Jeremiah 2:20-28, Metaphors of Unfaithfulness

“A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas.” (Wikipedia) Yahweh is using metaphors for Judah’s unfaithfulness to Him for a powerful, rhetorical effect.

A Prostitute:

²⁰ “Long ago you broke off your yoke  and tore off your bonds; you said, ‘I will not serve you!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute.

A Putrid Vine:

²¹ I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?

Uncleanable Filth:
²² Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Sovereign Yahweh.

A Wild Animal in Heat:
²³ “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done. You are a swift she-camel running here and there, ²⁴ a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving—in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her.

A Religious Addict:
²⁵ Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, ‘It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’

A Captured Criminal:

²⁶ “As a thief is disgraced when he is caught, so the people of Israel are disgraced—they, their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets. ²⁷ They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’ and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’ ²⁸ Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns. (Jeremiah 2:20-28, NIV)

The picture Yahweh draws of Judah is of an incorrigible, unchangeable, inveterate idolater. He depicts her as being aware of this, with an “I can’t help it” attitude, a resignation to doing evil. But when her gods do not protect her, she calls out to Yahweh.

—

Discussion Questions:

1.  Do you feel any discomfort over God’s use of some of these metaphors? If so, what makes you uncomfortable?
2. Why would turning to other, false sources, of help become addictive?
3. Does it seem true that the human heart can’t help but turn to the true God when it feels desperate?
4. What false sources of help do we often find ourselves turning to?