There’s a time to rejoice and this wasn’t that time. God was going to bring judgment because of their avalanche of sin. It was immorality gone wild. God had warned them so many times and it did no good. People wanted their sin and they justified it.
The Lord tells them they will return to slavery as in the days of Egypt and Assyria would be their taskmasters. Then what would it matter? What would their silver, their fields, their special days matter? When under oppression, these things are meaningless.
Their sins were so great that the prophets who warned them were considered fools. The people had sunk deep into corruption.
The LORD remembers for a moment the early days with them. They were like finding sweet and tasty grapes in a barren desert. They were like the joy of the first fruits of a tree.
But when enticed with idols, they ran to worship. Why? Because the mantra around the idols was oftentimes fertility. ‘Have sex with the temple prostitutes and in the same way there will be fruitfulness in the land.’ That was the lie. Free sex religiously justified.
So God was going to withhold from them conception and life. He would need them to know who opens the womb and it wasn’t the gods. But to do so meant there would be a time of barrenness among the people, and they would find out that their gods were just wood made by mere men.
Then the LORD says some really hard things to swallow.
”Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there…” (v. 13)
What was in Gilgal? Sexual immorality and idolatry.
He hated them? Hated?
And then there’s this:
“I will no longer love them” (v. 15).
What?
What is he saying?
Several places in the Bible the LORD uses love/hate language (Jacob/Esau) to contrast righteousness and pending judgment. It is a statement of having to issue an ultimatum of separation. And we see this here in the next verse:
“My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him” (v. 17).
What he is saying with this strong language is that he will no longer be able to show his kindness and love, but will have to send them into judgment. It is clear but the lengthy diatribes and multiples speeches of the prophets that he would rather have shown them mercy.
But they would not have it. They wanted God and their sin and it doesn’t work that way.
It’s a tough thing to say. It’s like a parent who has finally reached the end and has to let their children face the full consequences of their action.
It brings up another question. If God says he rejects Israel here for their many sins and sends them to judgment (he will eventually restore them), how much more when the Gentile nations participate in ever increasing levels of evil?