Jeremiah · chapter 4 of 52
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Jeremiah 4 calls Judah to return to the Lord and to circumcise their hearts, and then the alarm sounds: a destroyer comes from the north like a lion, with chariots like a whirlwind. Jeremiah writhes in anguish at what he hears, and in a vision he sees the earth returned to chaos, without light, people or birds. Yet the Lord says he will not make a full end.
Jeremiah 4 follows the call to repentance of chapter 3 and turns it into a military alarm. The voice moves from the Lord to the prophet to the city, and the chapter mixes announcements, laments and visions. It is one of the passages that shows Jeremiah is not a cold observer: he feels in his body what he announces, and his grief joins God's.
Verses 1-4 set a condition: if Israel returns, let her return to the Lord, remove her idols and swear by the Lord in truth. So he tells them to break up their fallow ground and to circumcise their hearts, lest his wrath break out like fire.
Verses 5-18 change tone. The trumpet is blown and the cry goes out that all should flee to the fortified cities, for evil comes from the north. A lion has come up from his thicket, a destroyer of nations. It is announced that kings and priests will lose heart. Jeremiah cries that the Lord has deceived this people by promising peace while the sword reaches the throat. A hot wind comes from the desert. A voice from Dan and from the hills of Ephraim announces that besiegers are coming from a distant land. God asks Jerusalem to wash her heart from evil, and concludes that her own conduct has brought this on her.
In verses 19-22 the prophet speaks in pain: he writhes in anguish, his heart pounds, and he cannot keep silent because he hears the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war. The Lord says his people are foolish, wise to do evil but not to do good. In verses 23-28 Jeremiah sees the earth formless and empty, with no light in the heavens, the mountains quaking, no one left and the birds fled. It is a picture of creation undone. The Lord declares that the whole land will be desolate, though he will not make a full end.
Verses 29-31 show the city fleeing at the noise of horsemen while she dresses in scarlet and decks herself with gold. Her lovers despise her. Jeremiah hears a cry like a woman in labor, saying her hands fail before the murderers.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord asks them to circumcise their hearts, that is, to give them over truly. The outward sign of the covenant is not enough: what God wants is inward obedience, and where it is missing his wrath catches fire.
Jeremiah cries that his inward parts writhe and his heart pounds because he hears the trumpet and the alarm of war. The prophet does not announce judgment coldly; he suffers with his people.
Jeremiah looks at the earth and sees it formless and empty, with the heavens without light. The language recalls the beginning of creation and describes a world returning to chaos because of sin.
The Lord says the whole land will be desolate, yet he will not make a full end. Inside the harshest announcement a crack of hope stays open, which the book will widen as it goes on.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: To remove their abominations and circumcise their hearts. — Jeremiah 4:1-4
Answer: From the north. — Jeremiah 4:6
Answer: A lion that has come up from its thicket. — Jeremiah 4:7
Answer: To wash it clean of evil so that she may be saved. — Jeremiah 4:14
Answer: The earth formless and empty, the heavens without light and the mountains quaking. — Jeremiah 4:23-24
Answer: The whole land will be desolate, yet he will not make a full end. — Jeremiah 4:27
The circumcision of the heart is an image that keeps speaking to churches. A person can take part in congregational life, sing, serve and give, and still have a closed heart. Jeremiah asks that the inside match the outside. A small group can ask which area of life has not yet been given to God.
It is also worth looking at the prophet. Jeremiah does not rejoice in judgment; he suffers. Those who teach the Bible should learn from that attitude: speak truthfully about sin without losing compassion for people, knowing that God himself grieves for his people.
Jeremiah 4 leaves Jerusalem facing an approaching enemy and a prophet who cannot hold back his tears. In chapter 5 the Lord sends a search through the city's streets for a single person who practices justice, and the search shows how far corruption has gone.
Circumcision was the physical sign of the covenant. Jeremiah uses the image to ask for inward surrender: removing whatever shuts the heart to God. Moses had already said it in Deuteronomy, and in the New Testament Paul takes up the idea when he speaks of circumcision of the heart by the Spirit.
It is the prophet's complaint, since he sees that false prophets were promising peace while war was coming. Jeremiah is not accusing God of lying; he expresses his astonishment and pain. The book shows that the real guilt lay with the prophets who promised what God had not said.
The Hebrew words recall Genesis 1, when the earth was without form and empty before God's work. Jeremiah sees the order of creation undone as a picture of judgment. He is not saying the world ends at that moment, but that sin can reduce to nothing what God has ordered.