Chuck Larsen

As I begin my study of Jeremiah chapter 4, it occurs to me that this chapter is a complete section in and of itself. Guest described it in his commentary, “This section is a series of poems, the pithiest to be found anywhere. They were preached as sermons. Like any good communicator, Jeremiah scorned the vague, the colorless, and the irresolute and struck right at the heart. After all, the southern kingdom, to whom Jeremiah’s words were directed, was in serious trouble, and he must reach beyond their complacency and stir them to redemption.”^[1] His call to the prodigal nation again is one to leave the pig sty and come home!

In coming home, there is only one place to go. The Israelites had probably moved from one thing to another in their attempt to find happiness and purpose in life. They’ve moved between the god’s of the Babylonians, to the gods of the Assyrian and as far-fetched as it may sound they had even spent time with the gods of the Egyptians. I suppose it’s not a lot different from our own generation. We move from pleasure to possessions to prestige to power all in the hopes of making our lives more meaningful and rewarding. At the end we all wind up as the prodigal son! We’ve wasted our days and wasted our nights.

In Jeremiah 4:1-2, God repeats His plea to His people to simply give up on their own ways and means and come on home. There is only one God, the true God and the light of the world. These verses say, “If you return, O Israel, declares the Lord, to me you should return. If you remove your detestable things from my presence, and do not waver, and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations shall bless themselves in him and in him shall they glory.” God promises Israel that if they come home to Him the nations will come also. Ryken says, “This is a description of the nation’s joining in a united expression of joy and thanksgiving at the excellence and supremacy of the Lord who has made this provision for their salvation.”^[2] Through a believing nation, a world could be won to faith in the one true God! That’s what will happen when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I think this is part of what we’re praying for when we say “…thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

^[1] John Guest and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, Jeremiah, Lamentations, vol. 19, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1988), 49–50.

^[2] John L. Mackay, Jeremiah: An Introduction and Commentary: Chapters 1–20, vol. 1, Mentor Commentaries (Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Mentor, 2004), 204.

It’s interesting to hear Jeremiah repent and confess the sin of his people and his nation on their behalf. He uses the “we” in is confession because although he’s held the line, he is still part of the people who have deserted their God and turned to idols. It’s not “their” sin. It’s not “their” shame. It’s his as well. In Jeremiah 3:25 he writes, “Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

Adam and Eve did not obey “the voice of the Lord our God” when they decided to believe and trust the lies of Satan concerning the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In effect all sin is failing to trust God’s words, or failing to obey the “voice of the Lord our God.” Israel had the words of God as well that Moses articulated for them around Sinai. They entered into a covenant with God while on the mountain. But as time went by they exchanged what mattered most for what mattered least. Craigie says, “The nature of the sin, as it is specified at the end of v 25, is the failure to obey God’s voice: that is, the failure to obey the covenant stipulations for the faith of Israel. Obedience to the divine voice should have sprung from love for the God of covenant; when love had been turned aside from God to the deities of the hillside shrines, true obedience was no longer possible, for the promptings of the divine voice were drowned out by the murmurings on the mountains.”^[1]

Feinberg says, “How costly their idolatry was in terms of property and even more in terms of the sacrifices of their sons and daughters! And the malady was of long standing. So at the end of the chapter, we see the nation robbed of her vigor, possessions, and dignity, totally cast down by her sin and willing to endure the grief it has caused. As mourners lie down in dust and cover themselves with it, so the nation lies prostrate on the ground (v.25).”^[2] I think he’s wrong! This verse is Jeremiah’s repentance on behalf of his people, but they do not respond accordingly. Huey is correct, “If these words had been an expression of sincere repentance and return to God, the rest of Jeremiah’s ministry would have been unnecessary.”^[3] Jeremiah prays the penitent’s prayer for his people. He sets an example of prayer for us. Barrett says, “The prayers of Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah demonstrate the genuine sorrow over national sin and desire for God’s glory that mark corporate confession. These are just a few, and when you include the New Testament examples of Mary, Paul and Christ Himself there is ample precedent to study and to imitate.”^[4]

^[1] Peter C. Craigie, Jeremiah 1–25, vol. 26, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas, TX: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 66.

^[2] Charles L. Feinberg, “Jeremiah,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 6 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 404.

^[3] F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations, vol. 16, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 78–79.

^[4] Michael P. V. Barrett, The Beauty of Holiness: A Guide to Biblical Worship (Greenville, South Carolina; Belfast, Northern Ireland: Ambassador International, 2006), 87.

Sin is expensive. Not only does it leave nothing of value behind, it prevents you from investing those resources; financial, physical, emotional and intellectual, in any pursuit of something that reaps a positive reward. There are individuals in the family tree that build wealth and reputation for generations that follow. Then there are individuals in the family tree that squander the resources from the past and destroy the heritage for those of the future. This is the very indictment that Jeremiah explains when he describes the cry of the Israelites. Jeremiah 3:24 says, “But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.”

