Jeremiah 43-44 - Outline

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

January 8, 2013


 *AUG 9 - JEREMIAH 43-44 - JUDGMENT ON THE REMNANT*


 *1. 43:4 (43:1-4, ESV) JUDGMENT: BECAUSE OF REBELLION IN THE REMNANT. “So
Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces and all the
people did not obey the voice of the LORD, to remain in the land of Judah.”
*Father, let us obey Your voice; we *will* obey Your voice. We hear Your
voice in Jeremiah and John the Baptist! *Hallowed be your :name!*


 *2. 43:7 (43:5-7) JUDGMENT: BECAUSE OF FLIGHT TO EGYPT. “And they came
into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD. And
they arrived at Tahpanhes.” *Your will is done O Father, by obeying Your
voice. We will not go back down to Egypt! The love of the world and its
lusts is not in us. The power of Your redemptive blood cleanses our blood,
and looses us to walk in Your will. *Your :kingdom come!*


 *3. 43:12 (43:8-13) JUDGMENT: SIGN OF THE HIDDEN STONES. “I shall kindle a
fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them and carry
them away captive. And he shall clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd
cleans his cloak of vermin, and he shall go away from there in peace.” *Israel
in Egypt and Egypt lost their bread. But we receive food Father, for we
obey Your voice! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.*


 *4. 44:4 (44:1-10) JUDGMENT ON JUDAH: BECAUSE OF IDOLATRY. “Yet I
persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying ‘Oh, do not
do this abomination that I hate!’” *Father, rip out of our hearts all
spirits of idolatry and covetousness. Forgive us all our sins in any such
areas. Give us contrite hearts. We repent of all such wickedness. Reconcile
us to Yourself through Jesus’ blood. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!*


 *5. 44:16-17 (44:11-19) JUDGMENT: BECAUSE DEEPER IDOLATRY DETERMINED. “As
for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will
not listen to you. 17 But we will do everything that we have vowed, make
offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we
did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of
Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and
prospered, and saw no disaster.” *What perverted thinking! *And forgive us
our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.*


 *6. 44:26 (44:20-28) JUDGMENT: BECAUSE OF WIVES’ PART IN IDOLATRY. “Therefore
hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt:
Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name shall no
more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt,
saying, ‘As the Lord GOD lives.’”* Deliver us from the evil one Father,
that we fall not into his devices, and bring upon ourselves Your judgments.
*And bring us not into temptation.*


 *7. 44:29-30a (44:29-30) JUDGMENT: SIGN OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR OVER PHARAOH. “This
shall be the sign to you, declares the LORD, that I will punish you in this
place, in order that you may know that my words will surely stand against
you for harm: 30 Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra
king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who
seek his life.” *You are a *Sovereign God*, O Father! *Nothing* is too
difficult for You! *But deliver us from the evil one!*


 *NOTE: C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: *We have seen men with money, who were not
happy; we have seen men with honor, who were not happy; we have seen
persons in power, with the command of empires, who were not happy; but we
never saw, and never shall see, the individual who has Jesus with him, not
happy.


 *Our Psalm for the day: 39:3-5 (39) WHAT IS THE MEANING OF MY DAYS? My
heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with
my tongue: 4 “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my
days; let me know how fleeting I am! 5 Behold, you have made my days a few
handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind
stands as a mere breath!” **Selah. *Father, when we know ourselves as You
see us, then we will be able more fully to *hallow your :name! Such* truths
as this keep us humble, poor and contrite in spirit, and trembling at Your
Word. So will we keep our eyes upon You!


 The Psalmist, bowed down with sickness and sorrow, is burdened with
unbelieving thoughts he resolves to stifle, lest any evil should come from
their expression (39:1-2). But silence creates an insupportable grief,
which at last demands utterance and obtains it in the prayers of 39:3-6,
which is almost a complaint and a sigh for death, or at least a very
despondent picture of human life. In 39:7-17 the tone is more submissive,,
and the recognition of the divine hand more distinct; the cloud has
evidently passed, and the mourner’s heart is relieved.


