The Bible Breakdown

Jeremiah 02: Remember the Good Old Days

• Brandon Cannon • Episode 652

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Speaker 1:

Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, jeremiah chapter 2, and today's title is Remember the Good Old Days. Remember the Good Old Days, and I am excited about this one, and it really is an amazing thing to be able to kind of put ourselves in a place to remember God's faithfulness. So we're going to get into all that in just a moment. But if you're new here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel. It's free for you, but it really helps us a lot. Also, make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help us in the search algorithms. And make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown discussion on Facebook, because the more we dig, the more we find, and they're leaving great devotions there every day and we want to hear from you. We want you to comment on there and respond to the questions and give us your questions that you have as well, and so if you have your Bibles, you want to open up with me to Jeremiah chapter two. While you're doing that, I want to remind you real quick, one more day, that the Running with the Horses by Eugene Peterson is a highly recommended book. As we are going through the book of Jeremiah, just to kind of get our minds around the life of Jeremiah and what he's going through, and remember that the overall theme of Jeremiah is God's light in the darkness, god's light in the darkness, and that he gives us a future and a hope. And one of the things he's going to talk about and this is going to be something you're going to see come up over and over again in the book of Jeremiah, and that is that God, you know he tells Jeremiah to hold in both hands, both judgment and hope. It's very interesting because judgment's coming due to their own stubbornness and they're not going to turn over to God, but at the same time, there's still hope. There's hope that if they would turn, god would relent, but then also, even if they don't, god's going to have mercy. And it's really quite amazing if you think about it. And so you're going to see this a little bit today. But one of the things you're going to see is where God is saying, through Jeremiah, this amazing thought of remembering the good old days.

Speaker 1:

And I used to, you know, when I was younger I didn't have any good old days, right, because everything was new, but I remember when I was in my early 20s, I was serving at this church and it seemed like the whole time I was there, they would always talk about the good old days and, unfortunately for me, the good old days were days before I got there, you know. And so they'd always talk about how great those days were and, honestly, it would offend me. I'll say, well, I think the days we're living in right now are pretty good, you know, and they're like, oh yeah, they're good, but you ought to remember the good old days, right. Well, you know, what happened was as time passed, and eventually I moved away, moved to Bowling Green. Here now for a while I talked to people that I knew then, and now they say, oh, you should remember the good old days. Well, now, the good old days is when I was there, and what it helped me to understand is that we are living in right now what will one day be good old days, and so we take advantage of the moment we have right now and enjoy it for what it is, because one day we're going to wish we were here again, and that's kind of what Jeremiah is saying. I remember those days. They were great days. They're gone now, but they were great and so we're going to get into this and kind of see how God is kind of just so sad about those days. But then they can also be very helpful if we remember those days, and we're going to talk about that when we get to the end, but for right now let's jump into Jeremiah, chapter 2. We're going to read through the whole thing and then we're going to summarize at the end. You ready?

Speaker 1:

Jeremiah chapter 10, or, excuse me, 2, verse 1 says this the Lord Yahweh gave me another message. He said go and shout this message to Jerusalem. This is what the Lord says. I remember how eager you this is what the Lord who brought us safely out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and death, where no one lives or even travels. And when I brought you into a fruitful land to enjoy its bounty and goodness, you defiled my land and corrupted the possession I had promised you. The priest did not ask where is the Lord? Those who taught my word ignored me. The rulers turned against me and the prophets spoke in the name of Baal, wasting their time on worthless idols. Therefore, I will bring my case against you, says the Lord. I will bring charges against your children's children in the years to come.

Speaker 1:

Go west and look in the land of Cyprus. Go east and search through the land of Kedar. Has anyone ever heard of anything as strange as this? Has any nation ever traded its gods for new ones, even though they were not gods at all? Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. The heavens are shocked at such a thing and shrink back in horror and dismay, says the Lord, for my people have done two evil things they abandoned me the fountain of living water, and they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.

Speaker 1:

In other words, pause. He's saying you've turned your back on the one true God and instead you are now worshiping gods that are no gods at all. And you know it. You understand what you've done and you're doing it anyway. And can you hear the pain in God's voice, because he's the one who's causing this train to come, that's headed this way to destroy them. And he's just relenting and he's saying what did I do? How did I wrong you so you'd turn away from me? It's just heartbreaking that our God would lament like that.

Speaker 1:

All right, verse 14. Why has Israel become a slave? Why has he been carried away as plunder? Strong lions have roared against him and the land has been destroyed. The towns are now in ruins and no one lives in them anymore. Egyptians marching from their cities of Memphis and Talthphinis have destroyed Israel's glory and power. You have brought this upon yourselves by rebelling against the Lord, your God, even though he was leading you on the way. What have you gained by your alliances with Egypt and your covenants with Assyria? What good to you are the streams of the Nile or the waters of the Euphrates River? Your wickedness will bring its own punishment. Your turning from me will shame you. You will see what an evil, bitter thing it is to abandon the Lord your God and not fear him.

