Jeremiah 11:20

Jeremiah 11 contains two passages, the first being in line with the previous chapters, but perhaps a little more specific: it is about the covenant which God set up with Israel in the days when they were emancipated from Egypt, and which they had broken. The second passage is a summarized recount of the first recorded threat on Jeremiah’s life, by the men of Anathoth.

Jeremiah thus far has spoken almost solely about the coming judgment of God on Israel due to their disobedience and rejection of His covenant. Primarily through idolatry, or expressed through idolatry, and most distastefully in hypocrisy, the Israelites have been utterly judged and found guilty. Now God reminds the Israelites of the specific covenant that He gave them,

‘ “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant which I commanded your fathers…‘Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God,’ that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as it is this day”.’ (Jeremiah 11:3b-5a)

It was an impossible covenant. To do all that God commands, as you would all agree, is just an impossibility with our feeble wills and feeble bodies. And so why did God make that covenant? First of all, God could not have made a different covenant. God could not compromise. He couldn’t say to them – ‘as long as you keep My commandments most of the time, and do a whole lot of good things to make up for the times where you go wrong, I will be your God.’ God is a God of truth, and compromise is not an option. Only perfection can satisfy God. Secondly, God made the covenant out of love. Although the covenant was impossible for the Israelites to keep their end of, it was this very thing that God intended – so that they would be led to His doorstep in humility and brokenness, realising that they could not keep it. It would teach them to rely on God for their strength, rather than trust in their own ‘moral strength’. Note that this was the conditional covenant, whereas the unconditional covenant, given to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, stated Israel to be God’s people regardless of their sin.

Thus, when God first summarises the sin of the Israelites in Jeremiah, He does not give a list of all their specific wrongdoings, and where they had disobeyed His voice. Rather, the two sins were ‘They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.’ (Jeremiah 2:13) Their sins, on God’s account, were not those directly against the covenant, but that they had completely rejected Him. This, of course, resulted in many wrongdoings, which are developed throughout the chapters between chapter 2 and 11.

Similarly, through chapter 11, the sins that God accuses them of, in betraying the covenant, are sins of turning against God. And this is what we must see sin as. It is a complete revolt against God, and His glory. This is what sin is, and sin is also a symptom of this attitude. As Christians, God has made with us, an unconditional covenant, whereby we are called His children regardless of the sin we have previously committed, or will commit in the future. However, with this covenant comes the conditional covenant which I wrote about a few days ago. This is the covenant where we live in the ‘land of milk and honey’. This is the covenant by which we own what we are. The covenant by which we enjoy the riches of God’s goodness towards us. This is thwarted by our inclination towards evil. And so these words to Jerusalem and Judah are the words we ourselves need to hear. We need to destroy our idols, set our hearts and minds on God, obey His word, study His word so that we can obey it and avoid evil with the greatest of intensity. The words that the prophets spoke to Judah are a beacon to us. Humanity hasn’t changed. Not much. Let them cut to your heart.

The second passage reveals the first attempt on Jeremiah’s life. Again we remind ourselves of the weakness of mortality, but the strength of God, who will keep us. Jeremiah pleads with God:

‘But, O LORD of hosts,
You who judge righteously,
Testing the mind and the heart,
Let me see Your vengeance on them,
For to You I have revealed my cause.’ (Jeremiah 11:20)

God has already promised to defend Jeremiah in the first chapter. But Jeremiah prays this, calling on God’s righteousness to judge those who wrongly accuse him, and seek to kill him. But of course, for Jeremiah, it is not himself that they set themselves against, but God. For it is God who will judge them, righteously, testing their minds and their hearts. What they think, and what they feel. Thus, Jeremiah wants to see God’s vengeance on them, not because he hates them and would love to see them punished, but because he loves justice, and loves God’s righteousness. Do we today take this same view? Or are we too ‘tolerant’ of evil to desire justice for it? Let us ever be aware of God and His holiness, His glory, so that we have the right view of all things, including evil.