Jeremiah 2:29-37

E. Pungent Argument Jeremiah 2:29-37

TRANSLATION

(29) Why do you continue to complain to Me? All of you have transgressed against Me (oracle of the LORD). (30) In vain I have smitten your sons; they have not received correction; your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravening lion. (31) O generation, see the word of the LORD! Have I been a wilderness to Israel? a land of darkness? Why do my people say, We are free; we will not come again unto you? (32) Does a virgin forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten Me days without number. (33) How skillfully you set your course to seek love! Therefore even the wicked women you have taught your ways. (34) Also in your skirts is the blood of the innocent poor; you did not find them in the act of breaking in; but it is because of all these things. (35) But you say, I am innocent; surely His wrath has turned from me! Behold, I am about to enter into judgment with you because you have said, I have not sinned. (36) Why is it such a very light thing for you to change your way? Also because of Egypt you shall be ashamed as you were ashamed because of Assyria. (37) Indeed from this place you shall go out with your hands upon your head for the LORD has rejected the object of your trust and you shall not prosper because of them.

COMMENTS

In the closing verses of the inaugural sermon Jeremiah drives home his final arguments against the apostasy of the people. He points out that their complaints against God are unjustified (Jeremiah 2:29-30). Their rebellion indicates ingratitude (Jeremiah 2:31-32), their protestations of innocence are useless (Jeremiah 2:33-35) and their alliances with foreign powers are utterly unprofitable (Jeremiah 2:36-37).

1. Unjustified complaints (Jeremiah 2:29-30)

The brazen-faced apostates actually attempted to justify themselves before God. They contended with Him or complained against Him. The Hebrew word used here is the same technical legal term used in Jeremiah 2:9. It means to go to court with, to present a legal case against. The people think that they have a legal case against God; but He replies by resuming His case against them. All of the people of Israel had transgressed against God! (Jeremiah 2:29). They cannot blame Him for their failures. He had done everything in His power to keep them in the narrow paths of fidelity. As a concerned Father He had attempted to discipline his wayward children. He had smitten them with sword, drought, famine and pestilence. But these disciplinary disasters had not brought the nation to its senses. God had raised up mighty men to preach his word and call His people to repentance. Instead of heeding the message of God the people destroyed the messengers (Jeremiah 2:30). Jeremiah probably has reference here to the reign of Manasseh when much innocent blood was shed (2 Kings 21:16). According to Josephus, Manasseh's persecution extended especially to the prophets. Isaiah is said to have died a martyr's death during the reign of this tyrant.

2, Ungrateful rebellion (Jeremiah 2:31-32)

Rather than the usual Hear the word of the Lord Jeremiah here calls upon the people to see the word of the Lord. He wants his hearers to get a mental picture of the ingratitude of their rebellion against God. Has God been barren? Has He failed to provide for His people? God has not been a wilderness to His people nor a land of thick darkness. The latter expression is literally in the Hebrew land of the darkness of the Lord. It probably refers to that deep kind of darkness such as the Lord sends in judgment upon the wicked (Exodus 10:21-23). This thick darkness is symbolic here of misery and uncertainty. God did not leave Israel to grope in such darkness without guidance. Yet the people of Israel have declared, We are free![146] The word translated free means basically, to wander restlessly, to roam. As used here it is equivalent to a declaration of independence from God. As far as the people were concerned the estrangement from God was permanent: We will not come again unto you! God is asking His people in Jeremiah 2:31, How can you say such terrible things? How can I be deserving of such treatment? A maiden will not forget the ornaments or jewels which are part of her dowry, nor will a bride forget the girdle or sash which is a token of her married state. The ornaments and girdle would be objects in which any woman would take pride. Just so, God is the source of Israel's glory. Yet Israel has forgotten Him.

[146] The King James Version has taken this word to be from an entirely different root and has translated it we are lords.

3. Useless protestations (Jeremiah 2:33-35)

The evidence in the case against Israel is clear. Israel is so skillful, so brazen, so experienced in the ways of the licentious and immoral love of the Baal cult that she became a teacher to the prostitute of the street (Jeremiah 2:33). Their very garments were stained as it were with the blood of poor innocent people. No doubt the reference here is to the persecutions which spring up during the wicked reign of Manasseh (2 Kings 21:16). What a paradox! Those who were most skillful in pursuing love were at the same time belligerent towards, and intolerant of those who tried to remain faithful to the laws of God. The populace to a large degree must have supported their king in his attacks upon the faithful and the humble. Had these folks been caught red-handed attempting to break through (lit., dig through) the mud brick sides of a house then perhaps homicide might have been justified (Exodus 22:2). But this was not the case. Those who had been slain were innocent of wrong doing. They were executed because of all those things, viz., the apostasy and zeal for the false gods (Jeremiah 2:34).

In spite of the clear evidence against them Israel continued to raise strong protestations of innocence of any wrong doing. Their argument was simple: We cannot be as guilty before God as the prophets say we are because God's wrath has turned from us. The nation had been undisturbed for so long by foreign powers that they thought they were pleasing to God or at least not offending Him. If we were sinners God would have punished us; God has not punished us; therefore we must not be sinners. The fatal flaw in this reasoning is that God sometimes delays the punishment for sin in order to give the sinners ample time to repent. It will not be long now, says the prophet, and God will enter into judgment with you (Jeremiah 2:35). In that hour Israel would come to realize how utterly corrupt and sinful she had been.

4. Unprofitable alliances (Jeremiah 2:36-37)

Israel will not be able to maintain the status quo and forestall the divine judgment by political alliances. The political history of both Israel and Judah since the accession of Tiglath-pileser III in 745 B.C. had been characterized by frequent and often disastrous shifts in foreign policy. One king would yield to Assyria; his successor would secretly negotiate with Egypt. The Egyptian party seems to have held sway in Jerusalem at the time Jeremiah was preaching his first sermon. The guiding principal among the royal advisers seems to have been that a strong Egypt to the south would mean a free and independent Judah. Jerusalem would not be in danger of attack from the north so long as Egypt was a friendly ally. Sadly Jeremiah warns these political optimists that Egypt would disappoint them just as Assyria had done many years before. The prophet probably has in mind that episode when king Ahaz urgently called upon Tiglath-pileser III to come and rescue him from an attack by neighboring kings. The king of Assyria was more than glad to comply with this request but at the same time demanded that the king of Judah render tribute to him. Ahaz stripped the Temple and his own palace to bribe Tiglath-pileser (2 Chronicles 28:20).

Political alliances with Egypt would not be able to deliver Jerusalem from destruction. The day would come when they would go out from Jerusalem with their hands upon their heads in a gesture of shame and surrender (cf. 2 Samuel 13:19). They will not prosper because of their political schemes for God had rejected that nation in whom Israel trusted, viz., Egypt. Hosea had warned against alliance with Egypt (Hosea 7:11; Hosea 12:1) and Isaiah had repeated the warning (Isaiah 31:1). The prophetic warning against trusting Egypt was justified more than once in the history of both Israel and Judah. The most dramatic demonstration of Egyptian ineffectiveness came during the final siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Pharaoh Hophra tried to march to the aid of Jerusalem but the great Babylonian monarch easily defeated him and resumed the siege which he had temporarily suspended (Jeremiah 37).