COMPARISON OF SINS OF JUDAH AND THE UNITED STATES - EXPRESSED IN THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH

A comparison of sins listed in the book of Jeremiah that led to their destruction to what is happening in our land today. 

We will list and examine the sins that the Lord God rebukes and points out that the children of Judah did that provoked Him to anger and ultimately to their removal.  And if we are to learn anything it must be the comparison that we are guilty of the very same things and headed for the very same fate.  IT would do well for the church of Christ today to learn these things and cease before it is too late.

Jeremiah

7:4, "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these."
this chapter is one of the most condemning by the Lord.  Numerous verses pointing to the sins of the people that caused their judgment.  We would do well to learn from it, before it is too late.
1.'Trust ye not in lying words' - the confession of sin that there are those that seem to be speaking for the Lord, but lying comes out of their mouth.  O Lord, forgive us for false prophets and preachers.  Forgive us for words spoken that are not truth but lies.  'Thou shalt not lie', why should we justify that which the Lord has condemned. 
2.  The lying words spoken are that they were to trust in the 'temple of the Lord' spoken three times as if to regulate it to holiness because it was pronounced 3 times as the Holy Trinity.  But their trust was not to be in the temple of the Lord, but in the Lord Himself.  Again, did not the children of Israel learn during the days of Eli, when they put their confidence and trust in the ark of the covenant?  Do we put our confidence of trust in our church, our denomination, our experience, other people, or is our trust in the Lord?  Father, forgive us that our eyes are on things rather than 'looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.'  Look and see what men put their trust in and confess that it is a false hope, a lying word to our heart and men around us that listen and see  Our trust must be in Him and Him alone.  Forgive us for trusting in the arm of flesh, our own reasoning, our own power, rather than trusting in You alone, O Lord.  The sin of lying, the sin of false hope is the recognition and sin of confession and repentance here.

7:5, "For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;"
Two reactions by the Lord are called for to the people that has a specific transgression and a general transgression.
1.  'Amend your ways and your doings' - a general statement of recognition that there is sin present;  For there would be no need to make this statement had something of their ways and doings not be sinful in His sight.  The very fact that He calls for this is a clear message that sin is present, even though it is not specifically here in this verse identified.  But we do see is that that their ways and doings are an offence unto Him.  Therefore, He calls them to amen them throughly and now.  When such edicts come forth it is need to stop, reflect and consider what are our ways and doings, and what is it that is offensive to Him? what is contrary to His ways?  to His doings?  And herein is our recongntion and confession that our ways and doings are wrong, and against His ways and doings.  We are not holy; we are not faithful; we are not right; we are not living for Him but for ourselves. 
2.  'Execute judgment between a man and his neighbour' - Here is a more specific sin that is identified and called for to correct.  In the 10 commandments, the first 4 commandments are between men and God;  the last 6 are between men and men.  Throughout all Scripture there is the iniquity of how men treat each other.  When there is a wrong between men, between neighbours, then the judges of that community must judge rightly.  When they judge not, or take bribes, or cast settlements for favor there is an unequality that causes God to look with disdain on men's judgments.  They have not judged rightly.  And far worse is when they don't judge at all.  When men are wronged by their fellow men, God has sought judges to protect, deliver and judge rightly that it may go well with the land and that generation.  When judges to not do rightly, God holds them accountable for evil and sin. 

7:6, "If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:"
A reference to what they should not do, but that which they did do.  A listin of 3 sins is found in this verse, of which they were guilty as well as we are.
1.  Oppression of the stranger, the fatherless and the widow - a constant theme throughou the Old Testament of these which were not to be taken advantage of, forsaken or abused;  It may not be as prevalent a sin as others noted, but it is still before us today.  These three groups of people are found as 'precious' in the sight of the Lord and He watches over them.  Always a theme, is God watching over and protecting those that cannot protect themselves.  And herein is our responsiblity to do the same.  And if we have failed them then our sin is before us and upon us.  Let us confess and repent and turn this around for He will make us answerable for these three groups, they were given to us and was responsbile.  Woe to the one that allows for them to be taken advantage of under their watch. 
2.  'Shed not innocent blood in this place' - blood shed has to be answered for;  Those that murder must die, 'life for a life'.  Those that shed innocent blood, as that of abortion, have filled the land with blood.  A blood that has contaminated in this place.  God will hold rulers, leaders and those that knew of it, but did not stop it accountable.  This is a generational sin that has continued for us.  Some 40 years later, this sin has filled the land and provoked the Lord.  If you remember the Lord destroyed Jeruslaem for the sins of Manasseh, and one of those sins was shedding innocent blood.  One of our major offences against the Lord in angering Him is this sin.  A sin that cannot be simply remedied by saying, 'sorry'.  IT is needful for this shedding of blood through murders, through suicides, through abortion find an immediate remedy of confession, and repentance.  One of those sins that must stop immediately, lest it usher in complete judgment from the Lord.
3.  'Walk after other god' - the breaking of the first and second commandments;  The children of Israel and Judah constantly and consistently practiced this wickedness in provoking the Lord.  They worshipped every false god that the other nations had created with their hands.  And in like manner, men's hearts are consistent in revolting away from the Lord God to worship what their flesh and minds desire.  We may not have Tiki gods today to bow down to, but men still are worshipping inaminate objects that are in direct opposition to the Lord God reigning and ruling over us.  And it is not a sin just of the lost and heathen in our land; it is also found in the churches, their hearts are turned away from Him and they are not wholly given unto the Lord.  A confession for our nation, and the church and our own heart of anything and all things that keeps us from complete and whole-hearted devotion to the Lord.  And an act of repentance that would shatter and destroy anything that robs us of time, energy, and abilities for Him and His kingdom in bowing down to these false gods.  'Put away this evil and serve the Lord with all your heart'. 

7:8, "Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit."
--after the previous verses of what not to do, now HE lays of what they are doing, much of the same condemnation;
Only one sin is named here, 'trusting in lying words'.  We are to be people of truth.  We do not lie, we do not give place to lies, we do not perpetuate lies, we do not condone liars.  Jesus condemned the pharisees for such actions as well.  And He stated, that they was of their father, who is the father of lies, the devil.  Many give place to liars in the pulpits and teachers, because they have itching ears.  Let our prayers of confession be that we have been guilty of this same folly.  Replace lies with truth; liars with anointed men of God who speak forth only Your Words O Lord. 

7:9, "Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;"
a hosts of sins are spoken here, let us identify and confess the sins of the people and the church;
1.  Steal - 'thou shalt not steal'; whether the item is great or small; do you steal time and opprotunity from the Lord or from others?  Herein is the sin to be confessed;
2.  Murder - 'thou shalt not kill'; Murder is a continual sin done in most cities of our nation each day and night;  it fills the land with blood that must be answered for.  The sin of abortion is murder and continues to provoke the Lord and someone has to answer for all this innocent blood that has been spilt on our nations' soil.  A rise most recently in our nation is the murder-sucides that is far worse than murder, and covers more damage and hardship to family and those assoicated.  Confession of our guilt in allowing this and understanding why this is happening. 
3.  Adultery - 'thou shalt not commit adultery'; in almost every home of America and in families in the church and out fo the church we see divorce, remarried, mutliple partners and this great sin has affected our entire society;  we have been given over to our flesh and lusts and our inqiuity of adulter reaches to the heavens;
4.  Swear falsely - 'thou shalt not lie';  we are to speak truth and lying is not permitted;  half-truths of today are the same as whole lies; Whole truth is to be spoken and heard.  confession upon pulpits that speak half-truths; upon individuals that speak lies and those that do not speak whole truth
3.  Burn incense unto Baal and walking after other gods - 'thou shalt have no other gods before Me'; Anything that takes us away from the Lord in our thoughts, time, life, choices etc. is guilty of sinning against the Lord in replacing Him.  A sin of the nation, church, families and personal hearts.

7:10, "And come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My Name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?"
Nothing wrong with them coming before the Lord in the house of the Lord and calling upon His Name; oh, that God's people would do that today.  The sin of prayerlessness and unfaithfulness is much upon the church of God today.  Herein is this sin of this verse:
They say that because they 'are in this land and have opportunity to do what they want, they have a right to do all these abominations and serve the Lord'.  this is completely unrational and unreasonable thinking.  Of all the other sins that they are guilty of in verse 9, then to come into the Lord's house and Presence and declare they can and will sin as they please, is to show the utter contempt and evil in their hearts and minds.  And is not the church likeminded today?  Do they not come to church on Sunday morning and then forsake the rest of the day for their own leisure, entertainment and lifestyle.  But because they were in church, they have an air of self-rightouesness that gives them the right and privilege to sin against the Lord.  You can almost understand this when you consider that God can take away His discernement and reasoning when people make such ludicrous remarks.  Such a life is sure to receive greater judgment for descreated the Lord's holy place and Presence with their evil intents to have sin and Him.  You cannot have both, either one or the other.  Our sin to be confessed in this nation and church is that we think we can live for self and the Savior; having forgotten that we are to have died to self in order to live to Christ.  Sin of self-rightouesness; sin of lovers of sin and self;  We never have a right to sin against the Lord. 

7:13, "And now because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;"
Sins specifically mentioned here in this verse and generally referred to.
1.  Sins generally referred to - 'becuase ye have done all these works';  which works is He referring to?  The works that were previously in the last verses; these were more specific.  But their guilt was found in that they had done them.  Once sin is made known, let confession and repentance be found. 
2.  Specific sins spoken of here:
--'I spake with you. . . but ye heard not' - a sin that was continual throughout all the Bible; God gave us ears to hear and minds to discern the words of God.  However, they chose and we choose to turn a deaf hear to His truth and give place to lies and sins.  Once again, it is evidence of how much God has done in reaching to redeem His people and bring them out of such a dangerous place.  confession of sin for this is perpetual and constant for many in the churches and for a nation that has had the truth given, but men's hearts rejected it.
--'I called you, but ye answered not' - now this sin is the sin of rejection;  Here God is speaking, calling and they hear but they will not respond.  We would simply say, that it is rude for someone to speak to us and for us to look at them and not speak back.  But how much worse when the Lord God, Creator of all and sustainer of all call's us and we turn our back upon Him.  Surely He will make us answer one way or another for such folly, irrevence and shameful behavior.  Recognition of how deep this sin is among the body and the repercussions of it that runs deep in our midst for being guilty of this today. 

7:17-18, "Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? v. 18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger."
Need to answer the question presented in verse 17 and to identify the sin in verse 18.
1.  The question:  what are they doing in the cities?  In other Scriptures it is clearly revealed what they do in the streets of the cities of Israel and Judah.  Now even though Israel has been removed by this time, the sin still remains.  Sin remains until it is atoned for.  The sins of the cities are well documented:  adultery, fornication, sodomy, drunkenness, stealing, murder, all of these abominations were practiced and perfomred openly and publicly.  Truly it is stated of them they 'did practice evil continaully'.  And in seeing such folly, evil and works of flesh done, it is necessary to name the sin an make confession for the people, 'we have sinned'.  this was demonstrated by Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.  Moses prayed, 'Oh, this people have sinned a great sin against Thee.'  Every man goes after their own fleshly desires and lives for self.  There is no fear of God, there is no pursuit of holiness; it is all about self and sin.  Confession and repentance of these selfish acts and sins against the Lord is necessary for the whole of the nation, church, families and the personal heart.
2.  Now see the specific application of who is involved in this sin.  In verse 18 it is a description of whole families given to the sin of idolatry.  The father, the mother, and the children are all employed at practicing this evil.  Each one takes their part in practicing sin.  Therefore it is necessary that each one confess and repent of their part in bringing and allowing sin in the land.  Here we see the greater sin of a society, a city and nation; it is whole home and almost all the homes are given to sin.  the specific sin here is idolatry as they worship false gods.  IT is a hard thing to find those that fear the Lord and only bow to Him.  This is a plague of evil in our land today, that whole homes, and multiple generations of families are given to sin.  If confession and repentance is not done soon, then this nation, city, families and people will be removed from the earth. 

