Jeremiah 3:8, commentary and pictures

God's people are pictured as His wife, and adultery and harlotry mean spiritual unfaithfulness in leaving God, His law and worship to join in communion with another power and false worship. Putting her away with a bill of divorce means His rejection of backsliding Israel for persistent unfaithfulness, while He remains her lawful husband, and treacherous Judah saw that judgment yet feared not but played the harlot also. Even after such divorce God calls backsliding Israel and Judah to return, promising to heal their backsliding and to forgive and cleanse those who turned to idols. Israel's old apostasy stands as the prototype of Babylon, a fallen corrupt church shown as a licentious woman, for when the bride lawfully united to God alone leaves Him and joins the world she is counted unfaithful, and union of the church with the world or State in any way is fornication and adultery. That harlotry is the church adopting the world's ways and seeking its aid and power instead of God, especially seeking worldly and State power to enforce religious dogmas, springing from rejection of God's law in refusing the seventh-day Sabbath and seeking to enforce Sunday, which brings persecution of God's people.

Marriage Divorce and History

Jeremiah 3:8 pictures God's people as His wife, so that adultery, harlotry, whoredom and fornication mean spiritual fornication. That spiritual fornication is departure from God, from His law and testimony and worship, into communion with another power. It is unlawful connection with idolatrous sects and false religious sects of every kind and false worship. The only legitimate union for the church is with Jesus Christ alone, and to hold communion with any other power is fornication.

Giving a bill of divorce and putting away means God's rejection of backsliding Israel for persistent unfaithfulness and backsliding adultery. He is still lawfully married to His people as husband even as He puts her away. This marriage image shows the Jewish church abandoning its covenant relationship with the Lord. In that covenant God's people take His name and receive the protection and blessings it represents.

Treacherous sister Judah saw Israel's judgment yet feared not. She did not take warning from Israel's punishment but went and played the harlot also. She too turned away from God and was unfaithful, turning to idolatry. Although Israel was put away, Judah also turned to harlotry and acted treacherously.

Israel's spiritual adultery began though she was commanded to utterly destroy every altar to false gods on every high hill and mountain and under green trees. Backsliding Israel first built altars to Jehovah Himself upon the high places, which joined her to false worship and accustomed her children to look upon it leniently and upon heathen worshipers with charity. Then came fellowship with heathen worshipers, then altars built to Milcom and Chemosh and Baal and Ashtoreth and a multitude of gods. At last altars to false gods were erected in the very house of Jehovah. Looking to the hills and to the mountains for help was looking to the worship of false gods there and hoping for help from them.

Prophecy represents God's people and the Jewish church in its covenant relationship by a woman, and the verse is an example of this symbolic use. Israel's unfaithfulness to God is pictured as adultery, and God's rejection of her as a wife is pictured as divorce. The Jewish church's apostasy is thus an example of a church becoming corrupt through unfaithfulness to God.

The verse belongs to Jeremiah 2 to 11, the prophecies Baruch wrote down at Jeremiah's mouth after Jehoiakim burned the first roll. Its warning about backsliding Israel put away for adultery and treacherous Judah playing the harlot also shares the book's warnings and appeals. Those warnings and appeals show the heavenly Father's kindness and everlasting love and apply especially to the present day.

Hope for Backsliders

Even after putting away backsliding Israel for adultery with a bill of divorce, while treacherous Judah saw the judgment and yet acted unfaithfully and turned to idolatry also, the surrounding appeal in Jeremiah 2 and 3 is a call to return with promise to heal backsliding and to forgive and cleanse those who had turned from God to idols. The history is the description of backslidden Israel and Judah, and its force is that apostasy did not end the divine appeal to come back. The departure is marital unfaithfulness met not with silence but with an invitation to return.

That portion belongs to Jeremiah 2 to 11, the prophecies written at Jeremiah's mouth after the first roll was burned, and its warnings and appeals display the kindness and everlasting love of the heavenly Father. Those warnings and appeals apply especially to the present day. Backsliding by itself does not mean there is no forgiveness, for the passage is a plea showing there is hope for backsliders. The decisive danger is more than backsliding, when a person turns completely away from the means God uses to reach souls, the Spirit-filled Word and Jesus Christ.

Though the wickedness of His people was worse than the heathen, God still pleads with backsliding Israel to return. He promises not to cause His anger to fall upon them if they will only acknowledge their iniquity, and He promises to heal their backslidings. Backsliders are already redeemed, by Christ giving Himself, His honor, His glory and His life.

One who gives up all cherished sin and returns to God with all the heart, even the thousandth time, will find a loving Father. As a wife may separate from an unfaithful husband but is not free to marry another without a legal divorce, so the putting away and bill of divorce mark a real rejection for unfaithfulness. Yet if he repents she may take him back without adultery, and in the same way God receives His repentant people when they repent.

Babylon and Worldly Union

Jeremiah 3 records Israel's old apostasy as the prototype of Babylon, the apostate, corrupt, fallen church, shown by the image of a corrupt licentious woman. The adultery, harlotry, whoredom and fornication are spiritual fornication, expressly departure from the law and the testimony and the worship of Jehovah into unlawful connection with idolatrous sects and false religious sects of every kind. What should be the pure unsullied bride lawfully united to God alone, to Jesus Christ alone, when she leaves God and joins the world is counted as an unfaithful woman, like Israel and Judah. Union of the church with the world or with the State in any way is fornication and adultery, for the only legitimate union for the church is with Jesus Christ and to hold communion with any other power is fornication.

That harlotry is the church joining itself to another both by adopting the world's ways and by seeking its aid and power instead of God. It is especially seeking worldly and State power to enforce religious dogmas, turning from God to the nations and to earthly rulers and kingdoms, which brings confusion and leaves her fallen as Babylon, deserted of God. Israel leaned upon Egypt and failed and turned to Assyria and was spoiled and made naked, yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not but played the harlot also. The same history of Ephraim and Judah is enacted again when professed Christians are unequally yoked with children of the world, depart from Christ and His commandments, reject God's message and seek help from earthly powers and kings with their idolatry, errors and power, clamoring for religious legislation in the halls of the Egypts and Assyrias of the present.

The cause of this apostasy is rejection of the law of God, seen in refusal to return to His law by keeping His seventh-day Sabbath and in seeking to enforce a false sabbath, Sunday. Babylon's fornication is the same departure from God into union with kings of the earth, sharing their idolatry, errors, and power. All such union of church and state brings persecution of the people of God, now beginning in Catholic and Protestant efforts to secure Sunday laws throughout the world. This has no reference at all to a church conforming to the laws of civil government for the regulation of temporal concerns.