Jeremiah 17:11

The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:11-14, “As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters. Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.” In these verses we are being reminded of some of the differences between those who are saved and who trust in the Lord Jesus, and those who are not saved because they choose to turn away from the Lord.

It is interesting to notice what Jeremiah 17:11 has to say about rich people. This warning to rich people is not to all who are rich, but to him “that getteth riches, and not by right.” Notice the phrase “not by right.” In other words they became rich by doing something that was unrighteous or unholy or dishonest. In God’s eyes it is ok to be rich as long as you became rich by an honest and legal means. Many of the heroes of the faith in the Bible were rich people, such as Abraham, Joseph, David, and Solomon. Rich people will be judged for how they became rich and also for what they did with their riches after they became rich. On this subject it says in James 5:1-6, “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.” To be rich means that you have a greater responsibility in this world. Your riches belong to God, and one day you will give an account of what you did with God’s money. Many people dream of being rich, but that very desire could be their undoing spiritually. Jesus said in Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 17:14, “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved.” It is interesting that Jeremiah joins the cry for healing with the cry for salvation. Physical healing symbolizes salvation and spiritual healing. Jesus also combined these two truths in His ministry. Because Jesus was bring to salvation to all who would confess their sins, Jesus proved His power to save the soul by also healing the body. For example, Jesus said in Matthew 9:6, “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.” The human race is pre-occupied with trying to find healing for all of the diseases and infirmities that can plague any of us. That is because there are so many diseases, and we can suffer so greatly even in seeing our loved ones suffer. Many people came to Jesus for healing once they heard that He had the power to do so. Thankfully, we have that same healing power available to us today. The unsaved people of the world only have the best doctors to rely upon for help from their diseases. Those who know Jesus as Savior have the healing power of God to work in conjunction with and sometimes without the best doctors. It says in James 5:14-16, “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:15-20, “Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now. As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee. Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil. Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction. Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:” Notice what Jeremiah’s enemies said to him in Jeremiah 17:15. They said, “Where is the word of the LORD?” They were mocking Jeremiah. Jeremiah was bringing them the Word of God, but they rejected what Jeremiah had to say. Sometimes people expect that if they preach God’s message, then it will be well-received and people will appreciate the fact that someone has come to them from God with sincerity, honesty, and love. The reality is that what happened to Jeremiah can happen to anyone who speaks forth the Gospel of Christ: the hearers just might reject the message. Since the vast majority of people never turn to the Lord Jesus and never get saved, then the vast majority of people are not going to be interested in hearing God’s Word preached to them.

If you speak forth the gospel, it is likely that your message will be rejected just like Jeremiah’s message was rejected. Just make sure that you respond to that situation just the way that Jeremiah responded. He said in Jeremiah 17:15, “I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee.” Every person is called of the Lord to do something. Of course, not everyone is called to be a preacher, but we are all called to be witnesses. If you are not called to be a preacher, then you are probably called to help a preacher in some way: by praying, listening, helping in a myriad of ways, inviting, encouraging, or something else to assist the preacher so that he can concentrate on preaching. If the preach follows the Lord, and no one helps the preacher, then not near as much will get done. We are a team, and we are all co-workers with Christ. It is interesting the way that Jeremiah described his willingness to be a pastor and do what God wanted him to do. Jeremiah said, “I have not hastened from being a pastor.” Some people run from God and from God’s calling for them. That is too bad. How much they have missed. Nothing will bring you as much happiness as knowing that you are doing what God wants you to do. And nothing will bring you as much regret as sometime later in life thinking that you did not go the path that God wanted for you.

If you do become a preacher, it is not just enough to be a preacher, but you must also deliver the message that God wants you to deliver. If you are called to speak, then speak; but make sure that you speak-forth the message from God. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 17:15, “that which came out of my lips was right before thee.” The only way that any preacher will be able to make the same claim as Jeremiah is to preach God’s Word and not one’s own words or one’s own ideas. No wonder Paul wrote to Timothy in Second Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” Paul wrote about himself in First Corinthians 1:17, “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.” The Apostle Peter wrote in First Peter 4:11, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

In Jeremiah 17:19-20 the Lord said that He had a very important message to give to the people of Israel. This important message is found in Jeremiah 17:21-27 and says, “Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein; Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD. But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.”

As we have been reading in the book of Jeremiah, the nation of Israel during the time of Jeremiah had become a very sinful nation, probably one of the most sinful in the history of the human race. We must remember that the children of Israel were living under the law. One of the main differences between the people of Israel and believers in our day and age is that they were under the law of Moses, but we are not. They were under law, but we are under grace. As it says in John 1:17, “The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Because the Israelites were under the law of Moses, they were supposed to keep the Ten Commandments and all of the other commandments that were a part of the law of Moses. But the Israelites were breaking all of the commandments, and they were not just breaking them because they were weak and sinful like the rest of us. The Israelites willingly, gladly, and purposely broke every commandment that they could, and they had no guilt, and they had no intention of repenting and asking for forgiveness. You cannot get any worse than that.

In many ways we can say that the book of Jeremiah is telling us over and over and in great detail just how much the Israelites had sinned and fallen away from God. In Jeremiah 17:21-27 we are being told how much the Israelites had sinned by constantly breaking the Sabbath Day. One of the Ten Commandments is written specifically about the Sabbath Day. God said to Moses in Exodus 20:8-11, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Notice carefully that it says in Exodus 20:8 to “remember” the Sabbath Day. Of course, to remember involves the mind. The most important aspect to the Sabbath Day is its spiritual significance.

The first Sabbath day was the seventh day of creation. The word “Sabbath” means “rest.” It says in Genesis 2:2-3, “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Hebrews 4:1-10 makes the spiritual meaning of the “rest” of the Sabbath as it applies to a Christian. It says, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” In the New Testament Christ is our Sabbath. We have ceased from our works and we rest in Christ.

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