They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet 人的問題就是「漂流」

Jeremiah 14:1-12

Although our sins testify against us, do something, Lord, for the sake of your name. For we have often rebelled; we have sinned against you. You who are the hope of Israel, its Savior in times of distress, why are you like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays only a night?
9 Why are you like a man taken by surprise, like a warrior powerless to save? You are among us, Lord, and we bear your name; do not forsake us!

This is what the Lord says about this people: “They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the Lord does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.”

Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people. Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague.”

Why?

The most sad is one whose heart is dead, this is a Chinese word(colloquialism). God’s heart has turn away from his people, so no matter what happened the Lord won’t listen and care them.

Even the Lord asked his servant Jeremiah don’t pray for them. So the Lord has decided to let Judah down and be swept from this promised land.

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神把人帶到迦南地，聽神的話努力才有成果，否則努力是沒有用的。

人的罪不僅自己受苦連環境、野獸、環境都遭害，因為沒有下雨。

耶利米向神禱告：我們本是多次背道，得罪了你。這是罪人的禱告。還求你為你名的緣故行事！你為何在這地像寄居的?影射人只是利用神，消費神！

神的回答：這百姓喜愛妄行（原文是飄流）人找不到方法、答案，所以一直漂流，他們不把神當作方法、答案所以一直在漂流。

假先知所說的反面成真，假先知粉飾太平，我們要講真話?還是說好話?

耶利米不斷為神名的緣故、神的榮耀來求。時間到不一定下雨，唯一神才是我們祈求的對象。

神指出人的問題就是「漂流」。神是我們的唯一嗎？只是想聽好聽的道嗎？下雨不是自然界的現象，是神的保守！

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How?

Our own blessing is in our heart and behavior, everyone has to face the judgment before the Lord. Trust in the Lord and obey God’s command is our fountain of blessing.

All Judah will be carried into exile, carried completely away.

Jeremiah 13:15-27

Hear and pay attention, do not be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings the darkness, before your feet stumble on the darkening hills. You hope for light, but he will turn it to utter darkness and change it to deep gloom.

The cities in the Negev will be shut up,  and there will be no one to open them. All Judah will be carried into exile, carried completely away.

And if you asked yourself, Why has this happened to me?”—it is because of your many sin that your skirts have been torn off and your body mistreated.

I will scatter you like chaff driven by the desert wind.
25 This is your lot, the portion I have decreed for youdeclares the Lord, “because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods. I will pull up your skirts over your face   that your shame may be seen.

Why?

Hear and pay attention, do not be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord.

People fall down for their sins, everyone is born in the sins, only turn to the Lord is the way to eternal life and through the Jesus Christ.

Confess our sins and our limited. 

How?

Give glory to the Lord Almighty!

For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me

 Jeremiah 13:1-14

Then the word of the Lord came to me:  “This is what the Lordsays: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great prideof Jerusalem. These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt—completely useless! For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,’ declares the Lord, ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.’

Say to them: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Every wineskin should be filled with wine.’ And if they say to you, ‘Don’t we know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?’ then tell them, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land, including the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets and all those living in Jerusalem. I will smash them one against the other, parents and children alike, declares the Lord. I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them.’”

Why?

The Lord asked Jeremiah used a ruin belt as example to describe the relationship between the Lord and people of Judah and Jerusalem. They should be have the close relationship with the Lord as belt to a man. But they abandon the true God and follow the other gods.

So people of Judah from kings, priest and people all like drunkenness live in this land. God will smash them one against the other, and without pity or mercy or compassion the destroy them. This is very harsh destruction to them.

How?

Bear in mind the Lord is righteousness, until now the end of the world has no come it is the mercy of the Lord who give time and opportunity for us to repent and turn to the Lord.

I will again have compassion and will bringeach of them back to their own inheritance and their own country.

Jeremiah 12:7-17

8 My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She roars at me therefore I hate her.

It will be made a wasteland,  parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares. Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm, for the sword of the Lord will devour  from one end of the land no one who care.

They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing. They will bear the shame of their harvest because of the Lord’s fierce anger.

This is what the Lord says: “As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the people of Judah from among them. But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bringeach of them back to their own inheritance and their own country. And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives’—even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among my people. But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it,” declares the Lord.

Why?

The Lord is full of love and righteousness to his people. The Lord uproot his people but have compassion and will bring each of them back to their own inheritances.

God loves those who listen to his commands. Like a father to his sons, teach them, love them, discipline them.

How?

Love the Lord with all my soul, my strength and all my heart!

Conversation between Jeremiah and the Lord

 Jeremiah 11:18-12:6

Because the Lord revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying,

Let us destroy the tree and its fruit;  let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.” But you, Lord Almighty, who judge righteousl  and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have committed my cause.

therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. Not even a remnantwill be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.”

2 You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit.
You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.
3 Yet you know me, Lord; you see me and test my thoughts about you.
Drag them off like sheep to be butchered!  Set them apart for the day of slaughter!

Why?

Jeremiah claimed the Lord, the Lord answered him, God will punish them and not even a remnant will be left to them. It is the Lord revenge for Jeremiah.

Don;t worry, when we are under distress or trouble, when we pray to the Lord with our heart and mind and obey God’s word. God will blesses us even we might suffer so stress.

How?

The Lord is my shelter and shepher, Trust in the Lord and obey God’s command forever not for my safety but for God’s love comes upon me. 

Cursed is the one who does not obey the terms of this covenant

Jeremiah 11:1-17

Cursed is the one who does not obey the terms of this covenant— the terms I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.’ I said, ‘Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey’—the land you possess today.”

Both Israel and Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors. Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape.Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes. You, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns;and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’

The Lord Almighty, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you, because the people of both Israel and Judah have done evil and aroused my anger by burning incense to Baal.

Why?

God’s is full of power. God’s covenant endure forever. But if people does not obey the terns of this covenant, curse will come down, for this world is created by the Lord.

God is love, but anyone doing evil God gives change to them to return, if they do not return, the curse will come upon them, the time also is hands of the Lord.

We obey the word of the Lord because  the Lord loves us more than I can say.

How?

Trust in the Lord and search the way of the Lord and follow as my way.

Gather up your belongings to leave the land

 Jeremiah 10:1-25

you are great and your name is mighty in power. Who should not fear you, 

    King of the nations This is your due. Among all the wise leaders of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.

But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles;
the nations cannot endure his wrath.

Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.

Gather up your belongings to leave the land, you who live under siege. For this is what the Lord says: “At this time I will hurl out those who live in this land; I will bring distress on them so that they may be captured.

The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire of the Lord; so they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered.

Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own;it is not for them to direct their steps Discipline me, Lord, but only in due measure—not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing. .    Pour out your wrath on the nation that do not acknowledge you,on the peoples who do not call on your name. For they have devoured Jacob they have devoured him completely and destroyed his homeland.

Why?

There is disaster will come , The Lord asked Jeremiah announced this message to his people. For their sins and their foolish to follow the false gods.

Jeremiah prayed to the Lord, not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing…Jeremiah is honor the Holy name of the Lord.

How?

Bear in mind, I have the only God in heaven who created this world, and He is my shepherd.