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Scripture Reading: Jer. 2:1-37; 3:1-5
In 2:13 Jehovah says of His people, "My people have committed two evils: / They have forsaken Me, / The fountain of living waters, / To hew out for themselves cisterns, / Broken cisterns, / Which hold no water." In this message on Israel's sin against Jehovah and Jehovah's punishment of Israel, we will consider these two evils of Israel.
The first evil of Israel was to forsake Jehovah, the fountain of living waters.
In the book of Jeremiah, Jehovah God considers Himself a husband to His beloved elect, Israel, and Israel a wife to Him. Jeremiah 2:1—3:5 may thus be regarded as a conversation between a husband and wife.
"Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Jehovah: / I remember concerning you the kindness of your youth, / The love of your bridal days, / When you followed after Me in the wilderness, / In a land that was not sown" (2:2). There was a bridal day, a wedding day, for Jehovah and Israel, and Jehovah, the Husband, still remembered that day of love.
"Israel was holiness to Jehovah, / The firstfruits of His increase" (v. 3a). The word increase here means produce from the earth. God gained some increase from the earth as produce, and Israel was the firstfruits of this produce. As the firstfruits, Israel was valuable to God. God treasured Israel as holiness to Him, as the firstfruits of His increase from His field.
"Thus says Jehovah: / What iniquity did your fathers find in Me, / That they have gone far away from Me / And have walked after vanity / And are vain?" (v. 5). The word vanity in this verse refers to idols. Israel walked after vanity, and they themselves became vain; they worshipped idols and as a result they made themselves nothing.
Israel also forgot Jehovah, who brought them up from Egypt through the wilderness of deserts and the shadow of death and brought them into the land of the fruited field (vv. 6-7).
"The priests did not say, / Where is Jehovah? / And those who handle the law did not know Me, / And the shepherds transgressed against Me, / And the prophets prophesied by Baal / And followed after things that did not benefit them" (v. 8). The priests did not know where God was, and those who handled the law did not know God. How could they handle Jehovah's law if they did not know Him? This is impossible. Furthermore, the shepherds, the rulers, transgressed against Jehovah, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, that is, in the name of Baal, an idol. This was the situation of the people of Israel.
"Has a nation ever exchanged its gods, / Even though they are no gods? / But My people have exchanged their glory / For that which does not benefit them" (v. 11). Here the words their glory mean "their God." The people exchanged their God for idols, for that which was vain and did not benefit them.
It was an evil and bitter thing that the people of Israel had forsaken Jehovah their God (v. 19). They forsook Him, the fountain of living waters, and went away from Him to idols.
Finally, in forsaking Jehovah, the fountain of living waters, God's people were like Jehovah's wife committing fornication with many lovers (3:1). Israel realized that Jehovah was her Husband, but she continued to commit fornication with many lovers, with many idols. Such was the sinful condition of Israel.
Israel forsook Jehovah as the fountain of living waters. This was Israel's first evil. Israel's second evil was to hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which hold no water.
The word in 2:13 about cisterns is, of course, a figure of speech portraying Israel's toil in making something to replace God as the fountain of living waters. To hew out a cistern from rock is very hard labor. Then the cistern may become broken. Once a cistern is broken, the water in it leaks out. This is a picture of human labor and enterprise. We may labor to get something for ourselves, but then our "cistern" develops a crack, and we lose whatever we have gained.
Israel chose many idols, which are of no benefit, to replace the unique God, who is their glory (2:11). This is very similar to what is described in Romans 1:23, where Paul speaks of those who "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and reptiles."
Israel exchanged the reality of God for the falsehood, the vanity, of idols (Jer. 2:5). They "exchanged the truth of God for the lie" (Rom. 1:25a). All idols are vanity; thus, to pursue an idol is to pursue vanity.
Israel worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25b). They worshipped and served not only the things of God's creation but also the things of their own creation — idols of wood, stone, and metal.
Israel sought the Egyptians' and Assyrians' help (man's help) instead of seeking God's blessing (Jer. 2:17-18, 36; Isa. 31:3). They did not trust in God's blessing but in man's help.
As the wife of Jehovah, Israel forsook her chastity to commit fornication, having a harlot's forehead and refusing to be ashamed (Jer. 2:20, 23-25; 3:1-3).
Israel practiced apostasies rather than keeping her faithfulness (2:19). Apostasy is a matter of leaving the way of God and taking another way to follow things other than God. This is what Israel did.
Israel increased the number of their gods (idols) according to the number of their cities (vv. 27-28). Wherever there was a city, there was an idol.
In 2:32 Jehovah says, "Can the virgin forget her ornaments, /Or the bride her attire?/But My people have forgotten Me / For days without number." Israel had forgotten Jehovah for days without number, for so many days that they could not be counted. This means that they had forgotten Him for a very long time. In this matter, they were different from the virgin, who could not forget her ornaments, or the bride, who could not forget her attire. This word concerning ornaments and attire indicates that God is our ornament and attire; that is, God is our beautification. Although God was Israel's beautification, Israel forgot Him.
Israel made themselves the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine to suffer Jehovah's correcting punishment (vv. 21, 19, 29-30; 3:3a). In punishing them Jehovah did not even give them the showers or the spring rain. He caused the heavens above to be as brass, not giving them any supply.
"It is said, / If a man divorces his wife / And she goes from him / And becomes another man's wife, / Will he return to her again? / Will not that land be / Utterly polluted? / But you have committed fornication with many lovers. / Yet return to Me, declares Jehovah" (3:1). This indicates that in spite of Israel's fornication, which was like that of a divorced wife, Jehovah would return to her again, if she would return to Him. This is Jehovah's compassions, and His compassions do not fail; they are new every morning. But whether or not Israel would experience God's compassions depended upon whether or not she would return to God.
"Have you not just now called out to Me, My Father, / You are the guide of my youth?" (v. 4). This indicates that if Israel would return to Jehovah, she would say to Him that He is her Father, the Guide (Companion) of her youth. This shows the situation and condition of Israel.
