Jeremiah 17:19-27
“Thus said the LORD
unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the
kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of
Jerusalem; And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah,
and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these
gates: Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the
sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; Neither carry forth a
burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but
hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But they obeyed not, neither inclined their
ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive
instruction.” (Jeremiah 17:19-23)
God instructed Jeremiah to go to each of the gates into the
city of Jerusalem and confront the people.
He was to remind them that God had forbidden them to do any work on the
Sabbath. They were to set it aside
wholly for the Lord. For many years they
had treated that command as just a suggestion, perhaps making a slave carry the
burden rather than doing it themselves or limiting the distance which things could
be carried on the Sabbath.
“And it shall come to
pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden
through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day,
to do no work therein; Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings
and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses,
they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem:
and this city shall remain for ever. And
they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem,
and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and
from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings,
and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD.”
(Jeremiah 17:24-26)
He promised that if they would stop working on the Sabbath,
putting God first and obeying him, the kingdom would be established
forever. Judah would be ruled by their
own government, and Jerusalem would be a trade and religious center with people
flocking there from all of Israel and the neighboring countries to worship
God. This entire promise was contingent
on them keeping just one of God’s commands.
Surely they could keep this one command.
“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 Jerusalem, and it
shall not be quenched.” (Jeremiah 17:27)
If they refused to keep that one commandment, continuing to
ignore the Sabbath day, even in Jerusalem itself, then God would start a fire
that would completely destroy the city.
It would destroy their king and his family and continue to burn until
all was destroyed.
God gives us everything, and He asks so little in return, and that which He does ask is for our good, not His. How hard is it to not eat the fruit of a single tree or to not work on the Sabbath? Yet man always uses his own "wisdom" to make compromises with God, always to his own ruin.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! God bless,
Laurie
Amen, Laurie. We are so often told how hard the OT law was to keep, yet an examination of what it commanded makes it clear how simple it really was and how beneficial keeping it would be, yet Israel couldn't be bothered to keep it.
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