UNROLL
First light on a long empty road winding south through terraced hills, a little dew on the stones and an old terebinth by the roadside.

Return to Me

Jeremiah 3

In King Josiah’s days, after his reform. Is it ever too late to come home?

25 verses≈ 6 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1The callJosiah’s thirteenth year (about 627 BC): a prophet to the nations
  2. 2–6Return to MeBroken cisterns, faithless Judah, disaster from the northChapter 3
  3. 7–10The temple gateThe temple sermon, a weeping prophet, the living God
  4. 11–20Covenant and complaintThe broken covenant, the potter, Jeremiah’s confessions
  5. 21–29Shepherds and prophetsKings judged, the Branch, seventy years, the yoke, the letter
  6. 30–33The Book of ComfortRestoration, the new covenant, a field bought in a siege
  7. 34–39The last days of JudahThe scroll burned, the cistern, Jerusalem falls (586 BC)
  8. 40–45After the fallGedaliah at Mizpah, the flight to Egypt, a word for Baruch
  9. 46–51The nationsEgypt to Babylon: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
  10. 52Jerusalem fallsThe record of 586 BC, and a king released

The Wages of the Harlot

God

“If a man divorces his wife

and she leaves him to marry another,

can he ever return to her?

Would not such a land be completely defiled?

But you have played the harlot with many lovers—

and you would return to Me?”

declares the LORD.

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God

“Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see.

Is there any place where you have not been violated?

You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers,

like a nomad in the desert.

You have defiled the land

with your prostitution and wickedness.

Therefore the showers have been withheld,

and no spring rains have fallen.

Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute;

you refuse to be ashamed.

God

Have you not just called to Me, ‘My Father, You are my friend from youth. Will He be angry forever? Will He be indignant to the end?’ This you have spoken, but you keep doing all the evil you can.”

Judah Follows Israel’s Example

God

Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there. I thought that after she had done all these things, she would return to Me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.

God

She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well. Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.

Question

Quick question

Judah had watched the north go into exile. Look at when this word came.

In whose days did this word come (3:6)?

A Call to Repentance

God

And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than unfaithful Judah.

God
Early morning on a hilltop north of Jerusalem: a young prophet with a staff, seen from behind, looks north across empty terraced hills toward the far hills where the old northern kingdom lay.

Go, proclaim this message toward the north:

‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD.

‘I will no longer look on you with anger,

for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD.

‘I will not be angry forever.

Only acknowledge your guilt,

that you have rebelled against the LORD your God.

You have scattered your favors to foreign gods

under every green tree

and have not obeyed My voice,’”

declares the LORD.

God
God

“Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion.

God
Late afternoon on a green hillside pasture: a Judean shepherd in a wool cloak kneels to lift a lamb, his flock grazing calmly around him, a stone fold below.

Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

God

“In those days, when you multiply and increase in the land,” declares the LORD, “they will no longer discuss the ark of the covenant of the LORD. It will never come to mind, and no one will remember it or miss it, nor will another one be made.

God
God

At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations will be gathered in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. They will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

God

In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave to your fathers as an inheritance.

God
God

Then I said, ‘How I long to make you My sons

and give you a desirable land,

the most beautiful inheritance

of all the nations!’

I thought you would call Me ‘Father’

and never turn away from following Me.

God

But as a woman may betray her husband,

so you have betrayed Me, O house of Israel,”

declares the LORD.

Jeremiah
Dusk on a bare hilltop where an old standing stone leans: a few families sit on the rock with heads bowed, one man with his face in his hands, a woman weeping into her head covering.

A voice is heard on the barren heights,

the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy,

because they have perverted their ways

and forgotten the LORD their God.

God

“Return, O faithless children,

and I will heal your faithlessness.”

Jeremiah 3:22

The Israelites
The Israelites

“Here we are. We come to You,

for You are the LORD our God.

Surely deception comes from the hills,

and commotion from the mountains.

Surely the salvation of Israel

is in the LORD our God.

The Israelites
Dawn in a village square: Judean men and women sit on the ground in coarse dark sackcloth with ash on their heads, heads bowed and quiet, a cold hearth among them.

From our youth, that shameful god

has consumed what our fathers have worked for—

their flocks and herds,

their sons and daughters.

Let us lie down in our shame;

let our disgrace cover us.

We have sinned against the LORD our God,

both we and our fathers;

from our youth even to this day

we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

0:22

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Pray

LORD my God, here I am; I come to You. I have turned away and I have sinned. Heal my faithlessness, as You promised, and make me call You Father and never turn back. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Jeremiah 3

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A verse to carry with you

Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.

Jeremiah 3:22

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