4 PART III
PART III
We are now ready for Jeremiah 2:19. Before this chapter is over with, it’s really going to blow your mind. You will see how far people walk away from God, yet how religious they are, how sincere and how many statues they have.
Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts. The word "backsliding," of course, you learned in the Foundational Class. As servants, you could do that; as sons you can’t. Here He’s speaking to Israel and the wickedness was that they had forsaken God. God did not forsake them. They forsook Him, and that is always the road down. "The Lord God of hosts." This particular usage is used six times in Jeremiah. The word "Lord" is Jehovah, "God" is Adoni and "hosts" is sabaoth. Six different times it’s used and the number six should speak loudly to anybody who works the Word. You have to check its usage each place in its context and see the greatness of it. verses 20-22: For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.
Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God. For of old time, all these many years, God says, "I’ve broken the yoke that you had on your neck and I’ve burst your bands." The bands were like handcuffs. To "not transgress" here literally means I will not serve other gods. A "noble" vine is a "choice" vine. How then are thou turned into the degenerate plant of a degenerate vine? A "strange" vine is "degenerate." Nitre is soap that has a lot of cleansing power in it. "And though thou take thee much soap." You just wash and wash and wash. Yet thy iniquity is marked before thee, saith the Lord God. You can do the outside of the body, but that won’t clean it up on the inside. No matter how strong a soap you use, it just can’t penetrate deep enough. Put all of this together and these verses really set the wickedness of their idolatry.
I’m thinking of the record in Matthew 15, where God says they worshipped Him in vain. Think of Malachi, where they had brought all second-rate offerings and yet they said, "Lord, we don’t know what we’ve done wrong." They always look good on the outside.
People always go through the machinery. They bow at the right time. They count their beads at the right time. They go to pray at the right time. They do everything right except the one great thing: an inside job. Their hearts are rotten.
They put on the outside to make it look good, but inside they’re, as Jesus said, dead people, stinking. They wash the outside of the platter. "Every high hill" in verse 20 means that every little hill that you could look at, they put a statue on. "Under every green tree thou wanderest," they set up statues. "Yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God." verse 23:
How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways.
"How canst thou say, I am not polluted." God is telling them they are so polluted and yet they say they’re not polluted. You say I’m not going after Baalim. Look at what you’ve done. You’re like a swift dromedary traversing, entangled in her ways. Look at what else verse 24 compares them to. verses 24-27: A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.
Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,
Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. Their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets were speaking to a stock, an idol. Of course this word here is again in the feminine gender, which you don’t see in English. This makes it agree with the previous statement of "loved strangers and after them" in verse 25. Those words are all feminine, because the goddess that they were worshipping here is called Asherah. This word Asherah comes from the word Asher, which means erect. Every time, by the way, in the King James when it’s translated "grove" or "groves," it is the word Asherah. See they said in verse 27 to Asherah, "Thou art my father; and to a stone...." All of these gods were either made out of wood or stone; and they’re idols. And they said to these gods, "Thou hast brought me forth." But you and I know it was the true God who brought them forth, out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For they have turned their back upon, or unto me, the true God; they turned their back to me and not their face. They didn’t stay looking at my face. But, in the time of trouble, they’ll yell at me again and say, "Oh, God, arise and save us." verses 28-33: But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.
Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the Lord. In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
O generation, see ye the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee? Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.
"But, when that time comes, where are those idols, those gods, that you made? Let them get up, save thee in the time of trouble. For according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah." They had gods every place. They were surrounded with religion like we are at every street corner today. But no truth. A lot of idols were in every city. "Wherefore will ye plead with me," God says. "What do you want to come back to me for; try the gods that you said were so terrific. You’ve all transgressed against me," saith the Lord. "In vain have I smitten your children." In other words they walked away from God, and God had to take his hand off. Therefore we see the Oriental way of saying it, "I have smitten your children." They didn’t learn anything in that correction. "Your own sword devoured your prophets, your men of God, like a destroying lion." "O chosen but now perverse generation" is the text. "See ye the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? Is that how I treated Israel? A land of darkness? Then why do my people now brag and say, ’We are lords, we’ll come no more unto thee, the true God.’ Can a maid forget her ten pieces of silver? Her ornaments?" Ten pieces of silver or the silver cord placed around her neck by her husband. "Yet my people have forgotten me day after day after day after day." Sounds like this was written this morning. verses 34-37:
Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.
Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.
"Also, in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the helpless and innocent." What they were doing is like what happens in every culture; the older people were leading the younger people and the children into the worship of the same idols and the same destruction. That’s why your skirts is the evidence. It is in your skirts meaning it’s evident in your walk. It’s evidenced. I’ve not found it by secret search, but upon these, your skirts, it is evidenced. Yet thou sayest, "Oh, I’m innocent, surely his anger will turn from me." "Behold, I the true God will judge thee, because thou sayest I have not sinned." Imagine that. Here they were sinning like crazy, but in their minds they were convinced they weren’t sinning. We’ve been just like that in our culture. We’ve been so far off God and His Word and yet we say, "Oh, we’re God’s people, we’re walking for God, we go to church, we do this." A bunch of junk! It’s just as far off. "Why gaddest thou about?" You know what it means to gad about? They were running from idol to idol to idol, that’s the gadding about. "Why gaddest thou from idol to idol? Thou shalt be ashamed, by Egypt, as well as by Assyria. Yea, thou shalt go forth from Egypt and thine hands upon thine head." "Hands upon your head" is like when you arrest somebody, you make him put his hands on top of his head or behind his back. It means you’re under arrest. You haven’t got anything to pull out of your pocket to use on anybody else. You can’t kill anybody. You are all done in. "For the Lord hath rejected thy confidences and thou shalt not prosper in them."
Deuteronomy 16:21 and 22:
Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee.
Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the Lord thy God hateth. The word "grove" there, again, is Asherah. God had told his people, very plainly, they were not to set up any idols. Specifically this idol of Asherah was not to be set up and very especially, they weren’t to pay any attention to it. It was never to be near to the altar of the Lord thy God. In Jeremiah as you will read it, you will find out they not only had them on every hill and in all the cities of Judah, but they had them right in the temple. Look at Kings.
I Kings 15:13: And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron.
She had put an idol up of Asherah. And Asa, the king, destroyed his mother’s idol, Asherah, and burnt it by the brook Kidron. Yet the high places were not removed. Still Asa’s heart was perfect with the Lord.
I Kings 15:14: But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa’s heart was perfect with the Lord all his days. In II Chronicles it talks about an identical situation. Maachah was the mother of Asa the king. Asa removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove, and Asa cut down her idol and stamped it and burned it at the brook Kidron.
II Chronicles 15:16: And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.
Now an idol of stone, you can’t burn. You can crush it to pieces, but you cannot burn it. Asherah, sometimes it is called Ashtoreh, was the goddess of life. Production. Baalbek, that I mentioned yesterday, was the great Roman capital for their summer houses. The big religious temple there was to the god Jupiter. Whenever they would go to worship, the first place they’d go was to that fantastic temple. And that was supposed to be their spiritual worship, Jupiter. After they finished that, they went to the temple of Baachus, which, by the way, still has the keystone in the front of it. It has never fallen down after all those centuries, and everybody beating the place down. Baachus is the god of stuffing, overeating, like we’ve been doing. Breakfast, dinner and supper. First they worshipped god, then they went to eat. Then after they left that, they went to the temple of Venus to lay women. Great order of events. Get your spiritual food first, then feed your body, and then go sex it up. The Romans really had a system. They met every need of every man or woman by doing just that. Israel wasn’t far behind. Ashtoreth was the goddess of life that they were worshipping. This particular statue, the way it was arranged, was as follows: They laid out in the statue all the genitalia of the woman, with the outer labia, the inner labia, the vagina, and then through the middle of it, coming up out of it was an erect penis. That’s why I gave you that word Asher, meaning erect. It came right out of the vagina. The male penis was in the vagina, only it was inverted. They didn’t want to show the male penis down in the ground, or in the rocks, so they turned it upside down and brought it up out of the vagina. They showed the whole area of the genitals of the female, and then the erect penis coming up out of it. This is what they had set up as gods all over Judah, all over the land. That’s what they were worshipping as that which had brought them light and gave them their deliverance. That’s what Israel was doing, and time and time again they will call it Baal or Baalim. Baalim is the plural of Baal.
