In his book, A Survey of Christian Epistemology, Cornelius Van Til points out that the fall of man began not just when Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the fruit that had been forbidden by God. Rather, the fall began the moment the couple considered that they were sufficient to determine what was best for them.
You see, up to this point Adam and Eve did not question the Lord. What he told them about the ground, the animals, their tasks, etc., they believed. God was the one who created them and everything around them. He was the ultimate authority and knew what was best. And it was sufficient for the couple simply to know the Lord had spoken in order to have grounds for any action God had commanded. If they were to ask, “Why are we working the ground?” they could have answered, “Because the Lord told us to do so,” and that would have been satisfying to their minds and hearts. But, no doubt, they never even asked such questions prior to the encounter with the serpent because it was so obvious. They knew who God was, and they knew who they were. He was the Creator and they were his creatures. Discerning what or who was the ultimate authority in the world was not a very hard thing to do. That was the beautiful scene in the garden, until the arrival of the serpent.
Van Til writes, “Then came the tempter. He presented to Eve another, that is, antitheistic theory of reality, and asked her to be the judge as to which was the more reasonable for her to accept. And the acceptance of this position of judge constituted the fall of man. That acceptance put the mind of man on an equality with the mind of God. . . . Before Eve could listen to the tempter, she had to take it for granted that she herself might be such an one as to make it reasonable for her to make a final decision between the claims and counter-claims that involved the entire future of her existence. 1
What Van Til rightly discerns here is that what Satan was telling Eve (and Adam as he stood idly by) is that she was competent to stand as judge and evaluate God’s word. The serpent tempted her to stand in a position as judge and see if she thought God’s word was true or false. And, as she looked upon the tree, she began to think possibly that she really was wiser than God. The text says, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Gen 3:6).
This all began, not when their teeth sank into the fruit, but when they decided that God perhaps did not know best and maybe they were better qualified than the Creator to evaluate what was good or bad for them, when they failed to answer the serpent, “The Lord, the Creator, has spoken, and he is the all-knowing, all-wise, good God of the universe. Do not challenge his word.”
And that sin of thinking ourselves to be more than we are has been repeated throughout the history of the world with every man. Every man who refuses to bow the knee to the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ and spoken infallibly in the Scripture is revealing that he has lost sight of his place in the universe. He has come to think of himself as a better judge of the world than God, ignored that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and is suppressing what he knows to be true in his unrighteousness so that his foolish heart is continually darkened.
But it’s not just the unbeliever who does this, is it? I wish it were. But it’s what we do every time we sin. Every time we sin, whether I consciously think of this or not, we are saying that we know better than God what is good for us. We believe that we better understand the world around us and know what is necessary, good, and right. When the reality is that such a declaration is ridiculous, and to declare that the creature knows the world and himself better than the creator needs is to need rebuke. Therefore, it’s good for us to pause periodically and remind ourselves of who we are and who God is, of what our role is in this world in light of who God is, and of how we need to think in light of the fact that God is the Creator and we are merely creatures. I think that’s the dominant aroma (if you will) of these chapters. They seem to remind us that because God is the Creator and we are mere creatures, there are certain truths we must always keep in mind.
The first of these is that . . .
Chapters 36-45 span the time from before to after the fall of Jerusalem. It begins with Jeremiah’s prophecy being declared to the royal officials in hopes that they might repent and by the end, Jeremiah has been taken to Egypt, as men flee the fallen city of Jerusalem. And perhaps more than at any other point prior to these chapters, we see Jeremiah’s suffering. We’ve noted that Jeremiah sounds like a traitor in his prophecies. He tells the men of Judah that they will be defeated, that their best hope is to surrender, and that the Chaldeans will not leave then until Judah is defeated. This is obviously not a popular message, and Jeremiah pays for it.
In chapter 37, we read that some accuse him of deserting Judah to go to the Chaldeans, so they beat him and imprison him in a house that had been turned into a prison (37:13-15). And even though he is let out, he is once again charged with weakening the moral of the Judean soldiers with his prophecies, seeking the harm of his own people, and he is thrown into a cistern where he sinks in the mud and is left to die (38:1-6). Then, if suspicion is that Jeremiah is a traitor, helping out the Chaldeans, it would seem to be confirmed when the Chaldeans conquer Jerusalem and Nebuchadnezzar tells Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, to “Take [Jeremiah], look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you” (39:12). Though obviously Jeremiah was no traitor. He was simply faithfully declaring the Lord’s message. And, finally, when he tells the remnant left in Judah that they should remain in Jerusalem and not seek refuge in Egypt or they will die, he is accused of being a traitor once more and led away to Egypt with them (43). All in all, Jeremiah’s message cost him.
So, let us ask, “Why did he proclaim it?” Why not say something more popular? Why not say what the people wanted to hear or at least couch it in more receptive terms? And, I think we all know that there is a simple answer to that question. The answer is that the message Jeremiah was proclaiming was not his own. It did not belong to him.
