Flee for safety, ye children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a signal in Beth-haccerem; for evil appeareth out of the north, and a great destruction.
The chapter opens with an evacuation order, not a sermon: a trumpet, a signal fire, and a road out of the city. Two questions follow. Who is the enemy coming from the north, and what happened to the people who obeyed?
The order comes at the end of a long charge against Judah. One writer shows how chapter 6 raises the pressure.
This closing part of the charge adds to the terrors of the scene, first by the call to the Benjamites to leave the doomed city. Zion was only a lovely and delicate woman, unable to defend her neighbours. Next, the prophet orders the besieging armies to come against Jerusalem, and this because greed and deceit were everywhere.
Behind the alarm lay the state of the people themselves.
So corruption had spoiled every spring of moral uprightness. It was therefore clear that nothing but judgment could come to them from the Lord.
The threat has a name. One writer identifies the empire behind it.
Jeremiah from first to last dwells a great deal on Babylon. Babylon was this northern power that is in the mind of the Spirit of God throughout. It is not the Assyrian. The Assyrian was northern too, but the Assyrian power was now destroyed, and only in the last days will Assyria rise again.
Another writer names the king and lists the sights and sounds of his approach.
From Jeremiah 4:3 to the end of chapter 6 the prophet deals with the state of Israel. There was no man to save the sorrowful situation! So God raises up the instrument of His anger. The event the book points to is about to happen. Nebuchadnezzar — the lion of Babylon — the destroyer from the north is coming! The battle standard is unfurled! The trumpet sound is heard! Evil comes and a great destruction! Set up a sign of fire!
The two places named are not decoration. Height explains both of them.
Tekoa was a city of Judah. Rehoboam built or fortified it "for defence" (2 Chronicles 11:6). Because it stood on a hill, it was a good place for blowing the trumpet in time of danger, as in Jeremiah 6:1.
The verse pairs Tekoa with a second site.
A place near Tekoa in Judah, used as a beacon hill.
Jeremiah names one tribe. It was his own.
Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.
The call was not wasted breath.
The children of Benjamin are urged to flee for safety because of the evil from the north. There were probably God-fearing men among the Benjamites. Those who paid attention to the call fled and escaped.
In this verse the alarm comes first and the invasion after. One writer finds a settled pattern in that order.
It is God's way to sound the trumpet before He draws His sword. Turn to Ezekiel 33:4-5 and you will see this plainly. "Then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head... He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning." So before God destroyed the earth by water, He sounded the warning trumpet through Noah. In our own time, before the last stroke falls, His trumpet sounds in the gospel call. Will you not listen to it, and seek salvation while you may? "Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid?"
- Sound. A trumpet at Tekoa and a beacon fire at Beth-haccherem. Both sit on hilltops, so the warning could travel fast and far.
- Source. The disaster from the north is Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar. It is not Assyria, whose power was already broken.
- Cause. Corruption had spoiled every spring of moral uprightness in the nation, so nothing but judgment could come.
- Escape. Jeremiah warned his own tribe, Benjamin. Those who listened got out alive.
- Pattern. God sounds the trumpet before He draws the sword. The same order runs from Noah to the gospel call today. The only question left is whether anyone moves.
The comely and delicate one do I cut off, the daughter of Zion.
Jeremiah has just told the people of Benjamin to flee Jerusalem and sound the alarm. Now he names the one marked for destruction: Zion herself, a lovely and pampered woman — but is that God's last word about her?
Older translations read the verse as a comparison: God has likened the daughter of Zion to a beautiful and delicate woman. Either way, the picture shows Zion's helplessness. She looks lovely, but she cannot fight:
This closing part of the charge adds to the terrors of the scene. First comes the call to the Benjamites to leave the doomed city. Zion was only a lovely and delicate woman, unable to defend her neighbours. Next, the prophet commissions the besiegers to come against Jerusalem, and this because of universal covetousness and deceit.
Zion cannot even shelter the towns around her, so her own people are told to get out.
The phrase is not a title for a building or a hill. It is poetry for a people. One writer explains where the name comes from and how the prophets use it:
In the plain sense, Zion was the south-eastern hill called David's city. Moriah was the north-eastern hill, where the LORD's house was built. But Zion (Isaiah 1:27) is often used figuratively by the prophets, and as a synonym for Jerusalem as a whole. "Daughter of Zion" (as in Isaiah 1:9) is a poetic way of naming the people who lived in the Jewish capital, and so the nation in general. … But we may add that it is nothing but ignorance to assume that Zion anywhere means the church of God, even as a picture.
So the woman under sentence is a real nation of people. The warning lands on them, not on the church.
The threat was already on the march. One writer names the army's commander and the direction it came from:
From Jeremiah 4:3 to the end of Jeremiah 6 the prophet deals with the state of Israel. Chaos once overtook the distant creation of Genesis 1:1. Ignorance of God and injustice were bringing the same chaos on the nation. There was no man to save the sorrowful situation. So God raises up the instrument of His anger! The event this book points to is about to happen! Nebuchadnezzar—the lion of Babylon—the destroyer from the north is coming!
Beauty did not shield Zion. The charge in these chapters spares no one:
Jeremiah 5 shows that sin and iniquity are everywhere: rich and poor, all are alike. And "Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD." Still, He will not destroy them entirely. The chapter points out the source of the evil, or at least what keeps it going. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their means. Jeremiah 6 continues the testimony, but also gives Jeremiah's position in the middle of all this evil.
God's refusal to destroy them entirely is not a loophole. It is how He has always worked:
Israel made high claims, but they did not know the Lord! They were "stupid children" with "no understanding". They were "wise" in doing evil, but they did not know how to do good (Jer. 4:22). Woe and anguish must therefore come upon them. But, as at all times, God reserves a remnant. These people really do turn to the Lord Himself, and their hearts are true to Him. So He will not make a full end of the nation.
Zion did fall. Yet how far she fell settles whether God was finished with her:
Notice that the beauty of Israel is "cast down from heaven to earth," not down to hell, the place of the dead. That was the sentence on Capernaum (Matthew 11:23). There the Lord Jesus had done many mighty works, and there He and His words were utterly rejected. So Capernaum, lifted to heaven, would be brought down to hell. Its day was over forever. Jerusalem's was not. Cast down to earth, it is treated like a city of the nations and trampled by the Gentiles. Yet it is still destined to hold a place of glory such as it never knew in the past. It must be disciplined by hardship, but God has not forsaken it forever.
- Lovely — Zion looks like a beautiful, delicate woman. She cannot defend her neighbours, let alone herself.
- Named — "Daughter of Zion" is poetry for the people of Jerusalem, not a coded word for the church.
- Doomed — God raises up Nebuchadnezzar, the destroyer from the north, against a nation where rich and poor sin alike.
- Spared — He will not destroy them entirely. God keeps a remnant whose hearts are true to Him.
- Restored — the beauty of Israel fell to earth, not to hell. Hardship disciplines her, but a glory she has never known still waits for her.
Shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch [their] tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.