I could take you today to a place in India where they still have the same structure, the same gods today. Mrs. Wierwille and I have been there. For those of us who love the true God, it is sort of nauseating to say the least. And yet there are hundreds of thousands of people who come to worship at that location. The greatest amount of people who come to worship there are first of all virgins, who are betrothed and are going to get married. Secondly, there would be women who are married and are barren, who have no children. Because, in Eastern culture, it is a disgrace for a woman not to have a baby. She is made to have one, and if she doesn’t have one, Eastern culture has considered it a disgrace. That’s why the Bible has that type of thing in it. Biblical culture had arranged that if you couldn’t have a baby, then you would be allowed to take your maid and give it to the man. Then whatever baby she would have would be legally yours. It’s in the Word, Old Testament. I think it got somebody in trouble with Hagar. You see, the same gods, the same idols, the same devil spirits are behind these things, and every idol has a devil spirit behind it. Every idol has a devil spirit behind it. It isn’t the idol per se that’s bad, it’s what it represents and the spirit behind it. Inside of this temple in India, before you walk in you ring a bell. That tells the god you’re coming. It wakes him up. That bell was ringing all the time. The old fool was awake all the time.
We didn’t have to ring it because there were so many women and men in there. Before you come to the bell, there’s a tree. There you take a lock of your hair and tie it on that tree. Then you ring the bell and walk in. Inside it’s arranged very gorgeously with the altar where the worship is. In the center of the room is this whole genitalia of the female with the erect penis coming out of it surrounded by about two feet of water, rolling around. Water is indicative of the flow of it, of pregnancy, of life. The women come in with their garlands and hang them over the head of the penis. Then they kneel to pray. Some of them come in with precious oils, go to the head of the penis, put oil all over the head of the penis, kiss it, and then go back to pray. I was in there about twice I think, maybe three times. About a quarter of the way up the penis were piled garlands of flowers. One woman would bring a garland, drop it over the top, and then she would kneel there and pray to become pregnant or to have a baby. That’s the type of god and the goddess that Israel was worshipping. In other words, they were worshipping sex to the hilt. Of course, as soon as you leave the temple, there are plenty of those images to buy. You can buy them in any size. I brought one home and showed it to the kids at that time. I told them what I’m telling you, and a lot more. That’s the degradation to which Israel had gone, and that is why they got destroyed. They were serving another god. And the god was this Asherah, called Baal. Now in the process of it, other gods get involved. On some of the symbols in the Roman Catholic Church, I’m sure you have seen something that looks like the letter "I," and then an "O" behind it. And they tell you it’s the God of hosts. That is the symbol of Asherah and Baal.
I’m sure once your mind gets acclimatized to the truth of God’s Word, you’ll see a lot of things in symbols that you have never recognized before. To you they held little significance. If they put ivory around them, or rubies, you thought it was so beautiful. They bring food, for instance, to the god in India. Women would bring cookies, like cakes. It talks about baked cakes in Jeremiah. That’s what it was in India. Women baked special unleavened cakes to bring to the god. Flowers, rubies, and gifts of money were also brought. But if the shepherds, as we read, if the king, if the priests, are worshipping the wrong god, they will lead their people to do the same, because people are just like sheep following a shepherd. In Israel, the high priest, along with all the other priests, the king, and all the elders we read about led them into idolatry. That is the one thing that you cannot get away with and live before the true God. You just kill yourself, your nation, everything. The first commandment that God ever gave was, "I am the Lord thy God which hath brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, thou shalt have no other gods before me." Yet the so-called Christian churches have a minimum of three. Most of the Christian churches have had a lot more. They have had at least three since the early part of the second century. By the third century you had to believe in those three or the sword of the Roman Empire would cut your throat. And so all Christendom came under Rome. The Anglican never got out of it. The Episcopalians never got out of it. Christianity never got out of it to this day. Except for a small remnant of people, perhaps, around the world. This is why most nations are still in captivity and those who aren’t are going, because the true God will not stand for it. No matter how they try to clean themselves up, no matter how beautiful they make their buildings or their cathedrals or anything else on the outside, inside they stink. God looks on the heart and not on the outside. In Isaiah 57, Asherah represented the goddess of life, the female side. Baal represents the generative side, the erection, the penis side of this thing.
Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it.
Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them.
Here when it’s talking about "images of men," it’s not talking about the complete physical body of a man. It’s talking about an erect penis. "And didst commit whoredom with them." You will be reading in Jeremiah about Israel playing the whore. That simply means she was worshipping other gods than the one true God. The one true God supplies every need for Israel. He was to Israel like the husband is to be to the wife and the wife to be to the husband to supply the complete need. In the Bible, when that complete need is not supplied, there’s something wrong. The true God always supplies the complete need and Israel was to reciprocate by supplying the true need to the true God. I put it all together in one verse in John where it says we worship Him via spirit and truth. God would’ve always and still does supply every need to man. In our administration He does it through His wonderful Son, Jesus Christ, and the power of the holy spirit that is in us. It is Christ in us the hope of glory by which God supplies every need. We in turn worship Him via spirit and truth. It is when Israel walked away from the true God, and got themselves other idols, that God forsook them, because they forsook God. Consequently, Israel went into captivity and so many, many terrible things have happened. I believe there would not be the great religion today called Mohammedanism (or Moslem) had the true Church, the Body of Christ, from the first century on had only one God. I think Mohammedanism saw itself like a cleansing to Christianity, because the Mohammedans know there is only one God. They’ve only ever stood for one God. Outside of this ministry I know of nothing that can reach the Moslems. They are tough people to reach. But, you’ll never reach a Moslem who’s got a brain in his head by talking about the trinity. They know better. And when the hoards of the Moslems rode across what we know as the so-called Christian lands, they killed the Christians like crazy, because they thought they were doing the true God a favor since the Christians had three gods. At least they had some sense in their heads. They’ve only got one God. Most Christians sit around and say they’ve got only one, but worship three. Remember what I read a little while ago from Jeremiah? They said, "Oh, we haven’t sinned." That’s what the Christian church has said for centuries! Then they look at me and say I’m the heretic, I’m the sinner, I’m the person they ought to get rid of because I dare to write a book called Jesus Christ Is NOT God. It’s the same damnable stuff you read in Jeremiah. In Ezekiel, they gave gifts to all their whores. That doesn’t mean to their physical women, but to their gods. They went whoring after other gods. Let’s go back to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 2:24 and 25: A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? All they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.
Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.
"A wild ass in the wilds (that’s the wilderness) snorts out the wind of her soul." Have you ever seen a horse snort? Or an ass snort? That’s the word "snuffeth." Snorting out the wind pushes out the wind of her life, of her soul. She is prancing and chasing around. She’ll jump up and down, she’ll snort, kick up her back legs and jump on the front ones. "Prancing and chasing around when she is in heat. And anyone who desires her, does not have to look far to find her." Verse 25, withhold thy foot from being unshod, reads: "You didn’t want to get tamed." The wild horse, unshoed, he didn’t want to get tamed. Didn’t want to get shoed. "You didn’t want to get tamed. Nor have your thirst quenched by good water." The rest of the verse is simple. "You loved idols and after idols you said you were going to go." He’s talking about Israel. Like a wild ass, you’re snorting out there, prancing and chasing around all these gods. You don’t have to look far to find one. They had them on every hill, remember? And they usually did one of three things. They’d take one tree, cut the top out of it, and fashion the top like a penis. It would be a live green tree. That’s why it’s translated "green tree." They’d cut the top of it, fashion it like a penis and then fill the genitalia of the female around it. Or they would take a tree, fashion it, take it to a place and set it in the backyard, like I see statues setting all over the country and along roadways. If they had good men working in stone, they’d make it out of a stone. In India they had around the base a female section which was made out of very beautiful acara marble. It was gorgeously laid in, just perfect, great workmanship. Those are the three ways and when Josiah the king destroyed them, he tore them down. That’s why some of them he burned, others he powdered. That means the stone ones, he broke them up with sledges, powdered them up. The others he burned. Well, that’s the translation of two of those verses in Jeremiah 2. They just about tell history to this date. At least I guarantee it tells the history of Jeremiah’s prophecy, and that’s all you’re going to read in the Book of Jeremiah. The reason Jeremiah prophesied against Israel, against the Ammonites, against Moab, against Egypt, and all of that was because they were all worshipping pagan gods. Especially Israel was rampant with idolatry, and they were supposed to be God’s people.
