Worship is not a substitute for obedience.

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says: “Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other offerings and eat the meat yourselves! For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.

But they did not listen or pay attention, instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiffnecked and did more evil than their forefathers.” (Jeremiah 7:21-26)

This is another of Jeremiah’s sweeping statements condemning the official religion in Jerusalem during the reign of Jehoiakim and shortly before the Babylonian invasion of 598 BC. The positioning of this word in Jeremiah 7 is highly significant. It follows Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon and his declaration that God was actually going to destroy his own sanctuary, as he had done at Shiloh.

Jeremiah was told to tell the people that the message from God was: “I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim” (Jer 7:15). He then received a personal command to stop praying for the welfare of the nation because God was no longer prepared to turn a blind eye to what they were doing. God could see whole families indulging in the worship of Astarte, the goddess of fertility – and actually doing these things openly in the streets of Jerusalem!

These things were provoking the anger of the Lord, but his wrath was primarily turned upon the religious leaders of the nation – the Temple priests and prophets who were allowing such things to happen openly, in sight of the Temple, without rebuke!

The people were provoking God’s anger, but his wrath was primarily turned upon the religious leaders of the nation.

Call to Obedience

This word from Jeremiah is directed to the priests who were responsible for the daily morning and evening sacrifices in the Temple. They were told not to bother with these ritual sacrifices any more – they were wasting their time, because God would no longer heed their prayers and petitions on behalf of the nation. They might as well eat the meat for themselves rather than burn it on the altar as “a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the Lord by fire” (Ex 29:41).

The presenting of a regular daily offering at the Tent of Meeting was a command given to Moses (Ex 29:38-45; Num 28:11-13). This practice was still being observed when David became king over all Israel, even before he established Jerusalem as his capital. When the Ark was recaptured from the Philistines we read, “David left Zadok the priest and his fellow priests before the tabernacle of the Lord at the high place in Gibeon to present burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering regularly, morning and evening” (1 Chron 16:39). When Jerusalem became the capital of the nation, this daily offering was transferred to Solomon’s Temple.

In the reading we are studying today, God reminded Jeremiah that the central command he had given to Moses was a call for obedience. The First Commandment was that the people of Israel should have no other God than Yahweh their Lord. This was of supreme importance. Obedience to the teaching given to Moses was far more important than offering sacrifices. The sacrifices were acts of worship during which prayers and petitions were offered, but worship was not a substitute for obedience.

God reminded Jeremiah that the central command he had given to Moses was a call for obedience.

Meaningless Offerings

Jeremiah, in accordance with prophetic tradition in Israel, gave little importance to the ritual of sacrificial practices. Back in the 8^th Century, some 200 years earlier, Isaiah had begun his ministry with a devastating attack upon the whole sacrificial system:

The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals…Stop bringing meaningless offerings!…Even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen…Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed… (Isa 1:11-17)

In a similar vein, Amos lambasted the people in the northern Kingdom of Israel: “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them…Away with the noise of your songs!…But let justice roll like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:21-24).

Jeremiah said that there was a long history of the people failing to obey the commands of the Lord. He had sent them prophets to declare his word in every generation, ever since they left Egypt: “Day after day, again and again…But they did not listen to me or pay attention.” The people were doing just as their forefathers had done, relying upon the traditional ritual of religion carried out by the priests on behalf of the nation and thinking that they were thereby fulfilling the requirements of God.

The priests were at fault for not teaching the people that obedience to the commandments of the Lord was essential. They could not expect God to fulfil the promises of his covenant relationship with the nation unless this requirement of obedience to the Torah was fulfilled.

But the level of disobedience and refusal to listen to correction was so ingrained in the nation, due to it being institutionalised in their religion, that Jeremiah was told by God that neither the priests nor the people would listen to him. He was to say, “This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips” (Jer 7:28).

The priests were at fault for not teaching the people that obedience to the commandments of the Lord was essential.

True Worship

It is a basic biblical teaching in the prophetic tradition of Israel that worship, however loud and exuberant, does not absolve the worshippers from obedience to the teaching that God has given. This is an instruction that ought to be heeded today!

Faithful attendance at church and participation in worship on Sundays does not absolve us from ungodly behaviour on weekdays – especially in the denial of justice and compassion in our human relationships.

This prophetic tradition also applies to preachers and teachers and worship leaders today. It is no use turning up the volume on our sound system if the teaching we are giving is contrary to biblical truth! If truth has ‘vanished from our lips’, we may be sure that the Lord will be saying, “Away with your songs! Walk in all the ways I command you that it may go well with you.”

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.

Idolatry is not hidden from the Lord.

“Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my name, and say, ‘We are safe’ - safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching!” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 7:9-11)

This would rank highly among the most devastating pronouncements of any of the prophetic writings in the Bible. The phrase “I have been watching!” was designed to strike terror into the hearts of the people. It is part of Jeremiah’s famous ‘Temple Sermon’, spoken to the crowds at the gate of the Temple, in which he highlighted six outstanding sins: false religion, injustice, oppression, violence, idolatry and immorality.

Spreading Idolatry

This incident in front of the Temple is generally thought to have been delivered near the end of the reign of Jehoiakim in the late 7^th Century BC. Ever since the death of Josiah in 608 BC Jeremiah had been bringing warnings to the people of Judah and especially to those in Jerusalem about the idolatrous practices that were increasingly gaining a hold on the nation, especially in the countryside. These practices had now spread into the streets of Jerusalem and onto the rooftops of the houses.

The people were ignoring their covenant relationship with the Lord, which had been renewed by Josiah following the discovery of a scroll of the Torah while carrying out repairs of the Temple. Jeremiah had added his voice to the strong warnings about the consequences of breaking the covenant and worshipping foreign gods. It was not just at the hilltop shrines, but actually in the streets of Jerusalem that people were offering worship to the ‘Queen of Heaven’, the pagan goddess Astarte.

