Princeton Presbyterian Church

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1598

July 30, 2023

Jeremiah 2.1-13     Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

 

“Two Evils”

 

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. ³Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them, declares the Lord.” ⁴Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. ⁵Thus says the Lord: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? ⁶They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’ ⁷And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. ⁸The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit. ⁹“Therefore I still contend with you,
declares the Lord, and with your children's children I will contend. ¹⁰For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing. ¹¹Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. ¹²Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, ¹³for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

 

• The Honeymoon

 

The Bible uses marriage as a metaphor of our relationship with God. The church is the bride and Jesus the bridegroom. The same holds true in the Old Testament as God considers any infidelity on Israel’s part as a broken marriage, a breaking of the covenant made between God and Israel. The prophet Hosea is a prime example of this metaphor as Hosea is called to marry someone who basically represents the infidelity of Israel. In Jeremiah 2 we also see the marriage covenant was broken. God remembers Israel’s early devotion and love as a covenant partner, but the honeymoon did not last very long as Israel soon departed from that devotion and love.

The New Testament also reveals a similar situation in Revelation 2.1-7, verses 4-5...

⁴But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. ⁵Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. The honeymoon is over. I do not know what God will do with churches or denominations who break covenant by breaking commandments. Well, yes I do know, He will call them the same way He called the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2...Remember from where you have fallen and repent!

I’m glad the Bible does this with our relationship to God because I use it in counseling couples who are to marry, that their relationship is a reflection of our relationship with God. Marriage between one man and one woman, male and female, the only two genders, this relationship should reflect the same covenant commitment as that which we share with God. It breaks God’s heart when the covenant is broken between God and Israel in the Old Testament and it breaks God’s heart when the Church goes away from God’s path. So too is God’s heart broken when two people break covenant in their marriage. The good news is that all can be reconciled, hearts can be mended, and God will forgive us our sins.

The book of Jeremiah deals with the crisis of Israel breaking covenant with God. The crisis is one of infidelity, memory loss, and failure to acknowledge God in any capacity.

 

• The Crisis

 

The Bible is not shy about the problems that come when people or nations fail to acknowledge God. The Bible clearly identifies when infidelity has occurred and points out the forgetfulness of God’s people. Acknowledgment means more than just giving a nod to God. Biblically it is confessing belief, faithfulness, and commitment to the living God. We have seen in our lifetime the places in our nation and in some parts of the church universal where God is no longer acknowledged as Lord of all and that lack of acknowledgment has led to a multitude of problems. This is one of the reasons Christians have voiced concern over the absence of God in most sectors of our society as in education or the market place. This is why there is now a threat to religious liberty in what once was a nation with a Christian spirit, with at least a certain Christian ethos. It used to be a major part of our DNA as a nation that we were founded on the principles given through the Holy Bible. This is why we repeat the exhortation to remember the Lord in all things.

The question Jeremiah presents is one that marks us as God's people. It is a question of identity and relationship. The question Israel failed to ask was, “Where is God?” It is like asking where a little girl is when she is right there in the room. “Where’s my little girl? There she is!” This is a way to acknowledge her presence, like playing peek a boo. Israel failed to even ask “Where is the Lord?” It is not a question of confusion or lament as if God where not there or not here. It is a question that really is a confession of faith. Where is the Lord who brought us out of slavery? This is the Lord God, the one who delivers. It is a rhetorical question meant to convey a confession of faith. “Where is the Lord? There He is!”

In the case of Jeremiah it is a question of remembering God. ⁶They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’ Even the priests failed to ask the question… ⁸The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit. They did not remember who had delivered them! It is a question of telling the story of God, the story of deliverance and guidance. It is a question of the presence of God; they traded their God for other gods who had never delivered anyone. Instead, they went after things that do not profit. When we do not seek the Lord, we will seek other gods.

Today, we might express Jeremiah's voice in this way: “The USA did not say, 'where is the Lord who began our nation?'” “Where is the Lord who gives us wisdom in education?” The church did not say, “Where is the Lord who saved us through His Son Jesus Christ?” “Where is the Lord who gave us His Word to follow?” Failure to express this kind of question is a failure to acknowledge God.

It does not matter the motive behind the question. Even if it is a complaint, it is still a question of faith because the question includes the name of the Lord. Israel failed to ask, failed to acknowledge God, sinned, and went after other God and things that did not profit.

There is an interesting story told by the Jews about Abraham. It is not a biblical story but a midrash story, that is, a story about the Bible and in this case about a Abram before his name was changed to Abraham. Abram is said to have “destroyed nearly all the idols in his father’s store and then placed a stick in the hand of the largest remaining idol. When Terah, Abram’s father, asked who had done this, Abram replied that the large idol had. Terah replied the idol could not have done such a thing (incapable). Responded Abram, ‘Then why do you worship it?’” (from Jewish Spiritual Guidance, 24)

 

Why do we worship worthless things? In the time of Jeremiah, Israel had traded the God who delivered them from Egypt for the gods who could not do anything at all. The main problem was no one was even asking the question. No one was concerned whether God was present or not! No one was concerned with the memory of God’s mighty work. No one cared to notice that God was with them. No one pursued the living God, but they pursued everything else. The people pursued other things, even other gods. They virtually treated God like a used car, trading God in for another model. They forgot to tell the story and didn’t care that they forgot! They did not keep covenant so God in turn brings them up on charges.

