Jeremiah 15:6
Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting. Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.
The verse belongs to Jeremiah's prophecies denouncing sin and expressing sorrow over the people's transgression, standing amid his weeping over their desperate state of sin. Its setting includes appeals for the people to return to God, met with little to no response from most of them, leaving the prophet discouraged at their utter lack of response to God's messages while he still pleads with God not to disgrace the throne of His glory. To have forsaken God and gone backward means Israel turned into idolatry, treachery, shamelessness, and abominations such as Topheth. Their forsaking includes sin regarding the Sabbath, for true recognition of the Sabbath is always true recognition of God as Creator and Redeemer.
Going backward describes turning away from God, so that every step away from God is spiritual decline even when a person appears to be advancing in worldly success. While ungodly, their form of temple worship is of no avail. Forsaking God and turning backward brings His opposition and destruction, for He will stretch out His hand against them; persistent backsliding ends in ruin because He is weary of relenting. This wilfulness will soon be punished by Babylon as the swift avenger.
If they had heeded the Sabbath, Jerusalem would have stood forever. The nation would have been preserved. Drawing nearer to God in heart and life is true progress, whatever one's standing in the world.