The first message from Jehovah to Jerusalem through Jeremiah extends through chapter 2 to chapter 3:5. As we read it and seek to learn for the profit of our souls from what it contains, let us remember that the people to whom the message was sent were, like ourselves, living at the end of a long period of God's dealing in grace; like ourselves, too, they had the light of the Word of God (in the measure in which He had then made Himself known), and faithful servants of His had been their guides; as with us, Satan had been very busy, seeking (and O, so successfully!) to turn the heart away from God; finally, as today, the judgment of God was about to fall.
How then shall He, the measure of whose compassion, forbearance, and love to man exceed our highest thought, address Himself to those who walk among scenes where judgment is soon to fall, who know something of Hint, yet are marked by the ways of the world?
He speaks first, tenderly, of their early love to film (amazing that God should value the love of our heart, and feel its growing cold toward Him!): "I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holiness .unto Jehovah, the first-fruits of His increase; all that devour him are guilty; evil shall come -upon them, with Jehovah."
It is good for the believer thus to be put in remembrance of the first days, when love to the Lord was, perhaps, much more ardent than in later years. Ten thousand things come in to engage the mind and heart, and if we are not very watchful indeed, the first love is soon relaxed; our lives become selfish, self-centered; we are laid open to Satan's many devices to ensnare our feet. In Rev. 2:4,4Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (Revelation 2:4) the Lord Jesus, tile Church's Head, had to speak with sorrow of the decline of the first love of His people for Himself – the first step in a course away from Him.
What iniquity (or injustice) have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me?" (verse 5), is the next word from our gracious God. O, the fault is all our own, with shame we confess. Priests, pastors, prophets and people—all—are alike rightly under condemnation. The idolaters of the heathen world east and west (verse 10) have kept their false gods, but those who profess the knowledge of the only true god have dishonored Him on every hand.
"Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this ... for My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." How true today! And in the light of God's Word with its full revelation of the truth concerning ourselves, and of His amazing provision, at infinite cost, of a Saviour that saves eternally, how solemn is the position of those who now neglect so great salvation!
The world in its attractions—pictured in verse 16 in the mention of two cities of Egypt and its river Nile (Sihor) in verse 18 and the world in its present open enmity to the people of God—pictured in the reference to Assyria and its river (verse 18), have done much to wean the heart of the believer from the true and heavenly Object of his affections.
Yet the world cannot be blamed; the fault lies within (verse 19), We are aware that Jeremiah was sent to speak to a people outwardly linked with God, in many of whom there was not faith, nevertheless what is brought out in this chapter has much to commend it to the earnest consideration of every true child of God in our own day.
Verses 20 to 30 deal with the national sin of idolatry under the figure, much used in the Old Testament prophecies, of adultery; it was their turning from the true God to the gods of the heathen that brought on the Babylonian captivity. Yet were there other sins, for Satan has plenty of occupation for all who serve him.