Jeremiah 3 Devotional
by Pastor David Groendyk

Verses 1–5 of our chapter today cap off a larger section in which God calls his people an unfaithful bride that has run off with other men. It’s the same picture which Hosea employs in his book. The idolatry that God’s people commit is compared to spiritual adultery. Adultery is an abominable and particularly personal sin committed against a spouse. Likewise, idolatry is an abominable and particularly personal sin committed against God. To spurn God’s love by turning to other sources of power and pleasure is a fundamental violation of our relationship with him, which makes it all the more heinous.

Despite this gross sin, the theme of the rest of chapter 3 is that Israel can and should return to God. If you recall, the nation of Israel was divided in two halves from early on in its history; the northern half was called Israel, and the southern half was called Judah. Northern Israel had been decimated and exiled by Assyria 100 years prior to Jeremiah’s words here. Israel should have been a severe warning for Judah that they ought to forsake their sin and return to being faithful to the Lord. But Judah took no notice and actually became even more evil than her northern sister (v. 11). In a rhetorical manner, God himself says, “Surely after worshiping all these false gods for so long, making sacrifices on every single hill and under every single tree, Israel will come to her senses, realize her wrongdoing, and come back to me!” But that’s not how sin works. It’s like the old line you hear from addicts, “I can quit whenever I want to.” Sin blinds us, sin deceives us, and sin overwhelms us. It makes us not think straight and causes us to justify and minimize our sin. Then, when we hear God’s calls to repent, we return to him “in pretense” (v. 10). Another way to say that is “with lying” or “in deception”. In essence, we fake it. We act like we hate our sin, we act like we want to return to God, but in reality we have no intention of leaving our sin behind. We love it too much. And when sin gets its hooks in us, catastrophe is not far behind.

Look at verses 24–25. By God’s grace, these are words spoken by Israel about their own sin. Sin will not stop until it devours everything. The land, the homes, the flocks, the families that northern Israel had worked for and built up in Canaan for hundreds of years were lost because they were stuck in sin. Now, surely, the whole nation of Israel didn’t all wake up one day and just decide to leave God. No, it was one little prayer to this false god when they were nervous about their crops one season; it was one sacrifice to that false god when a couple had a hard time conceiving; it was a quid pro quo arrangement with another false god when a family member was sick. Sin starts small, but it never ends small. Pretty soon you’re sacrificing to idols under every green tree and on top of every hill. Sin doesn’t stop until it’s cut you off completely from God. Brothers and sisters, don’t let your sin do that to you! Is there some sin you haven’t yet confessed to God? Is there some sin you dabble with now and again but refuse to cut off completely? Take it to God. Confess it to a friend. Take whatever extreme steps are necessary to cut off that sin.

But northern Israel is not just a warning to southern Judah; they’re also a beacon of hope. There is always a call to repent of our sins and return to God. For those who truly are his children, he will always hear their cry, he will not always be angry (v. 12), and he will heal us of our faithlessness (v. 22). It is a great grace of God when we do realize our sin, see the shameful state we’re in (v. 25), and weep over our perversion (v. 21). We are not strong enough to overcome the blinding and all-consuming effects of our sin, but God is. “Lord, show me my sin” is a prayer I’m sure God will never not answer. It’s hard to be shown our shamefulness, but it’s good. Only when our stubborn evil hearts are forgiven and cleansed can we dwell in the presence of the Lord (vv. 15–18). And we are destined for a future that is even greater than a physical city with a physical temple where God dwells in a room with the physical ark of the covenant, like the way Israel and Judah once had; we’re destined for the new heavens and new earth where God dwells with every believer personally. How does remembering the promises of God help you in your fight against your own sin?