Jeremiah 2:35
Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned. Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.
The chapter lays bare the grave wickedness and deep backsliding of Judah and Israel. In the verse they insist they are innocent and have not sinned, expecting anger to turn away even while God charges them with wrongdoing. God answers that denial by declaring He will plead with them and press His case and judgment against them, so claiming innocence does not end His reckoning or take away guilt. The warning is a plea to willing backsliders to acknowledge their sin and return, with hope and promise of healing. Their backsliding is spiritual adultery, for the church united in any way with the world, the nations, or the state breaks its marriage covenant to the Lord as a bride and wife turning to other lovers, and He is just to separate from the unfaithful yet takes them back when they repent.
Context and Plain Meaning
Jeremiah 2 is a disclosure of the grave wickedness of God's people and of the serious backsliding of Judah and Israel. It is a strong plea addressed to backsliders, showing that there is hope for them. Those addressed have willingly departed from God, yet He pleads for them to return, calls them to acknowledge their sin and come back to Him despite their guilt, and promises to heal the backsliding people who return.
The verse sets out the claim of Israel and Judah to be innocent, saying they have not sinned. With that claim they expect His anger to turn from them. They make this profession of innocence even as God charges them with wrongdoing.
God answers the profession by declaring that He will plead with them. That pleading is His bringing of His case and account and charge and judgment against them for denying their sin. Their saying they have not sinned does not end His case against them and does not remove guilt.
This denial stands within backsliding into false worship and seeking help from false gods. Leaning upon Egypt fails, and turning to Assyria spoils and makes naked.
Spiritual Adultery and Restoration
The turning away exposed in Jeremiah 2 is spiritual unfaithfulness, for any union of the church with the world is fornication and adultery and a departing from God. That union includes joining with the nations and with other powers, and with the State in any way. The Jewish church was espoused to the Lord and became unfaithful through an unlawful connection and bond with the world, and that same kind of unfaithfulness makes the professed church a harlot.
God's people are pictured as a bride turning from her Divine Spouse to other lovers, to worldly powers and nations. They are pictured as a wife who forsakes her husband to turn to the nations. When the church seeks the world's power instead of God, confusion follows. Leaning upon Egypt fails, and turning to Assyria spoils and makes naked.
Blinded by selfish desires to God's precepts and warnings, the church imagines that by drawing nearer to the world the world is drawn nearer to God, while it goes blindly to destruction. God deals with His people under a marriage covenant, and when they break that covenant and prove untrue to Him He is justified in separating from them. To continue with them in unfaithfulness would partake of wrong and do wrong to both parties. Claiming innocence and saying I have not sinned while living in violation does not turn away His anger but brings His pleading against them. If the unfaithful repent, He takes them back, and that restoration does not violate the seventh commandment.