2013 08 by Baptists Today

Jeremiah 2:1-13

with Tony W. Cartledge Sept. 1, 2013

Lost Love

t happens all the time, really: Children who appear to adore their parents while young grow up and turn a wary eye toward all they’ve been taught, rejecting the path their parents had set them on and choosing to follow their own way. Sometimes that’s a good thing: Not all parents provide the kind of example that children should follow. Often, however, it’s discouraging, as children who were brought up to honor God and participate in the church turn their backs on both God and the community of faith.

Jer.emiah 2:13 – “for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”

What God remembered (vv. 1-3) Today’s text offers the small comfort of knowing, at least, that the pattern is not new. Jeremiah portrayed God as a caring parent whose children had once been devoted to the one who had delivered them from bondage, but later turned their hearts to gods who could not deliver a fly from the mud. The Hebrew prophets often spoke in oracles, messages that claimed to be a direct word from God, and that could be directed toward any number of subjects. Much of Jeremiah 2-24 consists of oracles of judgment against the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Jeremiah 2:1-13 includes two oracles, both illustrative of the prophet’s preaching against the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The first three verses are not included in the lectionary text, but provide crucial background for understanding vv. 4-13. Speaking for Additional background information online where you see the “Digging Deeper” icon

Yahweh, Jeremiah spoke wistfully of how God remembered the days when Israel’s people, freshly delivered from their bondage in Egypt, were convinced of God’s presence and devoted to God’s way. The prophets often spoke of Israel’s time in the wilderness in idealized fashion, imagining it as a sort of honeymoon period in which God and God’s people enjoyed a time of mutual love and devotion. But the honeymoon, if it ever existed, was over. Jeremiah insisted that the people who were once devoted to God had turned their backs and redirected their allegiance to empty idols. What Israel forgot (vv. 4-8) Jeremiah’s work covered the last quarter of the seventh century and the first dozen years of the sixth century BCE. Israel had been in the Promised Land for 500 years, but the northern tribes (often referred to as “Israel” or “Ephraim”) had been conquered and

captured more than 100 years previously, and now the southern tribes (often referred to as “Judah”) were in danger, too. Believing that judgment was both imminent and a direct result of the people’s desertion of God, Jeremiah called them on the carpet for their unfaithful ways. God’s desire to be recognized as the only true God was made clear in the Ten Commandments, given through Moses on Mt. Sinai: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:3). The worship of images was specifically condemned (Exod. 20:4-5). Yet, the narrative declares that God’s chosen people persistently followed the lead of their neighbors by incorporating Canaanite idols into their worship practices. Thus, God asked: “What wrong did your ancestors find in me, that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?” (v. 5, NRSV). Jeremiah’s commentary was sharp.

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