In The Word
Read: Jeremiah 3:6-4:31
Faithless Israel
6 Then the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every leafy tree, and she prostituted herself there. 7 Yet I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.8 And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and prostituted herself also. 9 And because of the thoughtlessness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. 10 Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the Lord.
God Invites Repentance
11 And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has proved herself to be more righteous than treacherous Judah.12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say,
‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord;
‘I will not look at you in anger.
For I am gracious,’ declares the Lord;
‘I will not be angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your wrongdoing,
That you have revolted against the Lord your God,
And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every leafy tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the Lord.
14 ‘Return, you faithless sons,’ declares the Lord;
‘For I am a master to you,
And I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
And bring you to Zion.’
15 “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you knowledge and understanding.16 And it shall be in those days when you become numerous and are fruitful in the land,” declares the Lord, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor miss it, nor will it be made again. 17 At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the Lord,’ and all the nations will assemble at it, at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord; and they will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.
19 “Then I said,
‘How I would set you among My sons
And give you a pleasant land,
The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’
And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My Father,
And not turn away from following Me.’
20 However, as a woman treacherously leaves her lover,
So you have dealt treacherously with Me,
House of Israel,” declares the Lord.
21 A voice is heard on the bare heights,
The weeping, the pleading of the sons of Israel.
Because they have perverted their way,
They have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 “Return, you faithless sons,
I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to You;
For You are the Lord our God.
23 Certainly the hills are a deception,
Commotion on the mountains.
Certainly in the Lord our God
Is the salvation of Israel.
24 “But the shame has consumed the product of our fathers’ labor since our youth—their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”
Judah Threatened with Invasion
4 “If you will return, Israel,” declares the Lord,
“Then you should return to Me.
And if you will put away your detestable things from My presence,
And will not waver,
2 And if you will swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’
In truth, in justice, and in righteousness;
Then the nations will bless themselves in Him,
And in Him they will boast.”
3 For this is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem:
“Break up your uncultivated ground,
And do not sow among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord
And remove the foreskins of your hearts,
Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Or else My wrath will spread like fire
And burn with no one to quench it,
Because of the evil of your deeds.”
5 Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,
“Blow the trumpet in the land;
Cry aloud and say,
‘Assemble, and let’s go
Into the fortified cities.’
6 Raise a flag toward Zion!
Take refuge, do not stand still,
For I am bringing evil from the north,
And great destruction.
7 A lion has gone up from his thicket,
And a destroyer of nations has set out;
He has gone out from his place
To make your land a waste.
Your cities will be ruins,
Without an inhabitant.
8 For this, put on sackcloth,
Mourn and wail;
For the fierce anger of the Lord
Has not turned away from us.”
9 “And it shall come about on that day,” declares the Lord, “that the heart of the king and the hearts of the leaders will fail; and the priests will tremble, and the prophets will be astonished.”
10 Then I said, “Oh, Lord God! Surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’; yet a sword touches the throat.”
11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness, in the direction of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse, 12 a wind too strong for this—will come at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them.”
13 “Behold, he goes up like clouds,
And his chariots like the whirlwind;
His horses are swifter than eagles.
Woe to us, for we are ruined!”
14 Wash your heart from evil, Jerusalem,
So that you may be saved.
How long will your wicked thoughts
Lodge within you?
15 For a voice declares from Dan,
And proclaims wickedness from Mount Ephraim.
16 “Report it to the nations, now!
Proclaim to Jerusalem,
‘Enemies are coming from a remote country,
And they raise their voices against the cities of Judah.
17 Like watchmen of a field they are against her all around,
Because she has rebelled against Me,’ declares the Lord.
18 Your ways and your deeds
Have brought these things upon you.
This is your evil. How bitter!
How it has touched your heart!”
Grief over Judah’s Devastation
19 My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart!
My heart is pounding in me;
I cannot keep silent,
Because, my soul, you have heard
The sound of the trumpet,
The alarm of war.
20 Disaster upon disaster is proclaimed,
For the whole land is devastated;
Suddenly my tents are devastated,
And my curtains in an instant.
21 How long must I see the flag
And hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 “For My people are foolish,
They do not know Me;
They are foolish children
And have no understanding.
They are skillful at doing evil,
But they do not know how to do good.”
23 I looked at the earth, and behold, it was a formless and desolate emptiness;
And to the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,
And all the hills jolted back and forth.
25 I looked, and behold, there was no human,
And all the birds of the sky had fled.
26 I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness,
And all its cities were pulled down
Before the Lord, before His fierce anger.
27 For this is what the Lord says:
“The whole land shall be a desolation,
Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.
28 For this the earth will mourn,
And the heavens above will become dark,
Because I have spoken, I have purposed,
And I have not changed My mind, nor will I turn from it.”
29 At the sound of the horseman and archer every city flees;
They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks;
Every city is abandoned,
And no one lives in them.
30 And you, desolate one, what will you do?
Although you dress in scarlet,
Although you adorn yourself with jewelry of gold,
Although you enlarge your eyes with makeup,
In vain you make yourself beautiful.
Your lovers despise you;
They seek your life.
31 For I heard a voice cry as of a woman in labor,
The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child.
The voice of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
Stretching out her hands, saying,
“Ah, woe to me, for I faint before murderers.”
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
Today’s reading gives us an awesome bird’s-eye view of the heart of the Father towards us. In verse one, the people of God were compared to a wife that has chosen to sleep with other men. The Israelites were referred to as “harlots with many lovers.” In contrast to the commandment of Moses in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 that says a divorced woman who remarries can never be reunited with her first husband, the text shows that the tribe of Judah divorced the one true God and married other gods. According to the established law, God had every right not to take the wayward people back, but in His unrivaled mercy, He fought for them and was willing to take His people back.
You may be reading these scriptures and feel as if you can relate to the people of Israel. You may have walked away from God and attached yourself to someone or something else. When you carry out these adulterous acts, you can automatically feel disqualified from coming back to the Father. This is why it is important to study God’s Word, to understand His loving and forgiving nature. God so desires to redeem us back into fellowship with Him, that He gave us John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Come back to Him and receive His love.