Jeremiah 19: A Warning at the Garage Dump

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible
Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon.
Today, jeremiah, chapter 19,.
And today's title is A Warningat the Garbage Dump.
Warning at the Garbage Dump.
Today, jeremiah is going totake some people on a field trip
and while he's on the fieldtrip, it's not going to be to

(00:20):
the zoo, it's not going to be toSix Flags or Disney, it's going
to be to a garbage dump, andthen he's going to smash some
pots while he's there.
Okay, that's what you do at thegarbage dump, right?
We'll get into all that in justa moment.
But, as always, if you likewhat we're doing here, make sure
you like share, subscribe toYouTube channel and the podcast,
make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast
and make sure you go downdiscussion on Facebook, because

(00:41):
there's an amazing team doing anamazing job and the more we dig
, the more we find right.
Well, if you have your Bible,want to turn with me to Jeremiah
, chapter 19.
When I was 10 years old, I wentto this thing that a bunch of
churches used to get together inthe denomination I was part of
in Alabama.
They called camp meeting andwhat would happen is is it was
an evening set of services overthe course of a few days and

(01:04):
while all the adults would gointo this arena and have church,
they had this kids church thingthat was happening.
And you know how it is when youhave kids church and I think it
works for all ages, butespecially at kids church, there
was always these examples,these object lessons, to kind of
get the message across right.
Well, I don't know if it wasjust because I was probably
sitting by myself because I was,I didn't bring any friends with

(01:27):
me that day or whatever it wasbut they look and they see hey,
that kid, hey, can you come uphere, help us with this object
lesson?
And I remember this as clear asday.
I'm up in front of everybodyand I'm a nervous wreck.
I don't know what they'rewanting to do.
I have no idea, right?
I'm hoping I'm not going to belike part of something silly.

(01:51):
They get me up there I think I'mabout 10 years old and they put
a piece of yarn around my handsas a like handcuffs and they
say okay, I want you to see ifyou can break this piece of yarn
.
Well, if you ever miss a pieceof yarn like, I barely moved my
hands and it pops right.
Well, it looks, it makes itlook like I'm strong, even
though they say well, you know,what what happens is is, when

(02:15):
you do life by yourself, youknow you can easily be destroyed
.
But if you do life with others,it's not so easy.
And so what they were trying todo is is one piece of yarn
around my little hands, and theywas able to pop it, no problem.
But then they wrapped the yarnaround my hands a few times and
the goal was I wasn't supposedto be able to break free, right.
Well, the one good thing aboutbeing a pastor's kid is I have

(02:36):
heard that scripture before, andso I know what's coming.
And so I have also determinedin my mind, for some reason, if
I can't bust out of this, I willbe laughed at in front of
everybody.
Now, that's not true.
I wasn't supposed to be able tobust through this yarn, but I
don't know that in my10-year-old mind.

(02:56):
And so I put everything I haveand I just ah and I break it
open, and all the kids are like,yay, look at him.
All the adults on stage arelike, oh, that did not work out
the way we had it planned.
You know what I mean, but andfor like two seconds, I was a
hero and went back and sat down.
And the reason why I tell youthat is is because when people

(03:19):
are trying to give examples,they don't always work out, and
in this particular situation,jeremiah is trying to give an
example of what's going on andwhat God's going to do, and it
would have worked out if thepeople had turned away from
their sin.
However, it doesn't go out.
It doesn't go so well, and solet's see what this object
lesson is that Jeremiah istrying to illustrate.

(03:41):
Let's see if it works out theway he has planned.
Jeremiah 19, verse 1, says thisthis is what the Lord said to me
go and buy a clay jar, then asksome of the leaders of the
people and of the priest tofollow you.
Go out through the gate of thebroken pots to the garbage dump
in the valley of Ben-Honan andgive them this message.

