Jeremiah 7:32

The Lord said to the children of Israel in Jeremiah 7:32-34, “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place. And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.” In these verses the Lord says several things to the children of Israel in order to describe to them one more time how great the destruction would be that was coming upon them. Two places near Jerusalem would be called “the valley of slaughter.” Also, according to verse 32, there would be so many killed that there would be “no place” left to bury the dead.

In order to describe how miserable life would become for the Israelites, God said, “I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.” One of the great joys that God has given to human life is when a man and a woman come together in holy matrimony. You will be hard-pressed to find any joy on this earth that is greater than the joy of those two on their wedding day. Here is an important question: how can those two retain that joy year after year through the challenges and changes that life brings?

The Bible says in Jeremiah 8:1-4, “At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts. Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?” Notice that it says in verse 3, “And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family.” For those who do survive, their existence will be so miserable that they would rather be dead. Notice also that God calls the children of Israel, “this evil family.”

The Lord said in Jeremiah 8:5-6, “Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.” These verses remind us once again of an important spiritual principle for believers: the need to repent and turn to the Lord as often as necessary. The problem with the Israelites was no so much that they had sinned because everyone sins. Yes, believers still sin. The Apostle John wrote to Christians and said in First John 1:10, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” The problem with the Israelites is that they stopped repenting. You do not just repent the day you get saved by faith in Jesus: you must keep repenting whenever necessary. You must live a life of repentance. The Israelites stopped repenting. As it says in Jeremiah 8:5, they had a “perpetual backsliding.” They were constantly going further away from the Lord.

The way the Christian life works is this: when Jesus first saves you, you are a babe in Christ. From that point on, as you walk in fellowship with Christ, you grow in Christ. That is why it says in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” It also says in Philippians 2:13, “For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Before you are saved, God works in your life so that you will repent and become saved by faith in Jesus and have a home in heaven reserved for you. After you are saved, God works in your life so that you will grow in Christ and become more and more the believer that God wants you to be. This process of growth requires that you continue to walk in fellowship with Christ and do not get into a state of “perpetual backsliding.” It says in First John 1:6-8, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” By the way, the fact that the Israelites were in a state of “perpetual backsliding” supports the doctrine of eternal security. If we could lose our salvation, the Israelites not be in a state of “perpetual backsliding,” but they would be lost souls once again. In most cases you and I may not be able to tell the difference between a back-sliding Christian and someone who is not saved, but God knows the difference.

The Bible says in Jeremiah 8:7-11, “Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD. How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them? Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” Jeremiah 8:7 tells us one of the great evidences that the people of Israel had “rejected the word of the Lord.” It says in Jeremiah 8:7, “my people know not the judgment of the LORD.” In other words, they did not take to heart the message, “the judgment is coming.” That is why they said in verse 11, “Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” God’s message for these people concerning their future was that there would be no peace. Instead of peace there would be war and destruction. The judgment of God does come, and it does come against sin, unless that sin is repented of. If only more people would think about the truth that God’s judgment is coming. Everyone will give an account to the Judge. No one is getting away with anything. That is one of the reasons that we should not be vengeful. They will give an account. They are not getting away with anything. The Judge knows what to do and when to it, and He will. Jesus said in Matthew 12:36, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 14:12, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” And the Apostle Peter wrote in First Peter 4:5, “Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.” And it says in Revelation 20:12, “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 8:12-14, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.” Everyone has sinned, but when someone sins and does not have any shame for what they have done, that is a vivid commentary of going very far away from God. It has to do with a person’s conscience and how that person responds to their conscience. God gave us a conscience for a reason. The word “conscience” literally refers to the knowledge of yourself in relation to you knowledge of a standard of right and wrong. Of course, the conscience is no more accurate than the standard that you have accepted, but that in no way diminishes the importance of listening to your conscience. It does however emphasize the importance of studying the Word of God to refine and to improve your knowledge of the standard.

If you get in the habit of ignoring your conscience, you will end up in a very dark place spiritually speaking. The Bible says in Acts 23:1, “And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” Romans 13:5, “Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.” First Timothy 1:5, “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:” Concerning those who did not learn how to keep a good conscience, it says in First Timothy 4:1-2, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;[2] Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;” Titus 1:15, “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” The way that we initially have our conscience cleansed is through faith in Christ, as it says in Hebrews 9:14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 8:15-18, “We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble! The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein. For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD. When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.” One of the truths that we see in these verses is the possible failure of positive thinking. Notice that in verse 15 they looked for “peace” and they looked for “health.” Also, in verse 18 Jeremiah said, “I would comfort myself against sorrow.” But they did not get peace, they did not get health, and they did not get comfort. Because of a lack of spiritual understanding, they did not realize and they did not accept what was really going to happen to them and to their land. I believe in positive thinking, because with faith we can remove mountains, and with Christ we can do anything. But there is a type of positive thinking that amounts to ignoring what is really happening. The judgment is coming, and it will be terrible for those who are not spiritually prepared. Admit your sins, and turn to Jesus before it is too late.

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