[Faithwalker012]

Well good afternoon or good day to you. We're picking up now with Chapter 14 in the book of Jeremiah. Chapter 14 at the start deals with a drought. There are many who based on the nature of the book of Jeremiah and what was going on that feel this drought is symbolism and a drought for spiritual truth. There are others who maybe think that around this time of roughly 490-480 BC there was a literal drought. In any event, for our purposes we can consider it spiritual because we know as it says in Amos 8:11 there will be a famine in the end times not for bread or water but for hearing the words of God. Why? Well, most of what will be taught and even is taught quite frankly, and unfortunately, is more tradition and denominational doctrine than God's Word. That is not coming down on churches. But the situation is what it is and it's all coming to pass as it is written. So how about this drought? Let's read on.

Jeremiah 14:1 "The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth."
Dearth is a word that means drought, or literally restraint of rain.

dearth
1226 batstsoreth (bats-tso'-reth);
feminine intensive from 1219; restraint (of rain), i.e. drought:
KJV-- dearth, drought.

God can hold back or restrain the literal rain. He can also hold back the truth from many, and will do so as again it states in Amos 8:11. That famine is sent by God. Why would He do that? Well, first of all to test some. But if people would rather listen to something else rather than God's Word and Truth, well then He can arrange that. But let me tell you this too. God always, always, ALWAYS takes care and provides for His own and those who love Him.

Jeremiah 14:2 "Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up."

Black, as I'm sure you're well aware, is the color of mourning. Naturally when you have a literal drought and it's prolonged and bad, people suffer. So too with a spiritual drought or famine. If people are starving or thirsting in the flesh sense they suffer. If they starve or thirst in the spiritual sense, they really suffer. Here you have people calling out for help that are pretty much literally on their knees mourning and crying.

Jeremiah 14:3 "And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads

Little ones are not necessarily children, though they could be. But they sent their servants to the well to get water, and there's no water. Take this in a spiritual sense when you have people thirsting for truth and knowledge. Where do they go? They go to a church, but they find no truth, no knowledge. Friends, that is FAMINE. That is spiritually parched ground. These servants go back embarrassed and confused, and they cover their heads in mourning. There's no water! There's no truth!

Jeremiah 14:4 "Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads."

Here we say the ground is so literally dry and it's been so hot that there are literal cracks in the ground, making it useless for planting anything. You can't work the earth, the soil because it's so dry and hard, and there's no moisture at all in the soil to sustain the root system of anything if you could plant it. Similarly too, imagine that condition spiritually where everything is so dry and burnt up that even if you could plant a seed of truth, there's no way for it to grow. Very sorry state the land is in, and a very sorry state man will be in spiritually at that particular time. It reminds me of the parable of the sower in which the sower planted seeds that went on rocky ground, in areas where thistle choked out the good plants, in areas where birds swooped down and ate the seed. It was only in good, rich ground and good soil where the root system could be built up healthy that the seed germinated, grew, and the plant blossomed or bloomed. Similarly, if you're not firmly rooted in God's Word, then you're just susceptible to any obstacles that come along to pluck you away spiritually. Having spent a brief period of time in lawn care, one in that field knows, or should know, that the key to a healthy yard is healthy soil and a healthy root system. If the root system gets pulled up even a little, then that yard or that plant becomes much weaker and much more susceptible to drought, disease, pests, etc. Healthy soil, healthy well secured root structure is the key in horticulture and in your life spiritually as well.

Jeremiah 14:5 "Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass."

Here we have the drought extending even to the animals who naturally would be effected by a literal drought as well. We have a doe giving birth to a fawn, a little baby deer, and the mother actually abandons it. Why? There's no food for the mother, and with no food not only does it make it impossible for her to survive, she can't produce milk to even feed her baby.

Jeremiah 14:6 "And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass."

The word dragons actually in the Hebrew is jackals. There are of course no literal dragons, though Satan symbolically is the Dragon. Although, it's not a bad word or bad mental picture, because if you can picture in your mind that hot, dry air these wild donkies are breathing in and out, it probably to them almost would be like breathing fire. No moisture in the air even, their eyes dried up and glazed over due to this heavy drought. Think too of what that does to a person's soul spiritually during this famine of Amos 8. How did you stay sustained through it? You get into God's Word, you study it deeper than just what's on the surface, you absorb it into your mind to where rather than having the mark of the beast in your mind, you actually have the seal of God in your forehead, and you'll be in good shape. Think too in John 4 of Jesus offering that Living Water to the Samaritan woman at the well. That water is offered to anyone who loves Him, studies His Word, learns it, and chooses to partake of it. God will never allow someone to go hungry or thirsty spiritually who earnestly seeks and drinks of or eats of the truth. Keep that in mind. We'll continue this chapter later on.

Jason