BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

The people of Judah have a problem: Their affairs with Canaanite idols have filled the land with violence, corruption, and chaos. In today’s reading, Jeremiah tries to warn the Southern Kingdom that their actions will bring severe consequences. He uses intense imagery to startle them out of their adulterous apathy.

Apocalyptic disaster will march down from the north, the prophet warns. It stalks the world like a lion, pouncing on nations and tearing them apart. It howls like a wild desert wind. Its warhorses plunge forward like eagles diving for prey, chariots kicking up a storm of dust behind them. Jeremiah hears the blast of its trumpets and weeps.

Jeremiah sees more than an invading army when he looks north. He sees his world’s very foundations give way. The mountains teeter unsteadily on their granite feet. The lush, green plants carpeting the land will shrivel and fall, leaving a barren desert in their wake. The skies blacken to a gaping void that bears down on the empty world. Nothing remains but wild and waste—the pre-creation state of emptiness and chaos described in Genesis 1.

Not even the end of the world gets the Israelites’ attention. They close their eyes and ears to Jeremiah’s grim message. They instead choose to listen to false prophets and their flattering chorus of positive assessments, always promising prosperity and peace, when neither is real.

The fiction of the false prophets is simple and cheap, easily molded to provide comfort. Truth is complex and costly, often exposing uncomfortable realities. Fake news was as popular back then as it is today. The false prophets craved the social favor they could gain by falsely comforting people with positive-sounding fiction. What will it take for the people to turn their attention away from falsehood, toward the truth God is speaking through his prophetic messenger?

Reflection Questions

• Jeremiah’s call for the Israelites to circumcise their hearts echoes Moses’ final sermon to the Israelites in Deuteronomy. Look back over Deuteronomy 30:1-10. How does this passage help you understand Jeremiah’s plea for repentance in today’s reading?
• Compare Jeremiah 5:1-6 to Genesis 18:16-33. What similarities do you notice? Where are the two passages different? What does this hyperlink reveal about the state of Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s day?