Jeremiah 4a: The Gospel according to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 4: 1-2.

If you return, O Israel, says the Lord,

if you return to me,

if you remove your abominations from my presence   

and do not waver, and

if you swear, "As the LORD lives!”   

in truth, in justice, and in uprightness,

then nations shall be blessed by you,   

and by you they shall boast.

Notice the repeated phrases. When we talk to our children, we often phrase it like this, ‘If…, if…, if….’  In this case, God clarifies as he speaks (sounding a bit like Robert deNiro: “Are you talking to me?). “If you turn back, if you turn back to me, if you remove the idols that tend to turn you away, and if you live your life dedicated to me, then….’ The saying, ‘As the Lord lives’, means that a person vows without his fingers crossed, as if God were there to see that his vows are kept. 

 God has already asked the rhetorical question: “If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not such a land be greatly polluted? (Jeremiah 3:1a). It is rhetorical because the people of Judah know the answer; the Law says 'No!'. But still God considers the prospect and shapes his plea to Judah; "Return to me."

 This is not only a matter of the people shifting their religious devotion, although it includes that. YHWH has made clear that repeated worship becomes a relationship that makes the devotee become more like the god or idol he is devoted to. Think about that. YHWH is concerned that the result of this transformation will not be good for the people. If they wander off the true path, then they will become like Ba’al and Astarte. It is not only what God wants; it is good for you.

 That religious ideology, Ba’alism, is based on gaining leverage in order to bring the devotee more power, more wealth, and more sex. We already know, though we sometimes forget, that is the road that leads to self-destruction. Then we become in old age the kind of person that we would not have appreciated when we were young.

 The second word to notice is ‘Then’. So, we have an ‘if-then’ combination. Now, what will be the outcome if Judah returns in truth? Then, of course, they will practice justice the way God sees it; not justice for me but justice for the oppressed and poor in society. The result of that will believers not proudly proclaiming a 'Christian nation', but rather believers humbly and selflessly helping others who are in need, in hunger, without decent shelter, without medical care, and/or in danger.

 ‘Then’, when Judah acts as God shapes them through worship, then Judah becomes a show-case for a society that follows God and not their own desires. When Judah behaves admirably, ‘then’ the nations, that is, the non-Jews (Gentiles), “shall be blessed by you and by you they shall boast.” Don't boast about yourself, serve in ways that inspire others to boast about God.

We must never forget, as the children of Abraham often have, that God promised to bless Abraham and his descendants in order that they will be a blessing to the other nations (Genesis 12:1-3). God has a mission on earth. Forgiveness is a part of it but so is living in a godly manner once we are forgiven. Much of American Christianity is led astray by not learning to follow both the first and the second commandment. Because they are not able to keep these two in creative tension, they fail to become productive disciples. Either they major on loving others, and their love becomes a human effort that fails. Or they major on loving God by substituting a human authority who tells them what to do, and that effort fails. American Christianity has trouble keeping both of these commandments in play.

In the end, God has a mission, and that mission is to spread the good news that God offers forgiveness, reconciliation, and transformation to all peoples. God says through the prophet Jeremiah that that mission is being stalled by Israel and Judah’s bad behavior.

 What passes as Christianity today misses the mark. Boasting that we are a chosen people and so we can do whatever we want or claiming that we are an exceptional nation blessed by God and so we can do whatever we want; that kind of boasting sounds pretty shallow to people who are oppressed by the chosen people and attacked by the exceptional nation.  

 This is not ‘business as usual’ for a nation that is supposed to act godly and be a herald of the good news of God’s love, forgiveness, and righteousness. That nation, if it claims to be a Jewish nation or a Christian nation, cannot act like other nations. We cannot use the excuse that "A nation has to defend itself,” “It’s just business,” or “It’s our manifest destiny.” God says that the people have to change their ideology and think in a new way about what is ahead and not what is behind. 

Jeremiah 4: 3-4.

For thus says the LORD to the people of Judah 

and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem:

Break up your fallow ground,   

and do not sow among thorns.

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD;   

remove the foreskin of your hearts, 

O people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, 

or else my wrath will go forth like fire   

and burn with no one to quench it,   

because of the evil of your doings.

 

What does it mean to “break up your fallow ground”? If you are a farmer, you don’t have to think back very far to remember fields were allowed to lay fallow, that is, unused and unplanted, for a year to give the soil a chance to recover. Beyond our memory, God put it in the Law that land should be left fallow every 7th year, called the Sabbath year (Leviticus 25).

 What does the metaphor mean for people who need to repent and consider what they are doing that is sinful in God’s sight? God is saying that they need to ‘think outside the box’ rather than go back to the old, failed ideas. God’s metaphor tells the people to begin again. 

Go back to Jeremiah 3: 16-18. Remember that God said that the Ark and, by implication, the Temple would be gone…but no one would miss them! How is it possible to be children of Abraham without the cult of YHWH as God revealed to Moses? Think about it. Are you an adopted child of Abraham, a branch grafted into that olive tree? Read Romans Chapter 11 to understand the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the kingdom of God. Can you, as children of Abraham by faith, live into new structures in the church and leave the old?

 Final metaphor. God through the prophet Jeremiah asks the people of Judah to get themselves circumcised. What! We are already circumcised. God is not talking about farming, nor is he talking about a surgical procedure! Even in the time of the giving of the Law, when circumcision was established, God made it clear that he was talking about a physical act that had a spiritual meaning.

 ‘Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30: 6; see also Deuteronomy 10: 16). 

 Did not Jesus say the same thing: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10: 27). 

Sometimes I think that this is too easy. Why do people still misunderstand?