Jeremiah 5:14-31--The LORD Proclaims Judgment

Jeremiah 5:14-31
English Standard Version

The LORD Proclaims Judgment
14 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire,
    and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
15 Behold, I am bringing against you
    a nation from afar, O house of Israel,
declares the LORD.
It is an enduring nation;
    it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
    nor can you understand what they say.
16 Their quiver is like an open tomb;
    they are all mighty warriors.
17 They shall eat up your harvest and your food;
    they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
    they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
your fortified cities in which you trust
    they shall beat down with the sword.”

18 “But even in those days, declares the LORD, I will not make a full end of you. 19 And when your people say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”

20 Declare this in the house of Jacob;
    proclaim it in Judah:
21 “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
    who have eyes, but see not,
    who have ears, but hear not.
22 Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.
    Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
    a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
    though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
    they have turned aside and gone away.
24 They do not say in their hearts,
    ‘Let us fear the LORD our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
    the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
    the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
25 Your iniquities have turned these away,
    and your sins have kept good from you.
26 For wicked men are found among my people;
    they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.
They set a trap;
    they catch men.
27 Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
28     they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
    they judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
29 Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the LORD,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?”

30 An appalling and horrible thing
    has happened in the land:
31 the prophets prophesy falsely,
    and the priests rule at their direction;
my people love to have it so,
    but what will you do when the end comes?

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God will not hold Israel guiltless.  They cannot claim ignorance as God sent Jeremiah (and other prophets) to them with this message of warning.  Judgment will come exactly as the LORD has said and it will consume, but not destroy, the people.  God does not specifically name Babylon as the one He is going to use to punish Judah and Jerusalem, but He describes them as an ancient nation whose language they do not know (Babel was the origins of Babylon, and they are still the seat of that rebellious movement).  God says that this invading force will devour and destroy the crops and resources of the Promised Land.

God will cause everyone to believe that the "nation of Israel" has ceased to exist.  They will go into Exile and people will forget about them being a people in their own land.  They assume their identity will be lost and that they will lose their religious beliefs and practices as they are away from the Temple and living among those who worship other gods with other religious practices.  God did not allow that to happen though--He preserved a remnant for Himself for His pleasure and His glory.  It is miraculous that all the times that the children of Israel have lived in Exile (Egypt, Assyria and Babylon, the Diaspora, and the Holocaust) in all these times and places the LORD preserved the people's language, culture, and religious beliefs--never before has a people been dispersed from their land for thousands of years and have their language, culture, and everything else about them come back to life again when they come back into their land.  It is truly an act of God.

God asks the people why they do not fear Him.  He gives them facts and asks some rhetorical questions much like those He asked Job to let them see how much power He has.  He doesn't just create, He sustains.  If it wasn't for His constant intervention, the oceans would overtake the land, but He give boundaries to them.  He establishes and tears down nations.  He brings the changes in the seasons and the changes in weather patterns that we need.  The winds and the waves obey Him every command whether that is to bring what is necessary for life and prosperity or to bring judgment and destruction.

The LORD is just and cannot let sin and outright iniquity go unpunished (the He is willing to punish His own Son in our place).  He will send men after His people who are hunters of men who follow the example of Nimrod from the book of Genesis (he was probably the first king of the Babylonian Empire).  They fancy themselves to be able to contend with gods and beat them.  Yet, are the "people of God" any different?  God says they are not, and they deserve the same punishment that these Gentiles deserve.  This also gives us some hint though that Babylon will not go unpunished for their sins they will commit, even though it is part of God's plan to use them to accomplish His plans to discipline and punish the people that are called Jacob and not Israel (Jacob was a deceiver and trickster and God changed his name when he had his salvation experience.  Though both names are appropriate for the Hebrew people, God often calls them "Jacob" when they are acting like unsaved people and calls them Israel when they are living like the regenerate people that He has called them to be).

The people have decided not to listen to the voice of God's prophet and to listen to the voice of the false prophets that tell them what they want to hear--peace and prosperity.  They refuse to listen to a message that they need to repent and that judgment and destruction are at their doorstep or that the LORD would use a pagan king to punish them.  They believe that they have license to sin and that they are untouchable as long as they go through the motions of the ritual sacrifices, though their hearts are not in it and they do not obey the Law.  They believe God is stupid and easily manipulated like the pagan deities.  They will find out that He is all-knowing, all-powerful, holy and just.  They will learn the hard way.