Israel's Covenantal Adultery
Jeremiah • Sermon • Submitted
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Catch up
Catch up
Last week we talked about
Israel has been a Faithless Spouse
Israel has been a Faithless Spouse
Jeremiah 2:1 - 3:5
1-3 God recalls when Jerusalem followed Him in the desert just like a faithful wife.
4-9: God is asking if the people or the priest saw something evil in Him that lead them to disobedience. Did He not bring them out of Egypt and was he not going to keep His promise?
Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord,
Even the wicked nations who have false god’s have not changed their gods yet Israel has abandoned their One true God for worthless things.
“Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant? Why then has he become a prey?
Israel is not a slave, was never supposed to be. Israel is God’s bride.
How did the people not become prey and the plunder of war?
How did they go from being the one that God protected to the one that God let enemies capture?
Q: What can we learn from this observation?
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
“For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore.
Q: Why the strong language for being on a hill or under a tree?
This is where they placed their idols. The strong language is meant to stir shame for they are practicing idolatry.
The first commandment.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.
versus 2: 1-19: God contends that Israel has commited Spiritual Adultery
Versus 2: 20 - 3:5 : Israel tries to act like they have been faithful to Him
“If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the Lord.
God continues to show the evidence of the unfaithfulness and promiscuity of His wife, Israel until verse 5
3:6 to 4:4 Is a call to repentance
V 6: Last week I mentioned that this occuring at the last year of King Josiah, the last of the good Kings before they were going to be ruled by evil kings. Josiah’s reign will continue until the end of Chapter 6, then we they will be under Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah
(remember that this wont always be in chronological order because they are at war and passages will kind of jump back and forth between the kings)
She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.
This decree of divorce and being sent away is referring to the exile beginning in 732 BC
Judah, the southern kingdom see’s this but follows suit.
Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, “ ‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord.
God is calling to be reconciled to unfaithful Israel, only admit your sin and repent. See that the God of the OT is the same God as the NT,
If they do this v 15 says that God will
“ ‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Like this David, wise rulers who have the very qualities they lacked as a nation.
Q: Is this possible with other nations beside Israel?
“ ‘I said, How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.
God continues to tell them what they can have, He longs and wants urgently to bless them with so much, if only they obeyed.
Chapter 4:5-31 Calls out the impending disaster from the North, Babylon. Babylon technically was east but the invading army came from the North.
v5-13 The invasion will lead to lamentations
but is should lead to repentance v 14-18
So refusing to repent is foolish v-19-31
A lion has gone up from his thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone out from his place to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant.
Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart.”
Israel’s choice to abandon God has resulted in this catastrophe. It will be a horrendous loss that will pierce the heart of the nation. The very heart that God wanted for Himself.
Q: Does it make sense that God might have to break someone down in order to humble them.
My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent, for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Jeremiah is in anguish with the state of Israel.
v23-25
I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light.
The coming destruction is in a sense an undoing of creation.
For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
But God will not completely destroy them.
Chapter 5:1-31 - The people are not willing to repent, and the consequences.
Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her.
God as He often does want to relent from His anger and provides a way out but the people are faithless. Just as Abraham tried to do for Sodom before their destruction.
Then I said, “These are only the poor; they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God. I will go to the great and will speak to them, for they know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God.” But they all alike had broken the yoke; they had burst the bonds.
Jeremiah says, maybe this is because of the poor, those who are uneducated in the Laws of God, who do not know how to do justice. I will go to the great, those who have been educated in God;s laws, they must know. But he found that they are all evildoers and covenant breakers.
And when your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’ ”
There is a consequence for not obeying His commandment, and this is it.
An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?
The people love to hear the false prophets, they will not listen to the true prophet of God and they will pay the price.
6:1-30 - God has rejected his people
For thus says the Lord of hosts: “Cut down her trees; cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem. This is the city that must be punished; there is nothing but oppression within her.
This is God speaking, notice that He is the one directing Babylon
To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it.
Earlier in Jeremaih, God describes Israel as having an uncircumsiced heart, here it talks about an uncircumcised ear. The idea behind circumcision and many of the commandments that God gave Israel is for them to be set apart and different from the surrounding nations.
Their heart should desire different things
They should be listening for different things, they hearing should search for truth not for things that sound pleasing
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
“For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.
Nothing has changed, it is still the same today in our country, businesses, schools and churches.
Thus says the Lord: “Behold, a people is coming from the north country, a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth. They lay hold on bow and javelin; they are cruel and have no mercy; the sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride on horses, set in array as a man for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion!”
Closing Message:
Fear the Lord, do not neglect His warnings in your individual life.