Jeremiah’s Youth and Judah’s Crisis
Ah, the vestiges of youth. The emotional turmoil we read about in our next book, Jeremiah, ruled me for many years. Today, we will read the first three chapters.

It’s important to understand the hermeneutics: Jeremiah was a young man, a teen, more likely about twenty years old. Judah was being ruled by Josiah in the thirteenth year of his reign (Jeremiah 1:2), which means Josiah was twenty-one. This was about a century after Isaiah had prophesied in Jerusalem, but Jeremiah was from the village of Anathoth, just a few miles northeast of the capital.
Small Towns and Restless Hearts
I have lived in cities like Chicago, but grew up in Tucson when the population was around one hundred thousand. Not quite a city, but more than a town. There was not much to do in Tucson, so we created our own trouble.

When I was twenty, I decided it was time for a change. My brother was earning good money in Rock Springs, Wyoming, so I moved there. There was even less activity in that small town of fewer than twenty thousand people. There were bars and churches, and I was not religious. Therefore, I spent most of my time and money going out drinking and looking for women. There was a severe shortage of single women in that town, but the married women had husbands who worked on oil rigs and could be away several days at a time. Adultery was almost an accepted condition.
Adultery and Idolatry
It was with that background that I went through many relationships, including my first three marriages. I liked the idea of a committed union, but because I had grown up in a family with a stepfather, I could not fully grasp the concept. Coming out of the free-love 1960s and loose 1970s, I was open to almost anything.

As I read our verses this morning, the repeated theme was Israel and Judah’s adultery. They had a God who loved and provided for them, but they kept going after foreign gods. Their idolatry was their downfall. We all suffer the same fate.

God had wiped the slate clean in the days of Noah, poured out His wrath on Sodom and Gomorrah, and the people all knew this. People had taught them—just as they do to this day—about how He led them out of captivity and provided for them in the wilderness (Jeremiah 2:6). Yet, at the first opportunity, they were jumping into bed with anyone who would have them (Jeremiah 2:20).
Greener Grass
I’m not saying this was because an adolescent led them, or even that Jeremiah was focusing on this because of his youth. Adults of all ages fall into the trap of thinking there is something better next door. When we look over the fence and notice the grass seems greener, we don’t question why.

I recall a book I once read by Erma Bombeck, The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank(1). The title alone reminds us that something that looks appealing may originate from something toxic.

We know Josiah had tried to restore Judah when they found the scriptures, and yet just thirteen years later—as Assyria fades away and Babylon and Egypt rise—the Jewish people are trying to form new alliances and put themselves under the yoke of a different partner.
The Sufficiency of God
The world will always try to pull us away from the Lord. We get the feeling that there could be something more, so we get greedy and seek it. There is nothing more than God. He is and must always be sufficient.

However, we have a twisted mindset of wanting what God can give us instead of wanting God. Since others possess more than we do, we remain unfulfilled. My guess is even Bill Gates sometimes looks at Elon Musk and thinks, He has a rocket. I wonder if I should get a rocket? We never find satisfaction in earthly possessions. So we prostitute ourselves with idols to get more.
The Hand Extended
We then realize we still don’t have enough—because we don’t have God. Yet, He is there with His hand extended, wanting us to take hold of it. He wants us to have Him, though our choices defile us.

So, Jeremiah is here to encourage us to repent. This is as true today as it was during the forty years this prophet pleaded with the people of Judah.
Tomorrow, we will read Jeremiah 4-6.
Citation
1. Erma Bombeck, The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.