Our Only Source of Healing.

Why do we sit still?
Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities
    and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
    and has given us poisoned water to drink,
    because we have sinned against the Lord.
We looked for peace, but no good came;
    for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

“The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan;
    at the sound of the neighing of their stallions
    the whole land quakes.
They come and devour the land and all that fills it,
    the city and those who dwell in it.
For behold, I am sending among you serpents,
    adders that cannot be charmed,
    and they shall bite you,”
declares the Lord.

My joy is gone; grief is upon me;
    my heart is sick within me.
Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
    from the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
    Is her King not in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
    and with their foreign idols?”
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
    and we are not saved.”
For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
    I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
    not been restored? – Jeremiah 8:14-22 ESV

In this passage we are presented with three different points of view. First, we hear from the people. From their perspective, there was nothing left to do but flee to the cities where they might hide behind the fortified walls in a last-gasp hope of escaping the coming destruction. It’s interesting to note that they blame God for their predicament.

“…for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
    and has given us poisoned water to drink.” – Jeremiah 8:14 ESV

They take no personal responsibility for what is about to happen. Yes, they admit that they have sinned, but their words reflect an attitude that says their punishment is far more than they deserve. They describe God’s reaction to their sin in harsh, almost accusatory terms, as if He was guilty of attempted murder. They claim that He was out to poison them to death. But at no point do they acknowledge that it was their sins against God that was bringing their own destruction. Instead, they paint themselves as innocent victims who had tried to do the right thing.

“We hoped for peace, but no peace came.
    We hoped for a time of healing, but found only terror.” – Jeremiah 8:15 ESV

But there is a huge difference between hope and repentance. The word that is translated “hoped” is the Hebrew word qavah and it means “to wait, look for, hope, expect” (“H6960 - qavah - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (KJV).” Blue Letter Bible). They fully expected God to simply forgive them and restore them to favor, but had no intentions of changing their ways. And there is no indication that their expressed hope was in God. They could have been hoping in salvation from their many false gods or from one of their alliances with foreign nations like Egypt. They were expecting a different outcome. They were eagerly waiting and hoping to wake up from the nightmare, but nothing had happened. And the only solution they could come up with was to find refuge in their fortified cities. They had long ago forgotten the words of King David, who wrote:

O God, listen to my cry!
    Hear my prayer!
From the ends of the earth,
    I cry to you for help
    when my heart is overwhelmed.
Lead me to the towering rock of safety,
    for you are my safe refuge,
    a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.
Let me live forever in your sanctuary,
    safe beneath the shelter of your wings! – Psalm 61:1-4 NLT

God was to be their fortress and protection. But they refused to turn to Him because they refused to repent of their sins against Him. Their own stubbornness was the cause of their hopeless circumstances. God was not to blame. They were.

And now, God gives His point of view. He gives a vivid description of the coming Babylonian invasion of Judah. The size of the army will be so great that their advance will shake the ground. Like an approaching storm, the people of Judah will hear them long before they see them. But when the Babylonians arrive, their destruction will be complete, wiping out entire cities and all those seeking refuge in them. And God makes it clear that this destruction is not just a case of bad fortune or fate. It is His sovereign decree.

“I will send these enemy troops among you
    like poisonous snakes you cannot charm.
They will bite you, and you will die.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!” – Jeremiah 8:17 NLT

They won’t be able to get themselves out of this mess. There will be no escape. And God’s reference to poisonous snakes is a reminder of the scene that took place in the wilderness among the people of Israel generations earlier. It is recorded in the book of Numbers. God had just given the people of Israel a great victory over the Canaanites, but just a few days later they began to grumble and complain.

“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, for there is no bread or water, and we detest this worthless food.” – Numbers 21:5 NLT

So God, in response to their ingratitude, sent poisonous snakes among them.

So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit the people; many people of Israel died. – Numbers 21:6 NLT

As a result, the people changed their tune, and rather than complaining, they called out for Moses to intercede on their behalf and save them.

“We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he would take away the snakes from us.” – Numbers 21:7 NLT

And Moses prayed and God heard. But God didn’t just remove the snakes. He provided the Moses with very precise instructions that, if followed, would provide the people with healing.

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, so that if a snake had bitten someone, when he looked at the bronze snake he lived. – Numbers 21:8-9 NLT

It is important to notice that God did not remove the snakes. They remained among the people and were still capable of biting the people. The punishment for their sin was still alive and well in the form of countless poisonous snakes. But, if the people, when bitten, would look on the bronze serpent that that Moses had made, they would find healing and life. This involved faith. They had to trust God, believing that the healing He promised would actually happen. They all deserved to be bitten and the inference found in the passage is that all of them were eventually bitten. But only those who believed the words of God and looked at the serpent were restored to life. They were forgiven by God and healed. Jesus would refer to this very event and compare Himself to the bronze serpent.

“And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.” – John 3:14 NLT

In the case of the people of Judah, God says there will be no forgiveness given. There will be no bronze serpent this time. The Babylonians, like poisonous snakes, would bite each and every one of the inhabitants of Judah and this time, there would be no way of escape, no antidote for the poison.

The final viewpoint we see is that of Jeremiah. He is an objective third party who stand back and watches what is happening. He knows the guilt of his people. He also knows and understands the holiness and justice of God that is bringing the coming judgment on his people. And he can’t help but grieve. He has been calling out and warning his people to repent. He has spent day after day, month after month telling them what was going to happen if they didn’t turn from their wickedness and return to God. But they had not listened, and He knew God would do all that He had said He would do. He knew God was just and right to bring judgment. The people deserved it. But that didn’t make it any easier for Jeremiah to stand back and watch was happening.

“I hurt with the hurt of my people.
    I mourn and am overcome with grief.
Is there no medicine in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why is there no healing
    for the wounds of my people?” – Jeremiah 8:21-22 NLT

Jeremiah struggled with the idea that God was not going to fix this problem. He knew God was fully capable of healing His people. He longed for God to come up with some kind of solution that would forestall the inevitable destruction.

All the way back in the book of Exodus, we have recorded the words of God, spoken to the people of Israel. Once again, they had been complaining and grumbling to Moses because they had come to a place in the desert where the water was undrinkable. So, God had Moses throw a branch in the water, causing it to miraculously transform into clean, drinkable water. Then God said:

“If you will diligently obey the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then all the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians I will not bring on you, for I, the Lord, am your healer.” – Exodus 15:24 NLT

Obedience brings healing. God had told the people of Judah what they needed to do to experience His forgiveness and healing. He had called them to repentance, but they had refused to obey. He was their potential source of healing, but they would not turn to Him. And so they would die, just like their ancestors in the wilderness who, when bitten by the snakes, stubbornly refused to look in faith at the bronze serpent. Healing and hope had been available, but they refused to avail themselves of it. Salvation was theirs to be had, but they were going to have to acknowledge their sin and turn back to God in humility and contrition. 

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Foolish Wisdom.

“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
    and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
    has made it into a lie.
The wise men shall be put to shame;
    they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
    so what wisdom is in them?
Therefore I will give their wives to others
    and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
    everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.
They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
    when there is no peace.
Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
    when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
    there are no grapes on the vine,
    nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
    and what I gave them has passed away from them.” – Jeremiah 8:8-13 ESV

What good is it to know God when what you know about God is wrong? What good does it do you to have a knowledge of God’s Word that’s based on a faulty understanding of what it says? In these verses, God exposes a serious problem among His people that was due to the negligence and deceit of the men who were supposed to be their spiritual leaders. While the people had a false confidence in their knowledge of God’s laws, He tells them, “your teachers have twisted it by writing lies” (Jeremiah 8:8 NLT). Their interpretations of God’s laws and commands were blatantly wrong. They were guilty of manipulating God’s law in such a way that it made adherence to it easier and violation of it less likely. The prophet Isaiah wrote this less-than-flattering assessment of the people of Israel from the mouth of God Himself:

“this people draw near with their mouth
    and honor me with their lips,
    while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.” – Isaiah 29:13 ESV

And centuries later, Jesus would quote this very same verse when speaking of the Pharisees in His day.

“You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

“‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” – Matthew 15:7-9 ESV

The Pharisees and scribes had come to Jesus accusing His disciples of breaking the traditions of the elders by not washing their hands before they ate. And Jesus responded by accusing them of breaking the commandments of God for the sake of their own man-made traditions. While the law said that everyone should honor their father and mother, and that anyone who reviles their father or mother should be put to death, they had developed their own set of laws. They actually taught that if someone had parents who were in need of financial support, the adult child could get out of helping them by simply saying, “Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God” (Matthew 15:11 NET). And the result of taking advantage of this loophole was, “he does not need to honor his father” (Matthew 15:11 NET). Jesus describes this as nothing less than hypocrisy. It was a violation of the letter of the law.

And that was exactly the kind of thing going on in Jeremiah’s day. They were guilty of violating the letter of the law. By placing the interpretations of men over the God-given intent of the law, they could claim to be living in obedience to God’s will. But God accused these spiritual leaders of having rejected His word. Reinterpreting His laws to create loopholes so that obedience was easier to achieve was nothing less than violating His laws altogether. And God didn’t take what they were doing lightly. He described them stark terms:

“From the least to the greatest,
    their lives are ruled by greed.
Yes, even my prophets and priests are like that.
    They are all frauds.
They offer superficial treatments
    for my people’s mortal wound.
They give assurances of peace
    when there is no peace.” – Jeremiah 8:10-11 ESV

And worse yet, they had no shame for their actions. They exhibited no remorse or regret over what they had done. Rather than acting as shepherds of God, leading His people well and caring for their spiritual needs effectively, they were motivated by greed and power. They told the people what they wanted to hear. Unlike Jeremiah, who obeyed God and warned the people of coming judgment and called them to repentance, these false shepherds offered superficial words of encouragement and assurances that all would be well.

The role of a spiritual leader among God’s people is a high-cost calling. It can be dangerous. Speaking the truth of God is not always easy or appreciated by those who have to hear it. The prophets of God were rarely well-received or treated with respect. Even Jesus had warned His disciples:

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.” – Matthew 10:16-18 ESV

Speaking on behalf of God can be dangerous business. One would think that sharing the good news of God’s offer of forgiveness for sins would always be well-received. But that is exactly the message Jeremiah was given by God to share to the people of Judah. He was calling them to repentance. If they would only acknowledge their sins and return to God, He would forgive them. But there’s the rub. They refused to admit their sins. And they resented the fact that Jeremiah was accusing them of being sinners. In order to receive salvation for sins, God requires acknowledgement of those sins. Someone who refuses to see themselves as a sinner will never see their need for a Savior. That was the problem the Pharisees had. They refused to admit that they were sinners. They viewed themselves as righteous before God. And Jesus sarcastically said of them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Matthew 9:12 ESV). They hated the words of Jesus. They rejected His calls to repentance. They saw no need of a Savior because they refused to see themselves as sinners.

And that same kind of attitude is alive and well today. There are countless men and women masquerading as God’s messengers and delivering words of encouragement and false promises of future blessing, while the people of God live in open disobedience to the will of God. In pulpits all across the country, the seriousness of sin is downplayed or ignored altogether. Calls to repentance have been replaced with calls for social reform and messages about tolerance and love at all costs. Sermons on holiness have been replaced with pep talks about happiness. Rather than teaching the whole counsel of God, pastors have determined to cherry pick and proof text their way through the Scriptures, preaching only those passages they deem uplifting and encouraging. Pleasing men has become far more important than pleasing God. And the warning that Paul gave Timothy has come to fruition in our day.

For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. – 2 Timothy 4:3 NLT

God would not tolerate this kind of spiritual leadership in Jeremiah’s day and He is not about to tolerate it in ours. He was going to deal harshly with the false prophets and priests in the land of Judah. And what makes us think He is not going to do the same thing among the people of God today. Their successful ministries are not a sign of God’s blessing. Their popularity among the people is not an indication of their position as God’s spokesperson. Diluting the Word of God may result in packed pews but it will never garner the blessing of God. Minimizing God’s call to holiness by preaching messages that promote happiness may build a successful ministry, but it will ultimate bring the judgment of God. God holds His ministers to a very high standard. Anyone who claims to speak for God will be held accountable by God.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

No Sense of Direction.

“At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.

“You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
When men fall, do they not rise again?
    If one turns away, does he not return?
Why then has this people turned away
    in perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast to deceit;
    they refuse to return.
I have paid attention and listened,
    but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
    saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turns to his own course,
    like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
Even the stork in the heavens
    knows her times,
and the turtledove, swallow, and crane
    keep the time of their coming,
but my people know not
    the rules of the Lord.” – Jeremiah 8:1-7 ESV

What was God to do with this people? He had loved and cared for them, persistently provided for them and patiently put up with them for generations. And yet, they had consistently and repeatedly spurned His love and turned their backs on Him. They had remained stubbornly unrepentant, in spite of all the prophets He had sent and His persistent warnings of coming judgment. So, He warns them yet again, that the day is coming when they will regret their rejection of Him. When the Babylonians come, they will not only destroy the city and its beautiful temple, they will plunder the graves of its people, from the richest to the poorest. Their bones will end up spread all over the ground, in plain view of the heavens; where the sun, moon and stars they once worshiped will look down on them in helplessness. At that time, their exposed bones will represent the ultimate sacrifice to their false gods. But it will also reveal the futility of their idolatry and the absurdity of worshiping anyone or anything other than God Almighty.

With that vivid imagery planted in their minds, God commands Jeremiah to ask the people several rhetorical questions. They are designed to expose the absurdity of the peoples’ stubborn refusal to repent.

“When people fall down, don’t they get up again?” – Jeremiah 8:4 NLT

The answer is simple. Yes, they get up, because that is the natural and normal thing to do. If you fall, you don’t remain on the ground. That would be abnormal and unnatural. Even an infant who is learning to walk knows enough to struggle back to their feet when they have taken an unexpected spill. But to drive home His point, God asks another question.

“When they discover they’re on the wrong road, don’t they turn back?” – Jeremiah 8:4 NLT

If you lose your way, the natural response is to search for the right way, to get back on course. No one, in the right mind, would purposefully try to remain lost. They would do everything in their power to turn back and retrace their steps, in an attempt to return home. But God asks two more questions that are anything but rhetorical.

“Then why do these people stay on their self-destructive path?
Why do the people of Jerusalem refuse to turn back?” – Jeremiah 8:5 NLT

The point is that the people of Judah were headed in the wrong direction, but they were not doing a thing to course correct. The inevitable destruction to which they were headed was their own fault and yet, they were doing nothing to avoid it. Better yet, they were doing nothing profitable or helpful that would avoid what was coming. They were seeking the help of false gods and pursuing alliances with foreign nations, but they weren’t turning to God. They were listening to the words of false prophets who were promising them that none of Jeremiah’s warnings would come true. But the one thing they could do that would make a difference in their fate, they refused to do: Repent.

