And Jehovah said unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen what backsliding Israel hath done? She hath gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath committed fornication.
God speaks to Jeremiah during the reign of King Josiah. Josiah had swept idolatry out of Judah. Yet God points the prophet north, at the ten tribes already carried away, and asks him what he has seen there. Judah had seen it too, and learned nothing from it.
(The ESV calls Israel "that faithless one." Older translations say "backsliding Israel," and the writers quoted below use that word.)
The date on this message matters. Josiah was a faithful king, and idolatry was out of the land. The question is how deep that change went.
The book of Jeremiah, who prophesied under Josiah, shows us that the moral state of the people had not changed at all. The king was faithful, so they readily agreed to do away with idolatry, but their hearts stayed as far from God as ever.
This verse is not about Judah. It sets two sisters side by side, and what matters is what the watching one did with the sight.
There is then, first of all, a contrast between Israel (the ten tribes) and her sister Judah. The Lord judged the house of Israel, the northern kingdom, first. She played the harlot. After she had done so, the Lord said, "Turn to Me." She refused, and her treacherous sister the house of Judah saw it. And when the Lord dealt with the house of Israel in judgment and they went into captivity, Judah did not fear but played the harlot too.
The two places named in the verse are not scenery. They were the real sites of Israel's worship, and the story behind them starts at Sinai.
God had rescued them from Egypt, and at Sinai they had promised not to disobey Him. Yet they set up the golden calf before the law even reached the camp, and the long list of later idolatries told how they had broken the covenant. "High places" for idol worship dotted the whole land, and in the shade of every green tree people carried out the detestable practices of the nations around them. Both spiritually and literally, these unholy and unclean rites deserved the name of harlotry that the prophets so often give them. What could God do with such a nation but put them away?
Why hilltops and groves? Because they feel religious, and feeling is easy to mistake for the thing itself.
Israel's departure from God took an outward form: they made themselves "high places." It was only a pagan habit, a worship with no heart in it that plays on the imagination… On the mountain tops a man could imagine he was nearer to God than in the valleys. The depths of groves and forests, with the beauty of nature, helped him think he was nearer to the God of nature than he really was… It is just here that man so often makes the fatal mistake. He puts what is merely natural in the place of what is spiritual, and so deceives himself.
God does not call this bad policy or poor religion. He speaks as a husband whose wife has left him — and then does what no wronged husband would do.
God is nowhere more Himself than in His tender mercy to His fallen people. A man could not take back the wife who had deserted him for another. "Israel had committed fornication with many lovers: yet return again to Me, says the Lord." He points out their repeated and shameless unfaithfulness, while all the time they were calling Him the father and guide of their youth.
(The line quoted here is Jeremiah 3:1 in an older translation. The ESV puts it as a question: "and would you return to me?")
"Backsliding" is the keyword of these chapters, and it carries an assumption inside it.
Here is the first time we get the word "backsliding."… It is the characteristic word in the early part of Jeremiah. But then it supposes recovery, and that the heart will be turned back again to God, because that is what the Lord wants.
He names one condition for coming back.
How can I get back? Listen. "Only acknowledge your guilt" (Jer. 3:13). There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession… How tender the call is: "Turn, O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you."
(Jeremiah 3:14 in the ESV reads "for I am your master"; older translations read "for I am married to you.")
- Seen — God asks Jeremiah what he has seen in Israel. Judah saw it too: she watched her sister carried off in judgment and was not frightened.
- Reform — Josiah's cleanup was real, and the nation went along with it. It never changed the heart of the people.
- Places — people chose the high hills and green trees because those places made them feel close to God. That feeling is how they deceived themselves.
- Marriage — God charges Israel with unfaithfulness, not bad behaviour. He speaks as a husband — and still says "return."
- Backsliding — the word itself assumes a way home. The one condition He names is to acknowledge the sin.
And I said, After she hath done all these [things], she will return unto me; but she returned not. And her sister Judah, the treacherous, saw [it].
Jeremiah receives this word while Josiah is king in Judah. It looks back on God's patience with the northern kingdom of Israel: He waited for a return that never came. The verse ends with the southern kingdom, Judah, watching her sister. She saw everything and changed nothing.
The word came during a national reform led by a godly king. Commentators ask why that reform did not satisfy God.
