Jeremiah 14:7,10

In Jeremiah 14, Jeremiah attempts to intercede for Judah. We can feel his pain, as he is torn between defending his people at all costs, and acknowledging the truth of their utter wickedness.

‘O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us,
Do it for Your name’s sake;
For our backslidings are many,
We have sinned against You.’ (Jeremiah 14:7)

He acknowledged the sin of his people. It wasn’t hard for him to acknowledge, because it had been made perfectly clear to him by God previously. He says ‘our wickedness speaks out against us!’. Do you ever feel like this? There are so many things we do wrong. So many thoughts, actions, words. And after they have been committed, it feels as though they ‘testify’ against us to God. It feels like they provide evidence that we aren’t Christian. They accuse and condemn us.

So, does God relent at this point, after the intercession of Jeremiah? In fact, He does not.

‘Thus they have loved to wander;
They have not restrained their feet.
Therefore the LORD does not accept them;
He will remember their iniquity now,
And punish their sins.’ (Jeremiah 14:10)

Why does the God of infinite mercy not give mercy to His people here? They have not repented! Jeremiah acknowledges their sin. But to acknowledge your own sin to God does not mean that God will forgive it. There must be repentance. A turning away. But although Judah acknowledged her sins (through Jeremiah at least), not for a moment did they turn from their ways (‘they have not restrained their feet’).

Jeremiah calls upon God’s glory in view of forgiveness. In verse seven (above), he says ‘do it for Your name’s sake’. In other words: ‘forgive us so that You can have the glory!’ And it is true indeed that it is for His own glory that God redeems us. But would it truly give God glory for Him to unsparingly bestow grace upon those who do not repent? I believe, rather, that it would discredit Him and show Him to be powerless.

And what can we take from this? Well, I think sometimes we can feel like Jeremiah, calling for mercy from God on a heart that we know causes us to do evil over and over again. And yet we know that because of the infinite love of God, and the sending of His Son Jesus Christ, and the shedding of His precious blood, our repentant hearts are covered, washed, made anew and bestowed with righteousness from God. But we should all take seriously this word repentance. It is not merely acknowledging. It is turning away. It means action. Not words.