PRONE TO LEAVE THE GOD I LOVE ~ A study in Jeremiah

Where do marriages that begin so beautifully go so wrong? Sometimes two people who barely know each other get married only to find out they have nothing in common because their bond was merely based upon physical attraction. Sometimes it is trials that reveal a weak foundation. There are other times when one partner walks away in unfaithfulness in search of that elusive love that will satisfy. When that happens, it seems to suggest that the faithful partner could not satisfy, for whatever reason. What happens if that faithful partner is God, the perfect husband? It is absurd and illogical to think about someone walking away from that kind of love, right? Yet, that is what Israel did. Those quick to judge Israel, however, need to do a deeper search of their own hearts. Why? Because Israel represents the depravity found in all our hearts. We are all prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love. If we do not believe that, we are in real danger of walking away, too.

 

Here in verses 4-9 of Chapter 2 in the book of Jeremiah, we see God, the faithful husband, asking Israel what He did wrong. These are questions that should put the blame where it is due. God did not turn His back on His people. It was they who left Him! Sometimes we hear Christians say that God seems distant. The truth is, He will never leave us or forsake us. Ryken says, “As the saying goes, ‘If God does not seem as close as He used to, who moved?’”

 

The fact that a bride would leave even the perfect husband should be a comfort to all those devastated partners in earthly marriages who have devoted themselves to loving selflessly in marriage. If a multitude of people could leave ‘perfect love’, the problem is obviously in the heart of man.

 

Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the LORD, “What injustice did your fathers find in Me, that they went far from Me and walked after emptiness and became empty? “They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of deep darkness, through a land that no one crossed and where no man dwelt?’ I brought you into the fruitful land to eat its fruit and its good things. But you came and defiled My land, and My inheritance you made an abomination. The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ And those who handle the law did not know Me; the rulers also transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that did not profit. Therefore, I will yet contend with you,” declares the LORD, “And with your son’s sons I will contend.” (Jeremiah 2:4-9)

 

God asks: “What wrong, what wickedness, did your fathers find in Me that caused them to walk far away from Me?” People are created as spiritual beings; therefore, if they turn from the one true God, they will worship false gods. There are no other options. Romans 1 says: For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened…They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. (Romans 1:21, 25) God has legitimate grounds for divorce. His bride has committed spiritual adultery. She walked after emptiness and became empty. Following after worthless idols, she became worthless herself. You say, “That’s rather harsh! Really? Worthless?” In our culture, where a self-esteem gospel is preached inside and outside the church, our flesh recoils when anyone is called ‘worthless’. Her Creator had chosen her for Himself to honor Him. Remember the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. The Creator has a purpose in mind for His creation. To the end that creation does not fulfill that purpose, it is worthless.

 

The fathers, like all humans, were looking for fulfillment. The word fulfillment means countable, state or quality of being complete, to realize or consummate a desire or promise. In the process of seeking fulfillment outside of God, they turned from the only One who could completely satisfy the deepest longings of their soul in exchange for temporal satisfaction that leads to emptiness. Worthless means vapor, breath, vanity, something transitory and unsatisfactory. Grasping at thin air, what they worship and think will fulfill them is really nothing at all. The God of Creation can cause His creation to vanish into thin air at any time. He controls our every breath. People who walk away from the Creator to follow the creation is utterly nonsensical!

 

I remember a time when I believed I was saved but really was not. I read my Bible, prayed, and did all the things I thought it was to be a Christian. Every year, from October to the first week in January, my Bible sat on the shelf collecting dust. Why? I was too busy in all my preparations for the “Christmas” season to spend time with the Lord. I vividly remember looking back on that time after I was saved thinking how much that rationalization was so absurd.

 

Today, I can think of another picture in my mind. In prison, there are Bibles on just about every woman’s locker. There are many who profess Christianity. One would think I had died and gone to heaven for the fellowship that I should have been able to find there. Outside of a very minimal amount of true biblical fellowship I encountered there, the Lord never left me. Not for a second. I cannot even imagine coming out of my prison experience and turning away from Him to pursue any temporal satisfaction. However, most who professed to follow Christ would turn from the moment they got outside the gate. The Lord taught me to be grateful for the smallest of blessings in prison. While most say they just want to forget prison, I never want to forget.