“They cling tightly to their lies
    and will not turn around.” – Jeremiah 8:5 NLT

This is the part that should stun and amaze us. The bullheaded nature of the people of Judah should stand as a stark warning to us, that we would not repeat their mistakes. But sadly, they also act like a mirror to us, revealing our own tendency toward hardheadedness and our own stubborn refusal to repent of our ways and return to the Lord. We can be just as resistant to the call of God. We can just as easily reject the still small voice of the Holy Spirit within us, calling us to repentance. The apostle Paul reminds us to use these stories of Israel’s unrepentance and stubbornness as living lessons and to learn from them.

These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. – 1 Corinthians 10:11-12 NLT

We are to learn from their mistakes. And we are to refrain from thinking that we are incapable of duplicating their sinful errors. We are just as susceptible of wandering from God and losing our way in this world. We can just as easily find ourselves worshiping the gods of this world and seeking all our help and hope in things other than God.

But God is not done. He asks two additional questions:

“Is anyone sorry for doing wrong?
    Does anyone say, ‘What a terrible thing I have done’?” – Jeremiah 8:6 NLT

And as before, the answers are obvious. No one was showing any remorse for their actions. There was no sorrow or sadness for what they had done. No words of confession or contrition. And God’s point seems to be that this is totally unnatural and abnormal. He had exposed their sin and they refused to acknowledge it. He had caught them in the act, but they refused to admit it. In fact, He describes them as being like a battle horse running headlong into the heat of the conflict with no regard for what was about to happen. The picture is of a animal that is operating against its own instincts. Under normal circumstances, a horse would run from danger, not towards it. But driven by its rider, a battle horse will ignore its own natural instincts and do the very thing it would normally avoid at all costs. And human beings, allowing their sin natures to drive them, do the very same thing. We run toward sin, rather than away from it. We seek out danger, rather than avoid it.

Even migratory birds instinctively know when its time to take to the air and seek safer nesting grounds. They are wired to return to the place which God has prepared for them. But the people of Judah refused to heed the call of God. They had His Word. They had heard His warnings. But they stubbornly refused to listen. And God indicts them for it, claiming that the migratory birds, “all return at the proper time each year. But not my people! They do not know the Lord’s laws” (Jeremiah 8:7 NLT). What a sad statement. These were the people of God, His chosen ones. And yet, God was forced to say of them that they didn’t know His laws. They had ignored the warning of Moses, spoken all the way back in the days before they entered the promised land.

Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. – Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NLT

And generations later, they found themselves ignorant of God’s will and ways. They didn’t know the right path to take and were prone to wander away from God. They had no sense of direction. They had no natural instinct to return to the One who could save them. Instead, they plunged headlong into self-destruction.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

An All New Low.

“For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away. And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.” – Jeremiah 7:30-34 ESV

This particular passage should have a painful familiarity to it. Not because we have read it before, but because it sounds eerily like our own day. In these closing verses of chapter seven, God points out a specific sin committed by the people of Judah that should leave us shocked and appalled. They were offering their own sons and daughters as human sacrifices to Molech, the god of fire. Both Ahaz and Manasseh, kings of Judah during Jeremiah’s long term as prophet, we guilty of practicing child sacrifice.

Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. – 2 Kings 16:2-3 ESV

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.” And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. – 2 Kings 21:1-6 ESV

When we think of the kind of idolatry practiced in those ancient days, we tend to picture little statues or figurines to which the people offered their sacrifices and before whom they would worship. It all sounds fairly innocuous and silly to us. The very thought of bowing down before an inanimate object and treating it like a god sounds ridiculous to us. But there was far more to the idolatry practiced by the people of Judah than simply offering sacrifices to a wooden figurine or saying prayers to a motionless stone statue. The inherent problem with idol worship is that these false gods never seemed to be satisfied. They require increasingly more intense and costly sacrifices. Because they are not real and cannot answer the requests made to them, the natural conclusion by those who worship them is to up the ante. They assume that their sacrifices are not enough. The gods require more. To get the attention of the gods, the cost of the sacrifice must be increased. The life of an animal must not be enough. Perhaps the god would answer if we sacrificed something hear and dear to us – like a son or daughter. And there were those pagan religions that practiced this kind of sacrifice. And before long, the people of Judah, just like their northern neighbors in Israel, began to escalate their worship of false gods by practicing child sacrifice. All in spite of the warning God had given them long before they entered the land of Canaan.

“You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 18:21 ESV

“Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones.” – Leviticus 20:2 ESV

And yet, here was God accusing the people of Judah of doing the very thing He had forbidden them to do. How had they gotten to this point? What would have caused them to sink so low that they would take the lives of their own children and offer them up as sacrifices to false gods? It all began with their forsaking of God. Slowly, but steadily, the people had begun to seek and serve other gods. They had turned their backs on Yahweh and sought help from other sources. It had all begun innocently enough. In fact, it had all made perfect sense to them. Why not hedge their bets and take advantage of the many gods of their foreign neighbors. After all, what did they have to lose? What if these gods really could deliver what they promised? And by worshiping the gods of their foreign neighbors, it made the people of Judah seem far more accommodating and tolerant. It allowed them to fit in to the world around them. And step by step, slowly but surely, the number of idols in Judah grew, and the intensity of their worship and the cost of their sacrifices increased. Before long, they had actually placed false gods in the temple Solomon had dedicated to Yahweh. And not only that, they had created a specific place in which to offer their own children as sacrifices to Molech: Topheth in the valley of Hinnom. The name “Topheth” is likely from the Aramaic tephath, which refers to a fireplace, oven, or hearth. It was in this place that the people of Judah would burn their children as offerings to the fire god, Molech.

The very idea of this appalls us. We find their actions despicable and inexplicable. How could they do such a thing? What would possess anyone to consider killing their own children and calling it worship? But before we pick up stones to throw at the people of Judah, we might want to consider our own modern context. Even we, as modern Christians, are guilty of offering up our children on the altars of our modern-day gods. We sacrifice our children to the god of sports and academics, vicariously living our lives through theirs as they spend countless hours practicing, performing, and pursuing fame and fortune through these man-made activities. I am not suggesting that playing sports or pursuing an education are wrong, but we must admit that far too often we allow these things to become like gods in our lives; driving our schedules, consuming our time and resources, and promising us outcomes that they can’t deliver.

Consider how much time we allow our children to sit in the innocuous glow of a TV, smart phone or tablet, wasting hour after hour of their day consuming entertainment and information that has no lasting value and actually sucks the spiritual life right out of them. These modern-day technologies, while not evil in and of themselves, have become not-so-subtle tools of the enemy, drawing our children away from God and distancing them from their own families. While they spend countless hours “connected” they are actually disconnecting from the very One who made them. Despite their growing number of online “friends” and increasing community within the wireless world, our children are growing more lonely, despondent and, as research has proven, more suicidal. A 2013 study by the University of Oxford concluded:

Moderate or severe addiction to the internet is also connected to an increased risk of self-harm, as well as increased levels of depression or thoughts about suicide, according to the Oxford review.

But perhaps the most striking parallel between the people of Judah and our modern-day context is the growing number of abortions taking place around us. Ever since the passing of Roe V. Wade in 1973, there have been an estimated 59 million babies murdered through abortion in the United States alone. Worldwide, the number is rapidly nearing the 1.5 billion level. Those staggering numbers represent countless innocent lives that have been sacrificed to the gods of pleasure, promiscuity and personal rights. Worshiping at the altar of self-satisfaction and self-gratification, we offer up our own children as sacrifices to the gods who promise us a life of happiness and uncluttered contentment. The children become expendable, explained away as nothing more than discarded human tissue. They are considered no more valuable than an unwanted growth or dangerous tumor. So, they are removed. Their lives are sacrificed at the altar of self.

And we would do well to remember what God told the people of Judah:

“But I will be merciful only if you stop your evil thoughts and deeds and start treating each other with justice; only if you stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows; only if you stop your murdering; and only if you stop harming yourselves by worshiping idols.” – Jeremiah 7:5-6 NLT

We have more than our fair share of false gods. And our unfaithfulness has manifested itself in the willing sacrifice of our own sons and daughters. God would have us wake up and recognize the error of our ways. He would have us be appalled at how low we have sunk in our pursuit of the gods if pleasure, prominence, popularity and power. We have adapted to the ways of the world. We have adopted the gods of this world. And we have done evil in His sight.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Only Hurting Yourselves.

“As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. Is it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own shame? Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.”

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

“‘Cut off your hair and cast it away;
    raise a lamentation on the bare heights,
for the Lord has rejected and forsaken
    the generation of his wrath.’” – Jeremiah 7:16-29 ESV

Don’t pray. Those words sound a bit strange coming from the lips of God. But that is exactly what He told Jeremiah. Things had gotten so bad in Judah that God commanded Jeremiah not to even waste his time praying for mercy for the people. They were not going to change. They would never repent. After all, God had sent them prophets all along the way. Jeremiah was far from the first. When God had delivered them from captivity in Egypt He had told them, “Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!” (Jeremiah 7:23 NLT). And that command had been given long before He gave them the law and the sacrificial system. And yet, here they were, going through the motions of sacrifice to God, while they were busy gathering wood, building fires, and baking cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. This is most likely a reference to the Assyrian-Babylonian goddess, Astarte or Ishtar. Worship of this god involved the baking of cakes that carried her image and were offered up along with drink offerings. And God says this kind of activity is widespread, taking place in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Entire families were involved in this kind of idolatry. So, God tells Jeremiah to keep his prayers to himself. Whatever suffering the people of Judah will have to endure as a result of God’s judgment is their own fault. They have brought it on themselves. They weren’t hurting God. They were only hurting themselves. He was not suffering because of their unfaithfulness, but they soon would be.

God makes a stinging indictment about the people of Judah: “Truth has vanished from among them; it is no longer heard on their lips” (Jeremiah 7:28 NLT). This is far more than an accusation of lying. They had long ago forgotten the truth about God. His ways were not taught. His commands were not believed or obeyed. His judgment was not feared. His holiness was not revered or respected. But the Hebrew word translated as “truth” is 'emuwnah and it can also mean “faithfulness” or “moral fidelity.” Because God is truth, His word is truth. What He says is true. What He commands is true. And He expects faithfulness or moral fidelity among His people. God’s commands are not up for debate. When He had told the people of Israel, “Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!”, He had meant it. That was the truth and nothing but the truth. But God tells Jeremiah, “This is the nation whose people will not obey the Lord their God and who refuse to be taught” (Jeremiah 7:28 NLT). They have no intention of obeying God. They are not interested in the truth. Instead, they had been listening to the lies of the false prophets. They had been putting their hopes in the false gods of the nations around them. They had exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And God gives Jeremiah some less-than-encouraging news: “Tell them all this, but do not expect them to listen. Shout out your warnings, but do not expect them to respond” (Jeremiah 7:27 NLT).

All Judah had left to do was mourn over their fate. They might not believe the truth of God right now, but they would. When the Babylonians finally showed up and their doom was certain, the people would end up seeing the truth of God in a whole new light. They would discover the hard way that He had been telling the truth. He was really was the one true God. He really did expect obedience and faithfulness. Sin really did have consequences. And God gives Jeremiah a message to deliver to the people of Judah:

“Shave your head in mourning, and weep alone on the mountains. For the Lord has rejected and forsaken this generation that has provoked his fury.” – Jeremiah 7:29 NLT

Why is it that we take sin so lightly? When God tells us that He despises sin and is obligated by His holiness and justice to punish it, why do we not take Him seriously? We ignore His warnings. We disobey His commands. We justify our actions and we suffer the consequences. And we only end up hurting ourselves. He offers us blessings and we reject them, seeking instead the false promises of the gods of this world. We buy into the lies of the enemy. We worship at the altars of power, possessions, prominence, and pleasure. We offer our “cakes” to gods that are man-made and powerless to deliver anything of lasting value. We reject the truth of God for a lie. And, like the people of Judah, we end up guilty of moral infidelity and unfaithfulness. All of this, despite the fact that we have been introduced to the way, the truth and the life. We have come to know the truth and been set free by the truth. We have placed our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior, but still find ourselves wandering away, drawn by the offers of the false gods of this age. And we end up living as if the truth of Jesus Christ and His offer of abundant life are nothing but lies. But God loves us too much to allow us to continue to hurt ourselves, so He disciplines us. The author of Hebrews reminds us:

And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” – Hebrews 12:5-6 NLT

God was going to punish the people of Judah, because of their sin but, more importantly, because they were His children. He loved them too much to allow them to continue down the path they were going. His judgment would seem harsh and unloving. Their fate would appear cruel and uncaring. But again, the author of Hebrews provides us with some important insight into the ways of God.

“As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever?” – Hebrews 12:7-9 NLT

The people of Judah were only hurting themselves. They were bringing the judgment of God on themselves. But He was going to use that judgment for their own good. He would use their unfaithfulness as an opportunity to prove to them yet again His own faithfulness. Sin would bring pain. Disobedience would result in discipline. But God’s discipline produces righteousness.

“For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.” – Hebrews 12:10-11 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

True Repentance.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

“Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ — only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.” – Jeremiah 7:1-15 ESV

God sent Jeremiah to the temple. He was to stand at the gate to the temple and, as the people entered in to worship, he was to give them another word of warning. What an interesting juxtaposition this passage presents. The people were obviously still worshiping Yahweh by attending the temple and offering Him the appropriate sacrifices. For them, the temple was a sign of their place of honor as God’s people. It was His dwelling place and had been constructed by Solomon under the direct supervision of God Himself. And when Solomon had dedicated the temple to God, he had prayed:

“Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below—you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it—as it is today.“ – 1 Kings 8:23-24 ESV

Solomon saw the temple as a place where God would dwell among His people and where the people could turn to Him in prayer, pleading for forgiveness when they had sinned against Him.

“May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.” – 1 Kings 8:29-30 ESV

Solomon had gone on to provide God with a range of different scenarios in which the people might come to Him in need and offer prayers to Him at the temple. They included vindication for the innocent, military defeat, famine, drought, plague, disease, pestilence, and even captivity.

“When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to their enemies, who take them captive to their own lands, far away or near; and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly’; and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name; then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their captors to show them mercy; for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of that iron-smelting furnace.” – 1 Kings 8:46-51 ESV

You can begin to see why the people felt like they were immune from complete destruction by God. Jerusalem was the city of God. The temple was the dwelling place of God. And as long as the people asked for forgiveness from Him, He was obligated to forgive them. Or so they thought. They were counting on the fact that God had made a promise to preserve Jerusalem forever.