The king's power had brought about a great reformation, but it left the hearts of most of the people untouched. It was the last effort of the Spirit of God to restore the people as a nation... But why could God not rest in the improved outward state of the kingdom of Judah in Josiah's day? He looked beneath the surface. He looked for what was real: a tender conscience, and a heart that submitted to His word. He did not find it. "The devotion of your youth, your love as a bride" were missing. God will never be satisfied with anything less than thoroughness.
The words carry God's own expectation — and a mercy no human marriage law would allow.
God, however, is nowhere more Himself than in His compassionate mercy to His fallen people. A man could not take back the wife who had deserted him for another. "Israel had committed fornication with many lovers: yet return again to me, says the Lord."... Israel's uncleanness was notorious, and God had called her back in vain.
God gives Israel a name in this passage. Older translations call her "backsliding"; the ESV says "faithless." The Hebrew word behind both is harder than either sounds:
meshubah, 'a turning away, apostasy.' Jer. 2:19; Jer. 3:6-12, 22...
Israel's fall was public. God meant those still standing to read it.
God began to deal with the larger part of the nation, which had already rejected their king. They had proved themselves rebels against the royal house God Himself chose for them. They completed that rebellion by turning away from God altogether. He warned them, they ignored Him, and He swept away the ten tribes of Israel first, as a most solemn lesson to those who remained. But Judah was deaf and blind to what God was pointing out through guilty Israel.
Judah's advantage counted against her:
Judah was even more treacherous. She despised the warning although she knew better, and sinned even more boldly.
The chapter sets two kinds of failure side by side. Israel's was open. Judah hid hers behind a show of nearness. Which of the two, then, did God find harder to bear?
God would rather have what is real, even if our souls are far from Him, than what is unreal — a claimed nearness we are not living in. The ten tribes were openly backsliding and rebellious. But what did Judah do? "Judah did not fear" (Jer. 3:8). "Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD" (Jer. 3:10). We get a great lesson there... The Lord will not have anything but what is real.
The refusal is not where the chapter ends. The same God who records it keeps calling her back.
"Return, backsliding children, says the Lord; for I am married to you." "Surely as a wife treacherously leaves her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, says the Lord. … Return, backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. See, we come to You, for You are our God" (Jer. 3). This whole part of Jeremiah is deeply beautiful and touching. God's tender pleading with a bold, unfaithful, shameless people, and His promises of forgiveness and everlasting mercy, are moving beyond words.
Ridout is quoting an older translation of this chapter.
- God waits. He said of Israel, "she will return to me." Mercy held the door open for a wife any husband could have divorced for good.
- She did not return. The call went out and came back empty. The name God gives her means a turning away — apostasy.
- Judah saw. Israel's ruin was a solemn lesson to those still standing. Judah was deaf and blind to it.
- Seeing was not fearing. Judah knew better and still did not fear. God would rather have honest distance than a pretended nearness.
- God still pleads. The refusal does not close the chapter. The same voice keeps saying "Return," and promises to heal the failure it has just exposed.
And I saw that when for all the causes wherein backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce, yet the treacherous Judah, her sister, feared not, but went and committed fornication also.
In Josiah's reign, God draws a family picture: two sisters, one already sent away with a divorce paper, the other watching. The verse turns on what the watching sister did with what she saw.
The date matters. It names the two sisters and shows which one had already been judged.
The message which begins with the sixth verse was given to Jeremiah during the reign of Josiah. There is then, first of all, a contrast between Israel (the ten tribes) and her sister Judah. (Compare with Ezekiel 23.) The house of Israel, the northern kingdom, was judged first by the Lord. She played the harlot; after she had done so, the Lord said, "Turn to Me." She refused, and her treacherous sister the house of Judah saw it. And when the Lord dealt with the house of Israel in judgment and they were carried away, Judah did not fear but played the harlot.
The legal document named in this verse is a picture, not a domestic case.
Divorce is used here as a picture. It stands for God's action in putting Israel away, after she had been shamefully unfaithful, and giving her a bill of divorce. Isaiah 50:1; Jeremiah 3:8.
The verse gives the two sisters different labels: Israel is the faithless one, Judah the treacherous one. Judah had something Israel never had — she had watched what unfaithfulness costs.
Israel's uncleanness was well known, and God had called her back in vain. But Judah was even more treacherous. She knew better, yet she despised the warning and sinned with even greater daring.
The next verse adds that Judah did turn back to God, but her heart was not in it. God's complaint here is not distance. It is pretending.
