Please turn to Jeremiah 2.
We will read from Jeremiah 2:1.
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals; how thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
Israel was holiness unto the Lord, the first-fruits of His increase: all that devour him shall be held guilty; evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord.
Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:
Thus saith the Lord, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
Neither said they, Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none passed through, and where no man dwelt?
And I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled My land, and made My heritage an abomination.
The priests said not, Where is the Lord? and they that handle the law knew Me not: the rulers also transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
Therefore I will yet contend with you, saith the Lord, and with your children’s children will I contend.
Jeremiah 2:12:
Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord.
For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Jeremiah 2:19:
Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know thou therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that My fear is not in thee, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
Jeremiah 3:1:
They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, will he return unto her again? will not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to Me, saith the Lord.
Lift up thine eyes unto the bare heights, and see; where hast thou not been lain with? By the ways hast thou sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; yet thou hast a harlot’s forehead, thou refusest to be ashamed.
Wilt thou not from this time cry unto Me, My Father, Thou art the guide of my youth?
Will He retain His anger for ever? will He keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken, and hast done evil things, and hast had thy way.
We have fellowshiped already on the call of Jeremiah to be a prophet, and the commission that God gave to His prophet.
What we have read this morning is the first message that God spoke to the children of Israel through His prophet Jeremiah. In a sense, from Jeremiah 2:1 through Jeremiah 3:5, we have the essence of all the prophecies that God gave to the children of Israel through Jeremiah.
So this can serve as God’s introductory address to His people. In this introduction, you find God pouring out His wounded heart to His children—how His love was wounded, and yet how hardened and determined were the hearts of His people.
I do believe that we can learn much from this discourse. There are four things that we would like to share together this morning in this first address of the prophecy of Jeremiah.
First, we find the first love. When God had a controversy with His people Israel, He recalled how, in the very beginning, this people loved Him.
I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth,
The love of thine espousals;
How thou wentest after Me in the wilderness,
In a land that was not sown.
Now, of course, historically this referred back to the time when God brought His children out of Egypt. After God brought His children out of Egypt, He brought them through the wilderness to Himself at Mount Sinai. This was the period that God was talking about.
If you turn to Hosea 2, you will find that it gives us the same thought. Hosea 2:15:
And I will give her her vineyards from thence,
And the valley of Achor for a door of hope;
And she shall make answer there, as in the days of her youth,
And as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
We remember Exodus 19. God said, “I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.” So when God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt and brought them through the wilderness, this was the time that the children of Israel showed the kindness of her youth and the love of her espousals.
Now, isn’t that strange? Because as we read the book of Exodus, we find that even after they came out of Egypt and were on their way to Mount Sinai, they were not as perfect as we would like to think.
Instead, we find that during that period they murmured against God. When they came to water and it was bitter, they murmured. When they exhausted their food, they murmured again. When they had no water, they again murmured. Again and again, they exhibited their weaknesses.
And yet God said, “This was the time that you showed the kindness of your youth to Me. This was the time that you showed love to Me.”
In spite of all their murmurings, in spite of all their weaknesses, they did love God. They were newly redeemed, and in spite of the fact that when trouble came they murmured, somehow they did love God—the One who redeemed them and delivered them out of Egypt.
Their love was not strong, and yet there was a love for God within them. You remember, even when they were in Egypt, when they were afflicted, they cried unto God. When God sent Moses to them and told them that God had heard their affliction and their prayer, they bowed down and worshiped God.
When God showed them that, on the night of the Passover, He would deliver them, they bowed down again and worshiped God. When they came out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, they sang the song of Moses and the song of Miriam.
So, in a sense, when they were first delivered, they did have a heart for God. This showed some kindness toward God and some love toward God. But, of course, on the other hand, they were very weak and very feeble.
But it is as if love covered a multitude of things. It was as if God overlooked all their weaknesses and took care of them.
God said, “Israel was holiness unto the Lord, the first-fruits of His increase.” During that period, Israel was holiness unto the Lord. They were set apart for God.
Even though the world seemed still to be in them—Egypt was still in them; they came out of Egypt, but Egypt had not yet gone out of them—yet God said, “Israel was holiness unto Me.” God considered them as the first-fruits of His increase. What a wonderful thing.
All that devour him shall be held guilty;
Evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord.
Because of their love toward God, God’s love for them was so complete that God would not allow anyone to touch them. They were really the apple of His eye.
Brothers and sisters, is there another time when God considered us in this fashion? When we were first saved, when we were first redeemed, in spite of the fact that we still had many weaknesses and how feeble we were, there was a love toward God.
When we had trouble, we murmured. We were not strong in faith; we were not perfect. Yet somehow, when we were first saved, there was a love toward God. We did love Him.
God would take it as if we showed kindness to Him in our youth. God appreciated our love toward Him. Even though our love was weak and feeble, there was love toward Him—that first love, that initial love that we had for Him.
