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GOD’S GIFT TO THE CHURCH

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3:6–6:30 Judah’s Alternatives: Repentance or Destruction

A Call for Repentance (3:6–4:4). Idolatrous Judah was even more corrupt than their sister, the Northern Kingdom, had been. Though the Lord had swept the Northern Kingdom away into exile, Judah had not learned from their northern sister’s example. The time for decision had come. Judah’s only hope was to repent. The Lord appealed to His faithless people to confess their sins, turn from their idols, and commit themselves to the Lord with renewed devotion. He promised to give them godly leaders and make Jerusalem the focal point of His worldwide rule. Nations would travel to the city to worship the Lord. Judah would be reunited with the exiled Northern Kingdom and would possess the promised land.

Dockery, D. S. (Ed.). (1992). Holman Bible Handbook (p. 412). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Jeremiah is a prophet of disaster and hope. He lives in the southern kingdom of Judah during the years leading up to the fall of its capital city, Jerusalem. For forty years he preaches that this catastrophe is going to happen if the people don’t repent and turn to God.

Jeremiah’s warnings come true when the armies of Babylon, directed by King Nebuchadnezzar, invade Judah. In 587 BC they destroy Jerusalem and her temple. The king and many of the people are taken away to exile in Babylonia.

But Jeremiah also has a message of hope. He predicts that one day the people will return and that the nation will be restored. He also promises that God will make a new deal with his people. His law will no longer be ‘outside’ them, written on tablets of stone. Instead, it will be ‘within’ them—written on their hearts.

In Jeremiah we see the pain and passion of a prophet at work. God’s word burns within him, so that he must preach. But his message makes him unpopular. At times he is cruelly persecuted. He has a hard life—crushed between the pressing truth of God and the resistance of his people.

Knowles, A. (2001). The Bible guide (1st Augsburg books ed., p. 296). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.

Israel acts as though she can at any time sweet-talk her way back to God (3:1–5). Not so. The law forbade a divorced husband from returning to his former, now-married wife (). Israel is now “married” to Baal.

Israel has not simply been overtaken by temptation. As an Arab is ready to ambush, so Israel has deliberately planned to be promiscuous. Language of harlotry has a double meaning: physical unfaithfulness in marriage, and spiritual disloyalty to God (sacred prostitution was part of Baal worship). Israel’s immature appeals to a supposedly indulgent father only add to the ugly picture of her evil.

B. A story of two sisters (3:6–4:4). Two sisters, Israel to the north and Judah to the south, are each characteristically tagged: “ever-turning” (faithless, backsliding) Israel, and “wicked” (run-away) Judah. The split of the united kingdom came after Solomon’s reign. In 722 B.C. Assyria captured Samaria and occupied Israel. In Jeremiah’s time Judah was still an independent nation but the Assyrian garrison was only a few miles away. God argues that Judah is more evil than Israel. For Israel, distressed because of God’s punishment, there is an earnest plea to return to God. For Judah, there is a short but very stern warning (4:3–4). The passage is piled with word plays on the word turn, which in its various forms occurs sixteen times. The messages date early in Jeremiah’s ministry during Josiah’s reign, possibly between 625 and 620 B.C.

“Ever-turning” Israel is accused of harlotry (3:6–10). Harlotry, with its overtones of desertion from the marriage partner and illicit sex, is a graphic way of describing Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. God’s harsh action in divorcing Israel by sending her into exile should have been a lesson to Judah, who not only saw all that happened, but was herself severely threatened by the Assyrians (). Stone pillars, sometimes representing the male sex organ, and trees or wood poles representing the female deities were standard Baal symbols.

Instead of making the expected judgment speech, God issues a plea for “ever-turning” Israel to turn once more, this time to him (3:11–18). The word play can be caught in “Come back, backsliding Israel.” Verses 12–14 contain three exhortations in as many verses: return, acknowledge, return. The word turn is one of two words used for the idea of “repent.”

Martens, E. A. (1995). Jeremiah. In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3, pp. 523–524). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

The appeal is persuasive. God advances reasons for Israel to return: (1) he is merciful; (2) repentance is demanded because of the breach of covenant; (3) he is still Israel’s husband; (4) good things will follow if they repent. Among these good things are return from exile, godly leaders, shepherds, prosperity, a holiness extending to the entire city of Jerusalem rather than just the ark, a transformed heart, fulfillment of an earlier promise that nations should be blessed through Israel, and a returned and unified people.

Martens, E. A. (1995). Jeremiah. In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3, p. 524). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.