Ever since the death of King Josiah, Jeremiah had been bringing warnings to the people of Judah about the idolatrous practices that were increasingly gaining a hold on the nation.

Whole families were involved in idolatrous practices: “The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger” (7:18).

The theme of the so-called Temple Sermon was designed to shock the people into facing up to the reality of the situation. They were not only indulging in idolatry of a particularly repulsive kind with Astarte, the goddess of fertility, but their social life was full of self-indulgence that included violence and immorality. They were breaking all the commandments at the heart of the Torah.

Safe?!

Jeremiah then reminded them of what had happened to Shiloh, the most ancient sacred place in Israel that had not been spared from destruction. Jeremiah recalled how the people in the northern Kingdom had not listened to any of the prophetic warnings God had sent to them, so he had allowed Shiloh to be destroyed. God was now warning that this would actually happen to the Temple in Jerusalem, in which the nation of Judah was putting its trust.

The word of the Lord was “I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.” Jeremiah was then told to stop praying for the welfare of the people of Judah: “Do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you” (7:16).

Three times Jeremiah was given the same command to stop praying for the welfare of the nation. This is the first, and it occurs in the midst of a most shattering passage where God spelled out to the people the reason why he was giving notice of his intention to withdraw his covering of protection over the nation, over the city of Jerusalem and over the Temple that bore his name.

Three times Jeremiah was given the same command to stop praying for the welfare of the nation.

Jeremiah must have almost choked when he spoke the words in today’s reading – “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal…And then say ‘we are safe’…? Safe?!” He thundered. “Safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers to you?"

This was followed by the most devastating words in the whole of the prophecy: “‘But I have been watching’, declares the Lord!” God was watching and taking notice. He could see all that was going on that was in direct contravention of the teaching he had given to Moses. He was watching; and he knew that the people of Israel were breaking the covenant, thereby sealing the death warrant of the nation.

Timeless Message

500 years later, Jesus, who probably knew Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon by heart, said almost the same words as he swept through the outer courtyard of the Temple with a whip in his hand, driving out the sheep and the cattle, overturning the moneychangers’ tables, sending their money clattering to the ground, creating chaos and forcing the merchants to flee from his wrath. “My house will be a house of prayer for all nations”, Jesus declared, “But you have made it a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17).

2,000 years later this same message is coming to the nations of the West whose civilisation is crumbling before their eyes, but every warning has been ignored. They have eyes and ears, but they neither see nor hear. They have had the Bible for centuries; they know the truth, and yet they have deliberately turned away to worship the gods of this world. “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie” (Rom 1:25). “‘But I have been watching!’ declares the Lord”.

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.

Surely the Lord would protect his own Temple…

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”’” (Jeremiah 7:1-3)

This is Jeremiah’s famous ‘Temple Sermon’. It is one of the most important declarations in his recorded ministry. It summarises the moral and spiritual state of the nation during the reign of King Jehoiakim, about the year 604 BC, before the Babylonian invasion of the land in 598 BC.

Challenging the National Belief System

Jeremiah was told to stand at the gate of the Temple, probably at the time of a major festival when crowds would be flocking to the Temple to witness traditional religious practices, which Jeremiah had already said were useless. The word of the Lord was “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me” (Jer 6:20).

This was a major challenge, not merely to the religious establishment based at the Temple, but to the whole belief system of the nation. The belief in the inviolability of the Temple was a tradition that went back to the time of King Solomon and the Temple’s dedication. When he had completed building the Temple, Solomon called the whole nation to an assembly in Jerusalem where he declared that God had promised his father David that a temple would be built for the name of the Lord.

Solomon then offered a prayer of dedication, asking that when prayer is directed towards the Temple it would be heard by God and petitions would be granted. God’s response was “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices” (2 Chron 7:12).

The belief in the inviolability of the Temple was a tradition that went back to the time of King Solomon.

This was accompanied by the pledge: “If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there for ever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.”

If…

The belief became established that the presence of God in the Temple guaranteed its defence against all enemies. This was reinforced in the time of the 8^th Century BC Prophet Isaiah, who declared: “This is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: he will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the Lord. I will defend this city and save it for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!” (Isa 37:33-35).

This tradition was celebrated in the Psalms sung in the Temple, such as, “For the Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling: this is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned” (Psa 132:13-14). But the Temple priests and prophets in Jeremiah’s time failed to notice the previous verse in this Psalm, which imposed a condition, “If your sons keep my covenant and the statutes I teach them…”.

The Temple authorities also failed to recognise that the whole moral and spiritual situation in the nation was very different in Isaiah’s lifetime. When King Hezekiah received a threatening letter from Sennacherib, the Assyrian Emperor, insulting the God of Israel, both the King and the Prophet Isaiah spread the letter before the Lord in the Temple and cried out in prayer. Their prayer of faith was answered: “Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp” (Isa 37:36).

No doubt the Royal Temple authorities advising King Jehoiakim remembered what God had done to the Assyrian army and they were convinced that the same would happen to the Babylonian army. They were utterly convinced that God would never allow his presence in the Temple to be violated by a heathen army.

The Temple authorities were utterly convinced that God would never allow his presence in the Temple to be violated by a heathen army.

The Terms of the Covenant

Jeremiah’s great burden was that he appeared to be the only one who recognised that the promises given at the time of David and Solomon, and upheld during the time of Hezekiah, were made within the context of the covenantal relationship between the children of Israel and God.

The terms of the covenant went right back to the assembly at Mount Sinai when Moses received both the Ten Commandments and the Torah (Deut 4:10). From that time God’s protection was dependent upon the faithfulness of the nation to keep the commandments and to hold fast to his teaching. Jeremiah knew that the first commandment was absolute loyalty to God: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Deut 5:7).

Idolatry was to be seen everywhere in Judah - not only in the countryside where people worshiped the local Baals, but there were idols to foreign gods at every street corner in Jerusalem. Even worse than that; there was idolatry to be found in the Temple itself.

Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon dismissed the popular chant, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” With devastating precision, he outlined the six sins of Jerusalem that were offensive to God which abrogated the protection that God had promised if the nation remained faithful to his commandments and his teaching. God’s blessing, his protection and prosperity, were all dependent upon the faithfulness of the nation and its leaders in keeping the covenantal relationship established in the time of Moses.

God has not changed! What was true in the time of Jeremiah is still true today. But will the nations learn the lessons of history that are clearly recorded for our benefit?

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.

Finding the right path.

This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But you said, ‘We will not listen.’” (Jeremiah 6:16-17)

Where and when this word from Jeremiah originated no-one can be quite sure. It is another of his words of warning during the reign of King Jehoiakim, who was quite unlike his godly father, Josiah. Jehoiakim and his political advisers were only interested in a life of carefree indulgence. The Mosaic traditions and righteous laws upheld during his father’s reign were being discarded and everyone was doing as they liked, including the priests and prophets at the Temple.

There is no direct evidence of Jeremiah leaving Jerusalem and wandering in the desert, but the words of this prophecy certainly do not reflect city streets. The ‘ancient paths’ is a well-known phrase for the wilderness and it is very possible that Jeremiah, like other prophets and spiritual leaders of Israel, loved the desert. For those who sought to be in communion with God, like Moses or Elijah, the solitude of the desert was a haven.

The desert was not a place of separation from God – quite the reverse – it was separation from the world. It was a place of seclusion with God where the prophets could speak with him and hear his voice clearly, without the cacophony of the city streets.

The ‘ancient paths’ is a well-known phrase for the wilderness. It is very possible that Jeremiah, like other prophets of Israel, loved the desert.

Ask for the Good Way

Jeremiah was probably thinking of the Judean wilderness south of Jerusalem, or the Desert of Paran near Beersheba. These places would have been familiar to David, the shepherd boy of Bethlehem, before he became King of Israel.

In the wilderness, there are many desert paths. Some are broad and inviting, but dangerous, running alongside a precipice. Others are narrow and difficult, but safe. The shepherds know every path in the wilderness, some of which are so narrow that the sheep have to go in single file. The good shepherd goes ahead of his sheep just as David would have done, leading them to a good pasture where there is both food and water. David beautifully expressed this in the 23rd Psalm: “He leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness…”

In his time of reflection, Jeremiah was probably thinking of the wilderness and a time when he reached a crossroads. Being more used to city streets, he would probably have stood there waiting for a shepherd to come along, to ask him for the good way. This is expressed in this prophecy, “Ask for the good way”. It would have been an ancient path over which shepherds had led their flocks for centuries.

Jeremiah might even have been familiar with the words of Isaiah some 200 years earlier, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (Isa 30:21).

A Voice in the Wilderness

Back in Jerusalem, the wilderness paths came into Jeremiah’s mind and he pronounced this reading, warning the nation of the dangers that lay ahead as a consequence of idolatry and unbelief. It grieved him to listen to the people and to know what would befall them. He longed to run away into the desert and to stay there. He wept before the Lord:

Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travellers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them... (Jer 9:1-2a)

The shepherds know every path in the wilderness, some of which are inviting but dangerous. The good shepherd leads his sheep to safe pasture.

Jeremiah was a lone ‘voice in the wilderness’ patrolling the city streets, warning of the terrible consequences that would befall the nation if they no longer kept the terms of the covenant with God. He knew that God would not defend an unrighteous people and therefore disaster lay ahead.

God had already sent them many warning signs, all of which had been ignored, so Jeremiah now went on to make a devastating prophecy. In his quiet time in the wilderness he had heard God calling upon the whole world of nature to observe and to learn from what he was about to do with his own covenant people, who had deliberately discarded his teaching and ignored his warnings:

Hear, O Earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law. (Jer 6:19)

Truth Then is Truth Today

If God will not defend his own covenant people when they deliberately reject his teaching and despise his words, what hope is there for Gentile nations who have known the word of God for centuries and yet deliberately turn away, despising his warnings?

The tragic history of Israel shows what happened to Jerusalem and the people of Judah in Jeremiah’s own lifetime when God’s warnings were ignored. He allowed the invading army of Nebuchadnezzar to break down the walls of Jerusalem and take the people captive to Babylon. Jeremiah knew that there was no army in the world that could have conquered Jerusalem if the people had remained faithful to God.

Jeremiah’s words are as true today as they were in the 6th Century BC, because God does not change. His truth then, is truth today. He is still saying: “Ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls”.

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.

Discerning the signs.

“Announce this to the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah: ‘Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear: Should you not fear me?’ declares the Lord. ‘Should you not tremble in my presence?’” (Jeremiah 5:20-22)

Jeremiah was outraged by the unbelief that he saw among the people, both in the city of Jerusalem and across the land of Judah. It was almost unbelievable that they should be so foolish with their great heritage embedded in the history of the nation. “Hear this!” he proclaimed; but he knew that it was useless - because although they had eyes to see and ears to hear, they did not use them.

The words are reminiscent of those used by Isaiah at the time of his call to ministry when God told him that he would be ministering among a people who were “ever hearing, but never understanding; ever seeing, but never perceiving” (Isa 6:9). It was just the same in Jeremiah’s time some 200 years after Isaiah. And in another 500 years Jesus would be saying exactly the same thing of the generation in his lifetime. He spoke to them with simple stories because of their lack of understanding. He said “This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand” (Matt 13:13).

