2nd Delivery
Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood…..
Jeremiah 16:14-21 reads: “Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them. For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.”
The Covenant Promise has a constant and consistent thread in Elohim’s Act of Salvation, that being the promise of restoration. The Covenant Promise is intrinsic to every declaration of Elohim throughout the scriptures. From Genesis 1 through Revelations 22 the “restoration of all things” is the dominating primary pursuit of the One True Living God.
Through Jeremiah, the Law and the Prophets the One True Living God has declared the certainty and surety of His Covenant Promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Subsequently, He has demonstrated throughout history the constant and consistent faithfulness of His own testimony and oath “I will be your God.”
Keeping in form, He always is sure to amplify the sin of His people and in turn brings a straightforward awareness of and confrontation with His holiness, as well as, His people’s need of His grace and mercy. At the same time, while indicting His people’s unfaithfulness, He affirms and demonstrates His faithfulness. Always adjoining a call of Teshuva/repentance returning to “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength.”
Jeremiah 16:10-13 reads: “Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, For what reason has the LORD declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the LORD our God? Then you are to say to them, It is because your forefathers have forsaken Me, declares the LORD, and have followed other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My Law. You too have done evil, even more than your forefathers; for behold, you are each one walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me. So I will hurl you out of this land into the land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor.”
Jeremiah 16:17-18 “For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes. I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.”
Just as constant in form is that adjoined to an indictment is the declared and demonstrated certainty of His Covenant Promise having intrinsic to it the promise of restoration. Jeremiah 16:16 declares regarding these “days coming”…“Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks.” The One True Living God has at the core of His Covenant Promise the “Return of the Exile” namely, all those who He determines and knows to be the “Israel of God”, the “All Israel,” the “Remnant of Promise” of the “seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as well as, those of the nations who are “called by His Name.”
Jeremiah responds to the Word of the Lord: Jeremiah 16:19a “O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of distress.” Jeremiah’s declaration is a prophetic testimony and call to the constancy of “I will be God to you!” Once again the Covenant Promise is brought to immediacy in effect and affect in both current time and space, as well as, the “days coming” including the time of “Jacob’s Trouble.”
Yet, there is another vital part of the Covenant Promise which embraces the “nations” the “goyim” and Jeremiah rejoices in it. Jeremiah 16:19b reads: “To You the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood, futility and things of no profit.”
Jeremiah 16:20 reads: “Can man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods!” The nations are notably identified and indicted as being idol worshippers, creating “false gods.” The One True Living God calls these “no gods.” These are not merely objects of worship, but they are projections of “self” the “I” the “ego” the “nephesh.” The One True Living God asks: “Can man make gods for himself?” I ask: “Can man make gods for himself in the form of “falsehoods” without material objects?” The answer is yes and we most certainly have! These are false gods created, clothed and adorned of false ideologies, philosophies, mysticism, false spirituality and false theologies. They are “false gods” made of “falsehoods.”
In the Apostolic Writings there is a group of people identified and characterized in a number of ways, yet declared as having a single certain outcome of indictment and destiny. These ones can be found in Matthew 7:15-21 “Beware of the false prophets….you will know them by their fruits. So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and in Your Name cast out demons, and in Your Name perform many miracles?”
This text is not just about false prophets who seek to lead. Messiah broadens the scope to individuals at large as to their character and their subsequent fruit. This group of people sounds very charismatic, born-again, full gospel, Pentecostal and evangelical. They present and voice every projection of confidence as to their own personal relationship with the “Lord” they proclaim. They most certainly do not seem to have any, obviously apparent, questions as to their salvation or their pending eternal destiny. Not unlike those of Jeremiah’s hearers asking: “For what reason has the LORD declared…” These individuals reply: “Lord, Lord, did we not….” However, for these at this point the absolute reality of the “falsehoods of futility without profit,” “false gods” made of “falsehoods,” that they have been so “securely” resting in, now leaves them in despair and separation. Matthew 7:22 “And I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”
Matthew 7:22 refers to those who although are living in and practicing “falsehoods” do not realize it. There are essentially two crisis points that are defined. The first being “I never knew you.” The second being “you who practice lawlessness.” This word “knew” is in the sense of “Adam knew Eve.” This is a “knowing” in intimacy of heart and the reality of Echad/One. This is not a place of acquaintance or familiarity. It is not a place of acquisition of a statement of relationship or acquiescence to a fact or series of facts. Nor is it passive in its essence or expression. One does not “love his wife” by statement alone, but affirms it through “acts in love.”
This brings us to the second of the two crisis points. Namely, “you who practice lawlessness.” Earlier in the text portion of Matthew 7 Messiah is speaking of the “fruit” of individuals. The “fruit” declares the essence of the person’s heart. The “fruit/act” or “practice” of the individual declares the character of the individual. Compare this to the indictment in Jeremiah “you are each one walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me,” John states in 1 John 3:4 “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” Deuteronomy 13:18 reads; “if you will listen to the voice of the LORD your God, keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.” Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.”
In Jeremiah, those who are the holders of the Covenant Promise are indicted for their rebellions against that very covenant which are equivalent to and adjoined in the practice of going after “false gods.” The “nations” the “goyim,” are indicted for living in and practicing “falsehoods” “lawlessness” which are equivalent to and adjoined in the practice of going after “false gods.” These indictments carry with them the implications of the “abominations” done that are demonstrative of the heart’s rebellion with or without formed material objects.
The call of the One True Living God is constant and consistent to both. Both are called to Teshuvah/repentance. Both the holders of the Covenant Promise and those of the “nations” are called to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength.” What it is to “know God or rather to be known by God.” (Galatians 4:9) The One True Living God throughout His scriptures declares definitively what it means to “Love the Lord your God…” John declares by the Spirit of Elohim in I John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
So then, in Jeremiah it is written “unto thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, ‘Our fathers have inherited nought but lies, vanity and things wherein there is no profit.’” What are these “lies?” The answer is found when “Truth” confronts the “Lie” and exposes it for what it is.
These individuals of whom Jeremiah speaks of who “come from the ends of the earth.” What is it that they discovered that subsequently brought them to seek the One True Living God? Were these of the nations, victims of society, cultures, religious ideologies, philosophies, mysticism and/or false theologies? Were they complicit collaborators? Or were they sincere in their pursuits, but sincerely deceived? Much like those of Matthew 7 “Lord, lord did we not…” whose ultimate end is despair and separation from the very one they proclaimed to be Echad/One with.
Jeremiah 16 closes with this declaration: “Therefore behold, I am going to make them [the nations/gentiles] know—This time I will make them [the nations/gentiles] know My power and My might and they [the nations/gentiles] shall know that My Name is the Lord.” What is being stated here as the act or event that marks “This time..?” It is the act, the event, the Salvation Act of Elohim in the demonstration of His Covenant Promise enacted in the “Return of the Exile” and subsequently the “restoration of all things.” This Salvation Act of Elohim emphatically declares the Truth and exposes the “Lie” and the nations of the earth will be witnesses. The faithfulness of The One True Living God the keeper of Covenant is a testimony to the nations. This will certainly be a day of discovery!
James states in Acts 5:13-18 “After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, “Brethren, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, “After these things I will return, and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen, and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My Name,’ says the Lord, who makes these things known from long ago.”
Peter by the Spirit of Elohim states: Acts 3:17-21 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Mashiach would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Yahoshua, the Mashiach appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”
Many have yet to discover the Biblical Judaic Covenant Faith of which the One True Living God defines, clarifies and swears by His Own Name as to its certainty. He is calling those He knows are His own to walk in faithfulness of obedience and Yada, intimacy of “knowing.”
“If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”