“Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”
And they said, “There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.”
The above, from Jeremiah 18:11 & 12, is the LORD speaking to those leading His people, who inhabit a place that should be at peace. These men (speaking of now, at this moment) have rejected the LORD’s commandment and instead teach their degenerate ways and ideas. This evil can only beget greater evil, and this cause and effect, what we are all experiencing, is the reality they refuse to see.
Friends, the LORD doesn’t begin today with these words, this warning, in vain.
Jeremiah 18
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.
3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Says the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in mine hand, O house of Israel.
7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
13 Therefore thus says the LORD; Ask you now among the heathen, who has heard such things: the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which comes from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
15 Because my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
18 Then said they, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before you to speak good for them, and to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
23 Yet, LORD, you know all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight, but let them be overthrown before you; deal thus with them in the time of your anger.
Jeremiah 19
1 Thus says the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom [the great chasm between heaven and hell, the ever-open mouths of those misleading God people], which is by the entry of the east gate [at the gate of the LORD’s entry – His presence manifested as He makes it known by His voice heard from Jeremiah], and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you,
3 And say, Hear you the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever hears, his ears shall tingle.
4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:
6 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet [the place of fire – hell], nor The valley of the son of Hinnom [where the misleaders’ voices never stop], but The valley of slaughter.
7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcasses will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
8 And I will make this city desolate, and a hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness [matsowq – confinement {in your own homes}], wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten [tsuwq – oppress] them.
10 Then shall you break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with you,
11 And shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one break a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet [in the place of fire – in hell], till there be no place to bury.
12 Thus will I do unto this place, says the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’s house; and said to all the people,
15 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.
The misleaders spoken of above are the enemies in our midst, claiming to be our allies and friends, convincing us to follow them and to believe their false teaching (false prophecies).
The word rendered “devices” in the title and the verse following (Jeremiah 18:11 & 12) is the Hebrew word machashabah, meaning a contrivance; in a bad sense as a plot, and in God’s sense His good advice, which is His plan. It is the plot of the wicked advisers, these false prophets, which was followed and led God’s people into confinement and destruction (into the fires of hell). What brings us out is the LORD’s good advice, the plan, His plan to get us to the expected end.
Here following are some of the other times machashabah is used by Jeremiah (His name saying He is the risen LORD, rising to raise His people).
Jeremiah 4
10 Then said I, Ah, LORD God! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.
11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,
12 Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.
13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.
14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your vain thoughts [machashabah] lodge within you?
15 For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes affliction from mount Ephraim.
16 Make you mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers [the enemies concealed among us – who wait and watch for the opportunity to deceive] come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
17 As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she has been rebellious against me, says the LORD.
18 Your way and your doings have procured these things unto you; this is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reaches unto your heart.
19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
20 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.
21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
As we know, in verse 23 the same words appear as in Genesis 1:2 and Isaiah 34:11 where they are rendered confusion and emptiness. This condition is the result of following the deceptive advice of the destroyers among us: venomous serpents in the garden, spewing mind poisoning words from their mouths.
Jeremiah 9
11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.
12 And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD.
13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says the LORD.
16 Thus says the LORD, Stand you in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.
18 Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.
19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts [machashabah – the product of following the prescription of self-destruction], because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.
Jeremiah 11
18 And the LORD has given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then you showed me their doings.
19 But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices [machashabah] against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name [the name of the risen LORD] may be no more remembered.
20 But, O LORD of hosts, that judges righteously, that tries the reins and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for unto you have I revealed my cause.
21 Therefore thus says the LORD of the men of Anathoth [whose prayers have been answered – and what was revealed is their ignorance of the LORD’s word and ways], that seek your life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that you die not by our hand:
22 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine:
23 And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.
Jeremiah 29
8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.
9 For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, says the LORD.
10 For thus says the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11 For I know the thoughts [machashabah – God’s plan] that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts [machashabah – the plan] of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.
