LESSONS FROM JEREMIAH – PART 17 – THE TASK TO FIND JUST ONE RIGHTEOUS PERSON. SORROW TO COME ON JUDAH
PART 17 - Jeremiah 4:27 - 5:1-2
CHAPTER 4
[A]. CHAOS WILL OVERTAKE THE LAND IN GOD’S JUDGEMENT
{{Jeremiah 4:27 For thus says the LORD, “THE WHOLE LAND SHALL BE A DESOLATION, yet I will not execute a complete destruction, Jeremiah 4:28 for this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be dark, because I have SPOKEN, I have PURPOSED, and I will NOT CHANGE MY MIND, NOR WILL I TURN FROM IT.” Jeremiah 4:29 At the sound of the horseman and bowman every city flees. They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks. EVERY CITY IS FORSAKEN, and no man dwells in them.”}}
We have the continuation of the formless and void from the previous study in these verses, for once the destruction starts, it will continue until completion. The Lord says the whole land will be a desolation, and in verse 28, the earth will mourn for it will be ravaged. The sky above will be dark, probably from the incessant fires. In verse 28, we have 4 statements from God of resolution and determination. Here they are –
((a)). “I HAVE SPOKEN.” What God speaks will happen. Only the spoken word was enough to create the universe.
It is of note that the Lord, from the time of creation, seems to have revealed to man all His intentions and will by speaking through His prophets, and in these last days, through His son. {{Hebrews 1:1-2 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”}} A similar thought is in Amos – {{Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets.”
((b)). The second one is “I HAVE PURPOSED.” God’s will is unfathomable and beyond the finite capacity of human beings to know, but His will and purpose towards us is truly wonderful through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has purposed to give us all good things, not really in this life, but in heaven when we are there.
((c)). Thirdly, “I WILL NOT CHANGE MY MIND.” This is an interesting one for we sometimes read God changes His mind or relents (“repents” in the KJV, is not a good translation these days even though the word means the changing of one’s mind from the Anglo-French from Latin and related to “penitent”, feeling sorry for”). We remember several episodes of beseeching God to change His mind. I suppose the most persistent of these is concerning Israel and Judah. He said that certain judgement was coming and He would destroy the nation, but later we see God pleading yet again for the people to return in repentance and they would be spared. God’s actions are the right course, but that action can be averted by a true repentance and restoration.
In spite of all the dire warnings and promises of destruction and captivity, and all the invitations to repent and avoid all that evil coming, the status quo was maintained by the people for the people did not heed God. I think it is lovely that God often makes a way around the situation. Adam was told that if he ate that fruit, then from that day, he would die, but God had a plan that worked around that for man’s salvation. We have a magnificent and All-powerful God.
[[d]]. The fourth statement is “NOR WILL I TURN FROM IT.” In many ways the previous three encompass this one, but we see our blessed Lord as God the Son setting His face as a flint to go to Jerusalem, and He did not turn from it. Man is untrustworthy and unreliable in all his promises but God is not. Praise Him!
Although complete desolation is promised, the land will not be completely destroyed and this refers to the people. God will leave a remnant. It may be small, very small, but God leaves a remnant. When the world of men was destroyed in Noah’s time, He left a remnant, Noah and 7 more. When Israel was corrupt under Ahab, He had His remnant, Elijah and 7 000 others. Verse 29 describes graphically the people’s reaction. They took no heed of the prophets, but now at the sound of the horsemen and the bowmen from Babylon, there is instant response. People empty out of the cities and go looking for natural areas in which to hide. We saw in this chapter, this verse – {{Jeremiah 4:5 Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, “Blow the trumpet in the land. Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.’}} The first reaction was to seek shelter in fortified cities but these were no security at all and as word spread, even the fortified cities were vacated. The cities become deserted, no inhabitants, no life. All the social order is in chaos.
They look for thickets in which to hide, or under rocks or in shelters created by rocks. The foe is too fierce to face. They are truly scared. How sad they were not scared about their wicked lifestyle and repented before the calamity happened. There is a future parallel to all this. The people hid in a time of disaster and judgement, but in the Tribulation, they will likewise hide in a time of great wrath – {{Revelation 6:15-17 The kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, HID THEMSELVES in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us AND HIDE US from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”}} In Judah in Jeremiah’s time, the great day of wrath had come upon the people from Babylon for their wicked lives, and none could stand.
[B]. ADULTEROUS JUDAH COMES TO A SORROWFUL END
{{Jeremiah 4:30-31 “and you, O DESOLATE ONE, what will you do? Although you dress in scarlet, although you decorate yourself with ornaments of gold, although you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain you make yourself beautiful. Your lovers despise you. They seek your life. I heard a cry as of a woman in labour, the anguish as of one giving birth to her first child, the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands, saying, “Ah, woe is me, for I faint before murderers.”}}
The desolate one is Judah. The picture given here is that of a prostitute getting ready for her lovers, not knowing that she is despised by those lovers. Judah had sought Egypt and Assyria, playing off nation against nation, but the truth is, they all hate Judah. Judah will become desolate, as it were, raped by Babylon who took all that gold and the beautiful things of Judah. The wealth of the Temple was enormous and envious eyes looked on it for plunder. It was the LORD’s Temple, but it had been desecrated by the foulness of Judah’s sin, and what was holy was now profane because of what the nation represented.
