Jeremiah 11:1-13. Remember that in the book of Jeremiah we have a collection of messages that he gave to the people of the southern kingdom of Judah (See “Intro to Jeremiah”). Jeremiah started to minister (serve) in the 13th year of the good king Josiah. Josiah had begun to get rid of the idolatry set up by his father and grand-father. The people went along with what he was doing spiritually but evidently not with their whole heart (See Deuteronomy 6:4-5). We do not know when in his career that God gave this message to Jeremiah, it could have been during the time of Josiah or later, but it is clearly a warning of the consequences of being unfaithful to God.
Four times in these thirteen verses God mentions a “covenant”. A covenant is like a contract, treaty, or promise. These are agreements between people and usually involve conditions. Although it wasn’t a written contract, my daughter, Heather, had a bad batter in her car and needed a new one put in. It was late and I was all cleaned up but I agreed to put it in if she went and got a new one. She did and I did. My word was like a promise but it had conditions, she needed to go get the new battery. If she hadn’t I would have been free from my promise. In verse 3 God tells the people of Judah that they are cursed if they do not keep their part of a particular contract. In verse 4 we find out that the contract was originally given to the Israelites about 800 years earlier when God brought them out of Egypt. The first mention of this contract seems to be in Exodus 19. In Exodus 19 Moses and the descendants of Israel (See “What’s in a Name”) have escaped Egypt and are at the foot of the mountain where Moses was commanded by God to go rescue the people. In Exodus 19-23 Moses goes up the mountain and receives the “contract” from him. It is interesting that really this is an amendment or addition to an earlier contract between God and Abraham. The original contract was a promise by God to give certain land to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 15:8). In Genesis 17:7 God also explained that the contract was forever. There were no particular conditions to the original contract. Later in Exodus 19-23 God added more to the contract, including responsibilities or conditions for the Israelites. The Ten Commandments were the beginning of these conditions but not all of them. In Exodus 24:3 the descendants of Israel accepted the terms of the agreement. Basically the new agreement said that the people would live in promised land protected by God but that they would have to be faithful to God. If they were not faithful God would remove them from the land or make them live there in bondage to outsiders. In the history of Israel we know that this happened many times. The original contract of “forever” ownership though, remains with no conditions. Eventually Jesus will rule over that land and establish a forever kingdom in which descendants of Israel will be a part. Throughout the Old Testament the people of Israel were warned about the conditions and consequences of the contract between them and God. One extended section is Deuteronomy 27-29 which I mentioned yesterday.
In Jeremiah’s life the situation had become very serious and it was time for God to remove the people of Judah from the land for a time. In verse 4 God sums up the situation when he reminds Jeremiah that he brought the Israelite family out of a harsh situation of slavery in Egypt and was going to give them a good and productive land (the description reminds me of those milk commercials a few years back). The people’s part of the deal was to obey God. Notice the language God uses; they would be his people and he would be their God, it’s the language of a relationship. But they had violated the very first condition of the contract and the relationship. The first of the first ten commandments was that they people would have no other gods. But here they were in Jeremiah’s day with other gods (see v. 13). In verse 6 God tells Jeremiah to remind the people once again about the contract and it’s requirements. In verse 7 we find out that God not only put the warnings in the original contract but had regularly reminded the people of the agreement down through the generations. According to verse 8 it wasn’t that the Israelites didn’t know the details but that they willingly chose to break the agreement. By living in the land and accepting the goodness of it (“a land flowing with milk and honey, to this day”) the people were implying that they accepted the terms of the contract; they could not say that the agreement was just between their ancestors and God. There fore god was going to bring the consequences into play.
In verse 10 we learn that it wasn’t just the generation alive in Jeremiah’s day that was guilty but they were copying the actions of their ancestors. The fact that the people of Judah were living in the land really tells me that God is patient, he had put up with the unfaithfulness of several generations, but now it was time to act. It is interesting that God mentions the “house of Israel” and the “house of Judah” in verse 10. After the rule of Solomon the nation of Israel was split into two kingdoms. The Northern Kingdom is commonly called Israel in the Bible and the Southern Kingdom is commonly called Judah. The Northern Kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC (about 90 years before this message was given) and the people were scattered throughout the Assyrian Empire. By mentioning both “houses” in the same sentence God is warning the people of Judah that they better look out. In verse 11 the hint in verse 10 is made very clear when God tells them that he is bringing disaster and that they will not be able to escape.
Remember that if the people would listen to God that he would protect them but they were not obeying him. In verse 11 we see that the people would try get God to help but he was not going to listen to them. Instead of leaving their prayers at God’s feet though they would then prove their unfaithfulness and turn to the fake gods that they had been secretly cheating with. Of course man made gods of rock and wood have no power to help as the people would learn as disaster overtook them.
For me I see both the purity and patience of God in this part of the story. We see that God has standards, he is not going to share our hearts with lies. But God clearly put up with a lot of cheating by the Israelites before he actually kicked them out. Eventually he would bring them back too. And in the ultimate end there would be a forever kingdom. It is interesting that in the last book of the Bible, the Revelation, we see the events that lead to that kingdom. Those events include a second (or gazillionth) chance for the Israelites to lead people around them to God. During that last seven year long opportunity God shows the world just how serious he is about disobedience and rebellion. There are many many severe event in response to the Satan led rebellion on the earth. At least twice in that book the action pauses and someone comments that “they [the people on the earth] still did not turn back to God”. Clearly God is a patient God who wants people to spend eternity with him; but those who reject his offer of eternity will spend it on the outside where there is no “milk and honey” but an eternity of “weeping and gnashing of teeth”.
One last thing. Although the original “contract” was made with an individual, Abraham, but was extended to an entire tribe, people group, or nation, the Israelites. But each individual is responsible for keeping the terms of the contract. In verse 8 we learn that each person stubbornly turned away from God. God was about the punish the entire Southern Kingdom and Jeremiah would suffer consequences with them but the ultimate reward, eternity in God’s forever kingdom, depends on our individual response. In Hebrews 11 we learn that Abraham and the prophets among others were living for that eternal kingdom, suffering sometimes in this life, as they lived to help us find that eternal life. Don’t waste their sacrifice, turn back to God today.
God thank you for being patient. Thank you for letting enough time pass so that I could exist and learn about you. Thank you for waiting for me to turn to you. thank yo for enduring all that evil so I could be a part of your forever kingdom.. Help me be faithful. Help me share your love with others. Help me lead other out of the darkness into your marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).