Commentary - Jeremiah 2:1-3

Bird's-eye view

In these opening verses of his first great sermon, Jeremiah is tasked with delivering the opening statements in a covenant lawsuit. Yahweh is the plaintiff, the aggrieved party, and the nation of Judah is the defendant. But before God lays out the litany of charges detailing Judah's spiritual adultery, He begins by reminding them of how things used to be. He recalls the "honeymoon" period of their relationship, the devotion of their youth in the wilderness. This is not sentimental reminiscing; it is a legal strategy. God is establishing the basis of the original covenant relationship, a relationship defined by Israel's exclusive devotion and God's jealous protection. By reminding them of their first love, He sharpens the accusation of their current faithlessness. The memory of their initial consecration as His holy firstfruits serves as the baseline against which their present corruption will be judged.

This passage establishes the central metaphor for the chapter: the covenant as a marriage. God is the faithful husband, and Israel is the bride who, despite a promising start, has become a harlot. The charge is breach of contract, a violation of the marriage vows sworn at Sinai. The Lord's remembrance of their early loyalty is meant to awaken their own memory and, ideally, their conscience. It sets a tragic and poignant tone for the blistering indictment that is to follow.

Outline

Context In Jeremiah

This section marks the beginning of Jeremiah's public ministry in earnest. After the account of his call in chapter 1, chapter 2 launches into the first of his major recorded messages. This sermon, which likely extends through chapter 3 and perhaps beyond, is delivered in Jerusalem, the heart of the nation's political and religious life. The historical backdrop is the reign of Josiah, a time of outward religious reform. However, Jeremiah's message cuts through the superficial changes to expose a deep-seated apostasy. The people may have cleaned up the public square, but their hearts were still chasing after other gods. This sermon functions as a formal declaration of a broken covenant. God, through His prophet, is serving divorce papers on His unfaithful wife, Judah. The memory of the Exodus and the wilderness journey serves as the "in the beginning" of their relationship, making the subsequent charges of idolatry all the more grievous.

Key Issues

The Jilted Groom Remembers

Before the accusations, before the itemized list of infidelities, before the pronouncement of judgment, the Lord begins His case against Judah with a memory. It is the memory of a groom recalling the love of his bride on their wedding day. This is a powerful and disarming way to begin a lawsuit. God is not acting as a cold, detached judge; He is the passionate, wounded husband. He is the one who has been wronged. By starting with the memory of their youthful love, He is establishing the foundation of their relationship. They were betrothed, they were bound by vows of exclusive loyalty. He is saying, "Do you remember? Do you remember what we had? Look at what you have become." This is not the wistful nostalgia of a sentimentalist. It is the presentation of evidence. The goodness of the beginning is Exhibit A in the case against the wickedness of the present.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Now the word of Yahweh came to me saying,

This is the standard formula for divine revelation. We must not glide over it. The words that follow are not Jeremiah's hot take on the state of the nation. This is not his analysis, his opinion, or his religious poetry. This is a direct, verbal message from the sovereign God of heaven and earth. Jeremiah is a herald, a messenger boy. His authority comes not from his eloquence or his training, but from the one who sent him. "The word of Yahweh came." This is the foundation of all prophetic ministry. God speaks, and the prophet repeats what he has heard. The entire force of the subsequent lawsuit rests on this claim.

2 “Go and call out in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “I remember concerning you the lovingkindness of your youth, The love of your betrothals, Your walking after Me in the wilderness, Through a land not sown.

The commission is specific: go to Jerusalem, the capital, the center of the corruption, and shout this message. And the message begins with God's memory. He remembers their hesed, their covenant loyalty and devotion. The image is that of a young bride, deeply in love, willing to follow her new husband anywhere. The "wilderness" was their honeymoon. It was a place with no natural resources, a "land not sown." In that environment, Israel was utterly dependent on her husband, Yahweh, for everything: for water from a rock, for bread from the sky. And in that state of dependence, she followed Him. Despite all the grumbling we read about in the Pentateuch, from God's perspective, looking back over the centuries, that initial act of leaving Egypt and following His pillar of cloud into the unknown was an act of bridal love. He is establishing the historical reality of the covenant relationship. It began with love and trust. This memory serves to highlight just how far they have fallen.

3 Israel was holy to Yahweh, The first of His produce. All who ate of it became guilty; Evil came upon them,” declares Yahweh.’ ”

Here the metaphor shifts from marriage to agriculture, but the point is the same: exclusive possession. To be "holy" means to be set apart, consecrated for a special purpose. Israel was God's special possession, not to be touched. The image of firstfruits reinforces this. In ancient Israel, the first part of the harvest was given to God. It was the choicest portion, and it acknowledged that the entire harvest belonged to Him. By calling Israel His firstfruits, God is saying they were the beginning of His great redemptive harvest for the world, and they belonged exclusively to Him. The second half of the verse is a warning that carries an implicit history lesson. To "eat" the firstfruits was to steal from God, a sacrilegious act that incurred guilt and judgment. Any nation that tried to devour or destroy Israel, God's consecrated people, was messing with God's property. Whether it was Amalek in the wilderness or the Philistines in the land, those who attacked Israel found that evil came upon them. God was a jealous husband and a protective farmer. He guarded His bride and His harvest. The tragic irony, which the rest of the chapter will develop, is that Israel has now profaned herself. The holy thing has become common.

Application

This passage is a bucket of cold water for any church or any Christian who has grown comfortable and complacent. God remembers our first love, even when we have forgotten it. He remembers the zeal, the devotion, the simple, dependent trust that marked our early days of faith. And He brings this memory to us not to make us feel nostalgic, but to make us feel the sharp conviction of our present compromises.

The Church is the bride of Christ. In the new covenant, we are the people who have been made "holy to the Lord," we are the firstfruits of the new creation. Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Our response is to be that of a faithful bride, following our husband wherever He leads. But how often do we wander? How often do we flirt with the idols of our age: security, comfort, political power, personal affirmation? We chase after these other lovers, forgetting the one to whom we are betrothed.

The message of Jeremiah 2 is a call to remember and repent. It is a call to look back at the foundation of our relationship with God, not to live in the past, but to recover the foundational loyalty that ought to mark our present. Our God is a jealous God, which is another way of saying He is a faithful husband who will not tolerate rivals. The good news of the gospel is that even for an adulterous bride like us, there is forgiveness and restoration. Christ, the true and faithful bridegroom, did not divorce His people. Instead, He took the shame of our harlotry upon Himself at the cross, so that He might cleanse us and present us to Himself as a pure bride. Let us therefore hear this word from God, remember the love of our betrothal to Christ, and return to Him as our first and only love.