◄ Jeremiah 5:12 ►
They have lied about the LORD and said: "He will not do anything; harm will not come to us; we will not see sword or famine.
Study Bible
They have lied about the LORD
This phrase highlights the deceit and falsehood that the people of Judah have engaged in concerning their relationship with God. The Hebrew word for "lied" is "כָּחַשׁ" (kachash), which implies not just a simple lie but a denial or a betrayal of trust. Historically, this reflects a period when the Israelites were turning to idolatry and false prophets, denying the true nature and power of Yahweh. This denial is not just a verbal lie but a deep-seated rejection of God's covenant and commandments.

saying, 'He will do nothing
Here, the people's skepticism and disbelief in God's active role in the world are evident. The phrase "He will do nothing" suggests a perception of God as inactive or indifferent. This reflects a dangerous theological error, as it denies God's sovereignty and justice. The historical context shows that during Jeremiah's time, many Israelites believed that God would not bring judgment upon them, despite their sins. This complacency and false sense of security are what Jeremiah is warning against.

no harm will come to us
This phrase reveals the false assurance and misplaced confidence of the people. The Hebrew word for "harm" is "רָעָה" (ra'ah), which can mean evil, disaster, or calamity. The people of Judah believed they were immune to God's judgment, perhaps due to their status as His chosen people or because of the presence of the temple in Jerusalem. This false assurance is a common theme in prophetic literature, where the prophets warn against the presumption of safety without true repentance and obedience.

we will not see sword or famine
The mention of "sword" and "famine" represents the typical consequences of divine judgment in the Old Testament. The "sword" symbolizes war and destruction, while "famine" indicates a lack of sustenance and divine blessing. Historically, these were real threats faced by the Israelites due to their disobedience. The people's denial of these potential consequences shows their spiritual blindness and unwillingness to heed the warnings of the prophets. This phrase serves as a stark reminder of the reality of God's judgment and the need for genuine repentance.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Jeremiah
A prophet called by God to deliver messages of warning and hope to the people of Judah. His ministry spanned the reigns of several kings and was marked by his lamentations over the people's unfaithfulness.

2. The People of Judah
The audience of Jeremiah's prophecies, who were often rebellious and unfaithful to God. They are depicted as dismissive of God's warnings through Jeremiah.

3. The LORD (Yahweh)
The covenant God of Israel, who is portrayed as just and righteous, warning His people through Jeremiah of impending judgment due to their sin.

4. Sword and Famine
Symbols of divine judgment and consequences for disobedience. These were common threats used by prophets to describe the severity of God's impending punishment.

5. False Prophets
Though not explicitly mentioned in this verse, they are implied as those who contradict Jeremiah's warnings, assuring the people of peace and safety.
Teaching Points
The Danger of Complacency
Ignoring God's warnings leads to spiritual complacency. Believers must remain vigilant and responsive to God's Word.

The Role of True Prophets
True prophets speak God's truth, even when it is unpopular. We must discern and heed messages that align with Scripture.

Consequences of Unbelief
Dismissing God's warnings can lead to severe consequences. Believers should take God's Word seriously and live in obedience.

Trust in God's Justice
Despite appearances, God is just and will fulfill His promises, both of blessing and judgment. Trust in His timing and righteousness.

The Importance of Repentance
God's warnings are opportunities for repentance. Believers should respond with humility and a desire to align with God's will.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the attitude of the people in Jeremiah 5:12 reflect a common human tendency to ignore warnings? Can you identify similar attitudes in today's world?

2. What are some modern-day "false prophets" or messages that might lead believers away from the truth of God's Word?

3. How can we discern between true and false messages in our spiritual lives? What role does Scripture play in this discernment?

4. Reflect on a time when you ignored a warning or advice. What were the consequences, and how did it affect your faith journey?

5. How can we cultivate a heart of repentance and responsiveness to God's warnings in our daily lives? What practical steps can we take to ensure we are aligned with God's will?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Jeremiah 14:13-16
This passage further elaborates on the false prophets who deceive the people by promising peace when there is none, directly contradicting God's true message through Jeremiah.

Ezekiel 13:10-16
Similar to Jeremiah, Ezekiel condemns the false prophets who lead the people astray with false assurances, highlighting the danger of ignoring God's true warnings.

2 Peter 3:3-4
In the New Testament, Peter warns of scoffers who will doubt the coming judgment, echoing the dismissive attitude of the people in Jeremiah's time.
Sermons
The Vineyard Spoiled Because of the Degenerate BranchesD. Young
People
Jacob, Jeremiah
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Belied, Denied, Evil, Falsely, Famine, Harm, Lied, Misfortune, Nothing, Saying, Short, Spoken, Sword, Yea
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 5:9-12

     8710   atheism

Jeremiah 5:12-14

     4552   wood

Library
A Question for the Beginning
'What will ye do in the end?'--JER. v. 31. I find that I preached to the young from this text just thirty years since--nearly a generation ago. How few of my then congregation are here to-night! how changed they and I are! and how much nearer the close we have drifted! How many of the young men and women of that evening have gone to meet the end, and how many of them have wrecked their lives because they would not face and answer this question! Ah, dear young friends, if I could bring some of the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Storming the Battlements
Jerusalem had sinned against God; she had rebelled against the most High, had set up for herself false gods, and bowed before them; and when God threatened her with chastisement, she built around herself strong battlements and bastions. She said "I am safe and secure. What though Jehovah hath gone away, I will trust in the gods of nations. Though the Temple is cast down, yet we will rely upon these bulwarks and strong fortifications that we have erected." "Ah!" says God, "Jerusalem, I will punish …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