For the Lord has chosen Zion;
    he has desired it for his dwelling place:
“This is my resting place forever;
    here I will dwell, for I have desired it.” – Psalm 139:13-14 ESV

They were confident in their safety because God had also promised David that his kingdom would be established forever.

“And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” – 2 Samuel 7:16 ESV

But God had not said that Jerusalem would not fall, the temple might not be destroyed or that the Davidic dynasty would be uninterrupted. In fact, after Solomon had finished his prayer of dedication at the opening of the temple, God had responded:

“But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them.’” – 1 Kings 9:6-9 ESV

And as Jeremiah stood at the gate of the temple that day, he made it painfully clear that the people had not kept their end of the covenant. They were placing all their hope in the presence of the temple, saying, “‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord” (Jeremiah 7:4 ESV). In other words, they were counting on the fact that the temple was God’s dwelling place and He was not going to let anything happen to them. He would protect His house. But God had warned them that the temple would become a heap of rubble if they failed to live in obedience and faithfulness to Him. And He had meant far more than just refraining from idol worship. He has Jeremiah tell them, “I will be merciful only if you stop your evil thoughts and deeds and start treating each other with justice; only if you stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows; only if you stop your murdering; and only if you stop harming yourselves by worshiping idols” (Jeremiah 7:5-6 ESV). They were guilty of far more than idol worship. They were disobeying the commandments of God. As far as they were concerned, His laws had become optional. They felt no compulsion to live according to His will. And God exposes the audacity of their actions and the absurdity of their thinking.

“Don’t be fooled into thinking that you will never suffer because the Temple is here. It’s a lie! Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and burn incense to Baal and all those other new gods of yours, and then come here and stand before me in my Temple and chant, ‘We are safe!’ —only to go right back to all those evils again?” – Jeremiah 7:8-10 NLT

God has Jeremiah remind the people of the fate of Shiloh, a site just 20 miles from Jerusalem. It lay in ruins. Why? Because of the disobedience of the people of Israel. Shiloh had been the place where the tabernacle of God was kept. But the people had proven unfaithful to God. And they were given over by God to defeat by the Philistines, who captured the Ark of the Covenant and, most likely, destroyed Shiloh.

But they put God to the test
    and rebelled against the Most High;
    they did not keep his statutes.
Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,
    as unreliable as a faulty bow.
They angered him with their high places;
    they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
When God heard them, he was furious;
    he rejected Israel completely.
He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
    the tent he had set up among humans.
He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
    his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
He gave his people over to the sword;
    he was furious with his inheritance. – Psalm 78:56-62 ESV

God had done it once before and He warned that He would do it again. Unless His people repented. They must return to Him, but they would also be required to change their ways. It wouldn’t be enough to simply ask Him for forgiveness. Let’s look back at Solomon’s dedication of the temple. God had told the people what they would have to do to receive healing and help from Him.

“…if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV

God was looking for repentance, but repentance must be accompanied by a determination to live in obedience to Him. Repentance involves a resolve to change the way you live. It is not just a sorrow over sin, it is a recognition that sin is an offense to God. And it is a desire to live differently, to change one’s actions and to live in keeping with God’s will.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Contaminated.

Thus says the Lord:
“Behold, a people is coming from the north country,
    a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
They lay hold on bow and javelin;
    they are cruel and have no mercy;
    the sound of them is like the roaring sea;
they ride on horses,
    set in array as a man for battle,
    against you, O daughter of Zion!”
We have heard the report of it;
    our hands fall helpless;
anguish has taken hold of us,
    pain as of a woman in labor.
Go not out into the field,
    nor walk on the road,
for the enemy has a sword;
    terror is on every side.
O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth,
    and roll in ashes;
make mourning as for an only son,
    most bitter lamentation,
for suddenly the destroyer
    will come upon us.

“I have made you a tester of metals among my people,
    that you may know and test their ways.
They are all stubbornly rebellious,
    going about with slanders;
they are bronze and iron;
    all of them act corruptly.
The bellows blow fiercely;
    the lead is consumed by the fire;
in vain the refining goes on,
    for the wicked are not removed.
Rejected silver they are called,
    for the Lord has rejected them.” – Jeremiah 6:22-30 ESV

The enemy IS coming. God has ordained it and nothing is going to stop it. Unless of course, the people were to change their minds and return to Him. But God gives a bleak prognosis when it comes to any future repentance on the part of the people of Judah.

“They are as hard as bronze and iron,
    and they lead others into corruption.
The bellows fiercely fan the flames
    to burn out the corruption.
But it does not purify them,
    for the wickedness remains.” – Jeremiah 6:28-29 NLT

They were contaminated by sin. It permeated their very existence. And it didn’t seem to matter how much God brought the heat of His judgment against them, they remained unrepentant and polluted by sin. So, God tells Jeremiah that He will now refer to them as “rejected silver”. They had inherent value, but their unrepentant sin had diminished their worth. At one time they had been declared holy to the Lord.

Remember that the LORD rescued you from the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt in order to make you his very own people and his special possession, which is what you are today. – Deuteronomy 4:20 NLT

For you are a holy people, who belong to the LORD your God. Of all the people on earth, the LORD your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure. – Deuteronomy 7:6 NLT

They held the distinct privilege of being God’s own possession. Not because they had deserved it, but simply because God had chosen to make them so. He had rescued them from their captivity in Egypt, where they had been undergoing intense testing under the tyrannical hand of the Pharaoh. God had freed them and set them apart as His own. Not because they had deserved it, but simply because God had chosen to do so. And as a result, they belonged to Him, and their lives were to have reflected their new relationship as God’s chosen people. But over the coming years and throughout the successive generations, the people of Israel would prove to be anything but holy.

“Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.” – Ezekiel 22:26 ESV

They had gone from holy to profane. That word, “profane” has very strong connotations. It refers to something that has been polluted or desecrated. But it is directly tied to the idea of holiness. God had set the people of Israel apart or deemed them holy. They belonged to Him. But their constant sin and rebellion had left them profaned, like damaged goods. Rather than being pure silver, they were marred by sin. And it didn’t seem to matter how hot the fire of God’s judgment got, they remained unchanged and unrepentant. The people of Judah had sat back and watched the destruction of their neighbors to the north in the kingdom of Israel. They had seen the devastating impact of the Assyrians as they had swarmed the northern territory, destroying its cities and wiping out its people. But now that they were faced with the same fate, they remained unchanged.

Oh, they were concerned. Jeremiah describes their reaction to his messages of coming destruction:

“We have heard reports about the enemy,
    and we wring our hands in fright.
Pangs of anguish have gripped us,
    like those of a woman in labor.” – Jeremiah 6:24 NLT

They were scared, but they weren’t repentant. They were wringing their hands in worry, but not lifting their hands toward God. They wanted to escape God’s judgment, but weren’t willing to obey His commands. So, Jeremiah warns them that they are going to mourn one way or another. They could choose to repent and come before God in sackcloth and ashes, expressing their sorrow over the rebellion against Him. Or they would find themselves mourning over the loss of their entire nation.

“Oh, my people, dress yourselves in burlap
    and sit among the ashes.
Mourn and weep bitterly, as for the loss of an only son.
    For suddenly the destroying armies will be upon you!” – Jeremiah 6:26 NLT

God reminds Jeremiah of his role. “I have made you a tester of metals among my people, that you may know and test their ways” (Jeremiah 6:27 ESV). His words of warning and his constant calls to repentance were going to reveal the exact nature of the people of Judah’s moral and spiritual state. So far, Jeremiah’s messages had fallen on deaf ears. His warnings had been rejected. His threats had been ignored. His prophecies concerning God’s coming judgment had been contradicted by false prophets who promised nothing but peace and prosperity. And God assesses the true nature of His people as being “stubbornly rebellious” (Jeremiah 6:28 ESV).

It’s essential that we keep in mind that the people of Judah were not pagans who knew nothing about God. They were not ignorant of who He was or unfamiliar with His ways. They were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They knew the stories of His rescue of their ancestors Egypt. They had heard about His miraculous miracles as He led them through the wilderness. They had been told of the fall of the walls of Jericho and the ultimate rise of David to the throne of Israel. They were proud to be Jews. But none of this seemed to keep them from turning their backs on God. They had taken His many blessings and turned their noses up at them, acting as if God was not enough. They turned to false gods and sought help from foreign nations. They treated God’s laws as optional. The prophet Ezekiel records God’s less-than-flattering assessment of them.

“The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice. I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.” – Ezekiel 22:29-30 ESV

They were thoroughly polluted, from top to bottom. From the princes in the palace to the peasant in his hut, everyone was stained by sin and polluted by immorality and injustice. They had become profane and, in the end, they had profaned the name of God. Their behavior had given God a black eye. As His representatives, they had done damage to His holy reputation. And that was not something God could or would tolerate. That is why they would end up in captivity. And even there, long after suffering the shame of defeat and deportation, the people of Judah would continue to profane God’s name. The prophet Ezekiel describe what was going to happen and how God, in spite of their continued unfaithfulness, even after their punishment by Him.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake that I am about to act, O house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy reputation which you profaned among the nations where you went. I will magnify my great name that has been profaned among the nations, that you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the sovereign Lord, when I magnify myself among you in their sight.” – Ezekiel 36:22-23 NLT

God was going to protect the integrity of His name. He would prove to the people of Judah and the nations around them that He was faithful and that He was all-powerful. He would redeem His people once again. He would restore them to favor. He would make them His holy nation once more. Not because they deserved it, but simply because is faithful, loving, gracious and merciful. And He keeps His covenants.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

There Is A Way…

Thus says the Lord:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
    and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
    and find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
I set watchmen over you, saying,
    ‘Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!’
But they said, ‘We will not pay attention.’
Therefore hear, O nations,
    and know, O congregation, what will happen to them.
Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people,
    the fruit of their devices,
because they have not paid attention to my words;
    and as for my law, they have rejected it.
What use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba,
    or sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,
    nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.
Therefore thus says the Lord:
‘Behold, I will lay before this people
    stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble;
fathers and sons together,
    neighbor and friend shall perish.’” – Jeremiah 6:16-21 ESV

Life is full of difficult decisions. Every single day, choices must be made. Like a traveler on a journey to a distant hand but who lacks a map, we humans find ourselves facing the challenge of navigating life with a myriad of options in front of us. There are so many choices we could make and paths we might take. But because we lack the ability to see into the future, we are incapable of determining the outcome of our choices ahead of time. And we have all learned over time, that not all of our choices have been good ones. Not all the paths we have taken have gotten us where we had hoped to go. The book of Proverbs provides us some insight into this dilemma.

There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death. – Proverbs 14:12 NLT

The world appears to be all about options. We have so many opportunities in front of us. As free men, we have the ability to choose our lot in life. Sure, there are limits. Lack of available resources, country of origin, ethnic background, gender – all of these things can and often do play a limiting role in our ability to choose our own destiny. But the one thing that holds every human being back and ends up determining their destiny is sin.

As God continues to deliver His message of judgment against the people of Judah, He accuses them of something that should jump out at us. He says that they have determined to take another path than the one He has chosen for them. He refers to it as the “ancient path” or the “good way”. He reminds them that this path will provide them with rest for their souls. It is the right path, the godly path. There is no doubt concerning the final destiny at the end of this path. It is well-worn and has a proven track record of getting people where they need to go. But the people of Judah had decided that God’s way was not for them. They said, “We will not walk in it” (Jeremiah 6:16 ESV). This was not a case of ignorance regarding the path’s existence. They knew it was there. It had always been there. And they had heard the stories of former travelers who had taken that path – like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and David. They had even been given detailed road maps for this path by God Himself. He had clearly communicated to them how to live according to His will. He had given them His law. He had told them exactly how to walk in His ways. But they had chosen to walk a different path. And this message regarding their stubborn refusal to take the ancient path, the good way, will come up repeatedly in the book of Jeremiah.

“Yet my people have forgotten me
and offered sacrifices to worthless idols!
This makes them stumble along in the way they live
and leave the old reliable path of their fathers.
They have left them to walk in bypaths,
in roads that are not smooth and level.” – Jeremiah 18:15 NLT

Near the end of the book, long after God’s judgment has come and the people have been taken captive to Babylon, the small remnant who remained in Judah would finally see the error of their ways and call out to Jeremiah for help:

“Please grant our request and pray to the Lord your God for all those of us who are still left alive here. For, as you yourself can see, there are only a few of us left out of the many there were before. Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.” – Jeremiah 42:2-3 NLT

Now they want directions. They want to know where to go and what to do. And isn’t that exactly how we respond when we find our choices have ended up as dead ends? When the paths we choose to take leave us lost or living in a state of discontentment and confusion, we usually turn to God. We ask Him what to do and where to go. And all along we have have had His road map for life right in front of us. God had clearly told the people of Judah His path for abundant life.

“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.” – Leviticus 26:3-5 ESV

The words of the psalmist were well known to them.

Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
    who walk in the law of the Lord!
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
    who seek him with their whole heart,
who also do no wrong,
    but walk in his ways! – Psalm 119:1-3 ESV

I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
    I set your rules before me.
I cling to your testimonies, O Lord;
    let me not be put to shame!
I will run in the way of your commandments
    when you enlarge my heart! – Psalm 119:30-32 ESV

They knew the right way, but they had chosen to walk their own path. Rather than the way of faithfulness, they had chosen unfaithfulness. Instead of walking in the law of the Lord, they chose to walk in the ways of the world. And as a result, God was going to punish them.

“I will bring disaster on my people.
It is the fruit of their own schemes,
    because they refuse to listen to me.
    They have rejected my word.” – Jeremiah 6:18 NLT

Their sacrifices and offerings would do them no good. Their religious rituals and observances would not provide course correction. It was their hearts that were off track. They loved their way more than God’s. They preferred their own path over the one God had prepared for them. They thought they were wiser than God. They thought they knew better than God. And so, they were going to learn the timeless lesson that there is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.

Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
    “I will put obstacles in my people’s path.
Fathers and sons will both fall over them.
    Neighbors and friends will die together.” – Jeremiah 6:21 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Peace, Peace.

