Lesson 3 - Jer. 4:11-12, 22-28 - DEVASTATED
INTRODUCTION: So far in this study, we have covered the call of Jeremiah in Chapter 1 and last week, in Chapter 2, we heard young Jeremiah launch his prophetic ministry by reminding the people of Judah of their long history with the Lord God all the way back to the Exodus, the wilderness wanderings, and the conquest of the Promised Land. Speaking for God, the prophet leveled an indictment against them on two grounds: (1) that they had forsaken the One True God-who was like the unending flow of "living water" and (2) had abandoned their Lord to worship and serve powerless idols who were compared like "broken cisterns" that were incapable of providing life-giving water. The main point of application we learned is that there is absolutely no substitute for dependence on the one true God of the Bible. We see same the thing happening in the post-Christian world today, where people have turned away from God to pursue false spiritualism (i.e., there are many ways to God) and to secular humanism (i.e., there is no God), where they worship the creation rather than the Creator. So, Jeremiah's message is as relevant to people today as it was to the people of Judah over 2,500 years ago.
This week, in Jer. 4:11-12, 22-18, we'll hear Jeremiah move from a mere warning to graphic depiction of the judgment that the Lord intended to bring upon the nation of Judah. We need to remember that over a hundred years before this time, God had previously judged the Northern Kingdom of Israel for failing to repent of its unfaithfulness when He allowed the Assyrian Empire to conquer it and exile its people to other lands, never to return to their homeland (i.e., no remnant was preserved). In the first ten verses of Chapter 4, Jeremiah issued a passionate plea for repentance "to return to [the Lord]...and put away your detested things" (4:1), because the Lord was preparing to unleash upon them a great "evil from the north and...make your land a waste" (4:6-7).
Read Jer. 4:11-12 - WOE TO US, FOR WE ARE RUINED!
11 In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness in the direction of the daughter of My people-not to winnow and not to cleanse, 12 a wind too strong for this-will come at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them. 13 "Behold, he goes up like clouds, And his chariots like the whirlwind; His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!"
v. 11a: "In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem," - This phrase defines the audience for Jeremiah's proclamation: it's addressed to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, the capitol of Judah, who will be given a preview of the horror the Lord plans to unfold on them because of their refusal to repent.
v. 11b: "A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness in the direction of the daughter of My people" - The image here is a sirocco wind blowing in from the desert. For the most part, the prevailing winds in the southern portion of Palestine come from the Mediterranean to the east, and are cool and pleasant. But the sirocco winds from the desert are hot and destructive, blowing hard enough to rip shingles off roofs; so dry that it sucks the moisture from plants, animals and people.
v. 11c: "-not to winnow and not to cleanse," - The people would understand this statement because they were familiar with grain winnowing process in which the grain is separated from the useless chaff. Doing this necessitated a light, steady breeze that would blow away the chaff but leave the grain intact to be collected and stored. And this same breeze would also keep them cool while they toiled at their labors. In perspective, the light easterly breeze should be as a picture of one of the many frequent blessings of God's provision to them.
v. 12a: "a wind too strong for this-will come at My command" - By contrast, a strong blustery wind would scatter the grain along with the chaff. Here, the grain is a metaphor for the people of Judah and the "wind too strong" is a metaphor for the invasion that is coming from the north.
v. 12b: "now I will also pronounce judgments against them." - Since God's impending judgment is not intended to "winnow" or "cleanse" (v. 11c), it would impact all of the people of Judah, the good, the bad, and everybody in between.
Synopsis of skipped vv. 13-21: These verses aren't in the lesson but you should be aware of them. They speak of "chariots like a whirlwind" and "horses swifter than eagles" that will descend upon them with picture hoards of people crying out "woe to us, for we are ruined!" (v. 13). And they also tell of people from the city of Dan in the far north and those of Mount Ephraim (see map) warning of the armies that are coming from the north (v. 15). In brief, it describes a situation of complete chaos and utter destruction-a disaster almost too awful for words.
Read Jer. 4:22 - THEY ARE STUPID CHILDREN
22 "For My people are foolish, They know Me not; They are stupid children And have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, But to do good they do not know."
v. 22a: "For My people are foolish, They know Me not; They are stupid children And have no understanding." - Notice that the Lord still refers to these unrepentant Judahites as "My people"; He still feels loyal love (Heb. hesed) for them, but they have pushed Him to the point where divine discipline has become necessary.
v. 22b: "They are stupid children And have no understanding." Notice also the repetition of "foolish' (vv. 22a) and "no understanding." The picture of them the Lord is painting here is the opposite of wisdom. Wisdom is the kind of "understanding" that enables people to make good decisions and avoid bad consequences. In the OT, wisdom is seen as the type of understanding that helps people make good choices that avoid evil. In fact the Hebrew Scriptures talk much about wisdom: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Prov. 9:10). Long before this time, through Moses, the Lord gave these same people "statutes and judgments...to keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding..." (Deut. 4:5-6). So, they should know better, yes?
v. 22c: "They are shrewd to do evil, But to do good they do not know." - The word used here for "shrewd" (Heb. sakal [saw-kawl'] lit. means foolish or stupid). So, they were "shrewd" when it came to sinning, but not so shrewd when it came to understanding the reality that God was certain to punish them for their sins. Their understanding of God could be termed as clueless or oblivious. It's like many people today who believe they're accountable to no one except themselves.
Read Jer. 4:23-26 - IT WAS FORMLESS AND VOID
23 I looked on the earth, and behold, it was formless and void; And to the heavens, and they had no light. 24 I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, And all the hills moved to and fro. 25 I looked, and behold, there was no man, And all the birds of the heavens had fled. 26 I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness, And all its cities were pulled down Before the LORD, before His fierce anger.
v. 23a: "I looked on the earth, and behold, it was formless and void; And to the heavens, and they had no light." - This is the prophet's voice again, and what he's getting ready to depict is an undoing of creation, at least with respect to the nation of Israel. In His anger, the Lord intends to take things back to the beginning, when there was only chaos.
v. 23b: "And to the heavens, and they had no light." -The first creative act took place when God said "Let there be light" (Gen. 1:3-4). But now, because of the evil Israel has done, there will be no light for them in the heavens. This is of course a figure of speech, because the sun will continue to shine; however, the people of Judah will suffer from the absence of light that comes from God's presence. Their deeds have been dark, so now they will live in darkness.
v. 24: "I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, And all the hills moved to and fro." - Mountains are symbols of strength and permanence. But when earthquakes make the mountains move and shudder, it's abnormal, a living nightmare. It means nothing is safe.
v. 25: "I looked, and behold, there was no man, And all the birds of the heavens had fled." - This pictures a place that's devoid of life-a wasteland. This in fact happened in 586-587 B.C. when the Babylonian conquerors basically demolished the entire city of Jerusalem: the walls, Solomon's Temple, all the buildings, the landscape were all reduced to rubble. No people, no animals, no birds-it was all gone.
v. 26a: "I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness, And all its cities were pulled down" - These people knew the difference between fertile land and desert. They had lived in the wilderness for 40 years where there was nothing to support life, where they had been completely dependent on the Lord. Then they entered the Promised land, a land of "milk and honey," a fruitful and productive land, but now they will see their one-time paradise turned back into a wilderness.
v. 26b: "Before the LORD, before His fierce anger." - This is the reason for it: God fierce anger (not the invaders) at people who have proven themselves to be thoroughly faithless. Because they had been warned, over and over (by Ezekiel and Daniel as well as Jeremiah), the people won't have to wonder why this horrifying disaster is descending on them.
Read Jer. 4-27-28 - I WILL NOT CHANGE MY MIND
27 For thus says the LORD, "The whole land shall be a desolation, Yet I will not execute a complete destruction. 28 "For this the earth shall mourn And the heavens above be dark, Because I have spoken, I have purposed, And I will not change My mind, nor will I turn from it."
v. 27a: "For thus says the LORD," - This phrase adds absolute authority to the statement that follows.
v. 27b: "The whole land shall be a desolation," - The word used here for "desolation" (Heb. shemamah (shem-aw-maw') literally means to reduce something to waste, render it unusable.
v. 27c: "Yet I will not execute a complete destruction." - While God intends to completely destroy the physical environment, this phrase indicates that He will preserve a remnant of the people.
v. 28: "For this the earth shall mourn And the heavens above be dark, Because I have spoken, I have purposed, And I will not change My mind, nor will I turn from it." - The Lord's fixed purpose to bring this magnitude of destruction coming upon Judah was such heartbreaking news that even the heavens and the earth are depicted as mourning after they hear God's plan. And He won't change His mind because He already knows there will be no repentance. It will become a fact in history during Jeremiah's lifetime.
APPLICATION-The High Cost of Sin
1. People of God who refuse to obey the Word of God's are facing judgment. God's people in this lesson, the Judahites, had a long history with God and His Word (Torah Law) but had turned away from Him to worship false gods. And this decline of faith in the One True God faith had become almost universal, from the ruling elite and the priests, down to the common people. We can see this happening in our time when government leaders, churches, and individuals who claim to be Christians turn aside from Biblical truth to pursue 'false religions.' Even born-again believers who ignore God's Word and refuse to repent of their sins will suffer God's discipline (death, illness, family conflict, financial disasters, etc.)
2. People of God who refuse to repent after being warned by God's Word are fools. The Judahites in the today's lesson were fools because they had stopped fearing God. They had rejected the wisdom of God's Word to Worship false gods that didn't hold them accountable for their sin. As a result of their backslidden condition, they no longer understood the One True God of the universe and His awesome power to punish sin. Though God still loved them, the fact that they had allowed themselves to become like "stupid children" would not excuse them from God's judgment. We see this today in the post-Christian world: people who believe they are accountable to no one except themselves. They are fools. As Christian, our job is to warn them that there is an alternative.
3. When bad things happen to unrepentant people of God, they shouldn't be surprised. In today's lesson, the Judahites had every reason to know that they were facing God's imminent judgment. At this point in history they had over eight centuries of experience with the Lord God of Israel. They had seen His work and had received his statutes and ordinances. Therefore, they were without excuse. We have seen a similar trend in the United States over the past 70+ years. Although a majority of the nation's population still identify themselves as 'Christians' by heritage, the actual number of born-again believers in the U.S. is estimated to be much lower, maybe 25%-30%. A lot of the non-believers are family members, friends, members of our workplace, or neighbors. It's our job to warn them of the consequences of their sin-that God's judgment and eternal damnation are imminent-but that there is an alternative-eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
