Jeremiah 5

Jeremiah 5:1

4. Judah’s Sins to Be Judged (Chap. 5)5:1-9 The Lord would pardon . . . Jerusalem if a righteous man could be found in it. Unable to find one among the poor and foolish, Jeremiah turned to the great men, but was equally unsuccessful. Therefore judgment, pictured by the rapacious work of lion, desert wolf, and leopard, was inevitable. How could the Lord pardon a people who had once made a covenant with Him but were now swearing by other gods and giving themselves over to adultery? 5:10-13 The enemy is ordered to invade and destroy (but . . . not make a complete end) because the people were denying the LORD and the imminence of danger, and the prophets were telling lies. 5:14-19 Jeremiah’s words were like fire, consuming the people, who were like wood. The Babylonians were coming to devour and to demolish but not completely. Judah’s servitude in a foreign land would be her recompense for serving foreign gods in her own land. 5:20-31 God marvels at the obtuseness of His foolish people. The sea obeys Him, but they do not. They show no inclination to fear the One who gives rain, even when the rain is withheld. How can God withhold punishment from a nation so defiant, so rebellious, so steeped in sin? Kelly remarks: And the worst phase of the national evil was that not merely a certain portion of the people were guilty, but “a wonderful and horrible thing,” he says, “is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” (verses 30, 31). Thus all the springs of moral rectitude were corrupted; and consequently it was plain that nothing but judgment could come to them from the Lord.