Context No. 2667 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Jeremiah 8:1-16: in context

1“At that time,” says the LORD, “they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. 2They will spread them before the sun, the moon, and all the army of the sky, which they have loved, which they have served, after which they have walked, which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered or be buried. They will be like dung on the surface of the earth. 3Death will be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the LORD of Armies. 4“Moreover you shall tell them, ‘The LORD says: “‘Do men fall, and not rise up again? Does one turn away, and not return? 5Why then have the people of Jerusalem fallen back by a perpetual backsliding? They cling to deceit. They refuse to return. 6I listened and heard, but they didn’t say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?” Everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle. 7Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times. The turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don’t know the LORD’s law. 8“‘How do you say, “We are wise, and the LORD’s law is with us”? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has made that a lie. 9The wise men are disappointed. They are dismayed and trapped. Behold, they have rejected the LORD’s word. What kind of wisdom is in them? 10Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to those who will possess them. For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely. 11They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. 12Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed. They couldn’t blush. Therefore they will fall among those who fall. In the time of their visitation they will be cast down, says the LORD. 13“‘I will utterly consume them, says the LORD. No grapes will be on the vine, no figs on the fig tree, and the leaf will fade. The things that I have given them will pass away from them.’” 14“Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves! Let’s enter into the fortified cities, and let’s be silent there; for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD. 15We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay! 16The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan. The whole land trembles at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell therein.”

Jeremiah surveys a people in headlong decline and puts his finger on what is missing. Do people fall and not get up? he asks; does someone turn away and not return? Yet this people keeps backsliding and clings to deceit. And then the heart of it: I have listened, God says, but no one repents of his wickedness, saying, what have I done? Everyone charges ahead on his own course, like a horse plunging into battle.

No one says, what have I done? That is the diagnosis. Not that the people were incapable of sin, everyone is, but that no one stopped to ask the examining question, to pause the headlong rush and turn a searching eye on themselves. Jeremiah's image is a warhorse charging blindly forward; that is how they lived, never halting to reckon with their own conduct. And he notes that even the migrating birds keep their appointed seasons, while God's people would not keep his ways. The lost art here is self-examination, the simple, humbling habit of stopping to ask what have I done, without which no one ever turns back.

When did I last stop the headlong rush and honestly ask, what have I done, or do I charge ahead like a warhorse, never examining myself?

Sources

Jeremiah 8:6: No one repents of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.
Jeremiah 8:7: Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times... but my people don't know the LORD's law.
Lamentations 3:40: Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.