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!