Loren Cunningham's twisting of Jeremiah 27:5

I guess it could be said that I should have started at the beginning of this video in looking at what Cunningham says in this video. Maybe, but what came in those earlier posts was what drew my attention first, but I'll go back and catch a few things from the beginning, and hopefully that'll help, too, because it's pretty clear Cunningham is just making stuff up and not really dealing with what any passage is saying.

This transcription begins at the beginning of the video.

Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 27 and verse 5. It says in God's Word, “I have made the earth, the men and the beast that are on the face of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and I will give it to the one who is pleasing in my sight”. Now God is saying, first of all, that he made the world. Because he made it, he has ownership of it. And he's not talking just a part of it, he says it's his. And he goes on to say, “I will give it to the one who is pleasing in my sight”. We note that in this particular portion, Jeremiah is talking to the children of Israel, and he was saying to them as a warning that God is giving charge and giving dominion over to Nebuchanezzar against them. Now this was strange for the people of Israel, because they knew the Abrahamic covenant. You'll find it in Genesis chapter 12, where in verse 1, “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from the your country, from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great. So you shall be a blessing. And I bless those that bless you, and the one that curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”. Now the children of Israel, they all love the first half of that covenant. Gods says “I will bless you”. But it was the second part that they wanted to forget, “So that you may bless all the families of the earth”. And they were clinging to the first, the promise, without the condition. And here God is saying, “I'm going to turn this over to Nebuchanezzar, and I'm going to turn you over to Nebuchanezzar”. And God uses even the unrighteous governments to chastise the righteous, or his people, and this was the case here.

So, Cunningham points us to Jeremiah 27, and whereas he takes one verse out of context and tries to build up the story around it without reference to the context, let's add the context.

In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD. 2 Thus the LORD said to me: “Make yourself straps and yoke-bars, and put them on your neck. 3 Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. 4 Give them this charge for their masters: ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: This is what you shall say to your masters: 5 “It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me. 6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. 7 All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.

8 “‘“But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, declares the LORD, until I have consumed it by his hand. 9 So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune-tellers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’ 10 For it is a lie that they are prophesying to you, with the result that you will be removed far from your land, and I will drive you out, and you will perish. 11 But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land, to work it and dwell there, declares the LORD.”’”

12 To Zedekiah king of Judah I spoke in like manner: “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people and live. 13 Why will you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, as the LORD has spoken concerning any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? 14 Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon,’ for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you. 15 I have not sent them, declares the LORD, but they are prophesying falsely in my name, with the result that I will drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.”

16 Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, “Thus says the LORD: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of the LORD's house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon,’ for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you. 17 Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation? 18 If they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, then let them intercede with the LORD of hosts, that the vessels that are left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon. 19 For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, the sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, 20 which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take away, when he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem— 21 thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: 22 They shall be carried to Babylon and remain there until the day when I visit them, declares the LORD. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.”

So, what would be my problems with what Cunningham says about verse 5?

First, look at the people and places to whom Jeremiah is delivering this prophecy. “2 Thus the LORD said to me: “Make yourself straps and yoke-bars, and put them on your neck. 3 Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.” Cunningham says “ We note that in this particular portion, Jeremiah is talking to the children of Israel...”, but at this point in Jeremiah 27, the prophet isn't talking to the children of Israel at all. Starting in v 12, we get Jeremiah addressing the king of Israel, and then later the priests and people, but before that his words are directed toward the kings of 5 other nations: Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon.

Next, there is Cunningham's contention that this judgment is coming on Israel because they like the first part of the Abrahamic covenant about God blessing them, but didn't like the other part of the covenant about blessing the other nations of the world.

Now, where does this chapter say anything like that? To put it plainly, it doesn't. Cunningham is just trying to shoehorn his own ideas into this passage.