“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh – Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.” (Jeremiah 9:25–26)
This little piece of prose rounds off the previous two verses that we dealt with last week which contrasted the wisdom of those who boast in human wisdom, strength, and riches, with those who understand the nature of God who exercises steadfast love, justice and righteousness. The charge is that Israel had chosen the way of the world instead of following the path that God had set before them when he established his covenant with the people of Israel.
Life or Death
This statement makes the stark declaration of the verdict, or consequence, of choosing the way of the world which is the way of death rather than following the way of life. The whole house of Israel has made their choice and aligned themselves with the uncircumcised Gentile nations.
Israel had chosen the way of the world instead of following the path that God had set before them.
A time of judgement is coming upon the world and because Israel has chosen to be like the nations, her people will be judged in the same way as the goyim. There are many places in Scripture that speak about a time of judgement falling upon the world. Isaiah 24:19 speaks about the whole earth being split asunder and thoroughly shaken; and the whole of Isaiah 34 is devoted to a description of the judgement coming upon the nations. Jesus speaks about such a time of judgement when he himself will act as judge and “all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt 25:32).
Circumcision of the Heart
Circumcision had been given to the people of Israel from the time of Abraham as a sign of their covenant relationship with God (Gen 17:10–11), but Moses had recognised that the physical act of circumcision did not automatically carry the fulfilment of the covenant relationship. He said: “And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I’m giving you today for your own good.” He continued: “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiffnecked any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes” (Deut 10:12-17).
The key phrase here is “circumcise your hearts” which lies behind the statement of Jeremiah that all the nations surrounding Israel who practice the physical act of circumcision are really “uncircumcised in heart”. But so too is the whole house of Israel who have ignored the warnings that were given to them hundreds of years earlier, back in the days of Moses.
The charge of being uncircumcised in heart had been used by Jeremiah earlier in his ministry. “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” (Jer 4:3–4).
Who is a Jew?
The mere physical act of circumcision did not guarantee a special relationship with God. As Paul declares, “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code” (Rom 2:28–29). Paul argues that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).
The mere physical act of circumcision did not guarantee a special relationship with God.
This is exactly the same pronouncement as Jeremiah made. They both agree that circumcision has no spiritual merit in itself, although it is an outward sign of a spiritual relationship between the people of Israel and the God of Israel. But that relationship is only preserved through obedience to the Torah and faithfulness to God. The covenant relationship is broken by idolatry and by running after the values of the world.
Both Jeremiah and Paul recognise that this is the monstrous sin that the nation of Israel has committed and has thereby put the nation outside its covenant relationship with God. Jeremiah offers no way back in the passage we are considering, no call for circumcising the heart. It was now too late. The die was cast. His task at this stage in the history of Judah was to spell out the stark reality of the judgement that was to fall upon the nation that would result in the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile.
The covenant relationship is broken by idolatry and by running after the values of the world.
Future Salvation
The Apostle Paul had a different message: he was offering a way of redemption because he knew that through Jesus, God was promising to “justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through the same faith” (Rom 3:30). Paul knew that all nations were going to be judged by God and that, although a believing remnant would be preserved (Rom 11:5), the people of Israel had lost their special place in the purposes of God by rejecting their Messiah. But he also believed this to be only temporary: “And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.” His prophecy is that “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in. And so, all Israel will be saved” (Rom 11:23-26).
This is a word that Jeremiah would no doubt have been delighted to receive; but perhaps the promise he was given of a new covenant with the house of Israel (Jer 31:31) provided a building block on which Paul was able to make his declaration with such confidence.
This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here to read previous instalments.