God's Barriers against Man's Sin
I am slowly rallying. My great struggle now is with weakness. I feel as if my frail bark had weathered a heavy storm which has made every timber creak. Do not attribute this illness to my having laboured too hard for my Master. For his dear sake, I would that I may yet be able to labour more. Such toils as might be hardly noticed in the ramp for the service of one's country, would excite astonishment in the church for the service of our God. And now, I entreat you for love's sake to continue in prayer …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

Tithing
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Mal. 3:10). Down deep in the heart of every Christian there is undoubtedly the conviction that he ought to tithe. There is an uneasy feeling that this is a duty which has been neglected, or, if you prefer it, a privilege that has not been …
Arthur W. Pink—Tithing

How those who Fear Scourges and those who Contemn them are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 14.) Differently to be admonished are those who fear scourges, and on that account live innocently, and those who have grown so hard in wickedness as not to be corrected even by scourges. For those who fear scourges are to be told by no means to desire temporal goods as being of great account, seeing that bad men also have them, and by no means to shun present evils as intolerable, seeing they are not ignorant how for the most part good men also are touched by them. They are to be admonished …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

The Purpose in the Coming of Jesus.
God Spelling Himself out in Jesus: change in the original language--bother in spelling Jesus out--sticklers for the old forms--Jesus' new spelling of old words. Jesus is God following us up: God heart-broken--man's native air--bad choice affected man's will--the wrong lane--God following us up. The Early Eden Picture, Genesis 1:26-31. 2:7-25: unfallen man--like God--the breath of God in man--a spirit, infinite, eternal--love--holy--wise--sovereign over creation, Psalm 8:5-8--in his own will--summary--God's …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

Purposes of God.
In discussing this subject I shall endeavor to show, I. What I understand by the purposes of God. Purposes, in this discussion, I shall use as synonymous with design, intention. The purposes of God must be ultimate and proximate. That is, God has and must have an ultimate end. He must purpose to accomplish something by his works and providence, which he regards as a good in itself, or as valuable to himself, and to being in general. This I call his ultimate end. That God has such an end or purpose, …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

"And Hereby we do Know that we Know Him, if we Keep his Commandments. "
1 John ii. 3.--"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." This age pretends to much knowledge beyond former ages, knowledge, I say, not only in other natural arts and sciences, but especially in religion. Whether there be any great advancement in other knowledge, and improvement of that which was, to a further extent and clearness, I cannot judge, but I believe there is not much of it in this nation, nor do we so much pretend to it. But, we talk of the enlargements of …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Covenanting According to the Purposes of God.
Since every revealed purpose of God, implying that obedience to his law will be given, is a demand of that obedience, the announcement of his Covenant, as in his sovereignty decreed, claims, not less effectively than an explicit law, the fulfilment of its duties. A representation of a system of things pre-determined in order that the obligations of the Covenant might be discharged; various exhibitions of the Covenant as ordained; and a description of the children of the Covenant as predestinated …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Medes and the Second Chaldaean Empire
THE FALL OF NINEVEH AND THE RISE OF THE CHALDAEAN AND MEDIAN EMPIRES--THE XXVIth EGYPTIAN DYNASTY: CYAXARES, ALYATTES, AND NEBUCHADREZZAR. The legendary history of the kings of Media and the first contact of the Medes with the Assyrians: the alleged Iranian migrations of the Avesta--Media-proper, its fauna and flora; Phraortes and the beginning of the Median empire--Persia proper and the Persians; conquest of Persia by the Medes--The last monuments of Assur-bani-pal: the library of Kouyunjik--Phraortes …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 8

"If So be that the Spirit of God Dwell in You. Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, He is None of His. "
Rom. viii. 9.--"If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" 2 Chron. vi. 18. It was the wonder of one of the wisest of men, and indeed, considering his infinite highness above the height of heavens, his immense and incomprehensible greatness, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and then the baseness, emptiness, and worthlessness of man, it may be a wonder to the …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Covenanting Enforced by the Grant of Covenant Signs and Seals.
To declare emphatically that the people of God are a covenant people, various signs were in sovereignty vouchsafed. The lights in the firmament of heaven were appointed to be for signs, affording direction to the mariner, the husbandman, and others. Miracles wrought on memorable occasions, were constituted signs or tokens of God's universal government. The gracious grant of covenant signs was made in order to proclaim the truth of the existence of God's covenant with his people, to urge the performance …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Acceptable Sacrifice;
OR, THE EXCELLENCY OF A BROKEN HEART: SHOWING THE NATURE, SIGNS, AND PROPER EFFECTS OF A CONTRITE SPIRIT. BEING THE LAST WORKS OF THAT EMINENT PREACHER AND FAITHFUL MINISTER OF JESUS CHRIST, MR. JOHN BUNYAN, OF BEDFORD. WITH A PREFACE PREFIXED THEREUNTO BY AN EMINENT MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN LONDON. London: Sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgates, 1692. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. The very excellent preface to this treatise, written by George Cokayn, will inform the reader of …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Of the Nature of Regeneration, and Particularly of the Change it Produces in Men's Apprehensions.
2 COR. v. 17. 2 COR. v. 17. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. THE knowledge of our true state in religion, is at once a matter of so great importance, and so great difficulty that, in order to obtain it, it is necessary we should have line upon line and precept upon precept. The plain discourse, which you before heard, was intended to lead you into it; and I question not but I then said enough to convince many, that they were …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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