Jeremiah - Lesson 3

• ​​​​​​Chapter 1 began by establishing that Jeremiah was called by the LORD as a prophet in the days of the last few kings of Judah before their exile from Jerusalem. The kingdom from the North would bring the LORD’s judgment to Judah.

• Chapter 2 The LORD speaks of Israel’s birth and relationship with Him and then her rejection of Him by embracing and actively seeking worship of false gods.

Jer. 3:1  God says, “If a husband divorces his wife
And she goes from him
And belongs to another man,
Will he still return to her?
Will not that land be completely polluted?
But you are a harlot with many lovers;
Yet you turn to Me,” declares the LORD.
Jer. 3:2  “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see;
Where have you not been violated?
By the roads you have sat for them
Like an Arab in the desert,
And you have polluted a land
With your harlotry and with your wickedness.
Jer. 3:3  “Therefore the showers have been withheld,
And there has been no spring rain.
Yet you had a harlot’s forehead;
You refused to be ashamed.
Jer. 3:4  “Have you not just now called to Me,
‘My Father, You are the friend of my youth?
Jer. 3:5  ‘Will He be angry forever?
Will He be indignant to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken
And have done evil things,
And you have had your way.”

• Verse 1 God uses a relational situation to reflect what has happened with Israel divorcing Him and seeking after other gods.

  • God asks those listening if they thought that a husband should return to an unfaithful wife.

  • The conclusion is the land would be completely polluted.

  • The connection between the divorced woman and the pollution of the land would bring the audience to the law.

Deut. 24:1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house,
Deut. 24:2 and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife,
Deut. 24:3 and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife,
Deut. 24:4 then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.

• This act is an abomination before the LORD, and it brings sin on the land.

  • This is the comparison to be seen in Jer. 3:1.

  • God points out clearly that His wife Israel has done this to Him by divorcing Him and uniting herself to other gods and not wanting to come back to Him.

    • The difference here is that Israel played the harlot, but she did not marry another god, she went after many gods.

    • This will leave the door open for the LORD to beckon Israel to come back to Him through repentance.

• Verse 2 The evidence of the harlotry can be found on every high hill in the land.

  • The people sought after these gods with anticipation.

  • Like an Arab waiting in the desert for someone to come by in anticipation of the encounter.

    • The Arabs of this day would be sprinkled throughout the land, and this is the picture the LORD is establishing for Israel, that this harlotry was everywhere in the land.

    • The result is the land is polluted with wickedness.

• Verse 3 Read in ESV translation of the second part of the verse.

Jer. 3:3b ESV yet you have the forehead of a whore;
you refuse to be ashamed.

• Proverbs 7 recounts the cunning of an adulteress as she seduces a man. In verse 13 this detail is given.

Prov. 7:13  So she seizes him and kisses him
And with a brazen face she says to him:

• The adulteress has no shame on her face but is forceful in pursuing her desires.

  • The result is drought has been brought to the land because of this wickedness.

    • These words would again draw the audience to what was written in Deuteronomy 11.

Deut. 11:10 “For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your foot like a vegetable garden.
Deut. 11:11 “But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven,
Deut. 11:12 a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.
Deut. 11:13  “It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul,
Deut. 11:14 that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil.
Deut. 11:15 “He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
Deut. 11:16 “Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them.
Deut. 11:17 “Or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.

• The LORD will provide rain when the people love the LORD and when they turn away from the LORD, He will not bring the rain. Several examples of this are found in the book of 1 Kings.

1Kings 8:35 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin when You afflict them,
1Kings 8:36 then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and of Your people Israel, indeed, teach them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land, which You have given Your people for an inheritance.

1Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

1Kings 18:1 Now it happened after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth.”

2Kings 8:1 Now Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go with your household, and sojourn wherever you can sojourn; for the LORD has called for a famine, and it will even come on the land for seven years.”

• Jer. 3:4-5 The LORD displays how some in Judah now speak out to Him reminding Him of their beginning (from youth) relationship to Him.

  • Then they try to manipulate the LORD by insinuating He can’t be mad at them forever.

  • The LORD reminds them they are speaking correctly, what He said He would do He will do, and the consequences go back to the actions of the people.

    • Isaiah also spoke of this to Israel in Isaiah 29.

Is. 29:13 Then the Lord said,
“Because this people draw near with their words
And honor Me with their lip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,
Is. 29:14  Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous;
And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,
And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”
Is. 29:15 Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD,
And whose deeds are done in a dark place,
And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”

• This part of Isaiah is quoted by Jesus in both Mark 7:6-7 and Matthew 15:8-9 when referring to the Jewish leaders in His day.