 37:1. *That I sin not with my tongue*. Tongue sins are great sins; like
sparks of fire, ill-words spread and do great damage. If believers utter
hard words of God in times of depression, the ungodly will take them up and
use them as a justification for their sinful courses. If a man’s own
children rail at him, no wonder his enemies’ mouths are full of abuse. *I
will keep my mouth with a bridle,* or more accurately, with a muzzle. The
original does not so much mean a bridle to check the tongue as a muzzle to
stop it altogether. David was not quite so wise as our translation would
make him; if he had resolved to be very guarded in his speech, it would
have been altogether commendable; but when he went so far as to condemn
himself to entire silence, “even from good,” there must have been at least
a little sullenness in his soul. In trying to avoid one fault, he fell into
another. To use the tongue against God is a sin of commission, but not to
use it at all involves an evident sin of omission. Commendable virtues may
be followed so eagerly that we may fall into vices; to avoid Scylla we run
into Charybdis. *While the wicked is before me. *This qualifies the silence
and almost screens it from criticism, for bad men are so sure to misuse
even our holiest speech that it is as well not to cast any of our pearls
before such swine. The firmest believers are exercised with unbelief, and
it would be doing the devil’s work with a vengeance if they were to publish
abroad all their questionings and suspicions. If I have the fever myself,
there is no reason why I should communicate it to my neighbors. If any on
board the vessel of my soul are diseased, I will put my heart in quarantine
and allow none to go on shore in the boat of speech till I have a clean
bill of health.


 39:4. *Make me to know my end.* The Psalmist would know more of the
shortness of life that he might better bear its transient ills, and herein
we may safely kneel with him, uttering the same petition. That there is no
end to its misery is the hell of hell; that there is an end to life’s
sorrow is the hope of all who have a hope beyond the grave. God is the best
teacher of the divine philosophy, which looks for an expected end. They who
see death through the Lord’s glass see a fair sight, which makes them
forget the evil of life in foreseeing the end of life. *That I may know how
frail I am, or when I shall cease to be.* Alas, poor human nature, dear as
life is, man quarrels with God at such a rate that he would sooner cease to
be than bear the Lord’s appointment. Such pettiness in a saint! Let us wait
till we are in a like position, and we shall do no better. The ship on the
stocks wonders that the barque springs a leak, but when it has tried the
high seas, it marvels that its timbers hold together in such storms.
David’s case is not recorded for our imitation but for our learning.


 39:5. *Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. *This is
the surest truth, that nothing about man is either sure or true. Take man
at his best, he is but a man, and man is a mere breath, unsubstantial as
the wind. Man is settled, as the margin has it, and by divine decree it is
settled that he shall not be settled. He is constant only in inconstancy.
His vanity is his only verity; his best, of which he is vain, is but vain.


 39:8. *Deliver me from all transgressions. *How fair a sign it is when the
Psalmist no longer harps upon his sorrows but begs freedom from his sins!
What is sorrow when compared with sin! Let but the poison of sin be gone
from the cup, and we need not fear its gall, for the bitter will act
medicinally. None can deliver a man from his transgression but the blessed
One Who is called Jesus, because He saves His people from their sins.


 39:12. *Hold not Your peace at my tears.* Tears speak more eloquently than
ten thousand tongues; they act as keys upon the wards of tender hearts, and
mercy denies them nothing, if through them the weeper looks to richer
drops, even to the blood of Jesus. *For I am a stranger with You, and a
sojourner.* Not *to* You, but *with* You. Like You, my Lord, a stranger
among the sons of men, an alien from your mother’s children. God made the
world, sustains it, and owns it, and yet men treat Him as though He were a
foreign intruder; and as they treat the Master, so do they deal with the
servants. “’Tis no surprising thing that we should be unknown.” These words
may also mean, “I share the hospitality of God,” like a stranger
entertained by a generous host. *(From “The Treasury of David” by C.H.
Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)*



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