Jeremiah 2:29 - Meaning and Application

The prophet goes on in the same way, still trying to bring a sinful people to repentance so their ruin might be stopped. He first makes clear that the charge against them is true. It is obvious and beyond dispute, so it is foolish for them to deny it or try to justify themselves. Their case will be overruled, and judgment will go against them, because they know they have all sinned, each one of them. Why, then, should they argue with God as if they had a defense?

He then makes the charge heavier by pointing to both their stubbornness and their ingratitude. They had not been changed by the judgments God had already sent on them (Jeremiah 2:30). God had disciplined Judah in many ways, but it was useless. His purpose was to lead them to repentance, yet they did not respond. Their consciences were not awakened, their hearts were not softened, and they were not moved to seek the Lord. They gained no wisdom from correction and were no better for it. That is a great loss, to waste an affliction in that way. They did not accept the discipline or yield to it, but their hearts kept rebelling against the Lord, so they were struck in vain. Even the young among them may be meant here. They were so early set against repentance that they were as hard to bend as those who had long practiced evil.

They also had not been changed by God’s word, which he sent through his servants the prophets. Worse still, they had killed the messengers because of the message. “Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying lion,” means they had put them to death with the same fury and greed a lion shows when it tears apart its prey. Their prophets, who were among their greatest blessings, were treated as if they were the worst trouble in their nation. That was the sin that filled up their guilt (2 Chronicles 36:16). They killed their own prophets (1 Thessalonians 2:15).

They had also not been moved by God’s gifts to them (Jeremiah 2:31). The prophet speaks gently, “O generation,” instead of using a sharper name. He tells them to “see the word of the Lord,” meaning they should think carefully about it, not just hear it. As people are told to hear the rod, because even punishment has a voice (Micah 6:9), so they are told to see the word, because it is clear and open to the eye. God’s meaning is plain enough for anyone to read.

He asks, “Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of darkness?” No one who has dealt with God has reason to accuse him of being a barren land or a place of gloom. He has given the earth its fruit, so no one can say he has fed us with dry and empty fare. He has also given the lights of heaven, so no one can say he has left us in darkness. He sends his sun and his rain on the evil as well as on the thankful. Or the meaning may be broader: the service of God has never been unpleasant or unprofitable to anyone. At times he has led his people through a wilderness and a land of darkness, but even then he was all they needed. He fed them with manna and guided them by a pillar of fire, so the wilderness became, for them, a fruitful field and a land of light. The world is a wilderness and a land of darkness to those who make it their home and portion. But those who live in God have their lines in pleasant places.

Instead of being moved by all this, they had grown bold and proud. They said, “We are lords; we will come no more to you.” Now that they had become, or imagined themselves to be, a strong kingdom, they set themselves up and shook off their dependence on God. That is the language of proud sinners. It is not only irreverent, but also foolish.

It is foolish for subjects to say, “We are lords,” meaning, “We rule now, and we will no longer come to God to receive his commands.” God is King from of old, and he is King forever, so no one can ever step out from under his rule. It is also foolish for beggars to say, “We are lords,” meaning, “We are rich, and we no longer need God’s gifts.” No one can live without him or refuse to depend on him. God rightly takes offense when those he has freely blessed do not care to hear from him or speak to him.

The prophet then lays all their wickedness at the door of one root sin, their forgetting God (Jeremiah 2:32). They had pushed thoughts of God out of their minds on purpose. They crowded out those thoughts with idols and stayed away from anything that might remind them of him. Though they were his own covenant people, and though they had signs of his presence and favor among them, they still forgot him.

They had done this for a long time, “days without number,” as we say. They had gone so long without serious thoughts of God that they seemed to have forgotten him completely, and as if they meant never to remember him again. How many days of our own lives have passed without any fitting remembrance of God? No one can count those empty days.

They had not cared for God the way young women care for their ornaments or a bride for her wedding clothes. A maiden does not forget her jewelry, and a bride does not forget her dress. Their hearts are set on these things, and they think and speak about them often. When they appear in public, they make sure every ornament is in place. Yet God says, “My people have forgotten me.” It is sad when anyone loves fine clothes more than God, and would rather leave religion behind than leave behind their ornaments.

