The Plowing of the Heart: Jeremiah 4:1-4
Introduction: The Anatomy of a Fake Apology
We live in an age of the managed apology. The public relations firm has taken the place of the conscience. We are accustomed to hearing celebrities, politicians, and even ourselves say things like, "I'm sorry if you were offended," which is not an apology at all, but rather a subtle accusation that the other person is too sensitive. We have mastered the art of returning without repenting, of saying sorry without being sorry. We want the benefits of reconciliation without the bitter cost of genuine contrition. We want to keep our idols, our secret sins, our comfortable compromises, and still have peace with God. We want to sow our gospel seed on hard, thorny ground and then wonder why there is no harvest.
Into this world of superficiality and spiritual posturing, the prophet Jeremiah speaks with the force of a divine ultimatum. Judah was a nation of experts in religious performance. They had the temple, the sacrifices, the festivals. They could go through the motions of worship with the best of them. But their hearts were far from God. Their public life was filled with injustice, their private lives were filled with idols, and their international policy was a wavering mess of faithless alliances. They were constantly "returning" to God in moments of crisis, only to wander off again as soon as the pressure was off.
God, through His prophet, is having none of it. He is not interested in their feigned piety. He is calling for a true, radical, all-the-way return. He is defining the grammar of repentance. And we must pay close attention, because this is not just a message for ancient Judah. This is a message for every Christian, every family, and every church. God is not interested in our excuses or our half-measures. He demands a repentance that is personal, practical, public, and profound. He demands that we break up the fallow ground of our hearts.
The Text
"If you will return, O Israel," declares Yahweh, "Then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence And will not waver, and you will swear, 'As Yahweh lives,' In truth, in justice, and in righteousness; Then the nations will be blessed in Him, And in Him they will boast." For thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, "Break up your fallow ground, And do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh And remove the foreskins of your heart, Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Lest My wrath go forth like fire And burn with none to quench it Because of the evil of your deeds."
(Jeremiah 4:1-4 LSB)
The Conditions of Return (vv. 1-2)
God begins with a conditional offer. The door is open, but there are non-negotiable terms for walking through it.
"If you will return, O Israel," declares Yahweh, "Then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence And will not waver..." (Jeremiah 4:1)
The first and most crucial condition is the direction of the return. "Return to Me." It is entirely possible to return from one sin only to take up residence in another. It is possible to leave the pigsty of Babylon and return to the respectable, self-righteous idolatry of Jerusalem. But God is not calling them to return to a place, or a religion, or a moral code. He is calling them to return to a Person. Repentance is fundamentally relational. It is the creature returning to the Creator, the prodigal to the Father. All true reformation begins here. Are you turning from your sin because you are afraid of the consequences, or are you turning to God because you love Him and have offended Him?
This return must be practical. "Put away your detested things from My presence." The Hebrew word for "detested things" is the same word used for idols. Repentance is not just a feeling of sorrow; it is an act of spiritual house-cleaning. It means identifying the idols in your heart, the things you love more than God, the things you trust instead of God, and violently removing them. This is not about hiding them from public view; it is about removing them from His presence. God sees the heart. You cannot harbor secret idols and be in fellowship with Him.
And this return must be decisive. "And will not waver." True repentance is not a temporary truce with God. It is an unconditional surrender. It is burning the ships. It is a settled conviction that the old way of life is death and the new way of life in God is the only way. The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, and he will receive nothing from the Lord. God is not looking for spiritual tourists; He is looking for covenant-keepers.
"...and you will swear, 'As Yahweh lives,' In truth, in justice, and in righteousness; Then the nations will be blessed in Him, And in Him they will boast." (Jeremiah 4:2)
When this internal return is genuine, it will inevitably produce external, public fruit. The oath, "As Yahweh lives," which had become a meaningless piece of religious jargon, will once again have weight. A restored relationship with God leads to a restored public witness. And this witness must be characterized by three things: truth, justice, and righteousness. Truth means your words match reality; there is no hypocrisy. Justice means your dealings with your neighbor are fair and equitable. Righteousness means your life is aligned with God's holy standard. When the people of God live this way, they fulfill their original calling.
