The People Cry To YHWH In Their Distress (Jeremiah 14:7-9).
Things had come to such a pass with the effects of the droughts that the people began to visit the Temple in droves and call on YHWH. Of course, it had not been so to begin with. They had initially engaged in their usual antics in the high places on the mountains and in the cities, offering incense and seeking to stimulate the gods with their sexual activities, being confident that they would receive a response. But year after year no answer had come. The drought had continued, and at length they were brought to realise that this must be YHWH's doing. That was why they now turned to YHWH, and why He was so sickened by their approach. For He knew that they had come to Him, not because they wanted to seek His face, but because they had reached an impasses where there was nowhere else for them to turn. He was simply the last resort.
‘Though our iniquities testify against us,
Do you work for your name's sake, O YHWH,
For our backslidings are many,
We have sinned against you.'
It is regularly at times of national emergency that men and women seek God, for then there is nowhere else to look. It was so then. It is so now. And then when the emergency is past they conveniently forget Him again. But God was not deceived, even though they gave every appearance of genuineness. They admitted that their sins testified against them, and confessed their sinfulness. They even admitted to the many times that they had backslidden in the past (while making no promises for the future). And they asked YHWH to work ‘for His Name's sake', in other words, in order to demonstrate that He was still their covenant God Whom they could turn to when all else failed. Sadly they saw Him as the God of last resort.
‘O you hope of Israel,
Its Saviour in the time of trouble,
Why should you be as a sojourner in the land,
And as a traveller who turns aside to stay for a night?
They acknowledged now that they recognised Him as ‘the hope of Israel' (something that had been slipping their mind for years) and as their ‘Saviour in time of trouble' (when all else failed and everyone else to whom they had been giving glory let them down). Both thoughts would, of course, have been true if they had been faithful to Him. But addressed to One Whom they had forgotten for years it had a hollow ring to it. Then they asked Him why He should act like a passing traveller, or a resident alien, when surely Jerusalem was His dwellingplace. It was language designed to flatter or to persuade YHWH of what was His duty because He was the God of Israel. There was no genuine repentance or submission in it. They wanted Him while it was convenient and there was a drought to get rid of.
‘Why should you be as a frightened (or bewildered) man,
As a mighty man who cannot save?
Yet you, O YHWH, are in the midst of us,
And we are called by your name. Do not desert us.'
They then called on Him to reveal His true worth in positive action, and to demonstrate that He was not inadequate. Let Him stand up and be counted. Let Him act and prove Himself. Surely He was not like a coward who held back from acting, or like a mighty man who was in no position to save because of his own insufficiency? Surely He was not that inadequate?
Then they pointed out that it was He Who dwelt among them and that they were called by His Name. Were they not said to be YHWH's people? Surely then it was His responsibility to save them, and prove Himself at the same time. And it was on that basis they called on Him not to desert them. But as will be noted, while there was a lot of attempt at persuasion, and at putting YHWH under an obligation, they said nothing about their obligations, or their returning to the covenant and beginning to walk in obedience to Him. Their prayers were mainly flannel as a last desperate hope. They were playing Him like a musician plays his stringed instrument.