Jeremiah 3:1-10. Remember that Jeremiah is prophesying in the time of Josiah. If you read the Intro to Jeremiah you might remember that Josiah was a good king who started religious and moral reforms in the land of Judah. Unfortunately it appears that the reforms were only outward or on the surface. The people were going along with what Josiah said but didn’t really believe it.
In today’s reading the people of Judah are compared with a cheating wife. You may not think that is the situation but I think it is and here is why. The section starts out by telling us that a man divorces his wife and she goes and marries another guy. We are then asked the question if the first husband would ever return to her. The answer is assumed to be “No”. The second question makes that very clear when it asks he wouldn’t think that she is completely dirty to him. The assumed answer is “yes”.
First we need to understand that Israel had a law about this. The law is in Deuteronomy 24:1-4. In those verse God told the Israelites that if a man found some “uncleanness or indecency in his wife” that he could divorce her. The word for indecency literally means “nakedness” and indicates shame. The probably idea here is that she has been with another man, has cheated. By the time of Jesus the rabbis, or Jewish teachers, pushed the meaning of this law that if a woman ruined his breakfast that a man could divorce his wife, sounds kind of like our world today. In fact some of the teachers of Jesus day actually asked him about the rule and Jesus told them that if a man divorced his wife for any reason other than cheating and then remarries that that man is an adulterer; a cheater (Matthew 19:3-9). So I think that the man in our example has a wife who has cheated on him.
The law in Deuteronomy also forbid the man from ever remarrying the woman of she had gone and married someone else. In the rule that remarriage is called a “sin” (disobedience and rebellion against God) and is called offensive (abomination) to God. When we hear these rule we need to be careful not to judge God as harsh or unfair or not caring about people’s feelings. First of all, in his response to the religious leaders, Jesus made some things very clear. Jesus made it clear that marriage and the intimacy that is a part of it was invented by God. God isn’t some stuffy guy who doesn’t appreciate the feelings we have for others he invented them and gave a great way to express them, in a committed forever relationship. Also Jesus told them that the rule permitting divorce wasn’t even God’s best plan, it was something God would allow because we have hard hearts and won’t forgive.
Finally we need to remember that God set up our lives not just so we could enjoy life but so that we would be able to understand him and our relationship to him. In both the New and Old Testaments the relationship between a husband and wife is used by God to describe our relationship with Him. In fact that is what is happening here in today’s reading.
An interesting thought on the “assumed” answers to the questions in verse 1 is that in reality the better answer “Yes” he will still return to her and “No” she is not completely dirty to him. You might think that that is a violation of the rule but I’m not so sure, there may be some little differences in the two situations. Remember that the original rule was a “concession” (God allowed it because of men’s hard hearts and the details of the rule are a part of that allowance). In the book of Hosea God actually commands Hosea to return to his cheating wife to teach the people about God’s love and forgiveness.
In today’s reading the example of how a husband feels when he has been cheated on is being used as an example. In the end of verse 1 we are told that the people of Judah were not just cheaters but were living the life of a prostitute, they had many “lovers”. This is in respect to their relationship with God. That can be seen by the fact that they keep “returning” to God in the end of verse 1.
In the next verse God supports his complaint by telling them to look around and see if they can find a place that they have not cheated on him. They have cheated on every hill around Jerusalem. God also compares them to “Arabs in the desert sitting by the side of the road”. This is not a slam on Arab people it is a reference to desert dwellers in the time of Jeremiah; the area then and now was known as Arabia and any one who lived there might be called Arabian or an Arab. These people would sit by the side of the caravan routes through the desert and trade with the passing caravans, they didn’t care who they did business with. That is how prostitutes are when it comes to sex and that is how the people of Judah were when it came to gods. The result of their actions was that they had become “dirty” to God.
In verse 3 we see that there were physical consequences for their actions, no rain in their land. That would be very serious in those days since food had to be locally grown and without rain there would be not food. One thing ancient people did was make up gods and then worship them (honor them with all sorts of gifts ranging from part of their crops to human sacrifices) in hopes that the ‘gods” would manipulate the physical world and give them rain and protect them fro other disasters. But here we see that such activity offended the one true God and brought the very disaster that the people were trying to avoid. Verse three also tells us that God didn’t hold back the rain just to be mean, he did it in hope that the people would return to him. In verses 4-5 it looks like the people do just that calling God their father and guide (the other word in verse 4 is related to a word for teach in the Hebrew language). But verse 3 tells us that the people refused to be ashamed (a different word from the one used in the law about divorce for uncleanness), and that instead they had the proud “in your face” attitude of a prostitute. The end of verse 5 compares what they say with how they act. It’s kind of like our saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” And their evil actions were screaming in God’s ears.
In verse 6 we are reminded that it was in the days of Josiah; “ah, wonderful days of faithfulness to God”, but not really. God asks Jeremiah if he remembers the Northern Kingdom, Israel. The Northern Kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BC. Jeremiah was probably born about 655 BC so he would only have been able to have heard stories about the Northern Kingdom. Notice God’s description of Israel (the Northern Kingdom not the whole nation), she cheated on him too (actually first), but look at what God hopes for, he wants her back. With God there is no hard heart, but there is a standard of faithfulness (read the posts on Hosea some time) so ultimately God did “divorce” Israel. But remember that in the human realm that divorce is not God’s best plan for our relationships and in the spiritual realm it is not his ultimate desire either; Israel was constantly unfaithful and never came back to God. In spite of the example of Israel, Judah did exactly the same thing. The idea in verse 9 is not that the cheating of the people of Judah was “light” (meaning just a little bit, like “lite” meals or drinks) but that Judah’s attitude about their cheating on God was “lite”; they though that it was no big deal (even though the first of the ten commandments is very specific about not having other gods). It is also shocking to see that they were cheating on God by worshipping rocks and trees. Verse 10 tells us in spite of seeing what happened to Israel that Judah just kept on going down the same path and worse. Judah not only kept sinning but she tried to trick God by pretending to love him while sharing their hearts with other gods.
God is serious about faithfulness, he will not share us with other gods. If we are insistent on centering our lives on someone or something else God will cut us loose, but it will be an awful existence. We were made to live in relationship with God. He is the giver and sustainer (keeps it going) of life. All that is good comes from him and without him there is not lasting good in life, or after.
God help me never blame you for your holiness and purity. We all want pure water and organic foods; pure and holy foods because they are supposed to be better for us. Yet we want to have a polluted relationship with you; that’s crazy. Jesus told us that it’s not what goes into a person’s mouth that pollutes them but it’s what comes out; the true feeling we have about you and life. I don’t want to try to fool you I want a pure life, create in me a clean heart. I know you will because you love me. You gave your son to clean me up and you gave the Holy Spirit to help me stay clean. Let me be obedient. Help me enjoy the rain and good harvest you have for me, spiritually and physically, now and for eternity. And help me share your good =ness with others. Help me be faithful to you always.
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