Jeremiah 3:1,2 - You have lived as a prostitute

3:1

Jesus did a lot of His teaching through parables. The prophets delivered a lot of their messages in very graphic terms, or by using everyday analogies, as here. People presume that they can just come back to God when it suits them. This verse makes clear that things are not as simple as that! Under Deut 24:1-4, a man was not allowed to remarry a woman he had divorced. But the situation was far worse than this, for Israel had lived as a prostitute, giving herself to a whole host of idols. The remaking of the relationship between Israel and God was not a simple matter.

3:2

God then emphasises the extent of Israel’s unfaithfulness. He points to the “barren heights”, these were the places where idol worship and all that went with it most commonly occurred. Israel freely made herself available to these idols. As such she had defiled the land. 

As an aside, it is worth noting that the Bible (Old Testament) is a most strange book for a nation to have as their “holy book”, for it hardly paints Israel in a positive light! It would not be unfair to describe the book as the record of the sins of Israel! If this was a mere man-made book, why would they have written it the way it is written? But it isn’t a mere man-made book, it is God’s revelation to Israel (and to all of us), and it is God-breathed, not man-made. It is God telling us what He wants us to hear.