Jeremiah

Chapter Three

Introduction

Israel and Judah are called "sisters" three times - in verses seven, eight, and ten of chapter three. Since it can be somewhat impersonal to think of entire nations of people, God makes Jeremiah's message more personal by comparing the two nations to two sisters. God's dealings with the citizens of the northern nation of Israel might seem distant and unconnected to the citizens of the southern nation of Judah; but, if Israel is your sister, there is a much closer connection to the circumstances of God's chastening.

God wants Judah to take a good look at "backsliding Israel." She had been overrun and her people taken captive by the Assyrian Empire as a discipline from God for her backslidings. God now said to Judah, in verses seven, eight, and ten, "You saw it, but you did not fear and you will not turn to Me from your own sin."

As her sister, Judah could not ignore what happened to backsliding Israel. There was a close connection to the circumstances of God's chastening her.

Think ahead to the New Testament for a moment. Christians are "a holy nation," according to First Peter 2:9. More often than not, though, Christians are referred to as "brethren," as brothers and sisters in the family of God. Every other believer is your brother or sister in Jesus Christ.

As brothers and sisters you cannot ignore what happens to backsliding believers. You have a close connection to the circumstances of God's chastening your backsliding brothers and sisters. The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 6:1,

The Apostle James said, in James 5:19 & 20,

James 5:20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

God wants you to take a good look at your backsliding brothers and sisters! As you do, two principles come into focus: #1 Backsliding Brothers & Sisters Are A Witness To You To Remain With The Lord, and #2 You Are A Witness To Backsliding Brothers & Sisters To Return To The Lord.

#1 Backsliding Brothers & Sisters Are A

Witness To You To Remain With The Lord

"Backsliding" is an all too common word in our Christian vocabulary. We use it to describe a believer who is no longer making progress in his or her relationship with the Lord, usually by their own decision to engage in willful sin.

The nation of Israel, united by David and under Solomon, split into two after Solomon's foolish son, Rehoboam, became king. The northern tribes were called Israel, making their capital Samaria. The southern tribes were called Judah, making their capital Jerusalem. For her backslidings, God brought the Assyrians against Israel to chasten and discipline her. All the while, Judah watched.

The mountains and the groves of trees were where idol worship took place. God saw Israel as a spiritual prostitute, going after other gods in her lust.

God sought Israel out, despite her backslidings. F.F. Bruce, commenting on this passage, points out two things about God's love: Sin cannot quench God's love, and God's love always goes forth in forgiving mercy.

God divorced Israel! We have done many teachings on divorce and remarriage; we aren't going to stop and talk about that today. This is a spiritual divorce; God divorced Israel by removing His presence from her daily life. In such a state you would suppose that Israel would realize her backslidings and turn to God. But, instead, you read in verse nine,

Israel went after foreign gods all the more. When you have left your first love, your relationship with God seems more of a restraint than a rejoicing. Israel was thrilled to be free from the restraint of God's presence.

Israel's backsliding is the context for Jeremiah's message to Judah. You noticed in two verses that Jeremiah mentioned Judah:

Jeremiah 3:8 "...yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also."

In verses ten and eleven God again speaks of Judah,

Jeremiah 3:11 Then the LORD said to me, "Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah."

Israel openly and, in a sense, honestly backslid! There are "honest" backsliders; they will tell you that they are backslidden, making no pretense of enjoying fellowship with Jesus while their hearts are captivated by some fleshly or worldly lust. They are more "righteous" in this sense of being open and honest.

Just as there are "honest" backsliders, there are hypocritical backsliders. Judah made a hypocritical "pretense" of having unbroken fellowship with God, but was herself, in her heart, going after the lusts of the flesh and of the world.

The hypocritical backslider is the most difficult to convince. It is a sad characteristic of hypocritical backsliding that you can refuse to admit that you no longer enjoy unbroken fellowship with God. Hypocritical backsliders often argue that they feel the presence of God more than ever; that they are growing and maturing in a new-found freedom in Jesus. Yet every evidence is to the contrary: They withdraw from fellowship with God's people, they leave their place of service in the Church, and they go after things in the world that they once understood to be contrary to their walk with God.

