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Rev Graham Harrison           Sunday September 19th 2004 a.m.

Jeremiah 3

Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. Ö Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God. 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. [Jeremiah 3:12-15, 22-23].

It really is remarkable how a book that was written about two thousand six hundred years ago still speaks to us today, with every bit as much relevance as it did to those to whom it was first addressed. Jeremiah was really the last of the prophets in the land of Judah. For about four hundred years, ever since the reign of King David, the story of the history of Judah had been one of spiritual decline and apostasy. Sometimes there had been a temporary return to God, but by and large things got worse and worse. God sent a whole series of prophets to remonstrate with the people, to plead with them, to call them back to Himself.

Now here is Jeremiah standing at the end of that long line of prophets and, in one sense, his was the hardest task of all. The nation did not want to hear what he was saying to them. Increasingly they were not just irritated, they were angered by what he was saying ó so much so that on more than one occasion his very life was at stake and had it not been for remarkable interventions then there is no doubt that he would have been killed. So here he is, a prophet called upon to minister faithfully to a people who simply do not want to hear what he is saying to them. When He called God him gave him a promise that he would be especially strengthened: ëBe not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver theeí [Jeremiah 1:17-19].

Time and time again, in the course of his ministry, Jeremiah must have come back to that great promise God had given him. It was the only thing that kept him going, it was the one thing that enabled him to face up to these people who simply did not want to listen to him. Notice that everybody is listed thereó the king, the princes, the priests and the people of the land. It was as if he was faced virtually with total rejection ó not of himself, primarily, but more sadly a rejection of God and of the message that God was speaking to them. In reality what God was doing was to plead with them ó to plead with them to return despite their sin and their increasing departure from Him. He was still willing to receive them, to pardon them, to forgive and to restore them to His blessing. And that, essentially of course, was the message that Jeremiah was called upon to preach to them. But you might say as the preliminary to that message, or as the first point in it, was this ó that they needed to repent; they needed to recognise their wickedness before God. And it was only as they would do this, that they would be humbled, realise that God was speaking to them avail themselves of the mercy and the grace of God that was being offered to them.

So here in this third chapter what Jeremiah is doing is to call the people back to God ó and he does it in a very interesting way! It is necessary for me to remind you of something else about the history of the children of Israel. I mentioned King David; King Davidís son, who succeeded him, was Solomon. Then after Solomon died, there was a great tragedy in the nation ó there was in effect a civil war. It did not actually come to fighting but they parted company one from another acrimoniously. The twelve tribes were sundered into two ó the ten northern tribes, who were known afterwards as ëIsraelí, hived off on their own, and that simply left the two southern tribes of Benjamin and Judah, spoken of subsequently as ëJudahí. So that was the division that was to continue for hundreds of years. Indeed it continued right down as far as the year 722 BC. Then something terrible happened to those ten northern tribes ó the Assyrians, who had been threatening for many years, finally came and ravaged the land and carried off the totality of the people into a captivity from which they were never to return. That had happened about a hundred years before Jeremiah was prophesying in the southern kingdom of Judah! They still had their king; when Jeremiah began ministering it was a very godly king, a man by the name of Josiah, who is mentioned in verse six: ëThe LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the kingÖí. As I have said, he was a very godly king, the last of the godly kings. In fact he sought to lead the people in a great return to God through the cleansing of the Temple and a reassertion of the Law of God. But it is evident that although he did that, the heart of the people was not with him. Even though they might have gone along with him outwardly to some extent, attending the services and going through the outward routine and motion of worshipping God, their hearts were far away from God. And that is the situation that Jeremiah is speaking to.

He speaks first of all of the northern kingdom, Israel, that once was. He is throwing his mind back one hundred years in history to the time when they were still in existence. And he is speaking to the southern kingdom and saying in effect, ëDo you not realise what has happened to them? God pleaded with them, God remonstrated with them, God had urged them to repent. But they ignored Him and judgement came upon them. That was the message that he brought to them and the implication is obvious, ëAre you going to continue in the same way?í In this chapter he speaks as if the kingdom of Israel is still in existence; and in one sense it is, because the descendants of those northern Israelites were in the places to which the Assyrians had carried them. God has not forgotten them and God is yet speaking a message to them ó a message of repentance and returning.

But the chapter opens in a most fascinating way by referring back to one of the early books of the Bible, Deuteronomy. The first five books of the Bible wer e written by Moses and they contain the various laws that God has established for the welfare of His people. Sometimes they were essentially religious requirements, sometimes they were civil, or ceremonial, requirements. In Deuteronomy 24 this is what we read:

ëWhen a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another manís wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritanceí [Deut. 24:1-4].

Now that is what Jeremiah, speaking for God, draws their attention to in these opening verses: ëThey say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another manís, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers [v.1]í. In other words, God is saying ó and He is speaking first of all to the exiles in Israel but by implication to those living in Judah as well ó Is that not a description of you? You have been married to the Lord ó and what have you done? You have been unfaithful to Him ó unfaithful in an atrocious way: ëthou hast played the harlot with many lovers.í But amazingly God then says, What I am willing to do is to forgo even that principle that I established through Moses! ëYet return again to me, saith the LORDí[v.1]. It is as if God, in this almost unbelievable way that demonstrates to us His grace and His mercy, is saying, ëI want you back! I am willing to take you back! yet return again to me!í

So that is the way in which the chapter begins. Basically the remainder of the chapter is nothing less than a sustained appeal to these people who bear the name of God. After all they are the nation that God had chosen, the nation to whom He had spoken in His law and to whom He had given the revelation of the scriptures, the nation that had been blessed with these mighty men of God, these prophets such as Jeremiah. He is pleading with them to turn from their sin and to come back to Him. He is really describing their condition in this very pictorial way. You might have noticed there is a word that occurs probably about half a dozen times in the verses of the chapter: ëThe LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlotí [v.11]. Or verse eight: ëAnd I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her awayí. Or verse eleven: ëAnd the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.í Verse twelve: ëGo and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you.í Verse fourteen: ëTurn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you.í Verse twenty two: ëReturn, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.í In other words God is describing them as those who were once committed to Him but who now have slipped away from that commitment.

Hosea, one of the earlier prophets, when he was pleading with the northern kingdom, uses exactly the same words when he speaks of their backsliding: ëFor Israel slideth back as a backsliding heiferí [Hosea 4:16] ó like a cow that is trying to climb up a slippery slope and ignominiously it slithers back down to the bottom again! It is a very humiliating way of describing people in their sin! This is what God is accusing those who are ostensibly His people of being and doing. They are backsliding; Israel has done it; Judah is doing it. In one sense He is saying, ëYou Judah have less excuse than Israel! You have seen in history what I have done to backsliding Israel. But it has had no impact upon you; it has not brought you to repentance. You are going on in the same way! So God is pleading with them to return.

So it is one of those chapters dealing with this very common sin of backsliding. Is it not remarkable that such an ancient book, written six hundred years or so before the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, should speak so directly and so relevantly to us who live in another culture that is totally unrecognisable, compared with that to which Jeremiah was speaking? But God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah across the centuries with every bit as much relevance today as He did when Jeremiah first spoke these words.

What is backsliding? Many modern translations do not have the word there at all. They often translate it by ëfaithlessnessí ó and in a sense that describes its essence. ëFaithlessnessí means that at one time you had pledged yourself to God, but you have not kept the pledge! You have not honoured the promise that you made, so you have become faithless. Or to use this more pictorial way of expressing it, you are backslidden. And it is a very common thing; it was not just the peculiarity of Israel and Judah during these centuries before Christ. It is something that has happened again and again and I doubt if there is a Christian here today of whom at sometime or another in his or her life it could not be said that he or she has backslidden from God. None of us who are Christians should presume that this is a temptation which will never come to us, or a sin that will never overtake us! It is here as a stark warning for us from the Word of God. It means turning from God, playing fast and loose with the promises and the commitment that once you solemnly made before God.

