Jeremiah 5:7-9 – Be loyal to God alone

The first reason God had to send judgment on His people was due to moral corruption, which was described in verses 1-6. There was nothing God could find to justify Judah. The questions asked in Jeremiah 5, tell us so. In Jeremiah 5:7, God asked “Why should I pardon you (Judah)? And again in verse 9 He again asked, “And Shall I not punish these people…shall I not avenge myself? Here in verses 7-9, God gave the second reason why Judgment on Judah was inevitable.

Judah had committed spiritual adultery. Instead of giving their loyalty to God alone, the people forsook Him and offer their allegiance to those worthless idols.  They had forgotten that it was God who had provided for all that they needed in life. When they were fed and full, they deserted Him and went after other gods. Flocking to the temple of idols, referred to as harlot’s houses in verse 7, they engaged in the worship of those dumbed idols, especially Baal.

 

Baal worship was a fertility cult. To his worshippers, he was the god of the storm who would provide water for harvest. His female counterpart Ashtaroth was a fertility goddess. Sexual orgies in his temple were common phenomena. It was believed that when Baal had sexual intimacy with his female counterpart the Ashtaroth, fertility would result. So around Baal’s temple would be prostitutes for hire so that the people could engage in sexual relationships in his presence. The purpose was to arouse Baal sexually so he could engage in sexual intimacy with Ashtaroth, resulting in fertility.   

 

Given the privilege to know God and have a unique relationship with Him, Judah should have known better and remained faithful to their covenant Lord. But she was not. Her people abused their privilege. Instead of living a faithful life worshipping only their covenant Lord, they pivoted to other worship other gods. Behaving like senseless horses in heat, each one went lusting after their neighbor’s wife.  What they did had set themselves up for the inevitable judgment.

 

God expects spiritual purity from His people. Commitment and allegiance to God cannot be compromised. Jesus tells us that no man can serve two masters. Why? Conflicts in commitment will result when a person seeks to serve God and another idol at the same time. God made it explicitly clear that His people must have no other gods before Him. Today, our other gods come in all forms. It can be one’s career, hobbies, material possessions, spouse, children, friends, and a whole host of other interests. The call for us is to remain loyal to God. We must never turn God’s blessing to us into the idols we worship.  In James 4;4, he  addressed the people who had put the world above God as adulteresses. He said, “…friendship with the world is hostility toward God …and whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” Make God our best friend, focus on Him, and the things of this world will be strangely dim!

 

 

Jeremiah 5:4-6 – Be people who will walk our talk.

In the first three verses of Jeremiah 5, God challenged him to search and see if could find one righteous man in Judah. And if he could find as little as even one, He would spare the city. Unfortunately, Jeremiah could not even find one. He only saw among them unrighteous people dealing unfairly with God and with each other. Moral corruption was all he could see.

Unconvinced and not ready to concede that no righteous man could be found, Jeremiah rationalized that perhaps only the poor would engage in such immoral ways. He thought that because of their social condition, they were oblivious to the ways of the LORD and His justice. So he was determined to go among the rich and find out for himself among those so-called “great” and speak to them. He reckoned that he could find some righteous among them. He thought that they were better predisposed, hence they would have more time to discover the ways of the LORD and His justice. Jeremiah found to his disappointment that he could not find any there too. In saying that they alike had “broken the yoke and burst the bonds,” Jeremiah was saying that they too were lawless.

Judah was morally corrupt, both the rich and the poor. And there was only one predictable end for them. They would be dealt with at the ferocious hands of their enemy, the Babylonians. Like being severely savaged by wild beasts Judah would be savagely devoured. Verse 6 said, “… 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….” The reason for their end was obvious. They had committed many transgressions and apostasies.

No one escapes the sight of God. He is impartial. He sees the deeds of everyone as he is, whether rich or poor, and evaluated them as He sees them. He is looking for truth and seeking people who are faithful. He can see through our deception and pretense. We must be sure to walk our talk. Live uprightly, make our promises and be sure to keep them. Live life keeping Psalm 14:2 in mind:

The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men
To see if there are any who understand,
Who seek after God.

Jeremiah 5:1-3 – Be God’s righteous people!

If there was no cause, God’s judgment on Judah would be unnecessary. So in Jeremiah 5, we will see why judgment on Judah was warranted. Here Jeremiah was given reasons why God was bringing judgment on His people. We will reflect on the grounds one at a time. The first found in verses 1-3 was about their moral corruption. Essentially there was an absence of justice, fairness, and truth among the people.   

In verse 1, God instructed Jeremiah to personally comb through the streets and squares of the nation and see if he could search for one righteous man. One who would deal justly and fairly, not only with God but also with their fellow men. If  Jeremiah could find even one among the wicked people, God would spare the nation from His judgment. God saw and knew that the whole city was corrupt. It was brimming with unjust and selfish people. They would swear by His name but would remain unreceptive to the lessons He was seeking to impart. They had rebuffed God’s corrections and had become so stubborn that despite all the calamities they were unmoved.  

 

Unfortunately, Jeremiah’s search proved unfruitful. He could not even find one faithful among the host of people. So the Judgment eventually came. If the prophet could find even one, God would have spared the city. Today God is still looking for righteous  people. We cannot deny that such people are hard to come by. So thankfully, Jesus His Son came and through Him, God is cultivating and growing a community of righteous people. We cannot get away from the lesson that God values righteousness. Keep Matthew 6:33 at the forefront of our minds as we walk with God. Make it a priority in our lives to always seek His kingdom and righteousness first!  

    

 

 

Jeremiah 4:27-31 – The tragedy of not putting trust in God

In these last five verses from Jeremiah 4 verse 27 to verse 31, Jeremiah saw the irreversible judgment of God coming upon Judah. His coming judgment on them was inevitable. God’s decision to deal with them had been made and He would not relent from what He had purposed to bring upon them. However, God would not destroy them completely. But the judgment would be severe enough that even heaven and earth witnessing the calamity would mourn. In other words, what was coming would sting but would be inevitable.  