To whom shall I speak and give warning,
    that they may hear?
Behold, their ears are uncircumcised,
    they cannot listen;
behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn;
    they take no pleasure in it.
Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord;
    I am weary of holding it in.
“Pour it out upon the children in the street,
    and upon the gatherings of young men, also;
both husband and wife shall be taken,
    the elderly and the very aged.
Their houses shall be turned over to others,
    their fields and wives together,
for I will stretch out my hand
    against the inhabitants of the land,”
declares the Lord.
“For from the least to the greatest of them,
    everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.
They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
    when there is no peace.
Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
    at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”
says the Lord. – Jeremiah 6:10-15 ESV

Sometimes we fail to think about the lot of the poor prophet who was tasked with the God-ordained responsibility of delivering a very difficult-to-hear message to the people of God. Jeremiah was just a man. He had feelings and emotions. And, on top of that, Judah was his homeland and the people to whom he was called to minister were his people. He took no pleasure in pointing out the peoples’ sins and warning them of the coming disaster. He was simply doing what God had commanded him to do. But at the same time, he knew the frustration of putting himself on the line everyday, facing the ridicule and rejection of the people, and watching them refuse to believe his words. He had to have felt like a failure at times. He would have known what it was like to get angry at the unwillingness of his own people to listen to what he had to say. And Jeremiah shares with God just a bit of his growing frustration:

“To whom can I give warning?
    Who will listen when I speak?
Their ears are closed,
    and they cannot hear.
They scorn the word of the Lord.
    They don’t want to listen at all.
So now I am filled with the Lord’s fury.
    Yes, I am tired of holding it in!” – Jeremiah 6:10-11 NLT

Jeremiah knew he was speaking for God, but he took their rejection of his words personally. No one likes rejection. The prophet Samuel, went through a similar experience. At one point, the people of Israel came to him and demanded that they give them a king just all the other nations. This request made him angry on two accounts. First of all, he had been serving as the judge over Israel, and he took their request as a personal affront. Secondly, because he had grown old, he had appointed his two sons to serve as judges over Israel as well, but they proved to be corrupt. So, the people demanded a king instead. And Samuel took his frustration with the people to God. But God let Samuel know that he was not to take this personally.

“Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment.” – 1 Samuel 8:7-8 NLT

Anyone who speaks on behalf of God will experience the frustration of having their words rejected by those to whom they are called to minister. It comes with the territory. The truth is not always welcome. Even Jesus said, “no prophet is accepted in his own hometown” (Luke 4:24 NLT). Jeremiah was experiencing the inner conflict of a man who was obligated to speak the word of God, while watching his own people refuse to accept a single thing he had to say as truth. And he knew their refusal to listen was going to have dire consequences. Jeremiah fully believed in the words of God. He had no doubt in his mind that God was going to fulfill every single thing He had said He would do. And God responded to Jeremiah’s growing frustration over the peoples’ stubborn refusal to listen with another warning.

“I will pour out my fury on children playing in the streets
    and on gatherings of young men,
on husbands and wives
    and on those who are old and gray.
Their homes will be turned over to their enemies,
    as will their fields and their wives.
For I will raise my powerful fist
    against the people of this land,”
    says the Lord. – Jeremiah 6:11-12 NLT

God’s wrath against their sin would be unchecked. From the youngest to the oldest, all would suffer the result of His justice, for all were guilty of sin against Him. The entire nation was worthy of facing His judgment. “From the least to the greatest, their lives are ruled by greed” (Jeremiah 6:13 NLT). The permeating influence of sin was everywhere and had infected everyone. And it had started at the top and worked its way down.

“From prophets to priests,
    they are all frauds.
They offer superficial treatments
    for my people’s mortal wound.
They give assurances of peace
    when there is no peace.” – Jeremiah 6:13-14 NLT

Jeremiah had competition. There were others who claimed to be speaking on behalf of God, but their messages were much more acceptable and tolerable. While Jeremiah was busy warning the people of coming disaster, the false prophets were contradicting his words with messages of peace. They were assuring the people that all would be well. God was not going to punish them. But God calls them frauds, and He deems their care for His people as superficial. They were putting band-aids on a mortal wound. Later on, Jeremiah would bring up this problem again, telling God exactly what these false prophets were telling the people:

“All is well—no war or famine will come. The Lord will surely send you peace.” – Jeremiah 14:13 NLT

And God will make it clear that these people did not speak for Him.

Then the Lord said, “These prophets are telling lies in my name. I did not send them or tell them to speak. I did not give them any messages. They prophesy of visions and revelations they have never seen or heard. They speak foolishness made up in their own lying hearts.” – Jeremiah 14:14 NLT

Their unbelievable willingness to claim their words came from God was going to prove disastrous. They would be held accountable for their lies. God would punish them for their deception.

Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I will punish these lying prophets, for they have spoken in my name even though I never sent them. They say that no war or famine will come, but they themselves will die by war and famine! As for the people to whom they prophesy—their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and war. There will be no one left to bury them. Husbands, wives, sons, and daughters—all will be gone. For I will pour out their own wickedness on them. – Jeremiah 6:15-16 NLT

These people were unashamed for what they were doing. They knew they were lying, but were not even embarrassed when called out about it. God accuses them of not knowing how to blush. There was no remorse or sorrow over sin. There was no regret over having rejected God or for having lied in His name. They weren’t sorry for what they were doing. And, as a result, they would suffer the same fate as the people. 

“Therefore, they will lie among the slaughtered. They will be brought down when I punish them,” says the Lord. – Jeremiah 6:15 NLT

Jeremiah was frustrated, but he was faithful. He was angry over the failure of his people to listen to his words of warning. But he was committed to speaking the truth, regardless of the outcome. He was going to keep saying what God gave him to say, no matter what happened. He wasn’t going to take the easy road and simply tell the people what they wanted to hear. That route would make him more popular. That message would garner him a following. But it would not stop the inevitable. Lies will never stop the truth of God. They may make us feel better for a time, but they will prove short-lived and incapable of preventing the inevitable. The world cries out, “Peace, peace” but God calls out, “Repent!”

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

God Wants to Forgive.

Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin,
    from the midst of Jerusalem!
Blow the trumpet in Tekoa,
    and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem,
for disaster looms out of the north,
    and great destruction.
The lovely and delicately bred I will destroy,
    the daughter of Zion.
Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her;
    they shall pitch their tents around her;
    they shall pasture, each in his place.
“Prepare war against her;
    arise, and let us attack at noon!
Woe to us, for the day declines,
    for the shadows of evening lengthen!
Arise, and let us attack by night
    and destroy her palaces!”

For thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Cut down her trees;
    cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city that must be punished;
    there is nothing but oppression within her.
As a well keeps its water fresh,
    so she keeps fresh her evil;
violence and destruction are heard within her;
    sickness and wounds are ever before me.
Be warned, O Jerusalem,
    lest I turn from you in disgust,
lest I make you a desolation,
    an uninhabited land.”

Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“They shall glean thoroughly as a vine
    the remnant of Israel;
like a grape gatherer pass your hand again
    over its branches.” – Jeremiah 6:1-9 ESV

There are those who might find the book of Jeremiah a bit redundant and repetitive. After all, it does seem that God is belaboring the point regarding Judah’s sin. It would appear that by this time, the people of Judah would have gotten the message – loud andclear. But the very fact that God continues to point out their sin and warn them of coming destruction unless they repent, is more a sign of God’s patience and an indicator of their stubbornness. He continues to point out the horrific nature of their sin and warns them of what is going to happen to them because of it. God takes no delight in this message. He finds no pleasure in describing the fate of His own chosen people. But He is brutally blunt in His call that they repent.

“Listen to this warning, Jerusalem,
    or I will turn from you in disgust.
Listen, or I will turn you into a heap of ruins,
    a land where no one lives.” – Jeremiah 6:8 NLT

God was serious. But the people of Judah were not taking Him seriously. Despite Jeremiah’s dire depictions of their coming destruction, they were making no efforts to change their ways. So, God was forced to up the ante and increase the intensity of His accusations and warnings. He calls out the people of the tribe of Benjamin and the citizens of the cities of Tekoa and Beth-hakkerem. The coming destruction was not going to be isolated to the city of Jerusalem. It was going to impact all those living in and around the southern nation of Judah. The Babylonians, when they came, would spare no one. No city, town or village would be safe. Because the sins of the people of Judah had not been restricted to the capital city. Sin was everywhere. The disobedience and unfaithfulness, like a contagious disease, had spread throughout the land. All were guilty.

And God lovingly describes Jerusalem as “my beautiful and delicate daughter” (Jeremiah 6:2 NLT). He was about to destroy the city and the people He loved. All because of sin. His holiness and justice demanded it. He could no longer overlook it. While He loved the people of Judah, His justice required that the sins of His people be punished. Their failure to repent was going to bring His wrath down on them. But He continued to warn. He kept sending Jeremiah back to them with further messages of coming judgment.

He tells them that He loves them, but that He will destroy them. They are not immune to His judgment. They can’t just live in unfaithfulness to Him and expect to get away with it. He is God. He is holy. He is obligated by His very nature to deal with sin, which is nothing less than open rebellion against His sovereignty. Where once there were shepherds and their peaceful flocks camped outside the city walls, there would now be Babylonians troops bent on destruction. And they would be so anxious to pillage the city, that they would fight well into the night. They would cut down all the trees surrounding the city to build their siege engines and ramparts. The devastation would be great. And the fall of Jerusalem would be complete. God even describes the Babylonians as a grape harvester who makes another trip through the vineyard to make sure he left no fruit on the vines. The Babylonians would be excrutiatingly thorough in their pillaging of the city. Nothing would be left. No treasures would be overlooked. The city would be stripped clean. All because of sin.

It would be easy to read these passages and focus on what appears to be the unchecked wrath of God. But the thing that should grab our attention is the devastating effect of sin. God hates it, and for a very good reason. It is like a cancer that spreads through the human body. It is destructive and has no redeeming qualities about it. It brings no worth or value with it. It grows and spreads, but adds nothing to the body that will bring life. Sin brings nothing but death, because it separates man from God. But like the people of Judah, we can grow comfortable with our own sin. We can become complacent and completely at peace with life-threatening, joy-stealing, peace-shattering presence of sin in our lives. But God hates it. And He is out to eliminate and eradicate it. He cannot and will not tolerate it. And when He points it out in our lives, we should thank Him for exposing the very thing that brings death, so that we might enjoy the life He has promised us. God prefers repentance over punishment. He longs to see His children return to Him in brokenness and contrition. He loves to forgive and restore.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9 ESV

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Heart Disease.

Declare this in the house of Jacob;
    proclaim it in Judah:
“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
    who have eyes, but see not,
    who have ears, but hear not.
Do you not fear me? declares the Lord.
    Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
    a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
    though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
    they have turned aside and gone away.
They do not say in their hearts,
    ‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
    the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
    the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
Your iniquities have turned these away,
    and your sins have kept good from you.
For wicked men are found among my people;
    they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.
They set a trap;
    they catch men.
Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
   they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
    they judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?”

An appalling and horrible thing
    has happened in the land:
the prophets prophesy falsely,
    and the priests rule at their direction;
my people love to have it so,
    but what will you do when the end comes? – Jeremiah 5:20-31 ESV

God gives Jeremiah another message to deliver to Judah. And this time, He tells Jeremiah to deliver it even though the people lack the wisdom and the heart to listen. He refers to them as fools who lack the capacity to see or hear. They are blind and deaf to the words of God and will stubbornly refuse to heed the warnings given to them by Jeremiah. In essence, they were living their lives as if God didn’t exist. Despite their love affair with false gods, they were essentially atheists. And David provides us with an apt description of these kinds of people:

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. – Psalm 14:1 ESV

Now, while they weren’t guilty of saying that God was non-existent, they were guilty of living like it. They had no fear of God. They scoffed at any idea that suggested God might do them harm, saying, “He won’t bother us! No disasters will come upon us. There will be no war or famine. God’s prophets are all windbags who don’t really speak for him. Let their predictions of disaster fall on themselves!” (Jeremiah 5:12-13 NLT). They had created their own view of God and saw Him as either overly tolerant of their actions or too impotent to do anything about it. They had no fear of Him. And they treated Him as if He didn’t even exist. But God has news for them.

“Have you no respect for me?
    Why don’t you tremble in my presence?
I, the Lord, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline
    as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross.
The waves may toss and roar,
    but they can never pass the boundaries I set.” – Jeremiah 5:22 NLT

The God of the universe, who had placed boundaries on the seas, had also placed boundaries on them. He had given them commandments to follow. He had made a covenant with them that He expected to be obeyed. But they lived as if there were no rules for them. They were above the law. And God describes their problem as one of the heart. “But my people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned away and abandoned me” (Jeremiah 5:23 NLT). This is the second time God has used the Hebrew word leb, which means “heart”. It was a word that had a wide range of meanings and was used to refer to the feelings, the will and even the intellect. It was seen as the seat of man’s emotions and inner life. So, God is accusing His people of having stubborn and rebellious hearts. Their outward actions were simply the symptoms of an inner ailment. And God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, said of them: “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote” (Isaiah 29:13 NLT). Their hearts had grown distant and cold toward God. Oh, they said all the right things. They went through all the religious rites and rituals. They observed the feast days and made sure they offered the right sacrifices. But their hearts weren’t in it. And, once again, David had a stinging indictment against this kind of lifestyle.

Fools say to themselves, “There is no God.”
They sin and commit evil deeds;
none of them does what is right.
God looks down from heaven at the human race,
to see if there is anyone who is wise and seeks God.
Everyone rejects God;
they are all morally corrupt.
None of them does what is right,
not even one! – Psalm 53:1-3 NET

God revealed to Jeremiah the essence of Judah’s problem:

“They do not say from the heart,
    ‘Let us live in awe of the Lord our God,
for he gives us rain each spring and fall,
    assuring us of a harvest when the time is right.’” – Jeremiah 5:24 NLT

They had long ago forgotten that all their blessings came from God. They no longer recognized Him as the sole source of their provision and protection. Other gods had taken His place. They looked to pagan nations for protection and security. And even when God began to punish them for their sins by removing His hand of blessing, they failed to recognize the cause-and-effect nature of their behavior. So, God told them, “Your sin has robbed you of all these good things” (Jeremiah 5:25 NLT). Disobedience had brought on them all the curses God had warned them about. And yet, at no point do they show any signs of remorse or regret. Their hearts were so stubborn that they failed to recognize their error of their ways and return to God in repentance.

And God points out that there was within the nation of Judah a particular group of individuals who were particularly guilty and worthy of His wrath.

“Among my people are wicked men
    who lie in wait for victims like a hunter hiding in a blind.
They continually set traps
    to catch people.” – Jeremiah 5:26 NLT

These people had grown wealthy by taking advantage of the people. They were unjust and dishonest, and God describes them as having “no limit to their wicked deeds” (Jeremiah 5:28 NLT). These were evidently people who held places of power and prominence. Obviously, the rulers of Judah were going to be held responsible by God for their lack of godly leadership. Over the centuries, both Israel and Judah had had their fair share of godless kings and unrighteous rulers. There had been a long line of ruthless monarchs who had taken advantage of the people, practicing injustice and living lives of immorality and idolatry. And God had seen it all. Later on, in the book of Jeremiah, God will level some strong words of accusation against the sons of King Josiah, indicting them for their unjust abuse of their power as kings over Judah.

