The word from the prophet Jeremiah is to return to the Lord. His ministry lasts for decades and yet the people would not, and did not repent. Jeremiah knew this was going to happen, remember the Lord told him at the beginning that the people would not listen, and now, now there is judgment coming.
We are not told right away “who” will be the instrument of God’s wrath, only that this judgment will come from the North. (4:6) Here is what is interesting: Jeremiah began preaching his message of “return to the Lord”, during the reign of Josiah. It must have seemed odd because during the reign of Josiah everything seemed fine! Externally, everything looked great…there was, by all appearances, a revival taking place. Josiah had found the Law of God hidden in a wall and started commanded that the people live according to the books of Moses. All is good and getting better…so why is this prophet raining on our parade?
Jeremiah warned them when Josiah was king and continued to warn them, but the judgment didn’t come until 40 years later. The Lord’s patience had reached an end. Verses 4:17-18, explain: Like keepers of a field are they against her all around, because she has rebelled against me, declares the Lord. Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart.” Interestingly, the word for disaster in verse 6, is the same as “as your deeds”. The evil is…them!
This is often the bottom line. For all the circumstances we find ourselves in and all the “others” that are part of our lives, ultimately, the Lord comes to us to speak about…us. Jeremiah tells the people, wash the evil from their hearts (14), and he asks, how long will the people continue in rebellion and do so without any remorse? When we can sin without conviction…without our consciences smiting us…we prove that we have been recalcitrant, hard-hearted and the Lord must break our hearts through His severe mercy.
Read 4:23-28
Jeremiah begins with, “I looked…” and then he describes the undoing…of the world. The words of the prophet are heavy, serious, concerning: There is a de-creation being communicated meaning that the enemy will lay waste to everything, nothing will be as it once was. But make no mistake about it…behind it all is the hand of Yahweh and he will not relent…He will not hold back. (28)
This is a hard doctrine for modern ears, namely that there is a point of no return. The people in Jeremiah had passed the point of no return because, by their many refusals to heed God’s warnings and accept his offers of mercy, the Lord’s patience was exhausted, the Lord had departed from them and was now unwilling to hear their prayers.
Jeremiah began preaching and no one would listen but when the troubles began to overtake them for the longest time they still did not turn back to the Lord. And when they did finally cry out to the Lord, it was too late; he would no longer hear their prayers. Amos speaks of those days as days when men will stagger this way and search for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. [8:12]
Seek the Lord while he may be found, the Scripture says, call upon him while he is near. The Israelites of Jeremiah’s day had not done that, and now, when they finally saw their need of Him, they could not find Him.
As I mentioned, this is something that modern ears recoil at although this is a principle often enough illustrated in the Scripture.
You remember the 12 spies that were sent in to spy out the Promised Land. Israel refused God one too many times to trust and obey the Lord and refused to enter the promised land for fear of the people who lived there. God visited judgment upon her for that sin and the next day the people, recognizing their error, did what they should have done the day before, organized as an army and entered the land. But it was too late; God was not with them and they were soundly defeated. They had passed the point of no return and were held at arm’s length by the Lord until that whole generation had perished in the wilderness.
King Saul disobeyed the Lord once too often when he took it upon himself to offer sacrifices which only Samuel should have offered; and after that, though he pleaded for another chance, the Lord would not hear him and withdrew his presence from him.
The Jews in Jesus’ day were so habituated in their unbelief, in their rebellion against the gospel of salvation from sin through the Messiah, that even though great miracles were performed before their eyes, even though a man rose from the dead, they would not believe.
And so it has been ever since. The Apostle John, in the Revelation, tells of plagues being visited upon the earth and says that ‘the rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of their sins…’ [9:20-21]
It was the same in medieval Christian Europe during the days of the black death, the terrible plague which took perhaps as many as one-third of the lives of those living in Europe in the mid-14th century. But did that irreligious, superstitious people repent and turn to God, as you might expect when God’s hand of judgment was so heavily upon them? No! they became more wicked than they had been before and indulged in all kinds of evil, practicing with abandon the ancient adage: ‘eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die!’ They had become by a long practice of unbelief and defiance of God’s law and word, like their ancient brethren before them in Jeremiah’s day, sermon proof and sickness proof. (RSR)
BUT, YOU MAY SAY, does not the Scripture say that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, and does that not mean that it is never too late; that one can always be saved, even to the last moment he lives in this world? Yes! and No!
It is always a theoretical possibility that one might believe and repent on one’s deathbed and be saved. But, in fact, this almost never happens. It is very rare that older people are won to Christ under any circumstances, much less in the pain and confusion and self-preoccupation of one’s deathbed. Saint Augustine said that there is one case of deathbed repentance recorded in Scripture–the thief on the cross in Luke–that no one may despair it is never too late–but only one…so that no one should presume. The puritan Thomas Brooks put it this way: Though true repentance be never too late; late repentance is seldom true.’
In 4:10 Jeremiah says to the Lord, “…how completely You have deceived this people and Jerusalem…” Why would he say such a thing? There were other prophets in Jeremiah’s day, but they were not saying what Jeremiah was saying. You have to picture this: On one hand there are all these “ministers” saying the Lord will bless, you will have peace, God always loves His people”, and on the other hand is this other minister, Jeremiah, with his message of doom and gloom. Who would you want to believe?
Perhaps Jeremiah’s question is due to his own confusion. He knows the Lord does not deceive, but when people who are called to speak for the Lord speak what is not true but do it in a convincing manner, are not the people deceived?
It is not difficult to make connections to our own day. How many ministers have winnowed out the parts of God’s Word that stings, or that calls us to see ourselves and our sin clearly? How many peddle a gospel that is soft and unalarming? How much soft teaching permeates our culture? Remember, soft teaching makes hard hearts and hard teaching makes soft hearts.
We are entering into the heart of Jeremiah’s prophecy and often folks will get weary of reading of the Lord’s anger at His people. But it would be good for us to remember that the Lord is patient and long-suffering. However, man cannot continue in rebellion against Him, ignoring Him, refusing Him, disobeying Him and thinking that He will do nothing.
Let us know our own hearts and let us ask the Lord as did David, to search our hearts and to reveal to us what is there…what is truly there…and to then lead us in the way everlasting.
Prayer: Father, forgive me for the times I so easily ignore the promptings of Your Spirit so that I might do what I want instead of walking in humble obedience to You and Your Word. I pray that the hard teachings of Holy Scripture would break up the fallow ground of my heart and that the Word of truth would grow there unhindered, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Song: Come Ye Sinners