Ryken explains this situation well. He writes, “Next God’s people confess how costly their sin has been. False gods are harsh taskmasters. They always damage the people who worship them. In this case they have consumed the ‘flocks and herds’ of Israel (Jeremiah 3:24). Worse still, they have even consumed ‘their sons and daughters.’ This is not pleasant to talk about, but the evidence is mounting that God’s people were guilty of child sacrifice. Some of the gods they worshiped demanded the lives of their children, and they were willing to offer them.”^[1] Later in Jeremiah chapter 7, we’ll read about the “valley of slaughter” where the future was destroyed as the children were sacrificed for the pleasurable pursuits of the present.

Another commentator says, “Sin would be their bed, humiliation their blanket, but they could not claim that someone else had done this to them. They had made their own bed and must lie in it. The only possibility of a new life lay in recognition of sin, and the words of confession, here stated, opened the door of exit from the bedroom of shame.”^[2] MacArthur writes, “We live in an era of immediate gratification. No generation prior to this has ever had access to so many means of fulfilling fleshly desires in a here-and-now fashion. For example, we have credit cards that allow us to own what we can’t afford, go where we wouldn’t be able to go, and do what would otherwise be impossible for us to do. Only later do we have to begin paying. The prevalence of uncontrolled credit-card debt is symptomatic of an attitude that says, “I want what I want when I want it!” The mindset of our age is against postponed pleasures of any kind. We prefer instant gratification, and we all too willingly sacrifice the future on the altar of the immediate.”^[3]

^[1] Philip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 69.

^[2] Peter C. Craigie, Jeremiah 1–25, vol. 26, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas, TX: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 65–66.

^[3] John MacArthur, The Glory of Heaven: The Truth about Heaven, Angels, and Eternal Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1996), 46.

Jeremiah 3:23 can be a little confusing unless you understand the context. It says, “Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.” The thing that caught my attention first was that there are really only two comments in this verse. They both begin with the word “truly.” First, it’s a comment on the unfulfilling character of sin. The pagan practices on the “high places” or “hills” had drawn Israel into some extremely radical religious practices. These practices involved sexual promiscuity and even cult prostitution. The “hills” and the “mountains” of pagan practices, as Craigie puts it, “were in reality a sham; the words spoken there, for all their promise of fertility and prosperity, were essentially no more than “murmurings,” words without true substance.  For Israel, “salvation” (victory, deliverance) could only be found in the one true God of the covenant.”^[1]

Feinberg has a similar understanding. He writes, “Once more the way to ruin and the way of deliverance are stated. Idolatry with its wild and clamorous excesses is the way of death, but the way of salvation and life is in the Lord.”^[2] When we read the prophets condemnation of the sins of Israel it’s not readily apparent that the same experiences have been part and parcel of every generation of mankind from the days of Adam to our own day. As Ryken observes, “Jeremiah is not just a book about what happened to Judah; it is a book about what happens to anyone who abandons God.” The ultimate cry of the wasted life discovered in the pigsty of prodigal children is not new to any generation. The “vanity” of the pursuit of pleasure, possessions and prestige has been experienced in ever era and is being experienced in our own day as well.

There is ample evidence of that. Ryken continues his commentary, “Loud cries may be heard from the barren heights of our own culture. We hear the cries in modern art, as in Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream, in which a wraithlike figure stands on a bridge, holds his ears, and howls in agony at the world. We hear the cries in modern literature, as at the end of T. S. Eliot’s poem The Hollow Men: This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world end. Not with a bang but a whimper. We hear cries from the barren heights of the families of our nation, like in Merton P. Stromann’s books Five Cries of Youth and Five Cries of Parents. We can even hear them from within the womb in ex-abortionist Bernard Nathanson’s famous film, The Silent Scream. Many people hear the same cry welling up from somewhere deep within the soul. It is a cry from the barren heights, the weeping and pleading of people who have perverted their ways and forgotten the Lord their God.”^[3]

^[1] Peter C. Craigie, Jeremiah 1–25, vol. 26, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas, TX: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 65.

^[2] Charles L. Feinberg, “Jeremiah,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 6 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 404.

^[3] Philip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 66.

Several times in Jeremiah he invites the wayward children of Israel to come back home to the God of their fathers. Jeremiah 3:22 is another invitation to come home. It says, “Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.” The last part of the verse expresses what Jeremiah hopes the people will say, “Behold, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God.” It’s another invitation. In Chapter 3 alone he indicts the nation for their sin but always concludes with an invitation. As Ryken observes, “Four times he speaks in this passage to invite his people to come back home. These invitations need to be underscored.” We should pay close attention to them because in those invitations we can see God’s heart for His people.

The commentators are divided on the interpretation of the last part of verse 22. Martens explains the three interpretation options, “One interpretation is that verses 22b–25 are the people’s response of confession, and that God’s welcome is in Jeremiah 4:1. Another is that as in Hosea 14:2. God is placing words in their mouths to show what ‘turning’ would mean: these are the words they should say. A third interpretation is that these are insincere mouthing’s of repentance, and that 4:1 is essentially a rejection.^[1] Again, regardless of the reaction of people, I suggest that the important point of the invitations is that we see what’s on God’s heart.