Backsliding brothers and sisters are a witness to you to remain with the Lord! We are not to judge one another in the family of believers. But remember what we learned in the second chapter of Jeremiah: If you will not return from your backslidings, God will reprove you in them by giving you over to them. When He does, they become obvious to everyone! When your brother's or your sister's backslidings become obvious, it is not judgmental for you to see what God has revealed. He has revealed their backslidings for their good, and for yours, so that you might be warned to remain with the Lord.

It is a sad fact of the Christian life that brothers and sisters you love, and who are close to you, backslide. If their backsliding is "honest" backsliding, you usually don't have too much trouble in your own walk. What they are doing is so obviously sinful that you are not yourself stumbled by it. Your heart goes out to them to repent and return to the Lord.

But what if the brother or sister is involved in hypocritical backsliding? For a time, they can actually seem to prosper. This challenges you; perhaps you ought to pursue the things that they are pursuing! Perhaps the things you thought were fleshly or worldly are really spiritual after all! It is at this point that you are in grave danger of following them away from the simplicity and sweetness of your fellowship with Jesus.

God showed Judah what happens to backsliders partly for her own good. Backsliding never prospers you spiritually. God sees it as spiritual harlotry, spiritual adultery. It ruins you, and those around you. It brings you into bondage.

What can you do to avoid the subtlety of hypocritical backsliding? Jeremiah 4:3 & 4 tell you!

Jeremiah 4:4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, And take away the foreskins of your hearts, You men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Lest My fury come forth like fire, And burn so that no one can quench it, Because of the evil of your doings."

There are two metaphors here that describe your heart - your spiritual heart toward God. In one case, your heart is unreceptive - like a fallow field. In the other case, your heart is insensitive - as if a foreskin had grown over it. Unreceptive hearts and insensitive hearts are especially prone to being affected by hypocritical backsliding.

Break up your fallow heart...

"Fallow" land is land that is left unseeded during the growing season. In some cases it is plowed to remove the weeds, in other cases it is unplowed, but in all cases it is unseeded ground.

Your heart is a field into which God sows His Word. The Word is alive and powerful, a seed promising great fruitfulness. You are to "break up" your fallow ground, and you are to "not sow among thorns."

You "break up" your fallow ground by receiving God's Word. His Word is the seed which takes root and begins to break up the ground as it grows. Beloved, it is the growing season, and we need to have God's Word sown into our hearts.

But our hearts must be receptive. They must be free from thorns. Jesus, in the parable of the sower, said that thorns are "...the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful." Crowded hearts choke out the Word.

Make sure your heart is uncrowded. Be in a place physically where you can receive the Word as it is sown, and in a place spiritually where you are receptive to the Word after it is sown.

Circumcise the foreskin of your insensitive heart...

God pictures their hearts as having a foreskin covering them, a fleshy growth of skin covering their hearts. A heart that ought to be sensitive to God that is instead covered with flesh is rendered insensitive to God.

"Flesh" is a word we use to describe the old sin nature we were born with. When that old sin nature dominates your decisions, your heart is covered by it, rendering it insensitive to God.

Physical circumcision is the cutting away of the fleshly foreskin. Paul applies it to your spiritual life in Colossians 2:11, saying,

When you were saved, you were spiritually circumcised by Jesus. Your old sin nature was, in a sense, cut away. Your old sin nature was cut away, but not done away! It remains a part of you this side of heaven. If you yield to it, it will again dominate you, rendering your heart insensitive to God and to the things of God.

Unreceptive hearts and insensitive hearts are especially prone to the subtleties of hypocritical backslidings. Here is a simple way to understand what is meant:

A receptive heart walks by faith despite "...the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things..." A sensitive heart does not walk in the flesh. Walk by faith, and not in your flesh, and you will avoid backslidings of the kind described in these verses.