 

• The Consequence

 

It is a fascinating phrase in verse 5; “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?” You are what you eat. You are what you pursue. As one commentator notes, “pursue a bubble and become a bubble!” How many kids will end up with health problems when they start pursuing the enhancement drugs that some professional athletes pursue? How many people will end up in bankruptcy when they pursue a get rich quick scheme? How many of us become exactly like the things we pursue?

Isaiah 44:9-20 reveals the folly of pursuing worthless things. The passage tells of all the effort it takes to fashion an idol only to discover that the idol is basically the residue or left overs after the wood is used to bake bread and roast meat. So often we will put great effort into the things of this world and come to realize that we have invested time and energy and money into something that is ultimately worthless. This comes when we fail to acknowledge God.

Israel, of all people, should have known better. They had the real deal, the living God, and yet they traded God for something worthless. Even the other nations who had their variety of gods have never traded them in. ¹⁰For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing. ¹¹Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

Even the nations who worship worthless gods do not trade for other gods. Perhaps we should not be too harsh in our judgment of Israel. They were, after all, serving the only God who required something of them. All the other gods, the gods of other nations, required nothing. They were quite easy to serve because they just sat there – silent. They did not give anything nor require anything because they were not God. Adam Welch says that the “grace which gave much asked much; it demanded self-surrender. And without self-surrender on the part of those who received it, grace became and empty word. No other nation changed its god…The reason [they did not change gods] was that it all meant so little. There was no cause to forsake such gods, because it involved so little to follow them. Israel forsook [God], because the relation to Him was full of ethical content…It laid a [responsibility on people], it had a yoke and bonds. The bonds were those of love, but love’s bonds are the most enduring and the most exacting.” (from Jeremiah 1-25: To Pluck Up, To Tear Down, Walter Brueggemann, p.34)

People trade that way all the time. People trade following God for following something easier or for following nothing at all! They end up following anything and everything. We give up fountains of living water because we think it is too much for us. We do not care to carry the buckets and buckets of living water that keep coming and coming. Instead, we tell God “no thanks” and we go out on our own, digging our own wells for life, creating our own buckets of self-sufficiency and pride. But they are cracked cisterns, cracked buckets, only slightly cracked, so that we don’t notice it at first, just a drip here and a drop there, but our buckets are leaky. We trade God in for easy buckets that feel light but are only light because the water is pouring out on the ground behind us.

 

• Two Evils

 

It is inevitable that if one forsakes the Lord, if a nation separates itself from the Lord, they will create something to “replace” God, another god, some kind of belief or system of thought, a worldview to attempt any purpose for life. Let me share a few I see in the world today. These are broken cisterns that hold no water.

 

1. Transgenderism; 2. Woke-ism; 3. Climate change; 4. Politics; 5. Materialism; 6. Prosperity gospel;

7. Socialism; 8. Social Justice; 9. Satanism; 10. Critical Race Theory

 

There are more, many more, but these are examples of the evils people trust in today and they are all on equal status, all evil, all equally leaky cisterns. All an attempt to replace God.

 

The warning to us and to nations is found in the final two verses of our reading this morning:

¹²Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, ¹³for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

 

Be appalled, be shocked, be desolate, O heavens. Are we not appalled and shocked by the ways of the world? Yet this warning is against God's own people. “My people have committed two evils.” What have they done?

 

1. Forsaken God.

 

Forsaking the Lord is pursuing anything that fails to acknowledge God in the process or outcome. Deuteronomy 8 is a classic example when Israel fails to remember that it was God who brought them through the wilderness and to the promised land and gave them and abundance of possessions. This is what happens when the church or the nation forgets the Lord who brought us out of sin and death and into freedom in Christ. Forsaking the Lord is forgetting the Lord. Forsaking the Lord is abandoning His precepts and refusing to follow Jesus in all things. Forsaking the Lord is giving up on worship and fellowship and thinking that we do not need all this Christian stuff, but that we can go it alone. Forsaking God is leaving God for other gods, who are not gods at all.

 

 

2. Made leaky cisterns.

 

In biblical times a cistern was a reservoir that was dug into the earth or carved into rock for collecting and storing water. It was crucial because of long dry seasons. They were hewed out of rock or hard clay and if they leaked they were useless. One of the classic example of Israel’s leaky cisterns is in Deuteronomy 8 and the belief that Israel had done everything on their own in the Exodus. They did not acknowledge that it was God who delivered them.

Leaky cisterns are the systems of belief that we put in place of God and the Bible, human philosophies, self acknowledgment in all achievements without any regard for God. We sometimes place ourselves before the Lord and pat ourselves on the back as if God has done nothing. The leaky cistern in this context is anything that seeks to replace God as our source of life and faith. Broken cisterns are idols of worship (Psalm 135) and all the ungodly philosophies of the world.

This reading today does not have a message of hope for Israel, only indictments. But Jeremiah will receive other Words from the Lord, Words of hope, of a future, of redemption, of new covenant. But the story Jeremiah reveals is one of every story of redemption. We must see first that from which we need redemption. We must see our sin. Only then can we see the Redeemer and what the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and in the resurrection can mean for us. Only when we acknowledge our sin, repent of our sin, and believe and confess Jesus, only then can we begin to grasp the Good News that is Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. So let us look forward for some good news from Jeremiah and the Good News in Jesus Christ. Amen.