Therefore thus saith Jehovah Behold, I give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.
Jeremiah had bought a field in a country about to be destroyed, and his prayer ended by asking God why. God answers as "the God of all flesh," then confirms the worst: the city will fall, and He Himself is handing it over.
This verse is part of God's answer to His servant's prayer. One writer shows how the answer is built:
The answer the Lord gave to praying Jeremiah is twofold. Jeremiah had said in faith, "There is nothing too hard for the LORD." The Lord answered him, "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for Me?" Then He announces first of all the fate of the doomed city (verses 28-35). After this comes the message of comfort and peace once more. It looks forward to that blessed future when God gathers Israel out of all countries and brings them back to the land — when they shall be His people (verses 36-44).
The verse itself gives no reason for the handover. The verses right after it do:
So nothing would set aside the speedy execution of the long-delayed sentence. From the beginning — for it is always so with man — Jerusalem had been a cause of His anger and His fury to this day. Its people made His house the special seat of their evil practices. They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, with the horrible sacrifices of sons and daughters to Molech. Judgment therefore had to fall on their idol worship and their sin. If anyone denies Him, He must deny them. But He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.
The capture of the city changed the shape of world history. God's throne had stood in Jerusalem. With its fall, rule over the earth passed to Gentile kings:
"The times of the Gentiles" begin with what Daniel describes. Nebuchadnezzar, as the servant of God, went up and took the city. That was the place where the throne of the Lord God had been, where the temple of God was, and where the worship of God was still offered in name at least. He took it and levelled it to the ground, because of the sin and iniquity of its inhabitants. God had forsaken His people. Ezekiel describes how the glory of the Lord slowly left the place (Ezekiel 10:4, 18, 19). The next thing, in God's righteous government, was that He passed His earthly people, the Jews, into the hands of the enemy. So "the times of the Gentiles" began.
Jeremiah heard this sentence just after buying land inside the doomed country:
Such was the faith and the patience of this holy prophet. To bear at all cost a true testimony of Jehovah's mind to His people was far dearer to him than earthly goods, or honour, or life. When outward peace reigned, he saw the coming ruin. When the ruin was almost at its worst, he acted on his understanding of the word of Jehovah. He took steps toward a restoration that could not fail.
Later in the chapter God repeats the people's own verdict on the land. Then He overturns it, promising ordinary property deals in the places now being overrun:
Jehovah will yet pour out His heart of grace upon His people. "Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will surely plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul. … And fields shall be bought in this land, of which you say, It is desolate, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. Men shall buy fields for money. They shall sign deeds, seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin and in the places around Jerusalem" (verses 41-44).
Jeremiah had confessed God's power, yet could not see how money spent on enemy-held land would come back:
"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" is the Lord's challenge to Jeremiah on this occasion, as it is to Sarah in Genesis 18. Sarah's body was then dead. She did not know how she could have a child, for she did not know the resurrection-strength of God. Jeremiah was laying out his money on a piece of ground that was then in the hand of the enemy. He did not know how he could get its value back again; for, like Sarah, he did not know the resurrection-strength of God.
- His hand. The city does not just fall to a stronger army. God says He is handing it over, and the Chaldeans are the tool of His sentence.
- Their sin. Generations of idol worship, ending in child sacrifice, brought the long-delayed sentence down at last.
- Gentile hands. When God gave this city up, rule over the earth passed from Jerusalem to Gentile kings, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar.
- Bought back. The words the people used to write off the land — "given into the hand of the Chaldeans" — return later as the setting for fields bought, deeds signed and witnesses called.
- Nothing too hard. The God who hands the city over is the God whose question stands over the whole chapter: is anything too hard for Him?
And the Chaldeans, that fight against this city, shall come in and set fire to this city, and shall burn it, and the houses upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink-offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger.
God answers Jeremiah's prayer by naming the city He will hand over to Babylon. The fire falls on the very roofs where the people had worshipped other gods — the place of the sin becomes the place of the burning.
Jeremiah had just prayed that nothing is too hard for the Lord. God turns that confession into a question back to him, then gives His reply in two parts.