The spiritual blockage among the people of Israel was seemingly endemic. Jeremiah struggled to understand it. He saw that the people had lost respect for God; they had no sense of awe: “‘Should you not fear me?’ declares the Lord. ‘Should you not tremble in my presence?’” This message was not only to the people, but to their leaders and teachers.

“Hear this!” Jeremiah proclaimed; but he knew that it was useless - because although the people had eyes to see and ears to hear, they did not use them.

Spiritual Vacuum

Jeremiah accounted for this disrespect of God as stemming from the loss of recognition that the God of Israel was actually the God of Creation, who had created the universe, measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and weighed the mountains on his scales (Isa 40:12). The people had turned aside from the truth of the word of God, which resulted in a total lack of spiritual discernment.

They couldn’t even recognise what God was saying to them through the failure of the spring and autumn rains, which were causing havoc with the harvest and meant that there would be food shortages in the near future. God had withheld the rain because of the sins of the people; but they were so foolish they could not discern the signs of his activity.

When people fail to acknowledge the God of Creation, they create a spiritual vacuum that makes them insensitive to the activity of God. It leads to every kind of wickedness that affects the whole of society, which was the teaching of Paul in Romans 1. Jeremiah pointed to the social sins that had produced great inequalities in the nation. The rich had become powerful and had “grown fat and sleek” (Jer 5:27). These greedy men did not care for the poor or give justice to the powerless (Jer 5:28), which was abhorrent to God. “‘Should I not punish them for this?’ declares the Lord” (Jer 5:29).

The Reason for Indifference to God

It was at this point that Jeremiah exploded with indignation. He knew that all these social aberrations were due to a lack of spiritual truth in the nation. The people had turned away from truth; they had abandoned any thought of God in their daily lives – God was an irrelevance. This led them to worship the local Baals in the countryside, and to careless indifference to God in the city where they were intent upon making their fortunes, or struggling with poverty.

But Jeremiah went to the heart of the matter – to the reason why there was such indifference to God. It was surely due to the priests and prophets, the religious leaders of the nation, who had the word of God but did not rightly use it to teach the people: “The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way” (Jer 5:31).

Why was there such indifference to God? Surely it was because the priests and prophets had the word of God but did not rightly use it to teach the people.

The prophets made up their own visions and prophecies. Their major objective was to be popular with the people – to tell them things they wanted to hear. They weren’t bothered with the truth. Jeremiah said, “The prophets follow an evil course and use their power unjustly” (Jer 23:10). “They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord” (Jer 23:16). “Both prophet and priest are godless; even in my temple I find their wickedness, declares the Lord” (Jer 23:11).

It was the priests who were most responsible for the state of the nation, according to Jeremiah; they ruled by their own authority. Instead of faithfully teaching the word of God as given to Moses and delivered to the people at Mount Sinai (Deut 4:10), the priests made up their own teaching, misusing the divine authority they had been given. Their teaching was popular, no doubt reinforcing their own authority and ensuring gifts from the people which kept them well fed.

No Excuse

There was no excuse for the priests because the scroll of the Torah had been discovered during the repairs to the Temple ordered by King Josiah just a few years earlier. The priests were the ones who had access to the scrolls that were being copied by the scribes, so they knew the truth, but they did not handle it righteously. They did not declare the word of the Lord that would establish truth in the nation.

The consequence was that the people could not even discern the reason why the autumn and spring rains had not fallen. The whole nation was lacking in spiritual understanding. They had eyes to see and ears to hear, but they had no discernment.

Could this be said of our own generation in the 21^st Century? If God still holds the religious leaders responsible for the state of the nation, we have to ask: do we have church leaders who have eyes but do not see, and ears but do not hear? If so, we must conclude that God is saying the same thing to our leaders today: Should you not fear me? declares the Lord. Should you not tremble in my presence?

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.

Who does God hold responsible for the state of the nation?

“The house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly unfaithful to me,” declares the Lord. “They have lied about the Lord; they said, ‘He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine.’ The prophets are but wind and the word is not in them.” (Jeremiah 5:11-13)

This word is in the context of the instruction to Jeremiah to go up and down the streets of Jerusalem to see if he could find anyone who was behaving honestly and seeking the truth. He had listened to the ordinary people and he had gone to the political and religious leaders but found none of them were obeying the teaching of Yahweh – they had “broken off the yoke and torn off the bonds” of the God of Israel (Jer 5:5).

When Jeremiah reported his findings, the response he heard was, “Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by gods that are not gods” (5:7). Idolatry had spread rapidly since the death of King Josiah and there were altars to foreign gods on the streets of Jerusalem. The people were doing their business deals in the market and actually swearing by these idols. The righteous indignation of God can be seen in his words: “‘I supplied all their needs, yet they committed adultery and thronged to the houses of prostitutes…Should I not punish them for this?’ declares the Lord” (Jer 5:7-9).

These words are reminiscent of those given to Hosea in the northern state of Israel: “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me” (Hos 13:6). Both Hosea and Jeremiah were astonished at the ingratitude and stupidity of those who were so blind that they did not recognise all the blessings that God had bestowed upon them. They still turned away and worshipped bits of wood and stone.

Both Hosea and Jeremiah were astonished at the ingratitude and stupidity of the people, who did not recognise all the blessings that God had bestowed upon them.

Will He Do Nothing?

Jeremiah recognised that God’s anger was not so much against the ordinary people but against their spiritual leaders – the priests and prophets who had no excuse. They knew the word of the Lord. They had rediscovered a Torah scroll during the repairs to the Temple ordered by King Josiah, who had re-affirmed the covenant with God. But the terms of this covenant were now being ignored by those who had responsibility for the spiritual life of the nation. They were not teaching the word of God to the people: “The prophets are but wind and the word is not in them!”

