The Foreign Office Follies Text: Jeremiah 2:36-37
Introduction: The Politics of Adultery
In the Christian life, and particularly in the life of a nation that has known the blessing of God, there is no such thing as neutral politics. Foreign policy is never just foreign policy. It is always a theological statement. A nation's alliances are a public confession of where it places its ultimate trust. When a nation, or a church, or an individual Christian starts looking to worldly powers for deliverance, security, or prosperity, it is not making a shrewd geopolitical calculation. It is committing spiritual adultery. It is leaving the marriage bed of its covenant Lord to solicit the brutish affections of pagan strongmen.
Jeremiah's ministry was conducted on the ragged edge of national collapse. Judah was a client state, a political football being kicked between the fading superpower of Assyria and the rising giant of Egypt, with the Babylonian storm gathering on the horizon. And in this high-stakes game, Judah's kings and counselors played the harlot with breathtaking promiscuity. They were constantly "changing their way," gadding about, trying to play one power off another, seeking a treaty here, a military alliance there. They thought they were being clever political realists. God, through Jeremiah, tells them they were being contemptible fools, despising their true husband and chasing after lovers who would inevitably abuse and abandon them.
This is a timeless word. The modern American church is sorely tempted to do the same thing. When we find ourselves in trouble, when the culture turns hostile, when our liberties are threatened, where do we run? Do we run to the Lord in national repentance, pleading His covenant promises? Or do we run to the "Egypt" of a particular political party, or the "Assyria" of a charismatic but godless leader, believing these human instruments can save us? Jeremiah is here to tell us that this kind of trust is a delusion, and the end of that road is not deliverance, but public, head-in-hands shame.
God is jealous for the exclusive trust of His people. He will not be one option among many in our foreign policy portfolio. He is either our God, our fortress, and our deliverer, or He is our adversary. In these verses, He confronts Judah's political promiscuity and pronounces the inevitable outcome: because they have rejected Him, He has rejected their chosen saviors. And when God rejects your savior, you are in a world of trouble.
The Text
Why do you despise Him so much
In changing your way?
Also, you will be put to shame by Egypt
As you were put to shame by Assyria.
From this place also you will go out
With your hands on your head;
For Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust,
And you will not succeed with them.
(Jeremiah 2:36-37 LSB)
The Contempt of Restless Feet (v. 36)
We begin with the Lord's sharp, penetrating question:
"Why do you despise Him so much In changing your way? Also, you will be put to shame by Egypt As you were put to shame by Assyria." (Jeremiah 2:36)
The phrase here translated "despise Him so much" can also be rendered "make yourself very cheap" or "gad about so lightly." It carries the idea of flitting from one thing to another without gravity or consideration. This is the behavior of a faithless wife, always looking over her husband's shoulder for a more exciting prospect. God is asking, "Why do you hold your covenant relationship with Me so cheaply? Why is it so easy for you to run off and seek other protectors?" This gadding about, this "changing your way," is not a sign of political savvy. It is a sign of profound contempt for Yahweh. Every time Judah sent an envoy to Egypt, they were preaching a sermon with their feet, and the message was this: "Yahweh is not enough."
This restlessness reveals a deep-seated unbelief. They had forgotten the God who brought them out of Egypt with a high hand. They had forgotten the God who drowned Pharaoh's army. Their institutional memory was shot. Instead, they remembered the more recent past, but they drew precisely the wrong lesson from it. "You will be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria."
This is a direct reference to their recent history. Not long before this, King Ahaz had refused to trust God and instead paid tribute to Assyria to save him from his enemies (2 Kings 16). And what was the result? Assyria came, not as a savior, but as a master. They bled Judah dry and became a source of constant trouble and, ultimately, shame. Now, the political winds had shifted, and Judah was looking to Egypt to deliver them from the Assyrian yoke, or the rising Babylonian one. God's logic is devastatingly simple: "You trusted in Manpower A, and it backfired spectacularly. Now you are running to Manpower B. Why do you expect a different result?" The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. The definition of spiritual insanity is abandoning God for human alliances over and over and expecting a different result.
The shame here is not just a private feeling of embarrassment. It is public, national humiliation. It is the disgrace of a nation whose foreign policy has utterly collapsed, whose chosen allies have either turned on them or proven to be worthless idols, broken reeds that pierce the hand of the one who leans on them. This is what happens when your trust is in chariots and horses instead of the name of the Lord our God.
The Walk of Shame (v. 37)
Verse 37 describes the inevitable outcome of this political adultery in vivid, graphic detail.
"From this place also you will go out With your hands on your head; For Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust, And you will not succeed with them." (Jeremiah 2:37)
"From this place," meaning from Egypt, the very source of their hope, "you will go out." You will not come back victorious. You will not come back with a favorable treaty. You will come back, or rather, you will be led away into exile, as a defeated and conquered people. The posture is one of utter disgrace: "with your hands on your head." This was the universally recognized sign of deep grief, agony, and shame in the ancient world. Think of Tamar after she was violated by her brother Amnon; she "put her hands on her head and went away crying" (2 Sam. 13:19). This is not the posture of a proud nation. This is the posture of a rape victim. This is what God says their dalliances with foreign powers will result in. Their would-be political lovers will become their violators.
And then we get to the ultimate reason, the theological bedrock beneath the political collapse. "For Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust." This is the critical point. The problem is not ultimately with the relative military strength of Egypt or Assyria. The problem is that any object of trust, other than God Himself, is under God's curse. When you place your trust in something that God has rejected, you are tying your own fate to a sinking ship. You are building your house on a foundation that God has targeted for demolition.
God rejects the idols. He rejects the arm of the flesh. He rejects the wisdom of godless counselors. He rejects the promises of pagan kings. He rejects them all. And because He has rejected them, "you will not succeed with them." The Hebrew word for succeed here means to prosper, to push forward, to accomplish your purpose. God is saying that any endeavor built on a foundation of misplaced trust is doomed to fail. It cannot prosper. It is not a matter of bad luck or poor strategy. It is a matter of divine decree. God Himself will personally see to it that your plans fail, because your plans were an insult to His power and a violation of His covenant love.
Conclusion: Rejecting the Rejected
The application for us is direct and searching. The Western world, and the church within it, is in a state of advanced decay. We are beset on all sides. And the great temptation is to run to our modern Egypts. We look for a political savior, a Supreme Court decision, a legislative victory, or a cultural movement to save us from the consequences of our own apostasy. We think that if we can just get the right people in office, if we can just form the right coalition, then we can turn the tide.
But what if God has rejected those in whom we trust? What if the entire secular political apparatus, left and right, is a broken cistern that can hold no water? What if our frantic efforts to "change our way" from one party to another, one candidate to another, is just the cheap gadding about of a faithless bride?
The message of Jeremiah is that our only hope is to return to our first husband. The only path to national restoration is through national repentance. Our trust must be placed squarely and exclusively in the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings. He is the only ally who will never fail, the only fortress that can never be breached. All other ground is sinking sand. All other alliances will end with our hands on our heads in shame.
The good news is that this is not the final word for God's people. Jeremiah's message, as a whole, is one of judgment and then restoration. God disciplines His people in order to purify them, not to destroy them. The shame of exile was designed to break their trust in idols and to turn them back to Him. And He did. He brought a remnant back.
And He does the same for us. When we find ourselves walking in shame because of our foolish allegiances, the way back is repentance. It is to confess our political idolatry. It is to say, "Lord, we have trusted in princes, and in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation. We have looked to Egypt. But now we reject those whom You have rejected, and we turn to You alone." When we do that, we find that He is a husband who, despite our unfaithfulness, is rich in mercy and stands ready to forgive, to cleanse, and to restore. Let us therefore abandon our foreign office follies and place our trust entirely in Him.