Jeremiah 9:7-11: a reflection

7Therefore the LORD of Armies says, “Behold, I will melt them and test them; for how should I deal with the daughter of my people? 8Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him. 9Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on a nation such as this? 10I will weep and wail for the mountains, and lament for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are burned up, so that no one passes through; Men can’t hear the voice of the livestock. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled. They are gone. 11“I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

God, through Jeremiah, exposes a society corroded by deceit. Their tongue is a deadly arrow, he says; a man speaks peaceably to his neighbor while in his heart he plots against him. The problem was not only outward sin but a pervasive falseness, words used as weapons, friendship faked, trust betrayed. God asks whether he should not respond to such a nation, whose whole common life had been poisoned by lies.

But notice how God speaks of the coming judgment. He does not gloat over it; he grieves. I will weep and wail for the mountains, he says, and lament for the pastures, now burned and empty, the animals fled, the land desolate. Even as he pronounces judgment on sin, God's heart breaks over the ruin it brings. This is not a God eager to destroy but a God who mourns the devastation that deceit and sin leave behind.

Two things to carry from this. First, take seriously the destructiveness of a deceitful tongue, words that wound, friendship faked, trust betrayed. God sees the poison of a false heart, and he cares how we use our words. Ask him to make your speech honest, your friendship real. Second, remember that God grieves over the ruin sin causes; his judgment is never cold. The God who weeps over the desolation is the God who longs for his people to turn back before the harvest of their deceit comes in.

Lord, you see the poison of a deceitful tongue, words used as weapons and friendship faked, and you grieve over the ruin sin brings. Make my speech honest and my friendships real, free from the falseness you hate. And thank you that even your judgments come from a heart that weeps over devastation. Turn me back to you before my own deceit bears its bitter fruit. Amen.