Ryken goes on to say, “As we listen to everything Jeremiah has to say about sin and judgment, we may find ourselves asking, ‘Where is the grace?’ When I preached a long series of sermons on Jeremiah, someone in the congregation confessed that Jeremiah sometimes made him feel like hiding under his pew. This is understandable. But when the grace of God does come in Jeremiah’s book, it shines like a lighthouse on a stormy night. God’s grace is inviting. ‘Return, faithless Israel … for I am merciful’ (v. 12). ‘Return, faithless people … for I am your husband’ (v. 14). ‘Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding’ (v. 22). ‘If you will return, O Israel, return to me’ (4:1). The message is starting to get through. Even though you have been unfaithful to God, like a cheating wife or a prodigal son, God loves you and wants you to come back home. If God gave gracious invitations in Jeremiah’s day, he gives them all the more in our own day, because now he has given us Jesus Christ. The gospel is full of sweet invitations.”^[2]

^[1] E. A. Martens, Jeremiah, Believers Church Bible Commentary (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1986), 56.

^[2] Philip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 66–67.

When Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son, I think he was speaking about Israel. Even in the Old Testament Israel, referring to both the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, was called God’s son. He was their father and that image of God the Father and the Nation of Israel being His son is often referred to. The prodigal son took all that was given to him by the father and ran off to a far country to revel in the pleasures of the world. The son was left to make his own choices and ended up with the ravages of sin on his life. He finally came to the end of himself while eating food given to the pigs belonging to his employer. When the hold of the world was finally broken, the son repented and his first thought was his father and all that he had left behind. He wanted to come home and the father was waiting to welcome him.

Jeremiah 3:21 pictures the prodigal son, the Nation of Israel, in the mud sin eating the food given to the swine. Will they come to their senses? Will they remember their Father? Will they come home? The text says no; “A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons because they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the Lord their God.” They have come to the end of themselves and to the end of their sin. Craigie puts it this way; “His words conjure up the sound of lament, issuing from a nation that has at last perceived the error of its ways; having forgotten God, their paths through life have become the twisted byways of evil, away from the true source of their existence. In anguish, perceiving the error of their ways, the people turn back to God in entreaty and repentance—or such was the prophet’s desire.”^[1] Unfortunately, the prophet’s desire was not realized.

Huey isn’t sure who the people are “weeping to.” He thinks the description is reminiscent of the prophets of Baal in their contest with Elijah. They moaned and screamed and cut themselves but to no avail. He writes, “It is not certain whether he was describing weeping and pleading directed toward God by a repentant people or whether they were pleading with their fertility gods to hear their prayers (cf. 1 Kgs 18:26–29).”^[2] The prodigal son’s heart turned towards home and the father. But Israel’s did not. They persisted in their well-worn path to destruction and found themselves without hope in a bitter, meaningless, uncaring world. We are often like that, yet there is a heavenly Father who loves us and calls to come home. He is yearning to place the family crest on our fingers and the cloak of sonship around our shoulders. We just need to come home!

^[1] Peter C. Craigie, Jeremiah 1–25, vol. 26, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas, TX: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 64.

^[2] F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations, vol. 16, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 78.

When Jeremiah picks up his indictment of Israel again in Jeremiah 3:20, he uses the term “Israel” to refer to both Judah and the Northern kingdom, Israel, with its capital in Samaria. As His child, Israel had become prodigal. God calls them to come home. As a spouse, Israel had been unfaithful and has forsaken her vows. This verse uses a new word for her infidelity. Jeremiah speaks for God, “Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel, declares the LORD.”

Lange observes that, Israel takes “…it as an affront to be told of their faults, and called upon to amend them; … They are so ignorant of themselves, and of the strictness, extent, and spiritual nature of the divine law, that they see nothing in themselves to be repented of; they are pure in their own eyes, and think they need no repentance. Many ruin their souls by baffling the calls to repentance.”^[1] But the idols they refuse to abandon bring no satisfaction in the end. The bleed us dry of life, health and contentment and simply drive us to lust for more. There is a true emptiness in the pursuit of the pleasures of the flesh, the pride of life, and the lust of the eyes. There are no lasting joys in serving these idols. It’s the end of these pursuits that brought the prodigal son to his senses. It was so for many others since then as well.

Spurgeon said, “The worst of crimes—that a wife should be false to her marriage vows, and turn aside from her husband whom she is bound to love; and very seldom is it that a husband calls a treacherous wife back again,—but God in infinite mercy hates putting away. He cannot bear divorce. He holds still to the object of his love; and therefore complains with a sweet fidelity of affection, of the treachery of Israel; and while he is doing it a voice is heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel, for they have perverted their way, and have forgotten Jehovah their God; and therefore what was there for them but sorrow. They were on their high places offering sacrifice and incense to their new gods; and instead of joy and holy psalms and hymns of delight, they were crying like the priests of Baal, and cutting themselves and torturing themselves. God heard it, weeping and supplications, not to him, for they had perverted their way. Their sorrow did not come from him, for they had forgotten the Lord their God. But that sorrow had something hopeful about it. They found no joy in their new gods, and derived no comfort from their backslidings.”^[2]

^[1] John Peter Lange, Philip Schaff, and Joseph Packard, A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Malachi (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 23.

^[2] C. H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 58 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1912), 504.