3 God [a]says, “If a husband divorces his wife
And she goes from him
And belongs to another man,
Will he still return to her?
Will not that land be completely [b]polluted?
But you are a harlot with many [c]lovers;
Yet you turn to Me,” declares the Lord.
2 “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see;
Where have you not been violated?
By the roads you have sat for them
Like an Arab in the desert,
And you have polluted a land
With your harlotry and with your wickedness.
3 “Therefore the showers have been withheld,
And there has been no spring rain.
Yet you had a harlot’s forehead;
You refused to be ashamed.
4 “Have you not just now called to Me,
‘My Father, You are the [d]friend of my youth?
5 ‘Will He be angry forever?
Will He [e]be indignant to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken
And have done evil things,
And you have [f]had your way.”Faithless Israel
6 Then the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. 7 I [g]thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. 9 Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. 10 Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the Lord.
It’s interesting that in v. 6 Jeremiah specifically mentions Josiah. In the latter days of the kingdom of Judah, Josiah was the last one who did any good. His great grandfather Hezekiah had previously repented and attempted to purge Judah of idol worship. At that time, Israel had just been carried away into captivity, and now during Josiah’s reign, Judah is being compared to Israel once more.
And indeed, during the reign of Josiah’s father (Manasseh), things got as bad as ever, even to the point of child sacrifice. It’s a wonder Josiah survived to become king at all, but here he was ruling over Judah in the days of Jeremiah. However, the people were still worshipping idols until the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign. All of what God told Jeremiah was absolutely true, and you can read all of it in 2 Kings 22-23.
So what changed when Josiah turned 18? Perhaps it was that he was given more responsibility and felt he ought to look into things a bit more. Perhaps he had heard the words of Jeremiah, and knew something needed to change. But what? It wasn’t until Hilkiah found the book of the law (or scroll) and read it to Josiah that things began to turn around. When they finally heard firsthand what God expected of them, things changed.
Throughout this passage, Israel and Judah are likened to prostitutes. Israel had already been sent away, and Judah had so far learned nothing. They were even so brash as to call upon God without an inkling of repentance. Worse, they thought they could deceive God with mere deeds while their hearts were far from Him.
We also can be guilty of this, going through the motions without our heart being in it. We need to read God’s Word and see what He really wants from us. As James aptly noted, it is both our hearts and good works that testify we belong to God. Jesus told the people, “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.”
Whatever is in our hearts will ultimately come to the surface, in our words and in our actions. Don’t try to play games with God, but give Him your whole heart. And then show it by walking and living for Him. Again, a big part of that is reading the Bible, God’s instructions, so we know “the way in which we ought to walk.” Read it, and live it!