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Text: Jeremiah 32:17-20
Proposition: What is not to Difficult for God?
Introduction
In this chapter Jeremiah is shut up in the court of the guard for telling the people that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, was going to be given the city by God. He also said, Zedekiah, the king, would be given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and Zedekiah would speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. Fighting against Nebuchadnezzar was futile. Zedekiah was going to lose.
Nebuchadnezzar was just outside the city walls. He was besieging the city. There didn’t seem to be much hope for the future.
- Jeremiah 32:24, the people were hungry and dying from the sword, famine, and pestilence
- Jeremiah 32:36 and 43 this is what the people were saying about Jerusalem and Judah.
All of Judah was in control of Babylon except for Jerusalem. In the middle of all this God tells Jeremiah to buy a field from his cousin in his home town of Anathoth. If land was to be sold it was to be sold to the nearest of kin, Leviticus 25:23-25. Jeremiah was a Levite and the Levites had land in each of the tribes, Numbers 35:2. Who would be crazy enough to spend their money on property in the middle of a war? Moreover Jeremiah, he had no children. He was told not to marry and have children, Jeremiah 16:1-2. Jeremiah did what he was told. He could preserve the land for his cousin. His cousin probably needed the money for some reason. If his cousin had children then the land would stay in the family as God wanted it too.
Jeremiah buys the field because the Lord tells him too. This seems crazy to him to buy a field in a land that is going to be taken over by a foreign country, Jeremiah 32:25. Jeremiah also realizes that the Lord is also telling him that someday the Israelites will return to their land and land will be bought and sold again, Jeremiah 32:44.
He realizes even if the situation seems hopeless, Nothing is to difficult for the Lord.
I. To make the heavens and the earth
II. To show lovingkindness, but repay iniquity
III. To make a nation within a nation (Christianity in Rome)
IV. To cause a virgin to give birth
I. To make the heavens and the earth (How do we know God made the heavens and the earth?)
A. There is order in the heavens and the earth.
1. God makes the sun rise in the morning and the sun set at night.
2. Job 38:12
3. God is in control of the sun. He has caused the earth to spin so that we have morning and evening. If we didn’t have day and night one side of the earth would burn up and the other side would freeze.
4. Job 38:31-32 He can bind the chains of the Pleiades, loose the cords of Orion, lead forth a constellation in its season, and guide the Bear with her satellites.
a. Most people don’t even know where these constellations are. Many people have the idea of my brother Adam. He said to me one night when I was trying to show him some of the constellations, “Is knowing where the constellations are going to make a difference in my everyday life?” Not only does God know where these constellations are He has set them in the sky. They have changed their position in the sky very little since the time of Job.
b. The Pleiades are the seven sisters. The Hebrew word means cluster or heap. They are in the constellation of Taurus the Bull. There are six or seven stars visible to the naked eye, but there are thousands of stars in this cluster of stars. God is asking Job, “Can you keep this cluster of stars together?”
c. Orion is the one of the brightest constellations in the winter sky. If the sky is clear you can see him coming up in the southeast right after church. As the winter goes on you can see him earlier and earlier. Orion is the name the Greeks gave him. He is the mighty Hunter with his bow and club. To the Hebrew people he was called “the fool” after Nimrod the mighty hunter, Genesis 10:8-11. God asks Job can you set free the stars in the constellation Orion.
d. Lead forth a constellation in its season, Mazzaroth in King James Version, is probably referring to the twelve constellations of the Zodiac which the sun moves through a month at a time. This is what astrologers use to make up what kind of person you supposedly are by which sign of the zodiac you are born in. God condemns astrology, but man can know what seasons are coming and keep track of time by the sun’s position in the constellations. Man cannot guide the constellations of the zodiac only God can.
e. The Bear and her satellites, (KJ says Arcturus with his sons), This is the Great Bear or Ursa Major. The Big Dipper forms part of the Great Bear.
f. The average person pays little attention to the stars. God gave them to us to help us, Genesis 1:14.
1) They are for signs. The stars are a guide to us. If you can find the Big Dipper the two stars that form the bottom of the cup always point to the North Star. You can find your direction. Navigators on ships have used the stars to help them plot their travel routes and to know where they are on the Ocean. Without the stars Ocean travel would be nearly impossible. There are no landmarks on the Ocean, but using a sextant and charts on the position of the stars a sailor can pinpoint his location on the Ocean. If man is ever able to travel in space the stars will be his guide.
2) Today we have Global Positioning System to locate where we are. These are manmade constellations, which send radio signals to a person holding a receiver.
3) The stars, sun and moon are for seasons, days, and years. If you know enough about astronomy you would know when the seasons will change by looking at the stars. Today we have good calendars. We are on a solar calendar, the Gregorian calendar. It is an accurate calendar and stays synchronized with the seasons. Calendars before this would be off with the seasons after several years. When Julius Caesar introduced his calendar he added 2 extra months and 23 days to February to make up for the accumulated slippage in the Egyptian Calendar. When Pope Gregory XIII introduced his calendar 10 days were eliminated from the Calendar to make up for the accumulated error in the Julian Calendar. (The Handy Science Answer Book, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 1997, pg. 408 and 409) By studying the stars, even if the calendars were off, you would know what the seasons were by the stars. You would know when to plant and when winter was coming.
4) When men send a satellite to another planet they can calculate the course of the satellite with mathematics so that the satellite will get to the planet at the right time. Because of the order that is in the universe
5) The stars are a reminder of God’s power. It is natural for man to look up at the stars and admire their beauty. On the way home from church in the winter we enjoy looking at the stars. We aren’t great astronomers, but we know some of the main constellations. My kids noticed the stars about the time they were between two and three years old. They want to know who made them. We have a great and powerful God who made them.
B. His creation is beautiful
1. My wife is more beautiful than any manikin that man has made
2. God’s creation is more beautiful than any city.
C. There is great power in his creation
1. Man made bombs are powerful and can do tremendous damage, but they don’t compare to the power in a volcano, an earthquake, a hurricane or a flood.
2. God sent a flood in Noah’s day that wiped out everyone except Noah and his family. God knew it was coming and when. In his power he provided a way of escape for the righteous, but repaid the iniquity of the wicked.
II. To show lovingkindness, but repay the iniquity of the wicked.
A. He showed lovingkindness
1. Jeremiah 32:18
2. Jeremiah 32:28-36
3. God showed lovingkindness to Jeremiah. Jeremiah was rescued by Nebuzaradan.
4. Ebed-melech was also shown kindness. He was the one who rescued Jeremiah out of the miry pit.
5. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were shown lovingkindness. They were taken care of in Babylon.
6. God knows how to rescue the righteous from the day of judgement.
7. II Peter 2:4-9
B. He repaid the wickedness of the wicked
1. Those who worshipped idols had their houses burned.
2. Jeremiah 32:29
3. Zedekiah, who locked Jeremiah up in the court of the guardhouse and let him be thrown in the miry pit and refused to listen to Jeremiah, had his sons killed before his eyes and then his eyes were poked out.
4. Jeremiah 39:4-8
5. God still repays the wickedness of the wicked today.
6. II Thessalonians 1:5-9
7. Revelation 21:8, hell is forever. God will deal out vengeance to those that do not know God.
C. He sees all the righteous and he sees all the wicked
1. Jeremiah 32:19
2. God gives to all of us the fruit of our ways.
3. II Corinthians 5:9-11
4. Those who don’t repent of their wickedness will be repaid by God for their wickedness. Those who repent of their evil deeds and do good will enter into the joy of heaven.
5. Titus 2:11-15, God’s grace is giving us an opportunity to repent of our ungodliness and worldly desire. He wants us to live sensibly, righteously and godly.
6. Spending your life in pornography is not sensible, godly, or righteous
7. Spending your life:
a. Drinking alcohol
b. Loving money
c. In factions
d. In pleasing men instead of God
e. In living with your boyfriend or girlfriend
f. In marrying the same sex
g. Thinking you are saved by saying the sinner’s prayer
Is not sensible, righteous or godly. It is senseless, unrighteous and ungodly.
III. To make a nation within a nation
A. Jeremiah 32:19-22
B. This seemed almost impossible. The children of Israel were slaves. They started out in Egypt as 72 people, Genesis 46:27. They grew to be over well over a million people by the time they left. That is amazing. They didn’t lose their identity as Israelites. They had no rights and no power in Egypt. Moses thought he could deliver them by his power 40 years too early. He killed an Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
1. Acts 7:23-25
2. Moses couldn’t deliver them even though he was a prince in Egypt.
3. God did. Pharaoh was stubborn. He didn’t think any God could take the Israelites from him. He refused to listen to the voice of God.
4. God sent the 10 plagues and Pharaoh let the people go. They left with the wealth of Egypt. The Israelites left with clothing, gold, and silver that the Egyptians had given them.
5. A bunch of slaves became a nation. They were weak, but with God they were strong. The nations all around heard about the name of God.
6. God made a nation within a nation.
C. God made a nation within a nation again.
1. Daniel 2:44, in the middle of the Roman Empire God created a kingdom within a kingdom. He sent his son to start a kingdom. He was born of a virgin who believed God. And was told when she asked, “How can this be since I am a virgin.” Gabriel answered, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”
2. Mark 9:1
3. His kingdom is still with us today and will be forever. We are a nation within nations. Our citizenship is in heaven.
4. Philippians 3:20
5. We are strangers and aliens within the nations of the world, but we are kingdom that will outlast all of the nations of the world. Many nations try to oppress us, persecute us, and exterminate us, but we are never conquered. We continue to conquer with the full armor of God and the sword of the spirit.
Conclusion
Nothing is too difficult for the Lord. He made the heavens and the earth and everything in them. He is kind and loving and merciful, but he also doesn’t let the wicked go unpunished. He brings justice.
He can make a nation out of a bunch of slaves descended from 12 men. He can make a nation from 12 common men. Who were fishermen, a tax collector and of no importance until they met Jesus Christ. Jesus can make you into someone useful if you will let him. Believe he is the son of God. Repent of your sins. Confess him as Lord in your heart. Be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins in the name of Jesus Christ and you will see that nothing is too difficult for God.
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