And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt declare unto this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath Jehovah pronounced all this great evil against us? and what is our iniquity? and what is our sin which we have committed against Jehovah our God?
God tells Jeremiah in advance how his hearers will answer him — not with repentance, but with a question: what have we done? God has just taken marriage, mourning, and feasting out of the prophet's life as signs of coming judgment, and still the people see no charge against them.
Why did God tell Jeremiah the reply in advance? One writer sees patience behind the build-up of warnings:
So He surrounded His people with piled-up proofs of His displeasure, to the very last degree, in case they might still repent. God gave these warnings and the rebellious people despised them. Even so, they would teach those among them who had ears to hear.
The prophet's own life had already preached the message. His enforced loneliness was itself the sermon:
The prophet himself becomes a sign among the people (vv. 1-13). The punishment coming on them is so certain that he is to stay unmarried. He is to keep out of social life with them. He is also to stay away from the house of mourning. This shows that the Lord had taken His peace from this people, and had withdrawn comfort, and the voice of mirth and gladness too. So Jeremiah is likewise to stay away from the feast.
The people's words sound reasonable. Yet after that much warning, the question itself is the symptom. One commentator hears the same tone in people who listen to the gospel today:
Failing to grasp the situation, the people asked, "Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?" (16:10). How similar are the words of those who listen to the gospel but do not want to acknowledge that they are guilty and lost. Feeling that they have led a well-ordered and honest life, they forget that man's worst sin is to reject Christ and His work.
God's answer in the next verses does not start with a list of offences. It starts with a Person abandoned. One writer traces that thread through these chapters:
Again the secret of all this sorrow comes out: "They have forsaken ME, says the Lord." They have followed other gods. They have walked after the imagination of their own hearts, "so that they will not listen to ME" (vv. 11-13). This wretched turning inward always follows turning away from the Lord Himself. It caused the great mischief then, and it is doing the same now. No doubt people count these feelings and moods good and pious and wise. But it is self-occupation all the same, and contrary to the true knowledge of the blessed God. The apostles spent much labour on the church at Ephesus. Yet before they had all passed away, this word came to it: "You have abandoned the love you had at first" (Rev. 2:4).
They claim they cannot see their iniquity. Later in the same chapter God says His own eyes see it all. He says it in the very passage where He promises mercy to come:
The bright future would outshine the most magnificent deliverance of the past. It would stand more solidly still, because it is the fruit of a faithful God's mercy after all the experience of their evil ways... "For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes." (Verses 16, 17.)
The opposite of this question is not a better argument but a different pronoun. One writer turns the point on the reader:
Have we not in our day had to mourn the lack of spiritual power and blessing? Do we ask, is there not a cause? Have we not failed and sinned? In old times there were men of faith, men of God. They felt deeply the condition of God's guilty people and carried it on their hearts before Him. They used to say, "our iniquities," "we have sinned." Now it is rather "they have sinned; they have gone wrong."
- Warned — The piled-up signs were mercy. God pressed them home in case the people would still repent, and to teach anyone with ears to hear.
- Blind — Their question is not innocent curiosity. It is what people say when they think an honest life leaves them nothing to confess.
- Forsaken — God's charge is personal before it is moral. They left Him, then followed their own hearts so they would not have to listen.
- Seen — What they claim not to see lies open to His eyes. He misses no iniquity.
- Owned — The cure is the word they would not say: not "they have sinned," but "we have sinned." Beyond that confession stands a promised future that outshines the greatest deliverance of the past.
then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith Jehovah, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
Judah heard Jeremiah warn of coming disaster and asked what they had done to deserve it. God's answer points back to the fathers and their idols, and one charge in it is stated twice: they forsook Me.
The people's question is not a search for truth. It is a claim of innocence. One commentator hears the same tone today in people who hear the gospel and feel no need of it:
Failing to grasp the situation, the people asked, "Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is the sin that we have committed?" (16:10). Their words sound like the words of people who hear the gospel and will not admit they are guilty and lost. Such people feel they have led a well-ordered and honest life. So they forget that man's worst sin is to reject Christ and His work.
God's reply does not begin with broken rules. It begins with a broken relationship. The same complaint sounds again and again through these chapters:
Again these verses repeat the secret of all this sorrow: "They have forsaken ME says the Lord." They have followed other gods and walked after the imagination of their own hearts, "that they may not listen to ME" (vv. 11-13). Turning away from the Lord Himself always leads to this wretched turning inward. That is what caused the great damage then, just as it is doing now. No doubt people think these feelings and moods are good and pious and wise. But it is still self-occupation, and it goes against the true knowledge of the blessed God.
Notice the order: they forsook Him first, then they went after other gods. One commentator says every departure works this way:
"I am displaced," He says. "I have not my place in the heart of Israel. You have put me out of my place, you have forsaken me." That is the first thing. You never go and dig out broken cisterns first. People never turn to the world first — they give up God first, they give up Christ first. The first step is that God does not have His place of supremacy in the heart. For us, as Christians, it is Christ; for Israel, it was the Lord.
The words "have not kept my law" assume a law already given and already known. Jeremiah's own writings show he had it and quoted it often:
It is certain that Jeremiah knew such a law. He mentions it plainly, and often quotes it. In Jeremiah 9:13 the Lord says, "they have forsaken my law that I set before them." In Jeremiah 16:11 He says, "they have not kept my law." In Jeremiah 32:22-23 the prophet says, "they did not obey your voice or walk in your law."
God names the fathers, and the children could call that unfair. Their complaint became a saying: "our fathers sinned, and are no more, and we bear their iniquities." One writer answers it:
This, we know, had become a proverbial complaint about this time (Ezekiel 18). But God tested them on their own ground, and the result was the same: ruin, because of their evil. If fathers and children are alike sinful, both deserve the punishment. If God judges, it must come. So it is far better to repent than to complain. Complaining only makes the evil worse. It calls down vengeance on such piled-up rebellion against God!
Here God deals with His people as their ruler. But that is not the only side of Him:
The government of God is as real as the grace of God. In the exercise of government "He can by no means clear the guilty," nor recognise or accept what has failed. But grace may find a way of escape and bring in salvation — praise His name! Judah's guilt and perversity at this time were such that He says to Jeremiah: "Pray not for this people for their good." He declares that He could not hear even Moses or Samuel on their behalf. How solemn this is!
- Forsaken — they asked what their sin was. God's answer names Himself: "they have forsaken Me."
- Forsaken first — nobody digs broken cisterns first. God loses His place in the heart, and other gods only move into the empty space.
- Forsaken inward — turning from the Lord turns a person inward, to his own imagination. That self-occupation can still feel pious and wise.
- Forsaken law — Jeremiah quotes the very law he says they broke. God judged them by light they already had.
- Forsaken, yet not finished — God's government clears no one who is guilty, and blaming the fathers only adds to the bill. Repentance is the better answer. Grace can still open a way of escape.
and you, ye have done still worse than your fathers; and there ye are walking every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, not to hearken unto me
God tells Jeremiah what to say when the people ask why disaster is coming and what they have done wrong. His answer looks past their idols to what drives them. Each person now follows his own heart, and that makes them guiltier than their fathers.
The judgments announced through Jeremiah were not God closing the door. One writer finds two purposes in them: repentance, and teaching for anyone still willing to hear.
So He surrounded His people with piled-up proofs of His displeasure to the very end, in case they might still repent. At the very least, the warnings the rebellious people despised would still teach anyone among them with ears to hear.
The charge is not that they copied their fathers. It is that they went further. One commentator uses a family to show why the blow falls on the second generation, not the first.
But there is a son in the family who takes no warning from his father's wickedness. He uses it as a licence to indulge in the same. The blow falls on him, not on the wretched parent. The son is doubly guilty, because he saw his father's nakedness and felt it enough to cover it. He ought to have stood against it. I do not mean in revenge, for that belongs to the Lord. He should have hated the sin itself with holy hatred, while still feeling the deepest compassion for his parent. Instead, he has carried on in the same evil course, as badly as his father or worse. That is how the guilt of this wicked son is made heavier.
The verse ends with their refusal to listen to God. The older translation quoted below reads "so that they may not listen to Me." One writer traces that refusal back to its cause, and finds the same pattern today.
Once again the secret of all this sorrow is repeated: "They have forsaken ME, says the Lord." They have followed other gods and walked after the imagination of their own hearts, "so that they may not listen to ME." Turning away from the Lord Himself always leads to this wretched turning in on self. That is what caused the great damage then, and it is doing the same now. No doubt these feelings and moods seem good and pious and wise. But it is self-occupation all the same, and contrary to the true knowledge of the blessed God.
Their fathers bowed to carved gods; this generation follows itself. One writer shows that the two are one thing, and that idols need no workshop.
The root of all idolatry is self-will. It is making a god of our own. It is starting with self and shaping a god, not necessarily out of silver, and not necessarily with our hands. In this enlightened age you would say there is very little danger of people shaping gods with their hands. But there is a tool more cunning and skilful than the hands, and that is the mind of man. Wherever self takes the place of the will of God, you will find the human mind busy shaping a god to please itself. And it does this in the name of the Lord, in the name of the true God.
The people had just asked what their sin was. The answer lies in what the heart is — and a heart following itself is the last to notice it.
A man's heart follows its own imaginings, and he does not know it. God has not said in vain, "Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5)... Did you ever see it stated in Scripture that good things came out of his heart naturally? God has tried it in every way. It was lawless, it broke the law, it killed His Son, it resisted His Spirit.
Keeping on in this course has an end. One commentator names it, and names the way out.
Another dreadful effect of keeping on in evil is despair. Man never really trusts God, and a divine call or warning stirs up this form of his will. If his will were broken, he would at least cry to God and throw himself on what God is, who cannot deny that He is love. God's goodness leads to repentance; man's will leads to desperation.
- Warned — God piled up warnings so that they might still repent, and to teach anyone willing to hear.
- Worse — the son who saw his father's sin and carried it on anyway is doubly guilty.
- Within — they had forsaken the Lord, so they turned in on themselves and called it piety.
- Worship — self-will is the root of all idolatry. It shapes a god to please itself, often in God's name.
- Where it ends — an unbroken will hardens into despair. A broken will cries to God, whose goodness leads to repentance.
and I will cast you forth out of this land, into a land that ye know not, ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night because I will shew you no favour.
God had just told Jeremiah not to marry, not to mourn, and not to feast. The prophet's own life became a warning sign for Judah. Now comes the sentence itself. God will throw them out of the land He gave them into a country neither they nor their ancestors ever knew. There they will serve other gods around the clock, with no favour from Him.
The threat of exile is not a sudden outburst. It follows a decision God has already made about this people. So He tells the prophet to withdraw from ordinary human ties with them:
In Jeremiah 16 the Lord teaches Jeremiah to avoid all family ties with this people. He is also to stop showing any interest in what was going on among them. For He Himself had completely broken with them. He would put an end to all His testimonies among them, and drive them out of the land.
Even so, the piling up of warnings had a purpose, and not only for those who refused them:
So He surrounded His people with proof after proof of His displeasure, right to the end, in case they might still repent. The rebellious people despised these warnings. But at the very least they would instruct anyone among them who had ears to hear.
The reason behind the sentence is not a list of crimes. It is a Person abandoned:
Again the secret of all this sorrow is repeated: "They have forsaken ME, says the Lord." They have gone after other gods and followed the imagination of their own hearts, "that they may not listen to ME." This wretched self-centred bent always follows turning away from the Lord Himself. It caused the great damage then, just as it is doing now. No doubt the feelings and moods are thought good and pious and wise. But it is self-occupation all the same, and contrary to the true knowledge of the blessed God.
This generation had gone further into evil than their fathers. Is it fair that the punishment should be heavier? One writer answers with a picture from family life:
This may seem a hard principle to some, but it is most righteous. Suppose a child has grown up knowing his father's dishonour, hearing of his disgrace and punishment. Would not that sin be especially hateful in his eyes, if he had any right feeling? His father's evil ways were on public display before him. But suppose the son treated it lightly, and used it as encouragement to walk the same path. Is it not just that a heavier punishment should fall on that son? Besides the conscience that all people share, he had a special witness in his own family.
"There you shall serve other gods day and night" is not an arbitrary penalty. It gives them, in full measure and in a foreign land, exactly what they chose at home. One writer finds the same rule at work earlier in Israel's history:
If the children of Israel would abandon the Lord to serve idols, the Lord gives them up in turn to serve idolaters. It is so with us. If we sin, this measures and defines our chastening. And so grace works repentance when we turn and cry to the Lord in our distress.
The verse ends with mercy shut off. The next verses show that the shutting is not permanent:
But is this to last forever? Is this dispersion permanent? Will they always be homeless wanderers? The next verse gives the answer: "I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers." He will bring them home from the land of the north and from every land where He had driven them. It will be a greater deliverance than the deliverance out of Egypt.
That restoration rests on something the nation itself could never supply:
They will indeed pass through sorrowful repayment for their iniquity and their sin — "double" indeed in a governmental way. But our Lord Jesus Christ has made atonement for it all. He alone could do so. On the ground of His sacrifice they will be restored and blessed for ever, and the nations blessed through them.
- Forsaking. The root of the whole sentence is one repeated phrase: they have forsaken Me. Walking after your own heart is not freedom but self-occupation.
- Deepening. They had done worse than their fathers. Sin copied in the full light of a previous generation's disgrace is the heavier guilt.
- Warning. God stacked up proof after proof of His displeasure before He acted. Anyone with ears to hear could still repent.
- Matching. Exile is sin given back in kind. God hands those who chose idols at home over to idolaters abroad. Our sin measures and defines our chastening.
- Hope. The withheld favour is real, but not final. The scattering ends in a homecoming greater than the exodus from Egypt. What secures it is not the nation's record but the atonement Christ alone could make.