February 12, Jeremiah 11
”They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers. Therefore, thus says the LORD, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them." - Jeremiah 11:10-11
Some families have honored traditions of excellence and achievement that motivate each new generation of the family to live up to the level of their forebears. The house of Israel was sort of like that, but sadly, in reverse. The last generation of Israel before Jerusalem and Judah fell to the Chaldeans had lived down (not up) to the shameful (not honorable) family tradition of forsaking God to worship idols. The last generation took the vulgar worship of worthless idols to new depths (not heights) of shame (not honor).
Israel must have still had the imprint of Egyptian influence on them after they left Egypt and went to Mt. Sinai, where God gave them the Law. You recall that even before Moses came down from the mountain, Moses' brother caved to the pressure of the multitude and made a golden calf and presented it as the god who brought them out of Egypt. And through the generations and centuries of Israel's history, the nation had a chronic tendency to forsake God and adopt the gods of the Canaanites around them.
Another fact of Israel's history is that God clearly taught and commanded them from the very beginning to have no other gods, to make no images and not to take God's name in vain. All the great blessings God promised them were from the start contingent upon their obedience to God's Law. Jeremiah affirmed this with his, "So be it LORD" or his "Amen." That was in itself an echo of the ancient Israelites' eager and willing acceptance of the covenant and its commandments.
Israel did not deserve or earn God's blessings. He chose them and loved them by his grace long before he gave them a law. But obedience was a condition of enjoying the blessings of the covenant. If they persisted in disobedience, the promises of curses and punishments were just as sure and certain as the blessings God had offered.
Idols and altars to the false gods were numerous in the last days of Judah's history. What God said about the number of their idols and altars remind me of what Paul would say centuries later about the city of Athens being so wholly devoted to idols. The Israelites were no different from the pagans around them, except the Israelites were more guilty. The should have known better.
The last generation of Israel/Judah before the fall shows how hardened in sin rebels and disobedient people may become. They had reached such a level of willful transgression that God told Jeremiah to quit praying for them. He told Moses that about the people in Exodus. He told Samuel that about Saul in 1 Samuel. In the New Testament John warned that there is a sin that leads to death, and that there is no reason to pray for that one. That's how far Israel had gone — to a place where God told his righteous prophet to no longer pray for the covenant breakers.
The idolatrous tendencies and practices of Israel finally doomed the entire nation, both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Only a small remnant of faithful people would return from captivity and remain faithful to God.
Jeremiah may or may not have been a type or prefiguring of Jesus. But some of his experiences surely remind us of our Lord's life and ministry. Like Jesus, Jeremiah was rejected in his hometown, and the people who did not want to hear what he said tried to kill him. Hatred of God leads to hating his word and the messengers who faithfully deliver God's word.
In the New Testament, Hebrews reminds us of many heroes of faith to encourage us to imitate their endurance and faithfulness. It's sad but true that so much of what we know about Israel's history supplies examples we do not want to follow. I suppose those dark examples are instructive and motivational as well. They remind us that God promises to bless and reward those who are faithful to him. But with equal certainty, he promises that sin brings awful, painful and possibly fatal consequences. Let's shed a tear for these hardhearted ancient rebels, and strengthen our resolve to never become like them.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—February 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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