Year 3, Day 68: Jeremiah 15

Moses and Samuel Couldn’t Have Made a Difference

Hopefully nobody misses the connection between Jeremiah 14 and Jeremiah 15.  Jeremiah 14 ends with a so-called repentance.  But God knows the truth.  Even if the Hebrew people were saying the words, God had enough.  He knew their hearts.  They were not genuinely repentant.

So how does God reply to the so-called repentance that we find in Jeremiah 14?  God reminds the people the last time a rebellious nation repented.  In the wilderness, the Hebrew people were extraordinarily rebellious.  Moses interceded for them time and time again when God wanted to destroy them.  God relented.  How did it end?  The entire generation died in the wilderness anyway.  Well, except for Joshua and Caleb.

What about Samuel?  The Hebrew people were rebellious.  Samuel intercedes for them.  God relents.  How does it end?  The people demand a king, get a king, then they get a war between the first and second kings.  Then they get Solomon.  Then the kingdom splits.  They all fall away.

God knows the end of this story.  True repentance brings about genuine change of heart.  Anyone can say, “I’m sorry, God.”  Anyone can say, “Things will be different from now on, God.”  But you know what?  None of us can fool God.  Even the intercession of Moses and Samuel cannot save a person from false repentance.  The God who looks upon our heart is not fooled by the words that come out of our mouth.

Four Destroyers

Because of the lack of genuine repentance, God sets four means of “death” before the people.  Some will die by pestilence.  Diseases spread rampantly in a besieged city.  Water ran low.  Food ran low.  Eventually cannibalism was a necessity.  Often the besieging army would toss dead bodies into the city’s water supply to help carry disease among the people and make life miserable.  It wasn’t fun to have an army waiting outside your walls expecting you to either die or give up.

The second destroyer was sword.  The Babylonians would kill their fair share.  In fact, the Babylonians are said to be so ruthless that they would take the babies from conquered mothers and intentionally throw the babies down onto rocks so the babies would die.  The Babylonians were particularly cruel.

The third destroyer would be famine.  As the siege lingered, food would run out.  Yesterday we discovered that there was a famine in the land.  That would only make the food issue even worse.

Finally, the last destroyer would be captivity.  The same people who had been spared captivity under Egypt would be sent back into captivity under Babylon.  And really, they would never be free again.  The Babylonians would hand Jerusalem into the control of the Persians.  The Greeks would take it from the Persians.  The Romans would take it from the Greeks.  The Muslims would take it from the Romans.  They are still fighting about it even today.

There was no escaping this end.  Captivity would be the greatest destroyer.  Yes, there would be shades of existence in Jerusalem from time to time in the future.  But it would never be like it was.

It’s Never Good to Weary God

Jeremiah 15:6 is a hard verse to swallow.  In consecutive sentences God says, “You have rejected me,” “You keep going backwards,” “I have stretched out my hand and destroyed you,” and “I am weary of relenting.”  It’s this last verse that really makes me pause today.

The God I know and love is a God of mercy and compassion.  Yes, He is absolutely a God of judgment.  He expects obedience.  But the God I know treasures and values genuine repentance.  He knows perfection is out of our grasp.  Thus, God asks for repentance rather than perfection.

Yet, this is indeed the same God who says that He is weary of relenting.  I can only imagine how far the Hebrew people had fallen to make God weary of relenting.  I can only hope and pray that I and the people around me escape that fate.  I can imagine no worse fate than realizing that this God that I know as merciful has been wearied by His need of relenting from bringing His wrath against me.

Mercy, But God Knows Truth

At the end of this chapter we come back to the ultimate argument that I posed above.  Jeremiah makes a complaint to God.  He asks God to relent once more and embrace His people.

But God knows what will happen.  Still, God amuses Jeremiah.  He says, “Go.”  He tells Jeremiah to go among them.  If they repent, God will forgive.

But then God tells Jeremiah the truth.  They will not repent.  They will not listen.  They will resist Jeremiah.  They will fight against Jeremiah.  But they shall not prevail.  Ultimately, God will have the final say.

<><