Jeremiah 2:1-3:5 “Will God Divorce His People?”

1:00He noticed as he was coming into manhood himself that he was growing up in a generation of guys that didn't know how to do basic stuff that men have always known how to do, whether that's tying rope or changing oil or whatever else. And so his whole website and the podcast now is expanded and is tackling all kinds of different subjects that have to do with men. And a couple weeks ago, he had this guest on, James Sexton, who is one of the Prominent divorce lawyers in our country. And strangely enough, this man wrote a book called How to Stay in Love: A Divorce Lawyer's Guide to Staying Together.

1:43But because he has overseen over a thousand divorces, he has learned very well the attitudes and practices in marriage that help men stay with their wives and decrease the likelihood of divorce. So I listened to this episode and it was fine, but for a Bible-reading Christian, there wasn't anything really that was new for me because God, of course, has revealed the purpose and meaning of marriage in Scripture. And marriage is the primary metaphor that God uses to describe his relationship with his people in the Bible.

2:27And so here at the outset of Jeremiah, it's really sad to read about the state of the relationship between the people of Israel and God. This marriage relationship is not going well, though it started out with so much promise. And that's because while God has always been faithful to his people, Israel has not been faithful to him. And so they stand here at this time in Jeremiah chapter 2. On the brink of divorce. If you were with us last week, we saw in chapter one that God appointed Jeremiah as a prophet to the nations. God sent and called and comforted him with his word, which is just what he does for us, each one of his messengers.

3:20Now, here in chapter two, we see in verse one, if you take a look there, that God sends Jeremiah to Jerusalem, to the chief city of Judah, to proclaim his word in the hearing of his people. And through Jeremiah, God will speak to his people using the imagery of marriage, of himself as husband, and the people of Israel or the house of Jacob as his wife. It's right there in verse 2. I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride.

3:56The problem is that God has been faithful, but the people have not. They have forsaken him, looking to idols and to other nations to give them what only God can provide. God views that as spiritual adultery. And he uses that language and that image because that concept hits home for us in a way that few others would. Whether you are married or not, everyone can understand. The anger, the hurt, the betrayal, the grief that you would feel if your spouse cheated on you.

4:43And that is what God is saying here. That is how he feels when his people have forsaken him for these other gods. And in the text today, God is going to drive that point home in language that may shock you if you've never read the Bible before. And honestly, it may shock you if you have read the Bible before. But God is not using this language for shock value, but to communicate hard truths in order to provoke reflection and repentance.

5:21We can't make the mistake of thinking that because we don't have statues in our living rooms today, that we are therefore not idolaters and it's not a problem for us. Because, friends, understand idolatry was a problem in Jeremiah's day. It was a problem in every one of the early churches in the first century. And it is a problem in every Christian church in every nation of the world today. Idolatry is looking to anyone or anything to give you what only God can give you. So today's message is a call to reflect and to reflect. Repent where necessary. Take a look at what Jesus speaks to the church in Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2.

6:08He says, But I have this against you: that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent, and do the works you did at first. So, what we're going to see today in Jeremiah chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3 is that in spite of our spiritual adultery, God pursues us for reconciliation. Let's pick up in verse 4, where God asks the people of Jerusalem this rhetorical question: What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and went after worthlessness and became worthless?

6:58The answer, of course, is that they found no wrong in God because God had never done them wrong. In fact, he had always and only done good to them. So, in the next verses here, he reminds them that he delivered them from 400 years of brutal slavery in Egypt and Pharaoh's cruel oppression. He reminds them that he led them for 40 years in the wilderness in a land of deserts and pits where there was little to no food or water.

7:31God provided manna from heaven and birds to eat and water out of rocks on multiple occasions. He reminds them that he brought them into the land of Canaan, a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things, and a land large enough to spread out and to raise their families and to worship him freely. But if you know the story of Israel, you know that after Moses died, then Joshua takes over, he leads them into the promised land, and right after Joshua died, the people fell into idolatry. Within one generation, the people fell into idolatry. How did that happen? Look at Judges chapter 2 on the screen.

8:21And all that generation, that's Joshua's generation, also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. They did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel? How could that be? These are the kids and the grandkids of the people who had seen the miracles in Egypt and at the Red Sea and over 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. They saw the walls of Jericho fall down and so much more, and they did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

9:12Friends, I will tell you as one who worked in ministry, youth ministry, for nearly a decade, that you would be stunned at the number of kids who grow up in homes with church-going parents who do not pray with their kids, do not read the Bible to their kids, do not talk about spiritual things with their kids. You would be stunned. Is it any wonder, then, that their kids grow up not knowing the Lord or what he has done for them in Christ?

9:49When you think about Israel here in verse 4, of course, the people are saying, Where is the Lord who brought us, or are not saying, rather, where is the Lord who brought us up for the land of Egypt? If you look at verse 8, of course, the priests are not asking, where is the Lord? Of course, the shepherds, that is, the elders and leaders of the people, they don't know God. And of course, the prophets are prophesying by Baal and going after things that do not profit because no one taught them.

10:23Now, I don't want you to misunderstand me. I am not saying that as parents we are solely responsible for the choices of our children. I mean, most of us parents, we feel guilty enough as it is. The last thing I'm trying to do this morning is make you feel even guiltier for the things that you're not doing. But we have to be real this morning. If we are not making an honest effort to teach our kids about God and the work that He has done for Israel, and particularly the work that He has done in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, then surely we cannot blame our kids for going after the idols that the world goes after.

11:08Nevertheless, we are responsible for our own choices. And God held Israel responsible. Look at verse 9. He says, Therefore, I still contend with you, declares the Lord. Why is that? Verse 10. He says, go across to Cyprus, go to Kadar, and see if they do what you're doing. He asks in verse 11, Has a nation changed its gods even though they are no gods? Israel is doing what even pagan nations don't do. They have switched allegiances.

11:51Even pagans don't do that. And the next verses capture how God feels about this in unforgettable language. Look at verse 12. Be appalled, O heavens, at this. Be shocked. Be utterly desolate, declares the Lord. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. In ancient Israel, you had three sources of water. The first and best source they called living waters, and that referred to running streams or rivers. It referred to springs bubbling up out of the ground, moving water, essentially.

12:45The second source was well water or groundwater that was felled from purified springs underneath the earth. And then, third and finally, was runoff water that collected in things called cisterns. And a cistern was a pit that was dug out of limestone, and then plaster was applied to all of the sides to prevent it from seeping through the limestone rock. It's a very porous rock. And so they were trying to prevent that from happening. So they would plaster it. And that water was usually stagnant. It was usually filled with mosquito larvae. It was gross. And the only reason they kept it was for times of drought to water. The crops and to water the animals when there was no other water available. And so God is saying that by committing idolatry, his people have left him the fountain of living and pure water that never runs dry for broken cisterns that leak out even the stagnant water that they once held.

13:58As we saw in verses 8 through 11, they did this by worshiping Baal. Baal was the storm god of fertility, and so as part of that worship, people would unite themselves to cult prostitutes, believing that by doing this activity, the earth would yield crops and their wives would give birth. As we heard in verses 14 through 19, they also did this by turning to other nations, Egypt and Assyria, rather than God for protection. Not only did Egypt and Assyria not protect them, but every time they waffled back and forth between the two, the other nation would come and attack them.

14:42And so here's what God asks in verse 18. Take a look there. And now, what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? In John chapter 4, Jesus is sitting by Jacob's well, and this woman comes who's been married five times and is currently living with her boyfriend. And Jesus asks her for a drink. Now, this stuns the woman because Jewish rabbis don't talk to women in public, much less Samaritan women like her. And so she's surprised. Look how Jesus answers her, John chapter 4. If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

15:47But the woman's like, bro, you ain't got a bucket. So I don't see how that's going to work. That's my translation. Look how he responds, verse 13. Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. He goes on to reveal himself as the Savior that all of God's people have been waiting for.

