Jeremiah 4:28, commentary and pictures

For this the earth mourns and the heavens above are black because God has spoken and purposed destruction, and He will not relent, repent, or turn back from it. The vision around it is of judgment in fierce anger, with trembling mountains, ruined cities, slain people, fled birds, and the fruitful place become a wilderness. The whole land is made desolate, yet not brought to a full end, reduced to a condition without form and void with the heavens dark and without light. This looks beyond Jerusalem's siege to the whole earth after Christ's return during the thousand years, when the land lies broken, uninhabited and dark, the righteous taken away and Satan bound there with none to tempt. The desolation comes upon a people wise to do evil but without knowledge to do good, yet amid the mourning and blackness the glory of the Lord will be revealed at the coming of the Son of man, and those who have learned to trust in Him beforehand will hail Him with joy as the God they have waited for.

Certainty of Spoken Purpose

The earth mourns and the heavens above are black because God has spoken it and has purposed it, and He will not relent, repent, or turn back from it. The decision is certain, irreversible, and unwithdrawn, and the mourning below and the darkness above accompany a destruction that has been declared and determined. What has been spoken will not be revoked, and what has been purposed will be carried out to the breaking down of the whole earth and its cities in the final day. That desolation makes the whole land desolate yet not a full end, pictured as war with ruined and abandoned cities and a land laid waste. It had a partial, incidental fulfillment in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, but its full application reaches the end-time conditions of the world, when widespread storms and physical upheavals with trembling mountains, moving hills, and ruined cities make the whole earth desolate upon a wicked people and their cities.

The destruction is certain and unchangeable because He who knows the end from the beginning has spoken it as the All-powerful One. It will fall upon the debauched and sinning cities of the last days as a complete, literal destruction, no less complete than Sodom and Gomorrah. It will be carried out in part by the violent men who inhabit them and in part by the overwhelming action of the elements of nature, from which He will not repent nor turn back.

The fixed character of what God has spoken and purposed does not mean that every punishment pronounced upon individuals must be carried out. When people repent, God may turn away their punishment without changing His greater purpose for humanity. This is in keeping with His merciful and gracious character, in which His declared purpose remains fixed while He spares the repentant.

Surrounding Vision of Desolation

The surrounding vision pictures judgment by fierce anger as war, with trembling mountains, moving hills, ruined and abandoned cities, land laid waste, and people slain. In its setting the whole land is made desolate, yet not brought to a full end. The breakdown concerns the whole earth and reaches beyond Palestine and ancient Jerusalem, of which that destruction was only a faint shadow.

The desolation reduces the earth to its original chaotic condition without form and void, as in Genesis 1:2, with the heavens dark and without light. There is no man, the birds have fled, the fruitful place has become a wilderness, and all the cities are broken down at the presence of the Lord and by His fierce anger.

The verse belongs to the section of Jeremiah, chapters 2-11, that some regard as prophecies Baruch wrote after Jehoiakim burned the first scroll. The book uses striking symbols and figures of speech, and its warnings and appeals are applicable to the present day.

Prophetic Fulfillment Through Time

The prophecy had a partial, incidental fulfillment in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, but its graphic description cannot be limited to that event. The destruction of ancient Jerusalem was only a faint shadow of the desolating destruction that completely breaks the world down, for the latter part of Jeremiah 4 looks past Israel and Jerusalem and Palestine to the last days. The judgment announced against Jerusalem reaches beyond it to a corresponding application to God's professed people and the church in the last days.

In the last days widespread storms and physical upheavals will make the whole earth desolate, with trembling mountains, moving hills, and ruined cities. The prophecy belongs to the period just before the day of the Lord, when the nations prepare for the great battle of Armageddon. Studied with other prophecies, the vision of war and devastation applies directly to the times the world is passing through, presented as a prophetic view of the carnage then devastating Europe.

In the order of the day of the Lord, the mourning earth and blackened heavens point to the earth's complete desolation and the destruction of the ungodly at the beginning of that day. They point to destruction upon the land in the great day of the Lord connected with the remnant's time of trouble. The wrath of God so described will be poured out as the penalty for not obeying the warning contained in the third angel's message.

Millennial Desolation of Earth

The verse describes the condition of the earth after Christ's return during the thousand years, when the land lies desolate with its cities broken down and no people dwelling in them. It is the result of what God has spoken and purposed, which He will not turn back from, revoke, or reverse, so that its desolation and darkness are certain. During that time Satan is bound upon the desolate earth with no living people to tempt, while the wicked are dead. The righteous are taken away at Christ's coming and the wicked destroyed, leaving the earth without inhabitants through Satan's confinement.

Then the earth is chaotic, ruined, uninhabited, and unfit for the redeemed to live on. Its surface is broken up by the earthquakes at Christ's coming, with upheaval and violent winds making it desolate and waste and reducing it to its original chaos. Cities are destroyed, people and beasts are destroyed, the birds of heaven are gone and have fled, the fruitful place has become a wilderness, and the heavens above are turned black with no light in them. The whole land lies utterly emptied and spoiled, and for that reason Christ does not then reign on earth and the redeemed do not remain here.

This desolate earth forms the abyss, the bottomless pit, where Satan the antitypical scapegoat is bound a thousand years with none to deceive. He and his angels are confined to it with no one alive left to tempt, and that confinement is the binding of Satan. He wanders and roams over its broken surface and witnesses the ruin his sin has wrought. The earth mourning and the heavens darkened without light belong to those thousand years, and this absence of light is punishment for Satan, once the light-bearer.

While the earth remains desolate the saints are in the New Jerusalem above. Christ and the saints sit in judgment upon the wicked during the thousand years between the resurrection of the righteous and that of the wicked. The wicked are destroyed by the seven last plagues and the battle of that great day, the righteous are raised and taken with Christ to the mansions on high, and the earth remains desolate while judgment is passing upon the wicked. When the earth is renewed after the thousand years the redeemed will possess it forever.

The day of the Lord lasts more than a thousand years, with the verse describing the intermediate state of mourning and desolation between the resurrection of the saints at the beginning and the resurrection of the wicked at the end. It closes with fire coming down to devour the wicked and melt the earth and its works to make the new earth. At Christ's coming the heavens pass away and darkness follows as the Lord carries out His purpose to make the earth desolate. Because the Lord has spoken it and purposed it and will not repent nor turn back from it, this desolation is certain and irreversible and will continue no short time but for the full thousand years.

During that thousand-year desolation the land rests from human habitation. It is then counted as destroyed or rejected until God creates new heavens and a new earth. The darkened heaven, empty earth, vanished people and birds, and ruined cities point beyond judgments on Palestine and other lands to the final destruction of the wicked and cleansing of the earth.

Moral Cause of Judgment

The mourning of the earth and the blackness of the heavens come by the fierce anger of the Lord upon a people who are wise to do evil but have no knowledge to do good. As He destroyed the old world for gross wickedness and overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah for the same reason, and as He would have destroyed Nineveh without repentance at Jonah's preaching, so He must destroy the cities of the world now. Their deep-rooted municipal corruptions are growing worse and worse, and a just and merciful God cannot allow them to continue.

The verse shows the Lord arising to destroy the injustice and wickedness that are ruining the world. That breakdown comes when people are no longer worthy of God's favor and He sets them aside. The earth is then counted as destroyed or rejected until God creates new heavens and a new earth.

The verse is a clear and awful denunciation against sin. It is spoken with sorrow of heart over transgression.

Trust Repentance and Hope

Amid widespread storms and physical upheavals that make the whole earth desolate, with trembling mountains, moving hills, and ruined cities, no place will offer safe shelter except trust in the Lord. The fixed and unwithdrawn purpose of divine justice and power to strike the wild career of evil should make every true Christian earnest to turn men from evil before it is too late. The verse is a clear and awful denunciation against sin, spoken with sorrow of heart over transgression, making a touching appeal for the people to return to God that the mass of them fail to answer.

In the coming day when the earth mourns and the heavens are black and terror takes possession of people, so that it seems God has forsaken and forgotten the earth, that very darkness is the setting for the glory of the Lord to be revealed as never before. That glory will cover the heavens at the coming of the Son of man in the clouds with power and great glory. Those who learn beforehand to recognize His goings will hail that great and terrible day with joy, saying this is their God whom they have waited for and who will save them, and they will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. Even amid this devastation and darkened heavens marking certain, unturned judgment, God speaks salvation in His might.