Jeremiah

Chapter 14:1-12 (ESV) - The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:

“Judah mourns,
    and her gates languish;
her people lament on the ground,
    and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
Her nobles send their servants for water;
    they come to the cisterns;
they find no water;
    they return with their vessels empty;
they are ashamed and confounded
    and cover their heads.
Because of the ground that is dismayed,
    since there is no rain on the land,
the farmers are ashamed;
    they cover their heads.
Even the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn
    because there is no grass.
The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights;
    they pant for air like jackals;
their eyes fail
    because there is no vegetation.

“Though our iniquities testify against us,
    act, O LORD, for your name's sake;
for our backslidings are many;
    we have sinned against you.
O you hope of Israel,
    its savior in time of trouble,
why should you be like a stranger in the land,
    like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?
Why should you be like a man confused,
    like a mighty warrior who cannot save?
Yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us,
    and we are called by your name;
    do not leave us.”

Thus says the LORD concerning this people:
“They have loved to wander thus;
    they have not restrained their feet;
therefore the LORD does not accept them;
    now he will remember their iniquity
    and punish their sins.”

The LORD said to me: “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

Question to consider: Even though the text says “we have sinned,” who was it that was really confessing this?

In this passage, it may seem like the people repented after the LORD dried up the land, and everyone and everything was dying of thirst. However, the one who cried out to God and said, “We have sinned against you,” was Jeremiah.

Drought was one of the punishments offered in Leviticus 26 for continued disobedience to the commands of God. Jeremiah’s response to confess the sins of the people was taken from the end of that chapter:

“But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God. But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 26:40-45)

When Daniel prayed in this way for the people in the midst of their exile, the LORD heard his prayer and sent Gabriel to announce the time of the end of their captivity. However, in this time before the exile, the LORD told Jeremiah, “Do not pray for the welfare of this people.” The people had hardened their hearts against God and still worshiped the Baals. Their offerings were not done with a contrite heart. Instead they made offerings to many different gods hoping that the strongest one would prevail and give them what they wanted. As the LORD put it in His response to Jeremiah, “They have loved to wander thus; they have not restrained their feet; therefore the LORD does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.”

People may be able to fool themselves and those around them, but they cannot fool the LORD. Jesus said of these hypocrites, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Prayer

Dear heavenly Father, You know the beginning from the end and are deeply familiar with the heart of everyone who stands before You. Please give us a clean heart and a right spirit toward You by clothing us in the righteousness won for us by Christ Jesus on the cross. For anything we try to do on our own fails. Amen.