16:24You see, friends, this woman, like every one of us, was born spiritually. Thirsty. God created us with this thirst that has to be satisfied. And so we will look for something to satisfy that thirst. In her case, and in the case of so many people, it was in relationships. And so she went from man to man, marriage to marriage, hoping that the right guy would finally satisfy her longing, her thirst, deep down inside. But it didn't. Because all idols, including human beings that we turn into idols, are broken cisterns.

17:15Our water is not pure, and over time it leaks. So we have to head back out, looking for the next broken cistern to drink from. In Christ, God is offering us living water. Water that is perfectly pure, water that never runs out, water that always satisfies because of the source. The source is God Himself. And in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul draws all of this back to Israel's experience in the wilderness, and he says that Jesus Christ is the rock from which the water came that satisfied the Israelites in the wilderness. When they had nothing else to drink, it's a beautiful picture.

18:06Friends, what broken cisterns do you return to over and over again? What stagnant pools are you drinking from that you know deep down inside cannot quench your thirst, but you keep going back to them anyway? Whether for the first time or the thousandth time, I invite you to turn to Jesus, the fountain of living waters. That is where we need to go. We need to drink of his life, his death, and his resurrection and be satisfied, because he is the only thing that can satisfy us.

18:49Let's pick up now in verse 20. For long ago, I broke your yoke and burst your bonds, but you said, I will not serve. Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree, you bowed down like a whore. Yet I planted you a choice vine, holy of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? Though you wash yourself with lie and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord God.

19:30How can you say, I am not unclean? I have not gone after the Bales. Look at your way in the valley. Know what you have done. A restless young camel running here and there. A wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat, sniffing the wind. Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves. In her month, they will find her. Keep your feet from going unshod, and your throat from thirst. But you said, It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go. As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, who say to a tree, You are my father, and to a stone, you gave me birth. For they have turned their back to me and not their face. But in the time of their trouble, they say, Arise and save us. But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise if they can save you in your time of trouble. For as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.

20:47As we saw in verse 2, how God referred to Israel as his bride, who is wholly devoted to him in her youth. In verse 20 now, God is saying, I broke the yoke of your bond. Bondage in Egypt, so that you could serve me as my bride. When God called Moses to go to Pharaoh, he told him to say to Pharaoh, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness. Using the ten miraculous plagues, God set his people free to serve him. But as time went by, what did Israel say? I will not serve.

21:29She began flirting with the gods of the nations around her, and before long, she was committing adultery with them. Not occasionally, but constantly and without remorse. In verse 23, the people protest, saying, I am not unclean. I haven't gone after the Baals. But they are in denial, like an addict. They were unclean, and they had not only gone after the Baals, they had gone after many other gods. In fact, their spiritual adultery was so out of control that God likens them to an animal in heat, running around, sniffing the wind, looking for any available male to mate with.

22:19They say to a tree, that is God's carve from wood, you are my father. And to a stone, that is God's car from rock, you gave me birth. Turning their back to God, but not their face. Because you see, in doing this, what they were doing is they were turning their back on God in their spiritual adultery. But they didn't turn their face from God because they continued to go to the temple and say the right things with their lips, going through the motions of religious observance.

22:56So, like a thief who's only ashamed of what he's done when he's caught, Israel is only ashamed because she has been caught in her spiritual adultery. She's not ashamed of what she's doing, she's just ashamed because it's been brought out into the light. So, what does she have to say for herself? Remember back in verse 23, how she denied her spiritual adultery, saying that she had not gone after other gods? Well, listen to her now that God has brought her sin to light in verse 25. Look at verse 25 again: It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go.

23:44This is so important to recognize these patterns, because this is what addicts do when they're confronted. Addicts will begin with denial and eventually move to admission, but Any responsibility for their actions. They'll say the situation is hopeless. This is who I am. I can't stop doing this. I won't stop doing this. And it's not my fault. So today the language that we use for that is addiction, but the Bible just calls it slavery. Look what Jesus says in John chapter 8.

