Chapter 3
(2020...just read straight through this chapter before babysitting took over, spent the time on 1, 2. Hoping to come back to it tonight...but it won't be quite the same. Looking at this, I spent a lot of time on it 2019.)
God's questions to Israel continue:
1 "If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the LORD. [Jer 3:1 ESV]
God is pointing out that they are asking of Him what they would not do themselves. They would not take back such a wife, and yet they expect God to take them back.
The next verse is even more direct about the degree of unfaithfulness in Israel"
2 Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been ravished? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom. [Jer 3:2 ESV]
It is interesting that God says they have polluted the very land itself. It is not just about the people and how they have treated God, it is about how they have treated the land that he blessed and gave to them. The land is also God's creation, and He "tends" that land, "cares" for it. We have seen this theme many times also. "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the land..." This would be a very interesting study. What exactly pollutes the land? Look how it goes on in the next verse:
3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed. [Jer 3:3 ESV] Because of how they defiled the land, nature itself is disrupted. Here too cause and effect are disconnected.
2022 - I think it is interesting that when a NATION turns against God, a sure sign is that what we call NATURE turns against that nation. But the connection we really ought to see is that God is working through nature to correct, at first, and if that is unsuccessful, to chastise whole nations at once. What does that say about those shouting global warming and increasing CO2 and man alone as the cause of these things? How is that not a designed deception to keep us from knowing that these "global changes" we are seeing come from God, and ought to be motivation for turning back to God instead of excuses to declare ourselves powerful enough to affect the global climate.
Possible FB post. On the right day. When it's way cold, way hot, way stormy, etc.
Vs 5 is the end of this first message. I see it, and MSB outline says it. Vs 6 starts the second message, which continues to 6:30.
God addresses Jeremiah directly, and notes that Israel first played the harlot, in all kinds of ways, with stone gods, and wooden ones. God says He expected they would get over this, maybe they would see that these false gods were of no use to anyone, and would return to Him. But they did not. So in the end, God has wiped them out. This verse:
8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. [Jer 3:8 ESV]
Then Judah, seeing this, did not make any reforms of their own. They had this object lesson, this undeniable example of where their ways were leading, and they ignored it. Or worse, they pretend to repent and return, but God knows better.
This verse:
10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD." [Jer 3:10 ESV]
This was in Josiah's time, amidst all the reforms he brought about. Remember in Zephaniah I said that the return to God was not sincere on the part of many in Judah? Doesn't this verse corroborate that? Doesn't it also say that they were back to the ritual, but their hearts were not in it?
2023 - Looking at it now, it seems that the corruption and ill treatment of the poor, the "cheating" that characterized every interaction in Israel and Judah before they fell, as bad as they were, did not "tip" God toward wrath. In both cases - both Israel and Judah - the tipping point was the idol worship and the sin that accompanied it. The language here in Jeremiah does not ignore the sexual nature of much of this idol worship. In this chapter it talks of "ravishing" and waiting for lovers by the side of the road. It makes immorality a metaphor for idolatry. Is this insight into the mystery of marriage making two into one, such that in marriage, we ought to be so faithful to our spouse that immorality is like putting another spouse before our own? Is it that "critical"?
2023 - Note also the idea that though Judah is "practicing" the Law, they have no real commitment to it. It is external, not a heart thing.
(pick back up here...)
vs 11 is a strong indictment. It says Israel's faithlessness is still better than Judah's treachery. Then God gives Jeremiah the next message, to be proclaimed "toward the north". As the verses unfold, this message is for Israel - gone already into captivity. God tells them they can STILL return, if they will only confess their rebellion and sin and return to God as their master.
This is surely the plan of salvation in the OT. Also a good argument for Lordship salvation as a requirement. I think this is very important, so I will paste it all:
13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD. 14 Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. [Jer 3:13-14 ESV]
((I don't think that this can be about the Northern Kingdom. God divorced the North. He will not take her back, it is unlawful. These verses, though phrased with "Israel" as subject, are about the Southern Kingdom, not yet officially divorced.)))
2022 - Yes, they definitely ARE addressed to the north. Look at vs 12: 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, "'Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever. [Jer 3:12 ESV]. These words were to be spoken TOWARD the NORTH. That is where Israel used to be. God says that even against these whom he specifically divorced, he will NOT be ANGRY FOREVER. Even the Northern Kingdom can still come home. And we know that they will! That is why Ezekiel talks about the Land being divided between ALL 12 tribes! At the end, even faithless Israel will turn back to God. This is their invitation. Wow. That gets rid of sooooo much confusion on my part!
2022 - Pulling vs 14 down here for a closer look. Here are some translations:
14 Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. [Jer 3:14 ESV]
14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: [Jer 3:14 KJV]
14 "Return home, you wayward children," says the LORD, "for I am your master. I will bring you back to the land of Israel--one from this town and two from that family--from wherever you are scattered. [Jer 3:14 NLT]
14 'Return, O faithless sons,' declares the LORD; 'For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion.' [Jer 3:14 NASB95]
Quite a bit of variation. I looked at the word for word translation in BLB, and it does use the word "married". Several versions translate it as I am master, rather than I am married. If the NASB95 is correct, and the word is "sons" instead of children, then it is obvious that married cannot be right. There is also a problem, to me, with translating it married since God divorced Israel. The word translated sons in NASB95 is a masculine noun. BUT, in the list of Biblical usage, it also sometimes means children, of both sexes. I hope this is not another case of the ESV trying to be inclusive, and choosing the more politically correct translation instead of staying true to the Hebrew. I think the NASB95 makes the most sense in this context. The verse as a whole seems more "solid" using that translation. This also allows us to see the whole idea of divorce from the Northern Kingdom as metaphorical, a picture of Israel as an unfaithful wife, and yet, here, a different metaphor is in use - that of a prodigal son! Yes. This "unveils" a lot of things I was confused about.
ALSO, the same word ESV translated "children" in vs 14 is translated "sons" in vs 22. Why would they do it differently, if not for political reasons?
vss 15-18 foretell the Millennial Kingdom, when both Israel and Judah return to Zion, and all the nations look to Jerusalem where Jesus reigns.
2022 - This verse:
16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the LORD, they shall no more say, "The ark of the covenant of the LORD." It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. [Jer 3:16 ESV]
Ezekiel's temple has no ark. It is one of the furniture items that does not get reconstructed at the end. I would call this verse corroboration that Ezekiel's Temple will be a physical temple.
2022 - Oh my - here it is again. How have I not seen this before:
18 In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage. [Jer 3:18 ESV].
Absolutely Israel - the Northern Kingdom - will return. Is "north" just a metaphor, or will "all the Jews" somehow end up in Turkey, Eastern Europe, and Western Russia - all "north" of present day Israel?
vss 19-23 refer to fallen Israel as sons that can be brought back. They can be among the sons, part of the family of God, adopted in with the faithful.
vss 24, 25 end the chapter, saying that these non-sons have been in rebellion from the first. It is their own fault that they are excluded - outside God's protection for them. He will not accept them while they are in rebellion. They must "lie down in our shame" before He will take them. This is about repentance before salvation. This was not a new thing Jesus preached. This is how it has always been.