Proper 5 (OT)

Jeremiah 5:1-13

5 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,

look and take note!

Search her squares to see

if you can find a man,

one who does justice

and seeks truth,

that I may pardon her.

² Though they say, “As the Lord lives,”

yet they swear falsely.

³ O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?

You have struck them down,

but they felt no anguish;

you have consumed them,

but they refused to take correction.

They have made their faces harder than rock;

they have refused to repent.

⁴ Then I said, “These are only the poor;

they have no sense;

for they do not know the way of the Lord,

the justice of their God.

⁵ I will go to the great

and will speak to them,

for they know the way of the Lord,

the justice of their God.”

But they all alike had broken the yoke;

they had burst the bonds.

⁶ Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down;

a wolf from the desert shall devastate them.

A leopard is watching their cities;

everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,

because their transgressions are many,

their apostasies are great.

⁷ “How can I pardon you?

Your children have forsaken me

and have sworn by those who are no gods.

When I fed them to the full,

they committed adultery

and trooped to the houses of whores.

⁸ They were well-fed, lusty stallions,

each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.

⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things?

declares the Lord;

and shall I not avenge myself

on a nation such as this?

¹⁰ “Go up through her vine rows and destroy,

but make not a full end;

strip away her branches,

for they are not the Lord’s.

¹¹ For the house of Israel and the house of Judah

have been utterly treacherous to me,

declares the Lord.

¹² They have spoken falsely of the Lord

and have said, ‘He will do nothing;

no disaster will come upon us,

nor shall we see sword or famine.

¹³ The prophets will become wind;

the word is not in them.

Thus shall it be done to them!’ ”

Jeremiah recounts the wickedness of the people of Israel.  They have truly done evil in the eyes of the Lord. They have searched after their neighbor's wife.  They have sworn falsely to the LORD.  They have abandoned justice and righteousness.  But Jeremiah asks a key question, "How can I pardon you?"

When you break your mother vase, how can you be pardoned?  When you cheat on a test, how can you be pardoned?  When you ruin someones reputation, how can you be pardoned?  The people have sinned against God.  They have done evil in the eyes of the LORD.  How Can the LORD pardon them?  How can the Lord pardon you?

Have you not done these things also?  Are we not just as guilt as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah?  Or as Jesus may remind us, at times we are much worse than them, because we know the truth.  The truth of Jesus Christ has been revealed to you.  You know what Christ has done for your pardon.  How do you act and treat others with this faith placed in your heart?

Often times our head may change but our heart remains the same.  The people of Israel had harden hearts.  The Church today is filled with hard hearts.  These are people that are more than happy to hear the Good News, but the Law that condemns us and instructs us must be avoided at all costs.  Jesus Christ has provided us with life and salvation.

How can the LORD pardon them?  Jesus Christ died for their sins.  He took their punishment upon himself.  He was treated in a manner in which they deserved.  Jeremiah gives us another question: "Shall I not punish them for this?"  He does provide punishment for all these sins.  He punished Jesus Christ by the hands of lawless men.  He punished him so that you and they may have life.  How can the LORD pardon you?  The Sacrifice of the Lamb of God in your place.