Jeremiah's Turning #11: Hard As Stone

Following the word “turn” (שוב) through Jeremiah’s prophecy.

“O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You have smitten them, but they did not weaken; You have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent [שוב]” (Jeremiah 5:3).

They became like what they worshiped: “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; they have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but they cannot hear; they have noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but they cannot feel; they have feet, but they cannot walk; they cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them” (Psalm 115:4-8).

The Lord responded to this hardness in two ways:

• The prophet preached a message that went unheard by the decree of God: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ He said, ‘Go, and tell this people: “Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.” Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed’” (Isaiah 6:8-10). By this way, this passage is one of the most-quoted in the New Testament (Matthew 13:14,15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; John 12:40; Acts 28:26,27; Romans 11:8). The principle does not change between the Testaments because God’s plan to save a small group of the elect from the mass of idol-worshiping humanity does not change (neither does their idolatry change). “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14).
• The prophet was made just as hard as they were: “Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel, nor to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you; yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen to Me. Surely the whole house of Israel is stubborn and obstinate. Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. Like emery harder than flint I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed before them, though they are a rebellious house.’ Moreover, He said to me, ‘Son of man, take into your heart all My words which I will speak to you and listen closely. Go to the exiles, to the sons of your people, and speak to them and tell them, whether they listen or not, “Thus says the Lord GOD”’” (Ezekiel 3:4-11). John the Baptist was raised up to be this kind of preacher. His message was not vanilla, easy-listening, and it certainly didn’t tickle the ears (2 Timothy 4:3).

Repentance is the gift of God (Acts 5:31; 11:18), enabling His elect to respond to the preaching of His Good News of salvation through Jesus’ death on the cross alone (Acts 2:36-38). The gift of repentance is the blessing of God given through His Son (Acts 3:26).

Though salvation is impossible to achieve by human beings (Matthew 19:25,26; Mark 10:26,27; Luke 18:26,27), God is able to bring anyone to repentance. So we prayerfully and lovingly – but immovably in the truth of the Word – appeal to the human rocks with the Gospel, hoping God will use the Word to bring them to repentance and faith: “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:24-26).

Jeremiah's Turning #9: Supernatural Evangelism

Following the word “turn” (שוב) through Jeremiah’s prophecy.

“‘If you will return [שוב], O Israel,’ declares the LORD, ‘Then you should return [שוב] to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence, and will not waver, and you will swear, “As the LORD lives,” in truth, in justice and in righteousness; then the nations will bless themselves in Him, and in Him they will glory.’ For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else My wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds. Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, “Blow the trumpet in the land; cry aloud and say, “Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.” Lift up a standard toward Zion! Seek refuge, do not stand still, for I am bringing evil from the north, and great destruction. A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone out from his place to make your land a waste. Your cities will be ruins without inhabitant.’ For this, put on sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned [שוב] back from us.” (Jeremiah 4:1-8).

God commands that His people be a repentant people, a people who do not mingle the world with Himself. What’s at stake? The Gospel fulfillment of the promise to Abraham:

• “...in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).
• “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU’” (Galatians 3:8).
• “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth’...after these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’” (Revelation 5:9,10; 7:9,10).

“And you will swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice and in righteousness; then the nations will bless themselves in Him, and in Him they will glory” (Jeremiah 4:2). This is God’s Gospel promise through a repentant, faithful people. No where in this does the Gospel promise extent to a worldly entertainment or gimmicky strategy for drawing the lost. God attaches a promise of supernaturally successful evangelism to a faithful, holy, and repentant people. The "then" is God's promise.

The only alternative to being a people of circumcised heart is being a people under the wrath of God.

This is how the nations will be blessed by the Gospel, and this is how God will ultimately receive the most glory in their sight.

Repent, Church. This is what the unbelieving world needs.

“Saving repentance is an evangelical grace by which a person who is made to feel, by the Holy Spirit, the manifold evils of his sin, and being given faith in Christ, humbles himself over his sin with godly sorrow, detestation of his sin and self-abhorrency. In such repentance the person also prays for pardon and strength of grace, and has a purpose and endeavor, by supplies of the Spirit’s power, to walk before God and to totally please Him in all things. As repentance is to be continued through the whole course of our lives, on account of the body of death, and the motions of it, it is therefore every man’s duty to repent of his particular known sins particularly. Such is the provision which God has made through Christ in the covenant of grace for the preservation of believers in the way of salvation, that although even the smallest sin deserves damnation, yet there is no sin great enough to bring damnation on those who repent. This makes the constant preaching of repentance necessary” (1689 Baptist Confession, 15.4-6).

Don't Know What You've Got Till It's Gone

After lifting up the gift of repentance with the Church in the Philippines, on the way home over the Pacific I thought about the warnings in Scripture that the gift can be withdrawn. May we be warned into diligence!

Choosing the world over the promise of God: "But Jacob replied, 'First sell me your birthright.' 'Look,' said Esau, 'I'm about to die! What use is the birthright to me?' But Jacob said, 'Swear an oath to me now.' So Esau swore an oath to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew; Esau ate and drank, then got up and went out. So Esau despised his birthright" (Genesis 25:31-34, N.E.T.).

Consequence: "When Esau heard his father's words, he wailed loudly and bitterly. He said to his father, 'Bless me too, my father!'...Esau said to his father, 'Do you have only that one blessing, my father? Bless me too!' Then Esau wept loudly" (Genesis 27:34,38).