You might ask, ëWhy does it happen?í That perhaps is where the particular way in which Jeremiah illustrates it is so helpful. He illustrates it in terms of the marriage bond. Why is it that marriages break down? Why is it that adultery is so common? Obviously it was then ó and it certainly is today. Why? Why are these things happening? I suppose you would have to say, in the first place, there is a sense of dissatisfaction, people are not happy. What they had assumed would be the case, has not quite worked out as they thought it would. Therefore they begin to look elsewhere. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, is it not? So they look in other directions and sure enough Satan provides someone upon whom their wandering eyes can fasten ó and that person becomes a substitute for the one to whom they are pledged. And before very long it results in this terrible sin of adultery. So you get this forsaking of the one to whom they are pledged and to whom they promised themselves. Instead they give themselves up to this other person, or to some other principle. It is so foolish, it is so wicked; but it is so common! It was then, it is today.

Jeremiah is saying is that that is a perfect description of what so commonly happens, not simply in the marriage realm but in this even more important realm of your relationship with God. You are committed to Him, you have promised yourself to Him, you have made your vows, you have made your stand. But where are you now? What do those vows and promises mean? How much substance is there to them in your present real situation? That is the sort of way in which Jeremiah is pleading with these people. ëLook at yourselves! Look at the way in which you have departed from God! Look at your rebellion against Him! Do you not see that God cannot tolerate that? Do you not read the lesson of history? Do you not see what He has done in the case of your neighbours, your cousins as it were, you brothers and sisters, Israel? Do you not see that the same fate will come upon you, except you repent?í Of course within thirty or forty years of the time when Jeremiah was uttering this particular prophecy, the inevitable happened. Not the Assyrians ó they were history by this time ó but the great world power that had emerged, Babylon, swept down on Judah and after a terrible siege in which so many died carried away the survivors captive to Babylon. So God was as good as His word.

But what God is doing here is to say to them, I do not want to do that! I do not want to be driven to that extremity. I want you to return! Despite the waywardness of your rebellion, despite the enormity of your sin, despite your spiritual adultery, I want you to return! I am willing to take you back! ëYet return again to me!í

Now that is the amazing thing that God says! If you have ever had anything to do with people who are in trouble in their marriage, when an adulterous situation has arisen and the marriage breaks up, you will know that more than in any other situation there is bitterness and recrimination. You can see the terrible bitterness that now exists between two people who once pledged themselves to love and to be faithful to one another. You might think that when things come to that state, humanly speaking the situation is hopeless. If you can think in terms of guilt and innocence in such situations, you can well understand the so-called innocent party saying, ëThere is no way in which I am taking him or her back after what has happened!í

Yet that is precisely the position that God has put Himself in! ëI am the innocent victim,í He says. ëYou have broken My laws, you have betrayed your promises, you have violated your vows. And yet,í He says, ëReturn unto Me! I am willing to take you back.í It really is an incredible statement of the mercy and the grace of God.

But I want to show you the basis on which God does this. Look at verse fourteen: ëTurn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you.í Yet earlier on He has indicated that He has given them a bill of divorcement and put them away [verse 8]. But He says: ëI am married unto you. Return unto me for I am married unto you.í That is another way of speaking of the faithfulness of God, of the covenant commitment that He never breaks. God always keeps His promises. We do not, sadly; but God does. And what God is saying there is this: ëWhen I entered into this marriage with you, I meant everything that I had promised. And I shall keep everything that I promised.í ëTurn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you.í You might have abrogated the relationship, but I have not! I am willing to receive you back; I am faithful.

Is that not a very wonderful thing to be able to say about God? He is not a God of fits and starts. He is not a God who works on one principle one day and another principle the next day. There is constancy and reliability with Him ó as He has been, He ever will be. ëI the LORD change notí ó that is how He puts it in the last book in the Old Testament [Malachi 3:6]. The constancy, the faithfulness of God.

But, you might say, there arises from that something even more amazing: ëGo and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD.í [v.12]. ëReturn, thou backsliding Israel, for I am merciful, saith the LORD.í Is that not a wonderful thing to say of God? He is not vengeful, He is not seeking retribution ó Godís heart is a heart of compassion and love and mercy. And here you see that mercy overflowing, pleading with these people who were almost spitting in His face in the way they were carrying on. And He says, ëBut I am married to you! I am merciful to you! Return to Me; I will not keep anger for ever!í It is wonderful to be able to say that God is like that. Yet here He is saying it of Himself!

