Jeremiah 5 is one of the strongest pronouncements of judgment against Israel and Judah of any single chapter in the Bible. The LORD tells us He could not find one faithful person in the entire nation. He said it could be expected that the poor would not know how to follow the LORD, but the leaders were as guilty as they. They turned against Him, and toward false gods. They prostituted themselves at every opportunity. The LORD promised the people of Israel He would destroy them by means of a powerful nation from the north. The people of Judah would also be judged. This chapter is so difficult to read, but as we read it we must always remember the LORD is perfect, and has every right to judge each and every one of us. We must not just say, “Look how bad ‘those’ people were.” I have learned one important truth when it comes to “those” people: We are all “those” people when it comes to being people who don’t deserve to have the LORD’s love and mercy. Thankfully, even in the midst of this tirade against Israel and Judah we find words of hope, as the LORD promises not to destroy everyone.
Jeremiah 6 offers more of what we read in Jeremiah 5. The LORD goes back and forth between condemning Israel and Jerusalem. One of the hardest things we read is that people of all ages will be caught up in the destruction: children, husbands and wives, the old and gray. We could wonder: Why? Why is the LORD not going to show mercy on anyone? Then we read the answer: Because everyone has been caught up in the idolatry, in the practices of sin. As a people, the nation of Israel deserves judgment, and likewise the nation of Judah. While we are so individualistic as Americans, we find it difficult to hear of an entire nation being judged, why not only those who are guilty? In these times, the times of the Old Covenant, there was far more of a sense of the LORD’s blessing or judgment being poured out on the whole, and not just on the few or the one.
In Jeremiah 7, the LORD tells Jeremiah to go to the Temple in Jerusalem and tell the people to repent or they will be destroyed. He warns them they aren’t safe simply because they are in the Temple. It was that logic that caused the Israelites to think they were safe at Shiloh, simply because the LORD “dwelt” there. After the LORD tells Jeremiah to offer this reprieve, the remainder of the chapter tells us the people will not repent and they will be destroyed. While we have a long way to go in the Book of Jeremiah, the book is history for us not prophecy–that is what was prophesied has long-since happened, so we know the LORD was not speaking empty words. Israel was destroyed and Judah was carried off to exile. The promises of the LORD are always true, whether they are for good or ill, which is why it is so vital for us to live in His truth and love, and not to presume on His mercy.
As we return to John 17, we return to what scholars call Jesus’ high priestly prayer. In it, He prays for His Heavenly Father to unite His followers as one, just as He and the Father are one. He also prays for them to be protected and to keep them in the truth. As we read this brief chapter, it is so evident how much Jesus loves us, and how concerned He is that we join Him and the Father along with the Holy Spirit in living in unity, love and truth. Jesus reminds us in the last statement of the chapter, that God’s word is truth. We live in a world that seems to think truth is what you want it to be. Truth has been given, and the LORD’s truth is life for those who live in it.