The answer the Lord gave to praying Jeremiah is twofold. Jeremiah had said in faith, "There is nothing too hard for the LORD." The Lord answered him, "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for Me?" Then He announces first of all the fate of the doomed city (verses 28-35). After this comes the message of comfort and peace again. It looks forward to that blessed future when God gathers Israel out of all countries and brings them back to the land — when they shall be His people (verses 36-44).
Why single out the roofs? In Judah the flat roof of an ordinary house was where people turned to other gods.
"Baal" was the idol god of the Phoenicians and Canaanites. The word means "lord" or "possessor." Immoral sexual practices went with the worship of this god... They worshipped the hosts of the heavens from housetops. They worshipped the stars. They studied their movements as if the stars could help them and give them a revelation. Astrology is practised widely among nations today, and it is an old cult.
God Himself gave the drink offering, and it belonged to Him. Here the people pour it out for other gods, and the prophets record that pattern again and again.
In the prophets, all the other direct references to the drink offering except one point to idol worship connected with this offering. Psalm 16:4 does the same. Every blessing that God has ever given to man, man has corrupted. This is true of the drink offering also. We must make sure that all our worship — and all our thoughts, words and actions — aim at giving joy to God.
God did not burn the city in a sudden fit of anger. He had named this fire long before, and He held it back for years.
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. So Nebuchadnezzar and his armies came against Jerusalem and besieged it. They "burned the house of the LORD and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem" and "broke down the walls around Jerusalem" (2 Kings 25:1-10). This was God's judgment carried out. He had foretold it long before, and He had held it back a long time in His patience.
When the city fell, it happened word for word: the same army, the same fire, the same houses.
At Riblah, in front of Nebuchadnezzar, they kill Zedekiah's sons before his eyes. They put all the nobles of Judah to death. They put out Zedekiah's eyes, bind him with chains of bronze, and carry him to Babylon. "And the Chaldeans burned the king's house and the houses of the people with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem" (v. 8).
The same chapter that promises the fire also promises the land back. That is why Jeremiah, shut up in prison, had just paid good money for a field.
Yet Jeremiah had obeyed and bought the field for money when all looked hopeless, for God was his confidence — He had made the heavens and the earth... God will give the city into the hand of the king of Babylon. The people, princes, priests and prophets had sinned and done evil from their youth, and so provoked Him to anger. Yet He will gather them again. "Yes, I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul." They will own the fields and lands and cities again, and prosper richly. What a God is Israel's! What a God is ours!
- Question — Jeremiah prays that nothing is too hard for God. God answers with His own question, and His reply comes in two parts: first the doomed city, then the promised return.
- Roof — The housetops had become shrines to Baal and to the stars. The flat roof of an ordinary home was where Judah's idolatry happened.
- Offering — The drink offering was God's gift, poured out for Him. Poured out for other gods, it provoked His anger. Every blessing God gives, man can corrupt.
- Patience — God named the fire on those houses long before it fell, and He held it back while He bore with the people.
- Field — The same chapter that burns the houses promises them again. Jeremiah bought a field while in prison, because the God who could judge could also restore.
For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have been doing only evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith Jehovah.
Jeremiah is a prisoner inside a besieged Jerusalem, and he has just prayed to the God for whom nothing is too hard. God's reply begins with a charge sheet, not with comfort. This verse is its heart: Israel and Judah have a record of evil, and evil only.
This sentence is not an outburst. It belongs to an ordered reply that moves from sentence to promise.
The answer the Lord gave to praying Jeremiah is twofold... He announces first of all the fate of the doomed city (verses 28-35). After this comes once more the message of comfort and peace. It looks forward to that blessed future when God gathers Israel out of all countries and brings them back to the land — when they shall be His people (verses 36-44).
The charge reaches back past the kings to the nation's beginning. One word covers the whole story, from the golden calf in the desert to the cross.
They have done evil in the sight of the Lord their God, to provoke Him to anger. That one word, "evil" takes all in, from the calf at Horeb to the cross at Calvary. Such is Israel's past.
The evil named here has a fixed meaning in the prophets. It is not bad workmanship; it is what people make and then bow down to.
