Jeremiah 10

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

IThe more we know about the ancients, the more we find that they were like the moderns.” —Henry David Thoreau f there had been a newspaper published in Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s day, successive editions in the year 609 BC might have carried headlines like these: KING JOSIAH WOUNDED IN BATTLE! Brave monarch brought to Jerusalem to recover THE KING IS DEAD! Jehoahaz succeeds father on throne EGYPT DETHRONES JEHOAHAZ Monarch reigned only three months ELIAKIM IS NEW REGENT Renamed “Jehoiakim” by Pharaoh

Behind these fictitious headlines were tragic events that hastened the decline and collapse of the kingdom of Judah. Zealous for the Lord, King Josiah had led the nation in a reformation during which he restored the temple buildings and removed the idols from the land. But in 609, he didn’t heed God’s warning and unwisely meddled in a war involving Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. He was wounded in battle near Megiddo and taken to Jerusalem, where he died (2 Chron. 35:20–27). Though stunned by Josiah’s death, the kingdom of Judah didn’t see the loss of their king as God’s call to national repentance and confession.

Josiah’s son Jehoahaz reigned for three months, but was deposed by the king of Egypt and replaced by his brother Eliakim, whom the Egyptian king named “Jehoiakim.” (Because of Josiah’s defeat, Judah was now an Egyptian vassal state.) During Jehoiakim’s eleven years’ reign, he led the nation back into their old idolatrous ways. Although Josiah had removed the idols from the land, he couldn’t take idol worship out of the hearts of the people.

The Jews didn’t actually abandon the temple ministry; they simply brought their idolatry into the temple courts and made Jehovah one of the many gods they worshipped. If you had watched their worship, you would have thought the people were sincerely honoring the Lord, but their hearts belonged to Baal, Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and the other gods and goddesses of the heathen nations around them. Judah paid lip service to Jehovah but gave heart service to idols.

The Jews knew that idolatry was wrong, but they were confident they had nothing to fear. After all, God would never permit anything terrible to happen to the city where His holy temple was located! Didn’t Judah possess the law of Moses, and weren’t the Jews the children of Abraham and the sons of the covenant? They were God’s chosen people! With a religious heritage like that, no evil could ever fall on their kingdom!

God, however, had quite a different view of the matter. He commanded Jeremiah to go up to the temple and proclaim His message to the hypocritical people gathered there. In this courageous sermon, the prophet exposed the nation’s false worship (Jer. 7:1— 8:3), their false prophets (8:4–22), their false confidence in the covenant they were disobeying (9:1–26), and the false gods they were worshipping (10:1–25). In other words, Jeremiah dealt with their sinful mistreatment of the temple, the law, the covenant, and the Lord Himself. It wasn’t a popular message to deliver, and it almost cost him his life!

Before Abraham trusted in the true God, he had been a worshipper of idols (Josh. 24:2–3). During their years in Egypt, the Jews were exposed to the gross idolatry of that land, and some of it stayed in their hearts. While Moses was meeting with God on Mount Sinai, the people, aided by Moses’ brother Aaron, made a golden calf and worshipped it (Ex. 32). At Sinai, they had seen the glory of God, heard the voice of God, and accepted the law of God; yet “they changed their glory into the image of an ox that eats grass” (Ps. 106: nkjv). Idolatry was in their hearts.

Jeremiah looks around and ridicules the idols (vv. 1–16). Instead of separating themselves from the evil practices of the nations as Moses had instructed (Deut. 7:1–11), Israel gradually imitated those practices and began to worship pagan gods. But these gods were worthless, manufactured by craftsmen, “like a scarecrow in a melon patch” (Jer. 10: niv). They can’t speak or walk, and they have to be carried around (see Ps. 115). If only the people would contemplate the glory and majesty of the true and living God—the everlasting God who created the heavens and the earth by the Word of His power!

A. W. Tozer reminds us that “the essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.”It means worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25), the gifts rather than the Giver. The idols were senseless, and so were the people (Jer. 10:8), because we become like the god we worship (Ps. 115:8).

Our contemporary idols aren’t ugly as were the pagan idols in Jeremiah’s day, but they capture just as much affection and do just as much damage. Whatever we worship and serve other than the true and living God is an idol, whether it’s an expensive house or car, the latest stereo equipment, a boat, a library, a girlfriend or boyfriend, our children, a career, or a bank account. That on which I center my attention and affection and for which I am willing to sacrifice is my god, and if it isn’t Jesus Christ, then it’s an idol. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

The remedy for idolatry is for us to get caught up in the majesty and grandeur of God, the true God, the living God, the everlasting King. An idol is a substitute, and you would never want a substitute once you have experienced the love and power of the Lord God Almighty.

Jeremiah looks ahead and laments the judgment that is coming (vv. 17–22). Jeremiah saw the invasion of the Babylonian army and the distress it would bring. He urged the people to pack their bags and get ready to move, because they would be hurled out of the land like stones from slings. The prophet lamented the ruin of houses and families, the separation of parents and children, the scattering of God’s precious flock.

Jeremiah pointed out the reason for this disaster: the shepherds (political and spiritual leaders; KJV “pastors”) didn’t seek the Lord but instead led the people astray (Jer. 10:21). The judgment came “for the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests” (Lam. 4:13). A nation went into captivity because its leaders forsook the true and living God.

Jeremiah looks up and prays for mercy (vv. 23–25). God had instructed Jeremiah not to pray for the nation (Jer. 7:16), so he didn’t. Instead, he prayed for himself as a representative of the nation. Once again, he identified with the pain of the people (10:19). This prayer presents three arguments to persuade the Lord to be merciful to His people.

First, God must remember that they are only weak humans who don’t know how to run their own lives (v. 23). Jeremiah may have been thinking of Psalm 103:13–16.

Second, if God gave them what they deserved, they would be destroyed (Jer. 10:24). Again, Psalm 103: comes to mind: “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities” (nkjv). As Ezra expressed it, God punishes us “less [than] our iniquities deserve” (Ezra 9:13).

His third argument was that the nations attacking Judah deserved punishment for seeking to destroy God’s chosen people (Jer. 10:25). God called Babylon to be His tool to chasten the Jews, not to wipe them out, but the Babylonians were ruthless in their treatment of Judah. The prophet wasn’t giving vent to his own personal wrath; he was pleading for the Lord to keep His promises to Abraham and protect the nation from extinction (Gen. 12:1–3). God answered that prayer and eventually brought an end to the savage rule of Babylon (see Jer. 50–51).

It was on this note that Jeremiah ended his “temple sermon.” The results? According to Jeremiah 26, he was seized and condemned to die! Rather than hear and obey the true Word of God, the priests would rather commit murder! The Lord saved Jeremiah from being killed, but he was banished from the temple (36:5). I wonder how many preachers today would boldly preach a message they knew would result in their being dismissed? And I wonder how many in the congregation would be willing to accept that message and obey it?

God didn’t promise Jeremiah an easy ministry, but He did promise to keep him strong (1:7–8, 17–19). He kept His promise to Jeremiah, and He will keep His promises to His servants today.