Jeremiah 3:12-25

Jeremiah 3:12. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy way to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you:

There is a mixed figure here, but there is no mixed sense: children and yet married unto him. The bond was a double one, they were begotten and betrothed. God cares little about the rules of human oratory and formal eloquence. If his meaning can only be made perfectly plain, he freely breaks through all such rules and regulations as we properly make for our talk. «O backsliding children I am married unto you.»

Jeremiah 3:14. And I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

That is, «two of a tribe;» for the word «family» was used in a very large sense in those times, and comprehended perhaps the whole of one of the twelve tribes.

Jeremiah 3:15. And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

The backsliders when they come back shall not be left outside the fold, but they shall have shepherds to watch over them, and they shall not be left to a lean pasture, but they shall be fed with knowledge and understanding. This is fine fare for the hungry soul! Knowledge is good, but understanding is better. To know may be of little service unless we have the inner and deeper knowledge with it, and understand what we know. These pastors shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. They shall not only teach, but teach so that you cannot fail to learn.

Jeremiah 3:16. And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD; neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it, neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.

Ceremonial retreats into the dim background when the spiritual is in full vigor. They have come to God for themselves, and they need not now that saved ark of gopher wood lined within and without with gold. In the present day those that walk near to God think but little of the eternal. That which God commands they obey; but their confidence lies in himself. True religion is not a form, but a life, and the soul. Living near to God, is the main, the really essential thing.

Jeremiah 3:17. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.

This is, I believe, yet to be literally fulfilled in Jerusalem itself; and spiritually also, to be fulfilled in the Church, when she shall not be behind the nations but become their head, and take the lead in all of blessing for mankind.

Jeremiah 3:18. In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your father. But I said, How shall I put thee among the children,

As if God himself were at a pass and brought to a nonplus. These people had sinned so much, and they had been driven consequently to the ends of the earth. «I said, How shall I put thee among the children?»

Jeremiah 3:19. And give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father;

When God gives us the spirit of children then it becomes easy for him to put us among the children. Where the nature of children is given by divine regeneration, the rights of children may well be given by adoption. «I said, Thou shalt call me, My Father.»

Jeremiah 3:19. And shalt not turn away from me.

I always look upon that second part of the blessing as being perhaps the richer of the two. The final perseverance of the saints forms the cluster of crown jewels that it found in the gasket of the covenant. «Thou shalt not depart from me. Thou shalt not turn away from me.» Oh

«If ever it should come to pass

That sheep of Christ could fall away

My fickle, feeble soul, alas!

Would fall ten thousand times a day.»

But he that has begun the good work has promised to carry it on. There is our safety and our rest. «Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.»

Jeremiah 3:20. Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD. A voice was heard upon the high place, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.

The worst of crimes that a wife should be false to her marriage vows, and turn aside from her husband whom she is bound to love, and very seldom is it that a husband calls a treacherous wife back again, but God in infinite mercy hateth putting away. He cannot bear divorce. He holds still to the object of his love, and therefore complains with a sweet fidelity of affection, of the treachery of Israel; and while he is doing it a voice is heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel, for they have perverted their way, and have forgotten Jehovah their God; and therefore what was there for them but sorrow. They were on their high places offering sacrifice and incense to their new gods, and instead of joy and holy psalms and hymns of delight, they were crying like the priests of Baal, and cutting themselves and torturing themselves. God heard it, weeping and supplications, not to him, for they had perverted their way. Their sorrow did not come from him, for they had forgotten the Lord their God. But that sorrow had something hopeful about it. They found no joy in their new gods, and derived no comfort from their backslidings.

Jeremiah 3:22. Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.

Oh, the wonderful mercy of God! He treats sin as a disease. It was a grand thought, that, on God's part, that he would not so much look upon sin as being a willful deed and crime, but would look upon it as a malady of the mind and soul. «I will heal your backslidings.» And see the sweet answer that Israel gives to this.

Jeremiah 3:22. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.

Oh, that that answer might come from every backsliding heart that is here tonight that there might be a restoration of the wanderer to his God.

Jeremiah 3:23. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains:

See, they were trying to get it from their high places. They lifted up their voices to their gods, but they only learnt to mourn and weep. «In vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains.»

Jeremiah 3:23. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel. For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

May such repentance as that fall to the lot of any wanderers who listen now to my words.