Application: "And see to it that no one becomes an immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that later when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no opportunity for repentance, although he sought the blessing with tears" (Hebrews 12:16,17).

John Bunyan’s illustration from “Pilgrim’s Progress,” Book 1, Stage 2:

“Now,” said Christian, “let me go hence.” “Nay, stay,” said the Interpreter, “Till I have showed thee a little more, and after that thou shalt go on thy way.” So he took him by the hand again, and led him into a very dark room, where there sat a man in an iron cage. Now the man, to look on, seemed very sad; he sat with his eyes looking down to the ground, his hands folded together, and he sighed as if he would break his heart. Then said Christian, “What means this?” At which the Interpreter bid him talk with the man.

Then said Christian to the man, “What art thou?” The man answered, “I am what I was not once.”

“What wast thou once?”

The man said, “I was once a fair and flourishing professor [Luke 8:13], both in mine own eyes, and also in the eyes of others: I once was, as I thought, fair for the celestial city, and had then even joy at the thoughts that I should get thither.”

“Well, but what art thou now?”

“I am now a man of despair, and am shut up in it, as in this iron cage. I cannot get out; Oh now I cannot!”

“But how camest thou into this condition?”

“I left off to watch and be sober: I laid the reins upon the neck of my lusts; I sinned against the light of the word, and the goodness of God; I have grieved the Spirit, and He is gone; I tempted the devil, and he is come to me; I have provoked God to anger, and He has left me: I have so hardened my heart, that I cannot repent.”

Then said Christian to the Interpreter, “But is there no hope for such a man as this?” “Ask him,” said the Interpreter.

Then said Christian, “Is there no hope, but you must be kept in the iron cage of despair?”

“No, none at all.”

“Why, the Son of the Blessed is very pitiful.”

“I have crucified Him to myself afresh [Hebrews 6:6]; I have despised His person [Luke 19:14]; I have despised His righteousness; I have counted His blood an unholy thing; I have done despite to the Spirit of grace [Hebrews 10:29]: therefore I have shut myself out of all the promises and there now remains to me nothing but threatenings, dreadful threatenings, faithful threatenings of certain judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour me as an adversary.”

“For what did you bring yourself into this condition?”

“For the lusts, pleasures, and profits of this world; in the enjoyment of which I did then promise myself much delight: but now every one of those things also bite me, and gnaw me like a burning worm.”

“But canst thou not now repent and turn?”

“God hath denied me repentance [desert rat note: remember that repentance is granted by God, Acts 3:26; 5:31; 11:18; 2 Corinthians 7:10; 2 Timothy 2:25,26]. His Word gives me no encouragement to believe; yea, Himself hath shut me up in this iron cage: nor can all the men in the world let me out. Oh eternity! Eternity! How shall I grapple with the misery that I must meet with in eternity?”

Then said the Interpreter to Christian, “Let this man’s misery be remembered by thee, and be an everlasting caution to thee.” “Well,” said Christian, “this is fearful! God help me to watch and to be sober, and to pray that I may shun the cause of this man’s misery.”

Remembering the Promise and Warning

“The Lord hath said, ‘I will bring My people again from Bashan: I will bring them again from the depths of the Sea’” (Psalm 68:22, Geneva Bible). Paul calls the passage through the Red Sea a “baptism” (1 Corinthians 10:1,2).

The Lord does not forget His promise to those baptized; neither should we: “And did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink (for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them [in the wilderness before reaching the Promised Land]: and the Rock was Christ)...the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we that are many, are one bread and one body, because we all are partakers of one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:3,4,16,17).

The Lord does not forget His warning to the baptized; neither should we: “But with many of them God was not pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things are our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them, as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.’ Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted Him, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things came unto them for examples, and were written to admonish us, upon whom the ends of the world are come...wherefore my beloved, flee from idolatry” (10:5-11,14).

Countercultural in the Blessing of the Normal

“Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, and walketh in His ways. When thou eatest the labors of thine hands, thou shalt be blessed, and it shall be well with thee” (Psalm 128:1,2, Geneva Bible).

Carefully note that the blessings for “fearing the Lord” and “walking in His ways” are manifested in the most ordinary means: Work-paycheck-eat.

We give thanks, since we are working for, buying, and eating food “which God hath created to be received with giving thanks of them which believe and know the truth” (1 Timothy 4:3).

Two observations:
• “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Those in Christ are to give all things a countercultural significance by pointing not to themselves, but to our Father Who is in heaven. This practice is not just doxological (an act focused on openly giving glory to God in a corporate setting), but should be doctrinal and catechetical (teaching): “Prayer, with thanksgiving...must be made in the name of the Son, by the help of the Spirit, and according to His will [it is trinitarian, thus uniquely Christian; see Ephesians 5:18,20]. It must be made with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance; and corporate prayer must be made in a known language” (Baptist Confession of Faith 1689, 22.3).

• Don’t let the convenience of quickly-acquired food so streamline the process of eating that this “blessing” (Psalm 128:1,2) just becomes a necessary process in our pointlessly over-busy schedules (where, in our efforts to cram more importance into our day, we marginalize heaven-pointing blessings like sitting down to eat with family in the celebration of the daily blessings of God).

Church, don't get dragged along in the current of the mundane with the world. Instead, may we be those who celebrate, teach, and bring the mundane into the context of heavenly glory even in the work-paycheck-eat cycle. This is blessing.