The verses we skipped are directed at backsliding Israel. In them you learn that,

#2 You Are A Witness To Backsliding

Brothers & Sisters To Return To The Lord

In verse twelve of chapter three God says,

God is telling you to go to backsliders and urge their return, stressing God's mercies upon them. Backsliders need to know that God is calling to them, saying "Come back."

God gives backsliders only one condition to meet for coming back:

The one condition for coming back is true confession. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

If you drop down to verses twenty-one through twenty-five, you are given an example of a backslider's confession:

Jeremiah 3:22 "Return, you backsliding children, And I will heal your backslidings." "Indeed we do come to You, For You are the LORD our God.

Jeremiah 3:23 Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, And from the multitude of mountains; Truly, in the LORD our God Is the salvation of Israel.

The commentators see these verses as describing Israel's ideal confession. God had asked for an acknowledgment of sin; it is given, without reservation and without blameshifting. God had described their sin as shameful; there is a sense of shame. God had said, "you have not obeyed My voice"; they agree, saying, "we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God."

There is no formula for confession, but certainly these elements should be present: acknowledge your sin, admit your shame, and agree with your Savior.

When you go to backsliders, it is in mercy, offering mercy. When they come back they acknowledge sin, admit shame, and agree with their Savior.

Restoration to fellowship follows confession:

Jeremiah 3:15 "And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Jeremiah 3:16 "Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days," says the LORD, "that they will say no more, 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore.

Jeremiah 3:17 "At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.

Jeremiah 3:18 "In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given as an inheritance to your fathers.

These verses look forward, past our own time, to the kingdom age when Jesus will rule and reign on the earth for one thousand years. A remnant of Jews will be saved and worship in Jerusalem, which will be the Throne of God. Israel and Judah, all Israel, will be united under Christ's rule. The ark of the covenant was the place in the old tabernacle and Temple where God revealed His presence to the high priest. In the future kingdom there will be no ark, nor any desire for one, because Jesus will Himself be physically present for all to see.

There is also good counsel for us in these verses, counsel about the restoration of backsliders. First we would see that God told Israel, "for I am married to you." He restored her to full privileges in her relationship to Him. Backsliders who return are as loved by God as you who remained!

Then it says, in verse fifteen, "And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding." Backsliders who return, regardless their previous backslidings, are not second-class citizens in the nation of believers. They are your brothers and sisters in God's family. They return and take their place.

God can then bless their lives and ministries: In verse sixteen they are said to "multiply and increase..." Their backslidings, which God puts away by His merciful forgiveness, can be put to use by them as they minister to others who are themselves caught-up in sin.

Not only this, but the backslider can be stronger and more secure than ever. Look at verses one and two of chapter four:

Jeremiah 4:2 And you shall swear, 'The LORD lives,' In truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; The nations shall bless themselves in Him, And in Him they shall glory."

If the backslider returns, and really returns, then he or she "shall not be moved." They will witness to the Lord's forgiveness and mercy, and their witness will go forth to unbelievers and bring glory to God.

Every backslider is a prodigal for whom the Father waits to rejoice at his or her return. Every time you backslide the Father is waiting to rejoice and restore.

Beloved, you have a wonderful message to backsliders. Perhaps David put it best when, in Psalm 32:1-2 he said,

Conclusion

Stop for a moment. Are we being too lenient on sinners? Listen to God in verses nineteen and twenty of chapter three:

Jeremiah 3:20 Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, So have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel," says the LORD.

Even God Himself asks, "How can a backslider be restored?" What He answers here is precious. He says you will be restored to relationship but without His overlooking your sin. God's answer is "You shall call Me Father," even though you treacherously committed spiritual adultery.

How can God have a relationship with you but not overlook your sin? He does it through Jesus Christ! Because you are in Jesus, God can be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Jesus takes your sin, satisfying the justice of a holy God Who can never overlook even the slightest sin or imperfection. But, because of your faith in Christ, He can justify you; He can put you in a relationship to Him just-as-if-you'd never sinned!

We should never sin so that grace can abound to us. But when we do sin, grace does abound!

Don't backslide; remain with the Lord. When you do backslide, return to the Lord. He is your Father; and we are brothers and sisters together.