A passionate plea for repentance follows logically and textually the indictment of God's people for their sins (ch. 2).
"There is a problem with free forgiveness. If you can always wipe the slate clean, how much does it matter what you write on it next? It is a problem for both parties--not only for the one in the wrong, who may feel that he can get away with more and more, but also for the one who forgives, who has to wonder what his forbearance may be doing to the other person. Here God sets about shaking his people out of their complacency."91
3:1 God posed the question to His people of what happens in a divorce. The answer to His rhetorical question is, no, a husband who divorces his wife, if she goes to live with another man, will not return to her.92The Mosaic Law forbade such a thing (cf. Deut. 24:1-4). If Judah was a wife and Yahweh was her husband, He would not normally "return"to her.93The Israelites believed that sin and evil in the people had repercussions on the land and polluted it (cf. vv. 2, 9; Lev. 18:25, 28; 19:29; Deut. 24:4; Hos. 4:2-3; Amos 4:6-10).
A second figure compares Israel to a harlot with many lovers. She was worse than a divorced wife. Would such a woman expect her husband to receive her back if she returned to him? No. The people of Judah had no reasonable expectation that Yahweh would receive her back even if she repented (cf. Hos. 2:14-3:3).94
3:2 Continuing the figure of Judah as a harlot, the Lord urged His people to look around. There was hardly a place they could see where they had not been unfaithful to Him by worshipping idols. They had pursued this evil as avidly as roadside harlots sought lovers (cf. Gen. 38:14-23; Prov. 7:12-15; Ezek. 16:25). Arabs of the desert waited along the wilderness routes and eagerly offered wares for sale to anyone who passed by. They also sometimes hid in ambush to rob passing caravans. The similarly eager Israelites had polluted the land spiritually with their wicked harlotry.
3:3 Consequently the Lord had withheld rain from the land, as He threatened to do if His people departed from Him (Lev. 26:19; Deut. 28:23-24). In the spring, when the people needed rain so their crops would mature, the heavens were dry. In spite of this punishment they refused to repent. They did not feel shame for their apostasy but behaved brazenly. To have a harlot's forehead was to be brazen-faced.95
"God's withholding of the rains should have indicated clearly enough to the people that their fertility rites ensured nothing; the God of covenant was as much Lord of the natural world as he was of the events of history."96
3:4 Instead of repenting they besought God to help them calling Him their Father, the friend who had guided them in their youth.
3:5 They also asked Him if He would always be angry with them. They acknowledged that He had spoken warnings in the past and had followed up His words with acts of judgment. He had had His way with them, but now, they implied, it was time for Him to relent. They failed to appreciate that the end of His punishment required repentance from them, not a change of heart from Him.
"Persistent, habitual sin can desensitize an individual to the nagging of one's conscience, the convicting work of God's Spirit, or the direct rebuke of God's Word."97
3:6 Yahweh previously had a conversation with Jeremiah along the same lines that took place during the reign of King Josiah (between 627 and 609 B.C.).98The Lord asked the prophet if he had observed that the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been guilty of flagrant spiritual prostitution. He described the Northern Kingdom as "faithless Israel,"literally "apostasy (Heb. meshuba) Israel"(cf. vv. 8, 11, 12). Israel was apostasy personified. She was faithless in respect to the Mosaic Covenant and in respect to her relationship to Yahweh as His "wife."She had deserted her covenant with the Lord and made a covenant with Baal, and she had failed to maintain her responsibilities as Yahweh's "wife."
3:7 The Lord had expected that eventually Israel would have returned to Him, but she had not.99Furthermore, the Southern Kingdom of Judah, Israel's treacherous sister, observed Israel's unrepentant harlotry. As Israel was apostasy personified, so Judah was treachery personified (cf. vv. 10, 11, 20).
3:8 Yahweh decided to put away His unfaithful "wife"Israel, to divorce her. So He sent her off to Assyria in captivity. But observing the consequences of Israel's conduct did not discourage Judah from following in her sister's footsteps. She too became a spiritual harlot and betrayed the trust of her "husband."100
3:9 Israel took her prostitution very lightly and committed spiritual fornication with the pagan idols of Canaan, which stone pillars and tree groves and poles represented (cf. 2:27).101
3:10 Still Judah did not return to the Lord with heartfelt repentance but only superficially. Jeremiah began ministering (in 627 B.C.) one year after King Josiah began his spiritual reforms (in 628 B.C.). This oracle may have come early in Jeremiah's ministry before the reforms had taken hold. But the rapidity with which Judah declined following Josiah's death seems to indicate that the reforms produced only a superficial return to the Lord. King Manasseh's long godless reign (697-642 B.C.) was more than Josiah's comparatively brief reforms (628-609 B.C.) could counteract.
