INTRO: I want to take us to Jeremiah 18 this morning. I am filling in some time as I prepare another series of messages. I want to encourage us this morning for this coming year to take to heart God's message to Israel in this passage from the weeping prophet. Israel had been called of God to be a special nation to Him. We are called to be a special people to Him. Israel was to be a light to the world around them. So are we. But Israel had the same problem so many of us have of getting side tracked and getting engrossed in the things of our own desires.
Charles Ryrie says that Jeremiah's book dates from 627-585 BC. That is very instructive. The very first king of Israel, Saul, began to reign about 1050 years before Christ. He reigned about 40 years and then David reigned about 40 years and then Solomon reigned about the same length of time and after Solomon God's people divided into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom, which began with Jeroboam, disobeyed God and was warned by God over and over until God finally allowed them to be taken captive. That happened in 722 BC. So that is about 100 years before Jeremiah began writing. And after the northern kingdom fell, the southern kingdom was tempted to go the same way. And God sent one prophet after another to warn them, and still they slowly drifted away from God. In Jeremiah 39, we have the fall of Jerusalem.
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