Jeremiah 25:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we have a message from God about all the people of Judah (Jeremiah 25:1), which Jeremiah spoke in God’s name to all the people of Judah (Jeremiah 25:2). What concerns everyone should be made known to everyone. The word that speaks to all people, especially the gospel, should be shared openly and, as much as possible, brought home to each person.

Jeremiah had been sent to the king’s house (Jeremiah 22:1), and he now took courage to bring his message to the whole people. This likely happened when they had all come up to Jerusalem for one of the major feasts, when the people were gathered together. Then, if ever, there was hope that they would be ready to hear good counsel and receive instruction.

This prophecy is dated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim and the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king. Nebuchadnezzar had begun to reign on his own in the latter part of Jehoiakim’s third year, after ruling for a time with his father, as Daniel 1:1 shows. Jehoiakim’s fourth year had already begun before Nebuchadnezzar’s first year was finished. As this bold military ruler began to rise toward world power, God, through his prophet, made it clear that Nebuchadnezzar was still only God’s servant.

God was showing that Nebuchadnezzar’s growing power was not a challenge to God’s rule over the world. Nebuchadnezzar would not come close to universal rule, or more truly, universal tyranny, unless God had his own purposes to carry out through him. In this way, God’s people could understand why he allowed something that seemed so troubling to his sovereignty and goodness.

In this message, we can see how much effort God had already spent on bringing the people to repentance. He reminds them of this to show how great their sin was and to justify his judgment against them.

Jeremiah himself had preached among them for twenty-three years. He began in the thirteenth year of Josiah, who reigned thirty-one years, so Jeremiah prophesied for about eighteen or nineteen years during Josiah’s reign, then during the reign of Jehoahaz, and now for four years of Jehoiakim’s reign. God keeps count, even if we do not, of how long we have had the means of grace. The longer we have enjoyed them, the heavier our guilt will be if we have not used them well.

All this time, God had been sending messages to them whenever they needed them. From then until that very day, the word of the Lord kept coming to Jeremiah for their good. They already had the substance of the warning in the books of Moses, but they did not properly notice or apply those warnings. So God sent more messages to press those truths on them and make the warning plain, so they would have no excuse. In this way, God’s Spirit kept striving with them, as it had with the people before the flood (Genesis 6:3).

Jeremiah also faithfully and diligently delivered those messages. He could appeal to them, as well as to God and his own conscience: he had spoken to them “rising early and speaking.” He had declared to them the whole will of God, and he had taken much care and effort to do it in the most helpful way. People rise early to do what they care deeply about. This means Jeremiah’s mind was so full of concern for their good that it broke his sleep and made him get up early to plan how best to help them.

He rose early because he did not want to waste time, and because he wanted to make use of the best time to reach them, when they were, if ever, calm and thoughtful. Christ also came early in the morning to teach in the temple, and the people came early to hear him (Luke 21:38). Morning teaching has its advantages. “My voice you shall hear in the morning.”

Besides Jeremiah, God sent other prophets to deliver the same message (Jeremiah 25:4). Among the writing prophets, Micah, Nahum, and Habakkuk were just before him, and Zephaniah was his contemporary. But there were also many other servants of God who preached warning sermons that were never written down and published. God himself is said to rise early and send them, showing how deeply he wanted this people to turn and live, and not keep going in the path that leads to death (Ezekiel 33:11).

All of these messages said much the same thing and had the same goal (Jeremiah 25:5, Jeremiah 25:6). First, they told the people of their sins, their evil way, and the wrong things they were doing. Those prophets were not sent by God who told them everything was fine. Second, they specifically rebuked their idolatry, their special sin of going after other gods, serving them, and worshiping them, even though those gods were only the work of human hands. Third, they called them to repent and change their lives. This was the burden of every message: “Turn now, each of you, from his evil way.”

Personal repentance had to be pressed on them if the nation was to be spared. Every person had to turn from his own evil way. A street will not be clean unless each person sweeps in front of his own door. Fourth, the prophets assured them that if they did repent, their peace would be prolonged. The blessings they already had would continue: they would live in the land, live at ease, and live in peace in the good land the Lord had given them and their fathers. Nothing but sin would drive them out of it, and if they turned from sin, that would not happen.

The judgments they feared would also be kept away. “Do not provoke me, and I will do you no harm.” We should never expect painful punishment from God if we had not first provoked him by our sin. God deals fairly with us. He never corrects his children without reason, and he never brings grief on us unless we have offended him.

Yet all of this did no good. They did not let themselves be moved to take the only right way to turn away God’s anger. Jeremiah was a powerful and tender-hearted preacher, but they did not listen to him (Jeremiah 25:3). The other prophets dealt faithfully with them too, but they neither listened nor paid attention (Jeremiah 25:4). They kept doing that very sin which they had been told, above all others, was most offensive to God and made them guilty before his justice. They kept provoking him with the works of their hands, and they were harming themselves in the process.

What provokes God will, in the end, hurt us. We will have only ourselves to blame. “O Israel, you have destroyed yourself.”