Jeremiah 6:9 - Meaning and Application

The headings here are the same as in the previous section, because Scripture teaches line upon line and precept upon precept. First, the ruin of Judah and Jerusalem is threatened. Earlier we saw how quickly the Chaldean army, that is, the Babylonian army, hurried into war (Jeremiah 6:4, Jeremiah 6:5). Here we see the destruction they would leave behind.

The devastation is pictured in painful detail. The enemy would stay among them so long, and be so eager for blood and wealth, that they would seize everything they could find. What escaped them once would fall into their hands later (Jeremiah 6:9). They would thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel like a grape gatherer who keeps going back over the vine until no grape is left, taking even those who were scattered or hidden. The people had loved greed (Jeremiah 6:13), and perhaps they had ignored God’s law that told them not to strip the vineyard bare (Leviticus 19:10). Now they themselves would be thoroughly gleaned, either killed by the sword or carried into captivity.

This is explained in Jeremiah 6:11-12, where God says his fury and hand are being poured out and stretched out through the Chaldeans. Even wicked people are often used as God’s hand (Psalm 17:14), so in their anger we can see God’s anger. His fury falls fully on the children playing in the streets or running about innocently (Zechariah 8:5). The merciless Chaldean sword will not spare them (Jeremiah 9:21). The children suffer for the sins of their fathers.

The judgment also reaches the gathering of young men, their merry meetings and their groups formed to strengthen one another in evil. They will be cut off together. Not only those who meet for wickedness (Jeremiah 5:7) will fall into the enemy’s hands, but even husband and wife, lying together in bed, will both be taken. The enemy will show no pity to the weak and beautiful, and no mercy to the old and full of days, whose lives can no longer help or harm them. Their houses will be taken by others (Jeremiah 6:12). The conquerors will live in their homes, use their goods, and feed on their stores. Their fields and vineyards will also pass into enemy hands, as had been warned in Deuteronomy 28:30 and following. When God stretches out his hand against the people of the land, no one can escape it.

The prophet then defends himself for speaking so sharply. He says he is full of the fury of the Lord, full of the burden and sight of it, and carried along by the Spirit to speak with such force (Jeremiah 6:11). He did not enjoy threatening people, and it was no pleasure to make those around him uneasy. Still, he could not hold it in. He had restrained himself as long as he could, but he was so filled with power by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts that he had to speak, whether they would listen or not. When ministers preach the Lord’s terrors in line with Scripture, we have no reason to resent them. They are only messengers, and they must deliver their message, whether it is pleasant or not.

He also condemns the false prophets who spoke smoothly and kindly, because they flattered the people and were unfaithful (Jeremiah 6:13-14). The priest and the prophet, who should have been watchmen and warners, had dealt falsely. They had not been true to their duty. They should have told the people their sins and their danger, but instead they acted like doctors who kill their patients by letting them have their own way. They said, “Peace, peace,” meaning all would be well, and shut up anyone who was troubled or awake to the danger. They boldly claimed that neither church nor state was in danger. But there was no peace, because the people kept on in idolatry and bold sins. Those who flatter us into sin are our false friends, and in truth our most dangerous enemies.

Second, the sin of Judah and Jerusalem is laid open, the sin that brought this ruin on them and showed God’s justice in it. They would not bear to be told of their faults or of the danger ahead. God tells the prophet to warn them of the coming judgment (Jeremiah 6:9), but the prophet asks, “To whom can I speak and give warning?” He could not find anyone willing to listen patiently. He might warn them as long as he wanted, but nobody would take the warning. He could not speak in a way that would be heard or useful, because their ear was uncircumcised, that is, unclean and unfit to receive God’s voice. It was as if their hearing had been covered over, so that speaking to them was like speaking to stone.

They were not merely deaf. They were against the message. The word of the Lord was a reproach to them, both its warnings and its corrections. They felt insulted by it, and treated the prophet’s plain words as if they were lies and slander. This was like kicking against the goads (Acts 9:5), or like the lawyers who opposed Christ’s words and said, “You insult us too” (Luke 11:45). Reproofs that people call insults and hate as such will surely become heavier judgments. When it says they had no delight in the word, it means more than they disliked it. They had a deep dislike for it. Their hearts rose against it. It stirred up their corruption and anger, and they were ready to attack the one who corrected them. How can anyone expect comfort from God’s word if they have no delight in it and would rather be anywhere else than under hearing it?

They had set their hearts too strongly on this world and were carried away by love of it (Jeremiah 6:13). From the least to the greatest, young and old, rich and poor, every rank and calling was given to greed and eager for dishonest gain. They wanted whatever they could get, right or wrong. That greed made them harsh and violent too, because the love of money is a root of many evils.

