Last time we saw that the people of God are charged with a triple failure: pursuing and becoming worthless, a waste of God’s gifts and a leadership that is clueless! Jeremiah’s indictment against them continues:
Look at 2:9-13
Here is the Lord’s contention, a charge that extends to generational rebellion. In verses 10-12, the Lord tells them their apostasy is unparalleled. What Jeremiah is saying to them is simply this: Hey, look at all the other nations, they worship their gods don’t they? And you laugh at their folly, but look closely; Do they change their gods? No, these are not even real gods but their people are loyal anyway! They are loyal to emptiness. You, on the other hand, have the only real and true God and what are you doing with Him? Seriously, what have you done with the Lord your God? You have swapped the God of heaven and earth, the God who parted the sea, the God who led you in the wilderness, forgiving your sin…you have swapped Him for nothing…for nothing that profits you at all. (11)
In verse 12, even creation is called to testify at the utter bankruptcy of this transaction…giving everything in order to get nothing. Do you see it? This is what we do when we give in, in that moment ,to our fleshly corruptions, desires and wants. WE are for that moment, in that moment, swapping everything, everything that God is and has promised…for nothing.
Perhaps we should think about that for a moment…I did…it is heavy, the reality of it, humiliating. Oh God have mercy!
Continue looking, verse 13: Anything we pursue in place of the Lord, promises everything and delivers nothing. The two evils of God’s people, forsaking God, which is what our sin is inviting us to do…don’t fall for the lie, of momentary pleasure, or a minute for yourself, or the big one, you can always ask forgiveness later…Those are lies…the truth is a forsaking of God who is the fountain of living water and then thinking to make our own cisterns that hold no water. Like Adam and Eve thinking to make coverings for themselves…they do not work.
Look over at verse 19. Your evil will chastise you…You want your sin? Oh brother…sister…be careful, you want it…He might just let you have it, but it will not be what it promises to be. And you can believe the Lord when he tells you this, or you can believe it when your sin has you in its clutches and makes it obvious, for you will learn one way or the other: “…it is evil and bitter…for you to forsake the Lord the Lord…”
Next the Lord is going to show the people just how deluded they have become.
Read 2:20-37
Jeremiah records 7 direct quotations from the words of the people themselves. Can you imagine if the Lord did this to you, played back all the stupid, self-justifying things you have said? We work hard at forgetting our foolishness, well, Jeremiah reminds them.
You said:
I will not serve the Lord (20)
I am NOT defiled, I have not run after Baal (23)
It is not use, I love foreign gods and I must go after them (25)
You said to a tree, you are my father and you said to stone, you have me birth (27)
And then you cried out come and save us.
You said, you were free to roam and that you will come to the Lord no more. (31)
And then, in light of all this, you said, I am innocent; the Lord is not angry with me…I have not sinned. (39)
The confusion, the hubris, the dishonesty, the inability to see themselves clearly is more than astonishing! Their ability to lie…to lie to themselves has become a skilled art-form. Your temptation in reading this might be to think, “I know people like that…” Yea, so do I, people who believe their own lies, hook, line and sinker. But as I told myself, don’t go there. What about us? The commentary that I read on Jeremiah makes this interesting observation:
Read together verse 25 and 35 point to addiction. The former seems to be an admission of defeat, as if to say that their sin is compulsive something over which they have no control. The latter is then a claim of innocence, which is one of the hallmarks of addiction. Most likely verse 35 is evidence of an addictive personality, claiming innocence for actions that are beyond personal control. I cannot be blamed for what I cannot help but do. These insights of Jeremiah show that the psychology of addiction is not confined to individuals, but can come to characterize a whole community. But the Lord shows that such a defense does not stand up before Him.
The prophet, as I mentioned, will use all kinds of imagery to make his point. He says they are like:
An unruly ox, (20)
A prostitute (20)
A wild vine bearing useless fruit (21)
A stain that cannot be washed away (22)
Animals in heat mating with whoever they can find (23-25)
A thief caught in the act (26)
A ravening lion, untamed (30)
Trackless as a desert and impenetrable as darkness (31)
Wow. What a dog-pile. But will even this get their attention? I don’t know…what does the Lord have to do to you to get my attention?
Well, our text this morning ends with divorce, and remember that sometimes we think that we can go ahead and sin and just ask forgiveness later…Keep that misnomer in mind as you read it again.
READ 3:1-5
This is shocking, and if truth be told, a bit confusing. Remember, all of this is happening in the reign of Josiah and the seeming revival. One of the chief instruments of the revival had been Josiah’s finding again the Law of Moses and calling the people to obedience to God’s word.
But in that law we read that a man was prohibited from taking back a wife he had officially divorced if, in the meantime, she had been married to another man who had then also divorced her.
So, the question in verse one of chapter 3, if you knew the law, would be NO! If the people of God actually thought they would go mess around with other lovers, other gods, and they proved to be less than satisfactory, well…they could just return again to Yahweh, right? That would be easy, just say some magic words and the Lord will be glad to have them back. Really? Is repentance that easy to have?
Maybe you are thinking, “Pastor, are you saying that there is no repentance? Are you saying that the prodigal can’t really go home? No, that is not what I am saying and that is not what Jeremiah is saying. But what he is saying and what we have to realize is that our idea of cheap grace, or repentance that is only pretense, (glance down at 3:10) is unacceptable. And, repentance, true repentance is, most of the time, not a gingerly walk through the park…it is a train wreck. It is a severe mercy, that undoes a soul…that brings a man to a kind of despair and weeping and crying out that is so sacred it cannot be explained…And more importantly, it brings a man or woman to a place of never, ever wanting to do anything, ever…to dishonor the One whose mercies are so deep. That is real repentance and that is what the Lord’s kindness leads us to.
Prayer: Father, when I start to truly see my sin for what it is and just how malevolent my heart is, I am in turmoil. The depth of my sin is overwhelming but then to know that You call me as Your child with words of kindness to forgive me, to wash me clean, to set my life apart from my sin…this is unspeakable mercy. I am left at Your feet with nothing but love, nothing but a deep and ever deepening desire to serve and love You. Grant me this day, the courage to live as One forgiven, to the glory of Your Son, my Savior, Amen.
Hymn: Benedictus (Listen for the climax of this beautiful piece of music at about the 5:50 mark. This fits so wonderfully with the prayer this morning.)