Scripture Daily

Context No. 1719 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 4:1-6: in context

1“If you will return, Israel,” says the LORD, “if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you will not be removed; 2and you will swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations will bless themselves in him, and they will glory in him.” 3For the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “Break up your fallow ground, and don’t sow among thorns. 4Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. 5Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, ‘Blow the trumpet in the land!’ Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves! Let’s go into the fortified cities!’ 6Set up a standard toward Zion. Flee for safety! Don’t wait; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.”

God calls Israel to return, and to return in truth. If you will return to me, he says, and put away your abominations, then you will not be removed. And he gives the call vivid images. Break up your fallow ground, he says, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskins of your heart, lest my wrath go out like fire. The repentance God seeks is not surface but deep, a breaking up of hard ground and a circumcision of the heart itself.

The images God uses show what kind of repentance he is after. Break up your fallow ground: fallow ground is land that has lain unplowed and hardened, packed down and overgrown, and to sow good seed on it is useless; it must first be broken up, the hard crust turned over, before anything can grow. And do not sow among thorns: to scatter seed among thorns is wasted effort, for the thorns will choke whatever comes up. God is saying that real renewal cannot be a matter of scattering a little good seed on top of a hard and thorny heart; the ground itself must be broken up, the thorns cleared. And then, most inwardly of all: circumcise your hearts. The sign of the covenant was outward, in the flesh; but God wants the inward reality, a heart cut and opened to him, not merely an outward religion. There is a searching call here about the depth of our own repentance. It is easy to attempt a surface renewal, to add some good practices, sow a little seed, while the underlying ground of the heart stays hard, packed down by habit and neglect, choked with the thorns of competing loves. God calls for something deeper: to break up the hard ground itself, to clear the thorns, to let the heart be circumcised, opened, changed at its root. Surface religion sown on an unbroken heart bears little; the repentance God seeks turns over the hard ground and deals with the heart itself. Break up your fallow ground, he says; do not sow among thorns.

Is my repentance a surface matter, a little good seed scattered on a heart still hard and thorny, or will I heed God's call to break up the fallow ground itself, to clear the thorns and let my heart be circumcised, opened and changed at its root, so that what I sow can actually grow?

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