Chapter 5

There are three distinct sections in Jeremiah chapter 5. Each of them deserves to be tackled differently.

The first section goes from verses 1 – 9. This section is about God’s search for righteous people. And as it happens, the search is not going to reveal a great deal. God will search long and hard for ANYONE who will repent!

Let’s just make this clear – God is getting Jeremiah to verify in his own mind that the people of Israel aren’t interested in repenting. And just to make sure that the concept is crystal clear in Jeremiah’s mind, God uses the same imagery we saw a chapter or so back – the images of a wife breaking her vows.

Verses 10 – 25 then develop the theme further. This time Jeremiah is given the image of vines in a vineyard. He is told to give the vines a savage pruning. This is to represent God’s people, Israel (often represented by a vine), being invited to return to Him (few take Him up on this, but few actually go ahead with it).

Finally we have verses 26 – 31 telling us of how the wicked have infiltrated everywhere among His people. And we read of how they have horrified God – mostly by callous lack of concern for the poor.

I want to concentrate here on that first idea – a God who is seeking righteous people. People often have a go at God, saying that He isn’t being fair if so many people die without having the chance to acknowledge Him.

Well, here’s the answer. God wants them ALL to be saved. He’s desperate for them to be saved! He’ll do anything, up to and including traveling through the city looking for someone who does right!

Just to make this abundantly clear, we’re not talking about a God who is trying to do a “Gotcha”. Many of us (even Christians!) have the image of God as being there with a cosmic clipboard and whistle; watching us to find the inevitable moment when we slip up, and then gleefully calling us out, humiliating us in front of our friends and then (in extreme cases) dropping a piano on us[1]. To people with this mindset, God sets us going, knows exactly what we’re going to do, and derives pleasure from destroying us because of this.

However, there’s another way to look at it. God creates us with free will, and although He knows everything, He chooses to not control us in this way (though He certainly could). What He cares about is that we choose Him voluntarily. And in this passage we see this image of a God looking everywhere to find the person who WANTS to be with Him!
Yet sadly He is so often unable to find that person.

This can be an encouragement or a warning, depending on who we are and how we see it.

It could be terrifying if you happen to be one of those who has no interest in God, and no desire to do as He asks. To a person in this category, God is giving you abundant chances to come to Him, and sooner or later you get your last chance.

On the other hand, this gives us some encouragement if you happen to be one who struggles with God, who finds the commitment difficult, who asks awkward questions of Him.

To you, I can point out that this passage says that God is hunting for someone; and that someone is you. If anyone is going to show interest in Him, God wants to meet with that person and forgive them!

And just one last thing – I believe that this gives the final answer to the age old question, “What happens to those who have never heard?”

The answer is that God is seeking them. I don’t know how that works with missionary work – I am absolutely convinced that such work is of value – but I also know that God is both desperately seeking those who wish to know Him and also sovereign, over all circumstances and challenges.

So don’t worry about those who have never heard. God has things sorted out for them. Rather, worry about those who HAVE heard – specifically ourselves!



[1] Fans of the Far Side Unite!