“If you will return, O Israel, return to me, declares the Lord!” (Jeremiah 4:1)
So begins today’s reading! In these three chapters, Jeremiah alternately pleads and warns, exhorts and condemns.
Pleading: There are times when Jeremiah pleads with God’s people through tears and anguish (4:19). There are times when he pleads with them to weep (4:8).
Warning: Jeremiah begins to warn God’s people of a clear and present danger, approaching from the north (4:5f; 6:1, 22). God is bringing disaster upon his people in a last ditch effort to get them to return to Him (4:20).
Exhorting: To exhort is to encourage strenuously. Jeremiah exhorts the people to “break up their fallow ground and circumcise the foreskin of their hearts.” (4:3-4) This is a picturesque way of saying: Get right with the Lord! He exhorts them not to pursue material things (4:31), but to turn to God. “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” (6:16)
Condemning: The response of the people is not good. The very next words in Jeremiah 6:16, after the powerful exhortation I’ve just quoted, are these: “But they said: ‘We will not walk in it’!” Over and over rings the sad refrains of their hearts’ hardness:
- They have refused to repent (5:3)
- They all alike had broken the yoke (5:5)
- Their apostasies are great (5:6)
- They have “eyes, but see not; ears, but hear not (5:21)
- They have prophets who “prophesy falsely” (5:31)
- They are all stubbornly rebellious (6:28)
- Their own response (or lack thereof) condemns them. And God will allow the terror from the North to overcome them.
Does this mean that God’s people are without hope? By no means! At any time, they can turn, and find help and healing from the Lord. And what’s more, there is a promise hidden among these hard words:
“But even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not make a full end of you.” (Jeremiah 5:18)
Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever!
Monday, Jeremiah continues unabated!
Your fellow pilgrim through the Prophets,
Pastor Gary
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