3:11 Yahweh instructed His prophet that though both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms had committed spiritual harlotry, Judah's sin was worse than Israel's. Here the Lord personified Judah as "Treachery"as he again personified Israel as "Apostasy"(cf. vv. 6, 12). Israel had been unfaithful, but Judah and been unfaithful and had presumed on the Lord's mercy. Israel had not had the benefit of an example of unfaithfulness to warn her, but Judah did.
3:12 Jeremiah was to preach to the remnant left in the Northern Kingdom and to the exiles from that nation that they should repent and return to the Lord (cf. 31:2-6, 15-22). Those who had turned away from the Lord should turn back to Him.102He would not hold His anger against them forever but would be gracious to them--if they would genuinely repent.
3:13 Genuine repentance would have to include realizing and acknowledging that what they had done was iniquity, transgression of covenant commands, apostasy and spiritual adultery, and disobedience to Yahweh's Word (cf. Deut. 28:1-2, 15).
"True confession, unfortunately, is a harrowing and humiliating experience, and thus seldom encountered, whether in individuals or nations. The catharsis of confession undoubtedly helps to make Christian forgiveness so rich an experience for the penitent spirit (1 Jn. 1:9)."103
3:14 Changing the figure, the Lord invited the prodigal Israelites to return to their Father (v. 4). He would take them back and be their master (Heb. Ba'al) again.104He, the sovereign Lord of the covenant, was their master, not Baal (lit. "master").
". . . I am your ba'al(husband)' implies that no longer would Judah be bound to the Baals of the fertility faith to which she had so easily fallen away from the true covenant faith."105
The Israelites did not have to come en mass. The Lord would receive any individual Israelites who really repented even though they were part of a larger group that did not repent. The Lord would even bring them back to Himself in Zion, the place where He had promised to meet with His people. Thus the way was open for a remnant of spiritually sensitive Israelites to respond.
3:15 After their return, the Lord would give the truly repentant Israelites good leaders who had hearts for Himself and who would instruct them in sound knowledge (wisely) and understanding (well). Kind-hearted shepherds would provide wholesome and nourishing food for their sheep (cf. 23:1-4; Ezek. 34:23; 37:24).
3:16 When many Israelites had repented and returned to the land, they would not take pride in the ark of the covenant. The ark would not even come into their minds, they would not even remember it, they would not miss it, nor would they attempt to rebuild it.106
"Verse 16b shows that the old economy was to be dissolved. The old covenant, of which the ark was a central feature, was to give way to another--a preview of 31:31-34."107
At this point in the oracle it becomes clear that at least some in Israel definitely would repent and experience divine restoration sometime in the future. Note the recurrence of "in those days"and "at that time"(vv. 16-18). We believe that the repentance in view will take place at the second coming of Christ, when the Jews realize that Jesus is their Messiah. They will then put their trust in Him (Zech. 12:10; 13:1; cf. Rom. 11:26). Much that follows in this oracle concerning the blessings of Israel's repentance describes millennial conditions.108
3:17 The reason for these Israelites' lack of interest in the ark would be that in that day the Lord Himself would be enthroned in Jerusalem. The whole city would be known as the place of His throne, not just the ark (cf. Lev. 16:2, 13; 2 Kings 19:15; Ps. 80:1; Ezek. 48:35).
"There is unquestionably a Messianic expectation here (cf. Je. 5:18; 31:1; 33:16; Ho. 3:5, etc.)."109
People from the Gentile nations would also come to Jerusalem, as God would draw them, because of the reputation of Yahweh (cf. Isa. 2:2-3; 56:6-8; 60:11-14; Mic. 4:1-2). Their hearts would be different then, and they would comply with God's will rather than stubbornly resisting it.
3:18 Jews from both Israel and Judah would return to the Promised Land from their various places of captivity "in those days"(cf. Hos. 3:5; Mic. 2:12). The Israelites had gone off to the north to Assyria, and the Judahites would go off to the north to Babylon, and they would return from that direction.110The north represents wherever the Israelites had gone following the Lord's disbursal of them.111
"Since there is no indication that the ten tribes ever repented, the projected union must point to the Messianic age of grace, when Jew and Gentile alike will do honour before the enthroned Lord in Zion."112
3:19 The Lord next explained how He longed for the day when this repentance and return would happen. He would set His chosen people among His other sons (including good angels, Gentile believers, and Christians). He would give them a pleasant land, a more beautiful inheritance than He will give believing Gentiles in the future. Israel and Judah would return to the Lord as their Father and would not turn away from Him any more (cf. Hos. 11:1).