This was a devastating condemnation of the Temple priesthood, their preachers and teachers of the Torah. They had the scrolls containing parts of what we now know as Deuteronomy. There was no excuse for ignorance of the word of God. But the preachers actually undermined the faith of the people. Jeremiah declares this in 6:13: “From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, Peace,’ they say when there is no peace.”

The Temple priests and prophets had actually dared to say “He will do nothing!” Their teaching was that God was no longer active. They may have still acknowledged God as the Creator and that he had given the Torah to Moses, but they no longer believed he was active in his Creation. God had just dropped into the background (which is the view of many preachers today). He was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and he had done things for Israel in the past; but that was history. There was no need to worry about any misdemeanours in the nation because God was no longer doing anything! He was a god of the past, not of the present.

Proud and Haughty Leaders

The priests and prophets were part of a small elite under royal patronage at the Temple, enjoying a privileged lifestyle. They were practising mutual self-interest: the priests gave religious legitimacy to King Jehoiakim despite his licentious behaviour, and he gave Royal approval to the Temple hierarchy, who were greedy, self-indulgent and faithless men. They were far worse than the ordinary people because they were the official representatives of God.

Jeremiah recognised that God’s anger was not so much against the ordinary people but against their spiritual leaders – the priests and prophets who had no excuse.

They were a professional elite who did not have to earn their living by the work of their hands. It was their responsibility to teach the people the word of God, helping them to understand the requirements of the Lord and the terms of the covenant. They not only failed to do this, but by their false teaching and immorality, Jeremiah said, “They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness” (Jer 23:14).

This was a terrible condemnation. It meant that the priests and prophets were actually responsible for the state of the nation – for the idolatry and unbelief among the people as well as for the immorality and sexual perversion everywhere in Jerusalem. “They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man’s wife” (Jer 5:8). This is a highly significant analogy. Throughout the Old Testament, ‘horses’ were linked with the rich and powerful. Their owners were proud and haughty like kings. And this statement, in the context of the faithlessness of the nation, shows that the priests and prophets were anathema to God. The word of God was not in them.

Unbelief in the Pulpit

The most serious implication of these statements is that God was holding the religious leaders responsible for the fate of the nation. He was removing his cover of protection and giving the enemy permission to bring divine judgment upon Judah: “Go through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not destroy them completely” (Jer 5:10).

If we apply this teaching to our situation today in the Western nations that have turned their backs upon God, we have to conclude that God is holding the Church and its leaders – its priests and prophets – responsible for the state of the nation. They are not only held responsible for the moral and spiritual condition of the people, but also for the social and political corruption of the leaders who do not know the word of the Lord.

This is why the Bible says that judgment begins at the house of the Lord; because unbelief begins in the pulpit before spreading to the pew!

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of Jeremiah. Click here to read previous instalments.

The limits to God's patience.

“This is the word of the Lord to Jeremiah concerning the drought: ‘Judah mourns, her cities languish; they wail for the land, and the cry goes out from Jerusalem. The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water. They return with their jars unfilled; dismayed and despairing, they cover their heads.

The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads. Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass. Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights and pant like jackals; their eyesight fails for lack of pasture.’” (Jeremiah 14:1-6)

Jeremiah presents a terrible picture of a prolonged drought covering the whole land of Judah during the reign of Jehoiakim the ungodly king (son of godly king Josiah), in the final decade of the 7th Century BC. The drought was not confined to Judah; it covered the whole region of what we now know as the Middle East.

Climatologists say that this was a period of ‘global warming’ and historians note that it was probably one of the reasons why Nebuchadnezzar conquered neighbouring countries: to recruit an army of labourers to dig canals around the rivers Tigris and Euphrates to irrigate the land.

Jeremiah knew nothing of global warming, but he certainly saw the hand of God, the Creator of the Universe, in what was happening to the people among whom God had called him to minister. The Hebrew word for ‘drought’ used in this passage is plural, indicating a series of droughts that had now become so severe that all life was being threatened.

Rich and poor, young and old, city-dwellers and farmers were all suffering; even the wild animals were dying of thirst: “wild donkeys stand on the barren heights and pant like jackals”. In the cities the wells had run dry and in the countryside the streams and river beds were cracked and empty. It was a scene of desolation and death.

Jeremiah knew nothing of global warming, but he certainly saw the hand of God, the Creator of the Universe, in the drought around him.

God’s Rebuke

Jeremiah had been told to remind the people of the terms of the covenant (Jer 11:1), but they had not listened or heeded his words. The consequences of breaking the terms of the covenant were perfectly clear: “The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron” (Deut 28:23).

No doubt Jeremiah also was suffering and his vivid description of the effects of the drought led him to pray for the nation – one of the rare occasions when Jeremiah interceded on behalf of the whole nation and the land of Israel: “Although our sins testify against us, O Lord, do something for the sake of your name” (Jer 14:7).

His pleading with the Lord was met by a fierce rebuke: “This is what the Lord says about this people: they greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the Lord does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins” (14:10).

In order to stop him asking the Lord to break the drought and send rain upon the land, Jeremiah was told to stop praying for the wellbeing of the people because God would no longer listen to their pleas. In fact, he was told, “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go!” (Jer 15:1). This is an exact reversal of the message given to Moses when he was told to go to Pharaoh with a call to bring the people out of Egypt into the presence of the Lord.

Limits to God’s Patience

The reason for this harsh rebuttal of Jeremiah’s request on behalf of the nation was that God had forgiven the people time after time, but they had never kept their promises of faithfulness. The discovery of the ‘Book of the Law’ during the repairs to the Temple ordered by Josiah had led the king to rededicate the nation to God, re-affirming the terms of the covenant. But his son, Jehoiakim, had reversed all that and the people had rapidly returned to worshipping the Baals.

