“The Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Obey the words of this covenant and carry them out.’” (Jeremiah 11:6)

God was concerned that the people of Israel might forget the terms of the covenant He had made with them and which they agreed to.

So to help them remember, he sent the prophets, so Israel could never claim they didn’t know what the terms are.

What can we take away from this?

“God keeps account of how long we have enjoyed the means of grace and how effective those means have been, how often we have been not only spoken to about our duty but also urged to do it.”

“…in order to establish the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is today.’” (Jeremiah 11:5a)

Obedience to God was the “terms that the land of Canaan was given them as their possession.”

God was ready to fulfil this promise, but Israel must fulfil the condition.

If Israel fail to do this, “God would be just too dispossess them of the land.”

Because the reason for receiving Canaan was their good behaviour, if they are kicked out of the land because of their bad behaviour, “no wrong was done them.”

So, “Obedience was the rent reserved by the lease, with powers for repossession if the rent was not paid.”

“I declared, “Obey me, and do everything that I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God.” (Jeremiah 11:4)

God had commanded the people of Israel “when he first formed them into a people” to obey His voice.

By which He meant, “Acknowledge God as your Master; give yourselves to him as his subjects and servants; listen to all the declarations of his mind and will, and be careful to comply with them. Do my commandments not only in some things but according to all which I command you.”

Not only did He command them to obey His voice, He made this “the condition of the relationship between them and God.” So if they didn’t obey, they could no longer claim the benefit of this relationship.

Obedience was “what he required from them in gratitude for the great things he did for them” when redeemed them out of slavery in Egypt.

“Discipline me, Lord, but with justice — not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing.” (Jeremiah 10:24)

We should not fear the Lord’s discipline or correction.

Why?

Because “God corrects those he loves” and we “are aware in ourselves that we need correction and deserve it.”

Therefore we should not pray that we may never be corrected.

What we should fear is suffering the wrath of God – of being corrected in anger.

Why?

Because “that will instil bitterness into the suffering and misery that will bring us to nothing.”

“We can bear correction from his rod, but we cannot bear the weight of his wrath.”

“I know, Lord…” (Jeremiah 10:23a)

Jeremiah turns to God and address Him, having found it ineffective to speak to the people.

“It is some comfort to poor ministers that if people will not listen to them, God will, and they have free access to him at all times.”

For this reason, preachers should end their sermons with prayer.

“Let them close their preaching with prayer, as the prophet does, and then they will have no reason to say that they have laboured in vain.”

“For the shepherds are stupid: They don’t seek the Lord. Therefore they have not prospered, and their flock is scattered.” (Jeremiah 10:21)

Israel’s priests, the pastors of God’s tabernacle, “do a great deal toward destroying religion but nothing toward restoring it.”

They are stupid.

Why?

“They have not sought the Lord; they have neither made their peace with him nor brought their prayers to him.”

“They do not consider him and his providence in directing their affairs.”

“They neither acknowledge justice from his hand nor expect deliverance to come from it.”

What this shows us, is that, those who don’t seek the Lord, who live without prayer and without God in the world, are senseless and foolish. “But it is truly sad for a people when their pastors, who should feed them with knowledge and understanding, are themselves so senseless.”

And when this happens, “all their flocks will be scattered… the destruction of a people is often caused by the senselessness of their shepherds.”

“Woe to me because of my brokenness — I am severely wounded! I exclaimed, “This is my intense suffering, but I must bear it.” (Jeremiah 10:19)

The pain of what was happening to the people of Israel affected Jeremiah. But there was nothing he could do about it, except sit still and endure it. “There is no remedy but patience.”

What does it mean to be patient in the midst of suffering?

A right way to be patient: “When I am suffering, I should say, “This is something that is harming me, but I will bear it, because it is the will of God that I should, because his wisdom has appointed this for me and his grace will make it work for good to me.”

A wrong way to be patient: “To say, “This is something that is harming me, and I must bear it, because I cannot help it,” is a senseless form of patience and shows a lack of the good thoughts about God that we should always have, even in suffering, saying not only that God can and will do what he pleases but also, Let him do what he pleases.”

“For this is what the Lord says: Look, I am flinging away the land’s residents at this time and bringing them such distress that they will feel it.” (Jeremiah 10:18)

The people of Israel were told:

“…about the weight of God’s wrath and their complete inability to withstand it.”

“…that their sin would be their ruin.”

But “they paid no attention and would not believe what was told them.” They will soon discover this to be true as “God will pursue them with his judgments” and they will be “forced to acknowledge it.”

What can we learn from this?

That “sooner or later sinners will find things just as the word of God has described them” and “they will see that the threats were not imaginary.”

“They are worthless, a work to be mocked. At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.” (Jeremiah 10:15)

The idols are worthless. “If you ask about their use, you will find they are vanity; they are good for nothing. No help can be expected from them, nor any confidence put in them.”

The idols are objects of mockery. “They are the work of errors, based on the worst mistakes that people who claimed to reason were ever guilty of. They are the figments of a deluded imagination, and they spread the errors by which they were produced among their worshippers.”

To put your trust in idols is to make a fool of yourself.

“When he thunders, the waters in the heavens are in turmoil, and he causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind from his storehouses.” (Jeremiah 10:13)

All types of weather are used to serve God’s purposes. “There is no kind of weather except what gives us proof and an example of the wisdom and power of the great Creator.”

“The moisture in the universe, like money in a kingdom and blood in the body, is continually circulating for the good of the whole. Those clouds produce wonders, for out of them are formed lightnings for the rain and the winds that God from time to time brings forth out of his treasures, as they are needed, to direct them all in such measure and for such use as he thinks fit, as payments are made out of the treasury.”

God can do this, but which of the nations idol’s can?

“He made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and spread out the heavens by his understanding.” (Jeremiah 10:12)

Who is the God we worship? He is the One who made the heavens and the earth. “If we look back, we find that the whole world owed its origin to him as its First Cause.”

Unbelievers worship gods that they made. We worship the God who made us and all things.

God has established the world by His wisdom. It “is wonderfully fitted for human use and service” and “it continues to be useful in its constant changes and remains continually stable from one generation to another.”

God has also spread out the heavens by His understanding. “The movements of the heavenly bodies are directed for the benefit of this lower world.” by declaring to us God’s glory.

Therefore, we must not “give to the heavens the glory that is due only to the One who made them.”

“You are to say this to them: “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under these heavens.” (Jeremiah 10:11)

When the Babylonians encouraged the Jews to join in their idolatry, they were to have a ready response to them:

“Do you urge us to worship your gods? We will never do that.”

For…

One, “They are false deities; they are not gods at all, for they have not made the heavens and the earth, and so they are not entitled to our worship.”

Two, “They are condemned deities. They shall perish; the time will come when they will no more be respected as they are now, but will be buried in oblivion, and they and their worshippers will sink together.”

What should we take from this verse?

That “as long as we have the true God to worship, who made heaven and earth, it is absurd to worship any other.”

That “whatever runs against God and religious faith will ultimately be overcome.”