As chapter 36 begins, Jeremiah is told to take a scroll and write down all the words that the Lord has spoken to him (36:2), and he has Baruch do that. What the Lord has spoken to Jeremiah, Jeremiah dictated to Baruch, and it is written down on a scroll. So, Baruch takes the scroll to the temple and reads it to the people, and enough people are moved by it that they believe the king, Jehoiakim, should hear it. But as it is read to Jehoiakim, he takes piece by piece and burns it.
This reminds me a bit of a story that Chad Brand told in a church history class at Southern Seminary. Joseph Smith, apparently sat behind a sheet or something like this, and dictated word-by-word what he claimed the Lord was revealing to him so that his wife could write it down. So, day after day, he did this and he wife wrote. Well, after much time and much work, they were finished. And one day, while Joseph was gone, his wife took the book and gave it to a couple friend to look at. When Joseph got home, he was quite upset that she had lent the book out and ordered her to go get it. When she showed up to her friend’s house, however, her friend informed her that she thought it was garbage and burned it. Needless to say, Joseph Smith was none too happy, and they had to return to the work of him making up another book.
Hearing that story, I thought, “I’d love to have seen his face when he got news that he had to make up a whole other book from scratch.” But when we hear this story of Jehoiakim burning the scroll, I think we’re supposed to laugh at him. After all, Jeremiah didn’t write these prophecies out of his own creativity. He wrote what God told him, and God was going to have no problem enabling the prophet to rewrite this message. In fact, the Lord told him that not only would they reproduce it, but they would add to it decrees against Jehoiakim. Thus, we read in 36:32,
“Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned with fire. And many similar words were added to them.”
Then, in chapter 37, we are to a later time when Zedekiah is the new king, but we are told that he did not heed the words of Jeremiah either. Actually, we are told something a bit different from that. Listen to the words of 37:2,
“But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the LORD that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.”
And it is common to read a phrase like that in 37:6 throughout these chapters, namely, “Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet.” These were not his words but the Lord’s. He was simply a mouthpiece for God’s message to the people. And it seems that Jeremiah understood that so clearly that he was shocked when people punished him for telling them what God was saying.
One example of this is in 37:17, where Jeremiah had been in prison and Zedekiah secretly called him out of the prison to speak with him. Zedekiah wants to know if God has a message for him. We see this as he asks Jeremiah, “Is there any word from the Lord?” And Jeremiah answers, “There is.”
Can you imagine how exciting this moment is for Zedekiah? He’s about to hear what God’s message for him is. Then, Jeremiah proclaims the message, saying, “You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”
Now, you would think that Jeremiah would said this cringing, bracing himself to take a punch. I mean, it’s kind of like saying, “Hey, I’ve got a message for you from someone. They want me to tell you that you’re an idiot.”
So, what does Jeremiah say right after delivering this terrible message to the king? He says, “What wrong have I done to you or your servants or this people, that you have put me in prison?” (37:18). You’d think Zedekiah would answer, “Are you really asking this question after you just told me that I’m going to be delivered into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand?”
So, is Jeremiah just kind of flighty and oblivious to his surroundings? No. He just knows that the message isn’t his. And when you have a message to deliver from God, you don’t alter it. If something does not belong to us, we cannot alter it. Picture, for example, a man delivering a message from his commander to the commander of the enemy army, with whom they are fighting. If the message is, “We will never surrender, so know that we will fight until we cannot fight any more and we hope you are all dead by then,” then the soldier who is delivering the message doesn’t have the right to alter that message to something that he thinks might be more receptive. And the reason is because he is simply a messenger, bringing someone else’s message. That’s clear with Jeremiah as well.
And it must be clear with us as well. There will be mounting pressure on us throughout our lives to alter this message, to tell people they’re okay, that repentance is not necessary, or that they will not go to hell, but we must not alter the gospel.
Al Mohler tells a story of waiting to go on Larry King one night to debate with a couple of Jews who did not think Jesus was the messiah. And he was waiting backstage when all of the sudden he realized that he could hear the conversation of these two men in his earpiece. And what he heard was one of them asking the other, “Is this guy really going to tell us that we’re going to go to hell if we don’t believe in Jesus?” and the other answering, “I think he is.” Mohler said that he began to get nervous and prayed for courage to proclaim God’s Word, despite whether men wanted to hear it.
And he really could do nothing else, could he? The Lord has not left it to us to discern what we think could be effective in gaining followers for Christ. He has not left it to us to determine what we think the greatest need of mankind is. He has commissioned us to forth and proclaim that Jesus is the Christ, that he lived a perfect life, died on the cross to pay for our sins, was raised on the third day, and that all men everywhere are commanded to repent and believe in him or they will be cast into the lake of fire and suffer for their sins. That is the message the Creator has given to us, his creatures, to proclaim, and we must see ourselves as mouthpieces for God’s message, not ours.
But if we are wondering why God has us proclaim this specific message, these chapters remind us of another truth as well.
