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.
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