 

Continuing to talk about the judgment, Jeremiah painted a word picture of  the whole of Judah panic-stricken. The enemy army was seen sweeping into the nation. The approaching horsemen and bowmen would send her people scurrying for shelter wherever they could find cover, in thickets and among rocks. Every one of her cities would be deserted and devoid of men.

 

Pictured as a well-adorned prostitute searching for other lovers, Judah would go seeking other nations for alliances. But her so-called lovers, the allies would turn against her and plot her death. Instead of being a sought-after prostitute, Judah would become like a laboring woman in deep travail delivering her first child. As a woman agonizing in her travailing labor pangs, her desperate and sharp ear-splitting cry for help would go unheeded. She had chosen to place herself in the hand of brutal and heartless slayers.   

 

As severe as the judgment on Judah would be it was not greater than the tragedy of Judah’s stubborn refusal to trust the Lord. Despite the onslaught of relentless judgment, Judah would still pivot to trusting their allies. Thus making God's judgment inevitable. We ask how could Judah be so dumb? That is the blinding effect of sin.  It makes a person choose problems and hardship instead of solutions and blessings.  It causes a person to remain spiritually blind. Knowing our fallen propensity, it is prudent to pray for discernment. Sin first blinds us then binds us then leaves us blistered. Remember Proverbs 3:5-6. Trust the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding. In all our ways, let us consider and acknowledge Him. He promises to make our paths in life straight.             

 

 

 

Jeremiah 4:23-26 – The devastating effect of persistent sin.

In Genesis 1:2 the whole earth was described as formless and void. It was just one chaotic mass. Darkness engulfed the whole earth until God decreed light into being. According to Genesis 1:14, God only spoke the luminaries, the sun and the moon, into being on the 4^th day of creation. If God had not brought about the order in creation, the whole earth would have remained in its devastated state. Yet now in Jeremiah 4:23-26, Jeremiah saw Judah in that pre-creation condition. Like the earth, before God brought about creation, that is how Judah would become after God’s devastating judgment on her persistent sin.   

Jeremiah was probably describing the period of Judah’s exile in Babylon. Her land would become formless and void, barren and waste, and dark and silent. It would become a totally disorganized and uninhabitable wasteland. The mountain and the hill symbols of stability would be shaken and brought low. Judah would be devoid of both men on land and birds in the sky. In place of the one fruitful land, she would become a wilderness. All her cities would be pulled down in the fierce anger of the Lord.  

Lessons gleaned from these verses. Firstly, we learn that persistent sin will always bring a devastating effect on life. It can move us backward to our pre-conversion condition. It has a retrogressive effect. The earth after His creative activity was good. The sin of Judah and their unrepentance moved their good land into the state when it was like the earth before God brought beauty, organized, and make it habitable. Persistent sin will undo all the good that God had built in our lives and retrogressively bring us back to our degenerative condition. Secondly, persistent sin disintegrates everything that is in order in our lives. An organized life can be disrupted by persistent sin and made disorganized and spiritually disjointed. Persistent sin will finally leave us with a fruitless life. we will become like a useless wasteland and unproductive in life.  That’s the devastating effect of persistent sin.  So let us not harbor persistent sin but hasten to listen to the call of Peter in Acts 3:19, “Repent therefore and turn again, that your sin may be blotted out.”  

Jeremiah 4:19-22 – Take full advantage of hard times.

Jeremiah could see the effect of the judgment so here in the remaining verses of chapter 4, he described how devastating the judgment would be. In verses 19-22, he was saying that it would be a horrifying judgment. Here his prophetic gift enabled him to hear and see how terrifying the judgment was. So anguished by what he saw coming in the coming judgment, he could longer remain silent. So he exclaimed:

“My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart!
My heart is pounding in me;
I cannot be silent,
Because you have heard, O my soul,
The sound of the trumpet,
The alarm of war.”

 

Jeremiah heard the proclamations of disaster piling up on Judah. He could sense imminent, sudden, and thorough devastation coming upon them. In an instant everything, tent and curtain and all would be left in ruin.  So shocked by what he saw that he complained by asking a rhetorical question. He asked, “How long must he see Judah’s deterioration and continue to hear and warn of impending devastation?” What he wanted to know was how long would the judgment of God upon them last.  

 

Though Jeremiah did not address God, he received a response from Him. He was told that for as long as the people of Judah remained foolish, the vision of devastation would continue to come to warn them. God saw how foolish his people were. It was so obvious how accustomed they were to evil. They had a total lack of spiritual acuity and understanding. They obviously did not have a knowledge  of Him through a lack of personal interaction with Him. Thus they were not walking with Him. In their lack of personal knowledge of God, they had become experts in plotting evil and no longer knew how to do what was right in God’s sight.

 

Most times, hard times are allowed by God to build our relationship with Him. However, some of them are His warnings concerning our wrong direction in life. God allows them to help us to make a U-turn. But if we persist in them despite His warning, we will find the trying moments intensify. Hard times are not there to break us but to build us and help us change the wrong course we may have embarked upon. Be sensitive to God’s guidance. His guidance can only be experienced when we are walking in close connection with Him. Hear a wise word from the Apostle Paul from Ephesians 5:15-17, “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” The surest way to understand God’s will for our lives is to develop our personal walk with Him.        

Jeremiah 4:11-18 – Don’t treat God lightly

The coming judgment that the prophet started to describe earlier continues. In Jeremiah 4:11-14, he saw the enemy God would use to judge His people. They came like a scorching wind from the desert blowing destructively toward the direction of God’s people. This is how verse 11 puts it, “A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness in the direction of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse, a wind too strong for this—will come at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them.”

