YHWH Informs Jeremiah That He Will No Longer Hear His People But Rather Intends To Continue To Visit Them with the Sword And With Famine (Jeremiah 14:11-18).
Once again we learn with something of a shock that God no longer wished Jeremiah to pray for His people (compare Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 11:14). The time when He would respond to prayer for them was past. Now only judgment awaited, judgment by sword, famine and pestilence. They had rebelled against Him once too often. It is a reminder to us that there does come a time when God has been so rejected that the time for mercy ceases, and only judgment awaits. We cannot go on putting Him off for ever.
A different story, however, was being taught by the false prophets. They were promising that YHWH would bring peace to Jerusalem. But YHWH assured Jeremiah that they had not been sent by Him and that what they were prophesying was lies. Indeed they too would experience the sword and the famine, along with the people. (This may well have been prophesied prior to the great famine described above). Meanwhile Jeremiah himself was to confirm that not only Jerusalem, but also the whole land, was soon to experience sword and famine.
‘And YHWH said to me,
Do not pray for this people for good,
When they fast, I will not hear their cry,
And when they offer burnt-offering and meal-offering,
I will not accept them,
But I will consume them by the sword,
And by the famine, and by the pestilence.
YHWH informs Jeremiah that he was not to pray for good to come to His people, for He would no longer hear such prayers. When they fasted He would not hear their cry, when they offered their burnt offerings and cereal offerings He would not accept them, for their hearts were not right and they were not coming to Him in restored obedience to His covenant. Intercession for them would thus no longer be successful, for His intention was to consume them by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. These were three of the curses which were threatened for breach of the covenant. See Leviticus 26:19-20; Leviticus 26:25; Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 28:21-24; Deuteronomy 28:49-52. The three regularly went together, as well as occurring independently. War would bring famine, and famine would bring pestilence, or they could occur independently.
‘Then said I, “Ah, Lord YHWH! Behold, the prophets say to them, You will not see the sword, nor will you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.”
Jeremiah then points out that many prophets claiming to speak in the name of YHWH were promising the people that neither sword nor famine would come on them, but that they would have assured peace ‘in this place'. There are never lacking those who will promise fair weather ahead, and who dismiss ideas of God's severity against sin, and there were plenty such in the final days of Judah before disaster came on them, as there had been previously in the days of Micah 3:8-11. It was, of course, a popular message and one that the people wanted to hear, and made life very difficult for Jeremiah with his constant warnings of judgment. It was such prophets whose urgings were responsible for the final fatal rebellion against Babylon.
‘Then YHWH said to me,
“The prophets prophesy lies in my name,
I sent them not,
Nor have I commanded them,
Nor did I speak to them,
They prophesy to you a lying vision,
And divination,
And a thing of nought,
And the deceit of their own heart.”
YHWH's reply is comprehensive as He describes the activities of such prophets, many involving methods condemned by the covenant. He declared that what these prophets were declaring in His name were lies, and that they were not prophets who had been sent by Him, or who had been commanded by Him, or who had heard His voice speaking to them (note the threefold rebuttal), for He had not spoken to them. They were thus not authorised to speak in His name. What they prophesied was a lying vision, which included what they learned from divination which was forbidden by the Law. It was a nonsense, a thing of nought, arising from their being taken up with ‘no-gods' (as many are today), and it arose from the deceit within their own hearts.
“Therefore thus says YHWH concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land.' By sword and famine will those prophets be consumed.”
Such prophets were declaring that ‘the sword and famine will not be found in this land'. But the truth was that those prophets would themselves experience the sword and the famine.
“And the people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and they will have none to bury them - them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them.”
And not only would the false prophets experience it, but also the sinful people of Jerusalem. There would be massive slaughter and large numbers of deaths as a result of famine and sword, so that the bodies would be thrown out into the streets with none to bury them. And this would happen to all, to the menfolk, to their wives, and to their sons and daughters because He would pour out on them the punishment for their many sins. This no doubt partially occurred during the droughts described above as people died of malnourishment, but it would be multiplied over and over again when the invaders arrived.
“And you shall say this word to them,
‘Let my eyes run down with tears night and day,
And let them not cease,
For the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach,
With a very grievous wound.' ”
Jeremiah is to appeal to the people on the basis of his own grief for them. He is to bring home to them that his eyes run with tears day and night because of what is coming on his people. Here was no hardened, denunciating prophet, but a prophet whose love reached out longingly on behalf of his people, even though he knew that there was no hope for them. Right to the end they would have no excuse for their failure to respond from the heart to YHWH.
But the reason for his tears was the terrible wound that was about to be inflicted on Judah, a great breach that would break them. And this is made all the more terrible by his description of them as ‘the virgin daughter of my people', a description which brings out their helplessness in the face of such a fearsome enemy (compare Jeremiah 6:2; Jeremiah 8:11; Jeremiah 8:19). The pathos is underlined by the fact that this is what they should have been, a pure daughter, untarnished and untouched. The irony comes out in that they were far from that, having adulterated themselves with idols.
‘If I go forth into the open country (field),
Then, behold, the slain with the sword!
And if I enter into the city,
Then, behold, those who are sick with famine!
For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land,
And have no knowledge.'
Jeremiah looks ahead and describes the vision of the future that YHWH has given him. Wherever he goes he will find nothing but death. When he goes into the open country all he will find will be bodies slain with the sword. When he enters the besieged cities he will find nothing but famine and need. There is much sickness because of famine. In contrast when the priests and the prophets go about the land they see nothing of this. For they are without the knowledge of what YHWH is going to do. They are oblivious to the future. They ‘go about the land and know not'.