Jeremiah 10:25

The Bible says in Jeremiah 10:25, “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.” There are two important truths to notice in this verse. The first truth has to do with the description of those who are God’s people. Two things are said about the true worshippers of God: 1. They know God. 2. They call upon His name. It says about the heathen: they “know thee not.” “Knowing God” speaks of having a personal relationship with Him and having a true connection to Him. Jesus spoke about how that relationship begins when He said in Revelation 3:20, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me.” True Christianity is not a religion, but it is a relationship with Jesus Christ. Perhaps the major difference between a believer and one of the heathen has to do with this fact: the one “knows” God and the other does not. Jesus said that the fact will determine who enters heaven and who does not. Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

If you do know Jesus, and if you do have a personal relationship with Him, that means that you will be talking to Him on a regular basis. That is the second difference between believers and heathen that is mentioned in Jeremiah 10:25. The heathen “call not on thy name.” Calling upon the name of the Lord is how we get saved in the first place. It says in Romans 10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Of course, Romans 10:13 is talking about Jesus. The Lord is Jesus. Jeremiah 10:25 describes the heathen as those that “the families that call not on thy name.” Christians who understand this spiritual principle of the Bible will often pray directly to Jesus. Jesus is God, and we pray to God. Jesus is the mediator between God and man, and this means that we take our prayers to Christ in order for our prayers to reach God. Thomas bowed before Jesus and said to Jesus in prayer, “My Lord and my God.” If a person gets saved by calling upon the name of Jesus, then there is every reason to keep praying to Jesus after being saved. Notice what it says concerning the conversion of the Apostle Paul in Acts 9:1-14, “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.” Paul talked to Jesus and was saved. Ananias talked to Jesus in prayer in this passage. And Ananias, referring to the name of Jesus, described Christians in verse 14 as “all that call on thy name.”

The second truth that is taught in Jeremiah 10:25 has to do with Jeremiah’s request for justice. Jeremiah wrote, “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not.” All have sinned, but the greatest sins often come from those who do not know the Lord. There always has been and always will be a certain contention between the people of this world and the people of God. It is a part of the spiritual warfare that is constantly raging. Christians should always show love and concern for the lost souls of the world no matter how they treat us. Jesus said in Matthew 10:22, “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” Jesus also made it very clear how we are to respond to such hatred. He said in Matthew 5:43-45, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” How can anyone respond to hatred with love? Only by the grace of God and by trusting in Christ. Maybe we are not trusting in Christ the way that we should be. But even if we have the grace to show love for the unbelievers, it does not change the fact that judgment is coming for everyone who does not repent and turn to Jesus. There is more than one reason that the Lord said, “Judgment is mine. I will repay.” It means that believers are not supposed to take vengeance on those who hate them. But it also means that God will take vengeance in His way and in His time. Remember that God’s primary purpose is to save these people just like He saved you: by grace through faith in Christ. But if they continue to reject Him and deny Him, they will eventually have to give an account and face their personal judgment. When the judgment does come, and it will, it will be a just judgment. It will be a good judgment. It will be a judgment that will be thoroughly deserved. And so a believer does a good thing when he prays to the Lord, “Oh Lord, when will you bring your judgment upon these evil doers? Oh Lord, I long for that day.” That idea is a part of the motivation for saying just as it says in the next to last verse of the Bible in Revelation 22:20, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 11:1-8, “The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; And say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God: That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD. Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice. Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.” This is a passage of scripture that reminds us of the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Notice that Jeremiah 11:2 talks about “this covenant.” That is the covenant of the Old Testament: the covenant of the law which is also known as the covenant of Moses. The word “testament” means covenant. A covenant is a contract: an agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament the covenant worked like this: God agreed to bless the covenant if they agreed to obey the covenant. To obey the covenant required keeping all the commandments of the covenant. The old covenant was made up of the Ten Commandments and all the other hundreds of commandments that God gave to the children of Israel through Moses.

The problem with the covenant of the law is stated very clearly in Jeremiah 11:3. It says, “Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant.” The law brings a curse. It always brings a curse, and it always has brought a curse to whomever attempts to live under it. The failure of the law has everything to do with the failure of human beings. People always fail to keep the law. We cannot please God by how well we keep the law. That is impossible. That is also where grace through Christ comes in. Grace has to do with God giving to us freely His blessings without us having earned His blessing by keeping the law. We are not under law, but under grace. It says in John 1:17, “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” The covenant of the law (also known as the Old Testament) requires keeping the law. The covenant of grace (also known as the New Testament) does not require keeping the law, but instead requires faith in Christ.

Of course, the law (especially the moral and spiritual aspects of the law) still have a role to play. One important role that the law plays is that it helps to bring people to Christ. It says in Galatians 3:24-25, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” It seems to be a natural inclination for human beings to attempt to keep some kind of religious law or religious regulations in order to serve God. But when such a person does an honest evaluation of himself or herself, such a person will be filled with guilt at their own failure to keep that law. They will also be filled with emptiness at their failure to come to know God through that religion. And thus the law leads people to Christ. The law is a schoolmaster. The law teaches people that they cannot keep the law and therefore they need faith in the Savior.

Another purpose of the law is that it has certain definite moral and spiritual principles that act as a guide to us in some ways. In other words the law is not totally set aside from our daily lives. For example, let’s take the Ten Commandments. Even thou we cannot become justified through keeping the Ten Commandments, we do not totally through them away. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-18, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” They still act as a kind of a moral guide to our actions. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 13:8, “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” Paul also wrote in Romans 3:31, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”

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