Jer 3:1-8 Israel Committed Adultery… Judah… Played the Harlot Also

[Study Aired January 17, 2021]

Jer 3:1  They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:2  Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
Jer 3:3  Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
Jer 3:4  Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?
Jer 3:5  Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.
Jer 3:6  The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
Jer 3:7  And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
Jer 3:8  And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

This chapter begins with no distinction between the two stages of our growth. Those two stages are nepios (infants) and uihos (a more mature child). Even as God’s “very elect” we are all, to begin with, “carnal babes (Greek: ‘nepios’) in Christ”. However, the Lord knew who we were “before the world began”:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes [Greek: ‘nepios’] in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

We all struggle to understand how it is possible to be a “carnal… babe in Christ” and yet that is a very clear Biblical doctrine, which bears much on our study today inasmuch as we are all “uder the law” at the beginning of our walk with the Lord.

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, [Made under the law of the woman, Babylon the Great]

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

The early church of Christ, the apostles themselves, were all first spiritual ‘nepios’ still living “under the law”, just as most ‘Christians’ are until this very day. The entire Christian world lives under the bondage of Babylon, paying an unscriptural tithe, observing days, months, times and years, and are therefore living under the law, which the holy spirit calls “the elements of the world”:

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child [Greek: G3516 ‘nepios’, Samaria, Ahola], differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father [Eph 2:11-22].
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children [nepios], were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son [G5207: ‘uihos’], made of a woman, made under the law, [made a nepios]
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons [‘uihothesia’].
Gal 4:6  And because ye are sons [uihos], God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son [uihos] into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Gal 4:7  Wherefore thou art no more a servant [G1401: doulos], but a son [uihos]; and if a son [uihos], then an heir of God through Christ.

Just as Paul first addresses the Corinthians as “carnal babes in Christ”, so we are addressed as the harlot we all just naturally are as “carnal babes in Christ”, even after becoming the Lord’s wife:

Jer 3:1  They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:2  Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
Jer 3:3  Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

The Lord will not be joined to a harlot, yet he has devised means whereby He causes us to repent of our whoredoms and return to Him as a “chaste virgin”:

Jer 3:11  And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
Jer 3:12  Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.
Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:14  Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

“Lift up your eyes… and see where you have not been lien with… you have a whore’s forehead, you refused to be ashamed”.  This statement expresses the same sentiment which has been expressed earlier in this prophecy:

Jer 2:19  Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

Jer 2:23  How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

Our flesh tires of being reminded of our shameful naked beginnings. Nevertheless “Know therefore and… see thy way… know what you have done…” is the theme of this entire prophecy, just as it is the theme of the entire Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. This constant reminder is from the Lord Himself who wants us to remember that “it is an evil thing and bitter that [we] have forsaken the Lord… and that [His healthy] fear is not in us” by nature, and that ‘healthy fear’ of our heavenly Father is given to us only through the fiery words of the prophecy of this book” (Rev 22:7) and by reminding us how easily we go right back to our own vomit and return not to Him, but we return to our own wallow in the mire.

Yes, I must remind us all that these words refer to each of us:

Pro 26:11  As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.

Isa 19:14  The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt [the whole world] to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.

Jer 48:26  Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab [Lot’s oldest son, our own flesh] also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them [you and me] according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. [“Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”, Mat 4:4]

These verses all just naturally sound repugnant to us, and well they should. We just naturally fail to see ourselves wallowing in our own vomit and our own mire. Needless to say, as this prophecy will demonstrate, just as the prophecy of Isaiah and the stories of the kings of Isaiah’s time demonstrate, the Lord wants us to see ourselves as worse than the nations around us [Aholibah], yet redeemed and purified through the fiery words which He has placed in our mouths.

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

It is all for a good purpose and for a good end, and reminding us from whence we are called is an important part of our calling and our commission in service to the Lord and His flock:

Jer 6:27  I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

That is exactly what this prophecy does, and that is exactly what all the Lord’s prophets are doing every time we remind us all that it is you and I who must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Deu 8:3  And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Luk 4:4  And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

This part of Jeremiah deals with us as being typified by two wives. Their names are “Israel… and her treacherous sister Judah” (Jer 3:7). Ezekiel speaks of the same two wives as “Aholah, and Aholibah”, and while Aholibah is the younger, she is pronounced as being far more wicked and far more unfaithful than her older sister, Aholah.

