Jeremiah's First Proclamation

1. The Parable

Looking at the first 3 verses in the chapter we can see the parable put forth about the children of Israel. These verses list a few things about Israel when they were following the Lord…

Kindness of thy youth

Love of thine espousals

There is also the time when this was happening…

When thou wentest after me in the wilderness

God is depicting the Nation of Israel as a new bride in her younger days, wanting to please her husband as much as possible.

We can understand this comparison here, looking at the Christian, when we were a young Christian we wanted to do everything we could possibly do to serve the Lord. We were excited, we were amped up to be able to serve the Almighty. Yet, much like a bonfire when its not fed, we let the fire burn down a bit. We allow ourselves to become comfortable and then ultimately we find ourselves becoming complacent in our service to the Lord.

2. The Perversions

a. The Description of Israel’s Sin

Of Idolatry

The false god of Baal. This was who the Israelites always seemed to come back to when they were turning from God.

Baal was the god of fertility and weather, kinda pathetic when it comes to the Almighty.

It is amazing when you look at the children of Israel, how often they ran from the Almighty God to a god of this world. You can understand the frustration of God in verse 28. God tells Israel to call on their gods and see if they will save them.

Of Forsaking God

We see this starting in 5, what iniquity did Israel’s fathers find in God that they went farther from Him? The Answer? Nothing. Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I change not; Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

We can see how far they went because in verse 6 the Bible says that they didn’t even say “Where is the Lord?” This is a sad place to be but so often where people are. They get into the deepest parts of the wilderness and wonder when God left them, when in reality, they left God.

Jeremiah 2:23 “How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;”

A dromedary is: noun [Gr., perhaps from swiftness, running.] A species of camel, called also the Arabian camel, with one bunch or protuberance on the back, in distinction from the Bactrian camel, which has two bunches. It has four callous protuberances on the fore legs, and two on the hind ones. It is a common beast of burden in Egypt, Syria, and the neighboring countries.

Of Godless Alliances

We see the results of the alliances that Israel had made starting in verse 15. Tahapanes stands in parallel to the Egyptian city of Memphis. In our text here we can see the condemnation for the children of Israel in going to Egypt for water and safety.

b. The Depths of Israel’s Sin

The depth of Israel’s sins can be seen in verse 13. Israel committed two evils, the first, they had forsaken the Lord. The fountain of living waters. They had hew out broken cisterns that couldn’t hold water.

It is always interesting when it comes to the life of the Christian, how when we cut God out of the equation we then try to replace Him with something man made.

Over and over in the Old Testament we see the Lord plead with Israel to come back to Him. We see this again in verse 9 where the Lord will plead with Israel and with Israel’s children.

Living waters, John 4:14 “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

3. The Punishment

We see the punishment of Israel in verse 19. “Thine own wickedness shall correct thee” I remember growing up we had instances where our own wickedness caused us to then be corrected. My parents would call it a ‘Jesus spanking.’

What would this punishment make the Israelites see? That forsaking the Lord was an evil thing and bitter. That the fear of the Lord was not in them. This is a dangerous place to be. The backsliding of the Israelites was about to snap back on them. I imagine this like a child who has disobeyed repeatedly and is hearing of the correction on the horizon.

Jeremiah was prophesying before the captivity. The punishment of the nation would be coming sooner than the Israelites think. So often in the Christian’s life we sit back and go, “judgement hasn’t come yet so I must be fine” when in reality God is just showing His grace one more time so that we have another opportunity to repent and turn back to Him.

There comes a point where God allows punishment to come. God is always on the side of mercy and grace but when we reject that to keep on pushing for what we want in life then we are walking the border of punishment from Almighty God.

God goes through the list of what he did for Israel and then their response to His mighty works. Ultimately, Israel had turned its back on what the Lord had done and had chosen the world. “Pleasures of sin for a season”

4. The Pleading.

This pleading is seen in two areas, the first is God asking why they are pleading to Him. Verse 29 shows this. They have transgressed the Lord. The Lord has corrected them and they chose to go against it. Why would they then plead with God?

The second area we see is where God is pleading with them. This is in verse 31, very simply we see the plea from the prophet, “see ye the word of the Lord”

Very simply in closing today, let us not get to the point where God had corrected and we received it not. Let us stay fired for the Lord and stay focused on serving Him. Why? Because we get to serve the Creator of everything!