Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

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Jeremiah 5

The Justice of God’s Judgment

Jeremiah 5:¹ “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem;
See now and know;
And seek in her open places
If you can find a man,
If there is anyone who executes judgment (justice),
Who seeks the truth,
And I will pardon her.

• No, not one…
  • Psalm 14:3 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.
  • Psalm 53:3 Every one of them has turned aside; They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.
  • Romans 3:12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”

Jeremiah 5:² Though they say, ‘As the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) lives,’
Surely they swear falsely.”

• Revelation 21:8 But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
• Hosea 4:15c“Though you, Israel, play the harlot, Let not Judah offend. Do not come up to Gilgal, Nor go up to Beth Aven, Nor swear an oath, saying, ‘As the Lord lives’—
• James 5:12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.

Jeremiah 5:³ O Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), are not Your eyes on the truth?
You have stricken them,
But they have not grieved;
You have consumed them,
But they have refused to receive correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
They have refused to return.

• John 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.”
• Revelation 16:9 And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.
• Revelation 16:11
  They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.

Jeremiah 5:⁴ Therefore I said, “Surely these are poor (they who languish). They are foolish; For they do not know the way of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), The judgment of their God (‘ĕlōhîm).

• The languisher:
  • Those who do not understand the ways of God are devoid of the eternal things of their soul; therefore, they are fools to choose the wrong things.
    • Proverbs 1:22 “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge.
    • Esau sold his birthright (which represents his eternal salvation) for a bowl of soup. Esau was a fool. His weeping did not correct it.
      • Romans 9:13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
      • God loved Jacob for his wisdom in choosing the best thing. God hated Esau for choosing the worthless thing.

Jeremiah 5:⁵ I will go to the (authentic) great men and speak to them, for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God.”

• The Way of the Lord:
  • John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father (God) except through Me.
    • Buddha isn’t God, nor Wicca, nor the Virgin Mary (bless her soul); nor the philosophies. No other can tell man the future, no other can heal, or has given His life for man, no other has been raised from the dead never to die again. There is no other God, God knows not one.
  • Isaiah 55:^8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
  • There is only one way and the road is exceedingly narrow.
    • Matthew 7:13-14 The Narrow Way – “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

But (the flipside is …) these (great fools) have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds.

• The Yoke:
  • The meaning of God’s name “EL” is two Hebrew Letters: The Alef and the Lama known as the Ox and the Yoke with the understanding that God is yoked to man and with the strength of the Ox He carries men’s burdens.
  • Matthew 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” These words from Jesus tells his disciples that He is as gentle and strong as the Ox and they are to yoke themselves to Him and let Him carry their burdens. He is “El”.

• The Bonds:
  • Psalms 2:^1-3 Why do the (gentile) nations rage (throng tumultuously), and the (Jewish) people plot a (worthless) vain thing?
    The (gentile) kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together (conspire), against the Lord and against His Anointed (the Messiah, the Christ), saying,
    “Let us break Their bonds (of the Godhead) in pieces and cast away their cords (of authority) from us.”

Jeremiah 5:⁶ Therefore a lion (an enemy) from the forest shall slay them,
A wolf (an enemy) of the deserts shall destroy them;
A leopard (an enemy) will watch (lurk) over their cities.
Everyone who goes out from there shall be torn in pieces,
Because their transgressions (sins) are many;
Their backslidings have increased.

• There is no place to escape: not in the forest, not in the deserts, and not in the city.

• When one falls into backsliding, the slope becomes steeper and steeper, more demanding and harder to stop.

Jeremiah 5:⁷ “How shall I pardon you for this?
Your children have forsaken Me
And sworn by those that are not gods (lō’ ‘ĕlōhîm).
When I had fed them to the full,
Then they committed adultery
And assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.

• The harlot’s house is a place of idolatry, serving other ‘gods’.

Jeremiah 5:⁸ They were like well-fed lusty stallions;
Every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife.

• They should have “nay-ed” away from them.

Jeremiah 5:⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ).
“And shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

Jeremiah 5:¹⁰ “Go up on her walls and destroy,
But do not make a complete end (completely destroy).
Take away her branches (influencers/contacts),
For they are not the Lord’s (Yᵊhōvâ‘s).

Jeremiah 5:¹¹ For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ).

Jeremiah 5:¹² They have lied about the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ),
And said, “It is not He.
Neither will evil (disaster) come upon us,
Nor shall we see sword or famine.

• John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
• 1 John 2:22a Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

Jeremiah 5:¹³ And the prophets become wind (empty),
For the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them.”

• They who speak empty words will become as empty as their words.

Jeremiah 5:¹⁴ Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm ṣāḇā’):

“Because you (Jeremiah) speak this word,
Behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire,
And (I will make) this people (like) wood,
And it shall devour them (and My fire will consume them).

• humor: Jesus is the rain who comes down from heaven. The righteous absorb his Word of living water, keeping them too wet to burn.