7:24, "But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward."
There are 4 sins to recognize here.
1.  'They hearkened not' - they had ears to hear, but they would not hear.  A constant sin stated by the Lord against the people.  Rebellious, obstinate, they would not listen to God's pleas of mercy, love and help.  Simply because they would not hear, does not remove the iniquity that they will answer for not listening.
And so the same today, our nation is without excuse in hearing the Word of the Lord.  There is every available means to hear the Word, but they will not put forth any effort to hear.  Preachers are to preach the Word in order that men may hear, but they will not come to church to hear.  This will not remove their iniquity even though they refuse to come, it only multiplies their sin for not coming and not hearing. 
2.  'Nor inclined their ear' - it is one thing to listen; it is far worse to turn away from hearing;  and as mentioned previously we see this rebellion that they had the chance to hear, but they turn away from the truth of the prophets and the law. 
And so it is today, men will occupy their time and opporutnity intentionally with everything else but giving ear to the Word of the Lord.  Politicians, families, individuals, all turn away from hearing the truth.  They refuse to listen, lest they be accountable for what they hear.  And the other half of that is that they refuse to give place to hear becuase they don't care what the truth is.  Confession of this most intentional sin is a dire circumstance because of the rejection of being made aware of their plight.
3.  'but walked in the counsels and in the imagaination of their evil heart' - Because they would not hear not give ear to the Word of the Lord, they gave place to the opposite of that, they gave place to evil.  They walked out of their evil minds, ways and intents of the heart.  They had nothing there to make them discern between good and evil.  If God is not present, then only sin and evil will be present.  This is the condition of our present day.  They are following after their evil hearts and imagainations due to the fact that truth has been removed and there is no discernment between good and evil. 
4.  'And went backward, and not forward' - the sin of direction;  Paul writes and commands, 'Press on to the mark of the high calling of Christ'.  But here those that may have put a good foot forward, quickly lost ground and went backward.  To those that know they should be moving forward, have lost heart and now slink backwards.  What awaits them in the backward direction?  Sin.  We are born in sin, given to sin and practiced sin.  To move forward moves us away from that sin and causes to embrace Christ.  To move backward we return to our folly.  'As the dog returns to its vomits, so the fool returns to his sin.' 
Confession of this sin is for the nation, church and individuals.  Our nation is not moving forward, but backwards into the pit of hell.  the church is not advancing, but actually surrendering ground to the devil and hell. 

7:26, "Yet they hearkened not unto Me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck:  they did worse than their fathers."
Much of the same sins are here as in verse 24.  Four more sins are named here to identify to bring to confession before the Lord.
1.  'they hearkened not unto Me' - here is a repeat of this sin, as stressed in verse 24;  It is still upon us as it has been for every generation. Confession and repentance.
2.  'Nor inclined their ear' - repeat of verse 24; intentional to incline their ear away from Him; they gave their ears to others thngs of the devil, this world and self;  confession and repentance; 
3. 'Hardened their neck' - not mentioned in verse 24, but identifying the root of the problem;  Hardness of neck is obstinanced, rebellion, disobedient to the ways of the Lord.  Stiffened themselves against the leading of the Holy Spirit  The ability to recognize this sin allows us to see where our folly is. 
4.  'they did worse than their fathers' - it is evil enough to sin, but when it is a progression of sin, it is far worse;  Generational sin is a progression of this evil that they do worse than their fathers.  And when you have several generations reflecting this evil, it provokes the Lord to destroy and remove.  We see this clearly illustrated in the Old Testament.  Israel and Judah both practiced this 'doing worse than their fathers'.   At some point it does come to a head, and that the current generation either repents or is destroyed for their folly and continued evil.  There is the need of confession not just for 'current' sins but for past sins, the sins of the fathers.  Recognition of these evil, confession of them, naming that which has come because of it and then determined resolve to repent for that generation and the one to come. 

7:27, "Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee:  thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee."
Two sins identified in this verse, of which has previously been mentioned.
1.  'they will not hearken to thee' - a continual sin mentioned, but never repented of by the people;  it is needful to note that in such seasons when God speaks and men refuse to hearken, that God continues to speak to these that are deaf.  Yea, it is constant that they have ears to hear but they won't hear.  It is found as the sin throughout all the Bible; throughout all church history and even today.  It is still our problem.  God speaks, but men won't hear.  The need of confession, reconginzing of this great evil among God's Own people and repentance that we cry out unto Him, Who opens the deaf ears and lets us hear once again before it is too late.
2.  'They will not answer thee' - again, the sin of God calling through His prophets, preachers and people, but they will not answer to respond.  They have moved to a place that they feel they do not need to answer, for it is beneath them or not about them.  They turn the ear away and give no place or thought to that which the prophet is saying.  Beckoning unto them, pleading with them to come out from among them and be separate lest they perish in hell for ever.  But they will not respond.  "play on your music and saying, but we will not dance nor respond", they say.  And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of Man returns.  Woe to these that will no answer when called for, for they will answer at the Judgement Seat of Christ, but it will be too late then. 

7:28, "But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction:  truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth."
Another verse in this chapter identifying 4 severe sins of the people against the Lord God.
1.  'This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God' - this is not a heathen nation who has a false god or no god; this is the nation of Israel who has the Lord God and they obey not His voice.  They won't hear, they won't obey.  They have seen and heard of His power, of His covenant with Abraham, with David, and yet they turn from Him.  And it is not a slice of the people, just a few here and there, but it says, 'a nation', the whole people are given to this.  What shall God do to the nation that refuses to obey His voice of power, truth and love? 
And what shall we say of our nation?  what shall we say of His Own people, the church?  Do they obey His voice?  Is this not a necessary recognition of this great sin and need to confess and repent?  Yes, it is.
2. 'Nor receiveth correction' - when the peopel won't obey, they God sends and allows for judgments  These judgements are their correction.  And when they reject or refuse to adhere to God's corrections they cast Him off completely.  God sent captivity, sent drought, sent pestilence, sent all sorts of judgments that they might return to Him and obey, but they would not.  They would not receive the correction of the Lord's purpose which was to restore the broken relationship.
Did the US or church receive the correction of 9/11?  of hurricane Katrian?  of the drug od's? of rise in murder-suicides?  Do we see the correction upon us, yea, even now it is here?  But do you see the church or the people of this nation bowing themselves in humility? in sorrow?  Generally only when it affects their family and their life.  But they will not recognize the reason of it is the sin of the people, they explain it away as a glitch, a tragic event, but not the wrath of God.  Therefore they do not recieve correction of the Lord.  Therefore the judgements increase.  Where we will be broken and contrite or we will be cast off forever.  What a prayer is needed to address this most crucial issue, when God's people receive not His puprose and motive of correcting us.
3.  'Truth is perished' - if truth is perished, then lies are present;  God is truth and has given us His truth in His Word.  Jesus declared, 'I am the way, the truth and the life';  'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God'.  This Word of God is Jesus, and He is all truth, absolute truth; there is no lie in Him or of Him.  And when this absolute truth is perished, then there is a vacum to be filled with lies, deceptions and half-truths.  What becomes of a nation, when truth is perished from their minds and hearts?  what happens to the nation that follows and believes in lies and half-truths?  It is too painful to state, but there is only one conclusion for such a nation. 
and where is the church?  These that are given the work and responsiblity of preserving and speaking the truth.  If truth is perished from the nation, then truth has to have perished from God's people first.  And is that not happening even now, with Bible's being forsaken; Gospel truth not being preached; and services offering entertainment and emotional thralls rather than truth?  We are on this path of destruction and must immediately recognize our plight, which would break us before Him that we cannot reach this determined end for a people that 'truth is perished'.  Confession, ownership of this sin in all its places - church, government, home and hearts. 
4.  'Is cut off from their mouths' - the sin of not speaking, sharing or rehearsing it;  They are not allowed to speak it, as we see in some nations that outlaw the Gospel.  they refuse to speak it, because they are ashamed or ignorant of it.  They won't speak it, because they love their sin and know the truth will expose it.  In all these responses we see the conidtion for that which is to be confessed and repented of.  The recognition of this responses is the cause of truth perishing. 

7:30, "For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight, saith the Lord:  they have set their abominations in the house which is called by My Name, to pollute it."
We see the obvious sin that the Lord points out to them.  And may I say, isn't this an easy choice to make?  "Oh Lord, we have sinned in polluting Your house.  WE have set false gods where You have abided.  Lord we remove those false gods, we repent of this and will never pollute or descrate Your house of Name again."  And then do it.  But they refused to hear, they refused to do.  The sin remained, the evil continued and God responded. 
'Have done evil in My sight' may be a general statement of the many sins that they have done before Him.  But the second half of this verse declares the sin speicificallly.  When sin is spoken and revealed specifically it must be attended to.  When it is general, I feel one must ask the question, what is the sin?  what is to be confessed and repented of?  And then do it. 
This was the identifying of idolatry.  This was the first and second commandments being broken.  And the greater evil was that it polluted that house of God.  Sin contaminates and must be cleansed.  'And there is no remission of sins, but by the shedding of blood.' 

7:31, "And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into My heart."
Two specific sins are mentioned here and a third sin is referenced to be noted and made aware of.
1.  'They have built the high places of Tophet' - high places for one purpose;  And that purpose is not to worship the Lord God but to worship false gods.  Herein is there sin, that they intended to build high places of altars and designate places for sin.  This is premeditated sin when men know what they are doing is an high offence against the Lord, but still they have no remorse, no stopping of the sin, but proceed ahead 
2.  'To burn their sons and their daughters in the fire' - the assualt against children is in each generation;  throughout the Old Testament we read of this horrific sin of sending their children through the fire;  the sin of the heathen, adopted by the children of Israel and maintained to provoke the Lord to anger. 
For our generation our parallel sin is abortion and abuse.  Kill, maim, remove, murder, ruin children through these sinful acts of nation.  what family hasn't been affected by abotion?  what family or individual hasn't been affected by abuse?  These would be a small percentage in this evil land.  All this is sin before the Lord, Who entrusts us withe well-being of our children, for they are our family, and the hope of our next generation.  But our neglect, inability to protect them and unwillingness to deliver them from evil has allowed and multiplied this gross sin, just like the children of Judah sending them through the fire. 
Some parents would become defensive saying, 'I would never send my children through the fire'.  No, you may not, but you allow for them to around drugs, and alcohol.  You run with the most vile and evil of people and teach them your ungodly unholy ways, that they later mimmick.  You caused them to live in fire, 'can any man take fire in his chest and not be burned?'  Look at the scars of our children physically, emotionally, mentailly and spiritually and see how vast, how deep, how horrendous, how lasting is these wounds. 
Confession and pleading for God's mercy and help to recognize the sin.  To know that only God can heal these deep, and what seems 'incurable' wound.  And immediate repentance to protect, shield and deliver them from evil. 

8:2, "And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped:  they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth."
A lengthy verse which although it covers one act of sin, there are 6 actions to be identified and mindful of:
1.  'They shall spread them before the sun, the moon, and the host of heaven' - the very act of worshipping false gods  A very evil religious act that again removes God from being God in their lives and looks to what He has created and worships the creation rather than the Creator.  The sin of idolatry. 
2.  'Whom they have loved' - we are commanded to the love the Lord our God and Him alone;  they loved other false gods.  They doted on them, gave time and place to them.  All the while they gave their energy to the false gods, they took away that opportunity from serving the Lord.  "Men cannot serve God and mammon."  Where is the love of your heart?  Is it unto the Lord? or things of this self and this life?  but it is undeniable that when men seek after something other than God then they are guilty of this sin, 'whom they have loved' rather than 'He, Whom they have loved'.  Much confession and repentance goes into this paticular sin for neglect, dishonoring unto the Lord, lack of whole-heartedness and other numerous confessions.  The heart, soul, mind and body must confess, repent and renew the covenant made. 
3.  'Whom they have served' - again the recognition and depth of this sin is that it goes far deeper than just the sin of idolatry.  Here in this phrase is the sin of stealing from God, that which HE had entrusted to His people to worship and serve Him.  Much of this is our sin today.  We have taken of our excess in wealth and splashed and treated ourselves to luxuries and entertainment while a world languishes without the Gospel and basic needs of food, shelter and medicine.  They have doted, lived for, indulged in that which is nothing but a false god;  all the while they missed out on the real God due to their sinfulness.  A confession beyond idoltary to wastefulness, stealing and dishonoring the Lord. 
4.  'Whom they have walked' - again, the sins continue to be identified by the people;  they have walked after false gods, made up of false truths and ideas.  They walked in the way of this evil and taught it to their children and all those that watched them.  Men learn behavior by watching how others walk in this life.  And if they are given to a false walk, then they will teach it to the others.  Again time and energy is drained in this false walk which must be accounted for. 
5.  'Whom they have sought' - what the heart desire, is what men will seek for;  they have wasted and spent precious time, time which cannot be renewed or given back, in seeking for favor from a false god.  All of this is part of the confession to the soul that is brought out of darkness into light to see they have wasted precious time in seeking for the wrong thing.  Yea, even worse in seeking for that which is an offence to the Lord.  Is it better to seek after nothing, than to seek after that which is anti-God?
6  'Whom they have worshipped' - again all these specific points of showing that the sin of idolatry runs deep;  Yea, they even turned their worship, which should only be to the Lord God and worshipped that which was made with their own hands and in their own minds.  They literally worshipped falsehood and vanity.  We are to worship the Lord God, and He alone. 
All of these six points should be recongnized and identified leading to confession and repentance.  Without such a response, the end of the verse declares what the Lord will do, "He will repay them that hate Him to their face". 

8:5, "Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding?  they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return."
Three sins are identified by the people of the holy city.  Again, as previously mentioned, how expectant it might be that heathen act this way, but it is completely unthinkable that God's Own people should do such sin.
1.  'Slidden back by a perpetual backsliding' - the key word here is perpetual;  It is a continaul backsliding away from God.  And if one is moving away from God, what are they moving toward?  If away from God, then it must be the opposite of God, which is evil.  So they slide back continually toward evil.  Oh, is this not the heart of God's people, 'how they have loved to wander'.  Is this not His church, that have 'sold their birthrights for a bowl of porage'?  Is this not our nation, who continue to blasphemy His Word and His ways? 
It is not a sporadic moment, that happens occassionally, or once in a while; it is perpetual, a continual backsliding, day in and day out.  What shall God do to such evil of His people and a nation?  
2.  'they hold fast deceit' - they cling and harbor lies and half-truths;  this is from the church, to the society of continaully choosing lies over truth;  Men will go hear what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.  This is there normal way of life, they are given to lies  One passage covers the waywardness of 'a refuge of lies'; men harbor in the comfort of belieivng lies, because they cannot face the truth.  The call is simple, 'thou shalt not lie'.  Know truth, embrace truth, speak truth and follow truth;  confess and repent of lies believed and spoken.
3.  'they refuse to return' - this is another way of saying, the sin of rebellion and disobeedience;  it is not that they cannot return to the Lord and His right ways, but they refuse to do it.  It is the obstinance of their heart and will, they forsake and Him and refuse to return.  And it would seem today that there is a mass exodus of souls that, even though they know the truth, still they will not surrender and obey that truth.  'to him that knoweth to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.'  The problem with this sin, is that it is at the very heart of what is wrong.  They will not confess, they will not repent but they will remain in their wickedness and God's wrath will meet them. 

8:6, "I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright:  no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?  every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle."
Again there are three sins identified here in this verse for us to be aware of. 
1.  'they spake not aright' - the words of our mouth are judged;  All things shall be judged with every good word and every wicked word.  God hears all words of men and discerns of the intent and the substance in which it is spoken.  Our words are not to be lies, half-truths or jesting; but our words are to be truth, whole truth and sincere and honest.  How much more is confession needed to those that have not spoken aright about the things of God?  Ministers, teachers and the body of Christ to proclaim the absolute truth to those who most defintely don't want to hear it.  Recognition of our duty to speak rightly, and if not, then confess and correct the sin. 
2.  "no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?'  Two acts of the same sin if found here.  First, no man repented; which means the sin remains and deepens.  Secondly, they have the adacity to say, 'what have I done?'  as if to justify their sin and not recognize the high and holy offense against the Lord God.  What is wrong with people, when we get to the point of saying, 'what have I done?' when they are in direct violation of God's Word and commands.  The very fact that men harden their hearts to not repent is one thing, but to further that insult against God by saying literally, "I have done nothing wrong" is to offend God to the fullest.  Is our nation and the church not nearing this place?  The sad fact about this, is that I believe when men get to this point, God gives them up and there is no hope for confession nor repentance, for they will not do it.  They will die in their sins and eternally burn in hell forever.  Woe to those that are in this place. 
3.  'Everyone turned to his course' - men have forsaken the Lord's way and gone their own way.  The book of Judges says it another way, 'every man did that which was right in his own eyes.'  The way of self is always sinful.  Men turn to their own way, because they have rejected God's way.  What greater sin is there than that? 

8:10, "Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them:  for everyone from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the propheet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely."
The first part of this verse is the punishment administered by the Lord; the second is the listing of the sins and offences that caused the punishment.
'For everyone from the least even unto the greatest is given ot covetousness' - 'Thou shalt not covet' is the cleaer command; yet, we have here that everyone is involved in this same sin.  Men coveting after that which is not theirs.  Never satisfied; never content; always wanting others things and more from this life.  It has always been around, yea, it was in the first sin of Eve, when she coveted what she was told that she could not have.  And ever since, it has been the same.  And what shall we say for our nation? never content, never happy, always more of what others have or possess;  what shall we say of our churches?  enver content, never ahppy, always mroe of what others have or possess. 
We never hear the confession of this sin, do we?  I believe they think it to be the norm, the natural way of men to desire more from others and never be content.  And yet, it is the highest offence against God to say to Him, 'You didin't give me enough.' 

'From the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely' - deception, lies, stealing, are all apart of this folly;  And note who is guilty of this, the priest and the prophet; the religious order who should know better and do better.  WE see the leadership of the religious people at fault, and as they go so go the people.  confession from the pulpits in dealing falsing with numbers, time, accounts, are to be confessed and repented of, to restore the holiness of the religious leaders. 

But what we see here is the total sinfulness of soceity - least to greatest; prophet to priest.  All are found guilty of sin; therefore all are in need to repent. 

8:19, "Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of My people because of them that dwell in a far country:  Is not the Lord in Zion? is not her king in her?  Why have they provoked Me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?"
The recognition of each verse that declares of God saying, 'they have provoked Me to anger' is that there is some sin there that has done this.  It is needful to understand that God does not get 'provoked to anger' over nothing. 
Here in this verse, God declares the cause of His being provoked to anger; 'their graven images, and with strange vanities'.
The graven images is continaully noted, that Jerusalem and Judah made false gods and worshipped everything under the sun but the Lord God.  this is breaking the first and second commandments.
But the other sin mentioned is not so regularly spoken of, 'with strange vanities'.  Now vanity is a sin unto itself, in that it is an empty pursuit, or for ones own self.   The note of strange vanities would cause us to ask, what is different about this from regular vanities that men give time and place to?  And when we answer that we find the 'strange vanities' that cause men to sin. 

9:2, "Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave My people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, and assembly of treacherous men."
How awful is this when God seeks for a way to forsake His people due to their continual, persistent wickedness!  Two sins are mentioned here for our confession and repentance.
1.  'They be all adulterers' - 'Thou shalt not commit adultery'; it is the sin among the heathen and in the church;  It is a very inclusive sin, 'they be all' guilty of this sin.  In Jeremiah it is said, that 'all men neighed after their neighbors wives'.  We see this continaul sin throughout our land with divorce, remarriage, divorce and remarried numerous times; multiple partners with wed and unwed women.  There is such the sin of lasciousviness among the brethren in the church and throughout the nation. 
Confession and repentance is necessary, but due to its enormous ramifications of how many are infected I don't know what that would like in the midst of revival.
2.  'And assembly of treacherous men' - men that practice evil and dishonesty;  They are given to robbery, lying, profanity, assualt, cheating, stealing and utter evil of every sort.  It is a mob that is doing this, 'an assembly of men'.  Where one evil man goes, so goes the rest.  They have strength in numbers due to the excessive evil of their practices.  Confession and repentance would be to admit, seek forgivenness to each one that they afflicted, hurt, spoke to and restore whatever might have been taken or stolen. 

9:5, "And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth:  they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity."
There are 4 sins pointed out here for our identification.  They run very much hand in hand, but although of the same issues, they are separate in nature of each one to be identified and resolved through repentance.
1.  'they will decive every one his neighbour' - deception is the evil act of purposely tricking their fellow man;  they know it is wrong but still deceive;  It may be an act of deception of selling or doing something that may seem one thing, but is quite the other.  But the reference of this verse is filled with deception from speaking lies and half truths to deceive the people. 
2.  'They will not speak the truth' - 'Thou shalt not lie';  "let your conversation be without covenanteous';  This phrase almost refers to the impact of purposefully not speaking truth  Regardless of its intent, it does not change the fact that they speak lies and will not speak the truth unto those around them. 
3.  'they have taught their tongue to speak lies' - they have made it a practice and choice to speak lies and disregard the truth;  When one goes about to teach themselves to speak lies, there is an intentional intent of undoing the truth in order to speak lies.  They have labored to teach themselves these lies.  This only adds to the sinfulness and wickedness of men to deceive and keep the truth from those that need to hear it.
4.  'Weary themselves to commit iniquity' - they literally wear themselves out to get to sin; But to do good, or do righteousenss is unthinkable to them, they have not the interest nor the willingness.  It is the saddest of days to watch men expend all their energy on sin and leave nothing for good.  many excuses are given that they are too tired to read their Bibles, pray, attend church, be engaged in sharing the Gospel; but these that are too tired and weary can find energy, strength and time to run to sin.  Confession and repentance of these most deliberate and evil actions that always lead to greater sin.  Stop the sin of lying before it consumes every fabric of your life.

9:6, "Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me, saith the Lord."
A continuance from the previous verse on lying and deception.  It begins to identify the depth of such choices and decisions.
'Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit' - the very foundation of their existence and living is based upon lies and deception;  This deception is in all areas of their life.  What is it to get up in the morning under lies? and to live all day under lies? and to conclude the day in lies?  Is there any truth?  is it all for nought? 
Decption is in falsehoods presented and accepted.  Sin is presented as acceptable.  Lifestyles, choices, decisions are all permissible to whatever self wants to do, for the truth of God's Word has been removed to correct and admonish.  This decpetion runs deep when it comes from the pulpits and the government that instills a lie to intentionally subvert the minds and lives of the people to follow this decpetion.  The description here is that his habitation was surrounded and in the very midst of deception.  We can only assume it was like Lot, 'who was vexed from day to day'. 
'Through deceit they refuse to know Me' - the second sin is birthed from the first;  Deception, lies, bears the seed of avoiding and refusing Truth, 'I am Truth', saith the Lord.  They literally choose to believe and adhere to lies rather than deception.  But the very fact that they do not know the Lord is a choice of greater importance.  They have actively had to avoid and remove all sources of God revealing His truth.  Now consider where all His truth is made known - His Word, His house, His servants, His Spirit.  They have removed and avoided all these things to get to this place to 'refuse to know Him'. 
How much is this the greater sin?  God's creation refuses to acknowledge or know their Creator; it is the greatest of offences and provocations to the Lord God.  He will answer this folly severely without the people humbling themselves, being broken, contrite and confessing and repenting of this great evil.

9:8, "Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit:  one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait."
The sin is identified - deceit, lies; and the means of which it is exercised - hypocrisy.
--'It speaketh lies' - the people continue to speak lies and share deceit among one another;  It is a society filled with iniquity.  They know not truth, nor do they employ any desire to replace the lies with truth.  They have utterly received deceit and lies as the norm for the way of life.  What kind o society can exist under falsehood and deceit?  There is no good that can come from this.  'Thou shal not lie' and therefore let the first act of confession and repentance be, the acknowledgement that they have rejected truth, spoken lies and believed the lies. 
--'ONe speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait' - nothing is sinful or wrong with speaking to your neighbor; but there is sin when your mouth says one thing, and your heart is saying something else.  Simple term is hypocrisy.  But this has a much deeper root of evil that has been contemplative and premeditated for evil.  And just as sin and evil never stays the same, but must grow or matrue into something worse and more evil, so simple lies, may exist for a while, but they become more and more consuming in the mind, heart and speech of the people.  And this shows the growth that they are able to speak one way to their neighbour but in the heart they are lying and preparing for evil. 
Confession and repentance would be to reveal the truth of tyhe heart, seek restoration and ask for forgiveness from God and the men lied and deceived. 

9:13, "And the Lord saith, Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, neither walked therein;"
Three acts of sin are revealed here by the Lord, as it is He Who is speaking to idenitfy these sins against Him.
1.  'Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them' - this is repeated numerous times in Scripture identifying their sin;  I am always left with the question, 'How can you forget God?'  And I guess at best, that there is simply that thoughts and time of God are replaced for things of self and sin; eventually wearing away any time to remember or serve God.  But it is as intentional to move God out of giving time to Him, as it is to make time for others things.  This is a choice and an action taken by the individual and people to intentionally forget God, the greatest of evil.
2.  'Have not obeyed My voice' - one such way to forget God, is to stop listening to Him;  Thus, having ears to hear, they will not hear'.  Again, it is an intentional action taken to stop listening to God.  They stop coming to church, where the Word of God is preached.  They stop giving any time in their busy, selfish lives to think or listen to Him.  Thus, they will not obey the Voice of God that they have rejected and refused.  Their disobedience is now complete to the fullest extent of their live.  Woe to the nation and individual that gets to this point. 
3.  'Neither walked therein' - What a vile and evil progression!  'they forgot God, they stopped listenign to God, and they walk contrary to Him.'  Oh, brethren, how this is our very testimony as a nation!  Is the church, the body of Christ not much further  behind it?  For the very question of this sin, is the walk.  Do Christians walk with God or like God?  Is not the testimony of too many church goers that they walk contrary to the ways of God?  Is our nation not in a breakaway run away from God?  They are running as fast as they can in the opposite direction. 
Confession is pointed and specific of these great evils of men that need to be identified, confessed and repented of immediately.  To reach this stage is disastrous and limited time to respond before God's wrath falls.

9:14, "But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their father's taught them;"
Two indentifying sins are to be found in this verse of the people.
1.  'But have walked after the imagination of their own heart' - it speaks specifically of walking after false gods, mainly Baalim;  But this phrase is concluding the thought and description in the previous verse of that the people walked contrary to God.  They forgot God and walked opposite of Him.  Here it tells us what they walked to, or after; they walked after their own hearts desries.  The evil of men and the deception of Satan is to get men to stop looking unto God and giving place to Him, and turning inward and following what self wants.  In every sin from Eve til present, self determines to be rebellious and disobedient against God and serve the lusts of the flesh and the desires of one's own heart. 
the fulfilled danger of this sin is that when you have an entire society and nation given to this sin and there is no voice of calling or invitation to turn back, repetnt and come back and serve the Lord, then the end is near.  As it was in the days of Noah; in the days of Jeremiah; so shall it be when Christ comes back.
2.  'Which their father's taught them' - generational sin;  we see this referenced throughout the Bible, children learn to sin from their parents.  The fathers have taught the children to worship false gods and follow after their own hearts.  Yea, it is true that even way back in Judges, the theme ran, 'and every man did that which was right in his own eyes'.  I wonder how much greater the judgment is upon such that have the witness and testimony from God when the books are opened: "YOu not only sinned in your own heart, and life;  but you compelled and taught your children to sin against Me."  Truly the judgement must be worse and the punishment deeper.  Oh, that fathers would repent and renew their vows unto the Lord and serve Him with all their heart.

10:21, "For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the Lord:  therefore they shall not propser, and all their flocks shall be scattered."
1.  The sin is revealed of the pastors.  There are several passages in Jeremiah that God points out the pastors, priest and false prophets for their damage and allowance of evil.  The sin of pastors being brutish - (Merriam/Webster Dictionary) acting like a brute or beast; strongly and grossly sensual; showing little intelligence and sensibility;  What high crimes of sin for those that are supposed to be Spirit filled, discerning, wise and holy. 
2.  They have not sought the Lord - Scripture is clear that in order to find Him, one must seek Him.  Failure to seek, means you will never find.  Pastors rely on all other things rather than seeking His face.  Everything else is priority, time is spent on self and world, ministry; but no time is given to seek Him.

11:3, "And say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant."
One sin is identified by God and cursing is put upon the man that does it.
'The man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant' - the sin is disobedience and breaking the covenant;  It is no little warning or 'little' sin.  It is the gravest of atrocities by a man to disobey God and break the covenant.  The covenant has never been broken by God, it is always us.  A sin that is never confessed, never mourned, never taken ownership of.  What sinful creatures we are.  Adam and EVe broke it in the garden; the children of men broke it in the days from adam to Noah;  The children of Israel broke it in the Old Testament; and the church is very much guilty of breaking it in our day and time. 
The covenant is nto broken simply because we wake up one morning and decide to sin, it is a grradual decline.  Satan masters this sin by a continaul, steady, persistent assualt to break the foundations til it collapses by our choices, lifestyle and actions.  But it all is centered in the overall sin listed here, 'we obey not the Words of the Lord'.  Disobedience is our highest accountable sin in our lifetime.  'To him that knoweth to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.'  And if our 'heeart condemtn, God is greater than our heart' and condemns us for our folly and sinfulness. 
Confess, identify the acts of disobedience, naming them one by one, repent and restore the covenant.

11:8, "Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart:  therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not."
Four sins are identified in this verse.  They are overlapping in many respects and the root of it all is disobedience.
1.  'They obeyed not' - straight out disobeidence;  they heard God say, 'Thou shalt' and they said, 'No we won't'. Then God said, 'Thou shalt not' and they said, 'But we will'.  They are found in disobeience against the Lord and His commandments.  This is the spirit of rebellion, the same which Eve had in the garden of Eden.  Yea, and it still rests within us.  Confession and repentance of disobeience against the Lord.
2.  'Nor incline their ear' - again the problem of hearing and listening;  This sin is a willful turning of the ear away from what God is saying.  It is the sin of selective hearing.  They did not want to hear what God says, nor would they make time or give place to hear it.  They put great effort into this sin to keep themselves from giving time or place to Him. 
3.  'But walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart' - Because they did not give time or place to the Lord, this created a void which was filled with their own intent and desires from their wicked hearts.  OUt of the heart proceed such evil and abominations against the Lord.  And where God is absent, Satan pushes forward.  HE brings forth the evil out of their heart, puts it into their minds and causes men to fall prey to it.  A specific confession is needed here of what was actually done, repentance of the action done by following the imagianations of the heart away from God and get back to God. 
4.  'But they did them not' - this is the statement of rebellion and completion of the disobedience;  IT has such a finality about it too.  'I commended them to do; but they did them not'.  As if to say they won't do them, nor will I allow for them time to do them, it is over.  It is a statement that reflects the past of their choices and actions. 

11:10, "They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear My words; and they went after other gods to serve them:  the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers."
Another lengthy verse given place to 4 sins done by the house of Israel and house of Judah.
1.  'They are turned back to the iniqutities of their forefathers' - having been delivered from it, they return to that which their fathers practiced.  They were commanded to not do as the heathen had done previously in the promised land of worshipping false gods.  they abhored the Lords commands and went and did as the heathen.  And after being delivered by the Lord from captivity time and time again and being judged, they always fell back into it.  Now the children and descendants of these wicked, sinful men are returning to the actions of their forefathers.  Doing the exact same thing that costs their fathers punihsment and judgement.  The need to identify what they the forefathers did, see it in their own practices and confess and repent of it.
2.  'Which refused to hear My Words' - the continued sin of failure to listen to God;  again the issue of hearing the Word of God is declared and pointed to as a direct affront against God.  How long will God tolerate the refusal of His people to not listen to His Word?  Identify the sin, confess and repent.
3.  'they went after other gods to serve them' - the sin of idolatry; throughout their history and the account of mankind, they have loved to wander to false gods.  They have sought a replacement for God, becasue they did nto want to surrender or obey.  The sin still remains among us and continues to exercise provocation of God against us. 
4.  'Have broken My covenant which I made with their father' - two parties enter in to agreement and a covenant is made;  Both of which must keep up their part of that agreement.  God never fails on His part, however, men fail and break their covenant with God.  Here the Lord states that the children of Israel and Judah broke their covenant with Him.  Once the covenant is broken, they must reap the fruit of those actions, or enter into another agreement and restore the broken relationship.  We are under a covenant with God as the church, we must fulfill our part and HE will defintiely fulfill His part.  But if we break the covenant then our sin is just as theirs was.  Identify, confess and repent of the 4 sins of this verse.

11:12, "Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense:  but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble."
-One sin indentified here of their continued idolatry of fasle gods;  They go to them, which means they go away from the Lord.  They cry unto them, which means they turn the back and deaf ear to the Lord and they offer the bounty from the Lord that He provides unto their false gods to offend and provoke Him.  Everything about fasle worship takes away from the Lord God and literally waste time, energy, talents and moments that could advance our Lord's purposes and kingdoms.  Our sin lies in the same manner of taking away from the Lord and giving to our lusts, interests and squandroning our resources, time and energy on vanity and self.  A great inqiutiy that will be held accountable at the judgment seat of Christ.  Indentify, confess and repent.

11:13, "For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerualem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal."
Continuing to address the shamefulness and sin of idolatry among the Judah and Jesulaem.  two points that demonstrate the severity of this great inqiutiy among them:
1. 'According to the number of thy cities were thy gods' - that has many cities that could be counted, there was a false god and practice of false worship;  We know that there was dozens of cities, yea, hundreds of cities in Judah and that they all gave themselves to false worship.  Is it not so with us?  Can it not be found in our wicked cities that they worship everything else but the Lord God.  And that this testimony is as true of us as of them, the whole nation is given to idolatry and the naming of each false religion, false god is directly linked to the peopel of that city, whose souls are lost, vile and seared. 
2.  'According to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars that shameful thing' - as each city was given to idolatry, so even closer scrunity reveals that each street practices this same wickedness.  How much so when we walk through the streets of our cities do we see this folly and evil?  is there any passing out bibles? is any passing out tracks? is there any street preachers? is there any praying?  Woe unto us, there is only the burning unto fasle gods.  Worship fo the Lord is forsaken.  How far impacting; how deeply seated is this folly;  how wicked are the lives of our streets and cities.  This verse reveals the all inclusivenness of our great evil.

11:15, "What hath my beloved to do in Mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from thee?  when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest."
Although only one sin is declared here, there are other pointed evils of which to identify and understand. 
'they have wrought lewdness with many' - sexual impurity through adultery, fornication and lascviousness;  defiling their purity and holiness as God's people.  so much so that He says, 'the holy flesh is passed from thee'.  As vessels of honor for our Lord, we cannot, will not, surrender to the lusts of the flesh to destroy our walk with God, grieve the Holy Spirit away and allow sin to tarnish us.  Oh, how many casually sin throughout the week, even on Saturday night, then stroll in on Sunday to worship as if all was well.  It is not well, and the same question would be asked as here in this verse, 'what hath my beloved to do in Mine house?' 
'When thouu doest evil, then thou rejoicest' - again the reference to the sin to be identified is general, you have done evil;  As we go back over the sins already mentioned we see their condemnation of their choices and actions.  This evil that they do against the Lord in adultery, idolatry, disobedience, refusal to hear Him and rebellion are a apart of the evil of their lives.  And if that was all, we would be able to say they can quickly identify their sin, confess and repent; however, they do not have any remorse, or sorrow over their inqiuity, for 'they rejoice' in it.  This is the evil of men, that not only do they sin, but then have the adacity to rejoice in it, knowing that it provokes the Lord even tmore.  And if they are rejoicing in it, then they are that much further from having any desire or ability to confess and repent, it is a perpetual state of inqiuity.

11:17, "For the Lord of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke Me to anger in offering incense unto Baal."
A general reference to their sin and then a specifice sin is mentioned at the end of the verse.
--'For the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah' - their evil is well documented;  at the end of this verse, their sin of idolatry is shared.  But their evil here is referenced to the whole houses of Israel and Judah, it is an extended folly throughout all the people.  Every house and every hand is given to doing evil before the Lord.  Are we not almost there?  How many homes are without any Christian in them?  How many are given to evil every day, of every moment for the love of sin and self in our land?  It is closely coming to this point of no return in our filling the land with continual evil before Him to 'provoke Him against us'.  From the lifestyles of many, to the laws of the land, to the abhorence of anything good and right, we have forsaken the Lord and turned to practice evil always.  Woe unto such a people, only judgment and wrath will be found for them.
--'In offering incense unto Baal' - the specific sin is declared, that they did against the Lord, the sin of idolatry;  And as we have read, this was not just once in a while or just a few that did this sin.  This sin was done by all Judah and Isarel, and they did it perpetually against the Lord.  The sin of Baal was long found throughout centuries of Israel's history.  We read it constantly in the kings, in the false prophets, and the sin that provoked the Lord to anger.  And even knowing all this, they did nto turn away from this evil, but continued in it, teaching the next generation until God said, 'Enough' and removed them from the land.  But no doubt, even though they was removed from the land, still their hearts must have cried out to the false god of Baal.  What a senseless life men live when they serve fasle gods and neglect and reject the Lord God. 

11:19, "But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they  had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered."
The next 3 verses will lead us the same sin, the people seeking to kill the prophet, Jeremiah.  And these were people from his own home town.  NO doubt, the words of Christ are demonstrated again,'a prophet is not received of his own.' 
--'Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof & let us cut him off from the land' - the sin of removing the prophet by murder;  'Thou shalt not kill', but yet we see that they are given to pre-meditated murder.  'Touch not Mine anointed'.  David had secured the place of the king as being anointed and was not to be touched to execute or assasinate.  How much more then is the prophet who in the realm of heaven is above the kings of the earth.  And yet, recorded throughout the Scriptures and throughout history of wicked men with this same sin of removing them becasue for Who they spseak for and what their message was.  Men who cannot stand to be told what is right and wrong, will find a way to remove the voice of conviction. 
--'That his name may be no more remembered' - ah, but he will be remembered forever before teh throne of God.  Even now, the matrys, whose name was sought no more to be remembered are under the throne of God, 'who cry out day and night, 'How long O Lord before You avenge us?'"  You cannot removed their remembrance, and even those that would kill them, will God not prick their conscious for the rest of their days here in memories and dreams.  God will protect His Own, and He will not always allow for the evil practices of men against His people to triumph.  JEremiah was delivered
This sin is the evil of men when they specifically target God's servants and people. 

11:20, "But, O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see Thy vengeance on them:  for unto Thee have I revealed my cause."
The sin of the prophet and God's people.
Is it not just as much sin when we deisre to do what evil men desire to do?  Jeremiah's city wanted to kill him, and he turned right around and asked to see the Lord smite them.  Now was he not right in asking what God had said, 'I will protect My Own'?  Yes, but much like when John and James asked Christ if they should call fire and brimstone down on the city of Samaria, JEsus rebuked them and said, 'You know not what manner of men you are of.'   What manner of men are we if we ask for what they are seeking for?  Truly we must be of a higher calibrer than evil men's desires.  We must trust in God, that whether delivered or not, He is right and just.  And whether God judges them here or not, He will judge them, 'and bring every deed done into account, whether it be good or evil.'  For God hath said, 'Vengeance is mine saith the Lord, I will repay' and that is where we are to leave it.  LEt us not be the hand of God to satisfy our own desires of revenge and action toward our enemies and the enemies of God. 
The sin fo God's man and people wanting the Lord to do for them, what evil men want to do to us.  Maek sure of what spirit you are of and trust in God.  'The will of the Lord be done'. 

11:21, "Therefore thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the Name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hand:"
The Lord speaks and deals with these men and all things are in His ways and timing, and it is the best way.  Truly, it is the only way, lest we be found with blood on our hands.
Identifying the sin here is twofold, they confess their own iniquity that if Jeremiah did not stop prophesying they would kill him.  They confessed that they would murder the man of God.  YEt, this is not a confession of a broken and contrite heart, but the confession of evil men who love evil and do evil as their evil father has done. 
The second inqiutiy here is that they tell Jeremiah to stop prophesying unto them in the Name of the Lord.  aS if to say, 'its's ok to prophey in a false prophets name, but we don't want the word of the Lord.'   Woe to those that are so brutish and foolish to silence the man of God and threaten to kill the man of God.  IT is a double sin on these men that God will hold them accountable and make them to answer in this life and the life to come before His judgement seat.  Much is the same for our nation today.  We have had great preachers, mighty proclaimers of the Word, all to men that said, 'do not preach to us this way, we want to live our way.'  And they have gone out and found preachers, that tickle their ears and tell them lies.  O God how long!  must we provoke You all the time and fight against You. 

12:6, "For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee:  yea, they have called a multitude after thee: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto thee."
There is a two fold condemnation in this verse of which we will give place to both sides, for it is much like our own. 
First, we can read this account of verse 5 and 6 and see it to understand the Lord talking to Jeremiah.  Therefore the reference would be regarding the people of his city and his family that have come against him.  They have set themselves against him on other occasions and other purposes throughout the book of Jeremiah.  The sin is regardless of who it is against 'they have dealt treacheroulsy' with the Lord's anointed.   
But this is also, how they dealt with our Lord when He was on the earth.  This is also how they deal with the church in this present world.  It is a consistent sin, as Satan uses his minions against the people of God and the work of God.  They deal treachersously by persecution, death, punishment, prison, affliction and other evil works. 
Secondly, you see that they are not usually just one or two, but 'they have called a multitude after thee'.  They run in packs, they feed in courage and strength off of numbers.  Whereas, many a prophet, servant serves by themselves and stands alone for their Lord.  The second offence is here found that others blindly follow the blind to do evil and practice mischief against the ones the Lord said, 'touch not mine anointed and do my servants no harm.' 
The last phrase reveals again the sin of lying.  'believe them not, thought they speak fair words unto thee'.  They talk the conversation of their father, the devil.  HE is the father of lies and they follow after him.  Many an enticing word comes from those that we would trust and put our confidence in, but alas, we find they are workers against our Lord and would do us hurt.  The continual sin of lying is predominant in this and is a direct sin to the Lord, Who is a God of whole truth.  Confession and repentance of these inqiuties by the people against the people of God.

12:16, "And it shall come to pass if they will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My Name, The Lord liveth; as they taught My people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of My people."
The identifying sin is straight forward from the Lord, 'you taught My people to swear by Baal'.  The sin of idolatry which Israel and Judah had done for so long against the Lord.  But even here the Lord is offering restoration if they forsake the idols and turn to Him.  They taught the people of God to worship false gods, a great iniquity by the people and by the people of God for forsaking and turning away from the One, True God. 

12:17, "But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the Lord."
Upon being given the opportunity for beginning again to worship the Lord rightly, they are warned of this sin, do not disobey.  The sin of disobedience is consistent.  'If they will not obey', means that it has not happened yet, and they are being warned.  But as we read throughout the Old Testament, we know they did disobey all the way from leaving the land of Egypt, through the wilderness and right up to the time of Christ, the children of Israel disobeyed the word of the Lord.  The iniquity of failure before God to be confessed and repented of before it is too late.

13:10, "This evil people, which refuse to hear My words, which walk in the imagaination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing."
The continued sin of God's people rejecting Him and turning to false worship. 
1. 'Refuse to hear My words' - the continued condemnation of their listening problem.  They have ears to hear, but will not hear.  They refuse, which is an open rebellion against Him; due directly to the source of this communication, that because it comes from God, they reject it.
2.  'Walk in the imagination of their heart' - walk contrary to the good and right way by following after their own hearts;  God has already told them that their hearts are evil; therefore whatsoever comes from the heart is evil, which is their imaginations. IT is sin and self that these imaginations are set on.
3.  'Walk after other gods' - continued sin of idolatry;
4. 'Serve and Worship them' - taking from God, to give to false idols; their sacrifices of food and animals, their time, their money; stealing from God to give to false gods;
All these actions done and taken by the people serve to demonstrate the truth that they are evil people.  And as we follow suit, so are we declared evil in the sight of the Lord.  Identify, confess and repent before it is too late.

13:13, "Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness."
Only one sin named here, the sin of drunkenness.  They sought folly, they went after it and God will make them rest in it.  This is all the people, including being named the leadership of king and priests.  But all of them shall be filled with this sin because they have forsaken the Lord and His right ways.  Look at our society, is it not a drunk stupor of men that follow after indulging til their drunk.  God is bringing us to our chosen end as well for we are a mirror reflection of the children of Jerusalem and Judah.  Woe unto such a people.
'And be ye not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.'

13:17, "But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock is carried away captive."
Two choices of sin is mentioned here. 
1.  'Ye will not hear it' - once again the mention of the act of a listening problem; having ears to hear, but will not hear.
2.  'for your pride' - pride is always about self, and rejects that God is where true worship, thanksgiving and acknowledgement should be;  Pride makes us look to men, rather than 'looking to JEsus'.  PRide is the opposite of what we are called to be, 'humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord'.  PRide is a major root of many other evils of men.  PRide is our choice as a nation, churches, families and personal exaltation.  IT is that which Satan uses so often for our own destruction, causing us to fail to bow the knee and humble ourselves before Him or men. 
There is much evil in this that is at the heart and soul of our current abounding of sin today.  Without a recognition of these sins, men will not confess and repent.

13:25, "This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from Me, saith the Lord; because thou hast forgotten Me, and trusted in falsehood."
Two sins are pronounced here in this verse.
1.  'Thou hast forgotten Me' - repeated again as one of the main issues of sin by the children of Israel and Judah, they forgot the Lord;  They forgot His promises; they forgot His Word; they forgot His house; they forgot His clear commands; they forgot Him and all His ways. 
What have we forgotten?  We have forgotten His Word, prayer, His house, His Lord's day and rejected His Presence from being over us and in us.  A nation cannot survive that forgets the Lord.
2.  'Trusted in falsehood' - they believed lies, false doctrines, false prophets and therefore by doing so, rejected He, Who is truth.  It seems men would rather believe a lie, than truth.  And in our day and time, they follow after the same falsehoods and believe half-truths rather than whole truth.  they will give ear to these lies and put their confidence and trust in them.  But in the end it will lead them to the same place of hell of those that spoke and declared these falsehoods. 
Such evil is determined against a nation, a people, His church, our families and yea, our ownselves if we are found guilty of these same sins without a spirit of confession and repentance.

13:27, "I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields, Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?"
Two acts of sin to be identified here, but many different components to it.
1.  Adultery - and the Lord condemns them with 4 acts of this one sin - adulteries, neighings, lewdness of whoredoms and abominations;  Each act of unfaithfulness was marks and seen and condemned.  They followed after the sin of adultery with each other and with spiritual adultery against God. 
And oh, I tell you that this generation is a mirror reflection of this sin.  Every household it seems is infected with this abomination of unfaithfulness, lasciviousness and adultery.  They sell their souls and lives to have something else than what they have.  How evil in our day is this great sin and there is no restraint or pulling back on it.  Jesus said,'That if you look on another man's wife with lusts', you commit adultery.  And in a society that focuses on flesh, pornography, sexual temptation, they are swallowed up in this sin, with no regret, confession or repentance.  And not just the men, but the women are given to it as well.  It has infected all of this society with the sin of adultery.
2.  'Abominations on the hills in the fields' - they continued in the sin of false worship of false gods, upon ever hill and under every tree;  their adultery was with each other, and spiritual adultery against the Lord God.  They offered their children in the fire, they gave their flocks, tithes, time and drink offerings unto these false gods;  all along depriving the Lord of His proper and worthy worship.
And have we not taken of the Lord's blessings and committed spiritual adultery and gave in like fashion to our false gods.  We have taken our time, money, energy to serve the world and self and given the left-overs unto the Lord.  how could we ever think this would be sufficient for the day. 

14:10, "Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the Lord doth not accept them; He will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins." 
1.  Loved to wander;  the old hymn says it, 'Prone to wander Lord I know it, prone to leave the God above'; and herein is the children of Judah's sin, they wandered away from God.  And if one wanders away from one point they will wander to another point and here is the sin - they wandered from God to sin. 
The expression of their wandering is also a sin to be recognized, confessing.  They loved to do it.  It is not that they did it by accident, they loved to do this sin against the Lord.  And when men love to sin, all is wrong within them and about them.  The Lord is identifying all this. 
2.  They have not refrained their feet;  which may not be a sin in itself, but no doubt their feet is carrying them to wickedness and sin and folly. 
3.  'He will remember their iniquity and visit their sins' is a general statement alluding to their transgression.  The specific sins are set before us in other verses that we have looked at.  Know the sin in order to identify, confess and repent.

14:14, "Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in My Name:  I sent them not, neither hae I commanded them, neither spake unto them:  they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart."
The iniquity of false prophets proclaiming false prophecies.
'Thou shal not lie' and they are using the Lord's Name to do this.  Surely God will hold them accountable and make them answer and pay the price.  But it also goes deep into the people, for they desire falsehoods and having itching ears they heap unto themselves like minded pastors and teachers.  Yet, even today we have those who speak for Satan or speak out of their own minds in the Name of the LOrd, but they do not speak truth, half-truths and lies. 
They were not sent, nor received a command from the Lord; neither did the Lord speak to them.  All of these hold them in contempt before the Lord God to use His Name for their own agenda.  Yea, even guilty of wolves in sheeps clothing; or demons coming as angels of light.  It is a falsehood of the greatest kind, none of which are we to take lightly.  Woe unto them that follow such lies and deception and worse woe to them that are guilty of it. 

15:4, "And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem."
We must answer what Manasseh did in Jerusalem and Judah to provoke the Lord.  These things are found in other passages of Scripture.
--He made false idols, altars and worshipped them throughout all of Judah, Jerusalem and even in the temple;
--He was evil and wicked in all his practices as king;
--He shed innocent blood throughout all the land, a very great amount of innocent blood;
--He forsook the Lord and would not hear the prophets nor give place to the Word of God;
--He caused the people to sin against the Lord and rebel;
These are only some of the wickedness that Manasseh practiced and did to provoke the Lord God to wrath.  A wrath that led to God ultimately saying, 'Because of the sins of Manasseh I will destroy the land, and send the people into captivity. 
Brethren, are we not there?  Have we not had president and leaders that have all accomplished these very same deeds and acts to provoke the Lord to respond?  How will He respond to our iniquity as a nation?  And how much more needful for the church to realize our place, indentify our sins and respond before it is too late.

