Jeremiah 5:19

The Bible says in Jeremiah 5:19, “And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.” It is amazing how often in the Old Testament we find the spiritual principles of grace and mercy even though the Old Testament is the period of the law. If we were reading in the New Testament, it would not surprise us to come across the wonderful principles of mercy and grace. Jesus brought mercy and grace in the New Testament when He died for our sins and then rose from the dead. But there are also times in the Old Testament when we are reminded that the Old Testament is definitely under the law, and at times the Old Testament does have a harsher message than is found in the New Testament. As it says in John 1:17, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

Jeremiah 5:19 is definitely a verse that comes from the spirit of the law. It comes from the concept of “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth:” It says in the law of Moses in Exodus 21:23-25, “And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” That is why the Lord told the Israelites that they were going to be strangers in a land that was not theirs. In other words they would be taken captive by a foreign nation. This punishment was based on the principle of “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:” because the Israelites had turned away from the Lord to worship strange gods in their own land. Of course, Jesus brought an end to the law and an end to the principle of “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:” Jesus said in Matthew 5:38-42, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.” It is important to notice that Jesus said, “Ye have heard that it hath been said….” Jesus is talking about the law of Moses, and Jesus is setting it aside. And then Jesus replaces the law with His own teaching on the subject. Where did the law of Moses come from? It came from God. Who has the authority to change or set aside the law of Moses? Only God has such authority. When Jesus said, “But I say unto you,” He was in effect saying in one more way, “I am God.” The law of Moses was always destined to be set aside, and Jesus is the One who set the law aside. Jesus fulfilled the law, He accomplished the requirements of the law, and He ended the law and established grace in its place.

The Bible says in Jeremiah 5:20-23, “Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.” As we are already seeing in the book of Jeremiah, there are many ways to describe the sinfulness of the people of Israel. In these verses we are reminded of the sea-shore and the sea and the fact that the sands of the sea-shore are a sort of boundary to the sea. The oceans are contained such that they cannot pass over the boundary that is set for them. This fact of the shoreline has a spiritual and symbolic meaning to it. Human beings should also have boundaries and limits. There are things that a servant of Christ should not do, and there are places that a servant of Christ should not go. One place that a believer in Christ should never go is the place of rebellion. Beware of your own strong self-will. Do not become like the Israelites who “hath a revolting and rebellious heart.” Make sure that you are always ready to say, “If the Lord wants me to go or stay, I will do what He wants.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 5:24-25, “Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.” There are a couple of important truths to notice in these two verses. The first truth has to do with being thankful for the blessings that God has brought your way. There may be nothing worse than an ungrateful or unthankful person. The Lord blesses us each day with innumerable blessings in providing for us and sustaining our lives. In the case of the Israelites their blessings were the rain and the harvest. They could not have a harvest without the rain, and they could not survive without a harvest. That which God creates, He also sustains. God sustains every life for the duration that He gives to it, and God sustains us through His daily blessings to us. Instead of worrying about how our needs will be supplied, we should thank the Lord for how many times He blesses us in supplying our needs. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” And it says in Ephesians 5:20, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

A truth found in Jeremiah 5:25 is a reminder of the source of good things coming into our lives as well as the source of bad things and unpleasant things that come into our lives. Of course, we all have some sorrows and some unpleasantness as a part of living in this world of woe. But it is also true that sometimes we bring upon ourselves sorrows that did not have to be. It says, “Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.” One of the lies that we are told when we are tempted is that we will benefit from yielding to the temptation. The opposite is actually true. God has given us commandments, not to limit our enjoyment of life, but to maximize it. Jesus said in John 15:11, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” It says in First John 1:4, “And these things write we unto, that your joy may be full.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 5:26-31, “For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” This passage of scripture emphasizes the failures of the leaders of the people. Almost everything comes down to leadership when we are talking about what happens in a country or in a community or in an organization of any kind. The problem of the Israelites had to do with the fact that God said, “among my people are wicked men.”

The wicked men came from two groups: the rich and the religious leaders. Being rich was not a sin, but the manner in which they became rich was a sin. It is made very clear how these people became rich in Jeremiah 5:26 that says, “they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.” They saw other human beings as people to trap, and people to use, and people to harm. These kind of rich people are driven by a consuming desire to get whatever is in your bank account, and to find it end up safely into their own bank account. The words that they say and the things that they do are schemes to cause that to happen. They become rich by taking advantage of other people. It says in Jeremiah 5:27, “their houses full of deceit.” Those that they harm are called the “fatherless” and the “needy.” In other words they take advantage of those who are the most vulnerable and those who will suffer the most by being cheated out of the little resources that they have. These rich people not only resort to lying and cheating and deceiving, but they also do not care about the fate of those that they have cheated and this may be their greatest sin. Such sins committed by these rich people made them the worst people of all. God said about them in Jeremiah 5:28, “they overpass the deeds of the wicked.” These lying and deceiving rich people were much worse than the adulterers, and the idolaters, and the religious hypocrites.

There is also a passage in the New Testament that points out the sins that a rich person is tempted to fall into. 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.” Do not forget that it is not a sin to be rich. Some of the godly people in the Bible were very rich, such as King David and King Solomon. Abraham was very well off also. Is a given rich person the most horrible person in a community? The answer to that depends upon several things: how they got their riches, what motivates them, and what they do with their riches after they have acquired them.

Concerning the failures of the religious leaders who helped to corrupt the land of Israel, we are not surprised that it says of them in Jeremiah 5:31, “prophets prophesy falsely.” We know that when religious leaders go wrong, they stop teaching truth. They lie. They become such good liars, you must beware or you will be deceived by their lies. Jesus said in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” The Apostle Paul warned in Romans 16:17-18, “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.” Paul also wrote in Second Corinthians 11:13-14, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” The Apostle Peter wrote in Second Peter 2:1, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” The Apostle John wrote in First John 4:1, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”

It is interesting to notice that it says about the wicked religious leaders in Jeremiah 5:31, “the priests bear rule by their means.” Why is that such a wicked thing to do? To “bear rule” means “to dominate” or “to subjugate.” God wants religious leaders to teach His people, not to use religion as a means to rule over His people. This motivation to control, and to rule over, and to dominate God’s people is the very thing that Jesus spoke so strongly against in Revelation 2:6, “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” And Jesus said in Revelation 2:15, “So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.” The word “Nicolaitan” means “those that rule over the people.” The only one who should rule over the people of God is Jesus Himself. In Jeremiah 5:31 the phrase “by their means” is translated from the word that is literally the human hand. There is nothing more wicked than being a self-willed person, doing things out of your own will, and not surrendered to God. Even Jesus prayed in Luke 22:42 when He was in the garden of Gethsemanee, “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

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