The Holier Than Thou Choosing to Remain In Grave and Among the Tombs

Continuing with more of Jeremiah 12 and it telling of the total desolation that has come upon God’s people. We saw Jeremiah in verse 4 ask how long the land will morn under those who by wickedness have caused its desolation. Jeremiah then tells us of the abomination in the thinking of the desolators when they say of the LORD, “He shall not see our last end.”

Jeremiah begins this discussion by voicing his complaint to the LORD about these men, using the analogy of their being as trees planted, grown and bringing forth this as their fruit. We know from prior discussions this is the context and analogy the LORD uses when telling of corrupt judgment using the same wording, recorded in both Matthew 7 and Luke 6. In both of these chapters He also addresses those calling Him LORD, while not doing what He commands, and show in this their fruit that they don’t actually know Him. This is what we see in Jeremiah’s complain in this portion of the conversation when in verse 2 he says, “You [LORD] have planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their reins.”

The word translated “last end” in verse 4 used to summarize the abominable thinking of these wicked men, those we know from the full description appear to be succeeding, while actually bringing about total desolation, is ‘achariyth. It is the word used for the “latter days,” and the “end times,” speaking of the consummation of the age of this corruption.

Here is the Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary definition: Strong’s #319: ‘achariyth (pronounced akh-ar-eeth’) from 310; the last or end, hence, the future; also posterity:–(last, latter) end (time), hinder (utter) -most, length, posterity, remnant, residue, reward.

The word translated as “reins” earlier in verse 2 is kilyah. The word literally means kidney, but is put for the inner thoughts of the mind, as the intentions trying to be brought about from this reasoning. We see this context in the words kilyah is derived from: kliy, meaning to prepare, and kalah, meaning to end. The passage is telling of the LORD not being part of their reasoning and therefore none of their conclusions being correct. It is telling of their words not matching their true thoughts, and this betrayed by their fruit.

As we saw in the prior post, in the LORD’s response to Jeremiah in verse 5 the He is telling Jeremiah of running with the footmen in speaking of his contemporaries, and then telling of the more intense battle, speaking of the latter times and the Long-Term Plan to defeat the enemies. We saw this in the “swelling of Jordan” defined later in Jeremiah 49 and 50 (see the prior post.)

The LORD’s seeing what is in the minds of these men, and they being so swelled with pride while being the personification of ignorance, is what follows in Jeremiah 12 as the LORD warns Jeremiah of their wicked plans. It concludes with telling of their “last end.”

Here is the entire chapter, verses 1 thru 4 Jeremiah’s complaint, and then the LORD’s response (I would encourage all God’s people, president down to the least (as am I,) to take these warning (emphasis on verse 6) to heart and know the enemies are in our midst – even those calling themselves Republicans and patriots.)

Jeremiah 12
1 Righteous are you, O LORD, when I plead with you: yet let me talk with you of your judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
2 You have planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their reins.
3 But you, O LORD, know me: you have seen me, and tried mine heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end.
5 If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how canst you contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the swelling of Jordan?
6 For even your brethren, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; yea, they have called a multitude after you: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto you.
7 I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
8 Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it cries out against me: therefore have I hated it.
9 Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come you, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.
10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
11 They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourns unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man laid it to heart.
12 The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.
13 They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
14 Thus says the LORD against all mine evil neighbors, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.
15 And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
16 And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD lives; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.
17 But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, says the LORD.

Let’s spend a moment looking at the end as described by Peter in 2 Peter 2, and it in reference to verse 16 above and LORD speaking of those teaching His people the ways of Baal. Baal is first mentioned in Numbers 22 as part of what Peter refers to in 2 Peter 2:15 & 16 telling of Balaam. The story is Balaam was hired to go curse God’s people and was continually rebuked for it by the LORD, yet he kept retuning to do it again. Peter is using him as an example of those who are continually learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth, and are in fact as dogs retuning to their own vomit, and as washed sows retuning to the mire.