24:28Jesus answered them, Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 2 Peter chapter 2, look what Peter says. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. So what does God say to Israel's refusal to accept responsibility for her spiritual adultery? Look at verse 22 again. Though you wash yourself with lie and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord God. What he's doing is he's calling out these practices of ritual cleansing. They would go and knowingly sin against God, and then they would go to the temple and they would wash themselves according to the Mosaic law, according to what was written, as though that would take care of them. Of it. It's the age-old idea: live however you want as long as you go through the right religious motions.

25:41We have our own practices today, don't we? Catholics sin however they want and then go to confession. Protestants sin however we want and then we have a quiet time or we go to church for the first time in months. We overeat and we overdrink. So we go on a diet. We join a gym. We make resolutions. We constantly shop, buying stuff that we don't need. So every once in a while, we take a bag of last year's style over to Goodwill.

26:22But all of this is like the lie and the soap that the Israelites were using. Friends, we may look better and we might even feel better for doing these things, but our hearts have not changed. And God is concerned with our hearts because our hearts drive all that we do. So this is bad news for us. That the problem is internal. It's coming from our heart and it's driving all of these actions. It's driving all of this meaningless and worthless religion. We need good news this morning. What is the good news?

27:01Listen to the promise in Isaiah chapter 1. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Listen to the fulfillment of that promise in Titus chapter 3. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

27:42But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but because of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. You see, friends, there is nothing that we can do to wash away the stain of our sin.

28:24No matter how hard we try, that stain will remain. But God can wash away the stain of our sin. And he does wash away the stain of our sin through the blood of Jesus Christ. After living a perfect life of obedience to God, the life that we were supposed to live but didn't, he went to the cross, dying the death that we deserved, shedding his blood for us and rising from the grave. Through faith in him, we are washed by the blood of Jesus, thanks to the Holy Spirit, whom he pours out on us.

29:05We aren't able to declare ourselves clean or to make ourselves clean no matter how hard we try, but through faith in Christ, we are forgiven, declared righteous, and promised that one day we will be made righteous as well. That is the good news. And that is the news that the people of Jerusalem needed to hear. They would get a foretaste of that later on in Jeremiah's preaching, but we have to remember that before the good news sounds good, we have to understand and believe the bad news. And there's more of that coming. Let's pick up in verse 29.

29:46Why do you contend with me? You have all transgressed against me, declares the Lord. In vain have I struck your children. They took no correction. Your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion. And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say, We are free, we will come no more to you? Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number.

30:25How well you direct your course to seek love, so that even to wicked women you have taught your ways. Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor. You did not find them breaking in. Yet in spite of all these things you say, I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned from me. Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, I have not sinned. How much you go about changing your way, you shall be put to shame by Egypt, as you were put to shame by Assyria. From it too, you will come away with your hands on your head, for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will not prosper by them.

31:12Although the case against Israel is so airtight, they are still contending with God, saying, as we see in verse 35, I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned from me, and I have not sinned. But over the years, nothing has been. Had changed. The people had forgotten God, as crazy as a bride forgetting her dress or her jewelry on her wedding day. How did this happen? It's certainly not God's fault. He had disciplined his people through drought and plague and famine and nations who conquered them. He sent them prophet after prophet, but as we see in verse 30, the Israelites killed them. He called them to repent, but they continued to oppress the poor, as we see in verse 34. They were so evil that in verse 33, God says, you are teaching wicked people to be more wicked. That's how bad you are.

32:16And so God said he would discipline them again, this time through the nations in whom they had put their trust. First, they put their trust in Assyria, and Assyria fell to Babylon. Now they're putting their trust in Egypt, and Egypt is going to fall to Babylon just the same. Then Babylon is going to come to Jerusalem. So God says in verse 37, take a look here, from it too, that is Egypt, you will come away with your hands on your head.

32:47And that's a very important picture. In 2 Samuel, after Tamar is violated by Amnon, here's what God's word says. She laid her hand on her head and went away. Crying aloud as she went. What happened to Tamar was not her fault. She did absolutely nothing wrong. But the experience left her weeping with her hand on her head. Instead of trusting God, Israel is forming these political and military alliances with Egypt, believing that Egypt can save them from Babylon and from Assyria. But God just viewed this as another form of idolatry, as spiritual adultery. And so when Egypt failed them, Israel was going to walk away with her hands on her head. Here is the horrifying truth. Tamar was not responsible for what happened to her. But Israel chose to commit spiritual adultery with all of these idols and all of these nations.

