Jeremiah 3:7, commentary and pictures

God as a husband called Israel, pictured as an unfaithful wife who had forsaken Him, to turn back to Him after all she had done, but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. The women stand for God's people, with the woman signifying the church of God in her broken espousal to Him. The harlotry is spiritual fornication, which is departure from the law and the testimony and from the worship of Jehovah into unlawful connection with idolatrous and false religious sects. When His church turns to the nations and the world and to worldly power and earthly rulers instead of relying on God and seeking the Lord, it commits that spiritual adultery and brings confusion. The chapter still presents Him as merciful toward the backslider, calling sinners to acknowledge their iniquity and return with all the heart, offering forgiveness and cleansing and healing of backslidings even after all their wicked deeds.

Call, Refusal, Witness

God as a husband calls Israel, pictured as an unfaithful wife who has forsaken Him, to turn and return to Him after all she has done. She does not return but refuses His call after her wrongdoing and turning away. Her treacherous sister Judah sees it and witnesses her sister’s unfaithfulness and refusal. The betrayal is pictured as harlotry, as faithless departure from Him.

The women in the passage represent God’s people, and the woman signifies the church of God. This supports comparing the apostate Jewish church to a harlot who breaks her espousal to God. Israel’s backsliding went step by step, first building altars to Jehovah on the high places and thereby becoming associated with false worship and accustomed to look on it leniently. Then came fellowship with idolaters, then altars built to Milcom and Chemosh and Baal and Ashtoreth and a multitude of gods, until at last altars to false gods stood in the very house of Jehovah. Looking to the hills and to the mountains for help in this setting meant looking to the worship of false gods and hoping for help from false gods. The marriage image shows that belonging to God involves taking His name and receiving the protection and all that His name stands for.

Spiritual Adultery Defined

The harlotry and whoredom and fornication spoken of here are spiritual fornication, which is departure from the law and the testimony and from the worship of Jehovah into unlawful connection with idolatrous sects and false religious sects of every kind. That unfaithfulness of God's called people, who were bidden to return and refused, is pictured as spiritual adultery witnessed by Judah. An unfaithful woman is the symbol of a corrupt, fallen, apostate church, and Babylon is such an apostate church.

When God's people and church turn to the nations and to the world and to worldly power and earthly rulers instead of relying on God, they become apostate. That turning is harlotry and departure from God, for union of God's church with the world is fornication and adultery. The corrupt church that abandons truth and joins itself to earthly rulers instead of seeking the Lord brings confusion. The record of faithless Israel called to return after turning away, refusing while her sister looked on, stands as the prototype of such apostasy.

That adulterous course adds sin to sin by taking counsel but not of God and covering with a covering but not of His Spirit. It walks to go down into Egypt without asking at His mouth, to strengthen itself in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. It looks not to the Holy One of Israel and seeks not the Lord. The only legitimate union for the church is with Jesus Christ, and to hold communion with another power is fornication against Him. Babylon's fornication is leaving God and uniting with kings of the earth in their idolatry and errors and power, and from all such union of church and state comes persecution of God's people.

This has no reference to the church conforming to the laws of civil government for the regulation of temporal concerns. Refusal to return is apostasy that makes the church a harlot when she joins herself to another by adopting the ways of the world and seeking civil power to enforce religion, including Sunday. She is then deserted by God and fallen as Babylon. God's tender call as husband married to His church is to turn back to Him and His law by keeping the seventh-day Sabbath. That fornication is chosen by those who refuse to worship God by keeping all His commandments, and it is now beginning fulfillment in widespread Catholic and Protestant efforts around the world to secure effective Sunday laws.

Mercy for Backsliders

The chapter presents God as merciful toward the backslider, calling His people to acknowledge their sin and return to Him. Israel is pictured as an unfaithful wife who had forsaken her husband, called by God to return but refusing, while her treacherous sister Judah saw it. God called apostate Israel to return to Him, but Israel did not return, and Judah saw her sister's unfaithfulness.

Israel's idolatry and rebellion did not end God's appeal, for He still offered forgiveness and cleansing to those who came back to Him. There is therefore repentance and salvation for those who have wandered away. The call to turn and return even after all their wicked deeds, which were worse than the heathen, shows God's feelings toward backsliders.

That call proves backsliders can be redeemed, because Christ redeemed the world and all things in it when He gave Himself, His honor, His glory, and His life. He pleads for all to come, and will accept what He has purchased when it is delivered to Him. Cherished sin is what separates from God, and he who gives up all sin and returns to God with all the heart, though it be the thousandth time, will find a loving Father. He will not cause His anger to fall, and will heal backslidings when iniquity is acknowledged.