Jeremiah 3:11,12 - Return, faithless Israel

3:11

“Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah!” Judah looked down on Israel, but the truth was that she was even worse! In the gospels we encounter the animosity between Israel (which in those days included Judah) and Samaria (which was kind of equivalent to the northern kingdom), this hatred went back to the results of Assyrian conquest. We also see Jesus telling Israel that she was worse than Sodom and Gomorrah (Matt 10:15). Our view of ourselves, and God’s view can be radically different.

3:12

Jeremiah is then told to preach something different from what he has done so far. He is to call Israel (turn to the north) back. Yes she had been faithless, but God is faithful. If she turns back to Him in repentance then He will “not be angry forever”. We should read 2 Tim 2:13 (if we are faithless, He remains faithful) in the light of this verse. So we see yet another example of judgement and mercy going together. God is absolutely clear about our sin and guilt, but at the same time He is equally clear about the offer of new life if we will repent and believe. In so much of our so-called gospel preaching we will ignore the judgement aspect, fools that we are.

Colossians 2:19,20 - Since you died with Christ

2:19

“They have lost connection with the head”. They claim to have deeper spiritual experience and insight, but the truth is that they have lost connection with Christ. If we are truly spiritual then we will be utterly Christ centred. These visions of angels or ascetic practices do not help the body (the church) grow. It is only through out trust in Christ, and obedience to Him that we grow. It is God who causes the body to grow, and He does this through Christ.

2:20

We died with Christ, and this included dying to the “elemental spiritual forces” or “basic principles of this world”. Ever since the fall man has lived by his own devices, relying on his own strength, and deciding for himself what is right and wrong. In doing this we became subject to evil spiritual forces, and I emphasise again that most of the time these operate in a mundane way. When we turn to Christ we turn in repentance, in surrender, we end our rebellion. Even in our rebellious state we recognise that some things are not working, just watch the news and see how many items are in some way related to this. This even includes recognising that the way we live needs to change. Our response is to introduce rules and regulations. These may be well intentioned, but they do not get to the heart of the problem, which is you and me.

Jeremiah 3:9,10 - Her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me

3:9

Israel’s immorality did not matter to her, she considered it to be of no consequence. What actually happened was that she defiled the land. All nations should be aware of this, because the immorality of our societies defiles our land as well. When Israel was driving out nations from the Promised Land it says that part of the reason for this was that the sin of the current occupants had reached such a height (or depth, I suppose). This concept of defiling the land applies to all nations, not just Israel. The “adultery with wood and stone” is another reference to idol worship.

3:10

Judah learnt nothing from her sister (Israel). She should have seen that worshipping idols was wrong and that God judged her for it. Instead any “return to God” was only done in pretense (Is 29:13), there was no change in their hearts. We need to get a hold of the concept of God’s judgement if we are to learn anything in life. The lens through which so many people view the world is “God does not judge”, this is utterly stupid. If you read virtually any page in the Bible God’s judgement is a key element of what is going on, and it is a key element of what was going on at the cross.

Colossians 2:17,18 - These are a shadow of things to come

2:17

“These are a shadow ..” We find a similar phrase in Hebrews (Heb 8:5;10:1), which may be hints that Paul had something to do with Hebrews, but this is a very big maybe. “The reality is found in Christ”. In fact this shadow-reality thought is a theme that runs right through Hebrews. There was Scriptural support for things like sabbaths and not eating certain foods, but this was based on a partial understanding. These things pointed forward to something far greater. So there is value in understanding the principles behind the sabbath, but not in a strict religious observance, or demanding this from others.

2:18

There are some who “delight in false humility”. They will boast of their supposed humility and devotion, often taking the form of the sorts of things mentioned in 2:16. They may also boast of their worship of angels. This latter heresy is one that is still around today, mostly in some charismatic circles.  Some will boast of having visions of angels, or receiving messages from angels. And some are taken by this, thinking that this lends some credence to the speaker. It does not. Now angel do exist, and play a part in God’s kingdom, the Bible makes that clear. But the Bible is also clear that angels are not to be worshipped, and there is not to be an undue emphasis on angels. People who boast of such things may make us feel inferior, but in reality their minds are unspiritual and are puffed up with idle notions.