Eze 23:11  And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.

Eze 23:22  Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side.

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

Yet the Lord tells us that even Aholibah will repent, and our ‘nepios’ and our ‘uihos’ will be made “one new man” establishing His covenant with us:

Jer 30:8  For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:
Jer 30:9  But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king [Christ and His Christ], whom I will raise up unto them.
Jer 30:10  Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.
Jer 30:11  For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.
Jer 30:12  For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is [of yourself] incurable, and thy wound is [of yourself] grievous.
Jer 30:13  There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.
Jer 30:14  All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.
Jer 30:15  Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable [of yourself] for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.
Jer 30:16  Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.
Jer 30:17  For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.
Jer 30:18  Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap [upon the destruction of our old man], and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.
Jer 30:19  And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
Jer 30:20  Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them.
Jer 30:21  And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the LORD.
Jer 30:22  And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Jer 30:23  Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.
Jer 30:24  The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it [“beginning at the house of God”, Jer 25:18 and 1Pe 4:17].

The point being made is that we are being judged “in this present time” (Rom 8:18) and “the fierce anger of the Lord” is burning all the “wood, hay, and stubble” out of us so He can live in a purified temple “which temple [we] are”:

1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire [Jer 5:14 “This Word”]; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned [We all at first produce works of ‘wood, hay, and stubble’], he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

When I started this study, I thought the northern kingdom of ‘Israel’ with its capital of Samaria, was a type of our old man, and the southern kingdom of Judah typified our new man. Then I saw that both Israel and Judah are promised redemption, and I realized that the northern kingdom of Israel typifies us while we are under the law and in Babylon, thinking of ourselves as rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing. We were saying to ourselves:

Luk 18:11  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Judah, ‘Aholibah’ on the other hand typifies those who eventually see themselves as that publican who prayed:

Luk 18:13  And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

Jerusalem, in the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, is portrayed as this publican, as the worse of the two harlots and as “chief… of sinners”:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

The Lord is requiring the blood of all the prophets of “this generation”; the generation reading the words of the prophecy of this book.

Luk 11:49  Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
Luk 11:51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

Why, then, would we not confess to being “Aholibah… a sinner… the chief of sinners”:

Eze 23:1  The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
Eze 23:2  Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
Eze 23:3  And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.
Eze 23:4  And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah [H170], and Jerusalem Aholibah.

H170
אָהֳלָהּ    אָהֳלָה
‘ohŏlâh    ‘ohŏlâhh
o-hol-aw’, o-hol-aw’
The first form is in form a feminine of H168, but is in fact for the second form; from H168; her tent (that is, idolatrous sanctuary); Oholah, a symbolic name for Samaria: – Aholah.

H172
אָהֳלִיבָהּ    אָהֳלִיבָה
‘ohŏlı̂ybâh    ‘ohŏlı̂ybâhh
o”-hol-ee-baw’, o”-hol-e-baw’
(As with H170 the first form is in form a feminine of H168, but is in fact for the second form); from H168; my tent (is) in her; Oholibah, a symbolic name for Judah: – Aholibah.

These two women typify the two stages of the Lord’s work He is working within His elect. The first stage is that of a spiritual infant, living under the law, still offering the blood of bulls and goats, instead of “that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ” (Col 1:24). The second woman comes only through the ‘Tearing down of the middle wall of partition, and making of both one new man’ so making peace between Israel and Judah by giving up our childish ways of offering according to the law of Moses, as the apostles were still doing in Acts 15 and 21:

Act 15:20  But that we write unto them [those not under the law of Moses], that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. [Repentant ‘Aholibah’]
Act 15:21  For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day. [“carnal babe in Christ”, nepios, “under the elements of this world” immature ‘Aholah’]

Act 21:17  And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.
Act 21:18  And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.
Act 21:19  And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.
Act 21:20  And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law: [of Moses, ‘Ahola’]
Act 21:21  And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.
Act 21:22  What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.
Act 21:23  Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;
Act 21:24  Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law [of Moses].
Act 21:25  As touching the Gentiles which believe [Aholibah], we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.
Act 21:26  Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering [an animal blood offering according to the law of Moses] should be offered for every one of them.