15:6, "Thou hast forsaken Me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward:  therefore will I stretch out My hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting."
Two acts of sin are identified and the punishment and awful statement from the Lord is enough to frighten any one of us.
--'Thou hast forsaken Me' - again the sin of forsaking the Lord God;  is it mentioned among us today?  I hear nothing of it.  We view in our self-righteousness a state of causal forgetting, but not forsaking.  What does constitute forsaking the Lord?  is it days, months, weeks, years?  How can you go decades without God and still think that you are ok?  The blatantness of forgetting God is in our complete rejection of Him as Lord, Ruler and Savior of our lives. 
WE forsake His Word, His church, His Presence, His laws, and prayer time with Him.  And yet, there is no confession of this, no repentance of this great evil in our nation, yea, and in the house of the Lord today. 
--'Thou are gone backward' - if we are not going forward toward the Lord, then we are retreating away from Him. And the only thing that awaits away from the Lord is Satan, sorrow and sin.  Oh, and how true is this of our present condition.   We have not gone forward but backward away from the Lord, all produced because of the first sin, 'we have forsaken the Lord and HIs ways'. 
And these two sins, of which are two of the worst, lead directly to God's response of destroying them and ultimately to destroy us.  And if God states, that "He is weary with repenting', then how much more for us, who have offended, and deliberately sinned against the Lord.  Time under such circumstances are the most urgent and needed for confession and repentance, lest all time be lost.

15:7, "And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land, I will bereave them of children, I will destroy My people, since they return not from their ways."
Severe judgment is set forth against them for the previous verses of which the sins are stated.  Only one sin is at the conclusion of this verse which is given and stated of their conditions. 
--"They return not from their ways" - And their ways have already been described as evil and disobedient unto the Lord.  And if doing evil was not bad enough, the sin here identified is that 'they return not from' it.  They continue in it; they reject the good and right way; they refuse to leave their sin.  Do you know anyone like this, that having heard the wonderful Words of eternal life, they refuse to surrender? to repent? to confess?  They reject the Lord and embrace Satan; they reject holiness and embrace sin; they hate the good and the love the evil.  YEa, I know many a soul like this; they are all around me.  Their sin is the same, they refuse to return from their evil ways. 
And not just lost heathen out in the world, they are also in the church.  They hear the Word of God, they know the invitation to confess and repent.  Yet, they rise up at the close of the service and return to their folly.  They refuse to surrender, submit and cease their sin.  Grieving the Holy Ghost all along and straining the greater glory of God amongst HIs people. 

16:11, "Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken Me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My law;"
This verse mentions 6 identifying sins, one sin is spoken twice, 'forsaken the Lord'. 
--'Because your fathers have forsaken Me' - unusal to note in this that these condemnations are against the previous generation;  a generation ago that taught the present generation how to sin against the Lord;  And as the fathers forsook the Lord, so did the children.  The recognition of being able to ask and answer the question, 'when did our nation, the church, my family forsake the Lord';  When did this evil process begin?  Why did we forsake the Lord?  What caused this?
--'Have walked after other gods' - the continual mentioning of the breaking of the 1st commandment, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before Me';  The continual leading away of the heart, mind and soul away from the one true God to serve, follow and walk after in the things of this world, our own hearts and the ploys of Satan;
--'Have served them' - they have taken of the resources to serve the Lord and invested into the things of these false gods;  we take our time, our money, our abilities and invest them in frivolous vainity that will not stand the test of time;  This is a high accountability of answering why we did what we did. 
--'Have worshipped them' - the practice of adoring, praying, offering unto false gods, takes away from giving glory to the true God, the Lord God;  if God's creation fails to give glory to God, then they face the wrath of God. 
--Have forsaken Me' - the opening condemnation is again repeated;  all these actions of false gods, departure from the right and true way, leads to this horrible sin, which is 'forsaking the Lord God';  And if we forsake Him, He will forsake us.  How long can a nation, His church, our families, yea our own hearts go before we run out of time, when we have forsaken he Lord God Who holds all things in His hand? 
--'Have not kept My law' - all these other 5 sins, will be summed up in this sin, there is no possible way to keep the laws of God if we are forsaking the Lord, not walking with HIm, serve other gods, worship them;  We reject His Word, His Spirit and His preachers who teach and bring to us the Word of the Lord so that we might keep His laws and commandments. 
All of these 6 sins are hinged on each other.  A recognition and surrender to the Lord and a casting out of all falsehoods against Him is necessary for confession and true repentance.

16:12, "And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto Me:"
Three sins are laid out before us in this worse.  A following of what was stated in the previous verse about the fathers generation. 
--"Ye have done worse than your fathers' - The account of OMri and Ahab comes to mind again with this sin identified.  It is not bad enough that one generation sins, but it is far worse when the next generation does worse than the one before them.  How much more evil has this generation done than the one before us, horrible to contemplate. 
--'ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart' - The heart is desperately wicked and we see that men walk after that evil on a daily, continual basis.  What the heart issues forth is what determines whether we be followers of that which is good or evil.  Men's hearts are evil and we are entering a generation that, 'practice evil continually'. 
--'that they may not hearken unto Me' - the sin of rebellion in refusing to hear the Word of the Lord and obey it.  They are so consumed and preoccupied with their own evil intents that they have no time to hear the Word of the Lord.  The sin of having ears to hear and not hearing.

16:13, "Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and here shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour."
Because of the previous verses of sins identified, here is the punishment.  One identifying sin is mentioned here.
--'Ye serve other gods day and night' - that which they did in the promised land against Lord God, is that which they shall do in captivity.  They were instructed to not sin by worshipping false gods, but they did. Now they will do it night and day while being slaves and prisoners.  Sometimes we see throughout history this same work of God, that since men will not give up their sins when given the opportunity, then God gives them up n dover to a reprobate mind.  There in that state they sink further into this holding iniquity with no escape. This is where we are heading presently, without repentance and turning back to the Lord, we will collapse. 

16:18, "And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled My land, they have filled Mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable thing."
Multiple identifying of sins done by the people against the Lord.  General statement andspecific sins to be addressed.
General sins referred to and referenced:
--'I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double' - reference of inquity and sin are the terms used to identify sin;  Seeing that the Lord refers to both in the same sentence and reference is that their is considerable iniquity to be found among them;  And the fact that Lord was gong to double their punishment meant that their was sufficient evil to be found.  Even though, here He is referencing generally about their sin, we know in our study that HE has detailed the more specific sins that offended Him and broke HIs law;  He speaks of their iniquity and sins to be all inclusive of their evil ways and practices that they have done for so long against Him;
We may pray in like manner for forgiveness of all of our iniquities and sins, but at some point we do need to know the specifics of our affront to Him and the breaking of His law.
--'Because they have defiled My land' - again a very long, lengthy lists of sins are to be found her of how they defiled the land;  They polluted by idols, sins against each other, shed innocent blood, evil practices of abominations that destroyed the other nations that were in the promised land before they inherited it.  God warned them not to defile the land as those nations before them, for He would spue them out of the land.  A sin against God's creation, His established place to honor Him and serve Him.  How contemptible and unclean is our land??
--'Filled Mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things' - idols, altars, places of defiled things offered and sacrificed to the false gods;  places of fornication where they played the harlots before these false gods;  places of sodomy that they invited into the land;  Oh, God, how many detestable and abominable things are to be found in our land, in our homes, and in our hearts. 
Remember when God took Ezekiel up and showed him Jerusalem and the temple, how many false gods was to be found in the porch, in the temple, in the rooms and all around it.  They went without number of these abominable, detestable things.

16:20, "Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are not gods?"
One indentifing sin is mentioned here, the sin of idolatry.  They set up false gods in their public places, in their homes and in their hearts.  But they are not gods, only false attempts to replace the Lord God.  Such is a hideous crime and not to be practiced by His people.  'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image'.  Not to lift up tool, shape, form, bow down to, give offerings to of anything that would replace where our true worship is, it is unto the Lord God and Him alone.
The people have rose up and made unto themselves false gods and they are no gods at all.

17:2, "Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills"
The continued practice of generational sins of idolatry, taught from one generation to the other.  HEre the children are remembering those places and acts against the Lord God.  And so as they grow up they have false worship as their foundation and the Lord God and true worship is cast off.  It becomes the population of the people who practice this, so that engulfs and strangles the nation in their sin against the Lord God.  Altars and groves used for one purpose to worship false gods.  Anything that takes the place of true worship to the Lord is the sin of idolatry.  How much is found in our land, in the churches in the hearts of the people against the Lord God.  For He has been replaced by entertainment, sports, money, family and every other vice that evil hearts goes out after. 

17:5, "Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord."
The sin of humanism.  Because they have put their trust in man, they have no place nor need to serve and depend on the Lord God.  It is the greatest betrayal and sin of God's creation.  what right does the creation have to say to its Creator, 'I don't need you or want you.'  When in reality, if it was not for the Creator in His giving life, watching over us, preserving us, helping us, we surely could not have made it. 
Men trust in each other, and they look to their own strength.  In all this God is removed from the equation and rejected for resource and help.  and the reason is given why men would do this after God has been so gracious and merciful, 'whose heart departed from the Lord'.  Where the heart is that what is produced and done. 
The right worship is to trust in the Lord, look unto the Lord and rely on the Lord.  Here we see that men look to me first and God last.  the confession and sin is identified that men departed from the Lord and with His absence, the void is created in their lives and they look to men rather than God.  Will we ever see this sin and confess?  will we ever repent?  Pride keeps us from doing this. 

17:13, "O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake Thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters."
Although Jeremiah is speaking in a dual manner of those that forsake the Lord, and those that have forsaken him, as the prophet of the Lord, our focus is on the forsaking of the Lord God.
--Twice it is mentioned in this verse of those that they forsook the Lord;  The firsttime it is mentioned the result is gven 'they shall be ashamed'.  The second time it is mentioned they are told to be forsaking the 'fountain of living waters'. Both are disastrous and full of iniquity.  What hope is there for any that would forsake the Lord God and His right ways?  There is none.  But because they have done it deliberately we find the great offence, in that they knew better but they did not do better. 
--'they depart from Me' - this is an active choice to forsake the Lord God and intentionally leave Him and turn to something else.  To turn to something other than God is to turn to sin.  And men embrace sin so often and consistently.  WE see the high offence of the Lord's people in departing from the Lord, for it is an active choice and decision.  It is willful disobedience and rebellion.    
None that forsake or depart from the Lord shall stand -- nation, church, family or individual soul.

17:23, "But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction."
There are 5 intertwined sins identified here.
--'they obeyed not' - they chose to be disobedient and would not obey the Word of the Lord from the prophet;  This has always been a consistent sin among God's people, from EVe to present, our hearts and lives are filled with disobedience.  The issue becomes why won't men confess and repent of this sin of disobedience and return to the Lord and begin, even today, to obey Him?  But alas, they continue in the sin of disobedience and heap more anger and sin against them.  Do not continue in this sin, for no good can come from it, but only adding to what we will have to answer unto the Lord of why we did what we did. 
--'neither inclined their ear' - the rejection to hear the truth and give place to folly and lies;  this is closely linked to the sin of disobedience.  Why do men disobey?  because they turn their ears away from instruction and hearing of the good and right way, so that they might give place to their hearts desire of disobedience.  The listening problem is much among us as men willfully turn away from inclining their ear from hearing the Word of the Lord.  They incline their ear to 'teachers having itching ears' to hear their half-truths and full lies. 
--'made their neck stiff' - They hardened themselves against the Lord and turned away from Him and His right ways.  They stiffened themselves to avoid and fight against going the right way.  It is rebellious heart that cause this.  And as already mentioned, it is a willful rebellious spirit that demonstrates such a stiffening against the Lord.  And all the while so that they may go toward their sin and evil. 
--'they might not hear' - the continued sin of not hearing;  having ears to hear and not hearing;  tied directly to not incining ear, nor hearing and obeying; 
--'nor receive instruction' - the great sin of refusal to listen and obey;  all 5 of these sins are tied together; The heart of men is desperately wicked, and they refuse correction and embrace iniquity;  They willnot listen or turn from their wickedness.These 5 sins lead to utter chaos and folly and God's wrath and judgment because men wll not confess and repent.  Do it now while there is still time.

17:27, "But if ye will not hearken unto Me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jersalem, and it shall not be quenched."
Two sins are addresse: not listening an breaking of the Sabbath.
--'if ye will not hearken unto Me to hallow the Sabbath day' - we know that this is a specific directive and command to keep the Sabbath day holy;  Now they are given the opportunity to obey, 'if ye will not hearken unto Me'.  Meaning that there is still hope to turn from iniquity and do that which is right. 
However, we have seen in the first 17 chapters of Jeremiah how many times God has condemned them because they have a listening problem; they have ears but do not hear.  It is not a good percentage that they will obey now.  But again we see God's mercy, longsuffering and patience and sending them word, one more time to repent and do that which is right. 
The second part of this is to keep the Sabbath day.  This is the 4th commandment. WE ought to know the commandments of God so that we know whether we are right in His sight or not.  And even though we are not under the law, the Word of God is consistent and Christ came not to do away with the law, but fulfill it.  And if Christ fulfilled it, and we are to be followers of Christ, then we should be Christ-like in knowing and keeping the law in its commandments. 
And for us in the church today our day of worship is not the Sabbath, it is the Lord's Day, the first day fo the week, when Christ was resurrected.  The day the Christians in the book of Acts came together and worshipped because the Jews would not allow them to worship Christ.  But our Sundays are much like the Sabbath for the Jews here in Jeremiahs time.  They work, they bear burdens, they frolic, they disobey and do everything on Satruday but what they should have been doing.  You may remember the severity in Numbers when they found a man gathering sticks on the SAbbath.  They sought the Lord's counsel and He bade them stone the man that broke the commandment.  HOw much more for those that do not enter the house of the Lord, gather with the people of the Lord, hear the Word of the Lord from the man of the Lord on the Lord's Day.  Yea, we are as guilty of this sin. 
But yet, there is still time to repent and turn back to Him. 

18:12, "And they said, There is no hope:  but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart."
It is one thing to think it, desire it.  But when men are blatant and do it and say it, it is the worst.
--'they said, There is no hope' - when men have lost all hope in the Lord God, Who has proven Himself over and over that He is faithful unto the uttermost.  This is the sin of unbelief, rejection of God and believing the lie from Satan.  The next step is to throw oneself on self desires, selfish ambitions.  'Let us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.'  Abandonment of morality, decency and any form of righteousness and holiness.  And God gave them over to a reprobate mind.  But the first step in this evil is when all hope is gone.
--'we will walk after our own devices' - men has the great ability to create, to invent;  some great things in our lifetime and history has been created by God's given wisdom and minds.  But as much as such creations are wonderful, how quickly they can be used for iniquity.  The devices that men walk after is their daily appetite to satisfy, particapte and follow which is in direct rebellion to what God has commanded and created.  The very ownership of this is 'our own devices', which shows that they are not interested in God's devices and ways, but in that which has proceeded from their wicked hearts.
--'we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart' - here again we see the brazenness of men to do what their wicked and evil heart wants to do;  there is no restraint, no pulling back, no conscience of fleeing evil and embracing righteousness.  How many times in history has this been proven over a people that would not listen, would not repent, would not depart from their sin, an dhow quickly they met destruction, and death.  This is the only course of action that can follow when men depart from the Lord and turn to evil.  Giving their whole selves to it, they usher in the wrath of God. 

18:13, "Therefore, thus saith the Lord; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things:  the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing."
we have seen the folly pronounced by Israel throughout all these verses.  One could expect such actions from heathen men, but should not expect it from those of the covenant children.  Surely Israel should have done better;  but alas, much like the church today, they did not do better. 
--'Israel hath done a very horrible thing' - it is singular in its announcement, but plural in its reponses;  Israel forsook the Lord, a singular act.  But this one singular act, opened up the door to all the other sins that we have seen in not hearkening unto Him; rebellion; disobedience; adultery; idolatry; and evil practices, all come from that one sin of when a nation, a people, a family, a church, a person decides to forsake the Lord in all their choices, practices, living. 
This horrible thing is the root of sin, and it has produced many branches and fruits of wickedness.  Cut it down and be rid of the branches, fruits, stalk, and root of that which is offensive to the Lord.

18:15, "Because My people hath forgotten Me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;"
Three sins are presented here to recognize, confess and repent of:
--'we have forgotten the Lord' - very close in parallel to forsaking the Lord;  but forgotten is more of removing from memory due to time that has elapsed in being absent from His Presence, HIs Word and His ways;  the more day in and day out that people removed themselves from the things of God, how quickly He is replaced with everything that the world and Satan would have them to fill that void.  How often have we seen this evil unfold in family and religionists.  So inconsistent and unfaithful in the things of God and before long, you can ask the question, 'have you forgotten the Lord?'   And even though the mouth may say, 'No', the actions and lifestyle has said 'yes'. 
--'burned incense to vanity' - the sin of idolatry once again being spoken as the identifying sin and iniquity of the people;  And just as previously mentioned, where God is forgotten, HE is replaced with false gods and idols.
--'causing them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths' - The Lord set the good and right way before them and us.  It is the straight and narrow path that leads to everlasting life.  When men get off this path their is nothing but sorrow, sin and suffering.  The quicker one confesses and repents and gets back on the path the better things will be. 
However, the more they stay off the path and the further they go, the stronger and deeper is the pull and grasp of Satan on their souls.  And then it is not only their souls and lives, but they pull their family, their friends and others with them.  'Causing them to stumble' is the show that they pulled others with them in their fall.
HOw many tricks, lies, and deceptions are found in these 'stumbles' that caused so many to fall.  Identify, confess and the need for repentance.

18:18, "Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet.  Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words."
The deliberate sin of refusing to hear the words of the Lord.
--"let us devise devices against Jeremiah' - This is the man of God; preaching and sharing the Word of God;  How awful it is when wicked, lost men reject the Word of God that is offered and presented for their hope and salvation.  As we have seen men near and far turned against Jeremiah because thy would not give up their sin or acknowledge their folly.  Men of his own hometown did it, and leaders of the Judah and Jerusalem did it.  The prophet is not received in his own city, nor unto the masses of people. 
And their wicked hearts set about to silence and remove him.  Satan's ultimate agenda is to destroy and kill the Lord's anointed.  He often uses his minions to accomplish and do these wicked deeds.  The evil of men's hearts sets them to this destruction of the very word that could help them.  This is none other than th work of Satan to blind, deceive and keep men from truth. 
-- 'Come let us smite him with the tongue' - bring railing accusations against him; cast the teeth at his word from the Lord.  They come as a group against the one, how often it has been so by the workers of Satan.  did not Christ stand alone against the Pharises?  Did not Paul stand alone before the Jew, Felix, Festus and Agrippa?  And they will cast the speech, words to assault and assail the prophet.  Speech is either a blessing or  curse, you see what they do with it.
-- 'let us not give heed to any of his words' - the intentional attempt to not hear or listen;  Directly rebelling against and disobeying th command, 'Give ear and hear'.  This is not the sin of hearing and disobeying this is the sin of refusing to hear to begin with.  For they know that they will not want to hear his words, for their actions is in direct offense against the Lord.

19:4, "Because they have forsaken Me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, who neither they nor their fathers have know, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents."
Five sins are identified here of their evil actions and choices.
-- 'They have forsaken Me' - we see this now as a standard of almost every chapter citing this horrible evil;  And there is no real reason to continue in explanation of it, see previous posts for this.
--'have estranged this place' - estrangement is an unusal sin that has not been mentioned often before;  it is due to the defilement of the land, that they have separated themselves from the Lord.  The people have forsaken the Lord, and He has forsaken them.  And in His absence, His creation groans for His presence, His nutrturing.  The sin of the people harms everything in order and good relationship. 
--'burned incense  unto other gods' - continued mentioning of breaking of the first and second commandments;  their willful disobedience;
--'fill this place with the blood of innocents' - murder,children sent through the fire to Molech; there is blood shed often and many are a part of this butchery in the land. Leviticus warns that blood contaminates the land and God will not hold them blameless for it.  Someone has to answer for it. 
How great is the inqiutiy of this sin among the US from abortions to murder on our streets, we too have filled the land with the blood of innocents.  A sin not recognized nor confessed or repented of.

19:5, "They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into My mind:"
Three sins are here in this verse for us to identify and know.
--'built high places of Baal, burnt offerings unto Baal' - sin of idolatry; again mentioned over and over of their folly for this sin, which we have covered extensively;
--'burn their sons with fire' - again, as the previous verse, of offering innocent children to false gods;  The shedding of innocent blood upon the land, that directly provokes the Lord to anger.  And how much more for us today, where abortion rules, parents shirk respnbility of their children and offer them to the world that is waiting for the to destroy them.
--'neither came it into My mind' - we areto have the mind of Christ; This phrase shows direct defiane and rebellion against the Lord and His ways and His thoughts.  Even though His ways and htoght ar higher than ours, we are to attain unto them and not delete nor reject them. 

19:13, "And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of al the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the hosts of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods."
Here again the sin of the people and the leadership is mentioned.
--'whose roofs they have burned incense and poured out drink offerings unto other gods' - the sin of idolatry is again mentioned and identified;  We see the whole people given unto it, from the people of Jerusalem to the kings, they have 'all' done it upon their roof tops.  If you could see from an aerial view it would show each house with their respective place of false worship and the whole family participating in this evil.
How much more here in the United States?  They are all given to idolatry.  All have practiced mischief and forsaken the ways of the Lord.  Hours are given to entertainmen, TV, computer, sports, money and small if any time and energy is given to the Lord.  Whole households are sold to the practice of self rather than serving the Lord God.  We are found in the same condemnation as they were and just as guilty of the sin of idolatry.


19:15, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear My words."
Judgment will fall due to the direct sin of their rebellion and disobedience.
--'they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear My words' - the rejection of the Word of God is one thing, 'having ears to hear and not hear'.  But the hardening of the neck to obstinately refuse and reject the Word of God due to the straight out defiance and rebellion is the willful choice to reject God. 
Our society and people of the church and families is as much of the same sin.  There is such an obstinate heart of defiance and rejection of the Lord God and His Word.  Blatant words of defiance, 'I don't care what the Bible says. . .';  'I dont' care what God thinks. . . ' is the statements of this same sin in our day and midst.  Shall we not face the same certainty as they for this willful choice of rebellion and hardening of the neck against hearing and knowing His Word?  Yea, we will.  Unless their is a heart and soul and mind that is identifying, broken and contrite and repentant of these evils before it is too late.  We will find the Lord merciful and gracious if we respond soon. 

20:6, "And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity, and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies."
Identifying the man and way of prophesying lies to the people. The sin of the false prophet.
--'to whom thou hast prophesied lies' - 'Thou shalt not le' is the clear command, but how much worse, when it is used to lie in the Name of the Lord.  Pashur was one of many that had been blatant to defy the Lord's word and use the Name of the Lord to cover his own words.  He had smote Jeremiah and put in prison to silence him and seek to undo the word of the Lord from Jeremiah by separating him from the people.  If there was any that contradicted Pashur's words he would silence them, so that his word would be established. 
Men love to hear lies, to ease their conscience.  The Scripture refers to it, as those seeking lies 'heap unto themselves teachers having itching ears'.  'Tell us what pleases us, but don't tell us the truth'.  Is this not the response of many in the churches, in our families and closest friends?  They don't want to be told truth, for they know they will be forced to choose between the two, and they are inclined to evil more than good. 
They flock to pastors and teachers that are much like Pashur, and in hell they will cry out in vain for truth, but it will be too late.  And as Jeremiah warned of those around Pashur that he would be a terror to them and all around him in Babylon and Jerusalem, so too these that seek men like Pashur will be a terror unto themselves and all those around them.  Woe to those that prophesy lies and those that desire lies over truth. 

21:12, "O house of David, thus saith the Lord ; Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest My fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings."
Two acts of sin are identified in this verse, one specific and one general.
--'deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor' - we see throughout all of Scripture God's continued protection and warning to protect the widow, orphan and poor.  They were not to be oppressed due to their plight and condition in this world.  It is the responsibility of those that are wealthy, powerful and ruling to defend and protect them that cannot defend themselves.  Failure to deliver them out of the hand of the oppressor provoked God to anger and judgment against the people for allowing it. 
How much this affects us today in our land:  the unborn babies being murdered without a voice; a generation being raised without the standard of a family life and decency;  persecution in other lands against Christians, especially when they are the minority;  removed and massacred in Iraq most recently by Jihadists Sunnis.  These things are still upon us in our land and globally.  Recognition and proper response is needed. 
--'because of the evil of your doings' - the Lord pronounces that their practices were evil.  They were consistent from the time they came out of Egypt til their captivity, they did evil in the sight of the Lord.  The 'doings' of every day is what weighs us of whether evil or good.  ARe we faithful? are we  righteous?  are we holy?  These are the actions of obedience in doing good before the Lord. 
But men practice evil in their thoughts and in their hearts.  They seek self and sin throughout the day and this is the determining factor of being and doing evil. 
Woe unto them that are such who give place to do evil and continue in it.

21:13, "Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the Lord; which say Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?"
God sets Himself against these that boast and brag, not knowing their existence is by Gods favor and allowance alone.
--'who shall come down against us?' - the proud know not their true reliance;  It is the pride of men that swells and causes them to look to the arm of flesh rather than giving glory to God, Who watches and works in our lives.  God also utters that He will judge them due to this iniquity of their haughtiness. 
Let us never boast nor take false account of state, thinking we are beyond harm, evil, temptation, or the devil's hand.  We should know enough by now in history that there is always a moment or time that some evil can come against us.  WE should be ready and watchful lest we sin against the Lord.  But let us not be guilty of the same sin of pride in our humanism and false hope and trust. 
--'who shall enter into our habitations?' - false comfort and security when the enemy is coming;  And how much more when, due to their pride, that the Lord says He will come and visit them in wrath.It should be our watchfulness not let any enter into our habitation of home, heart or mind to cause us to sin.  The careless, unrealizing soul will fall prey to evil by allowing the enemy to enter into their habitation.  Has our nation not done this? has not many a soul allowed some evil and it quickly took over in the effects of sin of drugs, alcohol and lasciviousness. 
May our confession and reality be that we need God for us not against us.  May our confession be that we have allowed th enemy into our habitation while at the same time asking the Lord to leave.  We will pay an awful price for it.  This is the sin of pride and self realaince and deception.  See the evil it causes and leads to before it comes our statement.

22:5, "But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by Myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation."
The sin of not hearing and obeying the words of the Lord.
This is a verse of judgment due to their failure to do the things of a king in verses 3 and 4.  And He warns of His judgment to make them a desolation in failure to do so rightly as leader.
Leaders are to know the Word of the Lord, give ear and follow in obedience.  Failure to do these things are the sins to be confessed and repented of.

22:9, "Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them."
Three sins are identified:  forsaken the Lord; broken the covenant of the Lord and idolatry.
--'because they have forsaken' -

 















26:3, "If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent Me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings."
1. 'if they will hearken' confirming that a continued sin of not hearing and listening and obeying the Word of the Lord;
2. 'turn every man from his evil way' - the way of men is evil continually; the heart is wicked and decietful; the confession of men that are all sinners, there is none righteous, we have all gone astray;  Too many in this world are without Christ and therefore evil continues in them and through them.  It may even be a confession of lisiting evil ways of men in order, as in comparison to the fruits of the flesh, the 10 commandments broken;
3. 'because of the evil of their doings' - again a listing of that which God identifies as evil and see the pluraity of this statment, not just 'evil done' (singular), but 'evil doings' (plural);  And it is the proficency of their practicing of evil, they have been doing evil for a long time, which is one of the reasons for pluraity of evil doings;

26:4, "And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord; If ye will not hearken to Me, to walk in My law, which I have set before you," this verse is also coupled with verse 5
1.  'ye will not hearken to Me' - the continuing act of disobedience of listening to the Lord;  Men's ears are given to hear, but rebellion and obstinance hardens us against hearing Him;
2.  WE must hear Him, 'to walk in My law' - the failure to listen to Him, leads us astray by not knowing the 'good and right path';  we walk contrary to Him and His ways.  And if it be not for Him then it is for ourselves, the sin of self; false gods; self-righteousness; and disobedience

26:5, "To hearken to the words of My servants the prophets, Whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;"
1.  It is double pronounced in this verse of their folly and sin of 'not hearkening to Him';  the sin of not hearing His words whether from Him or through His prophets, they would not hear;  Confession of the same to not hear the Word of the Lord or the preachers who preach the Word.  How much sin has multiplied in our nation with all the access to messages of the preaching of the Word and the opporutnities, that men neglect.  They will not give time, nor place ot hearing the Word, but that does not excuse them when it is very nigh them. 

28:16, "Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth:  this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord."
Hanahiah had assume he was a spokesman for the Lord and attacked Jeremiah, the true prophet.  He meets a most awful ending to his life
The sin that is practiced here is one that has been repeated, 'thou hast taught rebellion agains the Lord.'  This sin is upon the preachers and teachers that teach sin is okay, worldliness is acceptable and have departed from the good and right way.  Now this is an individaul man that faces the wrath of God as his sin is revealed.  But there are numerous ones over the generations and present day that practice and teach such rebellion today.  So it is a prayer of confession for those that practice rebellion and those that teach rebellion. 
This is one of the most frightening verses in God's response, 'I will cast thee from off the face of the earth'.  He was dead in two months.  He is of that list when God streetches forth His hand to slay and kill for their sin.  there was the men of the earth during the days of Noah; the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Uzzah, Herod, and Ananias and Sapphira of this list of people mentioned in the Bible that died for their sin and rebellion.  All men die, but when they provoke the Lord and face His wrath it is amuch more sombering consideration. 

30:14, "All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased."
--not a verse of specific sins, but alluding to the general iniquity of the people;
God first pronounces His judgement on them due to their sin.  He speaks twice about gneral sins of the people. 
1.  'multitude of thine iniquity' - is the plural description that they did not sin just meagerly, but multiplied their sins.  Their sins of multiplication was sins against the Lord, against their fellow man and against the land.  They did not shrink from sin, nor eradicate sin; but they went in the opposite way of multiplying their iniquity.  They hastened on their own destruction because they rapidly increased in sin.  We are much like them, we are not adding to our sins. We are not haphazardly practicing sin, but we are multiplying by leaps and bounds of tragressiongs before the Lord.  This rate of sin must be noted, recognized and immediate actions must be engaged to decrase the rate.  'Cease from doing evil and learn to do good'. 
2.  'because thy sins were increased' - coupled with the fact that they were multiplying in thier iniquity, it rapdily increased their sins;  I have often used DAvid as an example to this.  DAvid was king for 40 years and out of that 40 year reign you cannot name over 10 sins that he committed.  Sin was attacked, confessed, repented of by David daily.  Even his horrible sin of adultery, murder and numbering the people were sins of one and done.  Sins that were recognized, confessed and repented of before the Lord.  Not increased on a daily manner against the Lord.  Our nation, and the church continues to daily increase their sins against the Lord.  And we must recognize this great evil and seek to reverse trend of our people and daily practices. 




33:8, "And I will cleanse them from all their iniqutiy, whereby they have sinned against Me; and I will pardon all their inquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed agaisnt Me."
--this is a statment of their plural sins, it is a general admonition of their inqiuity against the Lord; 
Pluraity of their sins is mentioned 5 times here.  There is no one sin mentioned or described, it is an overall, continous iniquity that they have done. 
'All their inqiutiy'; 'they have sinned against Me'; 'all their inqiuities'; 'they have sinned'; and 'they have transgressed agaisnt Me' are the 5 statements, much repeated phrases but an emphasis of acknowledgement that they was sinful and they had failed the Lord.
Two aspects to acknowledge here as the sin of the people.  Pluraity of the people for us, may mean the nation, it may mean or cover the church body or it may mean our families.  All of these are plural and their sin to be acknowledged and owned up to among these groups of people.  It is the confession that they have sinned; a continuous sin is to be found among them.  'all their inqiuties' is mentioned twice giving reference that they have continued in a state of rebellion and disobedience against Him.
Secondly, a more fine point of their genrealization of 'all their inquities' is that they have targeted in sinning against the Lord.  It is one thing when we offend a brother and must seek forgivenness, but this is the Lord declaring that they have 'sinned agaisnt Me'.  And in that we must find a more specific sin that is agaisnt the Lord.  Those sins are:  unbeleif, self-righteousness, disobedience, rebellion, not fearing Him, haphazard with His holiness; giveing an occasion agaisnt Him and such like sins that must be recognized, confessed and repented of.

37:2, "But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearken unto the words of the Lord, which He spake by the prophet Jeremiah."
--the kings that have proceeded King Josiah have all been rebellious and done that which was evil in the sight of the Lord;
Here we have the statement that this new king, king Zedekiah, would not listen to the words fo the Lord from the prophet.  He had ears to heaer, but he would not hear.  There is accountablitity to those that are given the Word of the Lord and do not attend to it.  Confession of the leader of the people, those that are in charge and given authotiry for such time must take responsbility for the sins of the nation. 
It is a consumate sin mentioned here: the king, his servants, the people of the land.  It starts with one, and rtipple effects out to consume all the people.  'Well, if the king doesnt' have to listen, then why should we?'  jSuch an attitude only increases the wrath of the Lord and provokes Him to greater judgments. 
The confession is for all those that will not listen to the man of God, who has the Word of God for the people of God. 

40:3, "Now the Lord hath brought it, and done according as He hath said:  because ye have sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed His voice, therefore this thing is come upon you."
--declaration of the Lord through Jeremiah with recognition of one sin of the people, and one specific sin mentioned;
'Because ye have sinned against the Lord' - the Lord has brought forth His judgement and wrath because of the following two sins declared.  This is a general announcement that the people have sinned.  WE know not what the specifics of this is in reference to this one verse.  But, put the whole together and we see the sins of the people found throughout the Scriptures and more in reference to the book of Jeremiah. 
Note also, who they sinned against.  The children of Judah, because the children of Israel had already been judged and removed from the land, sinned against the Lord specifically  It is not only needful to know what the sin is, but who we sinned against.  If we sin against a loved, then we must go to them and confess and repent.  But if one, or a nation sins against the Lord, there must be one, or those, that go before Him to confess and repent.  We see this in Daniel 9, Ezra 9 and Nehemiah 9.  They have already reaped the whirlwind of God's wrath due to the fact that they had sinned agaisnt Him.  And when God pointed out their sin through the prophets they refused to humble themselves and repent.  We are in the same plight today.  We have no idea how great our sin is agaisnt the Lord and the things in which He has entrusted us as a nation and as the church. 
Secondly, the more specific sin is named here, 'Ye have not obeyed His voice'.  We have seen this repeated that as the Lord spoke and commanded, they would not hear nor obey.  A continaul imagery of their rebellion, 'having ears to hear, but they will not hear'.  God does not speak in vain, but to accomplish His pusposes.  Their rebellion in no obeying is a crucial matter of everyday life as His people.  Upon the church it is that we refuse to hear His voice from the pulpits that do declare His Word.  And they refuse to hear His voice because they never read His Word.  And because of this continaul act of defiance and disobedience they received their punishment. 




52:2, "And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done."
this chapter is much out of the same pattern and text of the Kings and the Chronicles.  It gives the name, dates, and whether they did good or evil in the sight of the Lord.  In all the kings of Israel and Judah we have the three phrases to look at:
1. they did evil in the sight of the Lord;  it is a general statement and one of which we must understand what they did that was evil in His sight.  For the most part it was that they worshipped false gods, sacrificed to the idols, caused the people to err, forsook the right ways of the Lord and practiced heathen practices among their daily life and the daily lives of the people.  IT is an evil that one man pracitces, but because he is king, he causes a whole people to corrupt themselves.  HErein is the sin to be confessed, that they did evil and describe or name the evil and the affects of that evil upon the people around me.
2.  they did right in the sight of the Lord like their father;  although this is a good thing, it is not the best thing.  Surely we must confess when we are not our best before the Lord.  We are doing good, but are we doing great for our Lord?  For as they did right in the sight of the Lord like their father, they are actually admitting to doing less than David did, who did wholly right before the Lord.  And if it is not wholly for the Lord, then it is only partial, and herein is a sin of sloth, of ease, of complacent, of lukewarmness.  Did not the Lord say of the 7 churches in Revelation, 'Unless you do your first works, I will remove your candlestick'?  That says the Lord does nto receive less than what is required or expected. 
3.  they did right in the sight of the Lord as David did;  David reigned 40 years as king and there is only documented about 5 sins in his reign.  Whereas we see in other kings a contiual onslaught of practicing evil, DAvid is hardly found with sin.  But there sin, and it was the worst of sin in adultery, murder, numbering of the people, that affected so many others.  Sin is never acceptable whether 5 times or 500 times, it is still sin that must be confessed.  Be as David in serving with all your heart.  But know that David is still flesh and still sinned and all sin must be dealt with and confessed unless we face the wrath of God for unconfessed sin.  'The wages of sin is death'.





Started:  April 12, 2014
Edited:  4/12; 4/14; 4/17; 4/18; 4/21; 4/23; 4/24; 4/25; 4/26; 4/29; 4/30; 5/2; 5/5; 5/6; 5/7; 5/8; 5/9; 5/10; 5/11; 5/13; 5/14; 5/19; 5/20; 5/26; 5/28; 5/29; 5/30; 5/31; 6/3; 6/4; 6/5; 6/6; 6/12; 6/14; 6/16; 6/17; 6/18; 6/19; 6/20; 6/21; 6/23; 6/24; 6/25; 6/26; 6/27; 7/1; 7/2; 7/14; 7/15; 716; 7/17; 7/18; 7/19; 7/21; 7/22; 7/23; 7/24; 7/25; 7/26; 7/28; 7/30; 7/31; 8/5; 8/6; 8/9
Finished: