Jeremiah 3b: Two Audiences, One Message.

 I asked last week whether or not God’s condemnation of Israel and Judah was his last word? Yes, in the short run, for some of the people, it was. Yet, no, not in the long run, for some people survived and became refugees, exiles in Babylon. Those refugees become the second audience for Jeremiah’s prophecies, and Oh, how the times have changed the message.    

 These are the days of Jeremiah, and we are reading summaries of his early prophecies that his scribe Baruch has written down. Spoken by God, preached by Jeremiah, then transcribed onto a scroll by Baruch.

 The Kingdom of Israel had fallen long before and the people scattered. It was primarily the people of Judah who heard Jeremiah preach. However, there soon were two audiences. The people of Judah during the time that the kingdom existed, and then the exiles from Judah who were living in shame enslaved in the kingdom of Babylon. So, some people got to hear these prophetic messages twice, and they had the chance to think long and hard about how they were warned, how they ignored the warning, how the disaster happened, and the sorry state they find themselves in now. What if they had paid attention and returned to God when there was an invitation to do so? What options are open to them now that their former life in the kingdom is gone, never to return? 

 Hezekiah, who ruled well under the guidance of the prophet Isaiah, was king in Judah when Israel was destroyed. He tried to reform the people’s worship of YHWH. However, his two sons, Manasseh and then Amon, were about as bad as they come. Instead of turning back to YHWH, they doubled down on pursuing idols, ideals, and ideologies that rejected YHWH and his plan for living the good life. 

 So, apparently, the kings and people of Judah watched what happened to Israel, and learned nothing from that experience. Now they have one last chance under good king Josiah and good prophet Jeremiah. Will they listen? Do we ever miss God’s lessons even when they are right in front of our faces? 

Jeremiah 3: 6-10.  The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what she did, that faithless one (turning) Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree and prostituted herself there? And I thought, “After she has done all this she will return to me,” but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce, yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she also went and prostituted herself. Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart but only in pretense, says the LORD. 

 Goldingay suggests that a good translation would give us these titles: “Turning Israel” and “False Judah.” In God’s imagery, these are two sisters whom God has married, “and both are unfaithful” (John Goldingay, The Book of Jeremiah, 2021, pages 150-153). This follows from the extensive use that Jeremiah uses of variations on the root word ‘turn’. I have underlined related words in the passage above to emphasize that (see also Christopher J. H. Wright, The Message of Jeremiah, 2014, pages 68-70).

God asks Jeremiah, within hearing of Judah since they can read this scroll now, whether or not he has seen what happened. God was hoping that Israel would return, but instead Israel turned away from him. A reader from Judah would relish the thought of Israel getting a bad name because the people of Judah felt superior. After all, God had miraculously saved them during the reign of Hezekiah and the Assyrian army had withdrawn from Jerusalem, thanks to Isaiah. They imagined that Judah was undergoing reforms under good king Josiah. Were the people of Judah deluded? 

Look and see. God turns the tables on Judah. “After all this,” meaning after Josiah’s attempted reforms, the people of Judah turn out to be false as well. First, they are not living by the reforms that they promised. Second, as Goldingay points out, they are also deceptive. That is, they didn’t mean it in the first place. They said the words but their heart was not in it. 

Jeremiah 3: 11-13.  Then the LORD said to me: ‘Faithless Israel’ has shown herself less guilty than ‘False Judah’. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: ‘Return, faithless Israel, says the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, says the LORD; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree and have not obeyed my voice, says the LORD. 

 God is teasing the people of Judah here to make a point. After all, Israel had prophets, especially Amos and Hosea before the fall of the kingdom. But, Judah had prophets, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk, right before the fall, and Judah had the example of Israel to warn them; and yet they did not listen. So, they are more culpable than Israel, though neither is righteous.

 Now, God offers one more example. He tells Jeremiah to go preach to Israel, or perhaps what remains of the people hiding in the Assyrian province or refugees in Judah. What is the message? 

 This is a recurring theme about God, both in this book and in the Bible: God is not like human beings. You will have noticed in your life, right up to the present time, that men and women hold on to their imagined slights as well as real abuses…forever! Human beings will have their revenge, they will strike back against their enemies, large or small, imagined or real. It’s the way of a fallen humanity. God is not like that.

 On the positive side, God will not hold on to anger forever. That means that anger is not a character trait of God (Wright, The Message of Jeremiah, page 71), This is the answer to the question in verse 3:5, even if that question was asked in jest. No, God will not hold on to a response of anger, forever. God is different, God has character. Why?

 Because, unlike humans, God is merciful in his very core. Mercy is a character trait of God, as God has said from the beginning (Exodus 34:6-7). God is an understanding and forgiving God, full of grace and mercy. See how tenderly he calls the sinful people again and again, ‘Return to me’.

 What are the conditions of the return? When God calls, we return to God by acknowledging our guilt, that is, we name and confess our sins and ask for forgiveness. That has always been true; always will be. It is anchored in God’s declaration about his character and intentions and proved by Jesus’ teachings, suffering, death, and resurrection. 

 So, to the modern-day descendants of Israel, Judah, and all the nations, God pleads that we return, confess our unfaithfulness, and obey his voice in a new covenant relationship. This is for our salvation and for our own good. Too many humans are sold out on getting revenge, desperate to getting rich at the expense of others, lusting to control and abuse others for their own pleasure. That is, human beings worship money, power, and sex. We must heed God’s call and confess these idols, ideals, and ideology that draw us away from God and lead us to destruction. God is still calling.