Year 9, Day 58: Jeremiah 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The Lord continues to give His case against the Hebrew people as we march through Jeremiah.  Much as we saw in Isaiah, the front of the book of Jeremiah focuses on the trouble in the land.  Before God gets to the judgment and consequences, He wants to talk about what’s wrong.  After all, you can’t fix what’s wrong if you never identify it. 

That is a key understanding in the prophets.  It is easy to feel like the prophets are simply going off on the people and wailing complaints against them.  They can come across pessimistic, angry, bitter, and uncompassionate.  They aren’t looking to humiliate the people or to show them as worthless.  The point of the prophets is that you can’t fix what you don’t recognize as broken!  The prophets are pointing out the issues of humanity so that we can try to work against our flaws and faults.  The reality is that since we don’t want to see our flaws and faults, we perceive them as angry, bitter, and spiteful communicators that have nothing positive to saw.

What is wrong with the people, then?  Today, God focuses in on the self-centeredness of the people.  The Hebrew people are ignoring righteousness and justice.  They aren’t standing up for the rights of the poor.  They aren’t standing up for the orphans or the widows.  They are blessed beyond measure and they are hording their blessings instead of sharing.  Because they are blessed, they are assuming that they are invincible; God won’t punish them, surely.  God proclaims them as hard of hearts, blind in the eyes, and deaf in the ears. 

This isn’t the last word with God, though.  While this chapter is predominantly judgment, there are a few voices of grace.  God tells the people that even in the midst of their judgment He won’t destroy them completely.  He tells them that should they return to Him He will receive them once again.  He informs them that when they mature and ask why judgment has come upon them, God will be there to present them with the truth of their rebellion.  God may loathe their behavior, but He does not loathe the people.  Even in the midst of impending judgment He has left the door open for the future.

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