(04:03):
Say to them listen to thismessage from the Lord, you,
kings of Judah and citizens ofJerusalem.
This is what the Lord ofheaven's armies, the God of
Israel, says I will bring aterrible disaster on this place
and the ears of those who hearit will ring, for Israel has
forsaken me and turned thisvalley into a place of

(04:26):
wickedness.
The people burn incense toforeign gods and idols never
before acknowledged by thisgeneration, by their ancestors
or by the kings of Judah.
They have filled this placewith the blood of innocent
children and they have builtpagan shrines to Baal and there
they burn their sons.
Shrines to Baal and there theyburn their sons as sacrifices to

(04:48):
Baal.
I have never commanded such ahorrible deed.
It has never crossed my mind tocommand such a thing.
So beware, for the time iscoming, says the Lord, when this
garbage dump will no longer becalled Topheth or the Valley of
Ben-Honan, but the Valley ofSlaughter.

(05:08):
For I will upset the carefulplans of Judah and Jerusalem.
I will allow the people to beslaughtered by invading armies
and I will leave their deadbodies as food for the vultures
and wild animals.
That's disgusting.
I will reduce Jerusalem toruins, making it a monument to
their stupidity.

(05:28):
All who pass by will beastonished and will gasp at the
destruction they see there.
I will see to it that yourenemies lay siege to the city
until all the food is gone, andthen those trapped inside will
eat their own sons and daughtersand friends.
They will be driven to utterdespair.

(05:50):
Oh my Lord, that's disgusting.
Verse 10.
These men, as these men watchyou, jeremiah, smash the jar you
bought.
So you bought a jar just tosmash it.
Hope you got it on sale.
Verse 11, then say to them thisis what the Lord of heaven's
army says as this jar liesshattered, so I will shatter to

(06:11):
the people of Judah andJerusalem, beyond all hope of
repair.
They will bury the bodies herein Topheth, the garbage dump,
until there is no more room forthem.
And this is what I will do tothe place and its people, says
the Lord.
I will cause this city tobecome defiled like Topheth.
Yes, all the houses inJerusalem, including the palace

(06:34):
of Judah's kings, will becomelike Topheth, all the houses
where your burned incense onyour rooftops and your star gods
and all the liquid offeringswere poured out to your idols.
And then Jeremiah returned toTopheth, the garbage dump, where
he had delivered the message,for he stopped in front of the
temple of the Lord and he saidto the people there this is what

(06:57):
the Lord of Heaven's armies,the God of Israel, says I will
bring disaster upon this cityand its surrounding towns, as I
promised because you havestubbornly refused to obey me.
Wow, so this is what happens.
He goes to the town dump and onthe way, on his way to the town

(07:18):
dump, he gathers some of theleaders Come follow me to the
town dump.
And on the way, on his way tothe town dump, he gathers some
of the leaders come follow me tothe town dump and he stops by
Dollar General to buy a pot andwhen he gets there, he says you
know what you guys are going toexperience destruction.
It's going to be bad.
It's going to be so bad.

(07:39):
Folks are going to die and it'sgoing to be bad.
It's going to be so bad.
Folks are going to die and it'sgoing to be so bad that y'all
are going to turn to eat eachother because you don't have
anything else to eat, and it'sgoing to be just like this Boom,
he busts the pot and then hesays this is what the Lord says
I'm going to bring disaster onthis city because you have
stubbornly refused to listen tome.

(08:00):
What an illustration, right?
And you would hope thatliterally saying right here,
where I'm standing in thisgarbage dump, is where all you
fools are going to die.
And it's going to be like thisboom, bust the pot.
You would think that theillustration would have this

(08:20):
wonderful effect, but instead,just like me, shattering the
yarn, it does not have an effect.
It does not do what it'ssupposed to do.
They continue, continue andcontinue to turn against the
Lord, no matter how manywarnings God gives them, they
don't listen.
They don't.

(08:41):
They are listening to the wrongvoices.
Remember, while all this isgoing on, there are these other
priests and prophets in the cityof Jerusalem saying that
Jeremiah doesn't know what he'stalking about.
Everything's actually okay,everything's going to be all
right.
You just keep doing what you'redoing.

(09:01):
Don't worry about this sin,it's not a big deal.
Keep going.
And the whole time Jeremiah iswarning them and warning them
and using object lessons andillustrations and all these
different things, and they'rejust not doing it.
And you know what happens in ourlives all the time, and not for
all of us, but for many of us.
We'll hear a story of somebodywhose marriage fell apart.

(09:24):
We'll hear a story of someonewho got involved in some sin and
they lost everything they had,or people who did these bad
things and they lost their job,and they'll hear all these
stories of things and it hitsreal close to home, because some
of the symptoms that they weregoing through were some of the
same symptoms that we weredealing with.
Someone starts to have healthproblems because they're living

(09:45):
their life at a stress manage, astress level that they're, that
they can't manage, andeventually it overcomes them and
overwhelms them, and we know weneed to slow down.
We know that our lives are outof control, but we keep pushing.
Keep pushing because ithappened to them but it didn't
happen to us.
Is it possible that the reasonwhy we heard those warnings is

(10:07):
because God was wanting to usethose illustrations as a warning
to us?
If you don't slow down, thiswill be you.
Is it possible that, just likethese people, there's a warning
right in front of them, butinstead of heeding that warning,
they were listening to all thewrong voices that were saying
it's fine, it's no big deal, goddoesn't actually care, he's

(10:30):
fine with it, go ahead, dowhatever.
When the whole time God issitting there and he's pleading
with them and he's puttingillustrations in front of them,
saying please turn around, thebridge is out, you're going to
fall, you know, but it don'twork.
Is it possible that God has putsome warnings in our lives to

(10:50):
warn us that the direction we'regoing is not right.
Maybe not, maybe you're not inthat season right now and if not
, this would be an opportunity,when we finish our podcast today
, for you to pray for maybe somepeople in your life that you
know that they're headed downthe wrong path.
They're doing some.
Maybe it's not sin, but it'sunhealthy, it's bad boundaries,

(11:14):
it's living a life that's a pacethey can't sustain or who knows
what my prayer is going to be.
The Holy Spirit will remind youand open up to you who those
people are, so you can pray forthem.
But what if you're the oneright now?
I want you to think back for amoment.
Is it possible that recently,god has put in your mind some

(11:34):
people who have had some badthings happen to them and
they're really, really close tosome things that's been going on
in your life?
You heard of someone with somehealth problems or some marriage
problems, relationship problems, job problems, whatever, and
the symptoms are the same asyours, and you heard that and
there was a part of you that waslike, wow, that could have been

(11:55):
me.
Oh well, back to business.
What if God put those things inyour path, to warn you and say,
hey, before it's too late,pause, get your life right with
me, slow down, have theconversation, go to the marriage
counseling, do whatever,because he's warning you,
because he doesn't want you toend up in that same spot.

(12:17):
Instead of driving right pastthe warning signs.
What would it look like if youpaused today and pray and say,
god, are you trying to warn meabout something?
Are you trying to open my eyesto something?
Maybe it's to open my eyes toan opportunity that's out there,
or maybe it's to open my eyesto a possible pitfall that's out
there.
I don't know what it is, buttoday let us not ignore the

(12:42):
illustrations and the warningsthat God has for us, because if
we warn them, the trouble isstill going to come.
It's just we will have missedthe warning along the way.
Let me pray for you today, god.
I'm so thankful that you loveus and you give us warnings and
you give us signs along the way,sometimes signs of good days

(13:02):
that are coming and signs togive us hope and a future.
Other times it's signs andwarnings so that we don't make
wrong turns along the path,because sometimes the life that
we live.
The pace that we set is so fastthat we don't hardly see them
as we blow right past.
I pray today, holy Spirit,you'll open our eyes For some
people.
You'll open our eyes to seeother people that we should be

(13:24):
praying for, that we should beinterceding for and lifting up
their name to you.
For others, lord, I pray you'llopen our eyes to see places in
our life where maybe we arerushing too fast and we're
blowing right past thoseopportunities and instead we
should slow down, take a momentand realize that you've put
these stories in our lives sothat we can see before they get

(13:46):
there and see that you aretrying to move and to let you
move in our life.
Thank you, god, in advance forall you're going to show us
today.
In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
Well, as always, god's wordsays in Jeremiah 29, 13, and
maybe by now you have itmemorized, so say it with me.
He says this if you look for mewholeheartedly, god says you

(14:06):
will find me.
I pray that promise becomestrue in your life today and you
see God in a fresh and new way.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow forJeremiah, chapter 20.