Jeremiah 2 Devotional
by Pastor Mark Hudson

For a speaker to communicate effectively, the speaker needs to use language and example that help the listener understand.  That is the speaker’s responsibility.  Speakers who speak to those who do not share the speaker’s language or culture face an even harder challenge.

Notice the language Jeremiah employs, “. . . the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride. . .” v. 2 and then in the next verse, “Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest.”

Jeremiah is establishing the covenantal relationship between God and his people.  This is not a sterile, legal relationship devoid of affection.  This relationship is characterized by love.  “Your love as a bride” and Israel was “holy” or set apart by God.  And as we find in verse 20, “For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds . . .” or Jer. 31:3, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”

Yet for all this love, for His tender care in bringing His people into the land He promised to give them, they still reject God.  At times, the prophet expresses his shock at what God’s people are doing.  “¹¹ Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. ¹² Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, ¹³ 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.”

This is the tragedy of sin.  We leave God, the giver of life, freedom, joy, righteousness, and peace for something or someone that is like a broken cistern or worthless.

Here is another section that helps us understand Jeremiah’s message, “¹⁷ Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the LORD your God, when he led you in the way? ¹⁸ And now what do you gain by going to Egypt  . . .[or] what do you gain by going to Assyria . . . ? ¹⁹ Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts.

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.”

Jeremiah in v. 17 asks a good question, “What do we gain by leaving God and going to other gods (self!)?  We always find we were sold a bill of goods.  That means, we were sold nothing but a bill.  Sin never satisfies and it leaves us broken, empty, and bitter.  Why then do we go back to it?  It defies logic but the Bible makes sense of it – we are all sons of Adam or daughters of Eve.

You probably saw our propensity to sin in v. 20, God says that he provided freedom for them but they rejected His service for “true” freedom.  What did this “true” freedom provide them?  Bondage.  Bondage or harsh servitude is what we get when we reject God.  Oh, freedom from God may seem liberating at first but sin always results in bondage.

The last verse we will consider is v. 21.   “Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?”  God owns the land and may give the land to whomever He wants.  God is in a covenantal relationship with Israel.  So God takes sin personally.  He is invested in His people.  He has done nothing wrong in Israel’s rejection of Him.  Amazingly God chooses to love His people.  This love is beyond our understanding.  This love is unlike any love in this world.  And yet we have become degenerate and become like a wild vine.

As you read the Bible, make sure you see yourself as the one who needs to repent, the one who needs to be rebuked.  Then honestly, genuinely admit you have done, said, and thought things that dishonor God.  We draw near to God when we repent and spurn the vain things of this life.  We are distant when proud, close to Him when repenting.