“They did not ask, 'Where is the LORD, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness” -Jeremiah 2:6
One of the first sins we see God charge his people with is that they are guilty of not seeking him. The charge here is two sided. On one side they had forgotten all that God had done for them, especially concerning his redeeming them from slavery in Egypt and providing for them for forty years. Calvin says this, “We now then understand what the Prophet means by saying, they did not ask: for God here sharply reproves the stupidity of the Jews, — that they did not consider that they were under perpetual obligations to him for his great kindness in delivering them in a manner so wonderful from the land of Egypt. By saying that they did not say, Where is Jehovah, he intimates that he was present with them and nigh them, but that they were blind, and that hence they were without an excuse for their ignorance, as he was not to be sought as one at a distance, or by means tedious and difficult...they did not choose to make any effort, or to apply their minds to seek or to inquire after God."
The second side is not that they are ignorant of what God thinks about what they are doing, but that they do know and are willfully not seeking him. Calvin again states, “…so that they could not have sinned except willfully, even by extinguishing, through their own malignity, the light presented to them, which shone before their eyes.” One of the things that sometimes fails to shock us is not necessarily the sins Israel fell into, but what they fell from. Again, Calvin says in his commentary, “But the first thing to be observed is, that the Jews were inexcusable, who had not considered that their fathers had been wonderfully and in an unusual manner preserved by God’s hand for forty years; for they had no bread to eat, nor water to drink. God drew water for them from a rock, and satisfied them with heavenly bread; and their garments did not wear out during the whole time. We then see that all those circumstances enhanced their guilt.” The Jews were blessed more than any nation on the face of the earth and had been the recipient of God’s covenant promises and blessings. However, covenants also contain curse stipulations in them. And knowing the curses that God promised, Israel still plodded forward in their rejection of him.
One can’t help but think when we read the book of Jeremiah that if Israel would have just stopped for a minute to seek the Lord things might have been a lot different. But if we read on, we will see that it wasn’t just the little stuff that they weren’t seeking the Lord about, but it was everything. The children of Israel had settled into a state of disobedience and disregard to God’s commands. In fact, they were in such a hard-hearted condition that they were warning proof and they said no thanks to God's gracious offer of forgiveness if they would return. Their condition was bad indeed.
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