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Jeremiah 4:1-4, Yahweh’s Charge to Make a Sincere Repentance
Yahweh is giving His people Israel, the people comprised of the two nations of Israel (in exile) and Judah, a charge to repent. He gave them a framework of words of repentance to use, but repentance must be more than words.
4:1 “If you, Israel, will return, then you must really return to me,” declares Yahweh. “If you remove your detestable idols from my sight and do not waver, 2 and if you are truthful, honest, and upright when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as Yahweh lives,’ then the nations will invoke blessings by him and in him they will boast.”
3 This is what Yahweh says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:
“Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns. 4 Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, circumcise your hearts, you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire because of the evil you have done— burn in a way that no one will be able to extinguish. (Jeremiah 4:1-4)
If Israel is sincere about returning to Yahweh it will be demonstrated by actually getting rid of their “detestable idols.” They had set up shrines with idols in them all over the place (hilltops were a particular favorite). King Josiah had cleaned up this proliferation of idols once before, but they had all come back. The idols must go. And Israel must swear allegiance to Yahweh (‘As surely as Yahweh lives’). People tend to take seriously a public oath and swearing of allegiance.
Yahweh uses to metaphors for this repentance. Israel must plow up its unplowed ground. You can’t just throw seeds on the ground and expect them to grow. They must be buried under plowed soil. Israel’s hearts are hard and impenetrable. They must till them up. Israel must circumcise their hearts, cut away the hardness covering their hearts and devote their hearts to Yahweh.
If Israel does this, they will be a witness to the nations, moving the nations to also devote themselves to Yahweh. It will be as promised to Abraham, that all nations would be blessed because of Israel. If Israel does not do this, God’s certain judgment will come upon them, even as it did Judah’s northern neighbor, Israel, a century earlier.
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Discussion Questions:
- How would you translate God’s charge to Israel to repent into your own repentance? What does it take to truly follow through on words of repentance for the things you and I do in disobedience to God?
- What do you make of Moses’ prediction in Deuteronomy 30 of Israel’s defection from God and eventual return to Him, especially in regard to who circumcises Israel’s heart? 30:1 When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations, 2 and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. 4 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. 5 He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. 6 The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. (Deuteronomy 30:1-6, NIV)
- What help can this passage give you to effect repentance in your own life and how to accomplish that?
About the Author Randall Johnson
A full-time pastor since 1979, Randall originally graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM) in 1979 and from Reformed Theological Seminary (DMin) in 1998. He is married with four grown children and a pile of epic grandchildren.
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