But there is something beyond even that: ëReturn, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidingsí [v.22]. Now that really is wonderful. God is appealing to these people. These people who have been so unfaithful to Him, who are denying every call that Jeremiah is making to them on the behalf of God. He is saying, ëIf only you return, I will heal your backslidings. I will set things right. I will do what you are unable to do yourselves. I will heal all that trouble.í It is a wonderful statement of the heart of God! God is married to His people; God is merciful to His people; God will heal His peopleís backslidings. That is why I say that this is a chapter that so powerfully speaks across the centuries to us today.

I wonder if I speak to somebody who, if you were honest in your heart, would have to confess that this is your state, your condition. You are here this morning outwardly correct, but your heart is far from God. Maybe there was a time like that that of which we have read of earlier in the prophecy of Jeremiah: ëGo and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase.í [Jeremiah 2:2,3]. There He describes that initial love that the nation had towards God. It might have been like that with you, at one time. But where are you now? Physically you are here in the house of God ó but your heart may be far from Him! Yet the promise of God is: ëI will heal your backslidings.í It is a wonderful thing that God speaks like that.

It requires a response, of course. And the response is a very simple response, an amazingly simple response. This is what it is: ëOnly acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy Godí [v. 13]. You cannot have it more simple than that, can you? So direct, so plain, nothing complicated. Even a child could understand that. ëOnly acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy Godí [v. 13]. It is hard, is it not, to say ëSorry!í because saying sorry means, ëI was wrong! I should not have done it! I was in a state of rebellion!í And God says, ëThat is the first step on the road back to Me.í You have to acknowledge your iniquity, confess that you have transgressed against the Lord your God. That surely is what God is calling these people to do. It is so simple, and you might say it makes it all the more tragic. It should have been so easy for them to have done this, to have said, not simply to another man but to God, ëLord, we have had it wrong. We have done things that we should not have done. We, of all nations have been blessed. We have gone into idolatry and such shameful idolatry.í There was terrible sexual sin involved in it. One of the verses that I read to you, ëTruly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountainsí [v.23], speaks of those hills and mountains on which they would have their idolatrous temples. Usually in connection with that false worship of false gods, there was gross immorality of a sexual nature. They thought that in that they would get blessing and help. Yet God calls upon them to acknowledge their iniquity. It would have been so simple for them to have said, it but they were unwilling to acknowledge it. You might say the hardest thing for the sinner to do is to say, ëLord, I have sinned!í But that is the point that marks the beginning of a personís return to God.

Think, for example, of that wonderful parable óis it not the most powerful of all the parables? ó the Prodigal Son. It almost epitomises the principles that Jeremiah is preaching on. Do you remember that significant verse: ëAnd when he came to himselfí [Luke 15:17]. He went home determined to say to his father, ëFather I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sightí [Luke15: 21]. You can imagine him reciting that little speech as he was journeying back to his fatherís home. But when he begins to blurt it out, his father stops him. His father does not want that; his father wants to kill the fatted calf and celebrate the homecoming of his son who was dead but is alive, and was lost but is found! But that is where it all begins ó when a person humbles himself and acknowledges his sin, repenting of it and turning back to God!

And this God is the God who takes such repentance seriously. He does not stand and mock. He does not act, as we so often do with another when somebody has sinned against us and they have apologised. Technically we might accept the apology, but our hearts are still set against them. God receives, God accepts it, God restores and God heals their backsliding. And that was the plea that Jeremiah was making to these people.

Of course, involved in that was the acknowledgement that only in God was there hope: ëTruly 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 Israelí [Jeremiah 3: 23]. When a person comes to that point, and realises his only hope is in God, he comes and cries to God and asks God to have mercy upon him. And, incredibly, God does just that! God hears, God heals, God restores and forgives ó and this is the great plea of Jeremiah.

But it is a plea that speaks to us today. Does it speak to you? Have you humbled yourself? Have you acknowledged your iniquity, your transgression, against the Lord your God? Are you willing, in humility, to come and say ëLord, I have sinned. Please forgive me! Please receive me back!í The message of this chapter is simply to say to us, He will heal our backsliding, He will receive us, He will pardon and forgive us.

Amen.
 
 

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