Much like a mighty whirlwind the enemy would be swiftly blistering toward Jerusalem. Their horses and chariots would blast toward God’s people swiftly like an eagle.  As Jeremiah envisaged the devastation coming upon them, he exclaimed in verse 13, "Woe to us, for we are ruined!” Then in  verse 14, he made a desperate plea for the people of Jerusalem to repent urging the people saying:

Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem,
That you may be saved.
How long will your wicked thoughts
Lodge within you?  

 

When God’s grace is taken for granted, His patience could wear thin. When that happens the judgment would be inevitable and swift would be the discipline. We must  not toy with God. Patient as He is, let us must not test His endurance. To continually test God reflects unbelief. God is not in the business of playing games with us because God and our eternal destiny are too precious to be treated lightly.  Sober up and live for God.          

 

 

Jeremiah 4:9-10 – Never doubt God’s faithfulness

The looming judgment that was described in Jeremiah 4:5-8 would be so catastrophic that all the three institutions of Judah would be affected. These were the pillars of the Judaean society to bring stability to the nation. The king representing the government was to rule righteously. The priests representing the priesthood were to ensure their spiritual health and well-being and their relationship with God. The prophets were there to point them God’s way. But in the coming judgment, all three institutions would be affected. The king and the princes would be totally demoralized. The priests would be shocked and horrified while the prophets would be left speechless.

Jeremiah himself was left dumbfounded and couldn’t believe what was coming. So he expressed his disappointment in verse 10 accusingly saying, “Ah, Lord God! Surely You have utterly deceived these people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’; whereas a sword touches the throat.” This verse is hard to interpret. Why should Jeremiah have these blasphemous thoughts?  Perhaps in his mind, he did not expect that God would allow judgment. Or he could be struggling to make sense of what would be happening. Haven’t we often asked difficult questions in difficult times? Haven’t we asked questions such as, if God is so good and He certainly is, why does He allow evil to triumph?  Why doesn’t God eradicate the source of sin and evil  so that His people could never engage in them?” There are many such questions that have been raised. But as it has been said God is far too good to be cruel and too deep to explain Himself. God did not even answer Jeremiah.

True faith in God is trusting Him fully even if we don’t understand what’s happening.  Just because God is not doing what we expect Him to do doesn’t mean that God is not trustworthy. There is a tendency for man to think less of God. But let us never think anything less of Him. We should instead do what Moses encouraged us to do:  

“…proclaim the name of the Lord;
Ascribe greatness to our God!
‘The Rock! His work is perfect,
For all His ways are just;
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Righteous and upright is He.’” (Deuteronomy 32:3-4)

 

  

Jeremiah 4:5-8 – What to do in the light of the looming judgment

The crux of the message of God’s prophets contains two elements most of the time. It is both a message of judgment and a message of hope. Under godly Josiah, spiritual reform was taking place, even then Jeremiah was already prophesying the coming judgment. His message of hope came earlier in the call for the people to repent. Judah was told that if they would not repent and return and walk faithfully with God a terrible judgment would fall on them.

After showing what genuine repentance would entail in Jeremiah 4:1-4, the prophet went on to paint a scene of a terrible judgment for their unrepentance. In Jeremiah 4:5-8, the prophet warned of a coming judgment. Like a trumpeter sounding out a warning, Jeremiah was heralding an alarm of the impending attack from the north. aLarm of impending attack would often be sound so that the people could hurry into their walled cities for shelter and safety. Notice that this coming judgment was God’s doing. In verse 6, the word explicitly said, “For I am bringing evil from the north, and great destruction.”

Judah’s enemy would be a sweeping army from the north. From the history of Israel, we know that the Babylonians from the north under King Nebuchadnezzar did besiege Judah, carry away her people into exile and destroy Jerusalem. Here Jeremiah painted the enemy as an enraged and ferocious lion that would be let loose to ravage the cities and leave them in ruin and total devastation. With the judgment looming, the prophet then called for an appropriate response in verse 8. He told them saying:

“For this, put on sackcloth,
Lament and wail;
For the fierce anger of the Lord
Has not turned back from us.”

God was extending His hand of grace to His people in these verses. He warned them because His preference was for them to repent and return to Him. What was installed could be averted had they genuinely repented and returned to God. But alas they did not heed the warning, hence the fierce anger was poured out on them eventually. 

We too live in challenging times. The evil in the world seems to be building up for a climatic destructive end. There are tell plenty of tail signs. As concerned believers, we must heed the call of  1 Peter:4-7-8. “ The end of all things is near; therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.”

 

 

 

 

Jeremiah 4:1-4 – How genuine repentance looks like

Despite Judah and Israel’s waywardness and unfaithfulness, God called them to repent in the previous chapter. Here in Jeremiah 4:1-4, we see the culmination of the call to repentance. God showed them what genuine repentance would look like and entail.

Firstly, there must be 180⁰ about turn. They must return to God. Secondly, there must be a putting away of everything detestable in God’s sight. To Israel and Judah, it meant that removing and forsaking every abominable foreign deity, especially Baal. Thirdly, they must the intention to honor their word to walk faithfully with the Lord. Then fourthly, one must live a life of integrity walking according to God’s truth, justice, and righteousness. God’s assurance for His people is that when these conditions are fulfilled, they would be greatly blessed and would also become a source of blessing to the nations. And God would be glorified.

 

Then in Jeremiah 4:3-4, we see three dramatic figures used to describe genuine repentance. The first two are common to the world of farming. For a farmer to cultivate his cop effectively, there must be first the breaking up of the fallow ground. Fallow ground is hard and unploughed soil. Before a farmer sow seeds into the ground, he had to loosen any hardened soil through strenuous plowing. In much the same way, for genuine and lasting repentance to happen there must be the softening of the hardened heart. Then,  there must be the removal of weeds from the ground. Every farmer knows that weeds would grow among the seed that he had cultivated. If they are not removed, they would choke the plant in its growth process. In the same way, our walk with God can also be choked by needless clutters in our life. we must make periodical introspection in our lives to remove any “weed” that could choke our growth in spirituality.

 

The third figure used is the most important one. It talks about the circumcision of the heart. This is a term describing a person’s inward change. All our outward appearances will mean nothing if there’s no inward change. Until and unless our outward actions are accompanied by inward changes, nothing really matters.  Here the message closed with a warning to enforce the need for genuine repentance. If repentance is not genuine, the alternative would be the wrath of God demonstrated by unquenchable fire. This will be needful because the deeds committed are wicked and evil.  The wonderful outcome of genuine repentance is our ability to make obeying God a commitment in our walk with Him.   Whenever we repent make sure it is genuine of want to see a godly impact. 

Jeremiah 3:19-25 - God desires our relationship

Despite Israel’s unfaithfulness, God’s desire was for His people to return and mend the relationship. He had been a Father to them and had settled them in the promised land as His inheritance to them. He gave them the privilege to call Him and urged them to follow Him faithfully. But like an unfaithful wife, Israel as a nation dealt treacherously with Him. They departed from Him and went after other lovers. But God still yearned for their return. In Jeremiah 3:15-18, He already showed them what He would do for them if they would repent and return to Him.  

In verses 21-22, the prophet envisaged some of God’s people repenting and returning to the Lord. Realizing their treacherous defiance and waywardness, these penitent ones came back genuinely repentant. They were heard weeping with supplication. And here God made a promise to heal their apostasy and they would willingly return declaring to God, “You are the Lord our God.”  

 

In verse 23 as they returned to God, they acknowledged that worshipping those worthless gods, especially Baal had been a deception. Instead of success and good fortune, they had calamity. So in verses 24-25,  they humbled in embarrassment and shame before God in repentance. They also acknowledge the nation’s longstanding unfaithfulness to God. These two verses suggest that they had set their hearts to amend their ways.

Two takeaways. Firstly, God is the only one trustworthy and worthy of our total trust. Walking with God will always lead us to the right destination, no matter how rough our roads may be. So let’s be committed to God and don’t deviate and if do, remember to quickly repent. Secondly, know that apart from God everything else we put our trust in is deceptive. No matter how much it is dressed up and how many promises it will make, it will never deliver the ultimate goods. Remember: all that glitters is not gold. 

Jeremiah 3:15-18 – The blessings of true repentance

While Israel and Judah had both strayed from God, those who would repent and return to God would be greatly blessed. This was God’s promise to them. In Jeremiah 3:15-18, God was pointing to what would happen to His people in the future. In these verses, we are given a glimpse into the Kingdom of the Messiah and its promises. These promises were made to His repented people in Israel and Judah, who chose to walk faithfully with Him. While this was seen when the Jews returned from their exile, the realization really happened when Jesus the Messiah came to install His Kingdom. The people of His kingdom are those who would repent from their sins and commit themselves to Him.

 

Firstly, God would provide shepherds, men who would have the people’s interests at heart. They would be committed and godly leaders, who would teach and guide perceptively. It would not be a case of the blind leading the blind. Under their leadership, the people would grow in knowledge and understanding. These were seen in the post-exilic leaders such as Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Still, these leaders would just be the initial deposit. Ultimate fulfillment would happen in the Kingdom of God with Jesus Christ the Chief Shepherd, His appointed apostles, and all the under-shepherds that would be raised through their teachings.  

 

Secondly, there would be a growth in the population. The post-exilic community grew when more people returned from captivity. We saw in the post-exilic books that the community of God’s people incrementally grew in numbers. This again was pointing to something greater. This was pointing to the time when Messiah would come to establish and rule in His Kingdom. There would be a growth in the number of believers during Messiah’s reign.

 

Thirdly, the focus when Messiah comes would no longer be on the ark of the covenant but on the Messiah whose presence would be among them.  He would come to give God’s people a better system and experience in worship.

 

Fourthly, verse 17 says that Jerusalem would be the Throne of God. From there God would make His name known.  In Hebrews 12:22-23, the author refers to the church as the New Jerusalem. Believers of Jesus Christ are told that  “…you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant….” These words “all the nations” in verse 17 inferred that Gentiles would be drawn to this New Jerusalem.

 

Fifthly, faithfulness to the Lord would be restored. God’s people in the New Jerusalem would walk with humility and not stubbornness of heart.  There would be unity among God’s people. Here the unity is symbolized by the coming together of Israel and Judah.  The people of the Kingdom of God would become one in Him.

 

Members of the Kingdom of God are recipients of God’s loving-kindness. They are repented sinners who have been cleansed by the work of Christ at Calvary. And we have become one among them when we made Jesus Christ our Lord, Saviour, and Master. Now these promises of God made to His people then are also available to us who have embraced Christ and truly repent of all our sins.  

Jeremiah 3:11-14 – Greater the light greater will be the accountability

Who was more culpable? Israel or Judah? God in Jeremiah 3:11-14 we can easily conclude that it was Judah. Why? What Israel had done and the consequence that ensued was in full view of Judah. She should have known better what the outcome would be if she should follow Israel’s unfaithfulness. Yet she went headlong into it and commit the very sin that her northern sister did. What God wants to impress on Judah and on us is this: greater light brings greater accountability.

So here God told Jeremiah to proclaim to the north and invite them to return to Him in repentance.  He promised to be gracious to her people and would not be angry with them forever. Though they transgressed God, chased after  idols, and disobeyed Him, he would accept them when they repent and return to Him wholeheartedly. He would take those who heed his call and establish them as His people. We need to know that while Israel as a nation had sinned against God, there were individuals whose hearts were receptive to God. Here His call and promise were to such people.

 

God is not unreasonable. Even when we are shown our wrong, He still gives us the opportunity to repent and expects us to act on it. But if we choose to persist in our sin, despite the knowledge, the opportunity will be wasted. It is true that God will provide all the knowledge, but the choice to act is ours. It is one thing when we are ignorant, but quite another when we are given clear light. Remember, the greater the Light, the greater the accountability.       

 

Jeremiah 3:6-10 – Committing to God wholeheartedly.

Jeremiah’s ministry began during the reign of Josiah. Engaging him in a conversation. God asked Jeremiah if he had seen what Israel had done to Him? The Lord was calling attention to Israel’s sin. He abhorred that Israel had become so maliciously unfaithful. She had chosen to give herself freely over to harlotry. God was speaking about her spiritual adultery. Israel had rampantly embraced idol worship on every hilltop shrine.

 

Spiritually Israel had prostituted herself. Though she had a covenant relationship with God and was told never to bow down to any gods, she chose to unfaithfully break the covenant. She had gone around and bowed down to all sorts of worthless gods. All these while God waited in vain for her return from her immoral fling. Israel had disappointed Him by not returning to Him. So for her unfaithfulness to the covenant relationship, God sent her away. Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians and many of her citizens were carried away .

 

While Israel was sinning against God and reaping the consequences, Judah her treacherous sister saw all that was happening, yet it did not instil any fear of the Lord in her. She should have learned from the consequence of Israel's unfaithfulness, instead she chose to emulate and follow in her harlotry. She went ahead and did everything that her wicked sister Israel had done. She also went around and play the harlot with worthless idols. Rampantly, Judah polluted the land and committed spiritual adultery with idols of stone and wood. Judah’s attempts at reform was not met with wholeheartedly her people. What God saw was the hypocrisy in her feeble attempts.

 

Historically, we know that Josiah was a good king who brought about reform in Judah. However, God who searches the intention of the heart was against the people’s half-heartedness. They were merely going through the motion without real intention to go for lasting inward change. What God desires to see is His people inner radical change. Tue repentance is a total change of heart and mind toward sin and committing to God a hundred percent. Are we committing ourselves totally to God?  To give to God anything less than a hundred percent commitment to Him is an unworthy response. Let us give ourselves radically to God.      

 

 

 

Jeremiah 3:1-5 – Don’t take God for granted

God’s laws stipulate in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 that a man could never take his divorced wife when she had remarried again. No matter what happen to her after the divorce and she becomes available, he was forbidden from living with her again. This stipulation does two things it prevents the man from indiscriminately putting away his wife and preserves the dignity of the woman.  This law would prevent the land from being defiled and polluted. Hence God would not allow a man who had divorced his wife to live with her again.  

In the case of Judah, the scenario was worst. God did not divorce her, but she chose to prostitute herself. Her spiritual adultery was so wanton that she had gone around sleeping with different partners. Her misbehavior had led her to all sorts of lovers on the highway. The land had been defiled and polluted the land by her indiscretion. Yet she had the nerve to return to God.

God had withheld the rain from them for their unashamed harlotry. Interestingly, their spiritual harlotry was with Baal who was touted as a god of fertility.  He was supposed to be the one who had control of the rain and weather so that the people could experience harvest when needed. Notwithstanding Baal’s power, this worthless god has no power to overrule what God was doing. 

Judah was not a case of God putting her away, but a case of the nation becoming e unfaithful by going after other lovers. Being gracious, God was yet giving them the opportunity to return to Him. Jeremiah 3:4-5 show that in her unfaithfulness, Judah had requested God be extremely kind to them. Though He was acknowledged as their “Father” and “friend” God however would act to deal with her sin justly.   

While God is loving, there is another aspect of Him we must consider. He is also a God of wrath. We cannot continue to spurn His love yet expect Him to be kind all the time. No one should presume on God. We must repent of our sins before His patience wears out. Here is a call for us not to test God. Don’t take God for granted.

 

 

 

Jeremiah 2:33-37 – Be careful not to deceive ourselves

From Jeremiah 2:29-32, we saw how God had compared Judah to an incorrigible self-centered child, a pilgrim that rejects direction, and even a bride that had forgotten her status. Now lastly, in Jeremiah 2:33-35, God compares Judah to an accomplished harlot. So adept was she in her harlotry that even the wicked woman, the vilest harlot was learning new ways from her immorality. The “wicked woman” was probably a reference to Baal. God was pointing to their engagement in worshipping this false god.  In worshipping her, Judah did not even have any qualms about shedding innocent blood.

Judah had become so self-deluded that even their conscience was rendered totally dull. Thus she could not see even identify her own flaws. The last part of verse 34 and verse 35 show how the nation had deceived themselves in saying that “I am innocent; Surely His anger is turned away from me.” Since they had the cheek to claim their innocence, God blatantly assured them that He would deal with their self-denial. So in the second half of verse 35, God outrightly told them, “Behold, I will enter into judgment with you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.”

In Jeremiah 2:36-37, God was puzzled that Judah still chose to gravitate toward Egypt and Assyria, even when these nations had proven to be untrustworthy. So He warned Judah that the nation would be harmed and shamed by these treacherous friends. In verse 37, God warned Judah that they would finally have to surrender and be sent into exile, for turning to Egypt and Assyria. For God, Himself had rejected these nations.  

Judah’s self-deception had caused the nation to think that the situation was alright when it was far from so. We can see that self-deception is a dangerous thing. It causes a person to hold on to what had been perceived wrongly. It causes a person to embrace beliefs that are unhelpful and certainly not in his best interest. The result will always be different from what he had thought. So Paul encourages us not to think too highly of ourselves. He urged us in 1 Corinthians 10:12 saying, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands, take heed that he does not fall.” And again Galatians 6:7 says,  “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” Truth is the best way to remedy self-delusion. For when we know the truth, the truth will set us free. 

 

Jeremiah 3:31-32 - We belong to God

 So far in Jeremiah 2, we saw how God had portrayed Judah’s unfaithfulness and rebelliousness using imagery. In verses 29-30, Judah was said to be like an incorrigibly stubborn child. Despite God’s chastening, they remained unchanged. They even had the nerve to gripe that they were suffering unjustly and insinuating impudently that God had been unfair to them. They were indeed like a bunch of unteachable children.

In verse 31, God through Jeremiah then urged the people of Judah to pay attention to what He was saying to them. The prophet called on them saying, “O generation, heed the word of the Lord” before using two more imageries to compare Judah with. He first compared them to obstinate travelers who refused God’s direction. They were not left helplessly to meander in the wilderness without His help. The Lord did not leave them to grope in uncharted territories by themselves. His presence was always near in their journey. In Exodus, we learned that God would guide them by the cloud by day and by the pillar of fire by night. Yet here in verse 31, we are also told that they wanted to be free to roam unguided. Defiantly, they refused God’s guidance by outrightly rejecting Him.

 

Then in verse 32, Judah is compared to a mindless bride who has forgotten her status. A faithful bride will never forget her groom or the garment that she has adorned.  She will cherish the love her husband has showered on her and treasure the pledge of love that has espoused her to him. Yet Judah like a forgetful bride had forgotten her position. She had entirely disregarded her status and the vows she had made to God her husband. Her amnesia is described as “days without numbers.” In other words, her forgetfulness was not just temporary but permanent.  

 

These two verses challenge us to never be forgetful believers. God had paid an awesome price to make us His. In Christ, He sought us and made us His very own. He promised never to leave us or forsake us. One reason the Lord’s supper was instituted is for us to remember what the Lord Jesus has done for us and whose we are. Think about this, the way the Lord Jesus invites us to the communion regularly has the unflattering inference that we can be forgetful people. If we are not careful and stay focused, we may be distracted in our divine pilgrimage. The communion calls our attention to the fact of what Christ has done for us. He died for us, and we are now His redeemed people. And that is what we must always remember and live as one.   

Jeremiah 2:29-30 – Be teachable

In Jeremiah 2:29-30, God was portraying Judah as a stubborn child who was unsusceptible to discipline. Again and again, Judah transgressed against Him. And despite His repeated chastening, the nation remained obstinate and refused to change. Then like a spoiled child, Judah would gripe with God as if the nation was suffering unjustly. They even had the nerve to insinuate that God had been unfair to them. So God retorted and pointed out that it was pointless to accuse Him of being unjust. For they were merely receiving what their sins deserved. God told them that it was their own doing that had brought the suffering upon themselves.  

God saw the discipline wasted on them. Even their children when disciplined yet they remained incorrigibly stubborn. It was already bad that they did not accept any correction, yet they had the audacity to accuse God of being unjust. In saying that “Your sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying lion”, God was pointing out to them that it was they themselves who were silencing their prophets who came to warn them.  

 

By being stubborn and teachable, God’s people would perpetuate their sins. Pride is undoubtedly the main cause. By insisting that they had done no wrong, they could not progress in their spiritual journey. Verses like these challenge us to be aware of our personal unworthiness. It is needful for us to appraise ourselves rightly so that we will not turn a deaf ear to God when He is correcting us.  God will resist the proud but give grace to the humble. Which category of people would we rather be?   The choice is obvious!

   

Jeremiah 2:26-28 - God is our source in life

In Jeremiah 2:26-28, God continued to chide Israel for her rebelliousness. He likened them to a thief that had been caught red-handed. A thief when not caught in his mischief would not feel the shame. But when he is caught, he would then able to feel guilt and shame. So the whole nation of Israel, like the thief, was disgraced by their rebelliousness. None of them was spared the embarrassment. Everyone from kings to princes, to priests and prophets, and to ordinary citizens, were brought to shame.

What Israel did to bring about their calamity was made known in verse 27. They had all turned from God to worship idols made from trees and stones. Instead of acknowledging God for their existence, Israel ridiculously claimed that their existence was brought about by idols of wood and stone. God was pointing out Israel’s folly for attributing their existence to those worthless idols.

 

The people of Israel did not just turn their faces from God but also turned their backs on Him. Then in their struggles with trouble, when their idols were proven worthless, they had the audacity to expect God to deliver them. God assured them that by then it was too late, and they just simply have to suffer disgrace in exile. Then they would realize that the many useless idols they trusted did not have the capacity to save them.  

 

The lesson: God is the source of our lives and every blessing. As Don Moen said in his song, God indeed is the strength of all our hearts. It is dangerous not to acknowledge Him as our source in life and give thanks to Him. When we fail to do that, we won’t feel the need to be grateful to Him. It is bad enough not to give thanks but what may be tempted to attribute what He has given to another source. And when we do that, we free God’s hand from continuing to bless us or come to our rescue when we need it. He will no longer be obliged to come to our assistance. We need Him to help ever near us as we navigate through life’s many untold challenges.     

 

 

 

     

Jeremiah 2:21-22 – Stay consistent in our journey with God

In Jeremiah 2:21-25, God through the prophet illustrated unfaithful Judah in several ways. Two of them were briefly described in verses 21-22. The prophet likened Judah to a choice vine that God Himself had planted. Though she was brought forth through a faithful seed, she became a wild vine. What she had become puzzled God so much that he asked, “How then have you turned yourself before Me into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?” Then she was likened to a filthy object. The filth was so thick that it was difficult to get rid of lye and much soap. Hence her stains were ever before God.

However, in verses 23-25, the main message God was portraying Judah was that she had become an unfaithful wife who had chosen to desert her faithful husband. Yet she would vehemently deny her unfaithfulness and declined any responsible. She reckoned herself as an innocent wife who had been led astray. However, nothing she claimed was further from the truth. She could justify their actions but the true situation could never escape God’s sight. Hence there was no way Judah could claim innocence. In the later part of verse 23, Judah was asked to look at herself “in the valley.” This was by way of telling them how low and badly the nation had degenerated.

So using two animals God pointed to her waywardness. Like a camel (verse 23) Judah had entangled herself in her ways and could not think or walk straight. Then in verse 24, God said Judah was like a donkey who was now accustomed to the wild and in her heat lusted for anyone. Nothing became irresistible to her. In other words, she had crazily gone after other gods. Like a thirsty traveler eagerly seeking water in the desert she went searching everywhere for water. So intense was her search that even her sandals became unloose and she was willing to walk barefooted. God was telling Judah how unrestrained and intense she had become in seeking after other gods.

We can see that God was thoroughly disappointed with what Judah had become. Chosen as a faithful vine she had become wild. And from a nation purged clean by God, she chose to grovel in the filth of sin. She had become an unfaithful wife much like senseless animals. What lessons can we draw from these verses? Here are two of them: Firstly, there is none so blind as one who refuses to see. When evidence of guilt is obvious, no amount of denial can erase it. It is better to own up and amend than to feign innocence. Secondly, we learn that to start well is needed but staying on course and ending well is more critical. We have all begun well in Christ, so let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Like Paul let us discipline ourselves well so that we may not come to the end of the race only to be cast away!

 

 

Jeremiah 2:20 – God values faithfulness

In the covenant God had with Israel, she was told never to bow down to any other gods.  God made it explicitly clear that He alone is God and that there is none other. Yet when Israel came into the promised land, they would often associate turn with other idols and worthless gods, especially Baal. To God that’s unfaithfulness and in turning to them they had committed adultery.

In Jeremiah 2, Israel and Judah’s turning to trust in those idols had been alluded to several times. In turning to those idols, God’s people committed spiritual adultery and prostituted themselves. Throughout this chapter, using imagery, God would point out their unfaithfulness. 

In verse 2, God illustrated Judah’s unfaithfulness in two ways. Firstly, He likened them to an animal whose yoke had been freed by its master. Yet in her freedom, she refused to serve its master. Here God was telling the people of Judah corporately that they were like that ungrateful animal. Though He had freed them, yet in their freedom, they would defiantly say to Him, “I will not serve You.” How ungrateful could they get? Remember we are free by God for the purpose of serving Him. We must free ourselves from all other yokes but be yoked with Jesus, our Lord. He invites us in Matthew 11:29 saying, ^“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Serving Jesus Is not difficult for He said to us “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”   

 

Secondly, in this same verse, the Lord also reckoned Judah like a restless wife that had prostituted herself. She had left God, and her husband, and go everywhere seeking illicit relationships. God was telling His people that they had unfaithfully turned to worthless gods, especially Baal. In idolatrous worship tree shrines on hilltops were common features. And the people of Judah would go to these shrines and conjoin with gods that they did not know. For Christians, idolatry takes on a different form. Our idols are the people, material things, possession, and hobbies that we love, cherish and treasure more than God.  The moment we embrace these, and value them more than we value God we have in some way engaged in idolatry. Be careful what we prize in life. Let’s never exchange God for anything less!  

 

 

Jeremiah 2:14-19 – Trust God steadfastly

In Jeremiah 2:14, three rhetorical questions were raised to call Judah’s attention to the experiences of their brethren in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. God delivered Israel from their bondage in Egypt and made them his children and not slaves. Though Israel became a divided kingdom after Solomon’s reign, God still regarded the Northern Kingdom of Israel as His own. But she chose to become prey to a foreign power by departing from God. So in 722 BC, the Assyrians referred to as “young lions” in Jeremiah 2:15 came and destroyed Israel and left her barren. Many of her citizens were brought into exile in Assyria. Second Kings 17 gives details about the fall of Samaria.

What happened to their northern brethren, should have alerted Judah to wise up. But apparently, they were not. She still turned to Egypt for help in their plight. In referring to heads being shaved by Memphis and Tahpanhes in Jeremiah 2:16, the prophet was probably referring to what was described in 2 Kings 23:33 and 2 Chronicles 36:4. There we are told that Pharoah Nico imprisoned King Jehoahaz and “imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.” He was deported to Egypt later. Even what happened to Jehoahaz went a begging. Judah did not learn from what had happened.

In Jeremiah 2:17, the prophet told them that choosing to forsake God was choosing to self-inflict. In the time of their national plight, Judah should have trusted God but they were instead turning to these foreign powers. The Nile and the Euphrates referred to in Jeremiah 2:18 are the two rivers in Egypt and Assyria respectively. Instead of fearing the LORD their God, they were pivoting to trust Egypt and Assyria. They have side-lined the LORD their God, forsook Him, and totally lost their fear for Him. For what they were doing “treacherous” would be the appropriate word to describe them. And their just dessert was guaranteed. God assured Judah that the principle and cause and effect would kick in. What they were doing in deserting their faithful God was sheer wickedness and evil. They should expect dire consequences for this lack of fear of God.

A passage like this calls for us to trust God and be obedient to Him. God is the only one we can trust to see us through our circumstances in life. No matter how glamorous worldly solutions may seem, they always have a catch. Our option in times of difficulty should always be God. He is the best solution to our plight. Here we also learn that it is foolish to turn to the same source that has never brought us solutions before and expect to be helped. As It is said, “Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.” Be wise and never forsake God no matter how appealing other sources may seem!

 

Jeremiah 2:13 –Make God is our guaranteed source in life

In their disloyalty, God’s people in Israel and Judah did two evils. Jeremiah 2:14 said they forsook God, the source of living water, and  made for themselves a broken cistern that could not hold any water.

Living in a dry and arid desert where water is a rare commodity, no one who has found a spring that gives an endless supply of water would depart from it. God was to the people of Israel and Judah that spring of endless stream of water. Yet the people of Israel and Judah chose to depart from Him. To God, this was their first evil. Their second evil according to Him was their folly of building for themselves a cracked and leaky cistern that could not constantly supply them with the water they need. Here the issue is about trusting God absolutely. They chose the trust worthless idols instead of the LORD, the true and living God. It was not as if they had not known that. All their lives at every juncture, when they faced uncertainty and challenges, God was their constant defender. There was not a time He did not come to their rescue when needed. Yet now in their needs, to turn away from Him and trust other useless gods was wickedness at its worst. If leaving God was stupid, trusting powerless and worthless idols was even more stupid.  

No wonder in Jeremiah 2:12, God called on the heavens to witness how appallingly foolish His people could be. The impending disaster would be shuddering to think about. Why was trusting idols more appealing to those people of God? Here’s one obvious reason. The tendency of fallen people is to live by sight and not by faith. It seems easier to trust something what one can see than someone whom their eyes cannot see. The lesson for us is founding Hebrews 11:6: Without faith, it is impossible to please Him.  We must trust Him and believe that He is able and willing to see us through no matter how tough our circumstances in life may be. Never pivot to trust our own strength when has been our ever-available resource in life. Remember Philippians 4:19, “God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”     

       

 

 

Jeremiah 2:9-12 - Staying loyal to God

For Israel and Judah’s unfaithfulness, God would not stop contending with them. In so much as they remained wayward, He would reckon with them. Every rebellious generation regardless. Same as for the father so also the sons, and the sons’ sons. For as long as they remained errant God would not stop contending with them. This was God’s word to them in Jeremiah 2:9

 

With that warning, God proceeded to challenge them in verses 10-12 to scrutiny the people from two extremes of the earth from where they were. They were told to witness for themselves people from the coastland of Kittim, representing the west, and those from the desert of Kedar, representing the east. God was sure that even the heathens who served lifeless and useless gods, would not trade them for other gods. Whereas renegade Israel and Judah would forsake their true and living God to worship and embrace useless idols. If the pagan would not abandon their lifeless gods, why would Israel abandon their living God for something less? So foolish was God’s people to exchange their glorious God for some unprofitable idols. So God summoned the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars as if they were juries in a trial and told them to be appalled and to shudder at what His own people were doing to Him.  

The LORD was lamenting their lack of loyalty. Disloyalty to God often happens when our initial love for Him wanes and we become lukewarm. That’s when we find our excitement in Him evaporates. Note that disloyalty always creeps into one’s life subtly and insidiously. Spiritually, when a believer is not making time to connect with God and build his or her relationship with Him, one inevitably ends up having stunted growth. And being immature in faith would make a believer susceptible to temptation and distraction and be easily enticed by the things of the world. The best way to stay loyal to God is to surrender to Him all that we are and all that we have, all the time and every time. 

Jeremiah 2:4-8 – Don’t allow spiritual amnesia to set in

Like a broken marriage the nation of God’s people chose to walk away from Him, their faithful spouse. God has never been unfaithful to them, yet they dumped Him. Who moved? The answer is obvious. So as God lamented that they had left their earlier devotion to Him, He challenged them in Jeremiah 2:4-8, to identify and justify the reasons for their departure from Him.

God through Jeremiah asks them a few very probing rhetorical questions. He was puzzled that they should prefer to experience worthlessness. They preferred to pursue worthless idols in the promised land and became worthless. He was appalled that they did not even consider Him and how He would feel, despite Him being the source of their blessings. They had dismissed the fact that He had led them through harsh, long, dark, and uninhabitable terrains into a fertile fruitful land of plenty. There they ate the fruit and experienced the many good things of the land. Unfortunately, they chose to defile and desecrate the gift and turned their inheritance into an abomination. They had all behaved like a dog that turned and bit the hand that fed it.

Besides, the leaders of the nation had all turned wayward. The priests did not factor God into their lives and mission. They did not ask, “Where is God?” How pathetic! These priests whose assignment was to teach the law did not even know God personally. And the people who ruled the nation chose to transgress against God. Even their prophets spoke by the decree of Baal instead of God. They as a nation went pursuing unprofitable stuff.

Why did God’s people come to this state? The simple reason is negligence. They were so caught up in their worthless pursuit and did not even stop to ask, “Where is God?” Simply put, they stopped searching for Him. (1) They neglected Him and never once stopped to ask “Where is God? (2) The spiritual leaders were also negligent in their duties; they also did not ask “Where is God?” (3) They had forgotten God because they never cultivated a life of thankfulness.

Here are three lessons for us. Firstly we need to know that the moment we stop seeking God, we run the risk of forsaking Him. Here’s a good reminder from a Chinese proverb, “When drinking water, never forget the source.” Never allow spiritual amnesia to set into our lives till we forget God. Never forget that it is in Him that we move and breathe and have our being.

Secondly, we learn here that spiritual leaders must take their responsibility seriously. When they forget God, they too would become wayward and would lead God’s people into waywardness. Here the priests, the rulers, and the prophets, all leaders of the nation had all forgotten God. If we emulate them, we will also be leaders that are going through the motion and not leaders who serve out of the overflow of our relationship with God.

Thirdly, we must always live with a heart of thankfulness. We need to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. In everything, we must give thanks so that we will not forget that all the things we have in life come from God. Thanksgiving is good but thanks-living is more critical.