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Scripture Reading: Jer. 5; Jer. 6
In this message we will consider chapters five and six of Jeremiah. In chapter five we have Jehovah the Husband's further complaint against His wife, and in chapter six we see His determination in correcting His wife.
Chapters two through four of Jeremiah are Jehovah the Husband's complaint against Israel the wife's apostasy, her spiritual fornication — her worshipping and making of idols. By doing this Israel broke the first four commandments of the law (Exo. 20:1-11), which concern her relationship with God. The first three commandments require man not to have idols but only to have God (vv. 3-7); the fourth commandment requires man to have satisfaction and rest only in God and in all that God has accomplished for man (vv. 8-11). Chapter five of Jeremiah is Jehovah the Husband's further complaint against Israel the wife's wickednesses in detail. The details concerning her wickednesses show that she also broke the last five commandments of the law (Exo. 20:13-17), those concerning man's relationship with man. These commandments are concerned with killing, adultery, stealing, lying, and coveting.
As a priest, Jeremiah was very knowledgeable concerning the law. He knew the Ten Commandments, and he wrote about the wickedness and sinfulness of Israel according to the sequence of the Ten Commandments.
"Go to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem, / And look now and know, / And seek in her open squares / If you can find a man, / If there is anyone who executes justice, / Who seeks faithfulness; / And I will pardon her" (Jer. 5:1). Here we have a summary of Jehovah's complaint: no one was executing justice or seeking faithfulness. There was no faithfulness among them.
Verse 3 exposes Israel's attitude toward God's correction. "You have stricken them,/But they did not writhe;/You have consumed them,/But they refused to take correction./They have made their faces harder than rock;/They have refused to turn." Even though they were sinful, they would not receive God's correction.
"Surely these know the way of Jehovah, / The ordinance of their God. / But together they both have broken the yoke; / They have torn off the bonds" (v. 5). In the law there are not only the Ten Commandments but also many ordinances, regulations of God's just and righteous law. Israel knew these ordinances but would not follow them.
"When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery / And trooped to the house of harlots. / Like well-fed horses they roam about, / Each one neighing after his neighbor's wife" (vv. 7-8). This indicates that the people were adulterous, utterly sinful. The visitors to the house of harlots were like a troop, like an army.
Israel did not tremble before Jehovah, who has set the sand as a boundary for the sea (v. 22). Rather, they had a stubborn and rebellious heart, and they turned aside and went away (v. 23).
"For wicked men are found among My people; / They lie in wait like fowlers crouching; / They set a trap, / They catch men" (v. 26). These wicked men set up a "net" to catch their prey. This is a matter not only of lying but also of stealing and greed. They certainly were lawbreakers.
"Like a cage full of birds, / So their houses are full of deceit; / Therefore they have become great and rich" (v. 27). This refers to their gain from deceiving others. Their houses were full of what they had gained through deceit.
"Indeed they surpass in deeds of wickedness; / They do not judge the cause, / The cause of the orphan, but they prosper; / And the right of the needy they do not judge" (v. 28). They did not judge in a just way the cases of ordinary people; neither did they treat the orphans justly and rightly.
"The prophets prophesy falsely, / And the priests rule by their own authority; / And My people love it this way" (v. 31). The priests actually were judges, and they should have judged the cases of the people according to God's law. However, they judged, ruled, by their own authority. This means that they ruled according to their opinion. The people loved it this way. This may indicate that the people were bribing the priests.
Chapter six describes Jehovah the Husband's determination in correcting His wife.
Jehovah said, "Evil looks down from the north, / And great destruction. / The comely and delicate one, / The daughter of Zion, I will cut off" (6:1b-2). The word evil here refers to calamities, and the word north refers to Babylon. God was about to send calamities and destruction from the north (vv. 22-26).
"Prepare war against her; / Rise up, and let us go up at noon./...Rise up, and let us go up at night / And destroy her palaces" (vv. 4-5). In these verses God speaks to the Babylonians. He will use them in His correction of Israel.
"Be admonished, O Jerusalem, / Lest My desire for you depart, / Lest I make you a desolation, / An uninhabited land" (v. 8). This indicates that, through the Babylonians, the Husband would make her a desolation and a land that is no longer inhabitable.
The enemy will thoroughly glean her remnant like a vine; they will pass their hand again over her branches like a grape gatherer (v. 9). The houses of Israel will be turned over to others, fields and wives together, and the Husband will stretch out His hand over her inhabitants (v. 12). God will stretch out His hand to chastise them.
In verse 9 we have a figure of speech: a vineyard with its grapevines. According to God's law, once the grapes were harvested, no one was allowed to pick the gleanings, for the remnant of the grape harvest was to be for the poor. However, the Babylonians would harvest the "grapes" from the "vine" of Israel, and then come again to glean the vine thoroughly. This means that they would come more than once to take the people captive.
"Listen, O earth; I am now bringing evil / On this people... /I am now laying before this people stumbling blocks, / And fathers and sons together / Will stumble against them; / A neighbor and his friend will perish" (vv. 19, 21). On the one hand, Jehovah would bring evil, calamity, upon Israel; on the other hand, He would set up stumbling blocks before the people in order to stumble them.
This chapter discloses the Husband's determination in His reaction to the wife's evils (vv. 6-7, 10, 13, 15, 19-21, 28-30). Her actions were evil, and God's punishment was His reaction to these evil actions.
As I conclude this message, I would like to summarize chapters two through six in a simple way. In chapters two through four is Jehovah's major complaint, against His wife's apostasy, spiritual fornication — idolatry, by which she broke the first four commandments of the law concerning God. In chapters five and six is Jehovah's minor complaint, against His wife's evil conduct, by which she broke the last five commandments of the law concerning men. Israel broke the first four commandments by worshipping idols and the last five commandments by not executing justice or seeking faithfulness.
