View source for Misunderstood True Prophets: Jeremiah and Micah (Jeremiah 26:1-19)

'''Next Part [[The Sovereignty of God in the Fulfilment of Prophecy]]'''
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•	"1 <span style="color:darkred"> In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this Word from the LORD, saying, </span style="color:darkred"> 2 <span style="color:darkred">Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD'S house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD'S house, all the Words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a Word:" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jeremiah 26:1-2).

The prophet Jeremiah was commissioned to speak <span style="color:darkred">"in the court of the LORD's house, all the Words that </span style="color:darkred"> [the LORD] <span style="color:darkred">command </span style="color:darkred"> [ed him] <span style="color:darkred">to speak unto them; </span style="color:darkred"> [and to] <span style="color:darkred">diminish not a Word" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jer 26:2). God's prophets have been called upon to correct defects in the worship of God in both Israel and now the Church.

o	<span style="color:darkred">"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins" </span style="color:darkred"> (Isaiah 58:1).

The Apostle Paul succinctly told the Ephesian elders, <span style="color:darkred">"I have not shunned to declare unto you '''all''' the counsel of God" </span style="color:darkred"> (Acts 20:27). Even so, Jeremiah was faithful in delivering his commission.

•	<span style="color:darkred">"If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, '''that I may repent Me''' of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings" </span style="color:darkred">  (Jeremiah 26:3).

The Holy Jehovah declares to Jeremiah some of His purposes and counsels.

o	<span style="color:darkred">"Thy counsels of old are Faithfulness and Truth" </span style="color:darkred"> (Isaiah 25:1).

<span style="color:darkred">"If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jeremiah 26:3), demonstrates that <span style="color:darkred">"God is a merciful God" </span style="color:darkred"> (Deuteronomy 4:31). Though it is completely just for the Almighty to reward the <span style="color:darkred">"wages of sin" </span style="color:darkred"> with death (Romans 6:23), it is <span style="color:darkred">"according to His mercy He saved us" </span style="color:darkred"> (Titus 3:5).

•	"4 <span style="color:darkred">And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; '''If ye will not''' hearken to Me, to walk in My Law, which I have set before you, </span style="color:darkred"> 5 <span style="color:darkred">To hearken to the Words of My servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened; </span style="color:darkred"> 6 <span style="color:darkred">'''Then will I''' make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the Earth" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jeremiah 26:4-6).

God deals with His moral subjects as those who should use their <span style="color:darkred">"image of God" </span style="color:darkred"> (Genesis 1:27), i.e., their moral agency, to freely choose right from wrong. "4 <span style="color:darkred">If ye will not hearken to Me... </span style="color:darkred"> 6 <span style="color:darkred">Then will I make this house like Shiloh" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jeremiah 26:4,6). Their disobedience is threatened with the abandonment of His Temple in Jerusalem-- '''in the same way''' as He did to the Ark of the congregation at Shiloh--

o	<span style="color:darkred">"The whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there" </span style="color:darkred"> (Joshua 18:1). In the days of Eli, the <span style="color:darkred">"Ark was taken" </span style="color:darkred"> (1Samuel 4:11) by the Philistines, because Eli, his sons, and Israel were wayward. The LORD remonstrated with Eli, <span style="color:darkred">"Wherefore kick ye at My sacrifice and at Mine offering, which I have commanded in My habitation; and honourest thy sons above Me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel My people?" </span style="color:darkred"> (Gen 2:29). Tragically, the result was that Israel lost the Ark of the congregation for 7 months to the Philistines (1Samuel 6:1). <span style="color:darkred">"He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men" </span style="color:darkred"> (Psalms 78:60).

•	"7 <span style="color:darkred">So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. </span style="color:darkred"> 8 <span style="color:darkred">Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking '''all that the LORD had commanded him to speak''' unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die. 9 Why hast thou prophesied in the Name of the LORD, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. </span style="color:darkred"> 10 <span style="color:darkred">When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD'S house. </span style="color:darkred"> 11 <span style="color:darkred">Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jeremiah 26:7-11).

God's prophets already understand that their lives may be forfeit for their faithful reproduction of the LORD's message to His <span style="color:darkred">"stiff-necked people" </span style="color:darkred"> (Exodus 32:9).

o	"37 <span style="color:darkred">They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; </span style="color:darkred"> 38 <span style="color:darkred"> (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the Earth" </span style="color:darkred"> (Hebrews 11:37-38).
And, the LORD Jesus warned us that <span style="color:darkred">"whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service" </span style="color:darkred"> (John 16:2).

•	<span style="color:darkred">"Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the Words that ye have heard" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jeremiah 26:12).