Jer. 3:6  Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there.
Jer. 3:7 “I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
Jer. 3:8 “And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.
Jer. 3:9 “Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.
Jer. 3:10 “Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the LORD.

• Verse 6 Jeremiah establishes that the LORD speaks to him during the days of Josiah the king.

  • Josiah was made king at the age of eight, but he began his dedicated work for the LORD ten years later.

2Kings 22:3 Now in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam the scribe, to the house of the LORD saying,
2Kings 22:4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest that he may count the money brought in to the house of the LORD which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people.
2Kings 22:5 “Let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD, and let them give it to the workmen who are in the house of the LORD to repair the damages of the house,
2Kings 22:6 to the carpenters and the builders and the masons and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house.
2Kings 22:7 “Only no accounting shall be made with them for the money delivered into their hands, for they deal faithfully.”
2Kings 22:8 Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan who read it.
2Kings 22:9 Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought back word to the king and said, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD.”
2Kings 22:10 Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.
2Kings 22:11 When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.

• It would appear the LORD is speaking to Jeremiah during the early years of King Josiah as the corruption did not stop until Josiah was king for ten years.

• The idolatrous worship established under the kings of Israel is still taking place in that land even after Israel has been removed for almost one hundred years and that is why God says, “have you seen what faithless Israel did?” 

2Kings 23:19 Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made provoking the LORD; and he did to them just as he had done in Bethel.
2Kings 23:20 All the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem.

• The places used to establish this worship were referred to as taking place in high places, sometimes called high hills. The purpose of using an elevated space was to emphasize a closeness to the heavens.

  • First, because the worship was to things found in the heavens, but secondly because there was an innate understanding that the power controlling what is on earth originates from the heavens, even for these false gods and their worship.

  • The same is true for the reference to, ‘under every green tree.’ The pagan worship was often focused on the worship of the creation. The trees were symbolic of the renewal of life, often then associated with fertility. This is also why sexual practices accompanied the worship within these cults.

• Jer. 3:7 The LORD says He thought Israel would see the error of their ways and come back to the LORD, but they did not.

  • Judah was witness to both the harlotry and the lack of repentance and the judgment the LORD brought on Israel.

• Verse 8 The LORD says His sending Israel away was His issuing her a writ of divorce. The prophecy of Ezekiel is one of the clearest warnings to Israel that they needed to cease their harlotry or endure the LORD's judgment. The judgment came and is recorded in 2 Kings 17:5-6.

2Kings 17:5 Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years.
2Kings 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

• Judah witnessed it all and still did not fear the LORD; and indulged egregiously in the idolatrous worship of the same foreign gods.

  • Jer. 3:9 When God refers to the lightness of Israel’s harlotry, He is speaking of how Israel viewed her idolatry.

• Verse 10 The confirmation the LORD is speaking about Israel is solidified as He refers to Judah as the treacherous sister.

  • Judah is considered worse than Israel because she tried to deceive the LORD but did not return with all her heart.

  • This would need to be a time where it looked like Judah was going to do what was right but then fell back into idolatry. Some try to connect this to the reforms brought about by Josiah, but I believe this lines up with the events of King Hezekiah in 2 Kings Chapters 18-20.

    • (Highlighted here for the sake of brevity. 2 Kings 19:2-6, 20:1-6)

2Kings 19:2 Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
2Kings 19:3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and rejection; for children have come to birth and there is no strength to deliver.
2Kings 19:4 ‘Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’”
2Kings 19:5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
2Kings 19:6 Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.

2Kings 20:1 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’”
2Kings 20:2 Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying,
2Kings 20:3 “Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
2Kings 20:4 Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, saying,
2Kings 20:5 “Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD.
2Kings 20:6 “I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.”’”

• This was only a temporary repentance from the king and not from all the people.

  • This was a close call for the kingdom of Judah, and they should have been so grateful that the LORD their God saved them that they should have changed their ways, but sadly it did not last.

    • The LORD despises hypocrisy as Jesus clearly demonstrates by His words concerning the leaders of Israel in His day.

Matt. 23:1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples,
Matt. 23:2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses;
Matt. 23:3 therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.

• Their deeds spoke for what they believed in their hearts, not their words. Read the rest of Matthew chapter 23 for a more thorough look at what Jesus calls the leaders out for.

Jer. 3:11  And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.
Jer. 3:12  “Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say,
‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD;
‘I will not look upon you in anger.
For I am gracious,’ declares the LORD;
‘I will not be angry forever.
Jer. 3:13  ‘Only acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against the LORD your God
And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the LORD.
Jer. 3:14  ‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the LORD;
‘For I am a master to you,
And I will take you one from a city and two from a family,
And I will bring you to Zion.’
Jer. 3:15 “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.
Jer. 3:16 “It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the LORD, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again.
Jer. 3:17 “At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the LORD,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the LORD; nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
Jer. 3:18 “In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

• Verse 11 The LORD declares Israel to be more righteous than Judah and then proceeds to have Jeremiah speak to Israel.

  • Verse 12 The LORD calls out to Israel to return to Him as He is gracious towards Israel.

  • Verse 13 Israel must repent from the sin of idolatry against the LORD their God.

  • Verse 14 The LORD will bring them back by cities and families to Zion.

  • Verse 15 When the LORD brings them back to Zion He makes promises to Israel.

  • Verse 16 Gives confirmation these verses are about a time in the future for Israel described as, ‘in those days’.

    • In this future time the people will increase in the land.

    • They will not look for the ark of the covenant of the LORD

    • They will not even look back fondly for those days under the law memorialized in the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

  • This would be a shocking thing for the people of Judah to hear as the ark of the covenant was still housed in the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem at this time. It is not removed until the Babylonian exile that is still future for them.

• Verse 17 The city of Jerusalem will be The Throne of the LORD.

  • All the nations of the earth will gather in Jerusalem because the LORD rules from there.

  • The nations will not walk about in rejection of the LORD in their hard hearts at this time.

• Verse 18 The LORD says both the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah will come together in this future time as one kingdom called Israel. Confirmation from Ezek. 37:21-22.

Ezek. 37:21 “Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land;
Ezek. 37:22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms.

• These are glimpses given to God’s people of the future time when the LORD will reign on earth over the entire world. This is referred to as the Millennial Kingdom period:

Rev. 20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

• There is much more that could be taught on this subject, but we will stay focused today on what is being revealed through Jeremiah. There will be more detail given in later chapters of Jeremiah.

Jer. 3:19  “Then I said,
‘How I would set you among My sons
And give you a pleasant land,
The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’
And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My Father,
And not turn away from following Me.’
Jer. 3:20  “Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover,
So you have dealt treacherously with Me,
O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.
Jer. 3:21  A voice is heard on the bare heights,
The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel;
Because they have perverted their way,
They have forgotten the LORD their God.
Jer. 3:22  “Return, O faithless sons,
I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to You;
For You are the LORD our God.
Jer. 3:23  “Surely, the hills are a deception,
A tumult on the mountains.
Surely in the LORD our God
Is the salvation of Israel.

• Verse 19 The LORD’s desire is to establish the sons of Israel as His sons in the best land, and they never cease to acknowledge Him as their Father.

  • Verse 20 Instead of what the LORD has desired Israel has acted like a woman who is unfaithful and has treated the LORD unfaithfully.

  • Verse 21 This rejection of the LORD as their God brought much pain.

  • Verse 22 Return to the LORD God in faithfulness. The word return was also used in verses 12 & 14. The sense is a turning with true repentance to the LORD.

  • Verse 23 No longer be deceived but know the LORD is your salvation, Israel.

Jer. 3:24  “But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
Jer. 3:25 “Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

• Verse 24 The shameful thing mentioned here is defined in verse 23 as the hills of deception and a tumult on the mountains.

  • This thing took their labor, flocks, and their children.

  • This is what Israel sacrificed in worship to the false gods.

• Verse 25 This false worship has plagued the sons of Israel for most of her existence.

  • Lessons to be gleaned from Jeremiah Three:

    • Do we learn from other people’s mistakes when God is using them to warn us?

  • The LORD demonstrates His profound love for His people and the desire for them to turn from their wickedness and seek the forgiveness He is truly willing to bestow on His people.

  • This is not just for Israel but for all those who are His people through faith in Him.

1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

• Believers are to confess our sins.

  • God is faithful, and righteous when He forgives our sins.

    • Believers are to live a life for God and not in words only.

James 1:22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
James 1:23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;
James 1:24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
James 1:25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Luke 6:46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
Luke 6:47 “Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like:
Luke 6:48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
Luke 6:49 “But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

• Believers are to be doers of God’s Word not just to listen and understand them, but to put them into practice in everyday life and circumstances.