Lying Words: Jeremiah 7-10 (3)

Pray Psalm 12.6, 7.
The words of the LORD are pure words,
Like silver tried in a furnace of earth,
Purified seven times.
You shall keep them, O LORD,
You shall preserve them from this generation forever.

Sing Psalm 12.6, 7.
(Hamburg: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross)
Your words are pure and proven true, like silver seven times refined;
You will preserve Your Word ever new, and keep the heart to You inclined.

Read Jeremiah 8.4-17.

Prepare.
1. What caused the people to turn away from God?

2. Why did the teachers turn away from God’s truth?

Meditate.
The people of Judah and Jerusalem turned away from their natural course, which was to be worshipers and servants of God, Who had redeemed them. They were dumber than dumb animals in so doing (vv. 4-7). Every animal knows its natural course – how to build its nest, when to fly south, what to feed its offspring, and so forth. But God’s people had “slidden back” into a “perpetual backsliding” (v. 4) because they failed to remember who they were.

How does that happen?

In this case – as in most others – false teachers turned the people of Judah and Jerusalem away from God and His Law. Why did they do this? Because it’s what the people wanted to hear. It’s what the people paid them to do. Instead of following the Word of God in their teaching, the scribes and priests and prophets followed the longings of the people, so that the people would support them generously (v. 10). And what the people wanted was to be something other than what God had saved them to be. They wanted to be like other nations – pagan nations. They turned, and their leaders turned to accommodate them. In so doing, they gave the people some comfort and hope (v. 11), but it was false and fleeting, and led the people away from God’s holy and righteous and good Law into beliefs and practices that were shameful, abominable, and punishable (vv. 11-13).

And yet they continued coming before the Lord in assembly; and they continued believing their fortified cities would keep them safe from invasion (v. 14). Instead of peace and safety, they found bitterness (v. 14), trouble, fear, and pain (vv. 15-17).

When the people turned from God and His truth, so that they could be just like all the neighboring peoples around them, they and their leaders came under the wrath and judgment of God. Why should we think we are any different from them?

Reflect.
1. What kinds of things can draw us away from trusting in God and His Word?

2. What should we expect of those who have been entrusted with the ministry of the Word?

3. How can we know when we have begun to come under the discipline of the Lord?

God, through Jeremiah, does not cease to reprove the hardheartedness of certain ones. Instead he says in this way: “When people fall, do they not get up again? If they go astray, do they not turn back? Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They have held fast to deceit. They have refused to return.” God does not punish the sins in the sinner, if the neck of the sinner is not stiffened. Fulgentius of Ruspe (467-532), Letter 7.12

Keep me rooted and grounded in Your Word, Lord, so that I…

Pray Psalm 12.1-5.
Pray that God will bless and protect those who teach His Word, and that He will protect His Church from the lies of unbelief.

Sing Psalm 12.1-5.
Psalm 12.1-5 (Hamburg: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross)
Help, Lord! The godly cease to be; they who believe in Christ are few.
Falsely the wicked confidently flatter, deceive, and mock Your truth.

Stop, Lord, the lips that utter lies, all those who speak with boasting tongue!
See how Your holy Word they despise, while their own praises they have sung.

Rise up, O Lord, and rescue all Your precious children sore distressed.
Save those who faithfully on You call; grant them deliv’rance, peace, and rest.

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).