Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 27

Verses 1-22

1. Intro:
   1. Another “action Sermon” this time using a yoke to get their attention!
      1. Q: What would you think of a guy walking down California Oaks with a yoke on his shoulders?
      2. Remember a yoke speaks of submission & that’s what Jeremiah is trying to get across.
      3. The purpose: Judah(& her allies)must surrender/submit to Babylon.
   2. Submission: “An interesting thing about flight in outer space is that you must "slow down in order to catch up." If two satellites, or spacecraft, desire to rendezvous, the one that is making an approach cannot accelerate, it must decelerate. If it increases its speed, the craft goes into a higher orbit, but if it decreases its speed, it will drop into a lower orbit and actually gain on the craft ahead of it. Most rendezvous are designed so that the approaching craft comes in from a higher orbit and "slows down, in order to catch up." As a result, it drops into place by decelerating.
      1. This is how we best discover God's will for our own life. If we struggle spiritually and emotionally to please God, we only make it hard on ourselves and will probably move further away from God's perfect will. The best way to serve God is to submit our lives to his control. The more we yield ourselves to his power, the more power is available to use for service. It's a case of "If you lose, you win; if you give in, you won't give out."
   3. Outline: The Message of the Yoke(27); The Breaking of the Yoke(28).
2. THE MESSAGE OF THE YOKE! (27:1-22)
   1. He delivers this sermon 3 times:
   2. 1^st To 5 Ambassadors (1-11)
      1. vs.2 – “Bonds & yokes” – (NIV) "Make a yoke out of straps and crossbars and put it on your neck.” {leather straps & wooden cross-boards}
      2. vs.3 - Here Jeremiah chose a time when 5 representatives from 5 alley countries were conferring w/the King of Judah, planning a strategy for dealing w/Neb.
      3. Vs.4-8 – They needed submission not strategy.
      4. Vs.9 – Diviners/read omens; Dreamers/interpret dreams; soothsayers & sorcerers/were those who collaborated w/demons in order to discover or control their future.
   3. 2^nd To King Zedekiah (12-15)
      1. vs.12 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book Ethics, makes an interesting observation: "The tree of knowledge of Good and Evil produced the ability to choose our own good or our own evil." Both choices may take us equally distant from God. We have a third alternative, God's will."
   4. 3^rd To the Priest & People (16-22)
      1. Jeremiah taunted them by encouraging them to pray about this.
         1. Because if they were True prophets of God, He’d answer their prayers.
         2. He told them to Pray, not for the return of the treasures but that the treasures they still had would stay in the Temple.
         3. The 2^nd deportation in 597 bc proved them false prophets & liars because their prayers were not answered.
      2. The important thing wasn’t to save the Temple furnishings, but to save the people from death, & the city from destruction.
         1. People usually find it easier focusing on Holy Objects than on Holy Living!
         2. “Holy has the same root as wholly, it means complete. A man is not complete in spiritual stature if all his mind, heart, soul, and strength are not given to God.”