A tale of pestilence and penitence
We find ourselves today in Jeremiah 14. This chapter, a raw dialogue between God and His messenger, is getting into the thick of Jeremiah’s difficult assignment from the LORD. The subject of this conversation is the rebellious people of Judah, whom we know are loved by both Jeremiah and God. However, in this frank exchange, God expresses His righteous anger towards the sin, idolatry, and adultery of the people He had desired to be known far and wide as His people.
In the first 6 verses God is doing the talking, and He explains the severity of the drought that He has purposed. This pestilence is in order to chasten His people who have chosen to sin and rebel. God gives a vivid news report of what His people are experiencing, and what they will continue to experience.
“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.”
Not unlike Romans 8, which explains that the whole of creation groans as a result of the curse of sin, this passage shows the sweeping implications of sin. Even the wildlife in the region of Judah felt the severe impacts of this drought. A doe forsakes her maternal instincts in favor of her own survival. The wild donkeys cannot find a drop of water to refresh or sustain themselves. This is a historic drought; the impacts are felt by the rich and poor alike. Jeremiah rightly recognizes that the forecast will not call for rain until God’s people call for repentance. The rain, a common euphemism in Scripture for blessing, is withheld because the relationship between God and His people is severed by their willful disobedience. Jeremiah, with the mandate of a prophet and the heart of a pastor, wants this relationship restored. So, He speaks to the Lord is a attitude of corporate confession. Verses 7-9 are a desperate prayer to God.
“Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O LORD, for Your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against You.”
In verses 10 and 11, the dialogue contains God’s crystal clear and scathing response to Jeremiah’s corporate confession. Jeremiah may have identified the sin of the people, but they themselves seemed much more concerned with the lack of blessing than with having a right relationship with their God.
“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.”
Permit me to rewind that for us. Did God just tell Jeremiah not to pray for the welfare of His people? Yep. Not because He did not love them, but precisely because He did. Consider Hebrews 12:5-11. This is the love of the Father. This is a tough love. His righteous wrath would even result in a massive death toll. The reality is that sin kills. God’s judgment would permit drought, war, and pestilence. By any means necessary, He would invite and demand repentance from His hard-hearted people. I’d be happy to insert an application for you here, but I’ll let the Apostle Peter do that as He writes to some New Covenant exiles: “..Since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on Him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exiles, knowing that you were ransomed from the future ways inherited from your forefathers...” (I Peter 1:16-18a).
Returning to the text in Jeremiah, verses 13-18, the talk between the prophet and His God centers on the false prophets who lied to Judah. To gain wealth, status, acceptance or whatever their motivation, these prophets flat out lied. They called God Himself a liar. These are blatant lies as the painful evidence of God’s withdrawn blessing (dare we call them curses?) was all around them. Check this out:
“If I go into the field, behold those pierced by the sword! And if I enter the city, behold the diseases of famine! For both prophet and priest ply
their trade through the land and have no knowledge.”
My English vocab learning in this chapter includes the phrase ply their trade. The ESV uses this as a means to convey what God meant by the Hebrew word sahar, which is the idea of traders or merchants. Please note it is NEVER good when God refers to people who purport to represent Him and care for His people as being in a trade. Second Corinthians 2:17 states, “For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” Titus 1:7 and I Peter 5:2 also both caution against using God’s Word as a means of selfish gain.
But I digress…. Back to the dialogue between God and Jeremiah. After the topic of these false teachers, Jeremiah continues the needful corporate confession. Look at the brother’s earnest confession of his people’s sin:
“We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you. Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonor your glorious throne; remember and do not break your covenant with us. Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not He, O Lord our God? We set our hope on you, for you do all these things. ”
Are you still with me? I sure hope so. Look at Jeremiah’s prayer!
I’ll make two applications here: First, corporate confession and a sweeping repentance is essential in order to restore a right relationship with God. We ought to pray for that for ourselves, our families, our churches, and our society. This is penitence, and Jeremiah exhibited this well.
The second application is that this corporate confession is inadequate without the completed work of Jesus Christ. Penitence is equally futile without the completed work of Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah called to mind God’s eternal covenant. He asks God to act for His own namesake. Jeremiah so much wants to be the intermediary between God and His rebellious people to bring about forgiveness and restoration. He wants to usher in a kingdom where God is on His eternal throne and His people are at peace with Him. But Jeremiah the prophet was inadequate for that task. And that time had not come. Some 600 years later, God Himself would come in human form as Christ the Son - the only Meditator between God and man (I Timothy 2:5). This gracious Savior would end the proverbial drought and allow the blessings to rain down eternally. Only when we repent and turn to Christ can we expect to experience peace with God and the blessing of a relationship with Him .
Take a moment to raise up a prayer of corporate confession on behalf of the Church as we set our hope on Christ the Risen one!