And what is that calling? "Then the nations will be blessed in Him, And in Him they will boast." This is the Great Commission in seed form. It is a direct echo of the promise to Abraham. Israel's repentance was never meant to be a private affair. It was for the sake of the world. When the church is truly repentant, holy, and joyful, it becomes a magnetic force. The watching world sees a people whose God is real, whose lives are ordered, and whose joy is authentic. They see a people who boast not in their own righteousness, but in their God. A holy church is the most powerful apologetic there is.
The Metaphors of Repentance (vv. 3-4)
Jeremiah now shifts from the conditions of repentance to two powerful metaphors that describe the necessary heart-work.
"Break up your fallow ground, And do not sow among thorns." (Jeremiah 4:3)
Fallow ground is soil that has been left unplowed. It is hard, compacted, and overgrown with weeds. It is the natural state of the sinful human heart. It is resistant to the seed of the Word. You can preach the most glorious gospel sermon, but if it lands on a fallow heart, it will produce nothing. God's command is to "break it up." This is a violent image. Plowing is not a gentle activity. It is the tearing and churning of the soil. This is the work of conviction. It is allowing the law of God to expose your sin, to show you your spiritual poverty, to break your pride and self-sufficiency. It is the painful but necessary work of preparing the heart to receive grace.
And once the ground is broken, you must not "sow among thorns." This is what Jesus warned about in the parable of the sower. The thorns are the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, which choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. You cannot attempt to cultivate a love for God while simultaneously cultivating a love for money, or worldly approval, or sensual pleasure. Repentance requires weeding. You must be ruthless with the thorns of worldliness in your heart, lest they strangle the life of God in you.
Heart Surgery
The second metaphor is even more intense. It moves from agriculture to surgery.
"Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh And remove the foreskins of your heart, Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem..." (Jeremiah 4:4a)
Physical circumcision was the sign of the Old Covenant. It was an external mark that set Israel apart as God's people. But from the very beginning, God made it clear that the external sign was meant to point to an internal reality. Moses commanded them to circumcise their hearts (Deut. 10:16). Here, Jeremiah renews that call. God is not interested in the religion that is only skin deep. He demands a cutting away of the fleshly nature, the sinful desires, the proud rebellion that resides in the heart. This is a call to mortify the flesh, to put sin to death.
This is Old Testament language for what Jesus would call being "born again." It is a radical, painful, and necessary procedure. It is the removal of that which causes uncleanness and prevents fruitfulness. We are commanded to do this, which shows us our responsibility. But other passages tell us that God is the one who circumcises the heart (Deut. 30:6), which shows us our complete dependence on His grace. We are to do the work, and God is the one who works in us.
The Unquenchable Fire
The passage ends with a stark and terrifying warning. This is not a friendly suggestion. It is a matter of life and death.
"...Lest My wrath go forth like fire And burn with none to quench it Because of the evil of your deeds." (Jeremiah 4:4b)
The choice is clear: the plow or the fire. The surgeon's knife or the unquenchable wrath of God. If you refuse to break up the fallow ground of your heart, God will break you in His judgment. If you refuse to cut away the flesh, God's righteous anger will consume you. God's wrath is not an arbitrary fit of temper. It is the holy, necessary, and just reaction of a good God to evil. It is a consuming fire. And when it is kindled, no one can quench it.
This is the bad news that makes the good news so glorious. The unquenchable fire of God's wrath is real. But the good news of the gospel is that at Calvary, that fire fell on a substitute. Jesus Christ stood in our place. He took the full force of the unquenchable fire that our sins deserved. He absorbed the wrath of God so that we would not have to. The fire was quenched in His blood.
Because of this, the call to repent is now a gospel invitation. Because Christ has taken the fire, we can now freely and without fear take up the plow. Because He endured the ultimate cutting off, we can now invite the Spirit to perform surgery on our hearts. The command to "break up your fallow ground" is still in effect, but now it is not a condition for earning salvation, but rather the necessary response to receiving it. God has done everything necessary for our return. He has provided the way. The only question that remains is the one He posed at the beginning: "If you will return..." Will you?