Jeremiah 2:1-25

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 first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him shalt offend; evil shall come upon then, saith the LORD.

God reminds his people of what they used to be in their first days, when they came out of Egypt. They had very sadly declined from what they then were. They were none too faithful to the Lord then; but they had fallen back even from that condition. Does not this passage come home to some of you who are not now what you once were? May the Lord graciously speak through these words to your ear, and to your heart, if you have backslidden from him in any degree!

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 fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain

What faults have you to find with God, that you have left him? What fault have you seen in the ever-blessed Christ, that your love to him should have grown cold?

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? 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.

It is a sad charge against anybody that he forgets the care that God has taken of him in the days of his poverty and affliction. When a man becomes rich, and is surrounded by earthly comforts, it is a terrible thing that he should then forget God; or that, the more God does for him, the less he thinks of God. This is strangely ungrateful conduct, yet the children of Israel acted thus. They were better in the wilderness,-though they were bad enough there,-they were better in the wilderness than they were in Canaan, better on the desert sand than they were in the land that flowed with milk and honey. And there are some, nowadays, who were better in their poverty than they are in their prosperity, and some who were better by a long way in their times of sickness than they now are in their balmy days of health. Alas, that it should be so!

Jeremiah 2:8. 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.

It is always ill with the people when the ministers go wrong. If the dogs do not protect the flock, but are dumb dogs that cannot bark, what is to become of the sheep?

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,

God bids them go to the West, across the Mediterranean, to Chittim, that is, probably Cyprus, or to go to the East, away there to Kedar, or Arabia, and see whether any Gentile nation ever changed its gods, which really were no gods. «And yet,» says the Lord, «here is a people that knew the one living and true God, but they have turned aside to idols: ‘My people hath changed their glory for that which doth not profit.'» O friend, if there is no truth in religion, I do not wonder that you give it up! But if you ever knew its blessed sweetness, if Christ was ever precious to you, if you did once enjoy the gospel of his grace, how is it that you have grown cold towards it, and declined from its ways?

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.

To go away from the flowing fountain to the stagnant waters of a cistern, is great folly; but to go and hew out broken cisterns that can hold no water, but merely mock your thirst, is madness of the worst kind.

Jeremiah 2:14. Is Israel a servant? is he a home born slave? why is he spoiled?

God made him to be his son, not his slave; but Israel went aside from God, and so became a slave, being carried away into captivity by the very nation whose gods the chosen people worshipped.

Jeremiah 2:15. 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 Tuhapanes have broken the crown of thy head.

The Israelites went and worshipped idols, and then the very nations whose gods they worshipped invaded the land, and broke the crown of their head, or made them bald, which was to the Jews a mark of mourning or of disgrace.

Jeremiah 2:17. Hast thou not procured this-unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?

You who are depressed in soul, you who have grown spiritually poor, you who are in great trouble of heart, listen: «Hast thou not procured this unto thyself?» Didst thou not make the rod for thine own back by going away from thy God? It was well enough with thee when thou didst trust in him; but now that thou hast turned aside from him, all these evils have come upon thee. «Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken Jehovah 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?

«The waters of the Nile;» or, as it may be read, «the waters of that muddy river.» The Israelites had suffered so much during their long captivity in Egypt, that one would have thought they would never have wanted to go near the house of bondage again: «What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor?»

Jeremiah 2:18. Or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?

You are trying to find pleasure in the world, you are going to the resorts of sin, to seek amusement there. If thou art a child of God, «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?» What doest thou there, Elijah? Thou hast lost the comforts of religion by thy backsliding; and now thou art trying to make up for them by going into the world's gaiety. It will never do; thou canst never fill thy belly with the husks that the swine do eat. If thou wert one of the swine, thou mightest do so; but if thou art thy Father's son, it is only the bread in his house that will satisfy thy hungry soul.

Jeremiah 2:19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shalt 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. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree then wanderest, playing the harlot. Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much hope, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD, how canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her -ways; a-wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure: in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her. Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst, but thou saidst, There is no hope no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

God compares his erring people, in the delirium of their sin, to these wild creatures that cannot be tamed, but are driven by their ungovernable passions whithersoever they will. Alas, that men should be so sinful that God can only find a parallel to them in the wild asses of the wilderness! See, also, what despair will do for its victims. When a man says, «There is no hope,» then he feels that for him there is no repentance. When he believes that God will not forgive him, then he will not turn from his evil ways. «Thou saidst, There is no hope: no, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.» God save any here present who are getting into the clutches of Giant Despair! May they know the true goodness of God, and may that goodness lead them to repentance! Amen.