Unfaithful Israel, Treacherous Judah

INTRO

The prophets of the Old Testament were not popular in their time. That was true of both Isaiah and Jeremiah. Isaiah prophesied about the Babylonian captivity, and Jeremiah lived it out. Jeremiah had multiple harsh messages that he was required to deliver. The hope from Jeremiah’s prophecy only comes in chapter 31 when he talked about the New Covenant for both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdoms of Judah and Jerusalem.

From the beginning of chapter 2 and the chapters that follow it, the messages of warning and despair are difficult, so it was important to look to chapter 31 and hold on for hope. Jeremiah had a series of messages; the first was contained in chapters 2:1—3:5.

TEACHING

Jeremiah 3:1-5: The conclusion of the first message was in Jeremiah 3:5. The second message starts in Jeremiah 3:6 and continues through Jeremiah 6:30.

J. Vernon McGee points out that in Jeremiah 2:7, “God is doing something quite wonderful. He is asking Israel to remember the springtime of their relationship with Him when He called them out of Egypt—how they followed the pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. Out in that frightful and terrible wilderness, they sought the Lord. God now reminded them of all that. After God had blessed them and given them a good land they turned from Him.”¹

Jeremiah 2:8 states that after they had turned away from the Lord, the priests of Israel stopped asking, “Where is the Lord?” They started to worship Baal, not even worrying about where God had gone. In Jeremiah 2:13, they reared their own gods and followed their own devices. The people had rejected God, but they could not rid themselves of the need for Him. Therefore, they tried to substitute something in God’s place.

Jeremiah introduced the image of cisterns the people had made for themselves and described these as cracked and inadequate. In contrast, Jeremiah portrayed the image of the Messiah as a fountain of living water that would never run dry.

A central theme in Jeremiah was a question to the people that basically asked them what they were doing. Jeremiah’s on- going plea was to turn back to the Lord.

In Jeremiah 3:1, Jeremiah used an example of divorce to describe the relationship problem between the people and the Lord. MacArthur explains, “If a man divorces, such a man was not to take that woman as his wife again, for this would defile her (Deuteronomy 24:4) and be a scandal. Jeremiah used this analogy to picture Israel as a harlot in the spiritual realm, with many lovers, such as, nations (2:18, 25) and idols (2:23–25; 3:2, 6–9). Yet the Lord would graciously receive Israel and/or Judah back as His wife if she would repent (3:12–14).”² The correlation between the prophecy and the situation with Israel and Judah was an explanation as to why they would be going into Babylonian captivity.

Jeremiah next used the phrase “barren heights” as an illustration of the extent of Israel’s sin (Jeremiah 3:2). Nelson’s Commentary explains that “the term parallels the high hills of [Jeremiah] 2:30. Upon these barren heights Israel committed physical and spiritual adultery. The word ‘lain’ has strong sexual connotations. Like Arabs who were known for ambushing caravans, Israel lustily sought other gods.”³ Israel was waiting to give into her lust. The people of Israel searched for their own satisfaction by their own devices. They had not attempted to discover the living water available through God. The term, living waters, suggested references of the coming Messiah.

Jeremiah used the image of “showers that have not come” as an example of how God would punish the people. Even the fear of a coming drought did not get either the nation of Israel or Judah to return to God.

There was and is a need to turn back to God in repentance. The people were insistent that they were fine, and they did not need God. They were prideful. The message was simplistic to the people of Israel and Judah: humble yourselves and ask for forgiveness, and God in heaven would hear their prayers.

The pattern of the people though, was to realize the forgiveness of God was a given. They would then sin even more, expecting forgiveness to be available for them no matter what.

The second message to Israel and Judah was included in Jeremiah 3:6—6:30. The central theme of the message was that God was, once again, requesting and encouraging the people to return to Him.

CLOSING

There is hope when all was said and done. How these verses apply to us today would be seen in our reflection and prayer asking God to show us what idols we had in our lives that have kept us from truly worshipping Him. The life and sacrifice of Christ have allowed us the freedom to humbly come before God and ask Him for forgiveness, and God will renew our relationship with Him.