There was open backsliding and rebellion on the part of the ten tribes. But what did Judah do? "Judah feared not." "Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but in pretence, says the Lord." We get a great lesson there. The Lord will not have anything but what is real. In King Josiah's day there had been a revival, as we have seen. You would think that they had truly turned to the Lord. But it was only the effect of Josiah's influence. It was pretend. God would rather have what is real, even if our souls are at a distance, than what is unreal — a claimed nearness we are not living in.
Josiah's reign is remembered as a time of reform. Jeremiah prophesied during those very years, and God gives His own verdict on them.
This chapter carries the solemn revelation that, as far as the people were concerned, the reformation under Josiah was only hypocrisy. These two chapters form a general introduction. They show the ways and judgment of Israel and Judah, and their restoration by grace.
Ezekiel gives the two sisters names — Aholah the elder, and Aholibah, who is Jerusalem. He asks whether watching her elder sister did the younger any good.
Was Jerusalem admonished? Did the sight of Aholah act for good upon Aholibah? No — she was more corrupt in her lust than her sister was. The younger and more favoured sister followed the elder, and went even further in her idolatry.
The divorce was real. Yet God's grace reaches past it.
Jeremiah shows the Lord in that same grace. He takes Jerusalem back even after she had proved herself unfaithful and had been put away by a formal, legal judgment.
God then turns to the sister He had sent away, and names one way back.
Now see how beautifully He works with these backsliding ten tribes to bring them back… He called them, and told them to come back. Now He calls you back. You might ask, How can I get back? You say, I feel God has spoken to my soul through His Word, I am drinking at broken cisterns, how am I to get back? Listen. "Only acknowledge your iniquity." There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession.
- Seen — the message comes from Josiah's reign; Judah watched God carry her sister Israel away in judgment.
- Feared not — the sight taught her nothing; she knew better, despised the warning, and sinned with even greater daring.
- Feigned — her turning was outward only; God prefers honest distance to a nearness we claim but do not live.
- Exposed — Jeremiah gives God's verdict on Josiah's celebrated reformation: as far as the people went, it was hypocrisy.
- Recalled — God calls the divorced sister home again; the one way back is confession — acknowledge your iniquity.
And it came to pass through the lightness of her fornication that she polluted the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
A good king sat on Judah's throne when these words came. They expose what his reforms never reached: a people who treated unfaithfulness to God as a small thing and left the land defiled.
The charge belongs to the reign of Josiah, a king who tore the idols down. One writer asks how deep that reform went.
Jeremiah prophesied under Josiah, and his book shows that the moral state of the people did not change at all. They were quick to agree when the king's faithfulness put an end to idol worship. But their hearts stayed as far from God as ever.
Another writer points to the verdict in the verse that follows:
The tenth verse proves beyond question that the reformation under Josiah was not a true spiritual revival. It reads: "Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD."
The verse names Judah's partners in adultery: stone and wood. Earlier in the book Jeremiah presses the same charge, and one writer shows who took part and what they said to those idols.
And this was not the masses only. Their kings, their leaders, their priests and their prophets said to a block of wood, "You are my father," and to a stone, "You gave me birth." In their trouble they might turn to God with "Arise and save us." But God challenges their gods to arise, if they can save them. And it was not for lack of numbers — Judah's gods were as many as her cities.
Judah's sin did not stay private. It reached the ground she lived on. Later in the same book God says what her idols cost that land, and one writer sets it beside His grace — then shows how deep the sin was cut.
But grace in their case, as in ours, in no way sets aside the governmental dealings of God... "But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled My inheritance with their abominations." ... The present state of Judah was all the more distressing. As the prophet says, "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars."
God had called Israel back from this sin and been refused. Judah knew all of it and went the same way. One writer weighs the two.
Israel's uncleanness was notorious, and God had called her back in vain. But Judah was more treacherous still. She despised the warning though she knew better, and her sin was bolder still.
Another writer explains what made Judah's guilt heavier, even with her better kings:
But in fact Judah became more offensive than Israel, Jerusalem more guilty than Samaria. Israel had pleading and warning, promise and threat, but never one ray of goodness from the throne. Judah had some good kings, and God's blessing still reached her through them... Judah as a nation stayed true on the surface, since she held to David's royal line and outwardly to the temple and the worship of the LORD. Yet in heart they were as rebellious as the Israelites. The hypocrisy of Judah was more hateful to God than Israel's open desertion of Him.
One writer draws the lesson for us, and not only for Judah.
God would rather have reality, even though our souls are at a distance, than unreality and professed nearness when we are not in it... We get a great lesson there. The Lord will not have anything but what is real.
Naming the sin is not where the chapter stops. Within a few verses God turns from accusation to invitation.
He shows them that bad as Israel might have been, Judah — who had held out for a time and gave fair promises under Josiah — would turn out no better. The crisis would surely come; but when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
One writer turns to anyone who wants to come back:
You say, I feel God has spoken to my soul through His Word, I am drinking at broken cisterns — how am I to get back? Listen. "Only acknowledge your guilt." There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession.
- Backdrop — Josiah pulled the idols down, but the people's hearts stayed where they were.
- Idols — Judah called a block of wood father and a stone mother. Kings, priests and prophets all joined in.
- Pollution — Judah held the sin cheap, and it defiled the land God called His own inheritance.
- Pretence — Israel sinned in the open. Judah sinned behind temple worship, and God calls that treachery.
- Return — The exposure is not the end. God appears in grace at the lowest point, and the one way back is to acknowledge the sin.
And even for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith Jehovah.
Jeremiah 3:10 is God's verdict on Judah at its best religious moment: King Josiah had torn down the idols and restored the temple worship. God has just sent Judah's older sister Israel away for unfaithfulness, and now He asks the hardest question a religious person can face: what does He do with a return that everyone can see but He knows is not real?
God gave this word while Josiah was king. One writer takes the verse as proof of what that reformation really was:
Jeremiah received the message that begins with verse 6 during the reign of Josiah... The tenth verse proves beyond doubt that the reformation under Josiah was not a true spiritual revival.
The people did go along with him:
The king was faithful, so they readily agreed to get rid of idolatry. But their hearts stayed as far from God as ever.
Josiah stood before the people and promised to obey God's book, and the whole nation stood with him. One writer sets that scene beside our verse:
On the young king's part this was all real, no doubt. But you only have to read the earlier part of Jeremiah's prophecy to see how hypocritical it was with most of the people... They had entered into covenants with the Lord before with great enthusiasm, and the result was always the same — breakdown, and a wider departure from God than ever before.
God gives the two sisters different names. Israel is the backslider; Judah is the treacherous one. The difference is not the amount of sin but how much each one knew:
Israel's uncleanness was well known, and God had called her back in vain. But Judah was even more treacherous. She knew better, yet she despised the warning and sinned even more boldly.
Israel broke away openly. Judah kept the temple and the forms:
Judah as a nation still claimed to be true, because they held on to the house of David, and outwardly to the temple and the worship of Jehovah. Yet in heart they were as rebellious as the Israelites... The hypocrisy of Judah was more hateful to God than Israel's open desertion of Him. God had His faithful few in both kingdoms.
The verse turns on the phrase "not with her whole heart." God wanted honesty, not a better performance:
God would rather have reality, even if our souls are far off, than unreality — a nearness we claim but are not in... The Lord will not accept anything that is not real.
The reform did not last. God would not rest in it, and His reason shows what He looks for:
The reformation was the last effort of the Spirit of God to restore the people as a nation, and it was followed by the dreadful relapse in the time of the sons of Josiah... But why could God not rest in the improved outward state of the kingdom of Judah in Josiah's day? He looked beneath the surface. He looked for reality, for a tender conscience, for a heart that submits to His word — and He did not find them... God will never be satisfied with anything less than thoroughness.
A movement in a good direction always gathers a crowd, and God still reads each heart inside it:
Many claimed to follow the King in his holy zeal. But Jehovah, who knows the secrets of every heart, said, "Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense" (Jer. 3:10). In all ages the people love to move with the tide. If the tide flows in the right direction, many will go with it — outwardly. If it flows the wrong way, most will go with it eagerly.
The verdict is not the end of the chapter. God exposes the false return, then calls for a true one, and the way back is short:
"Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God"... There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession... See how tender the call is: "Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master."
- Reform — Josiah tore down the idols and restored the worship. Inside the people, it changed nothing.
- Pretense — Judah did return in public, but "not with her whole heart." The covenant was real in the king and false in the crowd.
- Treachery — Israel sinned in the open, and God calls her backsliding. Judah sinned while keeping the temple and the forms, and God calls her treacherous, because she knew better.
- Reality — God prefers honest distance to a nearness we only claim. He looks beneath the surface for a tender conscience, and will not settle for less.
- Return — the same chapter that exposes the false turning calls for a true one. It asks only that we acknowledge our sin.