The Lord continues to speak to Judah in its final days. Judgment and hope.
The Lord continues to offer a way out of the coming judgment. "If you return to me..." but not as an abuse victim begging for more of the same, the Lord reminds them of what it takes to come back to Him- putting away the detestable idols, lift up the Lord's name, and focus on truth, justice, and righteousness, His heart will turn back to them.
In verse 3 He gives a farming analogy, break up the ground that has sat fallow and grown hard. Don't waste your seeds on this hard ground. Break it up so the seeds of the Lord can go deep and survive to bear fruit. This is the same analogy Jesus gave, when the Farmer sows His seed, with the Farmer being the Father and the seed being the word of the Lord, the type of ground determines if the seed is fruitful. And the ground is equal to the condition of the human heart receiving the seed.
Verse 4 reiterates the common command to circumcise ourselves by removing the foreskin of our heart. Circumcision is a permanent, physical change we make to ourselves that forever sets us apart for the Lord. It's not enough to get a tattoo on our arm. Any fool can wear a cross necklace. But our hearts...that's real permanence. And that should be the thing that truly sets us apart. We should be a peculiar people and it should radiate from our hearts.
The MacArthur Bible Commentary asserts that circumcision surgery cut off the flesh that held disease that could be passed to the wife. This preserved the ability to reproduce and keep everyone healthy. Therefore, circumcising our heart is cutting away the fleshly parts that allow the disease of sin to spread in us.
In this case, the second half of verse 4 is the warning if they aren't able to get their fallow ground broken and their heart circumcised... the wrath of God will soon follow.
The Lord is longsuffering, until He's not.
Starting in verse 5 we get a chilling warning that judgment is already on the way. He warns Judah and Jerusalem to sound the trumpet and send everyone to walled cities. Zion is there only refuge. He describes destruction coming from the north and uses a lion as a symbol of the destroyer that's already on the move.
He states that He is bringing evil from the north. That's a tough one. But having read everything that's happened up until now and the truly evil choices Judah has made, we know that Judah brought that evil down on themselves. We don't always believe we're going to pay for our bad choices; but the delay in consequences is often grace- giving us a chance. As opposed to approval or acquiescence.
For this put on sackcloth,
lament and wail,
for the fierce anger of the Lord
has not turned back from us.” Jeremiah 4:8
I included this verse 8 to point out that, up until now, there have been a lot of calls for repentance; but now, the message is, "lament." That's the best advice left. The door has closed on all of the other options.
Starting in verse 9, Jeremiah describes what will happen when this lion arrives. The heart of the king and princes will fail. The priests will be appalled and the prophets will be astounded. Reminds me of the old joke about why can't the fortune teller win the lottery. The prophets shouldn't be astounded by anything. If they were real prophets and connected to the Lord. But they've been lying and now no one is ready for the evil from the north.
I don't understand verse 10, I'll be anxious to read what the commentaries say. I reads like Jeremiah is accusing the Lord of lying to the people and promising peace. Which does not make sense. The commentaries seem to say that the false prophets were promising peace, so the people continued in their sin.
Verses 11-12 change from the imagery of a lion to the scorching desert winds. Not to cleanse but to bring judgment.
Jeremiah offers a response for what the people will say in response, starting in verse 13. "Woe to us for we are ruined."
O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil,
that you may be saved.
How long shall your wicked thoughts
lodge within you? Jeremiah 4:14
Always offering a way of escape, again they are encouraged to repent.
MacArthur asserts it's Jeremiah calling for repentance here out of his devastation for what he sees coming.
In verses 15-16, there is a voice from Dan and Ephraim, and I think it's saying the northern tribes are warning about the wickedness coming their way. And it's particularly important because they know what it means when God's longsuffering runs out.
Your ways and your deeds
have brought this upon you.
This is your doom, and it is bitter;
it has reached your very heart.” Jeremiah 4:18
What a tragic indictment.
Starting in verse 19, Jeremiah pours out his heart based on what he now foreknows.
- His soul is in anguish.
- His heart is racing
- He cannot help but pour out warnings to them as he keep shearing the warning trumpet sound for them.
- He sees the devastation to come and proclaims over and over.
God speaks in verse 22 and I think that he's answering the hand-wringing from Jeremiah. He points out that His people are foolish children who only seem to know how to do evil and not good.
Jeremiah describes the devastation, from verse 23 and it's not good. Very, very not good. He uses the phrase "formless and void" to describe what he's seeing. Sound familiar? It should. It's how God described the earth before it's formation, formless and void. The devastation to come is so bleak it's like the world before creation-nothing upon nothing upon nothing.
- no light
- quaking mountains
- mobile hills
- no man
- birds have all fled
- fruitful land is now wilderness
- cities pulled down
"Before the Lord, before his fierce anger."
God is longsuffering until He's not.
I just had the saddest, most convicting thought. If this is how God poured out His wrath on this small group of people, how much wrath was poured out on Jesus Christ for the sins of all of those He died for? It's inconceivable how inconceivable it is. Thank you so much, Lord Jesus.
10.26.24
For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. Jeremiah 4:27
Verse 27 shows us something about our Lord. Even when His longsuffering wears out and He's done; He leaves a root so that He can fulfill His covenants with Abraham, Moses, and David.
The earth will mourn and the heaven go dark. He is grieved by the way it has to go; but He is not going to change His mind. Every city will be forsaken, no man left in them, and still Judah will reach out to foreigners for help, like a prostitute trying to get her fix. Those foreigner will despise Judah, like someone would with a prostitute trying to get a fix.
Verse 31 ends the chapter with the image of the cry of a woman in labor. Zion gasping and fainting before her murderers.
It's all so sad. So unnecessary. The Lord was willing to be their God. Their source of protection, provision, and strength. And the only real source for any of those things. And they chose idols and foreign powers.
However, that glint of hope in verse 27 is where I want to put my focus. Babylon does bring destruction down on Judah; but does it in three waves. We know from the book of Daniel that King Nebuchadnezzar hauls off the kids of the nobles and royal in the first wave and murders the princes that are left by the third wave. So, even in how He allowed Babylon to bring destruction, God spared the people who could fulfill His covenant. There would be a remnant, and the right remnant for the ultimate mission.
He is the Way Maker. He is sovereign. He can be trusted even when we see things falling down around us that we thought were stable. In Him alone we find real protection, provision, and strength. Amen.