「開き直るのはやめて、神に立ち帰りなさい」九月第二主日礼拝 宣教 2025年9月14日
エレミヤ書 Jeremiah 2章4〜9節、4章1〜2節 牧師 河野信一郎
Good morning. I thank the Lord for the blessing of being able to worship together with you again this morning. Time flies—we’ve already entered the third week of September. Tomorrow is a holiday, so some of you may be taking it easy, while others may have started a late summer vacation since yesterday. I pray that each of you may spend your days surrounded by God’s love and protection, and that you may be kept safe from various disasters, COVID-19, and influenza as you go about your lives.
Now, this month is “Church School Month.” There are still two more opportunities to attend the adult classes, so I’d like to share this information. Yesterday, I attended a seminar held at N Church, where someone remarked, “Most people who come to church are aiming for the worship service, so almost no one attends the church school held before worship. The way for church school to be blessed is to hold it after the worship service.”
If Okubo Church agrees with this proposal and changes course, the start time for Okubo Church’s worship service will move up one hour from the current 11:00 AM to 10:00 AM. However, some may not welcome such an idea. The beauty of Sunday School lies in reading the day’s Scripture together, then sharing what resonated with our hearts and what moved us, thereby deepening our understanding of the Word and gaining various insights. Please join us.
Now, our series on the Book of Jeremiah began last week, but covering all 52 chapters in just 13 sessions is a daunting task. Next week we plan to listen to Jeremiah chapter 6, but this morning’s message will cover chapters 2 through 5. We will focus particularly on chapters 2 and 4. From chapter 2 to chapter 25, we see why God’s people, Judah and Israel, turned their backs on God and departed from His blessings. It is the section where the Lord God speaks words of judgment through the prophet Jeremiah to such a faithless people.
God delivered them from slavery and led them through the wilderness, ultimately bringing them into the fertile land flowing with milk and honey, the Promised Land. Yet the reason why they allowed that holy land to become desolate, why they were driven out and became a captive people, is recorded. God is not a merciless being who judges His people without cause or reason. It is because the cause for judgment lies within the people themselves that the righteous and holy God judges them.
This morning we will focus on the words of the Lord recorded in Jeremiah chapter 2, verses 4 through 9, and the words of the Lord recorded in chapter 4, verses 1 and 2. However, I will also pick up on the words recorded in between these passages as I speak. Please open your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 4. Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord God speaks to the people of Israel as follows: Here it says, “Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.” The reason the hearts of the people of Israel turned away from God was that they stopped listening to the word of the Lord and began listening to the words of their own hearts—words filled with greed. In time, they forgot God’s word and ceased to keep the important covenant and promise they had made with Him.
Therefore, what is important for us is to continually listen to God’s word. For God is the source of the strength we need to live, the source of all blessings. If we are not connected to that source, we will live each day in emptiness, spending our days without joy, gratitude, peace, or any sense of fulfillment in being alive. We will wander in discontent and anxiety, spending our days in a state of hopeless frustration.
Now let us read from chapter 2, verses 5 through 9. Verse 5 says, “The Lord says: What fault did your ancestors find in me that they went far away? They pursued worthless things and became worthless themselves.” It mentions “your ancestors,” referring to the people’s past. God says that He had no fault or cause for the ancestors to depart, yet they pursued worthless things and went away, becoming worthless themselves. Looking at verse 6: “They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord? Who brought us up from the land of Egypt, through the wilderness, through a land of desolation and pits, through a land of drought and darkness, through a land that no one passes through, and where no one dwells?’” It says that because they forgot God, even when placed in darkness, they did not seek Him.
In verse 7, it says, “I led you into a land flowing with milk and honey, and I gave you good fruit to eat. But when you entered my land, you defiled it and made the land I gave you an abomination.” Here, “you” refers to the people in the present. God says that although He gave the people a rich land, they forgot Him and lived selfishly, defiling the inheritance land entrusted to them by God. Look at verse 8. It says that even the priests, scribes, and prophets, who should have faithfully served God, forgot to fear the Lord God and pursued things that were of no help.
In verse 9 it says, “Therefore I will bring charges against you again, declares the Lord, and I will contend with your descendants.” “Your descendants” refers to the people’s “future.” The prophet Jeremiah is saying that God will contend with the people—that is, God’s judgment is coming soon—because they have forgotten the Lord their God, have not kept His words and promises, and continue to live according to their own desires.
What we should focus on in these two chapters is the phrase in verses 6 and 8: “They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’” Because of their arrogance, they distanced themselves from God. Even when driven into a desperate situation, they did not seek Him. Instead, they defiantly asked, “Where is the Lord?” We must take this as a cautionary example. That is, it is vital to maintain a faith that never forgets we live by God’s grace, constantly seeking Him, listening to His word, and obeying it. The words “Where is the Lord?” are words that mock God. God has promised to be with us always. That promise is constantly fulfilled through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
In verse 11, it says, “What nation has ever replaced its gods? Yet my people have replaced their glory with something that cannot help them.” Looking at verse 13, it says, “My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and dug out broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” There is nothing more foolish than abandoning God, the source of the water of life, and digging ponds or building dams.
Verses 17 and 18 state the same thing: “Did not this happen to you because you abandoned the Lord your God when he led you on your journey? Yet now you want to go back to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile. Why? And you want to go to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates. Why?”
In verse 21, it says, “I planted you as a choice vine, a completely reliable seed. How then did you turn into a wild vine of poor quality?” And in the first half of verse 23, it says, “Why do you keep insisting, ‘I am not defiled; I have never gone after Baal’?” Skipping ahead slightly, verse 29 says, “Why do you contend with me and persist in rebellion?” and the latter part of verse 31 also states, “Why does my people say, ‘We will not return to you, for we have strayed away’?”
Here we repeatedly encounter God’s anguished cries of “Why? How could this be?” Yet the people respond, “We have wandered off; we will not return to you,” and in verse 35, they insist, “I am not guilty” or “The Lord’s anger has turned away from me.” This is nothing short of defiance. But this is not solely Israel’s problem. We too do things that are incomprehensible in God’s eyes, things that make Him ask “Why?” with a broken heart. We too become defiant, or live each day with a careless attitude, thinking, “Whatever happens, happens!”
Going back a bit, in verses 27 and 28, God says with sarcasm, “They say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’ They do not turn to me, but turn their backs. When disaster strikes, they say, ‘Arise and save us.’ Where are the gods you made? Let them rise up if they can.” God says this with sarcasm, but He is not being petty or consumed by jealousy here. This describes the sin the people of Israel committed against God. However, it is not God’s true heart. God’s true heart is found in chapter 4, verse 1. It is the word of the Lord repeated many times in chapter 3 as well.
“Return to me, Israel,” declares the Lord. “Return to me. Cast away the curse from before me, and you will not go astray again.” Thus God calls us back to Himself. God calls us, saying, “Do not remain crouched there. Arise now and return to me, for I desire to bless you.”
Yet stubborn as we are, we remain crouched down. We cannot rise because of our weakness. Our sins weigh us down too heavily to stand. But God has compassion on us. He sent His Savior, Jesus Christ, to us. This Jesus extends His hand to us with a smile, gently saying, “Take my hand. Connect with me.” The hand Jesus extends to us bears the scars from being nailed to the cross to pay the price for our sins. These scars of Jesus are the proof that Jesus and God love us.
What can we do now? We can hold tightly to Jesus’ hand, believe in Jesus, and walk with Jesus. In chapter 4, verse 2, we find God’s call: “If you swear by the Lord and uphold truth, justice, and righteousness, saying, ‘As the Lord lives,’ then the nations will be blessed through you and will boast in you.” Believing in Jesus, repenting of our sins, and returning to live for God leads to eternal blessing, allowing us to live forever in God’s love. This is God’s desire and will for us.