God’s patience had reached its limits after all the warnings had been ignored. The God of Israel was now exercising his power over Creation. The drought was the consequence of breaking the covenant in turning away from the Lord. The teaching that had been given to Moses was, “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands…blessings will come upon you” (Deut 28:1). But, conversely, disobedience would bring terrible curses on the land and on all its inhabitants.

Jeremiah’s pleading with the Lord was met by a fierce rebuke.

It is a serious thing to enter into a covenant with God. It carries awesome responsibilities. Once we acknowledge him as our God, we belong to him: we are his servants, as well as his beloved children.

There are wonderful blessings and benefits from the love and protection the Father gives to his children, but there are also responsibilities. Jeremiah was well aware of this and although prophecies of peace and prosperity were being given to the people by some of the official prophets linked with the Temple priests, Jeremiah knew that the nation thoroughly deserved judgment.

Declaration of Faith

Jeremiah ended this time of intercession with a declaration of faith in God: “Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, O Lord our God. Therefore, our hope is in you. For you are the one who does all this” (Jer 14:22).

Surely this is a timely reminder to all the Western nations who have had the Gospel for centuries that there are inevitable consequences of turning away from the truth.

This article is part of a teaching series on the life and ministry of Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.

No-one sees the Father so clearly as the prophet with tears in his eyes.

“Your own conduct and actions have brought this upon you. This is your punishment. How bitter it is! How it pierces to the heart! Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry. Disaster follows disaster; the whole land lies in ruins.” (Jeremiah 4:18-19)

This was another of Jeremiah’s pronouncements in the early part of his ministry, most probably during the 11-year reign of Jehoiakim from Jerusalem (607 to 598 BC). The atmosphere in Jerusalem was one of complacent, easy-going affluence. Already strict moral and religious requirements from the days of Josiah’s Reform were being pushed into the background.

The young king was 25 when Josiah was killed in battle with the Egyptians. Jehoiakim made peace with the Egyptians – at a price, and promptly set about loosening the strong restraints that his father had imposed upon the people. He preferred a life of pleasure and turned a blind eye to what was happening in the countryside, where people were re-opening the altars to Baal on the high places.

What was more shocking to Jeremiah was that everywhere in Jerusalem there was evidence of moral corruption, self-indulgence, family breakdown, sharp business practice and even the re-appearance of altars to foreign gods. Jeremiah was a great patriot. He was not a nationalist, blindly supporting his country right or wrong; his patriotism involved a love for his nation and the welfare of the people that translated into a longing to see righteousness and shalom, justice and truthful behaviour.

Foreseeing Disaster

This pronouncement is very revealing, both for its reference to the international scene with the growing threat of a Babylonian invasion, and for what it shows us of Jeremiah’s personal character and ministry.

There were, no doubt, plenty of reports coming in from travellers and merchants of the activity of Nebuchadnezzar’s army that was on the move across what had been formerly Assyrian territory. Despite the fall of neighbouring countries to the all-conquering Babylonians, there was a dangerous lack of concern in Judah and especially in Jerusalem, where the priests and prophets constantly reassured the king and the people that God would never allow an enemy to enter the gates of the holy city, with its Temple that was the home of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

Jeremiah was not a nationalist, but he was a great patriot.

Jeremiah, in his times of standing in the council of the Lord, knew that the covenant that protected Israel and the land of Judah depended upon their observing the Torah and being faithful to God - especially having no other gods in the land or in the hearts of the people. Jeremiah’s was a lone voice on the streets of Jerusalem warning that the spirit of complacency which he saw all around would lead to disaster.

The Weeping Prophet

In his quiet times before the Lord, Jeremiah could actually foresee the future with vivid clarity, as though it was actually happening in front of his eyes. This caused him immense pain which he said pierced his heart: “Oh my anguish my anguish! I writhe in pain…How long must I see the battle standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?” (Jer 4:21).

No-one sees the Father so clearly as the prophet with tears in his eyes. The tears of love and trust form the spiritual bridge between the human prophet and the divine Presence. The prophet is expressing the total dependence of the human condition upon the grace of God. He sees the hopelessness of the situation facing the nation that he loves, and can do no other than bring it before God in utter humility and loving trust.

Jeremiah is known as the ‘weeping prophet’, a label often thrown at him by those who wish to denigrate his ministry. But the truth is that he learned to draw close to the Lord in his quiet times and, as a result, could see the consequences of what was happening in the nation so clearly through his tears that he could not keep quiet in public.

As he walked the streets of Jerusalem and saw the little shrines to foreign gods and as he listened to the chatter of people in the marketplace; housewives bickering and merchants exchanging obscenities, he could almost hear the hooves of the Babylonian cavalry clattering across the cobbles and the cries of anguish as they swung their swords, splattering blood on the market stalls.

Jeremiah knew what was going to happen unless there was repentance and turning in the nation – among its leaders and the ordinary people. The ‘unless’ was still there. But for how long?

Jeremiah could see the consequences of what was happening in the nation so clearly in his times with the Lord that he could not keep quiet in public.

Stirring Prophetic Voices

The knowledge of what would happen if there was no repentance was the driving force behind Jeremiah’s ministry: he could not keep quiet, whatever the consequences for himself and the threat to his personal safety. He suffered cruel abuse and physical pain because he could not stop declaring the truth and warning of what he had already foreseen so vividly.

The true prophetic ministry is no different today. Those who have learned to stand in the presence of the Lord with tears in their eyes as they speak of the state of their nation have foreseen for a long time the things coming to pass today – the breakdown of family life, gangs, guns and drugs leaving young people dying on our city streets. This is just some of the daily evidence of the crumbling of Western civilisation that has turned its back upon the Bible, abandoning its Judeo-Christian foundations.

