Jeremiah 2:29-37, Blaming God

Yahweh is still picturing this as a court of law in which He has brought charges against His people. They try to bring counter charges.

²⁹ “Why do you bring charges against me?  All of you have rebelled against me,” declares Yahweh. ³⁰ “In vain I struck your people; they did not respond to correction. Your sword has slaughtered your prophets like a ravenous lion. ³¹ “You people of this generation, consider the word of Yahweh:

“Have I been a desert to Israel or a land of deep darkness? Why do my people say, ‘We are roaming freely; we will come to you no more’? ³² Does a young woman forget her ornaments, a bride her wedding attire? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number.”

³³ How skilled you are at pursuing love! Even the wicked women have learned from your ways.
³⁴ On your clothes is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor, though you did not catch them breaking in. Yet in spite of all this ³⁵     you say, ‘I am innocent; surely He hasn’t turned from me in His anger.’ But I will pass judgment on you because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
³⁶ Why do you go about so much, changing your allegiances? You will be put to shame by Egypt like you were by Assyria. ³⁷ You will also leave that place with your hands on your head, for Yahweh has rejected those you trust; you will not be helped by them. (Jeremiah 2:29-37)

It seems inevitable, from the garden in Eden until now, that we will blame God for our own failures (“the woman You gave me, she gave me the fruit to eat”). The Expositor’s Bible Commentary may be right about Judah’s thinking: “She found fault with him because she could not manipulate him to her pleasure.”

When God sends prophets to explain to His people that the drought, or plague, or enemy has come to them as a discipline, they kill His prophets. They don’t feel they have any obligation to Yahweh, and indeed, have forgotten Him. They’ve forgotten the one who married them, who supplied them with jewelry and expensive attire.

Judah’s sins have not been limited to idolatry. Injustice has also been rampant. The law says if it is dark and someone is breaking into your house you are justified in using violence against them (Exodus 22:2,3). But the poor have done nothing against those who oppress them. They are innocent. Forgetting God inevitably leads to sinful behavior.

Judah has forgotten God, blaming Him for her struggles, and looked to the two major superpowers of the day for help. But Yahweh assures them that these same “allies” will ultimately enslave them.

—

Discussion Questions:

1. Why do we want to lay the blame on God for our faults?
2. What do our attempts to manipulate God look like?
3. What is the correlation between forgetting God and sinful behavior?
4. How does turning to false helps end up in slavery?