Bible Commentaries

CHAPTER 4

1. True repentance and what it means (Jeremiah 4:1-4)

2. The alarm sounded: judgment comes (Jeremiah 4:5-13)

3. The doom of the rebellious people (Jeremiah 4:14-22)

4. The desolation of Israel’s land through judgment (Jeremiah 4:23-31)

Jeremiah 4:1-4. A return must be a return unto Him, Jehovah; anything less is insufficient. Their abominations must be judged and put away. Every return of backsliders must be in the same way--a true return to the Lord with confession of sin, self-judgment, and abandonment of evil. The circumcision of the heart means regeneration. (See Jeremiah 31:31-34, and Ezekiel 36:26.)

Jeremiah 4:5-13. This is the first definite announcement of the coming judgment from the north, which Jeremiah had seen in the vision of the boiling pot toward the north (chapter 1). The lion who comes, the destroyer of the Gentiles, who makes the land desolate, is Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. It is a very vivid description of the approaching judgment. Jeremiah 4:10 means not that Jeremiah is reproaching the Lord for having deceived the people. Jeremiah did not preach peace, but the false prophets did. They came and spoke in the name of Jehovah, that there should be peace; and Jehovah permitted as a judgment these prophets, and the message of these prophets. And thus they were deceived.

Jeremiah 4:14-22. The doom of Jerusalem and Judah is sealed; there can be no escape. Their ways and their doings brought all upon them. And when Jeremiah hears it from the lips of the Lord, he breaks out in a lament: “My bowels, My bowels! I am pained at my very heart. My heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.”

Jeremiah 4:23-31. Then the prophet has a vision of what will happen to the land of Israel, when the judgment threatened above has passed over it. The unscriptural invention and wicked teachings of Seventh Day Adventism applies this passage to the whole earth and teaches that when the Lord comes the whole earth will be laid waste. Like Isaiah 24:1-23, only Israel’s land is in view. It must be not overlooked that the Lord said: “The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.” This is Israel’s hope.