Jeremiah 2d. Is Israel a bride or a slave?

 In God’s view, Israel had been like God’s bride, well taken care of. Israel was at first appreciative of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. Now about 700 years after wandering in the wilderness and following God even through valleys of death, Israel is taking a beating as if they were slaves again. What kind of a beating? I said that Jeremiah lived through troubling times. How bad was it? 

 Times were so bad that God had two other prophets working in Judah during Jeremiah’s time warning the Jews that they had strayed from the path; they were Zephaniah and Habakkuk. Times were so bad that, when the Exile came during Jeremiah’s time, God sent two more prophets who were among the exiles in Babylon still trying to bring them back to God: Ezekiel and Daniel. 

 Times were so bad that Judah allowed itself to be seduced by political alliances and their own military build-up, all of which failed. Jeremiah received his call around 627 BC. Josiah began his reforms in 621 BC. Assyria was the perceived enemy when Jeremiah began to preach. Judah had become a client state that paid tribute. 

 But, even in Jeremiah’s day Assyria was falling apart. A rising Babylonian force with its allies took the capital Nineveh in 612. The emperor of Assyria fled east to Harran; but that city fell in 610. In an effort to retake the city, Pharaoh Necho II from Egypt came north in support of Assyria. Josiah failed to read the winds of change and he failed to listen to God’s word. Against Jeremiah’s advice, Josiah decided to side with Babylon. Judah met the Egyptian army at the Battle of Megiddo in 609 BC. Josiah was killed and Judah’s last good king was gone. Egypt put Josiah’s son on the throne, but he was a puppet; a temporary one at that. Babylonian forces soon showed up and replaced him.   

 In 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Carchemish and Assyria was shattered never to rise again. Babylon besieged Jerusalem but, as the king sued for peace, the army left with promises of fealty. But, they were no fools; they carried into exile the elite of the land, including the king. Babylon put their own puppet on the throne. Later, against the advice of Jeremiah, he rebelled. Finally, in 587, Babylon had had enough. After a two-year siege in which more than half the city died, Jerusalem fell, the people were exiled, and the city was burned to the ground. Those are the times of Jeremiah; Judah was pretty beat up.

That is why God asks this question:  

2: 14-15. Is Israel a slave?                                                                                                                Is he a homeborn servant?   

Why then has he become plunder?

The lions have roared against him;   

they have roared loudly.

They have made his land a waste;   

his cities are in ruins, 

without inhabitant.

 If you don’t understand this, then reread the last few paragraphs of the history I provided. Who are ‘the lions’? Not Israel and not Judah. The lions in that political environment were Assyria, Egypt, Babylonia, and the Medes. Long ago, Assyria had torn Israel apart and scattered the remains. Then, as Assyria declined, Egypt came and took a bite out of Judah. The rising Babylonian Empire kept the pressure on. One empire after another roared through Judah.  

2: 16-17.  Moreover, the people of Memphis and Tahpanhes    have broken the crown of your head. Have you not brought this upon yourself    by forsaking the LORD your God,    while he led you in the way? What then do you gain by going to Egypt,    to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria,    to drink the waters of the Euphrates?

 Memphis and Tahpanhes were two great cities representing Egypt, as when people say, “Washington did this” when they mean that “the United States did this.”  The Egyptian army came north to assist Assyria. Judah tried to stop them, but the Egyptians ‘have broken the crown of your head,” meaning that the head of state, King Josiah, was killed. 

 So, why is Judah being treated like a slave? Because Judah, like Israel before her, has abandoned YHWH who led them out of Egypt, across the Wilderness, and into the Promised Land. 

 Remember the phrase in last week’s lesson about Israel digging for themselves cisterns while rejecting the springs of living water?  This is what the metaphor of going to Egypt “to drink the waters of the Nile” and to Babylon “to drink the waters of the Euphrates” are about. Twice God asks: “What do you gain?”

 Perhaps God is asking that of us when we try to buy security with a limitless budget for the military and for law enforcement and restricted spending on helping the poor and marginalized. At first glance, God’s charges do not seem to be about how the poor are perceived and treated in society. Just wait. In the meantime, the evil of the abuse of other people in the race toward wealth and security seems secondary to the question of who you worship. We will see that it is not.

2: 19-23.  Your wickedness will punish you,   

and your faithlessness will convict you.

Know and see that it is evil and bitter   

for you to forsake the LORD your God;   

the fear of me is not in you,           

says the Lord GOD of hosts.

For long ago you broke your yoke   

and burst your bonds,   

and you said,

"I will not serve!”

(Then) On every high hill   

and under every green tree   

you sprawled and prostituted yourself.

Yet I planted you as a choice vine   

from the purest stock.

How then did you turn degenerate   

and become a wild vine?

Though you wash yourself with lye   

and use much soap,   

the stain of your guilt is still before me,         

says the Lord GOD.

 The root cause of a dysfunctional society is the abandonment of the worship of the one true God, the creator, redeemer, and sustainer of humanity for all who are devoted to him. Period. So, God goes to the root, Israel and Judah’s faithlessness in abandoning God will disrupt society. 

 It is one thing to forsake YHWH; but it is another to then run after other gods, that is, other highly valued goals that become idols. Such goals can be pursued by dependence on military strength and the desire to play the game of politics. 

 Judah, long ago, said to God, “I will not serve” and then turned around and bowed the knee to gods who are no gods. The reference to “every high hill” means the places where altars were established for foreign gods. Later in this book, God through Jeremiah describes this practice.

 “They have turned their backs to me, not their faces; though I have taught them persistently, they would not listen and accept correction. They set up their abominations in the house that bears my name and defiled it. They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter my mind that they should do this abomination, causing Judah to sin (Jeremiah 32: 33-35).

Notice the link here between what God is teaching, what rebellious Judah is doing, and the resultant impact on society. Those who declared that they will not serve then turned around and served other gods and other idols. Such poor choices will come back to bite them.