Jeremiah 3:9, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures Israel's unfaithfulness to God as marital adultery, where committing adultery with stones and with stocks means worshiping lifeless idols of stone and wood and thereby defiling the land, and the lightness of her whoredom means a frivolous, willing and wicked turning from God worse than that of the heathen. It belongs to the denunciation of backslidden Judah and Israel joined to God's appeal for them to return, to which they showed lack of response. In prophecy a woman married to God represents His people, so a corrupt woman represents a fallen apostate church, and spiritual fornication is departing from the law and the testimony into unlawful union of the church with the world or with any power other than Jesus Christ. Rejecting the law of God, especially His seventh-day Sabbath, and joining with the world and seeking the aid of civil power to enforce religious dogmas, now a false Sunday sabbath, is that illicit connection, and fallen Babylon seeking worldly power is its present form. Even after such wandering the verse stands with God's pleading call for backsliders to return with all the heart and acknowledge their iniquity, with the promise to heal their unfaithfulness and to forgive and cleanse those who return, though it be the thousandth time.

Words and Historical Setting

The verse pictures unfaithfulness to God as marital adultery, in which turning to idols defiled the land. To commit adultery with stones and with stocks was to worship stone and wooden idols, lifeless objects and false gods. That promiscuous turning to other lovers included seeking worldly powers and nations as a departure from the divine Husband.

The lightness of her whoredom was frivolous idolatry by which the people defiled the land in worshiping lifeless objects. It was a willing and wicked turning from God as an unfaithful wife turns from her husband. It lightly defiled the land by adultery with stones and with stocks, a wickedness of backsliding worse than that of the heathen.

The backsliding went so far as worship of false gods on altars erected on every high hill and mountain and under green trees, defiling the land by spiritual adultery. It began with building altars to Jehovah Himself on the high places, which associated Israel with false worship and taught her children to look upon it leniently and upon heathen worshipers with charity. That led to fellowship with false worship, then to building altars to Milcom and Chemosh and Baal and Ashtoreth and a multitude of gods, until altars to false gods stood even in the very house of Jehovah. To look to the hills and to the mountains for help was to look to the worship of false gods and to hope for help from them.

The verse belongs to the description of the condition of backslidden Judah and Israel, alongside the call for them to return and be healed. It stands in the prophet's denunciation of sin joined to his appeal for the people to return to God. The chapter also shows the people's lack of response to those appeals.

Apostasy as Spiritual Adultery

In prophecy God's people are pictured as a woman married to Him, and a corrupt licentious woman pictures a corrupt fallen apostate church. Belonging to God is more than being called by His name, for His people share His protection and all that His name stands for. Unfaithfulness to Him is harlotry and adultery that defiles the land, as when Israel committed adultery with stones and with stocks in the worship of lifeless idols.

Spiritual fornication is apostasy by departing from the law and the testimony and the worship of Jehovah into unlawful connection with idolatrous sects and false religious sects of every kind, and this is the fornication of Babylon the apostate church. Any union of God's church with the world is fornication and adultery against God. Any union of the church with a power other than Jesus Christ is fornication, for the only legitimate union for the church is with Christ. Israel's repeated departures from God and conformity to the world are called adultery, portraying the attempt to mix righteousness with sin as a dangerous corruption that defiled the land by worshiping images and turning from God.

For the Jewish church this apostasy meant seeking friendship with the world and becoming unlawfully joined to it in spiritual adultery that defiled the land. Her promiscuous turning to other lovers included idolatry with stone and wooden idols, as the church turned from her divine Husband to seek worldly powers and nations. When God's people turn from Him to the nations and to idolatry and worldly powers, their unfaithfulness defiles the land and brings confusion. When God's church, bound to Him alone, unites with the world, she is counted as an unfaithful wife, or harlot. The same image explains the corrupt church symbolized by Babylon, with Israel's unlawful union with the world as its prototype.

Rejecting the law of God, especially refusing His seventh-day Sabbath, is the cause of apostasy, and the church joining herself to another by adopting the ways of the world and by seeking the aid of civil power to enforce religious dogmas, now a false Sunday sabbath, is illicit connection that God repudiates with the strongest symbol of shameless perfidy. Fallen Babylon seeking worldly power is the present form of that fornication. To hold communion with another power is departure from God and union with kings of the earth in their idolatry, their errors, and their power, and this fornication is the wine of Babylon. The widespread efforts of Catholics and Protestants to secure effective Sunday laws are the beginning of the fulfillment of that fornication in the prophecy of Revelation 13, and from every union of church and state comes persecution of the people of God. This fornication has no reference to a church conforming to the laws of civil government for the regulation of temporal concerns such as legal organization and holding property.

God's Call to Return

Israel willingly and wickedly turned from God as an unfaithful wife turns from her husband, in idolatrous unfaithfulness that defiled the land, and this is the condition of backslidden Judah and Israel described in the chapter. Even after such turning away to worship idols, the backsliding people are urged to return and acknowledge their iniquity, with the promise to heal their unfaithfulness and to forgive and cleanse and heal those who had wandered from Him. The marriage picture also shows God's dealings with His people, for as an unfaithful husband may repent and be received again, so God calls His unfaithful people to return to Him.

The chapter in which this defiling stands reveals God's feelings toward backsliders, for He still pleads with them to turn and return with all the heart and be healed of their backslidings, though their wickedness in lightly defiling the land is worse than that of the heathen. That pleading meets with lack of response, since the prophet's denunciation of sin and appeal for the people to return to God is joined with the people's lack of response to those appeals. Backsliders are already redeemed, by Christ giving Himself for the world and all therein, and the Father receives everyone who gives up cherished sin and returns to Him with all the heart, though it be the thousandth time.