God considered us as holiness unto Him, people set apart for Himself. He took us as the first-fruits in this world. That is very true. God considers us as those first-fruits of His increase in this world, and how He cared for us. He looked upon us as the apple of His eye.
There was a time—our first love—and that was something God always remembered. Sometimes people forget their love for God in the very beginning, but God never forgets.
When He has a controversy with us, He remembers the past. As it were, when He recalls the past, there is a softness. It touches Him; it touches His very heart. And this is our God.
Brothers and sisters, do we remember the time of our first love with the Lord? I think it is a good thing that we remember. God does remember all this.
But number two: unfortunately, they backslid.
Thus saith the Lord, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in Me,
That they are gone far from Me,
And have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
In the beginning, they were constrained by the love of God, and they loved God. But gradually, you find that their love began to fade away. They fell away from God. They forgot God completely. They went after vanity and became vain.
They had fallen from their first love, and God was so hurt. God asked the question as if He were puzzled: “Why? Why do you do this to Me? Have you found any injustice in Me? Have I treated you wrongly and unfairly, that you leave Me? Why do you do this?”
There is no good reason for this. And surely there was no reason. But they left God. They fell from their first love.
Outwardly, they were still the priests, still serving in the temple, still offering sacrifices, still doing all these rituals and ceremonies. But the priests said not, “Where is the Lord?” They went through the motions of everything religious, and yet they did not care whether God was in it or not.
“They that handle the law knew Me not.” They were the scribes, those who studied the law and taught the people the law of Moses; yet they did not know God. They could handle the letter of God’s Word, but they did not know God personally.
“The rulers also transgressed against Me.” The rulers were the civil leaders, those who were supposed to lead the people to God. Yet they were the first to transgress against God, and they led the people away from Him.
Now, how about the prophets? “The prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.” The prophets were supposed to prophesy in the name of the Lord, yet they prophesied by false gods. They gave false prophecies. They said, “Peace, peace,” where there was no peace—no peace for the wicked.
Not only did they prophesy falsely, but they lived falsely. So you find that all the leaders, both the religious and civil leaders of the nation, were the first to fall away from first love and run after other things and other gods.
Brothers and sisters, is it possible with us today?
When you read the book of Revelation, you find the first letter of the risen Lord to the church in Ephesus. He had a controversy with the church in Ephesus. He said, “I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.”
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works;
Or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.
Oh, brothers and sisters, what God is looking for in us is that first love. There is nothing that pleases Him and satisfies His heart more than first love. However feeble it may be, there is a love toward Him—a love above all.
But have we fallen from our first love? Is there any reason why we fall away? We may think we have good reasons to backslide, but God cannot find a good reason. God asks, “Why? I do not know if there is any good reason for your backsliding—for your sliding back from God.”
How we abuse grace. It is because of the greatness of His grace that we become fat and kick.
Outwardly, we may still have the services. We may continue with all these religious acts and movements, but we do not care whether God is really with us or whether God is doing these things.
Outwardly, we may still handle the Word of God in letter, but do we know Him in spirit? Outwardly, we may still be leaders among God’s people, but where do we lead them—away from God or unto God? Outwardly, we may still be prophesying; we may still speak, but in whose name?
Oh, brothers and sisters, you find that Israel had fallen. They fell away from God and went after other gods. Of course, today you may say, “We do not go after false gods.” What are these false gods?
Anything that competes with the living God for our love, for our pursuit, and for our speaking—that is a false god.
God said Israel had done two evils. Number one: they had forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters. Number two: they had hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that could hold no water.
God was a fountain of living waters to them. In other words, God supplied all their needs abundantly. Whatever they needed, they could find in God, and find it superabundantly. But they forsook God, and they hewed for themselves cisterns—wells—but broken cisterns that could not hold water.
Historically, this means that instead of looking to God and depending upon God for all their supplies, they looked to Egypt and to Assyria. Instead of trusting God, they tried to depend on Egypt for their existence or on Assyria for their assistance. They played diplomacy between two great nations for their existence instead of depending upon God.
That was historical, but spiritually speaking, it can apply in two ways. First, God is a fountain of living waters to us. We should come to Him. We should draw upon Him for all our resources, for all that we need. He has plenty of living water.
But then there is another way. After we have experienced His living water, we tend to hew a cistern and try to hold that water for ourselves. In other words, a fountain of living water is such that you have to go to that fountain continuously.
But we try to put some water from the fountain into a cistern so that we do not need to go to the fountain, and we will have water. Now, isn’t that true?
God’s purpose is that we need to be in constant fellowship with Him. Only in constant fellowship with Him do we find that He is a fountain of living waters. The water will never cease to run, but there is a condition: we have to go to Him.
There is no way of having living water if we do not go to Him. There must be a continuous abiding and communion with Him in order to experience Him as a fountain of living waters.
But how clever we are. After we have received some blessing from the Lord, we try to organize; then we try to systematize. We think that by organizing and systematizing, we can hold the water. We will have it, and we will not need to connect ourselves with God. We can be independent. We have water now.
