Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20050216.htm

JEREMIAH: STAYING UPRIGHT AMIDST EVIL PRESSURES
Part IV: Prophecies Concerning Judah
P. Encouragement God WILL Instruct Our Disciples Without or With His Whip
(Jeremiah 16:1-21)
  1. Introduction
    1. God graciously forgives people when they confess their waywardness from His teachings, 1 John 1:9, but He surely punishes those who fail to repent and reach the point of "no return," cf. 1 John 5:16-17.
    2. Yet, knowing this in our own lives is easier than believing it when it comes to the stubbornness we find in others to whom God sends us to disciple! Like Jeremiah, we may get discouraged at the stubbornness we see in our disciples to our efforts and be tempted like he was to give up ministering in God's will to them!
    3. Jeremiah 16:1-21 is a passage revealing the need to believe God will get his point across to our disciples without or with His whip, and that so we stay faithful to our calling even before difficult disciples:
  2. Encouragement God WILL Instruct Our Disciples Without Or With His Whip, Jeremiah 16:1-21.
    1. We previously learned Jeremiah had become discouraged over the ongoing persecution he faced from stubbornly rebellious listeners who stoutly refused to repent at his ministry of the Word, Jer. 15:10, 15-17.
    2. Accordingly, in correcting Jeremiah, directing him to remain faithful to the Lord instead of getting impatient with God amidst such opposition (our last lesson, Jer. 15:19-21), God pointedly revealed He would make Jeremiah's persecuting hearers learn the truth of his message without or with God's whip!
      1. God pointedly instructed Jeremiah to tell Judah she would experience His discipline for sinning against Him and then for stubbornly refusing to heed His Word (from Jeremiah) to repent, 16:1-13:
        1. To make His point sharply and painfully clear to Jeremiah who had been tempted to be short with God for having to face persecution for the message God had him proclaim (Jer. 15:18), God told Jeremiah not to wed and have children in Judah since its people would die in judgment (16:1-4) nor to lament their deaths (16:5-6) nor to attend meals customarily held after funerals (16:7) nor even to feast with his neighbors as they were wicked and doomed for divine judgment (Jeremiah 16:8-9).
        2. When Jeremiah told of these severe commands from God to Judah's people and they wondered why God had decreed such severe judgment against them, Jeremiah was to reveal the cause was both Judah's idolatry and her stubborn refusal to repent at God's warnings, Jer. 17:10-12a, 12b, 13.
      2. Then, after such judgment, God said He would restore Judah to His place of blessing, Jer. 16:14-17: as it used to be said that God was the One Who had delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage, it would be one day said that God had delivered her from Babylonian bondage.
      3. Yet, God reported He would meanwhile severely discipline Judah for her idolatry, Jeremiah 16:18.
      4. Having understood God's long-term program for Judah to repent under God's disicpline, Jeremiah expressed his longing for the day when the Gentiles from whom Judah had borrowed her idolatry would come to God in Judah and admit they had found their idols to be worthless gods, Jer. 16:19-20.
      5. God replied He would then surely teach them that He was the true God versus their idols, Jer. 16:21:
        1. The phrase "I will make them know" is repeated with the words, "this once" added in Jer. 16:21 to emphasize God at that time would surely make the Gentiles know what He wanted to teach them!
        2. What God claimed He would surely then teach them was that He was the true God of power and might as opposed to their false idols that time had proved to be useless, Jeremiah 16:20-21! The Gentiles would certainly know the Name (one's reputation is tied up in his name) of the Lord!
Lesson: For Jeremiah's good in view of his chaffing under Judah's stubborn opponents to the message God had him preach, God stated whether it was Judah that refused God's warnings so that He had to judge before blessing her or whether it was the Gentiles from whom Judah had learned her idolatry, God WOULD TEACH all involved He was the TRUE God as OPPOSED to FALSE IDOLS.

Application: (1) If we are sent by God to disciple others and they respond with a stubbornly rebellious persecution against us, be SURE that GOD WILL TEACH those disciples the truth, without or with His whip, and refuse to get impatient with God due to the pain of their opposition! (2) If we are tempted to get testy with God in such trials, know God can get painfully firm with us, so we best do His will!