Today idolatry is still rampant. There is only a handful of people speaking out for the true God. We must be as committed as Jeremiah in delivering our message. We also have been raised up to hold forth God’s Word. We must be men and women who stand for the one true God. The cow may kick you, the bull may rend you, but they’ll never lead you to worship the false god. But man with all of his brain, because it is not renewed according to God’s Word, is the wickedest creature God has formed and made. Man without Christ in him, the hope of glory, is no more than body and soul. Under the worst condition, he can be possessed by devil spirits in the mind. This is why when you get to the integrity and accuracy of the Word, there’s a lot of things that have to be thought through. Very few people have ever known enough of the Word to think it through, and very few people have enough courage to think today. For most people it’s a difficult task to think. They just think they think, they never really get around to thinking. They’ve let everybody else do the thinking and those they depended on were basically all directed by influence of devil spirits that had manipulated a country. So people have just gone along and accepted these things, and have become part of the problem and never part of the answer. Outside of this ministry, I know nobody trying their best to get back to the Word and walk it. Outside of it, I just don’t know where. I think I’ve been with all the religious groups the Devil has conjured up in this world, including all the denominations. Anytime you belong to one or keep worshipping in one, you are back to where Jeremiah and the children of Israel were then. But I made a decision many, many years ago, and that was I refused to bow down and serve. I made up my mind. I give my life to the best of my ability for the one true God, if I have to walk alone.
I see in Jeremiah some great commitments. It is men who stood like Jeremiah that finally made it possible for a remnant of Israel to come out of the Babylonian captivity, and ultimately for the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know in the Book of Revelation it talks about saying, "Lord, come quickly." I feel that way about the first part of the second coming. If he came back today, I wouldn’t have to work so hard. But it’s been a joy working in spite of all the bologna you go through with people. You’ll never have many opportunities with anybody but people. Dogs won’t bother you too much, cows won’t bother you too much, horse or jackasses. But human jackasses will bother you like crazy. You get most of your problems from people. Like in the days of Jeremiah, each person has to make up his own mind. A man in the Word of God can read the Word to men and women, but you can’t make them believe it. In the Eastern culture when anybody was repeatedly caught stealing, they would often cut off his hand. He sort of quit stealing after he lost both hands. We call it cruel today in our culture. But is it cruel? You see, what if one man has the right to come in here and shoot this whole bunch, but nobody outside has the right to shoot the guy who shot all of you. It seems to me if they shot the guy outside before he shot you, we’d be better off. Today, the greatest amount of justice in the United States is on the side of the criminal, not the innocent person. Law and justice are down the drain because they have moved away from the Word. We have basically gotten rid of capital punishment. Every time this happens, devil spirits come like crazy. They rule. That’s why capital punishment must be in a nation and justice has to be swift. I didn’t say hurried, I said swift if it’s justice. Anytime a court case drags out it will always be unjust. Anytime punishment is meted out and it takes a long time to get to the decision, it will always be unjust. The Word says so. And I study this thing occasionally. I’ve not seen a system outside of the Word that works. The law, the enforcement of law and order, is given to protect the innocent from the guilty and not to protect the guilty at the expense or the cost of the innocent. Even the word polis, meaning wall of a city, was designed to keep the enemy out and keep the people inside of the wall safe. God gave the rules and regulations in the Word on how government can be run. But I see no government being run that way, including our country. But in the midst of all that, some of us are going to live with the truth of God’s Word if we believe it. Just as He did in the days of Jeremiah, God will continue to bless the remnant of us that believe. As Jeremiah faithfully proclaimed God’s Word to a nation full of idolatry, we must proclaim it today with all boldness. Now is the time to make it happen.