Jeremiah 15:1-9--The LORD Will Not Relent

Jeremiah 15:1-9
English Standard Version

The LORD Will Not Relent
15 Then the LORD said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! 2 And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD:

“‘Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence,
    and those who are for the sword, to the sword;
those who are for famine, to famine,
    and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’

3 I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

5 “Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
    or who will grieve for you?
Who will turn aside
    to ask about your welfare?
6 You have rejected me, declares the LORD;
    you keep going backward,
so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you--
    I am weary of relenting.
7 I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork
    in the gates of the land;
I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people;
    they did not turn from their ways.
8 I have made their widows more in number
    than the sand of the seas;
I have brought against the mothers of young men
    a destroyer at noonday;
I have made anguish and terror
    fall upon them suddenly.
9 She who bore seven has grown feeble;
    she has fainted away;
her sun went down while it was yet day;
    she has been shamed and disgraced.
And the rest of them I will give to the sword
    before their enemies,
declares the LORD.”

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Moses was known as the one to represent the Law at that time and Samuel represented both the Judges and the Prophets.  They were the ones who had written most of the Scripture up to that point, and both of them had ministries of not only leadership, but also intercession.  The LORD tells Jeremiah that even if both of them were to come together before Him to intercede on behalf of the people of Judah, the LORD would not relent.  The dye has been cast.  He has chosen who will die by pestilence and who will die by the sword, who will die from the famine, and who will go into captivity.  They have no ability to change the choices He has already made.

The LORD declares that they will face four different kinds of destroyers.  First will be those who kill them with the sword.  Second and third will be the wild dogs and the birds of the air that come to devour their flesh.  Lastly will be other wild animals that will hunt and kill them--bears, lions, etc.  These wild animals have been tamed by the LORD in the past to not seek the blood of men, but as part of the curse under the Law, the animals will turn against the people and will put fear in the heart of men instead of the animals being afraid of men and men having dominion over the animals.  The LORD is going to make everywhere in the world despise the Jewish people because of the sins of King Manasseh (a very wicked king).

No one will have compassion on them or seek to give them comfort and aide or seek their welfare.  The "people of the LORD" have rejected Him and keep on backsliding and running away from Him.  He is finally going to bring the judgment on them that they have deserved for a very long time.  His longsuffering has suffered for long enough.  He is tired of relenting and letting them get away with their wickedness and rebellion without any consequences.  He will use this time to separate the good grain from the chaff.  Those who want to become Gentiles will have a chance to do it, but those who love the LORD and wish to obey Him--the persecution will make them cling to the LORD even more.

God wanted His discipline to turn them away from their sins and return to Him, but they instead chose to keep breaking covenant and breaking His heart.  They have not turned from their wicked ways.  God tried to even use the curses of the Law to show them they were on the wrong path.  He increased the numbers of widows and orphans.  He has allowed young people to die without the chance to get married, have families and raise their children.  He cause more and more men and women to be infertile and barren.  He has increased the pain and suffering of the people hoping they might cry out to Him for salvation, but they did not.  Instead, they turned to their idols and drunkenness and all kinds of sinful pleasure-seeking.  

The older generation is too feeble to help and they are ashamed of how quickly they have deteriorated (probably because of the use of alcohol and other substances and lifestyle choices that made them deteriorate more quickly).  They have suffered the consequences of a lifetime of sin and rebellion.  It sounds good to say you will sow your wild oats while you are young and then somehow trick the LORD and repent last-minute, but their hearts are as cold as stone now--they will not repent, and they have no life or vigor left in them if they did repent to find any joy in their remaining time.  God is not mocked--you will reap what  you sow.  The feeble will not be seen as a threat by the conquerors, but will be shown off as reason to disparage and blaspheme the name of the LORD.

Those who were young and able-bodied would typically be put to death.  The women and children were taken into exile to hopefully be reprogrammed and acclimated to the new culture.  The LORD has chosen this road that His people must travel as the wages of their sin.  Even though it sounds as if He is going to destroy them all, we know that He will save a remnant.  Of those who go into Exile, He will do amazing things for them so that their captors will become worshipers of the LORD and they will come back united and even more devoted to the LORD.