Speaker 1:

I, the Lord, the Lord of heaven's armies, have spoken. Long ago, I broke the yoke that oppressed you and tore away the chains of your slavery, but you said I will not serve you. On every hill and under every green tree, you have prostituted yourself by bowing down to idols, but I was the one who planted you, choosing a vine of the purest stock, the very best. How did you grow into this corrupt, wild vine. No amount of soap or lye can make you clean. I still see the stain of your guilt. I, the sovereign Lord, have spoken. I'll pause again. He's saying that I watched over you but yet you walked away from me. Why did you do that? It's just so heartbreaking.

Speaker 1:

Right Verse 23, you say that's not true. I haven't worshiped the images of Baal. But how can you say that? Go and look in the valley, in the land, face the awful sins you have done. You are like a restless female camel, thanks God, desperately searching for a mate. Oh Lord, you are like a wild donkey sniffing the wind at mating time. Who can restrain her lust? Those who desire her don't need to search, for she goes running to them. And when you stop, when will you stop running? When will you stop panting after other gods but you say save your breath. I'm in love with these foreign gods. I can't stop loving them. Now.

Speaker 1:

Israel is like a thief who feels shame only when she gets caught. They their kings, officials, priests and prophets are all alike in this. To have an image carved from a piece of wood, they say you are my father. To an idol chiseled from a block of stone, they say you are my mother. They turn their backs on me, but in times of trouble, they cry out to me come and save us. But why not call on these gods you have made when trouble comes? Let them save you if they can, for you have as many gods as there are towns in Judah.

Speaker 1:

Why do you accuse me of doing wrong? You are the one who have rebelled, says the Lord. I have punished your children, but they did not respond to my discipline. You yourselves have killed your prophets as a lion kills its prey. O, my people listen to the words of the Lord. Have I been like a desert to Israel? Have I been to them a land of darkness? Why, then, do my people say, at last, we are free from God, we don't need him anymore? Does a young woman forget her jewelry, or a bride her wedding dress? Yet, for years on end, my people have forgotten me.

Speaker 1:

How you plot and scheme to win your lovers, even an experienced prostitute could learn from you. Wow, your clothing is stained with the blood of the innocent and the poor, though you didn't catch them breaking into your houses. Wow, first here, then there. You flit from one alley to another asking for help. But your new friends in Egypt will let you down, just as Assyria did before. In despair, you will be led into exile with your hands on your heads, for the Lord has rejected the nations you trust. They will not help you at all.

Speaker 1:

Wow, do you hear the pain of what's going on when God's saying I remember the old days. I remember when you loved me, you trusted me and, man, look at what a time we had together. But now you're trusting in other things. What did I do? How did I hurt you? Why did you become bored with me? Wow, you know what would it look like if God asked us that. Do you find yourself in a place right now and this is this might hurt a little bit, but let's just be really honest. It's just you don't get better until you get honest, right?

Speaker 1:

Are you in a place right now where you're bored with your relationship with God, where you have found yourself turning to other things to provide you comfort or excitement or joy and instead of turning to God? You know the Bible says cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. When is the last time you went to God to cast your anxieties? Are you going other places? It's okay to have other things, but what's your primary source of hope? Are you as excited about God and your relationship with him today as you were a couple of years ago? If so, praise the Lord. But what if you're not?

Speaker 1:

What would it be like if God said you know what I remember? I remember when you couldn't wait to read my word. I remember when you couldn't wait to pray and talk to me. And if anybody even brought up the Lord, you, just you couldn't wait to talk to them about it and just share. You know what God is doing in your life. And you couldn't wait to get to church, to be around your church, family and man. You couldn't wait to get to life group and you said man, sign me up, I want to serve, I want to give. You just were so excited about our relationship. And what if God said I remember those days, what happened? What did I do? How did I hurt you? And I wonder if we would say, god, you didn't do anything at all, I got bored, I got distracted, I got whatever.

Speaker 1:

And I wonder if God would say remember the good old days and come back to me, come back to those days. What was it about those days that made them so special, and what do you need to do again? That's the question I would love for you to think about when we finish our time together. What was special about those special times you had with God, maybe when you first became a Christian, or when you first came back to him and you just felt close to God. What was it about those days? Now, let's make sure we're balanced here.

Speaker 1:

That doesn't mean every single day is going to be a great day. There are some times when you pray and you read your Bible that it is an act of discipline, but it shouldn't be like that every day. There should be those moments where it's like the oasis in the middle of the desert, where it's like man, I can't wait to get back here again. And if you're not there, the question is why? What is it that you need to do to draw close to God again? Because God wants a relationship with you. He wants to be close to you, and so maybe that's the question God is asking when have you been? Where'd you go? Come back to me, because I want a relationship with you. Let's pray together right now, god.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much that, god, we could look at your word as one stubborn pursuit after another to never give up on your people. I'm so thankful, god, that you never give up on any of us and even when we go through dry and cold seasons, you don't throw us away, but you call out to us. That means there's still hope. That means you've not given up on us. I pray today for those who are strong in their relationship with you, that they'll celebrate that today. But for those who've taken a step or two away, you'll draw them back to you, help them to remember what made the good old days good and lead us close to you again. We celebrate that today In Jesus' name. We pray amen, amen, what God's word says in Jeremiah 29, 13,. God says if you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I pray you find God today in every way. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Jeremiah, chapter three.

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Brandon Cannon

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