Jeremiah 5:1 - Meaning and Application

Here is, first, a challenge to find even one truly honest man, or at least a good number of such people, in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 5:1). Jerusalem had become like the old world, where all people had corrupted their way. Some may have comforted themselves by thinking there were still many good men in the city who could stand in the gap and turn away God’s anger. Others may have boasted that it was the holy city and thought that alone would save it.

But God tells them to search the city. He says they would hardly find a man who truly did justice and honestly lived by what he said and did. Look in the streets, where people meet and talk, and in the broad places, where they trade. See if you can find a man, or perhaps a magistrate, who carries out justice fairly and enforces the law against evil and ungodliness. When faithful people are gone, it is time to cry, “Woe is me” (Micah 7:1-2), and to pray, “Help, Lord” (Psalm 12:1).

If there were even one truly conscientious person, one who really spoke the truth, he would not likely be found in public. He would be afraid to appear openly, lest he be abused and pushed aside. Truth had fallen in the street (Isaiah 59:14), and had to hide in corners. God would gladly spare a city for the sake of such people. If there had been ten righteous men in Sodom, or even one among many in Jerusalem, it would have been spared. This shows how ready God is to forgive and how quick he is to show mercy.

Someone might say, “What about those in Jerusalem who still claim to belong to God? Can’t the city be spared for their sake?” No, because their profession was false (Jeremiah 5:2). They said, “The Lord lives,” and swore only by his name, but they swore falsely. In other words, they were not sincere in their claim to honor God. They honored him with their lips, but their hearts were far from him. They also called God to witness lies. They did not swear by idols, but they lied while using God’s name, which is just as much an insult to him as worshiping a false god.

Second, the prophet brings his complaint to God about the stubbornness of these people. God had appealed to their eyes, but now the prophet appeals to God’s eyes (Jeremiah 5:3). He asks, “Do not your eyes see what is true? Do you not see each person’s real character?” Their hearts were hard, harder than a rock. God wants truth in the inward parts, but where could it be found among people like this?

They said, “The Lord lives,” yet they did not truly regard him. God had struck them with one trouble after another, but they did not grieve over it. They were like stones under suffering, and they did not even grieve over the sin that brought it on them. God went further and disciplined them more severely, but still they refused to learn from correction. They would not let hardship teach them. They hardened themselves against God’s judgment and against the carrying out of it. They could not change expression, blush with shame, or turn pale with fear. Nothing could turn them back from sin. Though they were often called to return, they would not. They went forward stubbornly, like a horse rushing into battle.

Third, the prophet examines both rich and poor and gives a bad report of both. The poor were ignorant, and so they were wicked. He found many who refused to return, and he was willing to make the kindest excuse possible for them (Jeremiah 5:4): “Surely these are poor and foolish.” They had not had the benefit of a good education, and they had no money to help themselves with instruction now. They had to work hard to survive, so they had no time or ability to read or listen. They did not know the way of the Lord or the laws of their God. They did not understand either the way God wanted them to walk toward him, or the way he was dealing with them in providence, that is, in his rule over their lives.

This shows that deep ignorance is a sad cause of widespread sin. What else can be expected from foolish, darkened people who know nothing of God or religion, and choose to stay in darkness? It is also a common sin among poor people. There are the devil’s poor as well as God’s poor. Even without formal learning, they could know the way of the Lord well enough to do their duty. But they chose ignorance, so their ignorance would not excuse them.

The rich were proud and stubborn, and so they were wicked (Jeremiah 5:5). The prophet says he would go to the great men and see whether they were more open to God’s word and providence. He would speak to them and preach at court, hoping to move people of higher education and rank. But it was useless. Even though they knew the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God, they were too proud to submit to his rule. They had broken the yoke and snapped the bonds.

They knew what their Master wanted, but they were determined to have their own way. They walked in the way of their heart and in what they saw with their eyes. They thought themselves too fine to be controlled and too important to be corrected, even by the sovereign Lord of all. They were like those who want to break God’s bands apart (Psalm 2:3). The poor were weak, the rich were willful, and so neither group did its duty.

Fourth, the prophet names some specific sins that they were clearly guilty of, sins that cried out to heaven for judgment. Their sins were many, of many kinds, and repeated often. Their backslidings grew worse and worse; they kept adding to them and became bolder in them (Jeremiah 5:6). But two sins stood out as especially serious.

One was their spiritual unfaithfulness, giving to idols the honor that belongs to God alone. “Your children have forsaken me,” God says, meaning those who were born and dedicated under him and brought up by him. They had sworn by those who are not gods, making their appeal to them as if they were all-knowing and their rightful judges. This stands for every act of worship that belongs only to God, yet was given to idols. They had sworn themselves to them, joined themselves to them, and made a covenant with them. Those who forsake God make a bad choice when they turn to gods that are no gods.

The other was their bodily unfaithfulness.

Because they had abandoned God and served idols, he gave them over to shameful desires. Those who dishonored him were left to dishonor themselves and their own families. They committed adultery in a brazen way, without shame or fear of punishment. They gathered in groups at the houses of prostitutes and did not blush to be seen by one another in such wicked places.

Their lust was so bold and violent, so unwilling to be restrained, and so eager to be satisfied, that they became like beasts (Jeremiah 5:8). Like well-fed horses, they lusted after one another’s wives, as Jeremiah 5:8 says. When people give themselves over to uncontrolled desire, they sink to the level of brute animals. Such sins are ugly and hateful.

What made their sin worse was that they misused God’s gifts. When they were filled and had plenty, their lusts grew even fiercer. Fullness of food became fuel for the fires of Sodom’s sin. Luxury feeds lust. Fasting and self-denial would help tame this evil desire, which is full of deadly poison, and bring the body under control.

God then warns of his wrath against them for their wickedness and for the open corruption throughout the land. A foreign enemy would break in, take control, and lay waste to the country, as if wild beasts had overrun it. The enemy would be like a lion in the forest, strong, fierce, and unstoppable, and he would kill them. He would be like a wolf of the evening, coming out hungry at night to seize prey, terrible in his cruelty and hunger. He would also be like a leopard, swift, cruel, and careful not to miss his victim.

The enemy army would watch their cities so closely that the people would face a terrible choice, if they stayed inside, they would starve; if they went out, they would be cut down. “Everyone who goes out from there shall be torn in pieces,” which shows that in many places the enemy would show no mercy. And all this bloody judgment came because of the great number of their sins. Sin brings great slaughter.

God then appeals to them about the justice of this punishment. “Shall I not punish for these things?” he asks. Can they really think that the God whose name is Jealous, meaning he fiercely guards his honor and his covenant, would leave such idolatry unpunished, or that a God of pure holiness would overlook such filthy sin? These things must be answered for, or else God’s rule would lose its honor and his law would be treated with contempt. Otherwise, sinners might begin to think God is just like them, which goes against the witness of conscience that says those who do such things deserve death (Romans 1:32).

When God punishes sin, Scripture says he “visits” it, or investigates it. That means he carefully weighs the case before he gives judgment. Sinners should expect punishment because God is holy, and sin deeply offends him, and because God is just, and sin leaves us guilty before him. That is why he says, “Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?” It is not only God’s word, but his very soul, that calls for vengeance. He also has national judgments to answer national sins. A nation like this cannot go on forever without punishment.

“How can I pardon you for this?” he says (Jeremiah 5:7). That does not mean that no one who committed these sins can ever find mercy with God for eternal life. Manasseh himself did, even though he had helped much in the evil of those times. But nations, as nations, are judged only in this life. So it would not honor God to let such a wicked nation go on without clear signs of his displeasure.