Jeremiah 3:6-10, Comparison of Judah to Israel

King Josiah had legislated a top-down reform of Judah’s spiritual practices (2 Kings 22,23), removing idolatrous items from the temple, getting rid of idolatrous priests, tearing down the religious shrines of prostitution, removing all the high places or hilltop shrines, getting rid of mediums and spiritists, even going up into the region of Israel, which had been exiled some 130 years prior, to tear down the idolatrous altar at Bethel, and then reinstituted holy festivals like Passover. But once Josiah was gone, everything returned to normal, the idolatry was back.

⁶ During the reign of King Josiah, Yahweh said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. ⁷ I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. ⁸ I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. ⁹ Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. ¹⁰ In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares Yahweh. ¹¹ Yahweh said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”  (Jeremiah 3:6-11)

Yahweh pictures Israel (the northern kingdom that split off to form their own nation after Solomon’s reign) and Judah (the southern kingdom that continued to seat a descendent of David on the throne) as two sisters, both married to Yahweh, but both unfaithful.

Yahweh had “divorced” Israel in 722 BC, sending many of the people into exile under the conquering hand of Assyria. Yahweh hoped that after such a severe discipline Israel would return to Him, but she did not. This should have taught Judah to fear the same, but she also became supremely idolatrous, in fact, even worse than Israel. She made a show of returning to Yahweh, but it was only a pretense. Her heart was not in it.

The threat of exile for Judah is very real.

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Discussion Questions:

1. Are you aware of churches that have collapsed because of conflict or immorality?
2. How would you compare your church to these churches?
3. What is the psychology behind pretending to repent?
4. Where does your church need repentance?