As political and economic instability increases and the dormant churches stay silent, the sense of hopelessness and despair will grow. BUT will God use this to stir prophetic voices in the nations that will awaken humanity to the danger facing it, opening the way for a 21^st-Century spiritual awakening? Are we getting nearer the day that Paul foresaw when many in Israel will recognise Jesus as Messiah, combining in ‘one new man’ with believing Gentiles to bring the message of salvation to a dying world?

This article is part of a series. Click here for previous instalments.

Blow the trumpet!

“Announce in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say: ‘Sound the trumpet throughout the land!’ Cry aloud and say: ‘gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities! Raise the signal to go to Zion! Flee for safety without delay!’

For I am bringing disaster from the North, even terrible destruction. A lion has come out from his lair; a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his place to lay waste your land. Your towns will lie in ruins without inhabitant. So put on sackcloth, lament and wail, for the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned away from us.” (Jeremiah 4:5-9)

This is Jeremiah at his strongest and most confident; delivering a broadside in the early days of his ministry when news had reached Jerusalem that the Babylonian army was on the march. The whole pronouncement is in poetry, which would no doubt have made it more striking for those who heard it in Jerusalem, at a time of complacency and comparative prosperity.

It is difficult to date this passage but the indications are that it came soon after the untimely death of Josiah and early in the reign of his son Jehoiakim, which puts it in the period 607-600 BC. The Babylonians were busy acquiring sections of the old Assyrian Empire and steadily moving towards Judah (the Northern Kingdom of Israel having already been scattered by the Assyrians).

This proclamation from Jeremiah is a perfect example of the prophetic ministry in action, performing his role as the ‘watchman’ of the nation and messenger of God. It is a series of announcements, each in the imperative to add drama to the news being conveyed: “A lion has come out of his lair; a destroyer of nations has set out” (v7). But this was no ordinary piece of news. The Babylonians may have been the army that was threatening Judah and the holy city of Jerusalem, but the agent was God!

Claiming Immunity

Ever since the Temple, envisioned by King David but built by Solomon, was dedicated, it had been more than just a place of worship for the God of Israel. It was a living monument to the covenant between God and the house of David – the dynasty that David founded, that was endorsed and blessed by the Lord.

Hear God’s solemn promise at the dedication: “If My People who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14).

This proclamation from Jeremiah is a perfect example of the prophetic ministry in action

That promise had become the focal point of a ‘royal-temple ideology’¹ that screened out covenantal reality and permitted self-deception. The aristocratic families surrounding the King who were in charge of the national government, and the priestly aristocratic families who were in charge of the Temple, were all under the deception that Jerusalem (represented by the Temple) was inviolable and that Judah as the Promised Land could never be invaded by a foreign army because it was under the protection of Almighty God. It was this delusion that Jeremiah’s harsh poetic pronouncement aimed to dispel.

Jeremiah alone seemed to perceive that they had failed to recognise that their covenantal relationship with God was conditional! It was conditional upon the people of Israel being totally faithful to the Torah, with the Decalogue at its centre – especially having no other God than Yahweh, the God of Israel.

Judgment Inevitable

The royal-temple ideology assumed that the covenantal conditions were fulfilled through morning and evening prayers in the Temple, conducted by the priests on behalf of the nation. But this was a mere religious ordinance.

This was the message that Jeremiah was called by God to proclaim (hence the imperative in his poetry): “Sound the trumpet throughout the land!” The purpose of sounding the trumpet was not simply to warn of the dangers on the international horizon, but to bring a message of warning from God: “I am bringing disaster from the north, even terrible destruction”.

There is no call for repentance in this pronouncement – only a call to put on sackcloth and lament. Jeremiah perceived the inevitability of judgment upon the nation and he knew the hardness of the hearts of the people. He had already called for them to break up their un-ploughed ground - the hardness of their hearts - but there had been no visible response.

Without repentance and turning, the covenantal relationship between God and Israel was dead. In fact, it was worse than that: it was a dangerous delusion that would bring disaster upon all the people, the priests and the prophets as well as the King and his family. No-one would be spared.

But the stark message of this pronouncement was that it was not the Babylonians who should be feared, but the God of Israel who had been deserted through the idolatrous practices of the people. There were even hints of this within the Temple itself, which showed the utter spiritual corruption that had become embedded into the nation.

Jeremiah perceived the inevitability of judgment upon the nation and he knew the hardness of the hearts of the people.

Depths of Conviction

The poetic pronouncement concluded with a declaration from God himself, beginning with the apocalyptic phase “In that day”. It stated the stark reality of the judgment that was about to descend upon Judah: “The King and the officials will lose heart, the priests will be horrified, and the prophets will be appalled.”

The fact that there is no ‘unless’ - no call for repentance or softening of the message - shows the depths of conviction that Jeremiah had received in his time of standing in the council of the Lord. In those moments in the presence of the God of Israel, time had been suspended, the future had become the present, shadow had become reality. The full horror that was about to descend upon the nation had been revealed to the Prophet. Like the Apostle Paul some 500 years later, he could not keep silent: “Woe unto me if I do not declare the truth of the word of God!” (1 Cor 9:16).

Of course, Jeremiah knew that if there were repentance in the nation, the Babylonian army could not penetrate the walls of Jerusalem or bring devastation to the cities of Judah, because there was no power on earth that could defeat the God of Israel. But he also knew the hardness of the hearts of the king and the priests and the leaders of the nation, who were blinded by a powerful spirit of corruption from the world that prevented them from perceiving the truth.

We Need Prophets!

The New Testament has many warnings of a similar blindness coming in the days leading up to the Second Coming of Jesus. 2 Timothy 3 speaks of this and the letters of Peter have strong warnings of the delusion that will drive the nations into a time of darkness and infect the Church with different forms of corruption.

Those who have prophetic gifts today need to spend more time in the council of the Lord, as Jeremiah did, and then to declare boldly what they are hearing and seeing revealed. In these days when the leaders of the Western nations have turned away from truth, and when many church leaders are also blinded by various forms of spiritual delusion so that they are unable to declare the word of the Lord, the greatest need is for the Lord to raise up prophets in our midst.

