Friendly Fire
Jeremiah was a prophet to his own people. Like Ezekiel, he was not sent to a far away people who spoke a different language. Jeremiah’s ministry was on the street corners of Jerusalem, warning his fellow countrymen with a clarion call to repentance. Context would tell us that the spiritual condition of Judah in Jeremiah’s day was unhealthy. As we read of idolatry and unfaithfulness of God, we also read of treacherous and treasonous behavior in their relationships with one another.
It is worth mentioning that there is a chicken-egg relationship between sin in our horizontal relationships (with others) and our vertical relationship (with God). Our distance from and indifference to God allows us to forget our fear of Him and His commandments to love others more than ourselves. This quickly spirals out of control if left unchecked. Likewise, a hardness of heart and justifying our cruel treatment of others impedes our prayer and devotional life in such a way that we quickly alienate ourselves from our Savior.
Chapter 9 of Jeremiah seems to be a vivid reminder of this truth.
“Oh that my head were waters,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people!
Oh that I had in the desert
a travelers’ lodging place,
that I might leave my people
and go away from them!
For they are all adulterers,
a company of treacherous men.
They bend their tongue like a bow;
falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they do not know me, declares the Lord.”
At first pass, these opening verses would seem to be Jeremiah’s own synopsis of how he feels. It would be understandable that Jeremiah might have stayed up all night crying his eyes out all night long for the sin and resulting consequences that his countrymen experienced. And no doubt, in reading Jeremiah and Lamentations, he did shed many tears for his people. And he wanted to run away.
It is unclear whether these are just Jeremiah’s feelings, or whether, based on verse 3, this is God speaking. Could it be that the God who promises to never leave us or forsake uswould seem to be expressing that He’d sure like to? In using anthropopathic terms, He ascribes vivid human emotions to Himself. “Oh that I had in the desert a travelers’ lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them!”.
This verse ought to break our hearts to think that at the time, because of the conduct and heart condition of God’s people, He wanted to distance Himself in His holiness from their filthy behavior. Immanuel. God with His people. But they deserved desertion. Ichabod. The glory of the Lord has departed. Verse 3 says, '“They do not know me”. If His people fail to know and recognize Him, why would He draw near to them?
“Let everyone beware of his neighbor,
and put no trust in any brother,
for every brother is a deceiver,
and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
Everyone deceives his neighbor,
and no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongue to speak lies;
they weary themselves committing iniquity.
Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,
they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.”
The next two chapters of Jeremiah (10 & 11) focus on the vertical relationship between God’s idolatrous people and Himself. Oh, but these verses are a scathing and convicting indictment of the dysfunctional, dishonest relationships between the people that God loved and set apart for His purposes. Having given the people His law, they knew how to honestly conduct business, how to demonstrate love and kindness to one another, and yet they did the opposite. They deceived each other in business dealings, they talked behind one another’s backs, slandered, and lied. They literally tired themselves out from all the emotional energy expended perpetuating conflict in their relationships. As they sins add (heap) up, it results in the people not even caring about the impact this has on their relationship to their God.
“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Behold, I will refine them and test them,
for what else can I do, because of my people? Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully;
with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him. Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord, and shall I not avenge myself
on a nation such as this?”
These verses tell us that God’s response is not simply to head out to a tent in the desert and give His people some space. No. No. In His holiness, He cannot tolerate this conduct. The people have stored up wrath for themselves and a significant portion of this chapter spells out the stern punishment on this group of people who speak peace to their brethren but plan ambushes. God must refine His people God must correct this corruption. It’s the only way to restore and repair their relationship with Him.
It’s usually here that I would insert an application for us as New Covenant believers in how we ought to recognize this behavior in the ranks of the Church and repent of it. Paul seems to have made that application in His writing to the Galatians.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
-Galatians 5:14-16
But I have to get a lot more real with this application. In evaluating God’s Word, His Word also evaluates us. Maybe you have or are experiencing conflict in your relationships. Maybe in your family, maybe in your church. Repent. Run to God first, and then to your brother. This is not as simple as one party has wronged another. Relationships are messy, and we all play a sinful, disgraceful part of making them that way. This warrants swift punishment from God. And this chapter serves as a warning. What then, are we to do?
Just about the only bright spot in this chapter are these words:
“Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
These are words that encourage us as we might be quick to think that they describe us. But do they? This is not a consolation to us, but rather a command to us! Our boasting can only be based on our relationship to God, made possible through Jesus Christ. Our only hope is that in knowing God and understanding His call to holiness, we find salvation in turning to Christ in repentance. In believing in what Christ has done for us, we ought to desire that which delights our God. Love, justice, and righteousness. This in turn, will compel and empower us to redefine and restore the fractured, embittered relationships we have with those who God has placed in our lives.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ”