"FORGETTING OUR RESTING PLACE" (Pastor Tom Henry) ~ 10/7/25

“My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray,…they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.” (Jeremiah 50:6)

Despite Jeremiah’s warnings, prayers, and tears, Judah was carried away into captivity. Their “shepherds” (magistrates, elders, priests, etc.) had failed them, and now they are as lost sheep, wandering upon the mountains and hills of a strange land. But here the weeping prophet announces some good news. It is not good news for Judah’s captors, however. The chapter begins with the Word that the Lord spoke against Babylon, and against the land of the Chaldeans, where for seventy years God’s captive people had wandered about as lost sheep. The Lord says, “Declare…publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken.” (Vs. 1, 2)

Cyrus shall descend from the north through Media and Assyria. He will deliver the remnants of Judah and Israel. They will come together, seeking the Lord their God. (Vs. 3, 4) Notice, they shall come forth weeping, and they shall ask the way to Zion. This is sad in one sense, that they had forgotten the way to Zion, the city of the living God. (Of course, we must remember that some of these were born in captivity, others were blind and disabled. Jer. 31:8) It is in any case most blessed, for they come as true penitents, weeping; they come with holy resolve, their faces thitherward; and they come desiring to renew their covenant relationship with their God, in perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

Perhaps the saddest notation concerning these straying sheep is seen in the last line of our text. Not only had their shepherds betrayed them, making them prey for their adversaries to devour, but having been removed to a strange land, and having gone from mountain to hill, they had “forgotten their resting place.”

As Christ’s sheep, we have a resting place. Jesus Christ is Himself our resting place. He is our Sabbath, and we rest in Him. Is it possible for Christ’s sheep to stray so as to forget their resting place and need help getting back to Thee. Clearly it is possible, since we are often warned against it. One of our Lord’s most touching parables addresses this very danger. “If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?” (Matt. 18:12) Initially, the Good Shepherd must go after His sheep to bring them into the fold of grace. He must often go after those who have wandered away from the fold. In either case, the reason is quite clear why He must bring them back. “It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” (Matt. 18:14) He will not have one of His sheep to perish, either in unbelief or in apostasy. All who are Christ’s sheep will believe on Him. (John 10:26) And who believe, He shall keep and none shall be lost. (John 10:27, 28)

Yet, like these in our text, we believers are “the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” (Psa. 95:7) Before coming to Zion they were as we were before our Savior found us and brought us into the Church. We were as sheep having no shepherds, wandering aimlessly. (Isa. 53:6) We were in constant danger, traversing the craggy rocks and precipices - the habitat of goats, not sheep. The goats there feed on the rubbish and noxious weeds that would kill sheep. Why would Christ’s sheep ever want to stray from the green pastures and still waters of the valley fold into the dangerous habitation of goats? Yet sheep are “prone to wander” and sometimes even forget the place of their rest.

What can cause such forgetfulness? Worldly mindedness and preoccupation with temporal affairs are certain to cause forgetfulness of God and the Church.

How is this dereliction corrected? What is the opposite of forget? REMEMBER! “When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voices of joy and praise.” (Psalm 42:4)