Jeremiah 6 opens with an alarm. The invaders come as shepherds: they camp around the city with their flocks and graze it bare, each taking his own share. The language sounds peaceful, but it describes a siege — so why would God call such visitors to His own city?
Notice who issues the invitation to this siege.
The prophet orders the besiegers to come against Jerusalem, and the reason is covetousness and deceit everywhere. Those who destroy her would be so eager that neither the heat of noon nor the darkness of night would hold them back. Those trapped inside would be left deeply discouraged.
The word translated "shepherds" is the ordinary word for feeding a flock. Jeremiah also uses it for Israel's own leaders, and his verdict on them is blunt.
The pastors, like the prophets and the priests, were sunk in sin. The word for pastor is "raab," meaning "to feed." This word is only translated "pastor" in Jeremiah; it is usually translated "shepherd." It is a very general term. It seems to cover all those who care for and feed the flock of God.
The identity of these shepherds is not left open. Commentators point to one historic invasion.
There was no man to save the sorrowful situation. Therefore the instrument of God's anger is raised up! The event to which the book points is about to take place! Nebuchadnezzar — the lion of Babylon — the destroyer from the north is coming! The battle standard is unfurled! The trumpet sounds! Evil comes, and a great destruction!
If God calls the invaders, does that make them innocent?
God put power into the hand of the Gentile. He granted success to his armies, even against the nation of His choice, and to the overthrow of Zion that He loved. Even so, He does not overlook the pride of heart, the lust of power, the self-will and violence of the rod that He uses to correct His erring people. The nations that invaded His land again and again, and destroyed life and property without restraint, were His instruments for correcting His obstinate and stubborn people. But doing the will of God was far from the thought of any one of them. God takes into account not only what men do, but their reason for doing it.
Kelly traces the siege to covetousness and deceit. Other writers group this verse with passages that expose a deeper problem: a people who would not be corrected.
Look at scriptures such as Jeremiah 2:30; 6:3; 7:28; and Zephaniah 3:2. They show that a similar spirit prevailed among the people in Jerusalem just before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it. Those who refuse "correction" are claiming by that refusal to be all they should be. In Malachi's day the people were refusing all correction. The same thing meets us in Revelation 3, where the church at Laodicea is so rich that it has need of nothing, and therefore no need of correction. So again we have to remind ourselves of our danger in this direction.
The chapter that announces the siege also tells people how to get out.
The children of Benjamin are urged to flee for safety because of the evil coming from the north. There were probably God-fearing men among the Benjamites. Those who heeded the call fled and escaped. A warning message follows: "Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I turn from you in disgust, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land." But they paid no attention to it.
- Called — the besiegers do not just arrive. The prophet summons them, and the cause is covetousness and deceit running through the whole population.
- Named — the shepherds pitching their tents are the army of Nebuchadnezzar. He is the destroyer from the north, raised up as God's instrument of anger.
- Used — God can hand power to an invader and still judge his pride. Doing God's will was never that invader's aim.
- Refused — Jerusalem would not accept correction. To refuse correction is to claim there is nothing to correct.
- Escaped — the warning came before the tents went up. Those who acted on it got out alive. The city that ignored it did not.
Prepare war against her. Arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day hath declined, for the shadows of the evening are lengthening.
In this verse an army shouts orders to itself: attack Jerusalem at noon, and press on as the light fades. The hard question is who put those orders into their mouths, and why the city had no defence.
One invader stands behind the whole section from chapter 4 onward. This is not random violence:
From Jeremiah 4:3 to the end of Jeremiah 6 the prophet Jeremiah deals with the state of Israel. Chaos once overtook the far-off creation of Genesis 1:1. In the same way, ignorance of God and injustice were bringing chaos upon the nation. There was no man to save the sorrowful situation. Therefore God raises up the instrument of His anger! The event the book points to is about to happen! Nebuchadnezzar—the lion of Babylon—the destroyer from the north is coming! The battle flag is raised! The trumpet sounds!
The same reading runs through the chapter as a whole, where the threat is named openly rather than hinted at:
Jeremiah 6 continues the testimony, but gives also the position of Jeremiah in the middle of all this evil. In verses 11-26 the judgment is plainly announced. The conduct of the false prophets is again marked. In both these chapters the coming of Nebuchadnezzar in judgment is clearly declared.
The startling thing about this verse is who is speaking. God's prophet is the one who calls the attackers forward:
First, the call to the Benjamites to leave the doomed city. Zion was only a lovely and delicate woman, unable to defend her neighbours. Next, the prophet commissions the besieging army to come against Jerusalem. The reason is greed and deceit everywhere. Her destroyers would be so eager that neither the heat of noon nor the darkness of night would delay them. Those under siege were deeply discouraged.
The cause is moral, not military. The people would not listen, and their teachers promised peace:
They did not hear because they had uncircumcised ears, and they took no delight in the Word of the Lord. How true this is today of the great mass of professing Christians! The Lord will now no longer hold back His fury; He will pour it out upon them. Covetousness, the love of money, as it is in our day, was the controlling passion. Prophet and priest dealt falsely; their one message, like the one message of prophet and priest today, was peace, peace, when there was no peace.
God still set a good way before them. They refused to walk in it:
The prophet works hard to wake them up to the old paths, the good way, where they would find rest for their souls. But they said, "We will not walk in it." When the blessed Lord was here on earth, He kindly invited them to come to Him, and they would find rest for their souls. But man will not take that way. He chooses other ways, so he finds no real rest.
Before this attack order came a shout in the other direction: get out while there is time. Some people acted on it:
The children of Benjamin are urged to flee for safety because of the evil from the north. There were probably God-fearing men among the Benjamites. Those who heeded the call fled and escaped. A warning message follows … But they did not heed it.
The invaders' complaint about fading daylight speaks to believers today:
There is a very definite feeling among the people of God that the day of grace is about to close. In the words of the prophet we may say, "the day declines, the shadows of evening lengthen." For the Christian, we may add, in the words of the Apostle, "The night is far gone; the day is at hand."
- Alarm — the trumpet sounds before the sword falls. The call to flee came first, and those who acted on it escaped.
- Commission — the attackers do not just arrive. The prophet orders them forward, and God raises the invader as the instrument of His anger.
- Cause — greed and deceit had spread through everyone, and prophet and priest cried peace where there was none.
- Eagerness — neither noon heat nor night darkness slows the destroyers, and the defenders lose heart as they watch.
- Urgency — the enemy's words about fading daylight fit a day of grace now closing. The good way still stands open; the question is whether we walk in it.
Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces.
In Jeremiah 6 we overhear an army camped outside Jerusalem. Here its soldiers agree that darkness will not stop them — and God is the one reporting their plan, as the answer to His own people's refusal to listen.
One writer traces the chapter's sequence, and explains why the attackers will not wait for morning:
This closing part of the charge adds to the terror of the scene. First, there is the call to the Benjamites to leave the doomed city. Zion was only a lovely and delicate woman, unable to defend her neighbours. Next, the prophet orders the besiegers to come against Jerusalem, because of widespread greed and deceit. Those who ruined her would be so eager that neither the heat of noon nor the darkness of night would hold them back. This deeply discouraged those under siege.
Zion, in his picture, is only a delicate woman with no strength to hold such attackers off.
The soldiers say "let us attack," but they are not the first cause. One writer names the power that raised them up:
From Jeremiah 4:3 to the end of Jeremiah 6 the prophet deals with the state of Israel. Like the chaos that overtook the distant creation of Genesis 1:1, ignorance of God and injustice were bringing the same thing on the nation. There was no man to save the sorrowful situation! So the instrument of God's anger is raised up! The event the book points to is going to happen. Nebuchadnezzar — the lion of Babylon, the destroyer from the north — is coming! The battle standard is unfurled! The trumpet sound is heard! Evil comes, and a great destruction!
Judah still had its religious machinery running while the army massed outside. That was precisely the problem:
Jeremiah calls on the nations to hear his message: "Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it." Their ceremonies were empty hopes for holding back the judgment.
A siege announced in advance is a siege you can walk away from. The opening call of the chapter was mercy dressed as an alarm, and some acted on it:
The children of Benjamin are urged to flee for safety because of the evil coming from the north. There were probably God-fearing men among the Benjamites. Those who paid attention to the call fled and escaped.
The nation ignored the alarm. It preferred to be told that nothing was coming. One writer traces the same habit down to today:
In Jeremiah 6 we find the same state: "Everyone is greedy for unjust gain" (v. 13). As in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, just before Christ comes, so here they say, "Peace, peace" (Jer. 6:14). The prophet earnestly seeks to wake them up about the ancient paths, the good way, where they would "find rest for your souls; but they said, 'We will not walk in it'" (v. 16). When the blessed Lord was here on earth, He graciously invited them to come to Him and find rest for their souls; but man will not take that way. He chooses other ways, and so he finds no real rest.
The night attack of verse 5 is not random cruelty. It is what comes when a city hears the warning and decides not to act on it.
- Cause. The siege came because the people "have not paid attention to my words." Their ceremonies were empty hopes for holding back the judgment.
- Warning. Before the attackers spoke, God spoke. He called the people to flee, and those who heeded the call escaped.
- Instrument. The army chanting "let us attack" was the instrument of God's anger — Nebuchadnezzar, the destroyer from the north.
- Assault. They were so eager that neither noon's heat nor night's darkness would delay them. Zion had no strength of her own to hold them off.
- Refusal. Offered the ancient paths and rest for their souls, they answered, "We will not walk in it." Man still chooses other ways, and so finds no real rest.
For thus hath Jehovah of hosts said Hew ye down trees, and cast a mound against Jerusalem. She is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
Here God Himself gives the order to besiege Jerusalem, and He names the reason: what is inside her walls. So why does the Lord call an army against His own city, and what charge makes that punishment certain?
One commentator traces the order of events in this chapter and the reason given for the siege:
This closing part of the charge adds to the terrors of the scene. First comes the call to the Benjamites to leave the doomed city. Zion was only a lovely and delicate woman, unable to defend her neighbours. Next, the prophet orders the besiegers to come against Jerusalem. The reason is the covetousness and deceit found everywhere. Her destroyers would be so eager that neither the heat of noon nor the darkness of night would slow them down. This left those shut inside in deep discouragement.
Jeremiah does not leave the attacking army vague. He has been pointing to one power since chapter 4:
From Jeremiah 4:3 to the end of Jeremiah 6 the prophet deals with the state of Israel. Long ago, chaos overtook the creation of Genesis 1:1. Now ignorance of God and injustice were bringing the same chaos on the nation. There was no man to save the sad situation! Therefore the instrument of God's anger is raised up! The event the book points to is about to happen! Nebuchadnezzar — the lion of Babylon — the destroyer from the north is coming!
So how much does God own of what such an army does? One writer holds both sides together: God uses the nations, and they still answer for their own pride:
God put power into the hand of the Gentile. He gave success to his armies, even against the nation of His choice, and to the overthrow of the Zion He loved. Even so, He does not overlook the pride of heart, the lust of power, the self-will and violence of the rod He uses to correct His erring people. The nations invaded His land again and again, and destroyed life and property without cause. They were His instruments for correcting His obstinate and stubborn people. But doing the will of God was far from the thought of any one of them.
God names Jerusalem the city that must be punished, because oppression fills her. Scripture brings the same charge against her elsewhere. One writer explains why God's own city gets the sharper word:
"Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city!" This is not Nineveh, but Jerusalem. The most solemn word of God is always kept for His own people, city, and sanctuary. Judgment must begin at His house: the sentence may end with His house, but judgment begins there… Once people give in to shameless evil, it always marks the fall of those who once had better light and gave it up.
The order to besiege is not the last word of the paragraph. Verse 1 told Benjamin to run, and verse 8 pleads with the city itself. Some did listen:
The children of Benjamin are urged to flee for safety because of the evil from the north. There were probably God-fearing men among the Benjamites. Those who heeded the call fled and escaped. Then comes a warning message: "Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I turn from you in disgust, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land." But they paid no attention.
- Cause. God orders the siege because of what is inside the walls: covetousness, deceit, and oppression. The enemy's strength is not the reason.
- Command. The armies do not decide to come; the prophet commissions them. The order to build the ramp and cut the timber is God's own.
- Instrument. God raises up Nebuchadnezzar, the destroyer from the north, as the tool of His anger. The destroyer still answers for his own pride and violence.
- Severity. God keeps His most solemn word for His own city. Privilege did not soften the sentence; it sharpened it.
- Escape. The same message that summons the besiegers tells the people to flee and be warned. Those who listened got out; the city did not listen.
As a well poureth forth her waters, so she poureth forth her wickedness violence and destruction are heard in her; before me continually are grief and wounds.
Jerusalem is under a siege order in this chapter, and verse 7 gives the reason. Her evil is not an occasional lapse. It keeps flowing, like water in a well that never runs dry. That picture raises two questions. Where does such a steady supply of evil come from? And what does God mean when He says the sickness and wounds are always in His sight?
The verse sits inside a scene of gathering armies. One writer sets out that scene and names what brought the attackers.
This closing part of the charge adds to the terrors of the scene. First comes the call to the Benjamites to leave the doomed city. Zion was only a lovely and delicate woman, unable to defend her neighbours. Next, the prophet sends the besiegers against Jerusalem, and this because covetousness and deceit were everywhere. Her destroyers would be so eager that neither the heat of noon nor the dark of night would hold them back.
The Hebrew word here is not the usual term for a spring. It means a dug pit or well. The ESV says "well"; older versions render it "fountain" in this verse alone.
bor, "pit, well": translated "fountain" only in Jeremiah 6:7.
So the picture is a dug well that keeps its water fresh. Jerusalem kept her wickedness the same way — stored up and always ready.
The verse points to a source, not just to separate acts. One writer draws out what that meant for Judah.
So every spring of moral uprightness was corrupted. As a result it was plain that nothing but judgment could come to them from the Lord.
Jerusalem's problem was not a list of bad deeds. The source itself was poisoned, so nothing clean could come out of it.
The second half of the verse moves from the source to the noise in the streets. One writer explains what a large city does with the evil in the people who fill it.
Huge crowds of people, such as a city gathers, are bound to be sinks of evil, since man is a creature in revolt. The good and noble things men's cities hold are completely overshadowed by the appalling evil that gives the whole place its character. All the streams of human evil meet in one foul pool in the city man designs, and the larger the city, the fouler the pool.
God does not say that reports of the violence reach Him. He says it is never out of His sight. And what grieves Him most is not simply that evil exists. It is where this evil is happening.
The saddest thing for the heart of God is not that the world is wicked, but that the city which bears His name, on which His eyes rest continually, should be so evil.
Jerusalem had an answer of her own for those wounds. It never touched the real damage.
Jerusalem would not be instructed. To them the word of the Lord is a reproach. Wounds were healed only on the surface, with a "Peace, peace," where there was no peace.
If the trouble is the well itself, cleaning the water drawn from it is wasted work. One writer applies this to every heart, not only to Jerusalem's.
What is needed is a new fountain of life within — what the Lord offered to the sinner at the well of Sychar. The old fountain is corrupt, its waters polluted and foul. Filtering is worthless, for there is nothing there but what is poisonous and deadly.
Covetousness and violence are not unique to Jeremiah's Jerusalem. One writer names where they lead and the only way out.
Covetousness — loving self, money and pleasure — along with violence and hatred, mark the close of this period. The Lord will bring judgment upon it all. The way of deliverance, however, is always the same; it is found in Christ alone.
- Source. The word behind "well" here means a dug pit. Jerusalem kept her wickedness fresh the way a well keeps its water.
- Supply. Every spring of moral uprightness was corrupted, so only judgment could follow. A poisoned source gives no clean water.
- Overflow. What the well holds, the streets hear. All the streams of human evil meet in one pool, and the larger the city, the fouler the pool.
- Sight. God's deepest grief is not that the world is wicked. It is that the city bearing His name, always under His eye, is so evil — while her wounds are patched over with talk of peace.
- Cure. Filtering a corrupt well is worthless. The heart needs a new fountain of life within, and Christ alone gives it.
Be thou instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from thee; lest I make thee a desolation, a land not inhabited.
Jeremiah 6 opens with an alarm: the enemy is at the gates, and Benjamin's people must flee. Then God turns and speaks to the city itself — one last warning before the ruin He describes arrives.
The chapter opens with an escape order. Some inside the doomed area got out alive.
The children of Benjamin are urged to flee to safety because of the evil coming from the north. There were probably God-fearing men among the Benjamites. Those who heeded the call fled and escaped.
The word "lest" comes twice: the ruin was not yet fixed. One writer finds the same order all through Scripture.
Every reader of the Scriptures must have noticed that there is always, so to speak, a period of grace before judgment falls. It is so here. God first exposes the sorrowful moral state of His people. He warns them that He cannot go on tolerating their arrogant sin. And He gives them space for repentance.
ESV reads "Be warned," while older translations have "Be instructed." Either way, God is not asking for more religion. He is after something under the surface of a religious life.
The prophet seeks true circumcision "to the Lord", the circumcision which touches the heart, preparing it for Him. With pleadings and warnings he works to reach them. It is the same today. Unless the message has reached the heart, the spirit, the very centre of our being, we are alienated from the living God. That is so even when, like these Jews, we call ourselves "the people of God" and have priests and a form of religion.
Jerusalem's answer was no. Two things stood in the way: soothing voices promising peace, and an old path the people would not walk.
No: Jerusalem would not be instructed. The word of Jehovah is to them a reproach. Their wounds got a shallow cure: "Peace, peace," where there was no peace. They would not go the good old way, and they would not listen to the warning of new troubles. The Lord makes Jeremiah a fortress, but the people are no better than worthless silver, rejected by Him.
One dictionary explains the picture: God's people, in their moral decay, are compared to rejected silver — silver turned to dross (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
The heaviest threat here is not the army. It is God turning away from the city Himself — older translations speak of His soul being alienated from Jerusalem. One writer describes how slowly that departure begins.
The glory is departing, its first step to go is made. It is on the threshold, an "Ichabod" in the making. God cannot dwell where His character is compromised and His glory is given to another. His honour will not dwell where He is dishonoured. Yet it is as if God is reluctant to leave, even if there is so much that dishonours Him there. How He longs for His people to be in right relation with Himself and to enjoy fellowship. "How can I give you up? … my compassion grows warm and tender."
"Ichabod" is a name that means "the glory has gone."
- Warning. God sounded the alarm before He struck, and told people where to run. Commentators see a fixed pattern: a period of grace always comes before judgment.
- Space. The double "lest" means the ruin was not yet fixed. God exposes the condition, then gives room to repent.
- Heart. God's warning calls for a change at the centre — the circumcision that touches the heart. Priests, a name and a form of religion were never enough.
- Refusal. Jerusalem refused. God's word sounded like an insult, a shallow "Peace, peace" covered the wound, and the people would not take the good old way.
- Departure. The real threat was God's own withdrawal — the glory on the threshold, an "Ichabod" in the making. Even then He is slow to go, still asking, "How can I give you up?"
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts They shall thoroughly glean like a vine the remnant of Israel turn back thy hand, as a grape-gatherer unto the baskets.
Jeremiah 6 closes a long charge against Jerusalem. Here the Lord of hosts does not speak to His people. He gives orders over their heads to the men who will strip them like a vine. Two questions follow. Who does the gleaning, and what is left after the hand goes over the branches a second time?
In this chapter the Lord does not only predict an attack. He orders one, and He gives the reason for it.
This closing part of the charge adds to the terror of the scene. First comes the call to the people of Benjamin to leave the doomed city… Next, the prophet commissions the besiegers to come against Jerusalem. The reason is greed and deceit everywhere. Those who ruin her would be so eager that neither the heat of noon nor the darkness of night would slow them… Jerusalem would not be taught. The word of the Lord is an insult to them. Their wounds were healed only on the surface with "Peace, peace," where there was no peace. They would neither take the good old way, nor listen to the warning of new troubles… But if the Lord makes Jeremiah a fortress, the people are no better than rejected silver, refused by Him.
So who carries out the stripping? The book names the man God raises up, and the event the whole book has been moving toward.
There was no man to save the sorrowful situation. So God raises up the instrument of His anger! The event the book points to is about to happen. Nebuchadnezzar — the lion of Babylon — the destroyer from the north is coming! The battle flag goes up! The trumpet sounds! Evil comes, and a great destruction!
Why speak of gleaning a vine? Because God had come looking for fruit from Israel, year after year.
Through years of long-suffering patience, God had tested Israel in various ways, seeking fruit, but found only wild grapes. The last and greatest test was the presence of the beloved Son. Their deliberate rejection of the Son was the final proof that Israel really was a degenerate plant and an empty vine.
Jeremiah prophesied while King Josiah was pulling down the idols. The nation looked better. One writer says the change never reached the heart.
In these end-time revivals a powerful effect falls on everyone. But the reality is found only in the hearts of the remnant. The book of Jeremiah, who prophesied under Josiah, shows us that the moral state of the people did not change at all. They agreed easily to the ending of idol worship, because the king was faithful. But their hearts stayed as far from God as ever.
The gleaning falls on "the remnant of Israel." Judgment in these chapters comes with a limit set on it.
The people had not believed the messages of judgment. The prophet describes what the invader from the north will do to Israel… Again the promise comes: "I will not make a full end of you." The Lord keeps a remnant among His people.
Gleaning has a second sense in Scripture. What the pickers leave behind is not waste. It is kept for someone.
There will be a special testimony of God at the end of the age… A remnant will be left in the field who really belong to Him. The gleanings are left, as it says here, for the poor and the stranger. The Lord will maintain His testimony even in the darkest times, and in the most unusual way.
- Vine. God looked for fruit from Israel through long years of patience. He found wild grapes.
- Search. The stripping is thorough. The gatherer's hand goes back over the branches a second time, and the nation is found empty.
- Command. The gleaners are not free agents. God tells the prophet to summon the besiegers. The destroyer from the north is the instrument of His anger.
- Cause. Josiah's reform pulled down idols but left hearts unchanged. A nation that looked mended was still ripe for judgment.
- Remnant. Even at full stretch, judgment stops short of a full end. God keeps a remnant. The gleanings left behind are what He saves for the poor and the stranger.
To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken behold, the word of Jehovah is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
Jerusalem is already under sentence, and God asks who is left to hear a warning. The answer turns on a strange phrase — an ear that has never been circumcised — and on a people who heard God's word as an insult.
Jerusalem had a settled answer to bad news, and it was not repentance.
No: Jerusalem would not be taught. The word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn. They healed wounds on the surface with a "Peace, peace," where there was no peace. They would not walk in the good old way, and they would not listen to the warning of fresh trouble.
Circumcision was an outward cutting of the flesh. Jeremiah applies that sign to the ear, and its real meaning was never on the surface.
Circumcision was only an outward cutting away of the flesh, only an outward ceremony... The spiritual meaning of circumcision was "a heart affair." In Jeremiah 6:10 the Lord complains of Israel that "their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen." In Jeremiah 9:26 He adds: "All the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart."
The point is not that they refused a ceremony. They had kept it.
This time it is the ear — a matter of obedience to the Word of the Lord. How solemn these words are: "…they have no delight in it". It is of little value to submit to outward ordinances and yet have the ear closed to His Word. This was the case with Israel.
The problem was not a shortage of preaching. The ear itself was closed, and one writer says the same is true now.
They did not hear because they had uncircumcised ears, and they had no delight in the Word of the Lord. How true this is today of the great mass of professing Christians!... Prophet and priest were dishonest. Their one message was peace, peace, when there was no peace — and it is the one message of prophet and priest today.
The prophet keeps pressing for a circumcision that reaches the heart. Israel's problem was not a lack of religion.
The prophet seeks true circumcision "to the Lord", the circumcision which touches the heart, preparing it for Him. With pleading and warning he works 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.
If the diagnosis is a closed ear, the prophet has already prescribed the cure earlier in his own book.
And what is the remedy if we feel that such is our condition? I suppose we find the remedy in Jeremiah 4:4. "Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts." I take the call to "circumcise ourselves to the Lord" to mean cutting off the "lusts of the flesh" that so easily trap us... We dare not let our ears grow heavy, so that we fail to hear these most solemn warnings.
Turn the verse around, and it shows what an open ear looks like. One writer finds that picture in Colossians.
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Col. 3:16). The ear must be open to the Word, and obedience springs from that. When the Word dwells in the believer it is no burden to obey it. Similar words appear about the young men in 1 John 2:14... We overcome in conflict by the Word, and by listening to it... Quoting again from Jeremiah 6:10, "their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen". In our passage in Colossians we see the circumcised ear and the obedience that follows.
- Ear. God's complaint is not a missing ceremony. Israel kept the outward rite, but the inner ear stayed shut.
- Heart. Circumcision was "a heart affair". Jeremiah 9:26 says the same nation was uncircumcised in heart, so the deaf ear points to a deeper problem.
- Reproach. Once the ear closes, God's word sounds like an insult instead of help, and all delight in it goes.
- Danger. A people can have priests, a form of religion, and the name "people of God", and still be alienated from the living God if He has never reached the centre of their being.
- Remedy. Jeremiah 4:4 answers Jeremiah 6:10. Cut away the desires that dull the ear. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, and obedience is no burden.
And I am full of the fury of Jehovah, I am weary with holding in. Pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the assembly of young men together for even the husband with the wife shall be taken; the aged with him [that is] full of days.
Jeremiah is full of God's anger and can no longer hold it in. He is told to pour it out on the whole city. Two questions follow. Why had God's patience run out? And why does the sentence fall on children, young men, married couples and the very old alike?
This verse sits at a turning point. One writer traces the chapters around it, down to the invader God would use:
Jeremiah 5 shows the sin and iniquity to be universal: rich and poor, all are alike. And "Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD." Yet He will not destroy entirely. It also points out the source of evil, or at least what keeps it going. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their means. Jeremiah 6 continues the testimony, but it also gives Jeremiah's position in the middle of all this evil. Verses 11-26 announce the judgment plainly. The false prophets' conduct is marked once more. Both chapters clearly declare the coming of Nebuchadnezzar in judgment.
Why now? One writer names what had made the people deaf:
They did not hear because they had uncircumcised ears, and they had no delight in the Word of the Lord. How true this is today of the great mass of professing Christians! The Lord will now no longer restrain His fury; He will pour it out upon them. Covetousness, the love of money, as it is in our day, was the controlling passion. Prophet and priest dealt falsely; their one message, like the one message of the prophet and priest today, was peace, peace, when there was no peace.
The verse names every age group. One writer shows how far the guilt reached:
All classes were involved in the guilt of having forgotten and forsaken Jehovah — kings and subjects, high and low, rich and poor, pastors and people, prophets and priests — all were alike fallen and guilty.
One writer traces where that left them:
So all the springs of moral uprightness were corrupted; and so it was plain that nothing but judgment could come to them from the Lord.
One writer describes the state the people were left in when the blow fell:
Here is the dismal state, described so movingly by a heart crushed with grief. That heart could not exaggerate how low God's ancient people had sunk. Sex, age, condition, place — nothing spared, and nothing sacred. Every word carries weight; every detail is an unbearable burden. How overwhelming for the heart which rightly feels everything!
The same prophet who carries God's anger grieves for the people it will strike. Later in the chapter he calls them to mourn:
At the same time, the prophet's heart is full of sorrow for the nation. "O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us" (verse 26).
Anger and affection together are not a contradiction. One writer sees them as a mark of the Spirit of Christ:
There is zeal for Jehovah's glory against the evil and against the people who dishonoured Him. With it goes tender affection for them as Jehovah's people. Everywhere this is a striking mark of the working of the Spirit of Christ. Compare Moses (Ex. 32:27-31 and what follows); so Paul (Rom. 9; 1 Thess. 2:15-16): only here, under grace, there is no call for judgment; so even Christ Himself (compare Matt. 23:31-37).
Writers on the Hebrew text point to this verse as a known example of a copying question:
Sometimes copyists misunderstood an abbreviation. One such mark could mean either "Jehovah" or "my." Most handbooks of textual criticism point to Jeremiah 6:11 as an illustration of this: compare the Hebrew and the Greek Old Testament.
- Restraint — God had held His anger back; here He no longer restrains it. Even so, one writer notes, He will not destroy the nation entirely.
- Reason — every rank had failed alike: kings and subjects, prophets and priests, rich and poor. Corruption reached the springs of moral uprightness, so only judgment could follow.
- Reach — guilt in every class, judgment on every age: children in the street, young men, married couples, the aged. Nothing spared, nothing sacred.
- Result — the announcement became fact. A heart crushed with grief later described a people brought so low that every detail was an unbearable burden.
- Right spirit — the man carrying the fury also calls for sackcloth and mourning. Zeal for God's honour joined to tenderness for the guilty is the mark writers point to as the Spirit of Christ.
And their houses shall be turned unto others, [their] fields and wives together; for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith Jehovah.
Jeremiah 6 closes a long charge against Jerusalem, and here the loss is named in plain household terms. Two questions press: why the sentence falls on homes and families, and whose hand is behind the invasion.
This part of the chapter has stopped warning. It states what will happen, and names the power God will use.
Jeremiah 6 continues the testimony, but also gives Jeremiah's own position in the middle of all this evil. In verses 11-26 the judgment is plainly announced. The conduct of the false prophets is again marked. In both these chapters the coming of Nebuchadnezzar in judgment is clearly declared.
The loss matches the sin. Greed is why the besiegers come, and the prophet is the one who summons them.
This closing part of the charge adds to the terrors of the scene… The prophet commissions the besiegers to come against Jerusalem, and he does so because of universal covetousness and deceit. Her destroyers would be so eager that neither the heat of noon nor the darkness of night would delay them. That deeply discouraged those under siege.
The same greed gripped the men whose job was to warn. That failure has a modern echo.
They did not hear because they had uncircumcised ears, and they took no delight in the Word of the Lord. How true this is today of the great mass of professing Christians! The Lord will now no longer restrain His fury; He will pour it out on them. Covetousness, the love of money, as it is in our day, was the controlling passion. Prophet and priest dealt falsely; their one message, like the one message of prophet and priest today, was peace, peace, when there was no peace.
Jeremiah lived to see this sentence carried out. In Lamentations he prays it back to God as a finished fact. The loss ran deeper than property. The land had never been theirs by conquest alone.
So the prophet says, "Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace! Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners." This was not merely a human or natural feeling about their loss and disgrace. We must keep in mind that Israel held the land of their possession from Jehovah. No doubt they drove out or subdued the Canaanites. As men reckon it, they held it by right of conquest. But a deeper fact lay underneath the victories of Joshua. God gave them strength to put down the most corrupt race then on earth, who had pushed into a land that He had from the first intended and given by promise to the fathers… Sadly, they did not take the blessing as promises received by faith on the ground of God's grace. They took it on the condition of their own faithfulness to the law — a condition that must be fatal to a sinner. So came the disasters, and finally the ruin, which Jeremiah here groans out to God.
The hand stretched out is God's, not Babylon's. That one fact keeps the disaster from being meaningless. It also shows the sentence was no sudden decision.
But the prophet insists that Jehovah Himself had done the work of destruction, and He did it because of His people's sin. The nations might boast of their power over Jerusalem, but the deed was His… It is sorrowful, most sorrowful, that His hand had done it all. Yet it is a comfort to faith, for it is the hand that can and will build up again for His name's sake. Nor was this a hasty chastening. From the earliest days Jehovah had threatened and foretold through Moses what Jeremiah sets out in detail in his Lamentations. Compare Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28, 31, 32.
Alongside the sentence stood an open road back. The people were called to it, and they said no.
The prophet works hard to wake them up about the old paths, the good way, where they would "find rest for their souls; but they said, We will not walk in it" (v. 16). When the blessed Lord was here on earth, He invited them to come to Him and find rest for their souls. But man will not take that way. He chooses other ways, and so he finds no real rest.
- Cause. Covetousness and deceit brought the besiegers to Jerusalem's walls. The love of money was the controlling passion of prophet, priest and people alike.
- Cover-up. Prophet and priest kept saying "peace, peace" when there was no peace. That message let the greed run on unchecked.
- Consequence. What they coveted, they lost. Homes, fields and families passed to strangers, just as Lamentations later records.
- Control. The invader was only the instrument. The hand stretched out was Jehovah's own, and Moses had announced it long before Jeremiah.
- Comfort. That same hand can build up again for His name's sake. The good way was still open; they refused to walk in it.
For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them, every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest, every one dealeth falsely.
An army from the north is closing in on Jerusalem, and this verse gives God's reason for it. Greed had spread through every level of society, and the prophets and priests were lying along with everyone else.
This is not a general complaint about a bad age. Greed and deceit are the stated reason the besieging army is ordered in.
The prophet orders the besieging army to come against Jerusalem, and the reason is greed and deceit in everyone. Those who came to lay her waste would be so eager that neither the heat of noon nor the darkness of night would hold them back. Those under siege were left deeply discouraged.
God had pleaded with this people for chapters before this warning. Now the verse runs from the bottom of society to the top, and no class can point at another as the guilty one.
Jeremiah 1 to 24 is full of the gracious pleadings of Jehovah with His rebellious, backsliding, guilty, but beloved people. Judah's moral state at the time of this prophecy was dreadful. Every class shared the guilt of having forgotten and forsaken Jehovah: kings and subjects, high and low, rich and poor, pastors and people, prophets and priests. All alike had fallen, and all alike were guilty.
One writer compares Israel's greed with the greed of Christians today, and finds the modern version worse.
Remember that this greed in Israel was not nearly as bad in character as it is among us. What they wanted was only more than their fair share of what God had given to them all. Their blessings were earthly, and no one could blame them for valuing money and property highly. The Christian's possessions are spiritual, yet you rarely see Christians fighting for more than their share of those. What Christians want is too often the world and the things in it. They should not set their heart or affections on such things at all, still less envy those who have more. What a tale of spiritual deadness it tells when a child of God, an heir of glory, covets the poor riches of earth!
The second half of the verse names the people who should have been the exception.
Greed, the love of money, was the controlling passion, just as it is in our day. Prophet and priest dealt falsely. Their one message was the same one that prophet and priest give today: peace, peace, when there was no peace.
The same failure runs on long after Judah, and gain is still the motive.
It is in Jeremiah's writings that we see most fully the prophets prophesying falsely and the priests going along with the evil so as to rule. The true prophet cries out in his anguish that God's people love to have it so — and what will they do in the end? God's vengeance on the false teachers is more terrible still. Their greed and their smooth words have drawn the crowd away from the truth all along. They cheer man's progress in his own way without Christ. How little they believe that God's eye is on their selfish trade!
This is not only an ancient problem, and the answer to it has never changed.
Greed — loving self, money and pleasure — marks the close of this period, along with violence and hatred. The Lord will bring judgment on it all. But the way of deliverance is always the same: it is found in Christ alone. We find the same state in Jeremiah 6.
- Greed spreads. From the least to the greatest, every class was fallen and guilty — kings and subjects, rich and poor, people and priests.
- Greed lies. Where money is the controlling passion, prophet and priest deal falsely. Their message becomes peace, peace, where there is no peace.
- Greed invites the army. Kelly names greed and deceit as the ground for sending the besieging army against the city.
- Greed is worse now. Judah wanted more of the earthly things God had given them. When a Christian craves the poor riches of earth, it shows spiritual deadness.
- Greed has one cure. The same greed marks the close of this age. Deliverance never changes: Christ alone.
And they have healed the breach of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace! when there is no peace.
Jeremiah is warning a city under judgment. The men in charge of its spiritual care are treating a deadly wound as if it were a scratch. The verse raises a question that outlives Jerusalem. What happens when the voices we trust tell us we are safe, and they have never looked at our real condition?
The words fall inside a chapter of siege warnings. One survey of the chapter places the false comfort exactly where it belongs — between the alarm and the refusal to listen:
Jerusalem would not be instructed. The word of the Lord is to them a reproach. Wounds were slightly healed with a "Peace, peace," where there was none. They would neither go the good old way, nor attend to the warning of new woes.
Who was saying it? The prophets and priests — the very men who should have warned the people. The same failure appears earlier in the book, and the people were not its victims. They wanted it:
The worst part of the national evil was this: not just some of the people were guilty. "An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land," he says. "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; My people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?"
To heal a wound lightly is to cover a deep injury instead of treating it. One writer, commenting on the same words in chapter 8, explains the method and why God will not work that way:
The prophet brings this great fact home to them. There is a wound there. And in that day there were religious quacks with their cures who tried to heal that wound lightly. How? By giving a message that did not match the real state. If God comes and deals with us, He must have reality... The cry of "Peace, peace" was propping up a rotten state of things. God is too faithful, too holy and too gracious to do anything less than meet the condition of things exactly as it really is before Him.
Notice that purity comes first on the list, before peace. If we think about it, we will see at once that it must be so, since all is of God. He never compromises with evil, so there can be no peace except in purity. Again and again this was the burden of the prophets.
Commentators apply the verse well beyond Judah. The same message is still on offer, and one writer names its two sources:
Two preachers of peace are seeking to gain the attention of the children of men... These preachers are Satan and Christ... The one group proclaims a false peace. It rests on rotten foundations, and sooner or later there must come an awful awakening from it. The other group proclaims a true peace, founded on the unchangeable basis of the Saviour's atoning blood.
The counterfeit is convincing because it feels like calm. One writer traces that feeling to its real cause:
This is the devil's peace; he rocks men in the cradle of security; he cries Peace, peace, when men are on the edge of hell. The peace a sinner seems to have does not come from knowing that he is happy; it comes from not knowing his danger... True peace is after trouble. God convinces and humbles the soul; then He speaks peace.
Losing a comfortable lie hurts. One writer calls the loss a mercy:
It is a mercy from God when a false peace is smashed up. The "great bitterness" that follows is not pleasant, but it is still the way to God. See Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9:9, three whole days unable to eat or drink... Saul had made a terrible discovery. For all his blameless life and religious zeal, at heart he was an enemy of God and His Son.
The remedy is not a better announcement but a finished work:
So it is absurd to tell a man to make his peace with God. It cannot be done. No one can get rid of a single sin by himself. But in truth there is no peace to make. Christ has "made peace by the blood of His cross" (Colossians 1:20). He now proclaims that peace to everyone in the gospel, by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.
One writer links this cry to the last days, and to the call that comes two verses later:
As in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, just before Christ comes, so here, they say, "Peace, peace" (Jeremiah 6:14). The prophet works hard to wake them to the old paths, the good way, where they would find rest for their souls. "But they said, 'We will not walk in it'" (v. 16).
- Wound. The hurt was real and deep. They did not misread the wound; they covered it over instead of healing it.
- Whitewash. The false peace came from the very prophets and priests who should have warned, and the people loved to have it so.
- Why. No announcement could make it true. God never compromises with evil, so there is no peace without purity.
- Waking. A broken false peace is a mercy, not a cruelty; true peace comes after trouble, not instead of it.
- Work. There is no peace to make — Christ made it by the blood of His cross, and that is the only peace anyone can truly announce.
Are they ashamed that they have committed abomination? Nay, they are not at all ashamed, neither know they what it is to blush. Therefore they shall fall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall stumble, saith Jehovah.
They could still hear God's question, but they could no longer feel it. Judah had sinned until sin no longer registered. Jeremiah points to that lost blush as the reason judgment had to fall.
Judah's religious leaders helped make her shameless. They treated deep wounds as if they were scratches.
Jerusalem would not take instruction. The word of the Lord is an insult to them. They healed wounds only on the surface, crying, "Peace, peace," where there was no peace. They would not walk in the good old way, and they would not listen to the warning of new troubles.
One writer finds the same false message among religious leaders in his own day.
Covetousness, the love of money, as it is in our day, was the controlling passion. Prophet and priest dealt falsely; their one message, like the one message of the prophet and priest today, was peace, peace, when there was no peace.
The inability to blush is not a small failing of manners. Scripture uses the forehead to show what a person has become inside. Here the contrast is a bride who can still blush.
Scripture uses the forehead to express either modesty or boldness. The prophet had to say of Israel, "You are obstinate … and your forehead brass" (Isaiah 48:4). The Lord asks, "Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?" The answer comes: "No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush" (Jeremiah 6:15; Jeremiah 8:12). In contrast, the bride shows modesty. She can blush.
The verse does not ask whether they had sinned. It asks whether they were ashamed. What God exposes is the state that comes after the act.
Man has sinned against God, abused His goodness, and refused His Son. Still he turns to please himself as if nothing had happened. To a spiritual eye it is more terrible to see a man feel nothing after he has sinned. That is a far deeper shade of sin than the crime itself. A soul returns to God exactly by being awakened to how awful this state is.
A lost blush does not mean shame has died out of human nature.
Shame is sin's firstborn. Later sins often push it aside (Jeremiah 6:15), and it stays buried while our nature runs on in its darkness. But it returns to its first place whenever light breaks in on the soul. So the first effect of truth, when it gives new life, is to fill the awakened sinner with a deep sense of his own unfitness for the presence of his Maker.
"They shall fall among those who fall" is the sentence on a people who took every warning without flinching. God had already struck them, and it changed nothing.
Isaiah says, "Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel?" Jeremiah had to say of the generation in his day, "You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish." He said again, "I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, 'What have I done?'" Are we then to wonder that the sword of the Chaldean entered the land?
Greed, lies, and false prophets ran right through the chapter.
Corruption had reached every spring of moral uprightness. So it was plain that nothing but judgment could come to them from the Lord.
- Cause — false peace. Leaders healed wounds only on the surface, crying peace where there was none. Comfort without truth hardens a people.
- Symptom — the lost blush. The forehead shows modesty or boldness. A face that cannot redden has stopped registering what God calls abomination.
- Depth — numbness beats the act. Carrying on as if nothing had happened is a darker shade of sin than the sin itself.
- Hope — shame is only buried. Shame is sin's firstborn. Later sins crowd it out, but it returns the moment God's light breaks into the soul.
- End — the reckoning. God had struck them and no one asked, "What have I done?" — so the fall came at the time He appointed.
Thus saith Jehovah Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the ancient paths, which is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk [therein].
God speaks to a nation close to ruin. His remedy is not a new plan. He tells them to stop at the crossroads: look, ask, and take the road that was always good. The sting is in the last line. They refused, and they refused on purpose.
The invitation comes to a city already told what is coming. Its teachers had covered the wound with the word "peace." The same hardness that ignored the warning also refused the road back.
Jerusalem would not be instructed. The word of the Lord is a reproach to them. Wounds were slightly healed with a "Peace, peace," where there was none. They would neither go the good old way, nor pay attention to the warning of new troubles.
Older translations call these the "old paths." Many read the phrase as outward arrangements. One writer traces it back to the start of the book, where God recalls the love of Israel's early days with Him.
What then are the ancient paths? Holiness to the Lord (Jer. 2:3). "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of His harvest." Do we not hear an echo of this for believers today? Revelation 2:4 says, "I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first."
So the words can become a slogan. The same writer draws the line between claiming the truth and living it.
The old paths and the good way mean much more than talking about divine principles or claiming to stand for the truth. The men standing for the truth in the book of Jeremiah were living it.
The call is not cold. One writer describes the feeling behind it.
God lays His heart bare in these pleadings as nowhere else in Scripture. Like a husband deserted by an unfaithful wife, He pleads with them to return. Like a father heartbroken at the lawlessness of his children, He calls on them to obey.
The call assumes there is something worth going back to. One commentator turns that into a rule for every age of God's dealings.
At the start of each age God makes known the 'paths' that fit what He has set up. They do not change while that age lasts. Returning to them after a time of drifting away is always right. Let us see that we do so today.
The same writer sets out what doing right looks like once things have gone wrong.
First, confess the failure humbly and with a broken heart. Do not pretend that things are all right when all is wrong. Second, recognise that God always starts with what is right. Unlike man, He never experiments with something imperfect at the start and then works up to a better product.
The good way came with a promise of rest. Jesus later used the same words. One writer traces what happened to that promise.
"Rest for your souls" was proposed as the result of a faithful walk in the "old paths" of the law (see Jer. 6:16), but that rest was never attained by men. The only way to reach it was that made known by the Son, who had come to reveal the Father.
Refusing has a cost, and the cost is restlessness. Here is what people lose when they choose their own road.
When the blessed Lord was here on earth, He graciously invited them to come to Him and find rest for their souls. But man will not take that way. He chooses other ways, so he finds no real rest. He is like the troubled sea, stirred up and tossing. He knows no settled quietness of heart, no peace of mind, no divine calm.
The verse ends with the people passing sentence on themselves. History records what followed.
Many prophets were sent to call them back to the things that God had established at the beginning... But Israel refused, and so they went into captivity in Babylon.
The verse gives a personal task before a public one. One commentator states what that means now.
Our present duty has two parts. First, get our own souls right by testing all our ways and associations by the written Word. Second, use our influence to help others return to the "old paths" (Jeremiah 6:16).
- Stand — the call comes to people soothed with "peace, peace" while judgment nears. The first step is to stop and listen.
- Ask — the ancient paths are not old customs. They are God's beginning: holiness to the Lord and the love of early days, echoed in the warning about abandoning the love you had at first.
- Walk — returning starts with a broken confession of failure, not a better system. What God set up at the start stays right, so going back is going forward.
- Rest — no one reached that rest under the law. The Son who reveals the Father is the only way into it. Every other road leaves the heart tossing like the sea.
- Refuse — "We will not walk in it" was their answer, and captivity followed. The same verse now asks each person to test their ways by Scripture and to help others back.
Also I have set watchmen over you -- Hearken ye to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.
God had posted watchmen and had the trumpet blown, so the danger was announced long before it arrived. The people answered with a flat refusal — which raises two questions: who were these watchmen, and what does such a refusal cost?
The verse pictures a watchman on the wall. Scripture uses the same picture for the prophet Ezekiel, and it puts two parties at risk, not one.
Ezekiel is set as a watchman to warn the house of Israel. If any ignored the sound of the trumpet, their blood would be on their own head. If the watchman did not blow the trumpet, his blood would pay the penalty.
Notice who posts the watchmen in this verse. That one detail decides how serious the refusal is.
Men might naturally, and usually would, appoint a watchman for themselves. But the prophet is not appointed by the people. God appoints him on their behalf. Even if there were no word from Him, the people would still be accountable. Yet God had provided a watchman for those too careless and indifferent to care for their own interests, even the most weighty ones. How this, even so, would increase the guilt of those who still refused the Voice that spoke to them!
The verse just before this one offered the good old way. This verse adds the alarm. Jerusalem had a softer message on offer, and preferred it.
Jerusalem would not be instructed. The word of the Lord is to them a reproach. Wounds were healed only on the surface with a "Peace, peace," where there was none. They would neither take the good old way, nor pay attention to the warning of new troubles.
Their answer was not confusion. They heard the trumpet, and they still said no. Why does a warning meet that response?
We do not like having our conscience disturbed by hearing of our failures. Admitting that we are wrong, or have done wrong, is too humbling for religious flesh — unless we say it in the vaguest and most general terms. So the prophet who tries to exercise the conscience — who reminds God's people of their sins — is never popular. People welcome the mere "teacher" with enthusiasm, because gaining knowledge at a teacher's feet rather flatters the flesh.
The chapter does not stop with the refusal. Jeremiah had done his part; now God stops pleading with Judah and calls the whole earth to hear.
Although he reminded them that watchmen had been set over them to warn them, they refused to listen. So He spoke further, "Hear, O earth! Behold I will certainly bring calamity on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts… Behold a people comes from the north country" (v. 19-25).
The pattern did not end with Jeremiah. God still warns before He strikes, and the reader stands inside that pattern now.
It is God's way, before drawing His sword, to sound the trumpet… Before God destroyed the earth by water, He sounded the warning trumpet through Noah. In our own time, before the last blow falls, His trumpet resounds in the gospel call. Will you not take notice of it, and seek salvation while you may?
- Warning first. Before God draws the sword He sounds the trumpet — through Noah, through the prophets, and now through the gospel call.
- Warning given. God posts the watchman; the city does not hire him. He is God's provision for people too careless to look out for themselves.
- Warning refused. Judah turned down both offers of the chapter: the good old way, and the alarm about new trouble ahead.
- Warning resented. A messenger who exposes failure is never popular. People welcome a teacher who adds knowledge. They resist a prophet who stirs the conscience.
- Warning answered for. Whoever ignores the trumpet carries his own blood on his own head. Being given a watchman only deepens the guilt of refusing him.