Jeremiah 5:1-13--Jerusalem Refused to Repent

Jeremiah 5:1-13
English Standard Version

Jerusalem Refused to Repent
5 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
    look and take note!
Search her squares to see
    if you can find a man,
one who does justice
    and seeks truth,
that I may pardon her.
2 Though they say, “As the LORD lives,”
    yet they swear falsely.
3 O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth?
You have struck them down,
    but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
    they have refused to repent.

4 Then I said, “These are only the poor;
    they have no sense, LORD,
    the justice of their God.
5 I will go to the great
    and will speak to them,
for they know the way of the LORD,
    the justice of their God.”
But they all alike had broken the yoke;
    they had burst the bonds.

6 Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down;
    a wolf from the desert shall devastate them.
A leopard is watching their cities;
    everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many,
    their apostasies are great.

7 “How can I pardon you?
    Your children have forsaken me
    and have sworn by those who are no gods.
When I fed them to the full,
    they committed adultery
    and trooped to the houses of whores.
8 They were well-fed, lusty stallions,
    each neighing for his neighbor's wife.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the LORD;
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?

10 “Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
    but make not a full end;
strip away her branches,
    for they are not the LORD's.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
    have been utterly treacherous to me,
declares the LORD.
12 They have spoken falsely of the LORD
    and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
no disaster will come upon us,
    nor shall we see sword or famine.
13 The prophets will become wind;
    the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!’”

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God sends Jeremiah on a mission to scour the streets of Jerusalem to see if there is even one man who is righteous and does not deserve the wrath of God that the people have been warned of.  The book of Romans answers this question for us, "There is none righteous; no, not even one."  They go through the motions of worshiping the LORD, but their actions tell another story--they swear falsely, they are stubborn and stiff-necked, and they refuse to repent.

Jeremiah tries to make excuses for the people saying that surely the LORD is only describing the poor people (who are poor in his eyes because they are suffering the consequences of their wickedness, since prosperity and blessing are tied to obedience in the Mosaic Covenant).  Jeremiah decides to go look for the righteous among the wealthy and prosperous people--certainly they have material blessings because they are keeping the LORD's covenant, right?  Not so!  Jeremiah says that they all alike have broken the covenant of the LORD and are deserving of His wrath.

The curses of the Law should come upon them.  Lions, wolves, leopards and other kinds of wild beasts should attack them in their cities and places where they have felt safe.  The animals that used to hide themselves in the forest and desert will no longer be afraid of them and will stalk and hunt them and their little ones.  Why would the LORD do this?  Because the apostasy (the turning away) is so great.  How else is the LORD to get the attention of His people if they will not listen to the Law or the Prophets?

The people cry out for God to pardon them, but at no cost and having learned no lesson.  They want to keep their false gods that are proving to not be real (for they are powerless to save the people since they are false gods).  God has provided for His people keeping them fed and they have taken what He has given them and made sacrifices to other gods that they whore after.  They have given the glory that only belongs to the LORD to idols.  The LORD compares this to adultery as the people of Israel and Judah have been unfaithful in their covenant relationship with Him.  God tells the people that they are acting like animals that have no sense of morality--driven only by instinct and lust.

The LORD says that he is going to go through His vineyard (the nation) and cut off nearly all the branches (the people), but He will not completely destroy the vine.  There is hope that maybe this diseased vine will get better and will produce good fruit again, but, for now, all the branches of the diseased vine must be cut off.  They do not belong to the LORD as they have sworn that they belong to the false gods of the Gentile nations, so they will be treated as such.  Let their gods try to save them.  Will their prophets be able to tell them how to escape the coming judgment of the LORD?  No!  There is no escape, and these so-called prophets have no real knowledge.  The people have exchanged the truth for a lie that they are more comfortable with, but that lie will lead to their destruction because they stopped listening to and obeying the voice of Truth.