Jeremiah 2:1-19

Jeremiah 2:1. Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.

God remembered what Israel used to be in those good days when the Lord alone did lead them and there was no strange god among them. Now he bids them remember from whence they had fallen, and repent and do their first works lest he come unto them in wrath. Oh, beloved, if you ever lived near to God if you ever rested your head on Christ's bosom, and have now wandered away from him and are spiritually cold and dead, begin to chide yourself; for the Lord himself, in the word before us, doth chide you. He calls you to a sorrowful remembrance of the position from which you have descended the heights of grace from which you have come down. Breathe the prayer that he would restore you again. «Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee.»

Jeremiah 2:4. Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your father found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

He asks them whether there was any fault in him any failure in keeping his promise, whether he had dealt unjustly or unmercifully with them that they had thus gone away from him and walked after vanity.

Jeremiah 2:6. Neither said they; Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?

Ought they not always to have remembered the wonderful wilderness journey where God seemed to multiply his miracles in the midst of their great necessities? Some of you have passed through a wilderness too, yet have you been richly supplied. You have had to admire the constancy of the divine goodness. God has not failed you ever, even in your worst circumstances. Do not let it be said of you that you never say, «Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt.» On the contrary, always fly to him when you are in time of trouble. Remember that this is the way to glorify God. «He shall call upon me and I will answer him « is one of God's own promises; and then he adds «and he shall glorify me.»

Jeremiah 2:7. And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination. The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

Was not this very shameful that in Canaan, which God had chosen beyond all countries for its fertility that he might give it to his own people for ever, there they began to set up idols, and altars to other gods? And the priests, whose lips ought to have kept knowledge, and the prophets who above all men were bound to have spoken in the name of the Lord joined the people in their sin. They even urged them to worship Baal that dummy deity, unworthy of a moment's respect who should not have been so much as thought of by God's people. They ought not even to have taken the name of Baal into their lips. Do you not see yourselves here, O backsliders? If you ever knew the Lord and have gone back to the world, if you have submitted yourselves again to the powers thereof, and sinned with a high hand, have you not acted most shamefully towards your God? And ought you not, with a blushing countenance and weeping eyes to return to him and ask mercy at his hands?

Jeremiah 2:9. Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead. For pass over the Isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.

How powerfully this is put! No other nation gave up its gods. Though they were no gods, but mere images of clay or gold, they would not change them. They stuck to their idolatries with wonderful pertinacity; but God's people gave up the true God to worship the demons of the nations round about. And is it not an unhappy thing that there are now some who at least call themselves God's people who go back to the world and seem to be more in love with it than ever they were? It is a horrible thing that is done. I have heard of a chieftain of an Indian tribe whose nephew was converted to the faith but who, after a short time, fell into sin and renounced his profession; the old chief used always to answer all the teaching of the missionary with this argument: «My nephew tried it and gave it up. He ought to know.» Well, when this was told to the young man it broke his heart, and happily brought him back to the God he had forsaken. Perhaps there are some in the world who are gathering excuses for continuing in sin from the unhappy conduct of such as backslide. «Look at him,» say they, «how hot and zealous he was, and see what he is now.» Can you bear the thought, backslider? If there remains a spark of love to Christ in your soul, you will feel bitterly the sorrow that others should make an excuse for blasphemy and for rebellion against Christ, out of your evil conduct. Oh, pray tonight «Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit.»

Jeremiah 2:12. Be astonished O, ye heavens at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

If a man should change for the better, his selfishness might be a little excuse for leaving his old love, but when he changes for the worse leaves a fountain for a cistern a flowing fountain for a broken cistern that holds nothing why, there is madness in his sin. «Be astonished, O ye heavens and be horribly afraid.»

Jeremiah 2:14. Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled? The young lions roared upon him and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant. Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?

The people of Israel had got into a dreadful state of poverty and famine and oppression. Their enemies had so destroyed the land that it was full of lions that even yelled in the very streets where once men and women and children abounded. And God says to them, «Is not this the result of your own sin? Was it so when you lived near to me? Have you not brought this upon yourself by your sin?» So, child of God, if you are unhappy tonight if you are mourning if you cannot find comfort in the world no comfort in God either, «hast thou not procured this unto thyself? When thou didst live near to God, when prayer was continual, when thou didst watch thy conduct, when thou didst go softly asking God to guide thee from day to day, was it not better with thee then than now. Then thy peace was like a river and thy righteousness like the waves of the sea. If it be not so now, hast thou not procured this unto thyself in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way?

Jeremiah 2:18. And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?

For instead of going to the fountain of living waters, they were hoping to be helped by the Egyptians or helped by the Assyrians. Just as there are some Christians who try to drink the muddy waters of sinful pleasure and of carnal lust, they are beginning to think the muddy river very sweet and to like the taste of it. It is a deadly evil when professing Christians begin to do as others do, and to mix with the world and feel pleasure in it. There will be a blight upon you if you turn from God! Misery will dog your steps ere long, if you be indeed a child of God.

Jeremiah 2:19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

A very solemn passage. May we lay it to heart. Not only is there guilt in our sin for which we shall have to answer at God's judgment seat, but there is evil in it which will come swiftly upon our own heads even here, «Be sure thy sin will find thee out.» The thing thou thinkest will be thy strength, will be thy scourge. What thou dreamest of as pleasure will prove to be thy plague. If thou hast ever known the joy of God's service all this shall be doubly true of thee: thou shalt never be able again to find satisfaction in the world, and God, the God whom thou didst once delight in, will let thine own wickedness correct thee, and thy backslidings reprove thee, because he wishes thee to come back again to his side, and to drink again of the living waters which thou hast so foolishly forsaken.