“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,
    and his upper rooms by injustice,
who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing
    and does not give him his wages,
who says, ‘I will build myself a great house
    with spacious upper rooms,’
who cuts out windows for it,
    paneling it with cedar
    and painting it with vermilion.
Do you think you are a king
    because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
    and do justice and righteousness?
    Then it was well with him.
He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
    then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
    declares the Lord.
But you have eyes and heart
    only for your dishonest gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
    and for practicing oppression and violence.” – Jeremiah 21:13-17 ESV

And God asks rhetorically: “‘Should I not punish them for this?’ says the Lord. ‘Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?’” (Jeremiah 5:29 NLT). The answer is an obvious, “Yes.” But just to make sure Jeremiah and the people understood why that was the appropriate answer and the only just response for a holy and righteous God, God adds the final nail in the proverbial coffin.

“A horrible and shocking thing
    has happened in this land—
the prophets give false prophecies,
    and the priests rule with an iron hand.
Worse yet, my people like it that way!
    But what will you do when the end comes?” – Jeremiah 5:30-31 NLT

The people had grown accustomed to the sad state of affairs in Judah. They had acclimated themselves to a life filled with injustice, immorality, and idolatry. And this was far more shocking than anything that was going to happen to them. As God stated earlier in the book of Jeremiah:

“Has a nation ever changed its gods
(even though they are not really gods at all)?
But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God,
for a god that cannot help them at all!” – Jeremiah 2:11 NLT

And God will reiterate the shocking nature of Judah’s treatment of Him later on in the book. “Has anyone ever heard of such a thing, even among the pagan nations?” (Jeremiah 18:13 NLT). The fact that God was going bring judgment on Judah should have been anything but a surprise to anyone. But that the people of Judah had allowed it to get to that point was shocking. How could they have turned their back on God? What would have led them to abandon the one who had proven so faithful and loving to them? But the truth is, even those of us who claim to be Christ-followers and children of God can be guilty of turning our back on Him. We can treat Him as if He is not there. We regularly abandon Him and shower our affections and attention on other “gods’ we have created – from pleasure and power to materialism and entertainment. We seek help and hope from others. We give God lip service, but our hearts remain far from Him. And yet, through it all, He remains faithful, merciful, gracious and loving.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

The Amazing Grace of God.

Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire,
    and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
Behold, I am bringing against you
    a nation from afar, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.
It is an enduring nation;
    it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
    nor can you understand what they say.
Their quiver is like an open tomb;
    they are all mighty warriors.
They shall eat up your harvest and your food;
    they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
    they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
your fortified cities in which you trust
    they shall beat down with the sword.”

“But even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not make a full end of you. And when your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’” – Jeremiah 5:14-19 ESV

God was going to make His words like fire and the people of Judah like dry wood. In other words, everything Jeremiah spoke to them regarding their coming destruction was going to end up consuming them. They would be helpless before the all-consuming wrath of God – unless they repented. The proof that Jeremiah spoke for God and was not a false prophet speaking lies would be revealed when all that he prophesied actually took place. The people had been guilty of denying Jeremiah’s words, saying of God:

“He will do nothing;
no disaster will come upon us,
    nor shall we see sword or famine.
The prophets will become wind;
    the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!” – Jeremiah 5:12-13 ESV

They wrongly thought that all Jeremiah was saying would simply blow over and prove untrue. He would be exposed as a fraud and nothing more than a doomsayer. But God assured them that every single thing Jeremiah has said so far will take place. The Babylonians were coming. And this is exactly what God had said would happen if His people proved to be unfaithful to Him. All the way back in the wilderness, when they were being led by Moses to the land of promise, he had warned them: “The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand” (Deuteronomy 28:49 ESV). And now, hundreds of years later, it was about to happen. Why? Because the people of Judah, just like their neighbors to the north in Israel, had failed to remain faithful to God. They had pursued false gods and made alliances with pagan nations. They had repeatedly turned their back on the one true God, who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt, and place their hope and trust in the man-made gods of the nations surrounding them. And God had made clear to Moses what the cause of their eventual destruction would be: “If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received, you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you” (Deuteronomy 28:47-48 NLT).

This wasn’t going to be the result of God losing His temper or flying off the handle. It would not be some uncontrolled, knee-jerk reaction by God. He had warned them in advance that their covenant with Him was bilateral. It had conditions. God had clearly told them, “if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you” (Deuteronomy 28:15 NLT). And God uses graphic imagery to describe what is about to happen to the people of Judah.

“They will devour the food of your harvest;
    they will devour your sons and daughters.
They will devour your flocks and herds;
    they will devour your grapes and figs.
And they will destroy your fortified towns,
    which you think are so safe.” – Jeremiah 5:17 NLT

Food, flocks, families and fortified cities would all be devoured. Everything that was near and dear to the people of Judah, that they put their hope and trust for the future in, would be destroyed by the Babylonians. Nothing and no one would be safe. And again, this would all be in keeping with God’s warnings to Moses and the people of Israel long before they ever set foot in the promised land.

“Your towns and your fields
    will be cursed.
Your fruit baskets and breadboards
    will be cursed.
Your children and your crops
    will be cursed.
The offspring of your herds and flocks
    will be cursed.
Wherever you go and whatever you do,
    you will be cursed.” – Deuteronomy 28:16-19 NLT

What is important to realize when studying a passage like this is that none of this should have been a surprise to the people of Judah. The covenant that God had made with the people of Israel in the wilderness was to be constantly revisited, taught by one generation to another. They were to teach it to their children. It was to be taken seriously and obeyed vigorously, because God had proven Himself to be a God of His word. He always did what He said He would do. And He had given the people of Israel a choice:

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” – Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NLT

Life and death. It seems like such a no-brainer, doesn’t it? Who in their right mind would choose death over life? Why would anyone willingly decide to take the path that leads to their own destruction? But people do it every day. When presented with the good news of Jesus Christ and God’s merciful and gracious offer of salvation, they turn away. They turn God down. They choose death over life. Condemnation over salvation. Hell over heaven. Judgment over justification. The people of Judah knew better. They had seen their God miraculously provide for them over the years. They had countless stories of God’s redemptive role in their lives. They had experienced His grace and forgiveness through the sacrificial system He had provided for them. But they had deliberately turned away from Him. And now they were going to suffer the consequences.

But amazingly, God tells them, “Yet even in those days I will not blot you out completely” (Jeremiah 5:18 NLT). In spite of all that they had done to reject Him and rebel against Him, God was not going to abandon them completely. Yes, He was going to punish them, but He would also preserve them. He would keep His covenant with them. He would follow through on every commitment He had made to Abraham, Moses and David. God was going to send the Messiah and He would come through the tribe of Judah. God was going to reestablish the city of Jerusalem because one day His Son is going to rule and reign there. The unfaithfulness of Judah was not going to keep God from remaining faithful to His promises. As is always the case with God, He saves in spite of us, not because of us. He redeems us, not because we deserve it, but because He chooses to do so. The coming judgment the people of Judah would face would not be God’s fault. It would be their own. And God makes that fact perfectly clear.

“And when your people ask, ‘Why did the Lord our God do all this to us?’ you must reply, ‘You rejected him and gave yourselves to foreign gods in your own land. Now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’” – Jeremiah 5:19 NLT

They would be responsible for their own judgment. They had been given a choice of life or death, and they had chosen death. But their salvation would be God’s choice. Their future redemption would be God’s doing, completely undeserved and a result of His grace and mercy. And Paul reminds us that those of us who have discovered the joy of forgiveness for our sins in Jesus Christ, did so because of God’s grace, not because of our goodness.

For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love. He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will—to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. – Ephesians 1:4-8 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

False Confidence.

“How can I pardon you?
    Your children have forsaken me
    and have sworn by those who are no gods.
When I fed them to the full,
    they committed adultery
    and trooped to the houses of whores.
They were well-fed, lusty stallions,
    each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.
Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord;
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?

“Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
    but make not a full end;
strip away her branches,
    for they are not the Lord's.
For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
    have been utterly treacherous to me,
declares the Lord.
They have spoken falsely of the Lord
    and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
no disaster will come upon us,
    nor shall we see sword or famine.
The prophets will become wind;
    the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!’” – Jeremiah 5:7-13 ESV

The people of Judah, like the people of Israel before them, were stubbornly resistant to confessing their sins, let alone repenting of them. They were set in their ways, enjoying their lifestyle of hedonism and religious pluralism. They enjoyed the things they did and saw no reason to stop. And this had been going on for generations, which led God to say, “For even your children have turned from me. They have sworn by gods that are not gods at all!” (Jeremiah 5:7a NLT). The extent of their unfaithfulness was undeniable, and God pulls no punches in describing it.

“I fed my people until they were full.
But they thanked me by committing adultery
    and lining up at the brothels.” –Jeremiah 5:7b NLT

But the most disturbing aspect of Judah’s rebellion against God was not so much what they did, but how they had become convinced that God was going to do anything about it. Where would the people have gotten an idea like that? Jeremiah was not the only prophet speaking at this time. There were false prophets as well – self-proclaimed prophets who had no call from God and whose message were not were man-made, not God-sent. They were leading the people to believe that the words of Jeremiah were wrong. His predictions of gloom and doom were nothing but lies.

“They have lied about the Lord
    and said, ‘He won’t bother us!
No disasters will come upon us.
    There will be no war or famine.

“God’s prophets are all windbags
    who don’t really speak for him.
    Let their predictions of disaster fall on themselves!’” – Jeremiah 5:12-13 NLT

Later on in the book of Jeremiah, an event is recorded that describes a confrontation between Jeremiah and the priest and false prophets of Judah. He had been telling them that God was going to destroy the temple and the city unless they repented and returned to Him. But the priests and the so-called prophets didn’t like what he had to say.

The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah say these things in the Lord’s temple. Jeremiah had just barely finished saying all the Lord had commanded him to say to all the people. All at once some of the priests, the prophets, and the people grabbed him and shouted, “You deserve to die! How dare you claim the Lord’s authority to prophesy such things! How dare you claim his authority to prophesy that this temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will become an uninhabited ruin!” Then all the people crowded around Jeremiah. – Jeremiah 26:7-9 NLT

A hasty trial was set up outside the temple in order to deal with this trouble-maker once and for all.

Then the priests and the prophets made their charges before the officials and all the people. They said, “This man should be condemned to die because he prophesied against this city. You have heard him do so with your own ears.” – Jeremiah 26:12 NLT

Jeremiah had been speaking for God, but these false prophets had been promising the people that nothing was going to happen, that God was not going to bring judgment or destruction on them. And they wanted Jeremiah dead. But while they judged and condemned Jeremiah, God would stand in judgment against them.

“Both the prophets and priests are godless.
I have even found them doing evil in my temple!
So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery.
They will stumble and fall headlong.
For I will bring disaster on them.
A day of reckoning is coming for them.” – Jeremiah 23:11--12 NET

These men wbo claimed to be speaking for God actually speaking lies. They had not been sent by God and were not getting their marching orders from God. They were self-appointed freelancers who told the people what they wanted to hear.

“They are unfaithful to me
and continually prophesy lies.
So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil,
with the result that they do not stop their evildoing.” – Jeremiah 23:14 NLT

The unmitigated gall of these men to lie in the name of God is hard to imagine. And God was going to hold them personally responsible for the sins of the people of Judah.

“For it is because of Jerusalem’s prophets
    that wickedness has filled this land.”

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says to his people:

“Do not listen to these prophets when they prophesy to you,
    filling you with futile hopes.
They are making up everything they say.
    They do not speak for the Lord!
They keep saying to those who despise my word,
    ‘Don’t worry! The Lord says you will have peace!’
And to those who stubbornly follow their own desires,
    they say, ‘No harm will come your way!’ – Jeremiah 23:15-17 NLT

And God makes it clear that these men did not speak on His behalf.

“I have not sent these prophets,
    yet they run around claiming to speak for me.
I have given them no message,
    yet they go on prophesying.” – Jeremiah 23:21 NLT

They could say whatever they wanted to say. They could prophesy in the name of whatever god they chose to use, but their words would prove to be nothing but lies, providing nothing in the way of true hope. In fact, God concludes, “The prophets will become wind; the word is not in them” (Jeremiah 5:12 ESV).

This phenomena of false prophets and teachers was not relegated to the Old Testament time period. It was alive and well in the early days of the church. In fact, the apostle Paul warned his young protege, Timothy, “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3 NLT). False prophets will always be around, because people don’t want to hear the truth of God. They don’t want to be told they are sinners. They don’t want to be told that their sins will one day be lead to everlasting punishment. People don’t want to hear that they are hopeless sinners in need of a Savior. So, men and women rise up who will tell them what they want to hear. That God wants them happy, healthy and whole. He wants them to have their best life now. He loves them and would never do anything to harm them. They preach and teach that God is all-loving and non-judgmental, and would never send anyone to hell. In fact, they promise, God would never even consider making a place as hideous and evil as hell. And, they say, a loving God would not restrict salvation to just one way, through faith in one man. All roads lead to God, they assure their eager listeners.

But God would say, ““I have not sent these prophets, yet they run around claiming to speak for me. I have given them no message, yet they go on prophesying.” (Jeremiah 23:21 NLT). And just because they garner a huge audience and have what appears to be a successful ministry, doesn’t mean they speak for God or have the blessing of God. False teachers and prophets will always be in high demand, because unfaithful people will always look for them.

They tell the seers,
    “Stop seeing visions!”
They tell the prophets,
    “Don’t tell us what is right.
Tell us nice things.
    Tell us lies.
Forget all this gloom.
    Get off your narrow path.
Stop telling us about your
    ‘Holy One of Israel.’” – Isaiah 30:10-11 NLT

The truth of God is always hard to hear. The reality concerning our sinful state is not something anyone wants to be reminded about. But the convicting power of God’s
Word is necessary for true repentance to take place. Jesus affirmed this when He spoke the following words to a crowd of Jews:

“When you have lifted up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will understand that I Am he. I do nothing on my own but say only what the Father taught me. And the one who sent me is with me—he has not deserted me. For I always do what pleases him.” – John 8:28-30 NLT

And the text tells us that many believed in Him. Which led Him to say:

“You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:31-32 NLT

It is the truth that sets you free, not the lies of false prophets and teachers. False prophets can only provide you with false confidence. They can make you feel good about yourself and help you justify your sinful behavior, but all the while they keep you chained to the sin in your life and unable to see the truth of God’s saving grace made possible through His Son.

Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. – 2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Sacrifice Without Sorrow.

Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
    look and take note!
Search her squares to see
    if you can find a man,
one who does justice
    and seeks truth,
that I may pardon her.
Though they say, “As the Lord lives,”
    yet they swear falsely.
O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?
You have struck them down,
    but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
    they have refused to repent.

