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CHAPTER 17
Captivity of Judah comes because of sin and forsaking the Lord—Hallow the sabbath day: such shall save the people; otherwise they shall be destroyed. |
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1 THE sin of Judah is
written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond:
it is agraven upon the table of their heart, and
upon the bhorns of your altars;
2 Whilst their children remember their aaltars and their bgroves by the green trees upon the high hills. |
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3 O my amountain in the field, I
will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and
thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
4 And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to aserve thine enemies in the bland which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever. |
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5 ¶ Thus saith the LORD; aCursed
be the man that btrusteth in
mana, and maketh
cflesh his arm, and whose heart
ddeparteth from the LORD.
6 For he shall be like the aheath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a bsalt land and not inhabited. |
5a Cursed be the man that trusteth in man In Jeremiah's day the notions and concepts of man had imagined and devised for themselves false gods which were not gods upon which man would have come to rely upon rather than subjecting them selves to the commandments of the true God and total reliancere upon that one true God. While this may seem to be a far cry from we of the 'educated and enlightened' world today, the parallels are strikingly there. Science is the false god of man today. And even though science is based upon intellectualization of the 'educated man' of today, the theories and 'notions' of science are still very much dependant upon 'man' and the imagination of man. Now to be 'learned' is good if man will place that learning in proper perspective to the one true God of heaven and earth. But the science of 'man' does often place the God of the universe at nought. He does not believe in him just as they of the ancient world had removed themselves from believing in and following the true God in light of what the 'men' of the age had formulated according to the vain imaginations and desires of their own minds. This too is the state today. Man is still but scratching the surface of the knowledge of the universe and by what powers it and life does operate. Man in his pride fancies that he himself can so define things according to his 'learning', and while man has discovered much, there is a universe of knowledge and understanding which man has yet to come to know and this in the expanse of eternity that God already knows. How is it that man today cannot so humble himself to understand that he is nothing and that in the eternties of space 'others' have gone on before, and He who has gone on before us is our God. And by the knowledge of his power had and does he form, control and govern this unfathonably unique world of life. Man attempts to discover the human genome and the dna which governs the design of the fabric of life, yet he denies its very 'creator' God. Men today are as children who think they know everything or at least cannot accept or appreciate that they parents might well know more. God had formed, organized, 'created' this world and placed us His children in it that we might so learn by our own experience and maturate in our individuality and agency outside his immediate presence. This is necessary for our own 'eternal development' just as a child must leave his home, family and parents to so make his own way in this world today. But many in so experiencing their own individuality have forgotten God to such an extent that in their own pride of 'self' have come to deny the God of the universe. They imagine unto themselves explanations of things which deny God and God's roll in them. They present themselves as the self centered realm of what is and cannot look beyond this space and time to see the universal reality that we are but following in the footsteps of they who have gone before, even our God who had gone on generations and eternities before. Only when men so place themselves in their proper relationship with God and His universe will man truely come to understand and apreciate the true wonder of it all. Why there is life and the purposes for which it has been so structured as it has been. Until then, even as the ancients who replaced the one true God with false gods of their own imaginations which they in their own self centered limited imaginations would prefer to serve themselves of, even so does man today so push God aside to replace him with a concept of their environment which they have so formed and created out of their own minds. And what has confused the matter more is that in that age of apostasy which followed the deaths of apostles in the early church, such men of that age have inovated and imagined unto themselves the nature of a God who they would prefer for their own reasons to 'follow' and that formed god of the Nicene Creed and development of the apostate Chrisitan world from the truth of God has so formed a concept of God which is not consistent with rhyme or reason. But the true God of the restoration is the true God of the universe. In one sense and view an exalted Man who has gone on before and has now applied his eternally comprehensive understanding to the benefit of his own spirit children in the formation and creation of this temporal and mortally temporary world today. We like him are eternal in our natures. Though this mortal frame of dust does expire, that true essence of which we are, that eternal spirit of man within does live on and does but return after death to that God which has given it this temporal abode. And for what purpose. Only in God is that purpose to be found and the blessings thereof recieved. And this is a part of the test of our own eternal fiber, if we can look ourside ourselves and come to see beyond our own limited perspectives to come to know and understand Him from whence we have come of our own iniative and acceptance. That is the experience to which he places us that we might so develop independent of him yet come know him and that he is in our strugling against the temporal world and this mortal being. | |
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7 Blessed is the man that
atrusteth in the LORD, and whose bhope
the LORD is.
8 For he shall be as a atree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not bsee when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of cdrought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. |
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9 ¶ The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
10 I the LORD asearch the bheart, I try the creins, even to give every man according to his dways, and according to the fruit of his doings. 11 As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth ariches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. |
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12 ¶ A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that aforsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters. 14 aHeal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my bpraise. |
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15 ¶ Behold, they say unto me, Where is
the word of the LORD? let it acome now.
16 As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee. |
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17 Be not a terror unto me: thou art my
ahope in the day of evil.
18 Let them be aconfounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with bdouble destruction. |
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19 ¶ Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
20 And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: 21 Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the asabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 22 Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. |
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23 But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear,
but made their neck astiff, that they might not hear, nor
receive instruction.
24 And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work thereina; 25 Then shall there enter into the gates of this city akings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever. |
24a hallow the sabbath day, to do no work
therein Like many today, to them who had invited the
'international' flare into their lives, the Jews of Jerusalem did not keep
the sabbath day holy even in that simplest of commandments to do no work
therein. The city of Jerusalem would receive into it by way of the gates of
its city any who would come bearing whatever their burden was being born.
Such was the atmosphere of religious tolerance. And with such atmosphere of
'religious tolerance' even the Jews would transact 'business' and transfer
'burdens' in and out of the city on the Sabbath Day. They had removed their
behavior from that which the Lord had commanded. Tolerance for other ways even
under the guise of 'rights', is no excuse before the Lord. Just because a
store is open, just because there are other activities other than 'church'
going on, the sabbath day is to be kept even as the Lord has commanded. What
the Lord required was a 'return' unto one of the most basic commandments of
the 10 commandments, to keep the sabbath day holy. The was was light and
simple, one day a week do not labor but keep the sabbath. And this, like us
today, the Jews of Jerusalem and those they would deal with did not do. They
failed to 'do no work therein', that is any work other than then Lord's work.
There is also another aspect in this, the 'burden' of the king, which the king would take with him on the sabbath might be as simple as the 'crown' and the kingly garb. Perhaps this was also aimed at the king, that he ought to walk plainly before the Lord on that day and do no kingly duty even unto to wearing the prideful garb of the kingly position. This seems to be a central failure of most all kings, they take pride in their position as king. And unlike king Benjamin of the Book of Mormon, they drew upon their kingly status to be 'better' than the people and thus becoming a 'burden' upon the people in various manners of support and worship, that they were not equal before the king. |
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26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD.
27 But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the asabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the bpalaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched. |
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