YHWH's Response To Jeremiah's Plea Is Of The Absolute Certainty And Awfulness Of The Coming Judgment (Jeremiah 15:1-9).
In the face of Jeremiah's plea YHWH now makes clear that nothing can now stop His judgment from coming. Even though those two great intercessors Moses and Samuel were to pray for them it would be of no avail. (Compare for this Exodus 32:11-13; Numbers 14:13-20; 1 Samuel 7:8-9; 1 Samuel 12:23). Whatever is their allotted end must now come upon them, with the result that Judah will be ‘tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth' as though they were a ball being tossed around in training. And all this was because of what Manasseh did in Jerusalem. It must not, however be thought that it was all because of one man. The point is rather that the nation had responded to Manasseh gladly, following his lead assiduously. It was what resulted from the people as a result of what Manasseh did that was the root cause of the problem. Had Manasseh been alone in his sin the situation would not have arisen. That is why Jeremiah then makes clear that it is the people as a whole who have rejected YHWH, and because of whom this judgment is necessary. For as YHWH explains, although He had made every effort to bring them back to Himself by various methods, all had failed. Whatever He had done to them they had not returned from their ways. That is why wholesale death and captivity was the only possible answer.
‘Then YHWH said to me,
“Though Moses and Samuel stood before me,
Yet my mind would not be toward this people,
Cast them out of my sight,
And let them go forth.”
YHWH has twice told Jeremiah not to pray for good for Judah any more (Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 14:11). Now He explains that even if Moses and Samuel were to intercede for them in His very Dwellingplace (to stand before God' was to approach Him in His Dwelling place, either the Tabernacle or the Temple) His mind would not turn favourably towards His people. Jeremiah was thus, as it were, to cast them out of His sight (out of the Temple where they were no longer welcome), and to cause them to go forth from the land.
Moses and Samuel were seen as the two great intercessors who had prevailed in prayer for God's people when they had least deserved it (see Psalms 99:6):
· Moses at the time of the worship of the golden calf when YHWH had proposed destroying the people and beginning again (Exodus 32:11-13) and then when the people had rejected the advice of the two scouts, Joshua and Caleb, about obeying YHWH and going ahead with the invasion of Canaan, when His proposal had been the same.
· Samuel in the face of the invasion by the Philistines (1 Samuel 7:8-9), and then when the people had rejected YHWH as their King because they wanted a human being to fight their battles for them (1 Samuel 12, especially Jeremiah 15:19-21).
But even these great intercessors could not have helped Judah in their present predicament. Their corporate sin was a sin too far. YHWH's mind had thus turned away from them and He wanted them cast out, both from the Temple and from the land, as He had warned would be the case in Numbers 18:25; Numbers 18:28.
“And it will come about that, when they say to you, ‘Where shall we go forth?', then you will tell them,”
“Thus says YHWH,
Such as are for death, to death,
And such as are for the sword, to the sword,
And such as are for the famine, to the famine,
And such as are for captivity, to captivity.”
Nor was their casting out to be a pleasant experience, for it was intended to teach them a salutary lesson. Thus when they asked, ‘where will we go forth' the reply was not in respect of their geographical destination, but in terms of the fates that awaited them. Those destined for a quick death through some means, would die. Probably pestilence was mainly in mind for pestilence, sword and famine are regularly mentioned together (Jeremiah 14:12; Jeremiah 21:6-7; Jeremiah 21:9; Jeremiah 24:10; and often. See also Job 27:15). Those who were destined to die by the sword would die by the sword. Those who were destined to waste away in the famine, would waste away in the famine. And those who were destined for captivity would go into captivity.
“And I will appoint over them four kinds, the word of YHWH,
The sword to slay, and the dogs to tear,
And the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the earth,
To devour and to destroy.”
Furthermore YHWH had appointed four kinds of executioners, the sword to slay, the dogs to tear at the carcasses (as they had that of Jezebel - 2 Kings 9:35-36), the scavenger birds to peck at the remains, and the beastly scavengers to finish off what was left. Nothing was seen as worse by people of that time than to have one's body a prey to scavengers after death (see 2 Samuel 21:10; Ezekiel 39:17-20; compare 1 Samuel 31:12), but that was to be the fate of Judah.
“And I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.”
Those who survived would also find themselves in trouble. They would be ‘tossed to and fro' among the kingdoms of the earth. No one would want them (compare Deuteronomy 28:25 where they were to be ‘a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth'). And it would be because of the wholesale idolatry that Manasseh had introduced in Jerusalem. But the thought is not that they were being punished for the sins of Manasseh, but that they were being punished because they had connived with Manasseh in his sins. Hezekiah had sought to purify Jerusalem and Judah, but the people had been only too glad when Manasseh had led them back into the old ways. They had cooperated fully.
“For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask after your welfare?”
In consequence no one will have pity on Jerusalem Their future isolation is emphasised threefold. None will have pity on Jerusalem and its people. None will be sad because of their fate. None would be concerned about their welfare. They would be ‘on their own' with no one caring for them.
“You have rejected me, the word of YHWH, you are gone backwards, therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you. I am weary with repenting.”
And this was because of what they had done. They had rejected YHWH, that was ‘the verdict of YHWH'. And they had gone backwards, deserting His covenant. That was why He was stretching out His hand against them, and would destroy them. he was tired of changing His mind about judging them, only for them to re-sin again and again.
“And I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land, I have bereaved them of children, I have destroyed my people, they did not return from their ways.”
It was not that He had made no attempt to get them to alter their ways. He had sought to remove their chaff (winnowed them with a winnowing fork, tossing them as it were as grain into the air for the wind to remove the chaff) either by seeking to ensure justice in the gates of the land (where the local courts of justice would meet), or possibly by enemies attacking their cities where the gates would be the prime target. He had allowed their children (whether young or old) to die in differing ways, hoping that this would wake them up to their sins. (Nothing brings men closer to considering God than a death in the family). He had brought destruction on them hoping that when His judgments were in the land the people would learn righteousness (Isaiah 26:9). But it had all been in vain. They had not returned from their ways. They had not sought to renew the covenant.
“Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas, I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday, I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.”
Such is to be the slaughter that the number of widows in the land will multiply ‘above the sands of the sea', a reversal of the promise made by God to Abraham that He would multiply his seed as the sand of the sea (Genesis 22:17). Mothers will see their sons of whom they were so proud destroyed by the destroyer ‘at noonday' (thus so remorseless that they come at the most unexpected time, in the heat of the sun), and will recognise that it is also coming on themselves. They will be filled with anguish and terror. And all this will happen suddenly and unexpectedly. (Alternately the ‘mother of the young men' may be Judah itself).
“She who has borne seven languishes, she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been put to shame and confounded, and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, the word of YHWH.”
The woman who had borne seven sons (a full complement) should have been able to have confidence that at least some would survive, but even she will mourn and languish, because all her sons will have been taken. Her giving up of the spirit probably signifies hopelessness or fainting. She will have given up any hope of their survival. Her sun going down while it was yet day signifies that all brightness will have been removed from her life because of the death of her whole family. Her sons would have gone forth to battle with such great hopes, and supported by the pride of their mother at the thought of their success, only for her to be ashamed and confounded at the terrible news of defeat and death. And any who did survive would only survive in order to become further battle fodder for the sword. It was death all round of the bravest and the best. This was the assured word of YHWH.