Unlike the land of Egypt, whose food supply depended on irrigation from the Nile River, the land of Canaan depended on the rains God sent from heaven (Deut. 11:10–12). If His people obeyed His law, God would send the rains and give them bumper crops (Lev. 26:3–5), but if they disobeyed, the heaven would become like iron and the earth like bronze (Lev. 26:18–20; Deut. 11:13–17; 28:22–24). Over the years, Judah’s sins had brought a series of droughts to the land (see Jer. 3:3; 5:24; 12:4; 23:10), and Jeremiah used this painful but timely topic as the basis for a sermon to the people.
The plight of the land (vv. 1–6). Whether in the cities (14:1–3), the farms (v. 4), or the open country (vv. 5–6), no matter where you looked throughout Judah, you found suffering and privation. The land was in mourning and its citizens were lamenting, like people at a funeral. Because of the sins of the people, God was withholding the life-giving rains and thus keeping His covenant promise to Israel. It made no difference how rich you were, there wasn’t any water to be found. The rivers were dry, the cisterns were empty, and both the servants in the cities and the farmers in the country covered their heads like people in a funeral procession. Even the animals were suffering because of the sins of the people. The doe, usually faithful to her young, abandoned her newborn fawn to starve to death, and the wild donkeys, their eyes glazed, could only stand on the barren heights and pant hopelessly for water.
It’s a serious thing to enter into a covenant relationship with God, because He will always keep His word, either to bless or to chasten. If we are the recipients of His love, then we can expect to be the recipients of His chastening if we disobey Him (Prov. 3:11–12). God is always faithful.
The plea of the people (vv. 7–12). As people usually do when they’re in trouble, the Jews turned to God and prayed, but their prayers were insincere and not linked with repentance. Jeremiah had already confronted these pious hypocrites with their sins when he asked, “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?” (Jer. 7:9–10 nkjv).
Because they couldn’t plead for help on the basis of their repentance and God’s covenant promise (Deut. 30:1–10; 2 Chron. 7:12–15), the people of Judah asked God to help them for His own name’s sake. “After all,” they argued, “it’s Your reputation that’s at stake, because we’re called by Your name.” The Hope and Savior of Israel was like a tourist in the land, unconcerned about either its present condition or its future destruction. The Lord was like a person shocked into paralysis or a warrior completely without strength.
When God disciplines us, it isn’t enough that we pray and ask for His help; anybody in trouble can do that. We must repent of our sins, judge and confess them, and sincerely seek the face of God. To weep because of the sufferings that sin causes is to show remorse but not repentance. “Rend your heart and not your garments” (Joel 2:13) was the prophet Joel’s counsel to the Jews during another time of great calamity; and David, when he sought God’s forgiveness, said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Ps. 51:17).
God responded to the people’s words, not by sending rain, but by announcing judgment (Jer. 14:10)! For the third time, He told His servant Jeremiah not to pray for the people (v. 11; see 7:16; 11:14). His longsuffering had run out, and He was determined to punish them for their sins. They could fast, pray, and bring sacrifices, but nothing would change His mind. The nation was destined for the sword, famine, and pestilence (14:12). The Babylonian army would bring the sword, and the results of its devastating invasion would be famine and pestilence.
The protest of the prophet (vv. 13–16). “But is it really the fault of the people?” Jeremiah asked. “Aren’t the people being led astray by the false prophets who are promising them deliverance and peace? They are the real culprits” (see 5:12; 6:14; 8:11). God agreed that the prophets were leading the people astray through their false visions and lies, and He assured Jeremiah that these people would suffer for what they had done. The day would come when they and their families would be slain, and nobody would bury their corpses—one of the most humiliating things that could happen to a Jew.
The people, however, were responsible for their actions because they should have known that the Lord had not sent these prophets. There were two tests of a true prophet or prophetess in Israel: (1) their predictions were 100 percent accurate (Deut. 18:20–22), and (2) their messages agreed with the law of God (13:1–18). Any prophet who permitted the worship of idols, contrary to God’s law, was a false prophet. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8:20). Even if a professed prophet performed miracles, he or she was a counterfeit if God’s revealed truth in the Word did not support the message. Miracles are no guarantee of a divine call (2 Thess. 2:7–12).
The pain and prayer of the prophet (vv. 17–22). How did Jeremiah feel about his people? The same way God felt: he wept for them (Jer. 9:18; 13:17) the way a father would weep for a virgin daughter who had been violated, beaten, and left to die. In prophetic vision, the prophet saw the land ravaged and the people taken captive to Babylon (14:18), and this led him to turn to God in prayer.
Since Jeremiah had been commanded not to pray for the nation (14:11), he identified himself with the people and used the pronouns “we” and “us,” not “they” and “them” (see Neh. 1:4–10; Ezra 9; Dan. 9; Rom. 9:1–3). In praying for himself, he was praying for them, and he asked God to honor His own name and keep His covenant by sending healing to the land. Although God was certainly willing to keep His part of the covenant, the people weren’t willing to keep their part. Therefore, the prophet’s prayer went unanswered. A faithful God cannot violate His own word.
Sometimes God permits disasters to occur to bring nations, churches, and individuals to their knees in repentance. The plagues of Egypt should have made Pharaoh a contrite man, but he only hardened his heart even more against the Lord (Ex. 7—12). Israel’s treatment of the nations in Canaan was God’s judgment because these nations refused to turn from their sins (Gen. 15:16; see Dan. 8:23; Matt. 23:32–35). While we shouldn’t interpret every calamity as an expression of divine wrath, we must be sensitive to God and be willing to search our hearts and confess our sins.