1). YHWH's Word Against His People Warning Of His Coming Judgment Because They Have Not Heeded What He Has Done Against Jerusalem. The Remnant Who Have Escaped To Egypt Will Be Destroyed (2-14).
These words were seemingly delivered in the land of Pathros, where Jeremiah was apparently visiting the Jewish settlers (Jeremiah 44:15). Whether in fact it was a gathering of Jews from all over Egypt for a special festival we are not told, although it is quite possible, for his words have very much in mind those who had arrived with him from Judah, which suggests that they were present. At this time YHWH makes clear to the Jews through Jeremiah that they have made a foolish choice in coming to Egypt, a choice based, it will become apparent, on their disillusionment with Him, although really resulting from hearts set on idolatry and lacking in trust. He points out that they are simply behaving as their fathers have always done and must therefore expect similar judgments to those which came on their fathers.
‘Thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel. You have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwells in them, because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, which they did not know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.'
This verse sums up YHWH's charge against Israel and is introduced under His full grand title, ‘YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel' which will be repeated three times for emphasis (see Jeremiah 44:7; Jeremiah 44:11). Jeremiah wants them to recognise the greatness of their God. The verse points out that it was because His people had burned incense to and worshipped other gods not previously known to them or their fathers, that He had brought down His judgments on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah, making them a desolation, and uninhabited, because of their wickedness in doing so. He had indeed borne long with them and had given them ample opportunity to repent, but they had simply seen this as giving them licence to continue in their false ways. Thus all that had come upon them was because of their polytheism, and thereby their rejection of Him as their only God, thus breaching the first two stipulations in the covenant (the first two commandments), and thereby rejecting the whole.
‘In spite of the fact that I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, “Oh, do not this abominable thing which I hate.”
YHWH stresses the efforts that He had made in seeking to guide them onto the right path. He had sent to them ‘all His servants the prophets'. And He had acted with the great determination in order to do it in that He had ‘risen up early' to do it, something which reflects the importance He had placed on what He was about to do. The language is typically Jeremaic (Jeremiah 7:25; Jeremiah 26:5; Jeremiah 29:19; Jeremiah 35:15). It emphasises the great concern and effort that He had exerted in order to help them, commencing right from the beginning (‘early'), and continuingly revealed in the ongoing nature of his activity (‘all the prophets'), having in mind all the true prophets, both well known and little known, who had prophesied since the time of Moses. And all had brought one message to them, ‘Do not do this abominable thing (worship other gods) which I hate,' a breaking of the first and second commandments (words of the covenant).
‘My servants the prophets.' A phrase found seven times in Jeremiah, twice in 2 Kings, once in Ezekiel and once in Zechariah. It reflects the fact that the prophets were peculiarly YHWH's servants, acting as His mouthpiece. But ‘ All my servants the prophets' is found only here and in Jeremiah 7:25; Jeremiah 35:15, and is thus strictly Jeremaic, whilst the phrase as connected with ‘rising up early' is found only in Jeremiah 7:25; Jeremiah 26:5; Jeremiah 29:19; Jeremiah 35:15 and here.
‘But they did not listen, nor did they incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods.'
Yet in spite of all God's efforts His people had refused to listen. They had refused to hear His constant pleas that they turn from their wickedness in burning incense to other gods, and had blatantly continued to do so. And with their worship had gone their morals.
‘For which reason my wrath and my anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.'
This indeed was why Jerusalem and Judah were in the condition that they were at that time, wholly in ruins, and why His anger had been poured forth on them, and had been kindled ‘in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem'. This was why their cities were wasted and desolate. It was because they had followed and worshipped other gods, gods of nature, who demanded nothing of them morally and were seen as largely controlled by their ritual activities.
‘Therefore now thus says YHWH, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: “For what reason do you commit this great evil against your own souls, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, to leave you none remaining, in that you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you are gone to sojourn, that you may be cut off, and that you may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?” '
And now these people were doing the very same thing. They were burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, something which was a great evil against their own souls, and could only result in them also being cut off. They were acting just like their fathers had done. The impression given is that these were gods of Egypt to which they had turned in hopes of improving their situation. They were therefore on their way to suffering the Levitical and Deuteronomic curses outlined in Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28, which would result in them being cut off and becoming a curse and a reproach among all the peoples of the world.
“Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?”
He calls on them to consider the past. Have they forgotten how their fathers and their fathers' wives had behaved, and how the kings of Judah had behaved? Have they forgotten how they themselves had behaved, and their wives? It was because of their wickedness practised openly in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that all God's judgments had come upon them (Jeremiah 7:18). That was why they were in the position that they were at this very day.
“They are not humbled even to this day, nor have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.”
Note the change of person as YHWH comments on them to Jeremiah. They have taken such little notice of their past that even at this very time they were not humbled, nor did they fear, or walk in His Law, or in His statutes, which He had set before both them and their fathers. All His judgments have failed to move them. For in spite of their apparent change of heart revealed when they had called on Jeremiah to discover YHWH's word for them (Jeremiah 42:2-6), they have subsequently ignored that word and gone their own way.
‘Therefore thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.” '
YHWH now turns back to addressing the people. Therefore let them be sure of this, He YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel would ‘set His face' against them with a miserable end in view, the cutting off of all Judah. Their God Who had once delivered them from Egypt and its gods, but Who had acted so powerfully in the past against them and their fathers because of their evil ways, would now act equally powerfully against them at this time.
“And I will take the remnant of Judah, who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they will all be consumed. In the land of Egypt will they fall. They will be consumed by the sword and by the famine. They will die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine, and they will be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.”
For He would take all the remnant of Judah who had ‘set their faces' to go to live in the land of Egypt and ensure that they were consumed by famine and sword, the very two enemies that they had been seeking to avoid by coming to Egypt. ‘Here at least', they had thought, ‘we need fear neither famine nor sword'. But let them be sure of this. From the least to the greatest of them they would die by that very sword and by famine, and become an execration and an astonishment in the eyes of all people. They would become a curse and a reproach. For this language compare Jeremiah 42:18; Jeremiah 18:16; Leviticus 26:25-26; Leviticus 26:32; Leviticus 26:36-38; Deuteronomy 28:37. Note the play on the fact that YHWH had set His face against them because they had set their face towards Egypt.
“For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence,”
For in committing the same sins as those in Jerusalem by turning to other gods, the gods of Egypt, they were deserving of the same punishment. They equally therefore would suffer sword, famine and contagious disease, as indeed Jeremiah had previously prophesied (compare Jeremiah 42:17).
“So that none of the remnant of Judah, who are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, will escape or be left, to return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there, for none shall return save such as shall escape.”
And His purpose was that none of the remnant who had escaped from Judah and had gone into the land of Egypt to settle there, would escape the coming judgments, or would survive in order to be able to return to the land of Judah in spite of their desire to do so, that is apart from a few refugees.
‘Save such as shall escape.' The idea is that judgment will be so severe that only a very few will somehow survive by the skin of their teeth.
So the same judgments that had come on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah because of their disobedience, were now to be visited on these rebels because of their disobedience. It should be noted that this was not simply because they had sought refuge in Egypt, but because that seeking of refuge had been a renunciation of the God of Jeremiah, and because the consequences of their doing was now being revealed in their continuing disobedience, something revealed by the way in which they had quickly and eagerly turned to the gods of the land of Egypt. It was their motives which had been wrong from the start as YHWH well knew, and it had brought them to this.