Jeremiah 15:1
The Bible says in Jeremiah 15:1, Then said the LORD unto me,
Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this
people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
Two of the greatest spiritual leaders in the history on the children of Israel
are mentioned here. Both Moses and Samuel had a very unique and distinct
calling from the Lord God. Moses was called when God attracted Moses to a
burning bush that just kept burning. God revealed Himself to Moses as the
always-existing One, And God said to him, I
AM THAT I AM. Jesus is the same
eternally-existing One. It says of Jesus in Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. When Samuel was called, the Lord came to him when Samuel
was a child. It says in First Samuel 3:4-11, That
the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and
said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down
again. And he went and lay down. And the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And
Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And
he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know
the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him. And the LORD
called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said,
Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the LORD had called
the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he
call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel
went and lay down in his place. And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at
other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.
And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both
the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. Jesus calls everyone in the world to come to Him, trust
in Him, and serve Him. It says about Jesus in John 1:9, That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world. Too bad that not
everyone responds like Samuel to the call. Jesus said in Matthew 22:14, For many are called, but few are chosen. You become one of the chosen when you respond positively
to the call to bow before Jesus and believe on Him.
Moses and Samuel not only responded to the call of the Lord, but
they also served the Lord faithfully after they were called. Not many in Israel
did that. Both Moses and Samuel had very unique callings. Moses was called to
lead the children out of Egypt,
and Samuel was called to lead the children of Israel before they had a king to
rule over them. They were great men because of their relationship to the Lord.
But in spite of this, God said in Jeremiah 15:1, Though Moses
and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. Once again
we are shown a contrast between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the
New Testament we are able to draw close to God because of Jesus and through
Jesus. He is our Mediator. There will never be a situation where we would be
kept from drawing close to God. Jesus will always be accepted as our Mediator.
It says in First John 2:1-2, My little children, these things write I unto
you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not
for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 15:2-4, And it shall come to pass, if
they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus
saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword,
to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for
the captivity, to the captivity. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith
the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven,
and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. And I will cause them to be
removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah
king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. The Israelites
ended up with a very terrible destiny. The lesson here is very clear: you do
not want to make God mad at you. The New Testament gives such a warning. It
says in Hebrews 10:31, It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Since the conquest of Israel
by Babylon, the
Israelites have had a very rough time on this earth. Without their own borders
and own nation, they have been exposed for centuries to the cruelties of those
who hated them. In addition to the slaughtering that took place when the
Babylonian armies overran them, God said in Jeremiah 15:4, I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the
earth.
It is interesting to notice the second half of verse Jeremiah
15:4. The Lord said that these terrible things happened to Israel because of Manasseh the son of
Hezekiah king of Judah, for
that which he did in Jerusalem. Evidently
the failures of the people were directly attributed to the leaders and to one
leader in particular. The leaders of a nation will lead the people in one
direction or another. Almost all organizational failure will come back to
leadership failure. Things happen because of what the leaders decide and what
they put into place. For example, we could say that the moral disintegration
now taking place in America
is largely due to the bad influence of the Hollywood
industry on the average American. The people are failing in regards to their
concept of marriage, and faithfulness, and family responsibilities. But these
failures of the average person are directly related to the failures of the
leaders of the Hollywood industry who allowed
immorality to be portrayed in wrong ways all too often. They should have
censored themselves. They should have understood the influence they had on
society. The leaders failed, and because of their failures, great numbers of
people followed their leadership and also failed. One of the benefits to being
a Christian is that we do not have to be led along like lemmings like the rest
of society. We can follow the leadership of the Lord Jesus. It says in Psalm
23:1-2, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie
down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. Concerning
Manasseh and his terrible leadership, it says in Second Kings 21:9-12, But they
hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations
whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel. And the LORD spake by
his servants the prophets, saying, Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done
these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did,
which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols: Therefore
thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon
Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. The kings
of Israel and the kings of Judah
can be divided into two main divisions: those who were good kings
because they served the Lord, and those who were evil kings
because they did not serve the Lord. Manasseh was the worst of the worse. What
is interesting to note is that Manassehs father, Hezekiah, was one of the good
kings. It says about Hezekiah in Second Kings 20:3-5, I beseech
thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a
perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept
sore. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court,
that the word of the LORD came to him, saying,
Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the
LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy
tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the
house of the LORD. One of the truths to notice in all of this has to do with
parenting. We can call Hezekiah a godly parent, but what came from Hezekiah was
a son who was the most evil of all the kings of Israel and who had the biggest part
in their eventual destruction from a failed leadership perspective. The final
determination for any individual becoming godly or evil is themselves and the
choices they make. It is not the parents. It is the children and the choices they
make as they progress from childhood to adulthood. Each person makes their own
choice to accept Christ as Savior or not. Each person makes their own choice to
surrender to Christs leading or not. Of course, it would be better of we all
had godly parents to model our own lives after, but that is not the most
important factor. The most important factor has to do with the choices that
each individual makes no matter what influences exist around them.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 15:5-10, For who
shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall
go aside to ask how thou doest? Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art
gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy
thee; I am weary with repenting. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of
the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they
return not from their ways. Their widows are increased to me above the sand of
the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a
spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors
upon the city. She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up the
ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and
confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their
enemies, saith the LORD. Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of
strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on
usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.
These verses tell us one more time how much the people of Jerusalem will suffer because they refused to
repent of their sins. And then in verse 10 Jeremiah presents a lament about how
sorry he is that these sufferings were coming to his people and his nation. It
is interesting to notice what Jeremiah said about why the people should not be
upset with him. Of course, they were upset because Jeremiah believed the Word
of God, but they did not. But Jeremiah was saying that from a practical
standpoint there was absolutely no reason for them to be angry with him. As a
matter of fact Jeremiah never lent on usury. Jeremiah made no loans where he
charged usury.
This is a good reminder of a major problem with the economic
system that has been created in the day in which we live. Usury refers to
collecting interest from someone when you have made a loan to them. A clear
teaching of the law of Moses was that usury would not be extracted from those
to whom loads were made. It says in Leviticus 25:35-37, And if thy
brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve
him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.
Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may
live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy
victuals for increase. The concept was as follows: the average person would work
hard and save their money and pay for their own needs through their own sources
of income. That is why it says in Proverbs 6:6-11, Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be
wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the
summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O
sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little
slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as
one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man. A person would only need to borrow if they were in a very
difficult situation in life and needed help. It would be sinful to extract
interest from someone in such a situation as this.
One of the problems with the modern
day world-wide economic system is that it is almost entirely built upon the
concept of borrowing and charging interest on all borrowing. Too bad that they
did not stick to the biblical concept of saving until having ones own finances
for ones own needs. They have now borrowed themselves into oblivion. The leaders
are trying to get out of the financial mess by encouraging more borrowing. That
is why they lower the interest and try to keep them low in times of financial
contraction: they are trying to encourage more borrowing because that is the
method that businesses and individuals now use to expand. Governments borrow,
businesses borrow, individuals borrow, students borrow, and churches borrow.
But they have all reached their limits on borrowing and now looming on the
world-wide horizon is the complete inability to even make the interest
payments. Buy now, pay later with interest did not work out too well for this
human financial system. It is now both a corrupt and bankrupt system. Gods way
is always the best way: work, save, and pay your own way. In an economically
sound system the only loans that are made are to those who are poor and in
desperate need of help. If you make any such loans, make sure that you do it
without requiring usury. And then when people hate you, you can say with
Jeremiah, I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury.
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Copyright; 2012 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved