Jeremiah 2c: In the Courts of the Lord.

 This lament by God over the unfaithfulness of Israel goes on for several chapters. God uses several different metaphors to express his relationship with Israel: bride and groom on a honeymoon, landlord at the beginning of harvest, and plaintiff making a claim against a defendant in a courtroom. 

 This lament is punctuated by a series of questions that God asks. We heard the first last week when God asked, “What fault did your ancestors find in me that they strayed so far from me?” God does not wait for an answer because the fault was not in him but in Israel. It was Israel who thought that it would be a good idea to seek political allies with other nations for security and thus embrace their gods as well. They did not ask, “Where is the LORD?,” nor remember that it was YHWH who brought them out of Egypt, not some other gods. 

 Seeking YHWH first was the job of the priests, lawyers, leaders, and prophets, but they no longer knew YHWH. They said his name but they attributed the character of the idols to him. In their devotion they themselves came to act less like YHWH and more like empty idols.  

 Judah is silent; the people whitewash what their ancestors have been up to. So, God brings his charges into the courtroom.

 God indicts Judah and all who begin their journey of devotion to YHWH God but turn aside and imagine that God permits them to follow their own desires, to store up earthly riches (the Prosperity Gospel), to quest for power, to take up arms in order to bully perceived enemies (the White Nationalist Gospel), and to pursue instant gratification even if others get hurt (the Commodification Economy).

 We are confused when we hear YHWH God say, “The land is mine!” (Leviticus 25:23). Because I thought I owned land as private property. We are bemused when we consider that Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:44). Because that’s not very practical. We are anxious when we hear Jesus say, “Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:42). Because I just want to contribute a little to the ‘the deserving poor’ (and I will decide who is ‘deserving’). 

 Just as God through Jeremiah tells the people that they have become like the god that they serve, so Jesus said, “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven …. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:20-21).

2:9-11.  Therefore, once more I accuse you, says the LORD, 

and I accuse your children’s children.

Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look; 

send to Kedar and examine with care; 

see if there has ever been such a thing.

Has a nation changed its gods, 

even though they are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory 

for something that does not profit.

 God does not punish the children for the parents’ sins, as we will see later in God’s proclamation of a New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:27-34; see also Ezekiel chapter 18). But God knows the generational effects of sin where the parents’ sins lead the children and grandchildren astray as well. We all grow up in conflicting contexts, just like the one we are in today, yet it is still the responsibility of each individual to choose the right path or to bear the folly of rejecting God’s steadfast love. Choose to hate and you will discover that hate breeds hate. Choose love and thus spread love.  

 God questions the actions of “your ancestors,” then God moves on to question “you” and “your grandchildren.” The impact of sinful behavior on generations, and the warnings of the prophets play out before several generations. Think about the audiences that we suspect are linked to Jeremiah’s prophetic scrolls. 

 This prophecy was spoken during Josiah’s time. That last good king was reforming the temple and eliminating the worship of foreign gods. What did people think when they heard it? The written scroll was available during the reigns of successive kings, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. They were bad kings who pursued foreign alliances and willingly accepted the worship of foreign gods. What did people living in those times think when they read the scroll? Finally, the scroll was still around during the Exile so those sad people in Babylon could read what God had said and realize that they had ignored the word of God. It was a prediction of what would happen if they did not change, and now the worst had happened. God’s word became food for thought. Did we and our parents really act like that? How did we miss God’s warning that this disaster was coming?

 What Israel and Judah have done seems unique to YHWH. By using geographical markers, God is saying, ‘Look to the east and look to the west, look closely and you will not find a nation that has changed their gods. And that is true even though their gods are no gods at all’. Other people were borrowing and adapting gods from other nations all the time, but they rarely gave up their own native gods or shelved the whole idea of hand-made gods. 

 Perhaps the point is that no other nation has given up their local gods for the one true God YHWH. We do have isolated examples of individuals turning to Israel’s God: Rahab the Canaanite, Ruth the Moabite, and Naaman the Syrian, for example. 

 However, we have far more examples of Israel turning to foreign gods than the opposite happening. The various kings were notorious for making alliances and agreeing to adopt the worship of other gods alongside the worship of YHWH. These are also cases of people continuing to use the name YHWH but giving him the character traits of foreign gods.  

 One of the greatest offenders was Solomon, the supposedly wise king. Every time he married a foreign wife as part of a treaty of alliance with a foreign state, he permitted his new wife to erect a temple in Jerusalem for the worship of Ba’al, or Astarte (Ashteroth), or even the gods of the daughter of Pharaoh. Elijah had to withstand the prophets of Ba’al brought in by Queen Jezebel. Josiah in his reforms had to destroy sites including the towers on hill tops where people would gather to worship. Indeed, the people of Israel did turn away from YHWH to pursue things, gods and idols, that did not profit them at all. 

2:12-13.  Be appalled, O heavens, at this;   

be shocked;

be utterly desolate, says the LORD,

for my people have committed two evils:   

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living water,   

and dug out cisterns for themselves,

cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

 God calls on the heavens to be appalled at this behavior. Of all people, those who claim to know YHWH and have a history of relationship with him should not treat God this way. Others might, but they don’t know God yet. Christians chase after the same idolatries. What do you think today as you read Jeremiah’s scroll? Christopher Wright says, “This applies to any culture, but in the West, it includes the pervasive idolatries of consumerism, militarism, racism, uncritical patriotism, and self-centered narcissism” (The Message of Jeremiah, 2014, Page 56). 

 God uses the metaphor of a fountain of living (or moving) water, compared to a cistern of stagnant water, a cracked cistern at that. Remember that Jesus also used the metaphor in speaking to the woman at the well. “Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10-11). 

Jesus also announced this at a festival in Jerusalem.  “On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water’ " (John 3-38).

 Think about it: When you are thirsty, where do you get your water? On your preferred news feed, on Facebook, on TikTok, on Instagram? Better spend your time in the Bible and in prayer.