But the result is that the cistern we hew out is a broken cistern. We spend much energy to do that. To hew a cistern out of rock is a great work. We would rather do such work than have communion with God.
We want to hold the water in our cistern, in our organization, in our systematizing. The result is that the cistern we hew is a broken cistern. It leaks. It cannot hold water.
That is what you find in Christianity today. Whenever God blesses people, people rise up and try to organize and systematize it. The result is that it is gone. The light is gone. The living water is gone, because the cistern is a broken cistern. It does not hold water.
We cannot hold blessing, individually or collectively. We cannot hold the light in ourselves, in an organization, or in a system. We cannot do that. We have to abide in Him, and then the water will never run dry.
That is the first application. The second application is that we can go even further away. We hew a cistern not to contain the living water; we hew a cistern to contain the water of this world.
We go in the way of Egypt, the way of Assyria, the way of the world. We not only follow their way, but we try to find water—our supply—from the world.
Our Lord Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “If you drink this water, you shall thirst again. But if you drink the water that I shall give you, that water will be in you as a fountain of living water, and you will never thirst again.”
But, dear brothers and sisters, when we fall away from God, how we tend to adopt the way of the world and think that the world has water to satisfy our thirst.
Forsaking God, the fountain of living water, and hewing for ourselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water—these are the things that we truly need to bring before the Lord. These are the evils. These are the practical expressions of backsliding.
How do we know we have backslidden? Very simply: we have forsaken the fountain of living water, and we hew out for ourselves broken cisterns that do not hold water. We know that we have backslidden.
Number three: when Israel backslid, God began to discipline them. Jeremiah 2:19 says:
Thine own wickedness shall correct thee,
And thy backslidings shall reprove thee:
Know thou therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter,
That thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God,
And that My fear is not in thee,
Saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
When God’s people forsake Him, God, out of His love for them, begins to chastise them. But chastening, or disciplining, can be explained in two ways. On the one hand, it was God who chastised them; but on the other hand, it was their own sin, their own backsliding, that chastised and reproved them.
If they had not backslidden, there would have been no need for chastening. It was because of their sins, because of their backsliding, that they were chastened. So we may say that it was God who chastised them, but we can also say that it was their own sin that chastised them.
Is this not true with us today? When we fall away from God, God, out of His love for us as a father toward his own son, will chastise us. That is true. He chastises us in order to bring us back to Himself, in order that we may repent, be corrected, and become partakers of His divine nature.
Thank God for that. But, on the other hand, we need to remember that the reason we are chastised is because of our own backsliding.
God said, “In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction.” How sad it is if we are disciplined by the Lord and do not turn, do not repent, refuse to be corrected, and harden our hearts.
That was exactly what you find with the children of Israel. God’s heart was broken over the fact that they fell away from Him, but I think His heart was even more afflicted when, after all His chastenings, they received no correction.
Brothers and sisters, when we are chastened by the Lord, let us not harden our hearts, but submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt us.
Then, finally, in spite of their hardness and their rebellion against God, God said, “If you only return, I will still receive you.”
God went to the extreme to say, “If a man puts away his wife, and his wife becomes another man’s, will he return unto her again?” Certainly not. But God said, “Even though you have gone away from Me and gone after other gods, many gods, if you will only return, I will return to you.”
God said, “If only you will cry unto Me, ‘My Father, Thou art the guide of my youth,’ will I be angry forever? I will not.”
But look at what you have spoken. You have done evil things, and you are so determined.
Oh, brothers and sisters, may we learn from this heart of God—this loving heart. His heart is soft and tender toward us. How He yearns for us. How He longs for our love. How He appreciates our kindness. How He desires that we return to Him.
He will forget everything and receive us. Brothers and sisters, will we return? Let us not be so determined to do evil. Let us come back to Him.
That is the essence of all the prophecies of Jeremiah. When you read his prophecies in the later chapters, you will find that they are simply an enlargement or particular application. But the essence of his prophecies is found in this first address.
So may we hear the voice of the Lord. Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.
Our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word. We thank Thee that Thou dost remember the kindness of our youth. Thou dost remember the love of our espousals. Oh, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou dost always remember these things.
But, Lord, we do acknowledge how easy it is for us to leave our first love. We may go through the motions, and yet the love is not there. O Lord, examine our hearts and see if there is love in us.
Do not allow us merely to live outwardly and religiously. But, Lord, we pray that we may have our life with Thee and abide in Thee. Oh, may we find in Thee the fountain of living water, that we do not need to hew out cisterns and try to draw from the waters of this world.
O Lord, if we are under Thy discipline because we have left our first love, then, Lord, we pray that we may be corrected. We ask Thee, Lord, that we may not harden our hearts when we hear Thy voice, but that we may return, knowing that Thou dost say Thou wilt receive us.
Oh, we praise and worship Thee. We ask Thee that these words may warn us, correct us, encourage us, and build us together up in love toward Thy Son. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus.