If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith Jehovah, return unto me; and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not be a wanderer;
God is still pleading with a people who had drifted into idolatry. His call comes with a condition: a return that stops short of God Himself is no return at all. Is it enough to drop the sin, or must the heart travel all the way home?
The chapter picks up an argument running through the two chapters before it, and settles where the turning must end.
Jeremiah 4 takes up again the subject of chapters 2 and 3. Applying it at that time to the people, it tells them that if they return, it must be to the Lord Himself. Neither forms nor half-measures would be of any use.
The same weight falls on one word: "Me." God wants the person behind the religious habits, not the habits.
The pathway of restoration is a return to Himself, not to outward observances. Nothing short of that will do. As for His people — blessed be His Name — our God is satisfied with nothing less than their heart. And this is not about what they can be to Him, but about what He can be for them.
Israel had its own reasons for wanting God back: greatness, rescue, blessing. The repeated call sorts out what they are invited to.
Let them return to Himself, putting away the abominations that had been a snare to them. If they returned in that way, they would be established as a nation, and widespread blessing would reach the nations around them. Let them return to the Lord, not to national greatness, but to the Lord their God, and the other would follow. Let them "Return to Me" — not to national salvation, but to their Saviour God; then all else would come right. Let them "RETURN TO ME" — not to fullness of blessing, but to the Blesser Himself; overflowing blessing would follow.
The word translated "detestable things" or "abominations" is not vague. Across Scripture it points at one thing in particular.
Committing abomination is a frequent expression in the Scriptures for idolatry (see Jer. 4:1; Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15).
So the return has a hard edge. The idols must go, and putting them away belongs to the return itself.
A return must be a return to Him, the Lord; anything less is not enough. Their abominations must be judged and put away. Every return of backsliders must happen the same way. It is a true return to the Lord, with confession of sin, self-judgment, and turning from evil.
The verse allows for a journey that begins and never arrives. That partial movement is the real trap, because it feels like progress. The writers quoted here use an older translation of the line: "If you will return, return to Me."
How often there is a measure of recovery to God. It shows in giving up this or that indulgence, or this or that association. Something is given up partially, but it is only cut off above the root. The outward fruit is cut off. But we do not cut loose from the root of the thing itself. Above all, we do not get clearly back to God. "If you will return, return to Me," is what God says, and there is great danger in partial restoration to communion.
There is a reason God accepts no other destination. Confession on its own can leave a person short of the light.
If we come to ourselves it is, "I will arise and go to my father." If it is restoration, "If you will return, return to Me." Indeed a soul is never really restored until it does. Short of that it is not in the light in a way that purges the flesh, even if the fruits of the flesh have been confessed. Nor is sin seen as it is in God's sight.
The demand is searching, but the voice making it is not cold. Commentators read this call as an appeal, not just a condition.
If someone reading these lines has backslidden or fallen, we would urge him with all our heart to return to Jesus at once... The love of the heart of Jesus knows no change. We change, but He is "the same yesterday and today and forever," and He delights to be trusted. No doubt it is sad to fall, to go wrong, to backslide. It is sadder still, after we have fallen, to distrust the love of Jesus, or His gracious readiness to take us back to His heart.
- Return — to Him. The whole verse turns on one word: Me. A return to forms, habits or half-measures is not the return God asks for.
- Return — with the idols gone. "Abominations" is Scripture's regular word for idolatry. Putting them away is not a warm-up for the return. It is the return, made with confession and self-judgment.
- Return — past the root. Partial restoration cuts off the visible fruit and leaves the root untouched. It looks like progress, but it stops short of God.
- Return — into the light. A soul is not truly restored until it reaches God, because only there is sin seen as He sees it.
- Return — for the Blesser, not the blessing. Come back for Himself, and everything else He promised follows; come back for the benefits, and you have not come back.
-- and thou shalt in truth, in justice, and in righteousness swear, [As] Jehovah liveth! and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
Jeremiah has just called the people back to God, and this verse tells them what a real return sounds like. What makes an oath true, and how does one nation's repentance become the world's gain?
Verse 2 hangs on the call of verse 1. One writer works through that call step by step. Each step sets aside what Israel wanted, and leaves them with God Himself.
Let them return to the Lord — not to national greatness, but to the Lord their God — and the other would follow. Let them "Return to Me", not to national salvation, but to their Saviour God, and all else would then come right. Let them "RETURN TO ME", not to fullness of blessing, but to the Blesser Himself, and overflowing blessing would result. Let them "RETURN TO ME, says the Lord", not to be the head of all the nations, but to the King of nations, the King of Eternity, the living God. National headship would follow.
Nothing outward can stand in for Him. The chapter presses past ceremony to the heart:
And then comes the call that God could not be satisfied with outward forms. "Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskin of your hearts, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it."
The words "As the LORD lives" are not a formula. They are the shout Jeremiah kept trying to wake his people with.
Time after time Jeremiah tried to wake the people of God with the cry, "THE LORD LIVES!" "THE LORD LIVES!!" … This is the way of true revival, and of overflow for others.
The oath must carry truth, justice and righteousness. The same book records those words on lips that meant nothing by them:
The Lord said, through Jeremiah, "Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her. Though they say, 'As the LORD lives,' yet they swear falsely."
The verse ends with nations glorying in the Lord. One writer shows what that boast must rest on.
As for His people, blessed be His Name, our God will accept nothing less than their heart. And this is not about what they can be to Him, but about what He can be for them. "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."
The second half of the verse is not a bonus. It reaches back to the promise God made to Abraham.
The world's blessing awaits Israel's restoration to God and to Canaan. Not to the Church, but to Abraham, Jehovah said: "in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 22:18). … Israel and Jerusalem form the pivot upon which everything turns for the nations and for creation. Neither London, Berlin, nor Rome is, nor ever can be, God's centre of administration and blessing.
One writer places this promise in a future age, not in anything already done.
It is a true picture — alive, moving, and told in few words. It shows the happy rule of blessing on earth in the coming age, after the church is taken to her heavenly home, and after the great tribulation that follows. Israel is seen saved and exalted in the Lord. In Him the nations gathered around Israel will bless themselves and glory!
- Return — the call is to God Himself, not to better religion or a stronger nation. Everything else follows after that, never instead of it.
- Confess — a true return speaks: "As the LORD lives." That was the cry Jeremiah used again and again to wake his people.
- Truth — in Jeremiah 5 the same words came from lying lips. Truth, justice and righteousness separate a real confession from religious noise.
- Glory — God accepts one boast only: knowing Him. He is the One who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth.
- Overflow — a restored Israel carries God's promise to Abraham out to the nations, who then bless themselves in Him. Commentators place this in the coming age, not today.
For thus saith Jehovah to the men of Judah and Jerusalem Break up for you a fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
Before God will sow anything, He tells the men of Judah and Jerusalem to take a plough to the ground of their own hearts. The picture is drawn from farming, and it raises the question every reader has to answer personally: what is the state of the soil where God's word falls?
Jeremiah 4 keeps pressing the people to come back to God, and the terms are not ceremonial. One writer traces the argument of the chapter and notes what God refuses to accept:
Jeremiah 4 continues the moral pleadings with the people. Then comes the call showing that God could not be satisfied with outward forms. "Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest My wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it." The prophet has the Jew in particular in view, and his moral unfitness for the blessing of God.
"Fallow ground" is ground left unworked. One writer explains why the farming image fits the human heart:
As it is in nature, so it is spiritually. Man's heart is, to say the least, a fallow field. It must be broken up before the seed of the word of God can be sown there and bear fruit. So the Lord calls "the men of Judah, and Jerusalem" to "break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns."
Ploughing is not pleasant. The same writer shows a man who felt the blade and pushed it away:
The lazy man would not do the preparatory work this needed. Sinners would rather not have their hearts broken. It is humbling and painful work. They resist the ploughshare in the conscience, and prefer to be left alone in their sins. Long ago, as the apostle Paul "reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, 'Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.'" Felix felt the apostle's powerful appeal to his conscience, but he did not answer it. He refused the ploughshare, and his heart stayed unbroken.
Can the ploughing go too deep? One writer answers no, and ties the depth of the furrow to what a person comes to value:
Still, there must be repentance, and the deeper the better. It is good that the plough should do its work, breaking up the fallow ground. It makes deep furrows where the incorruptible seed of the Word can take root. We do not believe anyone ever had cause to complain that the ploughshare entered too deeply into the soul. On the contrary, we are sure of this. The more we are led down into the depths of our own moral ruin, the more fully we will value the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ.
The command's second half warns against sowing among thorns. One writer links it to the parable of the sower and points to what was left in the ground:
The roots of the thorns were left in the third plot, though it seems their tops had been cut off. They should have been rooted up. It was sowing among thorns, contrary to the word of God through Jeremiah, which we have looked at. Yet it was not the sower's responsibility to root up the thorns. The ground might look cleared, but the roots remained: worldliness, cares, riches, and pleasures.
The command tells people to plough. Yet one writer also describes God Himself breaking up that ground:
He will break up the fallow ground in His people's hearts with the ploughshare of His chastisement and judgments, so that they will cry to Him in their sorrow. Then their hearts will be ready for the sowing of His Word within them.
One writer applies the verse to preaching:
What is needed everywhere is a great revival of clear gospel preaching. It must press home on the consciences of men and women their lost condition, despite church membership, if they have not personally received the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word says, "Break up the fallow ground"; sow not among "thorns." We often hear people say they would like to see more old-time conversions. Well, there must first be the old-time preaching of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and of the lost condition of all people by nature as well as by practice. This must go on until the old-time conviction takes hold of the souls of Christless men and women. Then the old-time gospel will be welcomed as the only relief.
- Ground. The heart is untilled land, and God will not sow good seed into a surface that has never been opened.
- Plough. The blade is the conscience being reached; men like Felix feel it and push it away, and the ground stays unbroken.
- Depth. No one has cause to complain that the furrow went too deep. The deeper the sense of ruin, the more we value God's righteousness.
- Thorns. Tops cut off are not enough; cares, riches and pleasures left at the root will choke whatever is sown among them.
- Harvest. God Himself ploughs His people with chastening, so their hearts are ready to receive His Word and bear fruit.
Circumcise yourselves for Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my fury come forth like fire and burn, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
God has just called Judah back to Himself. Here He names the change He is after: not a repair of religious practice, but a cut made in the heart, with fire no one can put out as the alternative.
The call in this verse belongs to a longer plea. God had been urging His people to come back, and the terms of that return are set before any promise of blessing.
Jeremiah 4 takes up again the subject of chapters 2 and 3. Applying it to the people of that time, it tells them that if they return, it must be to the Lord Himself — neither forms nor half-measures would be of any use. After verse 4 the prophet announces the certain judgment of God. It would come from the north and fall on Jerusalem in destruction.
The people addressed already carried the outward mark. That is exactly what makes the demand so pointed.
Jeremiah 4 pursues the moral pleadings with the people... And then comes the call, showing that outward forms could not satisfy God... You notice the peculiarity. It is the Jew in particular who comes into the prophet's view, and it is about his moral unfitness for the blessing of God.
The sign itself was the token of a covenant, and what it stood for was never only physical.
Circumcision is said to "be a token of the covenant between Me and you" (Genesis 17:11). That chapter tells us who took part in the rite and when to carry it out. It becomes clear that circumcision means the flesh must be kept in the place of death. The flesh can contribute nothing towards carrying out the will of God.
One writer puts the cure in plain, practical terms:
I suppose that the exhortation to "circumcise ourselves to the Lord" means to cut off those "lusts of the flesh" which so easily trap us.
The command adds a direction. That small phrase turns the act into a test of motive.
Perhaps this is the most important reference, because it is the goal set before us. The real value of anything we do shows when we do it to the Lord. Someone may have taken the greatest care in carrying out the act of circumcision — but was it done to the Lord? We can ask the same about the many areas of service that occupy us. We need to question our motives. Is it really done to Him?
Jeremiah is not tinkering with Judah's ceremonies; he is trying to get through to them. That gives the verse a reach far beyond his own nation.
The prophet seeks true circumcision "to the Lord", the circumcision which touches the heart, preparing it for Him. With pleadings and warnings he labours to reach them. It is the same today. Unless we have been reached in the heart, in the spirit, in the very centre of our being, we are alienated from the living God. That is true even though, like these Jews, we call ourselves "the people of God" and have priests and a form of religion.
The demand here did not stay in Jeremiah's day. Commentators note that it is taken up and pressed again later in Scripture.
Jeremiah is also the only prophet who refers to the "token of the covenant" — to "circumcision". After the book of Joshua the first mention in the Old Testament is in Jeremiah 4:4. The Holy Spirit quotes it in Romans 2:28-29, to stress the inward reality necessary for the true Jew.
The verse issues an order. Yet the change it demands is one that only God produces, and commentators read it as pointing forward to that work.
A return must be a return to Him, the Lord; anything less is not enough. Their abominations must be judged and put away. Every return of backsliders must be in the same way — a true return to the Lord with confession of sin, self-judgment, and abandonment of evil. The circumcision of the heart means regeneration.
- Return — the movement God asks for is toward Himself; forms and half-measures do not count, and the alternative is fire no one can put out.
- Heart — the knife is turned inward, and the fixed meaning of the sign is that the flesh is kept in the place of death.
- Cut — in practice this means cutting off the lusts of the flesh that so easily trap us.
- To Him — the phrase "to the LORD" makes motive the test; the same question exposes our service today.
- New — the inward reality asked for is regeneration, a new birth; Romans 2:28-29 takes up the same demand.