The prophet Jeremiah fearlessly proclaimed his credentials in the hearing of all the people, i.e., the <span style="color:darkred">"LORD sent me" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jer 26:12). Ezekiel also knew the same type of audience that Jeremiah addressed.

o	<span style="color:darkred">"And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them" </span style="color:darkred"> (Ezekiel 2:5).

Jeremiah's message was uncomforting to the hearers because it spoke of God's judgment for their sin.

o	"12 <span style="color:darkred">Go and proclaim these Words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause '''Mine anger''' to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever. </span style="color:darkred"> 13 <span style="color:darkred">Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed My Voice, saith the LORD" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jeremiah 3:12-13).

•	<span style="color:darkred">"Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the Voice of the LORD your God; and '''the LORD will repent Him of the evil''' that He hath pronounced against you" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jeremiah 26:13).

The familiar Words of God's Prophet, the LORD Jesus Christ, rings out, <span style="color:darkred">"Repent: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" </span style="color:darkred"> (Matthew 4:17). Likewise, Jeremiah clearly and faithfully delivered the LORD's message to sinful Israel.

o	<span style="color:darkred">"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon" </span style="color:darkred"> (Isaiah 55:7).

Jeremiah was giving away God's merciful favour, but at the cost of the sinners' repentance.

o	<span style="color:darkred">"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" </span style="color:darkred"> (Isaiah 55:1).

•	"14 <span style="color:darkred">As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you. </span style="color:darkred"> 15 <span style="color:darkred">But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these Words in your ears" </span style="color:darkred">  (Jeremiah 26:14-15).

But, back to the physical reality of Jeremiah's situation, i.e., <span style="color:darkred"> "I am in your hand" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jer 26:14).

o	<span style="color:darkred">"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace" </span style="color:darkred"> (Daniel 3:23).

o	<span style="color:darkred">"They brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions" </span style="color:darkred"> (Dan 6:16).

o	<span style="color:darkred">"Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob" </span style="color:darkred"> (Psalm 44:4).

Further, Jeremiah warned them that ill would happen to them if they killed him.

o	<span style="color:darkred">"Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm" </span style="color:darkred"> (Psalm 105:15).

•	<span style="color:darkred">"Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the Name of the LORD our God" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jeremiah 26:16).

===Thank God for His opportune intervention!===
o	<span style="color:darkred">"When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him" </span style="color:darkred"> (Proverbs 16:7).

•	"17 <span style="color:darkred"> Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying, 18 Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of Hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. 19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the LORD, and besought the LORD, '''and the LORD repented Him of the evil which He had pronounced against them?''' Thus might we procure '''great evil''' against our souls" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jeremiah 26:17-19).

The prophet Micah's foretelling of Zion's judgment is here remembered by certain princes and elders of the land. Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah during the reign of Hezekiah.

o	<span style="color:darkred">"Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest" </span style="color:darkred"> (Micah 3:12).

King Hezekiah humbled himself before the LORD God of Israel.

o	"6 <span style="color:darkred">For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and have forsaken Him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs... </span style="color:darkred"> 10 <span style="color:darkred">Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that His fierce wrath may turn away from us" </span style="color:darkred"> (2Chronicles 29:6,10).

What was the point of the recounting of Micah's prophecy? Just as Jeremiah threatened God's judgment upon Jerusalem, i.e., "4 <span style="color:darkred">If ye will not hearken to Me, to walk in My Law, which I have set before you... </span style="color:darkred"> 6 <span style="color:darkred">Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the Earth" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jeremiah 26:4,6), Micah had previously pronounced the certainty that <span style="color:darkred">"Jerusalem shall become heaps" </span style="color:darkred"> (Jer 26:18) to Hezekiah-- who believed him and caused reformation in the land.

The point was that Micah had pronounced the certainty of judgment against the land during Hezekiah's reign in Jerusalem. Micah prophesied that the <span style="color:darkred">"LORD cometh </span style="color:darkred"> [present tense, is coming] <span style="color:darkred">forth out of His place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the Earth" </span style="color:darkred"> (Micah 1:3). The result will be that <span style="color:darkred">"Jerusalem shall become heaps" </span style="color:darkred"> (Micah 3:12).'''Hezekiah led Judah in repentance before the prophecy could be fulfilled.''' <span style="color:darkred">"Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so '''that the wrath of the LORD came not upon them''' in the days of Hezekiah" </span style="color:darkred"> (2Chronicles 32:26). But, who was complaining about the lack of fulfilment of Jerusalem's destruction, since <span style="color:darkred">"'''the LORD repented Him of the evil''' which He had pronounced against them" <span style="color:darkred"> (Jeremiah 26:19)? A situation had developed which changed God's mind.


'''Next Part [[The Sovereignty of God in the Fulfilment of Prophecy]]'''
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