Text: Jeremiah 27:1-4
Introduction
In order to understand this chapter you need to know what a yoke is.
Yoke picture and Yoked Oxen picture.
Nebuchadnezzar has already taken the vessels of Gold from the temple. He has taken Jehoiakim off of the throne and taken Jehoiachin to Babylon along with the smiths and the craftsmen.
Zedekiah was trying to form a confederacy with the nations around him. Judah, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon were going to ally together. That is why Jeremiah is sending a yoke to each king when his messenger came to Jerusalem. Jeremiah had to make six yokes.
God wants the Judah and the nations around them to submit to Nebuchadnezzar and serve him. Jeremiah is trying to convince them it will be better for them if they submit. Some of them may have been shouting, “Give me Liberty or give me death.” When you are wicked and you have a wicked king there is no liberty. It is better to submit to your conqueror than to die by famine, disease and sword. Learning to submit is a good thing. Bearing a yoke means you are in submission.
Lam 3:27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
If we learn to submit to the yoke while we are young. God can use us for good. He will make us prosper.
An ox is good for two things for work or for eating. He can submit to the yoke and work. He will live a long life and have the love of his master or he can rebel and go to Tyson packing plant and be ground into hamburger.
We must submit to our master and work for his good and his advantage.
I. The message of the Yoke (Who was this message given too?)
A. The Kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon.
1. Jeremiah 27:2-9
2. Jeremiah gave a yoke to each of the kings messengers and told them to tell this to their king.
3. This is not what they went to Judah to hear. They went to figure out how they can ally together and defeat Nebuchadnezzar. Not that they should submit to him.
4. Their prophets, sorcerers, and dreamers were saying the opposite of Jeremiah. They wanted their king to think that they were not going to serve Nebuchadnezzar. No king wants to hear that another king will rule over him. They want to hear that they will rule over the other kings. So their prophets, sorcerers and dreamers tell them what they want to hear. Just as the false prophets in Jerusalem were saying.
5. All these kings were defeated by Nebuchadnezzar
6. They needed submission not alliances and strategy.
B. Zedekiah
1. Jeremiah 27:12-15
2. Zedekiah didn’t submit to Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah told him to surrender many times. He wouldn’t do it. He was a weak king that wanted to appear as strong. His life ended with his sons being killed while he watched and then his eyes were put out, (Jeremiah 39:6-7).
C. The Priests and the people
1. Jeremiah 27:16-22
2. The priests and the people didn’t like this message either. They wanted to hear about how great their country was. That the temple of the Lord was with them. That the temple was the dwelling place of the Lord and so Jerusalem would not fall to the Babylonians.
3. They should have known better than to trust in the temple of the Lord. God had left them. Nebuchanezzar had already been in the temple. He had already taken the vessels of gold out of the temple and suffered no harm.
4. Jeremiah 7:3-5, Jeremiah had warned them not to trust in the temple.
5. If they didn’t repent the temple was of no value to them.
6. Jeremiah told them not to listen to the prophets who were saying the vessels would return to the temple. He said if they are prophets let them pray that the vessels that are left in the temple and the kings house will not be taken to Babylon.
7. Jeremiah told them that these too would be taken to Babylon.
8. The important thing for them was not to preserve the vessels of the temple and of the kings house the important thing was to repent of their sin.
9. Their focus should not have been on holy objects, but on holy living.
10. We remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us every Sunday, by eating the unleavened bread representing his body and drinking the juice representing his blood. These are holy, but if we don’t live a holy life we are no better of than the Jews in Judah.
II. The Message of the broken yoke (What is the message of the broken yoke?)
A. False prophets give false hopes.
1. Jeremiah 28:1-10
2. Hananiah lied to the people. He spoke nothing to them about repentance like Jeremiah did. He just told them the yoke of Babylon would be broken and Jechoniah and all the captives would return. He claimed that the Lord spoke these things to him.
3. False prophets are giving false hopes today. Many of them teach of second chances. Jehovah Witnesses teach that if you weren’t too bad, but you weren’t a Jehovah Witness then you will be resurrected to a resurrection of judgement. You will be given a chance to do things right. If you mess up you will die and won’t be allowed to live in Paradise. You won’t have eternal life.
4. Many teach you are saved with the sinner’s prayer. You just ask Jesus in your heart and accept him as your personal savior and you are saved. Many times they don’t mention repentance and they almost never mention baptism for forgiveness of sins. They are false prophets giving false hope.
5. Like Jeremiah I wish they were right. There would be a lot more saved people. He said, “Amen, may the Lord do so,” to Hanaiah’s prophecy. Jeremiah knew that he spoke a lie, but he wished it were true. Jeremiah would have been happy if the captives were returned and the vessels of the Lord’s house were returned.
6. False prophets haven’t changed much. They are still offering false hope and letting the people stay in their sin.
B. You can break a yoke of wood, but not a yoke of iron
1. Hananiah broke Jeremiah’s yoke of wood. Jeremiah didn’t stay and argue with Hananiah. He went his way. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
2. Jeremiah 28:11-17
3. Hananiah could break a yoke of wood, but he had made a yoke of iron for the people. He and prophets like him would encourage the people to rebel against the Lord’s servant Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah 25:9. Nebuchadnezzar would not lighten the burden of rebels, but make their lives harder and more miserable.
4. Deuteronomy 28:48, like all the other things Jeremiah prophesied God had told them beforehand that he would do if they rebelled against him.
5. The Lord invites us to submit to his yoke. If we don’t submit to his yoke and break it he will make a yoke of iron for us.
6. Jeremiah 5:5 Judah had broken the yoke of God. So he gave them a yoke of iron to serve Babylon.
7. After 70 years God would break the yoke of their captivity.
8. Jeremiah 30:1-8
9. Those that were in captivity bore the yoke that God had given them. God caused them to prosper in Babylon.
10. Jeremiah 29:10-11
C. Jesus has broken the yoke of Sin
1. Jesus can break the iron yoke of Satan.
2. Leviticus 26:13
3. Lamentations 1:14, Sin is a heavy yoke
4. Matthew 11:28-30
5. Jesus yoke is much easier than the load of sin. Jesus is a good master. He wants what is best for us. His yoke is for our own good. He gives us commands to live by that are for our benefit.
6. Living a holy life is a light burden.
a. Staying married to one person for life is much less burdensome than adultery. It is less burdensome than divorcing and remarrying.
b. Living with your wife in an understanding way is less burdensome than having her mad at you all the time.
c. Submitting to your husband is less burdensome than struggling with him for leadership.
d. Following the bible is less burdensome than following creeds and man made doctrines. (Some Jews can’t use elevators on the Sabbath.)
e. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He has the truth and through him we can know the truth and the truth will make us free.
Conclusion
In this life we can submit to God and bear our yoke and prosper. He has plans for us for good and for prosperity, but if resist we will be given over to something worse than sword, famine, and disease. We will suffer the second death, Hell forever.
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