 

Some will drift slowly away from the Lord; others will turn to Him in times of trouble, then forget Him when He has brought them to the Promised Land. Israel had gone through some very dark times, and the Lord preserved or kept them through them all. What happened? How did they forget Him? They forgot Him because they do not remember how He saved/delivered them. They don’t stop to remember how He led them by the hand through the wilderness. How did we get to where we are in our nation today…tearing down statues that should remind us of our history and our fight for freedom in this country? They should remind us of the dark days when the Lord was faithful to see us through. What happened? The Lord blessed us; that is what happened.

 

Our country was blessed with freedom, prosperity, and peace. Generations later, our land has been defiled by sinful idolatry, and the ground cries out with the blood of the most precious gift of life in the multitudes of innocent slain on the altar of ‘self’. We are no better than Israel. Somewhere along the line life got good, and people started focusing on the blessings as what they deserved rather than being grateful for those blessings from God’s hand that they did not deserve.  God is the one who does not deserve this type of treatment from His people. He owes us nothing. We owe Him everything!

 

The Israelites forgot the very love of God that chose them and delivered them from Egypt. They walked away from Him and never looked back. The people would be judged for turning away from God if they did not repent and return.

 

Next, Jeremiah turns God’s indictment towards the leaders of Israel. Israel was intended by God to be a theocracy. A theocracy was a form of government that is led by God or by a person or persons who claim to rule by divine authority. Israel was supposed to be a theocracy, but they rejected God’s rule over them, and so God gave them human kings instead. The priests were the spiritual religious leaders, the rulers were the civilian leaders or government leaders such as the judges and then the kings, the prophets were the ones who spoke for God. These prophets, however, were false prophets speaking for Baal instead of the one true God. The people should have been able to turn to their leaders for God’s advice regarding how they were to live in a wicked world. But they were no better than the people they led.

 

The leaders were not pointing people back to the Lord. In Jeremiah 23 God speaks a scathing rebuke filled with ‘woes’ to the shepherds who were destroying and scattering the sheep of His pasture. He says, “You have scattered My flock and driven them away and have not attended to them.” (verse 2) In Matthew 23, Jesus gives a similar diatribe against the hypocritical religious elite of His day, the scribes and the Pharisees. He called them blind hypocrites who were shutting off the kingdom of God from the people. They had not entered themselves, nor would they allow those who were entering to go in. How were they, whom God appointed to watch over His flock, not attending to them? Pointing people to the Lord means giving them the whole truth in love.

A minister for God should know his own depravity as the same which is in all men. He should know that he is prone to wander, prone to leave the God he loves. But these leaders were much like many preachers today, watering down the message as one that only speaks of God’s love. Motivational speeches that build up man’s already inflated ego, never saved anyone. The message of God’s love must be tempered by the fact that man’s heart is depraved, and he can do nothing to save himself.  Without preaching the whole gospel, the only gospel that saves, those in charge of God’s flock are leading people astray. Why do ministers and spiritual leaders fail to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help them God? Because those who handled the law did not know Him, the rulers transgressed against Him, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that did not profit. They might have been handling the Scriptures, studying the Bible, and teaching God’s Word, but they did not know God and they, themselves, were walking after things that were not beneficial or good for anything. John 5:39-40—You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. Why spend your life studying about God but never coming to know Him? What a worthless, unprofitable pursuit!

Emptiness in verse 5 is habal which may be a play on the name Baal. Baal was the king of the gods as the god of life and fertility. Baal means ‘owner’ or ‘lord’. Here, in verse 8 there seems to be another word play on things that did not profit which was the word ya’al.

“Therefore, I will yet contend with you,” declares the LORD, “And with your son’s sons I will contend.” God was never going to turn His head away from the seriousness of breaking covenant. Love never refuses to judge or let sin go unchecked. The contention in this marriage was going to affect future generations to come. They were going to have to live with the consequences of the sins of their forefathers. Contend is a legal term meaning to plead a case or legal suit. It means to bring charges against, to strive with words, to make a complaint against. This was a case in divorce court, but it was not a typical divorce case where two parties just walk away from each other. In the end, if you lose this court case, a stiff sentence of eternal judgment in hell will be handed down by the Judge. The separation will be eternal.