Context No. 2329 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Jeremiah 5:7-11: in context

7“How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses. 8They were as fed horses roaming at large. Everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife. 9Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 10“Go up on her walls, and destroy, but don’t make a full end. Take away her branches, for they are not the LORD’s. 11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says the LORD.

God speaks through Jeremiah of his people's unfaithfulness, and the language he uses is that of a betrayed marriage. How can I pardon you? he asks; your children have forsaken me and sworn by what are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery. God pictures Judah's turning to other gods not as a minor lapse but as adultery, a breaking of faith, a betrayal of the covenant bond between himself and his people. Their idolatry was unfaithfulness to the God who loved them and had bound himself to them.

The imagery God uses is striking and searching: his people's turning to other gods is spiritual adultery. God had bound himself to his people in a covenant of love, like a marriage; he had loved them, provided for them, fed them to the full. And they had turned from him to other gods, breaking faith with him, betraying the bond. God does not treat this as a small matter, a minor wandering; he calls it adultery, the breaking of the marriage covenant, a grievous betrayal of the God who loved them. Their unfaithfulness grieved and wounded the God who had been faithful to them. This reveals the seriousness of spiritual unfaithfulness, which we can treat too lightly. We can regard our turning from God to other loves, other devotions, the idols of our hearts, as a minor thing, a small wandering, not a grave matter. But God reveals it as it truly is: unfaithfulness to the God who loves us, a breaking of faith, a betrayal of the covenant bond, spiritual adultery. When we give to other things the devotion and love that belong to God, we are not merely wandering; we are being unfaithful to the God who has loved and provided for us. You adulterers, James says bluntly, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Spiritual unfaithfulness is a grave betrayal, not a light matter. This searches the faithfulness of our own devotion to God. Are we faithful to God, giving him the love and devotion that belong to him? Or do we, in our hearts, commit spiritual adultery, giving to other loves, other devotions, the idols of our hearts, the faithfulness that belongs to God alone? God had loved and provided for his people, and they betrayed him by turning to other gods; and we too can betray the God who loves us by giving our devotion to other things. I remember, God says tenderly of his people, the love of your betrothal; his heart aches over the unfaithfulness of those he loved. This calls us to faithfulness to the God who loves us, and to see our spiritual wandering as the serious betrayal it is. God grieved over Judah's unfaithfulness as a husband grieves a betraying spouse, calling their idolatry adultery; and we are called to take our own faithfulness to God seriously, recognizing that to give to other loves the devotion that belongs to him is not a light thing but a betrayal of the God who has loved and provided for us. Let us be faithful to the God who loves us, giving him the whole devotion that belongs to him, and not committing, in our hearts, the spiritual adultery that betrays his covenant love.

Do I treat my turning from God to other loves and devotions, the idols of my heart, as a minor thing, a small wandering rather than a grave matter, and can God's grief over his people's unfaithfulness, which he calls adultery, a betrayal of the covenant bond with the God who loved and provided for them, move me to see my own spiritual wandering as the serious betrayal it is, and to be faithful to the God who loves me, giving him the whole devotion that belongs to him rather than committing, in my heart, the spiritual adultery that betrays his covenant love?

Sources

Jeremiah 5:7: your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery
James 4:4: you adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Jeremiah 2:2: I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness