Jeremiah

Chapters Eleven & Twelve

Introduction

"Heritage" and "inheritance" are two words that God repeats throughout these verses. The children of Israel were God's heritage, and the land was their inheritance.

Heritage is the status you acquire by your birthright. Born of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Jews were the heritage of God. They had been slaves in Egypt, but God called them to be sons, and He calls them His heritage in verses seven, eight, and nine of Chapter Twelve.

Inheritance is what you receive from your ancestor. The Jews received the Promised Land as their inheritance from God. In verse fourteen of Chapter Twelve God calls the Promised Land "the inheritance which I have caused My people to inherit."

The Jews were about to be left out of their inheritance:

Jeremiah 12:8 My heritage is to Me like a lion in the forest; It cries out against Me; Therefore I have hated it.

Jeremiah 12:9 My heritage is to Me like a speckled vulture; The vultures all around are against her. Come, assemble all the beasts of the field, Bring them to devour!

They were God's heritage, living off of their inheritance, but would suddenly find themselves left out of their inheritance.

Beloved, you are also God's heritage! Galatians 4:7 reads,

You were a "slave" to sin but were born-again into God's family as "sons," as His heritage. As His heritage you are an "heir" who has inherited, not property, but the promises of God.

Are you living off of your inheritance? Or do you feel somehow left out of your inheritance? That is what we want to talk about today.

#1 You Are God's Heritage But Can

Be Left Out Of Your Inheritance

The Jews were God's heritage but would no longer be able to enjoy and experience their inheritance in the land. They didn't lose their inheritance; it is clear from the last few verses of Chapter Twelve that the land was and would be Israel's forever. But they would be left out of their inheritance for a time as God would allow the Babylonian's to carry them away into captivity.

You are God's heritage. As I said, your inheritance is not property; it is promises. The Apostle Peter says you,

New Testament Christians are called "overcomers" and "conquerors." Yet so often you are overcome and conquered! You may not be enjoying and experiencing your inheritance. You seem to be left out of your inheritance.

If we can identify some of the reasons that the Jews were left out of their inheritance, you may be able to understand why you are, too.

Jeremiah first mentions disobeying God's terms as a reason why you are left out of your inheritance:

Jeremiah 11:2 "Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

Jeremiah 11:3 "and say to them, 'Thus says the LORD God of Israel: "Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant

Jeremiah 11:4 "which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, 'Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God,'

The children of Israel were slaves in Egypt. God said they were His sons, and He delivered them from their slavery. He unconditionally promised them a land as their inheritance forever. But their enjoyment and experience of the land was not unconditional. In a word, and a very important word, they must "obey." Listen to these words of Moses to the children of Israel as they were about to enter their inheritance:

Deuteronomy 28:14 "So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Deuteronomy 28:15 "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

Deuteronomy 28:16 "Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

Deuteronomy 28:17 "Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

Deuteronomy 28:18 "Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

Deuteronomy 28:19 "Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

Deuteronomy 28:20 "The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me."

Obeying was the key that unlocked the treasures of their inheritance. Disobeying would block them from enjoying and experiencing their inheritance.

Jeremiah 11:7 'For I earnestly exhorted your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, until this day, rising early and exhorting, saying, "Obey My voice."

Jeremiah 11:8 'Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart; therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but which they have not done.'"

The children of Israel chose to disobey the terms of God's covenant with them. They "followed the dictates of [their] evil heart[s]." Their inheritance would remain, but they would not enjoy or experience it in their lives.

It should be obvious that direct disobedience will keep you from enjoying and experiencing your inheritance. Take your marriage, for example. God tells you it can be wonderful and fulfilling, the greatest of all earthly relationships. He also directs you in your marriage: Husband, love your wife as Christ loved the Church...Wife, submit to your husband as you would to Jesus. The dictates of your heart tell you otherwise. If you disobey God, will you ever enjoy or experience your inheritance in your marriage?

In Jeremiah 11:7 & 8. God describes Himself as "rising early" everyday to exhort you to "obey" His "voice." The Jews disobeyed because they did not daily "incline their ear" to hear the Lord's voice.

Sometime in everyday God is already waiting to speak to you. If you do not meet with Him, you are left to follow the dictates of your own evil heart! He will direct you, or you will follow the dictates of your own evil heart. Get alone with God or you will get away from God. Broken appointments with the Lord lead to disobedience.

Disobeying God's terms is a reason why you don't enjoy and experience your inheritance; so is deviating from God's truth:

Jeremiah 11:10 "They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers who refused to hear My words, and they have gone 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."

The Jews followed the error of their forefathers by going after other pagan gods to serve them. They were deviating from God's truth.

We must be careful not to deviate from God's truth, however slight the deviation may seem. Even a small degree of error on your compass will lead you tragically off course.

One of the greatest deviations from truth in the Church today is the attempt to integrate secular psychology with biblical counseling. The psychological teachings of Freud, Jung, Maslow, Ericksen, and others are really the vain philosophies of ungodly and even antiChristian men. Yet the Church readily accepts the notion that these unregenerate men speak authoritatively on the issues of the mind and the spirit. The Apostle Peter gives you a look at biblical counseling when he says in Second Peter 1:3 & 4,

2 Peter 1:4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

What can Freud and his friends add to the word "all"? And Who better to counsel you than Jesus, Who has the Name "Wonderful Counselor" in Isaiah 9:6, and in Whom Colossians 2:3 says are "hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"?

Deviating from God's truth is a reason you are left out of your inheritance. God has a treasury of wisdom and knowledge for you in His promises; yet many prefer the bankruptcy of the world's wisdom. If you are not looking for help from your inheritance, you won't find it. Beloved, discover your treasure!

Jeremiah 11:12 "Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

Jeremiah 11:13 "For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to that shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.

God and His Word are not just another of the ways that you can get through this life. A relationship with Jesus Christ is life; knowing Jesus releases the power of eternal life into your living on this earth. You don't need help to cope with life; you need hope to conquer. In your day of calamity the teachings and philosophies of men will fail you. But you will overcome if you have the hope of eternal life.

Disobeying God's terms and deviating from God's truth cause you to be left out of your inheritance. So does defiling God's Temple:

Jeremiah 11:15 "What has My beloved to do in My house, Having done lewd deeds with many? And the holy flesh has passed from you. When you do evil, then you rejoice.

The Jews came to the Temple and offered "holy flesh" - they offered the prescribed animal sacrifices. Yet, outside the Temple, they were committing "lewd deeds with many." They themselves were unholy, ungodly. They were defiling God's Temple.

The Temple of God today is believers who are individually indwelt by God the Holy Spirit who meet corporately for worship. You are the temple of God; together, we are the temple of God. "Lewd deeds" still defile God's temple.

In First Corinthians 6:18-20 you read about what defiles the temple of God:

1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

1 Corinthians 6:20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

Sexual immorality enslaves you to the appetites and desires of your sinful flesh. Earlier in First Corinthians Six Paul spoke of your inheritance, saying,

These things are your spiritual inheritance; when you defile yourself with sexual immorality you cannot enjoy and experience them because you return to being enslaved to your physical indulgences.

God says He will leave these Jews out of their inheritance, beginning in verses sixteen and seventeen of Chapter Eleven:

Jeremiah 11:17 "For the LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced doom against you 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 to Baal."

God compared these Jews to an olive tree that He Himself had planted, cultivated, and nurtured. He had done everything He could to insure their greenery, fullness of beauty, and fruitfulness. In the end it would be as if He sent a bolt of lightning against them to destroy them for their evil.

Drop down to verse seven of Chapter Twelve:

These Jews would be left out of their wonderful inheritance.

Instead of inhabiting the land, they would be like wild lions in the forest, growling at God. How often do we growl at God when the blame lies with ourselves?

The Jews went after the nations around them, wanting to be like them. God called the nations "vultures" in their character and conduct. The Jews, because of their everlasting covenant with God, could never truly pass for just another nation. They were "speckled" - marked out as the people of God, hated and persecuted.

If you are a Christian you can never really fit back into the world. You bear the marks of God in your life.

Jeremiah 12:11 They have made it desolate; Desolate, it mourns to Me; The whole land is made desolate, Because no one takes it to heart.

Jeremiah 12:12 The plunderers have come On all the desolate heights in the wilderness, For the sword of the LORD shall devour From one end of the land to the other end of the land; No flesh shall have peace.

Instead of inhabiting their inheritance, the land would lie desolate. The land flowing with milk and honey would yield only thorns.

Many believers are living in such a way that they are left out of their spiritual inheritance. Because they disobey, because they deviate, because they are defiled, they fail to enjoy and experience God's exceeding great and precious promises to them. Don't be one of them! Instead,

#2 You Are God's Heritage And Can

Be Living Off Of Your Inheritance

Jeremiah was an exception. Here he was ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit in the midst of this generation that was being left out of its inheritance. He was drawing from a spiritual inheritance; he was living off of his spiritual inheritance. These verses give you some idea of how to do the same.

Jeremiah was endangered. As God's man, there were those who sought to cut-off his life.

Jeremiah 11:19 But I was like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more."

Jeremiah was endangered. You are endangered. Jesus said, in John 15:18-19,

John 15:19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."

How would Jeremiah respond? At first he is seen enduring:

Jeremiah was enduring the danger, trusting in God's righteousness to take vengeance upon his enemies. God told him He would:

Jeremiah 11:22 "therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine;

Jeremiah's enduring would quickly end. God's timing was too slow for him. He is seen embittered:

Jeremiah 12:2 You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; They grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth But far from their mind.

Jeremiah 12:3 But You, O LORD, know me; You have seen me, And You have tested my heart toward You. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, And prepare them for the day of slaughter.

Jeremiah 12:4 How long will the land mourn, And the herbs of every field wither? The beasts and birds are consumed, For the wickedness of those who dwell there, Because they said, "He will not see our final end."

This is very different than what Jeremiah expressed earlier. He said, "Let me talk to you about Your judgments." In other words, "God, I don't like this waiting for your judgment to fall." Jeremiah was complaining that he and the land, even the birds and the beasts, were being made to endure indefinitely when God could end the disobedience of the wicked immediately.

God's answer came in verses five and six, where Jeremiah is seen empowered:

Jeremiah 12:6 For even your brothers, the house of your father, Even they have dealt treacherously with you; Yes, they have called a multitude after you. Do not believe them, Even though they speak smooth words to you.

The first thing God tells His embittered prophet is that things are actually much worse than Jeremiah thought! Not only was his life in danger; his own family was part of the plot, and so were a "multitude" of others.

God compared Jeremiah's bleak circumstances to a race for his life. Up to now, he had been holding his own - as if his opponents were other footmen like himself. Soon it would be as if he were running against racehorses! He would be chased out of his comfortable surroundings and find himself trying to survive in a harsh wilderness, even as these swift steeds continued their relentless pursuit.

Beloved, your danger is much greater than you realize, much worse than you might think. Your struggle is not with flesh and blood - not with things you can handle. You are hated and hunted by the prince of this world; your struggle is against "principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Unbelievers who surround you are taken captive by the devil to do his will. Your opponents are not others like yourself; they are the swift steeds of a spiritual foe on their relentless pursuit, seeking to drive you into a deserted wilderness where they can strike a death blow against you.

You are endangered. Are you enduring? or embittered? Neither enduring or being embittered will do. You must be empowered. God asks, "How can you contend with horses? How will you do in the flooding of the Jordan?" The answer is, "I can't contend with horses; I can't survive when I am chased out and pursued."

Oh, but you can! You can when you realize that you can't! God is describing spiritual endangerment that can only be met by spiritual empowering. In the language of our text, you must live off of your spiritual inheritance if you are to survive.

Here is just some of your spiritual inheritance:

You are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit

You have access to all spiritual blessings in heavenly places

You are able to appropriate exceeding great and precious promises

You have the armor of God to ward off the attacks of your enemy

You have grace that is sufficient for any and every circumstance

Why don't we live off of our inheritance? I think it is at least partially because we do not understand the real nature of our endangerment. God's only answer to Jeremiah was to show him the true nature of his endangerment. The rest of the book is a testimony to God's empowering him to contend with these things - and to conquer them!

Whenever I am satisfied to either endure or be embittered, I am not understanding my real danger. There is no enduring in a race with horses; and there is no use being embittered when I am chased out into the wilderness. I must be empowered. Only then can I contend; only then can I conquer.

Conclusion

Chapter Twelve ends with God's promises to return the Jews and to bless the very nations He used to judge the Jews:

Jeremiah 12:15 "Then it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and everyone to his land.

Jeremiah 12:16 "And it shall be, if they will learn carefully the ways of My people, to swear by My name, 'As the LORD lives,' as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst of My people.

Jeremiah 12:17 "But if they do not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation," says the LORD.

God promises to return a future generation of Jews to their inheritance. And He promises to bless any other nations who will learn from His people.

God wants to use you to be a blessing to the unbelievers around you - the same unbelievers that the devil wants to use to destroy you! Enduring them, or becoming embittered against them, will not help you be a blessing to them. You must live off of your inheritance while you are among them. Then they will see the grace and mercy of a life empowered by the Living God.

Don't be left out of your inheritance; live off of it, to the glory of your Lord, Jesus Christ!