The consequences of breaking the Covenant/Jeremiah

This paper pretty much sums of the Ministry of Jeremiah and sums up where we are today:

We have broken a Covenant with our LORD and now we shall pay the consequences of our actions.

a study done by Donald Curtis:
(why rewrite something that was written so well, my additional thoughts in blue)

Out of the covenant that promised both blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience comes the sentence for the nation’s great apostasy. The curses of the covenant must surely come, as would have come the blessings, if the nation had maintained its love for the Lord alone.

 

Jeremiah’s Message mostly was to Bring Charges Against the People of Judah and Jerusalem

There are several reasons why the Lord might bring suffering into our lives. In one case, He may bring suffering to discipline us and bring us to maturity. In another case, He sends trials and tribulations our way so that we can stand as His witnesses on the earth. These situations have a compensating good that we can expect to receive for our pain. We can consider such troubles as cause for joy, as James 1:2-4 tells us. But when He bares His arm in wrath, there is no cause for joy. The Lord’s wrath comes when He needs to remove a cancer from His creation. It is the terrible state of being where the only response of the soul is to say, “Woe is me!” As the Lord said through Huldah:

Behold, I bring evil on this place and on its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. “Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods that they might provoke Me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore My wrath burns against this place, and it shall not be quenched” (2 Kings 22:16-17).

There is no hope in these words. The Lord is not moving to discipline His people. He is not bringing tribulation their way. Rather, he is going to demolish the nation and leave it an ash heap.

For the Lord to be just, He must communicate the charges before carrying out the sentence. This was a significant part of Jeremiah’s message. Alongside the failure, as noted above, of Josiah’s reforms to remove rampant idolatry and child sacrifice from Judah, Jeremiah brought these charges:

There were very few God-seeking people in the land. One of the reasons for wrath over discipline for Judah and Jerusalem was the extreme rarity of godly people. On one occasion, the said:

Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and look now and take note. And seek in her open squares, if you can find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her. And although they say, ‘As the Lord lives,’ surely they swear falsely (Jeremiah 5:1, 2).

Jeremiah goes on to describe how he searched among the common people and then among the court. On that day, at least, he could find no one. The people in Judah and Jerusalem had not the slightest inclination to know the Lord and His paths. Jeremiah described their attitude this way:

To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed and they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them; they have no delight in it” (Jeremiah 6:10).

Indeed, beyond a lack of interest, the Word was treated with disdain and derision. Jeremiah wrote,

Thus says the Lord, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls.” But they said, “We will not walk in it” (Jeremiah 6:16).

Moral decline reached its heights. When the nation rejected God and His Scriptures, its general moral state also declined. At the same time, it maintained some external religious affectations. Combined, they were a great insult to the Holy God:

Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered!” — that you may do all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 7:9-11).

These are the charges that Jeremiah brought against the nation. It would seem as if the nation as a whole, not in part, was guilty of:

·                            Love of other gods, which included child sacrifice

·                            No love for the truth

·                            False prophets

·                            Kings and princes who do not seek justice

·                            Adultery, theft, and murder among the people

·                            Exploitation of the poor.

For such charges to have meaning, there must be a legal code on which they are based. That code, of course, is the Law of Moses, which was more than just a legal code, but was a covenant document. It spelled out responsibilities to both parties of the covenant. If the children of Israel obeyed, there would be the blessings of prosperity, health, and safety. If they disobeyed, there would be the curse of poverty, sickness, and terror. All this was clearly spelled out in Deuteronomy 28. So, along with the charges came the expectation of the consequences written in the covenant.


Interestingly enough there was HOPE for those that sought  God:

But surely it was not what MOST of us would have expected to hear these days.

They were not spared completely, most lost their homes and goods and went into captivity to the Babylonians.

There was good news here. Anyone who knew the Lord and knew Jeremiah to be His spokesman had options that led to safety during those trying times. This is not to say that safety meant life as usual, or that it did not mean suffering. There was still loss, and great at that. But the path of safety led to hope and a future. Jeremiah set it out this way:

You shall also say to this people, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who dwells in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence; but he who goes out and falls away to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live, and he will have his own life as booty. For I have set My face against this city for harm and not for good,’” declares the Lord. “It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire” (Jeremiah 21:8-10).

Anyone who believed this message had freedom to leave the city and become the captives of the Chaldeans. This, of course, meant exile and the loss of home. But it was the path of hope for those who took it.

You may wonder why I bring up the fact that many were told to go INTO CAPTIVITY and live under the YOKE of the BABYLON'S.

Two things to understand:

1.  The BODY of CHRIST has been held in CAPTIVITY to the SPIRIT of BABYLON/kings of the EARTH, since the beginning of this prophecy. Subject to the kings RULE and REIGN.

2. During the END-TIME reign of the GLOBAL BEAST and the HARLOT the LORD'S people will be CALLED OUT OF THIS SYSTEM, according to the LORD'S COMMAND. OTHERWISE the "RIGHTEOUS will suffer along with the UNRIGHTEOUS" . 

Those that WILL REFUSE to receive the CALL will suffer the PLAGUES of the HARLOT.

REV 18: 4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her,my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.