Then I said, “These are only the poor;
    they have no sense;
for they do not know the way of the Lord,
    the justice of their God.
I will go to the great
    and will speak to them,
for they know the way of the Lord,
    the justice of their God.”
But they all alike had broken the yoke;
    they had burst the bonds.

Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down;
    a wolf from the desert shall devastate them.
A leopard is watching their cities;
    everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many,
    their apostasies are great. – Jeremiah 5:1-6 ESV

In order to prove to Jeremiah just how bad things had gotten and to justify the need forthe coming judgment, God gives him a challenge. He tells the prophet to run through the streets of Jerusalem and see if he can find a solitary individual who does justice and seeks truth. Just one man. That’s all Jeremiah had to find. But God warns Jeremiah not to be deceived. They will try to convince Jeremiah that they are God-fearers, but God tells him, “But even when they are under oath, saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’ they are still telling lies!” (Jeremiah 5:2 NLT). They’ll say and do anything to get out of the disaster headed their way, even swear on a stack of Bibles. But God told Jeremiah not to believe them, because He knew their hearts. This is reminiscent of Abraham’s conversation with God when it had been revealed that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were to be destroyed because of their unchecked immorality. Abraham knew that his nephew Lot and his family were living in Sodom, so he tried to beg God not to destroy the cities. He started out asking God to spare the cities if there were at least 50 righteous people living in them. And God said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake” (Genesis 18:26 ESV). Then Abraham, seemingly knowing that the likelihood of finding that many righteous individuals in the two cities was unlikely, began to bargain with God until he got the number down to ten. And God responded, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it” (Genesis 18:32 ESV). In the end, Abraham was simply trying to spare his nephew and his family. But even when they were safely out of the city, God destroyed both Sodom and Gomorrah. There were not even ten righteous people left in either city.

The situation in Judah also brings to mind the days just before God destroyed the earth with a world-wide flood. The book of Genesis tells us:

The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. – Genesis 6:5 NLT

And as a result, He wiped out every living thing on the earth, sparing only Noah and his family, and those animals he had sequestered away on the ark. In those days, unrighteousness had run rampant on the earth. And the same sad state of affairs was true of the capital city of Judah. Wickedness was everywhere. Unfaithfulness marked the lifestyles of all those who lived in the city. It was just as Solomon had written:

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. – Ecclesiastes 7:20 NLT

And David echoed this same sentiment when he wrote:

Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. – Psalm 143:2 ESV

Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart; I am pure and free from sin”? – Psalm 20:9 NLT

And the apostle Paul would pick up on David’s less-than-flattering assessment of mankind when he wrote:

None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. – Romans 3:10-12 ESV

Man is incapable of performing righteous acts apart from God’s help. Anything and everything we do, in our own flesh, ends up being tainted and polluted by sin. That reality is what led the prophet Isaiah to write:

We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind. – Isaiah 64:6 NLT

But God had graciously provided the people of Israel with His law to show them His holy expectations of them. And knowing they would be incapable of keeping His law perfectly, He provided them with the sacrificial system as a means of finding atonement for the sins they would inevitably commit. But despite God’s grace and mercy, they still chose to rebel against Him, turning to false gods and treating His sacrificial system with contempt. God knew their hearts. They had long ago fallen out of love with Him, which is what led Him to say of them:

"These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.”  – Isaiah 29:13 NLT

And Jeremiah’s search for one solitary individual who sought after truth proved to be harder than he thought. He soon admitted:

You struck your people,
    but they paid no attention.
You crushed them,
    but they refused to be corrected.
They are determined, with faces set like stone;
    they have refused to repent. – Jeremiah 5:3 NLT

But in an attempt to be optimistic, Jeremiah concludes that it was the poor who posed the problem. They were uneducated and uninformed. They didn’t know any better. So like Abraham, he makes a deal with God.

“But what can we expect from the poor?
    They are ignorant.
They don’t know the ways of the Lord.
    They don’t understand God’s laws.
So I will go and speak to their leaders.
    Surely they know the ways of the Lord
    and understand God’s laws.” – Jeremiah 5:5 NLT

He was going to check out the upper class, the well-educated cultural elite of the city. Surely, they would produce at least one man who was righteous. Yet Jeremiah would sadly conclude: “But the leaders, too, as one man, had thrown off God’s yoke and broken his chains” (Jeremiah 5:5b NLT). Jeremiah had struck out. His attempt to find just one faithful person had come up empty. And as a result, the judgment of God was assured.'

Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down;
    a wolf from the desert shall devastate them.
A leopard is watching their cities;
    everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many,
    their apostasies are great. – Jeremiah 5:6 ESV

Like apex predators, the Babylonians would come into Judah, viciously and unmercifully ravaging the people of God, because of their open rebellion against Him. Their many sins would have dire consequences. Their failure to respond to God’s many invitations to return to Him in repentance would result in His just and righteous discipline of them. And God had proven to Jeremiah that what was about to happen was anything but undeserved. The prophet had been unable to find a solitary soul within the whole city of Jerusalem who could qualify as righteous before God. Unrighteousness and unfaithfulness go hand in hand. God had never intended the people of Israel to live righteous lives on their own. That’s why He had given them the law and the sacrificial system. One provided them with God’s holy expectations of them. It showed them how they were to live. But God knew they would be unable to live up to His righteous standards, so He gave them the sacrificial system to provide them with a means of atonement or cleansing for the sins they would commit. But these two things were to produce in them a complete dependence upon God. One represented God’s law, while the other represented His grace. And the two were designed to work in tandem, creating in the people of God a complete reliance upon Him for any hope of living righteous lives before Him. But when they determined in their hearts to live unfaithfully, by seeking other gods instead of Him, they revealed that they really didn’t need Him. And their sacrifices lost their value. They could make them. They could offer up their lambs and bulls, shedding their blood in an attempt to receive atonement and forgiveness from God, but the lives of these animals would be given in vain. Because what God really wanted from the people of Judah was true repentance for their sins. David expressed the desire of God well when he wrote:

Certainly you do not want a sacrifice, or else I would offer it;
you do not desire a burnt sacrifice.
The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit—
O God, a humble and repentant heart you will not reject. – Psalm 51:16-17 NLT

Sacrifices without true sorrow for sin are meaningless. The apostle Paul put it this way:

For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. – 2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

God’s Inscrutable Ways.

“For this the earth shall mourn,
    and the heavens above be dark;
for I have spoken; I have purposed;
    I have not relented, nor will I turn back.”

At the noise of horseman and archer
    every city takes to flight;
they enter thickets; they climb among rocks;
    all the cities are forsaken,
    and no man dwells in them.
And you, O desolate one,
what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,
    that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,
    that you enlarge your eyes with paint?
In vain you beautify yourself.
    Your lovers despise you;
    they seek your life.
For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor,
    anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,
the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
    stretching out her hands,
“Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers.” – Jeremiah 4:28-31 ESV

God had spoken, and He made it very clear to Jeremiah that all He had said would come to pass. He would not change His mind or relent. None of the warnings of coming destruction had been idle threats. They were real and every prophecy spoken by Jeremiah was going to come true, right down to the last detail. And the mourning over Judah’s fall would be great. God even personifies nature as joining in the sorrow over the fall of the people of God. The coming disaster was going to have far-reaching implications. The sins of Judah and their consequences were going to impact that region of the world for centuries to come. The fall of Judah was going to dramatically alter the religious, political and sociological landscape of that region of the world. The fall of Jerusalem was going to have tremendous geopolitical implications. Despite their unfaithfulness, Israel and Judah had both managed to influence the world around them. Their worship of Yahweh, while sporadic and spotty at best, had still played a role in establishing the cultural dynamics of the region. Now they would be going into captivity, their capital would be turned to rubble, and their once glorious temple would be destroyed and, as a result, their access to atonement through the sacrificial system would be eliminated.

These were going to be dark days. When the Babylonians arrived, people living all over the land of Judah would find themselves running in fear for their lives, attempting to hide from the oncoming devastation.

They hide in the bushes
    and run for the mountains.
All the towns have been abandoned—
    not a person remains! – Jeremiah 4:29 NLT

The prophet, Isaiah, gives even more details about what this mass flight of the people of Judah will look like.

And people shall enter the caves of the rocks
    and the holes of the ground,
from before the terror of the Lord,
    and from the splendor of his majesty,
    when he rises to terrify the earth.

In that day mankind will cast away
    their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
    to the moles and to the bats,
to enter the caverns of the rocks
    and the clefts of the cliffs,
from before the terror of the Lord,
    and from the splendor of his majesty,
    when he rises to terrify the earth. – Isaiah 2:19-21 NLT

The idols they once turned to for hope and help will be thrown aside in their rush to find safety. The false gods who abandoned them will be abandoned by them. These lifeless deities will prove powerless to stand before the wrath of God Almighty. The pitiful and somewhat ironic image is of the people running for thelr lives while carrying their lifeless idols in their hands. Not only were these gods incapable of doing anything about the tragedy facing the people of Judah, they couldn’t even save themselves. These inanimate objects had to be rescued by the very people there were meant to save. What a sad picture of the futility of idol worship.

Judah is described as a prostitute, all decked out in fancy clothes, covered in makeup, and adorned with jewels, in an attempt to entice the aid of other nations. But God warns that their actions would prove futile. No one was going to come to their defense. In fact, the surrounding nations would be glad to see them fall. All Judah’s efforts to woo and win aid from Egypt and other nations would result in nothing but an unwanted pregnancy. That is the image God uses next. he describes Judah as a pregnant woman, agonizing over the pains of childbirth.

I hear a cry, like that of a woman in labor,
    the groans of a woman giving birth to her first child. – Jeremiah 4:31 NLT

Their unfaithfulness was going to result in pain and suffering, and they were going to give birth to destruction. Like a prostitute who finds herself pregnant as a result of her promiscuous ways, the nation of Judah would find their pleasure turned to pain and their unfaithfulness giving birth to unexpected suffering. But their cries of anguish would go unheeded and unanswered. No one was going to be able to save them. God was not going to change His mind regarding them. He had given them ample opportunity to repent and return. He had sent prophets like Jeremiah to warn them. He had allowed King Josiah to rediscover the law and attempt to enact religious reforms among the people. But their hearts had remained unchanged and their faithlessness, undiminished.

The result would be Judah’s demise. They would end up like a woman dying in childbirth, “gasping for breath and crying out, ‘Help! I’m being murdered!’” (Jeremiah 4:31 NLT). Their end would not be pretty. Their demise would be painful and bloody. Many would end up dying as a result of their stubborn refusal to accept God’s call to repentance. They would turn up their noses at His offer of mercy and end up suffering the consequences. But it’s fascinating how many read the stories surrounding Judah’s fall and get angry with God. They wrestle with the idea of a loving, gracious God treating His people in such a horrific fashion. And in doing so they fail to grasp the deep significance and gravity of sin. We tend to tolerate sin. We learn to live with it. We even excuse it and justify it. But God can’t. He is holy. He is righteous. And as the God of the universe, He must deal justly with sin. He can’t overlook it or ignore it. To do so would be like a judge refusing to mete out justice on a criminal deserving punishment for a crime for which he was guilty. To overlook a crime is not justice, it is injustice. It is a crime in and of itself. For God to tolerate our sin would be sin and He would cease to be God.

The problem is that we tend to read the Bible in snapshot fashion. We pick up an photograph depicting an event that happened thousands of years ago, and we judge God based on that solitary image. We fail to see the bigger picture. God’s treatment of Judah was a moment-in-time glimpse into God’s much larger plan for the redemption of mankind. We can look at the events surrounding the fall of Judah and wonder how a good God could do such a thing. But if we step back and examine the full scope of God’s redemptive plan, we see that He has something far greater in store than we could ever imagine. To get angry at God because we don’t like the way in which He has handled a particular moment in our lives reveals that we have a myopic image of God. We live in the moment. God lives in eternity. We can only know the present, while He knows the future and the eventual outcome of all things. The people of Judah had no idea what was going to happen to them. All they knew was that God had predicted their doom. But He had something far greater in store for them as a people. He had the plan for the Messiah in place and the time for His arrival already set. It is a dangerous thing to judge God based on the limited information we have at a given moment. We must trust that He has bigger plans than we can see or even grasp. What may look hopeless and purposeless to us is nothing of the sort to God. It is all part of His sovereign plan.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so my ways are higher than your ways
    and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Doom, But Not All Gloom.

My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!
    Oh the walls of my heart!
My heart is beating wildly;
    I cannot keep silent,
for I hear the sound of the trumpet,
    the alarm of war.
Crash follows hard on crash;
    the whole land is laid waste.
Suddenly my tents are laid waste,
    my curtains in a moment.
How long must I see the standard
    and hear the sound of the trumpet?

“For my people are foolish;
    they know me not;
they are stupid children;
    they have no understanding.
They are ‘wise’—in doing evil!
    But how to do good they know not.”

I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void;
    and to the heavens, and they had no light.
I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,
    and all the hills moved to and fro.
I looked, and behold, there was no man,
    and all the birds of the air had fled.
I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a desert,
    and all its cities were laid in ruins
    before the Lord, before his fierce anger.

For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.” – Jeremiah 4:19-27 ESV

As has been discussed before, the role of a prophet of God was far from easy. They were not automatons who mechanically went about their business. They were not heartless, unfeeling robots who simply mouthed the words given to them by God. They were flesh-and-blood human beings who were being required by God to deliver devastating news of pending destruction to their own people. In this section, we have the first of Jeremiah’s laments or confessions of anguish over what is about to happen to the people of Judah. He fully believed that what God said He was going to do, He would do; but he found no joy in that fact. He was emotionally distraught over the prospect of his people having to endure the suffering that was headed their way. His description of his physical condition speaks volumes concerning his mental and emotional state:

My heart, my heart—I writhe in pain!
    My heart pounds within me! I cannot be still. – Jeremiah 4:19 NLT

Whether God had given Jeremiah an actual vision of the coming invasion by the Babylonians is not clear. But Jeremiah describes those future events as if he has already witnessed them.

