Proposition: Why was Jerusalem going to be broken?
Text: Jeremiah 19:1-2 and 10-11
Introduction
Jeremiah is giving another object lesson. The last chapter he watched the potter make a vessel that was marred in his hand and made into another vessel. In this chapter he buys a potter’s earthenware vessel for the purpose of breaking it as a sign of what God would to Jerusalem.
I. Jerusalem belonged to God
II. They had become hard and brittle
III. They were defiled (Leviticus 11:33)
I. Jerusalem was the city God had chosen for his name to dwell.
Jerusalem Today
A. Jerusalem was a place of worship before the people of Israel came to the land of Canaan.
1. Genesis 14:18, Melchizedek, the king of Salem was there. He was priest of the most high God.
2. Psalms 76:2
B. God told the Israelites in the wilderness that he would chose a place for his name to dwell in the Promised Land. They were to offer their sacrifices there.
1. Deuteronomy 12:11
2. That place was Jerusalem
3. Jerusalem was not an Israelite city until David took the city. The Jebusites lived there in the midst of Israel until David took the city.
4. The Jebusites thought that David couldn’t conquer the city. They said, “The blind and the lame will defeat you.”
5. II Samuel 5:6-9
6. I Chronicle 11:4-7
7. Joab figured out how to get into the city without destroying the walls. He went up the gutter, a passage which the Jebusites didn’t think anyone could enter by.
8. David made Jerusalem his capitol.
9. I Kings 9:3, after Solomon built the temple there God made Jerusalem his city.
10. I Kings 9:1-9
11. Jerusalem was a difficult city to conquer. The Jebusites thought David couldn’t conquer it.
12. The people in Jeremiah’s day didn’t think Jerusalem could be captured either.
13. Jeremiah 7:1-10
14. They thought since the temple was there that God wouldn’t let the city be taken.
15. Jeremiah was sent to show and tell them that Jerusalem would be shattered just as the pottery was shattered.
16. Jeremiah took the elders of the city and some of the priests to Topheth and broke the earthenware vessel there.
17. This would be like going to Washington DC and getting some of the senators and some famous preachers together throwing a piece of pottery off of the Lincoln memorial and saying, “This is what God is going to do to Washington DC. Washington DC is going to be a desolation. The people here are going to eat one another’s flesh because they will have nothing else to eat. This is because you have forsaken God. You have worshipped the god of false science, evolution. You have allowed the killing of millions of innocents and called it a woman’s right to choose. You have waged useless wars against communism and then have a communist living in the white house, who mocks the word of God.”
18. If you did this you would have some enemies.
II. Jerusalem had become hard and brittle
A. They were no longer moldable and shapeable like clay on the potter’s wheel. They had been hardened and they were beyond remedy.
1. They didn’t repent when Jeremiah prophesied this
2. Jeremiah 20:1-6, Pashur had Jeremiah beaten. Pashur was the priest. He should have been supporting Jeremiah. Pashur didn’t want to change his ways. He had become a hardened sinner. He was like the earthenware vessel he was going to be shattered.
3. Pashur was going to live to see Jeremiah’s prophecies come true. And then he was going to die in Babylon.
B. They wanted to do what they wanted instead of what God wanted
1. Jeremiah 18:12
2. They wouldn’t repent of their sins.
3. They didn’t ask to be forgiven
4. They were going to perish because they wouldn’t repent.
5. Luke 13:1-5
6. Their relationship with God was broken like the earthenware vessel.
7. Their relationship couldn’t be repaired until they repented.
8. If someone who you thought was your friend stole your wallet out of your house. Then they used your debit card to take your money out of your bank account, and they had no regret for what they had done. They also said hat they had just gotten credit cards in your name and were going to buy a new car. Then he was coming over to take your wife to be his and he was going to kill your children. Would your relationship with them be broken? Would you say, “I forgive you. I am thankful you can buy a new car with a credit card in my name?” Or would you contact the police, call the bank, and do what ever you could to stop them. Your friendship would be over. You wouldn’t let him in your house anymore.
9. God didn’t want these people in his house anymore either. They had taken his money. They had murdered his children and taken his wife. They were liars, murderers, idolaters, and immoral. They had no desire to change.
10. God doesn’t want us in His house today either if we don’t want to repent. We will perish if we don’t repent.
III. They were defiled (Why were they defiled?)
A. An earthenware vessel had to be broken when it was defiled
1. Leviticus 11:33-35
2. Jerusalem was defiled.
3. Jeremiah 19:3-6
4. They sacrificed their children to Baal, also called Moloch, in this valley. They placed a lived child to be roasted in the hands of the idol.
5. I Kings 11:7, Solomon was the first to build a high place for Molech.
6. Ahaz and Manasseh both sacrificed their children to Moloch.
7. Jeremiah 7:31-32
8. God was going to make it a place where the people of Jerusalem would be slaughtered. They would be the ones sacrificed instead of their children.
B. If we are defiled we will be shattered.
1. We may not burn our children in the fire of the God of Molech, but we have been given children by God to raise for Him.
2. Sometimes people sacrifice their children to the God of mammon. Both parents work so that they can buy more stuff. They leave the children to raise themselves or to let the babysitter raise them.
3. Sometimes people sacrifice their children to the god of lust. They divorce their husband or wife so that they can have someone else. They will let their boyfriend abuse their children and do nothing. Live in boyfriends are dangerous to children. Women sometimes don’t want to lose their boyfriend so they sacrifice their child to the god of lust.
4. Sacrifice our children to the god of entertainment. We want to be entertained with the murder, idolatry, witchcraft, and the immorality of movies and television.
5. God wants a godly offspring. He wants us to teach our children to honor him.
6. Malachi 2:13-16
7. Genesis 18:19
Conclusion
We are to repent before it is to late. God’s patience doesn’t last forever. We will be shattered if we don’t repent. Don’t be hard and brittle. Stay moldable.
After Judah was in captivity for 70 years. They returned from Babylon and rebuilt the city of Jerusalem.
Today God still loves Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the church, Hebrews 12:22-24. She is his bride,
Galatians 4:21-31. God wants Jerusalem, his church, to be pure and undefiled. If we are like Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s day we will be shattered. If we are pure and undefiled we can look forward to spending eternity with Jesus in the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21:1-4, and 10-16. The New Jerusalem will never be shattered. That is the one that I want to be a part of. If I am defiled I won’t be a part of it, Revelation 21:8 and 27.
| 