"The works of their hands," of which they did not repent, is a phrase peculiar to heathen idolatry (Isa. 2:8; Jer. 1:16; 25:6-7, 14; Deut. 4:28; Ps. 115:4-7; 135:15).
The record explains why nothing could hold back the judgment. God's faithfulness to Himself stands behind it.
Nothing would set aside the speedy carrying out of the long-suspended sentence. From the beginning (for so it always is with man) Jerusalem had been an object of His anger and of His fury to this day. Its people made His house the special seat of their abominations. They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, with the horrid sacrifices of sons and daughters to Molech. Judgment therefore must fall on their idolatries and their iniquities. If any deny Him, He must deny them. But He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.
Molech and Baal were gods of the surrounding nations. The valley of the son of Hinnom lay just outside Jerusalem. There people burned their own children in sacrifice.
It would be easy to read the verse as a report on one bad nation long ago. It is aimed closer to home.
Do not think, dear reader, that all this was written only as the history of one unusually corrupt people. Oh, no; by it God wants to show us what the heart of man is — my heart, your heart — even when God has lavished upon us all His care. The human heart is completely corrupt; good does not exist in it; so it is impossible to get any good out of it. As long as God acted on the principle of law, looking for fruit from responsible man, the same sad result was bound to follow. God has made the trial with the people of Israel once for all.
The timing matters. God states the worst about them at the moment they gave up hope. Then He tells them what He will do anyway.
He points out the iniquity of the people and of the city from the beginning. But now, in despair through sin, they saw their ruin as certain. At that point Jehovah declares not only a return from captivity, but the full power of His grace. He would give oneness of heart to the people, that they may serve Him for ever... Jehovah will rejoice in doing them good. He would plant them in the land with His whole heart, and His whole soul. It was He who had brought all this evil in judgment, and it was He who would bring all the good which He had promised.
God did not stop at words. At the darkest hour He had the prophet act out redemption in a piece of land.
At such a moment God shows His redemption and grace. He tells the prophet to buy the field of Hanameel, because "the right of redemption" belonged to Jeremiah... Just so it is with God — the right of redemption is His. Here is a fine subject for gospel preachers... "Man's extremity is God's opportunity!" Those who have proved His redeeming love know this.
- Charge. God's answer to Jeremiah opens with the fate of the doomed city, and only then moves to comfort. Sentence comes before promise.
- Cause. The evil is idolatry — "the works of their hands," a phrase the prophets keep for worshipping what people make.
- Length. "From their youth" stretches the charge across the whole story, from the calf at Horeb to the cross.
- Mirror. God wrote the record so we would see our own hearts in it. He has made the trial of man once for all.
- Grace. Nothing good can come out of that record. So God promises what He will do Himself: one heart, an everlasting covenant, and a land replanted with His whole heart and soul.
For this city hath been to me [a provocation] of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face,
Jerusalem is under siege, the prophet sits in the palace prison, and God has just told him to buy a field. Before He explains that field, God explains the ruin. The city has stirred up His anger since the day its walls first went up, and now He will remove it from His sight.
Jeremiah had prayed. What comes back to him is not one message but two, and the order matters.
The answer the Lord gave to praying Jeremiah is twofold. … He announces first of all the fate of the doomed city (verses 28-35). After this comes once more the message of comfort and peace. It looks forward to that blessed future when God gathers Israel out of all countries and brings them back to the land — when they will be His people (verses 36-44).
The charge is not that Jerusalem declined late in its life. It reaches back to the founding. One writer reads this as the plain pattern of human nature. He also points to where the worst of it happened: in God's own house, and in the valley where people sacrificed their children to the god Molech.
Thus nothing would set aside the speedy execution of the long-suspended sentence. From the beginning (for so it always is with man) Jerusalem had stirred His anger and His fury, right up to this day. They made His house the chief seat of their detestable practices. They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, with the horrible sacrifices of sons and daughters to Molech. Judgment therefore must fall on their idol worship and their sin. If any deny Him, He must deny them. But He abides faithful; He cannot deny Himself.
If the provocation ran that far back, the striking thing is how long God held off. One writer traces that patience to what God had already invested in the place.
God bore long with Ephraim: "How shall I give you up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver you, Israel?" He bore with greater patience the greater provocations of Judah. For His house was in Jerusalem, and His name was recorded there. That covenant still held with Judah after Ephraim. When it too was broken and judgment could not be avoided, there was still, as it were, the lingering of divine compassion. For we know Who wept with human tears over Jerusalem.
Being removed from God's sight sounds final. Writing on Lamentations, one commentator marks the difference between being cast down and being written off.
It was sad to consider that the city once called "the holy" should have become so vile and unfaithful to God that the Lord could no longer endure it… It was "cast down to earth," treated like a city of the nations. Yes, the nations trampled it. Still it is destined yet to hold a place of glory such as it never knew in the past. God had to discipline it by hard times, but He did not abandon it forever.
The timing matters. God lists the guilt of the city from its beginning just when the people can no longer imagine a way out.
He points out the sin of the people and of the city from the beginning. But now, in despair through sin, their ruin appeared to them certain. At that point the Lord declares not only a return from captivity, but the full effect of His grace. He would give oneness of heart to the people, so that they may serve Him forever… He was the One who had brought all this evil in judgment, and He was the One who would bring all the good He had promised.
Jeremiah bought a field in a land facing ruin. He did not buy it on his own idea.
It was the Lord who told him to do it. The purchase was a testimony of the greatest value. Despite the desolation, despite the destruction of the city, Jeremiah believed that the Jews would return to their property. He believed people would still farm that land and build houses there.
- Provocation. The complaint reaches back to the city's founding. This is the pattern of man from the beginning, and God's own house became the chief seat of the evil.
- Patience. His house stood in Jerusalem and His name was there. So He bore Judah's greater provocations longer, and the sentence hung suspended before it fell.
- Removal. At last He could no longer endure the city. He cast it down and the nations trampled it — discipline, not abandonment.
- Promise. At the moment ruin looked final, He promised more than a return from captivity. He promised the full effect of His grace — oneness of heart, so they may serve Him forever.
- Proof. The same God who brought the evil in judgment would bring the good He promised — and Jeremiah's field, bought in a doomed land, was the proof.
because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Babylon's army is at the walls of Jerusalem, and the city's fall is certain. Before God promises to bring His people home, He names who brought the ruin — and this verse leaves out no rank of Israel.
The verse names one class of people after another, from the king down to the ordinary citizen. Older translations, which the writers quote, call the officials "princes." The failure was not limited to a bad king or a corrupt priesthood. The state of the temple showed what the city had already become.
It is very sad to see the temple defiled in the days of David's unfaithful sons. Its treasures were taken away, its doors were shut, and the house needed repair and cleansing. The condition of God's house reflected the moral state of the city... Everyone shared in the evil, as Jeremiah 32:32 shows — kings, princes, priests, prophets and people. So the glory of the Lord, unwilling but compelled, left the city that had shamefully dishonoured the holy Name of the God of Israel. All this happened before the temple and the city were destroyed.
Priests and prophets stand in the middle of that list. God had given them to His people as His own servants.
Their sins were glaring, and worst of all where sin is most hateful and offensive to God. He would have denied Himself if He had not brought His people down to the dust and scattered them to the ends of the earth... It was a great privilege to have such servants of Jehovah. That made it all the more distressing when they polluted His name and His people.
This was not a good start spoiled late. The record runs back to the beginning, and God is settling it now.
From the beginning — for it is always so with man — Jerusalem had stirred His anger and His fury, right up to this day. The people made His house the chief place of their detestable things. They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and there they offered the horrible sacrifices of sons and daughters to the god Molech. Judgment therefore must fall on their idolatries and their iniquities. If any deny Him, He must deny them. But He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.
All of this ran alongside an unbroken show of religion. The building was still standing, so the people assumed they were safe.
All this shows how far people can go while keeping up an outward show of godliness. Every section of the community gave itself to almost every kind of evil. Kings, princes, priests, prophets and people were all guilty before God. Yet their trust was in "The temple of Jehovah." They wrongly imagined that nothing could harm them as long as the temple stood in Jerusalem. Jehovah's word meant nothing to them. They did not care about the honour of His Name. Truth had perished, and only an empty form was left.
It would be easy to read this as old news about one wicked nation. Commentators press the opposite point.
Do not think, dear reader, that all this is only the history of one especially corrupt people. Oh no; by it God wants to show us what the heart of man is — my heart, your heart — even when God has lavished all His care upon us... But God will not leave His people in this deplorable condition. He has proved that they cannot produce good fruit. Now He reveals Himself as their Redeemer. He takes on Himself the work of taking away their iniquity, and gives them a new heart inclined to obey Him.
The list of the guilty is not the end of the chapter. God names the sin first, and what follows can only be grace.
He points out the sin of the people and of the city from the beginning. But now sin had left them in despair, and their ruin looked certain to them. At that very moment Jehovah promises not only a return from captivity, but the full power of His grace. He would give oneness of heart to the people, that they may serve Him for ever... It was He who had brought all this evil in judgment, and it was He who would bring all the good which He had promised.
- Everyone. Kings, officials, priests, prophets and people stand on one charge sheet. Every part of the nation added to the evil.
- Everywhere. The defiled temple showed what the city had become. The form of religion stayed; the truth had perished.
- Always. From the beginning, Jerusalem had stirred God's anger — a settled character, not a late slip.
- Us. God shows us here what the human heart is — "my heart, your heart" — even after all His care.
- Yet. God names the whole guilt so that what comes next can only be grace. He gives a new heart, and one heart to serve Him for ever. The hand that brought the judgment brings all the promised good.
And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face; and though I taught them, rising early and teaching, they hearkened not to receive instruction.
Jeremiah 32:33 comes inside God's answer to Jeremiah's prayer. It is God's own summary of why the city must fall: not ignorance, but a people who turned their backs on the One who taught them.
The verse belongs to the first half of a two-part answer.
The answer the Lord gave to praying Jeremiah is twofold… He announces first of all the fate of the doomed city (verses 28-35). After this comes once more the message of comfort and peace. It looks forward to that blessed future when God gathers Israel out of all countries and brings them back to the land — when they shall be His people (verses 36-44).
Turning the back is Jeremiah's picture of a love abandoned. The same complaint returns again and again in Jeremiah 2.
Jeremiah 2 is the first recorded word to the people. It gives the first thought which filled the heart of the Lord, the main reason, as we have said, for all the sorrow — those who once loved Him had forsaken Him. He could not forget the kindness of their early years when they first went after Him. He remembered the love of their engagement days. But now He complains again and again: they have "gone far from Me"; they have "forsaken Me"; they have "turned their back to Me"; they have "forgotten Me."
Even so, they still cried out for rescue when trouble came.
Their backs and their faces were turned from Jehovah. But when the time of trouble comes, they will say, "Arise, save us." But could or would the false gods they had made respond and save them? Some day a remnant of that nation will turn to the Lord and cry, "Arise, save us," and He will answer.
The word "persistently" in this verse reads "rising early and teaching" in older translations. Writing on Zephaniah, and quoting one of those older versions, a commentator notes that the people matched God's early rising with their own.
"I said, Surely you will fear me, you will receive instruction; so their dwelling would not be cut off, no matter how I punished them. But they rose early, and corrupted all their doings." As Jehovah rose early to send them messages and warnings, they rose early to indulge in their wickedness.
Not hearing was a choice, not a weakness. Zechariah looked back on the same people and described them in almost the same terms.
"They refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts as hard as diamond, so that they might not hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets." So there was not only indifference. There was active hostility to the word of God, even open rebellion against Him and His claims… It was the will of Israel not to hear, and in this way they turned firmly away from the pleadings and warnings of the prophets.
The judgment on the city is real. What follows it is a promise.
If any deny Him, He must deny them. But He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself… "I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation… And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever… I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me."
Centuries later Christ met the same response. One writer uses this verse to voice His sorrow.
The Lord's own knowledge of the hardness of man's heart in no way lessened His energy or His love. Still, the sorrow was there. The sons of Israel were not all ready, like aged Simeon, to receive Him as the Lord's Christ. His lament might be put in the recorded words of Jehovah to Jeremiah: "They have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction."
The verse is not only about an ancient nation. Believers can still meet the same patient Teacher with a distracted heart.
There is something deeply gracious in the way the Lord waits on His people to teach them. It is meant to draw out the hearts and minds of believers in love and gratitude. But how often they have cause for shame! Their minds and hearts are so taken up with other things that they cannot feel the many ways and means by which a God of love teaches them.
- He turns toward. God rose early and taught them day after day. The failure was never a silence on His side.
- They turn away. The back, not the face, is the language of a love once given and then abandoned. Yet in trouble they still cry, "Arise, save us."
- They turn hard. They chose not to listen: shoulders turned, ears stopped, hearts as hard as diamond.
- He turns the city over. Judgment on Jerusalem follows in verses 28-35: those who deny Him He must deny.
- He will not turn away. Verses 36-44 answer the turned back with an everlasting covenant. God puts the fear of Him in their hearts, so they will never turn away again.
And they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it;
God has answered Jeremiah's prayer with a list of reasons why Jerusalem must fall. This verse names the sharpest item on that list: the idols did not stay out in the valley — the people carried them into the one building that bore God's own name.
This charge is part of God's reply to a praying prophet, and the reply comes in two halves.
The answer the Lord gave to praying Jeremiah is twofold. Jeremiah had said in faith, "Nothing is too hard for you." The Lord answered him, "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?" Then He announces first the fate of the doomed city (verses 28-35). After this comes once more the message of comfort and peace. It looks forward to that blessed future when God gathers Israel out of all countries and brings them back to the land — when they shall be His people (verses 36-44).
Their idolatry — the "abominations" of the verse — had a chosen address.
From the beginning (for it is always so with man) Jerusalem had provoked His anger and His fury, right up to this day. They made His house the special seat of their abominations. They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, with the horrible sacrifices of sons and daughters to Molech. Judgment therefore had to fall on their idolatries and their iniquities. If any deny Him, He must deny them. But He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.
Ezekiel, prophesying in the same years, was given a guided tour of the temple so that the reason for the coming judgment could not be disputed.
The glory of Jehovah appeared to the prophet, and in the visions of God He took him to Jerusalem. There, in the courts, the chambers and the gates, He showed him every form of hateful and defiling idolatry that the elders and others of Israel practised in Jehovah's own house. Now compare this with the history of Jeremiah, and with the outward profession they kept up — the claim that the law would never be lost from the priest. Then we shall understand how great the iniquity of the Jews was, and how deep their hypocrisy.
"Called by my name" was the very thing the people leaned on, as if the address were insurance.
Just before the captivity of Judah, there was the outward pretension to the worship of Jehovah, but idolatry had even come into that which bore Jehovah's Name. They were still saying, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD" (Jer. 7:4). They imagined, in vain, that their formal though corrupt worship would save them from God's judgment, simply because the building called by God's Name still stood.
Verse 34 says the defiling was deliberate — and the same principle had already been demonstrated once before, at the earlier sanctuary in Shiloh.
And what a solemn fact it is — judgment fell on the house at Shiloh, where the Lord first made His name dwell (Jer. 7:12). Then it came on the house at Jerusalem as well. He said, "therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh" (v. 14). And so it happened. Likewise the apostle Peter tells us, "it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God" (1 Peter 4:17). We see it in the symbolic history of the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. God will judge corrupt Christendom no less than He judged corrupt Judaism… When people falsify the truth and true piety is gone, what can come but judgment from God? And still more so, if this false thing bears His holy Name.
The charge is not where the chapter ends.
He points out the iniquity of the people and of the city from the beginning. But now their sin had left them in despair, and their ruin looked certain to them. At that very point Jehovah declares not only a return from captivity, but the full power of His grace. He would give oneness of heart to the people, that they may serve Him for ever.
- The name. God had put His own name on the temple. That name is what the people trusted in. They kept saying "the temple of the LORD" while their worship was corrupt.
- The invasion. Idolatry did not stay outside. It came into the very thing that bore His name, and His house became the chief seat of their abominations.
- The insult. God showed Ezekiel every form of defiling idolatry in the courts, chambers and gates of His own house, while the people kept up a loud outward profession. That is the hypocrisy God calls out.
- The judgment. Shiloh first, then Jerusalem. The principle still stands: judgment begins at the household of God, and it falls heavier where the false thing carries His holy name.
- The grace. God spells out the iniquity first. Only then, when ruin looks final, does He promise a return from captivity, one heart, and service to Him for ever.
and they have built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause to pass through [the fire] their sons and their daughters unto Molech which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
God is listing the reasons why the city He chose must fall under judgment. Verse 35 names the worst of them: shrines in a valley just outside Jerusalem, where parents burned their own children to an idol.
The valley has its own history, from its place south of the city to the name the New Testament later used for eternal punishment:
The valley running from east to west, on the south of Jerusalem, is often called "the valley of the son of Hinnom." In some part of it, thought to be the east end, people passed their children through the fire to false gods (Jer. 7:31-32; Jer. 32:35). To stop this, Josiah defiled Topheth in this valley. The prophet Isaiah gives the key to why the New Testament links it, under the name Gehenna, with eternal punishment.
Some read this as a ritual the children survived. The passages weigh against that:
This is the fire-god, "the abomination of Ammon," and the Israelites sacrificed their children to this idol. "Passing their children through the fire" might seem to mean the children were dedicated to the idol by being passed quickly through a fire without being burned. That may have happened. But some passages do not allow this reading. Of the Canaanites Scripture says, "their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods." Of Israel it records that they "caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them, to devour them... for when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it."
One writer describes how it was done:
Molech was an image with its arms outstretched, and people would place their children in its arms, while a fire was lit beneath. Drums and noisy music then drowned out the cries of the child as the fire burned it to death. So this religious wickedness made the torture and murder of an unwanted child into a holy act!
There is a logic behind the horror. A conscience away from God will pay any price it invents:
A false god always means what is false and morally evil, for if man's conscience were not defiled, he could not be away from God. The gods men take for themselves are a true picture of the desires that call for them. Serving those gods feeds those desires and makes them grow. But conscience brings remorse, and remorse claims frightful penalties — until men offer the fruit of their bodies for the sin of their souls, passion and fear holding them by turns in bondage.
God says the practice never entered His mind. That test still applies to worship men invent:
How many practices and customs in Christendom have been "devised" out of men's own hearts and have no foundation in Scripture! God condemned Israel for doing what, He says, "I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind" (Jer. 7:31; also 19:5; 32:35). It is the thoughts of God's heart, not mine, that I am to heed and put into practice.
The verse charges the spread of the sin, not just the act. The trail runs back to Solomon:
Here we move from wives to children, and to that most inhuman rite in which Satan so blinded parents that they gave their own children as sacrifices to Molech or Moloch. He was the guardian god of the Ammonites, and the name Molech means "King." From Jer. 19:5 it appears that people worshipped Baal in this way too. The practice was widespread under various idols over the earth, and how terrible that Solomon gave in to his pagan wives... The greatest science and learning, the highest civilization and luxury, can in no way stop this, if they do not help it on.
The charge is not the last word in the chapter:
From the beginning — for it is always so with man — Jerusalem had been an object of His anger and His fury, right up to this day. They made His house the chief seat of their abominations. They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, with the horrid sacrifices of sons and daughters to Molech. Judgment therefore must fall on their idolatries and their sins. If any deny Him, He must deny them. But He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. "And now therefore thus says the Lord... behold, I will gather them out of all countries... and I will make an everlasting covenant with them."
- Place. Topheth in the valley of Hinnom lay just outside Jerusalem. That ground gave its name to Gehenna, the word for final judgment.
- Practice. Parents laid their children in the idol's outstretched arms over a fire, and drums covered the cries. Some passages may allow a milder reading; others do not.
- Cause. Once a conscience leaves God, fear and desire take turns ruling it. In the end men pay for the sin of their souls with the fruit of their bodies.
- Verdict. God never commanded it, and it never entered His mind. That judges every act of worship invented by the human heart instead of found in His Word.
- After. The same chapter promises a gathering back from every country and an everlasting covenant. God stays faithful because He cannot deny Himself.