Jeremiah 2:14 - Meaning and Application

The prophet goes on to show the foolishness of forsaking God by pointing to the trouble they had already brought on themselves. It had already cost them dearly, and all the troubles their nation was now groaning under came from that sin. These hardships were only a small sign of greater judgment to come if they did not repent. See how they suffered because of their own folly.

Their enemies, who openly opposed them, were gaining the upper hand, and their sin was the reason. First, they had been brought into slavery and had lost their freedom (Jeremiah 2:14). Israel was not meant to be a servant. God had said, “Israel is my son, my firstborn” (Exodus 4:22). They were children, and therefore heirs. Their family line was noble, coming from Abraham, God’s friend, and Jacob, God’s chosen one. They were not born into slavery. They were meant for honor and rule, not for bondage.

So why was he stripped of freedom? Why was he treated like a servant, like someone born in the house of a slave? Why did he make himself a slave to his own desires, to idols, and to things that do not satisfy (Jeremiah 2:11)? It is a terrible thing for such a birthright to be sold away for so little, for such a crown to be dragged into the dust. Why was he made a slave to those who oppressed him? God had arranged that Hebrew servants should go free in the seventh year, and that slaves should come from the nations around them, not from their own people (Leviticus 25:44, 46). Yet their rulers made slaves of their subjects, and masters made slaves of their servants (Jeremiah 34:11). In that way they made their own country low and miserable, though God had made it honorable and happy.

Nearby rulers and powers broke in on them and made some of them slaves even in their own land. Others may even have been sold away as slaves into foreign lands. How did they lose their freedom? They sold themselves because of their own sins (Isaiah 50:1). The same lesson applies spiritually. Is the human soul meant to be a slave? No. Then why is it ruined? Because it has given away its own freedom and made itself a slave to many desires and passions. That is a sad thing, and it should make us lament.

Second, they were impoverished and lost their wealth. God had brought them into a rich land (Jeremiah 2:7), but their neighbors seized it like prey (Jeremiah 2:15). Like young lions, they roared over him and kept him in constant fear. Sometimes one strong enemy, sometimes another, and sometimes several together, attacked and defeated him. They carried off the crops of his land, made it desolate, and burned his cities after plundering them. So the cities were left without people, either because no homes were left or because the people who should have lived there had been taken captive.

Third, they were mocked, insulted, and beaten by everyone (Jeremiah 2:16). Even the people of Noph and Tahapanes, towns in Egypt and not known for military strength, had broken the crown of your head, as if they had crushed it. In every clash with them, they had been too strong for you, and you always ended up with a wounded head. The main part of Judah’s land, the area nearest Jerusalem, had been and was still being plundered by them. Judah’s condition had been very bad in the time of Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:11), and it may not yet have fully recovered.

All of this came from their own sin (Jeremiah 2:17). Had you not brought this on yourself? By making sinful alliances with the nations, and especially by copying their idolatrous customs, they had made themselves small and contemptible, like all who once profess religion and then throw it away. Nothing was left of what had once made them honorable and strong, so no one respected or feared them. But that was not all. They had also driven God to give them over to their enemies, who became tools of judgment against them and found success over them. So this trouble was their own doing, because they had left the Lord their God and broken their loyalty to him. Protection and loyalty go together.

Whatever trouble we are in, we should see that we have helped bring it on ourselves by turning from God. “You have forsaken your God at the very time he was leading you” should be understood as, “You turned away just when he was guiding you toward peace and stability, just when you were almost there. Then you shut the door against yourself.”

Their neighbors, who seemed to be their friends, also deceived them, troubled them, and gave them no help, and this too came from their sin. They looked in vain to Egypt and Assyria for aid (Jeremiah 2:18). “What are you doing on the road to Egypt?” When danger came, they ran to Egypt for help (Isaiah 30:1, 2; Isaiah 31:1). They trusted in the strength of Egypt and were refreshed by its promises. At other times they turned toward Assyria, sending there or hurrying there for help, as if they could satisfy themselves with the waters of Euphrates. But what would they gain there? Those nations would help in vain. They would be like broken reeds, and what seemed like a river would become only a broken cistern.

This also happened because of their sin. The judgment they had earned would surely come, and then what good would outside help do? Their own wickedness would punish them, and no one else could save them (Jeremiah 2:19). So they should know and see that it is an evil thing to forsake the Lord, because that is what turns enemies into real enemies and makes friends useless. Sin means leaving the Lord as our God. It is the soul turning away from him and refusing him. To hold on to sin is to leave God.

Sin comes from a lack of true fear of God. That fear should live in us, and especially the fear of his holy displeasure. When people have no such fear, they turn away from their duty to him. Sin is an evil thing, and it is bitter. It is evil in every way, with no good in it. It is the root of all other evil. It is evil indeed, because it stands against God’s nature and corrupts human nature. It is bitter too. A life of sin is the very gall of bitterness, and every sinful path ends in bitterness. Its wages is death, and death is bitter.

The fatal result of sin is this: since sin is evil and bitter in itself, it also has a direct way of making us miserable. “Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will rebuke you.” It will not only ruin you later, but it will already be bringing trouble on you now. Punishment follows sin so closely that the sin itself is spoken of as punishing you.

Even more, the punishment often matches the sin so clearly that you can read the sin in the suffering. Then the justice of the punishment becomes so plain that you have nothing to say for yourself. Your own wickedness will prove you wrong and shut your mouth forever, and you will be forced to admit that the Lord is righteous.

So learn from this, see it clearly, and turn from your sin, so that the wrongdoing that is now your correction may not become your ruin.