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Text: Jeremiah 26
The following events record a public trial of the most notable prophet in Jerusalem at the time of the Babylonian siege on Jerusalem. Peter said the prophets oftentimes signified the Spirit of Christ when it testified of the sufferings of Christ. This is an instance of that signification of Christ’s sufferings in Jeremiah’s life.
Faithful steward (vss 1-7)
- Faithfulness means you’ve kept what you’ve been given. The LORD said, Diminish not a word.
- In the face of opposition
- In the face of deception
- In the face of fear of man
- In order for the LORD to be able to respond to repentant sinners
- Learned obedience by the things that he suffered
Self-righteousness is the enemy of the soul (vss 8-12)
- Because the message was a warning the people, priests, and false prophets want to kill Jeremiah. There was a positive part of the message, but they didn’t want to hear that.
- The last thing sinners seem to protect, the most valuable thing they have is their own righteousness. Sinners seem to be willing to do anything to protect their own righteousness. It is pride.
- Jeremiah is charged with treason for saying God is against Jerusalem and will destroy it.
Offered his body a living sacrifice (vss 13-15)
- Jeremiah rests in the LORD through obedience and acceptance of the consequences.
- Jeremiah warns the leadership that there’ll be consequences to shedding more innocent blood.
Faithful souls find friends they didn’t know they had (vss 16-24)
- The princes sound friendly, but may not be so.
- Ahikam is one of the elders that spearheads Jeremiah’s defense.
- The prophet Micah in king Hezekiah’s day set a precedent for this type of preaching. And Hezekiah was blessed for heeding the warning.
- Urijah the prophet also said the same things, but he was killed by the king in a conspiracy of corruption when Jehoiakim used a good man – Elnathan – unwittingly, to bring Urijah back to Jerusalem.
- Ahikam isn’t Jeremiah, but Ahikam is a partaker in the LORD’s ministry through Jeremiah when he chose to defend Jeremiah against wickedness.
