Jeremiah 3:2
Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
Jeremiah pictures Judah and Israel as a wife unfaithful to her husband, calling their turning to false gods whoredom and wickedness that polluted the land. Lifting the eyes to the high places and sitting in the ways like the Arabian means openly and persistently seeking and lying in wait for lovers along the roads and on every hill. That harlotry is spiritual apostasy, committed when the church devoted to God alone unites with the world, adopting its ways and seeking its help, influence and power instead of relying on God. That unlawful union with worldly powers and nations, including union of church and state, is Babylon fallen, whose wine is departure from God and whose course brings ruin and persecution of God's people. Yet the verse stands in God's plea to backsliders who willfully left Him, calling them to return with all the heart, acknowledge iniquity and give up cherished sin, with promise to heal their backsliding and not cause His anger to fall upon them.
Unfaithfulness Polluting the Land
Judah and Israel are pictured as unfaithful to God like a wife unfaithful to her husband, turned aside to other lovers. Their whoredom and wickedness are idolatry and turning from Him to false gods, and by that unfaithfulness they polluted and defiled the land.
Lifting the eyes to the high places means openly seeking lovers there, persistently pursuing them throughout the land. Sitting in the ways like the Arabian in the wilderness means lying in wait for them along the roads, as a desert traveler watches for those he seeks.
Seeking help and salvation from the hills and mountains means seeking worship and help from false gods, whose altars stood on every high hill and mountain and under green trees. The pollution grew step by step, for Israel first built altars to Jehovah on the high places, then became associated with false worship and lenient toward it, then fellowshipped with idolaters, then built altars to Milcom and Chemosh and Baal and Ashtoreth and a multitude of gods, until altars to false gods stood in the very house of Jehovah. Their wickedness in this was worse than the heathen, and the word belongs to the prophet's denunciation of sin to which the people failed to respond.
Church Joined to World
The harlotry in the verse is spiritual apostasy, for a corrupt, apostate church is portrayed as a licentious woman, and the Jewish church became a harlot through unlawful attachment to the world and its powers, turning from her espousal to the Lord. The church commits spiritual adultery when, though devoted to God alone, it unites with the world, adopting its ways and seeking its help, influence and power instead of relying on God. That seeking is pictured as Zion turning from God to the nations, pursuing idolatry and wickedness openly throughout the land like a traveler lying in wait along the roads, so that union of God's church with the world is fornication and adultery against God and pollutes the land.
That union includes union with worldly powers and nations and union of church and state, in which the church as a wife seeking other lovers turns from God to seek support from the State. Israel's turning from the Lord to the nations and their powers is the prototype and pattern of the apostate church seeking help from worldly powers instead of the Lord, a course that promises help but leads to ruin and explains Babylon's union of church and state and appeal to earthly power. The only legitimate union for the church is with Jesus Christ, for God is married to His church and His people, and to have or hold communion with another power is spiritual fornication. As a married woman taking her husband's name is entitled to his protection and to all that his name stands for, so believers married to Christ and taking His name enter into and realize all there is in it.
The defilement of the land is the church's illicit connection with the world in adopting its ways and seeking its aid, especially seeking civil government power to enforce religious dogmas after losing the power of God. That loss comes by rejecting the law of God and refusing to keep His seventh-day Sabbath, then turning to worldly power to enforce the false Sunday sabbath, and God uses the strongest symbol of shameless perfidy and lewdness to express His repugnance to this union. This is Babylon fallen and become the habitation of devils, for Babylon's fornication is departure from God and union with the kings of the earth in their idolatry, their errors, and their power. From all such union of church and state comes persecution of the people of God, and those who refuse to worship God by keeping all of His commandments choose instead the wine of Babylon's fornication.
The widespread efforts of Catholics and Protestants to secure effective Sunday laws in this country and the world is the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Revelation 13. That fornication with the kings of the earth requires God's people to come out, refuse State aid for religion, and seek power from God alone. The figure of turning from God's law and worship to idolatry and false religious groups is not about organizing a church under civil law for its temporal needs.
Call to Backsliders
Jeremiah 3:2 belongs to God's plea to backsliding Israel and Judah after they had willfully and wickedly left him as a wife leaves her husband. It sets forth their unfaithfulness and wickedness by the image of seeking lovers in the high places and sitting waiting for them along the roads like a wanderer in the desert. Their conduct in turning from God is what has polluted the land, yet the chapter stands as a strong appeal to backsliders to return to him.
Though their sin separates them from God, he still calls the unfaithful to return to him and offers mercy when they acknowledge their sin. The call is to acknowledge iniquity with all the heart and to give up every cherished sin, with the promise that he will not cause his anger to fall upon them but will heal their backslidings. As a husband may take back a repentant wife, so God may receive his people again after unfaithfulness, so that turning away does not by itself mean there is no hope of forgiveness. The verse thus gives hope because a backslider can be redeemed since Christ already redeemed the world, and he who returns, though it be the thousandth time, deserving nothing yet hoping in mercy, will find a loving Father who accepts what he purchased.