It is few indeed who realize that these verses concerning events which took place in the church of Jesus Christ in the days of the apostles, decades after His death and resurrection, reveal the depth of the Truth of these words of our Lord:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

This was after Paul had spent three years at Damascus after his conversion. It was after spending another 13 years in Tarsus, and another several years traveling, first with Barnabas and then with Silas, making a total of three journeys throughout the entire western Mediterranean countries, and yet he and all the other apostles were still under the law of Moses, as physical Jews still offering the blood of animals as if the sacrifice of Christ were insufficient to atone for our sins.

That is where we all are when we are under the laws of Babylon: attending church on Sunday, keeping all the holidays of that harlot church, tithing to her false prophets, and still convinced that we must keep the laws of that harlot system, just as the apostles were still keeping the “carnal commandment[s]” of Moses:

Heb 7:16  Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

So it is with these two sisters, “the daughters of one mother”. That “one mother” is “the law… the elements of the world” (Gal 4:1-4).

In the book of Genesis, Christ is both the tree of life and also the fiery sword which guards the way of the Tree of Life. No man can get to that tree of life without going through that fiery sword. When we pass through that ‘fiery sword’ it will devour out of us all the “wood, hay, and stubble” of the “elements of the world”, which are the law of Moses as well as the law of the Gentiles:

Rom 2:14  For when the Gentiles, which have not the [carnal commandments of the] law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law [of carnal commandments] unto themselves:

In this prophecy, our time spent under the law is called the northern kingdom of Israel with its capital of Samaria, and through the miraculous work of the Lord, the wall that is between us and our brothers who are yet under the law is being dismantled as we and they come to see ourselves as those who have shed the blood of all the prophets… as worse even than our brothers in Babylon, and as “chief of sinners”.

This is where the New Testament apostles and the few who could receive these words were finally given to tear down the wall of partition between the two houses of Israel, and come together as one new man, so making peace within ourselves:

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of [our] works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The “good works [in] which God has ordained that we walk” includes the tearing down of the wall of partition, the laws of Moses and the law of the Gentiles, which is “between us”, and come to know the peace that accompanies knowing that we are all “His workmanship”:

Eph 2:11  Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Eph 2:17  And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
Eph 2:18  For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Eph 2:19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

In Christ there is no longer a wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles. There is no such thing as a spiritual chosen and a physical chosen. Christ is in the business of “making of twain one new man.” He is not making of twain, twain! Those who are still under the law are still in bondage and:

Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free

Gal 4:25  For this Agar [the bondwoman] is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

Jer 3:1  They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:2  Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

It was while we were “carnal babes in Christ… under the elements of this world”, thankful that we were so righteous and “not as other men” that the Lord contends with us:

Jer 3:3  Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
Jer 3:4  Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?
Jer 3:5  Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.

When we are being judged, it does indeed seem as though it will never come to an end. We tend to think that when we finally come to see ourselves as the Lord’s elect, then the hand of His judgments will subside, but the Truth is that that is when “judgment begins at the house of God”:

Jer 3:6  The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
Jer 3:7  And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
Jer 3:8  And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

It is manifested that Jacob deceitfully supplanted his brother Esau, and it is equally clear that King Saul is never in scripture accused of committing adultery and then the murder of the man with whose wife he committed adultery. Yet Jacob was loved, and Esau was hated, and King David is pronounced to be “a man better than [King Saul].

1Sa 15:28  And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.

These things happened to them, and they are written to admonish us to consider ourselves as guilty of the blood of all the prophets and the blood of our own Savior and the ‘chief of sinners’. Yet we are loved of the Lord, not because of ourselves, but in spite of the pit from whence we are dug, and which shameful origins the Lord wants us to remember.

Knowing what the Lord is doing does not exempt us from His judgments because:

Luk 12:48  But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

We are being prepared to rule this world and to judge angels. Preparation for such a high calling is indeed “a narrow way”, but the Lord has promised those who are His:

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That is our study for today, and these are our verses for our next study:

Jer 3:9  And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
Jer 3:10  And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:11  And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
Jer 3:12  Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.
Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:14  Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
Jer 3:15  And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Jer 3:16  And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.
Jer 3:17  At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.