Jeremiah 14:19-22

D. Jeremiah's Third Petition Rejected Jeremiah 14:19-22

TRANSLATION

(19) Will You completely reject Judah? Will Your soul loath Zion? Why have You smitten us when there is not healing for us? We hope for peace but there was no good and for a time of healing and behold, terror. (20) We know, O LORD, our wickedness, the iniquity of our fathers for we have sinned against You. (21) For the sake of Your name do not spurn, do not demean Your glorious throne. Remember, do not forget Your covenant with us. (22) Is there any among the vanities of the nations who can produce rain? Can the heavens give showers? Are not You He, O LORD our God? And we wait for You for You have made all these things.

COMMENTS

Twice he has had his intercession rejected by God but still Jeremiah prays. With increased fervency he asks God how He can utterly reject Judah, how He can smite Judah and provide no divine healing for the wound. Misled by the false prophets the nation was confident of peace and a time of healing. But the drought continues. Nothing appeared on the horizon but the terror that accompanies any national calamity (Jeremiah 14:19). Jeremiah readily admits the sin of the nation. They are worthy of chastisement. The iniquity of Judah stretches back over the centuries to the fathers, the early ancestors of the nation (Jeremiah 14:20).

Jeremiah cannot ask for divine mercy on the grounds that Judah has taken the first feeble steps in the right direction. Nonetheless he does make a fourfold appeal for the intervention of God. (1) He asks God not to spurn the nation for the sake of Your name. When Israel suffers humiliation, the reputation of Israel's God also suffers in the eyes of the nations. A similar appeal was made by Moses in the earlier history of the nation (Exodus 32:11-12; Numbers 14:13-16). (2) Jeremiah then asks God not to demean, disgrace or dishonor His glorious throne, either Jerusalem (Jeremiah 3:17) or the Temple (Jeremiah 17:12; Ezekiel 43:7). According to the Old Testament the Lord dwells between the cherubim in the Temple (Isaiah 37:16; Psalms 80:1; Psalms 99:1). (3) Jeremiah urges God to remember His covenant with Israel even though the people have broken their side of that covenant (Jeremiah 14:21). (4) Jeremiah's final basis for appeal is simply that there is no one else to whom the people of Judah can turn. None of the vanities, i.e., idols, of the nation are capable of sending the much needed rains. The heavenly bodies which were the object of worship in Mesopotamia and Canaan as well certainly could not send the rain. It is the Lord, the God of Israel Who created the heavenly bodies and Who alone controls the processes of nature. He is the only hope for the nation. Therefore Jeremiah, speaking for his sinful people, affirms we wait for You (Jeremiah 14:22).