Peter uses these descriptions to tell of the false prophets among us as false teacher, who have brought in damnable heresies, even denying the LORD that bought them. He speaks of them as those who have been given all the knowledge to know the LORD but instead choose to return to the ways Baal, and cursing the LORD and God’s people by teaching these ways.

Here are the key verses in the recorded account of Balaam, and his realization after he refuses to believe the lowly donkey’s warning. I warn you again, Repent! I speak because I have seen.

Numbers 22
31 Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.
32 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Wherefore have you smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand you, because your way is perverse before me:
33 And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain you, and saved her alive.

The Hebrew word translated “opened” in verse 31 is galah, meaning to make naked, or figuratively to reveal (as in the Greek word apocalypse, meaning to uncover, and figuratively to reveal.) This is the revelation of the LORD Peter is speaking of when he tells of the LORD knowing how to deliver his people from the hand of the oppressors. It is opening the eyes of all, including the false teachers, so they are able to see.

This point of seeing is what comes after all have been made blind, and it has resulted in total desolation.

2 Peter 2
1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily [from their own imaginations] shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the LORD that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.
4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
9 The LORD knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the LORD.
12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceptions while they feast with you;
14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: [by] the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbidding the madness of the prophet.
17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the LORD and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

It is worthy of remembering Peter mentioning Sodom and Gomorrah telling of them as an example, and of these also being mentioned in Jeremiah 49 & 50 as example of the overthrow of Edom and Babylon. We know there it depicts Esau as the one who sold his birthright for mere morsels, and of Babylon as confusion.

It is also worth noting the one time used Greek word paraphronia, translated in verse 16 as “madness.” It is more accurately telling of the thoughts of the mind being exercised in outward actions. It is in pattern the same type of thoughts the LORD warns Jeremiah of in chapter 12 when he speaks to him of the men of his father’s house (Esau) speaking one way while having the opposite in their minds (Babylon,) and then showing their true intentions in their actions, as a tree known by its fruit.

These are the elements, the foundational principles, the world uses in all it works. They are the cause of the fires in the world, and they melt away as they burn themselves out of existence. Peter tells of the world, actually the age, that replaces this corrupted and totally desolated age, as one wherein dwells righteousness (truth in discourse, and right judgment.)

When Peter tells of the new heaven and the new earth he is quoting it from Isaiah 65:17, and 66:22. Isaiah 65 begins with the quote that appears in Romans 10 when Paul speaks of the LORD being found by those who aren’t those seeking Him. Isaiah 65 further explains what Paul meant by this when we read of the LORD continually stretching His hand out to a disobedient and gainsaying people, the of these as God’s people telling Him not to come near them because they are holier than He. (See the prior post.) Isaiah also tells of them as those who are choosing to remain among the dead.

Isaiah 65
1 I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.
2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walks in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;
3 A people that provokes me to anger continually to my face; that sacrifices in gardens, and burns incense upon altars of brick;
4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments [tombs,] which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
5 Which say, Stand by yourself, come not near to me; for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day.
6 Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,
7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, says the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
8 Thus says the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
10 And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
11 But you are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.
12 Therefore will I number you to the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.
13 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed:
14 Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.
15 And you shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the LORD God shall slay you, and call his servants by another name:
16 That he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.
17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
18 But be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.
21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says the LORD.

Isaiah 66
1 Thus says the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that you build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
2 For all those things has mine hand made, and all those things have been, says the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and tremble at my word.
3 He that kills an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrifices a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offers an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burns incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations.
4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spoke, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
5 Hear the word of the LORD, you that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.
6 A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that renders recompense to his enemies.
7 Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.
8 Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? says the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? says your God.
10 Rejoice you with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her:
11 That you may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that you may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.
12 For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall you suck, you shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14 And when you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb: and the hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies.
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, says the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.
19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.
20 And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the LORD out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD.
21 And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, says the LORD.
22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says the LORD.
24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.