“Do not pray for these people” (v. 16). It says it right there. So firm was the judgment against Judah and Jerusalem that the LORD tells Jeremiah not to even pray for them as he will not listen. Their sins have been far too great for far too long. Judgment will come. God has made up his mind.
It was a statement of pain. But not without one last chance. He still called and directed Jeremiah to speak to them. To plead with them to turn.
Jeremiah is told to stand at the city gate and warn the people. To tell them to turn from their evil ways and to love God and walk in truth and righteousness and justice. If only they would turn the Lord would relent…
The problem was that the people didn’t care to listen. They would say we have the “temple of the LORD” so we are safe. Kind of life someone saying I am baptized, tithe-paying church goer so it doesn’t really matter. I’m safe.
But Jeremiah was to confront them anyway. He did so knowing they would not listen (v. 27).
Their sins were many. They did evil to one another and as every human in history has done, they justified it. But the one sin that was so far beyond was their spiritual adultery. They were the covenant people of God, and yet the brazenly practiced adultery to other gods. The whole family.
“The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven” (v. 18).
God spoke to them to return to him. To worship him. To obey him by doing what was right, righteous and just. But they didn’t listen. They kept doing evil and worshiping other gods.
“Obey Me, and then I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you. Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention but followed their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.” (v. 23-24).
God wanted to bless them abundantly. But he wasn’t going to bless evil.
“This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the LORD their God and would not accept discipline. Truth has perished–it has disappeared from their mouths” (v. 28).
So he would give them over to the gods of the nation they worshipped–the Babylonians. They would be carried off to Babylon where they could worship their gods endlessly. And they would discover just how stark the differences were in worshiping false gods and the true God. It would be sad.
“I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and gladness and the voices of the groom and the bride, for the land will become a desolate waste” (v. 34).
They had no idea how terrible the times would be. So they put their hands over their ears. They proclaimed, “The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD” (v. 4). And then they went and worshipped the Babylonian queen of heaven.
There’s not a husband in the world that can put up with his wife’s adulteries forever.
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So this causes me to think.
- In what do I commit spiritual adultery to the LORD? The “gods” and “idols” are not so obvious, but they are very present, just in different forms. Where does God not get the time or glory in my life? Are there areas where I am not walking righteously towards my fellow man?
- I think of how this looks in churches today. Is it true that the houses of worship have at times become places of drag queen shows?
- What do we think will save us from His judgment that he pours out on nations? Leaders? Our military? Our false bravado?
