Jeremiah 14:7-12

B. The Prophet's Intercession Rejected Jeremiah 14:7-12

TRANSLATION

(7) If our iniquities testified against us act, O LORD, for the sake of Your name; for our backsliding are many, against You we have sinned. (8) O Hope of Israel! His Savior in the time of distress! Why should You be like a stranger in the land and like a wayfaring man who has turned aside for lodging. (9) Why have You become like a man astounded, like a mighty man that cannot save? But You are in our midst, O LORD, and we are called by Your name; do not let us down. (10) Thus says the LORD to this people: Thus they love to wander! Their feet they have not refrained. Therefore the LORD takes no pleasure in them. Now He will remember their iniquity that He may punish their sins. (11) And the LORD said unto me, Do not pray for the good of this people. (12) When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they offer up burnt offerings and meal offerings I will not accept them; but with sword and famine and pestilence I am about to consume them.

COMMENTS

From his narration recounting the plight of the nation Jeremiah moves to formal intercession. He makes no excuses. He openly confesses the sin and guilt of his people. Yet he calls upon God to intervene on behalf of the drought-stricken nation for the sake of Your name (Jeremiah 14:7). He is asking God to act in His own self-interest. Should God allow His people to be done in by the drought the heathen would boast. In antiquity the esteem in which a deity was held by the world community was in direct proportion to the national well-being of the people who worshiped that deity. The thought may also be present that the Lord's name pledges Him to be merciful toward His people even when they have sinned against Him.

The prophet still trusts in God in spite of the terrible drought. He addresses the Lord as the hope of Israel and as his (i.e., Israel'S) Savior in the time of distress. The concept of God as savior goes back to the period of the Judges when God would raise up saviors or deliverers for His people (Judges 3:9; Nehemiah 9:27). King Jehoahaz who was able to break the yoke of Aramaen oppression is also called a savior (2 Kings 13:5; 2 Kings 13:25). God is first called savior in 2 Samuel 22:3, a psalm attributed to David. The name savior was one of the favorites of the prophet Isaiah who uses it at least eight times. God in the past has proved Himself to be a savior to Israel and Jeremiah is confident that God can and will so reveal Himself again in the present crisis.

While Jeremiah believes in God's ability to save he is unable to comprehend why the Lord delays His intervention on behalf of Israel. Two questions are directed to God both of which are in reality appeals for divine aid. (1) Why have You, Lord, become to us like a stranger or wayfaring man? (Jeremiah 14:8). One who merely passes through a country takes no active interest in the affairs of that land. It seems to Jeremiah that as far as Israel was concerned God had become a disinterested bystander, unwilling to get involved. (2) Why have you become like a mighty warrior who is dumbfounded? Jeremiah knows that God has the power to intervene; but God seems to have become like a soldier who in battle becomes terrified to the point of paralysis. The Septuagint renders the phrase like a man in a deep sleep. The point is that God has not acted on behalf of His people and Jeremiah cannot understand it. He knows that God is still in the midst of the nation. He knows that Israel still wears the name of God as His national bride. Therefore he calls upon God, Do not let us down (Jeremiah 14:9).

God's reply to the praying prophet is straightforward and blunt. He does not deny that He has in fact abandoned His people. But He has forsaken them because they first abandoned Him. They love to wander after other gods and neither the national leaders nor the people themselves have made any effort to curb that quest for idolatry. As a result God cannot accept or countenance such a people. The Lord reminds Jeremiah of the threat he had earlier spoken concerning Israel: NOW He will remember their iniquity that He may punish their sins (Jeremiah 14:10). In view of the fact the judgment has already been decreed it is useless for Jeremiah to continue to pray for his people (Jeremiah 14:11). Nor will God be influenced by the ritualistic cries for help which might accompany the burnt offerings and meal offerings. God is not ruling out the possibility of sincere repentance for later, in the eleventh hour of the final siege, Jeremiah still holds out to the people the possibility of survival if they will only submit to the Lord. The thrust here is that God knows the heart of a man and He will not accept outward forms in place of genuine repentance. Ritual will not work any longer. God is about to consume them with war and all of its accompanying calamities (Jeremiah 14:12).