Chapter 2
This chapter begins with what the MSB outline calls Jeremiah's first message to Jerusalem, 2:1 to 3:5:
God remembers the beginning, in the desert, when the people followed him. He remembers Israel as a bride. vs 3:
3 Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them, declares the LORD." [Jer 2:3 ESV]
Firstfruits would make an interesting study. Is Adam not included, or Noah? Or even Abraham? The firstfruits are the nation of Israel when it was saved out of Egypt. I think this word firstfruits continues all the way into the NT.
A quick look says that this word is only used this once to describe Israel. In the NT, it can be found in Rom 8;23, 1Cor15:20, 23, 2Thess2:13, Jas 1:18, and then in Rev 14:4 of the 144,000. So the NT church sort of appropriated this term to themselves. Is this where all the arguments about the church being the recipient of the promises to Israel come from?
2023 - An interesting visual here...those who "eat" of the firstfruits incurred guilt. Doesn't this sound like Adam eating the forbidden fruit? Disaster certainly fell on Egypt, on those two Kings east of Israel. But perhaps God only did that to the firstfruits of the harvest, because he does not seem to be doing it today.
In vss 4-8 God "puts the question" to the house of Jacob: What wrong did I do? You never once asked "Where is the Lord...", it was not that God abandoned them, and they looked for Him and couldn't find Him. They just walked away on their own, and began to look to false gods. These verses are God's "justification" for what is about to happen. It is his proof that Israel/Judah has abandoned him, and they did so beginning very early, and they failed to look to Him in time of trouble but instead turned to false gods. Even when they needed Him, they turned elsewhere. It is interesting that God speaks of these things in terms of a single human lifetime, though we are really talking about 1000 years of history or more, from Moses to Jeremiah. God just doesn't see time as we do.
Vss 9-19 begin with a "therefore". This verse:
10 For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing. [Jer 2:10 ESV]
God says that what Israel has done in turning their backs on the God of their fathers, is unprecedented in the world. Even the pagans stay loyal to their gods, but Israel did not do so. What an indictment!
2021, Here is the rest of it:
Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
Jeremiah 2:11 ESV
This verse, with the crux of the whole matter:
13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. [Jer 2:13 ESV]
Pretty self-explanatory. This is what God's anger is about. Two things. Note also here that God calls himself the fountain of living waters. Jesus does the same, when he is in Jerusalem that last time, during the ceremony in the Temple when water is poured out. He tells them that He is living water, making himself God. This is the verse I am thinking of: 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" [Jhn 7:37-38 ESV], but it isn't really quite the same. With the woman at the well he says: 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." [Jhn 4:10 ESV] Jesus offers living water, God is the source of living water. MSB and John all say this water refers to the Holy Spirit.
2021 This verse:
Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God, when he led you in the way?
Jeremiah 2:17 ESV
vss 20-25, God accuses Israel of refusing to serve the One who freed them from bondage. He compares them to a wild desert donkey in heat, sniffing the wind as she looks for a mate. Seems to me this is referring to Israel running after - craving almost instinctively - other gods. Turning to anyone, anything, but the God to whom they owe. This verse in particular:
20 "For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, 'I will not serve.' Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore. [Jer 2:20 ESV] They just refused to be "under" God.
This verse, this accusation:
24 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her. [Jer 2:24 ESV]
Almost as if nature itself conspires to make Israel fall. And it is nature. It is human nature, it is the nature of man. We don't want to be servants of anyone, anything, anytime. Because of our pride. This is the sin caused by the fall. As the wife won't want to serve her husband so man does not want to serve God. And it is just a matter of time before our corrupt nature, our fallen minds and bodies, are overcome and we sin, knowingly, willingly, almost helplessly. And yet, because Adam sinned when he did not have to sin, we are still responsible for our own actions. There was a choice. Now there is not. None can avoid sin, and all would go to hell were not God willing to have provided a way to bring us back to Him. Like this donkey, we cannot overcome our nature. God must provide a way that "circumvents" our nature in order to reconcile us to him. He did that with a divine combination of Himself with man in Christ Jesus, who was the second man ever who was able to say no to sin, in the flesh, and he must substitute for us because we are just beyond cleansing. He told us in 22 that we cannot possibly cleanse ourselves:
22 Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD. [Jer 2:22 ESV]
Possible FB post in the paragraph above. Will need some work though.
vss 26-28, Israel compared to a thief caught red-handed. Israel shall be ashamed in this same way. Then, they will cry out to God, but He will say "where are your gods that you made for yourself?", and says there's a god for every city in Judah.
vss 29-32, Israel has killed the prophets God sent, and insists they are free to abandon God without consequence. This verse:
30 In vain have I struck your children; they took no correction; your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion. [Jer 2:30 ESV]
They have bolted, and even as God has chastised them, in increasingly severe ways trying to bring them back, they have not only refused to listen to the message, but they have killed the messengers! Perhaps this is why the prophets died out, why we don't have them today as they were present in the OT.
Next, He says they are like a bride who has forgotten that she is dressed for a wedding. This is the ludicrous, almost insanely hallucinatory restating of reality to which Judah has come. They have so denied God, in the very face of the fact of God, that it is like a woman walking around in a wedding dress saying she is not a bride. That she belongs to no one. That she can do what she likes. Anyone who looks can see that she is nuts to the core.
It is ridiculous that they have turned their backs on their history! Oh my...this is what they were doing, and it is what we are doing. We act as if our history never occurred, we deny that God has blessed us, we attribute our good fortune and our affluence to ourselves and our system but not to God, even though ours is a history based on men who believed that God's providence was on this nation. And now, we are trying to wipe that out, so we won't be ashamed, like a thief caught in the act is ashamed. We don't want to be accountable to our God, so we "write him out" of our history, and we create for ourselves countless substitutes! Oh my...Maybe FB someday. Website certainly.
vss 33-37, God is angry that Israel does all these things, and yet claims they are innocent, and that God has no cause to judge them. This verse:
35 you say, 'I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.' Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, 'I have not sinned.' [Jer 2:35 ESV]
Short and sweet, but a profound verse. Sums it all up. This is a good post for FB.
2021, I wonder if the point here is that they realize they've abandoned their history, but surely God realizes it is because they have grown so wise in their own right and longer need Him. Surely God is not offended that His people no longer trouble Him and can get along fine without Him? He might have been upset at first but surely now He sees, and His anger is abated!
This is how arrogant they had become! Are we not the same! Overturning all that made us a great nation because we have just soared above all those juvenile commitments and immature misunderstandings, and have only now arrived at comprehension.