Because Of Their Refusal To Respond To His ‘Shaping' He Will Now ‘Shape' Evil Against Them Unless They Now Repent. His Offer Being Turned Down God Calls On The Nations To Be Astonished Witnesses Of Their Perfidy, Something Which Will Result In Their Destruction (Jeremiah 18:11-17).
The lesson of the Potter's house was that YHWH had given His people every hope for the future if only they would but repent. But in view of the fact that they refuse to do so He now declares that He will apply His Pottery skills to shaping evil against them. As a consequence He calls on the nations to be a witness to their perfidy, drawing out the fact that the seemingly impossible has happened in that His people, contrary to what is to be seen as true in nature, have rejected YHWH's spiritual provision and have turned to what is false, thus making themselves a spectacle to the nations and a target for God's judgments.
“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
The word that Jeremiah was to speak was the word of YHWH to both the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to both countryside and city.
Thus says YHWH,
Behold, I frame evil against you,
And devise a scheme against you,
Return you now every one from his evil way,
And amend your ways and your doings.”
His warning was that He would use His Pottery skills to ‘shape' evil against them. (the root of the verb is the same as that for ‘the Potter'), and to ‘think a thought' (devise a scheme) against them, unless each of them now returned from his evil way, resulting in them amending their ways and their doings. Note the individual plea within the general demand. As always there would be a true remnant who would respond. They represented the true Israel.
“But they say, ‘It is a waste of time (‘it is hopeless'), for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart' ”
The words put in the mouths of the people is expressing the truth of their situation in God's eyes rather than what they actually say. They almost certainly did not see themselves as ‘stubborn in consequence of the evil of their hearts'. They probably thought rather that Jeremiah was being unreasonable.
But YHWH declares that their actual response indicates what they are really thinking, and that is that God and Jeremiah are wasting their time in trying to get them to repent. The wording is expressive, ‘it is noash' (‘it's no use, it is hopeless' - see its use in Jeremiah 2:25; Isaiah 57:10). And it was hopeless because of the stubbornness of their evil hearts, which meant that they were not prepared to listen to God but would choose rather to walk according to their own devices. Their heels were dug in against obeying God because they were sinful and obstinate, something equally reflected in our own day.
“Therefore thus says YHWH,
Ask you now among the nations. Who has heard such things?
The virgin of Israel has done a very dreadful thing.”
YHWH then calls on all observers to ask among the nations whether they have ever heard of such things as the behaviour of Israel/Judah. Let them recognise that ‘the virgin of Israel' has done a very dreadful thing. The contrast between ‘virgin' and ‘dreadful thing' is deliberate in order to bring out the greatness of her sin. For a virgin to lose her virginity outside of marriage in those days was a terrible thing (even though the menfolk did not feel the same about themselves). The description ‘virgin of Israel' looks back to the period when Israel/Judah were pure in the wilderness immediately after leaving Egypt. At that stage their ways had been pure and they had not been involved in idolatry. It may well also be that in their better times, when they had at times refrained from idolatry they had actually gained a jeering reputation among their neighbours as ‘the virgin of Israel' because of their seeming fastidiousness.
But now the virgin of Israel has done a dreadful thing, she has turned away from the true source of her spiritual life (Jeremiah 2:12-13 - note the same shocked tone there) and has consorted with idols and their sexually depraved worship. She has lost her spiritual virginity. For a similar idea to that of Judah as ‘the virgin of Israel' compare Jeremiah 2:2-3; Jeremiah 6:2; Jeremiah 14:17; Isaiah 1:8. She is being pictured in her initial purity when her whole heart was set on YHWH (Exodus 19:5-6).
“Will the snow of Lebanon fail from the rocky surface of the mountainside (‘field')?
Will the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?
Her falling away from the source of her spiritual life, her well-spring of living water, and the seeming impossibility of it actually occurring is put in vivid terms. It is to be seen as being rationally impossible, in the same way as it would be rationally impossible for the snows of the mountains of Lebanon not to provide refreshing streams down their rolling slopes. It is as unlikely as the cold waters from Mount Hermon (from afar, outside the land) failing to feed the Jordan (within the land) because (impossibly) they have dried up, or the Sudanese mountains failing to feed the Nile for the same reason.
“For my people have forgotten me,
They have burned incense to what is false,
And they have been made to stumble in their ways,
In the ancient paths,
To walk in bypaths,
In a way not built (cast) up.”
But the shocking and dreadful thing is that that is precisely what the virgin of Israel has done. They have forgotten YHWH, the source of their spiritual life, and have gone after other supposed sources of life. They have burned incense to what is false, they have been made to stumble in their ways by the attractions of idolatry, they have left the security of the built up high road and have chosen the ancient paths, the rough by-paths which have not been upraised and are not safe. (The King's Highway, the main trade route east of Jordan, and other similar roads, were built up so as to be a raised causeway above their surrounds).
“To make their land an astonishment,
And a perpetual hissing,
Every one who passes by it will be astonished,
And they will shake his head.”
And as a result Judah have made their land something to be astonished at because of their folly, something to be permanently hissed at (like the villain in a fairy tale), so that everyone who passes by will shake their heads in astonishment, and ask, how could they have done such a thing?
“I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy,
I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.”
And as a consequence YHWH will bring their enemy against them like an east wind, a wind that sears and burns like the parching east wind from the desert (compare Jonah 4:8; Psalms 48:7; Isaiah 27:8). And when He does this, and they cry to Him for help as the calamity comes on them, He will turn His back on them, showing His back and not His face, in the same way as they had previously done to Him (Jeremiah 2:27). (To have His face turned towards them would have indicated that He was there to assist them).