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Text: Jeremiah 2-6
This is Jeremiah’s first recorded sermon. It is five chapters long. Jeremiah indicts Jerusalem as the harlot above harlots after presenting Israel as the bride of the LORD. Jeremiah is not the first prophet to talk like this but between him and Ezekiel, both preaching during the Babylonian destruction, they fully understood Israel to be married to the LORD. And they fully understood Jerusalem to be the mother of harlots who was drunk with the blood of the saints.
The LORD remembers first love (Chapter 2)
- The LORD remembers his honeymoon with the nation (vss 1-4)
- The nation abandons her fiance (vss 5-8)
- None seek after the LORD
- They prophesy by Baal: so they give good speeches about a prosperity gospel. They don’t use words like sin, they say you were wounded and use victimology to guide the people.
- The LORD reasons with Jerusalem about two evils (vss 9-13)
- You forsook the living waters
- You made your own cisterns that can’t hold water
- Israel has snared itself in seeking nations that have proven to be evil, and forsook the known goodness of God (vss 14-19)
- Israel’s unfaithfulness (vss 20-30)
- Your lovers are rejected by God (vss 31-37)
- Incredibly skilled at adultery (vs 33)
- Didn’t even have to look to find the blood of saints in you (vs 34).
- Isaiah 59:3
- Jeremiah 7, 19, 22, and 26.
- Also in Ezekiel 9:9, 16, 22-24.
- Then the LORD Jesus Christ identifies Jerusalem as the city full of the innocent blood of the prophets and saints in Matthew 23:30-39.
- Jerusalem’s reputation with the LORD makes sense because Jesus said when he goes to Jerusalem he will be arrested and killed. And why Paul was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem.
- When the prophets and the LORD Jesus Christ charge Jerusalem with all this innocent blood, John’s record in Revelation 17:6 and 18:20-24 is reiterating what’s already been said.
The LORD begs for the nation to return (Chapter 3)
- Law of remarriage, but the Lord says return to me! (vss 1-5)
- Played the harlot on every mountain (vss 6-11)
- Turn back to God (vss 12-19)
- …I am married unto you… (vs 14)
- Return house of Israel (vss 20-25)
The LORD sets the terms for a return (Chapter 4)
- Put away your idols (vss 1-2)
- Circumcise your hearts (vss 3-18)
- If you won’t return (vss 19-31)
The LORD warns that the destroyer will destroy the harlot (Chapter 5)
- There is none good (vss 1-6)
- What else can I do but destroy the rebellious people (vss 7-9)
- I will not fully consume you, there is a remnant (vss 10-18)
- These people can’t see or hear God (vss 19-24)
- Sin has kept you from God’s good hand (vss 25-29)
- The people love their sin (vss 30-31)
The LORD tells the inhabitants to get away from Jerusalem (Chapter 6)
- The enemy has prepared himself (vss 1-5)
- God will forsake Jerusalem (vss 6-8)
- None seek the old paths (vss 9-17)
- Jerusalem will become a spectacle to the nations (vss 18-25)
- Lament that you’ve become worthless and a mockery of God to the nations (vss 26-30)