Jeremiah 5:¹⁵ Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar,
O house of Israel,” says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) .
“It is a mighty nation,
It is an ancient nation,
A nation whose language you do not know,
Nor can you understand what they say.

• It is a nation of “babblers”, none other than Babylon from whom the word “babble” is derived.

Jeremiah 5:¹⁶ Their quiver is like an open tomb; They are all mighty men.

• A quiver is a bag that holds arrows. The conqueror empties his quiver on his enemy until the arrows are gone and the people are dead.

Jeremiah 5:¹⁷ And they shall eat up your harvest and your bread,
Which your sons and daughters should eat.
They shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
They shall destroy your fortified cities,
In which you trust, with the sword.

• They are like locusts consuming the land.

Jeremiah 5:¹⁸ “Nevertheless in those days,” says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), “I will not make a complete end of you (completely destroy).

Jeremiah 5:¹⁹ And it will be when you say, ‘Why does the Lord our God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm) do all these things to us?’ then you shall answer them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.’

• The punishment fits the crime which brings about justice.
• They received what they desired, but that which they desired consumed them.

• The fire asks, “Why does God allow suffering?” Then the wind answers, “What did you do with His blessings?” ~ BG

Jeremiah 5:²⁰ “Declare this in the house of Jacob
And proclaim it in Judah, saying,

Jeremiah 5:²¹ ‘Hear this now, O foolish people,
Without understanding (Lit. heart),
Who have eyes and see not,
And who have ears and hear not:

• They are the brainless, blind, deaf, mutes of the “walking dead society”.

Jeremiah 5:²² Do you not fear Me?’ says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ).
‘Will you not tremble at My presence,
Who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea,
By a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it?
And though its waves toss to and fro,
Yet they cannot prevail;
Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.

• It is God who sets boundaries with His laws. Even though the sea of people rebel, tossing to and fro, they will not prevail. There is no “pass-over” for them.
• Exodus 12:43 Passover Regulations – And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it.

Jeremiah 5:²³ But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart;
They have revolted and departed.

• They have pounded against the Rock of God’s Word. They retreat only to return with another wall of force.

Jeremiah 5:²⁴ They do not say in their heart,
“Let us now fear the Lord our God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm),
Who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season.
He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”

• As rain, also Jesus. The former and latter rain in its season is the Messiah coming down from heaven. Another translation for “rain” is “teacher” and the “faithful rain” is the Messiah, the righteous teacher.
  • Joel 2:23 Be glad then, you children of Zion, And rejoice in the Lord your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you— The former rain, And the latter rain in the first.
  • Psalm 72:6 He shall come down like rain upon the grass before mowing (reaping), Like showers that water the earth.

• The harvest that comes with the rain is a time of reaping, rejoicing in the resurrections and the rapture when God collects His saints at the end of the age.
  • Luke 10:2 Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

Jeremiah 5:²⁵ Your iniquities have turned these things away,
And your sins have withheld good from you.

• Personal Application: Your sins have kept you from receiving good things from God. This does not mean that if bad things happen it is because you have sinned. Job did not sin yet he suffered more than any man in scripture. At the same time, God is not an enabler that He will bless a man’s sins.

Jeremiah 5:²⁶ ‘For among My people are found wicked men;
They lie in wait as one who sets snares;
They set a trap; they catch men.

• Psalm 71:10 For my enemies speak against me; And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together (the instigation).
• Proverbs 1:11 If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait to shed blood; Let us lurk (the manipulation) secretly for the innocent without cause;
• Ecclesiastes 9:12 For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them (the consumption).

• “The wicked set traps for men – but the righteous throw out nets”. ~BG
  • Matthew 4:19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Jeremiah 5:²⁷ As a cage is full of birds,
So their houses are full of deceit.
Therefore they have become great and grown rich.

• First, the instigation, then the manipulation, snap! The trap is sprung and the innocent are consumed.

Jeremiah 5:²⁸ They have grown fat, they are sleek;
Yes, they surpass (pass over or overlook) the deeds of the wicked;
They do not plead the cause,
The cause of the fatherless;
Yet they prosper,
And the right of the needy they do not defend.

• There is God’s Passover which saves souls. The wicked also “Pass Over” but they destroy souls overlooking wickedness.
• The saints pass over from death to life. The wicked (lawless) pass over from life to death.
  • God’s way is a one-way street: only from death to life.

Jeremiah 5:²⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things?’ says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ). ‘Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?’

Jeremiah 5:³⁰ “An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land:

Jeremiah 5:³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule by their own power;

• humor: the prophets prophetically profit.

And My people love to have it so.
But what will you do in the end?

• On the horizon the sun is about to set releasing her raging red fire into the cool of the evening; The darkness is restless and impatient. It reaches for the canopy of destruction overhead and pulls down justice. The last remnant of the Son’s rays are gone. In the midst of the night no star gives its light having disappeared into oblivion. Men grope to find their way, they stumble into open graves which they, themselves, have dug. They cover themselves with their own blanket of corruption never to rise again.