Jeremiah 18:12
And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
Jeremiah 18:12 records the answer of Judah and Jerusalem when God called them to turn from evil and amend their ways, a deliberate refusal to repent. They declared there was no hope of change and insisted on walking after their own plans and doing the imagination of their evil hearts, persisting in their chosen course against correction and warning. That defiant choice left them subject to judgment and given over to their own course, with their land made desolate and themselves scattered before their enemies. It stands as warning that rejecting correction and continuing in sin fixes the soul in disobedience, while turning back can save the soul from death and cover many sins.
Rejection of God's Call
The words are the reply of Judah and Jerusalem to God's call to turn from evil, amend their ways and do what is right. That call was met with a deliberate refusal to repent. Judah rejected the call to turn from evil and to mend its ways.
In that reply they declared that there is no hope of change. They insisted instead on walking after their own plans and devices. Every one would do the imagination and desire of his own evil and wicked heart. They thus persisted in their chosen course and rejected correction and warning.
By this answer they made their standing with God and their relation to Him depend on their own course of action.
Judgment and Present Warning
The defiant answer brings the threatened judgment described around it, leaving those who give it subject to judgment for their own course of action. Having rejected the call to turn from evil and amend their ways, they are given over to the course they have chosen. Their land is made desolate for that refusal. They themselves are scattered before their enemies.
Rejecting correction and continuing in sin leaves people set and fixed in disobedience. The declaration that there is no hope is itself the refusal to turn, persisting in personal plans and the desires of the evil heart. By contrast, turning back from that course can save the soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
As a present warning, the same reply rebukes teachers who have received great light and clear evidence of God's work yet fail to improve it. Their harshness toward students, departure from safe paths, and failure to care rightly for those entrusted to them place them under rebuke. It likewise applies to leaders in Battle Creek who disregarded repeated counsel because keeping the work centered there was more convenient. In choosing convenience they relied on human wisdom rather than obeying God. The resulting confusion and shortage of means are the fruit of that choice. It also describes what happens when a mind becomes unsettled and confused, as in the case of Selah, who gave himself over to follow the imagination of his own heart.