Over many years of pastoral ministry, I have seen many things. Nothing really surprises me anymore. One of the most heartbreaking experiences is seeing a marriage in trouble. When a spouse breaks trust it opens the door to all sorts of consequences. When someone crosses that forbidden line; it takes a miracle for there to ever be reconciliation and it takes years, if ever, for things to be the same again. The behavior of Judah is described as the behavior of a harlot. They have committed spiritual adultery and the question is asked if they could ever return to the Lord.
Will you return to Me though you have committed spiritual adultery? Verse 1 reads, “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man’s, May he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,” says the Lord.”[1] As Jeremiah faithfully delivers this message from the Lord to the people, he alludes to the law of divorce as recorded in Deuteronomy 24:1-4. “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s wife,if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.”[2] There is a sense of sarcasm in the question that the Lord asking His people. According to the law, if a wife is divorced from her husband and marries another and that marriage is also dissolved, she cannot return to her original husband. Since Judah has left God and have followed after idols and aligned themselves with pagan lands, is it possible to return to the Lord? The issue goes much deeper than one may realize. As the New American Commentary points out, “Judah was worse than a faithless wife divorced by her husband. Judah had not become the wife of someone else but had many lovers. It was as promiscuous as a prostitute but assumed that it could always return to God.”[3] This analogy laid out to the people of Judah seems to suggest that they could never return to the Lord. All was lost. There was no hope. There was no possible path for the relationship to be restored.
Will you return to Me now that you see your sin? In verse 2, Judah is encouraged to lift up their eyes and sin their sin. They have played the harlot. Not only have they divorced themselves from a relationship with God, but they openly and publically embraced their sin. Judah is wanting to return to the Lord now that they are faced with pending judgement. But, can this even be considered? Growing up, there were times when I got caught doing something wrong. Knowing the punishment I may soon endure, I would be quick to apologize. Was I truly sorry for what I did or was I sorry that I got caught? My apology was not sincere. So, it was with the people of Judah. It is asked of them if they would return to the Lord now that they have been caught. Now that their sin has been revealed.
Will you return to Me after you have polluted the land? This question is asked in verse 1. Now that Judah has made such a mess of things, will they return to the Lord? I am afraid that too often we fail to realize how our sin affects others. The sin of Judah polluted the whole land. It affected everybody. Matthew Henry points out that this was a national sin: “They had grown very impudent in sin. They not only polluted themselves, but their land, with their whoredoms and with their wickedness (v. 2); for it was universal and unpunished, and so became a national sin.”[4] There is no area of our lives that our sin does not touch. My sin affects my wife, my family, my coworkers, my church, etc. It affects everything. It pollutes everything. Sin often has unintended consequences. It backfires on us and hurts those around us, sometimes, even more than it hurts ourselves.
Will you return to Me now that my blessing has been removed? Verse 3 of our text says, “Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain. You have had a harlot’s forehead; you refuse to be ashamed.”[5] The showers have been withheld. The blessings of God have been removed. The question is asked with a little sarcasm, ‘will you return to the Lord now that you have lost God’s favor’? How pitiful a people we are! We enjoy the blessings of the Lord and we take them for granted. Though He has blessed us, we follow after our sinfulness and we fall into the ways of the world. Once the blessings are removed, then we come crawling back asking God to forgive us. Our obedience to the Lord should not be based on whether or not He blesses us. We should obey Him because He loves us, with or without the blessing.
Will you return to Me since you have done all the evil you are capable of? Judah now asks the question if God will be angry forever. They cry out to God and ask Him if He will hold a grudge against them. In Verse 5, the CSB says, “but you have done the evil things you are capable of.” [6] Judah had reached a point where their sin was so great and so numerous that they reached the pinnacle of evil. It could not get any worse. They have done all the evil they were capable of. This is a very serious accusation. Can you imagine? Being told that you’re such a horrible sinner that it was impossible to get any worse. Essentially, Judah had reached rock bottom. There was nowhere else for them to turn. Basically, the question is asked if they will return to the Lord now that they have reached the end.
It is interesting to note that these questions are questions asked of Judah by the Lord. Even though they have sinned in the most horrible way and they have gone as far as they can go, God is still pursuing them. He wants to have them back. He wants to forgive them. How could He? After all they had done. Yet, the same question could be asked of ourselves. How could God forgive us? Why would Jesus die for us? We are totally depraved, wretched sinners; why would God still love us?
There is a valuable lesson for you to hear from this study. It does not matter how low you go. It does not matter how horrible your sin is. Perhaps you are reading this right now from a jail cell. You have committed the most horrible crimes known to man. You’re a murderer. You’re a rapist. You’re a child molester. Hear me now. GOD LOVES YOU! As long as you are still breathing there is hope. Jesus died to pay for that sin. Your sin. He died for you. He is calling out to you, asking you: “Will you come to Me now that you have hit rock bottom?” How do you come to Jesus? How can you be forgiven? Just call on Him. Pray right now. Confess your sin to Him. Ask Jesus to save you from the ultimate penalty of sin and to give you a home in Heaven. Just like the people of Judah, God will not give up on you until you take your last breath. So call on the name of the Lord today before it is too late.
If you would like to learn more about how you can receive the gift of salvation through Jesus, please do not hesitate to email me: pastorchrisnoland@gmail.com
[1] The New King James Version (Je 3:1). (1982). Thomas Nelson.
[2] The New King James Version (Dt 24:1–4). (1982). Thomas Nelson.
[3] Huey, F. B. (1993). Jeremiah, Lamentations (Vol. 16, p. 71). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[4] Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 1225). Hendrickson.
[5] The New King James Version (Je 3:3). (1982). Thomas Nelson.
[6] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (Je 3:5). (2009). Holman Bible Publishers.
Pastor Chris Noland 