3:20 All this blessing would come to Israel in spite of her past treacherous unfaithfulness to her spiritual lover, Yahweh. That treachery was deliberate; it was not a provoked departure.
"It is important to retain memory of this deep compassion when we read the prophet's declarations of judgment (4:5ff.); in judgment, the compassion is still present, hoping beyond the judgment for a restoration of the relationship of love."113
3:21 The Lord could hear, in the future, the Israelites weeping and praying in repentance on the hilltops, where they had formerly committed spiritual adultery (v. 2). They would finally realize that they had perverted their way and had forgotten Yahweh.
3:22 This anticipation drew from Him an invitation to His faithless people to return to Him immediately. He promised to heal their faithless addiction to wandering from Him. He also anticipated Israel's response of acceptance. Israel would return and acknowledge again Yahweh as her God.
"This simple statement was crucial, for the root of past errors lay in their failure to recognize the Lord as their one and true God, and their consequent resort to the false gods of the fertility cults. Having declared their recognition of God, they would immediately pass on to a denunciation of the false gods to whom they had resorted."114
3:23 The Israelites confessed that the hills and mountains on which they had worshipped idols had been sites of deception for them and places of unrest. The idols had not provided what they promised, and instead of finding rest by worshipping them the Israelites had experienced turmoil. They finally acknowledged that only in Yahweh their God could they find true salvation (cf. Exod. 20:2-6; Deut. 5:6-10; 6:4).
3:24 Idolatry had consumed the Israelites in all that they had done throughout their history. It had been a blight on their existence, a shame to them as a people. But another nuance may also have been intended.
". . . Baal is referred to under the substitute name bosheth, shame' [cf. 11:13; 2 Sam. 2:8: Ish-bosheth, lit. man of shame]. . . . Shame' (Baal) had devoured all that the labors of their fathers had produced since the people were children."115
3:25 They now did not try to run from their shame (cf. Gen. 3:7, 10). Rather they willingly let it cover them and confessed their sin against Yahweh their God, sin that had existed throughout their history as a nation. They had disobeyed the Lord's voice; they had broken His covenant (cf. v. 13).
These verses provide the answer to God's question in 3:1. This is the repentance that was necessary for Yahweh to return to His "wife."
4:1a The Lord clarified that for His people to return to a blessed condition they must return to Himself.
4:1b-2 If they would put away their idolatry consistently and would swear by Him, rather than by the idols, then Israel would become responsible for the nations blessing themselves (cf. Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; Isa. 2:3; 65:16). That is, the Gentile nations would come to the Lord and so experience His blessing and would glorify Him.
". . . they will discern in the example of Israel that the source of true blessing lies in Yahweh and that he dispenses his blessings to those who are obedient to his covenant . . ."116
Swearing by the Lord means acknowledging Him as master in contrast to lord Baal (lit. master) and other lords.
4:3 This message closes with a call from the Lord to each of Jeremiah's original Jerusalemite and Judean hearers. Yahweh called on them with two agricultural metaphors. They needed to plow up the previously unplowed soil that symbolized their hearts (cf. Hos. 10:12; Mark 4:1-9). They needed to cultivate soft hearts that would welcome the Lord's words. Negatively they needed to stop investing in counterproductive ventures such as idolatry.
"Just as a farmer does not sow his seed on unplowed ground, so God does not sow His blessings in unrepentant hearts."117
4:4 Changing the figure, they should make a radical and permanent change in their commitments, a change that sprang from their innermost being (cf. 9:25-26; Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Rom. 2:28-29). Unless they did this they could count on God's judgment that would burn and consume them like unquenchable fire because their deeds were so evil. Breaking the covenant carried very serious consequences.
By repenting as the Lord and His prophet urged, Judah could have experienced a postponement of divine judgment. But Isaiah, over a century earlier, had announced that the Southern Kingdom would fall to Babylon sometime in the future.
This sermon clarifies that the essence of repentance is turning.
". . . the key to life is to be found in the direction in which one faces; if that direction is wrong, one must turn to seek the true direction and walk in that path of life."118