For I have heard the blast of enemy trumpets
    and the roar of their battle cries. – Jeremiah 4:19 NLT

For Jeremiah, the future events that God has prescribed were unavoidable, but also unbearable. He was already tired of hearing about them and having to constantly describe them to the people. So, he calls out to God:

How long must I see the battle flags
    and hear the trumpets of war? – Jeremiah 4:21 NLT

It was all too much for him. But God reminds Jeremiah not to forget why he is having to suffer so much inner turmoil. There is a very good reason for his visions of destruction and his personal grief. Rather than point the finger at God, Jeremiah needed to recall the true cause of his unbearable sorrow. So, God tells him:

“My people are foolish
    and do not know me,” says the Lord.
“They are stupid children
    who have no understanding.
They are clever enough at doing wrong,
    but they have no idea how to do right!” – Jeremiah 4:22 NLT

God speaks a powerful word of accusation over the people of Judah, claiming that they don’t even know Him. He describes them as ignorant and devoid of understanding. The only thing they know how to do well is sin. But they lacked the capacity to do what is right. This is a description of a people who had gone off the moral cliff and plunged themselves into a black hole of sin and immorality. They were not coming back. God knew that they were not going to repent of their sins and return to Him. Their destruction was not inevitable, it was unavoidable. As a righteous, holy and just God, He was obligated by His very nature to deal with their sins and keep the covenant He had made with them. He had told them that disobedience would bring curses upon them and He had been quite explicit in what those curses would entail.

“Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have, instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you. The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young.” – Deuteronomy 28:47-50 NLT

God had done what He had promised to do. He had brought them into the land of promise. He had given them victories over their enemies. He had blessed them in innumerable ways, just as He had said He would do.

“The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments and obey him. Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, and they will respect you. The Lord will greatly multiply your children, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he promised your ancestors he would give you. The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.” – Deuteronomy 28:9-12 NLT

But the people of Judah and Israel had proven to be unfaithful and disobedient. They had not kept their side of the covenant. And so, God was bringing on them the very judgment He had said would come. He was keeping His word. And, evidently, God gave Jeremiah a look at the pre-release trailer of the coming destruction.

I looked at the earth, and it was empty and formless.
    I looked at the heavens, and there was no light.
I looked at the mountains and hills,
    and they trembled and shook.
I looked, and all the people were gone.
    All the birds of the sky had flown away.
I looked, and the fertile fields had become a wilderness.
    The towns lay in ruins,
    crushed by the Lord’s fierce anger. – Jeremiah 4:23-26 NLT

This was not going to be a slap on the wrist. What Jeremiah saw was total and complete destruction. The Babylonians were going to leave behind when they were done was a barren wasteland that was full of destroyed cities, but void of life. This was going to be an apocalypse. The once-great city of Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, would have its walls completely destroyed. The city would be laid waste. Even the beautiful temple built by Solomon would be turned into a pile of rubble. Anything of value would be taken as booty by the Babylonians, and the people of Judah would be gathered up and marched off as slaves. And it would all be the result of God’s righteous anger. But the cause of His anger would be the sins of the people. This was not going to be some arbitrary, unprovoked outburst of uncontrollable anger from God. It was going to be His judgment against the open rebellion of the very people He had set apart as His own and blessed in unprecedented ways. The nuclear winter-like vision Jeremiah saw was the direct result of the sins of the people. They were getting what they deserved.

But wait. There is a silver lining to this dark cloud. God gives Jeremiah a glimpse of the good news that lay hidden in all the darkness.

This is what the Lord says:
“The whole land will be ruined,
    but I will not destroy it completely.” – Jeremiah 4:27 NLT

It’s not much, but in this one verse lies a message of hope. As bad as things might have appeared in Jeremiah’s vision, there was a glimmer of light. God was not going to destroy the land completely. This was not going to be a complete destruction. While the people of Judah deserved nothing but total annihilation for their sins, God was going to show them mercy. He was going to extend them grace. A remnant would survive the coming holocaust. Not all would be killed or taken captive. God was still going to bless the people of Judah – in spite of them. His love for them would not fade. Yes, He was going to punish them for their sins, but He was not going to abandon them. He was not going to give up on them. Because He is faithful. And because He had a plan for the nation of Judah that was bigger than that one generation. He had a purpose for them as a nation for which they were unaware. He was going to raise up a king from the nation of Judah who would rule and reign in righteousness. God had made a covenant with King David, telling him:

“Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.’” – 2 Samuel 7:16 NLT

And that promise would eventually be fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ, as Gabriel made clear to Mary:

“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” – Luke 1:30-33 NLT

Judah would be preserved. Yes, they would end up in captivity in Babylon, but God would one day restore them to the land. Why? Because He had made a promise and He was going to keep it. He had a much bigger plan in store for the world. He was going to bring a Savior into the world who would bring a solution to the very sin problem that got Judah in trouble in the first place. Through His Son, God was going to provide a means by which mankind might find release from their slavery to sin and death. So, while Jeremiah saw only doom and gloom, God wanted him to know that this story was going to have a very happy ending.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Behold, he comes up like clouds;
    his chariots like the whirlwind;
his horses are swifter than eagles—
    woe to us, for we are ruined!
O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil,
    that you may be saved.
How long shall your wicked thoughts
    lodge within you?
For a voice declares from Dan
    and proclaims trouble from Mount Ephraim.
Warn the nations that he is coming;
    announce to Jerusalem,
“Besiegers come from a distant land;
    they shout against the cities of Judah.
Like keepers of a field are they against her all around,
    because she has rebelled against me,
declares the Lord.
Your ways and your deeds
    have brought this upon you.
This is your doom, and it is bitter;
    it has reached your very heart.” – Jeremiah 4:13-18 ESV

God was demanding change. He called them to repent and expected that repentance to entail more than just an external change in behavior. God knew that their real problem was much deeper than that. They suffered from a heart condition. Which is why God had Jeremiah warn them:

“O Jerusalem, cleanse your heart
    that you may be saved.
How long will you harbor
    your evil thoughts?” – Jeremiah 4:14 NLT

The day of their destruction was coming, like a fast-approaching storm, bringing devastation and destruction in the form of war horses and chariots. And if the people of Judah had any hopes of avoiding the inevitable outcome of a Babylonian invasion, they were going to have to cleanse their hearts. But was that even possible? And was God really expecting them to be able to do so? The prophet, Isaiah, who was also sent by God to warn the people of Judah regarding their wickedness and God’s impending judgment of them, had a very similar word from God:

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
    learn to do good;
seek justice,
    correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
    plead the widow's cause. – Isaiah 1:16-17 ESV

Notice what Isaiah writes. They were to wash themselves. They were to make themselves clean. It was up to them to get rid of their evil behavior and to start doing what God commanded. Their purification was to have external proofs that they had indeed changed. But again, was what God demanded of them even possible? Could they purify themselves? Well, the next verse gives us the answer:

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
    they shall become like wool.” – Isaiah 1:16-18 ESV

It was as if God said, “Let’s think about this.” Their ability to purify their own hearts was non-existent. They were incapable of changing their ways – on their own. If fact, later on, in the book of Jeremiah, God makes the following assessment of their ability to change:

You will probably ask yourself,
‘Why have these things happened to me?
Why have I been treated like a disgraced adulteress
whose skirt has been torn off and her limbs exposed?’
It is because you have sinned so much.
But there is little hope for you ever doing good,
you who are so accustomed to doing evil.
Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin?
Can a leopard remove its spots? – Jeremiah 13:22-23 NLT

Their predilection to sin was ingrained, a part of their DNA. Like every other human being, they had inherited the sin nature of Adam. Disobedience to God came naturally. A propensity toward evil was built into them. They could no more change their nature than a leopard could remove its spots. Like a person’s genetic makeup determines their skin color, the people of Judah had a built-in predisposition toward sin. But God was also telling them that He was willing and able to do something about their condition. He lets them know that even though they have been stained by their sins, He can make them white as snow. He has the ability to wash them clean from all their iniquities and make them pure. Isaiah wrote these words of God to the people of Judah:

“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
    and I will not remember your sins.” – Isaiah 43:25 ESV

God would remove their sins, not because they deserved it, but simply because He wanted to show His grace and mercy. They would not be able to earn His forgiveness through human effort, but God did expect them to turn back to Him and acknowledge their need for Him. Like the great king David, they would have to call out to God and ask Him to do for them what they could not do for themselves.

Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean, wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. – Psalm 51:7 NLT

It is only when we come to grips with our own incapacity to redeem ourselves, that we turn to God as our redeemer. When we finally realize that we are incapable of improving our own behavior and cleaning up our act, that is when we become desperate enough to call on Him. But for some reason, we stubbornly hold on to the idea that we can change ourselves. We mistakenly cling to the hope that we can muster up enough strength to do enough good things that will earn us favor with God and hold off His punishment of us. But just a few verses later, Jeremiah writes this painful assessment of the people of Judah:

“My people are foolish
    and do not know me,” says the Lord.
“They are stupid children
    who have no understanding.
They are clever enough at doing wrong,
    but they have no idea how to do right!” – Jeremiah 4:22 NLT

Once again, the prophet Isaiah makes a chilling assessment of Judah’s complete inability to mend their hearts and change their behavior.

You assist those who delight in doing what is right,
who observe your commandments.
Look, you were angry because we violated them continually.
How then can we be saved?
We are all like one who is unclean,
all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight.
We all wither like a leaf;
our sins carry us away like the wind. – Isaiah 64:5-6 NET

Isaiah seems to be saying that God comes to the aid of those who long to do what is right, what God demands. But the problem is that those very same people can’t turn their delight into action. Even their most righteous actions end up looking like bloody rags before God. They are completely controlled by the sin in their lives. They want to do what is right, but lack the capacity to turn their desires into reality. The apostle Paul described having a similar frustration:

I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. – Romans 7:15-21 NLT

Paul fully realized that, if left to himself, he was incapable of doing what he really wanted to do. In the flesh, he couldn’t produce the kind of life God demanded. He could desire it, but his sin nature would fight him every step of the way. So, Paul cried out:

Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. – Romans 7:24-25 NLT

Paul knew His hope was external, not internal. His Savior was Christ, not himself. He needed Jesus Christ to do for him what he could not do himself. And the people of Judah would have to reach the same conclusion. They would have to turn to God for their salvation, but also for their cleansing. In fact, they were going to need to desire cleansing more than salvation. While they all wanted to avoid the coming destruction, they weren’t all that keen on changing their behavior. They wanted God’s salvation, but didn’t seem to think they were so sinful that they needed His cleansing. But God wanted them to grieve over their sins. He wanted them recognize their sinfulness and their own inability to do anything about it. Then they would turn to Him for help. King David learned that very lesson after having sinned against God by having an adulterous affair with Bathsheba, then having her husband eliminated so he could marry her. He recognized His sin against God and realized that what God wanted was a broken and repentant spirit.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. – Psalm 51:16-17 ESV

And it was his own brokenness and his recognition of his complete dependence on God to purify him that led David to write:

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin! – Psalm 51:2 ESV

And the sad indictment God made against the people of Judah was that their sin had permeated them to the very core of their being. Their hearts were stained by their wickedness. In fact, their wickedness was a byproduct of their sin-filled hearts. Which is why God said:

“Your ways and your deeds
    have brought this upon you.
This is your doom, and it is bitter;
    it has reached your very heart.” – Jeremiah 4:18 ESV

They would need God to do for them what they could not do for themselves. But first they would need to turn to Him. They would need to rely on Him for the power to cleanse and forgive.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

“You Will Be Safe!”

Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,

“Blow the trumpet through the land;
    cry aloud and say,
‘Assemble, and let us go
    into the fortified cities!’
Raise a standard toward Zion,
    flee for safety, stay not,
for I bring disaster from the north,
    and great destruction.
A lion has gone up from his thicket,
    a destroyer of nations has set out;
    he has gone out from his place
to make your land a waste;
    your cities will be ruins
    without inhabitant.
For this put on sackcloth,
    lament and wail,
for the fierce anger of the Lord
    has not turned back from us.”

“In that day, declares the Lord, courage shall fail both king and officials. The priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded.” Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It shall be well with you,’ whereas the sword has reached their very life.”

At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse, a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who speak in judgment upon them.” – Jeremiah 4:5-12 ESV

Back in chapter one, God gave Jeremiah a vision of a boiling cauldron that was spilling over. And He told Jeremiah:

“Out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the Lord, and they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah.” – Jeremiah 1:14-15 ESV

Now God is going to give Jeremiah a much more detailed description of what is going to happen, and Jeremiah is to share this less-than-comforting news with the people of Judah. God tells Jeremiah to metaphorically “blow the trumpet.” He was to issue an alarm to the people, warning them to send signals to the entire nation to seek shelter in the fortified cities. Disaster was coming. A destroyer of nations was coming out of the north “to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant” (Jeremiah 4:7 ESV). And all the people could do was wait for the inevitable and unavoidable outcome. All they could do was mourn their fate and regret the folly of their ways.

So put on sackcloth!
Mourn and wail, saying,
‘The fierce anger of the Lord
has not turned away from us!’” – Jeremiah 4:8 NET

But before we go on, let’s take a minute to consider something that is often overlooked. First of all, how do you think Jeremiah felt about having to deliver this message? Talk about being the bearer of bad news. What a difficult task it must have been for Jeremiah to obey God and speak these words to people he knew and loved. And how do you think Jeremiah was received? What kind of reception did the prophet encounter when he gave his message of doom and gloom to the people of Judah? He was ,undoubtedly, a very unpopular person. It is unlikely that he was invited to a lot of dinner parties. People probably avoided him on the street. No one wanted to be seen with Jeremiah. And no one wanted to be around when Jeremiah went on one of his rants.

We sometimes forget that the prophets of God were mere men. And yet, they had been called by God to deliver very difficult news to the people of God. They were human and had feelings just like anybody else. They didn’t enjoy being despised and rejected. But they put a higher priority on obedience to God’s will than they did on being liked by the people. God’s words were difficult to deliver, and even more difficult for the people to receive. But they knew God was speaking truth the people needed to hear. So they spoke – faithfully and fearlessly.

But back to God’s message. He also told Jeremiah to tell the people:

“When this happens,” says the Lord,
“the king and his officials will lose their courage.
The priests will be struck with horror,
and the prophets will be speechless in astonishment.” – Jeremiah 4:9 NET

The leadership of Judah would find themselves in a state of shock. Responsible for the well-being of the nation, they will be unprepared to deal with the enormity of the problem when it comes. The king and his court won’t know what to do. The priests won’t know where to turn. After all, they had a plethora of gods they worshiped, so they had do decide which one was going to help them? The false prophets, who had been predicting ongoing peace, would be tongue-tied, unable to explain how they had gotten it so wrong. And Jeremiah alludes to the deceptive message of these false prophets when he responds to God:

“Ah, Lord God, you have surely allowed the people of Judah and Jerusalem to be deceived by those who say, ‘You will be safe!’ But in fact a sword is already at our throats.” – Jeremiah 4:10 NET

While God had not raised up these false prophets, He had allowed them to present their deceptive messages promising safety and security. He had let the people be lulled into a false sense of comfort, all the while knowing that their unrepentant state was going to lead to their destruction. But the time had come for God to speak and to bring an end to Judah’s overconfident, unrepentant attitude.

