Jeremiah 2

INations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. Abraham Lincoln n my library is a notebook containing the outlines of messages that I preached when I began my ministry back in 1950. Whenever I read those outlines, I feel very embarrassed and contrite in heart and I marvel that anybody ever listened to those sermons or came back to hear more. A seasoned preacher once said, “When you’re young in the ministry, you can’t understand why more people don’t come to hear you. But when you get older, you’re amazed that anybody comes to hear you.” I agree.

Young Jeremiah, however, started his ministry with messages that were courageous, compassionate, and convicting. Boldly he confronted the people with their sins and pled with them to repent and return to the Lord. Four major themes combine in these messages: rebellion, repentance, righteousness, and retribution.

to disobedient people is to let them have their own way and reap the sad, painful consequences of their sins.

The word backsliding literally means to “turn away” and describes the nation’s repeated apostasy. The book of Judges records at least seven occasions when Israel turned from the Lord and had to be chastened, and there were numerous other times during erately turned from the Lord. The word backslide is the period of the monarchy when the Israelites delibnot used in the New Testament, but the experience is described in other ways: falling from grace (Gal. 5:4), leaving your first love (Rev. 2:4), loving the world (1 John 2:15–17; 2 Tim. 4:10), and walking in darkness (1 John 1:5–10).

A stubborn animal (v. 20). Jeremiah often used animals to picture the behavior of people, and here he compared the Jews to an unruly animal that won’t wear the yoke. One of his recurring phrases is the stubbornness of their evil hearts (3:17; 7:24; 9:14; 11:8; 13:10; 16:12; 18:12; 23: niv). When people, made in the image of God, refuse to obey God, they become like animals (see Ps. 32:9; Prov. 7:21–23; Hos. 4:16).

A degenerate vine (v. 21). Israel as a vine is a familiar image in the Old Testament (Ps. 80:8–16; Isa. 5:1–7; Ezek. 17:1–10; Hos. 10:1–2). God planted His people in the good land He gave them, but they didn’t produce the harvest of righteousness He desired. “So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes” (Isa. 5: nkjv). Because they worshipped false gods, they became like their degenerate neighbors. How could dead idols ever produce living fruit in their nation?

A defiled body (v. 22). No amount of good works or religious ceremonies could wash away their sins, because the heart of the nation’s problem was the problem in their hearts. They had sinful hearts because they had stubborn hearts—hearts that refused to listen to God’s servant and obey God’s Word. Josiah’s reformation was only a cosmetic change in the kingdom of Judah; it never reached the hearts of the people so that they repented and sought forgiveness from the Lord.

Jeremiah is preeminently the prophet of the heart, for he used the word over sixty times. “O Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved” (Jer. 4: niv). “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (17:9). Judah needed to return to the Lord with their whole heart, for only then could He bless them.

An animal in the desert (vv. 23–25). Even if the people denied that they were defiled, their actions proved otherwise, for they were like animals: a lost camel looking for an oasis; or a donkey in heat, running here and there looking for a mate. As the Jews pursued the false gods of the pagan nations, their shoes wore out and their throats became dry. How much better had they drunk the refreshing water from the river of God!

But they had given themselves so much to sin that they despaired of being saved. “It’s no use!” (2: niv) was their excuse. “It’s hopeless!” They sounded like confirmed alcoholics or compulsive gamblers who can’t break the habit, or like the invalid at the Pool of Bethesda who had been sick for so long that he’d given up hope (John 5:1–9). Jesus Christ, however, specializes in hopeless cases. “He breaks the power of canceled sin/He sets the prisoner free.”

A disgraced thief (vv. 26–28). A thief caught in the act may protest his or her innocence, but the evidence is there for all to see. Any visitor to the kingdom of Judah could see what God saw: people turning their backs on God and talking to deaf idols, but then turning desperately to Jehovah for help when they found themselves in trouble. They were caught red-handed!