14 And I will be found of you, says the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places [into new Jerusalem and peace] whither I have driven you, says the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
15 Because you have said, The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon;
16 Know that thus says the LORD of the king that sits upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwell in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity;
17 Thus says the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
As we know, the sword is this word of God, which is the sword we take up, and the famine is without the word from His mouth, by which only does man live. The word “pestilence” is from the Hebrew word deber, meaning words of destruction (the bad advice that leads to it). It is from the word dabar, meaning an arrangement of words, when from God (as in debiyr and Deborah) an oracle, as in a systematic ordering, His plan (the opposite of deber: a contrived plot to destroy).
Friends, the plot to destroy us isn’t a virus, it is the contrivance of men. The LORD has taken this virus as a crown of thorns upon His head, which the LORD has used for His glory and the enemies’ destruction.
Jeremiah 49
17 Also Edom [the enemies mixed among us] shall be a desolation: every one that goes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.
18 As in the overthrow of Sodom [burning] and Gomorrah [ruin] and the neighbor cities thereof, says the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.
19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?
20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Edom [the enemies among us]; and his purposes [machashabah], that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman [the place of the wise men of the world – which is also where the LORD power is manifested in their destruction]: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.
21 The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red sea [as they are overthrown by the sea, the masses, coming together against them].
22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah [the one flock]: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart [their corrupt minds] of a woman in her pangs.
23 Concerning Damascus [where God’s work and word have been silenced]. Hamath [which is their stronghold] is confounded, and Arpad [the lies they’ve spread over the land]: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea [causing the is fear and sorrow to cover the masses]; it cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turns herself to flee, and fear has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, says the LORD of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus [what has silenced God’s word], and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad [their idols – the men they’ve listened to instead – the gods of this world].
28 Concerning Kedar [the resulting darkness – ignorance], and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor [observing lies], which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon [the lies of the false prophet, the cause of the confusion now turned delusion, that has caused total desolation] shall smite, thus says the LORD; Arise you, go up to Kedar [to the darkness, to the ignorant], and spoil the men of the east.
29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Fear is on every side.
30 Flee, get you far off, dwell deep, O you inhabitants of Hazor [who follow lying advice], says the LORD; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose [machashabah – has plotted] against you.
31 Arise, get you up [back to work] unto the wealthy nation, that dwells without care, says the LORD, which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone.
32 And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof, says the LORD.
33 And Hazor [the place where the follow the lying advice of false prophets] shall be a dwelling for dragons [whose venom is in the mouths, who devour with the same mouth after they poison the minds], and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.
34 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam [the evil that has ruled all time, in the age before this time] in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah [the beginning of the reign of Jehovah’s righteousness in those leading His people], saying,
35 Thus saying the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam [the means by which the evil has shot its arrows, the lies and false accusations, throughout history], the chief of their might.
36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.
37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, says the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:
38 And I will set my throne in Elam [here and now, into all eternity after now], and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, says the LORD.
39 But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 50
43 The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail.
44 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?
45 Therefore hear you the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed [machashabah – His plan] against the land of the Chaldeans [those who use their words to manipulate and control others into doing their will]: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them.
46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.
Jeremiah 51
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon have forbore to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might has failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling-places; her bars are broken.
31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,
32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
33 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a dragon, he has filled his belly with my delicates, he has cast me out.
35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall [New] Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry [there shall no longer be masses of people following the advice of the destroyers, and their lies shall no longer flow to the masses].
37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.
Ephesians 6
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the LORD, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts [arrows] of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
Psalms 48
1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge.
4 For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.
5 They saw it, and so they marveled; they were troubled, and hasted away.
6 Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
7 You break the ships of Tarshish [that have carried God’s people away from their vows] with an east wind.
8 As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts [His armies], in the city of our God: God will establish it forever. Selah.
9 We have thought of your lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of your temple.
10 According to your name, O God, so is your praise unto the ends [the end and beginning of the ages] of the earth: your right hand is full of righteousness.
11 Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of your judgments.
12 Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.
13 Mark you well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that you may tell it to the generation following.
14 For this God is our God forever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.
