Jeremiah 6

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

This closing section of Jeremiah’s sermon focuses on the invading Babylonian army and the devastation they will bring to the kingdom of Judah. In that critical hour, the prophet told the nation what God was doing.

God declares war (vv. 1–5). First, the Lord spoke to His people and warned them that judgment was coming (vv. 1–3). The Jews had three main ways to get military information: from the watchmen on the walls (v. 17), from trumpet signals (v. 1; see Num. 10:1–10), and from signal fires lit on high places (Jer. 6:1). Since Jeremiah’s hometown of Anathoth was in Benjamin, he started by warning his own neighbors to get out of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is compared to a “beautiful and delicate woman,” but she will end up like a “widow” (Lam. 1:1) with all of her beauty gone (v. 6). Foreign “shepherds” (soldiers) would invade the beautiful pastures and set up their tents only to slaughter the flock.

God then spoke to the Babylonian army over which He had command (Jer. 6:4–5), and He shared His strategy with them: make a surprise attack at noon, the hottest time of the day, when nobody would expect it, and plan to continue the attack through the night when most armies retire. The word translated “prepare” means “to sanctify or consecrate”; the Babylonians considered this war a holy crusade for their gods (see Joel 3:9; Mic. 3:5).

God directs the attack (vv. 6–15). The Lord told the Babylonian army what to do: chop down trees and build ramps against the walls of the city. Then He told them why they were doing it. Jerusalem was like a well that pours out filthy water, and the city must be punished. It was like a dying person with infected wounds that couldn’t be healed, and these things must be purged away. Finally, God told them how to do it: with precision and thoroughness, the way gleaners go over a vineyard so as not to miss any fruit (Jer. 6:5, 9).

The prophet lamented the fact that, at this critical time in history, nobody was listening (v. 10)! Not only were their hearts uncircumcised (4:4), but so were their ears (see Acts 7:51); they refused to hear God’s Word. Full of the wrath of the Lord, Jeremiah told them that God’s anger will be poured out on young and old, men and women, and even the children. Rulers and priests won’t escape; in fact, they were the most guilty because they had given the people false confidence and had refused to repent of their own sins (Jer. 6:13–15; see 7:8; 8:11). “For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests” (Lam. 4:13) God would send this judgment.

God delivers the verdict (vv. 16–23). Are the people guilty? Yes! Do they deserve this punishment? Yes! In fact, God called the Gentiles and the earth to bear witness that He had done all He could to spare them this judgment (Jer. 6:18–19). They would not walk on His path and they would not listen to His prophets. Nevertheless, they continued to bring Him their hypocritical worship! (See Isa. 1:11–14; Amos 5:21; Mic. 6:6–8.) God gave them the right way, but they rejected it. There could be no escape. The Babylonian army would be a formidable obstacle to anybody trying to flee the wrath of God. The daughter of Zion could not escape.

God describes the consequences (vv. 24–30). The prophet described the responses of the people as they heard the news—nothing but anguish, fear, and weakness, like a woman in hard labor (Jer. 6:24–26). “Terror on every side” (v. 25 niv) is a phrase used again in 20:10; 46:5; and 49:29. This was the nickname Jeremiah gave Pashur, the chief officer of the temple (20:1–3).

Sometimes suffering brings out the best in people, but that wouldn’t happen in the siege of Jerusalem. When God turned on the furnace, it would reveal the people as rejected silver, nothing but dross to be thrown away. He wasn’t purifying them; He was punishing them. They weren’t being refined; they were being rejected. They were too cheap to preserve.

“Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.”

Thomas Jefferson wrote those words in his Notes on the State of Virginia over two centuries ago. It is still a sobering thought for us today.