We’re reading through Jeremiah in Wednesday night Bible
study (chapter 5 this week). The more I read the Old Testament, the more I see
its similarities with the New Testament. The God of both is the same. His
requirements of humanity are the same (belief from the heart in His Word
resulting in obedience and faithfulness to Him). His perfect attributes are the
same.
This week we saw the parallels between the prophet Jeremiah
and the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans. When the first tablet of the Law
(our duty to God, Exodus 20:1-11//Deuteronomy 5:6-15) is destroyed, the second
tablet (our duty to each other, Exodus 20:12-17//Deuteronomy 5:16-21) crumbles.
The prophet describes the failure of the people in their
duty to God:
“Why should I pardon you?
Your sons have forsaken Me
And sworn by those who are not gods” (5:7).
They violated the first three of the Ten Commandments.
Spiritual adultery results in physical adultery. Marriage
collapses in the society. The violation of the seventh commandment becomes commonplace,
and the people are driven solely by a continual lusting:
“...they committed adultery
and trooped to the harlot’s house.
They were well-fed lusty horses,
Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife” (5:7,8).
Then comes the refrain of this chapter (it’ll occur again in
verse 29):
“‘Shall I not punish these people,’ declares the LORD,
‘And on a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?’” (5:9).
Destroy the first tablet of the Law, and the second
crumbles. This is exactly as the apostle Paul outlines in Romans 1. With the
failure in duty to God (Romans 1:20-23) comes a failure in duty to fellow human
(1:24-32). This is why “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”
(1:18).
Back in Jeremiah 5, we see another example of what Paul
teaches in Romans 1. The LORD highlights this same principle using two different
examples.
“‘Do you not fear Me?’ declares the LORD.
‘Do you not tremble in My presence?
For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
An eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it.
Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail;
Though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.
But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
They have turned aside and departed’” (5:22,23).
One of the inferences that humanity should universally draw
from nature is that of law (which requires a Law-Giver). If there are laws of
nature instituted by the Creator of nature, then there are logically laws of
morality/ethics instituted by the Creator of humanity. The very fact that
humans devise systems of morality/ethics and build laws to reflect those
systems is proof of this reality: “...when Gentiles who do not have the Law
do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to
themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts,
their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or
else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge
the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (Romans 2:14-16).
The second illustration is still from nature, but it is
closer to home and little more practical:
“‘They do not say in their heart,
“Let us now fear the LORD our God,
Who gives rain in its season,
Both the autumn rain and the spring rain,
Who keeps for us
The appointed weeks of the harvest.”
Your iniquities have turned these away,
And your sins have withheld good from you’” (Jeremiah 5:24,25).
From gravity’s effect on bodies of water to the seasonal
rains for crops, God’s “invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine
nature” should be “clearly seen, being understood through what has been
made” (Romans 1:20). Instead, the people have rebelled against the
knowledge of God as it is revealed in creation, and actively and continually “suppress
the truth in unrighteousness” (1:18). Paul describes this progression
exactly as Jeremiah does.
After Jeremiah’s two illustrations from creation (5:22-25),
what should we expect to see when people deny the authority of the God of
creation? When the first tablet of the Law (our duty to God) is destroyed, the
second tablet (our duty to each other) crumbles.
“For wicked men are found among My people,
They watch like fowlers lying in wait;
They set a trap,
They catch men.
Like a cage full of birds,
So their houses are full of deceit;
Therefore they have become great and rich.
They are fat, they are sleek,
They also excel in deeds of wickedness;
They do not plead the cause,
The cause of the orphan, that they may prosper;
And they do not defend the rights of the poor”
(5:26-28).
With the denial of the first tablet and the crumbling of the
second tablet, the refrain from 5:9 returns:
“‘Shall I not punish these people?’ declares the LORD,
‘On a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?’” (5:29).
In Jeremiah,
this principle is in the context of old covenant Israel . In Romans, this principle
is applied to all of humanity. In Athens, Paul had previously described this
change: “...having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring
to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in
which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man Whom He has
appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead”
(Acts 17:30,31).
He is a merciful God. This is seen in the first statement of
the Ten Commandments: “I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt
It is the Gospel of this God that must be preached again and
again by the Church. Without faith in the God Who alone can rescue “us from
the domain of darkness,” and transfer “us to the kingdom of His beloved
Son” (Colossians 1:13), and the two tablets of the Law built on this
gracious Gospel, no other attempts to save a society or nation will be
fruitful.
The Gospel of God’s grace→our duty to God→our duty to fellow
man. This is the only biblical solution. Therefore, do not forget your calling,
Church. Do not cease from giving the call, louder and more frequently: “Now
all these things are from God, Who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and
gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them,
and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg
you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him Who knew no sin to
be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”
(2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
Father, grant the grace of repentance (Acts 5:31; 11:18; 2
Timothy 2:25) and bring revival through faith in Your Son alone.
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