Do you not fear Me?" declares the LORD. "Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it. Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD.This phrase emphasizes the importance of reverence and awe towards God. In the biblical context, the fear of the Lord is often associated with wisdom and obedience ( Proverbs 9:10). The rhetorical question highlights Israel's lack of proper reverence despite God's power and authority. Historically, the Israelites were surrounded by nations with various deities, yet they were called to recognize the LORD as the one true God. This call to fear God is echoed in the New Testament, where believers are reminded to work out their salvation with fear and trembling ( Philippians 2:12). Do you not tremble before Me,
Trembling before God signifies a deep recognition of His holiness and majesty. This reaction is seen throughout Scripture when individuals encounter God's presence, such as Isaiah's vision in the temple (Isaiah 6:5) or John's vision in Revelation (Revelation 1:17). The trembling is not just physical but a profound spiritual response to God's overwhelming presence and power. the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea,
This phrase refers to God's sovereign control over creation, reminiscent of the creation account in Genesis. The imagery of setting boundaries for the sea is also found in Job 38:8-11, where God questions Job about the limits He placed on the ocean. This demonstrates God's authority over nature, contrasting with ancient Near Eastern myths where gods struggled with chaotic waters. It underscores God's order and power in creation. an enduring barrier it cannot cross?
The enduring barrier signifies God's unchanging and faithful nature. Despite the chaos and unpredictability of the sea, God's decrees remain firm. This reflects the biblical theme of God's faithfulness and the reliability of His promises (Lamentations 3:22-23). The sea, often a symbol of chaos and danger, is kept in check by God's command, illustrating His control over all things. The waves surge, but they cannot prevail.
This imagery of surging waves that cannot prevail highlights God's omnipotence. In biblical literature, the sea often symbolizes chaos and opposition (Psalm 93:3-4). Yet, God's power ensures that even the most tumultuous forces cannot overcome His established order. This can be seen as a type of Christ, who calms the storm in the Gospels (Mark 4:39), demonstrating His divine authority over nature. They roar but cannot cross it.
The roaring of the waves symbolizes the persistent challenges and threats that may arise, yet they are ultimately subdued by God's command. This reflects the biblical assurance that no matter how formidable the opposition, God's purposes will stand (Isaiah 14:27). The imagery reassures believers of God's protection and sovereignty, encouraging trust in His unassailable power. Persons / Places / Events 1. The LORD (Yahweh)The covenant God of Israel, who speaks through the prophet Jeremiah, reminding His people of His power and authority over creation. 2. JeremiahA major prophet in the Old Testament, called by God to deliver messages of warning and hope to the people of Judah. 3. The Sea and SandSymbolic elements used by God to illustrate His sovereign control over creation, representing His power to set boundaries that nature cannot transgress. 4. JudahThe southern kingdom of Israel, to whom Jeremiah's prophecies were primarily directed, warning them of impending judgment due to their disobedience. 5. The WavesRepresenting the forces of nature that, despite their power, are subject to the boundaries set by God, illustrating His supreme authority. Teaching Points Reverence for God's SovereigntyRecognize and revere God's supreme authority over all creation. Just as He set boundaries for the sea, He governs the universe with wisdom and power. The Fear of the LordCultivate a healthy fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. This fear is not terror but a profound respect and awe for God's majesty and holiness. God's Faithfulness in CreationTrust in God's faithfulness as demonstrated in creation. The natural order reflects His reliability and steadfastness, assuring us of His promises. Boundaries in LifeReflect on the boundaries God sets in our lives for our protection and well-being. Embrace these boundaries as expressions of His love and care. Responding to God's AuthorityEvaluate how we respond to God's authority in our daily lives. Are we obedient and respectful, acknowledging His rightful place as Lord over all? Bible Study Questions 1. How does the imagery of the sea and sand in Jeremiah 5:22 help us understand God's power and authority? 2. In what ways can we cultivate a healthy fear of the Lord in our daily lives, and why is this important? 3. How do the boundaries God sets in creation reflect His character and faithfulness? 4. What are some personal boundaries God has set in your life, and how do they serve as a means of protection and guidance? 5. How can the example of Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4 inspire us to trust in God's authority over the challenges we face? Connections to Other Scriptures Genesis 1The creation account, where God establishes order in the universe, setting boundaries for the sea and land, demonstrating His sovereign power. Job 38God's discourse to Job, where He questions Job about the creation of the earth and the setting of boundaries for the sea, emphasizing His omnipotence. Psalm 104A psalm of praise that acknowledges God's control over creation, including the setting of boundaries for the waters. Mark 4Jesus calming the storm, demonstrating His authority over nature, echoing the power of God described in Jeremiah 5:22. People Jacob, JeremiahPlaces JerusalemTopics Able, Affirmation, Age-during, Barrier, Billows, Border, Bound, Boundary, Can't, Cross, Declares, Decree, Eternal, Everlasting, Fear, Limit, Loud, Motion, Order, Ordinance, Pained, Pass, Passeth, Past, Perpetual, Placed, Presence, Prevail, Roar, Roll, Sand, Says, Shake, Shaking, Sounded, Themselves, Thereof, Though, Toss, Tremble, Waves, Won't, Yea, YetDictionary of Bible Themes Jeremiah 5:22 4266 sea
4360 sand
5235 boundary
5763 attitudes, positive to God Jeremiah 5:21-24 8702 agnosticism Jeremiah 5:21-25 8757 folly, effects of
8761 fools, in teaching of Christ Jeremiah 5:22-24 8334 reverence, and God's nature 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 ScriptureStorming 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 Links Jeremiah 5:22 NIVJeremiah 5:22 NLTJeremiah 5:22 ESVJeremiah 5:22 NASBJeremiah 5:22 KJV
Jeremiah 5:22 Commentaries
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