YHWH Is Seeking To Call His People Back To Their First-Love (Jeremiah 2:1-3).
YHWH now sums up His purpose for calling Jeremiah in terms of a restoration of His people to their wilderness first-love. He reminds them of those first heady days after their deliverance from bondage in Egypt and through the Reed Sea when they had sought Him enthusiastically, and had been holy to YHWH. At that stage YHWH had also promised them that He would regard them as His firstfruits, and see them as therefore untouchable by the nations.
We cannot agree with those who make these three verses introductory to what follows (we should rather see the whole call from Jeremiah 1:4 to Jeremiah 2:3 as introductory). Rather they complete what was involved with Jeremiah's call. This is made clear by the repeated ‘the word of YHWH came to me saying' for the fourth time (compare Jeremiah 1:4; Jeremiah 1:11; Jeremiah 1:13). The section Jeremiah 2:4 onwards commences with ‘Hear you the word of YHWH O house of Jacob', the first of six such introductory phrases (see below on Jeremiah 2:4).
‘And the word of YHWH came to me, saying,'
Jeremiah commences by pointing out once again for the fourth time that what he is describing is the very ‘word of YHWH'. He wants them to recognise that he is not speaking from his own wisdom but as the mouthpiece of God.
“Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem,
Saying, Thus says YHWH,
I remember for you the kindness of your youth,
The love of your espousals,
How you went after me in the wilderness,
“In a land that was not sown.”
He points out that YHWH has commanded him to go and proclaim the word of YHWH in the ears of the people of Jerusalem. And what was that word? It was that YHWH looked back and remembered what they (ideally) had been. He remembered how after the rebirth of the nation they had for a time sought YHWH as a young maiden in love seeks her lover, full of kind thoughts and love towards Him, and how in spite of the fact that they were in a barren infertile wilderness where it was not possible to grow crops, they had ‘gone after Him', following Him and desiring to maintain their relationship with Him. This mainly has in mind their ‘engagement period' between leaving Egypt and arriving at Sinai, where their marriage covenant with YHWH would be finally sealed. During that period, in spite of a few hiccups resulting from the new hardships that they were then facing in the semi-desert, they had sought Him with all their hearts as they rejoiced in their new found freedom, so that as they approached Sinai it was with a while-hearted commitment as summed up in Exodus 19:5-6. And even later, in spite of many further hiccups, the time in the wilderness had been a time of seeking YHWH, for although they had often gone astray, falling out with Him as wives will, they had always returned and come back to Him in loving submission (through necessity if not through inclination). They had thus initially arrived on the borders of Canaan relatively free from idolatry.
This is a reminder that the wilderness period, especially the early part, was always looked back on as the time of an especially close relationship between YHWH and His people, a time before they became caught up in the sophistication of Canaan. It is also a reminder to us that for us also it is often the ‘wilderness experience' that renews our faltering love for God at times when the attractions of the world have caused us to stumble and turn from Him to other things. And it is also a reminder of how important it is for us to maintain the flame of our first-love, lest we become like the Ephesian church which, having lost its first love, would have its lamp of witness removed from its place (Revelation 2:4).
“Israel was holiness to YHWH,
The first-fruits of his increase,
All who devour him will be held guilty,
Evil will come on them,
The word of YHWH (neum YHWH).”
During that period in the wilderness up to Sinai Israel had been seen by YHWH as ‘holy to Him', as His own special people (Exodus 19:5-6) who were separated off to Him for His own purposes, and as His firstfruits of the blessing that was to come, for His plan was that through Israel the whole world would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). They were His initial people and His treasured possession (Exodus 19:5-6), and He had watched over them, determined to bring evil on any who sought to harm them, holding such as guilty before Him. This had been ‘neum YHWH', the word of YHWH that accomplishes what He pleases (Isaiah 55:10-13), in other words His firm and assured fixed determination clearly enunciated.
‘Holiness unto YHWH.' In the words of Exodus 19:6 they were His ‘holy nation', a holiness which was exemplified on the head piece of the High Priest as the representative of Israel (Exodus 28:36; Exodus 39:30). They were ‘the people of His holiness' (Isaiah 63:18), the people set apart by Himself in order that they too might be holy and separated off to Him (Leviticus 11:44-45; Leviticus 19:2; Leviticus 20:26).
‘The firstfruits of His increase.' The firstfruits were the first produce of the soil or yield from the land and belonged exclusively to YHWH (Exodus 23:19; Numbers 8:8, etc.). It was His treasured possession. YHWH was thus in the future looking for a good harvest of righteous people (‘His increase'), and saw in primitive Israel their beginnings (‘the firstfruits'). For anyone to partake of the firstfruits who was not a sanctified priest was to commit blasphemy. Thus in the same way, those who offended against (devoured) YHWH's firstfruits would become guilty, and evil would come on them. It had been a guarantee of their safety, which they had subsequently forfeited as a result of their idolatry, which was why they were now in their present position.
So the call of Jeremiah had been determined by God before His birth, was in order to bring His word to Israel and confirm that it would be successful, included one of judgment if they continued to refuse to listen to His words, and was to seek to bring the people back to their first-love. YHWH yearned over those who had once been His. Compare His tender words in Hosea 2:14-23; Hosea 11:1; Hosea 11:3-4.