Reflections on Jeremiah 5

Jeremiah 05 (Contemporary English Version)
1. "Search Jerusalem for honest people who try to be faithful. If you can find even one, I'll forgive the whole city.
   
2. Everyone breaks promises made in my name."
   
3. I answered, "I know that you look for truth. You punished your people for their lies, but in spite of the pain, they became more stubborn and refused to turn back to you."
   
4. Then I thought to myself, "These common people act like fools, and they have never learned what the LORD their God demands of them.
   
5. I'll go and talk to the leaders. They know what God demands." But even they had decided not to obey the LORD.
   
6. The people have rebelled and rejected the LORD too many times. So enemies will attack like lions from the forest or wolves from the desert. Those enemies will watch the towns of Judah, and like leopards they will tear to pieces whoever goes outside.
   
7. People of Judah, how can I forgive you? I gave you everything, but you abandoned me and worshiped idols. You men go to prostitutes and are unfaithful to your wives.
   
8. You are no better than animals, and you always want sex with someone else's wife.
   
9. Why shouldn't I punish the people of Judah?
   
10. I will tell their enemies, "Go through my vineyard. Don't destroy the vines, but cut off the branches, because they are the people who don't belong to me."
    
11. In every way, Judah and Israel have been unfaithful to me. *
    
12. Their prophets lie and say, "The LORD won't punish us. We will have peace and plenty of food."
    
13. They tell these lies in my name, so now they will be killed in war or starve to death.
    
14. I am the LORD God All-Powerful. Jeremiah, I will tell you exactly what to say. Your words will be a fire; Israel and Judah will be the fuel.
    
15. People of Israel, I have made my decision. An army from a distant country will attack you. I've chosen an ancient nation, and you won't understand their language.
    
16. All of them are warriors, and their arrows bring death.
    
17. This nation will eat your crops and livestock; they will leave no fruit on your vines or trees. And although you feel safe behind thick walls, your towns will be destroyed and your children killed.
    
18. The LORD said: Jeremiah, the enemy army won't kill everyone in Judah.
    
19. And the people who survive will ask, "Why did the LORD our God do such terrible things to us?" Then tell them: I am the LORD, but you abandoned me and worshiped other gods in your own land. Now you will be slaves in a foreign country.
    
20. Tell these things to each other, you people of Judah, you descendants of Jacob.
    
21. You fools! Why don't you listen when I speak? Why can't you understand
    
22. that you should worship me with fear and trembling? I'm the one who made the shore to hold back the ocean. Waves may crash on the beach, but they can come no farther.
    
23. You stubborn people have rebelled and turned your backs on me.
    
24. You refuse to say, "Let's worship the LORD! He's the one who sends rain in spring and autumn and gives us a good harvest."
    
25. That's why I cannot bless you! *
    
26. A hunter traps birds and puts them in a cage, but some of you trap humans and make them your slaves.
    
27. You are evil, and you lie and cheat to make yourselves rich. You are powerful
    
28. and prosperous, but you refuse to help the poor get the justice they deserve.
    
29. You need to be punished, and so I will take revenge.
    
30. Look at the terrible things going on in this country. I am shocked!
    
31. Prophets give their messages in the name of a false god, my priests don't want to serve me, and you--my own people-- like it this way! But on the day of disaster, where will you turn for help?

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God sent Jeremiah on a mission to find even one righteous person in all of Judah. If even one were found, God would spare the nation from destruction. But Jeremiah was unsuccessful. What he found among the common people was hyprocracy, swearing by the Lord - "As the Lord lives" - but he found they were swearing falsely. He thought maybe it was because the common people were ignorant of the ways of the Lord, so he went to those in power. But he found that they, too, had "broken the yoke." (5:5)

This reference to the "yoke" speaks of being "yoked" in service with the Lord. Breaking from this yoke did not mean they would then have no yoke, for it is not a choice between a yoke or no yoke. It is a question of which yoke they will wear. The Lord's yoke is light while all others are heavy. Jesus spoke of taking on His yoke which He said is easy and His burden light. (Matt 11:30) He was comparing the yoke of His teaching to the heavy yoke of the scribal teaching. This reference in Jeremiah 5:5 is likely a comparison of the Lord's yoke to that of other gods. We are never free of a yoke. The question is with whom or with what will we be yoked? Whatever the answer to this question, it is without question that the Lord's yoke is far superior to any other. By breaking free of the Lord's yoke the people of Judah were not bettering themselves as they thought. Though it was the Lord who "satisfied their needs," they turned to other gods as if it were they who would meet their needs. (5:7)

Turning to idols to meet their needs, the people of Judah have evidently written God off as being impotent. Since they had decided it was not He who met their needs, then neither must He be capable of bringing punishment on them for turning to other gods. They insisted that "Harm won't come to us; we won't see sword or famine." (5:12) To bolster this thinking, the prophets - other than Jeremiah - spoke what the people wanted to hear. If the people would not credit God for meeting their needs, who would they credit for the destruction that was coming their way? For the Lord was bringing another nation against them who would all but finish them off. This nation would consume their harvest and food, their sons and daughters, their flocks and herds, their vines and fig trees, and they would destroy their fortified cities. But God gave the promise that they would not finish Judah off.

God instructed Jeremiah that when the people asked for what offense the Lord had done all these things, he was to answer them: "Just as you abandoned Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours." When we break free from the Lord's yoke, not only will we find ourselves yoked to a heavier burden, but we will not always have a choice as to whom or what we will be yoked. The people of Judah broke free from the Lord's yoke but would eventually find themselves yoked in service to strangers in another land.