It also hardened them against God’s word and against his prophets. The greedy Pharisees, Jewish religious leaders, even mocked Christ (Luke 16:14). When people love gain above truth, they soon stop listening to warning.

They had also become bold in sin and were no longer ashamed. After so many clear charges against them, it was right to ask, were they ashamed when they had done all these disgraceful things, things that should have shamed both their reason and their religion (Jeremiah 6:15)? Did they blush when they were convicted and admit that shame belonged to them? If they had, there would still be hope. But there was not even that small sign of goodness among them.

Their hearts were so hard that they were not ashamed, and they could not blush. They had hardened their faces and even seemed proud of their wickedness. They openly resisted the convictions that should have brought them low and led them to repent. They were determined to stand against God himself and would not admit their guilt.

Some take this especially of the priests and prophets, who had healed the people only on the surface and promised peace when there was none. Even when events proved them wrong, they were not ashamed of their treachery and lies. People who have no shame are far from grace, and their case is desperate. But those who refuse to accept godly shame, the shame that belongs to them, will not escape complete ruin. The result was certain: they would fall with those who fall, and share the fate of those brought to nothing. When God came in judgment on the nation, they would be cast down and made to tremble, because they would not blush. Those who sin and cannot blush for it are in a bad condition now, and it will soon be worse. At first they hardened themselves and would not blush. Later they became so hardened that they could not.

They lost the one good thing that once stayed mixed in with their many sins, namely, shame for doing wrong. The good counsel God had often given them had been spoken again and again, but to little effect. He told them, “Stand at the crossroads and look” (Jeremiah 6:16). That is, stop and think before you go on. Travelers do this when they want to find the right road to their destination, so they do not hurry blindly ahead. If they think they have taken a wrong turn, they do not rest until they are sure of the way. Oh, that people would be that wise about their souls, and would think carefully about their conduct, knowing that right and wrong matter as much as the right road and the wrong road matter to a traveler.

He also told them to ask for the old paths, to look at the experience and lessons of those who had gone before them (Job 8:8; Deuteronomy 32:7). Ask your father and your elders. They would find that the way of godliness and righteousness has always been the way God owned and blessed, the way in which people prospered. Ask for the old paths, the paths set down in God’s law, the written word, which is the true measure of old truth. Ask for the paths the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, walked in before you. If you hope to share the promises made to them, follow their steps. Ask, “Where is the good way?” We must not follow something only because it is old, as if long use alone made it right. There is also an old way that wicked people have walked in (Job 22:15). But when we ask for the old paths, we do so only to find the good way, the highway of the upright. The way of true religion is a good old way, the way all the saints in every age have walked.

He also told them to act on what they found. “When you know the good way, walk in it, keep to it, go on in it, and keep going.” Some understand this as especially meant for their struggle between the true and false prophets, between those who promised peace and those who warned of coming trouble. They claimed they did not know whom to believe. God’s answer was, stand still, look, and ask which message agrees with the written word and with God’s usual ways of dealing with people, then follow that. If they did this, it would secure the peace and satisfaction of their own souls. Walking in the good old way would become easier and sweeter over time. They would enjoy both God and themselves, and that path would lead them to true rest. Even if the road cost them some effort, the reward at the end would be rich.

But the Lord grieved that such wise counsel, so reasonable and so fit for them, found no welcome. “We will not walk in it,” they said. They would not even take the trouble to find which way was right, and once it was shown to them, they still refused to deny themselves or give up their own desires. Many people are ruined forever by that kind of stubborn willfulness.

Because they would not be guided by fair reasoning, God used another method. He warned them through smaller judgments and sent his prophets to explain those warnings and to frighten them with the danger they were in (Jeremiah 6:17). “I also set watchmen over you.” God’s ministers are watchmen, and it is a mercy to have them set over us by the Lord. Their steady warning was this: listen to the sound of the trumpet. God sounds the trumpet in his providence (Zechariah 9:14). The watchmen hear it themselves and are stirred by it (Jeremiah 4:19), and they must call others to hear it too, to listen to the Lord’s case, notice the voice of his providence, make good use of it, and answer what it is meant to do.

This clear warning was ignored. They said, “We will not listen. We will not hear. We will not pay attention. We will not believe.” In effect, they treated the prophets as if they might as well keep the message to themselves.

Sinners perish because they do not heed the warning sound of the trumpet. And they do not heed it because they refuse to listen. They have no real reason for that refusal, only their own stubborn will. In this, they are acting in the most unreasonable way.

It is often easier to deal with ten people’s reasons than with one person’s will.