The Great Unraveling Text: Jeremiah 4:19-31
Introduction: When God Un-Creates
We live in an age of cosmic tantrums. Our culture insists on its own autonomy, its own definitions of reality, its own morality, and it is enraged when the universe does not bend to its will. We want to be the authors of our own story, the captains of our own souls, the gods of our own little dirt clod. But when you declare war on the Author of reality, you should not be surprised when reality itself begins to come apart at the seams. You cannot saw off the branch you are sitting on and expect to remain comfortably aloft.
The prophet Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet, and in this passage, we find him in the throes of a holy agony. But his anguish is not mere sentimentality. It is not the despair of a man who sees that things have gone wrong. It is the clear-eyed horror of a man who understands precisely why they have gone wrong. Judah has broken covenant with the living God. They have played the harlot with every idol on every high hill. They have become, in the chilling words of our text, "wise to do evil." And the consequence of this rebellion is not simply a political scolding or a military defeat. The consequence is de-creation. It is the great unraveling.
What Jeremiah sees in this vision is God beginning to run the film of creation backward. The order, the light, the life, the structure that God spoke into existence in Genesis 1 is being systematically dismantled. This is not because God is a cosmic vandal. It is because sin is inherently chaotic. Sin is a black hole that sucks goodness, truth, and beauty into itself, leaving only a void. When a people determinedly rejects the Creator, the Creator in His righteous judgment begins to withdraw the sustaining grace of His created order. He hands them over to the very chaos they have chosen.
This passage is a terrifying glimpse into what happens when God's patience runs out. It is a portrait of a world returning to the primeval state of "formless and void." And it is a necessary warning for our own generation, which is just as foolish, just as idolatrous, and just as ripe for judgment. But in the midst of this terrifying de-creation, we must also see the seeds of the new creation, the hope that only comes after the old world is swept away.
The Text
My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart! My heart is pounding in me; I cannot be silent Because you have heard, O my soul, The sound of the trumpet, The shout of war. Destruction upon destruction is called out, For the whole land is devastated; Suddenly my tents are devastated, My curtains in an instant. How long must I see the standard And hear the sound of the trumpet? “For My people are ignorant fools, They know Me not; They are simpleminded children And have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, But to do good they do not know.” I saw on the earth, and behold, it was formless and void; And to the heavens, and they had no light. I saw on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, And all the hills moved to and fro. I saw, and behold, there was no man, And all the birds of the sky had fled. I saw, and behold, the fruitful orchard was a wilderness, And all its cities were torn down Before Yahweh, before His burning anger. For thus says Yahweh, “The whole land shall be a desolation, Yet I will not execute a complete destruction. For this the earth shall mourn And the heavens above be dark Because I have spoken; I have purposed, And I will not relent, nor will I turn from it.” At the sound of the horseman and bowman every city flees; They go into the thickets and climb up among the rocks; Every city is forsaken, And no man inhabits them. And you, O devastated one, what will you do? Although you dress in scarlet, Although you decorate yourself with ornaments of gold, Although you enlarge your eyes with paint, In vain you make yourself beautiful. Your lovers despise you; They seek your life. For I heard a sound as of a woman in labor pains, The distress as of one giving birth to her first child, The sound of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, Stretching out her hands, saying, “Ah, woe is me, for my soul faints before murderers.”
(Jeremiah 4:19-31 LSB)
The Prophet's Anguish and the People's Folly (vv. 19-22)
The vision begins not with a detached, divine announcement, but with the raw, personal agony of the prophet. He feels the coming judgment in his very bones.
"My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart! My heart is pounding in me; I cannot be silent Because you have heard, O my soul, The sound of the trumpet, The shout of war." (Jeremiah 4:19)
Jeremiah’s pain is visceral. This is not the sorrow of a disappointed spectator; it is the anguish of a man who loves the people to whom he preaches. He hears the trumpet, the alarm of war, and his heart pounds within him. This is the proper response of a faithful watchman. He sees the sword coming, and he cannot be silent. A silent watchman is a traitor. The land is about to be ripped apart, "destruction upon destruction," and the prophet feels every blow before it lands.
But why is this happening? God provides the diagnosis in verse 22, and it is devastating.
"For My people are ignorant fools, They know Me not; They are simpleminded children And have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, But to do good they do not know." (Jeremiah 4:22)
This is the biblical definition of foolishness. It is not an intellectual deficiency; it is a moral and spiritual rebellion. They "know Me not." Despite having the law, the temple, the prophets, and the entire history of God's mighty acts, they are spiritual amnesiacs. They are covenantally ignorant. They are like children, but not in the good sense of trusting humility. They are "simpleminded children," meaning they are morally obtuse, unable to make basic spiritual distinctions.
And here is the terrifying inversion. Their ignorance of good is matched by a profound giftedness for evil. "They are wise to do evil." They are creative, innovative, and sophisticated in their sin. They can devise a thousand ways to cheat their neighbor, to worship an idol, to commit adultery, to pervert justice. But when it comes to doing good, they are utterly incompetent. This is a perfect description of a reprobate mind. They have trained themselves so thoroughly in the grammar of sin that the language of righteousness has become foreign to them. This is the foundation for the de-creation that follows. A people who are wise to do evil are a people who are asking for chaos.