The nation was ignorant of the tide building up against her, just as the prostitute is when she will come to calamity by the hands of her lovers. There would be no more scarlet dresses, the sign of wealth, and the only scarlet Judah finds will be her own blood. The gold will no longer be hers, the eyes no longer will be wide and enticing. They will be sorrowful and weeping. It was the custom of Eastern women, to try to make their eyes seem larger by putting powdered antimony (the Arabic kohl) upon their eyelids to make the whites of the eyes seem larger. Her lovers betrayed her. They hated her.
Then Jeremiah in a message from God, heard a cry likened to a woman in labour. The gasping, panting woman with little strength in labour, is Judah giving birth, but the child she produced caused the murderers to come. She reaps what she sows. She gives birth to folly and disaster and sorrow and banishment because she was rebellious, and all she produced were the fruits of adultery that led to destruction. Well might they utter woes for they will be all undone for there is no escape and the reputation of the Babylonian army reaches out ahead of its advance. She may stretch out her hands to invading Babylon looking for sympathy, but they will not heed her.
Nowhere in those two verses does it say God will protect His people for they were no longer His people in the sense of connection at that time, for the adulterous wife had departed and broken the relationship. Judah was desolate. However, underlying all that, was the eternal, covenant relationship with the Jewish people given through Abraham and that will always stand solid. Israel will be saved nationally one day, and that is not very far away at all.
CHAPTER 5
[C]. THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO NOT ONE – NOT EVEN ONE!
{{Jeremiah 5:1-2 “Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and look now, and take note, and seek in her open squares, - if you can find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her. Although they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’ surely they swear falsely.”}}
This chapter requires care for we must rightly divide the speakers, then understand the message of those speakers. These first two verses are the words of Jehovah with instructions to Jeremiah to canvass Jerusalem to find just one person who does justice (a righteous person). Roaming to and fro through the streets is not understood as streets in our suburbs but the streets were packed with living quarters and trading, and well-worn thoroughfares of the people. The open squares were the places with a bit more room and often found to be thronged with people or a meeting place for various parties, or for vendors buying and selling.
Jeremiah loved his nation and he would eagerly search for just one person, for then God would pardon the city. I’d imagine he went back and forth, but alas, not one righteous person who loved the truth could be found. That was heart rending. He had been prophesying and speaking to many as God instructed him, but there was not even one response, not one person who turned from his evil ways in repentance to seek the truth and to do what was right. Not one could be found, no not one.
Abraham knew a similar thing. In his pleading with God over the matter of the plain cities, Sodom and Gomorrah that God was going to destroy, he asked God to spare them if 100 righteous people could be found. God agreed. Then Abraham lowered it to 50, and God agreed. Then Abraham pleaded if just 20 be found would God spare the cities, and God agreed. Then the number got to 10, and God agreed. Abraham could see the outcome. Even if he asked for one, then I think God would have agreed. Alas, the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah is testimony that the entire population was wickedly corrupt.
We quote Roman 3:10-12 often and perhaps don’t think into it enough, but the verses are very clear – {{as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one.”}}. There is much repetition here for “none” equals “not one”. Paul is not being poetic or waxing eloquent, but stating a perfect truth from God. In the eyes of a holy God, not one human being is good or righteous, no matter what humanists or psychologists say. Every single one of us is on the path to destruction, and but for God, would have continued on that path to the lake of fire.
Paul was acquainted with the Psalms and would have echoed what David had written hundreds of years earlier – {{Psalm 53:1-3 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice. THERE IS NO ONE WHO DOES GOOD. God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there is anyone who understands, who seeks after God. Every one of them has turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one.}} God who knows the thoughts and intents of every heart asked Jeremiah to go and seek a righteous one, just one, and if one could not be found, that would have confirmed God’s action in destroying the nation.
It is not unlike the time of Noah where God said in {{Genesis 6:5 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,”}}. What I find of special note in this verse are the words “every intent” and “only evil continually”. I meet a lot of unsaved people who do good things (doing good things is not the same as being “good” before God) and I don’t think I have met a person of whom it could be said, that “EVERY INTENT of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” and I have met some very evil people. These degenerate people of Noah’s time faced judgement. The evil, sordid people of Sodom were destroyed. The wicked people of Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s time were going to be judged because not even one person was just and sought the truth.
The Lord also mentioned that the people swear falsely. They say, “As the Lord lives,” thereby taking an oath and swearing before God that what they speak is correct, but God says they speak falsely. None of them did the truth or kept his word. They were trucebreakers and liars of the worst kind. By taking that oath, they were blaspheming the name of Jehovah because they are attributing falsehood to God or saying that God overlooks lies and dishonesty. I somehow think that conditions in Jerusalem compared in certain respects with today, maybe all of the points given by Paul as conditions for the last times (of the Church age) – {{2Timothy 3:1-5 “Realise this, that in the last days difficult times will come, for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, ARROGANT, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, UNHOLY, unloving, IRRECONCILABLE, malicious gossips, without self-control, BRUTAL, HATERS OF GOOD, TREACHEROUS, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (and) HOLDING TO A FORM OF GODLINESS, although they have denied its power.}}. The two verses clearly mean that God is not going to pardon Jerusalem.
Our current world of 2024 will not be pardoned either. Sinfulness that is unrepentant and brutal and the world that persecutes Jews and Christians will enter into judgement as history shows – Noah, Sodom, Assyria, Babylon, Israel/Assyria, Judah/Nebuchadnezzar, Israel AD 70. This current world will not escape. It is very sick and wicked, and the fruit is ripe for judgement. Once the Church is removed in the Rapture as Noah was in type, then the Tribulation judgement will fall on this world exactly as Revelation chapter 6 onwards describes.
