Jeremiah 5:10 - Meaning and Application

We may notice here the sin of this people, on which their sentence of destruction rests. God rejects them and appoints them for ruin in Jeremiah 5:10, but there is a clear reason for it. They had turned away from God’s law, as Jeremiah 5:11 says. The house of Israel and the house of Judah, though often at odds with each other, both dealt very treacherously with God. They abandoned his worship, broke their covenant with him, turned from him, and lived as hypocrites before him.

They also mocked God’s judgments and called his warnings lies, as Jeremiah 5:12-13 says. They were told again and again that disaster would come, that sword or famine would strike them. Still, they felt safe and said, “We will have peace, even if we keep going this way.” They did not fear what God is. They denied him and went against even the light of nature, saying, “It is not he,” meaning, “He is not what we have been told. He does not see, does not care, or will not hold us accountable. So no harm will come to us.” Many people are ruined because they are led to think God will not be as strict as his word says. That was the first lie Satan used, “You will not surely die.” Vain hopes of escaping punishment are one of the main supports of sin.

They also did not fear what God said. The prophets warned them plainly, but they brushed it off as if it were only talk. They treated the message as something the prophets said out of habit, or from sorrow, or from anger against the nation. Sinners do not want to admit that anything is truly God’s word if it condemns their sin or disturbs their peace in it. They even threatened the prophets, saying they would vanish like wind and that the same fate should come to them. If the prophets frightened them with famine, they said, let the prophets be fed with hardship. If they warned about the sword, let the prophets die by the sword. In this way, mocking and abusing God’s messengers filled up their guilt.

Now comes the punishment for this sin. The warnings they laughed at will be carried out, as Jeremiah 5:14 says. Because they spoke contemptuously about the prophets and their message, God would honor both the prophets and their words. Not one word would fail. God turns to Jeremiah, who had been mocked and may have felt hurt by it, and says, “I will make my words in your mouth like fire.” Even if people deny the message, God claims it as his own and will make it work as surely as fire burns dry wood. The word will be fire, and the people will be wood. By sin, people make themselves fuel for the wrath of God, which is revealed against all ungodliness and wickedness. God’s word will always be stronger than those who fight against it. Those who will not bow before it will break.

The enemy they thought they had nothing to fear from would also come upon them. God gives the command in Jeremiah 5:10: “Go up on her walls and destroy them.” Stone walls are no match for a divine order. Once the enemy has taken the walls, they may destroy at will. God says they may tear down her battlements and leave her fortified cities open, because those battlements are not the Lord’s. They were not built in fear of him or in trust of him. The people trusted their walls more than God, so God would not own them or protect them. When a city is full of sin, God does not support its defenses, and then they are as weak as paper. What can defend us if God, who is our defense and the defender of all our defenses, has gone from us?

God says, “I will bring a nation against you, house of Israel” (Jeremiah 5:15). He has all nations under his command and uses them as he wills. At times he sends heathen nations as a scourge on Israel when Israel has become a hypocritical nation. Here the Chaldeans are described as a far-off nation, brought from a distance so they will take greater spoil and stay longer. They are a nation the people had not dealt with before, so they could not expect mercy from them. God can bring trouble on us from places and causes that seem very far away. They are a mighty and ancient nation, proud of their strength and their age. They are a nation whose language you do not know, which would make peace talks difficult, as in (2 Kings 18:26). This also matches the warning in (Deuteronomy 28:49), showing that the law and the prophets agree exactly.

They are well armed. “Their quiver is like an open grave,” because their arrows bring death and destruction wherever they go. They are strong, able men, fully fit for war (Jeremiah 5:16). After they conquer the land, they will devour everything before them and take as their own whatever they can seize (Jeremiah 5:17). They will not just take food for need, but will strip the land bare and fill their soldiers with the rich produce of this fertile country. They will eat up your harvest in the field and your bread in the house, the food your sons and daughters should have eaten. It is a comfort to see our children fed by the work we have provided for them. It is a bitter grief to see strangers and enemies consume it instead, while those dear to us suffer want. This too matches the curse of the law (Deuteronomy 28:33).

“They will eat up your flocks and herds, the very animals from which you have taken sacrifices for your idols. They will leave you no fruit from your vines or fig trees.” They will also starve your towns. “They will impoverish your fortified cities,” and what protection is there against poverty when it comes like an armed man? These were the cities you trusted would protect the countryside. It is right for God to strip of wealth whatever we make our confidence. The sword will cut off supplies, block trade, and shut down commerce, and even fortified cities will be left poor.

There is also a tender mercy here. The enemy is given power to destroy and lay waste, but not to make a complete end, Jeremiah 5:10. Though they will kill many, some must be left alive. Though they will plunder much, something must remain for the survivors to live on. God has already said, “I will not make a full end with you” (Jeremiah 5:18), and that acts as a firm limit to the present ruin. If God will not allow a full end, the enemy cannot bring one. God keeps mercy in store for his people, so he sets boundaries on this judgment. It will go this far, and no farther.

God is also shown to be just in these actions. Since he will be seen as gracious in not destroying them completely, he will also be seen as righteous in bringing them so close to ruin, and it must be clear that he has done them no wrong, Jeremiah 5:19. The people will ask, in a proud and accusing way, “Why does the Lord our God do all this to us? What have we done to deserve it? What quarrel does he have with us?” As if a people so sinful needed to search for a cause. Hardened hearts are quick to accuse God of unfairness in their troubles, and they act as if the reason for their suffering is hard to find, when it is plain to see.

The prophet must answer them at once. God will be proved right when he speaks, even when his words are filled with fear. He must tell them that God is acting against them because of what they have done against him, and that they can read their sin in their punishment if they choose. They know they have abandoned God, so why should they think it strange that he has abandoned them? They had served other gods in their own land, the good land that God gave them, and in the plenty of that land they should have served him with glad hearts. So is it not right for God to make them serve strangers in a foreign land, where nothing will belong to them, just as he warned in Deuteronomy 28:47-48? Those who were eager for strangers can go to strangers.