It’s actually amazing, I think, to see God’s passion to forgive his people. Why does he have Jeremiah write down all his prophecies on a scroll for the people. We see it in 36:2-3,
“Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
Can you believe that God is still holding out an opportunity for them to be forgiven? It seems too much. Yet this is what our God is like. And if we fail to deliver to men exactly what God has given us – the gospel – then are holding out something less than an opportunity to be forgiven by God.
You see, God is not commanding us to go give such an offensive and uncomfortable message because he delights in the death of the wicked but because he is merciful and seeking to show mercy to men who will repent and believe. If we forget our place and judge his message not helpful, then we not only disobey him but hold up before others false hope of being okay with God. You may be able to get thousands to hear you just by telling them stories to boost their morale, but those thousands will go to hell with a rebellious heart being turned to bow before our Lord. And the only message powerful enough to turn one’s heart is the gospel.
On the other hand, these chapters remind us that God does not bluff concerning his threat of judgment. In Jeremiah 39, we read of the fall of Jerusalem
“The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon. The Chaldeans burned the king's house and the house of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried into exile to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the people who remained” (39:6-9).
He had said he would do it for years, and he did. Later, as a group of exiles go to Egypt against God’s command, he says they will die there under his judgment. And they would.
So, the reason we must speak God’s Word is because it alone provides forgiveness for sins, and unless men believe and obey, they will face God’s judgment. It might seem like a long time in which we’ve been proclaiming the coming reality of God’s judgment, and though the Lord tarries, his coming judgment is sure.
Finally, this chapter reminds us . . .
This is what I wanted to scream at the people in these chapters. Zedekiah is told by Jeremiah,
So, what does Zedekiah do. He fled the city. And what happened to him? We read,
“The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon. The Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the house of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem” (39:6-8).
In chapters 40-41, we read that some individuals are left to stay in Jerusalem under the reign of the Gedaliah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had set up as governor over the cities of Jerusalem. Ultimately, though a rebellion rose up and killed him, some rose up and drove away those who had killed the governor, and so a group of people were left behind, wondering what their fate was going to be when Nebuchadnezzar got news. So, they came to Jeremiah and asked them what God wanted them to do. We read of that conversation in 42:4-6,
“Jeremiah the prophet said to them, \"I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request, and whatever the Lord answers you I will tell you. I will keep nothing back from you.\" Then they said to Jeremiah, \"May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord your God sends you to us. Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.\"
This seems hopeful, doesn’t it? Finally a people get it exactly right. Obey the voice of the Lord and all will be well with you. Yes. You want to stand up an cheer – that is, until you hear their response to the Lord’s message. Jeremiah comes back and tells them that the Lord is commanding them not to go to Egypt, and if they will stay in Jerusalem they will be okay.
So, what do they do? Well, we could probably guess. In the words of Jeremiah 43:7: “They did not obey the voice of the Lord.” And the reason they don’t obey is because they think they understand the world around them better than God. They tell him that they know what they need to do. They need to keep offering sacrifices to false gods. We read their response in 44:16-19,
\"As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you. 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. But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.\" And the women said, \"When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands' approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?\"
They’ve missed it altogether. They’ve thought themselves wise, and they’ve misunderstood reality. In their rebellious attitudes, their foolish minds have been darkened. They’ve suppressed God’s truth and are being shown to be fools. Jeremiah, therefore, explains to them that the Lord was patient with them, and the reason judgment ended up coming to them is because the Lord could bear their evil deeds no longer (44:22). Therefore, Jeremiah informs them that just as they are vowing to continue their sacrifices to false gods, so God will be faithful to his vow to destroy them. We read in 44:27-28,
“Behold, I am watching over them for disaster and not for good. All the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them. And those who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, who came to the land of Egypt to live, shall know whose word will stand, mine or theirs.”
And we know whose word will stand, don’t we? Then, finally, in chapter 45, Baruch is sulking. The message he delivers is hard. He might have been something great in society, but the Lord has called him to this difficult task of proclaiming the word God has given Jeremiah for the people. But the Lord reminds him not to seek great things for himself, but to obey the Lord and be spared. Again, don’t try to be wiser than God.
This is a message for us as well. Again, we are the creature, and he is the Creator. So, let’s keep ourselves from trying to figure out if sin might profit us. Let us stop from deciding whether or not God’s Word really is best. Let us stop trying to be wiser than God. Stop, realize who we are and who he is, realize that he’s revealed himself to us in the Scripture, scream to ourselves, “Just obey the Lord,” and listen to that voice. Let us deliver God’s message to ourselves. This morning, let us try to look at our own lives in the way we look at the lives of those in Jeremiah 36-45. Don’t you just want to yell, “Quit it and obey.” All will be well. Let us listen to ourselves then this morning. Remember we are messengers of God’s gospel, remember that it alone is sufficient to bring forgiveness and necessary to save from hell, and remember that we are creatures and are not wiser than our Creator. So, may we take up our crosses, obey, and follow him. Amen.