Incorrigible children (vv. 29–35). God chastened them many times for their sins, but they refused to change their ways, and then they even blamed God! He brought charges against them (Jer. 2:9), but instead of confessing and repenting, they complained and brought charges against Him! None of His discipline seemed to do any good. “You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction” (5: niv; see 7:28; 17:23; 32:33; 35:13).

God reminded the people how richly He had blessed them. Yet they rebelled against Him (2:29), forgot Him (v. 32), and lied to Him (vv. 33–35), claiming to be innocent. One of the major themes of the book of Deuteronomy is that the nation should remember the Lord and what He had done for them. Yet the people took their blessings for granted and gave their allegiance to dumb idols. They were so skilled at their harlotry, worshipping false gods, that even the most wicked prostitute could learn new things from them! They exploited the poor and were stained by their blood, and yet they pleaded innocence (see Amos 2:6–8; 5:10–12).

Because the nation at that time was enjoying a measure of political and economic prosperity, they concluded that God’s blessing was proof of their innocence! They didn’t realize that God can bless the wicked (Ps. 37; 73; Matt. 5:45) and that the goodness of God should instead lead them to repentance (Luke 15:17–18; Rom. 2:4–5).

Prisoners of war (vv. 36–37). In its attempt to keep peace with its neighbors, Judah had flitted between Egypt and Assyria (Jer. 2:14–19), both of whom would ultimately disappoint Judah. The description in verse 37 is that of prisoners of war, their hands tied above their heads, being led away captive. Any decisions we make that are contrary to God’s plan will lead to bondage, because only the truth can set us free (John 8:32). The Babylonian army would eventually overrun the land, take Jerusalem and destroy it, and lead the people away into captivity.

Was there any way Judah could escape the coming wrath? Yes, and that was the theme of the next point in Jeremiah’s message.

Repentance: God Pleads for His People to Return

Jeremiah had a gift for expressing theological truth in pictorial language. In fact, much of his preaching can be read as poetry. In this chapter, he paints ten pictures that expose the sins of the people.

An unfaithful wife (vv. 1–8). When the Lord gave the Israelites His covenant at Mount Sinai (Ex. 19— 20), He entered into a loving relationship with them that He compared to marriage. “They broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them” (Jer. 31: niv; see 3:14). In the Old Testament, Israel’s idolatry is compared to adultery and even prostitution (see Isa. 54:5; Hos. 2:16). At the beginning of this covenant relationship, the Jews were devoted to the Lord and loved Him, but once they conquered the Promised Land, their hearts lusted after the gods of the nations around them and they sank into idolatry (Judg. 1—3). Although God had taken them safely through their wilderness journey and given them a wonderful inheritance in Canaan, they abandoned Him for man-made gods. What kind of loyal love is that?

Broken cisterns (vv. 9–13). “Go from west to east,” said the prophet, “and you will not find a nation that changed its gods.” But Israel forsook the true God for false gods, which was like abandoning a spring of fresh flowing water for a cracked, muddy cistern that couldn’t hold water. In the Holy Land, water is a valuable possession, and nobody would do a foolish thing like that. No wonder the Lord said, “Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror” (Jer. 2: niv). The second phrase literally means “Let your hair stand on end!”

A plundered slave (vv. 14–19). God redeemed the Jews from Egypt and gave them freedom in Canaan, but now their nation had gone back into bondage because of its idolatry. By allying with its pagan neighbors—Egypt and Assyria—instead of trusting the Lord, Judah had become a vassal state and was being plundered and enslaved. Instead of drinking at the pure river that the Lord gave them, the Judahites drank the polluted waters of the Nile and the Euphrates. Memphis and Tahpanhes were Egyptian cities, and Shihor was a branch of the Nile River.

A basic principle is enunciated in verse 19: God punishes us by allowing our own sins to bring pain and discipline to our lives. “Your own conduct and actions have brought this upon you. This is your punishment. How bitter it is!” (4: niv). “Your wrongdoings have kept these [rains] away; your sins have deprived you of

Jeremiah’s messages to his people good” (5: niv). The greatest judgment God can send