’s Commandments:

1 Timothy 6:13-16 (ESV)

I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the COMMANDMENT unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

20.

Turning away from God‘s commands will result in disaster of life:

2 Peter 2:21 (ESV)

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy COMMANDMENT delivered to them.

21.

The definition of enduring, for God is defined by keeping his commandments by faith: 

Revelation 14:12 (ESV)

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the COMMANDMENTS of God and their faith in Jesus.

22.

We should not break God’s commands simply to keep our traditions:

Matthew 15:3 (ESV)

He answered them, “And why do you break the COMMANDMENT of God for the sake of your tradition?

Mark 7:9 (ESV)

And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the COMMANDMENT of God in order to establish your tradition!

23.

Keeping God‘s commands will produce a great reputation for life:

Luke 1:5-6 (ESV)

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the COMMANDMENTS and statutes of the Lord.

(They was John the Baptist’s parents.) 

24.

God actually commands that we keep his commands:

Deuteronomy 27:10 (ESV)

You shall therefore obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping his COMMANDMENTS and his statutes, which I command you today.”

25.

Our abiding in Him demands that we keep his commands:

John 15:10 (ESV)

If you keep my COMMANDMENTS, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s COMMANDMENTS and abide in his love.

26.

Our future blessing depends on our obedience to His commands:

Deuteronomy 4:1 (ESV)

Moses Commands Obedience

“And now, O Israel, listen to the STATUES and the RULES that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

27.

God can command the lighting to strike exactly where He wants it to strike:

Job 36:26, 32-33 (ESV)

Behold, God is great, and we know him not;

the number of his years is unsearchable.

He covers his hands with the lightning

and COMMANDS it to strike the mark.

Its crashing declares his presence;

the cattle also declare that he rises.

28.

Keeping God‘s commands puts us in a better space of life:

Deuteronomy 6:2 (ESV)

that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his COMMANDMENTS, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long.

29.

Keeping God‘s commands keeps us from stumbling:

Psalms 119:165 (ESV)

Great peace have those who love your LAW;

nothing can make them stumble.

30.

Those who do not obey god‘s command are faithless:

Psalms 119:158 (ESV)

I look at the faithless with disgust,

because they do not keep your COMMANDS.

31.

God commands that we repent:

Acts 17:30 (ESV)

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he COMMANDS all people everywhere to repent,