The Vision of De-Creation (vv. 23-28)
What follows is one of the most terrifying passages in all of Scripture. Jeremiah is given a vision of creation being unmade, a direct reversal of the glorious order of Genesis 1.
"I saw on the earth, and behold, it was formless and void; And to the heavens, and they had no light." (Jeremiah 4:23)
The language is unmistakable. "Formless and void" is the Hebrew tohu wa-bohu from Genesis 1:2. The judgment on Judah's sin is so profound that it impacts the very fabric of the cosmos. The earth is returning to its pre-creation state of chaos and emptiness. The first thing God created was light, separating it from darkness. Here, that first great act is undone: "the heavens... had no light." This is Day One, in reverse.
The de-creation continues, undoing the subsequent days of creation.
"I saw on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, And all the hills moved to and fro... I saw, and behold, there was no man, And all the birds of the sky had fled. I saw, and behold, the fruitful orchard was a wilderness..." (Jeremiah 4:24-26)
The stable mountains, the very symbols of permanence, are quaking. This undoes the work of Day Three, where God separated the land from the sea and established its firm foundations. Then, the pinnacle of creation is removed. There was "no man," and even the birds, created on Day Five, have fled. The fruitful land, the Garden-like blessing of God, is now a wilderness. The cities, the places of human culture and society, are torn down. And this is not a natural disaster. It is happening "Before Yahweh, before His burning anger." This is a holy demolition.
God confirms the vision, but with a crucial caveat. "The whole land shall be a desolation, Yet I will not execute a complete destruction" (v. 27). This is the terrible mercy of God. The judgment is devastating, but it is not final. A remnant will be preserved. This is not annihilation, but discipline. God's purpose is not to wipe His people out, but to burn the dross out of them. He has spoken, He has purposed, and He will not relent. His judgments are as firm as His promises.
The Harlot's Vain Hope (vv. 29-31)
The scene then shifts from the cosmic to the personal. The nation of Judah is personified as a harlot, a faithless bride, now facing the consequences of her adultery.
"And you, O devastated one, what will you do? Although you dress in scarlet, Although you decorate yourself with ornaments of gold, Although you enlarge your eyes with paint, In vain you make yourself beautiful. Your lovers despise you; They seek your life." (Jeremiah 4:30)
This is a picture of pathetic desperation. As the enemy armies approach, Judah, the devastated harlot, frantically puts on her makeup. She dresses in scarlet, adorns herself with gold, and paints her eyes. Who is she trying to entice? She is trying to win back her "lovers", the foreign nations and their false gods with whom she has committed spiritual adultery. She made alliances with Egypt and Assyria, trusting in their power instead of Yahweh's. Now, in her moment of crisis, she thinks her old tricks will work.
But it is all in vain. The wages of this kind of sin is death. Her lovers, the very ones she trusted, now despise her. They are the instruments of God's judgment. The Babylonians, whom she once tried to court, are now the ones who seek her life. This is the inevitable outcome of idolatry. The thing you worship, apart from the true God, will always turn on you and devour you. Whether it is money, power, sex, or political security, your idols will become your murderers.
The chapter concludes with a harrowing image of the consequences.
"For I heard a sound as of a woman in labor pains, The distress as of one giving birth to her first child, The sound of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, Stretching out her hands, saying, 'Ah, woe is me, for my soul faints before murderers.'" (Jeremiah 4:31)
The harlot's frantic beautification gives way to the agonizing screams of labor. But this is not the pain that leads to new life. This is the pain of death. The daughter of Zion, the covenant people, is gasping for her last breath. She stretches out her hands, not in repentance to God, but in sheer terror as she faints before the murderers she once called her lovers. This is the end of the road for a people wise to do evil.
The New Creation in Christ
This vision of de-creation is a terrifying thing. It is the logical and just end for any person or any nation that declares its independence from God. When you tell God to leave, He may honor your request, and take His light, His order, His stability, and His life with Him, leaving you with the tohu wa-bohu you have chosen.
But this is not the final word. Jeremiah's prophecy is one of judgment and restoration. The anguish of the daughter of Zion in labor is a dark and twisted picture that finds its ultimate fulfillment and reversal in another birth, and another cry of anguish.
On the cross, the true Son of God, Jesus Christ, endured the ultimate de-creation. For our sake, the heavens grew dark. The earth quaked. He was forsaken, cut off from the land of the living. He cried out in anguish, not because of His own sin, but because He was bearing the full, concentrated fury of God's anger against ours. He took the tohu wa-bohu of our rebellion into Himself.
Why? So that He could become the foundation of a new creation. Paul tells us, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). The judgment that Jeremiah saw is the judgment that we all deserve. But Christ took that judgment for us. He endured the unraveling so that we might be re-woven. He entered the darkness so that He could say to us, "Let there be light."
The anguish of Jeremiah over a dying nation is answered by the anguish of Christ for a dying world. The promise that God would not make a "complete destruction" is fulfilled in the remnant He has saved in His Son. Therefore, do not be wise to do evil. Be wise unto salvation. Flee the coming wrath, flee the great unraveling, and run to the one who is making all things new. For in Him, and in Him alone, the chaos is silenced and the true light shines.