Weeping over the Deceitfulness of Sin

Jeremiah 9:1-16

1 Oh, that my head were waters,
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!

2 Oh, that I had in the wilderness
A lodging place for travelers;
That I might leave my people,
And go from them!
For they are all adulterers,
An assembly of treacherous men.

3 "And like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies.
They are not valiant for the truth on the earth.
For they proceed from evil to evil,
And they do not know Me," says the LORD.

4 "Everyone take heed to his neighbor,
And do not trust any brother;
For every brother will utterly supplant,
And every neighbor will walk with slanderers.

5 Everyone will deceive his neighbor,
And will not speak the truth;
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

6 Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit;
Through deceit they refuse to know Me," says the LORD.

7 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts:
"Behold, I will refine them and try them;
For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?

8 Their tongue is an arrow shot out;
It speaks deceit;
One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,
But in his heart he lies in wait.

9 Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the LORD.
"Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?"

10 I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,
And for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation,
Because they are burned up,
So that no one can pass through;
Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle.
Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled;
They are gone.

11 "I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of jackals.
I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant."

12 Who is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?

13 And the LORD said, "Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, 14 but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them," 15 therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. 16 I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them."

Jeremiah the weeping prophet continues his distraught over his people’s sin.  He wept for their spiritual and physical adultery, for their treachery among themselves and towards the LORD in lying and deceit for personal pleasures and gain.  They had no fear of God and disregarded His word given through the prophets and inscribed on scrolls of scripture to reflect upon that they might repent and amend their ways.  In their headlong pursuit of evil they were not living to be valiant for the truth because they did not know the LORD.  It was as if they were archers but the bow was their tongue and the arrows were lies inflicting painful suffering and death on each other.  They ended up not being able to trust each other and attacked instead with slandering words of lies and cowardly sinful thoughts and actions.  They taught themselves how to lie and worked tirelessly to deceive, breaking the commandments to love God and their neighbors.  This is why slander must not be perpetuated or tolerated in the church today because of its offense to God and each other, nor covered up with careful denial as we talk evil of one another (Psalm 64:5, 101:5, Proverbs 10:18).  Through deceit they refused to know God, as it remains true today.  God is Truth and not lies or deception.  We must be like Him is we are truly in Christ, holy and righteous in truth in love of God and man as Ephesians 4:15 says.  God had to discipline and refine His people who had strayed into such ungodly thinking and behavior speaking hypocritically with words of peace but with plans of hurt by conniving ambush.  Jeremiah therefore wept for the judgment coming on his people by the LORD for their unrepentant sin against Him and each other.  They lived according to their own desires, the dictates of their hearts, and not according to His word.  The same trap is set for us today and we will also be trapped in the snares of the evil of our hearts and the devil if we are not diligent to follow His word and valiant for the truth.  Our God is still a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24, Hebrews 12:28-29) but also remains a merciful Savior who forgives a repentant heart.  May we also be like Jeremiah as we are weeping over the deceitfulness and destruction of sin among us, we His people.