May those who have learned to stand in the council of the Lord, to recognise his voice, to understand how he is working out his purposes today – be given boldness by the Holy Spirit to declare the word of the Living God in this godless generation that is hungry for truth, but does not know where to find it.

References

1 E.g. Brueggemann, 1999. A commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and homecoming. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

This article is part of a series. Click here to read previous instalments.

The first prophet to recognise God’s missionary purpose.

“If you will return, O Israel, return to me,” declares the Lord. “If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives’, then the nations will be blessed by him and in him they will glory.”

This is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: “break up your unploughed ground and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done – burn with no one to quench it.” (Jeremiah 4:1-4)

This is another of Jeremiah’s early pronouncements, made during the reign of Josiah when the king was making a great effort to reform the nation. Jeremiah perceived that Josiah’s great reformation had, so far, not achieved its purpose of bringing the people back to the God of Israel. His opening statement was that returning to traditional religious practices was not enough: God was calling for them to return to him.

Josiah’s reform had not yet touched the hearts of the people. He had ordered the desecration of pagan altars and the breaking down of totem poles and all the other symbols of worship of foreign gods. But this had not really changed the people and produced the faith in God that both Josiah and Jeremiah were longing to see.

Putting away the detestable idols was not enough. God was looking for his people to be in a right relationship with him, whereby they could truthfully and honestly make the statement of faith: “As surely as the Lord lives” (v2).

Israel a Light for the Nations

Jeremiah saw this in the wider context of God’s missionary purpose for Israel: that they would be the means of conveying the knowledge of his salvation to all the nations. Jeremiah said that when Israel was truly in a right relationship with God, declaring his truth openly on the world stage, then the Gentile nations would also be blessed by God and would experience the glory of his presence.

In making this pronouncement, Jeremiah was ahead of all the other writing prophets who preceded him, although what he was declaring had already been embedded in the history of Israel from the time God called Abraham to leave his country and people and go to the land that God would show him. At that time, God made a solemn promise: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:2-3).

Putting away detestable idols was not enough: God was looking for his people to be in a right relationship with him.

God’s intention to use Israel to reveal his truth to the Gentiles was confirmed to the exiles in Babylon when God sent them a message of hope: he was about to overthrow the Babylonian Empire and release his people to go back to the Promised Land and to rebuild Jerusalem, thereby preparing the way for the fulfilment of the promised new covenant.

At that time God revealed to the exiles his purpose to use their little nation of Israel, purified from idolatry by exile in Babylon, as his servant and ambassador to the nations of the world: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isa 49:6).

To the ends of the earth: God's missionary purpose for Israel. Photo: Israeli coastline at Caesarea. See Photo Credits.God’s purposes are always much greater than our meagre perception of them, as well as our own small plans for our contribution in the service of the Kingdom. God sees the bigger picture, while we only see the little bit in front of our eyes.

King Josiah’s objective was to stop idolatry among the people by physically breaking down the pagan idols and centralising worship in the Temple in Jerusalem. However, Jeremiah saw beyond this, to God fulfilling the greater purpose for which he created the nation of Israel and revealed his Torah through Moses. Jeremiah could see God’s greater purpose in setting Israel aside from all the other nations in order to reveal his nature and purposes to humankind.

The Need for Circumcision of the Heart

However, in order for Israel to be the servant of the Lord, something of great spiritual significance had to happen in the nation. There had to be a spiritual awakening, enabling them to understand the purposes of God. That meant breaking up the ‘hard ground’ in their human nature so that they were receptive to the truth that God was longing to convey to them.

The people had to experience a spiritual circumcision - a circumcision of their hearts: cutting away the corruption of the world that had infected the nation through worshipping false gods of wood and stone. This idolatry had led them into fertility cults and sexual aberrations, adultery and family breakdown, and failure to teach their children the truth. It also meant greed and corruption permeating their business practices and affecting every part of national life.

In order for Israel to be the servant of the Lord and fulfil his covenant purposes, there had to be a spiritual awakening.

Most of all, the nation was no longer trusting in God for their protection - even as storm clouds were gathering on the international horizon. The Babylonian army was conquering one nation after another, across the Middle East. Clearly, Judah would soon be the next target, but they were grossly vulnerable and underprepared. They were a nation in disarray and would easily fall victim to an army said to be even more cruel and despotic than the Assyrians.

Jeremiah could foresee the future as clearly as if it were already happening, which gave great urgency to his calls for something more than Josiah’s reformation. He wanted to see a heart transformation across the nation – a spiritual revival that would not only ensure God’s covering of protection against an enemy attack, but would actually achieve God’s purpose for the nation to be his servant, bringing his salvation to the Gentiles.

The Final Word

The final word in this pronouncement was a dire warning of what would happen if Israel failed to understand the situation that faced them, not perceiving the purposes of God and not grasping the opportunity he was giving them to turn to him and be saved. The consequence of these failures was national disaster on an unimaginable scale: a fire no-one could quench.

The historical fact is that Israel and Judah ignored the warnings God sent to them through Jeremiah. The unquenchable fire fell as the Babylonians carried out a systematic destruction of towns and cities across the land, including Jerusalem.

God sees the bigger picture - we only see the little bit in front of our eyes.

Today, the nations of the world are being subjected to an unprecedented shaking of their pillars of state, creating turmoil, instability and international foreboding of what lies ahead. There have been plenty of warning signs, such as the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York, the Notre Dame fire in Paris and the Brexit turmoil in Britain: all signs of the threat of destruction coming upon Western civilisation.

The warnings Jeremiah gave to Israel need to be heard in the world today.

This article is part of a series. Click here for previous instalments.