Is God our true ornament? Is he not a crown of glory and a beautiful diadem to his people? If we saw him that way, and saw our religion as an ornament of grace for our heads and chains for our necks (Proverbs 1:9), we would guard it as carefully as any young woman guards her jewelry, or a bride her wedding clothes. We would be just as eager to keep it and just as glad to be seen in it.

The prophet also shows them how their sins affected others. The sins of God’s own people harden and encourage those around them in evil, especially when they take the lead in sin (Jeremiah 2:33). The words, “Why trim your way to seek love?” point to the behavior of shameless women who try to attract others with painted looks and fine dress, like Jezebel, who painted her face and dressed her hair. In the same way, Israel had tried to draw its neighbors into sinful alliances and into sharing in its idol worship. They even taught wicked people their ways, mixing God’s commands with idolatrous customs, which made holy things common and made their false worship even worse.

Those who keep company with sin and help it along will have much to answer for, because they make bad people worse than they would have been otherwise. God then charges them with murder added to idolatry: “Also on your skirts is found the blood of the lives of the innocent” (Jeremiah 2:34). This points to the children sacrificed to Molech, or more generally to all the innocent blood Manasseh shed when he filled Jerusalem with blood (2 Kings 21:16), especially the blood of the prophets and others who spoke against their evil. This blood was not hidden away in a secret search, but lay openly on their garments. That showed their guilt was clear and undeniable, openly practiced, and done without shame or fear.

God also answers their claim of innocence. Even though the case is plain, they say, “I am innocent, surely his anger has turned from me,” and, “I have not sinned” (Jeremiah 2:35). So the Lord says he will contend with them and prove them wrong. He will do this through his word and through his discipline. God will expose the self-deception of those who say they have not sinned, even when they have committed very serious evils. He will also confront those who expect peace from God while refusing to repent and change.

They admitted that they had been under God’s anger, but they thought it was unjust. They believed that if they argued for their innocence, they had already proved the case against God. So they expected him to drop his charge and turn away his wrath. This deeply offends God. He will keep arguing with them until they stop justifying themselves and instead humble themselves, judge themselves, and condemn their own sin.

The prophet then rebukes them for the shameful disappointment they found in trusting creatures instead of God (Jeremiah 2:36, Jeremiah 2:37). They had committed a kind of spiritual idolatry by trusting human strength and letting their hearts turn from the Lord. So God asks, “Why do you keep changing your way?” The answer is that they never found what they hoped for in the helpers they trusted. People who make God their hope and live in steady dependence on him do not need to keep changing paths. Their souls can return to him and rest in him.

Those who trust in people are always unsettled, like Noah’s dove that found no place to rest. Everything they rely on fails them, so they keep looking for something better, but they remain disappointed. First they trusted Assyria, and when Assyria proved to be a broken reed, they turned to Egypt, which was no better. Since created things are empty, they become a source of frustration to everyone who depends on them.

God tells them they will be ashamed of Egypt, just as they had been ashamed of Assyria, who hurt them and did not help them (2 Chronicles 28:20). The Jews were set apart in their religion, so the surrounding nations did not truly care for them or love them. Yet the Jews kept courting those nations and relying on them, and they got what such trust deserved. Their messengers would return from Egypt disappointed, with their hands on their heads in grief. Or the words may mean that they would leave for exile with their hands on their heads, either from pain or from shame, as Tamar did in her deep humiliation (2 Samuel 13:19).

Egypt would not be able to stop their captivity or bring them back from it. Those who refuse godly sorrow, which brings life, will be driven to worldly sorrow, which leads to death. And Egypt’s failure should not surprise them, because God himself would not help them through it. “If the Lord does not help you, where could I?” The Egyptians were broken reeds, because the Lord had rejected the supports they trusted. He would not use them to rescue his people, or even give approval to their confidence in them. So their plans would not succeed, and their helpers would give them no real support or satisfaction. As no counsel or wisdom can stand against the Lord, so none can succeed apart from him.

Some read this verse as saying, “The Lord has rejected you for your false trusts.” The meaning is that Judah had dealt so unfaithfully with God that she trusted in God’s creatures, and even in his enemies, when she should have trusted in him alone. Because of that, God left her to the very ruin from which she thought she could protect herself.

Then she could not prosper. No one ever hardened himself against God, or turned away from God, and then went on to thrive.