Jeremiah 3:6-8 - Have you seen what faithless Israel has done?

3:6

God now speaks personally to Jeremiah. Jeremiah is more than a mouthpiece, God wants him to understand. This is the way He works with all of us. It is not just a matter of mere intellectual assent to a doctrine, God wants us to have a heart and mind understanding and appreciation. This word was given during the reign of King Josiah. Now at this time Israel was split into two kingdoms, the North, variously referred to as Ephraim, Samaria and Israel, and the South, called Judah. So Israel here is referring to the Northern Kingdom, which had been conquered by Assyria many years earlier. Jeremiah and Ezekiel both use Israel was a lesson which Judah should have learnt from. Israel had “gone up on every high hill” and committed adultery, that is the worship of various false gods.

3:7,8

“I thought she would return to me”. Now Israel did not return to God, so God gave her her certificate of divorce and she was sent away because of her unfaithfulness. What happened in practice is that Assyria dispersed the peoples to many lands, and brought in peoples from other lands to inhabit Israel. If we take v7 absolutely literally then it would imply that God did not know the future, because He was “wrong” when He thought she would return. This would be a result of taking an over literal reading of the text. God is communicating with Jeremiah, enabling him to understand what was happening. Judah saw what happened to Israel, but did not learn from it. She was just as brazen and went off to commit her own spiritual adulteries.

Colossians 2:15,16 - Having disarmed the powers and authorities

2:15

The culture of the day believed in the existence of spiritual powers and feared them, saw them as having a baleful influence on people. “Officially” western culture denies the existence of such things, but in practice things can be rather different. Spiritual forces, including evil spiritual forces (demons) do exist, for the Bible makes this clear. However, our picture of how they work can often be all too influenced by horror films. Spiritual forces are far more mundane in their operation than this for the most part. So we should focus on what the Bible tells us about them. Here we read that they have been disarmed by Christ’s death on the cross. And this was done publicly, it did not depend upon any hidden actions. How did the cross disarm them? The reason demons have any power of humanity is because of sin, because of our rebellion against God. Our debt of sin has now been cancelled out, so the demons no longer have any authority over us. Christ’s victory is complete, so we need not fear.

2:16

So we have just read about how Jesus has disarmed the spiritual powers and authorities, and how our sins have been forgiven. We now come to one of the practical outworkings of this, not being tied down by, or subject to, human rules. I said earlier that evil spiritual forces most of the time operate in very mundane ways, and we have one of those mundane ways here. They impose rules upon us about what we can and cannot eat, observance of religious festivals and Sabbath days. We are not to allow people to judge us on these matters.

Jeremiah 3:3-5 - You refuse to blush with shame

3:3

“Therefore the showers have been withheld.” This happened because of Israel’s sin. We tend to baulk at the idea of judgement, of natural disasters possibly being a part of God’s judgement upon the earth. This is a deeply unbiblical view. So why do we hold to it? Because we have little understanding. First, we think that judgement and mercy are incompatible, they are not! Look at the cross, it is God’s judgement upon our sin. The cross is where you and I belong. But it is also the supreme act of mercy, because Jesus took upon Himself the punishment that should have been ours. In Micah 6:8 we are told that we should act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. If all we do is act justly, then we are neither loving mercy nor walking humbly with our God. If all we do is love mercy, then we are not acting justly and we are not walking humbly with our God. We need to act justly and love mercy, then we have no choice but to walk humbly with our God! These things happened to Israel because of her brazen sinfulness. It wasn’t the occasional slip up, but outright and persistent sin.

3:4,5

Their words were good, but their lives were evil. They prayed to God “My Father, my friend from my youth”. Their words sounded fine, and the same can be true of many a false teacher or minister. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said that not everyone who calls Him Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom, but only those who do the will of the Father. Faith and life is a serious business.