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Jeremiah 3 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
Married people, how would you feel if your spouse wanted to share their love equally with another? Would you be fine with that? God challenges the people to consider their ways. They have left Him as their first love and given themselves to so many others. But that’s not all. The Lord says they have done so without any shame. There was no conviction, therefore, there was little repentance.
In fact, speaking of repentance, it’s interesting to consider how the people viewed their relationship with God and verbalized their “repentance.”
“Have you not just now called to Me, ‘My Father, You are the friend of my youth? 5 ‘Will He be angry forever? Will He be indignant to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken And have done evil things, And you have had your way.”
Jeremiah 3:4-5 NASB
He was the friend of their youth but not the Lord of their life. So, in a final plea to sort things out, the people cry out to God. The crying, however, is not over the enormity of the sins, but over God’s slowness to “get over it.” Can you believe it? Honestly, yes I can. We see this kind of stuff every single day. It’s human nature at its worst.
Let me give you an example. It’s like me sleeping around on my wife and then coming home like, “Hey babe, you are my fondest friend from the past, you know? How long are you going to be angry with me for sleeping around? Are you actually going to hold this against me the rest of my life?” Crazy, right?
Does this go on today? Absolutely. Why do we do this? Because we don’t really love Jesus. That’s the bottom line. You know what is so amazing? God loves to forgive. He is full of grace and mercy. But how do you forgive someone like the example I gave above? Where do you even begin?
We need to understand that God is not interested in playing games. He wants a genuine, authentic relationship. In order to receive forgiveness, which we all need, we have to be broken. God bring heavy conviction to where I have been playing you! Help me to feel brokenness so I can experience your grace and mercy!