One of the great themes of Jeremiah is the constant interweaving of a hopeful call to repentance and restoration, on the one hand, with an adamant and decisive declaration of inevitable judgment for the people’s many sins, on the other hand. Today’s chapters provide a clear example of this.

“If you return, O Israel, says the Lord, if you return to me, if you remove your abominations from my presence, and do not waver, and if you swear ‘As the Lord lives!’ in truth, in justice, and in uprightness, then nations shall be blessed by him, and by him they shall boast” (Jeremiah 4:1-2). That is, if the people of Judah repent from their idolatry – the ‘abominations’ Jeremiah mentions would be idols representing the various fertility gods of nearby nations – then the guilt of their sin would even at that late date be swept away, and God’s mercy would result in both their own restoration and the blessing of those nations as well.

But immediately after comes the recognition that disaster is on the way. God will bring evil and destruction on Zion (4:6): “Your ways and your doings have brought this upon you. This is your doom; how bitter it is!” (4:18). “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look around and take note! Search its squares and see if you can find one person who acts justly and seeks truth – so that I may pardon Jerusalem” (5:1). “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 prostitutes” (5:7). “They have spoken falsely of the Lord, and have said, ‘He will do nothing. No evil will come upon us’ ” (5:12). “From the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely” (6:13).

This combination of sins – idolatry, sexual immorality, economic injustice, personal dishonesty, and dismissiveness toward God – means that judgment will come, inescapably. It’s too late to change; all you can do is put on sackcloth and cry out in woe (6:26). And yet: just return to the Lord, even now, and discover restoration (4:1-4).

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Our sins are not so very different from theirs, O Lord. Our presumption that you would never ever judge us for the way we mock your authority: that’s pretty similar, too. Perhaps it is not too late: lead us to repentance and restoration, we pray.

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