Jeremiah the Weeping Prophet - No. 16
Jeremiah 11:1-17 - Covenant and Curse
This section of Jeremiah turns our attention to the covenant between God and Israel. The first part of this message refers to passages from Deuteronomy. The basic summary of the covenantal demands is this: God gave His people a land “flowing with milk and honey” (v. 5), but the people had a responsibility to, “‘Obey me and do everything I command you.” (v. 4)
The covenantal agreement isn’t a way to “earn” God’s favor, because it was grounded in the grace of God rescuing his people from Egypt (v. 4). God’s people did nothing to earn being cared for and saved. God simply moved and brought them out of captivity. However, once they were delivered they were given the gift of the Law as a means to continue living with God in order to enjoy the fullness of His promises!
Jeremiah is brokenhearted because God’s people continually failed to live in faithful obedience to Him. Breaking the covenant led to living under a curse. You can see the people of God acknowledging this in Deuteronomy 27. That chapter describes the Levites calling out curses for specific activities, and the people responding with, “Amen!” as a sign of their agreement to live according to the terms of God’s covenant.
In spite of clear warnings, this is what happened in Jeremiah’s time, “…they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.” Jeremiah 11:8
Biblical scholar Christopher J.H. Wright summarizes the basic logic in this passage as follows:
This is what the scriptures say.
This is what you have done.
This is what is now going to happen, in fulfillment of the scriptures.
Disaster was coming because the people had utterly disregarded God. Disaster always comes when we disregard God. In this chapter, God says he will no longer listen to them when they cry out (v. 11). He tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people (v. 14). He tells the Israelites their sacrifices won’t work (v. 15). In essence people were doing whatever they wanted - including ignoring God and pursuing other gods - while assuming the temple sacrifices would take care of those sins.
This is not unlike Christians in today’s world thinking they can blatantly and willfully sin against God regularly and consider themselves right with Him! We must take seriously the words of Hebrews,
“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” Hebrews 10:26-29
These verses are a strong warning to anyone who would claim to follow Jesus while living in continued unrepentant rebellion.
I recently had a conversation with a young person who said they felt like they were sinning more after they gave their life to Jesus. I reassured them that before receiving Christ we are simply able to sin more easily, often with very little conviction. However, once we accept Christ and He comes to live in us and we receive His Holy Spirit, we are more aware of sins we might have previously considered unimportant.
Becoming aware of sin, and being uncomfortably convicted when we sin, is a sign of God’s presence, not His absence! Therefore, conviction of sin is intended to draw us into confession, repentance, and a deeper relationship with God. On the other hand, Satan condemns Christ's followers for sin and whispers that those sins are a sign that we were never really saved in the first place. The last thing the enemy of our soul wants is for us to repent wholeheartedly, confess our sins, and draw nearer and nearer to the heart of God!
The good news that Christians proclaim today is that we overcome the curse of disobedience by placing our faith in Jesus. Receiving Jesus leads to joyful obedience! We see this in Galatians 3, where Paul shows us how Jesus defeated the curses of Deuteronomy 27 when he purchased our salvation on the cross,
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” Galatians 3:13-14
Jesus’ death on the cross sets everyone who trusts in Him free from the law’s curse. We receive this freedom when we place all of our trust and faith in Jesus Christ and receive the blessed promise of His Holy Spirit.
If you’re a Christian who is struggling with sin, remember to trust Jesus. He saves us and forgives us from past sins, and He empowers us through His Holy Spirit to turn from sin and draw near to Him. We are empowered to live differently than the people in Jeremiah’s day. We no longer reject God and His ways. We are called to receive God’s gift of salvation and walk in persistent empowerment for faithful obedience to the only One who saves!