Jeremiah 4 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence Bowlin
After the Lord continually calls his faithless people to return to him in chapter three, he shows them how they are to return in chapter four. He says in verse one, “If you return, O Israel…to me you should return.” At first, this may seem to be an obvious statement, but it is this very concept that the Israelites had failed to grasp. They weren’t being called to return, merely, to a particular law code, or to a certain way of life, or even to a set of traditions. They were being called to return to a person, a perfect, divine being who desires an intimate, exclusive relationship with them. Certainly that would require that they get rid of their detestable idols and do the justice and righteousness that God requires, but those things in themselves would not be enough. Some major heart work would be required as well.
He exhorts them in verse three, saying, “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.” Using similar language to that of the prophet in Hosea 10:11-13, Jeremiah points out that their ongoing sin had hardened their hearts unto the Lord and kept them from hearing his word, and their idolatry had only produced prickly thorns instead of the good fruit that God desired. The only way to remedy such a pitiful condition is to break up the hard heart, to root out the weeds of sin growing within it and to sow the good seed of God’s Word into it once again. If God’s people break up their fallow ground, then God promises to rain righteousness upon them once again.
In another analogy, in verse four, Jeremiah says, “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskins of your hearts.” In other words, cut the sin out of your hearts, take whatever measures necessary to remove the cancer of your iniquities that are eating away at your soul. No topical remedy will work; radical surgery is needed to regain spiritual health and liveliness to your heart. And that time is now, for the Day of Judgment draws near. Even as Jeremiah was speaking these words to God’s people, he was envisioning the wrath of God burning forth like an unquenchable, unstoppable fire. He said that his heart was beating wildly as he could see a destroyer of nations coming out of the north. “Behold, he is coming even now, O Jerusalem.’
The prophet continually hears the sound of trumpets as he prophesies of a vast army making its way across the lands, ravishing every country on its way toward Israel. Everywhere the army goes, there is utter devastation. Notice, beginning in v.23, how this judgment sent from God is seen as a reversal of creation; it is a movement from order to disorder, light to darkness, fullness to emptiness; creation to desolation. Everything that Adam and Eve enjoy in the beginning with all of God’s blessings are removed from the Israelites as God turns their blessing into a curse.
Jeremiah shares these dark prophecies with Israel in order to wake them up from their spiritual slumber. And again he tells them to “wash your heart from evil that you may be saved,” asking them, “how long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you?” But sadly, they are not awakened. Instead Israel, depicted again as God’s bride, is seen painting her eyes and adorning her body that she might go out and play the whore once more with her idols not realizing that devastation and anguish will soon be upon her. And once again, Jeremiah goes back to the heart, saying, “This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart.” Even then, the prophet is warning them that there is still time left to repent, time to rend their hearts and not just their garments in order to return to the Lord who has loved them with an everlasting love and will love them still.