33:59So what is God to do? Let's finish here at the beginning of chapter 3. If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers, and would you return to me, declares the Lord. Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and Sea, where have you not been ravished? By the waysides, you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom. Therefore, the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come. Yet you have the forehead of a whore. You refuse to be ashamed. Have you not just now called to me, My Father, you are the friend of my youth. Will he be angry forever? Will he be indignant to the end?

35:05Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could. If you go and read God's law in Deuteronomy chapter 24, you'll see that one of the laws is that a man cannot remarry his wife after he has divorced her if she becomes the wife of another man. And that was to prevent women from being passed back and forth between fickle men like a piece of property. Here's the problem: Israel left God and committed spiritual adultery not once but over and over with a host of other gods and nations.

35:54Israel was divorced by God, the ten northern tribes that we talked about last week in 722. BC, when God had Assyria conquer them and take them away. The two southern tribes, known as Judah, where Jerusalem is located, they've done the same thing. They have also committed spiritual adultery. Functionally, they have divorced God and become the wife of many others. In God's own words, you have done all the evil that you could. So here's the question: Can God take them back?

36:30Is the lawgiver bound by his own law? Or can God show mercy and grace that they do not deserve? In many ways, God has already been exceedingly merciful to them. As he says in verse 3, he disciplined them by withholding the rain, which killed the crops. He sent prophets to them, which they killed. They didn't respond to drought or being conquered or the words of the prophets. In verse 3, he says, You refuse to be ashamed.

37:05But as we see in verses 4 and 5, the people are now crying out to him, asking to be delivered. So, friends, here is the cliffhanger that Jeremiah leaves us on this week. It's the question in verse 5. Will he be angry forever? Will he be indignant to the end? State it another way. Will God divorce us? Friends, there's no question about what the people of Israel deserved. They deserved to be divorced, to be cut off from God's family and estranged forever.

37:49Through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God had entered into a solemn covenant with them. He said, I will be your God, you will be my people. This will be a marriage relationship. We have a covenant. I am going to keep my end of the covenant no matter what, and I'm calling you to keep yours. God had always been faithful to his people, he never broke his covenant. But the people had been committing spiritual adultery for hundreds of years. And not only were they not sorry for it, they actually told God that they were innocent. They took no responsibility.

38:29If you are already trusting in Christ, I want to encourage you this morning to soberly reflect on your life today and to ask the question of the Spirit to reveal anything in your life that has become or is becoming an idol to you. Again, this wasn't just a problem for Israel or for the church in the first century. It is a problem for everyone in all nations at all times. There may be someone or something that you are looking to to give you what only God can give you. That is an idol. So you need to acknowledge it, to repent of it, to remove it from your life, and to put God back in its place.

39:18But maybe the Spirit doesn't reveal any clear idols in your life. In which case, if you're a Christian, we still have the command from Paul in Galatians chapter 6: keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Friends, all of us know the stories of people. We might even have this story ourselves where we thought, you know what, that thing is never going to be a problem for me. I'm never going to have to deal with that issue, only to fall into it later in life.

39:53And so the word to us is: keep watch on yourself so that we are not tempted. If you're not yet trusting in Christ, I want to point you back to the picture of the broken cisterns that we talked about in chapter 2. The people and the things that you keep drinking from, even though they don't satisfy. Another boyfriend, another girlfriend, another pair of shoes, another experience, another trip is not going to satisfy your thirst. All of those things are broken cisterns.

40:36Instead, I invite you to come to the fountain of living water, Jesus Christ, who says in John chapter 7, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Jesus is for you. He is offering you the very thing that you're looking for, but that you cannot find in those broken cisterns. In spite of your spiritual adultery, God is pursuing you for reconciliation.

41:20Be reconciled to God through faith in Christ today. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.