[Faithwalker012]

Well, Happy New Year to everyone! I hope it's been a good one so far. It certainly could be an interesting one to be sure, but above all else I hope it's one that brings you a lot of blessings. I left off with verse 7 in Jeremiah 11 and was talking about how what has happened in the past is a type for what will happen even at the very end. So it will be, as God is very good to us in that way at informing us. Judah at this point was getting ready to go into captivity, and so too are we getting more than likely very close to going into captivity again, only this time it will be most of the world. But do you know something? Even as most of the world is in captivity, God still takes care of His own and provides for them. You need look no further than those 3 Hebrew children in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and even Daniel... especially Daniel even at that time. If you don't abandon God He certainly will not abandon you at that juncture. Alright, on to verse 8... going to get a little tough now in this chapter, but keep in mind who it's going to get tough on. I actually want to pick up verse 7 again to establish the subject.

Jeremiah 11:7 "For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice."

Jeremiah 11:8 "Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not."

There is always a negative part, in this dispensation at least, to God's plan. More than that, as mentioned, there are conditions to receiving His blessings and the promises of that covenant. What were those conditions? Obey My voice, and DO them. Do what? God's commandments of course. One must understand that with God and really just in life there are consequences to our actions. If we do what we're supposed to do, we'll come out alright. If we do something bad, generally there will be something negative happen to us. I mean go out and rob a bank and see if there's any negative consequences to that. See if people, society, and our law enforcement is inclined to just let that slide. Following God's law and direction quite frankly keeps you out of trouble. That doesn't mean bad things won't happen in your life, because there's evil in this world. But you'll still come out ahead in the end because you're doing things God's way. Unfortunately, there are people who always seem to think they have a better way... a better religion, better doctrine, or just know better. They don't.

Jeremiah 11:9 "And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem."

This is interesting. Why would we have this separation of the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem? Not everyone in Jerusalem was of the tribe of Judah, or the tribe of Benjamin. They're not today. Again, what does Revelation 2:9 and Revelation 3:9 say? There are some people who claim to be of Judah (Jews) but are the synagogue of Satan. Even in the new testament in several places where it speaks of the men of Judea or inhabitants of Judea, it is not talking about Jews or just about Jews. The inhabitants are just people who live there. Hopefully as we continue through this book it will become clear that these aren't necessarily the best of people. So, who then do you think kind of starts the conspiracy? The inhabitants do. That is not to say that the men of Judah are without blame. They go along with it. What do they go along with?


Jeremiah 11:10 "They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went 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."

This is the conspiracy. The House of Israel, which is indeed separate, had already been taken into captivity and were scattered amongst what we today refer to as the Christian nations. Why did this happen? They broke the covenant. But the problem here for the house of Judah is they have allowed these "inhabitants" to not only dwell with them and claim to be of them. They've allowed them to poison God's Word. They would actually allow these people to become scribes and teachers. The problem with this is these people, sons of Cain or Kenites quite frankly to call them by name, as a whole have no interest in or loyalty to the Word. Again, these people are of the synagogue of Satan and there's a very good reason for that. Again, it's a separate subject but the bottom line is they do the work of their father, who is Satan. That is not to say that these people, who are very much alive today, can not be saved. But they, the ones who know who they are at least, do their father's work. To allow what we will call the accursed thing to be the keeper, writer, teacher of God's Word is certainly a path that's not a good one to go down. Yet again, even today we've allowed tradition and falsehood to creep not in God's Word... but into our churches.

Jason