“At that time the people of Judah and Jerusalem will be told,
‘A scorching wind will sweep down
from the hilltops in the desert on my dear people.
It will not be a gentle breeze
for winnowing the grain and blowing away the chaff.
No, a wind too strong for that will come at my bidding.
Yes, even now I, myself, am calling down judgment on them.’” – Jeremiah 4:11-12 NET

Judgement was coming. The party was over. The fake gods, false prophets, faithless priests, godless officials, and adulterous people were going to find themselves facing the wrath of the God they had taken for granted and treated with disdain. He would no longer tolerate their blatant disregard for His will and His ways. And He makes it clear that He will be the one who calls down judgment on them. This will not just be a case of fate. God will be the one who sends the Babylonians. This coming destruction will be the direct result of God’s sovereign will and providential plan.

There is a not-so-subtle message in these verses for those of us who consider themselves God’s chosen people in this day. We who claim to be Christ-followers and lovers of God must take heart God’s words of warning. While our sins are forgiven and our right standing with God has been fully taken care of by Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, we must not take our secure standing lightly or treat the glory of God flippantly. He is still a holy God who expects His people to live in accordance with His will. He not only expects us to be holy, He has given us His Spirit in order that we might BE holy. But the greatest danger we face is that of complacency and a false sense of comfort. Just because we know where we’re going when we die doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want while we’re alive. The fact that we have forgiveness available to us when we sin is not to be an incentive to continue to live in sin. And Paul makes the absurdity of this kind of thinking quite clear in his letter to the Romans.

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. – Romans 6:1-4 NLT

God has called us to live new lives, and He has provided us with the power to make it possible. But how easy it is for us to reject God’s call to live holy lives and to choose to live slightly improved versions of our old selves. That is NOT what He has called us to. That is NOT what His Son died to make possible. We have been redeemed from captivity to sin and set free to live Spirit-empowered lives of holiness and spiritual wholesomeness. We are to be faithful to God and committed to His will and His ways. We are to be His representatives on this earth, providing living proof that His Son’s death truly does provide new life – both here and in the hereafter. We must never become complacent or overly comfortable with our status as God’s children. God will discipline us. Why? Because He loves us too much to allow us to continue to live in sin. But we must always remember that His love for us, even in the form of His discipline of us, will be for our good. The author of Hebrews reminds us:

And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. – Hebrews 12:5-7 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

If You Return…

“If you return, O Israel,
declares the Lord,
    to me you should return.
If you remove your detestable things from my presence,
    and do not waver,
and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’
    in truth, in justice, and in righteousness,
then nations shall bless themselves in him,
    and in him shall they glory.”

For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:

“Break up your fallow ground,
    and sow not among thorns.
Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
    remove the foreskin of your hearts,
    O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
    and burn with none to quench it,
    because of the evil of your deeds.” – Jeremiah 4:1-4 ESV

God’s continued call for the people of Judah to return to Him was conditional. In other words, He was fully expecting them to change their ways. It wasn’t going to be enough for them to display some half-hearted effort at reform. They were going to have to destroy their idols, tear down the pagan alters, and as God so graphically puts it, “circumcise their hearts.” And God knew their hearts were the sources of their idolatry addiction. As God complained through the prophet Isaiah, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote” (Isaiah 29:13 NLT). Any worship the people of Israel did direct toward God was tainted by legalism and man-made decrees. Their hearts weren’t really in it. They were going through the motions, while also worshiping the false gods of the nations around them.

But the conditional nature of God’s call also had a positive side. If they would return, in sincerity and with the proper proofs of their determination to make God their only God, then He would bless them. God would take a rebellious, unfaithful people, who were doomed to destruction, and place them once again at the center of His will and affections. And when the other nations saw the radical reversal of Israel’s fortunes, they too would turn to God.

“…the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are
and will make him the object of their boasting.” – Jeremiah 3:2 NLT

When Israel had been delivered by God from captivity in Egypt, the other nations heard about what had happened. The news of Israel’s salvation by their God spread quickly. And as they made their way through the wilderness to the land of Canaan, the nations occupying the land became increasingly more fearful of this nation and its God. In fact, when the two spies went into Jericho to check out the fortifications of the city, they were protected by Rahab. And she told them:

“I know the Lord is handing this land over to you. We are absolutely terrified of you, and all who live in the land are cringing before you. For we heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you left Egypt and how you annihilated the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og, on the other side of the Jordan. When we heard the news we lost our courage and no one could even breathe for fear of you. For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.” – Joshua 2:9-11 NLT

God’s power was impressive. His care for those who worshiped Him was like nothing these pagan nations had ever seen before. And God is telling Israel that those very same nations will be blown away when they see how forgiving the God of Israel can be when they repent. But again, God was very specific. He was going to require legitimate heart change.

“Like a farmer breaking up hard unplowed ground,
you must break your rebellious will and make a new beginning;
just as a farmer must clear away thorns lest the seed is wasted,
you must get rid of the sin that is ruining your lives.” – Jeremiah 3:3 NLT

One of the things we tend to leave out when we confess our sins is the legitimate intention of changing our ways. For many of us, confession is nothing more than a required step to get to what we really want: His forgiveness. Our objective is to keep God happy, not to pursue holiness. We know we have screwed up and we also know God is not pleased with us. So, to escape His anger and possible discipline, we confess. It is the equivalent of saying, “I’m sorry.” But what is typically missing is our intention to change our behavior. We simply want to escape God’s wrath, but we have no real desire to pursue holiness. But God had a serious warning to the people of Israel.

“…you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord
and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me,
people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

If you do not, my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you
that no one will be able to extinguish.
That will happen because of the evil you have done.” – Jeremiah 3:4 NLT

Just as God had done all the way back in the days when Moses leading the people of Israel to the Promised Land, He gives the people of Israel a choice. They could choose to keep His commands and enjoy His many blessings, or they could choose to disobey Him and face the consequences of His curses.

“Look! I have set before you today life and prosperity on the one hand, and death and disaster on the other. What I am commanding you today is to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to obey his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. Then you will live and become numerous and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are about to possess. However, if you turn aside and do not obey, but are lured away to worship and serve other gods, I declare to you this very day that you will certainly perish!” – Deuteronomy 30:15-18 NLT

Once again, they had a choice to make. And as before, it was between life and death. And God is trying to get them to understand that their choice of life will require a dedicated commitment to follow Him faithfully, but it will be well worth the effort. But it is interesting to note, that even in light of all the God has promised to do for the, we know that Israel will prove too stubborn to take God up on His offer. They will choose death over life. Why? What would cause them to be that stubborn and self-destructive? The simply answer is sin. Their hearts are wicked. Yes, they had been set apart by God and been deemed His chosen people. But their hearts were far from Him. By the giving of the Law, God had made it perfectly clear what He expected of them. He had made His requirements for holy and acceptable living plain as day. But they couldn’t live up to them. Not only that, they couldn’t stop themselves from chasing after other gods. Their natural inclination was toward sin and away from God. And that has been man’s problem since the fall. Mankind has been on a trajectory away from God, not toward Him. Paul puts it this way:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.” – Romans 3:10-12 ESV

The amazing thing about God is that He knew Israel would fail to return to Him. He knew they would continue to sin against Him and doom themselves to suffer His discipline. But He was not going to give up on them. In fact, God is far from done with Israel. Their track record of apostasy is undeniable. But God’s faithfulness to them is unalterable. He will one day redeem them and place within them the capacity to do what they have never been able to do from the beginning: Love Him with all their hearts. In the book of Ezekiel, we have recorded a promise made by God to the people of Israel that has yet to be fulfilled.

“For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.” – Ezekiel 36:24-27 NLT

God knew Israel would not return to Him. But He also knows that there is a day when they will. But it will be the result of His sovereign work and His Spirit’s transforming power. He will do for them what they could never have done for themselves: Change their hearts.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

We Come to You.

And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

“‘I said,
    How I would set you among my sons,
and give you a pleasant land,
    a heritage most beautiful of all nations.
And I thought you would call me, My Father,
    and would not turn from following me.
Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,
    so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.’”

A voice on the bare heights is heard,
    the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons
because they have perverted their way;
    they have forgotten the Lord their God.
“Return, O faithless sons;
    I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to you,
    for you are the Lord our God.
Truly the hills are a delusion,
    the orgies on the mountains.
Truly in the Lord our God
    is the salvation of Israel.

“But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.” – Jeremiah 3:16-25 ESV

God has called the people of Israel to return to Him. He told them, “‘Come back to me, my wayward sons,’ says the Lord, ‘for I am your true master. If you do, I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.’” (Jeremiah 3:14 NLT). The word for “master” that God uses is actually the Hebrew word ba`al and it is obviously similar to the name of the false god, Baal, whom the Israelites worshiped. The word ba`al can be translated as “master or husband” and carries the idea of dominion. It seems that God was using a play on words, telling His people that if they would give up their false gods (Baal), and return to Him, He would be there real master and faithful husband. And unlike a lifeless idol, God would give them blessings. He would provide them leaders who would prove faithful to him and capable of providing knowledge and insight. And even though God predicts that just a remnant will end up returning to Him, He promises to multiply them in the land. 

In 538 B.C., after the people of Judah had been in captivity in Babylon for 70 years, God arranged for a remnant of them to return to the land of promise. Cyrus, the Persian king, issued a decree that allowed the Jews to return the their land and even funded their trip.

In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the Lord’s message spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord stirred the mind of King Cyrus of Persia. He disseminated a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, announcing in a written edict the following:

“Thus says King Cyrus of Persia:

“‘The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has instructed me to build a temple for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Anyone from his people among you (may his God be with him!) may go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and may build the temple of the Lord God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. Anyone who survives in any of those places where he is a resident foreigner must be helped by his neighbors with silver, gold, equipment, and animals, along with voluntary offerings for the temple of God which is in Jerusalem.’” – Ezra 1:1-4 NLT

Not all of the Jews took Cyrus’ offer to return to Jerusalem. After 70 years of captivity, they had acclimated to life in Babylon and preferred to stay where they were. Many were probably turned off by the prospect of the long journey home and the prospect of returning to a destroyed city with few, in any, amenities. They were not interested in doing manual labor in a land with no king, no army and trying to survive in a city that had been completely destroyed 70 years earlier. But a few did return. They made the long trek back and, under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and reconstructed the temple.

But much of what God promises in these verses has yet to happen. This is typical of many Old Testament prophecies. There is a now/not yet aspect to this prophecy. It will be partially fulfilled when the people return to the land in 538 B.C., but it will not be fully fulfilled until a later time. God says:

“At that time the city of Jerusalem will be called the Lord’s throne. All nations will gather there in Jerusalem to honor the Lord’s name. They will no longer follow the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. At that time the nation of Judah and the nation of Israel will be reunited. Together they will come back from a land in the north to the land that I gave to your ancestors as a permanent possession.” – Jeremiah 3:17-18 NLT

It isn’t difficult to see that this has not yet happened. The nations have not gathered in Jerusalem to honor the Lord’s name. In fact, in anything, the nations have gathered around Israel in order to destroy it. There are countless nations that would like to see Israel eliminated and its sovereign status annulled. This portion of God’s prophecy has yet to be fulfilled. But it will be.

From the day God determined to make Israel His own, He has longed to see them serve Him faithfully and love Him unconditionally. But despite all that God had done for them, they had proven to be anything but faithful.

“Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son!
What a joy it would be for me to give you a pleasant land,
the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’
I thought you would call me, ‘Father’
and would never cease being loyal to me.
But, you have been unfaithful to me, nation of Israel,
like an unfaithful wife who has left her husband,”
says the Lord. – Jeremiah 3:19-20 NLT

These verses seem to indicate that God was totally caught off guard and surprised by Israel’s unfaithfulness. But He wasn’t. God knew they would prove to be unfaithful, and He had planned all along for their eventual destruction and captivity. When He had given them the Mosaic law, God knew they would fail to keep it. He had warned them that they would need to be obedient in order to receive His blessings. And He had told them that disobedience would lead to curses. And He had been very specific about what those curses would entail.

The Lord will force you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there. You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you. – Deuteronomy 28:36-37 NLT

God had not been surprised by Israel’s apostasy. He had planned for it. Left to their own devices, Israel had proven to be like every other nation: sinful and stubborn. While they had been chosen by God, their sinful natures had led them to choose false gods. Sin came naturally to them. And as a result, they turned their backs on God.

Indeed they have followed sinful ways;
they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God. – Jeremiah 3:21b NLT

But God proved faithful to them. In fact, throughout their history, God has shown His love for Israel by constantly calling them to repentance.

“Come back to me, you wayward people.
I want to cure your waywardness.” – Jeremiah 3:22 NLT

God simply wanted them to return to Him and admit the folly of their ways. He was looking for confession, not a complete reversal of their behavior. He wasn’t expecting them to fix all their problems on their own and clean up their act before He would accept them. He just wanted them to confess what they had done to offend Him.

“Say, ‘Here we are. We come to you
because you are the Lord our God.
We know our noisy worship of false gods
on the hills and mountains did not help us.
We know that the Lord our God
is the only one who can deliver Israel.’” – Jeremiah 3:22-23 NLT

Notice those four simple words: “We come to you.” They are reminiscent of the words of Jesus spoke to the people of Israel when He appeared on the scene: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NLT). God and His Son both invited Israel to come to them with an attitude of dependency, with arms outstretched. They simply needed to admit their weariness and confess their wickedness. Their turning to God was to be an acknowledgement that He was their only source of deliverance. 

“Let us acknowledge our shame.
Let us bear the disgrace that we deserve.
For we have sinned against the Lord our God.” – Jeremiah 3:25 NLT

Come to me. That is God’s standing invitation and it always has been. He invites us to come to Him in humility and brokenness, ready to receive from Him what we could never have found anywhere else: Help, hope, strength, forgiveness, mercy, love and eternal life. But we have to come. And when we do, the benefits are unbelievable.

“Come, let’s consider your options,” says the Lord.
“Though your sins have stained you like the color red,
you can become white like snow;
though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet,
you can become white like wool.” – Isaiah 1:18 NLT

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge. – Revelation 22:17 NLT

Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away. – John 6:37 NLT

Seek the Lord while he makes himself available;
call to him while he is nearby!
The wicked need to abandon their lifestyle
and sinful people their plans.
They should return to the Lord, and he will show mercy to them,
and to their God, for he will freely forgive them. – Isaiah 55:6-7 NLT

Israel had a standing invitation from God. And they had an unbreakable promise from God. He would one day restore them. He would one day do for them what they could not do for themselves. He would redeem them and restore them to a right relationship with Him. He would give them new hearts and a new capacity to live faithfully and love Him fully.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson